Archive
Raiding…makes you a bad person…really it does…
RAIDING MAKES YOU A BAD PERSON!
ok…i feel i wasted 5 minutes of my life reading this….it’s like calling going to work makes me a bad person, because work is a tedious, repeating process of trying to better oneself with promotions etc….
The author seems to equate any repeating monotonous activity, with the explicit goal to improve onself, even with small gains (so we need to get more) makes one a bad person….
damn sounds like just being alive makes one a bad person…..
If they also dont like MMO’s or gaming in general, why play..?
Sept 20th…GC applied the nerfbat to FL…4.3 please get here.
Catgirl?
• Shannox, Beth’tilac, Rhyolith – health and damage reduced by 15%.
Did these three…really need anymore nerfing?
• Other bosses – health and damage reduced by 25%.
Again….why?
• All adds’ health and damage have been reduced in the same proportions as bosses.
Meh
• Hellhounds and Unstable Magma deal much less damage.
the damage trash put out was quite ridiculous.
• Alysrazor’s Fiery Tornados move slower.
Cool i guess?
• The Wings of Flame buff duration on Alysrazor is now uniformly 30 seconds.
Still hate flying!
• Alysrazor drops 1 additional feather for 10-player mode and 2 additional feathers for 25-player mode in all cycles.
Not really needed…?
• Wrath of Ragnaros in Stage 1 now knocks targets up, but not back.
This is kinda cool, but you really should not be standing in front of a fire trap….
So Firelands…nerfed quite a bit 15-25% Really does take a bite out of the ferocity of the FL…maybe we should call it the Not so Hot Firelands…
But that being said…if you still cannot deal with mechanics…you are still not going to down bosses, no matter the nerf. But to those who can deal with them….well…have those peggle addons installed!
So 4.3…..
3 new 5 mans…must be done in order the 1st time. Sounds interesting, but will get old.
LFR – meh…this is not going to be pretty.
T13 in raids only – i like the idea, but I dont like how one can still obtain a lower version of it in LFR…looks like the min/maxer I am (when it comes to my priest) may have to jump into the LFR fray!
4.3 discussion
1.) Are nerfs good for the maintenance and happiness of the overall population in WoW?
Business Slice: Of course it is! Getting the majority of the people to see the content Blizzard has worked on makes perfect business sense. Which will net a company more money? 6-7 million customers or 2-3 “hardcore” players, of course the more casual base will make Blizzard money in the long haul. Without profit Blizzard cannot make improvement/develop more games. It’s all about the benjamins! MONEY MONEY MONEY!
Red Slice: RAWR! REDSLICE SMASH! WTF! WHY ARE THEY NERFING IT MAKES NO SENSE, 4.3 is not even out, or has any concrete information etc. Why are they caving into the whiners and baddies? Why even make a game and make it so easy? With the nerfs it may even make the most casual of player go…why am I playing a game this easy? This makes Hello Kitty Online seem more difficult. 4.2 have been out only for a few months, it only has 7 bosses, why make it so laughable that it can now be cleared by a new group in a week or 2 at most? /smash! WTH are they passing out epix 2 every1?
Slice: It would make more sense to have a balance of the two. They really should take a good look at what is over tuned and also what maybe under tuned and fix as appropriate. No real reason as well to nerf Heroic modes, those should remain as the pinnacle of raiding. Only the best of the best should be able to tackle those. Give the general player base the normal modes, and the heroics to the “hardcore”. Give them each a playground to play in. A flat nerf to the content in general is silly – make the players get a gradual buff (like in Icecrown Citadel) this allows for some mistakes to be made, but does not trivialize the content totally, this in coordination with appropriate hotfixes of mechanics that are under tuned and over tuned.
However by nerfing stuff by this degree so far from the 4.3 patch…I hope it does not cause a backlash that they will nerf 4.3 so quickly cause, “it’s too hard!”
2.)Should I cancel my sub and wait for DW/4.3?
Business Slice: No! Give me your money errr to Blizzard. You need your WoW crack no?
Red Slice: Yeah that will teach them to nerf stuff that doesn’t need it! “/grumbles” Freakin casuals!
Slice: Each individual should decide if they wish to play right now or wait. Use your brain and make your own decision.
3.)Transmogrify?
Business Slice: $$$ more ways to keep people attached to an older game! Good idea to pull at people’s heartstrings.
Red Slice: Old content? LOL…why go back there? It’s not relavent. Why waste time on old raid when you can raid current content or cap VP? Old cheevs? Only ones that matter are ones that are current and give you mounts that are current!
Slice: Yay for clothes! Barbie time?
4.) Catgirls?
All: HELL YEAH!
2 healing…a punishment?
2 healing is it a punishment for a job well done?
At times it does feel like it is…and I can understand that. You get thru the encounter for the 1st time 3 healing it, that is what one is used to, you can predict the amount of healing needed, you know someone(s) have your back, but there is still enough challenge to keep it exciting. 
Then boom, you don’t have as much backup, your mana strains, and what worked in the past is no longer working.
I completely understand the “if it aint broke, don’t fix it idea” but if it aint working for a fight may need to change something. For some fight you can brute force it but others you cannot.
Looking at the rebuttal to Murloc Parliament – screaming monkies – where if you can 2 heal things, why not? Also the DPS can be doing all they can etc why not bring something to edge it over. However, bringing in someone who may not be used to a DPS OS maybe more of a hinderence then a help. They may mess up mechanics etc. (lol like i did on Baleroc – see 2 healing baleroc – also with 9 people I messed up quite a few crystal soaks)
Now I am not sure which strat they are exactly using, but both ideologies have there flaws and pros.
2 healing – more DPS, encounter ends faster. But allows for fewer mistakes. DPS have to avoid everything they can dmg wise.
3 healing – more room for error. Fights will take longer, poss might hit an enrage timer.
EDIT- Catgirls
Funny search terms….
ok…I know others have made posts about ways to get to your blog…thought I would share some…
1.) sexy space marine – Space marines…sexy? Not sure if they belong in the same search term lol.
2.) 4.2 disc reforging…ok this i can touch on
I like to think of it was int/spirit (play around to find where you are comfortable)/haste/mastery crit
Now this is not set in stone – this will depend on your preference on playstyle and your raid composition.
Int is important/king obviously.
Spirit is up in the air – mana regen is important, but how much do you need? too much and you lose out on troughput stats you could be going for. too little and you wont last the fight. (personally, i think i may reforge some of mine away – gonna overhaul gems/reforging tonight)
Mastery – probably out biggest thorn in our side. It helps our niche well (damage mitigation) but at the same only effects a few of our spells – Power Word: Shield and Divine Aegis.
Crit – unreliable at best. With the change to crit heals it makes it appear to be very desirable on paper..but in reality don’t gem/enchant/reforge for it.
Haste – a nice throuput stat. Helps to push out those heals, PoH’s faster etc. However, haste does this at the cost of your mana pool. Watch the mana consumption.
When you take into account of raid size – 25 or 10 man. Your choices can deviate farther. in 25 man you may have the chance to specialize in your role – straight up PoH machine (haste), or tank healer (mastery). Also buffs you maybe missing in 10 you will more then likely have in 25 man raids.
What is in your healing team?
10 man – disc/rdruid/hpally – with the holy focusing on tanks and resto on the raid you may find yourself with a balance of three. In 10′s there will be lots of crosshealing as well.
10 man – disc/rsham/hpally – see above, but with a bit more raid healing.
10 man – disc/hpriest/hpally – once again see above disc/rdruid/hpally.
3.) funeral pyre or smoldering censer of purity for a disc priest?
My personal preference would be the Censer – haste would be better – especially if your OS is holy or shadow. Although you could reforce some of the crit on the Pyre – meh. Also with the spirit on the Censer one could play around with it if you have too much spirit and want to dump it.
Firelands update and thoughts on progression/training
OK as of this right now SR is now/still 6/7. Last night was our 1st real night of putting attempts on Ragnaros. Our other attempts were half-hearted attempts when we had maybe an hour left in raid time.
Last night was a full night of Ragnaros. I admit although we did not down the boss, I had a blast, the fight is a dynamic one and keeps you on your toes.
I would put the difficulty curve below that of Alysrazor – the stupid firebird is too dependant on a couple of things.
1.) You need a DPS or 2 who know how to fly in a 3rd environment well and DPS well.
2.) Tanks need max dps while still surviving and dancing around flame worms.
3.) Knowing how to dance, errr dodge fire tornados.
Ragnaros on the other hand…is really avoiding bad that you can and pew pew/heal heal. His mechanics are such you are not relying so on 2 roles. Everyone in this fight contributes to this fight to win.
We made it into the 2nd transition phase and through quite a few times. So I am glad we are able to blow past the first few phases quite easily.
phase 1
Tanks and melee closest to Rag. heal tanks easy easy.
What makes this phase is annoying is there is quite a few sources of unavoidable damage. I.E the silly knockback- make sure people spread out 6yds the best they can. Also when trigerring the trap make sure people are high on health. The damage is quite severe from it. Casters will want to be out of melee range of Rag, cause he has a knockback, which will also cause spell lockout.
1st transition phase
Done right there is very little damage done to the raid. Assign your raid memebers as approp to handle the 8 sons of flame. Most slows will NOT work – ice trap etc etc. One thing a feral druid friend told me was the slow from bear mangle does work. However, get used to the speed they move, but in reality they really have low health on 10 man, so sneezing on them will slow them down.
They move faster the more health they have. So slow down ones you can and kill more immediate threats 1st and go back to other ones who are not an immediate threat. Myself (a disc priest) found that even a Holy Fire and a Smite on one would slow it down quite a bit and allowed me to swap to another one and smite that one.
Phase 2
Again more avoiding bad and learning a pattern, we did have some rough patches here and there, but we got thru it quite easily. Things to watch for searing seeds, run to your assigned stack up point about 3 seconds before they spawn, the farther you are from them the less damage you take then they pop. Watch out for adds that spawn AoE them down. Watch for tire on the ground. It hurts! Again also watch the Hammer time smash. This phase lasts till he gets to 40%
Transition phase 2
Same thing he will drop the hammer and 8 sons of flame, handle like them like you would in the 1st one. He will however add 2 new things to this. He will summon 2 Scions of Flame (2 million HP on 10 man) Your tanks will want to pick them up ASAP and do what they do as normal in the transition phase.
Second the Scions have no real special attacks, except they will cast a spell which will target a random raid memeber. This spell causes the targeted raid memeber to leave a flame of trail behind them. Keep them healed. The target member till want to run to the edge to avoid leaving fire in the middle. Because any Son or Scion that runs thru the flame is healed for quite a bit.
Another change about this phase is you will want to keep 1 son of flame alive for a bit at 50% health, as he will be uber slow. This will allow the raid time to damage the Scions of Flame as much as possible. Cause in p3 right at the beginning would be the best time it would appear to pop lust/warp/hero.
Can’t say much about p3 as barely got into it. Our best attempt was about 38% ish. But he is going to go down soon!
Training or Progression?
Makes a very good point…progression or training? Do you always have the individual you are used to doing it…on it all the time? Or do you devote some time to let someone else learn just in case? I know for some fights we have gotten some people used to a different duty, and I am glad we did. But makes me wonder what would happen if our mage cannot make it for a Alice-razor kill? Our Aff lock is aquainted with it, but I am not sure aff lock would be best up there.
Support Jobs….
Support Classes…I miss playing one. If I am not mistaken EQ had them, FFXI had them, why do a lot of MMOS drop them?
1.) Probably cause they would not do well in a PVP setting?
2.) Game mechanics are not designed with a support slot in mind.
But there is something said to have a good support class.
In FFXI, i miss being the Bard – you really had to know the range on your songs and how to hit approp party memebers with approp spells. Also at time know when to heal heal with /whm subjob, or pull mobs with /nin.
Tanks – depending on your tank for the group – you could get double Mage’s Balled for the Paladin tank. Or Attack song and acc song for a ninja tank. Attack song x2 or attack and acc song for DPS. Magic DPS/Healers would get Mage’s Ballad. Sleeping adds as needed.
Ahhh it was always something to do.
Makes me sad there is nothing in WoW for such a role. Having a bard to fill in buffs a raid maybe missing. Helping out the healer in a time of need, and keepin mobs CC’d.
/random post is random!
…..MS paint is win…..
never trust a goblin......
Ok here is my entry to Looking for More! All i gotta say…MS paint is win.
DPS versus Healing
No this is not about the eternal struggle of good vs evil.
This is about changing gears from healing to DPS or DPS to healing.
In Shadow Rising – I heal as a priest (either with AA/A or no AA/A spec) – Liyhe
In Crits and Giggles – I raid as a mage of the furry kind. /sniff sniff sniff – Velineda
Going between the two roles can be a bit disorienting at times, cause I find myself looking for bubble/ice block/invis at times lol.
However, knowing the fights does help the confusion a bit but does not make it any easier biting at the bit.
T11 – for me being the priest vs the mage is no real issue as the fights (with the nerf) are very forgiving and can faceroll them….111111111111111111 – 2 – 11111111111 (arcane mage rotation in a nutshell lol)
T12 – not knowing the fights in and out, will punish you and your raid.
Shannox
Liyhe – for our normal 10 we will 2 heal this fight. Kerick will stay on the Shannox tank for the whole encounter for the most part. I will watch the Riplimb tank – for the most part the bubbles to all the work, so I can help the Shannox tank with bubbles and PoH/spot heal the raid.
Raid has to be aware of the placement to avoid the bad. Secondly, tanks will have to watch the distance between the two, so the healers can watch each other’s back and also to prevent the dogs from gaining the Wary Determination buff. When the 1st dog dies (aka rageface) – pay a little more attention to Shannox tank. When 2nd dog dies – pump heals into the Shannox tank. Pop appropriate cooldown and hope DPS can avoid bad.
Velineda – for the most part healing and DPS will have to do the same. Avoid bad. DPS has the added task of blowing up Rageface – especially when he is faceraging. More then likely he will then rage onto me, Addoe, or magefriend. If it is me, I try to pop Iceblock to mitigate dmg, if it is down, popping Lifeblood, and Manashield.
Beth’ Tilac
As heals it really depends if i am on group duty or web duty.
If it is Web Duty – bubble, PoM the tank before they hop up. Then I jump on myself. Once on the web. Binding heal as needed the tank and DPS up there. Avoid bad. Jump back down and rince and repeat.
Ground duty – PoH, Pom, smite the adds if AA spec. Yell at people to get spinners down lol.
For p2 – stack on the bosses rear. if AA spec – build up stacks and save for later in the fight. PW:Barrier around in the 30% range. And Heal heal heal.
As DPS, the spider is a lot easier on the ol’ brain – pew pew pew….don’t die from stupid. If i can I will try to use CD to help out the healing where I can.
Rhyolith
As heals, it’s the same as being a DPS – avoid bad. More bad means more heals and stress. But as a healer – heal the raid…and if people are doing what they are supposed to, dmg is actually quite light since the nerf. PoH, PoM, bubble as needed before p2 is all that is really needed. If you are AA/A spec, smiting the Spark of Rhyolith makes it easy.
As DPS – it’s as i stated above – avoid BAD! Kill adds – bring adds to tank as you can. DPS the boss in p2.
As p2 healing – tell people to stack – BW:awesome. win…p2 should not last any more then a few seconds. Heal the hell out of the raid and win.
As p2 DPS – stack for AoE heals – pew pew pew.
Alice-Razor
As heals – oh boy….for this fight, for the most part do not worry about your mana pool. Heal like it’s 1999 – go for the gold. Your goal is to keep your assigned tank alive. Make sure to get 1 feather to be able to heal on the run. (I found for this fight AA/A spec is nice) Smite the bird and a free heal for the tank. Watch your tanks debuffs and be aware of where the worms are placed (don’t get singed).
Gushing wound – your tank will take so much dmg for a while till he falls till 50%. watch it and have a big heal lined up.
If it is about to tantram, have an O shit spell ready, and/or CD. If not, I spam FH, penance, bubble.
Another thing to watch for as a healer is if for some reason the adds in p1 get a spell off..make sure to dispel the debuff….it hurts a lot.
p1 your raid will have to execute to make it past easily. Most of your focus has to be on the tank, not them (other healer, DPS). Your raid must execute for your to do your job.
p2 – simple if the hatchlings are not dead by this time – it’s a wipe. If you raid cannot dance – it’s a wipe. Dmg in p2 from tornados is really not healable. So don’t let it stress you when someone dies here.
p3 – yay! Hit that evil bird and get some mana back. take a breather. Once again your raid will need to execute – make sure they interrupt the add’s channel. VERY IMPORTANT. At 50% she will get back up and pulse 5-7k a sec. Not too bad. Except she hits the tanks like a truck as well. So the raid will need to stack up behind her, as she cleaves. Use AoE heals and direct heals on the tanks. Pop what cooldowns you have at about 75 energy. At this point the other tank should taunt off the 1st tank. The 1st tank should then pop what raid cooldown that they may have as well. You just need to make sure everyone has more then 50k when she reaches 100 energy, as she wil pulse a 50K at that point.
As this point it’s a repeat of the same phases over and over again till you or the raid is dead.
As DPS – it’s going to be the same as the other fights – kill your add and interrupt, avoid bad. Put dmg on the Hatchling – time permitting.
If you are flying – avoid bad. Play Starfox and pew pew pew. Come down as approp if help is needed on the hatchlings.
p2 – AVOID TORNADOS….
p3 – stack up and use any def cooldown you may have – Iceblock etc etc etc. Then its back to p1 again.
Baleroc
Healer
3 healer setup for now.
Vanicus and Zarm on the bubbles, me on the tank for the 1st 2 crystals. After that I swap with Zarm and vanicus and we ride it out. Very little changes on the healing assignments after the 1st 2 crystals. In this case, healers are like DPS in this fight – they must build up a buff ASAP to “DPS” this fight down.
Only thing I may do while healing crystals is I will snipe heals on the tank to activate my Vital flame buff to help out and help out with crystal healing.
As DPS – I find this more difficult then healing…you mean I actually have to move into bad and then out??? ZOMG >< But yeah I find this fight easier as a healer then a DPS. As the roles are so different. Healers and DPS do not share a common theme here. Healers are safe to "pew pew pew" away. While DPS are the one managing the actual mechanic of this fight. If DPS cannot manage stacks and order, forget about this fight.
Majorlamo Staghelm
Never seen this as DPS but from what I can see – it's all about move from bad when you have to. Controling your stacks from flame orbs – see Baleroc, and knowing when to stack and use personal def and off CDs. Kill adds while he is in catform.
As a Healer
We start out in Scorpion Form and take about 8 flame scythes before we force him to change. Time your raid cooldowns as approp. After 4th and before the 5th – Arv will pop Divine Protection or what ever it is called. After 5th and right before the 6th – Cayle pops Anti – Magic Zone. And then before the 7th Aura Mastery from Van. You want to time CD so they can hit 2 of the flame scythes.
For cat – if i recall we take 7 stacks? Again as a healer – avoid bad and heal.
This fight as a healer and a raid is about managing CDs and seeing how much you healers can heal.
End?
Overall, the transition from healing and DPS is odd in the sense of what one has at hand, but at it's vital essence: DPS and healing are the same. AVOID BAD AND KNOWING HOW TO DEAL WITH MECHANICS.
As a DPS you should know when to use what when, it's no different from a healing know which ability to use when.
Your tools are different and abilities are different, but all raiding, really is (be it as heals or DPS): playing to the best of your ability, using the tools at your disposal well, and handling mechanics well.
