A good pug group?

On Friday night, and again on Sunday night, I pugged a group as healer for ZA.  I had read up on the fights, but otherwise didn't have a clue.  I had heard that the fights were tough. 

On Friday night we didnt get the third boss down. 
Got the first boss down, then the tank immediately quit.  Second tank joined, complained about low DPS during second boss (failed attempt) and quit.  We got another tank that immediately went AFK.  Booted him got a second group.
Struggled our way though the second boss, and ended up with only one other DPS and myself remaining in group. 
Finally got another group together and we tried the third boss (with whelps) twice.  There was soo much damage being thrown around, most toons on very low health, and me with no mana.  One of the DPS took 25% of the total group damage, only just below the tank.  His DPS may have been the best of the group, but I could not keep him up as well as the tank.  I apparently didn't have the mana management to the satisfaction of the group.  To be honest - with that group, I agreed, and left. Feeling somewhat downhearted, and swearing off PUGs.

However, Sunday night, I thought I would try again, fail again.  There is something to be said for the banging your head against a brick wall method of progression.  Got up to the whelp boss and wiped once.  Wiped again on a bad trash pull.  There were a few indvidual deaths in the rest of the run, no one left party, and it went well.  Total run time : 90 minutes.  I was astounded and very pleased. 

Oh, and as an aside, apparently I don't pug many 5 man dungeons.

Good DPS is desirable

Unless there is an enrage timer, good Damage Per Second is not mandatory. There have been a few comments, both on this blog and in game about my attitude towards this (apparent) holy grail.


The discussions tend to be around healers going OOM early in a heroic dungeon, so apparently you need 3 strong DPS (with the unspoken assumption of a zergish approach).  While this is a perfectly acceptable approach, and may even be conventional wisdom, it is by no means necessary. 


One in response to this comment : The only place I've heard people even consider taking more than 1 tank or healer to 5man dungeons is from gold making websites!  The PUG and I collect tanks and healers; 70% of my regular players have a tank.  I have been slightly short on healers, and very short on DPS. 


Stupid (adj) : lacking ordinary quickness and keenness of mind;  Those reading after the break may be mildly offended.

Heroics : Dungeon finder or Guild run

According to the bloggosphere there is a shortage of tanks.  Others have been talking about how tanks are choosing not to queue because it is harder, but a point has been missed. 

We are getting a large buff if we run with 3 strangers.  3 strangers means no guild XP or rep. 

Take your choice - Guild XP on a guild run, or bonus damage with a random group.  Even if your guild group does not know how to run the dungeon, you can learn, and feel like you are progressing.  With pugs, there is no such feeling.  I am a tank, and know my preference.  If you were a tank, what would you prefer?

Heroic Progress

Last week I suggested that I should run more heroics (safe for work - not your ego).  If you are not yet comfortable and used to be a raider - you should run more as well. 

I set a myself a challenge to start at least 3 heroics, which I have done:

• 2 tanked & finished Vortex Pinacle, with the second run being much easier. Tip for 2nd boss : Dodging (or not) whirlwinds means success (or failure).  Getting upwind means you succeed (or fail) more quickly.
• 1 tanked Deadmines run - called due to instance server restart after wiping on the first boat boss.  There were other wipes while learning both trash and boss mechanics.
• 1 healed Stonecore run (first time healing a heroic).  Called on Slabhide (second boss) due to time of night & struggling on boss.

You prevent wipes by learning to play.  This does not mean topping DPS charts, but learning when and how to move.  I failed on Slabhide as much as anyone in the group, because I didn't know the enough about either the fight, or my own healing abilities.


We called Slabhide because of dying to avoidable damage, plus inefficient heals.  As a disc priest I spent an aweful lot of time binding heal because I took to much damage.  (Some players think they can play both tank & healer.  Very different mindsets, and some players change gears very slowly.  E.g. me)
For my next Slabhide healing run:

• Dogde boulders. I should have learned this on normal.
• Puddles have a dust cloud immediately before they appear.  Move.
• A single pillar is not always enough to hide behind.  There were times I was sure I was being hit from both sides of a pillar.  I think the boss when this happened, but I am not sure.
• More AOE heals.  I didn't use prayer of healing at all.  I only used divine hymn once in multiple wipes.  More renew.

For heroics in general I have more thoughts.

Disc priest smites are a nice cheap heal replacement, and set you up for bigger heals when you need them.

Don't expect 'progression' instances to be gogogo, 15 minute runs.  These are new and hard for people to do.  The expectation that Farm Heroic = quick run is something to be left behind when we left Northrend.  You will be able to quickly farm them again when your party has both Cata Dungeon Hero and raid gear.  On that point, I am no longer joining heroic groups when thinking about heading to bed soon.  Sunday - Wednesday nights I will not start a heroic after 9pm.  Thursday nights I won't run heroics at all.

You don't need 3 Damage dealers.  More than 1 tank is useful.  More than 1 healer is useful.  People are dying due to lack of knowledge, lack of CC and incorrect movement.  Offtanking is a form of CC, whether it is done by a pet or player.  Classes that dont have CC may still have interupts & stuns.  High DPS is nice, and will make life easier, but does not make the difference between a Heroic completion and failure.  Dodging fire does.

(PS. Glyphs became very interesting.  Read Breevok's post.  I have drafted 3 different posts, all trashed  hours later.  I have not gone away, just temporarily quiet)

Heroic Vortex Pinacle

TL;DR : For Altairus dogding whirlwinds is far far more important than wind changes.  I mention whirlwind so much that I want a thesaurus.

As you may have read yesterday, I have many excuses not to run heroics (but fewer reasons).  Last night I tanked Vortex Pinacle, my fourth heroic.  I set a 'finish time' of 11:30pm, but it was more like midnight. It was a nappy party.  Wipe, Wipe, Wipe.  But I did learn a bit, and next time it wont hurt so bad.

Most readers will be aware that backup healing helps.  A backup tank also works.  I have run with a bear/cat for two of my heroics, and found the extra defensive cooldowns/health pool a life saver.

The group consisted of my DK tank (foolich), Druid Moonkin, Druid Bear in mostly cat form, Hunter, and a Disc Priest, all on our first Heroic Vortex Pinacle attempt.  We had heard the second boss was painful.

I use the Sword and Board blog as a very short guide to what I should be doing, and it has worked well.  I don't do well at watching videos, text based strategies + experience works better for me.  I don't run as DPS.  Last night, we came up with our own strategies.

Before 1st boss trash tip:  A lot of the trash like to throw you off the platform.  It might not end in a wipe, but it's a pain when the tank (me) gets thrown away.  Having a second tank was good.  Stay close to the inside of paths where you can.
Before 3rd boss trash tip.  CC/magic damage does not work in or accross a lightning field.  Seperate Temple Adepts so they don't heal each other.  Interupt casters with gusto and glee.

Bosses 1 & 3 were largely according to Sword and Board.  On the final boss, the static cling is a killer if it co-incides with a lightning field.  We solved this by jumping lots (not pretty but it worked).

Altairus (second boss) was as hard as we had been told.    We had many plans that did not work.  It only takes one plan that does.  This boss does not have an enrage timer.  Deaths were caused by 3 things:
* bounced on 3 whirlwinds in a row
* bounced off the platform by whirlwind and insta-killed
* Healer out of mana

Our goal is to (A) avoid whirlwinds and (B) save healer mana. 

Apart from whirlwinds, the other significant damage was the bosses frost breath.  A DK's anti magic shell grants (near?) immunity to every second breath.  A prismatic elixir provides 90 magic resistance - with this and party buffs we ended up with 25% reduced magic damage.  DPS quaffing the magic resist elixir is worth it.

Being downwind means a movement and cast time debuff.  Conversely being upwind means a movement and cast time buff.  It does not affect heal per mana or damage per mana.  Being upwind is good because it allows you more time to dodge whirlwinds.  Any DPS/HPS benefit is trivial compared to avoiding whirlwinds.  Dead toons don't do much.

In the centre there seemed to be fewer whirlwinds, so we put both the boss and our party (bar the hunter) in the middle.  Our healer concentrated on mana efficient heals, letting party health drop when we did get hit by the whirlwinds.

I understand that whirlwinds are getting nerfed, and our gear will only get better, so the fight will become easier.  I am glad we did it while it is 'hard'.

In summary, our strategy that succeded was:
* Avoid whirlwind
* Mostly ignore wind changes
* Everyone + Boss (except Hunters) in the middle.
* Mana efficient healing

A trolling we will go

Theres nothing I hate more than bloggers whining about things they hate.

I keep finding excuses to delay doing Heroics.  I don't have time during the week, and had been running Glory of Ulduar on Saturday nights.  There is never a healer on.  I won't do Raids till I complete the heroics.  Excuses galore.

(Safe for work, but maybe not for your ego) Read more

Why run unwanted content?

A commercial WoW blog had an article about people level capped players being put into instances that they outgear via the dungeon finder.  Twice in a row.

If dungeon finder puts you in an unwanted dungeon, start specifying what you want to run.  It's easy.  You miss out on a couple of points for gear - so what?


I am not the most active of raiders/dungeon runners and I have zero problems with getting gear.  I run instances/raids for the following reasons:

• I have not yet completed it as that role (eg I have not yet run many heroics, or my tank wont run it anymore, but my healer will)
• I have completed it, but want to practice a specific mechanic
• It is a training run for a healer or tank
• I am being sociable

Admitidly, it is nice having gold to buy pretty stuff from the AH, and I have bought a few blue items for my tank (Foolich).  Use your profession bonuses to 'gear yourself up' - whether that is Jewelcrafting and Enchanting, or even Herbalism and Mining (an hour or two of this will earn you gold for gear)
However even on the very limited (in comparison to my peers) dungeon runs I have still managed to get a badge piece. 

Easy fixed.  If random dungeon finder doesn't give what you want, choose your dungeons. 

Tank you very much

A couple of days ago, I finally dinged 85 on my DK tank.  (Yes, last of the great levellers but you get that).  Tonight, I tanked the last of the normal mode instances. - Halls of origination.
I want to 'shout out' a great resource for these at Sword and Board:

• Blackrock Caverns, Throne of Tides.
• Stonecore, Vortex Pinacle
• Grim Batol, Halls of Origination, Lost City of te Tol'vir
• Heroic Deadmines, Heroic Shadowfang Keep

It doesn't matter if you are tank, healer, or DPS.  These sheets are great, and easy enough to copy/paste into party chat.

On a vaguely gold related topic, getting heroic rated gear is cheap enough - if you like PVP gear.  (I do not).  With my tank being a Dreani DK, the trinkets are nice, and the rings were levelling items.   (I have 529 JC yet no 'acievement' - vain, but I still want it).  All my gear is gemmed (where possible), and enchanted - using Northrend head and shoulders enchants before I get the rep for Cata enchants.

My prediction for the day : Prices of gems and enchants will go up as we start getting more 'real' gear, or as people start wanting to get through those heroics.  We will also get many many toons balking at the real cost of mats.