Descent Into Madness

has been progressing steadily through Ulduar, we have killed everything up to Freya in Heroic Ulduar and we reached Vezax in Normal Mode last weekend after finally taking out Mimiron! The recent drive for signups has been working.

We got the last member of Iron Council to 0.3% - that's not a typo, 0.3% hit points left.

I expect that in the coming weeks we will see a Heroic Council and Freya and/or Thorim kill and a Normal Vezax kill as long as the signups keep coming!

Vezax - The new Malygos?

Vezax is a balance fight and we're learning the dance. Our best attempt was getting Vezax to 55%, not bad for a raid whose attentiveness seemed to slowly slip away after the demanding Mimiron first kill.

We had a free for all approach to who was allowed to go into the Saronite Vapors. Based on some more detailed strategy posts, I think the best approach would be to split into two groups like this:
Group 1 - MT, Healer, Healer, Melee DPS, Caster DPS
Group 2 - Strongest Healer, Melee, Caster DPS, Caster DPS, DPS
These groups will alternate Vapor usage so at most 3-4 people are in the green puddle at once.

If I am the MT for this night then I will try to make the kite paths as predictable as possible relative to the Vapor. For example - I could immeditely face him in the kit path direction and make sure I am ~25yds away from the Saronite Vapor at the beginning of the kite and the end so that the healers are not out of range of me at any time.

This encounter seems to be easy to learn compared to learning the keepers. Hopefully we can clear the last part of the instance quicker so that fatigue is less of a factor on Vezax and get some more serious attempts in.

Holy Paladin 101

Benevolent Thuggery has killed 6/14 bosses in Heroic Ulduar and 9/14 bosses in Normal Ulduar. With the massive signup drive, there should be more progress this month!

We occasionally run Class/Role clinics to discuss the basics of the class mechanics and some tips or tricks to maximize output. Here is the summary of the Holy Paladin Clinic that was done this week. Thanks to Chalol and Ginevra for helping out!

Key points:

UI is important. You need to see all decursing, health, inc heals etc. on your raid frames without it taking up too much space. There are many addons which will also tell you when your CDs are coming up and need to be reapplied (both audio and visual queues).

All Holy specs include Judgements of the Pure and Enlightened Judgements, so you can keep a constant 15% bonus speed buff up most of the time. This is the key to maximizing Paladin healing. Some players only judge when needed, some keep this buff up 100% of the time. An addon to tell you when your buff is expiring helps.

For quick healing -> Divine Favor + Holy Shock -> force Infusion of Light -> Flash of Light or Holy Light

Large Casts -> Holy Light with Light's Grace and primary mana returns from Illumination

Sacred Shield should be up on your main healing target as much as possible.

Clear communication between Paladins helps a lot. HL Paladins are usually combined with healing class with more HoTs so there are small short heals and large long cooldown heals at the same time. One Paladin focusing on Holy Light and another on Flash of Light is a great combination!

Beacon of Light is one of the most interesting Paladin spells. Examples of good use of Beacon of Light are: Casting it on yourself so you don't die, if you are MT healing, but the beacon on the OT (or vice versa) or if you are Raid Healing, put the beacon on the MT.

Utility Spells:

Hand of Salvation is a powerful utility spell. It will allow the highest DPS to open up even more, especially early in an encounter. Some Paladins make an agreement with one person to use this spell on them so they can use their high threat spells immediately without worrying about aggro.

You UI should also display movement impairing effects. Another keybind can be used to cast Hand of Freedom on the target or on self. This is very useful on Hodir.

Hand of Protection is usually used on someone who pulled aggro.

In preparation for a raid, if two Holy Paladins are attending, one can agree to get Aura Mastery and Improved Concentration Aura, and the other can get Improved Blessing of Wisdom. Buff coverage discussion is encouraged for all classes.

Always have a frame which shows the Enemy's Target. You can see him momentarily switch targets when casting a debuff or spell on another player (Razuvious or the Runes in Ulduar for example).

Glyphs: Glyph of Seal of Wisdom or Glyph of Seal of Light (if you have no mana issues), Glyph of Holy Light, Glyph of Flash of Light, Glyph of Lay on Hands (Minor Glyph)

3.2 Major Changes

Beacon of Light will be effective for all heals (not just Effective heals)
Returns from Illumination will be but in half
Reduction of the Intellect Multiplier

These changes will encourage Paladins to go with more +SP and +Mp5 gear.

Macros

#showtooltip Beacon of Light
/cast [target=mouseover,help,exists] [help] [target=targettarget, help,exists][target=player] Beacon of Light

You can even add in trinket uses easily:

#showtooltip flash of light
/use 13
/use 14
/cast [target=mouseover,help,exists] [help] [target=targettarget, help,exists][target=player] Flash of Light


And, you can bind trinket uses as well as instant casts to really add bang for your holy light buck:

#showtooltip Holy Light
/use 13
/use 14
/cast Divine Favor
/cast Divine Illumination
/cast [target=mouseover,help,exists] [help] [target=targettarget, help,exists][target=player] Holy Light