Procrastinating...

So we're currently sitting on around 160 Nef wipes. Some P1 wipes, some P2 wipes, and the P3 wipes we get at the moment are generally due to me struggling to get the fire kiting path down (I reset the adds once, get myself cornered, and die).

Since we last attempted Nef (13% on best attempt), I've thrown gold at my raiders (I spent 60k in a single day) on BoEs, maelstrom crystal enchants, etc. We also did a chilled farm run on sunday (5/6 BWD, 3/4 BoT), which resulted in 8 main spec upgrades, and ofc loads of VP for all.

Even with these upgrades, I'm not convinced we can easily take the bastard down. I'm not saying my raiders aren't capable of it. I know they are. It's a matter of morale. You start a new boss excited by your last kill (Al'Alkir in this case), and slowly over time that fades as you focus on the boss, and then after a few weeks of constant wiping, it fades to burnout, irritation, and finger-pointing as people make tiny mistakes and cause wipes.

In the end, I need to balance progression with morale, and right now that's a really hard job. The farm run was supposed to be a morale booster, and I suspect in some ways it was, but I still had raiders asking for a week off.

It's Easter weekend this week, and a coupld of the guys are away. Also, there are 2 nef nerfs coming in 4.1 (one of which is particularly significant), which means if I can, I'd like to put off nef until after this patch.

# The damage of Shadowflame Barrage has been reduced by 15% (10-player normal and Heroic difficulty only).

# The damage of Tail Lash has been reduced by 20% (10-player normal and Heroic difficulty only).

First up, let me say that perhaps these are less "nerfs", and more "rebalancing". It's a publicly known fact that 10 man raids are WAY harder than 25 man raids at the moment. Blizzard admitted this, and every patch contains some or other nerf to 10 man raids in order to bring the difficulty more in line with what 25 man raiders are experiencing. Some 10 man HC encounters are essentially impossible at the moment, which further proves my point.

The tail lash change isn't too big of a deal, but I guess it takes those random P1 wipes out of the equation. The Shadowflame barrage one is what really has me excited. We often wipe in P2 due to the sheer amount of dmg taken, which is why we flat out refuse to do P2 crackles at the moment. This ultimately puts a ton of strain on the DPS, who have to kill nef from around 72% in P3. If we can push a crackle or two in P2, combined with the 13% we're doing already, that should do it.

All of this adds up to the same thing. Week off for all, try the bastard next weekend. As much as I'm a raiding junkie, I can't deny the facts. Besides, it's going to be months before 4.2 goes live, so what's the rush, right?