So the Esmënet m+ spam stopped. Being geared and struggling to get into keys kills off motivation fast. So the world aligned itself back to playing tanks. I have also tried to network or bond or whatever to call it with people that are on when I am in shape to play, and it bore some fruits this week.
The 5 keys of note were these:
Iron Docks +20 (+)
Had some hickups, but still felt like we could have done it on 21. Some of the trash really hurts and the third boss just seems to go from a pushover in lower keys to a nightmare the higher you go. Peculiar.
Tazavesh Gambit 20 (+)
This had everything that could go wrong in a Gambit run. The murlocs that ran at the start, pulled a pack each - the bzzt guy skip failed - boss mistakes. Still made it just in time, but it was a nailbiter. And everyone had to take a break after, because that stuff was intense. Not skipping bzzt guys and no murlocs running, and could have done this on 22-23 I think. Or at least skip bzzzt guys properly.
Mechagon Junkyard +20 (++)
The definition of a clean run. Healer died once, that was it, and that was on trash. 12 minutes to spare says it all, could have done this on 23 or higher. Think its an actual community fact at this point that yard has free points.
Mechagon Workshop +20 (-)
Someone in the yard group had this, so we tried it. It was all going swimmingly until after third boss, when the healer started dying every pull. Skipping the last pack failed, then healer died at boss pull more or less, skip failed again, and we ended up 1 minute over. Not having a cres is just no bueno to me, but then again I didnt make the group nor made the mistakes, so I walk away with a clear conscience.
Karazhan Upper +17 (+)
This had the most score of any runs I did this week, hence I added it. And another example of how things go. The bridge skip was botched by someone again. Wiped on end boss. Had to death skip bridge since someone was out of pots. Just barely made it in time.
Some takeaways after doing "serious keys" again
This reset I did all of these keys with two people from guild (Searothr and Duskull) and they are people I have meshed with well so far. Most of the things that gets brought up is self reclection and self improvement, not like telling others what to do much except requesting things from pugs.
Those two are also really good at their class, but maybe not so much when it comes to general game knowledge. They seem "new" so havent had half a lifetime of playing like certain others, cough.
When I run my key and invite in this setup, I invite lust+cres. Ideally a resto druid + bm/sv hunter. But resto sham + warlock also works. While the two others invite holy priest + hunter when they run their keys, and sorta forget utility exists unless reminded. And the result typically is the same: my keys go slower but are more consistant, while when they invite they go much better or much worse.
Just reinforced my notion that my comp choices are better suited to cruise in stuff like this, especially since the timers are very lenient this season. You don't have to do anything flashy to time 20s, you press W and dont fuck up, and have c res and lust to get you past the bad parts of dungeons.
I have considered playing a proper "static" (just the same 5 people) in DF if I could find one, but right now I am leaning more towards finding a pool of people I could try to group with when I am on during weekends. And maybe to a "premade" that could be a static a night or two on weekdays, depending on how my weekday life turns out. I don't mind pugging, but having at least someone in the group that groks what I am doing and learning from the same things as I do makes keys more stable which is just so nice.
In other m+ news
In early BFA I did "lunch keys" a fair amount with Kris, that I enjoyed a lot. Lunch keys has sorta made a return with Rae, and I also do late night keys. Typically 1 or or 2, a couple times a week. And much more laidback and on some alt that I might main in DF, so having something geared would be nice for leveling.
For example, I have played Ihnanna, my monk, as Mistweaver a fair amount this season.
You don't need to do +20s to get a challenge, all you need to do is play with tanks made of paper and melee dps that stands in everything, while nobody kicks or does any mechanics.
So I dont know if the lunch/late night keys actually are very laidback nor casual ><
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