Am I Shielding Too Much?

Ever Since I binded my Shield to ” Alt ~ ” I have been free and easy in using it.
Shielding in panic situations is easier, any time I take Aoe, Getting pounced on by Catladys pets, Frost damage on Hodir ect ect…

I has a bubble and I’m not afraid of using it. On me, or even if a team mate is in range, and going down too fast in a Aoe environment for heals.

One of the things I have been looking at on our WWS’s is how many times Powerword Shield is cast. This is important to me because my biggest competition out of our 3 Shadow Priests ( Even manages to beat me sometimes) Doesn’t even usually cast it on himself. So I noticed that I was significantly higher in application of it. In one  night I cast it 116 odd times. He did once.

My two other Shadow Priests in the raid are the closest examples of performance management I have – so of course I am going to pay attention to little differences to see if I can continue to improve.

I don’t shield for decoration, I usually shield if there is a threat of AOE damage, or a significant chunk of damage, where the shield might save me, or contribute to saving me.
However it may have some impacts as the result of excess shielding – Slower DPS? – Loss of cooldowns, I also find I will cut myself off mid spell to shield.

Its a habit I might need to break. It doesn’t seem to  be adversely affecting my DPS in comparision,  however it may be gimping me. 

I’m not saying to give up shielding altogether. They say in one breath you are responsible for your own health  – followed by a Dead Dps does no dps. But healing really slows down our DPS , so I prefer to Bubble and let my VE healing top me up if I am not getting a heal  ( if its urgent then I will pot/stone break out if necessary but only as a last resort eg I’m dying and I’ve already hit disperse.)  ( Our healers are awesome…  but they can’t be everywhere at once, and sometimes they die too.. )

So I probably do have an itchy Shielding finger  – but the benefit is on that one night that I shielded so often ( progression raiding)  I had the least incoming damage of 25 raiders, and that has got to be a good thing..

Pugchecking a OS Pug

I like it when people surprise me.
In trade there was a reasonably respectable member of a guild getting a Pug H OS up – after finding it was no drakes up I offered myself up – figuring it would be a hoot, and I would get something to moan about if we failed, and an experience if we did ok.

So as we were forming I was using Pugchecker to check people out, its quite simple to use – its stays on the realm you select  and you can just run through people in the raid and see what they have done.

 

It then gives you a summary of how many times they have killed the last boss in a Normal and a Heroic run of that instance.   ( go Pugcheck yourself..  I did  😛 ) I got a little worried when there were people who had done hardly any raiding,  but  there were others who had equal or more then me so I was hoping that it would even us out..

It was a simple  well run Pug, loot master was on,  some people weren’t so good on the Dps metres, but all but one person survived,  and some of the non guilded or from little known guilds commented how easy it was compared to some of the nightmares that they had been on.  Loot was done fairly, and the lootmaster stopped a couple of  issues occurring when loot was distributed like double rolls and  rolls for loot when they already won a piece.

 To be honest if I had seen that the majority of people in the raid had no raiding experience I probably would have cut my losses and left, and I thought about it when some noob pulled the trash before we had formed up and killed those not close enough to the door  – but yes people will surprise you, and under firm leadership with clear and simple instructions that didn’t take 10 min to explain we killed  him dead. 🙂 Yeap.

Why the call to wipe pollutes the WWS

“Alright – Everyone wipe it.”

We wipe it when we are doomed to fail  – its the raid leaders call.  It aids in wipe recovery, and helps everyone finish up as quick as possible so that you can dust yourselves off and try again with minimal fuss and time.

It can be frustrating while your trying to re- enter an instance and the Pally has bubbled and the boss is chasing him around – wasting time. 

I’ve had lots of recent practise at wipe recovery.  The most recent cause being the  XT-002

When we were wiping in Sar 3d,  looking at WWS showed you who got hit with what.   This was important because that ‘what’ – be it flame wall or Void was the  cause of numerous deaths  – deaths means less heals/tanks/dps = less likely to kill the boss, or in the case of Xt-002 beat the enrage timer.

WWS is my only valid form of feedback in a raid. Besides the obvious dying for a stupid reason. 

I use WWS to see if I can improve first – and then that I am Dpsing as well or as comparably well as I should be.

The things I was concerned about on  our WWS of 9 attempts on XT-002 was how much damage I am getting or giving via lightwell  or Gravity Bomb. This is significant, because if you are blowing up the raid, you should be aware of it, or if there are people to avoid ( by moving ) because they keep blowing you up.

There are other things to consider of course, but understanding why someone is dying I think is an important part to getting better.

However when the call to wipe comes – the idea is to die as quickly as possible, and that means standing near people with lightwells, or gravity bombs, or chasing the boss saying “Kill me kill me” and so the measure of poor performance goes out the window when the stats suddenly include deliberate death throes. So its hard to prove. -I didn’t die from a flame wall once! when your stats show that is how you died when the wipe was called. You can of course go over the logs line by line, but for 25 people x however many attempts its a fair bit of work, and a raid isn’t always called because 1 tank died, or 1 healer so you can’t use the death of one person to mark the wipe call on a WWS either.

To try and keep my stats as ‘pure’ as possible I always try and make the boss kill me if a wipe is called. Because my most valuable feedback that I am getting is from that WWS as to my performance. I’m not talking about just DPS – its about are you doing what your supposed to, and that includes even seeing who is dping the adds as they should. I don’t know if my raid leader or Officers examine the things I do, but what I can do better is my main objective.

XT-002 can touch his toes.

Thought this was funny.

He wasn’t so funny after.  Gonna try him again tomorrow night.

 

And Emalon Down as well ( 10 man )

Server came back earlier then expected.

Now he was a bit trickier.

He throws a buff onto one of 4 adds , and that add needs to be killed asap.   It took us a little while to work out how to target that particular add in time to get it down.   You have about 20 secs before that add builds up 10 stacks of  Overcharged and blows up the raid. .

The easiest way I found to target the right one was tab target as soon as DBM announces when Emalon empowers the add –  that way your not relying on someone calling out  that they have it targeted,  or the add tank targeting the right one.   It was messy because all 4 get tanked together and trying to pick the right one of the four was hard.  It was either click target or tab tab.. untill you find the add with the debuff.  (is a blue lightening symbol)     We use ORA2 but that still relys on the add tank getting the right target and then targeting their target – By the time I found my target they were announcing on vent that they had it,  so if anything I only gain 1 sec  but add lag ect ect..  20 secs to kill something is not that long. I look forward to 25 man..

Personal Space in a Raid.

I catch a train to work, and while not as bad as Japanese Trains where they employe people to push you on a train, Sydney Peak hour Trains are certainly an experience.  You learn to value your personal Space, be it standing on the right angle so the person with bad breath isn’t breathing in your face,  or just trying to get enough room to hold onto a pole.

In a Raid – Even though I am pixells..  I get a little irritated when some stands on top of me.  There are certainly fights when you need to stack.  But when you don’t need to stack I need to breath! – You have found the perfect spot.  Your Safe, your in the right range, and someone else stands on top of you, and then-  They get cause agro, and suddenly the boss is heading your way, or they get a void, or a fire or anything aimed at them, and suddenly its your problem too.

I hate stacking unless its parts of the dynamics of the fight, not because i can ‘feel’ their pixels, but of all the crap they bring with them.

So after dieing so many times in Sar 3d –  I had worked out my safe places,  my best spots that gave me access to the Drakes, and enough flexibility to move between walls and I would find someone standing on top of me, and in my head I would be like ” Move… move..   and if they didn’t I did.

Maybe its a territorial thing – or an anti social= ick! I don’t want to be that close to a human thing,  but please don’t stand ontop of me!

I have been quite.   My Warlocks now  48 – I have no illusions of getting her to 80 before the patch, but I will miss her when I do have to concentrate on my main.  We are looking at a pretty intense raid scheduel when the patch hits.  I don’t have to attend 100% of it but even having to committ to 3 nights makes me cringe a little  – and am glad that its our winter so my RL social calander slows down.   I have saved up some gold to use for upgrades/consumables to counter for the lack of extra time I will have in game – but I am looking forward to 3.1!

I die in fires. And Slime.

I couldn’t dance wed nite in 25 man naxx ( didn’t seem to hurt my overall  raid dps standing though

I made it  3 tidal surge type waves, and was at the end of the room  and was almost jumping with glee  when I was slime slammed, my broken body on the floor.   We have been getting the tanks to dance in phase one so its less of a  risk to the raid,  its alot better for casting.  However phase two, and on the tiles,  spotlight on you – and you die.  How embarrasing. 

I wasn’t the only one,  so not toooo embarrasing,  but when we did naxx on 10 mans with the same strat I died there too.  However I was battle rezed and I was able to dance my way through the rest of the fight, without  dying again, so I thought I had learned from the experience. Nope. I am a Nub.

How hard is it to stay out of fire  – says the raider who has danced  a million in the orginal naxx  on 40 mans and more wipe fests. 

I know why we are dancing,  I know the consequences of not dancing.  I am learning where not to go, and who not to follow.  I am learning that because the waves are quick – that the sheep mentality doesn’t work.  Following the person with the diamond on their head is not a good idea. You need to know where to go with enough confidence to actually go there.

I am confident now that I can ignore calls  over vent to move,  and not follow the diamond/star what ever,  but to play it as I see/experience it,  I think only then am I going to survive.

 I’ve only ever danced two fights –  but the 3rd dance will be mine!

Edit: One more factor I forgot about..    my 1st dance I had a speed gem – and my 2nd dance I didn’t !  So I was just that liiitttle bit slower..

Ethical Use of Shadow Meld

I don’t intend on dying with the rest of them if I can.

Rogues have a way of surviving a wipe,  as do mages, and hunters,   yet people seem surprised when Shadow Meld is used for wipe evasion. Its like we are ‘cheating’

Sometimes it doesn’t work, eg when another class or race that has no wipe evasion abilities decides to run to my little safe corner.

Why?
Do you think I can protect you?  and the boss chases them,  does an aoe effect and I die.

“><”

Sometimes it does work, and as a rezzer If it looks like I have escaped the wrath of the boss and he has reset, and I can rez my party/raid then  I will try and shout that I’m doing that before someone releases.

I survived a wipe on Gluth the other night,  it was the 2nd wipe on him,  we had been dying more then usual on our 1st 10 man run of naxx after the patch, so the 1st wipe a hunter survived by feigning death, and the rest of us gathered in the pipe, 2nd time, since I thought the hunter had the right idea both he and I survived the wipe using our available tools,   so we hid in Gluths chambers,  till  we get a ” where are you We are waiting for you.

“We are in the room ..”

third time went down well –  but I felt guilty that I had survived  the wipe, that I didn’t need to rebuff or re-food – and I saved on repair bills.   I got the impression that I should have died with ‘honor’ with the rest of them.

From a raid efficiency point,  it can be bad not to have your raid all together in one spot,  If I was one of the main buffers, then me not being in range of the raid could cause problems.  Its good to have the raid all together,  I’ve been into too many raids/instances  that wiped because essential classes have been locked out of the fight. Given the chances of me reagroing the boss could have been high, it was probably a fight I should have died on, just so I can run back with the rest of them.

I’m all for cutting down on repair bills, (even though as a clothy they are not stupidly high like  a tanks are.)  and since I always bring the best food buff ( saving my northern spices for raid food)  the lose of another food buff.   

In addition that particular wing has several hazards you need to get past  when running back from a wipe, the slime canals that priests can levitate over,  mages blink over,  a fall takes off half your health practically, so you need to be healed up before attempting another canal dip.  The “Slime Boss”( those oozes after Patchwerk that always manage to claim one casualty) and the “Pipe Boss”. ( The pipe you stand on before Gluth that someone always falls off of )  – especially now that we are casting levitate on people in raids so they don’t take  damage from the jump in the canals as you run through, and they forget, and try and jump on the pipe only to realise that you can’t jump while levitating.  These obstacles become easy with practice, and I’ve had lots after learning the Grobbulus fight  in early Naxx. I don’t die from Slime.  Well. Maybe just once – or twice.  But that’s it! I promise.

But  not having to worry about all that is quite refreshing.   I can hide in my little corner, while you can all rebuff or repair or whatever.

Block It. Just Block it – No one wants to play with an Ahat.

I have been quite.  Real life stuff – New guild with a non weekend raid schedule yeah!

But I want to talk about Ahats.  Insert two ss’s after the A to get my drift,  but as I am not sure what work filters consider to be a swear word I erred on the side of caution.

I did a 9 in a row heroic blitz over the weekend,  by the time we had finished. Well I had finished –  I was sore, tired and pee’d off.

I ended my run with one of our party members muted and blocked in chat because he was that annoying. He wasn’t a guildy but a ‘friend’ of someone else in the remaining guild members of  the party. If it had been a pug I would have left it by about the third Instance in the nine, it took me to about the sixth to mute him, and the seventh to /ignore.  He would go on and on about something in my playstyle,  it wasn’t  constructive feed back,  my dps was awesome! so he  wasn’t poking fun of my ability to play, but there was one thing he repeated over and over.  Any method of approach in dealing with his comments didn’t work, reacting – not reacting – admonishing him – telling him to stop it – that the joke isn’t funny anymore – that I will block him if he continued.  It never occurred to me to leave party, if it had been a pug I would have done it in a heartbeat.

If I had kicked up a stink and threatened to leave party I would have been the weak one for not being able to control the situation.  I couldn’t appeal to my guildys for support because of their association with this person , and when I tried their response was simply.  “Thats norm for  such and such”  and so because he was an Ahat I had to suck it up.  I did, and it made me grouchy, and annoyed, and I will never group or party with him again.

In another case we were in a pug Hjyal run, consisting of people associated with members of our guild in some way and my connection keep embarrassingly crashing. So i pulled out of the raid.  In that pug one of our guild members was subjected to annoying, and targeted abusive chat in vent, to the point where they allowed her access to a channel that some of them were talking in ( I’m not quite sure how they did it, but you can connect several users so you can talk in the same channel but only people you allow can hear, and to the rest of the raid they can see your mic on yellow, when they talk) and said some things that were not nice to say. This upset her, and apparently they apologised later and said that they were bored and picked a random target.

I don’t  know what was said – but its not on.  Its not a girl thing, its not adult / kid thing its about you do not have to put with crap in your recreation time.  You may work with people you don’t like, or have to deal with unpleasant people all day, but the time that you chose to sit down for some fun, and recreation you should not have to deal with ahats.  I’m not even talking about an abusive raid leader here,  just people who go out of their way to make your own game/play miserable to sate some sick desire of their own.

In real life Id like to think I have a pretty good moral compass. If I was at a bar or a party and someone was annoying or abusing me  I would walk away, leave, avoid, Smile and nod, and move on. My friends would not allow or support that persons actions, yet in a raid or guild environment something else keeps you there.  The consequences of your standing up for your rights are higher. 

I read an article where it said that the power of embarrassment is more powerful then Will.  I didn’t leave the party because I was embarrassed that I was being targeted.  Reacting so extremely would have only made the person behave worse, and they would have won by “Driving me to fury” I am an adult.  I would not let someone abuse me so in real life, yet in the virtual world you can.  How is that right?

Yes you can report them to a Gm, but sometimes I feel like that is also running home to tell mummy that the kids are teasing you, it would be embarrassing for mummy to come to school to tell the teacher that little bobby is calling you names.

So i Muted him, and /ignored.  Did that fix the problem? – Probably not, but at least I had regained some control of the situation by not having to listen to him.

My principles may cost me,  I mean it,  I choose not to play with him agai, and I will call him on it if it ever arises and he ends up in a party or a pug.

Am I being over sensitive – perhaps – I can deal with ribbing, feedback,  mucking round, playing ,  I don’t deal well with a consistent barrage – hence the blocking.

Gurtogg Bloodboil – and Shadow Priesting

Got pulled into a raid again last night…
I could have said no. I should have said no. I have stopped raiding. I dont want to. I am currently Disliking 25 mans for a variety of reasons. But I said Yes.. It Peeves me off that all these people are not available for learning fights ( hence why I got called in ) /end rant

But now back to Gurtogg Bloodboil – Its a complicated fight, Boss killers has a Strat Bloodboil Strat

I guess we did our own variation which we worked out when we got there.. We didnt use the lines as we relied on markings in the three groups and placement so that you knew you had to be infront of ‘Moon’ group. Then you had to be back ect ect..

We tried a couple of times before calling it – the fight requires three groups to co-ordinate moving back and forth on a line to swap being the furtherest away from him to get the bloodboil debuff during phase 1 we got that bit right. It just got a bit messy after that .. we made to it the beginning of phase 1 again, but Bloodboil was in the wrong spot so our lines were a mess and we all died again…

But its a start…
I didnt feel like my DPS was restricted a whole lot, being that Shadow priests needs to worry about range. When we were the furtherest group I was out of range for Mindflay, but thats only for 10 seconds so it didnt bother me

I got Felraged the first time – and the second time.. Must have been the agro from the Ve / VT / Its supposed to be a random target
As per Bosskillers if you get selected…
Fel Rage
Places this 30 second debuff on a seemingly random raid member every 90 seconds, and on Gurtogg himself. Gives the following effects:

– increases armour by 15,000 (not applicable to Gurtogg)
– increases health by 30,000 (not applicable to Gurtogg)
– increases healing done by 100%
– increases damage done by 300%
– decreases cost of spells and abilities by 50%
– increases size by 100%

My shadow Word pain was ticking for over 3k Boooyyyyeah!

Now I think I remembered to sheild during fel rage- it didnt help. It’s benifit doesn’t seem to be increased by the felrage and I would image inner fire also.. ( which is a shame.. ) and you need alot of healing no matter what your class to take the damage
I was getting hit for 8k Damage each swipe he took at me – and yeah I didnt survive…

But as a shadow Priest Forget any cast sequences because of the movements in phase 1 – watch your threat – keep sheild up to reduce aoe damage. stam up – be mindful of the spells you cast and that it is more important that you move then getting that spell off. You need to be quick or you get double debuffs