I have not posted in a while. So many things have changed.
My guild has cleared 5/5 in ToC 10 man and 4/5 in ToC 25. I think we can eventually start Heroic Mode in 10 man when we have a rise in signups.
Raid attendance has been low lately. From talking to players it just seems that people are bored/busy.
It feels strange to be so far advanced in content for a casual guild. In TBC this guild was many raid instances behind but Blizzard has changed their philosophy. The issue now is that this may be too easy and we're running out of things to do! Our 25 mans are not strong enough to take on challenging Hard Modes in Ulduar. The 10 man Late Shift raids have been reasonably successful.
I can't wait to see what we can do in ToC Heroic Mode once we get a strong group together to try it.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Descent Into Madness
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.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
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
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
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Up to the Challenge
Benevolent Thuggery has seen some great success in Ulduar during the past few weeks! Four Heroic bosses are down (three of which are quite challenging!), we have killed seven bosses in Normal Ulduar and this is just the beginning of long term progress in this instance.
Heroic Raids
The first boss which the Thugs focused on in Ulduar was XT. This raid boss took a lot of discussion, fine tuning and learning to complete. This opened most players' eyes to the fact that we have been coasting through easy content without thinking about detailed raid theory, rotations and role assignments. In tackling this boss first, we got back into the right mindset for raiding as a functional team! Razorscale and Ignis kills followed the XT defeat rather quickly.
As one of the Raid Leaders who worked on the Ulduar progression kills, this is a challenge from various points of view. The leaders have to keep morale up, assign appropriate roles (for leaders and players), devise alternate strategies without confusing the members and maximize raid potential. This puzzle is continuously evolving before our eyes as new challenges are presented every time we go into this place.
The next step for the Heroic Raids is to clear those first four bosses on the first raid night so we have time to work on tackling the next section of the instance. I am planning on making the best effort to do this on the only scheduled Ulduar raid by minimizing Leviathan event time, assigning ALL roles before the run, moving us forward at a good pace (easy to do as a tank) and using concise explanations for bosses.
Rollback
With three nights of Ulduar scheduled per week we managed to get as far as I would expect for a casual guild with our population and skill. Many raiders were left disappointed and frustrated with the difficulty and requirements of the new instance. Some players who returned to raiding and new recruits had sub-par gear. Despite the fact that our guild has been farming Naxx for months, the decision was made to put Ulduar as one night a week then slowly bring it back to a 3 night a week event.
I see why this had to be done for gear and morale however I am discouraged by some of the attitudes that provoked the decision to re-introduce old raids on the calendar. Naxx has spoiled raiders and now many have fallen into an expectation of easy loot without effort. As soon as there is a struggle, they give up and leave their friends to fight for themselves in a challenging environment.
At some point, I hope that Heroic Naxx can be reserved for off-nights and become a distant memory. Players will always need gear, and there are other means to get Ulduar ready. I am running a 10 man Naxx on Sunday and Monday which has a good mix of experienced players, new players and alts who need gear. This is what the Karazhan runs used to be. Frankly, 10 man Naxx bores the hell out of me but I can just turn on the music, grab some tea and curb the boredom to make that place bearable. After all, these runs need to be in place as a stepping stone for new players and alts to have a means to make it into Ulduar. If another Raid Leader wants to take this run, I will gladly pass it to them.
Normal Ulduar
There are now two Ulduar 10 runs scheduled on weekends - a 2pm session and the Late Shift run at 9pm. I tend to run with Late Shift because my schedule can be unpredictable during the day on weekends. Late Shift has been very successful as we have killed 7 bosses including Hodir, one of the final four Guardians.
We worked on killing Thorim last week, he was much more challenging than expected. Maybe we can try Freya or just work on Thorim until he's down. The last four guardians are all difficult and present unique challenges to the raiders, it's a lot of fun!
Heroic Raids
The first boss which the Thugs focused on in Ulduar was XT. This raid boss took a lot of discussion, fine tuning and learning to complete. This opened most players' eyes to the fact that we have been coasting through easy content without thinking about detailed raid theory, rotations and role assignments. In tackling this boss first, we got back into the right mindset for raiding as a functional team! Razorscale and Ignis kills followed the XT defeat rather quickly.
As one of the Raid Leaders who worked on the Ulduar progression kills, this is a challenge from various points of view. The leaders have to keep morale up, assign appropriate roles (for leaders and players), devise alternate strategies without confusing the members and maximize raid potential. This puzzle is continuously evolving before our eyes as new challenges are presented every time we go into this place.
The next step for the Heroic Raids is to clear those first four bosses on the first raid night so we have time to work on tackling the next section of the instance. I am planning on making the best effort to do this on the only scheduled Ulduar raid by minimizing Leviathan event time, assigning ALL roles before the run, moving us forward at a good pace (easy to do as a tank) and using concise explanations for bosses.
Rollback
With three nights of Ulduar scheduled per week we managed to get as far as I would expect for a casual guild with our population and skill. Many raiders were left disappointed and frustrated with the difficulty and requirements of the new instance. Some players who returned to raiding and new recruits had sub-par gear. Despite the fact that our guild has been farming Naxx for months, the decision was made to put Ulduar as one night a week then slowly bring it back to a 3 night a week event.
I see why this had to be done for gear and morale however I am discouraged by some of the attitudes that provoked the decision to re-introduce old raids on the calendar. Naxx has spoiled raiders and now many have fallen into an expectation of easy loot without effort. As soon as there is a struggle, they give up and leave their friends to fight for themselves in a challenging environment.
At some point, I hope that Heroic Naxx can be reserved for off-nights and become a distant memory. Players will always need gear, and there are other means to get Ulduar ready. I am running a 10 man Naxx on Sunday and Monday which has a good mix of experienced players, new players and alts who need gear. This is what the Karazhan runs used to be. Frankly, 10 man Naxx bores the hell out of me but I can just turn on the music, grab some tea and curb the boredom to make that place bearable. After all, these runs need to be in place as a stepping stone for new players and alts to have a means to make it into Ulduar. If another Raid Leader wants to take this run, I will gladly pass it to them.
Normal Ulduar
There are now two Ulduar 10 runs scheduled on weekends - a 2pm session and the Late Shift run at 9pm. I tend to run with Late Shift because my schedule can be unpredictable during the day on weekends. Late Shift has been very successful as we have killed 7 bosses including Hodir, one of the final four Guardians.
We worked on killing Thorim last week, he was much more challenging than expected. Maybe we can try Freya or just work on Thorim until he's down. The last four guardians are all difficult and present unique challenges to the raiders, it's a lot of fun!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Ulduar Update
I have been so busy with work Real Life and WoW that I have not posted here in a while. Here it goes!
Oh My! Patch 3.1
Patch 3.1 was released about a week earlier than anyone had anticipated. There were the usual server crashes and technical issues that come along with such a massive content update. My guild partially funded its members Dual Spec investment. Hopefully this new game feature will encourage players to tune their specs for current raiding content since we don't enforce raid oriented skills.
Flame Leviathan
Once the server lag settled down, we jumped immediately into Ulduar 25. Flame Leviathan is a free loot vehicle encounter. Since it is so easy, I wouldn't mind trying to complete the easiest of its various Hard Modes which involves destroying towers to remove buffs on the boss.
Some players in this guild are vehicle haters due to frustration experienced in Occulus, Malygos and also the principle of not using one's own abilities. These players seemed to tolerate or even enjoy the Flame Leaviathan encounter!
After Flame Leviathan, we had to decide where to go next. During the first week of Uduar, there was a bug on Ignis where players would take an inordinate amount of damage if they were hit my Melee while they were in his stomach. There was a Blue post which also indicated that the Enrage timer on Razorscale was too short. These bugs were later fixed, however at the time the most logical boss to go kill next was XT002-Deconstructor.
"I guess it doesn't bend that way!"
XT was probably inspired by a Blizzard encounter designer's 2 year old. This encounter accurately immerses one in the life of a parent of a 2 year old because this fight can be aggravating.
The first time we tried this boss, everyone was just getting used to the strategy for the boss. The next week we struggled a bit but the healers did a great job during the Tantrum Phase, the DPS on the heart was solid and add management was good for the most part. Since some players did not move at all when they had the Gravity and Light debuffs, position adjustments were made so that the healers were separate from the ranged DPS group.
After much discussion in the guild's IRC channel and discussion among the Raid Leaders, the strategy for this fight has been refined for this guild. I am confident that we can complete this encounter this week. One issue is that since we banged our heads on this encounter for a week, some strong players have not been signing up (likely due to frustration). A kill this week would certainly increase morale and encourage the faint hearted players to push forward in this difficult instance.
I'll make a post about the success that we have had in the 10 man version soon (work calls)!
Oh My! Patch 3.1
Patch 3.1 was released about a week earlier than anyone had anticipated. There were the usual server crashes and technical issues that come along with such a massive content update. My guild partially funded its members Dual Spec investment. Hopefully this new game feature will encourage players to tune their specs for current raiding content since we don't enforce raid oriented skills.
Flame Leviathan
Once the server lag settled down, we jumped immediately into Ulduar 25. Flame Leviathan is a free loot vehicle encounter. Since it is so easy, I wouldn't mind trying to complete the easiest of its various Hard Modes which involves destroying towers to remove buffs on the boss.
Some players in this guild are vehicle haters due to frustration experienced in Occulus, Malygos and also the principle of not using one's own abilities. These players seemed to tolerate or even enjoy the Flame Leaviathan encounter!
After Flame Leviathan, we had to decide where to go next. During the first week of Uduar, there was a bug on Ignis where players would take an inordinate amount of damage if they were hit my Melee while they were in his stomach. There was a Blue post which also indicated that the Enrage timer on Razorscale was too short. These bugs were later fixed, however at the time the most logical boss to go kill next was XT002-Deconstructor.
"I guess it doesn't bend that way!"
XT was probably inspired by a Blizzard encounter designer's 2 year old. This encounter accurately immerses one in the life of a parent of a 2 year old because this fight can be aggravating.
The first time we tried this boss, everyone was just getting used to the strategy for the boss. The next week we struggled a bit but the healers did a great job during the Tantrum Phase, the DPS on the heart was solid and add management was good for the most part. Since some players did not move at all when they had the Gravity and Light debuffs, position adjustments were made so that the healers were separate from the ranged DPS group.
After much discussion in the guild's IRC channel and discussion among the Raid Leaders, the strategy for this fight has been refined for this guild. I am confident that we can complete this encounter this week. One issue is that since we banged our heads on this encounter for a week, some strong players have not been signing up (likely due to frustration). A kill this week would certainly increase morale and encourage the faint hearted players to push forward in this difficult instance.
I'll make a post about the success that we have had in the 10 man version soon (work calls)!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Onward!
With Ulduar on the horizon, my guild has been steadily clearing Naxx 25, Malygos and is working on Sarth+2D. I ask myself - Are we ready for the challenges of the near future?
Naxx 25, Carefully
Naxx 25 is on farm, however group balance and dynamics must still be considered when heading in to kill Kel'Thuzad. We have struggled a bit on this last boss so the Naxx 25 clears are still not easy or done very gracefully. This is a concern for the complex fights in Ulduar because if the mobs hit harder, and the raid takes even more damage then we may run into a roadblock. Even so, many people are acquiring the finishing touches on their gear and getting some much needed practice to improve their game.
Malygos
I have decided to discontinue running 10 man Malygos runs mostly because Malygos 25 is now on farm. Malygos 25 seems much easier than Kel'Thuzad on Naxx 25 now, I think it's because Kel is unpredictable whereas Malygos is a fight of memorization and pattern recognition.
This is the most fun fight for me to tank by far, and I get a real rush every time we defeat this boss!
For tactics, we're using a strategy loosely based on Ciderhelm's 6 min Malygos video. Tankspot has been a phenomenal resource for me as a Raid Leader to view tactics, get ideas for 10 man strategy and step up advanced tactics. On Phase 3, we use a 6 healer rotation like they use in this video, which was the missing component from our previous Malygos attempts.
Sarth
We took a hiatus from official Sarth runs to focus on Malygos but now that Malygos is on farm, Sarth and Malygos are done in the same night. Last night, we had some solid attempts on Sarth+2D. We wiped a lot for various reasons, but we got better at the encounter each time. Fatigue started to set in and we just did Sarth+1D, but I won't be surprised to see a Sarth+2D kill very soon considering our rate of improvement.
Ulduar, Here we come
Ulduar is soon, and I wonder if we are ready. A large part of the guild has mostly Best In Slot gear (including myself), and a lot of people have been raiding consistently even though they don't need the gear. Others have been signing up less for raids and taking a break. Hopefully they will be motivated to participate when Ulduar raids are up on the guild calendar. I have mixed feelings about our preparedness for the upcoming challenges, but as always, the Thugs will stand strong and give it our best shot!
Naxx 25, Carefully
Naxx 25 is on farm, however group balance and dynamics must still be considered when heading in to kill Kel'Thuzad. We have struggled a bit on this last boss so the Naxx 25 clears are still not easy or done very gracefully. This is a concern for the complex fights in Ulduar because if the mobs hit harder, and the raid takes even more damage then we may run into a roadblock. Even so, many people are acquiring the finishing touches on their gear and getting some much needed practice to improve their game.
Malygos
I have decided to discontinue running 10 man Malygos runs mostly because Malygos 25 is now on farm. Malygos 25 seems much easier than Kel'Thuzad on Naxx 25 now, I think it's because Kel is unpredictable whereas Malygos is a fight of memorization and pattern recognition.
This is the most fun fight for me to tank by far, and I get a real rush every time we defeat this boss!
For tactics, we're using a strategy loosely based on Ciderhelm's 6 min Malygos video. Tankspot has been a phenomenal resource for me as a Raid Leader to view tactics, get ideas for 10 man strategy and step up advanced tactics. On Phase 3, we use a 6 healer rotation like they use in this video, which was the missing component from our previous Malygos attempts.
Sarth
We took a hiatus from official Sarth runs to focus on Malygos but now that Malygos is on farm, Sarth and Malygos are done in the same night. Last night, we had some solid attempts on Sarth+2D. We wiped a lot for various reasons, but we got better at the encounter each time. Fatigue started to set in and we just did Sarth+1D, but I won't be surprised to see a Sarth+2D kill very soon considering our rate of improvement.
Ulduar, Here we come
Ulduar is soon, and I wonder if we are ready. A large part of the guild has mostly Best In Slot gear (including myself), and a lot of people have been raiding consistently even though they don't need the gear. Others have been signing up less for raids and taking a break. Hopefully they will be motivated to participate when Ulduar raids are up on the guild calendar. I have mixed feelings about our preparedness for the upcoming challenges, but as always, the Thugs will stand strong and give it our best shot!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Malygos is Dead!
Last night was the time to complete 10 man EoE. The guild has progressed far enough from a gear and skill perspective. We have all learned how to play together and maximize each player's strengths in a raid. This was proven last night as we took raiding to a higher level on Malygos.Originally the group was going to have an additional caster. However, an Unholy Death Knight was substituted in which would allow the raid to have all three major Death Knight cooldowns and auras. One of the problems that had held groups back from maximum DPS and survival capacity in the past was too many players with the same buffs/gains that would overwrite each other.
Tank: Paladin (w/ Kings)
Healers: Druid, Shaman, Priest (w/ Light Well)
DPS: Warrior , Mage (Frostfire), Warlock (Affliction), Death Knight (Blood), Death Knight (Frost), Death Knight (Unholy)
This was a very balanced group since there would be no overwriting of major buffs. The group was also very durable, which is very important for this run. Any more cloth casters may have presented issues during phase 2. The group was slightly melee heavy, but we were able to kill the scions fast enough in Phase 2 to get the Death Knights more platforms.
Our first attempt was very solid, we missed a few cooldowns & sparks, and still managed to get to Phase 3 with over 2 minutes left. Each attempt, the group communicated more, synchronized their cooldowns a bit better and got on track. By the Fourth try, we got to phase 3 with a couple of dead at the with 3min40sec left. This is perfect. It was tight near the end. Who ever thought I would be screaming at the remaining players on the drakes to put "More DOTs! More DOTs! More DOTs!" well I got a little excited and did say that... Malygos was killed at the enrage.Congratulations to all the participants! Thanks to those who have attended regularly and put up with multiple wipe fests! For the people who had never seen this fight before, no one would have guessed since you had had watched the videos and came prepared. Great Effort!
Where do we go from here with this run? It's certainly a difficult fight. After leading many unsuccessful (successful for learning though) runs and now completing a successful Malygos kill, I have a good idea of the minimum requirements to complete this instance. I think it can easily be farmed every week as long as group composition is watched closely. Hopefully as many people as possible get the chance to kill Malygos, it is truly an epic event.
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