Monday, April 27, 2009

Kel'thuzad has been nuked. Tauren Stampede has now downed all of naxx. :)
Tanks: Muertedehoof & Fyska
Heals: Danaris & Me
DPS: Aldie, Dantius, Cubex, Oxxykotton, Zerkofark, Marrak

Muertedehoof now has the key to start the Malygos encounter.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Useable Resources

Every day or so, I peruse the guild roster on Wow-heroes to see how people are doing on gear upgrades. One of these days, I'll take it one step farther and figure out what ppl need instance wide to help them.

A few people asked me to explain my spell rotation on Bandage the other day and it got me thinking. I usually power-level a toon to 75 or so and don't really pay attention to the mechanics of a particular class as they change very rapidly every 20 levels or so. Once I hit 75 now, I tend to focus on learning the techniques and focus of the playstyles.

The first thing I do is look the character up on the net, look for the highest damage specs, rotations, and the stat focus. For healing, this changes to Healing per mana efficiency of various spells, then stat focus. Also for healers, you have highest healing/minute and highest mana efficiency builds.

First: Check out http://www.talentchic.com/

Second: Google your class/spec "shadow priest wrath 3.1" and look for blogs, but turn security on your browser way way up and do a virus scan before you log into wow next. Ppl love to toss keyloggers into ads or other portions of sites.

Third: Look at http://www.wow-heroes.com/, look up some of the better raiding guilds, find a person who is the spec you're looking into, compare you're gear/stat focus/spec to theirs.

Fourth: Adjust your spec to focus on either heroic or raiding, get the best enchants you can afford (keeping in mind that unless your in full 200/213 gear, you're going to be getting upgrades so don't do the ones that cost 1+K gold apiece)

Fifth: look up your char on http://www.wowarmory.com/ and find craftable/questable/Reputation upgrades and make a list in a word file. List the SLOT for the item, then list the order you're likely to persue/obtain them. This will help with which instances to run.

Sixth: Glyphs are an insane addition to every spec. And they are completely spec dependent. These are an absolute necessity.

Interspersed Between 1-6: Talk to ppl who are masters of their spec, hell, ask for advice on general " Anyone on that can give me advice for specifics on XXXX class/spec" And then look up this person on armory/heroes and guage their char versus their advice.

Sixth: Here's something alot of parttime or periodic raiders dont like. When you raid, you're responsibility is to bring the most you can do the raid, that means bring potions, food, etc. Of even higher importance is that even though you may like a particular spec, if one does substantially better dps across the board.... use the higher dps one.

Example: A hunter in DnR had been marksman for years, kept the same spec. Last week, changed to survival. DPS went from 2.9 to 3.7K dps in the course of one night raiding. With research, he chose survival because alot of the fights in naxx/ulduar are AOE intensive which makes keeping pets alive difficult, and BM damage is greatly pet dependent but higher than survival when the pet survives.

One of the problem I think people are facing is that they don't raid fulltime so in their spare time, they lvl alts. Rather than focusing on one, and getting the best gear available, they spread that time commitment across 2-3-4+ alts.

Just as a frame of reference
Heroics: you're going to have 3-5 buffs.
Raids: You're going to have 7-20 odd buffs.
Test Dummies: will be lower than your actual dps output in raids/heroics. On the regular dummy I pulled 1.9K on a shadow priest. Heroic/Raid I pulled 1.4-5K. In actual heroics I pull 1.8-2K and Raids I've pulled 2.3-2.6K due to buffs and other factors.

For Heroics, if you can't sustain > 1.2K dps across the board, you're a liability. This might sound harsh, but the longer a fight lasts, the longer it takes to get that rift down, the more adds/spawns/damage etc the raid takes. Now, given that this is a game, and "liability" is a hardcore term. I don't define "liability" as "you suck" I define it as "you're character/rotation/gear needs more work." With gear and proper rotation, you should be around 2.2-3K dps or somewhere around there.

For Raids(10): 1.5K is the rough minimum unless there are proportionately better geared people to carry you. Well geared in raids should pull 2.5K+ dps. Truly obsessed people should be pulling 3K-5K+ dps depending on fight and class.

Before Wrath, I was uninterested in raids, focused on alts, had 4 70's and every craft to 375. I'd gotten into a few raids, but didn't know the mechanics/fights/ or how to maximize my dps in given situations. Didn't really care as I was enjoying the experience. Needless to say, the fights took longer than they should have and were rougher. Once wrath came out, I went resto with Wad, got invited to raids, and quickly learned the cost of the above mentality. Ulduar w/ one unaware person = wipe. Deconstructor has a 6 minute rage timer, requires 2.8K+ dps constant throughout. Try doing that with 1-2 people dead.........

:P, Got to love being bored at work with nothing whatsoever to do except spam a blog site :P

Monday, April 20, 2009

Specs of TS 80s

So Wada thought a good idea would be to make a list of all of our lvl 80's dual specs. This way we can see who's available for what. I will put this in with the welcome/policy/guild ranking posts on the right side of the page for easy access. Please either leave a comment that lists each individual toon you have or message me in game. This should also help recognize which toons belong to which person for those with multiples. Please try and somewhat follow the format I've used. If you have the 51-pt talent in a tree you can just list that spec or you can specify if you have a hybrid:

Deadrush (Rogue): Assassination & Assassination/Subtlety = Sinscribe (Priest): Holy heals & Discipline heals = Graynight (Death Knight): Frost tank & Unholy dps = Demonevil (Warlock): Affliction & Destruction

Lashtail (Warrior): Fury dps & Protection tank = Lashtar (Priest): Holy heals & Shadow dps

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Blah

Did I ever mention that I hate changing guilds, its such a complete pain in the arse.

I left misfits for Dawning Vengeance, promised a raid slot, got ignored, noone was ever around to do anything. Very clique oriented.

So, I was invited to Dead N Red, people were welcoming, but were also very rude to non-DnR people. We're talking, I'd like to beat them up side the head with a bat type of rude.. Once I paid back my obligation to them for the gear they'd gotten me

I was invited to Wrath as DnR wasn't raiding at all, joined wrath, guaranteed a raid slot, the night we were supposed to start that week, the GM disbanded the guild so he could change servers w/ the ppl that the guild had geared the most.

Wrath became Dynasty, new GM has too many healers and would rather take a friend w/ less gear and wanted me to go Boomkin. They have no raid schedule, good people, but they spend 20 minutes between bosses. 3 hours = Spider + Plague Quarter, and Patch. Got ignored most of the raid as well, no healing assignments on Patch = 1 wipe. They listened to me after that.

When I offered to help tank patch as we were overstocked on healers, Despite the fact I had more of every stat than their best geared tank, they ignored my request, didn't even turn it down :P

Needless to say, DnR is approaching me again to heal for them. The two biggest antagonists in the guild (of 3) are gone. Accounts got hacked and they left. Wrath of God Maybe???. They're doing Ulduar-25 man tonight.

I've told them that I'd do it as long as people weren't horribly offensive or healer-bashing :P

It shouldn't be unreasonable to do Naxx-10 w/o me. I'm not irreplaceable but I know also that Morty is gone for a week, which is one of the reasons that I accepted. It would still be good for the group if they tried to run it, even if that meant pugging a couple of people. Spider wing should be easily doable.

I'm at work and didn't have time this morning to leave a note ingame about it.

Did I mention I hate changing guilds?

Friday, April 17, 2009

What Are You Ready For?

This is a list taken directly from http://www.wow-heroes.com showing what the level 80s of the guild are ready for. Use this as a guide to what you should be running for gear improvement. If you are unable to perform at these levels, don't worry. Just practice on lower level runs until you feel comfortable and always ask advice of more experienced players. List updated as of 4/17/09:

Muertedehoof - 25 Man Tank - 2052 (NC)
Cubex - 25 Man DPS - 2041 (+33)
Nerfertiti - 25 Man DPS - 2037 (+28)
Sinscribe - 25 Man Healer - 2019 (NC)
Bamapriest - 25 Man Healer - 1984 (+73)
Invisigoth - 25 Man DPS - 1982 (NC)
Fyska - 25 Man Tank - 1940 (+166)
Aenicus - 25 Man DPS - 1925 (+20)
Lashstar - 25 Man Healer - 1924 (+16)
Graynight - 25 Man Tank - 1863 (NC)
Jinda - 25 Man DPS - 1824 (NC)
Danaris - 25 Man Healer - 1823 (New)
Cottonrocket - 25 Man Tank - 1801 (+157)
Lashtail - 25 Man Tank - 1788 (+67)
Momakonda - 25 Man DPS - 1773 (-95)
Yukaya - 25 Man DPS - 1751 (+51)
Aldie - 25 Man DPS - 1750 (New)
Dantius - 25 Man DPS - 1720 (New)
Demonevil - 25 Man DPS - 1679 (+23)
-------------------------------------------
Zerkofark - 10 Man DPS - 1698 (+100)
Oxxykotton - 10 Man DPS - 1691 (+69)
Deadrush - 10 Man DPS - 1667 (-38)
Spelczeker - 10 Man DPS - 1653 (+187)
Krypticdeath - 10 Man Tank - 1632 (+98)
Sonnygrazo - 10 Man DPS - 1533 (NC)
Mahaliel - 10 Man Healer - 1526 (+37)
Endorfin - 10 Man DPS - 1505 (+76)
Arsonwells - 10 Man Tank - 1494 (+121)
Korongar - 10 Man DPS - 1475 (New)
Bigsky - Heroic DPS - 1429 (+20)
Becca - Heroic Tank - 1427 (+110)
Bandage - Heroic DPS - 1399 (+201)
Chauria - Heroic Tank - 1399 (New)
Boheeka - Heroic DPS - 1377 (NC)
Huracan - Heroic Tank - 1332 (+216)
Bloodstained - Heroic DPS - 1319 (NC)
-------------------------------------------
Finduilas - Heroic Tank - 1265 (NC)
Thunderessa - Heroic DPS - 1175 (New)
Paladius - Heroic Healer - 1125 (-6)
Skreken - Heroic DPS - 1050 (NC)
Spodium - Heroic DPS - 929 (+128)
Unholykross - Heroic Tank - 921 (NC)
Crepitus - Heroic DPS - 894 (NC)
Usdareject - Heroic DPS - 891 (NC)
Marrak - Heroic DPS - 887 (New)
Lisha - Heroic DPS - 850 (+14)
Zephroes - Heroic Tank - 726 (NC)
Missmarbull - Heroic DPS - 716 (NC)

Welcome Danaris, Aldie, Dantius, Korongar, Chauria, Thunderessa and Marrak to the guild...congrats to Demonevil, Bandage and Huracan for bumping up a rank and to Huracan for being having the high gear improvement score on the week.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Weekend Morning Raids

Hey guys,

Just an update on our weekend morning raid group. We were able to do VoA on Sat AM with only 2 people pugged, however we got run over when trying to do OS. We just did not have the dps necessary to get through things. Sun. AM we breezed through OS with a different group. No wipes, no deaths and people were suggesting we should do with 1 drake up (we only had 2 tanks so we could not).

So we are going to have to put a minimum cap on dps to join. I'm thinking 1400+ is a good place to start. Though I hope we can eventually get to the point where we can take one or 2 people that aren't hitting this number, for the time being only these people will be invited and the rest will be pugged while we learn some things. My hope is to do VoA/OS for one more week, maybe 2, and then begin on Naxx.

If you aren't hitting the required dps number, please read up on some rotations and tactics. I would really love it if we could get a full guild run with no pugs sometime next month.

Thanks for understanding and feel free to whisper me in game if you have any questions.

Friday, April 10, 2009

What Are You Ready For?

This is a list taken directly from http://www.wow-heroes.com/ showing what the level 80s of the guild are ready for. Use this as a guide to what you should be running for gear improvement. If you are unable to perform at these levels, don't worry. Just practice on lower level runs until you feel comfortable and always ask advice of more experienced players. List updated as of 4/10/09:

Muertedehoof - 25 Man Tank - 2052 (+44)
Sinscribe - 25 Man Healer - 2019 (+94)
Nerfertiti - 25 Man DPS - 2009 (New)
Cubex - 25 Man DPS - 2008 (NC)
Invisigoth - 25 Man DPS - 1982 (NC)
Bamapriest - 25 Man Healer - 1911 (+53)
Lashstar - 25 Man Healer - 1908 (NC)
Aenicus - 25 Man DPS - 1905 (+73)
Momakonda - 25 Man DPS - 1868 (NC)
Graynight - 25 Man Tank - 1863 (+23)
Jinda - 25 Man DPS - 1824 (+59)
Fyska - 25 Man Tank - 1774 (+38)
Lashtail - 25 Man Tank - 1721 (-68)
Deadrush - 25 Man DPS - 1705 (+140)
Yukaya - 25 Man DPS - 1700 (-30)
-------------------------------------------
Demonevil - 10 Man DPS - 1679 (+104)
Cottonrocket - 10 Man Tank - 1644 (NC)
Oxxykotton - 10 Man DPS - 1622 (+78)
Zerkofark - 10 Man DPS - 1598 (-76)
Krypticdeath - 10 Man Tank - 1534 (New)
Sonnygrazo - 10 Man DPS - 1533 (New)
Mahaliel - 10 Man Healer - 1489 (+27)
Spelczeker - 10 Man DPS - 1466 (+179)
Endorfin - Heroic DPS - 1429 (+22)
Bigsky - Heroic DPS - 1409 (New)
Boheeka - Heroic DPS - 1377 (-18)
Arsonwells - Heroic Tank - 1373 (New)
Bloodstained - Heroic DPS - 1319 (NC)
Becca - Heroic Tank - 1317 (-46)
-------------------------------------------
Finduilas - Heroic Tank - 1265 (NC)
Bandage - Heroic DPS - 1198 (New)
Paladius - Heroic Healer - 1131 (-42)
Huracan - Heroic Tank - 1116 (New)
Skreken - Heroic DPS - 1050 (NC)
Unholykross - Heroic Tank - 921 (New)
Crepitus - Heroic DPS - 894 (NC)
Usdareject - Heroic DPS - 891 (New)
Lisha - Heroic DPS - 836 (New)
Spodium - Heroic DPS - 801 (NC)
Zephroes - Heroic Tank - 726 (NC)
Missmarbull - Heroic DPS - 716 (+64)

We have 41 level 80 characters.
Class count: 7 Warriors, 6 Death Knights, 5 Priests, 5 Paladins, 4 Mages, 4 Rogues, 3 Druids, 3 Hunters, 2 Warlocks, 2 Shaman.
Welcome Nerfertiti, Krypticdeath, Sonnygrazo, Arsonwells, Unholykross and Usdareject to the guild...congrats to Deadrush and Spelczeker for bumping up a rank...congrats to Bandage, Huracan and Lisha for hitting 80.
Soon to be 80: Banality (DPS), Buluva (DPS), Doola (DPS), Hollowedsoul (DPS).