Take my Heals or Leaf!

Growing Pains

noreply@blogger.com (Labella Notte) — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 23:19:00 +0000

Hello my friends and welcome back!

We've gotten past the oohshiney new phase of Warlords of Draenor and have settled back into the rhythm of WoW again contentedly. My team started out on really solid footing for the beginning of an xpac, probably the strongest we've ever been. Granted, GoF as a guild has had a pretty low turnover rate since the opening of ICC (I hate and love thinking of just how long ago that was) for which I'm profoundly grateful. We learned from our mistakes we made in Mists of Pandaria and hit the ground running this go-round. We haven't yet ventured into Mythic territory of WoD content, but we're at a solid 6/7 H with about 21-24 people showing up ready to roll on raid nights.

The roster size has been particularly challenging for us, though, building towards the Mythic team. GoF has historically, with a few scattered exceptions, run a ten man raid team with a rotating roster of about 14-16 raiders. We found this was our sweet spot, and very very rarely have had to cancel raid because of poor attendance. If a raider had to bow out for a night or a week, we had no difficulties filling the slot because standby raiders were ready. If a raider had all their needed gear and just wanted a night or a fight off, again we'd pull in a standby. All was golden and all was good. With the announcement of the Mythic raids, we started to discuss changing the way we do things.

We're not a hardcore raiding guild. We raid 3 times a week, for 3 hours a day, and have for years. Again, this hit our sweet spot. We're an adult guild, with jobs and families and responsibilities that don't lend themselves easily to the Midwinter level of commitment. We also raid for the thrill and challenge of facing the hardest content that Blizz can throw at us. We've had a few realm first kills and have solidly been in the top ten - if not five or even three - raiding guilds on our server. We take a lot of pride in this. We dubbed ourselves "casually hardcore" for these reasons.

The new Mythic level, of course, had our hardcore little hearts crying out "yes yes we will do this, no doubt". We can't see that gauntlet thrown down and walk away from that. It's just not GoF's way. We're also very protective of our guild culture, and tend to do little recruiting or run multiple raid teams. After much intense discussion between our officers and some of our veteran raiders, we decided to ease our way towards the required 20 man roster so that we would be able to step into the ring against Mythic content.

To our credit, I feel we've done a damn fine job of building up our roster while maintaining our environment, our culture, and really our guild identity. But the challenge still exists.

It seems, at first glance, that the mechanics of Highmaul are unforgiving. They require correct execution for success. The DPS and HPS output required is also up there. What I'm trying to say nicely is it is MUCH harder to carry underperforming raiders now than previously. Also, as is the case with all new expansions, the available gear isn't quite as juicy as the end-xpac gear we had a year plus into Siege of Orgrimmar, and there's just no such thing as cheesing a mechanic with brute force now.

So now the delicate task we have is to help some of our lesser performing raiders to a level that can make the cut, so to speak, to varsity level. We have some very committed, reliable raiders who just don't do the required numbers, or who are somewhat oblivious to standing in The Bad. We have raiders who are perfectionists on their own performance getting irritated with the growing process of our team. We don't want to hurt people's feelings, but we also don't want to stop our own progression. And damn it, we need every body we can get in for Mythic. Heroics are challenging, and I fear what Mythic looks like. But I want to get there with the team I've been raiding with for years now.

I don't want a new team, and I don't want filler just so we can say we're Mythic x of x. I want to get there, with my team, on our own steam, from our own blood sweat and tears.

Has your team run into this challenge also? How have you overcome it? How do you inspire and get people to improve without feeling like you're constantly kicking them in the teeth for XY or Z? I'd love to hear your feedback in the comments.

As always, thanks for reading! Until next time, long days, pleasant nights and Happy Raiding!

Miss Me?

noreply@blogger.com (Labella Notte) — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 03:28:00 +0000

I may have been on a brief hiatus for the last several months, but my guild Guardians of Fellowship (US-The Scryers Alliance) has not. I'll be back with more brilliant posts in the near future, but for now I'll leave you to take a look at a brief mashup of our recent victories.

Huge props go out to our Mage Sweetdeaths who has been working tirelessly on videos since we started our Siege of Orgrimmar Heroic progression and does OUTSTANDING work. Take a look at all of our videos if you have a chance, he has serious dedication to both raiding and video editing...as well as being a talented DPS.

Until next time (soon, I promise!), long days, pleasant nights and Happy Raiding!

Halls of Flesh-Shaping: A Restospective

noreply@blogger.com (Labella Notte) — Sat, 07 Sep 2013 16:04:00 +0000

Throne of Thunder Part 3: Halls of Flesh-Shaping

This wing of the Throne of Thunder tore at my heart. A thrown away disobedient pet, a flawed experiment tossed aside for a more perfect creation, and a giant blob of....what exactly was that stuff? Often, after running through a raid again and again, I forget what it is that is in the flavor dialogue and text. Primordius' screams of agony rip through me every time I'm there. So much pain. This wing paints such a vile picture of the Thunder King, in his desperate grasp for absolute power was willing to cross any barrier of morality or possibility to be the penultimate ruler.

Stories beside, I can say with confidence that of the four wings in the ToT, the Halls of Flesh-Shaping was my favorite.

Durumu the Forgotten

Do you see what I did there? -- Durumu

Love it. Love it. Love it. I really thought Durumu was overall a really fun fight. The maze was a bit of a pain the rump, I'll give that to you, but I really enjoyed everything about this boss. I felt there was a nice balance of damage where the healers were challenged but not chewing on nails through the whole fight. There was a good counterplay between being in the right spot at the right time and being able to move. It forced you to move frequently, often without much previous knowledge of where exactly you were going, and continue to put out solid numbers, whether DPS or HPS.

I also have to throw in, there was a great bit of hilarity in my own raid team from Durumu. Well...one of our veteran raiders, who knew the fight inside and out, happened to get tagged with the blue beam. He knew that blue had to stop moving. He reminded the whole raid team, often and loudly. BLUE! STOP MOVING!!!!! He kept shouting in to vent....he was so worked up about it and there was so much laughter going on that it took a wipe for him to realize that he was yelling at himself to stop moving. Since then, every time we're on Durumu, we all (not unkindly!) remind him that BLUE! STOP MOVING!! YOU ARE BLUE!!! A good laugh, a good fight, a great memory.

Primordius

We are the perfect one, yes, yes, not a failure, no no, not a failure... -- Primordius

Love it. I felt that Primordius' changing abilities throughout the fight really gave a nice flavor and challenge to it. And really, who doesn't love shifting in to a giant lizard? There was a bit of chaos here, with DPS racing hither and yon after slimes until they transformed, the tanks kiting Primordius away from slime puddles, and the healers praying that Volatile Pathogen didn't stay out too long.

I really think that Blizz nailed this fight on many levels. It has a really pitiable villain, fun mechanics, and nicely balanced challenge. In this fight, you really have very little control over what happens. On a lucky pull, we wouldn't see Pathogen come out once. Others, it was up the entire time and we were incredibly glad that we were three healing it. It also was very interesting to see the raid team develop over our time in this fight, watching them balance the priorities of blowing up the slimes and getting mutated, avoiding purple puddles of pain, and beating down the boss. One of the best moments for our team was when one of our outstanding DPS, who generally gets his job done and laser beam focuses on it only, offered to blow up slimes for one of our healers who was filling in on her offspec. Watching my team develop truly makes me proud to be one of the team.

Dark Animus

Meh....just meh.

It's sad that the biggest challenge of this fight is clearing the trash before it. It seemed that as long as our team could manage to keep the minibots spread out early on that we were guaranteed win on Animus. Matter Swap was an interesting mechanic - especially because the tanks weren't exempt from it. Is it sad that my favorite moments were watching the tanks scramble after being matter swapped? Maybe this is a sign of just how meh the fight was.

I didn't really find much to get interested in or excited about. Funnel the minibots to the medium bots, then the medium bots to the big bot, then do a little kiting if you were targeted with the Crimson Tide, and don't cast during Interrupting Jolt. Collect loot. I really want to say more about the fight...but I can't. I'm bored even writing about it!

The third act of the Throne of Thunder continued to have that neglectful theme of that which does not serve will be thrown away and forgotten that we saw in the second act. It solidified, in my mind at least, that the Thunder King's only concern was himself, and he'll use any tool to further his goals, and then throw the tools away if they don't work the way he wants them too. Sad that he'd treat living creatures of his own making as a tool. It only strengthens in my mind the need to depose of him.

What were your thoughts on the Halls of Flesh Shaping? Share them in the comments!

As always, thanks for reading! Until next time, long days, pleasant nights and Happy Raiding!

Credit goes to Dayani over at Healiocentric for the term Restospective

Dirty Little Secrets

noreply@blogger.com (Labella Notte) — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 02:54:00 +0000

Come on, admit it. You have them. Who doesn't?

Are you a double agent PvP'er who slinks around one capital city, waiting to hear of a raid on the others and hop over to the other side to get the drop on them? Are you an altaholic of the highest order, with a max level toon in each class and profession? Are you a gold goblin who loves raking your competition across the coals? You can tell me, I won't judge you.

I have a whole closet just stuffed with skeletons screaming to come out. Remember the Poe story of the Telltale Heart? Yeah, that's my closet. So here I am, bearing my dirty little secrets to you. Be warned, I will be using amazing exaggerations, gross generalizations and overstatements throughout sharing these with you.

Questing

Every healer knows the “joy” of questing. Whether to level up or to complete dailies for reputation, most of us have to do it at one point or another. Back in the day, before the introduction of dual specs, we had the choice of either (painfully) levelling as a healer or paying the (somewhat steep...especially for your first toon) price to continuously respec between questing and dungeon runs. These days questing is a lot easier on healers, with dual specs coming so inexpensively and the advent of LFG. My dirty little secret about questing is even with the fact that I have an offspec, I'm abysmally bad on it. When I have to quest, I force my darling warrior husband to help me. I admit I am not above using my feminine charms to convince him to drag me through yet another round of godawful dailies just so I can get some silly mount or title. When that fails, I threaten to withhold raid heals. Any port in a storm, right?

PvPing

Resto Druids are supposed to be PvP GODS…right guys? Right?! Well…perhaps. Not me. I'm not sure if Blizz turns my character neon pink the moment I step in to a PvP hootenanny or if it's the simple fact that about two healers per seven hundred Alliance PvPers show up, I die - constantly. I spend more time chatting with the spirit healer in the course of a BG than I do alive. The only way I can survive more than ten seconds with a Horde player in range of smacking me around is if I am in kitty form, stealthed and hiding under a bush. I fell into an abyss of despair working towards my legendary cloak when I realized I would have to not only step foot in, but also WIN in TWO different PvP zones. Again my warrior tank hubby came to my rescue and helped me to get through it without having a nervous breakdown in the middle of it.

Funniest part about this?

I LOVE playing League of Legends and couldn't care less if I am constantly dead...though I do tend to stay alive more frequently than in WoW....

Off Spec

Short, simple and to the point. The only reason I have boomer as my offspec is because I love the Glyph of Stars. I look awesome. That is all.

Lesser Coins

Because of my above confession about the method I use for questing, I frequently struggled to have my 50 lesser coins each week. Until I discovered (drum roll please)....PET BATTLES. Oh yes. They are my bread and butter for my lesser coins these days. I could spend an hour doing dailies or about seven doing pet battles for the coins....and I go the route of pet battles. Indy the Snake, iPinch the Crab, and Veedub the Beetle are my constant companions. Bring it. Why waste an hour when I can waste seven?!?! Seriously, pet battling is a true guilty pleasure and a part of me wants to hide in shame every time I pop an achievement for it. Next thing you know I'll be logging in at two AM just so I can get my pet battle on without anyone in guild seeing my disgrace.

Valor Capping

I seem to only cap out on Valor in a week accidentally. A few weeks ago I noticed a buff I don't usually have, and after close investigation I saw that it was from hitting the valor cap. Who knew it was possible?! Even worse, I really am a bad raider. Terrible. Awful. I should be hung from the nearest tree. Why? Because there have been multiple times where I missed out on valor because I didn't spend it. Go ahead. Judge me. I deserve it.

Challenge Modes

I have started venturing into challenge modes recently. I don't do it for the valor (though it is a nice bonus). I don't do it for the prestige. I don't do it because I particularly enjoy it really. Sure, it's a serious challenge that seems to make me really use my toolbox. A minor motivator is because some of my guildies want to dip their toes in and rack up the titles and achievements. Me? I do it for the mount. That's right, the reason I do this is because of the pretty phoenix once I finish 9/9 silver. I don't particularly like grinding for anything, but wave a mount or a neat title in front of me and I might just do it. (The Diplomat is my most recent example...if I have to kill another ogre in Nagrand ever again it will be too soon.)

Hoarders of Azeroth

A picture is worth a thousand words.

If there was a reality show called Hoarders of Azeroth, I would be its spokesperson. When my bags are so stuffed I can't fit a 'lock cookie in it, I agonizingly root through my bags to get rid of stuff. My thinking is that HEY I COULD USE THAT SOME DAY!!! I can't tell you the number of times I've despondantly gone through my bank and bags with my husband and tried to justify keeping things. I have quest items from quests that don't exist any more!! Not only is my main toon's bank and bags stuffed to overflowing, but nearly all my alts are in the same position – even with not one but TWO toons who are bankers with three or four guild bank tabs full of junk.

For shame, Bells. For. Shame.

So now it's confession time. Speak up. I know that you have some dirty little secrets lingering about. Spill 'em in the comments!

Until next time, long days, pleasant nights, and happy Raiding.

Ahead of the Curve

noreply@blogger.com (Labella Notte) — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 02:13:00 +0000

Ahead of The Curve

For the first time since MoP was released, the Guardians of Fellowship have successfully completed a tier before the next was released. I am incredibly proud of my guild, both as a member of our raid team and as co-GM. A huge congratulations and thank you is in order to the Defenders of the Guardians Of Fellowship. Each and every one of you on that fight deserved the kill, and I am so proud to be one of you.

The GoF had a stellar showing during Cataclysm. We held the top spot on our server for a time, earning a bronze finish for the Dragon Soul tier and completing 8/8 Heroic before the release of Mists of Pandaria. We felt like we were in a strong position to really challenge for that top spot on the server for the first time since our founding back in the WOTLK days.

Then things got hard.

Mists hasn't exactly been kind to our team. As with any expansion, there was an ebb and flow of members when it was released. A good bit of our raid team left the game, whether due to feeling they had completed their personal quest with the demise of Deathwing, out of game reasons, burn out, or simply because they didn't like the pandas. For whatever reason, they left, and we were faced with rebuilding a new raid team from our remaining roster and adding new raiders.

We, as a guild and as a raid team, decided to take our time leveling through the new content and exploring the new continent. We wanted to experience many of the new additions to the game without rushing to level cap and gearing to raid immediately. From a personal enjoyment and satisfaction viewpoint, this was a good decision. It allowed our raiders a break from the pressure of progressive raiding.

From a progression standpoint, it was a huge obstacle in clearing the raid content. We were unable to clear T14 before T15 was released, having our first kill on Jin'Rohk before our first kill of the Sha of Fear. Am I proud of this? No. Am I proud of my team? Undoubtedly.

Spending nine plus hours a week with my teammates in raid, it's easy to forget the comings and goings of raiders. It makes me forget that on top of taking our time starting the raid content, several of our mainstay raiders were replaced with this tier's “dedicated few”. During that transition between Cataclysm and Mists raiding, we had a painful amount of raider turnover. I went back through some records on our kills, and of the ten raiders responsible for our first kill on H:Deathwing, three were present for our first kill on Stone Guard. We had to not only learn the new raid content and adjust to the class changes brought on by Mists, but we had to reforge those teammate bonds. A well established team who has practiced together for months always will outperform a new team. Well established teams anticipate each others' movements and inherently understands each others' strengths and weaknesses.

We started raiding Mists with an “untried” team. All were experienced raiders, most of whom had been guildies for quite some time; however that harmony that was reached with our core team during DS had been lost.

I say with pride, we got it back. And here we are again, Ahead of the Curve.

My words of wisdom to other guilds out there who are still breaking their heads against Lei Shen: Don't give up. Keep on working. This may not be your tier, T16 may not be your tier, but be PROUD of what you accomplish, big or small. Because you're working for it every time you walk through that raid portal.

Have you experienced this in your guild? Share with me your experiences when you felt your guild (or raid team) was ahead of the curve in comments!

Forgotten Depths: A Restospective

noreply@blogger.com (Labella Notte) — Sat, 13 Jul 2013 17:39:00 +0000

Continuing my fond farewell to the current Raiding tier, let me reintroduce you to the bosses in the second act of the Throne of Thunder: The Forgotten Depths. Three giant critters make up the second act: Tortos, Megaera, and Ji-Kun. Slaying these bosses makes me feel like we're putting them out of their misery.

According to "Lore by Bells (TM)" says that Tortos just wants to dance. Look at all of the Dragon Turtle adds - they come whirling out from behind him doing the turtle spin breakdance - and that's all Tortos wants to do. His body has literally fused with the cave walls around it, immobilizing him and keeping him from being able to pull out his blue suede shoes and bust a move. Not to get too far off topic, he was just a victim to Mogu magic floating down and making him one with the wall. What kind of an existence must it be to sit day after day, unable to move or even scratch your back? (I apologize if this sounds too much like your workplace, guys.)

Megaera was once a cloud serpent, free to roam the skies and feel the sunshine on her scales. She was twisted by Mogu magic into a hideous hydra. When I picture the cloud serpents, I can't help but think of my majestic mount that I raised from an adorable, playful hatchling to a graceful adult. To think of the agony that would transform that to a creature full of hate and desire for vengeance is sobering.

Ji-Kun I feel a touch less pity for as she is in the Forgotten Depths of her own volition. She entered the Depths to feast on the flesh thrown aside by the Mogu. She reigns supreme in her chamber. I've often wondered if she feasts on her own offspring, as she is the only living creature in there when we arrive. Granted her eggs are everywhere, but you'll notice there's not another bird flitting about anywhere in the Throne of Thunder.

Stories aside, here's how I feel about the second act of the Throne of Thunder.

Tortos

A part of me loves Tortos, because it truly is one of those fights that I feel that a Druid can absolutely shine. Lots of damage on lots of people? Check. Lots of movement? Check. Lots of damage DURING MOVEMENT? CHECK SIR, I SAY CHECK! *cough* Where was I? Oh yes. Despite the fact that a Resto Druid can really shine on this fight, I truly did not like Tortos, not one bit.

The reason he and I didn't get on so well is because of the randomness of it. Lack of control on DPS part, such as kicking too many shells and not having one at the needed moment or not dropping the shells quickly enough, would wipe the raid and there was nothing I could do about it. A poorly directed or poorly timed kick would have the same effect. The Vampiric Cave Bats also loved to feast on my flesh instead of the tank's (which we figured out how to deal with) and if the tank handling them wasn't topped off things went south fast. Poorly dodged rockfalls or a whirl-a-turtles made things even more hectic. I really wanted to love this fight. Truly I did. Tortos, it wasn't you....it was me.

Megaera

I can say with utter honesty that Megaera is hands down (branches down?) my favorite fight in the Throne of Thunder. Megs is a great example of a "pick your poison" type of fight where you pick the abilities that will affect you. Our team triggers red and blue most frequently, making this a movement and dispel intense fight. I love that I always have something to. Rampages are probably the first time I really felt mushrooms were valuable, despite the huge overheal. Depending on DPS pace, you may find yourself having to scramble for CDsduring Rampages. Too fast, you won't have enough to cover the intense damage in time. Too slow and Megs will drain your mana from dispels or raid heavy AOE. Kiting the Torrent of Ice, trying to place them in a Cinders circle, and getting out of Dodge when Acid Rain is falling from the sky all kept me on my toes. And I loved it.

Ji-Kun

Meh. My opinion of Ji-Kun would assuredly change if I weren't the healer hopping from nest to nest. Why? I was so utterly bored for the vast majority of this fight. I felt like I could get up, make a sandwich, and watch Game of Thrones all before things would get interesting. Because...well because they didn't. From what I understand, healing the platform on Ji-Kun is quite challenging. The most difficult part of healing the nests was remembering where to go and about when Quills would start flying through the sky. That was it. The flying was probably the most fun I had during the entire fight. I tried switching my spec to include Dream of Cenarius so I could do some damage, but really that didn't make an ounce of difference. I think (on normal 10M at least) you could really get away with one and a half healers for this fight - one healer on the platform and a DPS offhealing the nests. A shadow priest, elemental shaman, or a Boomkin could have kept the nest team alive while making the fight go faster. I personally work hard to keep as many of my healers in raid as possible. Another fight like this one, where I feel that one of the healers is wasted because of the fight mechanics may make heals leads throughout Azeroth weep in despair.

The Forgotten Depths was a total change of atmosphere from the Last Stand of the Zandalari. The Last Stand had us outdoors fighting against Trolls who, pawns or no, who were fighting for something they believed. The Forgotton Depths was made up of creatures who were thrown aside and forgotten about by the Thunder King. They were simply fighting for their own miserable survival, and we were only cutting through them to make our way to our final goal. They were victims for their entire existence, and they were victims in the end. Hopefully....by putting them out of their misery....they can now go to their next existence in peace.

How did you feel about the second act of the Throne of Thunder?

As always, thanks for reading! Until next time, long days, pleasant nights and happy Raiding!

Credit goes to Dayani over at Healiocentric for the term Restospective

What Is Worth Fighting For? Part 1 of 2

noreply@blogger.com (Labella Notte) — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 22:07:00 +0000

“The true question, for my kind, is 'what is worth fighting for'?”

Part I: As A Raid Team

Three times a week, for three hours at a shot, ten people from the GoF come together to take on internet dragons and monsters. Three times a week, for three hours at a shot, we hurl ourselves time and again at these dragons, sometimes completing the same fight dozens of times or sometimes wiping dozens of times on the same fight. Why do we do it? Why do we not just say “oh well, I'm going to just go pick stuff from my farm in the Valley of the Four Winds”? What comes out of those dragons and monsters that is worth sinking nine hours a week – thirty six hours or more a month – that we feel is worth the time spent, the frustration, and worth fighting for to stay together as a team?

Ask ten different people and you're likely to get ten different responses.

Some people raid for the pretty purple pixels. Gear is one of the most obvious reasons to raid. People like to have something shiny that is hard to get. It helps you visually stand out from the crowd and proves that you've been there, done that. How many times have you inspected someone standing next to you at the Shrine and looked at their gear, mentally noting where the gear they have dropped from? I know I have. I do this even more if I'm in an LFR and someone is being particularly egotistical – I either scoff in my head that they only have LFR gear, or I sit back and think they just might have the right to be high and mighty because they have gear from heroic (insert current raid boss here).

Achievements are milestones that we can measure our WoW careers by. I find this especially true when the achievement comes with a title or mount. While I tend to use more modest titles – Guardian of Cenarius is my favorite to use – I will strut around town with titles like Savior of Azeroth from time to time because of the bragging rights that come with it. Watching those achievement points tick up and up proves that we're dedicated to playing the game, and playing it well.

The challenge of a raid itself is worth fighting for. To challenge oneself to perform better fight after fight, raid after raid, never gets old. Being able to waltz through a heroic dungeon isn't enough to keep the game exciting or fun...but the challenge of the raid doesn't fade because of the constantly evolving nature of raids. New raid content is introduced more frequently than dungeon content, and once you step in to raids you tend to outgear the new dungeon content fairly quickly and there's little challenge there any more.

There is crackling energy in a raid, especially on a progression fight (or particularly difficult fights you've already beaten) that is hard to replicate. The adrenaline rush gets addictive. To watch the life on a boss you have been working on for days ticking down that last ten percent makes you sit on the edge of your chair, frantically mashing your buttons and hoping for a win. When that victory comes, there's a rush of sweet satisfaction and exhilaration that is hard to equal. In a single player setting, you get that rush – but in a raid with 9 or 24 other people, your energy builds and bounces off each other creating a hard to equal experience.

Some of us raid to be able to explore all the content. Watching the story develop, feeling like you're a part of the story in some small part is so rewarding. I remember the first time my team beat Arthas, and it felt like amazing closure to an amazing story. We were able to see first hand what was built, what stood in the way – and almost more importantly, we were able to end it.

We fight to be a great raider in our own minds, on our server, and part of something greater than ourselves. Again, the measure of a great raider is different from person to person, but to be able to say “Yes, I am a great raider” brings satisfaction. Being able to help other people figure out mechanics, topping the meters, or pulling out that clinch play in a moment to succeed on a raid boss can prove to yourself, your team, or others is worth fighting for.

The glory, the prestige of raiding is the key for many people. Remember the hullabaloo when Algalon was killed back in the day when everyone hung out in Dalaran? I can't count the times I was sitting in Dalaran and saw that beacon in the sky and listened to the soliloquy when someone defeated him. Trade rang with the question of 'who did it'? Which guild did it? I swelled with pride when it was my team and my guild who was responsible for that. It was a rush. That moment of glory is what some people fight for. Watching your guild climb in the rankings on GuildOx and knowing you were a part of it is what keeps them going.

Most of all, no matter what the other reasons for fighting are, I find that friendship is the underlying thing that we all fight for. I was asking around my guild what they fight for in raid. My one guildie had this response, which I couldn't phrase better. “I fight because I enjoy it. I enjoy solving the puzzle. I enjoy the camaraderie that develops as we slog away, night after night. I enjoy the feeling the day after getting past that boss that's pushed us to our limits. That feeling of, 'I killed the Lich King last night!'. But mostly, I enjoy the friendships that develop with people that I would have otherwise never met.” I've personally met several guildies, past and present, in the real world. We had guildies at our wedding, one of whom was a groomsman. We have forged deep bonds of friendship that are just as real as those we have with people we see and interact with in person on a daily basis.

What in life is more worth fighting for than friendship?

Until next time, long days, pleasant nights and happy Raiding!

Last Stand of the Zandalari : A Restospective

noreply@blogger.com (Labella Notte) — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 23:41:00 +0000

As the sun begins to set on Tier 15, most people are getting excited about what's to come with 5.4. A new raid, tweaks to our toolkit, and new game features have people all a-flutter - and for excellent reason! It's hard to not be excited to see changes that will positively impact our game play and give us new challenges to overcome.

Here's a fond farewell to the current progression tier and a Restospective look back at what we have conquered. There are three categories that I'm putting fights into: Love It, Hate It, or Meh. Without further ado, here's my Restospective on Last Stand of the Zandalari (Throne of Thunder Part 1).

Jin'rokh the Breaker

I rate Jin'Rokh as Meh. The first fight of the Throne of Thunder was a loot pinata in my opinion. The healing wasn't incredibly difficult as long as people were standing in the right place in the right time. The mechanics weren't complicated and the execution was relatively simple. The only major downside to Jin'Rokh is how huge his loot table is. Even now, after 15 or more kills on him, some of our raiders still need drops off this guy. Seeing as he is a loot pinata, I can see why he'd have such a packed loot table, but it's still depressing to have yet another kill on him and that shiny thing you've been chasing after still hasn't dropped.

Horridon

Horridon is a fight I love to hate. The boss hit like a diesel train, the adds love throwing out stuff to dispel, the floor is not your friend...this fight has something for everyone to hate. It was a serious challenge to heal, especially at the beginning (before all the Nerfs) and before people got the hang of interrupting the Venom Priests and kiting the diseased Drakkari. Bluntly put, I thought this fight was a nightmare. It was nearly impossible for us to stack the healing team to deal with all of the different dispels going out, not to mention being SOL if you didn't have someone to cleanse a disease. Mana conservation was absolutely critical - and again, nearly impossible. The saving grace of this fight was blasting Walk the Dinosaur by George Clinton.

Council of Elders

I love this fight. No joke. I love the Council of Elders. It was, for me, just a fun fight. It felt like the healing to be done was nicely paced, where I wasn't panicking the whole time that the tank was going to spontaneously implode while I was in the middle of a spell cast, and I didn't fear the whole team would explode from some nasty burst damage. It was fun to watch the DPS on the team -- especially our heavy hitters -- throttle back their damage for fear of accidentally committing suicide. It helps that we gave each of the Elders an endearing nickname - Sparky, Healy, Sandy, and Frosty. I mean, it's hard not to giggle when you hear the raid leader telling us to beat Sparky down....now Frosty....now Sandy. I feel like this fight was a great balance of challenge and fun.

The Last Stand of the Zandalari was an interesting start to the Throne of Thunder. You can't help but feel bad for the Zandalari after you finish the Council and the Thunder King all but thanks you for taking out the trash. If it weren't for the deeds of the Zandalari, he'd still be a corpse somewhere, and he doesn't even care that they've been wiped out. It shows that the Zandalari are but a pawn in the Thunder King's chess game, and were only thrown at you to buy some time.

What were your thoughts on the first act of the Throne of Thunder?

Thanks for reading! Until next time, long days, pleasant nights and happy Raiding!

Credit goes to Dayani over at Healiocentric for the term Restospective

Small Server Blues

noreply@blogger.com (Labella Notte) — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 22:30:00 +0000

Imagine the crackle and click of a record player as it plays a classic Blues vinyl. Pull up a rocking chair and a dewy glass of iced tea with an old friend and look around 'town' (your server). Does it look like it used to? Do you look around and see the shadows of people you used to enjoy playing with? Is it the lively party town it used to be or has it become, like mine, a ghost town?

Names of people I used to play with, see in trade chat, undercut on the auction house or just see dancing on the fountain in Stormwind just aren't there any more. Georgebailey, a trade troll of the highest order, doesn't even spam his "If the Lich King's mount is Invincible, why can I still see it?" any more. Vannawhite's seemingly endless supply of vanity pets has dried up and quietly faded away. Awesome raiders like Floe and Culi have their pictures on the back of the pearl milk cartons. Heck, even Promade has stopped raiding Stormwind and making our RP server life generally miserable by camping the AH or the flight masters.

I have to wonder. Is this a case of memories being better than the times actually were, or is my server really going the way of the dodo?

It's no news that subscriptions are down right now. Nor is it a big surprise to me. We've been in MoP for quite some time now, and the oohshiney of the new expansion, places to explore, things to do, and bosses to conquer has dulled. People come and go in MMOs, attracted back by new and novel things to do. Seasonally I see changes too. Summer is always a struggle to hold on to raiders when the sun is shining, beaches are calling, and family vacations take priority over your digital life.

The blues sometimes kick in wandering about The Scryers. I don't see the faces I used to...and I don't really see many new ones either. We've never really had a large population there, but at least we had 30-40 guilds competing for the raiding crown. There's maybe a dozen left now.

If it was still the era of hitting Vault of Archavon or Tol Barad after a PVP victory, I don't know if I'd even know what the inside of the raid looked like. When I do my Isle of Thunder dailies (I prefer the PvP ones simply because I don't want to spend two hours on it), I rarely see anyone else there. I stumbled upon an AFK Belf Mage the other day and ran out of there as fast as my Wintersabre could carry me (I'm awful at PvP). It occurred to me - in the relative safety of the Kirin Tor Offensive quest hub - that it was the first time I actually saw someone else there.

Cities and Trade aren't much different. Forget the days of Dalaran lag; the main cities are at best lightly populated. True, that means there's far less lag and targeting vendors is a non-issue. What it also means is people looking for some pugs to fill in gaps in raid groups or to kill world bosses can sit there for an hour or more, spamming with little to no response. Also, there are far less /popcorn moments of watching arguments or yo' momma jokes break out in trade.

Thank the stars I'm part of an established guild with an established raid team - if I weren't, I don't think I'd have the heart to try to pug on my server. LFR and LFD have made the LFG channel obsolete. There is so little server interaction that I see any more. Many established guilds have closed their doors, or even worse simply disappeared. So what keeps me here in a land of ghosts instead of searching for greener fields?

The Scryers is home.

My toon was born and grew up on The Scryers. I have a lot of memories with the server, with the different guilds I've interacted with, and with the people here. Not to mention my guild - MY guild. Co-GM and charter member, my husband and I built it from the ground up over the last four years. I couldn't walk away from it.

It's hard though. It's hard to watch our server fading into the sunset. It's hard to replace raiders who burn out, stop playing, or even go on vacation when the pool of players has become so shallow. It's hard to look out across the fence and see greener grasses and not want to hop over it.

The recent server transfer sale was dangerously tempting. The only thing that kept me where I am is not wanting to break up our people. We have people who we've raided with since WOTLK. With each person that steps out - for whatever reason - it feels more and more like we're gripping the edge of a cliff with nothing but the tips of our fingers. We're willing to keep hanging on, and our people are the only things keeping us from slipping. There are fewer and fewer there - how many more will go, and how long until we fall in to the gaping chasm below?

Luckily, when we think we're about to fall, suddenly new hands reach out to ours and help us hang on and keep on climbing.

Why do you stay on your small server? Or, alternatively, what made the decision to jump to a larger server for you? Share your experience in the comments!

Until next time, long days, pleasant nights, and happy Raiding.

Turning a Bane into a Boon

noreply@blogger.com (Labella Notte) — Fri, 21 Jun 2013 22:06:00 +0000

LFR.

Love it or hate it, you know it. For some, it's a loot piñata, where the worst part of it is the luck you have queuing with a group which may be filled with trolls, incompetents, elitists, or all of the above. For others, it's the lone source of raiding and the only way they'll ever see end game content. Some also use it as an avenue for gearing an alt, perfecting rotations and trying out new roles.

For me, I can't stand it. I'm not saying LFR is a bad thing, I just don't want to spend my somewhat limited gaming time in there. I may have even stated once or twice that it's the bane of my existence. In my opinion, the content is less challenging than some heroic dungeons or scenarios. The jump between LFR and 10M normal is huge. Mechanics can be ignored in LFR, outgoing damage tickles, and OOMing is never an issue (so long as the others are pulling at least some of their weight). But, when I step back and think about it, there's far more you can get out of it than meets the eye.

So how can you turn this bane into a boon? Simple. Change your viewpoint and look at it with new eyes.

In LFR, if you're new to healing or new to a Druid, you can get a feel of how healing with different people and different classes impacts how you perform. If you're new to the raid, you can learn the broad idea of fight mechanics. By playing with a group that is more likely to fail mechanics than not, you can start to figure out how you can step up your own gameplay.

There is no better place to perfect your healing than with a group who will willingly make your job harder. And there is no better place to find this than in LFR.

If you're no new kid on the Druid healing or raiding block, there are still things that you can take away from LFR and make it a worthwhile hour as opposed to an hour of your life you'll never get back. Here's some things to look at during and after an LFR run for you experienced raiding Druids out there:

* Gear drops can give you a nice edge, even if you're on your main. When the dice seem stuck on snake eyes in regular raids, you can always dip your toes into the LFR pool to see if they'll treat you any nicer there. Yes, a 522 is better than a 502, but remember a 502 is still better than a 496. A smaller upgrade is an upgrade nonetheless. You can use LFR to grab some gear to fill in gaps when you're just not getting anywhere.

* You can get face time in areas you can't access on your team's current progression. You really have a great opportunity to work out plan of attack for your (personal or guild's) progression fights. Even something as simple as learning which trash you can skirt around to save time can be beneficial in the long run. My raid team even queues up key people together to work out our own strategies. Believe it or not, LFR actually cooperates when asked and let us work out our strategies. For example, the tanks and kiters for Garalon queued up and worked out our strategy together. Our team walked away with our 10M kill on Garalon that week.

* Look for points of failure on each fight. Where do the wheels fall off? Where is damage so obscene that your GCD on your insta-HoTs feels like an eternity? Make note of these things to keep track of for when you're on the "real" fight so you can be ready for them. Better yet, help your team plan your strategy based on your first hand experiences!

* Take a long hard look at damage taken by player, and focus on yourself. How much avoidable damage did YOU take? Ask yourself what you could have done to avoid the damage? If nothing, think about what mitigation you used for it (you ARE using your bark skin, right....right?!?). Could you have popped into bear form to dull the pain? Think about it, and think about other ways to improve your personal performance.

* Damage by source can help you identify unavoidable raid damage, bursts of AOE, and other major sources of damage. Knowing this, you can anticipate using your CDs, whether your personal mitigation or big healing cooldowns. Also, you can get an idea if there would be situations when you'll be healing solo. Remember, as a Druid you're the most mobile healer in the game and you can use this to your advantage - and sometimes a wipe or win will depend on it.

* Look over your healing by spell. Compare yours it to logs, see if your spell usage lines up with other Druids you respect. Ponder how their choices differ from yours and see if making slight changes to your healing approach could be beneficial.

* Check your overhealing. Not only how much you've overhealed, but what spells were the big contributors. Are you running low on mana? This is a huge resource for you to look at. For example, if you see that your Regrowths are 90% overheal, you may want to think about when and how you're using it and how you can tweak its use.

What other ways can you make your time in LFR most beneficial for yourself or your raid team? Share your insight in the comments, I'd love to hear from you!

Until next time, long days, pleasant nights and happy Raiding.

Rolling With the Punches

noreply@blogger.com (Labella Notte) — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:44:00 +0000

"In the face of great adversity, great heroism can shine through." -Me

While burning through content, there's always the possibility that things can go sideways. A thunderstorm knocks out the electric, the dog chews through your network cable, kids get sick - we've all been there. If it hasn't happened to us personally, it has happened to our team. My team has the infamous Jasper Wipe of 2012, when at 3% on what would have been our first kill of Deathwing, our dog Jasper knocked the power cord out of our wireless router. You can imagine the uproar that ensued with the main tank and a healer disconnected there - and of course the ensuing wipe.

The questions with the unexpected are not if they'll happen - but when they'll happen, and how will you handle it.

My guild master / raid leader / husband (poor guy right?) is the type who has contingent plans for contingent plans. But what can you do if the backup to the backup to the backup is unfeasible? As healers, we know better than anyone that you can't always follow any plan. You have to roll with the punches. You die and are battle rezzed with 10% life and mana - on a fight that you already leak mana like a sieve. Give up? Hell no. Innervate, ask for a fellow Druid's Innervate, pop a potion, ask for a Mana Tide Totem, or spot heal lightly as you beg the blue bar to fill up faster. Adjust the healing strategy on the fly when you have to. Try not to focus on what won't work and find a solution that will work. And at worst, you'll still wipe - then you walk in there again with your head held high and do your best to not make the same mistake twice.

So how can this possibly fall in line with managing a raid team? And what does it have to do with adversity and heroism? It has everything to do with it. Let me give you an example...

We were short handed while trying to down Megaera the first time. While we run with a roster of five healers (we three heal most fights in 10M), that particular night life happened and only two of us were able to run. We had been struggling, both as a raid team and as a heals team, on the "easiest" color combination (GRGRBGR). Healers were OOMing, tanks were getting pulverized and DPS were dying to the floor. Despite the fact that we were a healer short, we decided to roll with it. In the heat of battle, our successful strategies have frequently developed as a result of Murphy's Law kicking in. We changed up our color combination a few times, and found that our wipes were getting closer and closer to a kill...when it happened. We came upon the combination that everyone else said would never work (RBRBGRB), and BOOM. We had a kill on our hands, with two heals. All thanks to rolling with the punches.

Healers always roll with the punches. Whether its dealing with RNG or bad game play, we seem to bear the brunt of it. Raid teams have to do so as well. Your main tank down with a case of the stomach flu on a major progression night? Consider rolling without them. Family drama knocks out your top DPS? Bring in a sub who doesn't perform as well. Give your teammates the opportunity to do the unexpected. Let them shine, step up the game, walk into unexplored territory. The strength of a team isn't best measured in the most pristine of conditions, but when the mess hits the fan. At worst, you still won't progress without your A-team. At best you will. You'll find that diamond on the rough that you may not have even known you had sitting on the sidelines. You'll see that your people are stronger than you realized. And you'll give someone an opportunity to be a hero for a change, instead of ol' reliable who never got the chance. It will force your team to work harder, stretch their limits, and become stronger as a result.

Until next time, long days, pleasant nights & happy Raiding.

Playing Well With Others: Resto Shaman

noreply@blogger.com (Labella Notte) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 22:22:00 +0000

Raiding is a team sport, and knowing your teammates' abilities goes a long way towards a successful night. Instead of griping about why your heals are pitiful compared to someone's or bragging about the meters until people put you on mute, try to understand that each healing class has different tool kits, different strengths, and different weaknesses. With this knowledge, try to mold your own healing so that it works in harmony with your teammates instead of blindly mashing buttons. It can be exhausting to research what each class does, and to put together a battle plan taking those into account on your next fight.

My Guild raids in the 10M format. We don't have the perfect team comp on every fight, but using what I know about different classes helps me flesh out how to best tackle the challenge in front of us. So without further ado, here's a quick and dirty break down of Shaman healing.

Core Spells

Riptide – Direct and HoT, similar to Regrowth

Healing Surge – Fast, expensive direct heal

Healing Wave – Small, mana efficient direct heal

Greater Healing Wave – Large, slow direct heal

Chain Heal – Heals 4 targets, each successive target receives less healing than the previous.

Healing Rain – AOE HOT – the “Big Blue Circle”

Earthshield – Increases the healing done by the shammy on the target and heals its wearer upon hit

Totems – Key to remember: Totems are dropped at the feet of the Shammy! If you're too far away from the totem, you will not receive its benefits.

Healing Stream Totem – Smart HOT, targets most injured player and heals every 2sec for 15 seconds.

Spirit Link Totem – Reduces damage taken/reallocates health pools of raiders within 10 yards

Mana Tide Totem – Gives 2x the Shammy's spirit to casters for 16sec – remember Spirit = Mana Regen

Other Talents/CDs/Raid Walls

Ascendance – 3 min CD, the Shammy takes the form of the elemental and all healing done is duplicated and distributed among nearby raiders for 15 seconds

Primal Elementalist – Increases healing done by shammy while Elementals are active

Spirit Walker's Grace – 2 min CD - Allows Shammy to cast while moving for 15 seconds

From a utility standpoint, the Shammies bring a lot to the table. They are the originator of Heroism/Bloodlust, buffing every single person in the raid for a short duration. They bust out the Mana Tide Totem, providing all of us casters extra mana in a pinch. In the current paradigm of capped mana pools, this is an invaluable asset that all of us drool over. Stormlash Totem boosts DPS across the board while it's active, helping to burst down the targets, shortening the fights (every second helps!).

Shammies are well suited to raid healing, which increases dramatically when raiders are stacked up. Stacking up means more people can benefit from Healing Rain and Spirit Link Totem, increasing the effectiveness of the Shammy's AOE heals. While a Shammy may not be your first choice for a tank healer, it can be done – I assure you, I've seen it in action.

Mobility is a challenge to Shammies. Because of that, we Druids work very well as a counterbalance to that when grouped with a Resto Shammy. When we have a fight with movement involved (Garalon for instance), the Druid is a better choice to chase down the tanks and the kiters. With a long CD on Spiritwalker's Grace, it is difficult for a Shammy to pull off stunts like this. If you're faced with a fight where one person has to be a pingpong ball, a Druid is a much better choice than the Shammy. Let the Shammy stand still and rock their heals while you run around like your branches are on fire going “WHEE WHOOSH WHEE HEAL!”

Both Shammies and Druids are excellent raid healers, of course each with their strengths and weaknesses. To successfully work together, remember that you can blanket the raid in a short amount of time, with both your Rejuvenation and Wild Growth. A Shammy's style is very different than yours. Their raid healing is very dependent on positioning, and works best in situations where everyone is stacked. You can argue that both Efflorescence and Mushrooms also benefit from stacking; while this is very true, you have more instant casts than Shammies and can crank those out faster than they can cast their own spells to top people off.

When you're grouped with a Resto Shammy, try to be aware of when they use their Mana Tide Totem. Why? Stagger it with your own Innervate. I encourage my healing team to use their CDs early and use them often. If you stagger your Innervate with the Mana Tide Totem, you can regain your mana twice as often as you can with Innervate alone.

On fights with heavy Tank damage, try to be aware of which tank has the Earthshield. With the revamping of the Lifebloom glyph, it's super fast and mana efficient to swap your Lifeblooms from tank to tank. When both tanks take heavier damage at the same time (think of Lei Shi when the Animated Protectors are up), keeping Earthshield on one tank and a full stack of Lifebloom on the other tank will help to keep their need for heals a bit more even.

I asked our primary Resto Shammy for a bit of advice to anyone raiding with her. Quite simply, she stated, “Whenever possible, please stand in the blue circle.” Stand in the good stuff, not the bad stuff!

TL/DR: Shammies are awesome raid healers, their efficiency in healing increases when the raiders are stacked together. They are far less mobile than Druids. They have awesome utilities, remember to use your own CDs in conjunction with theirs so that everyone is happy. Use and abuse Symbiosis on a resto Shammy to get Spirtwalker's Grace on high damage, high movement fights – Walking Tranq!!

Unnatural Progression

noreply@blogger.com (Labella Notte) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:31:00 +0000

My guild has been working on Tier 14 so hard for so long – specifically Heart of Fear. We moved through Mogushan Palace at a pretty typical clip, without getting too terribly hung up on any one fight. We started the progression race late, since we as a team decided to take our time and enjoy leveling through the new content and experiencing the new lore. Once we started raid, we ran in to the usual rockiness at the beginning of a new expansion's raiding content. People switched mains, those who kept the same mains adjusted to new talents and spells, and adjusted to mana starvation. It was slow going at first, but we got a good head of steam and started rolling through well enough to keep us happy.

We cleared through Mogushan reasonably well and continued in to Heart of Fear. As I would expect, the second raid in the tier was harder than the first...however it was a much steeper increase in difficulty than I believe I encountered previously.

Now I've been raiding since Naxx in Wrath Of The Lich King, and have been on the front line of my guild's progression teams since Ulduar. I didn't experience raids as intended in either Vanilla or The Burning Crusade, so I can't use raids like the original Ahn'Qiraj or the Sunwell as a basis of comparison.

So. What was I saying? Oh right.

The sharp increase in difficulty between Mogushan and Heart was staggering. I'm uncertain changing up our normal progression strategy in T14 had an impact as well. We struggled in Heart of Fear. We bled for our first kill of Garalon. We bled for our first kill of Amber Shaper. We bled for our first kill of the Empress. It was so hard for us, in fact, that we didn't even finish Heart of Fear until last week. That's right, the week after T15 was released. Since Ulduar, we have always at least dabbled in the Heroic versions of the raids before starting the next tier. It was a real kick in the gut to have no “H” kills on GuildOx.

What boggles my mind even further is that in the same night that we downed the Empress for the first time, we waltzed in to the Terrace of Endless Springs and wiped the floor with the first three bosses. We did no in-depth stratigising for any of those fights. We wiped a total of four times on the first three bosses. Not four times each. Four total. How is it that we wiped somewhere in the range of one hundred times on Garalon before finally getting a kill – Garalon, not the final boss in Heart of Fear, but one of the middle ones – and then just glided through the first 75% of the next raid like it was no more than a heroic dungeon we hadn't stepped foot in.

I am by no means saying that the game has been oversimplified, or that Heart of Fear was overtuned. I'm neither an elitist nor a carebear. What I wonder about is how it is considered progression to move from a raid where the fights were so challenging that we sat and poured over logs, blogs, strategies, virtually anything we could get our hands on, to get a foot up and keep moving and once in the very next raid have that “Is that it?” moment.

It felt so unnatural to me. I anticipate moving from one raid to the next that the first boss will be easier than the final boss of the previous one, but from there I expect them to get harder. It felt like somewhere the designers sneezed when putting together the roadmap for T14 progression and accidentally put Heart before Terrace. Drag and drop error perhaps? I'm honestly baffled. I enjoy a good challenge and I don't beg for nerfs or reminisce about the good old days when fights were harder. I'm just not quite sure what the point of having Heart before Terrace was.

I can remember one other time that the road of progression felt as awkward as T14 did. Back in WOTLK, Ulduar was a solid challenge. We were working our tails off to get through Heroic Ulduar and enjoying every minute of it when they released Trial of the Champions. I felt then – and I still think – that TOC was filler, something that someone felt was necessary to fill the gap between Ulduar and Ice Crown Citadel. It didn't fit. It really wasn't all that challenging, especially considering fights like Mimiron. The only fight in TOC that proved any real challenge was the Faction Champions. Anub'Arak was appropriately challenging also, but overall the raid felt like a real dud, and didn't feel like it was a step up from Ulduar.

The biggest difference for T14 is that Terrace didn't feel like filler. It didn't feel like it was stuck in there unnecessarily. It didn't feel like an interlude between big chunks of lore to digest. It just felt out of place.

Did any of you feel the same way? How did you feel about the overall push through T14?

Jin'Rohk the Impersonator

noreply@blogger.com (Labella Notte) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 23:10:00 +0000

Built on an epic scale like Ulduar, the Throne of Thunder taunts us and draws us in. Wary, we approached, fearing the worst. Again like Ulduar, the first boss in the Throne of Thunder is nothing but a loot pinata.

This troll, perhaps from waking up grumpy over sleeping for too long, hurls around lightning like a Zeus wanna-be. Jin'Rohk is no Zeus, I assure you. (~~Elvis~~ Zeus has LEFT THE BUILDING.)

The mechanics of this fight are pretty simple, as is their execution.

Focused Lightning / Lightning Fissures / Implosion

If everyone is doing their job right, this portion is a breeze to heal through. Focused Lightning spawns an orb that fixates on a random player and follows them around like a lost puppy until it hits them. When they player is hit, they take a fair amount of damage from it, as does anyone standing near them. Also, when the ball is being kited around, it is consistently doing damage to the entire raid. So long story short, GTFO when you have the orb chasing after you, don't get hit in the water (see next section for why...)

When the orb explodes, it creates a Lightning Fissure. Don't drag an orb through one of these. If someone DOES drag an orb through a Fissure, it triggers an Implosion. If this happens, be prepared to either use every possible and heal your branches off, or wipe, or both. It HURTS. It is possible to heal through one, if it doesn't occur right before a Lightning Storm. We had some glorious wipes from Implosions. GLORIOUS I tell you! (Don't let anyone say a wipe can't be glorious).

Conductive Water / Fluidity

Know it, love it, use it and abuse it. At set points during the fight, Jin'Rohk throws his target at a statue in one of the four corners of the room, triggering a pool of Conductive Water to form. Standing in the water gives everyone a delicious buff, Fluidity. It bumps people's damage done up, and (more importantly for us) increases their healing taken. Oh right. And it increases damage taken. If everyone is paying attention to what's going on, the “extra damage” is actually very easy to deal with, simply because the vast majority of that “extra damage” is avoidable. When people DO take the extra damage, it's much easier to heal them through it when they're standing in the water rather than outside of it. The damage going out during this portion of the fight is light to moderate, though fairly consistent. When the Lightning Storm is getting close, it's a good time to top people off so there are no accidental deaths at the very beginning of the storm.

Lightning Storm

From a healing perspective, the most difficult portion of the fight is the Lightning Storm. The easiest way to handle this is to stack up so that AOE healing can do its dirty work. As you'd expect, Tranquility, Wild Growth, Swiftmend/Efflorescence are all incredibly helpful during this fifteen seconds. I'll add that mushrooms could be helpful here, but to be honest my personal jury is still out on them. Top people off before the Lightning Storm, rotate CDs with the other healers, and make use of your Barkskin, Ironbark, potions, or Symbiosis (obviously dependent on its target) will make you feel less at risk of dying during this phase.

We wiped on the fight over and over again for an entire night....and then realized that we were seriously over-complicating it. The next evening, we got him in three tries. Take our mistakes and try to learn from them. Our two biggest mistakes were (essentially) over kiting the orbs and trying to stack in the dead center of the room during each Lightning Storm. How this hurt us (and what you can avoid!):

Orbs: Those damn orbs and Lightning Fissures. First of all, we were kiting the orbs too far, increasing the overall damage done to the raid by their aura, which in turn was draining our healers' mana unnecessarily. Now the reason we were kiting the orbs too far was because we were trying to make absolutely certain that the Lightning Fissures would never touch the Conductive Water. In theory, this isn't such a bad idea – however, overall we determined that the DPS/HPS loss from running all over hell and back to drop the fissure in the absolute corners of the room was dragging the fight out way too long, and was causing us to wipe, especially when someone key would die trying to make their way back to the stack point for the Lightning Storm.
Stacking: Yes, stacking in the center of the room during the fourth Lightning Storm is essential – you'll die if even the tip of your pinkie toe is touching the Conductive Water (our OT proved this point by going from full health to dead in the blink of an eye). However, during the first three Lightning Storms, it is so much easier to stand in one of the blocks not occupied with water. Moving to the stack point faster helped with AOE healing, as well as helped stop stragglers' deaths. It is much easier for a group to stack up in a quarter of a room as opposed to a very small center point.

As is becoming the norm, smart use of cooldowns, mana conservation and strategic use of self mitigation cooldowns continue to be important in this fight. Some days (ok most days) I really long for the days of a mana pool that increases with intellect. It saddens me that the days of reforging spirit to mastery or haste are nothing more than a memory. But I'm adapting.

Until next time, long days, pleasant nights & happy Raiding.

Guild First Kill Shot - Jin'Rokh

noreply@blogger.com (Labella Notte) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 23:08:00 +0000

Here's my guild shot of our first kill of Jin'rokh. So proud of my little guild for downing Jin'rokh during the first week Throne of Thunder was open. Congratulations, Guardians of Fellowship!

Lessons Learned

noreply@blogger.com (Labella Notte) — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 01:39:00 +0000

The boss is dead, the loot is passed out, and doesn't that feel sweet? Until, scant minutes later, you're faced with the next boss. When a boss dies, of course you should try to hold on to the muscle memory you developed, one wipe at a time, as you worked on him. But as you face down the next boss, you should try to also keep in mind the lessons you learned on the previous boss. While each boss does have its unique ability set and strategy for defeat, you can take bits and pieces from one to another.

The Life You Save May Be Your Own

It seems Tier 14 (Heart of Fear especially)has really been beating home the idea that, as players, we need to keep ourselves alive with whatever tricks we have and not be so dependent on our healers to do so. Many of the fights in this raid have really pressed that point time and time again. The Blade Lord with his oh so wonderful Tornado Alley, Garalon, with his massive damage during Crush alternating with Pheromones, Mal'Jarak with the Kor'Thik strike, and of course Ambershaper with the Parasitic Growth. All are instances where you may have to save your own life. As result, our team has remembered that every class has at least one or two survival buttons they can use. Barkskin, Deterrence, Ice Block, Dispersion, Die By the Sword, and so many more. Sitting back and reflecting, it makes me wonder how far we've come from mindless spamming heals like there was no tomorrow in Wrath to being capped at mana and having to heal “smart”.

The Life You Save May Kill Your Team

Take a look at some past bosses – regardless of tier or expansion even – and you can find things you've learned from them apply to current challenges. A good example of this is Yor'sahj from Dragon Soul. In Yor'sahj, we had to throttle back on our heals, even when we didn't want to. Especially when we didn't want to. Too many heals on a player and BOOM. You haven't actually helped them, you've killed them. Literally. This forced many healers to have to change the way they did things. I see this lesson echoing with similar affect on the Amber Shaper. The damage done by Parasitic Growth during the Amber Shaper fight increases proportionally to the amount of healing taken by the person who has it. Which means, in this fight, healing can be even more lethal to someone than the initial DOT damage that is ticking.

Another similarity you can draw on from the past to apply to current content is Valithria Dreamwalker in ICC. For this fight (which is a personal favorite of mine), the fight was won by successfully healing Valithria. The DPS were playing a deadly version of keep-away with adds throughout the fight, who would injure Valithria and hinder your ability to complete it. There is an echo of this type of mechanic on Tsulong. During the light phase of Tsulong, again the healers try desperately to heal the boss while the DPS play keep-away with adds. Recalling the delicate balance of pouring as much healing into the boss as possible while keeping tanks and DPS alive very much brings to mind the struggle we initially had with Valithria.

Throughout the history of raiding in Azeroth, how many fights have you seen? How many lessons have you learned that you have since forgotten? How many mechanics are you currently facing that echo of the past? When you hear that echo, when you feel like there's dejavu in play, think back. Think back to the first time you ran in to it. And try to recall how you dealt with it. It's so much easier to learn something that is similar to something you already know. Then it's just an adjustment rather than something as overwhelming as a “completely new” mechanic.

We learn our classes and their abilities, as well as how to keep ourselves alive and deal with “new” mechanics as we work our way through Azeroth. Remember when you're struggling with a fight that you may have encountered a similar mechanic before. Also, always always recall that much more is taken away from a fight that you've wiped on over and over again than from a cake walk. Take heart from the difficulties. They are what help you to develop as a raider.

What mechanics or fights have you encountered in the current tier that remind you of things you've conquered in the past? Do you feel that you had an easier time dealing with them this time around than the first time? Your feedback is always appreciated!

Until next time, long days, pleasant nights & happy Raiding.

Thrust Upon Me

noreply@blogger.com (Labella Notte) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 02:00:00 +0000

"Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them" - William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

I was very recently given the honor of being appointed by our Heals Lead to step in to her role for our raid team. She was the bomb-diggity with a side of iggity when it comes to heals lead. I have no clue how in the name of the Monkey King I'll actually fill her shoes. I'm doing my very best not to panic at the thought.

There are so many things that made her such a badass heals lead that I hope to emulate. She would research every single fight for hours and hours and post in our guild forums healing strategies and tips before we even stepped foot in the fight. After, she'd always follow up with adjustments to fit our team. She'd always be supportive and encouraging of us to really flex our healing muscles on any fight. She set such an atmosphere of teamwork and mutual respect that it didn't matter if you failed miserably in a fight – we were all in it together. There was never any infighting in the heals team over gear, raid spot, or even over oreos or chips ahoy being better. She has a soothing presence, is a quiet, gentle, but strong leader. She also seems to know each healing class inside and out.

The research is easy. Boiling it down to essentials that all the healers need to know about will be a bit tougher, but it's possible. For me, the biggest hurdle I'm fearing to start is that intimate knowledge of the other healing classes, as well as my own. I'm very comfortable healing with any class beside me, true, but I worry about advising the raid lead on which healers to bring in when, how to best use the tools in our toolbox to their greatest advantage.

I have always and will always believe that the teamwork of the healers is the most important aspect of healing. Yes, topping the charts is something I always strive to do, but it's not the be-all and end-all of healing. If you're busting the roof off the charts but the raid is dying anyway, you're doing it wrong. If you're tops and have zero mana two minutes in, you're doing it wrong. If you're not properly utilizing all your skills and those of the rest of your team, you're doing it wrong.

No one person wins a fight.

Well, unless it's one man standing at the end. Which is a rush, but is completely besides the point.

I'm taking a crash course on the other healing classes....so why not share it with the rest of our community? Over the course of the next couple of weeks, I will be doing a series of posts about how to play well with others. I plan to detail the strengths of each healing class and how we as Druids can work in tandem with them to help our raid teams be successful, no matter which boss we fight.

For now, panic is being held firmly in check, and I wonder if I will grow to the greatness that my heals lead set the example for.

**GULP**

Until next time, long days, pleasant nights & happy Raiding.

Initial Thoughts on Garalon

noreply@blogger.com (Labella Notte) — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 04:17:00 +0000

The day has come and I find myself again in the ranks of active raiders in the GoF. I'm now 40+ pulls in to the fight against Garalon. No, we can't dance on his corpse quite yet. We are getting there, one pull at a time.

Garalon brings out the best in Resto druids...and unfortunately shines a very bright light on our severe weakness.

We stand out because of the consistent, raid-wide damage from the Pheromone debuff. This debuff is carried by one raider and passed from one to the next as it stacks, increasing the damage dealt to the entire raid. The damage from the debuff pulses every two seconds, the base amount of damage increasing on each pulse. I find myself using Wild Growth on CD and throwing out Rejuvenations and Swiftmends as needed (read: nearly spamming) to keep people's health from dropping dangerously low. Our ability to have HoTs ticking on several raid members simultaneously, paired with consistent damage ticking away at everyone's life bars, really makes us sparkle.

But.

There's always a but, isn't there?

We are at a disadvantage when there is MASSIVE damage. The problem here is another ability of Garalon's, Crush. I think Garalon is in middle school, since he Crushes every 30-40 seconds. Crush is triggered by the Pheromone debuff passing from one person to the next. It does massive, raid-wide damage. And this, my leafy friends, is where we struggle. Yes, we have Tranquility. Tranquility is a beast when we need to really grab that healing 'oh-shit handle'. Tree of Life is ours too. Tree of Life gives us a good boost to quickly heal people up. Both of these are key CDs that I would argue MUST be used on this boss. I personally use Nature's Vigil on this fight as well – anything I can do to keep my raid up I'm game for. Each of these spells do dull the pain of the Crush, but it makes it dreadfully obvious that I just don't have those nuclear bomb style heals. They take time to work AND they each have a three minute CD. I find myself struggling just to keep people alive.

It almost goes without mentioning that this fight is a major test of mana conservation and management. I use every resource at my disposal to keep that blue bar from draining while keeping those green bars full. With so much consistent raid damage and frequent massive spikes, without careful attention to mana management and use of CDs you WILL OOM. Quickly. And you'll want to cry.

Where I find my own performance in need of improvement is my proactive use of ALL my healing CDs and remembering to count the bloody Crushes. I also need to concentrate more carefully on keeping my Lifeblooms up on -somebody-. I share this with you so you can also consider areas where you can also step up your game.

I'll keep you posted as we continue through the fight, and do my best to give you a concise and useful breakdown of what works and what doesn't when I cross that bridge.

Until then, long days, pleasant nights & happy Raiding.

Back in the Saddle

noreply@blogger.com (Labella Notte) — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 01:18:00 +0000

We've all had the inevitable WoWcation or three, regardless of the cause. For Wrath from Ulduar through the end of Cata, I was on the front line of my raiding team, sheltering tanks and deeps alike from death when I could, and Rebirthing them when I couldn't. I was deeply involved with working with the team to push ourselves to the limit.

...And then life happened.

So here I am, feeling like I'm starting back at square one. New gear to min/max, new stat weights to learn, revamped skills and talents to wade through. None of this bothers me, really. What does bother me about climbing back in the saddle is the feeling that my team is carrying me. I pride myself on being one of the best damn healers on my server.

Being the weak link on the team doesn't sit we'll with me. However, it does give me the opportunity to remember what it's like to be the new kid on the block. Instead of mourning the loss of my epicosity, I'm embracing the learning process. In doing so, I hope to help old and new Druids grow in their raiding knowledge and skills.

Please join me on the journey.