Arcane shot rotation update

With the changes to Arcane mages in the latest mini-patch abilities making my Arcane guide obsolete. (Well, the shot rotation part of it. Arcane Shatter is no longer possible and Arcane missiles is bugged to not take advantage of the Arcane Blast glyph) I have been experimenting to try to get the most out of my spec.

Of the many shot rotations, the one that proves the most reliable is a variation on the original:

Arcane Blast x3

Arcane Barrage

Repeat

Any time Missile Barrage procs fire it and end the volley with an Arcane Barrage.

We actually decided to try for the achievement on the second boss in Arachnid quarter, and this meant that the DPS went as hard as they could on the boss, whilst the tanks bounced the aggro between them across the room so the boss was running back and forth between them – I ended up using a modified rotation that was this:

Arcane Blast x4, Arcane Barrage – Missile Barrage on proc, tagged with Arcane Barrage.

This is VERY mana heavy, the x3 rotation gets the buffs stacked, but then consumes it for the Arcane Barrage nuke. The fourth arcane blast costs too much mana to really use in most situations, but in this one it came in useful. The fourth Arcane Blast costs about 1200 mana to cost, and gets the full 45% (54% glyphed) bonus damage, and is very quick to cast. This is then followed up with the standard Arcane Barrage for a big cheap hit before restacking the buff.

If your very daring you could theoretically just keep spamming Arcane Blast, but I think I can only get 19 off whilst chain casting with my entire mana bar. (about 20k)

I don’t have figures for how much more DPS this provides, but we managed to get the boss down – although something we done stopped the achievement from being completed.

At the end of the run (4 bosses and onto Haigan the Unclean) I had a DPS in excess of 2800 – so I am still pulling about 400-600DPS extra on average, which is a good enough boost for me to stick with the spec. When they fix the bug with Arcane Missiles and Arcane Blast glyph buff, then those missile barrage procs will hit harder as more often than not you fire it off with one or two arcane blast buffs on.

I was hitting 3k sustained DPS on some bosses – which is very nice in my opinion! Same bosses I was pulling about 2600-2800 with the previous spec on same bosses.

Oh, one other bonus of the spec: More instant casts. During the safety dance I actually continue to attack the boss with instant casts. In this spec I strafe through the dance alternating Ice Lance and Arcane Barrage at him on the platform – and at the end of each run dance run (when you get to the 4^th quarter, and turn back to run to the 1^st position and before you change direction again) I can squeeze off a missile barrage.

We will get him Friday. Everyone knows the dance – we just got unlucky, we only had one disease remover, and it was the priest who kept getting caught by the dance waves due to lag.

REALLY looking forward to Loetheb… When these spells crit, they crit mercilessly. Talking 7, 8, 9k for each Arcane Blast, 13-14k for the Arcane Barrage and 3-5k (I think) for each Arcane Missiles tick. (used to be over 6k with the glyph…)

-V

I can has an arcane monster?

Consider this a bit of a guide to Arcane. Below are as many hints and tips as I could pull together in my sitting last night.

I put together THIS spec last night after the raid. I grabbed the Arcane Blast glyph from the auction house. I let the tests commence.

Frost Fire Build results: 2200 DPS on one mana bar (this is blowing all cooldowns)

Shot rotation:

Activate macro that turns on Icy veins, combustion, trinket and Mirror Image.

Frostfire Bolt - Living Bomb - Frostfire Bolt - Fireblast - Frostfire Bolt - Frostfire Bolt - Living Bomb - repeat.

Throw in the free pyroblast whenever possible. This is the highest DPS shot rotation I have been able to work out (Dont stack scorch, it probably results in more DPS but I just dont work that way.)

Not too shabby. It can peak at 3k on Patchwerk with a warlock by my side.

Arcane test: 2600

Shot rotation:

Arcane Blast x3, Arcane Missiles (Or Missile Barrage which procs about half the time) and “Arcane Shatter” an Arcane Barrage alongside the final bolt. (this is tricky, I think I get it about half the time, but Im seeing the arcane barrage hit for up to 14k self-buffed for the cost of a global cooldown!)

I think I will stick with this spec for a while yet. With this damage boost off the cuff, once its optimized I expect to be regularly pulling 3k in a raid instead of 2.2k.

I got to give it a test run in Halls of Lightening heroic with some guildies – and my DPS was about 500 (that’s about 25%) higher than frostfire bolt build, and to evidence this – I was a clear 20% dps higher than the pally tank, when the last run I was only 5% in front of him (high damage AOE tanking is impressive!).

Arcane shot rotation tips:

This next section WAS going to be a follow up to the above, but its probably best fitting in here. Much of the base info, such as the shot rotation, is half-inched from Critical QQ. I consider him my instructor in such matters, and his experimentations have often had me respeccing to try new things out for myself. Much respect Sah /salute.

First things first, mana management.

In this spec you are going to have a massive mana pool. You are also going to have a number of tools at your disposal to keep you casting.

Your damage output and mana consumption vary directly with each other. The more damage you do, the faster you burn through your mana. Details included below will give some guidance to some mana regen techniques.

Spell Combo.

The most aggressive spell combo that I can see, is:

Arcane Blast x3, Arcane Missiles + Arcane Barrage (Technique dubbed Arcane Shatter by Euripides)

If you are not required to do max dps or your wanting to conserve mana, such as on long non-dps race boss fights (kael’thuzad for example?) you can reduce the mana burn by casting less arcane blasts. You do lose 20% damage bonus per arcane blast debuff stack you don’t put on, but each time you try to add to that stack the mana consumption gets huge.

From my own tests – I have managed to maintain almost 9 minutes of flat out aggressive casting – averaging 2500DPS on test. I had to slow my output when waiting for the last few seconds before being able to regenerate mana, but in a raid when you have mana tide totems, replenishment, shadow priest or a blessing of Wisdom – you will be able to hold out for longer with a good Mana regen technique.

Mana Regen Technique.

To sustain that length of aggressive casting, I needed to use all 3 mana gems, 2 mana potions (invisibility to drop from combat to start the pot timer cooldown) and I popped 4 evocations. Overall I done approximately 1.2 Million damage, that’s a good quarter of the health of most Naxx normal bosses. With some modifications to the technique I think it may just be viable to fight indefinitely – as long as you have a big enough supply of mana potions.

How to do it?

1) Mage armour:

I have a habit of always keeping mage armour up with the glyph of mage armour equipped– this provides 50% mana regen altogether. With this build the extra 30% mana regen whilst casting means that you are sat at 80% regen in combat (450 MP5 for me.)

2) Mana Gems

Make sure you have all 3 gems on you at all times – even if it means your having to stop casting mid fight to create a new stack of them, if it’s a long fight. Your mana pool will be so large, and your regen so good that you will regen the mana back during the gem creation cast time anyway, and if not, it wont dent your pool too badly – and will give you 12k+ of reserve mana.

3) Invisi-pot tactic.

When your evocation is on cooldown and your mana gem is on cooldown, feel free to pop a mana potion to get a chunk of mana back. Follow this up with invisibility to leave combat. This will start the potion cooldown timer – which I think is about 2 minutes.

Note: Invisibilitys cooldown is 5 minutes… it would have been possible to do this twice in that 9 minute period – which would have given me enough time to get a 5^th evocation off. If I paused to make more mana gems so they were ready, the cycle would start over – I would have been able to coast to the next evocation, and popped another invisi-pot cycle.

4) Aggressive use of evocation.

You will spend most of your time coasting between 75% and 5% mana – as soon as your evocation has cooled down and you are below 25% mana – Pop it! You want that cooldown to be ticking as soon as possible. It has a 2 minute cooldown.

With a slight juggling of talent points, it is more than feasible to have mana absorption in certain encounters, which will keep you going longer.

Overall, it’s a matter of practice – and a good supply of mana potions. I will test this tonight, my aim is to hit 15 minutes of non stop casting (aside from casting evocation or popping invisibility to reset the mana potion cooldown.)

5) Icy Veins + Arcane Power rationing.

Icy Veins reduces the mana cost of spells during its duration by 20%. It also reduces cast time by 20% - overall this is a balance, but gives a burst of damage. In a fight where splash damage is flying, as Euripides recommends, you can use Icy Veins to “shield” your evocation so it doesn’t get interrupted.

Arcane Power gives a huge damage boost, but increases the mana cost significantly. If your running low, hold off on using this. In a DPS race fight the boss will go down within the time period you have before your riding too low in mana with no cooldowns available, so it shouldn’t make a big difference, but on a long fight where your riding close to OOM, its not worth popping as youll spend time doing no damage.

Maximising your damage output.

Ok, so that covers shot rotations, and keeping that blue bar with a useable % value. Now onto getting the most out of your abilities.

1) Torment the weak

In a lot of fights, this is a tricky thing to maintain – but you will have slow as a backup if no one else is snaring the target with frost effects or other abilities. When the enemy is snared, you gain 12% damage against the target. It’s certainly worth burning a global cooldown for every 15 seconds to get the target Slowed for this bonus damage.

2) Focus magic

I did not realize just how useful this spell was until the Halls of Lightening run. Unfortunately I was the only caster DPS, so I was a bit stumped where to put this, but my wife suggested her, and after doing so – it proved a wonderful spell. She is resto druid with a regrowth fetish, which has a ridiculously high crit rate – so whenever we are in a battle where plenty of healing is flying, I almost never seen the 3% crit bonus drop from me.

Since we had an aggressive and high geared pally tank, and a high geared healer, we were more often than not taking several groups at once, which really plied the healing out which resulted in a lot of crits. The impressive thing is, that the 2600+ DPS I pulled on this fight was without much AOE – I did a few test blizzards and arcane explosions, which done nice crit damage, but overall I single targeted the mobs and nuked them down fast.

3) Clearcast

This one is a bit trickier in the above shot rotation. When it procs, your next spell is free, and has a bonus 30% crit chance. If your quick enough, its best to use this for the highest mana spell you have – Arcane Missiles. (Or blizzard if its situationally advantageous)

In addition, it may be possible that an Arcane Barrage shatter can be pulled off that will benefit from this bonus. I do have a sneaking suspicion that casting anything consumes this buff, unlike the arcane blast debuff – which will likely be nerfed to do so in a future patch. I have seen Arcane Barrage land for over 14K damage though – self buffed – after a Missile Barrage proc, with each bolt having the ability to crit for over 6k damage (that’s 44k damage in under 2.5 seconds if you have all the missile bolts crit, and your lucky to get an Arcane Barrage off within the required time period of that spell.)

4) Missile Barrage at 3 Blasts.

Again, I may be mistaken, but my DPS did drop when not doing this. Make sure that when Missile Barrage procs – you don’t use it until you have all 3 arcane blasts up. The buff will wait for you. By firing it off with only one arcane blast buff (or none sometimes) I noticed a significant dip in my DPS purely because the Missile Barrage did not have the damage buff. It’s the same as a rogues combo points. They aint going anywhere, so don’t waste the energy trying to build another stack when the big damage comes from doing that 5 point eviscerate – here, its getting that 3 stack Missile and barrage combo (44k in 1.5 s under heroism and superman’s reflexes remember…). In addition, the Arcane Barrage would be wasted as without all that damage bonus stacked on its simply a glorified fire blast, so WAIT FOR THE STACKS. Missile barrage proc’s often enough.

Macros

There are only a few macros I use, although I can think of many more.

Nuke

My Nuke macro is one that simply activates all my cooldowns (except for POM) at once, so I can get huge burst damage every 2-3 minutes.

/Cast Arcane Power

/Cast Icy Veins

/Use Cannoneer’s fuselighter

/Cast Mirror Image

Theres a few more lines around that but I think the simple version above would work fine. This activates my Arcane Power, Icy Veins, any trinkets I have (I add them in when I equip them.) and Casts my mirror Image.

I am not sure if Mirror image benefits from all the other buffs you get like your water elemental does, but it means that I get it cast, since I always forget to use it otherwise, and it’s a nice couple of hundred DPS boost for the 15 seconds they are around.

Pom anything

Presence of mind does not have a lot of place in the shot rotation above, but there are a few utilities or situational spells that may benefit.

Simple macro:

/cast presence of mind

/cast

• Frostbolt.

In PVP this would snare (possible root) a target, and hopefully do a nice chunk of damage in the process. This lets you get some distance, whilst spamming Arcane Barrage at them with a 12% bonus damage.

• Polymorph

As little as crowd control is used nowadays, its coming back in the future. Having a button available for an instant polymorph can prove invaluable for that mis-timed sheeping, or when an add breaks loose in close proximity.

• Arcane Blast

Why not cut the cast time of your first arcane blast to 0? Gets the buff up, and gets you onto the next faster casting blast.

Icy Evocation

On some fights it may be more beneficial to hang onto your icy veins for your evocates to stop it getting interrupted. Its better to get the whole evocate, than that momentary burst to your DPS. A simple macro should solve this.

/Cast Icy Veins

/Cast Evocation

That’s the end of my little hints list, I shall post again with further test results, and any other goodies I gather.

Just for fun: Try doing an arcane shatter combo when under the effects of heroism and a missile barrage proc. I swear, the missile barrage cant take longer than about 1.5 seconds to complete – barely enough time to get lined up for the arcane barrage. I actually squealed in panic over TeamSpeak with the group when this happened. Twice. Missiles-Voomvoomvoomvoomvoom Aarrghh Barrage, blast blast blast Voomvoomvoomvoom aaargh! Barrage.

Suffice to say I also pulled aggro, but the add died in the next hit!

P.P.S – Blizzard! Sort the names out! It’s a nightmare trying to discuss Arcane Missiles, Missile Barrage and Arcane Barrage, without getting them mixed up and spending half an hour proofreading. (Yes, probably my own fault for such long ranty posts… that’s not the point! :p )

-V

Frostfire --> Arcane

I actually meant to put this post up yesterday, as I now have a follow up, but here it is!

Its been a long time since I delved into the arcane tree any depth, but after reading all the info from Euripides at Critical QQ – I decided to take the dive. After tonight’s raid, I plan to glyph up, respect and hit the target dummies.

Glyph of Arcane Blast stacks… I did not know this. That’s a 60% damage bonus to you when you have 3 stacks going. Throw in an arcane shatter combo with this (Arcane Missiles promptly interrupted at the end by Arcane Barrage) and both get the damage boost. With a Missile Barrage proc I would hazard a guess at 10k of damage from the missiles in 2.5 seconds, followed by a 10k crit Arcane Barrage.

Holy crap!

As FFB build, I do some nice damage. With a warlock at my side I can get 2.5k – 3k DPS on a tank and spank boss fight – regularly seeing Frostfire bolts and instant pyroblasts hitting in the region of 11k, with my fireblasts and Living Bomb detonations hitting 6-8k, or thereabouts.

I shall do some tests with FFB before changing, and record the data for all to see…

Do I sense a boost to my output in raids? *grin*

Hell… this is a PVP spec… I may even hit the battlegrounds!

Oh, note to self: Check the mind-flay macro for your priest! This stops mind-flays being overlapped and reduces mana wastage – it might work for arcane missiles + arcane barrage combos. (Barrage wont launch until missiles finishes channeling, assuming this doesn’t result in the buff dropping off.)

Glyphs:

Glyphs of Arcane Blast.

Glyph of mage armour. (got)

Glyph of Evocation.

Running a social/raiding guild (beware the WOT!)

Apologies, this is one hell of a text crit.

Our guild has the joyous tag of social/casual raiding guild. We have aspirations to see all content that is released, and if possible, complete it on heroic. Most of us are willing to put in two or three good raid nights a week, are quick learners and know our classes.

I have seen a lot of blog posts over the last week regarding this kind of guild, and how difficult it is to run them. I really must concur with these comments.

We have 105 accounts – often seeing 30+ players online, and having more raid signups than we know what to do with. We have received requests for extra groups, extra nights on the calendar, and are regularly prodded by potential new members who want to raid with us.

From a class balance side of things, we have too many tanks (many who are upset as they have not gotten into raids yet due to the fact they would be getting carried, and were still trying to learn most of the fights on many of the current regular raiders.) and are shy on active priests and hunters.

One of the many catches we have is that we are a “social guild” and therefore most people get along and form bonds, and many people get friends/family into the guild – from a social perspective, we can’t really turn any of them away. These friends/family members then expect to get in on raids, which mean we have too many people wanting to raid, and it’s a hell of a juggling match.

At the current moment in time we have two 10-man Naxx groups going, and we regularly raid 4 nights a week – with the core raiders (main tanks, healers and officers) having little choice but to attend all these raids to lead, deal out loot and assist (we tend to be the better geared due to doing just this, so need to help for successful takedowns.).

We were originally running with one, but with the amount of swap out's we were doing to get gear and experience, we put the second one up as soon as enough healers were raid ready. The first group rolled with the hardest hitting and most experienced people – the result being Sundays Naxx takedown. The second group had some of the experienced players, and a lot of new raiders – who basically had to start from scratch – in 3 nights they managed to clear the Arachnid quarter. Not too bad, but some of the second group were regulars of the first group, and it was a very depressing week of raiding considering.

From this week, we are evenly distributing the geared and experienced people between the two groups, with the hopes of getting quite far, and getting lost of shinys for people.

Logistically this is a nightmare. We have some 7 or 8 tanks signing, (can take 4) are often a little shy on healers, and have craploads of DPS sign – almost entirely Death knights + rogues and druids.

It is hard to keep everyone happy, try to maintain a balanced group and try to evenly distribute skill, I have seen my wife – who has taken it upon herself to do all this work even though I was the allocated raid officer, spend upwards of 6 hours at a time trying to pick and choose raiders, for each and every run.

The results have been relatively successful raids, with happy raiders, but some unhappy souls on the sidelines who never get picked because they need to do pre-Naxx gear ups, or there just wasn’t space to cram in that third rogue/DK/Druid.

In a couple of weeks we will hopefully be starting heroic Naxx – this will mean we can get in more people to an evenings raiding, with a little less fuss.

We now have EOE as well as OS to contend with in addition to Naxx, and as such a 4th raid night is often going to be up on the calendar, again, this means that most of us officers and healers will be required to attend.

Over the last few weeks we have also had a discussion on the go on whether or not we should use a DKP system or a /roll system with optional loot counseling. At the end of a week of voting, the /roll system won. This should lift a lot of potential burden from the raid leading in the form of not keeping track of scoring, but it can be expected that there will be the occasional bit of loot drama – but to be honest, anyone that does this regularly does not have the right demeanor for our guild. We regularly see people passing for others, or people loot counseling amongst themselves, but at the same time there is that one person that yells “Hey! I have a blue/green!” and expects the loot should automatically be theirs.

In my opinion everyone is equally entitled, it’s a matter of generosity if someone passes for them – since they could have a better item from other sources. The officers will only loot council in a fashion that means people don’t get gear that they wont use by accident, or if a critical upgrade for say a warrior or a healer drops, they can push it in their direction – although at this point there is nothing like that kicking about to worry about. One concern is that the most regular raiders (the hardcore who have always been there on time ready to go, for every run posted) who are the best geared and the most experienced want a DKP system (of 11 votes, 5 were for DKP. Yes, this is a bad turnout for a guild with our number of raiders – but we shall assume the rest don’t give a damn.)

From a personal standpoint, I would ideally like to raid for two nights a week, and have more time to do other things – even if its just leveling an alt. (I’m an altaholic :p) We are trying to avoid burnout of the healers and officers, especially with the pending release of Ulduar that’s going to do all sorts of nasty things to our raid schedule. (Gear up runs in Naxx, trying to do Naxx and Ulduar on alternating weeks, etc.) The only issue at hand whilst doing this is keeping people happy that want to raid, both their time schedules and raiding desires.

We are all very proud of the community we have managed to build, and the raiding success we have achieved with relatively lax raiding rules (limited min requirements, no obligation to attend, unless you sign, and a large player pool to pick and please.) we have achieved a lot with a group of under geared players. Up until last week, when we could take down Patchwerk because we had the healers, we were getting a spread of DPS from 1200-2200 – averaging probably about 1500, and still clearing most of the content.

Gear is improving. People are getting experience, and soon there will be new challenges. Where to go from here I wonder? It should be a fun adventure, I just hope it doesn’t result in too much stress, or forced raiding. We wish to remain true to our goals, but remain relaxed. Blizzard has tailored the new content to suit us perfectly, which I’m not complaining about, so anything is possible.

-V

Naxxramas clear

As of Sunday night – we beat Naxx!

Sapphiron proved a tough fight, even with the frost resistance gear all around. Eventually, it just clicked and people stopped dying. Sapphiron was tanked in the right position, the healers kept the tank up on landing, curses were removed, and no one got swiped or cleaved. A nice, clean fight.

Kael’Thuzad proved a cake walk in comparison. On our first attempt we got him to 19% - when all 3 healers were ice-blocked due to an accidental chaining of the frost tomb, that was the end.

The second try was about the same but we lost a tank and then eventually a healer didn’t get rescued in time from an ice-tomb.

The third try we screwed from the get go – we were a melee heavy group and some unlucky maneuvering resulted in most being tombed and dying, including both tanks.

Our final shot was much clearer, but it did take a while… two tanks, 3 healers, and two death knights were left standing, but the DPS was enough to bring him to his floaty-bits (knees?)

Even with only 2 ranged DPS the first phase was not a problem. In fact, the takedown attempt the off tank accidentally aggroed a side wing running to the central ring, thankfully just skellies (AOE FTW) the retradin suicided on an untanked abomination (we 9-manned Kael…) Me and the warlock took down the ghosts/banshees, and the rest threw everything they had at the skellies – I fire blasted when available and AOE’d any that got too close (hectic fight for this lil mage! I loved it!). After that it was simply the standard tank and spank (whilst maintaining a 10 yard safety gap, dodging energy zones, and having someone off tank adds as he “enrages” at 40%)

We will have an explorative shot at Eye of Eternity tonight, and see what we can learn. I think we are under geared to avoid the enrage timer, but if we can get to it – were sorted, and just need gear upgrades.

-V

Another stolen post from World of Matticus

Matticus brought up an issue he encountered in a Naxx pug the other night regarding healing add-ons. (This ones a bit more of a wall of text than normal, I hope your resistances are high...)

I have experienced this myself, back when the big ol 3.0 patch hit before WOTLK released, our old guild was in Zul’aman, and the guilds main priest healer came in to help on the tiger boss. We spent half an hour on our asses because he had never healed without Healbot. I’m sure many more out in the big wide world of War craft have experienced this, or even encountered the problem themselves.

My wife and I have discussed this many times before, as we both have healers in our arsenal of characters.

In our old raiding guild it was pretty much insisted she had healing add-ons. She has never healed with an add-on in her life (and has been a resto spec druid since… ooh… Level 10 – where that first talent point went into the resto tree and we had a leveling duo with me on my rogue, and her healing.) and only occasionally used them when she eventually DID get them to try them out. Her preferred method of healing has always been to use the in game raid grid or party frame and select those that need the heals, and do the healing.

She is one of the best healers I have ever worked with, and certainly the most experienced restoration druid I know.

Her point of view has always been that good healers don’t need add-ons. I can’t argue this fact, but I have always believed that it is good to have add-ons that at least help you monitor, and that you can use, but that you should NEVER rely on.

I’m sure a lot of people hated that patch for the complications it encountered, but every healer should at least know how to click on a person, and press the desired healing spell from their action bar.

Myself? I have always had healbot there when on my priest – in small groups I try to stick to party-frame healing although when the shiz hits the fan, I always revert to spamming via healbot because it’s more natural to me, and this is a bad thing.

I recently respecced full discipline – this requires me to dish out Penance and Pain Suppression – both of which I cannot get to work via healbot. The result? I am not a sad mixed up hybrid healer. I use healbot for flash/greater/binding heals, Prayer of Mending, shielding and use it for TARGETING party members when they need Penance/PS to cast it from my action bar.

I am trying my best to get out of this habit – Healbot for me is there to act as a good health monitor and let me know when heals are incoming from other healbot users – but the style of discipline, as mentioned in previous World Of Matticus posts is a pro-active style, not reactive. I need to be watching the battle, see who is about to take damage and react accordingly. I don’t have any problem keeping people alive, but a habit I need to get out of is this hybrid style of healing, and playing whack a mole, instead of putting a noose over the buggers hole so it gets throttled when it pokes its head up.

Conclusion? I am a good healer, but will likely not be a great healer without a LOT of practice. I really wish I adapted to not using Healbot sooner, but I am still a capable healer. I do know what spells to cast, where they are on my cast bar, and regularly play just using them – but when things get tough? I naturally revert to what I had “grown up with”. My mission is to become adept for at least 5 and 10 mans without a mod. I recommend everyone else out there does as well!

For additional information relating to healing, I thoroughly recommend paying a visit to the Plus-Heal forums. It is a veritable minefield of information, regardless of your class when it comes to healing.

-V

Mutilate spec - additional,

After creating the last post, I went ahead with the poison tests - and found that with Instant Poison on my offhand instead of Deadly, that the recount presented a consistent 1300+ DPS.

Another optimisation session with another guild rogue, we managed to push them from 1600 to 2100 DPS simply by enforcing 2 rules:

1) Dual instant poisons (they are combat spec and were using dual deadly poisons.)
2) 5 point eviscerates (there is no reason to + energy efficient.)

-V

Rogue Mutilate spec

After conversing with another rogue in the guild about my rogues mutilate spec, he has decided to give it an experiment.

Out of curiosity, I took to a target dummy to double check I was using the best combination and abilities, and test the sustained DPS for boss fights.

In combat spec i could take a couple of mobs at a time and I could do a good 650 DPS whilst fighting them both.

Enter the Target dummy with this spec (bear in mind I am level 76)

Almost a sustained 1200 DPS over a test that done almost 320k of damage - so you can see its not a few seconds of burst damage.

Sure Ive seen rogues in Kara pulling 1400 DPS - but Ive also seen rogues in Naxx pulling 900... I am convinced this points out that it is a decent spec - probably not the best DPS I could squeeze out, but with with my level and talent build I am proud of the increase from combat.

I am wielding two crafted Saronite Daggers. - the Saronite Ambusher and the Saronite Shiv. (I have a note on this at end of post)

Shot rotation:

Hunger for Blood to 3-stack just before the attack

Ambush (Didnt make a difference in the long run but its a nice opener :p)

Slice n Dice (2 or 3 combo points usually)

If a combo point didnt proc from this:

Sinister Strike then Eviscerate (This refreshes the SnD to max duration, which will be sustained for the duration of the fight.)

If a combo point did proc, eviscerate.

Afterwards simply Mutilate to 5 combo points (even if it seems a waste not doing it at 4 and wasting bonus combo points from the next mutilate, it proves more DPS in the long run anyway) then eviscerate.

Repeat the mutilate mutilate eviscarate combo (3rd mutilate if needed for 5 combo points) and refresh hunger for blood every time it drops to about 5 seconds.

Key points to note:

Mutilate is your core damage here, dont waste energy Sinister Striking as for 15 more energy, a mutilate hits for an extra 90 damage (at my level) in addition to hitting with your offhand with the same bonus AND giving a 50% damage bonus if you have deadly poison on the target.

Never Evenom. I tested it, and it is a waste of a finishing move. Eviscerate does significantly more damage, and doesnt drop the stack of Deadly Poison (Which will be doing a nice consistant 10-20% of your DPS, aswell as boosting your mutilate damage by 50%) from the target.

ALWAYS keep the hunger for blood buff up. 9% bonus is a LOT of damage - especially on an opener/finisher or when a trinket is running.

Cold Blood can be used for an Eviscerate or an Ambush to guarantee a crit, I recommend for the Eviscerate - at least for me, it usually crits for a bit more.

In this test, my Offhand is the Saronite Shiv which is a fast offhand weapon which is not ideal. I dont really need to worry about poison stacking as it quickly procs 5 times and stays refreshed anyway... Im going to experiment with 1 deadly and 1 instant poison, might miss the 50% damage bonus to the first mutilate, but I can hold off the first mutilate as long as I dont let my energy regenerate too far and be wasted. The Instant Poison should give a nice boost. hopefully offset the damage boost of having a fast offhand on my Mutilates.

I will be putting talents into Turn the Tables. This will pretty much maintain a constant +6% crit on you in raids due to the tanks dodge/block/parrys which is going to be about 30-50% of the time the boss swings.

I really am scratching my head as to why there are still combat specced raiders beyond looking good on the damage meters from the trash fights.

Sapphiron, Frostwyrm guardian of Naxxramas.

We took down Thaddius last night, and moved on to Sapphirons lair. We heard this fight was going to be tough, so we done our studying before hand. Everyone watched videos and got familiarized with the traditional tactics, which are:

• Group 1 on left side of body, group 2 on the right.

• SRD positions (Standard raid dragon positions) – Don’t go near the head or the tail.

• Watch out for the blizzard.

• Gather around the green ring when he enters the flight phase, stay spaced out and wait for the frost bolts to freeze two players.

• Break LOS with the ice block and wait for him to land.

• Repeat until either the dragon, or the raid is dead.

This boss looked like one of the simpler encounters, we planned for a quick few wipes to refine the groups coordination then the big buff up and takedown, then move on to try to take Kel down to finish off the weeks raiding schedule.

It was not so easy though…

For 3 hours we battered our head off of his bony backside. The tactics changed a few times until we got a strategy down that worked, but the DOT that ticks throughout the fight resulted in everyone eventually dying, and it being the first boss to best us on a raid night. (Every other one has gone down before ending the raid, or we had a quick shot or two at to see the tactics then came back and quickly killed it next night.)

So what must we do now?

Frost Resistance.

After analyzing causes of player death, it was almost exlclusively down to the Dot. We had 3 healers, all doing free-for all healing, but every time we had to reposition for a blizzard or the Deep Breath, people were not getting healed and the result? People start to drop.

After speaking with a more experienced raider that has this boss on farm – it is highly recommended that each player gets themselves the 3-item crafted frost resistance set, and it makes the fight a joke.

So, our mission?

Get gear! The only person who shouldn’t have to worry about this is the tank (who will need to be def capped, and will have a dedicated healer anyway once the raid is taking reduced damage) – although anything they can get would be useful.

The tactics evolved into staying in one group (I think two is possibly more orientated to heroic tactics.), and sticking close together, except when the blizzard starts chasing someone – and when Sapphiron goes into the flight phase, where we need to be spaced out. After the first try the pull is tricky as the boss aggroes upon entering the room, and cannot be positioned correctly until after the air phase due to the tail swipe. Here the tank just turned the boss 90 degrees, and we pounded his side. This had several benefits:

1. The group was all within range of healers.

2. The Ice-Blocks were always fairly close (on the first attempt group 1 got both ice-blocks and we ended up wiping trying to cross through the dragon – which cant be done.)

3. DPS could be started early on, and people could get into the flow of things.

Our best attempt was 76% - 3 or 4 flight phases. This proves we have the tactics down to survive the phases and abilities, As mentioned before the problem was the frost dot taking people out after being hit by blizzard, or when healers had to move, and were unable to cope with the raid wide health drops.

For anyone reading this you probably got here by googling, so heres some basic tips to take away:

• Pack in the frost resistance gear. (117? on me from mage armour and frost resistance totem was not enough by a long shot.) (After officer meet last night i think 287 was the min level, this will allow 40% without a shammy totem or pally aura, and with them on you get 60% resistance, and dont have to sacrifice your chest piece.
  

• Do not pass through the dragon unless it is an emergency, and even then, go by the back legs – you are still likely to get tail swiped, but it should still leave you standing. A cleave is a good 150k damage OVERKILL – and is generally not a smart idea…

• Stand as far back as possible if melee DPS. The angles the abilities work at fan out from the centre of the dragons base, so the closer you are, the smaller the area you have to work in before either a small movement by you or the dragon puts you into a bad position and you get cleaved or swiped.

• Don’t worry about positioning for the pull. Just don’t get hit by his abilities

• DECURSE! The curse dished out is a hard hitting DOT that the dragon applies that also heals him by draining the life from afflicted players.

• Stay as a group. As mentioned, I suspect the split group tactics are more applicable for heroics when there are going to be more people running about with more blizzards on tow. (they track a player it seems.)

• Remember the distance rule. The diagram below shows the very basic fanning out of attack zones. Unless you manage to get through the crossover point, when passing through, you will get hit. (It does appear to be a timed attack rather than instantly hitting, so the quicker you cross the danger zones the less chance of a smacking.) but more importantly, when meleeing or casting be aware of the safe zone from the sides. Cross into the danger zones and you may cause a wipe by dying. This is especially true of the cleave which has a huge attack range and hits everyone except for the main tank in this section when it triggers, guaranteeing an insta-gib. Point to note though- I’m sure the cleave radius is higher. I’ve been in a position I thought was safe and gotten squished.

-V

Raid Difficulties

Matticus put up a post today regarding normal and heroic raids, and the difficulties between them.

He claims that the 25 man raids are actually easier than the 10 man. I have seen this mentioned many times before, and it makes sense. Other than many encounters becoming more complicated with the addition of an extra ability, or something like that – the hardest part is organization and communication.

In the 25 mans, you have a lot more “sacrificial” raiders. If someone dies from the DPS ranks, you lose 10% of your DPS (assuming 10 DPSers) instead of 20% (assuming 5)

This intrgues me, and tempts me to experiment.

In the guild we have enough members that actively raid to put together a 25 man, the only problem is that we have a high bias of tanking classes, and are a bit lacking in DPS. Hopefully having some tanks fill in as DPS (bonus: backup tanks) should suffice since some pull the same as some of the DPS anyway!)

There is an officer meeting tonight, that I believe I shall bring this up in. Make Sunday a heroic raid night. Let the members know that we will only go ahead if at least 23 memebers draught. Tanks will fill in DPS slots if necessary, to make the numbers. Most people available have had some experience with the 10-man runs, so it should not be a significant stretch of the imagination to make it work.

If the numbers are not signed – it will revert to either a 10 man finishing run – or – if we cleared the 10 man, try to get a second group down.

Bonus: We can also try to go for Obsidian Sanctum if there is not too many locked. At least, we can get him with 0 adds.

-V

Wow Nostalgia

How many of you have come across this funny feeling?

As I travel around Northrend, enjoying the spoils of war, LolCritting mobs with my shiny new abilities, enjoying the scenery, and the new plotline, my mind casts back to the early days of WOW.

The days when you had to compete in Redridge mountains for mobs because so many people were there, when groups of pleasant people were easily found, and everything seemed a bit… *sunnier*

I have played wow since the day it was released on that fateful day back in March 2005 (EU launch). I started my gaming career on an RP server with some friends from a gaming community that formed back in Star Wars Galaxies back in 03, as a Dwarf Hunter (then 8 levels later, my current main, a Human Mage.

My first impressions of Elwynn Forest were Awe. The huge trees, the detail of the woodlands, the buildings as I approached Goldshire, it was beautiful, and I HAD to explore everything! At least until I heard a confusing Murglurgle as I took a swim next to the skinners hut, and the panic that followed as some slimy green frog-thing made me into sandwich paste. (Yes, my first death was to a Murloc.)

From here as I learned, I moved onto Westfall, which was also awesome in its huge openness, and the big tower that lingered on the horizon, that I soon learned was Sentinel Hill. (Isn’t that in Sonic the Hedgehog?)

I don’t know why, but the more time I spend in Northrend, the more I want to go back and experience everything with a fresh perspective. Explore every nook and cranny, take my time and take in everything I can.

Then I think “What happens when I hit outland” The whole continent just seems like a big plot-hole to me. Progressing to Northrend after doing the likes of the Plaguelands makes perfect sense to me. Going to some foreign world of floaty rocks and giant mushrooms just does not seem like a proper progression.

Northrend seems a much darker experience, which I think is a good thing. Whilst Ozeroth (Old-Azeroth) seems personal and urgent as you go around helping out your faction in its start zones from whatever crippling demise is pending, Northrend is very much fantastic blend of storyline. Everything seems so much personal, and yet at the same time there is a world-wide sense of urgency. My only complaint is some zones seemed to take you out of this. Grizzly hills anyone? It seemed to break the continuity from Dragonblight until Icecrown where it seemed to carry on. This might be a fatigue thing where I went from an attitude of exploration and learning to one of “must catch up”.

One day I may go back to Elwynn forest, or perhaps Darkshore, get some friends to hook up with and enjoy the adventure of slowly leveling, running every instance, and learning all I can.

Whats your Nostalgia? What in your vast or limited experiences in WOW’s history really stirs those cockles?

-V

Another night of progression, and more jolly intrigues.

Another night of raiding is over, and was relatively successful, but it did leave me with a couple of topics to blog about, aren't uneventful evenings so boring?

Well, whats so interesting you ask?

A second 10-man Obsidian Sanctum run was slapped together, and we pugged a second healer. After a wipe on each of the Adds, we got to the boss, and took him down second try.

The gloves dropped for mages/rogues/deathknights/druids - which consisted of 80% of the run. 3 Mages, 2 druids and 2 rogues.

some of us already had said item, and the remainder rolled.

The winner happened to be someone who had an equivalent level crafted item, so it was only a sidegrade for them (set bonus, when they get the second item)

This pulled the Drama Llama out of the closet, the second highest roller started complaining that he only had a blue set of gloves and that he should get the drop.

Normally, we would do some sort of loot council for this situation - make sure that someone that will benefit the guilds progression gets it - but were kind of dumstruck with what to do - we had a pug member so didnt feel it would be right to go ahead and choose a winner, I guess, and we didnt check the gloves on the winner before handing over.

The immediate complaint from the second highest roller also didnt help - both sides of the argument were being greedy in their own way, and loot was distributed before it could be properly discussed. (we were also rushed to move to assemble for 25 man which never went ahead due to numbers, and we went to Naxx.)

This brings up a few interesting things. (Greed before greed?)

• The second highest roller, was determined they should get the loot, purely because they didnt have gloves as good as the winner
  

• The winner was trusted to be actually doing an upgrade. As it turned out it was a sidegrade as mentioned and the upgrade couldnt have been smaller.
  

• Someone else in the guild may have had a better use for the item still, but was keeping quiet.
  

• Having the pug member there added complications.

What would you do in such a situation? I agree that the gloves should not have gone to the person that won them, but on the basis of how the second roller was acting, I would not have wanted to give it to them either, unless it was truly best for the guilds progression for them to have them.

A post then went up on the forums, and this is probably what has drawn my attention to the matter the most. The bad loot distribution was a mistake, we will live. But the post makes it out like the guild does this regularly, and on purpose. It challenges a whole set of looting rules we try to abide by, by telling us that our current system is rubbish - when they are saying we should be using a system like we already are... if that makes sense! (Ill make a seperate post on our choice of looting system.)

Here is the poll, before it was removed:

Option 1: You agree that the loot should have gone to me because I had a blue.
My opinion? This depends. There have been many systems invented to try to make loot distribution fair and help guild progression. Not necessarily the worst geared is the best choice. For example, they could get the same crafted gloves that the winner had cheaply off of a guildie that can craft them, and someone with crap gloves but another tier item that would double the upgrade benefit with a set bonus could have had.

Option 2: No, I want more epics!
Clearly put up purely because he was (understandably) frustrated. It says if you dont think I should have gotten the item, you think that you should get it purely because its a very good item, and it has an inkling of a benefit, therefore Im taking! (basically, being greedy)

Option 3: I dont know.

That is all. Basically you agree with me that I should have gotten the loot, your greedy, or your stupid.

The poll had been taken down, and the GM put up a post pointing out that it was a mistake, and the issues regarding loot distribution will be further discussed on the next officers meeting.

I know this post will come accross as more ranty than intended, but I wanted somewhere to put down the details and my thoughts on the matter. Both are decent players, but a moment of thoughtlessness by the winner (purplz plx! moment?), the fact the complaints basically said "oi, no! Give it to me you nubbin!" caused a very uncomfortable atmosphere that resulted in bad judgement, in a rush to move on.

If your reading this guys (youll know who you are, and I know youll end up reading this :p names are kept away for privacy details :D) it was a mistake on our part for not taking action to address the situation, but consideration for other guildies and the progression is critical for a successful guild. The loot will come, its already falling like candy from a mugged trick or treaters goody bag, its just mostly going to waste because we never have the right classes in :p

There are many lessons to be taken out of the above, that shall hopefully make us operate smoother, so its certainly not a bad thing, just obviously frustrating for all involved.

Winner: Why shouldnt I get it? (lack of understanding.)
Wanter: Hey, its a bigger upgrade (correct and realistic, but ignoring the needs of the rest of the raiders.)
Leaders: Confusion, and bad decision. (lack of experience, and implemented working systems.)
Other raiders: Frustration (Complaints, lack of confidence in leader decision, or frustrated because they may agree but someone else stole the limelight first :p)

So, what else could possibly happen to further the evenings intrigues I hear you all ask.

The Leggings of the Lost Conqueror, dropped off Gluth. Yeah, thats right - the same kind of token that dropped last night that couldnt be used by anyone and was wasted.

We are convinced Blizz has a conspiracy after out attempte to (unsuccessfully) get something done about the chest piece from last night.

Ah well, its becoming a running theme in guild chat

"will this get changed you recon?" "Its blizz.." "Oh yeah. Never mind then."

/Facepalm.

-V

Levelling my priest.

I have wanted to level up Asterra for quite some time, but I have promised to work alongside my wife’s mage as a leveling duo. I am a ball hair short of level 72, pretty much from healing people in TBC instances, and the occasional Utgarde Keep and Nexus run.

I recently respecced from a discipline/holy mix to pure discipline. I love all the new toys I have! Over the next 5 levels I will talent into borrowed time for extra efficiency, but for the time being I’m coping without it.

I am surprised how easy it is to solo with her actually. I have macros for many spells and abilities that she uses to activate trinkets and abilities, and with a discipline shield up, and my Inner fire, I can easily take down most same level mobs fast. Averaging 600-700 DPS, which I think is fantastic for someone specced purely for healing, most things go down before my shield, and I have found it very easy to AOE grind groups of around 5 mobs (shovel tusk herds anyone?) with holy nova, and finishing with a good 4 or 5k mana to move onto the next mob that’s in range.

I admit I am tempted to give Shadow another try (specced out of it about level 60 duo in outlands and heal/dps) but I have not heard great things about it, and I like healing, and want to make sure I get to practice at every opportunity.

My current healing technique is a bit messy I must admit. I have healbot on my HUD, and have programmed myself to use it as I find it easier watching health bars in that, than on the party pane, and its also very quick to get heals off to whomever needs, but I also have several abilities that healbot will not work with (Penance, Pain suppression) which means I have to target individuals. It is a bit of a mish mash, but I have now programmed myself up in instances to do most of my heals through healbot (flash, greater, binding, POM, shield, targeting target to fire off a penance by hitting the number 1 key)

As I say… messy, but it works.

I am trying to train myself up with Matticus (link) techniques – having player health bars on screen with Shift-V, and trying to re-learn to use the toolbar for casts (e.g. target player, hit, 1-= for a spell) but when something bad happens, I have to resort to healbot to prevent the wipe.

I’m considering trying grid out as it will basically make a window like healbot, but I can target players quickly with this to cast my spells, instead of mousing over the party panes or the screen to target. Efficiency really.

Regardless, I am hoping to get this priest to 80 soon, and start playing about with some end game and healing.

If anyone has any hints or tips, feel free to pass them on over.

-V

Raid Progress update

Not long finished up the latest trip to Naxx. We didnt get as far as I had hoped - but we did finish off the Military quarter, and got down Patchwerk and Grobbulus.

We could have got further but for a few facts;

• We actually packed in lower DPS than the farm group that went in on Wednesday, so borderline in fact we took down Patchwerk literally 2 seconds after his big enrage where he took out 3 melee before dropping.

• Communication. It was quite a fun and hyped run, but there was some over-describing of boss fights, and tactic modifications. A faster describe and attack drive would have resulted on a good attempt on the third boss.

• Frogger... Due to latency issues, people died on this pretty much every time we had to take another go at Grobbulus, a good hour was spent sitting around/running about as people were dying and needing ressed. Tightening this up should save us a half hour

• Horseman drop issue: The horseman dropped the chest token for Warlock/Paladin/Priest or whatever it is - all of which we were missing from the run, so we tried to get this exchanged for something someone can use - not to much success, the ticket submitters got whispered at the start of a Grobbulus attempt and were ignored when they got the chance to reply. That damn GM wiped us to boot. :p (Perfect kite, then a cloud bang in the tanks path cos a healer was whispering :/

Either way, it was a very entertaining evening - some decent progress - not as much as we could have, but were not a hardcore raiding guild, just planning to get down hardcore raids :D.

-V

Heroic badges exchangable for Valor on PTR

Had this tidbit of information come through my RSS feed from WOW Insider

Apparently they are experimenting with an exchange system between Badges of Heroism and Badges of Valor at a rate of 10:1. (You give them 10 Heroism, and get 1 Valor).

The description on WOW Insider was that this seems a bit pointless (At least at this exchange rate)... I disagree.

There are many that do not have the time, or ability to get into Naxx - be it the inability to meet the requirements of a raiding guild, or having such little play time that Naxx Pugs are not convenient. Under these circumstances, if they ever reach 80, they might become a heroic junkie. Heroics get easier and easier as people get better and better gear so it is feasible that prep to boss down is less than an hour for a number of runs, and a collection of badges can be made.

Over time, this collection becomes obsolete (Can we exchange Badges of Justice the same way please? Obviously at a hideous exchange rate, since they can be solo farmed by some in a short time.) and just sits there, it is now that it would be nice to be able to do something with these other than buying the occasional Frozen Orb.

Enter, the Valor token exchange.

To me this makes sense. It is not perfect, and most wont give a damn, but for a select number of people, it is nice - and such niceties keep people playing, keeping blizzard in profit (despite what their stocks might show :S) and getting them churning out new content.

Thats my 2 cents anyway.

-V

Raid Progress

As mentioned in the introductory post – we hit Naxx for the first time about 3 weeks after the release of Wrath. Since then we have made pretty steady progress each week, with the exclusion of the Christmas holiday week, since most people were not available.

In the first couple of weeks, the group learned to mesh and took down Arachnid. The following week onwards, Arachnid was on farm and we took down Plague wing. The week after that was the same and we got to 4 horsemen in the Military wing, then the Christmas holidays hit and everyone had a hiatus (or pugged.) We had an attempt the week back, which was not as good as previous (what with the raid averaging 1500-1600 DPS due to more geared people still absent) but we cleared Obsidian Sanctum, Arachnid, Plague and the first boss in the military wing.

I think we have a strong core group for 10-mans, and a large selection of people to mix and match each week for gearing. At this moment in time our schedule is thus:

Wednesdays: Farm Obsidian Sanctum (0 Drakes at the moment, though we plan to start adding them in with the stronger group visits.) followed up by a quick clear of Arachnid, plague and Military wings (if there is time. Raid starts 7pm and ends 11pm.) This group is comprised of an experienced tank, and a couple of our heavy hitting DPS, and two healers, the rest is made up of a tank that wants experience, and a variety of DPS ranging from low to high, that want gear and experience.

Fridays: At this point, it’s a progression team – the most experienced and hard hitting members (+ anyone available that is well geared if were shy) to learn the remaining bosses, this usually takes 2-4 wipes apiece – and the group will consist of a third healer for the trickier bosses (4 horsemen which are left in military, then Patchwerk onwards.

If we can clear this we are going to get two groups going, we have the numbers – and after a week or two of farming this, we will be doing it on heroic, whenever we can get the sign ups. For this Saturday we also have our first heroic on the books: Heroic Obsidian Sanctum – this will be preceded by regular obsidian sanctum for those that are not locked after Wednesday’s trip in pre-Naxx.

Overall I must admit I am proud of the rate of progress we are making, we are currently ranked 45 on the server (were 26 before Christmas holidays, but have slipped in ranking since then.) for progression. We went in and started doing successful takedowns very early on, with a group of people had had barely seen a heroic, and often 2+ members that dinged 80 the same day.

At the same time, all I can say for guilds like Ensidia is Whaaat???

The fun I find in raiding, is working for the progression, getting to make and work with friends, getting gear and enjoying. It is a game. These guys cleared everything available before my character hit 73… crazy stuff, I can but imagine that they will just be sitting about waiting for Ulduar now with everyone in the raid decked out in full epics – and due to this gearing, they will clear that place the day its released as well. Still. From what I hear they are a paid guild, and that sounds like a fantastic job – as long as the pay is not too bad…

Were actually planning our first outing to eye of eternity actually – it will be weird to hit and take out the “final boss” before the expansion brings in the next Tier. I think it’s possible with the stronger members of the guild (the 2,200DPS + crowd, the healers that never run out of mana and heal for stupid amounts – and the tanks with 30k health each. That’s assuming it’s as forgiving as Naxx on gear if the people are smart about the encounters.

Enough for me on this for now, I will likely follow it up with another progress report in the future.

-V