TankSpot - Blogs - Smaken http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/smaken/ en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:51:21 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.tankspot.com/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg TankSpot - Blogs - Smaken http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/smaken/ Ding! 70 once again. http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/smaken/1222-ding-70-once-again.html Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:04:16 GMT It happened at 11:30pm last night. Ding 70 with my enhancment shaman. So there are 2 considerations. 1 is that if I go healer with him then I'll have a dps caster, a prot war and a healer. Ergo I'll be able to hit all 3 spots in a group.

The other consideration is that he's a lot of fun to dps with... I'd really like to just keep him as is, have a melee dps and a caster dps.

Who knows, I'll have to think about it. ]]> Smaken http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/smaken/1222-ding-70-once-again.html The only meter that matters. http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/smaken/958-only-meter-matters.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:18:18 GMT skill > gear. In that order, no matter what. I will spend a thousand gold in repairs to help someone who truly wants to improve. ---Quote (Originally by Horacio)--- The only meter that really counts is the "Boss Dead" meter. ---End Quote--- Have truer words ever been spoken? I've long been a proponent of having Omen as the only dps meter allowed. I shudder to think of the implications should Blizz ever decide to put in an integrated dps meter on the default UI. This brings to mind a priest I know. Has to top the healing meters, even if it means he pulls aggro and wipes the raid. I have to have him as the MT healer, because if he is not, he will overheal the rest of the raid and get himself killed. Of course, he will blame the tanks, but really its his own fault for trying to be at the top of the meters. If he's doing 50% of the healing and the other two healers are each doing 25%, then he could easily back off a bit and probably still lead but by a smaller margin. ---Quote (Originally by Horacio)--- Group performance should always supercede individual performance and assesments of individual performance should always be rooted in "how can I help the group". Raids are not coordinated freelance operations, they are cooperative efforts. ---End Quote--- Cooperative efforts! What a great way to describe it. I think a lot of raids that I've been on have fallen more into the 'coordinated freelance operations' (CFO) category than the 'cooperative efforts' (CE) one. Its not just knowing what your supposed to do and when, but its thinking like a teammate, watching the rest of your group and reacting to what they are doing before it has to be assigned to you. A good example of the differences between CFO & CE is Prince. Phase 1 damage is minimal, at that point he's pretty easy to tank. During Phase 2 his damage goes up a bit and you have to work harder to stay up and to get him down. Generally the CFO way to do it is to let the tank get 5-6k threat and then go to town. These are the people who run out of mana in the middle of phase 3. The CE way of doing it is to take it easy on dps during phase 1 and let the tank get a huge threat lead while conserving your cooldowns and mana, then as soon as phase 2 starts just go all out, pop everything and go to town. By doing it the second way you have a shorter phase 2 and your casters should have enough mana to finish out phase 3 as well. These points translate all the way from Deadmines to Black Temple. Gurtogg is a terrific example of this. You must move, you must pay attention, you must watch your threat and above all, you must be ready to adapt to a changing situation right away. Archimonde is another one. If you're trying to do dps, but you're not watching the fires then you die and it most likely wipes the raid. It all boils down to this: ---Quote (Originally by Horacio)--- The only meter that really counts is the "Boss Dead" meter. ---End Quote--- ]]> This post on Horacio's blog got me thinking about meters in general.

Horacio said three things in it that I think I want to expand upon and explore more fully.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Horacio
The point is, do your best but if you do not equal the elite player you know or hear of, don't get down on yourself.
I love this point. I've been working with a couple people on the side and they have really been able to elevate their games to a higher level. Another person I've been trying to bring along as a raid leader and they are starting to really get it.

Desire to improve > skill > gear. In that order, no matter what. I will spend a thousand gold in repairs to help someone who truly wants to improve.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Horacio
The only meter that really counts is the "Boss Dead" meter.
Have truer words ever been spoken? I've long been a proponent of having Omen as the only dps meter allowed. I shudder to think of the implications should Blizz ever decide to put in an integrated dps meter on the default UI. This brings to mind a priest I know. Has to top the healing meters, even if it means he pulls aggro and wipes the raid. I have to have him as the MT healer, because if he is not, he will overheal the rest of the raid and get himself killed. Of course, he will blame the tanks, but really its his own fault for trying to be at the top of the meters. If he's doing 50% of the healing and the other two healers are each doing 25%, then he could easily back off a bit and probably still lead but by a smaller margin.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Horacio
Group performance should always supercede individual performance and assesments of individual performance should always be rooted in "how can I help the group". Raids are not coordinated freelance operations, they are cooperative efforts.
Cooperative efforts! What a great way to describe it. I think a lot of raids that I've been on have fallen more into the 'coordinated freelance operations' (CFO) category than the 'cooperative efforts' (CE) one. Its not just knowing what your supposed to do and when, but its thinking like a teammate, watching the rest of your group and reacting to what they are doing before it has to be assigned to you.

A good example of the differences between CFO & CE is Prince. Phase 1 damage is minimal, at that point he's pretty easy to tank. During Phase 2 his damage goes up a bit and you have to work harder to stay up and to get him down. Generally the CFO way to do it is to let the tank get 5-6k threat and then go to town. These are the people who run out of mana in the middle of phase 3. The CE way of doing it is to take it easy on dps during phase 1 and let the tank get a huge threat lead while conserving your cooldowns and mana, then as soon as phase 2 starts just go all out, pop everything and go to town. By doing it the second way you have a shorter phase 2 and your casters should have enough mana to finish out phase 3 as well.


These points translate all the way from Deadmines to Black Temple. Gurtogg is a terrific example of this. You must move, you must pay attention, you must watch your threat and above all, you must be ready to adapt to a changing situation right away. Archimonde is another one. If you're trying to do dps, but you're not watching the fires then you die and it most likely wipes the raid.

It all boils down to this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Horacio
The only meter that really counts is the "Boss Dead" meter.
]]> Smaken http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/smaken/958-only-meter-matters.html Multi-questing http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/smaken/951-multi-questing.html Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:38:49 GMT Multi-questing. No, I'm not talking about doing multiple quests at the same time, I'm talking about daily quests you can do as a group and get credit for everyone in your group with.

So (mostly) off the top of my head, here goes:

In Shatt:
The goggles quest in Nagrand, everyone gets credit for each fire you sample.

The get the missive note from the sunhawks, it drops for everyone in the party.

On Isle of QD:
Arm the wards - no
Don't stop now - no

Crush the Dawnblade - yes
Disrupt the Greengill Coast - yes
Distraction at the Dead Scar (bombing run #1) - yes
Further Conversions - yes
Keeping the Enemy at bay (bombing run #2) - yes
Know your ley lines - yes
The Battle must go on - yes


Most bombing runs, like the ones in Skettis and Blade's Edge Mtns are group favorable, so if you are all flying together you can all get credit.


The point to all this is that while we tend to solo our dailies, there are really a lot of quests we could do together and get the same amount of credit for.

Here is one of my favorite examples: Crush the Dawnblade

Take out 15 mobs, in a crowded environment, high chance for adds, all sorts of annoying. But team up with 2 or 3 others, and suddenly its the easiest quest on the island. What was an add ridden crowd suddenly becomes a target rich environment. I've been in the blood crystal room and had people running in to do the ley lines quest pull in several mobs they didn't notice they were trailing. Solo, it would have been a corpse run and a repair bill, but with my group (which consisted of a shadow priest, a holy priest, a hunter and myself, a warrior) we lost only the hunter, who didn't get his Feign off in time. A quick res and we were off to kill some demons.


So if you see some guildies or some friends on the Isle with you, don't hesitate to invite them. You'll find you can knock out the majority of the quests then either go on to a dungeon or raid, or you can go back and finish the rest of the quests (solo or with your friend). ]]> Smaken http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/smaken/951-multi-questing.html <![CDATA[If at first you don't succeed...]]> http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/smaken/940-if-first-you-don-t-succeed.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:58:34 GMT If at first you don't succeed, don't try skydiving!

My first blog post seemed to go awry, so here is my second (technically my fourth, since I am able to repeat mistakes very rapidly), and hopefully more successful, try. I'm not going to talk about wow in this one however, so there you go.

I am going to try to post something every couple days, I have a whole list of topics I've written up for myself to look up, think about and then bore you with.

Well, now to hit the button and see if it works.....cross your fingers! ]]> Smaken http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/smaken/940-if-first-you-don-t-succeed.html We just downed *____*, where do we go from here? http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/smaken/938-we-just-downed-____-where-do-we-go-here.html Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:19:01 GMT So I was thinking the other day, do I have to clear SSC before I head to TK? Do I have to finish Mt Hyjal before I try BT? So what I did was go to wowjutsu and looked at the completion percentages. It made me realize that in terms of progression, plowing our way through a particular dungeon might not be as effective as making a list of bosses, then killing them in the order that was easiest. Obviously Archimonde is more difficult than Supremus, and it holds true that a lot of guilds finish MH after they are half done with BT, but here are the bosses in order by percentage downed worldwide.

I'm leaving the Zone names in so you can get a feel for where you might want to start doing trash farms as well as attempting the bosses.

Karazhan 99.32%
Moroes 89.57%
Attumen the Huntsman 89.20%
The Curator 88.41%
Maiden of Virtue 87.56%
Prince Malchezaar 85.55%
Chess Event 83.88%
The Crone 83.84%
Shade of Aran 83.73%
The Big Bad Wolf 83.23%
Romulo & Julianne 83.20%
Terestian Illhoof 78.27%
Nightbane 73.80%
Netherspite 70.51%

Zul'Aman 66.01%
Nalorakk 59.66%

Gruul's Lair 51.62%
Akil'Zon 50.29%
High King Maulgar 49.69%
Gruul the Dragonkiller 44.75%
Halazzi 37.90%
Jan'Alai 37.03%

Serpentshrine Cavern 37.00%

Magtheridon's Lair 36.53%
The Lurker Below 32.19%

The Eye 31.72%
Void Reaver 28.74%
Hydross the Unstable 27.11%
Hex Lord Malacrass 26.34%
Morogrim Tidewalker 24.42%
High Astromancer Solarian 23.62%
Zul'jin 23.18%

Hyjal Summit 22.33%
Leotheras the Blind 21.52%
Fathom-Lord Karathress 21.32%
Rage Winterchill 20.93%
Al'ar 20.67%
Anetheron 16.80%

The Black Temple 16.37%
High Warlord Naj'entus 14.91%
Kaz'rogal 14.08%
Supremus 13.69%
Azgalor 12.58%
Lady Vashj 12.54%
Shade of Akama 12.53%
Teron Gorefiend 10.50%
Kael'Thas Sunstrider 9.65%
Archimonde 8.64%
Gurtogg Bloodboil 8.17%
Reliquary of Souls 7.30%
Mother Shahraz 6.96%
Illidari Council 6.40%
Illidan Stormrage 5.50%

Sunwell Plateau 3.25%
Kalecgos 3.23%
Brutallus 2.05%
Felmyst 1.35%
Eredar Twins 0.98%
M'uru 0.18%
Kil'jaeden 0.05%


Some of it is surprising, like Prince being in the middle of the Kara pack, but it makes sense if you think that he has the most useful gear, and as you level up alts you'll skip some of the drops off of other bosses that don't have great loot. ]]> Smaken http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/smaken/938-we-just-downed-____-where-do-we-go-here.html