Sang Grail

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