Now Rawr is the only program you need for Bear/Cat gear optimization. I think it even supports automatically polling your own Armory profile to make it easier to tell it what you're currently wearing.
http://druid.wikispaces.com/Rawr#tocRawr2
Monday, January 28, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
New Update!! I know, I'm 4 months late.....
First off... an apology for my absence. I actually didn't play Wow for a long period between November 07 and January 08... I went on a month-long vacation, and had a lot of work I had to do in preparation for my long absence (as well as a lot of work I had to do after I got back). Any free time I had was spent managing my guild... which left this blog untouched.
Anyways, back on topic...I have some things to post about.. mostly druid mechanics type stuff...
In summary I'll explain : 1) How to get a double mangle rip (Instead of Mangle giving a 1.3x multiplier on your Rip, you can get a 1.3*1.3*Rip dmg, or 1.7x multiplier on your rip!!). 2) Update on gear rankings. 3) How to min/max your DPS gear.
1) I won't take credit for this, as it's been gone over in the Feral Druid Megathread on Elitist Jerks (although, this thread is up 62 pages long, so coming here for a concise summary on the cool things is pretty smart):
So I hope that was clear enough... what this causes is your Rip gets double the mangle effect, b/c of the order in which the game is calculating the mangle effects. When you apply your rip at the last second of your mangle, the game has queued a +30% bonus dmg to your rip... Then your mangle falls off, but the rip is already queued to do 130% dmg. Then when you reapply mangle before the 1st tick, the game is mistakingly recalculating it again, and in essence queueing in another 130% dmg modifier to your rip. So when your rip finally ticks, it'll tick for 169% dmg!
This is why if you look at say, this log of me:
http://wowwebstats.com/weltsd1vlqsgw?s=10997-11246&a=95
You can see a rip tick of 1059!! (Just look at the rip tick.. ignore the fact that I was doing really crappy dps.. I was too busy trying to practice getting double mangle rips down).
2) Gear rankings... Emmerald is a popular gear ranking thing... and I don't think most people know he moved the address of his gear rankings. The new address is:
http://www.emmerald.net
But... the reality of the situation is that gear rankings are actually VARIABLE based on what you're currently wearing... which means that a static gear ranking like Emmerald's isn't completely accurate. Which leads me to point #3...
3) Min/maxing your gear. There are 2 neat little programs out there for this purpose.
Rawr is for tanking.
http://druid.wikispaces.com/Rawr
You input your current gear (it can even look it up automatically on Armory), then calculates your best upgrades.
Toskk's Gear Lister is great for Cat DPS.
http://druid.wikispaces.com/ToskksDPSGearMethod
You input your Cat AP + Crit + Hit
Actually... a better offline resource might be this:
http://www.speedyshare.com/947504333.html
It's an Excel spreadsheet which has all the relevant information there. You just plug in your numbers/gear and it'll automatically search for gear upgrades + give suggestions, and mathematically show you how certain gear upgrades would affect your dps.
Anyways, I hope this post has been informative. As for me and my guild, if you're really curious, you can look us up @ http://www.mediocrityguild.com
We're currently recruiting a good resto shaman if you know one ;)
Anyways, back on topic...I have some things to post about.. mostly druid mechanics type stuff...
In summary I'll explain : 1) How to get a double mangle rip (Instead of Mangle giving a 1.3x multiplier on your Rip, you can get a 1.3*1.3*Rip dmg, or 1.7x multiplier on your rip!!). 2) Update on gear rankings. 3) How to min/max your DPS gear.
1) I won't take credit for this, as it's been gone over in the Feral Druid Megathread on Elitist Jerks (although, this thread is up 62 pages long, so coming here for a concise summary on the cool things is pretty smart):
The trick is to apply rip in the last second of the old mangle, then reapply mangle before the frist rip tick. This is very possible as rip ticks every 2 seconds, and cat form has a 1 second gcd.
The entire rip is then affected by both the old mangle and the new mangle.
N.B. You can reapply mangle later and all subsequent rip/lacerate ticks will be affected, but since the main use of this trick is to boost your dps, the best option is to use it as soon as possible.
So I hope that was clear enough... what this causes is your Rip gets double the mangle effect, b/c of the order in which the game is calculating the mangle effects. When you apply your rip at the last second of your mangle, the game has queued a +30% bonus dmg to your rip... Then your mangle falls off, but the rip is already queued to do 130% dmg. Then when you reapply mangle before the 1st tick, the game is mistakingly recalculating it again, and in essence queueing in another 130% dmg modifier to your rip. So when your rip finally ticks, it'll tick for 169% dmg!
This is why if you look at say, this log of me:
http://wowwebstats.com/weltsd1vlqsgw?s=10997-11246&a=95
You can see a rip tick of 1059!! (Just look at the rip tick.. ignore the fact that I was doing really crappy dps.. I was too busy trying to practice getting double mangle rips down).
2) Gear rankings... Emmerald is a popular gear ranking thing... and I don't think most people know he moved the address of his gear rankings. The new address is:
http://www.emmerald.net
But... the reality of the situation is that gear rankings are actually VARIABLE based on what you're currently wearing... which means that a static gear ranking like Emmerald's isn't completely accurate. Which leads me to point #3...
3) Min/maxing your gear. There are 2 neat little programs out there for this purpose.
Rawr is for tanking.
http://druid.wikispaces.com/Rawr
You input your current gear (it can even look it up automatically on Armory), then calculates your best upgrades.
Toskk's Gear Lister is great for Cat DPS.
http://druid.wikispaces.com/ToskksDPSGearMethod
You input your Cat AP + Crit + Hit
Actually... a better offline resource might be this:
http://www.speedyshare.com/947504333.html
It's an Excel spreadsheet which has all the relevant information there. You just plug in your numbers/gear and it'll automatically search for gear upgrades + give suggestions, and mathematically show you how certain gear upgrades would affect your dps.
Anyways, I hope this post has been informative. As for me and my guild, if you're really curious, you can look us up @ http://www.mediocrityguild.com
We're currently recruiting a good resto shaman if you know one ;)
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
What Druids Have In Store for 2.3....
Hi all, sorry that it's been almost 2 weeks since my last update. I'm moving (IRL), so its been a pain in the butt. My guild was also focusing on Illidan Stormrage, and I'm happy to say that we've now cleared BT. I'd like to think that part of our success was due to my leadership, but that could be my ego talking.. haha.
Anyways, more importantly, 2.3 is around the corner... what do we have in store? Well, honestly, it looks like the biggest change is going to be how HOTW works with feral druids. Previously it increased our STR in cat form by 20%. It is being changed do +10% attack power. So I guess if you hadn't made the connection yet, AGI will be by and far the premier stat of choice.
I'm not sure if you guys have checked out a site called Lootzor (http://www.lootzor.com) but it's a site that allows you to compare gear given metrics that YOU decide!! :) Previously, if you were to say, use Emmerald's stat values (http://www.gurgleblaster.net/emmerald), the lootzor mechanics you would enter in look something like this:
Cat Sustained DPS:
1 Attack Power = 1
1 Strength = 2.472
1 Agility = 2.394
1 Crit Rating = 1.498
1 Hit Rating = 1.101
(I told you I don't necessarily agree with Emmerald's rankings, but its a good list, for lack of a better replacement on the web that is as easily readable and accessible).
In 2.3, those values now change...
If you wanted to stay true to Emmerald's values, it would look something like this post 2.3:
1 Attack Power = 1.1
1 Strength = 2.236
1 Agility = 2.512
1 Crit Rating = 1.498
1 Hit Rating = 1.101
As you can see just by plugging it into Lootzor, several "rogue" pieces all of a sudden jump to the top of our ideal DPS gear. Things that were previously strength heavy no longer become easy favorites (like Hamarid's Bargain, or Razor-scale Battlecloak). Something like Unstoppable Aggressor's Ring all of a sudden drops off the chart!
Anyways, I guess I'll keep this short... try Lootzor if you want to try to find a new loot table until either Emmerald finishes his loot list, or until you get a better DPS gear calculator :)
Another change they made was how they calculated weapon skill. For druids, we previously used a stat called "Feral Combat Skill Rating" (FCSR), which was relegated to only a few items in the game (namely Shapeshifter's Signet, Earthwarden, Clefthide Leggings). 20 FCSR generally provided an insane benefit (+3% hit, -.5% chance to be dodged, parried or blocked). Past 20 FCSR however, the benefits were near non-existent.. which is why many high-end druids still used the Shapeshifter's Signet (available @ Exalted Lower City rep from the Quartermaster in Shattrah City). This stat is now being changed into Expertise. Expertise will no longer increase your %hit chance... it will however give you increased levels of Dodge/Parry/Block avoidance which will not top out @ 20 expertise rating! Another benefit is that b/c all the weapon skill stats are now a generic "expertise" rating, the # of items that you can now use is GREATLY expanded... instead of only 3 Feral Combat Skill Rating items in the entire game, there are now like dozens and dozens of expertise items you now have available. Expertise is now changed to .25% less chance to be Dodged/Parried/Blocked.. so using 20 Expertise Rating (which translates into 5.1 Expertise) will now net you 1.25% chance to be blocked/parried/dodged... which at first seems worse than what FCSR used to give us, but at the very least, you can now choose from a variety of items to use instead of only Shapeshifter's Signet.
In a DPS raid environment, you're only going to face dodge (b/c you always attack from behind, you won't be blocked or parried), so obviously Expertise is not THAT huge in terms of helping your DPS... but if you're already hit-capped (~8.6% hit), you might as well remove that last 3% dodge from bosses by trying to get yourself around 12 Expertise which will then make you dodge-proof as well as miss-proof against raid bosses :) You'll have to use a item-stat-comparison-spreadsheet or something in order to calculate which items would be worth using for Expertise however :)
2.3 changes aren't even finished yet, so who knows where we'll end up! I'll try to write more articles on the topic as I think of them, but of course, do not ignore your other resources such as Elitist Jerks, The Druid Wiki, etc.
Anyways, more importantly, 2.3 is around the corner... what do we have in store? Well, honestly, it looks like the biggest change is going to be how HOTW works with feral druids. Previously it increased our STR in cat form by 20%. It is being changed do +10% attack power. So I guess if you hadn't made the connection yet, AGI will be by and far the premier stat of choice.
I'm not sure if you guys have checked out a site called Lootzor (http://www.lootzor.com) but it's a site that allows you to compare gear given metrics that YOU decide!! :) Previously, if you were to say, use Emmerald's stat values (http://www.gurgleblaster.net/emmerald), the lootzor mechanics you would enter in look something like this:
Cat Sustained DPS:
1 Attack Power = 1
1 Strength = 2.472
1 Agility = 2.394
1 Crit Rating = 1.498
1 Hit Rating = 1.101
(I told you I don't necessarily agree with Emmerald's rankings, but its a good list, for lack of a better replacement on the web that is as easily readable and accessible).
In 2.3, those values now change...
If you wanted to stay true to Emmerald's values, it would look something like this post 2.3:
1 Attack Power = 1.1
1 Strength = 2.236
1 Agility = 2.512
1 Crit Rating = 1.498
1 Hit Rating = 1.101
As you can see just by plugging it into Lootzor, several "rogue" pieces all of a sudden jump to the top of our ideal DPS gear. Things that were previously strength heavy no longer become easy favorites (like Hamarid's Bargain, or Razor-scale Battlecloak). Something like Unstoppable Aggressor's Ring all of a sudden drops off the chart!
Anyways, I guess I'll keep this short... try Lootzor if you want to try to find a new loot table until either Emmerald finishes his loot list, or until you get a better DPS gear calculator :)
Another change they made was how they calculated weapon skill. For druids, we previously used a stat called "Feral Combat Skill Rating" (FCSR), which was relegated to only a few items in the game (namely Shapeshifter's Signet, Earthwarden, Clefthide Leggings). 20 FCSR generally provided an insane benefit (+3% hit, -.5% chance to be dodged, parried or blocked). Past 20 FCSR however, the benefits were near non-existent.. which is why many high-end druids still used the Shapeshifter's Signet (available @ Exalted Lower City rep from the Quartermaster in Shattrah City). This stat is now being changed into Expertise. Expertise will no longer increase your %hit chance... it will however give you increased levels of Dodge/Parry/Block avoidance which will not top out @ 20 expertise rating! Another benefit is that b/c all the weapon skill stats are now a generic "expertise" rating, the # of items that you can now use is GREATLY expanded... instead of only 3 Feral Combat Skill Rating items in the entire game, there are now like dozens and dozens of expertise items you now have available. Expertise is now changed to .25% less chance to be Dodged/Parried/Blocked.. so using 20 Expertise Rating (which translates into 5.1 Expertise) will now net you 1.25% chance to be blocked/parried/dodged... which at first seems worse than what FCSR used to give us, but at the very least, you can now choose from a variety of items to use instead of only Shapeshifter's Signet.
In a DPS raid environment, you're only going to face dodge (b/c you always attack from behind, you won't be blocked or parried), so obviously Expertise is not THAT huge in terms of helping your DPS... but if you're already hit-capped (~8.6% hit), you might as well remove that last 3% dodge from bosses by trying to get yourself around 12 Expertise which will then make you dodge-proof as well as miss-proof against raid bosses :) You'll have to use a item-stat-comparison-spreadsheet or something in order to calculate which items would be worth using for Expertise however :)
2.3 changes aren't even finished yet, so who knows where we'll end up! I'll try to write more articles on the topic as I think of them, but of course, do not ignore your other resources such as Elitist Jerks, The Druid Wiki, etc.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Tank Stat Priority for Feral Druids.. not what you might think!
(sorry, 10/8/07.. editting my example to something more realistic)
Well, I think every Druid knows pretty much the magic numbers for being uncritable. Basically, boss mobs should have about a 5.6% chance to crit you. So you need stats + talents to reduce that, since crits are usually GG for a tank.
Druids have -3% crit from a talent called Survival of the Fittest, which should be a staple for any druid with any intention on PvE'ing. Then you only have to make up the last 2.6% chance to crit. This can actually be achieved by either just getting your Defense Rating up to 415, or doing some hybrid setup using Resilience gear to achieve the same result.
After that... you should probably focus on tanking stats. By and large, for 25man instances especially, the limiting factor is really not how much avoidance you have, but really, how much can you survive before a heal can get to you. With the healing power these days, there should almost never be a question of how many HPS can a healer put out. I mean, if necessary 2 paladins spamming max rank HL can pretty much heal any fight in this entire game (although probably not sustainable, but still). The further you get in progression, the more evident it becomes. So then, what is the #1 cause of death to a tank? It's not the size or HPS of the heals, its the delay or reaction time until you start getting them.
Realistically speaking, can you survive maybe about 10 seconds without heals in a bad luck situation? By taking this aspect of it, for a true tank set, you really want to stress your survivability in the face of bad RNG streaks.
I mean, lets compare Player A with 15000 HP / 50% dodge / 65% armor mitigation, that's great.. versus Player B with 15000 HP / 25% dodge / 75% armor mitigation, versus Player C with 20000 HP / 25% dodge / 65% migitation.
Assuming boss will hit for 20000 unmitigated. Player A will get hit for 7000per hit, but dodge 50% of them, so overtime, you will see the player taking ~3500dmg per hit. Player B will get hit for 5000 per hit, but with the dodge, is looking at on avg about 3750dmg per hit. On paper, you're like, wow... Player A has the better stats. 50% dodge is huge... over time, that tank will be taking less dmg, so that much be the better setup.
You're wrong however. The funny thing about these fights, and about dodge in general, is that it is completely based on the RNG. Meaning for every time you dodge 5 hits in a row, you'll get hit by 5 straight hits. In which case, for that short period of time, your dodge means jack for Player A. And the healers need to work much harder for that time period than the healer on player B. If you were to theoretically plot a chart for highest % chance of death, you would see the highest point on the chart would be when you miss a string of dodges.
How do tanks die? When those bad streaks burst you, and the healers are slow to cope with the increased damage taken. In the case when you have a bad hit streak, you're looking @ 5x 7000 = 35000 dmg, vs 5x 5000 = 25000 dmg. It's much easier and more predictable for a healer to heal that 25000 dmg during the bad streak than it is for them to cope with the 35000 dmg from a high avoidance, lower mitigation tank. If you throw Player C into the mix, is it easier to keep a 20000 HP tank healed through 35000 dmg? Or is it easier to keep a 15000 HP tank healed through 35000 damage. While I'm sure over over time, its nicer to heal a target who overtime takes less damage, the fact is, overtime tanks do ok.. it's the unexpected bursts which will kill a tank. With a string of 5 hits, assuming you dodged them all, you would probably be getting a ton of overheal anyways due to failed pre-casts, so mana is going to be spent anyways (not precasting would be death when the mobs are hitting so hard).
I mean, its pretty shocking, b/c you would assume with that much avoidance, and with people completely stressing how godly dodge is for druids, that the 50% O_O dodge tank would be better, but in reality, would be a worse option. So sites like Hugehoss's tank list who over emphasize the value of dodge for tanking either assume the bear druid also has max armor and 20k hp already, or just simply aren't good metrics for true bear tanking and survival.
Should you use Emmerald's list? Honestly Emmerald's list isn't so bad. But the honest reality of tanking things is that most players don't really have many options. You generally take the best possible tank gear available when it comes up. The most flexibility you really have is how you gem it.... and I think its honestly not that bad an idea just to throw a bunch of 12-15stam gems in there ;)
Well, I think every Druid knows pretty much the magic numbers for being uncritable. Basically, boss mobs should have about a 5.6% chance to crit you. So you need stats + talents to reduce that, since crits are usually GG for a tank.
Druids have -3% crit from a talent called Survival of the Fittest, which should be a staple for any druid with any intention on PvE'ing. Then you only have to make up the last 2.6% chance to crit. This can actually be achieved by either just getting your Defense Rating up to 415, or doing some hybrid setup using Resilience gear to achieve the same result.
After that... you should probably focus on tanking stats. By and large, for 25man instances especially, the limiting factor is really not how much avoidance you have, but really, how much can you survive before a heal can get to you. With the healing power these days, there should almost never be a question of how many HPS can a healer put out. I mean, if necessary 2 paladins spamming max rank HL can pretty much heal any fight in this entire game (although probably not sustainable, but still). The further you get in progression, the more evident it becomes. So then, what is the #1 cause of death to a tank? It's not the size or HPS of the heals, its the delay or reaction time until you start getting them.
Realistically speaking, can you survive maybe about 10 seconds without heals in a bad luck situation? By taking this aspect of it, for a true tank set, you really want to stress your survivability in the face of bad RNG streaks.
I mean, lets compare Player A with 15000 HP / 50% dodge / 65% armor mitigation, that's great.. versus Player B with 15000 HP / 25% dodge / 75% armor mitigation, versus Player C with 20000 HP / 25% dodge / 65% migitation.
Assuming boss will hit for 20000 unmitigated. Player A will get hit for 7000per hit, but dodge 50% of them, so overtime, you will see the player taking ~3500dmg per hit. Player B will get hit for 5000 per hit, but with the dodge, is looking at on avg about 3750dmg per hit. On paper, you're like, wow... Player A has the better stats. 50% dodge is huge... over time, that tank will be taking less dmg, so that much be the better setup.
You're wrong however. The funny thing about these fights, and about dodge in general, is that it is completely based on the RNG. Meaning for every time you dodge 5 hits in a row, you'll get hit by 5 straight hits. In which case, for that short period of time, your dodge means jack for Player A. And the healers need to work much harder for that time period than the healer on player B. If you were to theoretically plot a chart for highest % chance of death, you would see the highest point on the chart would be when you miss a string of dodges.
How do tanks die? When those bad streaks burst you, and the healers are slow to cope with the increased damage taken. In the case when you have a bad hit streak, you're looking @ 5x 7000 = 35000 dmg, vs 5x 5000 = 25000 dmg. It's much easier and more predictable for a healer to heal that 25000 dmg during the bad streak than it is for them to cope with the 35000 dmg from a high avoidance, lower mitigation tank. If you throw Player C into the mix, is it easier to keep a 20000 HP tank healed through 35000 dmg? Or is it easier to keep a 15000 HP tank healed through 35000 damage. While I'm sure over over time, its nicer to heal a target who overtime takes less damage, the fact is, overtime tanks do ok.. it's the unexpected bursts which will kill a tank. With a string of 5 hits, assuming you dodged them all, you would probably be getting a ton of overheal anyways due to failed pre-casts, so mana is going to be spent anyways (not precasting would be death when the mobs are hitting so hard).
I mean, its pretty shocking, b/c you would assume with that much avoidance, and with people completely stressing how godly dodge is for druids, that the 50% O_O dodge tank would be better, but in reality, would be a worse option. So sites like Hugehoss's tank list who over emphasize the value of dodge for tanking either assume the bear druid also has max armor and 20k hp already, or just simply aren't good metrics for true bear tanking and survival.
Should you use Emmerald's list? Honestly Emmerald's list isn't so bad. But the honest reality of tanking things is that most players don't really have many options. You generally take the best possible tank gear available when it comes up. The most flexibility you really have is how you gem it.... and I think its honestly not that bad an idea just to throw a bunch of 12-15stam gems in there ;)
Friday, September 28, 2007
Resto druids in a nutshell... Lifebloom edition
I took a day on the resto druid side this week for... kicks? and we were short a decurser for Archimonde. Well, technically, I just threw on my healing gear for Archimonde (in feral spec), when one of our mages "had a power outage". (Btw, I doubt I have daily readers, but I also fully respec'd resto right after to do some 2v2).
I'm not going to claim to be a noob at this and say that it was my 1st time ever (although it was probably my 1st time ever to do this since Karazhan), but I was a little rusty. I do, however know all the details about how OP resto druids are, so I'd like to share a couple aspects of it: the overpoweredness of lifebloom, and the unmatched skillset for small-scale arena.
(I've been lecturing the druids in my guild for quite a while about all this stuff btw).
Ok, I'd like go just a little back in history on when this spell, Lifebloom, wasn't all that strong. This spell is a HoT with a backloaded Heal. Your healing gear is broken down for this spell into 46% towards the HoT portion, and 46% towards the Heal portion. The HoT portion ticks EVERY SECOND for 7 seconds and is stackable to 3 stacks. HOWEVER, as recently as a few months ago, your healing gear only affected the 1st stack of your lifebloom. Subsequent stacks of lifebloom got no benefit from healing gear, making further applications of lifebloom pretty much worthless.
Fast forward to a couple patches ago, they added the ability for each stack of lifebloom to benefit from healing... this is where Lifebloom becomes sickly sickly overpowered.
By maintaining a 3-stack of Lifebloom, you are essentially getting the healing bonus from your gear 3 times. Remember, your typical gear druid is probably looking at 225hp/sec for a single lifebloom tick, so getting your full-on 3-stack of lifebloom on your MT all the time would result in 675hp/s... basically the equivalent of spamming lesser healing wave twice for less than the mana cost of 1 of them... assuming you're in the MT group, that benefit is increased by even more!!
BUT....you can further make your lifeblooms completely overpowered. Using 2x trinkets will do this for you. Activating, say, your ZG trinket (I hope you didn't DE it) which gives you +408 healing, and then your Essence of the Martyr results in an additional 60hp/s... yes.. you're looking at maybe 855hp/s lifebloom ticks, at a cost of only 176mana per 6-7 seconds. Yes... 5130hp healed for 176mana. No class in the game can beat that. The reason this works is that once you get your trinketted lifebloom stack on your target, everytime you refresh your lifebloom stack, it keeps the trinketted value, not the untrinketted value.
Best of all, you can actually keep it up on _3_ tanks w/ a decent macro and never letting a bloom drop. So you're looking at maybe 15400hp healed / 7 seconds for ~530 mana. No one can beat that. If you take this into acct, over an 8 min fight, you're looking at 1,000,000 hp healed.. LOL (you'd probably need a decent spriest + potting + 2x innervate to do this of course).
But most boss fights don't even have 1million dmg output total on your raid over 8 min, so this is obviously overkill... but I'm just trying to illustrate how overpowered Lifebloom is.
A guy named Oxylos posted a really great write up on lifebloom as well, which I'm going to quote here, b/c it would be unfair to summarize it. Here it is in its entirety, written on 06/19/2007 11:49:39 AM PDT:
Ok, I was going to get into resto druids in arena (someone like me, who hasn't played a resto druid in years was able to get 2100 on BG9, the hardest battlegroup for arena), but this post is getting long, so we'll save that for another entry in the future.
I'm not going to claim to be a noob at this and say that it was my 1st time ever (although it was probably my 1st time ever to do this since Karazhan), but I was a little rusty. I do, however know all the details about how OP resto druids are, so I'd like to share a couple aspects of it: the overpoweredness of lifebloom, and the unmatched skillset for small-scale arena.
(I've been lecturing the druids in my guild for quite a while about all this stuff btw).
Ok, I'd like go just a little back in history on when this spell, Lifebloom, wasn't all that strong. This spell is a HoT with a backloaded Heal. Your healing gear is broken down for this spell into 46% towards the HoT portion, and 46% towards the Heal portion. The HoT portion ticks EVERY SECOND for 7 seconds and is stackable to 3 stacks. HOWEVER, as recently as a few months ago, your healing gear only affected the 1st stack of your lifebloom. Subsequent stacks of lifebloom got no benefit from healing gear, making further applications of lifebloom pretty much worthless.
Fast forward to a couple patches ago, they added the ability for each stack of lifebloom to benefit from healing... this is where Lifebloom becomes sickly sickly overpowered.
By maintaining a 3-stack of Lifebloom, you are essentially getting the healing bonus from your gear 3 times. Remember, your typical gear druid is probably looking at 225hp/sec for a single lifebloom tick, so getting your full-on 3-stack of lifebloom on your MT all the time would result in 675hp/s... basically the equivalent of spamming lesser healing wave twice for less than the mana cost of 1 of them... assuming you're in the MT group, that benefit is increased by even more!!
BUT....you can further make your lifeblooms completely overpowered. Using 2x trinkets will do this for you. Activating, say, your ZG trinket (I hope you didn't DE it) which gives you +408 healing, and then your Essence of the Martyr results in an additional 60hp/s... yes.. you're looking at maybe 855hp/s lifebloom ticks, at a cost of only 176mana per 6-7 seconds. Yes... 5130hp healed for 176mana. No class in the game can beat that. The reason this works is that once you get your trinketted lifebloom stack on your target, everytime you refresh your lifebloom stack, it keeps the trinketted value, not the untrinketted value.
Best of all, you can actually keep it up on _3_ tanks w/ a decent macro and never letting a bloom drop. So you're looking at maybe 15400hp healed / 7 seconds for ~530 mana. No one can beat that. If you take this into acct, over an 8 min fight, you're looking at 1,000,000 hp healed.. LOL (you'd probably need a decent spriest + potting + 2x innervate to do this of course).
But most boss fights don't even have 1million dmg output total on your raid over 8 min, so this is obviously overkill... but I'm just trying to illustrate how overpowered Lifebloom is.
A guy named Oxylos posted a really great write up on lifebloom as well, which I'm going to quote here, b/c it would be unfair to summarize it. Here it is in its entirety, written on 06/19/2007 11:49:39 AM PDT:
The following is an in-depth look at the increase in effectiveness of Druid healing brought about in patch 2.1 and is intended to inform both the Druid community and raid/guild leaders as to the potential Druids now possess. I apologize for its length but I feel a thorough explanation will benefit those interested. Thank you for your time.
I. Introduction
II. Styles of Healing, Old and New
III. Lifebloom goes on the Patch
IV. Multi-Target Healing
V. Spell Rotations
VI. Helpful Tools
VII. Math
VIII. Conclusion
I. Introduction.
There is a common misconception about restoration druids today. The problem isn’t that other classes misunderstand us, as every class forum would be happy to point out how unfairly they’ve been treated, but that resto druids are misunderstanding themselves. Druids post regularly that they shouldn’t deserve spots in raids, they don’t bring anything another class doesn’t, that restoration is a hopeless offspec and they should all just go feral. Marilyn, the Nihilum Druid Class Leader made a post about how resto druids don’t get a slot in Nihilum raids anymore because other classes bring more raid utility and heal just as well as Druids. Many Druids jumped on board and shouted out to the world just how woefully ineffective they compared to other healers.
And it’s just not true.
First things first, who am I? I’m Oxylos ofon Shattered Hand US. I’m a Tree of Life healing druid, currently specced 5/0/56, and before switching to Tree I was a Dreamstate 33/0/28 spec. I have killed both Lady Vashj and Kael’Thas, and will be entering Mount Hyjal and Black Temple soon. I want to address the fact that in Marilyn’s post, he was referring to the game in Hyjal and BT. If it is true that Hyjal and BT are so completely different than SSC and TK that somehow nothing I will say below applies anymore, then so be it. SSC and TK are what I know best, and for the overwhelming majority of forum goers they are the raids they are either progressing on now, or wish to be shortly. Even if Hyjal and BT do drastically change gameplay, this information will still be very relevant for those working through SSC and TK and can at least help such a Druid be a more effective healer until the time comes to take their turn in Hunterville during the tier 6 instances.
II. Styles of Healing, Old and New.
Prior to Patch 2.1 there were several different styles of healing play used by Druids:
1.) Reactive Raid Healing with HOTs - Thought by many to be the primary job of a Tree of Life Druid. The largest concern raised with this style of Healing is that it requires other healers to trust in the Druid’s HOTs and not Flash Heal a target that just received a Rejuvenation. Often this would not be the case and most of the Druid’s HOT ticks would end up as wasted overhealing.
2.) Reactive Raid Healing with Healing Touch - Arguably the worst style of Druid healing possible. While mana efficient due to Balance talents, this was simply too slow to heal several raid members at 3 seconds per cast. Mana efficient due to balance talents but simply too slow to heal several raid members at three seconds per cast.
3.) Preemptive MT Healing with HOTs - Generally what a Tree of Life Druid would do when there is no raid healing to be done. Keeping HOTs up on a single target to help ease spike damage. While helpful to the raid, the majority of HOT ticks end up as overhealing because all other healers are spamming heals on the same target. Unfortunately mana inefficient due to the regular use of Regrowth.
4.) Preemptive MT Healing with Healing Touch - The benefits of this style are tremendous mana efficiency through downranking, especially with the Dreamstate talent, along with landing large heals and taking some of the sting of overhealing out by consistently having a heal ready to land on the target. The largest downfall of this is that by being locked to a three second cast bar throughout a whole fight the Druid loses not only mobility, but also some ability to adapt to changing situations.
With the release of Patch 2.1 a significant change was made to the Lifebloom spell that opened up a completely new and incredibly powerful style of play:
5.) Preemptive HOT Healing on multiple targets while Reactive Raid Healing with direct heals - The idea of this style of healing is to maintain three stacks of Lifebloom on two or more tanks while also throwing out Rejuvenation+Swiftmend or Regrowth on raid targets in need of small healing. This method of play dramatically increases the raw healing output of a Restoration Druid allowing them to heal for nearly twice as much that of an equally geared Paladin over the same amount of time using close to the same amount of mana (math at bottom of post).
III. Lifebloom Goes on the Patch.
Lifebloom is a Druid HOT that ticks for a small amount every second and, after the seventh tick, wears off and heals the target for a larger amount at the same time. Of particular note is Lifebloom's ability to be stacked three times. Stacking it refreshes the seven second duration, while also increasing the amount it heals each tick. Unfortunately when Lifebloom was first introduced, only the first stack got +healing benefits, and adding the second and third stacks only increased the amount healed per tick by the base value of a Lifebloom heal, 39. This is what changed in patch 2.1.
In WoW 2.1, each application of Lifebloom adds the full amount per tick, essentially doubling or tripling the amount healed each second. Now this is strong, no doubt, but there are several factors associated with Lifebloom that are what really make it shine.
1.) Once there are three stacks on a target it will stay at three stacks as long as it is refreshed before the Lifebloom expires and explodes, e.g. within seven seconds. By maintaining a Lifebloom triple stack the target will receive up to six ticks of triple healing for the cost of one spell each time it is reapplied.
2.) The amount each stack heals for is set by the +Healing at the time the stack was first applied. As long as it is not allowed to explode, the Druid could even remove all their Healing gear and still keep the Lifebloom ticking for the same amount.
3.) In a stacked Lifebloom, since the amount healed for is triple the normal amount for the spell, the effect of +Healing added to the spell is in effect also tripled. Because of this the +Healing stat gains more impact than it normally does in other situations or for other healers.
Due to this last factor the Empowered Rejuvention talent gives a much larger return than it previously had and is incredibly useful for increasing the amount of healing done. Additionaly, it is strongly recommended that a Druid equip themselves with trinkets that have abilities that grant a large +Healing bonus on use for a limited time such as Oshu’gun Relic, Essence of the Martyr, Zandalarian Hero Charm, or Eye of the Dead. By popping two of these trinkets for the initial three applications the Lifebloom ticks will heal with the additional power of 500 or more +Healing for their entire duration.
IV. Multi-Target Healing
The key to success with Lifebloom is that not only can it do a large amount of healing when stacked, but maintaining this only takes 1.5 seconds of cooldown out of every six to seven second casting sequence. This leaves the Druid free to use approximately five seconds of casting or cooldown time to cast other spells in-between refreshing the Lifebloom, and also allows them freedom of movement due to the nature of instant cast spells.
The most effective use of this extra time is to keep Lifebloom stacked on one or more other targets as well, effectively doubling or more the raw amount of healing done every second. Unfortunately not all encounters lend themselves to the optimal scenario for this, multiple tanks taking consistent damage. However, in both Serpentshrine Cavern and The Eye, enough battles do fit this mold to make this strategy successful. The following is a list of the encounters found in these instances and how a multi-target Lifebloom style can fit with them:
Serpentshrine Trash: All of it except for Colossi utilizes more than one tank.
Hydross the Unstable: Three tanks at most times (the phase MT + two OTs)
The Lurker Below: One tank in phase 1, several in phase 2.
Morogrim Tidewalker: One tank through the majority of the fight.
Fathom Lord Karathress: Four tanks early on, as the number of tanks used decreases the number of healers taking consistent damage increases.
Leotheras the Blind: Two tanks used, but the nature of this fight makes the Lifebloom strategy ineffective.
Lady Vashj: Several targets taking damage in phase 2.
TK Trash: Most of the trash except for the Phoenixes uses more than one tank.
Al’ar: One tank at a time in phase 1, multiple OTs to choose from in phase 2.
Void Reaver: Another fight out of tree, but still effective to keep a stack on the MT.
Solarian: If the Wrath of the Astromancer debuff is being tanked by two AR tanks Lifebloom is ideal for healing them.
Kael’Thas: One tank throughout phase 1, several tanks during phases 2, 3, and 4.
In the event that there is only one target in need of healing, the mana strain on the Druid will be light enough to maintain three Lifebloom stacks, Rejuvenation, and Regrowth at all times, along with throwing in a large instant Swiftmend whenever the damage spikes the slightest amount.
V. Spell Rotations
Due to the time sensitive nature of squeezing out as much as possible on a seven second timetable, effective use of spell rotations must be made. A spell rotation is a series of spells cast in a specific order over and over. The reason this is done is to set a casting schedule that allows Lifebloom stacks to always be maintained, while giving the player the most flexibility with the time left over.
In a typical two tank situation the first two spells in a rotation will be Lifebloom Tank 1 and Lifebloom Tank 2. These actions leave the Druid with three seconds of time spent with the Global Cooldown on, and four seconds remaining until the first Lifebloom expires. Due to latency it is important to allow for about a half second of leeway during the rotation, so realistically this leaves three and a half seconds of casting time. More often than not the third spell in a rotation will be a Rejuvenation on one of the tanks. Since Rejuvenation lasts for twelve seconds (and should be allowed to expire before refreshed so the last tick heals) a Druid can Rejuv Tank 1 on the first rotation, and then Tank 2 on the second rotation, and keep switching back and forth.
The final two seconds then of a rotation are usually saved for burst healing in the form of Swiftmend or Regrowth. If one of the targets receives spike damage they can be Swiftmended for a large amount, or if a raid member takes some unexpected damage that a raid healer cannot handle they can be Regrowthed. Also if one of the tanks receives more damage during the encounter a Regrowth can occasionally be placed on them for the additional HOT. Generally speaking, Regrowth should be used sparingly due to its heavy mana requirement.
When using Swiftmend it is important to note that if one of the tanks is spiked while the Druid is reapplying Lifeblooms, the Druid should then Swiftmend as the third spell, and reapply Rejuvenation with the fourth spell. Likewise if a raid member falls near death during Lifebloom reapplication, the third and fourth spell can be used to place a Rejuvenation on them followed immediately by a Swiftmend. This use of Swiftmend will deliver a burst heal to the target in 1.5 seconds, the same speed as the fastest heal of any other class while healing for a larger amount than not only their heals would, but a critical Regrowth would as well, and for less mana combined than one Regrowth.
Another important note is that it is fine to not use the fourth or sometimes even third spell in the rotation. The only completely critical aspect of each cycle is maintaining the three stacks of Lifebloom on all the targets it is required on. When the healing requirements are light, keeping up only the Lifeblooms still provides significant healing while not straining mana much at all. In the event that the Druid will likely be unable to refresh Tank 1’s Lifebloom in time (they had to move a bit to Rebirth, for example) they should not attempt to race the clock and cast Lifebloom on Tank 1 again, and instead should refresh Tank 2’s Lifebloom and spend the next spell rotation stacking Tank 1’s back to three stacks. The reason for this is that since the Lifeblooms are cast in immediate succession, if the first one is cast late, the second will also not make it in time due to the Global Cooldown.
Any time a target loses its Lifebloom stacks (including the beginning of the fight before they have any) the first priority is getting up to three stacks on all necessary targets. This takes precedence over almost any other casting except in the case of emergencies. Generally the only times a Lifebloom should be intentionally let to bloom are when the target will not be taking damage for more than ten or so seconds, or if the current stacks were applied midfight without trinkets activated. In this case once the trinkets become available again the Lifeblooms should be left to explode and then reapplied at their full capacity.
VI. Helpful Tools
In order to facilitate the timing progress, there are many tools at the Druid’s disposal that can make life easier. The first and most important is a timer addon that shows the remaining duration of the HOT spells in use. This allows the user to become more comfortable with the specific timings involved with Lifebloom and maximize the time they have within each cycle while also providing an easy reference of targets available to Swiftmend. There are many addons that can fill this role and I personally recommend DoTimer authored by a fellow Horde on Shattered Hand US, and for which updates can be found at http://wow-en.curse-gaming.com/downloads/details/3260/ .
An important aspect in using timer addons is becoming comfortable with restarting the cycle at the last possible moment which is something that truly only becomes refined through experience. The reason for this is that while no raw healing will be lost by starting a cycle over too soon, (with the exception of refreshing a Rejuvenation before it finishes) beginning the rotation a half second early is a half second that could have passed without more mana being spent. This may seem small at first but losing a half second every six seconds over a ten minute fight can add up to hundreds if not thousands of mana needlessly spent.
Another tool which greatly enhances the time efficiency of Lifebloom stacking is setting up macros which cast Lifebloom on specific targets and keybinding them. For example in a given fight I may have these four separate macros:
/cast [target=Calisc] Lifebloom
/cast [target=Dranlo] Lifebloom
/cast [target=Ruler] Lifebloom
/cast [target=Oxylos] Lifebloom
Each bound to a different key. What this allows me to do is refresh Lifeblooms when necessary without having to bother retargeting first. In doing this I can have another raid member targeted during Lifebloom casts ready to be Rejuvenated when I am done. For users who prefer to click or just use modifier keys in general one larger macro can be created to handle all four jobs:
/cast [modifier:alt, target=Calisc] Lifebloom; [modifier:ctrl, target=Dranlo] Lifebloom; [modifier:shift, target=Ruler] Lifebloom; [target=Oxylos] Lifebloom
Whichever way macros are utilized, they are essential to being as efficient as possible in the spell rotation process.
Possibly the largest tool available to the Druid in terms of adding the most healing to the raid is information. Not only knowing exactly what they are capable of themselves by testing in certain situations, but also informing their group, raid, class leaders, and officers what they are capable of. If a Druid is confident that they can keep up two different targets in an encounter (or largely contribute to the healing of multiple tanks) they need to let that be known. When a Druid can keep up an offtank with Lifeblooms and Rejuvenations, it doesn’t help anyone to also have a Paladin assigned to Flash Heal away on that target as well, wasting both effective healing and mana for both healers.
VII. Math
The following math is using the stats of myself and the top geared Paladin in my guild. These numbers are unbuffed with two exceptions. My Lifeblooms will be using my +Healing bonus with trinkets activated, my Rejuvenations will not. The Paladin will be assuming Blessing of Light on the target.
Druid +Healing: 2002.
Druid +Healing with Trinkets Activated: 2512.
Paladin +Healing: 1963.
Paladin Flash of Light Crit Chance: 21.1%. For the sake of easy math this will be rounded up to 25%.
A three stacked trinketed Lifebloom ticks for 888. Over a 6 second cycle it ticks six times for a total of 5328 healed. In addition during that cycle Rejuvenation will tick two times, adding 932 healed each tick, for a six second total of 7192 raw healing. To maintain this costs the Druid 176 mana for the Lifebloom, and 332 mana every 12 seconds for Rejuvenation, coming out to an average of 342 mana every six seconds.
In a 6 second cycle a Paladin can cast four Flash of Lights. On average this Flash of Light will heal for around 1725. One of these casts will crit and heal for 2588 instead. Over the six second cycle this will total 7763 raw healing. Each cast of Flash of Light is 180 mana, and the critical refunds 60% of its cost for a total of 612 mana spent every six seconds.
In addition to being able to move freely while the Paladin is stuck in place spamming and being in danger of losing casting time or being interrupted, the Druid can do the exact same healing to another target fully doubling his output to 14384 healing (85% more than the Paladin) over 6 seconds for 684 mana. It is also worth noting that this difference of mana spent between the two, 72 mana over 6 seconds, when converted to a five second cycle is 60mp5, a difference of base while casting mana regen often made up by Druids through spirit itemization and the 15% mana regeneration talent.
In the most extreme of cases a Druid can maintain trinketed three stacked Lifeblooms on three different targets while also keeping Rejuvenation on two of them for a total of 19712 raw healing over six seconds for 860 mana. That is over two and a half times as much healing output as an equally geared Paladin.
The final case doesn’t present itself too often, and 860 mana can only be maintained for so long, but I think it does serve to illustrate just how powerful Druid healing can be in comparison to other classes. The two tank case happens quite often and when taken advantage of a Druid can serve to be a tremendous asset to the amount of total raid healing for a given encounter, even going as far as to allow less healers to be taken to a fight in place of more dps.
A last few notes on mana in raids. Firstly, a healer should use a mana potion whenever their mana reaches 3000 below their max mana. In the recent patch the reagents for mana pots where changed to be easier to farm and therefore cheaper to buy, in addition to the introduction of Coilfang and Tempest Keep specific mana pots which are incredibly plentiful and free. Mana pots average 2400 mana gain over 2 minutes which is equivalent to 100mp5. Secondly, while it is unfortunate that this style of play dooms a Druid to be within the “five second rule” for mana regeneration at all times, all that spirit can and should still be put to use via Innervates. If a Paladin asks for an innervate, not giving it to them isn’t being a jerk and trying to deny them raw healing, it’s simply acknowledging that someone with 400 spirit is a significantly better target for Innervate than someone with 100. Lastly, most discussion about Tree of Life centers around its limitations in movement and spell selection compared to the seemingly small bonus of Tree of Life Aura. The true benefit of Tree of Life form, which seems to go almost unnoticed, is the 20% reduction in mana costs, most notably to Lifebloom which the 9% reduction offered by the Moonglow talent does not cover. Over thirty seconds of a Lifebloom, Lifebloom, Rejuvenation cycle Tree of Life form ends up saving the Druid 885 mana, the equivalent of 142mp5!
VIII. Conclusion.
In the end it still comes down to competing for a raid spot. I’m not going to claim that we bring more to the table than the Divine Spirit Priest, the first Windfury and Bloodlust, or the first three Paladin Blessings. It is an unfortunate core issue with the Druid class that our perceived raid utility is limited to the meager Mark of the Wild and a Rebirth every thirty minutes. But twenty five man raids bring more than five healers and when looking past buffs at the role of a healer, a well played Druid that can communicate their abilities and perform them can bring significantly more raw healing than any other class in nearly all circumstances. So much, in fact, that a Druid can cover solo what it would take multiple players of another class to heal.
Appendix A. An Example of the Extreme Case
The following is an example of a casting sequence that I use, and that an aspiring Druid could also use to put this style of play to the test. The encounter is Hydross the Unstable. The way my guild handles the adds is two offtanks collect two adds each, stack them, and AE them down. Hydross is also an aggro sensitive fight as HOTs ticking when he crosses over can lead to disaster.
The fight starts:
Stack Lifebloom on the Frost MT to 3. Add Regrowth and Rejuvenation to the MT. Refresh the Lifebloom three or four times and reapply Rejuvenation as needed. Shortly before the transition allow Lifebloom to explode. During the transition, before the switch, Swiftmend off Rejuvenation.
Transition:
Open with Rejuvenation on the Nature MT as it won’t tick for three seconds and all tanks need a small window to establish aggro. Apply Lifebloom to one OT, then the next OT, then the Nature MT. Repeat immediately until they all have three stacks. On the third cycle add Rejuvenation on the Nature MT as the fourth spell. On the fourth cycle add Innervate as the fourth spell (it will be up again before the fight ends). On the fifth cycle Rejuvenation the MT again, and after the sixth cycle allow the OT Lifeblooms to explode as the adds should be down. Maintain Lifebloom and Rejuvenation on the MT until the same transition timing as before, letting Lifebloom explode and Swiftmending the Rejuvenation during the move.
Repeat this every phase, mana pot whenever available, trinket at the beginning of a phase whenever available. Innervate when it comes up again. Successful application of this strategy will be very visible on healing meters assuming the Druid isn’t comparatively undergeared.
Ok, I was going to get into resto druids in arena (someone like me, who hasn't played a resto druid in years was able to get 2100 on BG9, the hardest battlegroup for arena), but this post is getting long, so we'll save that for another entry in the future.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
How to improve your raids, WWS-style.
Now, you definitely do not have to be a leader to do this, although I feel it is the responsibility of every guild leader to do it.
When you look at your raid, think to yourself, how can you make this raid better. I can only assume that when leading a guild, you would like your guild to be constantly improving. Whether its constantly getting new blood in, recruiting better members, getting more geared up as a whole, getting more experience working together, etc, you want to see these things happening to make your team play better.
Well, much like a professional basketball coach will do after and before games, a very helpful way to improve your team is simply to review the footage from the night before. Now in Warcraft, its difficult to get a fraps of everyone in your raid... in fact, it's darn near unreasonable to do it. But there is a tool out there that exists called WWS-- Wow Web Stats.
It works very simply... anyone in the raid can activate a combat log. It's built into the game.. you just type /combatlog. What this does is it will output all your combat data (and everyone in range) to a text file, which you can then process in WWS after. WWS is a 3rd party program (a Java web application actually) that can parse that combat log that you just took. It goes into some very very good detail, so you can find DPS holes in your raid, or find strategic errors, or just find slacker members.
http://wowwebstats.com
Now how can you use this tool to help your raids? Well, 1st off, try to download an addon or something like "LoggerHead" which can extend the range of your combat log to 200 yards (default is like 45 yards or something small like that..).
Then just follow the directions on the website and start putting up logs. The important thing is to use this to compare both members inside your raid, and to other guilds logs.
If another guild's rogue can do 1400dps, but your guild's rogue can only do 800dps on the same fight... look into it. One would naturally assume gear, but if you look deeper into it, that might not be the case.
If comparing between gear disparity worries you, its ok.. stop comparing with the top 10 guilds in the world. If your guild just killed gruul, keep paging back until you find a dps log that looks close to yours, and see if there's anything they did slightly better than your guild.
The point isn't to use this as some sort of pissing contest to see how good you are compared to others.. it's to use this as a real tool to try to find DPS holes, problem raiders, etc, so you really have to get into the mindset of using this tool to find what part of your raid to devote more time to.
I mean, if on a whole, you see that your shadowpriests are doing only 650dps on a fight where typically other shadow priests in full Frozen Shadowweave are achieving 950dps on, then it's time to examine what they're doing differently, and how to improve that. Is it DoT uptime? Spell/dps cycle? Meta gem or gemming problems in general? Lack of consumables used? This tool can help you a lot, and it has certainly helped my guild tremendously.
When you look at your raid, think to yourself, how can you make this raid better. I can only assume that when leading a guild, you would like your guild to be constantly improving. Whether its constantly getting new blood in, recruiting better members, getting more geared up as a whole, getting more experience working together, etc, you want to see these things happening to make your team play better.
Well, much like a professional basketball coach will do after and before games, a very helpful way to improve your team is simply to review the footage from the night before. Now in Warcraft, its difficult to get a fraps of everyone in your raid... in fact, it's darn near unreasonable to do it. But there is a tool out there that exists called WWS-- Wow Web Stats.
It works very simply... anyone in the raid can activate a combat log. It's built into the game.. you just type /combatlog. What this does is it will output all your combat data (and everyone in range) to a text file, which you can then process in WWS after. WWS is a 3rd party program (a Java web application actually) that can parse that combat log that you just took. It goes into some very very good detail, so you can find DPS holes in your raid, or find strategic errors, or just find slacker members.
http://wowwebstats.com
Now how can you use this tool to help your raids? Well, 1st off, try to download an addon or something like "LoggerHead" which can extend the range of your combat log to 200 yards (default is like 45 yards or something small like that..).
Then just follow the directions on the website and start putting up logs. The important thing is to use this to compare both members inside your raid, and to other guilds logs.
If another guild's rogue can do 1400dps, but your guild's rogue can only do 800dps on the same fight... look into it. One would naturally assume gear, but if you look deeper into it, that might not be the case.
If comparing between gear disparity worries you, its ok.. stop comparing with the top 10 guilds in the world. If your guild just killed gruul, keep paging back until you find a dps log that looks close to yours, and see if there's anything they did slightly better than your guild.
The point isn't to use this as some sort of pissing contest to see how good you are compared to others.. it's to use this as a real tool to try to find DPS holes, problem raiders, etc, so you really have to get into the mindset of using this tool to find what part of your raid to devote more time to.
I mean, if on a whole, you see that your shadowpriests are doing only 650dps on a fight where typically other shadow priests in full Frozen Shadowweave are achieving 950dps on, then it's time to examine what they're doing differently, and how to improve that. Is it DoT uptime? Spell/dps cycle? Meta gem or gemming problems in general? Lack of consumables used? This tool can help you a lot, and it has certainly helped my guild tremendously.
What I've Learned Running A Guild.
Preface: Short warning here, this post may end up turning into a rant of some sort, but that's what I do best!
Now I don't claim to be the best guildleader ever. In fact, I can probably name a few of my shortcomings as a WoW guild leader (and I will later), but I will try to at least bring some light on some things I found to be important... can you apply these lessons in life? Maybe in some context. But here it goes.
1) Understanding your members
Everyone who joins your guild has their own reason for joining. They chose your guild because your guild can offer them something another guild couldn't (whether it was the people, the raiding times, the raiding positions, the pvp groups or hell, maybe you're the only guild he could get into).
Understanding where your members come from is a pretty important part of keeping your guild happy. Now you might think this is overanalyzing the situation (and maybe it is), but generally speaking, you want to try to keep as many people in your guild happy, without compromising someone else's happiness in the guild. If you want your guild to run smoothly, you want to be able to continue offering to that person what they originally joined your guild for. In many cases, you cannot control that... like you can't control friendships. But if you're trying to run a successful raiding guild, you have to cater to their needs (especially your MVP) and work with their personalities.
You know, I have a few emo players that I put up with. I have a few people who just have no skills at all, but high attendance. I have players who refuse to login for a boss where he can't get any decent loot. I have players who will only show up to a farm boss. Should I throw them all away? I mean, a lot of these quirks can hurt your guild if it happens at the wrong time. Honestly, my approach to this (may be different than how others approach it), is that I can still get value from these players. As long as you have a fair and structured reward/consequence system that reflects these types of behavior (be sure not to be too draconian). When these players do decide to play nice, you can extract a lot of value out of them.
2) Befriending your members (or not).
There are people in my guild who can't stand me. I'm a number cruncher. I check WWS logs after every raid. I theorycraft at work. I can be a smartass... I've read hundreds of pages of other people's experiences with different encounters or dps strategies. I tell them they're playing poorly.
Well, how can I be friends with everyone in the guild if I do things that not everyone likes? Well, I can't. I try to be friendly with everyone in the guild, but it just can't happen. But there is something very important that does need to happen... everyone in the guild needs to respect you to some degree.
No matter how much they hate the fact that I'm often quoting how 20 other guilds do something better than we do, and how they do it, the fact is that at least at some level, they respect the fact that I'm actually going out of my way to IMPROVE the guild. So while at some level some people might find me as an overbearing leader, they also realize that nothing I do is going to be for the wrong reasons.
Which brings me to another point..
3) Maintaining respect.
It's extremely important to maintain the respect of your peers. Things fall apart when they will no longer trust you. There are many things you can do which help destroy that trust, and most of it has to do with the level of corruption that sometimes takes place amongst leaders.
You should always remain fair on loot. Just because you're leader and you invented all the loot rules doesn't mean that you can do whatever you want with the loot. You have to follow your own rules too.
There is no perfect loot system, and I understand that. In our own loot system (we use an auction system), there are times where I can see if the auction closes as-is, there would be a serious misallocation of loot for the purposes of raid progression. So while I retain the right to override bids in many situations, when I do so, I prepare myself to justify it in detail to all the other 25 witnesses in the raid... not doing so will quickly make it seem like abuse of power, even if it was clearly for the sake of the guild, and not b/c of some hidden agenda.
And even then, you simply can't justify everything with "it's what was in the guild's best interest". Going back to point #1, you have to know your members, and there has to be some sort of balance between rewarding long time members and doing things solely for the sake of progression. While many times those 2 coincide and go hand in hand, you have to strike a balance for the times when those 2 do not align exactly.
You should also respect other people's time. Just because you're running a tight ship and constantly rotating people in and out, you have to respect the fact that someone really wanted to show up and logged in at 6pm for a raid spot. Even if the player is subpar in someway, and some better player logged in at 7pm, and you want to boot the other player out for him, you have to respect the fact that one guy was on time, and the other wasn't, and either ask nicely, or work something out between the two. Not respecting that players time and effort is a quick way for him to lose respect for you as well.
4) Leading by example.
In the end, it really can't help if most of your guild thinks they can do things better than you can. In order to maintain any sort of control over the guild, they have to trust that the advice and orders you're giving are somewhat accurate. They also have to see that you're practicing what you're preaching, otherwise, they'll just head for greener pastures.
If you yell at people about attendance, you can't be sporting a 45% raid attendance yourself. If you're complaining about lack of consumables used, you can't be going to raids potless/flaskless. If you're complaining about people's DPS, you can't be sitting at last place yourself. This is probably the most obvious point, but it's still one of the most important.
Now I don't claim to be the best guildleader ever. In fact, I can probably name a few of my shortcomings as a WoW guild leader (and I will later), but I will try to at least bring some light on some things I found to be important... can you apply these lessons in life? Maybe in some context. But here it goes.
1) Understanding your members
Everyone who joins your guild has their own reason for joining. They chose your guild because your guild can offer them something another guild couldn't (whether it was the people, the raiding times, the raiding positions, the pvp groups or hell, maybe you're the only guild he could get into).
Understanding where your members come from is a pretty important part of keeping your guild happy. Now you might think this is overanalyzing the situation (and maybe it is), but generally speaking, you want to try to keep as many people in your guild happy, without compromising someone else's happiness in the guild. If you want your guild to run smoothly, you want to be able to continue offering to that person what they originally joined your guild for. In many cases, you cannot control that... like you can't control friendships. But if you're trying to run a successful raiding guild, you have to cater to their needs (especially your MVP) and work with their personalities.
You know, I have a few emo players that I put up with. I have a few people who just have no skills at all, but high attendance. I have players who refuse to login for a boss where he can't get any decent loot. I have players who will only show up to a farm boss. Should I throw them all away? I mean, a lot of these quirks can hurt your guild if it happens at the wrong time. Honestly, my approach to this (may be different than how others approach it), is that I can still get value from these players. As long as you have a fair and structured reward/consequence system that reflects these types of behavior (be sure not to be too draconian). When these players do decide to play nice, you can extract a lot of value out of them.
2) Befriending your members (or not).
There are people in my guild who can't stand me. I'm a number cruncher. I check WWS logs after every raid. I theorycraft at work. I can be a smartass... I've read hundreds of pages of other people's experiences with different encounters or dps strategies. I tell them they're playing poorly.
Well, how can I be friends with everyone in the guild if I do things that not everyone likes? Well, I can't. I try to be friendly with everyone in the guild, but it just can't happen. But there is something very important that does need to happen... everyone in the guild needs to respect you to some degree.
No matter how much they hate the fact that I'm often quoting how 20 other guilds do something better than we do, and how they do it, the fact is that at least at some level, they respect the fact that I'm actually going out of my way to IMPROVE the guild. So while at some level some people might find me as an overbearing leader, they also realize that nothing I do is going to be for the wrong reasons.
Which brings me to another point..
3) Maintaining respect.
It's extremely important to maintain the respect of your peers. Things fall apart when they will no longer trust you. There are many things you can do which help destroy that trust, and most of it has to do with the level of corruption that sometimes takes place amongst leaders.
You should always remain fair on loot. Just because you're leader and you invented all the loot rules doesn't mean that you can do whatever you want with the loot. You have to follow your own rules too.
There is no perfect loot system, and I understand that. In our own loot system (we use an auction system), there are times where I can see if the auction closes as-is, there would be a serious misallocation of loot for the purposes of raid progression. So while I retain the right to override bids in many situations, when I do so, I prepare myself to justify it in detail to all the other 25 witnesses in the raid... not doing so will quickly make it seem like abuse of power, even if it was clearly for the sake of the guild, and not b/c of some hidden agenda.
And even then, you simply can't justify everything with "it's what was in the guild's best interest". Going back to point #1, you have to know your members, and there has to be some sort of balance between rewarding long time members and doing things solely for the sake of progression. While many times those 2 coincide and go hand in hand, you have to strike a balance for the times when those 2 do not align exactly.
You should also respect other people's time. Just because you're running a tight ship and constantly rotating people in and out, you have to respect the fact that someone really wanted to show up and logged in at 6pm for a raid spot. Even if the player is subpar in someway, and some better player logged in at 7pm, and you want to boot the other player out for him, you have to respect the fact that one guy was on time, and the other wasn't, and either ask nicely, or work something out between the two. Not respecting that players time and effort is a quick way for him to lose respect for you as well.
4) Leading by example.
In the end, it really can't help if most of your guild thinks they can do things better than you can. In order to maintain any sort of control over the guild, they have to trust that the advice and orders you're giving are somewhat accurate. They also have to see that you're practicing what you're preaching, otherwise, they'll just head for greener pastures.
If you yell at people about attendance, you can't be sporting a 45% raid attendance yourself. If you're complaining about lack of consumables used, you can't be going to raids potless/flaskless. If you're complaining about people's DPS, you can't be sitting at last place yourself. This is probably the most obvious point, but it's still one of the most important.
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