Getting your first bear: The final analysis
Congratulations, you should now be the proud owners of your first bear!
Lessons from our bears
We learnt a few things from doing the bear runs, both individually and as a raid group -- it's a lot of fun to see how far you can be pushed.
Setups that look "okay" on paper don't cut it. The run's all about the group. You can bring one or two slightly dim-witted members along but it makes life harder for everyone else.
You need to have people who're fully awake for the whole run -- if your paladins suck at refreshing 10 minute blessings, if your melee love aggro, if your healer's prone to 5 minute afks, replace them.
Once the first set of bears are in their new homes, we found interest and quality of the runs dropped. Other groups have reported different things, so your mileage may vary, but all it needs is one enthusiastic person to put the next set of runs together.
The melee ring never drops from the third chest. Never.
Further reading
Especially if you're interested in group setup and the best speed runs out there, this Elitist Jerks forum thread is a goldmine of information and opinions. Gurgthock's video is also worth a watch. If you're not quite making the timer, looking at WWS reports can be a great help -- here's our second run, videoed above, to give you some idea (I'm Fog).
Finally, we'll leave you with these timeless words: Practice is perfect. There are plenty of stories of raid groups narrowly missing a bear, then coming back the next reset and having plenty of time left on the clock. Don't give up and you'll get there in the end!
