World of Warcraft XIII: Even Aspects Get Nerfed

[Karoht]

Sorry :(

I love both of them, but I really like the 2nd one more with the green, more of a "Prepared for battle" type picture.

The female tauren warrior (my fiance, Puumpkhym) is standing out in the cold.
You know that song "I've got my love to keep me warm" right? Replace love with Rage.
It's cold outside and she's just too pissed to care.

Also, I would like to point out that both are watercolors, not CG. Just saying.

[Mutant Sheep]

No comment on the artwork? Really? No congratulations on the kill? Ouch.

Ah the end of the expansion blues.
Happened with Wrath.
Happened with BC.
And it happens pretty much every expansion.

This is the time to do your absolute best to keep people feeling engaged, or you lose them, possibly for good.


My advice?
Fun events.
Not raids. Not PvP. Come up with something unique.

I recommend a race.
Everyone starts a lvl 1 undead of any class.
First one to make it to Lights Hope Chapel wins.
Or, everyone makes a level 1 Troll/Orc, first one to make it to Winterspring wins the prize.
Yes, people are going to die. Corpse hopping will be a fact of life, just as much as picking a clever route. Shortcuts have their own unique perils.
Entry fee is 100g. Prize pot works like a 50/50 draw.

That's genius, but what if a troll cheats and levels far enough to port to Moonglade?

[Karoht]

That's genius, but what if a troll cheats and levels far enough to port to Moonglade?

He still has to make it through the tunnel full of Furbolgs will still kill him. Granted it is indeed a shortcut. But one would also have to stop and level, you don't get Moonglade port until when? 10? 20? I honestly forget. At that point the question becomes, can this person level fast enough to get to Moonglade, run through Moonglade and then run through the tunnel and to Winterspring? Or will others on foot run through Durotar, Ashenvale, and Felwood, at a pace that is faster to enter the tunnel before he does?

Because to me? That sounds like a race.

Or, just declare some time before the race starts that this is unallowed. Either or.

[Dublock]

Also, I would like to point out that both are watercolors, not CG. Just saying.

WOW! Those were done with watercolors? I just assumed it was with CG. That was a fantastic job on both of them then.

[Karoht]

If you want a really fun/hard race, everyone starts a Tauren. The goal post is Gates of AQ.

Tell people to take whatever route they want once they leave Mulgore.

It is actually pretty easy to manage too. Get a boatload of level 1's, everyone joins one big raid. You have a few people with flight capability to act as watchers and provide a play by play.
Record the whole thing, livestream it, whatever.

Heck, I think I should set one of these up soon.

[Dublock]

That would be funny as hell.

If I am free I will totally join you. I'll even play around with recording/streaming too as I am curious about it (and got the computer for it :p)

[Karoht]

That would be funny as hell.

If I am free I will totally join you. I'll even play around with recording/streaming too as I am curious about it (and got the computer for it :p)

www.livestream.com
Sign up for a free account, you can download their proprietary software, namely the 'Procaster'
You may want to pick up a codec from Adobe. Though the name of the codec now escapes me. Google 'livestreaming setup guide' and just about every guide names the codec. It's free.


Let me firm up the details of the event, and find myself a date/time that works. Next few weeks my schedule gets sort of silly.
I'll let Lore and MikeB and Garry and Shaf know about it. If you don't know who they are, you need to watch Legendary on Gamebreaker.tv

[The Linker]

I took part in a Naked Gnome Race from Dun Morough to Stormwind once. Level 1 gnomes racing through perilous environments...

It was pretty funny, 'cause by the end of it, everyone's gotten enough exploration EXP to be level three or four by the time they're standing in Stormwind. Good times.

[Skios]

Oh yes, end of expansion blues... we've pretty much completely stalled out at 5/8 HC. People are just dropping off left and right, usually not even to something like Diablo 3. After our rogue finally got his legendaries he pretty much fell off the face of Azeroth for a month. We seem to be running three or four trialists every two weeks or so at this point. There were moments where I was ready to call it quits too, and I probably would have if they could have found another tank. Sometimes the only thing that keeps me going is an obsessive need to replace the 378 JP tanking ring I still have, as we haven't seen that one drop at all in Dragon Soul. My DPS off spec is coming along very well though, on certain fights (mainly Hagara, sometimes Madness) I can generally compete with most (halfway heroic geared) main spec DPS, except for the rogue, when he bothers to show up. I'm loving the strength trinket from the shared boss loot table though, it regularly crits for well over 90k damage.

What doesn't help our situation at all is that we're not only a fairly low population realm, but also a roleplaying realm. While this has its perks, it also means that the majority of the population might never even see level 85, and if they do they'll be content to sit in the Blue Recluse or Pig and Whistle all day. There's currently only five guilds that have killed heroic Madness of Deathwing, and with things slowing down near the end of the expansion it doesn't look like many more will be joining them. Only 20 guilds have killed Hagara HC, and only 30 or so have killed Ultraxion HC. Morchok is the only boss that's being pugged on HC.

[Expf]

You may want to pick up a codec from Adobe. Though the name of the codec now escapes me. Google 'livestreaming setup guide' and just about every guide names the codec. It's free.

I assume you mean "Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder" (FMLE)?

[Alarra]

Not my current guild, or server for that matter, but we once did a Halloween event where everyone (I think there were nearly 200 that participated) made a level 1 undead and we zerged on Stormwind. This was 2005 and we got in a computer gaming magazine, though for all my trying I can't remember the name and can't find it now.

EDIT: Zeb found it!

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...rlpage6os.jpg/

Computer Gaming World c. ~12/2005

[Karoht]

That is pretty cool Alarra and Zeb.


I guess I had better test run this stuff this weekend, see what's what.
Tentative date of Saturday July 7th or Saturday July 14th. Time to be announced.


EDIT:
Black Market Auction House News!
The only equipment that will be sold through Black Market Auction House will be Boots, Belt, Bracer. And the only stuff they will sell will be BoE items. And it's random if gear even comes up at all.
So rather than the normal Auction House being flooded with BoE's on Tuesday, there will likely be a more steady influx (though still random) through the Black Market Auction House, as it is active about every 48 hours (active for 12, inactive for 36).
It could also mean less BoE drops in raids, which I'm cool with because they just get sold anyway.
Oh, there will be PvP gear of equal power vendored off in this manner, again, belt, boots, bracer.

[Alarra]

That is pretty cool Alarra and Zeb.

Zeb wasn't part of it, just me. Zeb didn't start playing until 2007. We didn't meet until 2007 for that matter and I got him into WoW shortly after we started dating.

[The Succubus]

You corrupted your husband into playing WoW? You evil, evil woman!

[Zeb The Troll]

It actually wasn't her fault (much).

Prior to WoW being released I was an avid player of Dark Ages of Camelot, a game I love and miss but it has long since ceased to be the game that it once was.

Prior to meeting Alarra I was very anti-WoW because it had taken friends and guild mates from my game and I couldn't understand why (I'd played the beta and was not at all impressed).

Then, she and I went to visit my brother and his family. We weren't unannounced but we were earlier than expected. When we walked into their home, they were both logged into WoW. (This was 2007, as mentioned, so I know BC was the current expansion but I'm not sure how long it had been out at the time.)

My jaw dropped and I made rude gestures at both my brother and his wife. My brother explained. "Zeb" he said, "DAoC has been dying since WoW and Guild Wars. I love the game, but no one's playing any more. We gave WoW and GW a chance, and WoW is the better of the two. Here, Cerridwin and I each have trial accounts to give away, why don't you just give it a try, okay?" Alarra piped in immediately "I've been playing WoW since beta because I loved the Warcraft series and it's a fantastic game! Please try it before you hate on it!"¹

I gave them both a skeptical look and agreed to try it. The rest is history, as they say. We've all tried other MMO's because WoW still doesn't live up to what DAoC was in it's prime (for my brother and me, anyway) but since 2007 nothing has been better.<sup>2

1</sup>The dialog may not be exactly as it was uttered, but it's close enough.
²Not entirely true. We really enjoyed WAR tremendously, but drama around the time Aion came to the US made it so that we couldn't enjoy that game any more. My brother, his family, and I are still not on speaking terms because of that. It's a long-ish story.

[Karoht]

Testing for Running of the Bulls continues.
Okay, at level 10 one gains access to Teleport: Moonglade. So we simply add on the restriction that the highest level you can be when you make it to the finish line is 9.
Second, going from Mulgore means that we have to go through Southern Barrens, Northern Barrens, Durotar, Ashenvale, Felwood, and Winterspring.
The only easy zone in there is going to be Orgrimmar.
Also, the route is a bit windy, not to mention long.

So I plan on changing it to Orcs or Trolls as it eliminates a bunch of problems and shortens the race. We would only have to run through Durotar, Ashenvale, Felwood, and Winterspring.

Thoughts?

[Dublock]

Yea, orc or troll if we are doing it to Moonglade, I think for the first one (if we do more :P) we should do it pretty short to see if there is any interest and work everything out, and if a lot of people join in or we have a lot of fun, we can try doing something longer.

Bringing up the teleport spell, is there any low level movement speed things or other items that can tip the balance? Is that a worry? I can't think of anything but I never really played around on the lower levels (always hurried to level up :P)

Edit: My guild is having a raid at 2 PDT/5 EDT and I think I will try my luck to stream it. If I have it set up in time I will post the link.

Don't expect anything cool, I highly suspect we will only do a few HMs :p

Way to low numbers for the raid BUT it was far worth it. Thrust, one of the best Horde side guilds on my server is trying to get me to join their core team, still actively raiding, 6/8 HM (Yea...our server is behind :P).

But I would hate to leave my GM, I've been playing with him since ICC came out 0_0. But I want an active guild and want to be raiding on a weekly basis, which I haven't in a month or two :(

[Traab]

It actually wasn't her fault (much).

Prior to WoW being released I was an avid player of Dark Ages of Camelot, a game I love and miss but it has long since ceased to be the game that it once was.

Prior to meeting Alarra I was very anti-WoW because it had taken friends and guild mates from my game and I couldn't understand why (I'd played the beta and was not at all impressed).

Then, she and I went to visit my brother and his family. We weren't unannounced but we were earlier than expected. When we walked into their home, they were both logged into WoW. (This was 2007, as mentioned, so I know BC was the current expansion but I'm not sure how long it had been out at the time.)

My jaw dropped and I made rude gestures at both my brother and his wife. My brother explained. "Zeb" he said, "DAoC has been dying since WoW and Guild Wars. I love the game, but no one's playing any more. We gave WoW and GW a chance, and WoW is the better of the two. Here, Cerridwin and I each have trial accounts to give away, why don't you just give it a try, okay?" Alarra piped in immediately "I've been playing WoW since beta because I loved the Warcraft series and it's a fantastic game! Please try it before you hate on it!"¹

I gave them both a skeptical look and agreed to try it. The rest is history, as they say. We've all tried other MMO's because WoW still doesn't live up to what DAoC was in it's prime (for my brother and me, anyway) but since 2007 nothing has been better.<sup>2

1</sup>The dialog may not be exactly as it was uttered, but it's close enough.
²Not entirely true. We really enjoyed WAR tremendously, but drama around the time Aion came to the US made it so that we couldn't enjoy that game any more. My brother, his family, and I are still not on speaking terms because of that. It's a long-ish story.

Feh, I am the ultimate WoW corrupter. I got my mother hooked on the game. I got my stepfather hooked on the game, I got my niece hooked when she was 4 years old! Out of all of them, my mother was the hardest target. She had virtually zero game experience, beyond solitaire and tetris. I had to teach her everything. From how to make her character move smoothly, (she kept getting stuck on doors and would two finger type the arrow keys at first) to how to fight effectively, (hard to explain when you are level 1 and have to go afk to lose a fight) and all the little tips like what order to do quests in so you can do several at once instead of having to do 900 laps around the zone. After she got a bit better at it, I did the recruit a friend thing when that got started and off we went. She actually has a level 85 rogue and a 73 druid atm, not counting many many alts. She is still gun shy about joining groups with anyone but me, but she does allright.

[Alarra]

I tried to get my mom into WoW. It didn't seem like it should be such a stretch, as she was the one that got me into Warcraft initially, but alas she is not cut out for games that involve other people, or things coming upon her suddenly. Though it was really amusing to watch her leap out of the chair and grab me going, "Aaaack! Something's attacking me! Kill it!" Though she did do better with WoW than WAR.

[Dublock]

Ok, I am a member of Thrust, one of the best Horde guilds on my server the past few years as a member of their raid team. They are going to make me sit on their attempts on Spine and DW, but its well worth it (because I only have an ilvl of 394, RNG god does not favor me lol).

I actually have not done DS in like a month/month and half so I really hope I don't do anything stupid on Tuesday...let alone the HMs I never done before, like Blackthorn.

[Karoht]

Yea, orc or troll if we are doing it to Moonglade, I think for the first one (if we do more :P) we should do it pretty short to see if there is any interest and work everything out, and if a lot of people join in or we have a lot of fun, we can try doing something longer.

Bringing up the teleport spell, is there any low level movement speed things or other items that can tip the balance? Is that a worry? I can't think of anything but I never really played around on the lower levels (always hurried to level up :P)

Well, my test run took me almost an hour to hit Durotar. This is of course, by myself, and running back to my body rather than just taking a res at the graveyard, which does occasionally grant you a bit of a leapfrog forward. Kind of why I want to start people as Orcs, it makes the journey to Everlook that little bit shorter. Or go back to undead, and use them to go from starting area to Light's Hope Chapel. It's a fairly straight line the whole way there, but with just enough stuff to make it a test of perseverance.

As for other movement boosters, there really aren't any sub-level ten unless we allow Goblins. Unless we make the challenge take place in the Goblin starting areas I don't see that working out well.

Ok, I am a member of Thrust, one of the best Horde guilds on my server the past few years as a member of their raid team. They are going to make me sit on their attempts on Spine and DW, but its well worth it (because I only have an ilvl of 394, RNG god does not favor me lol).

I actually have not done DS in like a month/month and half so I really hope I don't do anything stupid on Tuesday...let alone the HMs I never done before, like Blackthorn.

What server is this?
Study up.
www.icy-veins.com
look up the fatboss raid guides on the tube you's or L2Raid.

Best of luck.

[Dublock]

Dark Iron is my server.

We are going to be raiding tonight because the GM was out of town last week, so they pushed it back to tonight.

I done LFR and looked up all the fights and asked if they use the typical strat which he responded with "mostly" so I shall see :p I even switched my pvp spec to Arcane so I can start getting the feeling for it on HM Spine whenever they let me do it, pulled 30k on Ultra (LFR) on my very first fight with it (reforging still for fire) so that made me happy.

[Karoht]

Dark Iron is my server.

We are going to be raiding tonight because the GM was out of town last week, so they pushed it back to tonight.

I done LFR and looked up all the fights and asked if they use the typical strat which he responded with "mostly" so I shall see :p I even switched my pvp spec to Arcane so I can start getting the feeling for it on HM Spine whenever they let me do it, pulled 30k on Ultra (LFR) on my very first fight with it (reforging still for fire) so that made me happy.

I can safely tell you that H Blackhorn is not radically different from heroic, but there is a very sharp difference between Normal and Heroic for that fight, part of why so many groups 'brick wall' on that fight. Spine is remarkably different on heroic, in that many things you normally take for granted on normal are now very very big problems for you on heroic.


In other news, my guild will likely be doing beta raid testing on the weekends.
Stone Guard in Mogo'Shan Palace looks great. And the description for some of the heroic mechanics? Wow. It's like a combo of Omnitron + Rhyolith + Ultraxion. Oh wait, the 3 statues active every week? They rotate like the Drakes on Halfus. So we've got 4 bosses worth of mechanics here, and the execution so far looks quite sharp.

I can't wait to see more of the bosses.


Oh, and I have some bittersweet news.
I'm finally dropping Skinning from Karoht. I'm still going to have Leatherworking but I'm dropping Skinning at last. I'm going to instead pick up Alchemy. No herbing, just Alchemy, so that I can drop Cauldrons for the guild should our raid lead be away. I've had it casually mentioned to me that Alchemy is actually a requirement of the Officer rank... so yeah.

[Dublock]

Ok, so I was invited to the raid last night and when I entered I saw "6/8 bosses were kill..." So I post the GM and asked and he said "Someone isn't coming, so you're in"

My mental thought? "Oh crap lol" I switched to Arcane, hoped everything was good.

We had 12 attempts on Spine and I am happy enough to say that dps was never a big issue. Our closest two attempts, a healer kept on DCing. I was the last dps, but I was always pretty close to 3rd (We 4 dps it, 2 tanks and 4 heals).

Tonight we will be doing 1-6 and more attempts on Spine I think.

Edit: I have to ask, Alchemy is a requirement for every officer? Thats a bit harsh.

[Karoht]

Ok, so I was invited to the raid last night and when I entered I saw "6/8 bosses were kill..." So I post the GM and asked and he said "Someone isn't coming, so you're in"

My mental thought? "Oh crap lol" I switched to Arcane, hoped everything was good.

Sometimes you gotta run before you can walk.

We 4 dps it, 2 tanks and 4 heals

Wow, different. We're 3-healing it, since we've just about got it on farm we're thinking of 2-healing it. 4 healers? I'm not actually sure you're getting a benefit there, as the burst damage that comes through isn't really something that 4 healers can just brute-force. Cooldowns help, I'm sure that is probably your biggest benefit. What 4 healers are you running with?

Tonight we will be doing 1-6 and more attempts on Spine I think.

Best of luck.

Edit: I have to ask, Alchemy is a requirement for every officer? Thats a bit harsh.

Not really. We want to ensure that if anyone is ever away, someone can drop Cauldrons and feasts. Feast coverage is easy, Cauldrons not so much. Either way, it ensures that if someone important is absent, the raid can continue easily enough. Or if someone is going to be late, we can Flask, Feast, Buff Up, and start work on trash and the early bosses.
Or if we ever run multiple raid groups in MoP (which we probably will by the looks of things) it ensures that as long as there is an Officer in the group, we've got the essentials.

It's not entirely unreasonable, it's just a slight pain in the arse. I have no idea how I'm going to get my leather and herbs to level the professions at the start of MoP (because mat prices will be crazy at that time) and I still have to get around to dropping skinning and maxing out my alchemy.

Potential Solution-Start another druid, level to 85 really quickly, with skinning and herbing.

[Dublock]

(I feel bad for posting so quickly but I am bored, Tuesday maintenance sucks :P)

Wow, different. We're 3-healing it, since we've just about got it on farm we're thinking of 2-healing it. 4 healers? I'm not actually sure you're getting a benefit there, as the burst damage that comes through isn't really something that 4 healers can just brute-force. Cooldowns help, I'm sure that is probably your biggest benefit. What 4 healers are you running with?

We had two druids, a shaman, and a pally (who was the debuffer and the one who kept on DCing)

I was a bit surprised when I saw that myself but I was not going to questioned it. Another guild managed to beat spine with the same set up two days ago and have not managed to down Madness.

I know we used a lot of the CDs we had available, but to be completely honest, I was more worried about not messing up a rotation I have not used in years while paying attention to grips, and make sure I am standing where I need to be to really know if 4 heals is the best.

I am confident we had it in terms of DPS though, each time the tenden came up, we got it to upper 30%s to low 40%s. Our GM, the hunter had died on the last attempt so he didn't get the full duration of lust on the last tenden which didn't help any :(, but I really think if the healer didn't DC, I would have 4/8 HM including Spine :P

Not really. We want to ensure that if anyone is ever away, someone can drop Cauldrons and feasts.

I guess it depends on how many officers there are, I would think having 2 or 3 people with Alchy would be enough in case someone is gone, if you only have 3 officers it makes sense. I didn't think about multiple raid groups, that makes sense.

I was going to suggest a druid if you don't already have an extra alt for those professions, cause yea mats are going to be expensive.

[Karoht]

(I feel bad for posting so quickly but I am bored, Tuesday maintenance sucks :P)

If you are bored, go check out mmo-champion.com today.
Not only do they have a guide up for Scholomance (which looks remarkably fun) but they also have some of the boss mechanics for two more raid bosses.
One of which turns people into voodoo dolls. Which already makes him cool.

We had two druids, a shaman, and a pally (who was the debuffer and the one who kept on DCing)

Shaman is best for debuff management. Pally and Shammy should be looking after tanks together, Shaman should be spamming away on debuffs, and AoE healing when needed.
Two Resto Druids should mean that only one person has Searing Plasma up at a time. Ever. The easiest and most mana efficient method of clearing off Searing Plasma is the following cast order on that target.
Lifebloom1 > Rejuvination > Lifebloom2> Lifebloom3 > Nourish
And then switch targets.
If Swiftmend is up, use it in place of Lifebloom 3 and ignore the Nourish on that target. If two druids were doing this... yeah, there is no excuse for Searing Plasma on more than 2 targets, aside from when you pop a plate.
And you have enough cooldowns to survive everything.
Cakewalk to heal that.

I guess it depends on how many officers there are, I would think having 2 or 3 people with Alchy would be enough in case someone is gone, if you only have 3 officers it makes sense. I didn't think about multiple raid groups, that makes sense.

I was going to suggest a druid if you don't already have an extra alt for those professions, cause yea mats are going to be expensive.

It might be worth my while to level this alt now, and then make the switch.
It would also be worthwhile to get my BoA gear now (Agility Leather) and then I can recycle it on my Monk later. It would also give me a chance to see what Cat/Bear is like, as I haven't messed around with either in years.

[Dublock]

Just finished my guild's raid, our GM never logged on, he DCed last night and not been on since.

But we still cleared 6/8 HM with only two wipes, one on Hagra and another on Warmaster. We only took 2 hours for it as well. So I got another 3 HM achievements The kills all were pretty clean, although we really cut it close with our ship. Overall I did not mess up on any mechanics, although I did not have the best dps...

I ended up with two upgrades, hands and legs tiers :D, up to a whopping 396 ilvl Which is why my guild is pretty lenient on my dps right now, I pulled 32k on Ultra tonight. I ended up waiting a fair bit for a dumb HS for my Combustion.

Edit: We are going to wait for the GM for attempts on Spine so maby tomorrow for that :)

[Karoht]

Okay, quick recap of my stream tonight
-One shot 8/8H
-Got the Hagara Meta done, yay mounts
-Got an upgraded spirit trinket, my first gear upgrade in weeks. Sporting a 408 item level now.
-My buddy Englishdude scored the mount this week. 8 more people to roll against.
-Wiped a few times on H Rags, called it for the night.


Also, something really sad happened to me after raid.
My best WoW friend, the awesome lady who produced my two art commissions, has decided to quit the game, probably for ever. She's at a point in her life where this is probably for the best. You know what, rather than mince words I'm just going to copy pasta.
"Also, I think I'm done on the WOW front. I had a blast with you in that world and I know a lot of the reason I kept at it was because of you being my friend. So I wanted to give you my account, if you wanted it. And know that I appreciate everything you did for me. [♥] Even if the game isn't in my blood anymore, you guys will always have a place in my heart. [♥] "


I honestly have no idea what to say to that.
Jhator is my good friend, an awesome artist, and a heck of a Rogue.
No matter how good my current guild is, it can't replace this loss.
She was the first person in the game in a long long while to treat me with anything resembling respect, and after joining up with her, the game got considerably brighter in a hurry. We did all kinds of things together. I don't think friendship is the right word to call our bond.

I think I'm going to feel this for a while.

Oh well. We'll always have Imaginary Bloodlust.
*cue sad music*

[Elm11]

I'm sorry to hear it. Back after Ulduar came out in 2010, my GM and his Fiance (they met over WoW, forming the guild together) who I'd been with since I joined at the beginning of BC in 2007 both quit the game. Suddenly, too. They just passed on the GM powers and didn't even say goodbye. I'd gotten very close to both of them as friends, and I hadn't expected it to hurt so much when they left. Particularly as there'd been no warning, and I discovered only after they'd gone that I wouldn't ever be able to get back in touch with them.

In happier news, I'm finally in a raiding guild!
Background: I was a member of a wonderful guild called Casual Effect on Barthilas, that had been a really wonderful community. Sadly, the End of Expansion Blues got to it, and since about February I've watched it slowly die. For the last two months, I've never seen more than three people on at once, and even that was only for an hour. For about 3 months straight I've been running LFR every week. About two weeks ago I finally left, having given up on the hope that it'd magically come back alive and I'd get to experience the community again (By far the biggest enjoyment I get out of WoW). I moved in with a mate of mine, who had been an officer in the dead guild, but left to form his own (which is quite successful at the moment). Unfortunately, it was a PvP guild and didn't really raid at all, so I was still stuck with LFR or PuG runs.

The problem with WoW on my server is that without a guild to raid DS N with, you can't get into DS N. You're effectively required to have the achievement to get into raids, and if, like me, your guild is dead, you can't get into raids to get the achieve. Obviously, this essentially locks you out of the cycle. What this translated to was that for the last two months I've had every single item from DS LFR (except one trinket! ), and was almost always in the top 3 on the dps charts. I knew all the fights for LFR and Normal (having watched videos and combined them with my LFR experience) and could reliably pull about 28-30k on Dummies. But because I didn't have the achievement, I couldn't prove this to anyone.

Well, last Friday I finally got into a guild/PuG run for DS N. They kicked me straight away when I clarified in advance that I didn't have the achievement (they forgot to check, so I warned the raid leader that I might not be perfect), but after I showed one of them my dps at the dummies they reluctantly let me back in, warning me I was straight out if I cocked up.

Let me just say it was more than a little vindicating when I topped or came 2nd on the DPS charts for the entire raid. After I pulled 47k on Madness, the guild leader/raid leader apologised to me for his earlier words, and offered me a place in the raiding team. Since he turned out to be a nice guy who was having a bad day, I happily joined.

TLDR: Left dead guild, Got into Pug, blitzed it, got offered raid team spot.