This patch must be closing in on the end of Mists, Warlords and BFA for path duration at this point. It's somewhat surprising that I keep going, and that some others are too. I'd kinda expect Final Fantasy and Elder Scrolls to steal more people, not to mention Burning Crusade classic.
To occupy myself, I have changed to mostly playing my current idea for playing in 9.1: BM Hunter for raid and pugging m+, and Vengeance DH for tanking premade keys again. I've leveled up a mage alt aswell, but the whole alt situation has led to doing 1 key on a bunch of characters that has just led to getting stygia every week so gonna stop with those again.
Esmënet
Status
Spec: Beast Mastery (main) / Marksmanship (off) / Survival (off)
Covenant: Night Fae (Renown 40)
iLevel: 220 (Beast Mastery) (Haste 15% / Crit 32%)
Legendary: Cloak of the Master Rylakstalker (Rank 4) / Talisman of Surging Shots (Rank 1)
Soulbind: Dreamweaver (Resilience of the Hunter / Spiritual Attunement / Bloodletting / Rejuvenating Wind)
RIO: 1173.2
Raid prog: Heroic CN (5/10). LFR CN (4/10).
Professions: Engineering (71) / Alchemy (160).
Esmënet ended up usurping the throne Stormlufser had taken, not because more challenging and interesting, but simply because of results. Or rather, steady results. It doesn't matter which dungeon or boss I play, Esmënet will pretty much have the same dps in similiar situations. And have pretty good numbers for the content I am doing too. Like...
My shaman would have been close to tank damage in that dungeon, I think. It's also that I think BM is the complete opposite of balance druids who have burst but have tank dps when cds arent up, so when I get to dps along with Ulve and Tara it has better synergy.
I also switched professions to Alchemy and Engineering, but not really paid off. After I did that, not had back to back dungeons for the extra flask length, and used the engineering combat res once since I got it. Suddenly all the pug groups were smooth, and with double druid or a warlock in the premades CRes has been sorted anyway. Better to have it and not use it, I suppose...
Since the new raid will have special hunter loot (bow and cloak, I think?) it's extra incentive to do hunter for the tier. Obviously I might never get those items like I never got the one item I wanted from Castle Nathria on Wutteät, but if you don't try and so on.
As for keys, I have pugged a lot, but most of my scores are from "guild" runs. Most of them with Kalthalos + Ulve/Tara, but also a few with Kalthalos + Moon/Malacraz/+1. The first setup generally seems to do keys 1 or 2 higher levels higher than the second. Mostly because it feels like for example destruction warlock + rogue + bm hunter don't have much offhealing nor burst. Everything is well, just harder, and less forgiving. And puts a lot more pressure on the healer.
Wutteät
Status
Spec: Vengeance (main) / Havoc (off)
Covenant: Kyrian (Renown 40)
iLevel: 224 (Vengeance) (Haste 22% / Versatility 15%)
Legendary: Reckless Grasp of Fiery Soul (Rank 4) / Collective Anguish (Rank 4)
Soulbind: Pelagos (Repeat Decree / Fel Defender / Growing Inferno / Viscous Ink)
RIO: 1329.9 (Vengeance) / 912.4 (Havoc)
Raid prog: Heroic CN (10/10). Normal CN (10/10).
Professions: Enchanting (max) / Leatherworking (max).
Just the usual me thing going on here. I played this character way too much, and the monotony of havoc in particular burned me enough to say nope to playing it more. But unlike the normal routine that happened in bfa where I quit tanking and Ulve would ask how long I would cope with someone else tanking... This time it's getting groups. While I have been invited to Kalthalos groups, the already learned facts still apply. One person can't tank for everyone that wants to do keys. And that tank will want to play another role for variation. And considering the quality of "funtime" in pugs, doing guild groups if there is a chance is generally better. Even if someone is on a boost character.
Even got score today, by timing a +16 mists. Gotten to the part where we are all geared so we can do it in a "normal" way, no fancy stuff to time. Had a fair amount of time to spare with some hickups underway. As much as I have stopped minding score over 1300, there really isn't anything else I can *earn* at the moment. OK, I can get a couple of 226 variants of the 220 variants I have, but the upgrade would be so marginal and the chance is so low its not gonna happen.
This was even tyra + necrotic + inspiring, my second least favorite affix setup. But for one dungeon, it's less frustrating.
The plan in 9.1 is to operate like now, as in on a lower scale than at the start of 9.0. Try to get 4 keys done with the "core" group, only doing more if asked.
The Twist
The returning problem of every new season is back again. At the start of this season, playing multiple characters broke down the first actual week. Doing 1 key on a bunch of characters means having multiple characters that might stagnate from the get go.
This season the +1 healer to the 2 regular raid healers since I joined (and since I was in the guild in TBC) left. I burned bridges with one m+ healer. The longest running healer we had this season is busy with family and was a bit burned out too. The jack of all trades Urzien was on and off with joining, but has been off since we got curve and perhaps he will not return. The normal raid leader and tank might also be missing.
Which means there is going to be a shortage of "important" roles.
Do I make an attempt at tanking a raid tier now that the regular tanks are missing, from the start? Even if tauntswapping is not that appealing, it's not like BM Hunter or Havoc DH has a lot of depth either.
Or just pretend it's not a thing?
Or take it even further and be budget Urzien and play trispec Paladin?
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