The Daily Quest : raiding

Guest Post: Why Do You Play WoW?

matticus — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 04:31:19 GMT

Matticus' Note: I posted a small, but brief plea yesterday for help with my blog. Leiandra has helped me answer my plea. My exams conclude on the 15th of December, therefore my personal posts will be drastically reduced while I'm busy ~~raiding~~ cramming for my finals. But I don't want to leave my readers hanging. I'm looking for some guest posters to help me for the next week or so. If you have your own WoW blog, chances are I've read it or ran into it. This is a great opportunity for you to expand your viewership and receive exposure. Your posts (if I like them) will appear here and on Curse. Simply drop me a message via curse. I spend 2 - 4 hours a day blogging and I cannot sustain that kind of effort for the time being. Anyways, here's Leiandra!

With Matticus being busy with finals, I volunteered to help him out with a post or two so that he could hopefully pass his classes :). Just a few, quick comment about me for those that don’t read my blog: My mage’s name is Leiandra, and I am a Guild Master for a raiding guild on the Bronzebeard – US server. I’ve been in guild leadership since I first starting playing MMO’s (only with the release of EQ2), and have been playing Wow for about 2.5 years now.I’ve been the GM of Primogeniture for about 2 months now, but have been part of the final decision making process for much, much longer.

The latest inspiration for this post comes from a recent person that I have been recruiting. Most of the Bronzebeard raiding guilds tend to start around 5 or 6pm server time. Our raid times start at 8:30, so we get a lot of people that want to join because of work shifts or just general night owls (vampires as one of my Raid Leaders calls them). This recent recruit registered for an account on our forums, but never filled out an app. He then contacted me in game to find our more about our guild. His work schedule had changed and he wouldn’t be able to raid with his current guild, hence the conversation he had with me. He sounded like he was interested, but told me he had to think about it. A few days later, he told me that he just wasn’t being fair to us, because he would only raid with us until his work schedule changed. I thanked him for his honesty, and we put each other on our friends’ lists in case we ever needed anything.

A few nights back, I needed another member for a 5-man run. He was online, and I asked him if he wanted to come. After a fairly successful run in which he did a great job, I was curious if he still maintained his loyalty to his guild. He told me that it was really only one raid leader that he was still loyal to, and that person was actually okay with him leaving.>He filled out an application on our forums, and then again, decided that he wanted to stay with his guild.

Some people might consider this frequent changing of one’s mind quite annoying, but I completely understood. Sometimes people move on from the game. Sometimes people change guilds. The only thing that’s constant is that each guild will change. I think the successful guilds generally roll with those punches, adapt, and move on. But when is it right for you, the individual player, to move on?

To answer that question, it takes some deep introspection on the part of each individual. Questions like “Why do I play WoW?” should be addressed. What is most important to you? Is it important to be with friends? Is progression your big thing? Are you just in a guild that nobody is online when you are? Sometimes there’s drama or fights… that can happen to. Do you just want to play solo for awhile? How much are you going to regret leaving your guild, if at all?

When I first starting playing Wow, I did so to play with my best friend and his brother. The three of us started a guild because we were tired of random guild invites. The guild grew as RL friends and relatives joined us or transferred servers. We were never huge, but at our height, right before the expansion, we were getting in to Zul’Gurub. A lot of us also PUG’ed and participated in other guild raids in almost all of the dungeons (I think Naxx was the only one not on our lists). With the expansion, and me being a night owl, a few of us decided that we’d break off into a more structured raiding guild and have more than just one guild run per week. It was a difficult decision to leave my guild of friends. I knew a few of them would come with me, and hoped others would follow. We had all been together for so long that I knew I’d still talk to them often, and hopefully group with them regularly as well. Well, the grouping thing hasn’t happened as much as I had originally planned, but I still talk to most of them nightly. My priorities, at the time of our new guild, were based around progression and seeing new content. I have a whole list of new, online friends, and I enjoy being in the guild I am.

My priorities are aligned with where my toons are and the guild they are in. Sure, there are ups and downs. It’s not like I always get my way, even as GM, but I’m happy where I’m at. Are you? Is it time to move on? Is there something better on the horizon, but maybe you’re just too scared to make the change? Or are you exactly where you want to be with the people you want to be there with? I hope most of you can answer “yes” to that last question. It’s just a game. Have fun. Be happy.

So did you like what you read? Then head on over to Leiandra's blog. While you're there, don't forget to subscribe to Leiandra's RSS.

WoW Struggles: Maintaining Reputation

matticus — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 01:08:58 GMT

I must apologize about my lack of a posts recently. I had a term paper due, and like many WoW students, I have horrible time management skills. It's the end of semester for many of us students. But that's another topic I hope to address entirely.

Anyways, onto business!

First, I want to extend Gwaendar a hearty shoutout. He has honored me with a spot on his blog roll which I will reciprocate in kind. One Among Many has also done the same. I thank them both for their links. I believe it's important to recognize writers who link to you. Any of you aspiring writers would do well to keep that in mind.

Today, I plan to start an ongoing series of blog posts about our struggles in WoW. I guess you could call it my catch all on days when I have no material!

In addition to WoW Blogs, I also read non-WoW blogs to help improve my writing and style. Lorelle's Blog Struggles series has inspired me here, as you can see.

1 An Epic Tale
2 One Question
3 One Answer
4 He Was a Warlock
5 The Lesson
6 The End?

An Epic Tale

I've been lucky throughout my entire WoW raiding career. I cannot say there was an incident where my instance raid ID or my loot had been stolen and ninja'd. Unfortunately, others have not been so lucky. Big Bear Butt had his raid instance partially taken.

Kirk wrote an excellent reaction to the situation that I think everyone should check out.

In a game like World of Warcraft where players need to interact with others, social reputation is the currency. How players view you could either open doors or close them.

A situation like this one where a player has done something unfair will cause other players to think badly of them. The Guild in question will be labeled as an organization where none of it's members can be trusted until the culprit is found.

I know what you're thinking.

One Question

Who cares what they think? So what if I ninja loot and commit other acts? I pay $15 a month to play this game how I see fit and I don't care what other people think of me.

One Answer

Because if you do that on a consistent basis, no one is going to want to deal with you. Take a look at the following list and possible penalties.

No fun in groups because you can't get any
Zero raiding opportunities
Crafters won't want your business
Online abuse
...Need I say more?

He Was a Warlock

Let me cite an example. A year ago when I transferred to Ner'Zuhl (gosh has it been that long already?), I heard stories of a Warlock named Evilana. Apparently he was a bad player and had a bad reputation. To get associated with him meant serious bad news. I never knew precisely what the reasoning was behind it, but I did not want to deal with a player who sounded that bad. In fact, he was a target of many flamers on the WoW Forums. I was new to the server at the time and like a kid entering high school for the first time, just wanted to fit in. I didn't actively participate in any e-floggings but I stayed distant.

A while later, I had gotten word that he either transferred off the server or ebayed his character (or both).

That was the last time I ever heard about him again.

The Lesson

Do not underestimate the power of a united social force. They have a mind of their own. Think of it as the online version of the mob mentality. They can spread the word about a player's dominance and make him seem like a god. Or they can shred his reputation entirely like he is a pile of dirt. The popularity of a person depends entirely on what other people think of them. You can think of certain world leaders as an example. Popular opinion can spread like a wildfire and ruin WoW careers.

The End?

So what's going to happen with BBB? I can only imagine. I suspect if they ever find the person involved, he's only going to get a slap on the wrist and a stern talking to. But I plan to observe any developments with great interest.

Like what you're reading? Matticus runs his own blog over at worldofmatticus.com. Come by, check it out, and drop him a line!

How to: Manage New Players and Loot

matticus — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:20:34 GMT

I think it's a fair assessment to say that most raiding Guilds have some kind of a trial procedure before a new player truly gets accepted. Complications arise when they raid begin to raid. Oh sure they've got the right to loot and all, but what about the guys that have worked on the boss for three weeks? Let's back up for a second here and talk about trialing.

From the new player perspective

So you're the new guy who is eager to prove yourself to the other members in the Guild. You might experience some difficulty breaking into the atmosphere. You're a little shy and intimidated. After all here's a Guild that doesn't run Karazhan anymore, crushes Solarian, mops the floor with Leo, rides Al'ar like a pony, and turns Lurker into sushi. The only raiding experience you have is to your fridge at midnight. The first thing you need to do is relax. The second thing you need to do is to prove yourself worthy of being in such a Guild.

Different Guilds will have different methods of evaluating you as a player and as a person. A PvP Guild examines players based on how well they PvP. A raiding Guild examines players on their raiding performance. When you join a Guild initially, chances are you're not "technically" in the Guild yet. But at the same time, you're kind of "in" the Guild. It's similar to hockey. Some players who don't have contracts with various clubs will start by trying out with the clubs and seeing how well they fit in. That's where you, the new guy, will be: in the Guild but not quite yet. Now the time period could range from a day to a month. Most tryouts would not involve you running in a five man or a heroic. Five man instances are vastly different from raid instances. If there happens to be a roster slot open for you, you'll get thrown into the frying pan. The first time you raid with a new Guild will make or break your application. Because if you're inactive or heaven forbid that you some how screw up somewhere, you will always be labelled as such a player. When I started doing Lurker a few months ago (gosh it's been so long), I would consistently get blasted by his Spout because my computer's frame rate was not high enough for me to compensate. It didn't take long before other players old and new alike were told to not "pull a Mallet".

Usually on first raids, most players will be quite forgiving. They'll understand that it's your first raid with them and they'll be extra patient. But that extra patience will begin to wear thin. You need to stay extra focused and on your toes. Don't be afraid to speak up and ask for clarification. Better a raid to spend an extra five minutes on explanations then thirty on wiping and dealing with trash respawns.

My trial experiences went something along the lines of this:

During my period with Angelic Advocates, I did not have the ability to speak in Guild chat (quite a nuisance by the way, don't do that to new people). My trial run consisted of being thrown into a 40 man Raid group and completing BWL from start to finish. I was immediately promoted (with speaking privileges) the moment we downed Nefarion. Oddly enough, it was a Guild first (Six Priests and I was the only fear ward).

When I was trying out for Aurora, I was asked to step in and raid Karazhan at 11 PM. We downed Attumen on the first try and I was signed within days.

After a lengthy 20 minute interview with the recruiting officer for Carnage, I was invited on a trial basis. It took me several Gruul runs and a Magtheridon death before I was finally accepted with open arms.

My experiences all have one thing in common: perseverance. I've run into my share of players who would leave the Guild immediately if they wipe 12 times in Karazhan on a single night. If you can't handle wiping in a minor instance like Karazhan, then there is not a chance you can handle raiding in a 25 man instance where raid wipes in the 20s are not uncommon. People seem to expect a free ride from high end raiding Guilds. I think that is one facet of the game that really annoys me.

The worse possible thing that can happen is that you and your potential new Guild just don't mesh. Maybe it wasn't meant to be. Nothing will stop you from hopping over to a new Guild and beginning the process anew.

From the Guild perspective

Here is one possible method for handling loot and new players. It's going to work if you use a DKP system to help manage all the purples that drop. You can set a period of two or three weeks where players allowed to accumulate points but are not eligible to bid for or spend their points on loot. This is plausible if some players are in the negatives. However, if no one in the Raid needs that particular item, then the new player can exercise his option and ask for it. If you think about it, it's kind of like a big giant "need before greed" situation. The rest of the Guild has option before it is then passed to the new player.

It's up to every Guild member to make the new player at home and help him out a little bit if needed. You don't need to give him your 30 Uber Fires and Uber Nethers for his Ubercloth set, but do help him out if he wants a small quest done or needs a mob killed. The point here is to encourage participation. If you're doing dailies, ask him if they've done it yet. If you need an extra spot in a five man instance, go to the new player FIRST and see if they want in. Not only do you make the new player welcome, but you can subliminally see how that player performs and interacts with the Guild. All it takes is for one Guild member to say "Ubernoob said this to me and wouldn't do this because he didn't want to do it" and he is placed on the scrutiny list. I've seen cases where new players ask for help in running an instance and some Guild members say "sure, just a sec" and Ubernoob drops off the face of the planet leaving the Guild members hanging and scratching their heads wondering where he went (twice from what I've seen :O).

With this additional examination process, it allows more opportunities for Guild members to check out the Ubernoob. Guild Leaders who may not be around as often or don't have the time to play with the Ubernoob can ask players who have had experience with him to report their thoughts. Leaders can then make judgments based on the type of information they receive which leads to one or two directions: Ubernoob is considered an asset and receives a nod or Ubernoob is a liability and is not what the Guild is looking for.

Finally, whatever decision that is made by the Officers should be respected and should not be second guessed. They usually have more information then Tony Raider and should be trusted to make the right decisions.

Matticus is currently watching an episode of Mythbusters in the hope that Warlocks being OP will be dispelled. You can read more over at the World of Matticus.

Raiding Pre and Post BC

Celathil — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 02:00:44 GMT

Raiding Pre vs. Post Burning Crusade

Let me just start out to say I am honored to start blogging under the title of The Daily Quest as well as give some background on myself. I have played WoW for closing in on three years now mainly on my human paladin. I have always been into raiding and used to be much more hardcore than I am currently (raiding every night of the week).

I helped start a guild called Dysfunctional on Shadowmoon early this year and was one of the more prominent officers. Coming from my previous experience I thought this was going to be a lot easier than it had been in the past. You know, I fell for the ploy that leading a 30-35 man guild was going to be easier than leading one that had 50 people in it. I was wrong, I did not count on the fact that the entire raiding attitude has changed.

I know that I was a hardcore wow junky back before the burning crusade. I would always be on farming mats, repair money, and back before AQ opened I was on a premade battle ground team to get people Grand Marshall since getting an Askhandi was a real great achievement. Those were the days, or so we tend to think about through the tinted lens of the past. Of course they were also a lot more demanding than now, being a paladin, getting gold for repair bills and consumables was a lot harder without dailies, increased gold drops, not a lot of rep drop items, etc. One thing I always enjoyed though was the professional attitude that seemed to surround our raids when we zoned in and got started. It was more like a job than a game when the raid started, you may bicker back and forth before the raid but when you zoned in you got to work and didn’t waste time. Now the extent of this varies somewhat from guild to guild obviously but if you were in a guild that had seen Naxx before the complete nerf of AQ40 you know the atmosphere.

Now lets pick back up with TBC raiding, we experienced a big change in the numbers, 40 down to 25. Kind of a weird number to switch to but lets not get side tracked. The switch brought about mixed reactions, quite frankly I wasn’t too angry since in a 40 man raid you always have your 15-20 really active, call out on vent, pull more than their weight people, and the rest, in my opinion, fill out the ranks. So I thought this was going to alleviate a lot of stress from leadership and get past a lot of the drama, I was wrong. I quickly found out that the business like atmosphere in raids has completely dissolved except for a few choice guilds on my server. The rest have adopted a friendship approach which works well for kara and gruul but not past that. The main things I have taken note to are; attendance, drama, and trials. The sad part is that these complaints have been wagered against people who have been in the raiding scene as much as I have and are grown adults.

Attendance, one of my big issues is that if we recruit you and you say you can make days X, X, X, and X, then you better be sure you are there. Today it has become a lot more prominent for people to decide to drop out on a raid night several hours before hand without saying anything until they log back on. I know that people have lives, and I have dropped out of a few (5 in the past year, I know, I’m a loser) and that real life stuff comes up. Just make sure you let us know as soon as you do, we can most likely replace you but when we told Johnny he can go watch a movie with his gf since we won’t need him on since you are coming, yeah, I’ll be pissed.

Drama, ok, I know if you have two or more people involved you will always have some drama. The drama that seems prevalent among today’s guilds is utter nonsense. Talking with long time friends they have the same problem on their servers as well, people not being able to shelve personal bias in order to accomplish a task. For example, we had a priest who refused to heal one of our tanks since she said he was rude to her. Needles to say I removed her from the guild when that happened; I couldn’t have someone rebel like that and keep them in with the good apples.

Trials, everyone that has played before TBC recalls when they first trial’d into a guild. For those who started one with a group of friends, my hat is off to you. Anyways, what I have noticed is the complete lack of seriousness put forth by them. Pre BC it was you showed up to all the raids for 3 weeks or more, no loot, and you were the low man on the totem pull. It is now the norm, at least the ones we got, who expected to get loot right away over members and would just not show up to 3-4 raids at a time. It was a joke that we were just temp’ing paladins for awhile since it took me over 17 trials to fill one slot and that guy ended up not working out.

I know that I probably come across as someone who believes one of the following, wow sucks, wow is ending, TBC ruined wow, raiding is too much work, I don’t raid, etc. Much to my surprise I still enjoy raiding, I am a PvE person, and I quite frankly suck at PvP. The only change I have made was I retired my paladin, and took up a shadow priest on another server in a non leadership position. So in a sense I did sort of give up, but I had to reevaluate my choices. I was playing around 9+ hours a day just sorting drama out and trying to progress a guild. All in all I get the feeling I am rapidly becoming a dieing breed, all of my friends who were similar in their position have kind of given up the hope of finding people who brought forth the same professionalism they used to.

Raiding with an Alt character

matticus — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:05:59 GMT

I just received clearance from my GM to raid in SSC with Saphfira. I know the last couple of posts had me express disappointment in my class, but that's not the case. Mallet is my favourite character out of all of them. Let me explain the situation here. It only recently occurred to me that Carnage raids with four active Priests. Three of them are Holy and one is Shadow. I've never really played a DPS class at all throughout my WoW career. Even right now, Saphfira is Restoration specced. We only have one Shaman and she's Enhancement. We've been sharding a ridiculous amount of mail healing gear. Last night in SSC, 3 mail healing items dropped (also 5 of 6 SSC bosses dropped within 3 hours which is a big plus in terms of progression).

Luckily, Maeve understood the point I was trying to make so I didn't have to waste my breath explaining my situation. But here was the argument I was going to make: Three Holy Priests means theres going to be more competition for gear. Having a Resto Shaman would increase the diversity of the raid and not allow healing loot to be wasted. It's basically another group getting totem buffs. Healing power isn't going to go down a whole lot. It's not like I'm requesting to swap Mallet for an Elemental Shaman. So it's a pound for pound trade of healer for healer.

Is this something I really want? No, because I absolutely love playing my Priest. But having three Holy priests in the raid means its going to take three times as long for us of them to get geared up.

But we spent so much time gearing up Mallet and he'll be wasted

Well no, it's not an either/or situation. Mallet is clearly a superior healer in comparison to Saphfira in every respect. I think there may be certain encounters where having a Wrath of Air totem and a Mana Spring might provide some extra punch. It's not like I'm going to stop raiding with both of them. Healing has always been my calling. Even back when I played Guild Wars, I had a Monk/Elemental (In PvP, I'd make an E/Mo which still cracks me up every time I see it). It's also not like I'm going to be competing with another Resto Shaman in raids for gear either. There isn't that much of a loss that's occurring. It will be a huge benefit for everyone else because then I will be spending my DKP twice as much.

That's another interesting ethical question that I've also had to wrestle with. How do I deal with gear? I've always been for progression. There will be mace and shield drops and that there is direct competition against Paladins. I'm fairly certain that I have more DKP then they do. But it wouldn't be right for me to exercise option and bid. Damn all of these morals and ethics courses they make us take for Criminology.

I'm worried that there might be some contempt or that raiding with Saphfira would raise a few eyebrows here and there. I sincerely hope not. Really though, I'd rather prefer to raid with Mallet if I could. But raiding with four Priests made me think that could I not be utilized better if I brought a Resto Shaman instead.

In any case, it will still take some time before she's up to SSC status. Here's the highlights of her gear right now:

3/5 T4 (head, gloves, shoulders)
Nightbane's Healing Staff and Neck
5/5 S2 Gear (Just for the pants)
Netherspite's Mail Chestpiece
Gruul's healing trinket

Saphfira presently sports approximately 1550 +healing. That is nowhere near high enough for Mag+ raids. There are some improvements that can be made:

A better mace to go with the Chess Shield (Essence Focuser)
Honor Hold head enchant
81 Healing enchant to weapon

That should shoot her + healing to around 1660 and should last against encounters such as Mag, and VR.

Has anyone else had similar cases where they wanted to raid with alts? Did your guild shoot you down or guilt you into not using your alt? I'm lucky to be playing two support classes. I'm also lucky to be in such an awesome Guild where the leadership can understand what it is that I'm offering.

This brings up another question. How do Guilds handle alts for loot? Do they draw from the same character (IE, both Mallet's and Saphfira's DKP are cumulative) or are they separate (Both Mallet and Saphfira earn separate DKP and are exclusive from one another).

Matt's bitchin' about lectures where people don't leave early enough. You can read more over at http://www.worldofmatticus.com.

Not... really a nightmare?

matticus — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 23:55:34 GMT

Turns out my response to Leiandra's post garnered a whole slew of responses of my own. I remain vigilantly aware of Blizzard's upcoming changes to our class. Our class evolution has gone from Grand Master Healer to a support medic on the front lines. That's all we are really... a support class. Sure we've got all of our awesome tools at our disposal. When's the last time anyone's really used Holy Nova on a tactically beneficial level? Last time I spammed Holy Nova was against a certain red dragon in Blackwing Lair. But that's when mana was infinite. Pwyff's comments were bang on when summarizing the strength of each healing class.

If we truly were the end all and be all of all healers, there would be no need for hybrid healers like Paladins, Shamans, and Druids. All raids would be filled with nothing but Priests. The reason why there is a sort of parity along the healing classes is because Blizzard wanted to make raiding flexible for a large amount of players. If all a raid needed were Priests, then the other healers would sit out and be unused. There had to be some kind of equality so that classes could be kind of interchangeable.

Anyone like problem solving? I love problem solving. Chances are, if you're playing WoW, you like problem solving. If you think about it, WoW is a big giant puzzle that's meant to be solved. This is one of the assignments I had for homework in my cognitive science class. So here's a puzzle for you<strong>:</strong>

<strong>The scenario</strong>

Three Human Priests and three Orcs arrive at Menethil Harbor, and they all wish to cross to Kalimdor. Fortunately, there is a boat, but unfortunately, the boat can only hold two creatures at one time. Orcs are vicious creatures, and whenever there are more orcs than Priests on one side of the river, the orcs will immediately attack the Priests and slaughter them. You must be certain that you never leave more orcs than Priests on any side of the maelstrom. How should the problem be solved? The foul orcs can be trusted to bring the boat back safely. There must be one creature in the boat to pilot it. If the Kalimdor shore has an Orc, and there is an inbound Orc and a Priest, the Priest will be ripped to shreds even though they're on the boat.

The problem is solvable with a minimum of 11 steps. I'll post a solution later. If you solve it, don't spit out the solution in comments yet, but DO say that you figured it out.

Matticus is wondering how on earth he's going to get the 20 potions, 2 flasks, and other consumables needed for raiding within 30 minutes before SSC tonight. You can read more over at http://www.worldofmatticus.com/.

My Nightmare as a Priest

matticus — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 23:10:22 GMT

I'm reading Leiandra's post on the different types of healers and their functions. After reading some of the comments there, I felt like this merited a direct post reply on it's own instead of a comment. I wager I'm one of the few players to have rolled all four healer classes. I've only raided with three of them (Priest, Shaman, and Paladin while my Druid is on the backburner somewhere at the early 50 level). Some of the comments I've read made me raise my eyebrow.

Elinor

I know my comparison is somewhat simplistic, but taking away +healing gear (should be the same for priest or paladin) a paladin's biggest heal with appropriate talents is a 2.5 sec cast for 2740(840 mana). A priest with appropriate talents has a 2.5 sec cast for 3062(825 mana). Of course there is a talent for paladins to reduce that cast time by .5 for the next 15 sec, and the 3062 for priest doesn't include the talent to increase it by 25% of spirit. Also a druid has a 3.0 sec direct heal for 3517 (935 mana).

Firstly, that's an unfair comment to make. If you're going to compare healers, the assumption should be made that they are talented to the best healing spec available. There's no point in comparing supposed healing classes without full and complete talents because there isn't a player in WoW who raid heals with no talents spent in their appropriate healing trees. Don't compare base heals or stats either because certain races and classes have a higher advantage over the other. If you're going to compare healing output, then add an arbitrary base healing number that seems fair (like +1500 healing). Please, if you're going to compare one class with another, make realistic comparisons.

So here's the million dollar question. Is there one healing class better than another? It depends entirely on the encounter and on the situation. Let's hypothetically say that there's a 25 man raid team about to engage a boss. It's your standard tank and spank encounter. Nothing special about it. Except for the fact that Crosbane, our boss, hits like a freight train for 30 minutes. Most healers would run out of gas long before those thirty minutes are up. Pally's, not so.

They're the energizer bunnies of WoW. They keep going, and going, and going. It's true that as a Priest, we have the 5 second rule to fall back on and we would gain a crapload of mana back. Realistically, we don't have that kind of option. If we don't heal for five seconds, our assignments are dead. I suppose the best we can hope for is to light up a PoM, a Renew, and a Shield. That would us a few precious seconds to regen our mana. Then the boss crits.

Pally's own us Priests, period. There's a reason why many high end raiding Guilds no longer run Holy Priests as healers. We're a dying breed. Sure we bring a lot of specialist skills like PW:S and Prayer of Healing, but well timed spam heals from Paladins keep everything going. The reason I agree with your assessment about Paladins being the King of Healing is because they would never run out of mana in endurance fights. I'm busy struggling and blowing my potions, yelling for Innervates, Mana Tides, using my Shadow Fiend, and theres Joe Paladin in the corner just spamming Rank 5 Flash of Light over there. Couple 3 Paladins, a Shadow Priest, and a Resto Shaman with buffed mana spring totems and you have a group that can heal indefinitely.

My WWS in Carnage shows our Healers with four Paladins constantly on top all the time. Master Harth, High Priest that he is, leads the way in over all heals so there is hope for us yet.

But you can't expect WWS to illuminate the numbers for us all the time. It only shows us one side of the story. Different Healers are best suited for different encounters.

Take an encounter like Fathom-Lord in SSC for example. There are four bosses that need to be tanked. The Hunter boss spawns a pet every now and then, and the tank that's tanking him needs to draw aggro on it as well. So here is this one tank that's getting his ass handed to him by two Ford F-150's. On top of that, there's a freakin' Whirlwind type thing that comes around and throws me in the air every once in a while. I'm so focused on my raid health that I always seem to miss it coming by. If it weren't for my instant spells, he would be dead. Thankfully, the Hunter boss is the second boss that needs to die. With the damage input that Thor (my tank) is taking, it's impossible to sustain it for more then a few minutes. Eventually, I would hit a time where my potion cooldown is used, my shadowfiend timer is down, and all the innervates have been used. In this short period of time, I would excel in my role no problem. I don't have to keep him alive for an abysmally long time. Just enough to weather the storm.

Compare this to the last boss, the Fathom Lord himself. Initially Lang is over there with a Paladin. This Boss is last on the food chain. Paladins need to be able to keep Lang alive for at least seven minutes. Oh, and they have to heal themselves too. Lang may not be taking as much burst damage as Thor was, but he's taking a beating for a longer amount of time.

Do you see the point I'm trying to make here? It's nearly impossible to compare all the healing classes together. Each brings a different set of skills to the table. With the encounters in end game, I suspect that Paladins are better suited and utilized more often then not. As a Priest, I have enough spells at my disposal to react quickly enough to salvage a raid in case anything goes wrong. A Paladin won't be able to recover as much. But their long term efficiency is so good that there is little reason for raids to go in the crapper.

Sooner or later, our class will go the way of the Dodo bird. Aside from broccoli, that is my greatest fear with Holy Priests rendered inert, useless, and outclassed in every aspect. I guess I better start accumulating Shadow Gear. Good thing I have a Paladin and a Shaman to fall back on.

Matticus is taking a break from studying for his midterm in an hour. You can read more over at [www.worldofmatticus.com www.worldofmatticus.com].

Maximize Your Raid’s Potential with Special Teams

matticus — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:02:55 GMT

WOW! What a way to end Thanksgiving Weekend (Canadian remember). I managed the catch the Cowboys vs Bills game on TSN. I have a whole newfound respect for the sport. I'm amazed at all the plays by both teams. Five interceptions? I figure that's a lot. That's the best game of football I've seen since Remember the Titans. A wiseass would then remark "Well what football games have you seen since Remember the Titans?". To which I would respond "None!". But the literally down-to-the-wire win by Dallas is an attitude that should be adopted by everyone. Two seconds can be all it takes to from a humiliating wipe to a resounding boss kill (along with special teams play which we'll get to in a moment).

Today's piece is about organizing your raid. You've got your 25 members ready to go. You're excited for Gruul's because it's the first time you've ever done a 25 man. You're pumped and and the adrenaline rush hits you as you take down the first Ogre showing him whose the man: You. Then you come up against the High King and his goons and now you're left gaping in awe because you're not sure how to set up your groups, right? Face it. With the many different races and classes available, there are multiple auras and passive racials to take into account.

Enter Special Teams

Your raid consists of five separate parties. Special teams are important in Hockey and other sports. You want the Power Play units to generate and capitalize on scoring chances. You want your Penalty Killers to fend off the opposing team out numbered. I'm sure Football has numerous cases of special teams but I don't know the names of them yet (That's my goal for the end of the year). How you set up your parties in your raid can make the difference between a 1% wipe and a Guild first down.

What follows is a unit-by-unit break down of a hypothetical raid. This will be your standard, generic, default, 1st unit raid set up against trash and some bosses which assumes the following:

You're using four tanks (Two Druids and Two Warriors)
7 healers (3 Paladins, 3 Priests, a Resto. Shaman)
14 DPS (3 mages, 3 warlocks, 2 hunters, 2 rogues, 1 warrior, 1 enhancement shaman, and 2 shadow priests)

Unit 1: Tanking Unit

This is the group your Main Tank (Henceforth known as MT) is in. What you are concerned here with isn't damage dealing, nor mana regenerating, or the like. The main objective of this unit is to survive as best as possible which means loading up with Stamina, Armor, and whatever else the MT needs to do to stay alive.

Warrior (Prot)
Druid (Feral Tank)
Paladin (For Devotion Aura)
Warlock (Imp Health Increase)

Seems simple enough, right? Your MT here is bolstered by Devo. Aura (for the little armor it provides), the second warrior that has Commanding Shout (for temporary health increase), the Warlock's Imp (health increase), and the Druid's Leader of the Pack (What they hey, this bear's tanking and should benefit from all this stuff too, plus he adds extra crit percent).

Unit 2: Secondary Tanking Unit

This is your second Tanking unit. It'll mainly be deployed against trash pulls of 3+ or against certain bosses that have multiple parts (Fathom-Lord, High King are good examples).

Paladin
Druid (Feral)
Paladin (Holy)
Warlock (Imp Buff)
Hunter (Trueshot Aura)

At first glance, this unit seems like a mish-mash of left overs combined together (which it is). It's the same principle as above except this unit has one feral druid tanking. The Imp buff provided by the warlock is a staple, and the Hunter's TSA here is a waste but is still a benefit for the druid. Two Paladins means two different auras (Retribution Aura and Devo. Aura). In a nutshell, this is a mishmash of left over classes combined together. As you read on about the final three units, you'll find out why.

Unit 3: Healing and Mana Regeneration Unit

Shaman (Restoration)
Priest (Shadow)
Priest (Holy)
Priest (Holy)
Priest (Holy)

This unit is your next important group to set up. You want to maximize the return on mana to your healers so they can sustain the rest of the raid. With that objective in mind, we task the Restoration Shaman here (His spell crit racial is a plus along with mana spring AND mana tide on emergency). We'll use one of our Shadow Priests here for the mana and health returns from VE/VT. The rest of the group is rounded out with 3 Holy Priests. Note that we still have a Paladin kicking around. I would throw him in this group, but Paladins hardly ever run out of gas anyway so he doesn't need the mana regeneration.

Unit 4: Close Quarters Combat Unit

Enhancement Shaman (Windfury is a no brainer)
Warrior (Hybrid, capable of tanking and dishing out punishment)
Rogue
Rogue (Kind of a given)
Hunter (TSA 2 unless there's another buff I forgot)

This unit contains the Melee DPS of the group. The Enhancement shaman will rocket this unit's DPS sky high with Windfury alone. In addition to WF, the Shaman should drop Strength of Earth and Healing Stream totems. Your Warrior is the last tank available in the event there's an extra trash mob running around. At the very least, he's a good OH $#%@ tank who can slap on a sword and a shield and taunt. Two rogues are in here, enough said. Our second Hunter is in here as well. I don't know a lot about Hunters but I think the norm is BM hunters now? I'm not quite sure since I've been noticing more Hunter pets in raids.

Unit 5: Caster Sustained Siege Unit

Priest (Shadow)
Mage
Mage
Mage
Warlock

This is your nuking group. The extra Shadow Priest again is for the VE/VT combination to fuel the firepower of the Mage and the Warlocks. Extra mana return helps to further extend the length of time that your casters can use. Shadow Vulnerability from the Shadow Priest helps the Warlock add a bit more extra punch.

I know this hypothetical raid group did not cover all possible classes or races (Sorry Horde players, I don't know what kind of benefits your racials get). Obviously moonkin druids get no love at all (Carnage does not utilize any). There's multiple ways to establish your Special Teams and they will consist of a variety of players and skill sets. You as the Raid leader needs to decide what is best overall for your raid Group. It's a never ending game of balancing the pros and cons of races and classes with one another. Today's piece was just a minor example of how to pull it off. Different bosses will yield different looking Special Teams. Bosses like Hydross will scatter your Paladins in different groups for Frost Resistance aura. Sometimes there is a particularly hard 5 pull that has all of your warriors and druids tanking and you'll need to substitute players from your Close Quarters Unit with your Secondary Tanking Unit. Just remember to always use your discretion. Your Guild and raid makeup will obviously be far different then the one used in my Guild. Use this guide as just that: a guide.

Matticus just finished completely redesigning and overhauling his blog. He's also eating nothing but turkey sandwiches for lunch for the rest of the week. Read more over at http://www.worldofmatticus.com.

Getting Your Leadership Skill to 375

matticus — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 11:01:22 GMT

Here's yet another reference to the business Guild model of WoW. Some would argue that a Guild is defined by it's players. I would argue that excellent leadership defines how well a Guild performs. Unfortunately, leadership is not something you can go to a skill trainer for. I've been in my share of numerous Guilds. I'd like to think that I know what is good leadership and what is bad. I've seen Guilds crash and burn, or flourish and thrive. Similar to my column on valued traits for a Priest, here are 6 of the valued traits in a Leader no matter what class they play.

Edit: Again I am beat to the punch by Kirk.

Patience

"The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher." - Tomas Huxley

No one likes to wipe. But true leaders expect it. I commend real leaders for their outstanding patience whether its in dealing with new raid bosses or frustrated guild members. No matter what the circumstance may be, they are able to weather the storm of angry guild members or angry raid bosses (I'll let you decide what is worst). The goal has been set and the challenge has been issued. Now it's up to the players to respond. Throughout it all, they maintain a face of dignity and passivity knowing that things will improve with time. I think <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_Giuliani">Mayor Rudy Giuliani</a> is a great example of this. He was the face of the city after the 9/11 attacks. There's a reason why he was one of Time's Man of the Year.

Knowledge

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." - Peter F. Drucker

This ought to be self explanatory. Any leader be it class, raid, or Guild will have done their homework on whatever they are responsible for. Raid leaders know the fight and are able to convey the strategy effectively. Class leaders know how to play their class and teach others to optimize themselves better. With that being said, leaders are humble enough to acknowledge that even they cannot possibly know all there is to know. The world is in a continuously evolving state with patches, changes, nerfs, etc. They realize that even though there is a lot to know, they are quite willing to learn even more.

Inspiration

"One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency." - Arnold Glasgow

In a way, this is related to Social Skills but I wanted address something else. Your leaders are people that players turn to for advice and guidance. With responsibility like that, they're expected to know how to convey information. But in order to do that, they do two things which any player can accomplish: Plan and set goals. They are able to focus the Guild in a certain direction and layout the steps necessary to accomplish it. They already have solutions to every problem that comes up because of their planning and anticipation. This is the kind of player who is not afraid of pulling the trigger when $&%@ hits the fan. They already have a Plan B and a Plan C in mind in case Plan A goes horribly wrong. No one likes to stand around and mindlessly die in case something bad happens. Every raider wants to try and salvage the situation. A good example that comes to mind is when our MT Lang ate a blow which caused him to crumple, Maeve was second on aggro since he's been building up enough threat to stay just below him on the list. The moment Lang was down, a half second went by when Maeve bellowed for all of Lang's healers to switch to him as he was tanking. Had he not made that call, we would have stood around not knowing what to do and we would not have gotten the satisfaction of the Guild first kill on Fathom-Lord.

Social Skills

"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it." - Theodore Roosevelt

There's a lot of excellent players who know their material and the class inside out. But when it comes to talking to other people, they just don't have a friggin clue. I think having some degree of emotional intelligence helps. A key skill, not just in WoW but in life, is your ability to interpret the other person's words either in text or via voice. You have to know how to handle the other player as a player instead of just a random NPC. One of the things I admired about Warack was his tendency to check up on players every now and then. He'd whisper them randomly or just jump into a channel and talk to them for a while, see how they were doing, and try to "get a feel" for the over all guild mood. Think of it as taking a temperature of the Guild. With the pickup of solid players, they also know how to refrain from telling them to exactly what to do. My understanding is that I rolled a Priest from 1 - 70 and I should know the basics of it. I don't want to be told how to heal, when to heal it, and who. That kind of thinking comes naturally. I love it when tanks often tell me to keep them alive. You worry about holding aggro, and you let me worry about keeping you alive so you CAN hold aggro.

Confidence

"The spirited horse, which will try to win the race of its own accord, will run even faster if encouraged." - Ovid

It all boils down to one word: Belief. They believe in themselves and they believe in others to achieve the objective. The aura of confidence comes from their high knowledge of play and how to get it accomplished. I feel reassured knowing that I can place my character under the command of someone who knows what they're doing as opposed to a raid that is being led by a headless chicken. Even if they don't know what they're doing, they can at least pretend. The point is not whether you down the boss or wipe horribly. The point is that someone had the confidence to get the raid going and try it. If that player doesn't have the skills themselves to pull it off, they're able to point to the person that does.

Authority and Respect

"The country is full of good coaches. What it takes to win is a bunch of interested players." - Don Coryell, ex-San Diego Chargers Coach

Props to guys like Blori and Harth. They really know how to get the raid to shut up and listen. Everytime you hear either of their booming voices, you know it's their time. Why? Perhaps it's their age and maturity. Every time they speak, they command that aura of authority and respect. When you hear it, your back automatically straightens while your ears latch on to their words. Unfortunate that this isn't a trait that can be learned or gained. I once listened to a raid leader who sounded like he had nasal issues and sounded like your typical four eyed Urkel. No one would take him seriously at all because of the way his voice sounded. The bottom line here is that not only must you be willing to voice your commands, but your Guild must be willing to listen to listen to them. Former Vancouver Canucks Head Coach Mark Crawford got fired because he lost the locker room and players started to tune him out. One of these days, I'm going to record ventrilo during a raid night and put a snippet up here so you can get an idea.

Clearly there are many more traits that I have yet to identify. I'm merely setting myself up for a part 2 further down the road. The next time you go raiding or PvPing or whatever it is that you do, listen to your leaders and see how they are. Do they or do they not possess the traits I have listed above? If not, it might be time for a scenery change.

Quotes are courtesy of askmen.com and About.com.

And for you young Guildmasters out there, every chance you get to use the term "Brouhaha" you take it (Don Tayyyylorrr!!!!).

Matticus just finished watching Ian McKellan sacrifice himself to preserve the lives of his companions. You can read more over at http://www.worldofmatticus.com.

Calling the Wipe

matticus — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 22:15:08 GMT

This is one of the toughest calls for any raid leader to make. But it's one of the best ways to optimize your raiding time and not waste any more effort or consumables trying to prolong a fight that's already lost. I know some of you may think "Never! No surrender!" but really, it is a futile effort if your MT dies or over 50% of your healers are dead, or some other crap hits the fan. I want to give an example of a wipe procedure since not many young Guilds have such a concept in mind. Many inexperienced Guilds will continue to engage to the bitter end.

Wipe Preparation

What, you thought Warlocks were only good for Healthstones and DPS? No, they have Soulstones which when applied to any player allows them to resurrect themselves whenever they like. If that player falls in combat when the entire raid is still alive, it's best to blow it. When you are engaging raid bosses, operate as if you are not going to wipe unless it is painfully obvious. So again, blow the stone. If you're the last man standing, don't blow the stone.

Wipe Calling

I sympathize with the Raid Leader when it's called. It's not a very decision to make and a false call will involve a waste of over hundreds of gold in repair bills and consumables. The correct call will save time and allow for more attempts. Typically, your Raid Leader will announce a wipe. When that happens, the following should happen: Ranged DPS would run to a location where they can be easily picked up (Such as the Gate when engaging Gruul). Try to get a Priest, Shaman, or Paladin in that same position and have a Paladin use their Divine Intervention to render that player immune. Shaman's have the ability to self resurrect themselves, but that is an ability which should be used if the other two options are available. If you want to be really crafty, get a Druid outside in a clear position from where he can Battle Res a healer. Generally that is not recommended since it can be put to better use during combat. But if you're in a raid instance and mobs start to respawn in ten minutes, you may not have the time or energy to reclear it all. Make sure that healer doesn't accept it until after the encounter is reset. The moment wipe protection is utilized, make sure it's called in vent so that players know. If there isn't one, the last thing to do is the walk of shame back from the graveyard.

So to summarize in the following order:

Soulstone
DI
Shammy Res
Fancy Druid maneuver

Post Wipe and Analysis

Your Stoned healer picks himself up and starts ressing other healers OR Your DI'd player clicks off the buff (debuff?) and starts ressing other healers OR Your Shaman activates his self res and starts ressing other healers OR your Battle Res'd Healer wakes up and starts ressing other healers.

See a pattern here? Let your tanks and melee run back since most of the time you won't be able to pick them up without drawing Aggro. If you can get a player, call it out in vent so they don't zone in and be forced to run the gauntlet.

As players are being ressed, buffed, and positioned for the next attempt, go over the encounter and figure out what happened. What is a badly timed misheal? A crit from a mage which pulled aggro? The tank not eat his Wheaties that morning? Figure out what the problem is and remedy it, or else it will happen again. Raid Leaders should not be afraid to reassign healers to different assignments. Some healers are better tailored for certain jobs then others. Maybe you want your veteran healers to focus more a bit on the clothies during some phase where they take damage (Mage tank in Gruul's lair). Sometimes you need to mix and match. But more importantly, analyze what your mistakes were so that they don't happen again. If the fault was the result of a player, don't call it out in raid but allow them to speak up and take responsibility. It shows signs of maturity and trust. If no one admits fault but you know who it is, send them a light whisper letting them know that they forgot an assignment or made a mistake because some players just aren't aware that did anything wrong.

Sometimes, I wish Blizzard would implement an Instant Replay function with speed up and slow down functions so certain phases can be analyzed.

Raid Member Selection, a Rant

matticus — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 02:20:00 GMT

BC raids mostly consist of 25 players. Gone our the days when one or two guys could sit in MC afk and accumulate DKP by wanding and not doing anything (Alterac Valley is a shadow of what it was like then). Most Guilds either have under 25 players and struggle to fill raid spots, or have over 30 players and are placed in an unfortunate situation where they need to choose.

Hockey teams are no different. The NHL season is starting up soon and training camps are underway. The point of the camps is to determine who gets to suit up for the big leagues and who gets to sit in the press box watching or play in the minor leagues. Players who are too lazy on the backcheck get released from camp.

As a Guild, you want to bring the very best possible players to your raid. How do you determine that? You could base it on gear, skill, talent, personality, and so on. But consider another point: consistency.

Players should be fighting over raid spots. I’ve seen lack of dedication and consistency mean the difference between a guild invite and a guild boot. What, I ask, is the point of being in a raiding guild if you don’t raid? Bloggers blog, runners run, beer drinkers drink, analysts analyze. You obviously applied for a raiding Guild with one purpose in mind: to raid. Would you want these kinds of players in your 25 man raid?

The Druid tank who decides to show up 30 minutes late and hold up the whole raid to finish up a non-heroic Merchanar.

The Priest who decides not to raid one day for some stupid reason and comes back the next day whining why he’s not allowed to raid.

The Paladin who refuses to raid with a “weak” Kara team because they can’t clear it in 3 hours.

The Rogue who is frequently AFK for a ready check because he’s too busy occupied watching Naruto reruns.

Seriously, who the hell are you people and why are you here? A better question is what do they all have in common? What one trait do they all share? They want better loot without having to work for it.

Thankfully, life does not operate that way otherwise Communism would have succeeded a long time ago. You need to earn the right to play. You have to compete to win. I’m very glad Blizzard trimmed the raid instances from 40 to 25 because it truly separated the men from the boys.

There are 25 raid spots that are open. Most guilds have 30 active players. Do the math. Some players will get the call up, some players will get benched. It astounds me how people expect a free ride. There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch as my dad always told me. WoW is no different. I find it hilarious when players don’t want to do something when a Guild leader asks them to do it, and then begin to whine about not getting a raid spot. Well no kidding, moron. The boss doesn’t have a reason to. You were asked to be more responsible and you turned it down. You are aware of when the raid time is yet you make a choice not to show up. Do not be surprised if the next time you show up, you don’t get the invite. If you can’t handle something so minor why in Zeus’ name should you be given more responsibility that you clearly are unable to handle?

Performance and attendance is the key here, people. If you want to raid, the first step is to show up. You can’t clear Kara with 3 players (yet). I don’t care how geared you are. I don’t care how good you think you are. I don’t care how much you pay me. If you don’t show up once, you don’t get another chance. No I’m not referring to excuses with medical emergencies or academic reasons or what have you. Those are understandable. Sometimes life deals you a pair of Aces and you get beat with a Flush. These things happen. The important part is that you’re not afraid to buy in and ante up. It’s one of my biggest pet peeves.

Alain Vignault is the coach of the Vancouver Canucks. Last year he turned a struggling Canucks team at Christmas break into a Playoff contender. Why? Because he would start players that would perform and bring their A game. His philosophy is this: It doesn’t matter what name is on the back of your sweater, if you are there, you will see significant ice time. During games, he gave more ice time to players who he thought was performing. You see, he doesn’t play favourites. He plays whoever shows up.

Jeff Cowan, a 4th line grinder, got to play on the top line because he was contributed energy and his presence was felt.

Coach Vignault also won the Jack Adams award. That means he was widely considered as the Coach of the Year.

The next time you start your raid invite, pause for a sec and think to yourself if the names you want on your list are really the ones you want. If you’re a person whose sitting there scratching your head wondering why your Guild pulled someone outside into the raid of inviting you, it’s because you’ve proven to him that would not be useful in anyway.

Stamina, an overlooked stat for Priests?

matticus — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 02:17:47 GMT

This one's going to be a short and quick post because I daresay the point that I'm trying to drive home will not take long to figure out. Several days ago, a prominent Guild on Ner'Zhul disbanded due to lack of attendance and other factors that kill Guilds (hmm, a good blogging topic). Needless to say, we signed several of their players in the hopes that it might solve a few of our attendance problems. Summer's now over, everyone should be back to a fairly stable schedule right?

Wrong. One of our Feral druid gets hit with an evening shift. Our Paladin suddenly has a life. One of our Rogues mysteriously vanishes (Go figure). Getting those extra players helped a lot. By the way, in other Guild news, Dinosaur disbands and joins Dissonance (both top 20 Guilds on NZ, I think).

Tonight was Serpentshrine Cavern. Since we were shorthanded a player, we opted for Lurker first. Two wipes later, we trekked back to Hydross. A colleague over at Priestly Endeavors published his own suggested requirements for raiding in terms of individual player stats. At first I disagreed with him at the amount of gear and such that was required. But something happened in our attempts against Hydross that made me think twice. For those who are unfamiliar with the fight, Hydross has an attack called Water Tomb in which he encases a player in a bubble of water which does approximately 4500 damage over 5 seconds. Furthermore, players within a certain radius around him will also get entombed but thankfully that spell does not chain past the second player. In addition, Hydross applies a stacking debuff where all players within the raid will periodically take increasingly more punishing frost damage (Water tomb hurts more). One of the new Priests we picked up today just died within the first minute or so of the encounter. His health was approximately 7400ish fully raid buffed. It looks as if he had 5800 base health.

Back to Kirk, it appears as if he is correct to a certain extent. The amount of HP he recommends for his level of raiding is a little more generous. There's no possible way to sacrifice healing and MP5 gear for a little more stamina. You really don't need over 7000ish base health in Kara. It's true there are certain encounters where you will take a lot of damage (For instance, Aran's Poly-Pyro, or Illhoof's sacrifice). But for the most part, you just need above 7.2k using whatever buffs you can slap on yourself. You also need to pray your tanks are able to do their job and hold their aggro. That's not a problem in a 10 man instance like Karazhan because there isn't a whole lot of pressure or damage being applied to you (the priest) or to your raid. But once you get to an instance like SSC, it definitely is a whole new ball game. Maybe the only person who might've been able to save our poor Priest was a player with reflexes equal to that of Martin Brodeur. But I applied my method of raid healing and was not able to restore his health quick enough.

A lot of Priests emphasize the importance of +healing and MP5. Don't get me wrong, I do too. After that incident today, the second stat I would take a long hard look at is stamina. It's one of the reasons why I spent DKP on my Crystalheart Pulse-Staff. Strangely enough, that item dropped again last week and no healer took it so it became sharded. How unfortunate. I guess players really want to go after their Light's Justice/Aran's Sapphire combination instead of spending their DKP to get loot that will help them.

It's midnight, but before I go to bed, just think about this:

What's the point of having all that healing and all that MP5 if you're not alive to utilize it? I know I would get more healing if I stayed with an LJ/Aran's Sapphire duo, but I would not be of any use to my Guild if I was dead half the encounter.

Matticus is busy happily munching away on some Spicy Crawdad that he whipped up earlier in the day. You can read more at http://www.worldofmatticus.com

The Oh $#@& Reaction

matticus — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 02:02:34 GMT

Very sorry about the lack of updates. I've been overwhelmed with school. It's only the first week and I've already been hit with several assignments! But it's okay, because everything is fine now. I've gotten my time back from the hecticness of school. After perusing my daily dosage of blogs from my fellow Priests, here's [http://egotisticalpriest.omen-guild.net one that I want to share.

Ego provides an excellent overview of what to do when you pull a lot of mobs towards you without needing to. Her first rule in a nutshell? Don't move, don't worry, and most importantly don't panic. In a party, getting aggro at worst will wipe the entire group. In a raid, getting aggro at worst will wipe the entire raid, rack up hundreds of gold in repair bills, and http://www.worldofmatticus.com/2007/0.../optimize-your-raiding-time/ lose precious time in an instance]. I want to provide you a list of actions that I execute whenever I gain aggro. If you see my spec, you'll notice that I have zero points in Silent Resolve. That means it is quite likely and possible that I will pull aggro. Usually, I don't but lets say for the sake of argument that I have. Most of these have already been repeated in Ego's post, so I'll touch on it briefly and add one more final step that many players overlook.

If you've taken any kind of logic and reasoning course or if you're into computer programming, it's kind of the same way.

If things go to hell, do this else just heal the main tank.

I know that's probably wrong, but I hope you get the idea. Here's my sequence:

1st Option is Fade: Lowers your aggro temporarily. Problem? It's on a 30 second cooldown. So if the mobs are out for healer blood, you have to live at least that long.

2nd Option is PW: Shield: Damage prevention. While you do this, run towards the tank. Don't make them run after you.

3rd Option is Desperate Prayer: Granted, not all of you Priests have access to such a glorious spell. It is the ultimate Oh $#@& button. Take a few blows, then slam it to shoot yourself back to full. If you don't have the ability to cast this spell, then...

4th Option is Prayer of Mending: It's similar to a low cost PW: Shield. On your next hit, you gain this much health. Most of the time, mobs will hit you for under 1000. This spell guarantees that you will survive that one extra hit.

5th Option is to Die: This is slightly different in context but is still worth mentioning. This happened to us the other day. It wasn't our best raid night, but we were in Voidreaver's Room clearing out trash. One of our casters got caught facing the wrong way and got punted into another group. Instead of running towards the raid group and bringing extra mobs, he did the right thing and ran towards them and sacrificed himself to preserve the raid knowing that we were still under pressure from the initial mobs. In a raid environment, your first duty is to your raid. I cannot emphasize or stress this enough. There is only one main tank. There maybe 2 or 3 additional off tanks depending on the encounter, but there is only one main tank. Typically, there are 7 - 9 healers. If you go down it is not the end of the world. Let the others pick up the slack. So again, I will remind you. If you accidentally pull aggro from another group when your raid is not prepared, unequip your weapons and your wand and sacrifice yourself.

My panic buttons on my keyboard: PW: Shield: 1 Fade: 2 Desperate Prayer: 3 Prayer of Mending: Ctrl+1

I usually never bother with binding heal. I almost never use it because I never find the right situation for it. Or I just forget and drop two flash heals instead. I suppose I should start using that more often. But it just feels so... weird.

I'll have another large update tonight after the raid. I have lots of screens and it's all sorted. Now I just need to upload them. Time for us to do some potential Priest theorycrafting and analysis.

In addition to the Daily Quest, Matt runs a WoW blog where you can find more related articles on Priests, Shamans, Guild Management techniques and more. Check it out at http://www.worldofmatticus.com/.