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!
Thursday, May 7, 2009
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.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Naxxramas: Status Report
Last night (Thursday) we completed another full clear of Naxxramas 25. The guild is making constant progress and we are almost making a comfortable two night clear. There are a few roadblocks in the way of this goal and I'll address some of them later in this post.
First off, I'll summarize the most recent run. This run felt a little awkward. Many little things crept up throughout the entire run such as disconnects, addon issues, communication problems etc. The leadership team handled all of this very well and the players were patient when we were working out problems.
The goal of the run was to complete the instance, all that remained was the last two bosses in the Arachnid Quarter, the entire Construct Quarter and Frostwyrm Lair.
When we killed Faerlina, some of the addon trouble began. We're using an addon called EPGPlootmaster which makes loot very very fast when it works properly. It appeared that the loot addon would act up if someone disconnected during the run. We had a couple of participants in the run who had connectivity issues on bosses which resulted in loot problems. The Raid Leader assigned to loot handled this frustrating dilemma very well, and we tried to move on as quickly as possible. Once the addon problems are sorted out, this will save a significant amount of time.
Other than loot delays and waiting for some disconnects, it was smooth sailing through Naxx until Thaddius. This boss has been a stumbling point for our raids in the past. The same problems arise just about every time. Players miss jumps from Feugen and Stalagg's platforms which excludes both their DPS and their raid DPS charge buff for too long. They also miss the Polarity Shifts and end up on the wrong polarity side which will sometimes kill a couple of squishies.
In addition to the usual problems, we try to Battle Rez players in this fight. For a successful Battle Rez, the Druid must go out of the action and resurrect the player away from the charge buff area; also the player being resurrected must accept the resurrection right when Thaddius is casting the Polarity Shift. This is rarely successful, and will remove a Druid doing DPS and their DPS charge buff for a long time.
Eventually I had to tell the raid "if you die, you will NOT get rezzed so don't count on it". Maybe saying this has nothing to do with the actual outcome of the battle but we killed Thaddius the next try with very few deaths. I think the "no rez" approach is probably a good policy to keep in this encounter, as every time someone has to rez it's too costly to the raid.
On a positive note (oops bad pun) - the majority of players including those that often have trouble with fine movement have significantly improved their performance on this fight. It's great to see personal improvement among the raid participants, good job!
After the minor debacle on Thaddius, we proceeded to kill Sapphiron without too many issues. One thing to mention is how much the healing squad has improved on this fight. Often after a Frost Block I would have no incoming heals and get dangerously low on health throughout the encounter (and die sometimes). The healers kept a nice steady stream of incoming heals on me and the entire raid. Great job!
On to the final boss - The leader of The Cult of the Damned, Kel'Thuzad.
Knowing in advance that I was leading this fight, I worked out all assignments ahead of time and kept a list of who will be doing what for each phase and also a list of reminders for the raid as this fight is so busy. The overall explanation and assignments from me took 7 minutes. To me this is extraordinarily long to explain a fight but he is Kel'Thuzad, the final boss in Naxxramas. I would rather spend more time preparing instead of wiping then working out the assignments which should have been done anyway. We're all set to go in - Melee groups set to go, interrupts arranged, healer positioning and assignments set etc.
Chaaaarrrge! First Phase - cake, here comes Kel'Thuzad... I picked him up, pulled him to his spot and tanked. All looked good, we lost a couple of people to Frost Blocks, one or two to Shadows, still moving strong. When Kel'Thuzad was at about 60%, everyone on my screen stopped, they were running in place... *BOOM* Disconnect. I panicked a bit and yelled into vent "I'm disconnecting!!". One of the OTs taunted immediately and took my place. I managed to get back into the game about 30 seconds later, the adds were incoming in a few moments, and a couple of people had died. There was still hope for this fight. I was on adds duty, the other OT and I picked them up, it was a little tricky to get the right positioning for them. With the combination of confusion from being our first attempt, disconnects and having some people die for various reasons, our raid ran out of steam and Kel'Thuzad had ~250K health left (2%) when we died. Dammit!
That was a great first attempt though, we went back in immediately with plenty of momentum. By this time, we had hit the official raid end time, no one is ever obligated to raid beyond this time and it's also pretty late for East Coast players. Everyone wanted to continue, great! We got buffs up, worked out a few kinks and rushed in there again. There were again issues with ice blocks, Mind controls and such. There were two designated melee groups who have to stay far enough apart so that only one group gets blocked at a time. A couple of people were in between both groups and formed a bridge for the ice block. Almost the entirety of the melee force got ice blocked at once. This was terrible... but it was also impressive! (in a cruel kind of way). This initiated the slow killing of the raid.
Something similar happened on the next attempt too. I was ice blocked as well, this was very frustrating. Also, some healers would die in blocks too, this made us fall behind. Even with all these issues, we had very good DPS, steady healing and good recovery. This was certainly within our reach. We just had to concentrate, pull it together and get this boss!
A few players had to depart because it was late. No problem - they have no obligation to stay and their contribution for the raid was appreciated. We replaced a few raid slots and went in for the kill - DONE! Another full clear of Naxx! Great Job.
Considering all the little things that happened, I tried to keep the run moving. I have been implementing methods of minimizing downtime and it has been pretty effective. I must admit that after getting disconnected, then being ice blocked twice, I was pretty frustrated. I just let out some of that frustration in discussion after and then let it go. Honestly, I had a ton of fun! It was still an odd run, but everyone learned a lot. I'll try to take a lot of experience from this as a leader regarding communication and how to deal with unexpected situations. I'm also happy that any frustration from this run didn't continue for long after; in the past things like this would bother me but I do realize this is a game and it's nothing to really get worked up about, I just get passionate sometimes.
Great Run! We'll have an easy 2 night clear in no time.
First off, I'll summarize the most recent run. This run felt a little awkward. Many little things crept up throughout the entire run such as disconnects, addon issues, communication problems etc. The leadership team handled all of this very well and the players were patient when we were working out problems.
The goal of the run was to complete the instance, all that remained was the last two bosses in the Arachnid Quarter, the entire Construct Quarter and Frostwyrm Lair.
When we killed Faerlina, some of the addon trouble began. We're using an addon called EPGPlootmaster which makes loot very very fast when it works properly. It appeared that the loot addon would act up if someone disconnected during the run. We had a couple of participants in the run who had connectivity issues on bosses which resulted in loot problems. The Raid Leader assigned to loot handled this frustrating dilemma very well, and we tried to move on as quickly as possible. Once the addon problems are sorted out, this will save a significant amount of time.
Other than loot delays and waiting for some disconnects, it was smooth sailing through Naxx until Thaddius. This boss has been a stumbling point for our raids in the past. The same problems arise just about every time. Players miss jumps from Feugen and Stalagg's platforms which excludes both their DPS and their raid DPS charge buff for too long. They also miss the Polarity Shifts and end up on the wrong polarity side which will sometimes kill a couple of squishies.
In addition to the usual problems, we try to Battle Rez players in this fight. For a successful Battle Rez, the Druid must go out of the action and resurrect the player away from the charge buff area; also the player being resurrected must accept the resurrection right when Thaddius is casting the Polarity Shift. This is rarely successful, and will remove a Druid doing DPS and their DPS charge buff for a long time.
Eventually I had to tell the raid "if you die, you will NOT get rezzed so don't count on it". Maybe saying this has nothing to do with the actual outcome of the battle but we killed Thaddius the next try with very few deaths. I think the "no rez" approach is probably a good policy to keep in this encounter, as every time someone has to rez it's too costly to the raid.
On a positive note (oops bad pun) - the majority of players including those that often have trouble with fine movement have significantly improved their performance on this fight. It's great to see personal improvement among the raid participants, good job!
After the minor debacle on Thaddius, we proceeded to kill Sapphiron without too many issues. One thing to mention is how much the healing squad has improved on this fight. Often after a Frost Block I would have no incoming heals and get dangerously low on health throughout the encounter (and die sometimes). The healers kept a nice steady stream of incoming heals on me and the entire raid. Great job!
On to the final boss - The leader of The Cult of the Damned, Kel'Thuzad.
Knowing in advance that I was leading this fight, I worked out all assignments ahead of time and kept a list of who will be doing what for each phase and also a list of reminders for the raid as this fight is so busy. The overall explanation and assignments from me took 7 minutes. To me this is extraordinarily long to explain a fight but he is Kel'Thuzad, the final boss in Naxxramas. I would rather spend more time preparing instead of wiping then working out the assignments which should have been done anyway. We're all set to go in - Melee groups set to go, interrupts arranged, healer positioning and assignments set etc.
Chaaaarrrge! First Phase - cake, here comes Kel'Thuzad... I picked him up, pulled him to his spot and tanked. All looked good, we lost a couple of people to Frost Blocks, one or two to Shadows, still moving strong. When Kel'Thuzad was at about 60%, everyone on my screen stopped, they were running in place... *BOOM* Disconnect. I panicked a bit and yelled into vent "I'm disconnecting!!". One of the OTs taunted immediately and took my place. I managed to get back into the game about 30 seconds later, the adds were incoming in a few moments, and a couple of people had died. There was still hope for this fight. I was on adds duty, the other OT and I picked them up, it was a little tricky to get the right positioning for them. With the combination of confusion from being our first attempt, disconnects and having some people die for various reasons, our raid ran out of steam and Kel'Thuzad had ~250K health left (2%) when we died. Dammit!
That was a great first attempt though, we went back in immediately with plenty of momentum. By this time, we had hit the official raid end time, no one is ever obligated to raid beyond this time and it's also pretty late for East Coast players. Everyone wanted to continue, great! We got buffs up, worked out a few kinks and rushed in there again. There were again issues with ice blocks, Mind controls and such. There were two designated melee groups who have to stay far enough apart so that only one group gets blocked at a time. A couple of people were in between both groups and formed a bridge for the ice block. Almost the entirety of the melee force got ice blocked at once. This was terrible... but it was also impressive! (in a cruel kind of way). This initiated the slow killing of the raid.
Something similar happened on the next attempt too. I was ice blocked as well, this was very frustrating. Also, some healers would die in blocks too, this made us fall behind. Even with all these issues, we had very good DPS, steady healing and good recovery. This was certainly within our reach. We just had to concentrate, pull it together and get this boss!
A few players had to depart because it was late. No problem - they have no obligation to stay and their contribution for the raid was appreciated. We replaced a few raid slots and went in for the kill - DONE! Another full clear of Naxx! Great Job.
Considering all the little things that happened, I tried to keep the run moving. I have been implementing methods of minimizing downtime and it has been pretty effective. I must admit that after getting disconnected, then being ice blocked twice, I was pretty frustrated. I just let out some of that frustration in discussion after and then let it go. Honestly, I had a ton of fun! It was still an odd run, but everyone learned a lot. I'll try to take a lot of experience from this as a leader regarding communication and how to deal with unexpected situations. I'm also happy that any frustration from this run didn't continue for long after; in the past things like this would bother me but I do realize this is a game and it's nothing to really get worked up about, I just get passionate sometimes.
Great Run! We'll have an easy 2 night clear in no time.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Raiding Toolbox
Here is a quick overview of the tools that I use for leading raids.
Is your raid forgetful? Do people come unprepared? No worries, use BigBrother to watch your raid's every move. Buffs, food, elixirs, flasks and more!
Have you ever joined a PUG where the tank takes 2 patrol routes of a mob to mark up the kill order? No more slow marking with MagicMarker! You set a target order, and hold down a button to do mouse over marking. You can also save target configurations for each mob in a database and share it with others so that you just hit a button and the next large group auto marks. It's so fast that your healers are guaranteed to never be out of combat to recover mana!
EPGPLootmaster is a fresh addon that we have been experimenting with in the guild. It makes loot so easy! Doing loot in raid chat would take forever. Now everyone in the raid can select need/offspec/pass and be done with it. Loot for a 25 man raid boss took ~2 minutes (instead of 5+minutes). Less loot time = more killing time = uber.
Big Wigs is the most reliable source for boss timers and warnings in raids.
ORA2 - This is must have. Tank Lists, Assist Frames, Cooldowns (including Battle Rez cooldowns), Durability, Resistances etc. Any information that you need on the fly can be accessed with this addon.
For aggro management, Omen is the best. It provides a neat display of each player's threat in a customizable window.
Addons that I want but are not being used effectively:
- Good Raid frames that do not use up too much memory and are not ugly
- Something that tells the raid when I cast certain spells
- A button that I can press which will play a recording of myself explaining fights
For detailed info, Quaiche is the addon guru - check out Q's WoW Setup
Is your raid forgetful? Do people come unprepared? No worries, use BigBrother to watch your raid's every move. Buffs, food, elixirs, flasks and more!
Have you ever joined a PUG where the tank takes 2 patrol routes of a mob to mark up the kill order? No more slow marking with MagicMarker! You set a target order, and hold down a button to do mouse over marking. You can also save target configurations for each mob in a database and share it with others so that you just hit a button and the next large group auto marks. It's so fast that your healers are guaranteed to never be out of combat to recover mana!
EPGPLootmaster is a fresh addon that we have been experimenting with in the guild. It makes loot so easy! Doing loot in raid chat would take forever. Now everyone in the raid can select need/offspec/pass and be done with it. Loot for a 25 man raid boss took ~2 minutes (instead of 5+minutes). Less loot time = more killing time = uber.
Big Wigs is the most reliable source for boss timers and warnings in raids.
ORA2 - This is must have. Tank Lists, Assist Frames, Cooldowns (including Battle Rez cooldowns), Durability, Resistances etc. Any information that you need on the fly can be accessed with this addon.
For aggro management, Omen is the best. It provides a neat display of each player's threat in a customizable window.
Addons that I want but are not being used effectively:
- Good Raid frames that do not use up too much memory and are not ugly
- Something that tells the raid when I cast certain spells
- A button that I can press which will play a recording of myself explaining fights
For detailed info, Quaiche is the addon guru - check out Q's WoW Setup
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
All the Small things Cont'd
I will share my thoughts about the remaining points that come up while I lead casual raids.
Enable a social and friendly atmosphere, but not let this hinder raid performance
This topic is where casual raiding and hardcore raiding diverges the most. In hardcore guilds, raids are very serious business and socializing is to be done outside of raid time.
Some players attend our guild's raids to socialize. The best approach for this is to emphasize clearing vent and chat on progression or difficult content. Otherwise let the raid chatter away, we're there to have fun after all. Sometimes the raid's social atmosphere will feel strange when it's too quiet; I'll end up cracking stupid jokes and sounding like an ass. Good times.
Social atmosphere is where the 25 man raids and the 10 man raids are different. Thee 25 mans have more assignments, buffs and more to pay attention to (even though I find 25 mans easier to play and lead). Basically I try to leave the floor open for discussion and when things go awry during a time where we need concentration, a good stern "Clear vent now" takes care of business.
Make appropriate assignments based on class/spec strengths & Consider assignments based on player gear and skill
Knowledge is key to being a strong leader. One can have all the charisma in the world but if you can't divide and conquer then you're just another player. While farming in-game and during downtime at work, I have spent hours of time watching videos, reading/watching alternate strategies, reading about how to do encounters with non-ideal groups etc. Everybody has their place in an encounter, and it's up to the leaders to put them in a position that favors their personal success and the raid's success. Sometimes raid progression and player progression will be separate, and one must choose the best path. I'll use an example:
We're about to try Four Horsemen. The Raid Leader needs to assign two people for staying on Lady Blameaux and Sir Zeliek. Two members in the raid have done this numerous times without a problem. One player is newer and has not done it. Their gear also isn't as good as the other two condidates.
Do I assign the newer person to the back to make them learn this encounter (and perhaps expect a wipe) or do I put the two experienced players back there?
For me, the answer isn't the ideal one. It depends. Will this person need to do it again in the near future? How strong is rest of the raid? Do we have enough time?
This part of using one's knowledge of the mechanics of an encounter and knowing a player's strengths/weaknesses to make a decision. Eventually everyone who plays certain classes and specs should play the difficult role in Horsemen, and I'll try to put them there when the time is right.
Another thought that I would like to add is that it's great to give interested people those difficult tasks to complete. As long as they are actively trying to improve then they should be given a chance. I recall co-leading a run a long time ago where a player was having difficulty kiting adds on Gluth. I asked in the RL channel "should I replace him? He's having trouble back there." The other leader replied with "No, give him a chance, he's improving." After a few wipes, this player learned the kite. I was surprised, this was so amazing to see. Since then I have tried not to jump into switching all positions immediately if there is trouble, give people a chance to work things out and it will be a personal victory for them and advancement in the raid's skill level.
Be able to concisely describe and summarize all encounters in a short period of time
From the long winded posts here, it seems that I may have an issue with being concise. The amount of time that I spend explaining fights varies. I keep a notebook and text file with summaries of all the encounters; it contains all assignments, fight progression and boss abilities. I admit that lately I have been winging all the 10 mans. I do a degree of prep for the 25 mans, especially for fights that require a divide (like Horsemen).
I used to have long drawn out explanations and discussion for fights when most of the group was doing these fights for the first time. Part of this is because we are a casual guild, many people don't watch videos of encounters. We explain assuming that they don't prepare for the encounters (however I expect that people do prepare). I'm now leaning more towards the "throw them into the heat of battle" approach. Perhaps a hybrid approach is best.
Things evolve. I started off in progression doing the drawn out explanations of the mechanics behind Horsemen. Now I just say "who has not done this fight?" then give a quick explanation to the new folks, often cutting corners "Just follow this target, stick together". There are strengths and weaknesses in this approach, the last thing that I want is to put a 25 man raid in a coma while explaining fights. Our raids are all about energy and momentum, and I'll occasionally sacrifice a "perfect" fight for enthusiasm.
Delegate the right tasks to other Raid Leaders
Delegation is another key to being a leader. If there are other leaders in the raid, use them. I know sometimes we like to do everything ourselves, but there is nothing wrong with asking for another's expertise to complete a fight (other Raid Leaders, or experienced players).
For example: When I tank Loatheb, I can't always see where the spores are coming from. I usually assign a Ranged DPS to call out which group should be getting the spores and the locations.
Conversely, I strongly believe that a Raid Leader should be able to lead a 25 man progression raid solo. Why? We're leaders, we should be good at what we do even if we're thrown into the fire.
If someone else is leading, assist without getting in the way
This is the opposite of the point above. If someone is leading, let them do their job. Be there for leadership support, offer help but when the tasks are set, don't get in the way, try not to interrupt.
Sometimes I wonder how to deal with certain cases. I have seen a leader make a bad assignment for a fight or explain something awkwardly. Sometimes I say something, sometimes I don't. I guess it depends on the magnitude of what is going on. I also listen to the other leaders and learn from their style. We all have a different style and approach to leading. I'll sometimes integrate qualities of the other leaders' style if it fits better for the task at hand. Smart people listen to all those around them and absorb knowledge and others' strengths.
Develop a consistent predictable system for kill order, groups, etc.
This is straightforward. For new people, just review your guild's system. I often forget to set groups based on group buffs ans group benefits. Having a good consistent system will be very helpful when we get to progression content.
Listen to suggestions, be able to modify strategy on the fly
Sometimes we struggle on certain fights, especially if we have non-ideal groups for certain fights. Then the alternate strategies will be brought up by the members of the raid (especially from the leaders). It's great to get suggestions when we're struggling, and to have good places to discuss it. Sometimes you just have to say "my strategy sucked, let's go with yours". I listen to all the incoming suggestions, and modify our approach. This is a combination of knowing the mechanics of a fight and acknowledging that there are so many ways to do it. It seems that the "ideal" way never works for our group, that's fine, we never get bored that way. It's important to listen and also be able to decline certain strategies (no matter who they come from). Decisions Decisions Decisions.
Have fun and keep up morale!
Everyone can get so caught up in trying to succeed, keep things under control and guild drama that you lose sight of why everybody is playing Warcraft - to have FUN! This is an amazing game full of exciting tasks to complete. There are struggles and many facets of the game and leadership that are not fun, but in the end it's worth it.
Enable a social and friendly atmosphere, but not let this hinder raid performance
This topic is where casual raiding and hardcore raiding diverges the most. In hardcore guilds, raids are very serious business and socializing is to be done outside of raid time.
Some players attend our guild's raids to socialize. The best approach for this is to emphasize clearing vent and chat on progression or difficult content. Otherwise let the raid chatter away, we're there to have fun after all. Sometimes the raid's social atmosphere will feel strange when it's too quiet; I'll end up cracking stupid jokes and sounding like an ass. Good times.
Social atmosphere is where the 25 man raids and the 10 man raids are different. Thee 25 mans have more assignments, buffs and more to pay attention to (even though I find 25 mans easier to play and lead). Basically I try to leave the floor open for discussion and when things go awry during a time where we need concentration, a good stern "Clear vent now" takes care of business.
Make appropriate assignments based on class/spec strengths & Consider assignments based on player gear and skill
Knowledge is key to being a strong leader. One can have all the charisma in the world but if you can't divide and conquer then you're just another player. While farming in-game and during downtime at work, I have spent hours of time watching videos, reading/watching alternate strategies, reading about how to do encounters with non-ideal groups etc. Everybody has their place in an encounter, and it's up to the leaders to put them in a position that favors their personal success and the raid's success. Sometimes raid progression and player progression will be separate, and one must choose the best path. I'll use an example:
We're about to try Four Horsemen. The Raid Leader needs to assign two people for staying on Lady Blameaux and Sir Zeliek. Two members in the raid have done this numerous times without a problem. One player is newer and has not done it. Their gear also isn't as good as the other two condidates.
Do I assign the newer person to the back to make them learn this encounter (and perhaps expect a wipe) or do I put the two experienced players back there?
For me, the answer isn't the ideal one. It depends. Will this person need to do it again in the near future? How strong is rest of the raid? Do we have enough time?
This part of using one's knowledge of the mechanics of an encounter and knowing a player's strengths/weaknesses to make a decision. Eventually everyone who plays certain classes and specs should play the difficult role in Horsemen, and I'll try to put them there when the time is right.
Another thought that I would like to add is that it's great to give interested people those difficult tasks to complete. As long as they are actively trying to improve then they should be given a chance. I recall co-leading a run a long time ago where a player was having difficulty kiting adds on Gluth. I asked in the RL channel "should I replace him? He's having trouble back there." The other leader replied with "No, give him a chance, he's improving." After a few wipes, this player learned the kite. I was surprised, this was so amazing to see. Since then I have tried not to jump into switching all positions immediately if there is trouble, give people a chance to work things out and it will be a personal victory for them and advancement in the raid's skill level.
Be able to concisely describe and summarize all encounters in a short period of time
From the long winded posts here, it seems that I may have an issue with being concise. The amount of time that I spend explaining fights varies. I keep a notebook and text file with summaries of all the encounters; it contains all assignments, fight progression and boss abilities. I admit that lately I have been winging all the 10 mans. I do a degree of prep for the 25 mans, especially for fights that require a divide (like Horsemen).
I used to have long drawn out explanations and discussion for fights when most of the group was doing these fights for the first time. Part of this is because we are a casual guild, many people don't watch videos of encounters. We explain assuming that they don't prepare for the encounters (however I expect that people do prepare). I'm now leaning more towards the "throw them into the heat of battle" approach. Perhaps a hybrid approach is best.
Things evolve. I started off in progression doing the drawn out explanations of the mechanics behind Horsemen. Now I just say "who has not done this fight?" then give a quick explanation to the new folks, often cutting corners "Just follow this target, stick together". There are strengths and weaknesses in this approach, the last thing that I want is to put a 25 man raid in a coma while explaining fights. Our raids are all about energy and momentum, and I'll occasionally sacrifice a "perfect" fight for enthusiasm.
Delegate the right tasks to other Raid Leaders
Delegation is another key to being a leader. If there are other leaders in the raid, use them. I know sometimes we like to do everything ourselves, but there is nothing wrong with asking for another's expertise to complete a fight (other Raid Leaders, or experienced players).
For example: When I tank Loatheb, I can't always see where the spores are coming from. I usually assign a Ranged DPS to call out which group should be getting the spores and the locations.
Conversely, I strongly believe that a Raid Leader should be able to lead a 25 man progression raid solo. Why? We're leaders, we should be good at what we do even if we're thrown into the fire.
If someone else is leading, assist without getting in the way
This is the opposite of the point above. If someone is leading, let them do their job. Be there for leadership support, offer help but when the tasks are set, don't get in the way, try not to interrupt.
Sometimes I wonder how to deal with certain cases. I have seen a leader make a bad assignment for a fight or explain something awkwardly. Sometimes I say something, sometimes I don't. I guess it depends on the magnitude of what is going on. I also listen to the other leaders and learn from their style. We all have a different style and approach to leading. I'll sometimes integrate qualities of the other leaders' style if it fits better for the task at hand. Smart people listen to all those around them and absorb knowledge and others' strengths.
Develop a consistent predictable system for kill order, groups, etc.
This is straightforward. For new people, just review your guild's system. I often forget to set groups based on group buffs ans group benefits. Having a good consistent system will be very helpful when we get to progression content.
Listen to suggestions, be able to modify strategy on the fly
Sometimes we struggle on certain fights, especially if we have non-ideal groups for certain fights. Then the alternate strategies will be brought up by the members of the raid (especially from the leaders). It's great to get suggestions when we're struggling, and to have good places to discuss it. Sometimes you just have to say "my strategy sucked, let's go with yours". I listen to all the incoming suggestions, and modify our approach. This is a combination of knowing the mechanics of a fight and acknowledging that there are so many ways to do it. It seems that the "ideal" way never works for our group, that's fine, we never get bored that way. It's important to listen and also be able to decline certain strategies (no matter who they come from). Decisions Decisions Decisions.
Have fun and keep up morale!
Everyone can get so caught up in trying to succeed, keep things under control and guild drama that you lose sight of why everybody is playing Warcraft - to have FUN! This is an amazing game full of exciting tasks to complete. There are struggles and many facets of the game and leadership that are not fun, but in the end it's worth it.
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