Up Time Follow Up

A little follow-up from yesterday's post. There was some great discussion in the comments section, but K-bear followed up with some more information for me. She slid a pair of logs across my metaphorical desk. One from her again, and one from another Aff'lock raider in a group she really respects as being "good."

She's been holding down the 3/4 slot on the meters in her raids with ~38k DPS. Solid middle-of-the-pack performance, but because we like to conjecture about all things warlockery, we're going to analyze things.

The other Warlock was also in the 3 spot in his/her raid. In both raids, the top two characters perform over 60k DPS. In Warlock 2's (W2) raid, though, our Warlock is giving chase with ~62k DPS.

Now, first things first. This is not a scientific study we're talking about here. For instance, I'm totally ignoring the gear component here. From our conversations, I'm pretty sure W2 out gears dear K-bear. I'm also ignoring important things like group composition, fight mechanics, etc, etc. There are plenty of important things that I'm just blissfully ignoring, so take this with a grain of fel salt.

The reason this is worth mentioning is because I believe we're comparing two pretty competent Warlock players. One is still sort of getting the feel of Affliction (because she bounces around specs), and the other is probably more comfortable. Here's what I saw.

The Big Three up time was pretty much the same. This is as expected. If we were handing out a "ready to raid" badge for Warlocks, mastery of the Big Three would probably be the primary criteria. As I scrolled down, though, I found some tentative proof of my suspicions. MG up time for W2 was around 40%. K-bear was only hitting around 20% up time for MG. That's a huge difference. Does it account for 24k DPS? Probably not, but I would bet as K-bear gains comfort and increases that MG up time, her DPS shoots up accordingly.

It was interesting that the Haunt up time for both was around 50%. No change, despite the increased MG up time. K admitted that she was a little Haunt happy during the fight, so her 50% may not have been efficiently obtained. Perhaps she would have been served better letting that drop a bit and focusing more on MG.

Like I said, this is just conjecture, but I think it's interesting if you're a raiding Warlock. Hopefully, you can consult your own logs and try to identify places where you can improve. I'd love to get more numbers so that maybe some day we could make a statement like: "Yeah, in typical fights you should have around 40% up time for MG." Or something like that. I don't have enough info yet, and there are a ton of variables that I'm not considering, but I think it provides a good place to focus.

MG is new and integrated even more into our DoTs than Shadowbolts ever were, and figuring out ways to squeeze in more s-bolts used to be a valuable pursuit as far as DPS increase was concerned. The way MG supports our DoTs, it's not simply a matter of added damage from the spell itself, but of the buff to all of our DoTs as well. It's all tied together. Doubling your MG up time should definitely provide a significant DPS increase.

Aff'lock Performance Indicators

I was gchatting with a fellow 'lock blogger yesterday (I'll let her identify herself in the comments, should she desire to be known as my Evil Accomplice), and we were primarily conjecturing on the nature of Affliction Warlock DPS. One of the common questions you'll get as a long time class blogger (and I'm sure I'm not alone in this) is from folks wondering "what am I doing wrong?" Generally, this question is centered around raid performance.

I've never had a rote answer, preferring instead to feel out the individual and try to see where they might be struggling. Then, I can usually offer some tailored tips. Not always, but sometimes. This approach has served me well, and--let's face it--I'm not exactly the hub of all things warlockerly. That is to say, my inbox isn't exactly overflowing with these sorts of requests, they just sometimes happen.

Now that I'm 90, I've turned my thoughts toward group performance. While you're leveling, I don't much see the need to min/max. Gear will be replaced a lot, and quests don't generally provide you a long DPS burn period with which to accurately gauge performance. Sure, you could point to your numbers in dungeons, but even then I do not think all classes level up equally, so the balance at 89 is likely different than 90.

An alternative way of saying the same thing is that we know Blizz balances at max level. Those are the numbers they're likely most concerned with. Thus, everything below that can be viewed with a level of healthy skepticism.

So, I'm now 90, I have no more excuses (manufactured or not) for disregarding my performance. But how to gauge? Whereas in Cataclysm we had about -5 changes (yes, that's a negative), MoP has revamped the class in almost all areas. The essentials like "using DoTs" are still there, but everything from the method of application to the method of refreshment has changed greatly.

The problem I've always had with simple looking at a meter and saying "well, I came in third so I have work to do" is that such an approach doesn't explain very well where you might be failing. Affliction Warlocks have always been a bastion of spell slinging complexity. Our spells are designed to weave together and provide a very level state of sustained damage. This is both blessing and curse (HA! CURSE!).

The blessing is that even when I don't have the highest DPS, I generally put out the most overall damage. The curse is that if you aren't weaving quite right, your damage can plummet pretty quickly. I always envision Warlock damage as sort of a ski-slope with damage on the "y" and execution ability on the "x." Good Warlock execution has always been rewarded by solid numbers. (Unlike, say, my old Frost DK where I felt sometimes that I could faceroll my way to solid numbers.)

Typically, my current rotation functions something like this:

1. SB+SS to get the Big Three up.
2. CotE
3. Haunt
4. MG filler
5. Maintain DoTs
6. Maintain Haunt

I realize folks would suggest putting CotE and Haunt up first. If you're using SB+SS to initiate, by the time that both CotE and Haunt get up, everything has ticked maybe once. Over the course of a >30s fight, one missed tick is a total wash. Do the napkin math if you don't believe me. Let me be clear: the order you initiate is NOT your biggest area of concern if you're playing at my level (read: not super hardcore, but just want to do well).

What is then? Well, quite simply: Up time. This has always been the case with Aff'locks. The closer you can get to 100% up time on your various buffs/debuffs is going to be the biggest and clearest marker of DPS performance. Feel like your DPS is low? The very first place I would check is my up time.

To facilitate discussion, Evil Accomplice and I viewed one of her logs from a very early raid where she'd just started running Affliction. Immediately, two things came to mind to look out for:

1. She was probably not super comfortable with the rotation.
2. She was probably not super comfortable with the fight mechanics.

In my opinion, those are the two biggest things that commonly cause a problem with up time. Impressively, her Big Three were all over 90% up time. I think (because I've not done extensive play testing yet) that this is pretty good. It used to be where I could only reliably keep Corr up over the 90% mark, and the others were generally close. On good days, keeping all the DoTs over 90% was generally a good indication of stellar performance.

With the new rotation, I think the Big Three should be easier to keep up, even when uncomfortable (it's a little easier to focus on them now, I think). The lack of comfort is going to shake it's way down to inefficient shard management and interrupted channeling. Or, more specifically, look for poor up time on MG and Haunt.

Evil Accomplice's Haunt was sub 50% and MG was something like 15%. I'm not sure what to bench mark for those. What would "good" up time look like for them? After all, they're not going to be 90%, no way. Haunt maybe, but we're definitely not going to be constantly channeling. And there's the whole sub 25% health DS thing to consider.

This has already gotten a bit long-winded, so I'm going to wrap it up with some generic advice. Should Evil Accomplice want to improve her DPS performance, I'd tell her to try to find ways to increase Haunt and MG up time. Especially Haunt.

This is where weaving comes in. If Haunt is not being kept up and you say "yeah, well, I just don't have enough shards." We have the chance to get shards refunded from MG, right? In a way, Haunt and MG are inextricably tied together as filler. Do poorly with one and you'll likely hurt the other. And Haunt has been buffed so that it's damage is pretty significant I think.

When we're uncomfortable, we can probably keep our Big Three up, but our filler is going to suffer. Back in the day, we used to pay attention to how many shadowbolts we squeezed in. This was a fairly decent approximation of Aff'lock performance (at least when you live somewhere between "newb" and "hardcore"). Now, I would advise aspiring 'locks to check out their MG/Haunt statistics. Improve those and see if your DPS doesn't respond accordingly.

This is all just conjecture. I'd really like to put my shadow where my mouth is (or something) and test the theory. Unfortunately, I've got quite a bit of gearing to do before I'll be invited to raids (even the LFR!). Some of you raiding 'locks out there... check this out. Let me know what you think. I may be completely wrong here, but it seems logical, right?

Shake That Shadow Maker

I received a rather interesting comment for consideration yesterday. It was on my "No Beta" post, asking a pretty specific question. Namely: As an Affliction Warlock, how do you manage heavy-movement fights? The commenter, Sibylle, pointed out that there didn't seem to be many guides or help-articles around the blogosphere covering this topic. Thus, I decided I'd give it the old college try.

I guess I should start out with the caveats. Any too-good-to-be-true offer has fine print, right? Why should this potentially helpful article be different?

In my best legal radio announcer's voice: /deep breath. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author who, though having played an Affliction Warlock for many years is no longer raiding. His raid group dissolved and he has yet to finish the DS fights, which is probably really sad. Still, he's making the most of it by, well, waiting for the next expansion. The point here is that he may not be on the up-and-up about the newer fights. /deep breath

Sibylle asks specifically about Morchok, which I've actually done a decent amount, so I should be able to help there. Also, I think a lot of what I'll say is generally applicable. Still, I know I have a couple more-shadowy-than-I Warlocks lurking out there that may know things I've missed. (Poneria of the Blood Pact, I'm looking at you. I'll beta-read for you any time, just shoot me an email. You're a rock star in my grimoire. Also, you're blocked at work, hence why you're getting the comment here, in the middle of an article. Convenient, no?) Feel free to help our fellow 'lock out in the comments with some specific tips on DS fights.

If memory serves, on Morchok the basic idea is that you have a small bunch of ranged that are on "shard duty." They have to close with a randomly spawning shard to decrease damage, and do it quickly. Also, there's the whole run-behind-a-rock phase as well. Those are pretty much the two "problem zones," right? (I'm going to assume that most of the folks reading this know what to do if you're just standing there, not chasing anything. If not, check out my guides and feel free to ask questions to that effect.)

Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot you can do running to the shard. It spawns randomly, making it hard to anticipate. Your raid leader can help by positioning folks to minimize the running. That is, we used to just spread out as ranged, and the three nearest did the running. Sometimes, they assign runners though, and if you're one of them and a shard doesn't spawn nearby, it's going to suck.

Even in the worst case, we can do a few things. You have Fel Fire to keep UA up. Corr and BoA/D are instant, so you can keep those up. That alone should keep you from bottoming out. If you get a lucky nightfall proc, that's a bonus. The general idea when running is to keep an eye on all of your instants. Don't let them fall off. Sometimes it goes against the stand-and-sling rotation, I know. For instance, you may want to clip your DoTs (*gasp*), but look at it this way: anything you take care of while running is something you don't have to take care of while standing. It may not be mana-ideal, but you can keep DPS flowing and that's your #1 job.

While running to the shard sucks, running back should be the easy part. I mean, you did drop your demonic portal, right? Right?! If not, it's okay, that's one of my fails, too. After the first run of shame back to your starting point, you'll be like: oh yeah, I should drop that. The portal lets you get back to point A in a green flash, and back to casting right away. Proper portal use is key to minimizing problem zones in a fight. Clever use can almost always boost your deeps.

Bonus, the portal can help you in the hide-behind-a-rock phase, too. He'll yank you in, you port back out. Generally, this lets me find a rock earlier and, in some case, find a space that lets me still DPS the boss. This trick is dependent on lucky rock placement. You have to get it where the safe, non-ink zone allows you to stand and not be LOS'ed from the boss. Porting out, giving yourself more time to look for a spot, only improves your odds.

So, the crux (horcrux?) of performing on the run seems to be possible to distill to two main points:

1. Pay attention to your instants. Refresh on the run what you can, freeing up more standing time for cast-time only spells.
2. Figure out the best use of your Demonic Portal. This will vary between fights and mechanics, but can usually go a long ways to smoothing out the dead zones in your DPS. It is almost always worth dropping, even if you forget before the fight.

By focusing and improving in those two areas, I've generally been able to out-perform my companions. Affliction 'locks have a bit of a perk when it comes to movement fights, as we can keep up a full contingent of DoTs even on the move. We only miss out on the filler spam, really, and generally I'll spam Fel Fire if all my instants are in good shape. Again, you have to be careful about mana consumption, as you'll probably need to tap after Fel Fire spam, but if your health is not in jeopardy, it shouldn't be a problem (plus it's another thing we can do on the run).

I'll touch on one more trick before I wrap this up. Soul Swap is a great spell to remember to use. A lot of fights combine movement with refocusing on a second target. Sometimes this is adds, sometimes the head, or leg, or whatever. Affliction Warlocks are going to suck on anything short lived (fair warning), but if you just need to bump over sustained DPS (think of the dogs in the Shannox fight), proper use of SS can be a solid bump to the deeps. The inhale lasts for longer than you think, so it's often possible to suck in the dots, let the new thingy spawn, and then exhale on the run (both are instants).

Hopefully this helps. It's not so much a guide as a springboard for specific ideas. The keys can vary widely from fight to fight (especially with portal placement and SS usage), but the basic ideas are the same. Sibylle (and others), if there are other specific fights that are hamstringing you (I think I covered Morchok well enough?), feel encouraged to mention them in comments. Me, or other more shadowy readers will likely have a few tips and tricks. This is a great topic, and a place where I feel like Aff'locks can shine, but definitely requires clever play.

A Dancier Dance

I've been following Klepsacovic at Troll Racials are Overpowered for some time now. To some extent, I consider him my reader's personal Howard Stern. That is to say, he can be a bit of a shock jock, but probably less focus on nudity (this being a text-based media, though Howard did it on the radio so maybe he just hasn't gotten that big yet). I'll admit it, I hang around for the lulz. And I inwardly cringe for some of the hate mail he must get when he takes "the line" and leaps across it with wild abandon.

Color me surprised, then, to read his article today. I suppose I was anticipating extreme hyperbole at some point, but instead got a really well-reasoned article. Instead of exercising (or is that exorcizing?) my best warlock cackle in anticipation of the flames to come, I found myself nodding vigorously along with his points.

I encourage you to click through, but I'll summarize what I took from the article. Basically, Klep is establishing that you could basically design a raid fight in several ways. Let's assume all players could be thrown into one of three bins, labelled: Bad, Average, and Superstar. The fight can then "test" one of those levels. Superstar tests require extreme multitasking, and are generally shouldered by one talented member of the raid. An average test clocks in as "DPS" race, where generally the whole raid is involved but to clear it without extra gear, you need to demonstrate a passable mastery of your class. Bad tests then would be best exemplified by "Defile" on the Lich King fight. A mechanic that, should one "bad" person stand in it, will wipe the raid.

Since most things are better viewed on a sliding scale, we could say that we have individual responsibility at both ends of our "test" slider, with "involving everyone" in the middle. The problem with simply shooting for the middle is that there are a limited number of mechanics you could employ without being completely bland. Also, it can be a bit rewarding when one person is allowed to shine. The flip side is that it can be utterly frustrating when one person causes a fail (both for the group and that one person).

Klep says that he feels WoW's raid design has slowly been moving that slider downward, toward the "bad" tests. I have to say, I tend to agree. It does seem to me that raid mechanics of late either involve DPS races where most of the raid is involved, or have a mechanic where derping it up wipes the raid. There seem to be fewer and fewer "superstar" type tests.

It's a shame because where "bad" tests are firmly seated in negative reinforcement, I think "superstar" tests have the potential to seem more positive. The problem being, of course, that it flies in the face of the "bring the player not the class" mantra. That is, often "superstar" tests involve a specific combination of abilities, limiting the possible classes needed. This realization serves to reinforce the feeling of that slider sliding lower, and it seems in line with what we've heard from the Devs.

Yet, is it a good thing? Having been a 10-man raider longer than other types of raiding, I suppose I'm more used to enhanced individual responsibility than, say, a 25-man raider. Even so, I find myself wishing often that losing just one person wasn't so dire. In 25's, I feel like: "Fel! We can lose half the raid and we're still fine." Now that's not completely true, but the wiggle room is there.

I don't really have a good solution or anything. We could probably discuss the trade-offs at length, and I'm sure Blizz has. I've said in the past that I'd like to see more tank-and-spanks randomly thrown in (especially early in a raid instance). That is, I think we could do with more "average" tests sprinkled in. They may not be as exciting mechanically, but I think they help keep a raid group together with positive vibes.

I suppose instead of coming to some grand conclusion that I don't really have, I'll instead close with a mostly unrelated public service announcement. I'm sure y'all know this already, but if you bail on a LFR group, you get a 30 minute deserter debuff. Apparently, everyone in our raid group had missed this. And the debuff umbrellas out to include the dungeon finder as well (which is dumb, IMO).

We queued up, but were placed in a group that was a revolving door on the last boss. We'd wanted to do all of the first four, so we dropped right away. There was no warnings about 3/4 cleared, no chance to decline a show already in progress. But they were on the platform, so they'd obviously cleared the first part (we were queuing for the first half of DS, fwiw). Maybe the warning just malfunctioned, I don't know. In any case, it was not what we wanted, and we only need a few seconds to see that they group wasn't going anywhere fast.. The finder, for whatever reason, was throwing people in and no one wanted to do just one boss... people were popping in and out like crazy.

Imagine our surprise when we dropped and got that 30 minute debuff. No big deal, thought we, we'll just do some 5-mans. Oh, wait. Can't do those either. Welp, I guess Ima go play Star Wars then. Boo hiss. (In all fairness, this is my first negative experience with the LFR, though I'm not a heavy user.)

I guess we should have just stayed and tried to do that one boss and been grateful for the opportunity. Still, it seemed like a confluence of odd design choices conspired to end our raid night early. I mean, we didn't even get to the mechanics! We danced with the "organization" raid boss, and wiped. Sometimes, it's just not your night.

Brain Leftovers

I've been really struggling to hash out content here on KeS, as evidenced by the lone post last week. Unless I'm on vacation, I've almost never posted so little. I've made a three post per week commitment to myself, and generally the problem is lack of time, not lack of ideas. As Cataclysm wanes, however, (and SWTOR starts) I find myself paralyzed by indecision. I feel a bit like the frogs in Frogger must feel right before hurling myself into oncoming traffic.

Okay, I'm not sure if that's an apt analogy, but we're pro-Frogger references here on the blog, and I wanted to have an excuse to go on record with that. It is primary season and all that stuff. Important issues are important.

Today, I'm going to touch on some disjointed ideas that, alone, I felt failed to merit their own post. They also may explain a bit why content has been hard for me. These ideas are ill-formed simply because there doesn't seem to be a lot to say. Still, it makes a good ADD Monday post, so here we go:

In WoW...

I'm wracking my brain... I'm pretty sure nothing at all happened for Affliction Warlocks since Cataclysm hit. We've really had no major changes, and nothing much to talk about. My playstyle has remained consistent, my spec and stats pretty solid, and damage competitive. Other 'lock bloggers probably feel me here: we've basically been given NOTHING to talk about this entire expansion. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing. I feel like Warlocks are in a good spot. Changes can be a mixed blessing even in the best of circumstances. Topics like: Shadowbolts, now with +10 cool, do not a full post make.

Frost DKs haven't been much crazier. There may have been a few more breadcrumbs on the DK side, but for a Frost PvP'er, I've not changed a whole lot. No posts here.

My casual raid schedule can't keep up with "easymode" raiding. Everyone seems to be blowing through content. We raid once a week, and even that's been a struggle for us the last few months. The result is that I'm just seeing bosses that everyone else is "over" months ago. I think before in ICC and such, it wasn't so drastic. Part of that is us, part of that is the game. Like my feelings about my 'lock... it is what it is.

While we're on that note, I may as well hit on the hot topic du jour: the upcoming raid nerfs. My stance is the same as it has been with every nerf this expansion (and obviously Blizz hasn't listened). Every time they do this, people complain. Every time, I think they could have avoided complaints by simply making the nerfs somehow toggle-able. I loved the ICC buff. I thought it was a great idea that didn't go abuse "one size fits all" development practices. There can be some downsides to it, but I guess I just feel that choice > no choice any day of the week. But this is nothing new to this set of bosses. They've set the course. It's tough to feel surprised or upset when they stay it.

Finally, on the WoW side, there's simply not as much content to talk about. We were promised smaller, quicker patches, and we got those. The problem is, we still got the same number of them. So we just got a smaller, quicker expansion. The end result is that it doesn't feel as epic, the story feels rushed, and the content thin. Is this a surprise to anyone? I still think that Blizz could make "smaller and quicker" work, but they'd have to do it by altering the practice of releasing an entire tier per patch. I'm not sure that this isn't based more on my own personal quirkiness. I would enjoy smaller slices of story, more quickly, that added up to a good big picture. Others that play more heavily might simply get bored faster. Consider this also ill-formed.

In short, I'm willing to see what Blizz has in store for Pandaria, but like many long time WoWers, they're on a bit of thin ice with me. I think most people would agree that Blizz needs to step up the game for Pandaria. A lot of us are willing to weather a sub-par expansion (and, to be fair, they weren't completely phoning it in... there were some good parts).

Shifting gears to SWTOR....

I'm almost to 50. I plan to do a spec post then. I should also be able to chat about one of the big topics of: "what then?" Until then, Fuu and I are simply duo'ing the game. It's fun and I love the stories. This is nothing new.

I'm also completely willing to be patient. I feel like the minority in this regard. I understand why: a lot of folks need to make the decision of what to pay for when this first free month runs out. Thus, they are really judging TOR with a fine-tooth comb to decide if it's worth their money. Call it responsible spending. I don't begrudge this of others. And, for my part, I don't really want to throw fuel on the flames of a game I'd really like to see succeed. I liked the sentiment expressed by Scary Worlds the other day: even if you don't like TOR, general gamers should hope for the game to succeed since, if Bioware can't make money on the Star Wars IP, what chance does anyone else have of creating a the "next" big MMO?

I, on the other hand, am pretty much an unabashed fanboy when it comes to Star Wars. So long as the game was moderately solid, I was going to like it, and they certainly delivered a moderately solid game. I have some complaints, but none that I'm up in arms about. There are a collection of minor things here and there, and I have confidence that they'll get around to fixing them eventually. Also, I suppose I've not experienced enough yet to really form proper opinions. And I'm not in a hurry. Messing around with lightsabers can keep me entertained for hours, and I find it worth my money.

Sealing the Tupperware...

So, basically, all of my posts would be boiled down to: I see where others are coming from but don't feel strongly myself. Which makes for very boring writing. A side note, one I haven't really mentioned on here, is that Fuu has had some health issues lately. It was scary for a bit, but doctors are no longer of the opinion that there is anything potentially life threatening. Still, such a scare tends to put things into perspective. Maybe I've just found it hard to write because I'm emotionally occupied elsewhere.

In any case, I guess I wanted to get all these brain leftovers out there. I'm still around. Still playing. And if my posting seems less frequent, it's simply because I don't want to bore you guys. Rest assured that I'll be watching the wires for my usual fare. If Blizz comes out with some major Affliction Warlock change tomorrow, I'll be writing about it. Once we get things ironed out with Fuu, I should have more emotion to spare for fiction and such, too. It's something I want to get back into, but I'm not going to force it either.

I suppose the best way to wrap up these disjointed musings is to offer gratitude for the folks still lurking around these parts. I appreciate my readers all the more when the going gets rough at home. I mean, I threw one raiding article up last week and got great responses on it. This is a great community to be a part of. And if you guys notice something I'm missing, feel free to shoot me and email and I can get on it. I'm certainly not above accepting writing prompts. 

Zon'ozz Pong

One of the things about being back in the saddle as Raid Leader is that I'm apparently going to feel motivated to complain a bit more (read: write on here) about boss tactics. Seeing as how we're woefully behind any raiding curve you can think of, I'm sure my tactics won't be news to anyone. Heck, they probably won't even be helpful. They may, however, be entertaining. Also, I've generally gotten some good and helpful comments from readers (since you're all ahead of me), and who helping someone else can make you feel good. So, I guess, help me help you. Or something.

Our ragtag group is on regular Zon'ozz. We've done him via LFR, but our goal (as has been since mid-Wrath) is to progress through ten man content at our own rate. That is to say, LFR doesn't "count" as far as we're concerned. It's like running BH on off nights. Good for gear and to keep the fingers limber (with a side bonus of introducing us to the bosses).

What I had conveniently forgotten about Raid Leading was that I can't help but get irate at shoddy visual cues and tricky mechanics. When I'm not RL, I'm a little more laid back. I don't feel personally responsible when someone dies. After all, it's not my crappy strat. (To be fair, I try to whisper the RL with any and all suggestions, but it's a little easier to weather when the buck isn't stopping with me.)

Well, now it is, and we're dying. For anyone who hasn't done this boss (and a quick sanity check for myself), here's the quick run down of boss abilities:

• There is Purple Ping Pong Ball of Doom that spawns. Look for the lightning from his nose. It will bounce of players and do distributed damage.
• There is a frontal conic called Psychic Drain. It hits like a truck, but will only occur when the ball is active.
• There is a stacking buff for the boss that makes him hit harder. It stacks up until the boss is hit with the ball and then resets.
• When the boss is hit with the ball, you enter what I call the Back in Black phase. Characterized by creepy tentacle monsters, a dark room, mosh pitting on the boss's butt, and, yes, me singing like Brian Johnson over vent.

That's pretty much it for abilities to worry about. There's one debuff the healers have to cleans ASAP that will cause a knockback, but it's unavoidable. It's probably unfair to my healers, but I consider that pretty much par for the course. (Isn't there always something stupid to dispel, just cuz?)

So what we were doing was the basic half the group on the boss, half the group out at max range. When the ball spawns, our tank flips the boss so the lightning goes through his crotchal region. The ball goes out first, then in (being ponged by the group). After it hits the melee group on bounce (2), we call for them to get out of the way. It pongs off the ranged group, heads back in, and then strikes the boss, starting Back in Black mode.

There are two major issues. First, the flipping ball has a giant hit box that is in no way indicated by its visual representation. After a while, it sort of felt like playing ping pong with ball that has a giant, beach ball sized force field around it. The graphic does not help really at all. Even when it hits a group, the explosion lags behind DBM's reporting and the actual direction change.

Second, a direct corollary of the first, the ball does seem to want to rebound directly at the boss. For the life of me, I can't figure out how it decides it's path. I tried hitting it flush with my ranged group paddle. I tried "adding spin" by moving into it. Yes, I even tried to curve the bullet. Myth Busted. Again. Seriously, if anyone knows how to get the ball to behave, you leave me a comment. Just when I think it's going right... it goes left.

So yeah, "catching" the ball with the boss is a big issue for us, especially when compounded by the fact that the actual radius of the thing is way larger than it appears to be. (So you inevitably get that one person that thinks they're far enough out, but really isn't and sends it ponging back unintentionally. Also, I've heard it sometimes ricochets off of pets. Anyone see that in action?)

When got used to catching, we found that we started getting the tank squished around the third pong match. That is, we were using a 3,3,3,splat... strat. Apparently, and this didn't occur to my bright ass until later, you can and should change the number of pongs. By leading off with a 3 pong, I was likely condemning us to a splat later. Supposedly it has to do with how the stacking lines up, because it takes longer the other times for the ball to spawn (and thus he builds up more stacks before you can get rid of them).

Instead, I should go with at least a 5,3,3,3 strat. We should be close to killing him by that last set of three, hopefully avoiding the splat. Leading off with 5 makes the next couple 3's not so bad, as the ball spawns sooner after you exit Back in Black mode. I guess there's a definite cooldown between spawnings, so by making it bounce more, you're shifting the phase back a bit in time, evening out how long you are forced to take it to the face. I'm not sure I completely grasp all the nuances, but suffice it to say, I need to try a front loaded pong strat.

Yes, this is a healer heavy fight. Our healers are, while not over geared, decently geared. We probably have room for improvement in that area, but it is what it is. We're casual, so we don't focus a lot on gearing, trying to make up for the "grind time" with being smarter in our strats. Thus, more research was needed, and while I don't think I can improve the ball catching, the new pong pattern should help. I can mess with it a bit to see what we can handle.

Anyway, any advice from y'all? Did I miss something? Is it just a matter of getting better geared so our healers can "heal through it?" (Five hits is rough with the AoE, but I think we can do it the first time through.) Otherwise, I'm just going to be pissed about the terrible purple ball graphic. Seriously, if you're going to make a pong mechanic, Blizz, at least make the ball part look logical. I'm not fond of giant invisible force fields on my balls... just sayin'.

Two For Tuesday

I'm a classic rock station now. Deep radio DJ voice: double shot of Van Halen, comin' up. Then, we're going deep into the vaults for some AC/DC... Okay, not really. Just have two quick points of discussion for today.

First, SWTOR guild server announcements came out yesterday, so a whole bunch of us now know where we're going. If you're looking for me, look no further than the Jekk'Jekk Tar server. I'm following some RL friends there. Likely, I'll just go a Fulguralis for my first toon, so feel free to look me up and say hi.  Also, if you're in the neighborhood and looking for a close-knit, casual group of players (that are still playing other games so won't time will always be an issue), feel free to hang around with us in a more permanent fashion (i.e. find me and run with us a few times... maybe join our little guild).

I also plan to roll a toon on Hidden Beks if they let me as well. It's an EU server, and my old guild Generations is planning to play there. Most of them are EU folks, so we didn't roll mains there since the time change is likely an issue, but I did want to mention them.  If you're an EU gamer looking for a good, casual home... the great people at Gens still hold a special place in my heart, and they've been around forever.

Second, our raid group was short three last night (two of our future lawyers were facing finals), so we ended up checking out the LFR. It was everything everyone said it would be.  We actually queued into a 2/4 group, already in progress, so we only go to experience the last two bosses.  Or I think it said 2/8, but you only do 4 in LFR, right?  It was sort of confusing, but we downed two bosses and then the popup said we'd finished what we set out to do and the group dissolved, so we figured we were done.  The two fights were interesting, puggable, and fun.  I know people say "easy," but I wouldn't go that far.  Not that I find them challenging, just that I think they're tuned right for the situation you run them in.  The challenge is in coordination and leadership, not mechanics.

Also, as was pointed out by K-bear yesterday in comments, for someone coming from 10-mans, it's easy to forget how little the individual (especially DPS) matters in 25-man.  You're not really down and out until half the raid is dead.  There will be fail, but you should still be able to get the bosses down.  It was a lot of fun for the seven of us, together in vent, going in blind.  Plus we got some solid upgrades out of it.  Also, having a 7-raider core likely helped the group... we provided most of the top DPS, plus since we had our own healers, they kept us alive (not necessarily at the expense of others, but probably just a bit... so sue us. XD).

Fun times.  Now, back to your regularly scheduled Tuesday programming.

A Second Half Team

Did they sneak in a Firelands nerf that I missed?  Seriously, I don't mean to belittle our raid group, but we waltzed in last night, standing at 4/7 and left 6/7.  We, what, three shot (?) Baleroc.  (I just had to sit in "brain freeze" pose for five minutes to come up with his name.  That's how much of an impression he made on me.  To be fair, it's totally a healer fight, and pretty much a tank and spank for me except for the whole crystal shard dance).

Domo was a bit more of a challenge, but we got him down with 15 minutes to spare in our two hour raid night.  Enough for a quick Jenkins attempt on Rag.  Considering how much we struggled on the early bosses, this was a cake walk.  I'm hesitant to feel happy about, because I'm sure someone is going to say... oh yeah, they hotfixed a nerf last week, or something.

Really, it was business as usual for us.  We aren't gearing any faster than we have been.  We've stuck to our two-hours per week schedule with very little deviation.  If anything, many of us are spending less time in game what with chasing non-internet dragons (Skyrim) in our free time.

So what's up with these two fights?  Are they just easier to learn?  Did we just have a... shhh... "on" night (don't jinx it)?

Okay, I'll ask.  How did you guys find the first three bosses (Shan, Beth, Rhy) of FL in comparison to the last three (Alys, Bale, Domo)?

I could fight Alys every day of the week (I'm the Starfoxer).  Despite the relative ease with downing Domo, I thought it had interesting mechanics.  I liked the idea of letting us dictate phase changes.  Bale was a nice respite from all the running around and dealing with crap of the other fights.

On the flip side, we two shot Shannox and then were stuck on him for like a month.  There were some minor strategy things we had to work out, but it was rough.  Rhyolith wasn't so bad, but it can still be tricky.  Beth causes us to shudder.  Still.  Just when you have her- unlucky spiderling spawn!  Yaaay.

What did you think?  First half of FL = annoying?  Second half = fun?  It's okay.  4.3 is almost here.  We don't have to tell 4.2 if you dish.  It can be our little secret.

Coupling Couples

The more I PvP, the more I realize the little things that give you an edge can really matter.  Now, the Devs admit that 2v2 isn't really balanced.  And, while rated BG's are better, you're not usually in an even numbers situation (or at least I'm not).  So, it can be tough to gauge how you do in a "fair" fight.

That is to say, the little things generally get masked by the big things.  Gear, uneven numbers, vast differences in skill or experience... they are the major factors in most matches.  Still, the littler items of strategy, teamwork, and communication are not to be overlooked.  You can overcome a large gear deficit with an effective strategy.  You can win a 2 on 4 with solid teamwork.  Communication can make up for lack of skill or experience.

One of the benefits I've noticed, made plain to me in PvP but also effective in PvE, is how well couples play together.  Well, not even exactly couples.  Just people in the same room.  In our guild, this is generally all the couples, but it doesn't have to be.

I think it's clear why: communication is far easier.  Even when you have vent, the simple necessity of having to key in takes time.  I wonder if running with an open mic would be better or worse.  If you're in the same room, you hear all the blurts and nuances of a person's conversation.  Communication becomes far more effective.  This simple fact, I believe, has contributed to some early success in the 2v2 realm.

It's not a major factor, but I think it's noticeable.  People in the same room simply coordinate better.  Even if most of their communication is yelling or grunting... there's something about co-location that helps.

I've started to bring this idea to raid leading.  Often, when I think about strats, I try to find ways to put the co-located folks together.  Working in pairs seems to pay off.  Have the healer sitting in the same room as the add tank heal that tank.  Have the tank/healer couple go up top.

It can work with DPS too.  I find that when I'm on a task with Fuu, her situational awareness skyrockets.  Some of it is probably me yelling my head off at her to move (which I know she loves), but also I think she feels more comfortable knowing I'm focused on the same task she is.  There's safety in numbers.  She's not so worried that it's all on her shoulders, trusting that her husband has her back.  She plays more confidently, and it shows.

There are cons, too.  It can be quite stressful, and you also probably have to hear about how you failed from your significant other.  Yet, I think it pays tangible dividends.  In any case, it's something to consider when breaking down a fight.

Hump Day Quickie

Today, I'll play the part of an aggregate service. Also, I'll be even lazier and link an aggregate service. Riveting, I know. However, there are two things I wanted to pass along to you, dear readers.

First and foremost, FL got pwned. Seriously. That's a huge... nerf bat. Want to know more, the Melting Pot already has a good collection of nerf posts. The first one in particular lists off what you need to know by boss. Break down and reactions at 11.

Second, K-bear over at Dots and Hots put together a nice little tips and tricks guide for Warlocks in Firelands. Since I've yet to see most of these fights (and suspect I'll be seeing them a bit sooner than previously anticipated), I've perused the article. Good stuff if you like melting faces... casually.

That is all.  Now, back to your regularly scheduled Wednesday, already in progress.

(Apart from the title, I resisted the urge to be dirty...aren't you proud?)

In Other News...

We got Shannox down last night, again... finally.  We'd been trying to implement most of the suggestions that you guys gave me last week.  In the end, I think the most helpful was simply to go with a three healer approach.  It made DPS a small bit slower, but not as much as you'd think.  The extra heals gave us some breathing room so we could recover from small fails.  Heck, we almost downed him once when we stepped in five (5) crystal traps (3 healers, a tank, and a DPS... two at the same time finally wiped us).

We came back after the self-trapping wipe, re-focused, and started getting consistently to the last phase.  We made some pretty good transitions - really close to 30% when Riplimb went down - but it still gets a little dicey.  I think we had two <5% wipes before we got him down.  I have no idea how we one-shot him the first time we saw him.  I think we've learned our lessons though and can deal with all the mechanics pretty well.

So, what we have learned so far in Firelands is that Beth'tilac is a definite two-healer fight, and Shannox seems designed for three.  Blizzard has done this to ten mans in the past, and I guess I was hoping the design would change in Cataclysm, what with the focus on separate but equal raiding.

Pre-Cat, you pretty much always had to have the "swing guy" to be successful.  Someone that can go between DPS and Healing prior to the fights to give your raid the flexibility needed to succeed.  Sure, when you get geared, eventually you can cease the swinging, but until then, it's almost a necessity to progress.

Swing-guy is still in effect.  We've shuffled around a lot this expansion, but I think we've got all the roles figured out, swing-guy included.  Our poor RL went from a tank, to a DPS, now to swinger.  He healed in ICC.  Go figure.  It's rough to ask someone to learn two different roles over the course of a fight, but I guess, with the limited numbers in 10's, it's a must. 

More On The Nerf

I hate to beat a dead horse... wait. No, I don't. I'm a Warlock. It is perfectly in-character to beat a dead horse. And then ride it around a bit.  So let's talk some more about this whole Nerf thing.

My initial reaction was: Wow, this seems fast.

There is validity to that.  The progression of patches in this expansion has been faster than anything we've ever seen from Blizzard.  That is intentional.  I daresay they want it to "seem fast."  The question here is if faster means more fun.  We were adding any fun before by drawing it out?  By farming and grinding? 

There are groups that will drive straight through the content.  They won't have to farm a lot until they hit the more difficult heroic versions of the raid instances.  They are the top raiding guilds, and they down the normal modes in like a week or something obscene.  They have skill.

Then there are the groups that want to be on the edge, but may lack some of the skill.  They farm gear to make up for.  Make no mistake, gear is simply a supplement to skill.  If you have epic amounts of skill, you don't need epic amounts of gear.  Otherwise, if you're human like the rest of us, you need gear to make up for your own suckiness. 

There's also the whole experience angle, or learning, but I won't really get into that right now.  Suffice it to say, to some extent, everyone needs to learn, and people learn at different speeds.  This is yet another variable that is probably least accounted for, and I'm not going to do it justice here.

The point here it seems like Blizz might be taking aim at farming a bit.   While the rest of us morons and slackers are trying to collect all the shinies to make up for our moronic slacking, they're swinging the nerf bat and making it rain patches.  All of a sudden, we don't need the shinies anymore.  They've just cut out some of the farming.  Makes sense when you consider how much we complained about running Zx over and over and over.

Which led to my second, subsequent rationalization: Perhaps this isn't so bad.

I think it's a lot easier for me to find the silver lining here than some other folks.  Mostly, this hinges on how much personal/group pride you take from clearing bosses within a certain time frame.  I think there are a lot of folk out there that try really hard to stay ahead of the patches and nerfs, that want to down bosses at the same difficulty as the top guilds.  And the window is shrinking on them.  It is harder to do, and it's taking away some of their cake.  This is completely valid as well.  It's just not where I'm coming from.

We've always been on the tail end, holding on by the skin on our teeth.  It's never been an issue of doing it before the nerfs, but doing it before the next expansion.  You could say we rely on the nerfs, because we don't spend nearly enough time farming to make up for our lack of learning and skill.  In this regard, it is guilds like us that are getting a kick through the content.  Hence, it's easier to see some benefit in it.  We're going to get to our end goal (seeing the content) sooner, and we don't have to jump through as many hoops.  Also, there's no pride here other than in doing it.  The pride for us is being able to reconcile ten busy schedules and pull off a raid per week in the game we all love.  It's intrinsic to our group.  We could never really survive an e-peen battle because we're just not that cool.  We're okay with that.

My final opinion has rested firmly in the realm of: But what about...

In admitting the validity of the issues others take with this nerf, yet not necessarily sharing the fears, it puts me in a solid position to conjecture how this could be done better.  I've seen a lot of valid arguments out there, but, in my opinion, they could be all alleviated by one, simple change.  Make the nerf optional.

Over the years we've proven as a playerbase time and time again that the most abhorrent idea to us, collectively, is the notion that we have no say.  In the end, we just want to be heard.  We want to be given choices.  We want to have it our way.

That can't always happen, but when it can, we expect it to.  If we are guilty of a sense of entitlement, then it is the entitlement of choice.  We crave the freedom to choose.

And why can't they do that here.  The one lesson that Blizz seems to be conveniently forgetting from Wrath is the one the buff in ICC taught.  Sure, they can remember about AoE tanking, and crazy-quick heroics, and welfare epics... why not the hugely successful buff?  You know, the one that allowed you the choice of clicking it on or off.

Is it really that hard to program?  We're not talking about fixing mechanics here, that's not what Blizz says they're doing.  What's the difference between lowering the health pool of all the bosses by a flat percent, and raising DPS by a flat percent with a buff?  Or between lowering the damage of attacks, or raising players' resistance?  If anything, the latter choices mean you still have to, you know, actually play.  Is that such a bad thing?  Play the same, but be more effective.  Get a little leeway for your mistakes.

I just don't why we're throwing the lesson out the window here.  I thought the buff was awesome in ICC.  We were able to do early, farm bosses (the first wing) without the buff to challenge ourselves sometimes.  The later bosses we never really got to without the buff, but we downed them with it, thus seeing the content.  It afforded us the flexibility to tailor the raid experience to our unique group.  And it seemed so simple.

Why are we not doing this?

Don't make it harder on yourself, Blizz.  You could save a lot of backlash, potentially retaining and pleasing more customers, if you only gave us the choice.  Gamers like choices.  Especially simple ones: Do I want the nerf... or not?  Why force it down our throats? 

QotD: Nerfage, Too Soon?

Well, we're still struggling on Shannox.  Two weeks in a row.  After a one-shot.  I hate it when that happens.  Also, I hate hunters.

I think we're having several problems.  Solving any one of them would probably mean success.  We were very close last night several times.

As a DPS, I know we're taking too much damage.  There's just a lot going on and we're not staying out of the bad likely as well as we should.  We've tried to keep Riplimb closer to the raid with the intent of utilizing the crystal traps to help clear debuffs.  We had been doing the ranged thing before, but we would either trigger the distance enrage or not get far enough to drop the stacks.  It strained the healers and relied on us getting slows down, which, in turn, made DPS slower.  Thus, we decided to simply have the tank make use of the traps.  The downside here is that the stupid spear throw tends to cause us more damage.  Damned if you do, damned if you don't here it seems.

Our healers are struggling, this I know, for the health plates tell me so.

Try and get that of out of your head.  Seriously.  In any case, we either run into dead people or mana issues.  The same things that bug our DPS wreak havoc on our poor healers.  We may try some different strategies, but one of the things that had worked well for us is to call out a "Mana Regen" phase right before Rageface goes down.  It helped to coordinate several cooldowns where the healers may be busy regaining mana and a couple of our off-healers can be aware if we get in a bind.

By the end of the night we were consistently getting to the very last phase.  The problem seemed to be that we just couldn't outlast the damage.  We'd lose a tank and then, swiftly, the raid.  And this was with our healers spamming (but usually out of mana).

The easy solution is simply to gear up.  However, all of this may be moot anyway.  Blizz has announced we're going to see a blanket nerf next week.  It seems quick again, but apparently we aren't the only ones who have stalled a bit.  It makes me wonder if they don't have some sort of measurement system that tracks progress and, when a certain percentage of stalling is hit... out come the nerf bats!

A good nerfing is as effective as getting more gear any day.  Easier too.  I have mixed feelings about the speed, but I guess I'll take it.  I suppose it's better to err on the side of "too fast" than "too slow."  What do you think?  Are you ready for a nerf?

Big Salty Raid Tears

Azeroth hath no fury like a raid repeatedly wiped. Especially wiped by a boss you've previously downed to the tune of, oh say, a one shot the week before.  Really, is there anything more frustrating in the raiding world than to struggle all night on a boss you've previously walked all over like a dirty doormat?  It's enough to make even the most casual of raiders throw mice and punch keyboards.

Last night was such a case for us.  On Shannox, whom we'd one-shot the week before, we struggled all damn night.  It was a terrible, awful, no-good, horrible time.  At least in my opinion.

Wiping isn't always bad, in and of itself. Sometimes, you go into a night expecting to learn and wipe, and you have fun doing it.  Often, it's about the people then.  But even the best people can turn into felling demons by that-which-shall-not-be-named (shhh - the 1% wipe - shhh).  Throw a couple of those in a row, and all of a sudden... this shit is srs bzns.

Okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but man was I frustrated last night.  I can handle learning, but this was single point failing over and over again.  Not learning, but one brain fart after another.  We've all experienced those nights.  There were 10 of us, and out of maybe 30 attempts or whatever, I doubt any of us had more than 3 muck ups.  It was a revolving carousel of fail.  We'd solve one issue... only to have the tank step in a trap.   Solve that... the OT would pull Riplimb just barely out of range and enrage kill us.  Solve that... whoops, shammy ran into the turtles we didn't clear.  Who ordered turtles?  Someone ordered turtles?


It's stuff that isn't usually a problem for us.  We're much better than that, but last night we were battling ourselves as much as the boss.  I suppose such a thing can be understood on a holiday weekend.  People aren't in their normal schedules.  Some of us have just partaken in profuse celebratory drinking the night before.  It happens.  I'm sure we'll waltz in next week and one-shot him again. 

That being said, there was a whole bunch of rage-face going on last night, and it wasn't just the dog.

Failure Tuning

Spinks wrote a very thought-provoking article today.  She's discussing gimmicky raids, old content, and learning.  The comments continue the discussion and are definitely worth reading, as some very good points are raised and elaborated on.

I'm not sure there is any one "right" opinion here.  I think I've touched on this issue in various ways before, but the crux of things revolves around what combination, exactly, of boss mechanics make encounters fun.  There are a ton of ways to slice this.  We could look at individual encounters, or take a raid instance as a whole.  We could look at each tier, or each patch, or each expansion.  We could talk in terms of progression raiders, or casual guildies, or true PuGs.  Heck, we don't even have a solid definition of what "gimmicky" means.

The problem is: it's all opinion.  What's fun for one person, may not be fun for another.  The nature of the beast is that in pleasing some people, you're going to lose others.  Yet, there has to be a maximized middle ground.  Hasn't there?

Perhaps the most interesting thought I gleaned from the discussion was that maybe in despairing of simpler encounters, we've mired ourselves in less forgiving bosses that make us even more unhappy.  To some extent, it's the age-old case of "the grass is always greener," but is there a such thing as a healthy mix? 

If I were to complain (and I try to keep that at a minimum), it would be along the lines of what one of the commenters pointed out about "failure tolerance."  It may be that the simple answer is that things have become too finely tuned on the individual.  I would wonder if this doesn't reflect a bunch of 25-man design ideas ported to 10-man groups.  Blizz says they've kept both in mind, but that's an inherently difficult task to begin with.  When things are simply scaled down, you go from a 3 person responsibility, to just one.  You lose forgiveness at the small end of raiding.  Do 25-man groups feel the same pressure to preform?

Maybe instead of simply scaling an encounter and preserving most of the mechanics, some need to simply be lost.  Still, I think this has been done too, and how has it helped?  Is there even a good solution here?  It seems like Blizz has tried a lot of different things.  Perhaps they're just as frustrated as we are, trying to walk the finest line ever drawn in MMO design.

I don't have a good answer here.  I simply agree that I feel frustrated when I can't fill a difficult role though I may have learned the fight, and we're forced to put someone there who is simply trying to learn the basics of it.  I also still feel like raid gearing is too slow, especially given the somewhat overused options (Z's, heroics to some extent).  I don't have a solution there either, though.

Learning, explaining, remembering... they've become the true gimmicks of current encounters.  And I'm not sure there is any digital fix for the human element.  Is it simply that we'd rather be failing to non-human elements than human ones?

QOTD: Legendary Tips

We finally downed our first Firelands boss last night. We had been working on Beth'tilac, but after two weeks of wiping (and much tweaking of strategies), we decided that we just didn't have the gear for it. Beth'tilac is a gear check, and we just weren't getting the adds down fast enough.

Most of us are over 359 average ilevel, but not by a whole lot.  Many have stopped running heroics out of sheer boredom with them.  We try to do a few a week, but we are definitely not capping VP (and we don't require that).  If we were less casual, that average gear level is probably enough. After all, I've seen stories of folks going in with that sort of gear and doing just fine. Being pretty casual, we probably need a bit more gear.  It was doubly frustrating because everyone else seems to think that this fight is cake.  Well, the cake is a lie.  If your group is struggling, feel in good company.

So, in the last half hour, we decided to swap over to Shannox.  The only reason we didn't do him first was because we didn't want to waste a bunch of time clearing the trash to get him to spawn.  We've done enough trash runs that most of the trash no longer gives rep, so there's little drive to do it.  Still, it was time to try another boss.  The hunter's horn sounded thrice, and then... 

We one shot him.  Yeah.  It went something like this:

/Ful starts reading strat over vent
/Shannox pats into range halfway through the reading
/We say "screw it" and pull
/yadda yadda yadda
/Shannox dies

I know, I yadda'ed over the best part.  Well, we killed one dog early.  The second dog we dragged out until Shannox had like 35% health left.  Then, we finished them both off.  We were just sort of winging it with only the vaguest idea of what we were supposed to do, and it worked.

So, I have to say: Shannox is far easier than Beth'tilac... especially if you're not high on the gear curve.

The side effect of an unexpected one-shot is that we got out first chance to see one of the BoP embers needed for the caster Legendary.  As one might guess, we found ourselves ill-prepared to deal with it.  I don't know if you've ever been in a casual raid group before, but it's been my experience that whenever something special like this drops, there's this moment of mini-panic where everyone is thinking "oh shit, now what do we do."

You see, casual folks tend to have a wide array of different opinions when it comes to gearing.  And Legendaries can cause guild-stress even for the prepared.  It's just one of the truths of the game.

Fortunately, rational heads prevailed and after a few moments of collective flailing, we had it narrowed down to three people who both wanted the opportunity (not everyone wants the responsibility... you're pretty much saying you'll be there for every raid and then some) and could make good use of the resulting item.  The three rolled and, well, yours truly came out on top.  So, if our ragtag guild somehow manages to construct the Legendary, I will get it.

I'm super-psyched about this.  I don't think I've ever had a shot for anything cool in the many years I've played this game.  Generally, there hasn't been a whole lot unique and cool for casters, but also I've never been in a position where it was really possible.  I hesitate to get too excited, because actually being able to do this is a long way off, and could never happen, but it feels nice to even have the chance.  I've been a dedicated guildy for a lot of years now, and my current guild-mates are some of my very best friends, so though they may give me crap about it... I'm thankful nonetheless.

Which brings me to my question of the day.  Now that I have a shot at the Legendary... does anyone have any tips?  Is there anything I can do to be ready for it?  Are there any other Warlocks out there rocking this bad boy?

A Warlocky Beth'tilac Strat

I mentioned I might do a strat post today. However, instead of BH, I substituted Beth'tilac. Apparently there's a good write-up for BH on WoW Insider that I've not had time to look at yet, but it's not a hard fight.

I like to make my own strats, so this is as much for me as it is for any of you.  Likely, you're all beyond this big arachnid anyway.  One thing I like to try to do when I'm attacking a strat write-up is to condense and make it funny/interesting.  There are tons of dry strats out there.  Most of the times, those strats won't hold the attention of our raiders (myself included).  There is definitely a point where my eye cross and I start thinking about lolcats (killing them, of course).  Thus, here is my somewhat irreverent strat for Beth'tilac.

Big boss spider sits up on top of the web and rains AoE down until a tank picks her up.  Medium sized spiders (spinners) drop down. Once they are taunted off their strings (or killed), the strings can be used to ascend to the top.  Small spiders (spiderlings) spawn in a group and run to a big spider (drone).
This happens in a series of three waves. Each wave consists of 1 drone, a half dozen spinners, and 2-3 waves of little spiderlings (~12).

That is all just for Phase 1. We'll get to P2 in a sec, but don't worry it's easy.

In P1, the name of the game is add/damage control. This is a "live through it" phase. We send three folks up top to keep the big bitch occupied (tank, heals, deeps) while the remainder of the group struggles below. You need to assign someone to get the spinners off their strings (their spit hurts more than their melee, and they don't really require a tank). You need to kill the spiderlings before they get to the drone, or the drone will gain a stacking damage buff from each eaten. You also need to kill all spiderlings before the boss comes down for P2.

Thus, we have the following assignments, with 2 tanks, 3 heals, 5 deeps:

• Tank 1 is up top with Healer 1 and Mad Deeps 1. I would suggest Mad Deeps 1 be an Aff'lock because of course you have one and Aff'locks are (nearly) worthless on trash.  Instead, they excel at sustained damage with moderate movement. Leave the burstier melee deeps downstairs for sure.
• Tank 2 (your tank with the best situational awareness) remains down and focuses on tanking the drone and avoiding the spiderlings. It is on this tank to keep his/her head on a swivel and puzzle out the spiderling spawn points (they are finite, but I'm not sure exactly where they occur). 
• The people up top simple need to live by avoiding meteors, keep her engaged, and the deeps needs to deeps. Deeps now helps us in P2 later.
• Healers 2 and 3 are downstairs split between raid and tank, doing their thang.
• (Melee) Deeps 2 with the worst combination of taunt/AoE (or best deeps) would be assigned to be on the drone when it pops, deepsing his/her heart out.
• (Melee) Deeps 3 with taunt (DKs are good for this) with Deeps 4 (Hunter) focus on the hanging spinners. The goal is to get them off strings and then kill them. Hunter MDs to DK and the world keeps on spinning. Ha, get it? Like I said, their melee bark is far worse than the bite. Don't need tank gear here, but will need some heals, especially if we get behind.
• This leaves Deeps 5 (best AoE) to focus on getting those spiderlings down when they spawn. Other deeps should drop their AoE's if they can. Deeps 4 could slide over to help if we're both ahead on the spinners and/or behind on the 'lings. Deeps 2 could help finish off any that get close too.

So 3 waves of this chaos. In between waves, the folks from the top will have to jump back down to avoid death and we do a bit of rinse/repeat, jumping back up and resuming the dance.

After the 3rd wave, she'll deign descend from on high to fight us for reals. Likely, there will be a very last spiderling spawn right before this. It'll be key that we down all those 'lings so that the big girl doesn't eat them, otherwise she'll heal up per 'ling lunch.

This, if you haven't guessed, puts us into Phase 2. P2, thankfully, is pretty simple. Burn like fel. She'll get a stacking buff that works as a "soft" enrage timer. Longer we take, the harder she hits, until splat.

Questions/Comments? Call the hotline: 1-555-Bethsux.  (Sounds like a 900 number, but it isn't, for safety reasons).

Caught Up

Well, we did it. As a guild, our extremely casual 10-man group is now officially in Firelands. In the span of two weeks, we knocked out the latter half of all of the previous tier's raiding content. I'm sure the nerf had a lot to do with it, as well as the low-hanging gear improvements (from dailies/questing).  We even owned TB (as alliance!) last night, so we got to roflstomp BH.

Yes, we have our Defenders of a Shattered World title, and our shiny new mounts.  They may be slightly stale, but for us the taste is still just as sweet.  On our off nights, we'll probably go back and polish off the personal achievements for some of our subs and the people who couldn't make it on a given night.  But, as a guild, we're there.  Hanging on by the skin of our teeth.

I'm excited to see where we get to before the next major content patch drops.  Can we polish off FL in the interim?  To me, and to most of my guild (I think), our success always seems a sort of "proof of concept."  That is to say, a lot of us wouldn't be raiding at all if we had to conform to a more traditional schedule.  Theoretically speaking, we shouldn't be successful.  We don't spend the time in-game wiping and learning that everyone else says is necessary.

We're not on the bleeding edge, but we're seeing the content.  We're experiencing it.  We're not being carried by a half-hardcore team.  We're working together toward a goal.  Heck, our small guild still has yet to hit level 20, and it isn't for lack of trying.

We did get about 45 minutes to work on Beth'tilac last night.  That seems a fun fight.  Here are my initial impressions:

• Kill the hangy spiders and get up top... I'm sick of being puked on.
• Small spiders, AoE.
• Big guy... kill?
• So many spiders.  Why couldn't it have been snakes?
• Aaannd we're dying.
• More spiders? Argh.
• Wipe.

I feel like we're struggling for DPS.  We send a tank, a healer, and a melee DPS up.  I wonder if that is wise.  I was the leader last night, so this is me questioning my own decisions (instead of arm-chair quarterbacking).  We were pretty successful at getting the spiderlings down before the reached the drone, but we didn't seem to get the drone down before a second one spawned.  Then, it seemed like people started dying because we were too far behind.  Needless to say, we have some learning to do, and some strat analysis.

I think maybe I'll do a quick write up of the BH boss tomorrow.  It was pretty easy, but I didn't see many written strats out there.  Link me with a good one and I'll make sure to point to that (I know there are good videos, but I like a write up).

It feels good to be "caught up."

Raiding Status Update

This may be boring, and I try not to do simply "this is what I'm up to" posts, but I feel like some of you out there may be interested to know where our raid group stands.  Mostly, I think it due to our unique schedule.  Perhaps I'm giving us too much importance, but I feel like we represent the very bottom end of casual raiding (in terms of time spent).  Recap for those that may not know: we only raid for two hours each week.  That's it.  And it works for us.

Case in point: we just downed Nef and Cho'gall last night, leaving only Al'Akir left from the old content.  This, considering we've had to cancel (or 8-man FL trash runs) as often as we've raided over the summer.  Summer is always a rough patch, so I feel like we took it in stride and got a couple new, solid subs hanging around now as a result.

We've pulled each other through dailies and crafted new items for folks.  Thus, we'll likely spend one more week on Al'Akir and then hit the ground running in FL.  We already know the trash.  If we continue with the average amount of time we spend learning a boss, we should be through all the current raid content by Christmas if not sooner.  It may be an optimistic goal, but it's achievable from where I'm sitting.

We're very slightly off the "main" progression path.  That is, our aim is to try to be on current content and finish it just before the next patch.  To me, this is the perfect playstyle.  We're stringing stuff out so that there is always something to do.  We rarely get bored with raiding because there is no farming or downtime.  We also enjoy a lot of other areas in the game.

I'm not saying this as an advertisement for us, but more to broadcast that there are "other" ways than the typical schedules.  We do one night for a scant two hours.  And it works.  We play the game our way, and have a blast doing it.  If you're not raiding right now and want to, don't be afraid to think outside the box.  Chances are you'll find others in the same boat.

Also, sometimes it's interesting to see where you stand with respect to other groups.  I'm sure a lot of people are beyond us, but I'd bet there are just as many that didn't finish off the old content before jumping into FL.  For us, it's a point of pride.  It doesn't matter that the encounters have been nerfed; we just want to say we've "been there."  And we're one boss away from focusing solely on Firelands.  Ragnaros better watch out.

Regarding the Dungeon Journal

I was reminded today by WoW Insider of the impending implementation of the fabled Dungeon Journal.  For those that may not have caught it, here is a brief run down.  As I understand it, the journal is meant to give you data on raid/dungeon bosses.  It will be part of the default UI and allow you to pull up a window which describes the basics about each encounter.  How, exactly, this is done remains to be seen.

I am unable to click through to the preview that Blizzard has provided today.  See the link in the WoW Insider article for more information.  All may be made clear in there.  This is an opinion piece, not a patch note debrief. 

I have several off-the-cuff thoughts about this that I wanted to share.  First, I guess I should explain that I am under the impression that this is a controversial addition.  I believe there are a lot of folks that disagree with the journal and believe it spoon feeds content or goes too far in a dumbing down or ruins the progression race.  I can see their point.  Yet, very simply, what is the different between having an in-game journal and allowing one to minimize a window to pull up a web browser.  (Mind you, the bleeding edge may not have access to them, but, heck, even then someone usually has a guide up as soon as there's been a realm first).  Just because a resource is available does not take away the free will to use it.  Should Blizzard instead lock players into the game, not allowing minimazation in and effort to prevent dumbing down?  The strats, the info, they're all already out there.  As far as I'm concerned, the only thing this addition is doing is providing and in-game alternative.

And guess what?  You can still choose not to use it!

Now, if it pops up automagically when you enter the room or something, then count me among the detractors.  So long as we are not forced to see anything but another button down there with the rest of them, I don't really think anyone can voice a true complaint.  Heck, I'll bet someone could/will make an addon that simply disables or removes the button from the a custom UI. 

From someone who is often looked upon to lead (be it in dungeons or raids), this is a godsend.  Depending on the actual information, of course.  I would love to have concrete data with regards to the range and nature of abilities.  Is it conic?  5 yard? 8? 10?  Avoidable or non?  It would be great if we're allowed to add our own notes.  Heck, it'd be great if we could share those too, but I think that's probably asking for too much.

Even if we just have a basic picture: "this is what he looks like and he does fire based attacks," I consider it a good thing.  You know we all tab out to wowhead or wowwiki or tankspot anyway.  Why not have something in-game?  In fact, I'd even wager that there are going to be key components missing that I wish were integrated that will still force raiders to minimize and use third party options.  Most of us will probably not even use it.  (This is based on the assumption that if you're out here, reading my blog, checking out stuff about the game... you probably are already comfortable with certain outside resources.  And what do the people purely in-game even care?)

There is one argument I could get on board with, and it's thus: there is absolutely no immersion to a dungeon journal.  I don't really see how it fits in lore-wise or any-other-wise.  How did we get all these sweet journals with all this great information?  Brann's been busy?  Thrall finally got a more detailed answer?  I'm not sure that this is a big issue though.  After all, immersion in WoW hasn't been dependent on things "making sense" for a long time.  It's just not a core concern of the game.  I'm okay with that.  If you're not, I doubt it's going to change in this MMO.  Look elsewhere.

There are some neat things I think they could do that might help with immersion (and maybe that bleeding edge thing).  What if the journal filled in over time, over the course of a server's progression.  Think about it.  Maybe right when the new stuff is release you only have, like, a message from Thrall saying: "Big fiery dude... go get 'em!"  Then, as we start getting realm firsts, it fills in.  Blizzard could even do clever notes from key characters in the story like from Jaina: "Guy sprays a cone like I did when Theramore was flooding."  Or Harrison Jones: "Watch the tail, kid."  Or Random Goblin #7: "Time is death, friend.  Better kill him in 8 minutes!"

Perhaps we could tie it to the individual.  Maybe the page is blank until you enter, then it fills out.  Maybe each time you enter you "discover" a new boss ability via "observation."  Maybe you give Warlocks the Libra spell from Final Fantasy.  Why not a spell?  Just sayin'. 

Anyway, I guess my point is that the base idea shouldn't really be that big of a deal.  Yet, I'm sure there are ways we'll all think of that could possibly provide for a smoother integration.  On the other hand, it's just another button.  If you don't like it, don't use it.  There are already better resources out there.  And if you want to go in blind and wipe a few times in trial and error, well... gl hf and all that jazz.  I have those days too.