Sang Grail

I was so excited to get to see Festergut for the first time tonight. We had decided to try Rotface first, so this was our first encounter with Festergut.

I read up on the fight, and I watched the video. I can’t tell you how excited I was that this was described as a healer-intensive fight. I knew Dareth, Honey and I were up to the challenge! So here’s how it went down…

Attempt #1

Key strategy to remember:
1. Range stay spread out and collapse together for the spores (melee stays together to make sure they all get spores too)
2. Healing will go in phases from Raid healing, to Tank healing and keep cycling.
3. Tanks need to switch at 9 stacks and change to kitty form or whatever will utilize the DPS buff but not draw aggro.

The result (from my perspective):
1. Wow, this raid healing isn’t all that bad
2. Oh, woops, was that a spore…I guess I’ll try to see the next one better
3. This weird vomit thing is kind of annoying
4. Oh, right…start healing the tank
5. Oh, darn, another spore that I didn’t see. I hope that’s not all that important.
6. Ok, the gas should be coming back soon. I’m bracing myself for raid healing again.
7. Pungent Blight (gas coming back) - OMG, Instantly I’m dead. I guess the spores were important.

Attempt #2

Strategy (for me):
1. Move to the spores, move to the spores, move to the spores, move to the spores.
2. Binding Heal, Binding Heal, Binding Heal, Binding Heal (Beware - this is not actual strategy for anyone other than myself)
3. Divine Hymn when Pungent Blight hits (Honey on first one, me on second)

Result (again from my perspective):
1. Wow, this raid healing isn’t all that bad
2. Woo Hoo! I’m so proud, I saw the first spore and moved like I was supposed to!
3. Yes, next spore…I got it!
4. Oh, right…start healing the tank
5. More success with spores
6. Pungent Blight - I lived! And Honey remembered the first Divine Hymn
7. More of the same
8. Second Pungent Blight - Yes, I remembered the second Divine Hymn
9. OMG, I think we are going to get this guy down. Don’t screw it up! Don’t screw it up! Focus on the spores! Focus on the spores!
10. Oh wait…we were supposed to move away from each other after the spores…I can’t believe we almost have this guy down and now Jarlaxyle, Honey and I are all puking on each other out here.
11. Oh, thank goodness we are still alive
12. He’s Down!
13. We’re so tough…that was easy!

SUCCESS

Our first Festergut kill

I thought I’d quote these Ooze Whispering instructions from the Mystic Chicanery Blog. I think the overall strategy matches ours for the most part, and I really liked the following description of how to kite your small ooze and join it with the big ooze.

Steps to Ooze Whispering:
1. You should be immediately cleansed so you drop a small ooze.
1a. Do not run through any small slime pools. They will kill you (2nd most common cause of death)
2. Identify where the kiter -is- and head toward the outer circle 90 degrees ahead of the kiter. IE: if the kiter is a 12 o’clock then you should turn and head towards 3 o’clock.
3. When you reach the outer circle, turn left and follow the circle towards the kiter. You’re running counter-clock-wise. Kiter is running clock-wise.
4. When you meet the kiter, turn right and head for the wall (do not pass between the kiter and the big ooze. You don’t want to be close to the big ooze. It will melee and aoe you to death)(most deaths occur here)
5. When the big ooze passes you by, J-hook around the back of the big ooze and drop off your little ooze. Think of it like the frogger boss in Naxx.
6. If you have successfully dropped off your ooze, head back to the main group. If not, Goto 2 and re-attempt.

Last week I posted some information on Saurfang that helped explain the encounter and what we needed to do to manage the healing and runic power in order to defeat him more easily.

While we have downed him several times, I think I have just found a piece of information that may make him really easy for us in the future.

We had previously identified the two areas where we could impact the fight most (other than the obvious: DPS a lot and heal a lot):

• Rune of Blood - make sure the tanks switch as soon as this debuff is cast on the tank. This reduces the amount of healing on Saurfang and reduces the Blood Power gained from melee swings on the tank with this debuff.
• Blood Beasts - kill them quickly or kite them to reduce the number of times they hit a player, which generate Blood Power.

In our last run, our tanks worked hard at switching as soon as Rune of Blood was cast. We ran into a couple of cases where the taunts were missing on some of our failed attempts. However, on our successful kill, we cut the number of heals in half and the fight went very smoothly.

And now to unveil the new information that will make this fight a piece of cake…

The exciting new information (new for me…I’m a little slow) is that several classes have effects that reduce healing that can be utilized on this fight:

• Mortal Strike - Warrior
• Wound Poison IV - Rogue
• Aimed Shot - Hunter
• Improved Mind Blast (Mind Trauma) - Shadow Priest talent

Let’s see how the numbers work out using our last 2 Saurfang fights as an example.

Attempt #3 (6 min 49 sec):
Saurfang’s health = approx 9 million
Heals from Rune of blood = 31 * 45K = 1.4 Million
Heals from Mark (due to death) = 439,000

Attempt #4 - Success! (6 min 1 sec):
Saurfang’s health = approx 9 million
Heals from Rune of blood = 17 * 50K = 850,000

Attempt #4 - What could have been:
Saurfang’s health = approx 9 million
Heals from Rune of blood = 17 * 50K * 50% = 425,000

This illustrates a couple of things:
1. DPS kills the boss much faster if his healing is reduced (success was 48 seconds faster than previous defeat).
2. We have a better chance to keep the person with the mark alive if we get the boss down faster.
3. If we were able to reduce his healing by 50%, we could have downed him another 14 seconds faster (assuming 30K DPS).
4. Healers have a much better chance of not running out of mana if we can shorten the fight.

So, let’s keep up the great work and see if we can blow him away even faster next time!

Check out Knowing is Half the Battle on the World of Matticus Web site. It’s a nice article about being prepared and adding value in a casual raiding environment. I think some of us who like to research the fights will identify with the post. I especially like how the author uses the term “Hardcore Casual”.

The main point is that knowledge is a huge part of what makes us successful as raiders. There are two ways to gain that knowledge: “Take a little time to research” and “Listen to what’s being explained”.

I will be the first to admit that simply listening to a raid strategy is hard. Really hard. I can follow the first couple of instructions, but for fights like Lady Deathwhisper, I’m lost before we even get to the re-animated part. Luckily for me, I’m a healer and my instructions are usually a little more simple. However, there are times that I also have to take part in mission critical strategy. This is part of the reason why I spend time reading up on fights and watching videos before heading to the instance.

Here is my process to gain knowledge:

• Read up on the basics of the Boss / fight, including description of the mobs and special abilities. I prefer Bosskillers.com for this research; however, there are many other options available for this. Most of the sources for this type of information will also offer basic strategy ideas.
• See the fight. Sometimes I’ll see the fight first hand, if I am unexpectedly fighting a boss I wasn’t expecting to fight. However, I prefer to watch a video of the fight in advance. This lets me see the basic dynamics of the fight. I prefer TankSpot videos. You can also find these in YouTube, by simply searching on the boss and the word TankSpot. Most of the videos I link to on this site are TankSpot videos.
• Listen to the raid leader. Our strategy on a boss may be a little different than the strategies you read about online. Always listen to the raid leader for the final directions for the boss.
• Compare the actual fight to all of your research. This might be as simple as trying to connect all of the dots after you have experienced the fight. Ask yourself questions: “Were you able to recognize the re-animated mobs?”, “Were you able to interrupt the Frostbolts?”, etc. Ask for clarification or let the raid leader know if you are having trouble with a particular aspect of the fight.
• Review the logs. This is the advanced step that most people probably won’t bother with, but it can be really interesting. I spend time looking at the logs to determine if we are meeting our goals. For example on Saurfang last night, one of the key strategies was to have the tanks switch as soon as they had the Rune of Blood debuff. I reviewed the logs and I could see that when we finally downed him, we had reduced the ticks of the Rune of Blood (which heal the boss) from 30 to 17. This helps us know that we should continue to make this an important part of our strategy.

You may think that I’m a little closer to the hardcore side of hardcore casual. We don’t all need to put this much work into it. However, I’ll try to keep links posted for the videos and strategies to make them easy for people to find if you have the time.

We are still a casual raiding guild (or is it a raiding casual guild?), so we are here to work together and help everyone out. If you don’t have time to do the prep work, we will make sure we explain it all during the raids too.

Happy Raiding!
~Daff

This post is part of a series of posts to provide ideas on how to improve your raiding. Different things will always work for different people. I’m hoping these posts will help generate ideas that might lead you to find something that you think will help improve your play.

Gezabelle

Mage Ideas

Last night Gezabelle, one of our resident mages, discovered the wonders of WorldofLogs.com. We spent time looking at recent logs for her priest and mage. While reviewing the data, we noticed that her Damage / DPS numbers were quite high even though her gear is a little behind some of the other mages. I decided to take this opportunity to gather some of her ideas on why her numbers are higher.

Here are some of her basic suggestions for mages:

1. Use AOEs whenever there are 3 or more mobs, including the Bone Spikes on Marrowgar (unless your raid leader specifically says to single target)
2. Use Flamestrike mixed with Blizzard on AOE’s. It basically allows 2 AOE’s to be going at once.
3. Scorch should be stacked 5 times on mobs at all times (and keep it from falling) if Fire spec’ed, and especially if using the Glyph of Scorch.
4. Cast as often as possible. Stacking Haste helps with this. Gezabelle’s haste is current at 778.

We had another strong week in ICC as we breezed through the first 4 encounters and finished with our first Rotface kill. We didn’t have time to try Festergut, but we are making our first attempt tonight. Here are the bosses we downed. For those who haven’t yet gotten much experience on these bosses, refer to the Video section of this site for tutorials to help you learn the fights.

• Lord Marrowgar
• Lady Deathwhisper
• Gunship battle
• Deathbringer Saurfang
• Rotface

Our first Rotface Kill

Check out the World of Logs for details.

Continue reading for more information like raid attendance and loot drops.
(continue reading…)

Miss Medicina’s Circle of Healing started many months ago, but I thought I’d join in the fun and fill out the questionnaire. Sang Grail members, if you would like to answer the same questions, just let me know and I’ll post the template on the forums for you to fill out and I’ll add it to this site.

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer?

Daffnae - Holy Priest

What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)

10 and 25 man raids

What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?

Divine Hymn - When things start to go bad it so refreshing to sit back for six seconds, hit one key and watch the health bars fill up again. I combine this with Inner Focus to be able to enjoy this “mana free”.

What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?

Holy Nova is the obvious answer. Second is probably Binding Heal, which is my acknowledged weakness. I, too often, forget I have this wonderful spell that would solve a lot of my problems when I’m taking damage at the same time as my target.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?

I think our biggest strength is our wide variety of spell choices, especially our options for healing on the move.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?

Single-target, quick heals. I get really jealous of Penance when I need to heal someone quickly, especially if it’s some kind of raid buff that will bring someone down fast if not attended to immediately. This keeps me from maintaining my “Shadow Daff” offspec for very long. I eventually end up switching my offspec back to Discipline to be able to help in those situations.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?

Raid healing or “Clean-up Duty” to fill in wherever healing is needed. Back in the Kara days (granted those were 10 man raids) we never assigned healing. We simply healed everyone and anyone who needed heals. I suppose this is really raid healing, but depending on the strength of the other healers, I may end up focusing on tanks or possibly the raid. It really just depends on the group and the fight.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?

Druids - they fascinate me. I don’t understand their healing, but they seem to walk into the group and top the healing charts.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?

Druids - for the same reason I like healing with them. They fascinate me and I don’t understand them.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?

When a loose mob goes to a hunter (that I am capable of keeping alive) and then they feign death only to have the mob kill me.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?

For the content that I am involved with, I have no problem keeping up. In some cases, I think a Discipline priest comes in handy, so I switch, but only because we run with 3 holy priests.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?

World of Logs - I love this tool! I’m a math person at heart, so I think I spend more time in the logs after the fights than I do in the actual raids. I am always trying to learn more about my class and figure out how to be more effective as a healer. I like to review my information and the other healers as well. It’s great when running with other priests that I respect. I love to see which spells they favor and in which situations. I also love the Deaths overview. I always want to know if there was more I could have done to save someone.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?

I think people sometimes think priest healing (or healing in general) is simple … “why didn’t you heal me?”. We have lots of spells to choose from and we are generally dealing with lots of things at once. If we could, we would keep everyone alive, but sometimes we make choices (and I admit they aren’t always the right choices) and someone dies.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?

Which spell to cast and when. It’s not a simple rotation. I think it starts to become instinct (ok, I think that contradicts the meaning of instinct). To be an effective healer, it has to involve more than Greater Heal / Flash Heal.

If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)?

I’m usually in the top 3 healers in recount, and we are usually pretty even. There is definitely a lot of over-healing, especially on easy fights. I tend to get bored and heal even when I don’t need to. (Luckily it doesn’t register the heals I try to do even once I’m dead…it’s just so hard to stop trying to save people)

Haste or Crit and why?

Both. I love to over-think everything, but I’ve chosen to to not bother with this. Mostly because I’m in need of gear in general (we aren’t good enough to be picky about our gear yet) and it seems to serve me well to keep them balanced. I do get curious if I’d see a huge jump in my healing if I stacked haste instead, but I’m scared that I’d just run out of mana faster.

What healing class do you feel you understand least?

Druids

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?

I am addicted to Clique and Grid. I especially like GridStatusRaidDebuff that allows me to easily see who needs special healing in raids.

Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?

Mostly balanced. I used to use my Dragon’s Eye gems for spellpower to stack that a little, but I’m starting to make that more balanced as well. As I watch my mana pool grow, I’m starting to enjoy that more than seeing high bonus healing.

I’ve decided to start devoting a little more of my time to the Web site. Last week when I was researching the Saurfang fight mechanics on the web, I found some great priest blogs. I had seen some of these before, but I had never spent the time more than just whatever post was returned in my search query.

The site that got me initially interested was OMG Priest and Exanna’s interview with Miss Medicina. This led me to Miss Medicina and it started to get crazy after that.

Now I’ve gone and joined a guild formed by Miss Medicina for bloggers. I consider myself mostly a reader, but it is inspiring me to take better care of our Web site and start writing about my priest interests more. Don’t worry, I’m not leaving Sang Grail. The guild is a meeting place for bloggers and blog readers. I have a level 2 priest on that server (also named Daffnae - I can’t give up the name, and heaven forbid I play something other than a priest). I thought I’d give it a try. It’s funny, though, that I’ve gone right back to being shy Daffnae like when I first started playing. It’s good sometimes to be outside our comfort zone, I think. I know most of you can’t imagine me being shy and quiet.

That’s all for now. I just wanted to warn the Sang Grail readers that I’m going to try to post to the Web site more - hopefully with more content than just our raiding progress and other raiding information. I might also get ambitious and try out a new look.

And don’t worry, I’ll get the Rotface screen shot up soon!

On Monday we had our second 25 man run with Guardians of the Legacy (GOTL). Our Target was Trial of the Grand Crusader (TOGC / TOC). There are a couple of things that are very exciting about teaming up with GOTL and the two runs we’ve done so far.

• We can get more people included in raids each week.
• We like the people. Daff and Duck are personal friends with Leighya and have met many of the others through him.
• With regard to TOC and Ony, there is still a lot of useful gear for players. Nothing was D/E’d.
• Everyone seems to be having fun!

In our short run in TOC on Monday 3/1, we attempted the following bosses:

• Northrend Beasts - down on second try
• Lord Jaraxxus - down on first try
• Faction Champions - 2 attempts

Check out the World of Logs for details.

Continue reading for more information like raid attendance, loot drops and video tutorials.
(continue reading…)

We had another strong week in ICC as we breezed through the first 3 encounters. Saurfang continues to be a tough fight for us and with the time we had remaining in the evening, we couldn’t quite get over the hump to get him down (but we had him really close). Here are the bosses we downed. For those who haven’t yet gotten much experience on these bosses, I’m including video tutorials to help you learn the fights.

• Lord Marrowgar
• Lady Deathwhisper
• Gunship battle
• Deathbringer Saurfang - attmepted

Check out the World of Logs for details.

Continue reading for more information like raid attendance, loot drops and video tutorials.
(continue reading…)