Going to start upping my videos and such to Youtube.. Soo far I've got KJ edited and upped. I think Garreth will be making a module or something to make this look much nicer!!

I don't know how to embed so here it is via the linK! Make sure to watch in HD if it doesnt default to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW-Y9UxijFY

Jamaican Sunset

Here's the sunset from our hotel window.. It came out pretty good, considering my camera was soaked since I left it in wet swim stuff.

Beach right before it rained..: Here's the beach right before it rained... That beach goes on for miles.

This is the beach in Negril, JA right before it rained. It rained every day for 15 minutes. That beach goes on for miles and parts of it are nude areas.. Unfortunately, none of the nudies were ones you'd want to see!!

Crab that attacked me..: This is the crab that attacked me while I was stupid drunk.

This is the crab that attacked me.. My girlfriend thought she was funny and tried to hide on me, jump out and scare me. So I sarcastically (and drunkenly) pretended to be scared, until I almost stepped on this guy here.. This dude tried to grab one of my toes. I offered him some red stripe later on, but he kept running away :(

omg girl: She wanted to take a picture in front of fruit because we're like that.. ya

She was obsessed with the fruit.. So we took a picture in front of it.. cuz we're like that.

There's more on my facebook if you'd like to see more.

Well, for those who know me it's been pretty obvious that I haven't been in game that much in the past month or so, basically logging into raid (when I could actually make it). From that sentence I suppose you know where this is going. With work getting rather crazy and other commitments in life, I don't have the time currently to actively raid.

As it stands, I've missed every Ulduar raid except 2, one of which I had to leave early for work. It is not fair to anyone in raid or waiting to become an active raider if i'm not able to commit 100%. This isn't a I'm quitting see ya bye post, it's more of a means to say I have to become a more standby, casual raider, rather then active. If attendance is low and I'm on, I'd be more and happy to raid, I just can't make the promise I can be there each night anymore, and as I said above, thats not fair to anyone in KB. Hopefully when things clear up I can attempt to earn a spot back, but until then I'll have to reside on the proverbial bench.

I want to thank everyone (esp Garreth for allowing me back into guild/raiding after TBC events) that I've got to raid with over the years. I'll still be in game when I can, and def will be on the site, but it was more appropriate that I make this official rather then keep the guessing game going.

So I was thinking lately on how the game has changed (at least, imo for me) when it comes to raiding and the whole landscape of it. I probably should warn this post may or may not sound elitist, take it however you'd like. It's not my intention for it to sound that way, but I'm sure it'll come across that way at some point.

Basically, I'm going to come out and say my view on it and just run with it from there. I think (some) raid achievements and "hard modes" have ruined the game. Let me get in before "its just starter content" and "everyone deserves to see all content". Let me also get in before the inevitable "PTR content always is exactly how it is when it's moved to live".

For me, my favorite instances were AQ40, original Naxx, and the Sunwell. You could even include ZA bear runs as well (although, then again, its a "hard mode"). The thing about the first 3 however, was they were all challenging. You couldn't just run in and dps shit down and win with knowing just part of the strat. The only fight that rivals any of those original challening fights now is Sarth 3D, and even then it is much easier compared to the others (I would rank 10man sarth3d up with the others though). Max consumables were needed for each boss fight, and there would be countless nights of wiping on the same boss. The process of putting in so much to an encounter, failing over and over, and then finally winning is where I truly got the most out of raiding. There was no, oh if you kill all these drakes, you can down the boss, but you get less loot. There was no easy/hard mode. You either did the fight the right way, or you failed.

Some people liked it, others hated it, some didn't give a shit, but the PvE race was a great aspect of the game. You could make a case that achievements can provide something similiar, but its not the same. Honestly, how many people cared about who killed the eredar twins in reverse order first..??? And then it was realized reverse order was actually easier, and you got more loot, so that became the general strat. So it was no point really to track or care about it. I know we don't "compete" on the world level or anything, but we do generally on a server level, in a sense. We might not get server firsts, but we like to be generally close or within a good time period (although, yes, thats not the #1 goal[which is to have fun :) ]).

So lets look at the current picture and compare it to the past. Naxx, being the starting instance, won't be as tuned as it was previously. Understandable. So lets compare it to a Kara or MC. We'll also figure Malygos = Gruul/ony, Sarth = Magtheridon, in terms of raid starting level. I'm hesitant to include kara, as it wasn't really that difficult compared with the exception of nightbane, which, at the time provided a decent challenge. Not to mention it was a 10 man. But for the most part, the high percentage of raiding guilds were not clearing the full instance within their first raid reset. People were getting stuck on certain bosses, wiping on other stuff, etc. Some may think that its hard, but it shows the game is actually challening. If you compare new naxx to MC, it's not even on the same difficulty level. Forgot the 40 vs 25 aspect. You needed both gear and skill. You had to clear MC numerous times to be prepared for rag, the end boss of that level of raiding. With the new naxx, you can effectively clear it with fresh level 80 gear. There is not one single difficult fight in that instance. You don't need naxx gear to defeat its KT, its end boss. You don't need new gear to defeat malygos, let alone Sarth. If everyone performs their best, at most you will need a week or two worth of naxx clearing to defeat Sarth3D. Looking back to only TBC, you had to have farmed decent gear to survive gruuls, and at the same time to survive Mag. All content was not being defeated within a week of release.

So, is the game(pve) to easy? IMO, yes, it is. Blizzard decided to go with this achievement system as a way to reward raiders who went the extra step, but it's really gone the other way. It's now become lets go for Xxxx achievement otherwise raiding would be boring gear farm until the next content is released. Before, it was more enjoyable. Farm gear to go further in content to defeat more difficult bosses. Now, its become farm gear and do XX achievement until they release new content. The achievements are nice and all, but it proves some of the fights arent nearly as difficult as they should be. Not MCing and casting widows embrace on Faerlina would become instant wipe. Sarth 3D should only of been available in 3d form, and tuned a little bit better.

So, now, the future. From my understanding guilds are ripping through Ulduaar. Of course, these fights may be undertuned and such, as they are only testing them, but they did say that about the new naxx originally as well. Blizz even commented that guilds were not trying them the "hard" way, as thats one reason guilds were seeing sucess. I don't think there should be a choice, it should just be the hard way, or you fail.

I'm really hoping to see raiding return to how it was originally, or, if they must keep "normal/hard modes" in the game, at least make the normal modes difficult and challening.. not something that will be defeated after two or three attempts.

TLDR version: QQ, raiding is easy, Shin's my dawg.