10m, going forward

[Holyshade]

Before we talk about what we need to do going forward, a quick look back on this week's worth of raids.

First of all, two bosses down, one in each night, that's no dragon soul progression, but pretty darn good, especially since it's our first week raiding together and we didn't at all have our group fully set.

Some good notes, tanks seem pretty in line with their thinking, dps is all around the same area of numbers, for heals we seem about right, with playbyplay beating us out usually but i'm still working on my shaman's raid healing, so all around we seem to be in pretty good shape and consistently improving.

Looking forward, since glitter and zaub can't raid on thursdays, we'll need to replace them. Eveningbark filled in for us tonight, and can/probably will for future weeks, and/or chartul can in future weeks as well. That still leaves us needing a consistent ranged dps and a healer in the form of a holy pally. Evening's offspec is tree, which could be useful down the road, I have an 88 holy pally that i'm leveling, if we get desperate. That being said, that's worse case scenario. Other notes, and none of these are directed at anyone, Flasks, i'd like everyone to come to the raid with enough for the night. int/str/agi/mana potions, i'm happy to make anyone any they need for free, but you need to tell me you need them first and i'll happily do it. We've also started pretty late on both nights, which isn't anyone's fault but mine or the lack of a third healer, but I don't want it to become a habit. So, I'd like everyone to be on and ready around 10 minutes before the raid, (ready means flasks, repaired, already went pee, ect.) I know some of us don't get home til around or a little before raid time, and i don't want anyone speeding home for the raid and dying in a car crash, but if we are on, i'd like us to be on our mains and ready so when it is raid time, we're pulling, not getting set up.

Lastly and most importantly, thank you all for being a part of this raid, it makes it a lot more enjoyable when you raid with a great group of people, in the personality sense and skill sense.

P.S. I sincerely apologize for the rebel-esque length of this post

[Lyntha]

Gratz guys. Feng is actually a really hard fight! Gara'jal and Spirit kings were significantly easier for us than the first two. Keep up the great work.

[Unholyfaith]

Awesome! Glad to hear the group is making progress.

Also we may be moving to Mumble instead of Vent, and I'll be able to pick the port. Have Lyshanni or whoever it was that couldn't connect to our vent because of a block port let me know what ports are open for him.

[playbyplay]

khel=lyshani's new resto shaman main

btw i totally agree about being ready before the raid... and once we finally iron out a set roster we wont have to spend the first 30 mins + looking for a healer or dps...

also... what class should we look for in creating a "bench" to have a backup just in case?

and to put it at the bottom...

LF 1 HPally, 1 ranged dps (as far as armor classes, we have 2 cloth, 1 agi mail, 1 int/spi mail, 2 agi leather, 1 plate, 1 int/spi leather... what am i missing?)

Edited October 26, 2012 by playbyplay

[Evadd]

Wingsmcgee was looking to start raiding; he's a hunter that I've been raiding with since before ICC. If we're still looking, we should run it by him.

As an FYI, I am on call tomorrow night (Wed, Oct 31). In all likelihood I will be home and able to play, but in the event that I'm not, go on without me. If I can't make it due to work, I'll try to post up on here.

[Holyshade]

hey guys, I know things come up, but if you know ahead of time that you'll miss the raid, post under the Raid Attendance thread, which you can also txt or email raid@atremains.com and have it appear on the raid attendance thread, which i'll check every night preraid.

[Unholyfaith]

raid@atremains.com is actually down currently. We just moved to a new server, so we're still working on that.

Side note, have Lyshanni see if he can connect to our Mumble. Default port for Mumble. Or if that is blocked for him as well.

[Holyshade]

Hey Unholy, it's Lyshani/Khelendross, the vent problem actually got solved, which is a bit of a moot point now, but I have mumble and the default port works fine

[Unholyfaith]

Glad to hear it

[playbyplay]

so... going forward, where are we at? we seem to be in the same situation we were in the first week ie: lacking a fulltime 3rd healer, and ranged dps... are those the only two we currently need?

only reason im asking is for progression's sake, it would be good to have at least the same 8+ core every week, and we seem to almost be there...

if im not mistaken so far every raid has seen a turnout of:

Khelendros, -Rshaman

Aweburn -Mage

Rugburn -Protadin

Infertil -Spriesty

Playbyplay -MWMonk

Tychondrus -Huntarr

Evadd -Beartank

kinda/sorta eveningbark -Feralcat ...for a total of 2 tanks, 2 heals, 3/4 dps

im probably forgetting someone cause im exhausted, and ill probably regret writing this in the am, cause i just had a brutally shitty shift at work but....

7.5 consistent raiders is not nearly enough to push progression, especially with the apparent difficulty of Gara'jal 10m, not even to mention elegon or the HoF raid just released...

so WTF am i saying?

i guess what im asking is... what is our current status? are we still actively seeking out recruits for heals and a dps? or we looking for a few dps? Please, let me know anything I can do to help fill these spots, and if theres anything i can do to help get things rolling out more smoothly. yeah, this week blew cause we literally ran into an impossible progression fight on wed (fail login servers)... But come thursday, we still didnt get pulling till 10ish, mostly because of our need for more members...

so i guess i'm just answering my own question by highlighting our need for recruiting, so i guess what my actual question is, what EXACTLY do we need so we can nail down a set of 10 solid raiders with 90%+ attendance so we can push into the content further than 2 bosses, and how can i help?

aaaaaaaaaaaand /endrant

PS!!!!

HUGE THANKS to Seihei, Maurs, and the other names i do not remember at this hour, for helping us fill out our 10 man!!!

on a positive note, I'm SUPER happy to be raiding at all again, and SUPER stoked about the potential we have with our core group! and even if all we down this patch is 2 bosses, but we have a damn good time doing it, thats all that matters to me! i just see the potential we have if we can get started on time and with a consistent group, and am drooling at the thought of how pro we can make this 10m!

[Infertil]

Yes play we are still looking for a full time healer if wings can come he could fill the dps spot but i havent been able to talk to him since raid if hes available all we will need then is a 3rd healer

[Holyshade]

Unfortunately, the answer is yes, that's exactly where we're at. We consistently have 2 healers, 2 tanks, and 3 ranged. Wingsmcgee could quite possibly fill the 4th, and I need to talk to Evening about what he thinks/wants/is his current role in the raid is, so he could be the 5th. But even though there has been recruitment going on, and I've been asking around in guild for healers, we're still around squat. I honestly don't understand how that's possible with our fairly large guild and decently sized horde driven server, but that's what we've got. (And that's not a statement of blame towards anyone recruiting or our guild or ect, just frustration at the fact that we can't find a 3rd healer).

So, as of right now, I don't know how to solve the problem, I'll start spamming in trade as well over today, tomorrow, and wednesday, and we'll see if we get any hits. But I can't think of anything else to be done besides keep spam recruiting and hope a healer shows up

[Infertil]

I'm still at work be home by 10

[Holyshade]

3rd boss downed tonight, nice job everyone! On to spirit kings and then endless wipes on elegon!

[Unholyfaith]

Congrats!

[playbyplay]

WOOOOT! big thanks to nemesis for filling out our healer spot last night too!

so happy to see numbers getting higher each weak, bosses are dying faster, didnt come close to a 4th draw flame (for the first time!)... read up on some spirit kings and elegon for tonight!

[Viledead]

do you guys do worldoflogs? Just curious

[Lyntha]

Elegon is going to be really tough on your DPS. First boss of HoF (Zor'lok) is going to be tough on your healers. If you have 2 really good healers and can fill up the rest with good DPS (No carrying people), go for Elegon. If you have 3 good healers, go for Zor'Lok.

We 2-healed Elegon 10m and the healing was WAY easier than 3-healing zor'lok. Although the end was kind of rough (Lots of burst healing needed), it's really not too bad.

[Holyshade]

@Vile, possibly, was taking the lead on it, I think he had it running but was having trouble connecting it with the guild or some such

@Snugg, yeah, they both seem rather annoying, we'll get spirit kings down (hopefully quickly!) and reevaluate where we're at when the time comes

[playbyplay]

yeah, unholy hasnt added me to the guild yet so i created a 10m alt version of the guild... but i couldnt get it to function properly last night... so if i get home in time to figure it out tonight it should be up, if not, ill have it figured out for next week.

@snugg, do you recommend 2 healing spirit kings as well, or is that a 3 heal fight? only reason is the fact that we always have to ghetto rig a 3rd heals (aka nemesis's 460ilvl alt priest like last night)... we'll see what happens when ppl log in tonight tho.

and tyvm for the protips for monk healing gara'jal... worked like a charm

[Lyntha]

We could probably 4 heal spirit kings in 25man. The healing is pretty high and constant during the first phase so you might feel like you need 3 healers at first but after the first wave, there is SO little healing to do. I'm pretty sure that our guild first kill of spirit kings was actually in 2 10mans and we 2-healed with both groups.

Just remember, healing is high during first guy but a complete joke for the rest. In the 25man, I just pop RM and Chi Wave on CD and otherwise kite around skulls or just derp around.

So yes, try 2-healing it. It should be pretty easy. On that note, Elegon is DEFINITELY a 2-heal fight and Zorlok is DEFINITELY a 3-heal (Maybe even 4-heal) fight.

[Holyshade]

Spirit Kings down @ 9:57 or so, elegon here we go!

[Lyntha]

Excellent work guys. GL on Elegon. A good benchmark for you on that fight is the adds in phase 1. If you can't get to phase 2 the first time around (85%) before the third add spawns, you WILL NOT make the enrage timer.

[playbyplay]

yeah im thinking we had 3-4 adds each time in p1? lol... gonna be a long uphill climb!

[Lyntha]

The key is to maximize all raid dps. People who are severely behind can just have their ranged switch to the FIRST add and have melee stay on the boss. The melee who stay in will HAVE to pop a CD, but pretty much every melee has one. Taking a look at your melee, your ret and druid both have strong CD's (DP and SI) so they'll be fine. However, this is just to finish it off. Have your tank drag the add to be behind the boss and have the melee and ranged cleave/dot it. Once it reaches 50% or you have 12 seconds to the next add spawn, have your ranged switch to it full time and have the tank drag it out. On the next add, cleave it like normal and call for all DPS to switch to it (And drag it out) when the boss goes below 86%. Dots, tank dps and spells still in the air will push him within 5 seconds of switching and by then, the add should be outside of the circle about to explode. If you try this and still can't make it in 2 waves of adds, your DPS just plain needs to improve.

Another tip: Keep in mind that every additional wave of adds you kill in P2 takes time off of the enrage. It will make the last 50% go faster, making it easier on the healers, but will take chunks of time off of your enrage. We only went 4 waves each time, making for 5 debuffs total each time, adding up to 10 total, meaning that the boss took 100% more damage for the last 50%. If your DPS are holding you back, you can try doing only 3 waves and seeing how it goes. It should go without saying that you should be attacking the boss as much as possible between add waves and you should be ignoring the last wave completely to get as much dps on the boss as possible.

Lastly, try to kill the pillars in P3 at the same time. If you do, a significantly lower number of adds will spawn. Good luck!

Edit: I assume that your ranged DPS know that they can stand at the edge of the platform in a position where simply jumping will reset their stacks. They can do this on their side in P2 as well, letting them keep the damage buff until the floor falls off. As long as they are close enough to the edge that they can jump to reset the debuff, they will be close enough to the floor that they won't fall to their death when the floor disappears.