So I piled myself into a 10m RS PUG last night (the loot table bores me, but I wanted to see it once) and I immediately warmed up to the zone. The group I was in wasn't the sharpest bunch of tacks, but we killed the three mini bosses and had a bit of time on Halion. Here's my initial thoughts.
Trash
I love the trash. Just love it. Bunch them up and AoE for great justice. Then watch your tank get folded, your DPS die in a Blast Wave, and start flying back on your spectral griffon. No, these trash take a little coordination (pull one out, etc) and focused fire. Fire Aura is your friend here (shocker, I know).
Mini Boss #1
This is the Draconid standing on the left when you enter. I don't know what he does, but one of our tanks got folded like an origami swan that you just jammed into your pocket. I think there's some kind of switch that should go on here - even after he forms a copy of himself at 50%. Either way, a tank died inside of 1 GCD - so it was epic.
Mini Boss #2
This is a little drake sitting off to the right in the instance near some water. I'm fairly certain that the pool in Ulduar is still the only water in Northrend that extinguishes fire - so don't bother standing here. The drake uses the standard "Don't stand near someone with a mark" mechanic and puts a Conflag on them. Spreading out and staying away from the drake's face work well here.
Mini Boss #3
This is one of those squat looking draconids, similar to the trash you've been pulling. Using a cleave and an armor debuff, you have to swap tanks after every 20 or 30 seconds (after the adds die is a good time). Uses a stand in place fear to add a moment of danger, especially when the spriest uses fear ward on themselves and he decides to ignore the feared tank. Tip - don't back up through the smokey/fiery wall or you'll be out of LOS from your healers.
Halion
Halion uses the "Don't stand in fire", "Don't stand in circles of death", and "Don't eat lazors" mechanics. He also has the "Raid must work together to DPS both versions" mechanic. Halion also has a hit box that makes Onyxia's look like a pinhead. Ahune's hitbox may be slightly smaller, but just slightly. I'm fairly certain I saw Rhonin DPSing from Dalaran.
Short version of the fight is this.
100%-75% - DPS like you mean it. Don't stand in the fire, watch the tail whip/cleave, and cleanse off the fire debuff AFTER someone runs away from the raid. Honestly, letting it stack 2 or 3 times is better than cleansing this off in the middle of the raid.
75%-50% - Everyone but one tank and one healer into the portal. Large hit box here still, and the same mechanic for cleansing as Phase 1 (the difference being if you stand in/near it you will get pulled in to the center of it instead of pushed away). There are two orbs spinning around the outside of the room that will occasionally join with a beam that will one shot you - easily the deadliest part of the encounter.
49%-loot - Split your raid between the shadow and the corporeal, and just burn him down. You want your DPS to be as even as possible (so I've heard), and just avoid the same mechanics as above.
Uh - so why is this great again?
OK, maybe the encounter isn't all that and a bag of Lich King chips (BBQ flavored), but it is something new that will be a challenge for PUGs everywhere. I imagine by next week you won't be able to get into a regular RS 10m kill without a "5700GS + achiev or no invite", even though the fight isn't overly difficult. It certainly won't hold my attention for more than a few kills, and I'll probably never step foot in it again once I get a 10m or 25m kill. The gear just isn't that exciting for my Paladin.
The encounter certainly wouldn't be enough to keep me from canceling my account (if I was going to), and won't be enough to stave off the masses until Cataclsym's release in Oct/Nov. With the closed Beta opening up today, we'll probably see open Beta in August, and the release event coming in late September or early October - with a release to coincide with the weekend after Blizzcon (I'm guessing). Unless I misread Halion's shadow, we've still got 12 more weeks of winter ahead of us.
Showing posts with label ICC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ICC. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Losing a tank in 1.5 sec - a Beacon of Light story
Yesterday Chase posted a fairly vanilla writeup on Beacon of Light (BoL) best practices, which is probably fairly useful to his target audience - brand new Holy Paladins. He covers the basics of putting BoL on the tank, or yourself, or switching for things like Bonestorm - but he forgot one little caveat that goes with Beacon of Light. Unfortunately, it's a big one.
Haste vs. Damage
As a Holy Paladin I'm constantly slamming as much haste onto my paper doll as I can - to the point where I even passed up a 277 upgrade the other day because I'd lose 80 haste in the process. My Holy Lights are pushing 1.2 seconds, and I'm dangerously close to being over 1000 haste. Between my own CDs and a pocket innervate - I can destroy any content without fear of mana or my target dying. I guarantee that unless my tank gets one shot, there's nothing out there that will take them down. There just isn't a boss that can out damage my Holy Light spam (again, short of one shots) - providing all I have to do is stand in one place and heal one target.
Unfortunately, I have more to worry about than just a single tank. I generally am covering at least both tanks, and providing backup healing for the raid. I'm keeping an eye on environmental damage, Valk's, flying ooze balls, etc. This means I have to occasionally move or shift my healing, which means my perfect stream of 24k HL bombs gets interrupted. It also means that I occasionally have to rely on some of my other tools to get me through the night.
Enter the Beacon
BoL was a great addition to our healing arsenal, and I can't count all the ways that I revel in its deliciousness and awesomeness. Healing the party/raid while having BoL on myself (and just ignoring environmental damage). Laughing in PvP while keeping everyone alive (until that shaman/priest show up and purge/dispell it off me). Mocking healers who struggle to keep two tanks alive on Blood Queen.
Until that is, this happens.
Awesome McAwesomsacue tank has died.
WTF? How on Earth did that happen? No special abilities were used, I had BoL on them - I mean, there's no reason why they should have just gotten turned into a plate pancake. My heals can't miss (although I have done things like BoP the tank by accident), he's well within the 60yd range of well - everyone, and the person I was healing is alive! How is this even remotely possible?
Pulling out the death log, I see something horrifying. While the tank was sitting at around 60% for two seconds, there's a 1.75 sec gap between heals landing. This can't be possible, I'm mashing the HL key like my life depends on it, and my cast time is sitting near 1.2 seconds. My Judgement was still up, BoL was up, hell even Sacred Shield was up. This death was unpossible! Now I'm left standing here trying to explain how I just let a tank die on H-LK (or worse, trash) when I'm supposed to be Hasty McHasterson the great Pally healer. Guess that Val'anyr isn't really getting it done eh?
The hidden killer
In reality, what just killed my tank was the inherent lag that takes place in a BoL heal. As best as I can figure (from parsing logs and checking EJ), is that the heal actually has to register on your target before the system will pass the heal on to your BoL target. From a programming point this makes perfect sense, but it does get a little aggravating when you watch your BoL target get folded because the heal didn't get there in time. This means that all the haste we're stacking, will still result in your HL taking about 2 seconds to land every single time.
If this isn't a selling point for more haste on your gear, I don't know what is. Every single cast you put out will take about .5 sec longer to hit your BoL target. That's about the difference between having a judgment up or not - something we definitely strive for.
Avoiding this gib
There's a couple of ways to get around this little bit of lag accidentally interrupting your perfect string of awesomenss, and thereby avoiding the ire of your party/raid.
Know the encounter
This should go without saying, but you need to know the encounter. While a lot of this will come with experience, you should never be surprised when something happens during a fight. Let's face it, 95% of the encounters we face are so scripted that we have a wide variety of mods and addons to run timers for us. You know when that first Mark is going out, you know when Defile is coming, and you KNOW that Soul Reaper is about to hit your tank for Texa$.
Know your tanks
Right behind knowing the encounter, because in a PuG knowing the encounter is more realistic, is knowing the tanks that you're working with. Start cataloging their survivability. Are they taking a lot of damage on trash? Did you find yourself reaching for additional CDs on the first boss? Keep a mental log and use past experiences to prepare you for the upcoming encounter. While the odds of every PUG tank you heal using ORA2 or some other addon that will let you know when they've used their defensive cooldowns, you should be on the lookout for it if you can.
Heal the BoL target
That's right - there's nothing that says you can't switch to the BoL target when you need to. While it's certainly not ideal, neither is losing the target to an internal lag mechanic that you can't fix. This is something I'll do during H-LK. Even though I have BoL on the LK tank, unless someone is in immediate danger of dying, I'll heal the LK tank directly during a Soul Reaper. We had enough problems on this fight when we were working on it. This was a situation I could control, and I wasn't going to pass it up (obviously if Infest is running rampant, I don't have this option).
Change your BoL target
This comes with experience, and knowing where your heals need to go. After losing the Shambling Horror tank to BoL lag a few times, I swapped BoL to the LK tank and healed the Horror tank instead. Problem solved - except for when he'd eat a 70k+ shockwave. Sry:(
This also comes into play on fights like H-Sindragosa. During Phase 1 I'll keep the tank beaconed in case I need to touch the raid, but I generally just heal the tank directly (see the point above). During Pase 2 I put BoL on myself and just heal the tanks for all I'm worth. I rely on HL splash to cover the raid when I have to drop my stacks, but this method lets me build up 10+ stacks of the mystic buffet (though that does make me pucker up).
Communicate with your other healers and the tanks
I put this last, but it's really one of the most important aspects. Working with your tanks and other healers for coverage in heavy damage situations, or to coordinate cooldowns, can mean the difference between a spectacular wipe (where it just says LOLOLOLOL@U in the damage log) and that clutch downing. Rarely is the weight of the entire raid on your shoulders, though it often feels that way.
Conclusion
BoL is an amazing tool, and one of the most powerful spells in our arsenal. No other healer can provide the sheer throughput that we can using HL/BoL on multiple targets, though druids can rack up some impressive HoT stacks. BoL isn't a cure all though, you can't simply slap BoL on your MT and then forget about them. Part of improving as a player is looking at all the little things that have taken place in a raid in finding ways to counter them. Recognizing that your BoL target will be slightly behind in healing received means you may have to keep healing, even if their damage intake is low.
Oh, and stack on more haste.
Haste vs. Damage
As a Holy Paladin I'm constantly slamming as much haste onto my paper doll as I can - to the point where I even passed up a 277 upgrade the other day because I'd lose 80 haste in the process. My Holy Lights are pushing 1.2 seconds, and I'm dangerously close to being over 1000 haste. Between my own CDs and a pocket innervate - I can destroy any content without fear of mana or my target dying. I guarantee that unless my tank gets one shot, there's nothing out there that will take them down. There just isn't a boss that can out damage my Holy Light spam (again, short of one shots) - providing all I have to do is stand in one place and heal one target.
Unfortunately, I have more to worry about than just a single tank. I generally am covering at least both tanks, and providing backup healing for the raid. I'm keeping an eye on environmental damage, Valk's, flying ooze balls, etc. This means I have to occasionally move or shift my healing, which means my perfect stream of 24k HL bombs gets interrupted. It also means that I occasionally have to rely on some of my other tools to get me through the night.
Enter the Beacon
BoL was a great addition to our healing arsenal, and I can't count all the ways that I revel in its deliciousness and awesomeness. Healing the party/raid while having BoL on myself (and just ignoring environmental damage). Laughing in PvP while keeping everyone alive (until that shaman/priest show up and purge/dispell it off me). Mocking healers who struggle to keep two tanks alive on Blood Queen.
Until that is, this happens.
Awesome McAwesomsacue tank has died.
WTF? How on Earth did that happen? No special abilities were used, I had BoL on them - I mean, there's no reason why they should have just gotten turned into a plate pancake. My heals can't miss (although I have done things like BoP the tank by accident), he's well within the 60yd range of well - everyone, and the person I was healing is alive! How is this even remotely possible?
Pulling out the death log, I see something horrifying. While the tank was sitting at around 60% for two seconds, there's a 1.75 sec gap between heals landing. This can't be possible, I'm mashing the HL key like my life depends on it, and my cast time is sitting near 1.2 seconds. My Judgement was still up, BoL was up, hell even Sacred Shield was up. This death was unpossible! Now I'm left standing here trying to explain how I just let a tank die on H-LK (or worse, trash) when I'm supposed to be Hasty McHasterson the great Pally healer. Guess that Val'anyr isn't really getting it done eh?
The hidden killer
In reality, what just killed my tank was the inherent lag that takes place in a BoL heal. As best as I can figure (from parsing logs and checking EJ), is that the heal actually has to register on your target before the system will pass the heal on to your BoL target. From a programming point this makes perfect sense, but it does get a little aggravating when you watch your BoL target get folded because the heal didn't get there in time. This means that all the haste we're stacking, will still result in your HL taking about 2 seconds to land every single time.
If this isn't a selling point for more haste on your gear, I don't know what is. Every single cast you put out will take about .5 sec longer to hit your BoL target. That's about the difference between having a judgment up or not - something we definitely strive for.
Avoiding this gib
There's a couple of ways to get around this little bit of lag accidentally interrupting your perfect string of awesomenss, and thereby avoiding the ire of your party/raid.
Know the encounter
This should go without saying, but you need to know the encounter. While a lot of this will come with experience, you should never be surprised when something happens during a fight. Let's face it, 95% of the encounters we face are so scripted that we have a wide variety of mods and addons to run timers for us. You know when that first Mark is going out, you know when Defile is coming, and you KNOW that Soul Reaper is about to hit your tank for Texa$.
Know your tanks
Right behind knowing the encounter, because in a PuG knowing the encounter is more realistic, is knowing the tanks that you're working with. Start cataloging their survivability. Are they taking a lot of damage on trash? Did you find yourself reaching for additional CDs on the first boss? Keep a mental log and use past experiences to prepare you for the upcoming encounter. While the odds of every PUG tank you heal using ORA2 or some other addon that will let you know when they've used their defensive cooldowns, you should be on the lookout for it if you can.
Heal the BoL target
That's right - there's nothing that says you can't switch to the BoL target when you need to. While it's certainly not ideal, neither is losing the target to an internal lag mechanic that you can't fix. This is something I'll do during H-LK. Even though I have BoL on the LK tank, unless someone is in immediate danger of dying, I'll heal the LK tank directly during a Soul Reaper. We had enough problems on this fight when we were working on it. This was a situation I could control, and I wasn't going to pass it up (obviously if Infest is running rampant, I don't have this option).
Change your BoL target
This comes with experience, and knowing where your heals need to go. After losing the Shambling Horror tank to BoL lag a few times, I swapped BoL to the LK tank and healed the Horror tank instead. Problem solved - except for when he'd eat a 70k+ shockwave. Sry:(
This also comes into play on fights like H-Sindragosa. During Phase 1 I'll keep the tank beaconed in case I need to touch the raid, but I generally just heal the tank directly (see the point above). During Pase 2 I put BoL on myself and just heal the tanks for all I'm worth. I rely on HL splash to cover the raid when I have to drop my stacks, but this method lets me build up 10+ stacks of the mystic buffet (though that does make me pucker up).
Communicate with your other healers and the tanks
I put this last, but it's really one of the most important aspects. Working with your tanks and other healers for coverage in heavy damage situations, or to coordinate cooldowns, can mean the difference between a spectacular wipe (where it just says LOLOLOLOL@U in the damage log) and that clutch downing. Rarely is the weight of the entire raid on your shoulders, though it often feels that way.
Conclusion
BoL is an amazing tool, and one of the most powerful spells in our arsenal. No other healer can provide the sheer throughput that we can using HL/BoL on multiple targets, though druids can rack up some impressive HoT stacks. BoL isn't a cure all though, you can't simply slap BoL on your MT and then forget about them. Part of improving as a player is looking at all the little things that have taken place in a raid in finding ways to counter them. Recognizing that your BoL target will be slightly behind in healing received means you may have to keep healing, even if their damage intake is low.
Oh, and stack on more haste.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Heroic Lich King 10M - OMG THE DAMAGE
We now have 38 attempts in on H LK 10m. I can confidently say that we make it cleanly into P2 75% of the time now (based on the last four attempts), but it's far from easy. As it should be, this is the single most difficult thing I've done in WoW. Here's how we're working on it.
Phase 1 - the kite and scream
Phase 1 introduces the Shadow Trap as another mechanic that will instantly wipe your raid. Similar to a Defile, it has to be dropped behind the raid as you kite the LK and his cronies from the steps to the edge of the platform. Moving as little as possible helps here, as you can quickly run out of room.
For positioning, we have the LK and melee on the left - moving from pillar to pillar (Stairs to teleporter pad area). The ghouls and horror tank are just to the right of the LK tank, with the ranged and healers to the right of that. This positioning has worked fairly well, though there are occasional accidents involving Shambling placement.
Raid setup is Feral Druid on the LK, Protadin on the adds - Holy Paladin and Disc Priest healing, and six DPS (so much damage). It's not uncommon for the LK to have 25k+ hits back to back on the MT, and it can be a challenge if Mongrr or I get hit with the plague.
Phase 2
Right now if Mongrr or I get picked up by a Valk, and there is an infest, someone is going to die. At one point we had an infest out, soul reaper, Valk, and a defile. I'm pretty sure Golemagg showed up on that attempt as well. Our best shot so far was about 50% before the proverbial wheels came off.
Phase 3
??
Phase 4
/profit
Wrap-up
H LK is another fight that gives me everything I could hope for. Insane damage, personal responsibility, tight group dynamics, and it truly feels like the pinnacle of Wrath raiding. I fully expect that we'll have it down in another 30 or 60 attempts, though we're going to have to do some more drake selling or GDKP runs to cover the costs.
Phase 1 - the kite and scream
Phase 1 introduces the Shadow Trap as another mechanic that will instantly wipe your raid. Similar to a Defile, it has to be dropped behind the raid as you kite the LK and his cronies from the steps to the edge of the platform. Moving as little as possible helps here, as you can quickly run out of room.
For positioning, we have the LK and melee on the left - moving from pillar to pillar (Stairs to teleporter pad area). The ghouls and horror tank are just to the right of the LK tank, with the ranged and healers to the right of that. This positioning has worked fairly well, though there are occasional accidents involving Shambling placement.
Raid setup is Feral Druid on the LK, Protadin on the adds - Holy Paladin and Disc Priest healing, and six DPS (so much damage). It's not uncommon for the LK to have 25k+ hits back to back on the MT, and it can be a challenge if Mongrr or I get hit with the plague.
Phase 2
Right now if Mongrr or I get picked up by a Valk, and there is an infest, someone is going to die. At one point we had an infest out, soul reaper, Valk, and a defile. I'm pretty sure Golemagg showed up on that attempt as well. Our best shot so far was about 50% before the proverbial wheels came off.
Phase 3
??
Phase 4
/profit
Wrap-up
H LK is another fight that gives me everything I could hope for. Insane damage, personal responsibility, tight group dynamics, and it truly feels like the pinnacle of Wrath raiding. I fully expect that we'll have it down in another 30 or 60 attempts, though we're going to have to do some more drake selling or GDKP runs to cover the costs.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
The power of WoL - finding your own mistakes
So we saved Valithria on H 25m last night. We brought in a tenacity pet to make use of the HL glyph splash heals, and it probably would have worked really well.
Unfortunately, I made a massive - nay gigantic - mistake. One that I will probably have to deal with for an eternity. This mistake is inline with the time Rage was calling out the bomb targets on Baron Gheddon, and then blew up the raid because he was yelling at someone. Or when I pulled the Twin Valks in Holy gear (while tanking).
I could probably have hidden this mistake from everyone except the most experienced of WoL readers, or at least another Holy Paladin who's used to reading the logs. I could tuck this mistake aside, pretend it never happened, and then go along my merry way. I will instead however, use this as a teaching moment - to show that even though I don't hesitate to call someone out for not using a flask/food/etc, that I'm also not afraid to admit my own screwups.
What I did wrong
Right before we started I switched to my PvP Holy spec, because I wanted Imp Con aura for the healers and I had the Glyph of Seal of Light in that build. I swapped out Librams for the 232 +SP to HL, and proceeded to heal the dragon's face off.
We had a tenacity pet parked near the dragon, so my HL splash would benifit from the 40% +healing provided by Blood of the Rhino (unfortunately that all doesn't transfer via BoL). I was keeping my Judgements up, and BoL and Sacred Shield on Valithria. The only problem I was noticing was that things seemed, slow.
I swapped a flask for my Int/Haste elixir combo, ate haste food instead of fish feasts, and still things weren't feeling right. Then on the fourth attempt it finally registered. I didn't have my Power Aura showing up for Light's Grace. I was getting 5 or 6 fewer casts per cycle (maybe more) than if I'd been setup properly.
That's right - by switching builds I gimped myself out of Light's Grace and the Holy Light glyph - the whole reason for having the bloody tenacity pet in the first place. It was a complete bonehead move, and one that won't be repeated. Because I checked the logs and called myself on it.
Looking at the logs
Looking at the WoL this morning I noticed I didn't have any Glyph healing on Valithria. I'd already expected that, but it wasn't cemented in until I saw it. I could probably do the math and figure out how much healing I would have gotten in addition to what was done - but I know it's just going to be "a lot". Enough so that we probably wouldn't have wiped the attempt before at 93%.
Conslusion
Everyone screws up - Even Rage (though he'd never admit it - btw you ate 18 goos on Tuesday night buddy) - and sometimes it takes someone calling you out to bring it to your attention. Sometimes it's not that obvious though, and a deep look at what you're doing (an After Action Review) can often lead to simple things you can do for large gains.
Use the tools out there. If your guild isn't running a WoL, run one yourself. It's worth it.
Use the tools out there. If your guild isn't running a WoL, run one yourself. It's worth it.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Consumables, enchants, enhancements, and you
The expansion is coming to a close, and you can see it in the attitudes around the realm/server. Unfortunately, this has led to some disturbing habits in raids - one that I fear will continue into Cataclsym.
Getting every buff you can
We all love gear. That shiney new piece of awesome that is your payoff for the raid. We get new gear to make us more powerful, to help us overcome some new content. Why then would you not use every consumable available on every raid attempt? Changes were made in BC to drastically reduce the number of consumables available/needed - to the point now where you can use a single flask, two different elixirs (one Battle one Gaurdian) and a single food buff.
That's it.
Most raids now even drop Fish Feasts, which provide both SP and AP - along with your standard base 40 Stamina. While this food might not be 'the best' food you can use (unless you're an enhance shaman or maybe a ret paladin) it's still free stats. The same goes for using a flask. Here's some basic food/flask stats (remember all flasks persist through death).
Flask of the Frost Wyrm - 125 SP for 1hr - your utility flask.
Flask of Pure Mojo - 45 mp5 for 1 hr.
Flask of Stoneblood - Increases maximum Health by 1300 for 1hr.
Flask of Endless Rage - 180 AP for 1hr.
Fish Feast - 80 AP, 46SP and 40 Stam - great utility food.
Now this list doesn't even go into some of the specialty foods you can use. I personally carry 3 or 4 different types for each raid (SP, Haste, mp5 and Crit) along with different elixirs (Int, SP, Haste, and Crit).
How it adds up
Just using a standard flask (18-25g), and a raid provided Fish Feast (free - or 5-10g if you buy them off the AH) will net you a whopping 171SP, 260AP, or 1700+HP. This is a huge boost to your stats, and is nothing to be scoffed at.
Let's look at the difference between the 251 and 264 Paladin holy legs. By upgrading to Santified Leggings, you gain 14 Stam, 14 Int, 12 Crit, 6 mp5, and 22 SP. The tokens for Pally/Priest/Warlock go for about 100 DKP in our guild - and this is a fairly marginal (though still nice) upgrade. I imagine that most 251 to 264 upgrades are similar, with your 251 to 277 or 232 to 251 jumps being slightly larger.
So for a small gold cost, you can gain more from a simple food/flask combo than you would from upgradeing two or even three pieces of gear. My only question is, why wouldn't you spend this if you're serious about raiding and progression?
It doesn't matter - it's farm/trash
I see this excuse a lot - and it really irritates me. Trash and farm bosses count. Bottom line. The smoother/faster trash is, the faster we can get to the boss. The faster and smoother a farm boss kill is, the sooner we can get to the progression/heroic bosses that aren't a complete push-over.
Imagine the snowball effect if everyone decides to phone it in on these encounters. Let's assume a 'balanced' raid with 2 tanks, 5 healers, and 18 DPS (9 each melee and caster). If nobody in the raid eats a Fish Feast (or flasks), you're missing out on 2340 AP, and 1539 SP just from your DPS. That's easily the DPS output of an additional raider. Most of us would balk at the thought of 24 manning content - so why would you intentionally gimp your raid in this way?
Conclusion
Anyone who can't be bothered to use the best, regardless of the reason, has no place in my raids. It's been shown time and time again that gear can help push through encounters, so why not use everything you can on every pull. Players who don't use top gems, enchants, or consumables are telling me that they are content with where they are Stat/Gear wise, and don't require upgrades. If you don't need any upgrades, then you shouldn't be taking gear away from those who do - and you shouldn't be taking raid spots away players who DO need those upgrades. Especially when they're willing to put forth the maximum effort every time.
Go big, or go home.
Getting every buff you can
We all love gear. That shiney new piece of awesome that is your payoff for the raid. We get new gear to make us more powerful, to help us overcome some new content. Why then would you not use every consumable available on every raid attempt? Changes were made in BC to drastically reduce the number of consumables available/needed - to the point now where you can use a single flask, two different elixirs (one Battle one Gaurdian) and a single food buff.
That's it.
Most raids now even drop Fish Feasts, which provide both SP and AP - along with your standard base 40 Stamina. While this food might not be 'the best' food you can use (unless you're an enhance shaman or maybe a ret paladin) it's still free stats. The same goes for using a flask. Here's some basic food/flask stats (remember all flasks persist through death).
Flask of the Frost Wyrm - 125 SP for 1hr - your utility flask.
Flask of Pure Mojo - 45 mp5 for 1 hr.
Flask of Stoneblood - Increases maximum Health by 1300 for 1hr.
Flask of Endless Rage - 180 AP for 1hr.
Fish Feast - 80 AP, 46SP and 40 Stam - great utility food.
Now this list doesn't even go into some of the specialty foods you can use. I personally carry 3 or 4 different types for each raid (SP, Haste, mp5 and Crit) along with different elixirs (Int, SP, Haste, and Crit).
How it adds up
Just using a standard flask (18-25g), and a raid provided Fish Feast (free - or 5-10g if you buy them off the AH) will net you a whopping 171SP, 260AP, or 1700+HP. This is a huge boost to your stats, and is nothing to be scoffed at.
Let's look at the difference between the 251 and 264 Paladin holy legs. By upgrading to Santified Leggings, you gain 14 Stam, 14 Int, 12 Crit, 6 mp5, and 22 SP. The tokens for Pally/Priest/Warlock go for about 100 DKP in our guild - and this is a fairly marginal (though still nice) upgrade. I imagine that most 251 to 264 upgrades are similar, with your 251 to 277 or 232 to 251 jumps being slightly larger.
So for a small gold cost, you can gain more from a simple food/flask combo than you would from upgradeing two or even three pieces of gear. My only question is, why wouldn't you spend this if you're serious about raiding and progression?
It doesn't matter - it's farm/trash
I see this excuse a lot - and it really irritates me. Trash and farm bosses count. Bottom line. The smoother/faster trash is, the faster we can get to the boss. The faster and smoother a farm boss kill is, the sooner we can get to the progression/heroic bosses that aren't a complete push-over.
Imagine the snowball effect if everyone decides to phone it in on these encounters. Let's assume a 'balanced' raid with 2 tanks, 5 healers, and 18 DPS (9 each melee and caster). If nobody in the raid eats a Fish Feast (or flasks), you're missing out on 2340 AP, and 1539 SP just from your DPS. That's easily the DPS output of an additional raider. Most of us would balk at the thought of 24 manning content - so why would you intentionally gimp your raid in this way?
Conclusion
Anyone who can't be bothered to use the best, regardless of the reason, has no place in my raids. It's been shown time and time again that gear can help push through encounters, so why not use everything you can on every pull. Players who don't use top gems, enchants, or consumables are telling me that they are content with where they are Stat/Gear wise, and don't require upgrades. If you don't need any upgrades, then you shouldn't be taking gear away from those who do - and you shouldn't be taking raid spots away players who DO need those upgrades. Especially when they're willing to put forth the maximum effort every time.
Go big, or go home.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
I knew it was good, but this is rediculous
Alright - first, yes, I know the bloody thing has been out for a year and there's probably log parses galore for it. This is my blog though, and if I want to get giddy for a day about my new toy, I'm going to. Also, I hope that in some teeny tiny way, someone can use this information to convince their guild to help acquire one.
As an aside, my first night of WoL logs for this is also the first night we tried Hard Mode 25s, and we went 3/11. I'd say 4/12, but really - the gunship should be a given (Marrow, Gun, Fester, Rot). The numbers in the below log are with the 15% ICC buff, but what I'm mostly looking at is the percentages done. Feel free to knock off 15% of any number if you choose.
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/ca3mck8gqtgk208v/details/27/
A small disclaimer
I really have no idea how the WoL parses absorbs, since I know Blizzard's own combat log isn't the best at it. I am, for purposes of this discussion, assuming that it is only counting actual absorbs and not shields that fall off. I am willing to concede however, that a large portion of the shield may indeed be falling off. If someone knows for sure, please let me know.
Overall up time
A comment made by the raid leader really put it all into persepective. "Every time I look at my screen I see your bubbles"! This of course caused us to question what he was looking at the other 2/3 of the time. It would explain some of the issues with Festergut though.
Throughout the night though, PoAK (the actual shield, not the buff on me) was up 2355 times, absorbing 5,282,162 points of damage. My Holy Light (for the whole night) was slightly over 7.4 million - and 71% of that was overhealing.
A look at Festergut
First - HM Fester is a royal pain. Granted, the fight is the same on 25m HM as it is on 10m, there's just a lot more people in melee range trying to dodge the malliable goo. Emphasis on the word trying. You can be a super-speed swinging DK with a .2 attack speed - but a 300% debuff is gonna knock your DPS in the dirt. Even with the 15% ICC buff we still only pushed him over with 2 seconds left until the enrage.
That's not the point of this post though.
For Fester I stood at range, and was covered by another healer when I ate a Vile Gas. On normal I stand in melee, but in HM standing at range meant that I had to move a whole lot less. Even with running in/out for a spore, it was worth it.
Now - for this fight I stuck with HL for pretty much the entire fight - using a snap HS or FoL when moving (or to keep the HoT up).
Holy Light - 683, 497 - 36.3% of healing done, with 69.2% overheal (I kept BoL on myself and healed the tank).
PoAK - 365,322 - 19.4% of healing done, with 2:07 uptime in a 5 minute fight.
Even if all of that shield wasn't 100% used, it's still amazing.
Weapon comparison
A claim was made that pretty much any ICC weapon would outshine the Val'anyr. Here's some basic numbers.
We had one Trauma in the raid for the fight - used by our shaman who was responsible for healing the melee. His Fountain of Light healed for only 50,800 - with 1:26 uptime, and 49.8% of it being overheals.
Switching from my 258 LK mace, I lost 80 SP and a few points of crit. Those 80 sp, with the 166% coefficient for HL, would have equated to a whopping 14,608 extra healing for my main heal. Even with 300 extra SP, I'd be looking at 54k extra (maybe a bit more with the splash).
Either way, I'm tickled pink with it.
Conclusion
Is it game breaking? No. Do I think you should do anything you can (beg, borrow, steal - all bets are off here) to get one? Oh yes.
As an aside, my first night of WoL logs for this is also the first night we tried Hard Mode 25s, and we went 3/11. I'd say 4/12, but really - the gunship should be a given (Marrow, Gun, Fester, Rot). The numbers in the below log are with the 15% ICC buff, but what I'm mostly looking at is the percentages done. Feel free to knock off 15% of any number if you choose.
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/ca3mck8gqtgk208v/details/27/
A small disclaimer
I really have no idea how the WoL parses absorbs, since I know Blizzard's own combat log isn't the best at it. I am, for purposes of this discussion, assuming that it is only counting actual absorbs and not shields that fall off. I am willing to concede however, that a large portion of the shield may indeed be falling off. If someone knows for sure, please let me know.
Overall up time
A comment made by the raid leader really put it all into persepective. "Every time I look at my screen I see your bubbles"! This of course caused us to question what he was looking at the other 2/3 of the time. It would explain some of the issues with Festergut though.
Throughout the night though, PoAK (the actual shield, not the buff on me) was up 2355 times, absorbing 5,282,162 points of damage. My Holy Light (for the whole night) was slightly over 7.4 million - and 71% of that was overhealing.
A look at Festergut
First - HM Fester is a royal pain. Granted, the fight is the same on 25m HM as it is on 10m, there's just a lot more people in melee range trying to dodge the malliable goo. Emphasis on the word trying. You can be a super-speed swinging DK with a .2 attack speed - but a 300% debuff is gonna knock your DPS in the dirt. Even with the 15% ICC buff we still only pushed him over with 2 seconds left until the enrage.
That's not the point of this post though.
For Fester I stood at range, and was covered by another healer when I ate a Vile Gas. On normal I stand in melee, but in HM standing at range meant that I had to move a whole lot less. Even with running in/out for a spore, it was worth it.
Now - for this fight I stuck with HL for pretty much the entire fight - using a snap HS or FoL when moving (or to keep the HoT up).
Holy Light - 683, 497 - 36.3% of healing done, with 69.2% overheal (I kept BoL on myself and healed the tank).
PoAK - 365,322 - 19.4% of healing done, with 2:07 uptime in a 5 minute fight.
Even if all of that shield wasn't 100% used, it's still amazing.
Weapon comparison
A claim was made that pretty much any ICC weapon would outshine the Val'anyr. Here's some basic numbers.
We had one Trauma in the raid for the fight - used by our shaman who was responsible for healing the melee. His Fountain of Light healed for only 50,800 - with 1:26 uptime, and 49.8% of it being overheals.
Switching from my 258 LK mace, I lost 80 SP and a few points of crit. Those 80 sp, with the 166% coefficient for HL, would have equated to a whopping 14,608 extra healing for my main heal. Even with 300 extra SP, I'd be looking at 54k extra (maybe a bit more with the splash).
Either way, I'm tickled pink with it.
Conclusion
Is it game breaking? No. Do I think you should do anything you can (beg, borrow, steal - all bets are off here) to get one? Oh yes.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
On the fly changes/reactions
Anyone who's ever taken a First Aid course has recieved the following line of instruction "Never tell someone to dial 911, always single someone out. Telling someone specific to dial 911 has a much higher chance of success". You (point someone out), dial 911 and come back, seems to be the chosen phrase. This kind of follows the thought process of "Everybody thought somebody would do it, so nobody did".
This same reasoning can be applied in raids, especially when things have gone sideways - or you need someone to do a task that could be considered "un-fun".
Assign someone specific
This holds doubly true when assigning a task that requires a high level of personal responsibility (say, cleanse bot), or will drastically reduce their personal DPS (block breaker on Sindragosa). If you ask "who's breaking the blocks", you'll be met with a wave of silence that could crush Godzilla. Instead, assign the task to someone specific.
Raid leaders (or at the very least, your heal lead if there is one) should run some type of addon that will track major cooldowns like Rebirth, Lay on Hands, etc. A glance should tell you whose battle-rez is available, allowing you to call xxxCatDruidxxx to get someone up - instead of calling for just anyone to do it. Simply stating "get Jimmy up" will result in one of two actions, either multiple battle-rezs will be wasted - or Jimmy will lie there for another minute. This will generally cause your blood-pressure to shoot up 50 points, which isn't healthy for anyone.
Dig deep and volunteer
Know a tough job is coming up? Just saw a healer get folded? Volunteer to fill the role before someone has to assign it. Not only will you save someone a small headache, you'll show that you're paying attention to more than just your personal DPS/HPS. This all ties back to having Situational Awareness, and knowing what's going on all around you. Something as simple as typhooning a mob back, while momentarially inconvenient for a tank, may save someone's life. Ultimately, it's worth much more than losing a mob position for a moment. Note, I'm not advocating running around doing this all the time - I cursed GC when typhoon was first introduced.
My own moment of fun
Last night on our 25m Rotface kill, our kite tank DCd right as the pull happened. I tossed up RF, and called out that I was kiting the oozes, which I'd honestly never done. A quick judge/Holy Shock combo got it on me, and I was able to keep it out of the raid long enough for the tank to log back in. While this could have been handled by anyone really, by thinking quickly I helped prevent anyone from dying to loose oozes, and let the DPS focus on their jobs. By calling it over vent, I allowed the other healers to pick up my slack on the MT, and things went smooth from there.
I also picked up my 30th Val'anyr fragment (much thanks to the raid leader for organizing this, and the guild for participating), and since nobody else wanted them - I have the pieces for making a Shadow's Edge now. It'll be useful when I'm Holy/Ret and leveling in Cata - or at least for some PvP shenanigans.
This same reasoning can be applied in raids, especially when things have gone sideways - or you need someone to do a task that could be considered "un-fun".
Assign someone specific
This holds doubly true when assigning a task that requires a high level of personal responsibility (say, cleanse bot), or will drastically reduce their personal DPS (block breaker on Sindragosa). If you ask "who's breaking the blocks", you'll be met with a wave of silence that could crush Godzilla. Instead, assign the task to someone specific.
Raid leaders (or at the very least, your heal lead if there is one) should run some type of addon that will track major cooldowns like Rebirth, Lay on Hands, etc. A glance should tell you whose battle-rez is available, allowing you to call xxxCatDruidxxx to get someone up - instead of calling for just anyone to do it. Simply stating "get Jimmy up" will result in one of two actions, either multiple battle-rezs will be wasted - or Jimmy will lie there for another minute. This will generally cause your blood-pressure to shoot up 50 points, which isn't healthy for anyone.
Dig deep and volunteer
Know a tough job is coming up? Just saw a healer get folded? Volunteer to fill the role before someone has to assign it. Not only will you save someone a small headache, you'll show that you're paying attention to more than just your personal DPS/HPS. This all ties back to having Situational Awareness, and knowing what's going on all around you. Something as simple as typhooning a mob back, while momentarially inconvenient for a tank, may save someone's life. Ultimately, it's worth much more than losing a mob position for a moment. Note, I'm not advocating running around doing this all the time - I cursed GC when typhoon was first introduced.
My own moment of fun
Last night on our 25m Rotface kill, our kite tank DCd right as the pull happened. I tossed up RF, and called out that I was kiting the oozes, which I'd honestly never done. A quick judge/Holy Shock combo got it on me, and I was able to keep it out of the raid long enough for the tank to log back in. While this could have been handled by anyone really, by thinking quickly I helped prevent anyone from dying to loose oozes, and let the DPS focus on their jobs. By calling it over vent, I allowed the other healers to pick up my slack on the MT, and things went smooth from there.
I also picked up my 30th Val'anyr fragment (much thanks to the raid leader for organizing this, and the guild for participating), and since nobody else wanted them - I have the pieces for making a Shadow's Edge now. It'll be useful when I'm Holy/Ret and leveling in Cata - or at least for some PvP shenanigans.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Cheesing the freeze - Sindragosa 10H
Well, we finally did it - Frostwing hall is down in Heroic. All we have left is Putricide and Arthas - and a few achievements for our drakes. All told, I think we spent 30 or so attempts on her - until finally we came up with a method that worked.
Stained napkins are bad
I love napkin math. Some of the best ideas/strats/setups I've ever come up with have been whipped up at lunch or on a piece of scratch paper on my desk. A crazy drawing that looks like it came directly from John Madden's desk, or some scribbled theorycrafting that has me running around in a 14/45/18 spec (yeah, I know the numbers don't work - roll with it) - I always learn something from the process.
Sindragosa was no different.
Unbearabull did a lot of math on resists, DPS times, Sindragosa health, etc. The theory was that if the raid could put out 7k DPS on Sin, with 3 heals and 1 tank, that with 550 FR he could solo tank Sin without dropping stacks of the buffet. The raid would have approx. 1:58 to burn her down before he'd need multiple cool-downs to survive the breaths.
In addition, the raid members all added 100 FR by changing cloak enchants to FR, helm arcanums to FR, and using resistance flasks (50 resist to all schools).
This plan failed.
So what happened?
First, while Unbearabull's math was correct, what he failed to consider was the reduced DPS put out by the raid. We were unable to keep up with the DPS requirements, partly due to RNG of debuffs, and at the 1:48 mark we were only at 18%. Our goal was to hit 10% by 1:30, where we could just ignore any debuffs/blocks and put the pedal down. We anticipated the raid blowing up after she died, because we'd all have 10 stacks of unchained and 9 stacks of buffet.
This wasn't going to happen, so our warrior went back to his prot set, and we settled in to do it the old fashioned way. The way that hadn't worked for us yet.
Where's my Sandbox Tiger?
Generally when we've been at something for a while, Mongrr will link the Sandbox Tiger as a motivator for the raid to pull our collective heads out and focus on the task at hand. This time though, it was an argument between our mage and the rest of the raid - regarding his FR choices and gear setup. We spent so much time cussing at each other that it was P3 (P2 for those that don't count the air as a 'phase') before we realized it. And nobody was dead.
Miraculously, in spite of the griping, nobody had died to a suck in, frost breath, overload, etc. Here we were, staring 35% in the face - and every CD was available. We hit the perfect storm almost immediately - with one healer being Frost Beaconed, one having unchained, our 2nd shaman having unchained (he was responsible for healing the raid in a situation like this) and Mongrr standing there with 6 stacks of Buffet he needed to drop.
Throughout all this, communication was clear; healers were calling out for tank switches, tanks were calling for cool-downs, and Reaganomics made the greatest LoH save in the history of the world. With one healer blocked, one dropping stacks, one with unchained, and Unbearabull catching a nasty string of poor resists at high stacks - Reaganomics bought us time with a 63k crit LoH.
It was, in a word, clutch.
The final word
This fight was, in my opinion, the perfect example of why worked so well. Even with all the chaos at the start, when it came time for a clutch LoH, or a Rebirth less than 5 seconds after Mongrr went down at 8%, the entire group came together to pull off an amazing kill.
10/12 H ICC 10.
This video sums up how that fight went.
Stained napkins are bad
I love napkin math. Some of the best ideas/strats/setups I've ever come up with have been whipped up at lunch or on a piece of scratch paper on my desk. A crazy drawing that looks like it came directly from John Madden's desk, or some scribbled theorycrafting that has me running around in a 14/45/18 spec (yeah, I know the numbers don't work - roll with it) - I always learn something from the process.
Sindragosa was no different.
Unbearabull did a lot of math on resists, DPS times, Sindragosa health, etc. The theory was that if the raid could put out 7k DPS on Sin, with 3 heals and 1 tank, that with 550 FR he could solo tank Sin without dropping stacks of the buffet. The raid would have approx. 1:58 to burn her down before he'd need multiple cool-downs to survive the breaths.
In addition, the raid members all added 100 FR by changing cloak enchants to FR, helm arcanums to FR, and using resistance flasks (50 resist to all schools).
This plan failed.
So what happened?
First, while Unbearabull's math was correct, what he failed to consider was the reduced DPS put out by the raid. We were unable to keep up with the DPS requirements, partly due to RNG of debuffs, and at the 1:48 mark we were only at 18%. Our goal was to hit 10% by 1:30, where we could just ignore any debuffs/blocks and put the pedal down. We anticipated the raid blowing up after she died, because we'd all have 10 stacks of unchained and 9 stacks of buffet.
This wasn't going to happen, so our warrior went back to his prot set, and we settled in to do it the old fashioned way. The way that hadn't worked for us yet.
Where's my Sandbox Tiger?
Generally when we've been at something for a while, Mongrr will link the Sandbox Tiger as a motivator for the raid to pull our collective heads out and focus on the task at hand. This time though, it was an argument between our mage and the rest of the raid - regarding his FR choices and gear setup. We spent so much time cussing at each other that it was P3 (P2 for those that don't count the air as a 'phase') before we realized it. And nobody was dead.
Miraculously, in spite of the griping, nobody had died to a suck in, frost breath, overload, etc. Here we were, staring 35% in the face - and every CD was available. We hit the perfect storm almost immediately - with one healer being Frost Beaconed, one having unchained, our 2nd shaman having unchained (he was responsible for healing the raid in a situation like this) and Mongrr standing there with 6 stacks of Buffet he needed to drop.
Throughout all this, communication was clear; healers were calling out for tank switches, tanks were calling for cool-downs, and Reaganomics made the greatest LoH save in the history of the world. With one healer blocked, one dropping stacks, one with unchained, and Unbearabull catching a nasty string of poor resists at high stacks - Reaganomics bought us time with a 63k crit LoH.
It was, in a word, clutch.
The final word
This fight was, in my opinion, the perfect example of why
10/12 H ICC 10.
This video sums up how that fight went.
Monday, April 19, 2010
The way of the Jellyfish
I've said some strange things in my life while raiding - most of them while in a drunken haze. Recently though, a new strategy has emerged that has placed my list of "dumb sayings" at a new level.
In my defense, it makes perfect sense. Everyone can instantly picture it in their head, and more importantly, they can remember it.
I call it - the Jellyfish Strat.
How it works
The base principal behind the Jellyfish Strat is that you have to be flexible, and ready to move in a moment. Also, like a jellyfish, the movement is really just a flex - in and out - as your spread apart and come together. It's really nothing new - I just put a dumb name on it.
Of course it's a name that has now stuck, just like a jellyfish stinger, in every raid.
Really though, it's what you have to be - flexible. Some nights things just go insanely well. For example we got H Sin down on 3 or 4 attempts, after weeks of beating our head on her. Then we ran down to Festergut (who we normally 1 shot on Heroic) and wiped 4 times. What the heck?
Flex. Move. In. Out. Be the jellyfish...
In my defense, it makes perfect sense. Everyone can instantly picture it in their head, and more importantly, they can remember it.
I call it - the Jellyfish Strat.
How it works
The base principal behind the Jellyfish Strat is that you have to be flexible, and ready to move in a moment. Also, like a jellyfish, the movement is really just a flex - in and out - as your spread apart and come together. It's really nothing new - I just put a dumb name on it.
Of course it's a name that has now stuck, just like a jellyfish stinger, in every raid.
Really though, it's what you have to be - flexible. Some nights things just go insanely well. For example we got H Sin down on 3 or 4 attempts, after weeks of beating our head on her. Then we ran down to Festergut (who we normally 1 shot on Heroic) and wiped 4 times. What the heck?
Flex. Move. In. Out. Be the jellyfish...
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
That epic feeling is still there
Last night we had our 3rd repeat LK kill on 10s, which felt great after our repeated face smashing on H Sin. We probably would have one shot him too, but see there was a small mistake. An honest one really. One that anyone could make.
Our Boomkin is named "Cowculus" - our Warrior tank is named "Cowntzero".
In my Grid, druids are burnt orange, warriors are brown.
They were in the same group, on top of each other (in grid).
My grid is only set to show the first four letters of someone's name.
At one point Cowculus pulled about a million zombies with her AoE, so I slapped a quick Hand of Protection on her.
Reaganomics (Retadin) promptly fell over dead. Cowntzero was standing there with a crown on his head.
Oops.
That feeling
Still there. Never mind that he's basically on "farm" now, I still got the tingles when we hit 10%, and it was still awesome to watch Tirion drop a Falcon Punch on Frostmourne (sorry if I just ruined it for you). The thrill of the kill was still there, and it was an awesome cap to an otherwise poor night.
A mood killer
First, nothing kills your mood like a 25man raid failing because 22 of your 30 or so raiders are online.
Second, wiping for hours on a boss, at the same spot (or close to it) really saps you. Especially when everyone is holding themselves to a high standard, and we still rip into each other. It can make for some tense moments.
Hopefully the 25m that we joined settles down and the great group of 25-30 that I know exist can get it together for some great 25m raiding. If not, we'll be back to 10s and unfortunately that will probably be the death knell of. I just don't think there's enough to keep us occupied until Cataclysm.
Hopefully the Ruby Sanctum and the core of the 25s prove me wrong.
Our Boomkin is named "Cowculus" - our Warrior tank is named "Cowntzero".
In my Grid, druids are burnt orange, warriors are brown.
They were in the same group, on top of each other (in grid).
My grid is only set to show the first four letters of someone's name.
At one point Cowculus pulled about a million zombies with her AoE, so I slapped a quick Hand of Protection on her.
Reaganomics (Retadin) promptly fell over dead. Cowntzero was standing there with a crown on his head.
Oops.
That feeling
Still there. Never mind that he's basically on "farm" now, I still got the tingles when we hit 10%, and it was still awesome to watch Tirion drop a Falcon Punch on Frostmourne (sorry if I just ruined it for you). The thrill of the kill was still there, and it was an awesome cap to an otherwise poor night.
A mood killer
First, nothing kills your mood like a 25man raid failing because 22 of your 30 or so raiders are online.
Second, wiping for hours on a boss, at the same spot (or close to it) really saps you. Especially when everyone is holding themselves to a high standard, and we still rip into each other. It can make for some tense moments.
Hopefully the 25m that we joined settles down and the great group of 25-30 that I know exist can get it together for some great 25m raiding. If not, we'll be back to 10s and unfortunately that will probably be the death knell of
Hopefully the Ruby Sanctum and the core of the 25s prove me wrong.
I hate the emo dragon
Something is missing - something small. We're right on the cusp of knocking H-Sin 10 down, but we're missing something in a transition. Every wipe it's about the same, 24 to 20%, then the wheels come off. At this point, the only thing I can figure is it's a lack of communication between the healers, and letting the tanks know they should use a CD or two.
Of course it doesn't help when your tank eats a 41k frost breath. Or someone dies to the frost nova, or your priest doesn't realize he has Unstable magic and explodes in the raid for 20k.
And I'm certainly not blameless - I've chained ice blocks more than once.
The frustration
I think for all of us the frustration comes from the simple fact that next to the Lich King (who took us fewer attempts), this fight is insanely difficult in terms of raid coordination. It's amazing, yet frustrating at the same time - simply because over the course of the expansion we have been handed bosses that were fairly easy. Truth be told though, regular Sindragosa isn't that hard.
I can't believe Blizzard had the stones to make Heroic modes Heroic. The nerve.
Also, is it too much to ask that our tank actually get some heroic tank drops instead of DPS plate? I feel bad for the guy. He's got a rocking heroic 10 set of DPS gear, and is still sporting the shield from regular 10m Anub.
A side note
So I saw that the Paladin notes are being released on Wed now instead of Friday. I'm not going to get too excited, as a huge chunk of it will probably never make it to the Beta, let alone go live. It will be nice to see what direction they have planned for Paladins though. I'm just glad that I have some ret gear all set to be enchanted and gemmed. I'm going to blow some stuff up come leveling time.
Of course it doesn't help when your tank eats a 41k frost breath. Or someone dies to the frost nova, or your priest doesn't realize he has Unstable magic and explodes in the raid for 20k.
And I'm certainly not blameless - I've chained ice blocks more than once.
The frustration
I think for all of us the frustration comes from the simple fact that next to the Lich King (who took us fewer attempts), this fight is insanely difficult in terms of raid coordination. It's amazing, yet frustrating at the same time - simply because over the course of the expansion we have been handed bosses that were fairly easy. Truth be told though, regular Sindragosa isn't that hard.
I can't believe Blizzard had the stones to make Heroic modes Heroic. The nerve.
Also, is it too much to ask that our tank actually get some heroic tank drops instead of DPS plate? I feel bad for the guy. He's got a rocking heroic 10 set of DPS gear, and is still sporting the shield from regular 10m Anub.
A side note
So I saw that the Paladin notes are being released on Wed now instead of Friday. I'm not going to get too excited, as a huge chunk of it will probably never make it to the Beta, let alone go live. It will be nice to see what direction they have planned for Paladins though. I'm just glad that I have some ret gear all set to be enchanted and gemmed. I'm going to blow some stuff up come leveling time.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Still 5% - Seriously, what's up?
So it seems that Bladefist-US is still the only server in the farm that is running a 5% buff in ICC. While I'm all for getting kills in before nerfs, this really does hurt our 25m raiding scene, where we're really working with a shallow talent pool. We don't have guilds PUGging past 5 or 7 in 25m ICC, we don't have guilds deep into H 25ICC, heck I think only one guild has even killed the LK 25m.
It's just irritating when every server has it, and they can't figure out how to fix it on one server.
I'm off to kick a puppy.
It's just irritating when every server has it, and they can't figure out how to fix it on one server.
I'm off to kick a puppy.
Upcoming changes - Cataclysm style
So we've all seen the upcoming 'proposed' changes to the cleansing mechanic, and nobody can deny that this is clearly meant to help balance PvP. The ability for every healer to defensively dispel magic also tells me we're probably going to see some bosses with polymorph and other CC abiliities in the future.
I don't really care what class can dispel what, though I guess some shamans are up in arms about the potential loss of cleansing disease and poisons, but I'm more interested in the way they are going about it. Specifically for Paladins.
Fixing the PvP problem
One of the big issues for Paladins, specifically in PvP, is our ability to be effective healers in any tree (with the right setup, of course). From Sheathadins in early Wrath, to ProtHeals dominating General Vezack, these strange healing specs have been popping up like the proverbial mole. Blizzard is obviously working to make healing something you have to spec Holy for to be effective. I imagine we're going to see something similar for all the classes.
Now don't get me wrong. I loved having the ability to cleanse while tanking, it was something that set the Paladin apart from the other tanks (besides the lack of a closer move). We could be fully defensive, tanking the world, and still help ease the healer's load (especially if you had a priest healing in AN/OK). Fortunately, as of the current postings, the ability to cleanse disease/poison isn't being restricted to the Holy tree - just magics.
So what does it mean?
First, I think you're definitely going to see a shift in Cata arena tactics. While this is designed to ensure that you can't stack dispellers without gimping your team's DPS, it means that keeping the CC off your healer is going to be that much tougher. It also means that there could be issues with fights like say, Sethhik Halls, where your healer runs the risk of being crowd controlled by the boss.
Say it ain't so. Difficult encounters again? I can definitely see more of the "miss this mechanic and you die" type fights in Cata - something I felt was really missing in Wrath. But I digress.
I don't want to get all Chicken Little, and really I think the changes are great. I'll miss the ability in my other specs for sure, but it isn't the end of the world. This doesn't break a class, it just brings it in line with everything else. When you have healers who have less than 21 points in their designated healing tree, something is broken.
I don't really care what class can dispel what, though I guess some shamans are up in arms about the potential loss of cleansing disease and poisons, but I'm more interested in the way they are going about it. Specifically for Paladins.
Fixing the PvP problem
One of the big issues for Paladins, specifically in PvP, is our ability to be effective healers in any tree (with the right setup, of course). From Sheathadins in early Wrath, to ProtHeals dominating General Vezack, these strange healing specs have been popping up like the proverbial mole. Blizzard is obviously working to make healing something you have to spec Holy for to be effective. I imagine we're going to see something similar for all the classes.
Now don't get me wrong. I loved having the ability to cleanse while tanking, it was something that set the Paladin apart from the other tanks (besides the lack of a closer move). We could be fully defensive, tanking the world, and still help ease the healer's load (especially if you had a priest healing in AN/OK). Fortunately, as of the current postings, the ability to cleanse disease/poison isn't being restricted to the Holy tree - just magics.
So what does it mean?
First, I think you're definitely going to see a shift in Cata arena tactics. While this is designed to ensure that you can't stack dispellers without gimping your team's DPS, it means that keeping the CC off your healer is going to be that much tougher. It also means that there could be issues with fights like say, Sethhik Halls, where your healer runs the risk of being crowd controlled by the boss.
Say it ain't so. Difficult encounters again? I can definitely see more of the "miss this mechanic and you die" type fights in Cata - something I felt was really missing in Wrath. But I digress.
I don't want to get all Chicken Little, and really I think the changes are great. I'll miss the ability in my other specs for sure, but it isn't the end of the world. This doesn't break a class, it just brings it in line with everything else. When you have healers who have less than 21 points in their designated healing tree, something is broken.
Monday, April 5, 2010
H Sindragosa - not yet
Friday was a night filled with frustrations and /headdesk moments in ICC. We went for H Sindragosa, which on paper at least, looks fairly easy. In practice however, we were finding it quite difficult.
Our raid makeup was 3 healers, 3 casters, 1 hunter, 1 melee, and 2 tanks. Phase one and two were easy enough (once someone figured out how to get out of the frost nova), and we were regularly getting into P3 without issue. This is where the wheels would come off.
Unchained Magic AoE
This is the debuff casters get during the encounter. In regular, you can eat six or seven stacks without issue (and you can in Heroic during P1/P2), though in Heroic there's a new twist. When the timer goes off and your stacks reset, you don't just take damage, you do AoE damage based on the number of stacks you have.
This can pose a problem in P3 when the Buffet stacks are going out. If someone has six or seven stacks of the Buffet, they're probably fine (providing they don't get a debuff), until you run by and AoE their face off.
The other problem you'll have is that if you don't drop your Buffet stacks on every ice block, you run the risk of getting insta-gibbed if you happen to be the next beacon target. So not dropping your Buffet stacks is kind of like playing Russian Roulette.
Our issues
First, with 3 healers and 3 casters - we could guarantee that every Unchained CD one healer and one caster would have the debuff. Every Frost Beacon one healer would be basically standing with their hands in their pocket (dropping their buffet stacks), one healer would be responsible for the tanks, and one would be avoiding anything because of the Unchained debuff.
Some things were just not working smooth.
Hopefully Blizzard fixes the Hellscream's Warsong buff on Bladefist this week. While we shouldn't need the buff, I won't say no to it.
Our raid makeup was 3 healers, 3 casters, 1 hunter, 1 melee, and 2 tanks. Phase one and two were easy enough (once someone figured out how to get out of the frost nova), and we were regularly getting into P3 without issue. This is where the wheels would come off.
Unchained Magic AoE
This is the debuff casters get during the encounter. In regular, you can eat six or seven stacks without issue (and you can in Heroic during P1/P2), though in Heroic there's a new twist. When the timer goes off and your stacks reset, you don't just take damage, you do AoE damage based on the number of stacks you have.
This can pose a problem in P3 when the Buffet stacks are going out. If someone has six or seven stacks of the Buffet, they're probably fine (providing they don't get a debuff), until you run by and AoE their face off.
The other problem you'll have is that if you don't drop your Buffet stacks on every ice block, you run the risk of getting insta-gibbed if you happen to be the next beacon target. So not dropping your Buffet stacks is kind of like playing Russian Roulette.
Our issues
First, with 3 healers and 3 casters - we could guarantee that every Unchained CD one healer and one caster would have the debuff. Every Frost Beacon one healer would be basically standing with their hands in their pocket (dropping their buffet stacks), one healer would be responsible for the tanks, and one would be avoiding anything because of the Unchained debuff.
Some things were just not working smooth.
- Blocks dropping too fast - tanks weren't able to drop their Buffet stacks, get one shot.
- Positioning - people chaining blocks because they were in the wrong spot.
- Healer who had to not drop stacks gets next Frost Beacon. HNNNGGGGGG (CDs can help here).
- Missing Unchained debuff and running up 6 stacks in 6 seconds.
Hopefully Blizzard fixes the Hellscream's Warsong buff on Bladefist this week. While we shouldn't need the buff, I won't say no to it.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Heroic kills, Drake chase, and a missing buff
First, Bladfist-US somehow missed the memo that it was time to make our numbers bigger - and instead of raiding with a 10% buff, we still had the 5%. Rumor has it that the 10% was active, until our sever was reset to fix an issue with the AH and WG. No official response from Blizzard, and it doesn't really matter, but it was noticed that we didn't have it.
We killed her anyway
Even with the 5% buff, we're now 9/12H in ICC, after one shotting the Blood Queen last night. The fight didn't feel any more difficult than on normal. Blood Princes were actually more difficult. Heck, we had more issues trying to get the Full House achievement. Speaking of that, it seems that we had an Adherant or something change at the 5% mark - so we wound up killing her without getting the achievement. There may have been some cussing on vent.
Heroic Festergut is the same fight, with just a little shuffling to avoid the green slimes. It took me a few shots to recognize the warning splash on the ground, but once we had it figured out the fight was very straight forward. We had to use a few more cooldowns on the tanks, and use them a little earlier, but overall it's not very different.
Heroic Rotface is again, the same fight with just some foot shuffling. We did it exactly the same way we did him on normal mode.
Note - every Heroic fight I've done, I've done in full HL gear and 51/20/0.
Thursday is heroic Sin, and Putricide if we can figure out how to deal with the plague debuff.
***Edit, because I fail at naming bosses correctly***
We killed her anyway
Even with the 5% buff, we're now 9/12H in ICC, after one shotting the Blood Queen last night. The fight didn't feel any more difficult than on normal. Blood Princes were actually more difficult. Heck, we had more issues trying to get the Full House achievement. Speaking of that, it seems that we had an Adherant or something change at the 5% mark - so we wound up killing her without getting the achievement. There may have been some cussing on vent.
Heroic Festergut is the same fight, with just a little shuffling to avoid the green slimes. It took me a few shots to recognize the warning splash on the ground, but once we had it figured out the fight was very straight forward. We had to use a few more cooldowns on the tanks, and use them a little earlier, but overall it's not very different.
Heroic Rotface is again, the same fight with just some foot shuffling. We did it exactly the same way we did him on normal mode.
Note - every Heroic fight I've done, I've done in full HL gear and 51/20/0.
Thursday is heroic Sin, and Putricide if we can figure out how to deal with the plague debuff.
***Edit, because I fail at naming bosses correctly***
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
My new favorite fight
Intense healing encounters - these are the things that really make a healer's night. Up until last night, I though Heroic Saurfang was the pinnacle. Two healers, tight rotations, limited free GCDs. One missed CD or heal, and you're looking at a wipe.
Officially boring.
I'm fairly certain that Mongrr will agree with me on this, but straight up healing encounters are mind-numbingly boring. Regular Marrowgar? Snoozefest. Gunship? Not even worth mentioning. This is one of the reasons we try and two heal as much content as we possibly can. I know some healers don't like the stress of two healing, but that's where we get our game rush. Of course Mongrr was two manning Scholo with Aurora back when Tier 1 gear was the hottest gear on the market.
I live for the interesting fights that require me to dip into my full box of tools. Mana management, my full kit of Hands, shocks, Flash and Holy Lights - everything. The Lich King encounter is right up there with this, with an incredible amount of raid damage and tank spikes. We run three healers on this though, so help is generally available.
Enter the Dreamwalker
Last night we focused on Heroic Dreamwalker. On normal, I'm one of the portal jumpers, using Beacon of Light on Valithria and exploiting the bonus healing that you can get from the Glyph of Holy Light. This leads to some insane healing numbers, and allows us to blow through the encounter amazingly fast. Mongrr covers the raid healing, and never has any issues between bubble use and quick heals. Heroic mode is something else entirely.
During our first attempts, Mongrr was getting overrun with raid damage. The tanks were taking inordinate spike damage, and the raid damage was spikey as well. We made a switch to put him in the portals and to have me stand out healing the raid since my BoL could cover the tanks.
I was not prepared
I honestly wasn't ready for the sheer volume of damage that was being handed out to the tanks, especially when they had worms and such on them. The first few learning wipes were definitely due to me figuring out which mobs I needed to worry about, and which ones I could 'rest' on.
By our second night in, I was set. I went with my full INT gear setup, and used the 51/20/0 spec for DS/DG and Imp Devo. Given that the main issue before was tank damage, I elected to not use BoL on Valithria, but instead focus on keeping the raid alive and letting our portal jumpers do their job.
Let the chaos begin
I'm sure that there's still something we're missing on this fight, as far as avoidable damage is concerned. Sometimes I'd see an add explode and 1/2 the raid would drop to 10% health. Other times it'd go off and nobody's bar would move. Figuring that out would probably knock this down a notch in difficulty.
Regardless, by the end of the fight I didn't have a single CD left available. LoH? Gone. HoP? Used. HoS, HoF, DS/DG, cleanse - everything was going into the mix. After a 99% wipe (would that be a 1% wipe?) when we got close again I just focused on helping push her over the top. I probably should have just dropped BoL on her at the end, but instead I let our Panzerkin die while I helped with the last 2%. Sry:(
The only disappointing thing for me with the fight was that there weren't any fireworks, or even an achievement spam, for having killed her in heroic mode.
The post fight rush
More than any fight yet - this one had me scrambling the most. No, it's not the most difficult in terms of mechanics, tricks, or other little gimmicks. It's simply dig in and pump out the green numbers. This is definitely another fight where "alive" is what's needed - topped off is just a bonus.
Officially boring.
I'm fairly certain that Mongrr will agree with me on this, but straight up healing encounters are mind-numbingly boring. Regular Marrowgar? Snoozefest. Gunship? Not even worth mentioning. This is one of the reasons we try and two heal as much content as we possibly can. I know some healers don't like the stress of two healing, but that's where we get our game rush. Of course Mongrr was two manning Scholo with Aurora back when Tier 1 gear was the hottest gear on the market.
I live for the interesting fights that require me to dip into my full box of tools. Mana management, my full kit of Hands, shocks, Flash and Holy Lights - everything. The Lich King encounter is right up there with this, with an incredible amount of raid damage and tank spikes. We run three healers on this though, so help is generally available.
Enter the Dreamwalker
Last night we focused on Heroic Dreamwalker. On normal, I'm one of the portal jumpers, using Beacon of Light on Valithria and exploiting the bonus healing that you can get from the Glyph of Holy Light. This leads to some insane healing numbers, and allows us to blow through the encounter amazingly fast. Mongrr covers the raid healing, and never has any issues between bubble use and quick heals. Heroic mode is something else entirely.
During our first attempts, Mongrr was getting overrun with raid damage. The tanks were taking inordinate spike damage, and the raid damage was spikey as well. We made a switch to put him in the portals and to have me stand out healing the raid since my BoL could cover the tanks.
I was not prepared
I honestly wasn't ready for the sheer volume of damage that was being handed out to the tanks, especially when they had worms and such on them. The first few learning wipes were definitely due to me figuring out which mobs I needed to worry about, and which ones I could 'rest' on.
By our second night in, I was set. I went with my full INT gear setup, and used the 51/20/0 spec for DS/DG and Imp Devo. Given that the main issue before was tank damage, I elected to not use BoL on Valithria, but instead focus on keeping the raid alive and letting our portal jumpers do their job.
Let the chaos begin
I'm sure that there's still something we're missing on this fight, as far as avoidable damage is concerned. Sometimes I'd see an add explode and 1/2 the raid would drop to 10% health. Other times it'd go off and nobody's bar would move. Figuring that out would probably knock this down a notch in difficulty.
Regardless, by the end of the fight I didn't have a single CD left available. LoH? Gone. HoP? Used. HoS, HoF, DS/DG, cleanse - everything was going into the mix. After a 99% wipe (would that be a 1% wipe?) when we got close again I just focused on helping push her over the top. I probably should have just dropped BoL on her at the end, but instead I let our Panzerkin die while I helped with the last 2%. Sry:(
The only disappointing thing for me with the fight was that there weren't any fireworks, or even an achievement spam, for having killed her in heroic mode.
The post fight rush
More than any fight yet - this one had me scrambling the most. No, it's not the most difficult in terms of mechanics, tricks, or other little gimmicks. It's simply dig in and pump out the green numbers. This is definitely another fight where "alive" is what's needed - topped off is just a bonus.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Trusting your team - and making the heal face
We finally got Storming the Citadel-10[H] last night - when Saurfang fell over and caughed up a worthless tier token (shaman I think), and some other stuff I didn't care about. What I did care about was that he finally fell over, as we'd had several sub 10% wipes over two nights time.
Three of which I was directly responsible for.
One of the things that I've enjoyed the most about these heroic mode fights is the required communication and total teamwork required to pull the job off. Calling for non-tanks to use defensive cooldowns, or to heal themselves, coordinating saves, and timing heals - none of this can be taken for granted.
Here's a few examples of how I wiped the raid through a lack of communication - or trust.
- Assigned to the players with the Mark - I stopped healing one to Holy Shock/FoL the tank, that I felt was about to die. I saved them, but my assigned target died. If I'd called for them to use a CD - that wipe wouldn't have happened (10%)
- Let my Judgement haste buff fall off. If I'd called for a CD or assistance while I refreshed it - that 4% wipe wouldn't have happened (and yes, they died in the time it took to judge and cast).
- Failed to notice someone getting a bloodboil while marked - 24k in 2.5 seconds. 6%.
Each of these was preventable, and we finally got everthing wired tight and managed to plant him. I did however, have to make the heal face at the end.
For those that are unfamiliar with the heal face (and really, how many of my readers don't tank OR heal?), this is the face you make when things are really going to the wire - like when Festergut has 3 stacks on him and your tanks are getting pounded. This is where wings fly, speed pots are used, and your finger is hovering over the "AMGTHETANKISGONNADIE" button (lay on hands, nature's swiftness - whatever).
I'm pretty sure I looked like this.
Conclusion
Heroic Saurfang is by far the most unforgiving thing I have healed - ever. I can't see how someone can heal this in a FoL build, there's just so much damage to the marked targets in P2. liberal use of CDs really helped.
I can't wait for the next one.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)