Apoktenio's Questions

Apokatenio posted a great response the other day when we were talking about new applicants to a guild, and how we investigate and vett them. In his comment there were 10 questions he asks, and I liked them so much I thought I'd turn them into a post - with my own answers of course.

Apoktenio's questions

1) Playing a holy paladin in WotLK is a lot different from playing one in BC. What are some of the key differences between the spells you used to get the job done in BC and the tools you use now?

The first difference that should be readily visible is that there is no more downranking. In BC you could spam rank 7 HL, pulling rank 11 out when you were really in trouble. Holy Shock wasn't a part of a regular rotation, and the nerf to Illumination meant you couldn't actually go up in mana while casting.

In WotLK my healing rotation depends largely on the encounter and my assignment. Typically I use BoL on an OT, SS on the MT, and spam FoL until my finger breaks. Most encounters will give you some type of warning that massive raid or tank damage is about to occur. During that time I will switch back to HL spam to cover the damage. Keeping Light's Grace up is also important, so threading in HL with the FoL spam is a good tactic.

2) Along the same lines, the stats that are valuable to a holy paladin have changed some with this expansion. List these stats in order of most important to least important: mp5, spell power, crit, haste, int. What benefits do you gain from each stat? Is there a certain number or percentage of each stat you are aiming for?

Intellect is still the best 'all around' stat for a Paladin. Taken from Elitist Jerks, you can see the following effects of Intellect on the Paladin.

• 126.5 Intellect, with BoK and Divine Intellect
• 1897 Mana at the start of the fight
• 39.5mp5 from Divine Plea, if its used on CD.
• 21.3mp5 from Replenishment, with 90% uptime.
• 4.7mp5 from Arcane Torrent, if you are a Blood Elf.
• 25.3 Spell Power
• 0.759% Spell Crit

Crit is still my second favorite stat. Divine Illumination is a big part of my mana return, and while I don't gem for it, I do take crit over anything besides Intellect. Spellpower is another stat that you just can't get enough of. Haste is a nice stat, however with Infusion of Light and the 15% haste buff from Judgements of the Pure, my FoL are already getting close to clipping the 1 sec GCD mark. Mp5 is only slightly greater than Spirit in my opinion. Yes, having a flat mana regen during combat is nice, but it takes too much to see any real benifit.


3) There is a whole lot of debate about different builds and healing styles right now. Some paladins use a 51/20/0 build and primarily heal with FoL while others spec 51/0/20 and throw out a lot more HLs and rarely use FoL. What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of both builds and both healing styles? What types of encounters (type of incoming tank/raid dmg) would be ideal for each spec? Also, are there any other specs you’ve considered using?

I traditionally run the 51/0/20 build, and consider that to be the 'cookie cutter' Holy build. I've been toying with 51/20/0 a lot though, as it's my PvP build as well. We also don't always have a prot paladin in the raid, so someone with Improved Devotion Aura is nice to have.

I can definately feel the difference between the two builds, especially on my mana bar as I use the Glyph of Light in my 51/20/0 build. I've played with a few 'gimmick' specs like Sheathadin and ProtHeal, but I don't feel that they are ready for prime time in raids - though they do have a place in certain encounters.

4) What is the way you regen the majority of your mana during boss encounters?

I use a combination of Divine Plea and whacking a mob when there is a moment of down time. It takes time, but it seems that every encounter has a moment where you can safely Divine Plea without suffering too greatly from the imposed debuff. It's all about situational awareness and knowing when your tank/raid is about to take a significant ammount of damage. As a bonus, after the next mini-patch, Innervate will be a viable mana return tool in an emergency.

5) What addons do you use to heal? Is it important for you (as a healer) to have an addon like recount?

Grid is my bread and butter heal mod. I have it set to show beacon targets, people with Sacred Shield on, dispellable debuffs, etc. Recount is useful for the Grim Reaper function - letting me see the last 15 seconds before someone died.

6) What criteria do you use to determine who to beacon and when to beacon them?

I set the healing assignments in S-a-S, so I assign OT/MT beacon/healing assignments, or let them beacon themselves if the encounter doesn't have an OT in range. Basically we're looking for who is going to be taking sustained or unpredictable damage. I beacon myself on Throim when I stay in the arena, simply because I have RF up to draw the mobs in.

7) What judgement do you judge during boss fights?

With the change in distance to Justice, Holy paladins should judge Wisdom. Ret paladins will see much larger returns on Light, and if we have a Prot paladin he can judge Justice without fear of it being overwritten by another paladin.

8) If you were called on to salv a dps, bubble/sac a tank, or beacon/SS a different tank mid-fight, how would you do this and how long would it take you?

Click thier name on Grid and hit the appropriate hot key. I've been toying with Clique, but I'm not comfortable with it yet. The hardest part is knowing who someone is if I'm in a PuG. Hopefully though my Omen will show me who is at the top of the threat meter for Salv, and Grid will let me know if someone has agro.

9) What glyphs do you use and why? Consumeables?

On my 51/0/20 build I use Glyph of Holy Light, Glyph of Flash of Light, and Glyph of Wisdom. The splash heals from HL are great, FoL crit is never bad, and 5% reduced mana cost is also nice. When I run 51/20/0 I swap Wisdom for Light, giving that build 10% more healing to offset the loss in crit. I will occasionaly swap out Divinity or Holy Shock, depending on the encounter.

For consumables I generally go with a Fish Feast and Flask of the Frost Wyrm. If I need to get a specific buff I will go for crit, but the spellpower is enough.

10) In your mind, what is the difference between a good healer and an exceptional one?

A good healer can do an assigned task, stay out of the fire, and manage thier mana effectively. An exceptional healer is almost proactive in nature, anticipating needs before they happen. As a paladin this means putting Salvation out before they pull agro, Protection on your tank to assist with tank swaps, and using your cooldowns to maximum effect. It also means being able to triage effectively, and know that letting one person die is often times necessary to let the raid survive. Oh, and an exceptional healer will recognize the incrased DPS that pets do in fact bring, and will heal them.


Those are my responses. Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments below.

Evaluating new applicants

Right now Matt is running a series of posts concerning guild recruitment, and had collected a wide array of knowledge from various bloggers and guild leaders across the net. Since it's Friday, and we're currently recruiting a healer or two (Lodur, where are the resto shamans at?), I thought I'd cover how our application process works (and what I'm trying to get implemented).

The application

Our application is pretty straight forward. We have the standard questions you see everywhere: why us, why did you leave your last guild, explain your build, etc. I've recently added a section at the bottom specifically asking for a WWS report and UI Screenshot. I got a few questions regarding this (and as of yet none of our new applicants have provided this information), and here's my base justification.

WWS reports tell me a lot more than how much DPS or healing you're doing. I can see if you bother to decurse, if you're a hybrid who tosses a heal on themselves, and what kind of DPS cycles you're using. I can see stupid deaths "Joe died to Void Zone", and the combat log has all kinds of fun information.

Screenshots just let me see if you're running raid frames, some kind of boss mod, omen, etc. Plus I can get that heads up that on patch day (which we raid on) that your UI will probably be broken to all hell. One of our healers just uses the WoW raid frames to heal, and he's probably the best healer I've ever met - so I don't judge that you're not using grid.

First Impressions

An app has about 2 minutes to catch my eye, sometimes less. Poor grammar, cut and paste answers, or overall lack of conviction will set me off and I won't go beyond this point. Your app will die before I even do an Armory check.

I'm also looking for an ability to follow directions. Our first line says "Name, Class, Spec" - but someone who answers 'Suicidal Pyrotechnic' gets dismissed. Give me the meat, but don't use this time to express your inner comedian.

Sherlock Holmes

If the application holds my eye, or comes with some good guild recommendations, I put on my hat and grab my pipe...it's time to use the Internet.

First stop is the Armory - quick look at your talents and reputations. If you're not exalted with the Sons (or an inscriptionist), you're pretty much done at this stage. Also if you're in RP gear, offset, or something other than your raid gear.

Talents are another key look. We don't' require 'cookie cutter' builds, because there are times when someone can pull off a non-cookie cutter run. But if you're applying as a Holy Paladin and don't have Beacon of Light - you better be ready to defend it.

My last stop on the Armory is the statistics page. So many little details are available here, you just have to dig em out. I can see how often you're flasking or using mana potions (not in context to be sure, but it gives me an idea), and I can see how many kills you really have. Achievements do a good job of tracking some of these, and this is just one more tool in the arsenal.

Next I hit WoW-Heroes.com for a quick look at your gear. I like the layout better than the Armory, because at a glance I can see if you've got 'BIS' gems and enchants, and what your gear is. Basically it saves me from mousing over everything on the Armory.

Background Check

If you've made it this far, you're just one quick check away from getting a trial run or three. This is where I hit the realm and general forums looking for your name. I have a low tolerance for folks that troll the forums posting nothing but garbage. Sure, you can use an alt to do it, using your main just shows a special level of dumb in my book.

I'll try and gain access to your old guild forums, especially for server transfers, and look for any drama you might be involved in. I also hit WarcraftRealms.com to see if you're a guild hopper. It also let's me know if you've had a name change, because there will be a big gap in your data.

The Phone Interview

This is usually handled by one of our other officers, but we'll contact you to chat and make sure you aren't a blathering idiot on vent/chat. At this stage you've got one foot in the door, and your future is squarely on your shoulders.

Trial Period

This is where I'm trying to enact a change. Typically we've just invited new members and judged them on runs we happen to be on with them. We might slide them into a 10 man or something, but we don't have anything official.

I'm fairly certain that starting next week we're going to stick 3D or something similar on our raid calendar for tryouts. 3D might not be the super bowl of not standing in fire, but it's definitely the most chaotic thing outside of Ulduar. Besides, I want a blue dragon.

Conclusion

Everyone's application process is different, and where you are progression wise has a lot to do with it. Right now we're the big fish in the pond (yeah, it's a little pond, maybe a glass) so we have a bit more flex in which applications we take. If we fall off the front of the wave though, who knows what might happen.

What tools do you use that I don't?

Briefing in 3 minutes or less

We've all been there. First night in a new instance, or the first time you're facing a new boss. The raid is alive with energy. Everyone is excited, feasts are popping up, buffs are flying around like fireworks...and then the raid leader starts talking. And talking. And talking.

Ten minutes later and he's read you the entire strategy from wowwike and bosskillers, drawn four virtual maps using pings, and lost 95% of the raid's attention. Your paladins started surfing port two minutes ago, your tanks are still epeening it up, and your rogues are in the middle of a Peggle duel.

At the end, the raid leader asks if there are questions, and you can instantly tell that the only person listening was his cat (and that one raider who knows everything).

Something has to change - and here's a hint - it's not the raiders.

Holding the focus

Studies have shown that the average attention span in humans is approxamately 3-5 minutes per year of age, up to about 20 minutes in adults. This number obviously fluctuates depending on the interest in the task, and the ammount of interaction going on.

I'm sorry to tell you, but unless you're the tactical equivalent of Patton, you were tuned out at the 3-5 minute mark.

How to fix it

Unless you're in the top .1% of the WoW gaming world, rocking the content with Ensidia and Vodka, my guess is you're going to have to explain things a few times. The problem is, not everyone learns the same way. Some learn by reading, watching, listening, or just by doing.

Instead of going over every nuance of a fight, just pick five key elements, and brief them in two or three scentences. Obviously fights like Sara will be more complicated, but (and be honest) are you really planning on getting to phase three on the first shot?

Hold thier hands

Yes, some raiders will resent it, but the others will love you for it. Here's a way to brief a fight like Hodir, which is simple in effect, yet has a lot going on.

1) His big killer is the Deep Freeze. When this is called out, melee stand on the X, ranged stand on the moon. Move with them, don't anticipate. Watch for falling snow.

2) Stay in motion or jump, think the last boss in Nexus. (don't even worry about breifing the Cozy Fires at the start).

3) After the Deep Freeze, pick up your assist targets from the Moon and X. Switch to Hodir when they do. (don't worry about briefing the individual buffs the NPCs give).

4) If you have lightning shooting from your body, this is the one fight where it's ok to run into a group of people. If you have a choice, stand in the light.

5) Lots of raid healing after Frozen Blows. Healers, stand in the light if you can as well.

That's it. That's all that needs to be said - the first time around. Pull the boss and let everyone see the falling snow, the big snow mounds, the light (maybe point out a fire if one is nearby), and feel the raid healing after a Frozen Blow.

If you wipe, hit some clean-up points, but don't spend more than 2 or 3 minutes going over it. Theorycraft all you want on the run back, make the small adjustments, but don't spend 15 minutes talking about NPC buffs.

Conclusion

Keep it short and sweet, and don't sweat the small stuff. Even the players you think are bricks will pick it up, and you'll certainly help keep thier minds on the task at hand.

Nicked by the razor

So last week I wrote a post talking about the fine line my guild walks with it's raiding core. Saturday we slipped a bit, and nicked ourselves right in the butt.

To be fair, it wasn't the system that failed, it was the people. Of our 35 invited we had 28 accept/confirm the invite (we use the in game guild calendar), 6 decline, and one who never changed his status. 28 accepted is an acceptable number, and it gives us enough room to flex and bend through the raid.

At invite time there were 21 people online.

Fifteen minutes after the raid was supposed to start, and we're staring at Thorim with 24 folks - four of which are tanks, and only six healers. Our doom-chicken logs on, and when he gets harassed for being late his response was "when did the raid change to 30 minutes early?". The mind boggling thing is that our raids have started at the same time for over a month.

The real kick

I don't mind that folks decline raid invites. Real life happens, and sometimes you just have to miss a raid. We only raid one weekend night (Saturday), so Friday and Sunday folks are free to do whatever they want.

What gets me is the no-call/no-show people. Those that accept, but don't show up at all. In today's electronic world, how tough can it really be to let someone know you won't be around? Half our officers have their cell phone numbers listed on their guild info, the calendar is available through the armory, and we're a small enough guild that everyone knows at least one other person in real life.

The Knee Jerk

The inital reaction of course is for officers to freak out, loot rules to be changed, and yelling to commence. I've been that guy before (it was a dark time), and I think I present a more even keeled approach now.

Expectations have to be clarified, and people need to know there's a stick behind the carrot - but there's a limit. In the end, this is a game. And while 24 other people are counting on you to show up, we can always replace you if it comes to that. I think it's a fear of change that keeps us from doing it more often.

Once we make a decision I'll share it - and hopefully get some opinions on how we've adjusted.

The Razor's Edge

Sit-outs, alternates, and 'core' raiders. This issue is by far my biggest headache, not even loot issues have been able to surpass this issue.

Thanks to the homogenization of buffs (thank goodness), and a greater Bring the Player mentality, raid stacking has fortunately slid off to the side a bit. Normal Ulduar is not Sunwell, and the micromanagement of buffs is no longer required. We even manage to raid without a shaman most nights, and are still progressing along nicely.

S-a-S runs a fairly stable roster of 32 raiders. We have a few more 'friends and family' in our guild, but they aren't folks who raid often (if ever). Recruiting is closed, and we wind up sitting some amazing players every night. Fortunately, part of what makes these players amazing is that they don't throw a fit every time they're asked to sit.

You know it's gonna hurt

This Saturday is lining up to be a perfect storm for us. A few DPS have RL issues, a couple of healers are out, and at least one tank. I imagine we're going to ask someone to swap roles for the evening, as our 'friends and family' members are pretty much just that. The upside is everyone will probably get in who wants to raid. The downside is we're so lean that one missed meal will make us starve.

So what's the balance?

With 2 extra tanks, 3 healers, and 2 DPS - we have to wonder what the fine line between too many and not enough is. Obviously if we have to cancel a radi due to missing people, we're too lean. The same goes if we start to suddenly hemmorage our alternate raiders. I really hate calling them bench players - it has a negitive connotation which probably stems from my football days. Basketball players sit the bench all the time, and some baseball players sit all game waiting for that one moment to pinch hit or run.

Personally, I wouldn't say no to one more full time person - but the problem I have is finding a spot for them. Our raiders are loyal and some of us have been together since our first raid days in Molten Core. We've eliminated the fire standers, and some days it feels like we're trying to squeeze blood from a stone when it comes to improving performance.

It's a shame we can't get everyone in every night. I really wish the instance would scale based upon the number of people you bring inside, though I'm sure this would open up a whole new level of drama and difficulty. Can you picture all the fire standing players who would be pressuring you to get in since there's no instance cap? Makes me shudder to think about it.

Closing thoughts

For right now we're going to ride this edge until we get cut. The other officers are watching the guild closely, looking for the cliques that might splinter off and leave a gaping hole that needs plugging in a hurry. I imagine that as long as we're progressing through the content however, we'll have plenty of raiders to choose from. The real test will be when we're breaking our faces on hard mode bosses.

Of course, we could always go back to Naxx....