Battle plans, and cheeseburgers.

Ok the picture and the title have nothng to do with the actual “meat” of the entry. By the way, I am dying for a good cheeseburger, have not had a decent one for months. Five Guys burger is ok….Graffitti Burger is awesome, but kinda small. I am so sad Cheeburger cheeburger closed down, 1 pound hamburgers for the win! Thurman’s cafe is not worth waiting 3 hrs for a table. All the Fuddruckers in Columbus have closed i think. *SIGH*

Anyways back on track.

What makes up a successful raid? Concise battle plans? Composition? Raid Awareness? Mods/Addons? Cheezburgers?

A successful raid encompasses 4 out of the 5. Cow + cheez + bacon is optional.

Battle Plan aka strategy

There is something to be said about running head long into something and figuring out how things work, but meh who has time in this day and age to do so. So I am glad there are others out there figuring out intial strats and ideas. (Tankspot etc)

Now this may sound like a elitist notion (am i turning into Soth??) or me being an ass. But if you are not willing to listen, read, and watch….you probably shouldn’t be raiding. It is not up to the GM or the RL to explain down to the last detail on what one needs to do. Dozzer and Arioch give a great over view of the fight, hints and nuggets of win.

But in general…everyone should also research on their own time as well. Going over a strat right before a fight does not mean everyone will know the fight….in one ear out the other! Also if you go over the strategy you may find things you can add and also the RL or the GM may gloss over things that may not be important to your role. They are giving an overview of the fight, it is up to you to know what tricks are out there for your specific role.

For example, throwing a Pain Suppression on a tank after a slime explodes in Rotface – people tend to get scattered and you may need to spread heals a bit. Pain Suppression on tank will help a lot. Also in Festergut…saving Pain Suppression for the 3rd or 4 inhale, when hits on 2nd tank are getting crazy!!! Throwing shields on people during Festergut right before he exhales.

Composition

What was that one quote people like to throw around “Bring the player, not the class.”

No offense to those that think it is true or wish it to be true, but I really think that the comment is rubbish. As long as they design raids in such a way, that forces specific combinations, the above comment is rubbish.

Take for example, everyones friend, Festergut. Now he has a lovely ability where he causes people to vomit and cause everyone close by to vomit and take a metric crap ton of damage. Also while puking you cannot do anything. Now lets say Raid A takes in 2 tanks, 3 healers, and 5 melee DPS…..I doubt they will get past the 1 min mark. Raid B takes 2 tanks, 3 healrs, and 2 melee and 3 ranged DPS – as long as they can work together…they should be able to take down Festergut.

Further examples of having a butt load of melee DPS will make your raid night hell – Deathbringer Saurfang (sure it can be done…but prepare for a lot of marks and dead melee), Blood Princes – Beach ball, empowered fireball, empowered shock vortex, Lady D – the adds – without a decent mix of DPS – the adds can mess your raid up yo.

Raid Awareness

Now I will fully admit..i need work in this area. As playing a healer i get tunnel visioned a lot. Especially as the nights goes on and nothing is dying, except for us of course. I get focused on watching the tanks only and forget about others, and that is a bad thing. Unless you are tank healing, but helping out your fellow healers is not a bad thing.

Raid awareness can also be watching where you are standing and avoiding the various boss mechanics. (if you want chaos – look no farther then the blood princes). different raid call for different mechanics to avoid, some easier then others. Festergut for healers is easy…stand under his arse, heal, heal, heal, pop cooldowns so tanks dont die…collect loot. For the ranged DPS they have to watch for the spore and run accordingly. They have the tougher job for that fight.

Addons

Addons…..I have to say…don’t raid without them. And when I mean “them” some of the bare minimums – Omen, DBM. Please don’t raid without them….a kitten dies everytime a person without these causes a wipe.

Other add-ons will only make things easier for your associated job. Grid, clique, scroll text, buff watchers, etc etc. These things will only make your job easier and less of a pain to handle.

Make your life easier…get the addons! Don’t raid without them. Gotta get catch em all!

P.S. Also make sure you don’t have fishing macroed to your DPS buttons, have the wrong stance/presence on, or even a WHACK spec on before raiding. Your fellow raidmate will thank you for it.