Or, an even better idea would be to cycle servers and perform maintenance based on time zones. That way you don't overload your maintenance team with a bazillion servers needing a hotfix to get them up and you can prepare for upcoming issues without taking down everything for 14 hours.
Except that quite a few of the older servers that were pre-Oceanic still have large populations of Aussies and Kiwis. Tuesday during the day is going to annoy the least. Even switching to a rotating schedual is going to give you the complaint of "Stupid downtime, Server X is up, why can't server Y be up".
Disable character creation.
Allow free moves, and/or switch it to an Oceanic server.
So basically your answer to retarded whining is to split up guilds and force people to move. Seriously?
In terms of "what the fuck" I'm sure they and you would rather deal with "Server X is up and Y is down" rather than "Why the fuck isn't any server up yet, it's almost 8 pm PST!?"
And the battlegroups are usually all part of the same cluster of servers, in the same colocation (A problem with one server means there's a problem with the whole cluster apparently because of their patching mechanism). If one's down, they're all down, if you haven't noticed.
The battlegroups are in the same clusters. But they are also tied into the authentication server, the chat server and the database server. We don't know if it's one database cluster for all battlegroups, one per multiple battlegroups, one per battlegroup or one per server. Depending on the structure, the database clustering alone could make a rotating maintance impossible. Maintance on the authentication server will make a rotating structure impossible. Given how often it likes to die, I wouldn't be shocked that the lion's share of the maintance is the authentication server.
Yeah see I read things like that or see them on Discovery Channel and I think "WHY DO PEOPLE STILL LIVE HERE?" But I guess if you were born there it just seems normal. I think similarly when I see stuff about spider- and hurricane- and earthquake- and tornado-prone areas of the U.S. It's not like where I live is totally disaster-proof, but it seems pretty damn safe compared to some places.
This reminds me of the first time I saw The Princess Bride and the guy describes Iocane Powder as "tasteless odorless and one of the more deadly poisons know to man" and I thought - hey, sounds like it's from Australia!
Then my suspicions are confirmed like 30s later.
Everything from Australia is deadly. Foster's will kill you by pretending to be beer when it's actually a potent toxin, and Aussies themselves will just kill you with alcohol poisoning by drinking you under the table.
Yeah see I read things like that or see them on Discovery Channel and I think "WHY DO PEOPLE STILL LIVE HERE?" But I guess if you were born there it just seems normal. I think similarly when I see stuff about spider- and hurricane- and earthquake- and tornado-prone areas of the U.S. It's not like where I live is totally disaster-proof, but it seems pretty damn safe compared to some places.
Aussies are so laidback that when we get poisoned, it just flows through our bloodstream without stopping to take in the sights.
Dhalphir on
0
ThomamelasOnly one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered Userregular
Yeah see I read things like that or see them on Discovery Channel and I think "WHY DO PEOPLE STILL LIVE HERE?" But I guess if you were born there it just seems normal. I think similarly when I see stuff about spider- and hurricane- and earthquake- and tornado-prone areas of the U.S. It's not like where I live is totally disaster-proof, but it seems pretty damn safe compared to some places.
Aussies are so laidback that when we get poisoned, it just flows through our bloodstream without stopping to take in the sights.
Yeah see I read things like that or see them on Discovery Channel and I think "WHY DO PEOPLE STILL LIVE HERE?" But I guess if you were born there it just seems normal. I think similarly when I see stuff about spider- and hurricane- and earthquake- and tornado-prone areas of the U.S. It's not like where I live is totally disaster-proof, but it seems pretty damn safe compared to some places.
Aussies are so laidback that when we get poisoned, it just flows through our bloodstream without stopping to take in the sights.
I live in New Mexico where they still have the plague and a host of other diseases
I hate is blizzard wants me to sign up for another email just so I can play warcraft
I like my unique named accounts
Hence I got the hell out of New Mexico (grew up in Las Cruces) when I graduated high school and only go back to visit family.
Although White Sands is kinda cool on a full moon...
Anyways, Happy: got the healy mace off of KT last night!
Amused: it's easily the best part of my gear as I was outrolled on the tokens that dropped (I have terrible luck). And I'm using +hit cloth that dropped to heal because it's better than my other gear >.<
Hate: In order to get my rogue ready for Naxx, my guild requires me to get the following gear;
Gloves from H UP, Boots and dagger from H HoS, Legs and ring from H Gun'drak, Ring from H CoS, Dagger from H UK, Trinket from H DkT.
I think I need to set fire to who-ever decided loot should be on a RNG.
Hate: In order to get my rogue ready for Naxx, my guild requires me to get the following gear;
Gloves from H UP, Boots and dagger from H HoS, Legs and ring from H Gun'drak, Ring from H CoS, Dagger from H UK, Trinket from H DkT.
I think I need to set fire to who-ever decided loot should be on a RNG.
"Ready for naxx"?
I'm guessing those are epics and therefor the same ilevel as stuff that drops in 10 man naxx?
HATE HATE HATE: PuG's. I know everyone does but GUH let me rant for a sec:
runnin around on my DK alt, getting really sad that my sweet sword from the starting quest is getting outdated, so I decided to see how many more marks I needed to get the heirloom axe (I had been using marks for mats/main gear till now).
Well lookie there! only 12 marks to go! OH JOY! A Naxx10 group needs a healer? So I tell the leader that I don't want any loot, just marks, and I get invited. I ask what they have cleared and they say "just spider wing". Ok, I won't get it it one run, but oh well I will get close.
So I jump in, and we head to razuvious. Wipe. I am not too upset cause it was kind of my fault as I am on my wife's laptop right then and I just missed a heal/ wasnt paying attention. Then idiots proceed to pull raz TWICE when we weren't ready OR all there. As I was trying to be a good boy i was always front and center a.k.a. PWNT. So we FINALLY down him after like a half hour of bullshit, and then what do I hear over the vent?
"good job guys, pick this up at nine tomorrow ok?"
Ok. You invite me, you tell me you have cleared spider wing, and you fail to mention that you AREN'T PLANNING A FULL CLEAR AND YET I GET SAVED.
Just as a note- my guild right now has everything but Ulduar on farm status, and the only reason I didn't bug 9 people to go with me to Naxx 10 for badges was because no one was on. So now I'm saved and with no hope of continuing the run as I work tomorrow night.
GUH. More heroics I guess.....I mean shame on me for not asking if they were planning a full clear, but seriously, just fuckin say- "We aren't planning to get to Kel tonite, are you cool with that?" WHEN YOU FUCKING INVITE ME NOT AS THE GROUP IS DISPERSING. goddamit
Hate: It'll get replaced way too fast. As in, instances I could go do right now have drops that are technically better
Also happy: got dual-spec, now once I get some swords or a decent fist weapon (if there even are any pre-naxx) I can finally see which I prefer between combat and mut.
Hate: I thought that the loss of our Guild Leader-and-Raid-Leader, as well as our Main Tank and his raiding son (They had transferred servers one day after looting the bank and not bothering to tell anyone or leave any messages for anyone who hadn't been online that day) didn't affect us too badly, but it turns out that my guild is currently no longer attempting Ulduar.
We weren't too far, only needing Mimiron, Freya, Vezax, and Yogg, but it's still a pretty big shame, and I'm fairly upset about it.
Fuck that, it's a damned fish. You use that shit forever if you can. :P
Oh, absolutely. Even though for practicality's sake I'll have to replace it if I want to do much of anything at 80, I'm still gonna be wearing it at all times when not in combat. If I had the patience I'd even fish up another one.
Also the flavor text is awesome. Herring seeks your life!
Gah, the level of dumb you can meet in bg's is incredible.
I'm in the 50-59 bracket, and I'm on my rogue, who is just 58, who has rubbish gear and sits on about a piddly amount of health. Considering 1 in 2 people in this bracket are a DK, who will kill me quicker than I can blink, in addition to the fact that if I get marked by anything I'm generally fucked because nobody can cleanse, stealth is basically all I have defense wise.
So it comes as somewhat of a surprise that in one game, I get a mage having a go at me, because I'm stealthed.
That's right, a mage had a go at me, because I was stealthed on my rogue. He says I'm not doing anything, which is not true, because I'm going after healers in addition to sapping anything that isn't in combat, and yet when I point out I sapping / blinding / stunning and leaving crippling poison on things so they can't chase our fc, he then has a go at me, because I left the sapped target alone. Forgive my reluctance to come out and attack some twinked DK as opposed to just leave him there all nicely cc'd not doing anything.
He then has a go at me saying it's not all about killing blows and that I should support the fc. This coming from the mage who just farmed (badly, because he's not a DK) in the middle the entire game.
Hate: In order to get my rogue ready for Naxx, my guild requires me to get the following gear;
Gloves from H UP, Boots and dagger from H HoS, Legs and ring from H Gun'drak, Ring from H CoS, Dagger from H UK, Trinket from H DkT.
I think I need to set fire to who-ever decided loot should be on a RNG.
"Ready for naxx"?
I'm guessing those are epics and therefor the same ilevel as stuff that drops in 10 man naxx?
From what I have read about the Star Wars game maybe the learned about the sadistic RNG
Because in a demo the bounty hunter and a sith jedi killed a boss? and the loot on him was for both of their characters
I made another Death knight to try out something and to try it out again since I knew where I screwed up the first time around so I went to warsong after I was finished
I saw a ton of people with the dungeon set zero or whatever it's called in that battlegroup I guess that's the new 10-19 20/29 groups?
Because some of these people had gear that harkened back to the days of getting ready for Molten core
So basically your answer to retarded whining is to split up guilds and force people to move. Seriously?
I never said it was excluding anyone from the transfer. Generally, if you're all on aussie time you'll probably all want to move anyways, it'd be for your guilds greater good. Otherwise they'd just whine, "My guild won't raid with me because they're on the East coast, Wwwaaaaahhhhhhhhh" Which they do. As long as you make people sufficiently aware and allow transfer off these servers, (3 month transfer) then what's the issue. Even let people in Australia move to these servers at will at any point.
Other than that it's just pedantry because the solution is "fuck everyone for a good majority of the day of less impact" or "fuck everyone during inconvenient hours as to minimize impact."
The battlegroups are in the same clusters. But they are also tied into the authentication server, the chat server and the database server. We don't know if it's one database cluster for all battlegroups, one per multiple battlegroups, one per battlegroup or one per server. Depending on the structure, the database clustering alone could make a rotating maintance impossible. Maintance on the authentication server will make a rotating structure impossible. Given how often it likes to die, I wouldn't be shocked that the lion's share of the maintance is the authentication server.
The authentication server would be a standalone issue, I've never really seen the authentication server go down for more than a few hours here and there, usually during that whole patch debacle you can authenticate fine. It's just the server selection isn't there.
The databases are standalone. There have been servers that have come up and down independent of the cluster and they function fine. The clustering "maintenance" is usually in terms of debilitating patch issues or hardware upgrades where they bring down the whole thing because, well, identical hardware will have identical problems.
Again, I've seen the maintenance server go down independently of all this, so that would be unavoidable (other than having other authentication servers which would help alleviate). It's a really bad idea to have a SPF in your clustering design being the "everyone funnels through this set of authentication servers" rather than having a few to try in succession in different areas and collocations. But as far as I can tell, we only try one address for an authentication server.
Poor planning or they just thought it'd be better to do it all at once and while I can't fault them for that, if I were in charge of a programming project that inconvenienced my entire customer base on a regular basis because of unforeseen consequences or my patch-test environment wasn't set up to be used the same way as the patch-live environment, I'd be fucking fired. I'm not talking about when they chose to do the maintenance, I'm talking about a 12 hour + maintenance every other week. That's just ridiculous even if you have a huge project like that. Set up appropriate sandbox servers and practice the patching or devise a better patching scheme. Live patching isn't out of the question either, it's just laziness or the really, really stupid debugging practices that get me I suppose. Ex: How many times has the mount roar been fucked?
But meh.
bowen on
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
Hate: We spent way too long trying to redo Thorim hard mode this week and ended up only getting 1 hardmode down (IC), including 3 really really dumb wipes to Vezax. At one point we had executed the fight perfectly animus at 30% with 38 stacks, and the fucking tank died. No sword this week. Fuck Thorim hard, seriously. He gave us more trouble this week than all the other hardmodes we've learned so far except maybe Hodir ever. The first night was pretty much an excercise in futility without mass dispell, and the second we had a lot of dumb ranged who kept failing to chain lightning/charge/blizzard, and some melee who couldn't get out of charge enough (though with a better chance of survival.
Ecstatic: Algalon down in 10 man on our third week of attempts. As much as I dislike the idea of only an hour a week for attempts, it does give kind of an awesome sense of urgency to the fight. Also, the fight itself is pretty amazing.
Happy: Also did Orbituary on 25 man last night which hopefully means we don't have to go back and do that again any time soon.
Peryton on
0
AnialosCollies are love, Collies are life!Shadowbrook ColliesRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
Happy: Might be getting a regular raiding slot in my guild!
Sad: Its because the boomkin that I like went AWOL.
Hate: The boomkin I dislike took the t8.5 legs off Emalon last night. Only reason this is a hate is because she had the t8 already. Me? 7.5 Not such a huge deal...but thats a dick thing to do in my book.
Hope: The GM I talked to yesterday finally gets his wish and kicks her instead of doing constant demotions and re-promotions.
Happy: Yay, stable server and stable internet for all 25 people last night; 2 shot Heroic: Heartbreaker. Love the fight, it actually feels perfectly tuned.
Other happy: Winterspring Frostsaber get, putting me at 99. Passed out immediately after though, so no 3d10 zerg yet.
Grats on your mount ^^ I envy your determination, because lord knows i get A.D.D after doing after doing 5 turn ins... i have 67 out of 100 so far, i dunno how bad i want the dragon hawk yet.
Happy: Uld 10 for overall achievements i am sitting at 37/65, over half done! And for the Meta achievement i have 6 out of 13, 2 of which the raid already got before i joined but are easy enough to get next week.
Mmmm getting closer to another proto drake
Hope: I get my OS 10 for 3 drake off the ground. Have -alot- of people wanting to go... but will they be good enough? i suppose i will find out next week....
Hmm: one day i'll finsh Glory of the Hero for a red proto drake...
Hate: Having retired from 'active' raiding, there's been a distinct lack of options for doing any sort of raid content in Ulduar. Understandably the main raiders are all working on 10 man hard modes. Which left me bunched in with the casual/alt run. Which was a bit frustrating, in that the mix of inexeperienced and undergeared folks makes it difficult to progress in U10.
Happy: Stumbled onto a guildmate's VoA10 run last night, which he was doing with (what I assume) are some small group of folks he knows from a previous guild, who are now scattered over the server. Went very smoothly, and when I asked if they did U10 at all, he said that they did and they might have a slot for me to occupy. They only raid a couple times a week, which suits my newer and more casual play mentality, and have managed to progress up to Vezax.
Hope: This turns into a good, regular thing, and satisfies my desire for a competent group with a limited schedule. Because I can only do the Argent Tournament dailies so often without boring myself to death.
Hate: When we attempt hard modes and wipe due to normal mode mechanics. For example, a mage getting two Gravity Bombs in a row and running back towards the raid with the second.
Hope: Rusted drakes this week. Just Firefighter left. It will be tricky since our shaman is gone, so it will be me and the druid and ??? healing (options include the shadow priest going disc or the prot pally respeccing his off-spec which is currently ret to go holy, which is my preference, since otherwise we have one ranged DPS), and no bloodlust.
Oh, and other hate: I started playing my undead DK again the other day, and last night did the quest where you upgrade your starter pants with blue pants, which meant going from awesome plate skirt to stupid shorts and bony knees. I thought I could finally level an undead since she looked cool in DK gear and they do awesome flips, but the knees, I just don't know if I can do it without more kilts.
Happy: After a day of crazy achievements and mount getting, I got to do my first Naxx 25 run with my new guild on my elemental shaman. Since the other ele shaman was already geared I ended up getting new mail helm and legs, boomkin boots, casting dagger main hand (with hit!!!), and my chest token. Which is great and all, except....
Overwhelmed: I just broke the bank 2 hours before the raid to craft and gem all my frost resist gear. Now I get to gem and enchant all these new pieces as well.
Posts
There's a reason why when I used to play 40k, I'd always imagine the Catachan deathworlders to have an Australian accent.
So basically your answer to retarded whining is to split up guilds and force people to move. Seriously?
The battlegroups are in the same clusters. But they are also tied into the authentication server, the chat server and the database server. We don't know if it's one database cluster for all battlegroups, one per multiple battlegroups, one per battlegroup or one per server. Depending on the structure, the database clustering alone could make a rotating maintance impossible. Maintance on the authentication server will make a rotating structure impossible. Given how often it likes to die, I wouldn't be shocked that the lion's share of the maintance is the authentication server.
Then my suspicions are confirmed like 30s later.
Everything from Australia is deadly. Foster's will kill you by pretending to be beer when it's actually a potent toxin, and Aussies themselves will just kill you with alcohol poisoning by drinking you under the table.
I hate is blizzard wants me to sign up for another email just so I can play warcraft
I like my unique named accounts
Aussies are so laidback that when we get poisoned, it just flows through our bloodstream without stopping to take in the sights.
No worries.
no worries thommo.
and rizzo
Hence I got the hell out of New Mexico (grew up in Las Cruces) when I graduated high school and only go back to visit family.
Although White Sands is kinda cool on a full moon...
Anyways, Happy: got the healy mace off of KT last night!
Amused: it's easily the best part of my gear as I was outrolled on the tokens that dropped (I have terrible luck). And I'm using +hit cloth that dropped to heal because it's better than my other gear >.<
Freya hardmode a bitch.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Gloves from H UP, Boots and dagger from H HoS, Legs and ring from H Gun'drak, Ring from H CoS, Dagger from H UK, Trinket from H DkT.
I think I need to set fire to who-ever decided loot should be on a RNG.
"Ready for naxx"?
I'm guessing those are epics and therefor the same ilevel as stuff that drops in 10 man naxx?
It's annoying to say the least.
runnin around on my DK alt, getting really sad that my sweet sword from the starting quest is getting outdated, so I decided to see how many more marks I needed to get the heirloom axe (I had been using marks for mats/main gear till now).
Well lookie there! only 12 marks to go! OH JOY! A Naxx10 group needs a healer? So I tell the leader that I don't want any loot, just marks, and I get invited. I ask what they have cleared and they say "just spider wing". Ok, I won't get it it one run, but oh well I will get close.
So I jump in, and we head to razuvious. Wipe. I am not too upset cause it was kind of my fault as I am on my wife's laptop right then and I just missed a heal/ wasnt paying attention. Then idiots proceed to pull raz TWICE when we weren't ready OR all there. As I was trying to be a good boy i was always front and center a.k.a. PWNT. So we FINALLY down him after like a half hour of bullshit, and then what do I hear over the vent?
"good job guys, pick this up at nine tomorrow ok?"
Ok. You invite me, you tell me you have cleared spider wing, and you fail to mention that you AREN'T PLANNING A FULL CLEAR AND YET I GET SAVED.
Just as a note- my guild right now has everything but Ulduar on farm status, and the only reason I didn't bug 9 people to go with me to Naxx 10 for badges was because no one was on. So now I'm saved and with no hope of continuing the run as I work tomorrow night.
GUH. More heroics I guess.....I mean shame on me for not asking if they were planning a full clear, but seriously, just fuckin say- "We aren't planning to get to Kel tonite, are you cool with that?" WHEN YOU FUCKING INVITE ME NOT AS THE GROUP IS DISPERSING. goddamit
Hate: It'll get replaced way too fast. As in, instances I could go do right now have drops that are technically better
Also happy: got dual-spec, now once I get some swords or a decent fist weapon (if there even are any pre-naxx) I can finally see which I prefer between combat and mut.
We weren't too far, only needing Mimiron, Freya, Vezax, and Yogg, but it's still a pretty big shame, and I'm fairly upset about it.
Oh, absolutely. Even though for practicality's sake I'll have to replace it if I want to do much of anything at 80, I'm still gonna be wearing it at all times when not in combat. If I had the patience I'd even fish up another one.
Also the flavor text is awesome. Herring seeks your life!
I'm in the 50-59 bracket, and I'm on my rogue, who is just 58, who has rubbish gear and sits on about a piddly amount of health. Considering 1 in 2 people in this bracket are a DK, who will kill me quicker than I can blink, in addition to the fact that if I get marked by anything I'm generally fucked because nobody can cleanse, stealth is basically all I have defense wise.
So it comes as somewhat of a surprise that in one game, I get a mage having a go at me, because I'm stealthed.
That's right, a mage had a go at me, because I was stealthed on my rogue. He says I'm not doing anything, which is not true, because I'm going after healers in addition to sapping anything that isn't in combat, and yet when I point out I sapping / blinding / stunning and leaving crippling poison on things so they can't chase our fc, he then has a go at me, because I left the sapped target alone. Forgive my reluctance to come out and attack some twinked DK as opposed to just leave him there all nicely cc'd not doing anything.
He then has a go at me saying it's not all about killing blows and that I should support the fc. This coming from the mage who just farmed (badly, because he's not a DK) in the middle the entire game.
Incidently, he didn't cast sheep once.
From what I have read about the Star Wars game maybe the learned about the sadistic RNG
Because in a demo the bounty hunter and a sith jedi killed a boss? and the loot on him was for both of their characters
I saw a ton of people with the dungeon set zero or whatever it's called in that battlegroup I guess that's the new 10-19 20/29 groups?
Because some of these people had gear that harkened back to the days of getting ready for Molten core
I never said it was excluding anyone from the transfer. Generally, if you're all on aussie time you'll probably all want to move anyways, it'd be for your guilds greater good. Otherwise they'd just whine, "My guild won't raid with me because they're on the East coast, Wwwaaaaahhhhhhhhh" Which they do. As long as you make people sufficiently aware and allow transfer off these servers, (3 month transfer) then what's the issue. Even let people in Australia move to these servers at will at any point.
Other than that it's just pedantry because the solution is "fuck everyone for a good majority of the day of less impact" or "fuck everyone during inconvenient hours as to minimize impact."
The authentication server would be a standalone issue, I've never really seen the authentication server go down for more than a few hours here and there, usually during that whole patch debacle you can authenticate fine. It's just the server selection isn't there.
The databases are standalone. There have been servers that have come up and down independent of the cluster and they function fine. The clustering "maintenance" is usually in terms of debilitating patch issues or hardware upgrades where they bring down the whole thing because, well, identical hardware will have identical problems.
Again, I've seen the maintenance server go down independently of all this, so that would be unavoidable (other than having other authentication servers which would help alleviate). It's a really bad idea to have a SPF in your clustering design being the "everyone funnels through this set of authentication servers" rather than having a few to try in succession in different areas and collocations. But as far as I can tell, we only try one address for an authentication server.
Poor planning or they just thought it'd be better to do it all at once and while I can't fault them for that, if I were in charge of a programming project that inconvenienced my entire customer base on a regular basis because of unforeseen consequences or my patch-test environment wasn't set up to be used the same way as the patch-live environment, I'd be fucking fired. I'm not talking about when they chose to do the maintenance, I'm talking about a 12 hour + maintenance every other week. That's just ridiculous even if you have a huge project like that. Set up appropriate sandbox servers and practice the patching or devise a better patching scheme. Live patching isn't out of the question either, it's just laziness or the really, really stupid debugging practices that get me I suppose. Ex: How many times has the mount roar been fucked?
But meh.
Happy: Also did Orbituary on 25 man last night which hopefully means we don't have to go back and do that again any time soon.
Sad: Its because the boomkin that I like went AWOL.
Hate: The boomkin I dislike took the t8.5 legs off Emalon last night. Only reason this is a hate is because she had the t8 already. Me? 7.5 Not such a huge deal...but thats a dick thing to do in my book.
Hope: The GM I talked to yesterday finally gets his wish and kicks her instead of doing constant demotions and re-promotions.
Other happy: Winterspring Frostsaber get, putting me at 99. Passed out immediately after though, so no 3d10 zerg yet.
Hope: Work goes by quickly. x.x
Grats on your mount ^^ I envy your determination, because lord knows i get A.D.D after doing after doing 5 turn ins... i have 67 out of 100 so far, i dunno how bad i want the dragon hawk yet.
Happy: Uld 10 for overall achievements i am sitting at 37/65, over half done! And for the Meta achievement i have 6 out of 13, 2 of which the raid already got before i joined but are easy enough to get next week.
Mmmm getting closer to another proto drake
Hope: I get my OS 10 for 3 drake off the ground. Have -alot- of people wanting to go... but will they be good enough? i suppose i will find out next week....
Hmm: one day i'll finsh Glory of the Hero for a red proto drake...
Happy still: Tank belt dropped off Razorscale
Happy: Stumbled onto a guildmate's VoA10 run last night, which he was doing with (what I assume) are some small group of folks he knows from a previous guild, who are now scattered over the server. Went very smoothly, and when I asked if they did U10 at all, he said that they did and they might have a slot for me to occupy. They only raid a couple times a week, which suits my newer and more casual play mentality, and have managed to progress up to Vezax.
Hope: This turns into a good, regular thing, and satisfies my desire for a competent group with a limited schedule. Because I can only do the Argent Tournament dailies so often without boring myself to death.
Hope: Rusted drakes this week. Just Firefighter left. It will be tricky since our shaman is gone, so it will be me and the druid and ??? healing (options include the shadow priest going disc or the prot pally respeccing his off-spec which is currently ret to go holy, which is my preference, since otherwise we have one ranged DPS), and no bloodlust.
Oh, and other hate: I started playing my undead DK again the other day, and last night did the quest where you upgrade your starter pants with blue pants, which meant going from awesome plate skirt to stupid shorts and bony knees. I thought I could finally level an undead since she looked cool in DK gear and they do awesome flips, but the knees, I just don't know if I can do it without more kilts.
Overwhelmed: I just broke the bank 2 hours before the raid to craft and gem all my frost resist gear. Now I get to gem and enchant all these new pieces as well.