I've been commenting lately about the comparison between Druid and Paladin healing. And most recently about Paladin PVP healing. Either I am just dysfunctional, or I simply don't get it, but I can not for the life of me be as good at healing in PVP as a Paladin as I can with my Druid. And so I am throwing in the towel. I love Holy Paladin healing in PVE, but in the Battleground system of PVP it's just too simple to lock down.
And so, I give up. Henceforth I will only BG heal on my Resto Druid, and will instead only DPS as ret or Prot on my Paladin.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Paladin PVP Healing
I've been to Arena Junkies and SKGaming, so I know there are very high level Holy Paladins rocking it in PVP. I just am not one of them. Throughout the weekend I jumped back and forth between my Resto Druid and my Holy Paladin and healed various battlegrounds. Admittedly battlegrounds are much more free form than are arenas, but the act of healing is the same in either case. I understand that there could potentially be more people beating on you in a battleground than would be in an arena, but one good Rogue can just ruin my day on my Holy Paladin. He can't -- or at least I haven't found one that can -- on my Resto Druid. Holy healing is fantastic if you're left alone because your bomb heals can quickly replenish someone who is nearly dead. And you can intersperse FoL heals amongst a group, keeping yourself healed with your beacon if need be.
But when you are not left alone, and when your being beat on by two or more people it really becomes an issue. I hate having to stop to heal, and with only one instant cast healing spell that has a six second cool down, you end up having to do that quite a bit. PVP is a exercise in mobility, and being immobile like that not only attracts more attention, but makes it easier for them to kill you. It also makes it harder to heal your team mates as they themselves move. In Warsong Gulch its a pain to heal them as they move back across the field as the act becomes akin to heal, then hop. Heal, then hop. Except in this case it's heal then run ahead a few seconds, then heal again. Too much can and does happen in those precious seconds when you have to move. Of course, if the group stops and is somewhat static for a bit that isn't the case, but in my experience I more often see the moving blob, than the immobile one.
Part of the problem might be that I didn't focus enough on haste. I gemmed for Resil/MP5, but I could swap those out for Haste/MP5 or Haste/SP. My FoL heals are about 1.4 seconds now, and my HL heals are 2.2 seconds. But with a change in gems I could get much closer to my PVE cast times than I am now. That would certainly help with the interrupt situation and allow me greater healing throughput when I am standing still. I might try Haste/SP and see how it goes throughout the rest of the week.
But when you are not left alone, and when your being beat on by two or more people it really becomes an issue. I hate having to stop to heal, and with only one instant cast healing spell that has a six second cool down, you end up having to do that quite a bit. PVP is a exercise in mobility, and being immobile like that not only attracts more attention, but makes it easier for them to kill you. It also makes it harder to heal your team mates as they themselves move. In Warsong Gulch its a pain to heal them as they move back across the field as the act becomes akin to heal, then hop. Heal, then hop. Except in this case it's heal then run ahead a few seconds, then heal again. Too much can and does happen in those precious seconds when you have to move. Of course, if the group stops and is somewhat static for a bit that isn't the case, but in my experience I more often see the moving blob, than the immobile one.
Part of the problem might be that I didn't focus enough on haste. I gemmed for Resil/MP5, but I could swap those out for Haste/MP5 or Haste/SP. My FoL heals are about 1.4 seconds now, and my HL heals are 2.2 seconds. But with a change in gems I could get much closer to my PVE cast times than I am now. That would certainly help with the interrupt situation and allow me greater healing throughput when I am standing still. I might try Haste/SP and see how it goes throughout the rest of the week.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Bioware posts SWTOR fankit
Actually I'm surprised that hadn't done this prior, but now it's out there. Pretty standard stuff, but worth the download if you want the art for your site.
Patch 3.3.3
The full patch 3.3.3 notes are now up. There are the typical class changes, along with a few other things. But the biggest change, other than the PVP quest/honor changes is the announcements regarding the LFG system.
So lets talk about that a little bit. Why do people drop group? First and foremost people drop groups when dungeons pop they don't want to run. The two I hear most about are Occulus and the Culling of Stratholme. I don't mind Occulus, but I really detest CoS. Luckily
The second reason people drop group, myself included, is when they load in and see either the tank or the healer horribly undergeared. I've commented in the past on this subject. Undergeared DPS is one thing, but critical elements of the party like the tank and the healer are quite another. I've dropped group when I see tanks load in that are still wearing heirloom items. I kid you not. At this stage in my characters lives I am not that much interested in the social side of dungeons and groups. I'm on a mission and just want to get in, get my badges, and get out. I find I have very little tolerance for anything that might cause wipes or significant delays. And quite honestly I'm not all that happy that Blizzard, knowing these two points, is taking the line that people need to be forced to group together.
Blizzard, you provide the tools to us and leave the rest of it to us to work out.
Dungeon FinderNo more having to wait in order to kick players, but the biggest change in my opinion is that if you drop a group you will now be penalized with a 30-minute lock out instead of the current 15-minute penalty. Apparently people are still dropping group, and Blizzard is all set to punish them for doing it.
- The Deserter debuff given to players who leave a dungeon prematurely when queuing via the Random Dungeon option has been increased to 30 minutes, up from 15 minutes. The cooldown for using the Random Dungeon option remains 15 minutes.
- The Random Dungeon cooldown is no longer displayed as a debuff. Instead, players will see the cooldown time remaining displayed in the Dungeon Finder window when Random Dungeon or Random Heroic Dungeon is selected from the pull-down.
- If a player in your party has the Deserter debuff, or is on cooldown from the Random Dungeon option, his or her character name will be displayed in the Dungeon Finder window listed as "On Cooldown," preventing the group from queuing.
- Anyone in a dungeon party can now re-queue their group for a dungeon, as players will still be prompted whether or not to accept their chosen role.
- Players who use the Vote Kick option will now be prompted to provide a reason for kicking a party member. This reason will be presented to everyone in the party except for the person voted to be kicked.
- When joining as a group, more generous level requirements will be used instead of Random Dungeon level requirements so that players of different levels joining together will be eligible for a greater number of dungeons.
- World Event bosses (such as Ahune for the Fire Festival) will now be accessible through the Dungeon Finder. Players must use the Dungeon Finder to access these bosses.
- Parties randomly created via the Dungeon Finder will always be arranged in the party interface from top to bottom in the following order: tank, healer, damage, damage, damage.
- If a random party is created via the Dungeon Finder and a player cannot roll Need on an item, a reason will now be provided.
So lets talk about that a little bit. Why do people drop group? First and foremost people drop groups when dungeons pop they don't want to run. The two I hear most about are Occulus and the Culling of Stratholme. I don't mind Occulus, but I really detest CoS. Luckily
Culling of StratholmeThat might clear up the problem with people want to drop group for that instance, but regardless of what is done with Occulus no one can make people who play inattentively play any better ina three dimensional space. Nor can you make people understand the necessity of organization on the final boss. People quite rightly load into these dungeons (or others they don't like) and simply leave right then and there. After all, they're playing for themselves and not others.
- Players may now skip the initial introduction dialog to this dungeon once they have completed it at least once.
The second reason people drop group, myself included, is when they load in and see either the tank or the healer horribly undergeared. I've commented in the past on this subject. Undergeared DPS is one thing, but critical elements of the party like the tank and the healer are quite another. I've dropped group when I see tanks load in that are still wearing heirloom items. I kid you not. At this stage in my characters lives I am not that much interested in the social side of dungeons and groups. I'm on a mission and just want to get in, get my badges, and get out. I find I have very little tolerance for anything that might cause wipes or significant delays. And quite honestly I'm not all that happy that Blizzard, knowing these two points, is taking the line that people need to be forced to group together.
Blizzard, you provide the tools to us and leave the rest of it to us to work out.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Blizzard announces big Battleground changes
Well, not to the individual BGs themselves, but rather to the daily quest system and how much honor you get from them.
I can always use more honor per unit of time, but I have to wonder what this will do to the honor requirement for pieces in the future. Will it inflate it, or not? We'll simply have to see when the time comes, but I do know I am not at all happy about the 50% reduction in the honor gained from the weekly quests in Wintergrasp. They'd already been nerfed from daily quests to weekly quests several months ago, and I'd be hard pressed to see how you could make up 1500 honor from each quest.
Despite that one misgiving, I'm taking all this to be a positive change. I like the idea of the BG queue system being revamped, but would like it even more if it were integrated with the LFG and LFR so that I could queue for whatever I wanted like I used to be able to do.
We have several changes planned for Battlegrounds in the next minor content patch and would like to share them with you now. This patch will be available for public testing and we encourage you to participate, queue up and provide some feedback on these changes.I'm not entirely sure I see the reason behind removing the marks. No one uses them now except for the turn in quest, but beyond that I'm surprised they actually devoted developmental time to do all this when there are so many other things I can think of that are in greater need of attention. So anyway, marks are going bye bye.All of these features and changes will be available in the next minor patch which should be hitting the public test realms in the near future. Please help us out by testing this system and providing your feedback so we can make some fine-tuning adjustments before the patch's release.
- Firstly, say goodbye to Battleground Marks of Honor. We feel this currency system is a bit outdated and are getting rid of it. Any items which require these marks as currency will have their costs adjusted appropriately to remove this requirement. The quest NPCs will still be available to award players Honor for turning in leftover marks, but this is only to help players clear this expired currency.
- Next, the Battleground holiday weekend will now be denoted as "Call to Arms" in the Battleground tab and Calendar. If you prefer a specific Battleground over all others, look for those words next to its name to determine whether or not you'll receive bonus Honor. The bonus awards for Call to Arms Battlegrounds have been adjusted.
- Winning a Call to Arms Battleground for the first time in a day will award players with 30 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
- Additional Call to Arms Battleground victories after the first win for a player that day will award them with 15 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
- Losing a Call to Arms Battleground will award players with 5 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
- To bring the rate at which players obtain PvP rewards with Honor more in-line with the rate at which players obtain PvE rewards via the Dungeon Finder, we'll also be increasing the amount of Honor awarded for an Honorable Kill by 100%. In light of this, the amount of experience provided from an Honorable Kill, and the amount of Honor awarded for completing the Wintergrasp weekly quests, have been reduced by 50%.
It's important to note one thing about these 50% decreases. All Honor awarded for completing objectives in Battlegrounds and Wintergrasp is actually based on an Honorable Kill conversion rate. So if you destroy a tower in Alterac Valley for example, the Honor you're awarded is actually based on a flat number of Honorable Kills. Since Honorable Kills will now award 100% more Honor, completing such objectives will also award more Honor. This is why experience gains based on completing Battleground objectives and Honor awarded from the Wintergrasp quests are being decreased by 50%.- Now that we hopefully have your attention, we're pleased to announce the implementation of the Random Battleground system! This system will work virtually the same as the Random Dungeon option in the Dungeon Finder. Players can queue with a group of up to five players for a Random Battleground in the Battleground tab. As with the Random Dungeon option, the Battleground chosen will not be revealed until players zone into the Battleground for which they are selected. The bonus rewards for this system are identical to the updated Call to Arms bonuses.
- Winning a Battleground using the Random Battleground option for the first time in a day will award players with 30 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
- Winning additional Battlegrounds using the Random Battleground option after the first random win will award players with 15 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
- Losing a Battleground using the Random Battleground option will award players with 5 Honorable Kills worth of additional Honor currency.
- When using the Random Battleground option, players will not receive additional rewards if the Battleground chosen is under the effects of the Call to Arms bonuses. In other words, the bonuses do not stack. In addition, if a player has been rewarded 30 Honorable Kills worth of bonus Honor currency from either the Random Battleground system, or the Call to Arms Battleground, he or she will be rewarded 15 Honorable Kills worth of bonus Honor currency that day for each additional victory. This applies whether the Random Battleground system is used, or the Call to Arms Battleground is chosen specifically, as a player cannot be rewarded the full amount of bonus Honor more than once per day.
I can always use more honor per unit of time, but I have to wonder what this will do to the honor requirement for pieces in the future. Will it inflate it, or not? We'll simply have to see when the time comes, but I do know I am not at all happy about the 50% reduction in the honor gained from the weekly quests in Wintergrasp. They'd already been nerfed from daily quests to weekly quests several months ago, and I'd be hard pressed to see how you could make up 1500 honor from each quest.
Despite that one misgiving, I'm taking all this to be a positive change. I like the idea of the BG queue system being revamped, but would like it even more if it were integrated with the LFG and LFR so that I could queue for whatever I wanted like I used to be able to do.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Comparing healing Paladins to Healing Druids PT 3
Back in January (and) I had been discussing the differences in healing capabilities of my two main characters – my Paladin and my Druid. And at the time I had said I preferred my Paladin for raid healing and my Druid for PVP healing.
I think the biggest difference really comes down to mana efficiency though. In heroics both of my healers are geared well enough where I hardly have any mana issues. With my Paladin judging I never go below 95% mana in heroics and generally have zero issues healing anything that is thrown at the group. Likewise with my Druid I usually just keep the tank Rejuv’ed and throw Wild Growth up to cover the group. Occasionally I might have to throw a Rejuv on someone else, but even keeping Rejuvs up on everyone in the group and keeping Wild Growth up on the group as well doesn’t run me into many mana issues. However I do notice a difference. Whereas I can almost heal with total impunity to mana usage on my Paladin, I do have to exercise greater discipline on my Druid. I definitely notice whether there is mana regen coming from the group or not. In those groups where there is mana regen I will only occasionally have to use my Innervate, but in those groups where there isn’t mana regen I’ll have to use Innervate on those fights that cause a lot of group damage and require me to keep heals on everyone.
It’s a fairly stark difference in that I pay almost no attention to MP5 on my Paladin, gemming almost entirely for either SP, or SP/Haste. Whereas on my Druid every red slot is a SP gem, and every blue slot is a SP/Spirit gem. I pay great attention to my mana regen stats like Spirit and MP5 and I’ve compared what I have with other good Druid healers. I’m very comparable, so I know the difference isn’t a case of me gemming incorrectly. I haven’t run myself out of mana either in heroics or in raids, however I could definitely run out of mana in a raid if I did not pay close attention to my mana usage and use my Innervate whenever it was up. While I love healing on my Paladin, I think that’s simply an issue that Blizzard really does need to look at to a greater extent. Especially if you look at mana efficiency across all healers. In my raids it’s always the Priests that seem to run out of mana first, or come very close to it. When running as Moonkin in my raids I’m forever having to give my Innervates to our Priests. Now I’ve never healed as a Priest, however I’ve raided with enough over the years to see they definitely have mana efficiency issues, so I know it’s not just my imagination when I speak about it comparatively between the Paladin and Druid. In the greater scheme of things, healing capabilities across all the healing classes are somewhat the same, but mana efficiency is not.
Everything being the same with that I’m not so certain I prefer Holy Paladin healing in raid settings over Resto Druid healing any more. However I definitely still do prefer Druid healing for PVP. Mobility is everything in PVP, notwithstanding the 12-second total immunity a Paladin’s bubble gives them. I’ve found it’s just too easy to lock down a Paladin in PVP. Even locked down for a matter of seconds, HOTs ticking on my Druid have saved me so many times that it’s simply too great to ignore. Coming with an ability to get out of most roots/snares, and the speed advantages of travel form make a Resto Druid a dangerous healer in PVP.
Mana efficiency is even more of a problem in PVP than it is in PVE, as your gear does not generally favor regen stats or survivability stats. However, once you get into what I would call good healing gear, and by gemming with Resil/Spirit gems, you can get to very acceptable mana regeneration though you will still have to use innervate regularly as well. My PVP healing set is all Furious/Relentless, with three pieces or Wrathful at the moment. Though my weapon is a PVE staff. As with PVE healing, I have to pay no attention what so ever to my mana efficiency on my Paladin, so the only differentiation comes down to mobility in my mind.
We’ll call it a draw for PVE healing, but for PVP I’m all about Druid healing.
I enjoy both styles of healing very much, though I'm leaning toward the Holy Paladin as my preferred Raid healer and my Resto Druid as my preferred PVP healer. If you are new to healing either would be a terrific choice to start out as.But after getting some additional opportunities to raid heal on my Druid where I concentrated to a greater extent on just keeping HOTs up on as many people as I could, keeping Regrowth and Rejuv up on the tanks, and throwing Wild Growth out whenever it was up, I may have to change my mind about that. In those instances – like in a 10-man run – where you only have one or perhaps two other healers, the greater heal over time and AOE healing abilities of the Druid class really come to the fore. I topped out at over 5.1k HPS on Koralon and Emalon in VOA-10 yesterday for example. Admittedly those fights offer a lot of AOE damage and for the most part, everyone is in groups during both of those fights. But the other healer was a Resto Shaman, so I would have thought he’d have been closer to me healing wise, yet he was only getting up to around 2.5-2.7k HPS on both of those fights. I’ve healed those fights on my Paladin and topped out around 4-4.3k HPS.
I think the biggest difference really comes down to mana efficiency though. In heroics both of my healers are geared well enough where I hardly have any mana issues. With my Paladin judging I never go below 95% mana in heroics and generally have zero issues healing anything that is thrown at the group. Likewise with my Druid I usually just keep the tank Rejuv’ed and throw Wild Growth up to cover the group. Occasionally I might have to throw a Rejuv on someone else, but even keeping Rejuvs up on everyone in the group and keeping Wild Growth up on the group as well doesn’t run me into many mana issues. However I do notice a difference. Whereas I can almost heal with total impunity to mana usage on my Paladin, I do have to exercise greater discipline on my Druid. I definitely notice whether there is mana regen coming from the group or not. In those groups where there is mana regen I will only occasionally have to use my Innervate, but in those groups where there isn’t mana regen I’ll have to use Innervate on those fights that cause a lot of group damage and require me to keep heals on everyone.
It’s a fairly stark difference in that I pay almost no attention to MP5 on my Paladin, gemming almost entirely for either SP, or SP/Haste. Whereas on my Druid every red slot is a SP gem, and every blue slot is a SP/Spirit gem. I pay great attention to my mana regen stats like Spirit and MP5 and I’ve compared what I have with other good Druid healers. I’m very comparable, so I know the difference isn’t a case of me gemming incorrectly. I haven’t run myself out of mana either in heroics or in raids, however I could definitely run out of mana in a raid if I did not pay close attention to my mana usage and use my Innervate whenever it was up. While I love healing on my Paladin, I think that’s simply an issue that Blizzard really does need to look at to a greater extent. Especially if you look at mana efficiency across all healers. In my raids it’s always the Priests that seem to run out of mana first, or come very close to it. When running as Moonkin in my raids I’m forever having to give my Innervates to our Priests. Now I’ve never healed as a Priest, however I’ve raided with enough over the years to see they definitely have mana efficiency issues, so I know it’s not just my imagination when I speak about it comparatively between the Paladin and Druid. In the greater scheme of things, healing capabilities across all the healing classes are somewhat the same, but mana efficiency is not.
Everything being the same with that I’m not so certain I prefer Holy Paladin healing in raid settings over Resto Druid healing any more. However I definitely still do prefer Druid healing for PVP. Mobility is everything in PVP, notwithstanding the 12-second total immunity a Paladin’s bubble gives them. I’ve found it’s just too easy to lock down a Paladin in PVP. Even locked down for a matter of seconds, HOTs ticking on my Druid have saved me so many times that it’s simply too great to ignore. Coming with an ability to get out of most roots/snares, and the speed advantages of travel form make a Resto Druid a dangerous healer in PVP.
Mana efficiency is even more of a problem in PVP than it is in PVE, as your gear does not generally favor regen stats or survivability stats. However, once you get into what I would call good healing gear, and by gemming with Resil/Spirit gems, you can get to very acceptable mana regeneration though you will still have to use innervate regularly as well. My PVP healing set is all Furious/Relentless, with three pieces or Wrathful at the moment. Though my weapon is a PVE staff. As with PVE healing, I have to pay no attention what so ever to my mana efficiency on my Paladin, so the only differentiation comes down to mobility in my mind.
We’ll call it a draw for PVE healing, but for PVP I’m all about Druid healing.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
No Olympic event in WoW?
Two years ago the Summer Olympics was greeted in WoW by a mini-event which had you run PVP Battlegrounds in order to earn an Olympic tabard and a special in-game pet (Chinese dragon). I made the mistake of only running do that on my Warlock whom I now don't play, and didn't do it on my Druid and my Paladin, whom I do play and do achievements with. So I was looking forward to the Winter Olympics for the past two years in order to get the Olympic pet. I wasn't expecting the Chinese dragon of course, but rather something a little more Canadian -- a Moose!
Blizzard, for whatever reason, didn't start an Olympic event with the games yesterday. Nor did it start this morning at midnight, so it appears Blizzard is sitting out the Olympics this year and I find that very disappointing. Why create an event for the Summer Olympics and not the Winter Olympics? Some are speculating on the forums that it was simply because the Summer Olympics were held in China and Blizzard was simply ingratiating themselves with China.
Whatever the case it certainly looks badly that no event was launched with the start of the Winter Olympics yesterday and I find that very disappointing.
Blizzard, for whatever reason, didn't start an Olympic event with the games yesterday. Nor did it start this morning at midnight, so it appears Blizzard is sitting out the Olympics this year and I find that very disappointing. Why create an event for the Summer Olympics and not the Winter Olympics? Some are speculating on the forums that it was simply because the Summer Olympics were held in China and Blizzard was simply ingratiating themselves with China.
Whatever the case it certainly looks badly that no event was launched with the start of the Winter Olympics yesterday and I find that very disappointing.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Meltdown city
I mentioned yesterday that we've hit a wall in our raiding progression. Well lets just say that I had a bit of a tiff on vent toward the end of yet another failure of an evening. But first let me set the setting to put this a bit more in context. As I had said, the guild is going through another round of recruiting, and one of the newly recruited healers didn't get an invite to the raid last night. And he ended up leaving because of it. There were a handful of comments in raid chat about "here it comes" and the like, to which I replied on vent that they shouldn't be blaming the guy. After all he was recruited to replace people who don't show and he had every expectation that he'd be raiding. Not treated like a stand by. He left and it died down, yet I don't think that most understood exactly what the principles involved were. I've commented before that we have no idea what raid group is actually going to show up from night to night. Our rank structure is based on attendance (loosely) and full raiders are afforded the first opportunity at raid invites. Since we only have about 12-15 full raiders it normally isn't a problem making sure everyone gets a spot, and anyone that falls below the attendance level to become a full raider is termed a casual raider and is given second option at raid invites. People who rarely raid are members and are afforded third option at any remaining raid spots, however there have been plenty of nights where we've not had enough people to fill a raid with raiders and casual raiders, and have taken everyone and anyone that was available. So the issue with what happened to the healer last night was that it makes it even more difficult to recruit new people in unless you can actually give them some semblance they are going to actually get to raid. It's a double whammy that is just vicious from a management perspective. Factor in that anyone we do recruit, and is actually a good raider might leave because they see our struggles and deem it for what it is. That's happened at least five times that I can recall in recent months.
In any event we breezed through the first wing and cleared to Festergut where we spent the rest of the evening wiping until I blew up on vent and ended up leaving the raid. According to the logs we have the DPS to kill Festergut -- or at least had it last night -- but we only got him to 22% on one attempt with all the others being miserable attempts where we'd usually wipe around the 50-60% mark. We've actually gotten him to 14% once before just before we hit his timer, so last night's 22% attempt wasn't an improvement. So what is happening you ask?
First, people are still not stacking up close in behind Festergut. That despite being told repeatedly to do so by numerous people. What ends up happening is someone will invariably get the spore and either won't notice and not move inward so the tanks get inoculated. Or if they do move forward it's only after someone snaps at them to do so. Many people do pay attention and this isn't an issue with them, but for many others it is.
Secondly people can not walk and chew bubblegum at the same time. We leave two groups of ranged players out around the circle, each with their own healer. The healer is the collapse point for that group in order to minimize the effects on their healing. One group is on the north side of the circle, one is on the south and each healer is marked with their own raid symbol. If two spores wind up in melee someone needs to head out to one of the groups and this has been one of the issues in this regard as well. Despite my requests the raid has not made up pre-determined responses like whoever is the northern most person to get the spore in the melee will always be the one to run out to the group that didn't get it. The way we do it now is the raid leader has to determine who got the spores and make a determination who needs to run out and also needs to tell the individual which group to run to. Because he's also DPSing its been a issue of lost time while he concentrates on that effort and one of the ranged groups not getting inoculated. Don't get me wrong, he's not doing it that way because he wants to be controlling, rather he's doing it because it's become a necessity. And it all boils down to people not paying any attention at all and are basically raiding rather lazily. They've come to rely so much on the raid leader that they've lost the ability to think quickly and make proper decisions in a fluid situation.
The other big issue, coupled with the problems of determining who is to run out, is that people can not remember which way is which when they are told to run out. The raid leader will call out over vent that so and so needs to run out to the north group. We have people regularly going south instead. Heading in the wrong direction, even if you do recognize the problem on your own, often leads to the ranged group not getting the inoculation because of the few seconds lost determining who was to run out to begin with. This is particularly frustrating as well because as we run into Festergut, the tanks simply turn him around so he faces away from the door. Therefore the direction that was north (right) is still north when you are looking at Festergut's back. Even if you move around somewhat while behind him, I completely fail to understand how anyone can lose their bearing. I'd expect that on a fight like Rotface perhaps, but not on Festergut.
Then we have the issue of people still -- after seven weeks of working on this same boss -- of not always lining up at range 10 yards away from someone else. At least two of our wipes last night were caused by at least two people in one of the ranged groups getting the vomit. This is simply inexcusable as it means they either did not have their range finder open or were not paying attention to it. As this is hardly the first fight that required spacing it's very frustrating.
We'll ignore the fact that many people have had at various times low DPS, as I think it's become abundantly clear that our issues are all relating to personal performance. Its the spores and our handling of them that are killing us and have brought our progression to a screeching halt. And please note that this week marks the seventh week we have been working on this same boss.
Now, to the tirade. After seeing this repeatedly last night I finally blew a gasket and didn't really yell, but did speak very sternly over vent. I didn't call anyone out by name but did let the raid know what I thought of the situation. And ended up leaving group and logging off. My friend who had already planned on leaving the guild did just that right then and there. He was giving the guild an extra week to try and replace him with another tank but I guess he'd had enough too. My wife was still on vent afterward and told me later that many people didn't understand why I was upset. Clearly they just don't understand and I find I just don't care enough to try and explain their attitude **IS** the issue causing our progression problems over the last year.
Even now I have grave doubts we could go back into Ulduar and actually kill Yogg, let alone do any of the hard modes in there. We've never killed Yogg. Nor have we ever completed any hard modes in TOC-25. Even now with most of us in ICC gear I doubt we could down any of the hard mode bosses in TOC and it points directly at people's attitudes toward raiding. They simply don't care enough to want to improve and to do their best. Too many are willing to take the free ride, doing just enough to move along or be carried. Too many are used to their tunnel vision and are too reliant on others to tell them what to do in all situations. Too many don't bother to learn anything about the fights before they show up to the raid and have to have the fights explained to them. Liken it to someone who is working at McDonald's flipping burgers and is perfectly happy doing so. Having no aspiration or drive to do better for themselves.
I'm sorry, I'm not a hardcore raider, but I want more than this.
In any event we breezed through the first wing and cleared to Festergut where we spent the rest of the evening wiping until I blew up on vent and ended up leaving the raid. According to the logs we have the DPS to kill Festergut -- or at least had it last night -- but we only got him to 22% on one attempt with all the others being miserable attempts where we'd usually wipe around the 50-60% mark. We've actually gotten him to 14% once before just before we hit his timer, so last night's 22% attempt wasn't an improvement. So what is happening you ask?
First, people are still not stacking up close in behind Festergut. That despite being told repeatedly to do so by numerous people. What ends up happening is someone will invariably get the spore and either won't notice and not move inward so the tanks get inoculated. Or if they do move forward it's only after someone snaps at them to do so. Many people do pay attention and this isn't an issue with them, but for many others it is.
Secondly people can not walk and chew bubblegum at the same time. We leave two groups of ranged players out around the circle, each with their own healer. The healer is the collapse point for that group in order to minimize the effects on their healing. One group is on the north side of the circle, one is on the south and each healer is marked with their own raid symbol. If two spores wind up in melee someone needs to head out to one of the groups and this has been one of the issues in this regard as well. Despite my requests the raid has not made up pre-determined responses like whoever is the northern most person to get the spore in the melee will always be the one to run out to the group that didn't get it. The way we do it now is the raid leader has to determine who got the spores and make a determination who needs to run out and also needs to tell the individual which group to run to. Because he's also DPSing its been a issue of lost time while he concentrates on that effort and one of the ranged groups not getting inoculated. Don't get me wrong, he's not doing it that way because he wants to be controlling, rather he's doing it because it's become a necessity. And it all boils down to people not paying any attention at all and are basically raiding rather lazily. They've come to rely so much on the raid leader that they've lost the ability to think quickly and make proper decisions in a fluid situation.
The other big issue, coupled with the problems of determining who is to run out, is that people can not remember which way is which when they are told to run out. The raid leader will call out over vent that so and so needs to run out to the north group. We have people regularly going south instead. Heading in the wrong direction, even if you do recognize the problem on your own, often leads to the ranged group not getting the inoculation because of the few seconds lost determining who was to run out to begin with. This is particularly frustrating as well because as we run into Festergut, the tanks simply turn him around so he faces away from the door. Therefore the direction that was north (right) is still north when you are looking at Festergut's back. Even if you move around somewhat while behind him, I completely fail to understand how anyone can lose their bearing. I'd expect that on a fight like Rotface perhaps, but not on Festergut.
Then we have the issue of people still -- after seven weeks of working on this same boss -- of not always lining up at range 10 yards away from someone else. At least two of our wipes last night were caused by at least two people in one of the ranged groups getting the vomit. This is simply inexcusable as it means they either did not have their range finder open or were not paying attention to it. As this is hardly the first fight that required spacing it's very frustrating.
We'll ignore the fact that many people have had at various times low DPS, as I think it's become abundantly clear that our issues are all relating to personal performance. Its the spores and our handling of them that are killing us and have brought our progression to a screeching halt. And please note that this week marks the seventh week we have been working on this same boss.
Now, to the tirade. After seeing this repeatedly last night I finally blew a gasket and didn't really yell, but did speak very sternly over vent. I didn't call anyone out by name but did let the raid know what I thought of the situation. And ended up leaving group and logging off. My friend who had already planned on leaving the guild did just that right then and there. He was giving the guild an extra week to try and replace him with another tank but I guess he'd had enough too. My wife was still on vent afterward and told me later that many people didn't understand why I was upset. Clearly they just don't understand and I find I just don't care enough to try and explain their attitude **IS** the issue causing our progression problems over the last year.
Even now I have grave doubts we could go back into Ulduar and actually kill Yogg, let alone do any of the hard modes in there. We've never killed Yogg. Nor have we ever completed any hard modes in TOC-25. Even now with most of us in ICC gear I doubt we could down any of the hard mode bosses in TOC and it points directly at people's attitudes toward raiding. They simply don't care enough to want to improve and to do their best. Too many are willing to take the free ride, doing just enough to move along or be carried. Too many are used to their tunnel vision and are too reliant on others to tell them what to do in all situations. Too many don't bother to learn anything about the fights before they show up to the raid and have to have the fights explained to them. Liken it to someone who is working at McDonald's flipping burgers and is perfectly happy doing so. Having no aspiration or drive to do better for themselves.
I'm sorry, I'm not a hardcore raider, but I want more than this.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Guild raiding progression has hit the wall
I’ve mentioned in the past that my guild has had numerous progression problems in the year I’ve been with the guild. A bunch of us had left another guild a year ago and created our own, but that folded after a couple months. We merged with our current guild and I’ve genuinely come to like all the core players a great deal. As a matter of fact that feeling is why I remain in the guild despite the progression issues, but unfortunately one of my real world friends that came along with me and is one of the guilds two main tanks has had enough. He told me last Friday that he’s leaving the guild and will be joining another guild as DPS. He’s not leaving the server, so I’m not really losing my friend, but at the same time it’s a bummer knowing you won’t be raiding together on any normal basis again for the foreseeable future. Throw in the fact that his absence isn’t something the guild will be able to fix at the moment, as there are no other tanks available to replace him. You can imagine the entire episode has lead to some frustrating discussions inside the guild among the officers and select others.
I’ve pushed the officers to use the opportunity to replace those who are under performing or causing problems with an inability to adapt to the situation at hand. Read that as those who are always dying in fires/poison/etc. I pushed my point home that it was simply unfair to the core of the raid team who are performing at or above the level they need to be, and are being held back by those who aren’t. As we are a casual raiding guild we have a lot of people that essentially raid when they want to and are little prepared for raids either in the way of gearing themselves up independently of the raid, or by learning anything about the boss fights before they arrive on the scene. If we were progressing at a reasonable rate it wouldn’t be an issue to be honest, but we’ve hit a wall with Festergut and Rotface and have been stuck there for seven weeks now. And I have no expectation that we will move forward any time soon.
As my friend said, the guild has run into this issue at several points over the past year and in his mind is indicative that the guild is not willing to see the problem for what it is and address it. We’ve gone through periods of limited or extended recruiting in the past but few, if any of those recruits were any better than what they were replacing. As they were mainly recruited to replace people that simply disappeared for whatever reason the opportunity wasn’t taken at those times to assess what was really needed to improve the quality of the raid and we ended up simply recruiting a ranged or melee player that was available. I certainly can’t fault my friend who just wants to progress and see the Lich King and has put in the time, he believes, to be treated to something different than he has been treated to recently. I can’t fault him at all.
We’ve recruited a few new people to the guild since Friday as the guild is, I believe, taking the situation seriously. But only time will tell the real success of the matter.
I’ve pushed the officers to use the opportunity to replace those who are under performing or causing problems with an inability to adapt to the situation at hand. Read that as those who are always dying in fires/poison/etc. I pushed my point home that it was simply unfair to the core of the raid team who are performing at or above the level they need to be, and are being held back by those who aren’t. As we are a casual raiding guild we have a lot of people that essentially raid when they want to and are little prepared for raids either in the way of gearing themselves up independently of the raid, or by learning anything about the boss fights before they arrive on the scene. If we were progressing at a reasonable rate it wouldn’t be an issue to be honest, but we’ve hit a wall with Festergut and Rotface and have been stuck there for seven weeks now. And I have no expectation that we will move forward any time soon.
As my friend said, the guild has run into this issue at several points over the past year and in his mind is indicative that the guild is not willing to see the problem for what it is and address it. We’ve gone through periods of limited or extended recruiting in the past but few, if any of those recruits were any better than what they were replacing. As they were mainly recruited to replace people that simply disappeared for whatever reason the opportunity wasn’t taken at those times to assess what was really needed to improve the quality of the raid and we ended up simply recruiting a ranged or melee player that was available. I certainly can’t fault my friend who just wants to progress and see the Lich King and has put in the time, he believes, to be treated to something different than he has been treated to recently. I can’t fault him at all.
We’ve recruited a few new people to the guild since Friday as the guild is, I believe, taking the situation seriously. But only time will tell the real success of the matter.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Blizzard hotfixes love
Yes friends, the free ride is over. Blizzard introduced a hot fix this morning that disabled the ability to acquire bracelet tokens from vehicle combat, meaning you could no longer get them by running around inside Ulduar in a siege engine or by doing the bombing missions in Icecrown or doing any of the Threat before the Citadel missions there either. I can certainly see Blizzard's point as they were reacting to the tirade of displeasure by healers who were getting the shaft by not being able to get any in dungeon groups, where as everyone else was. And Blizzard didn't want the world event to be totally trivial, which the vehicle combat certainly made it. All the same, I'm glad I ran Ulduar for two days and got more Bracelets than I needed. I'd get 30 or so in 15 minutes and would have to leave the instance in order to clear my inventory.
All this means is that you will have to exercise some patience in completing the world event. You can get 50+ tokens of love a day for turning in four bracelets and completing the daily quests. And the world event lasts two full weeks, meaning you can get at least 650 tokens of love. I think we'll all be fine.
All this means is that you will have to exercise some patience in completing the world event. You can get 50+ tokens of love a day for turning in four bracelets and completing the daily quests. And the world event lasts two full weeks, meaning you can get at least 650 tokens of love. I think we'll all be fine.
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