Matt’s Notebook: Broodkeeper Diurna, Week 1

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Progress started on Diurna for the first time this past weekend. We defined our goals early on here:

  • Get comfortable with egg routing and egg breaks
  • Control the ads as they spawn
  • Move and adjust defensive CDs during big damage points
  • Get to phase 2

We actually accomplished most of it. The first night was a challenge as the focus was on survival and moving around the arena. There are so many different things to get accustomed to that wouldn’t be given a second thought on Heroic. Every person’s DPS matters. By the end of the second night, we were getting to phase 2 but we couldn’t do it cleanly because we had two of the fire drakes up. Not having Arcane Torrent to help quickly remove the Cauterizing Flashflames didn’t help either. This week will be spent on refining the rest of our CDs and getting good looks into phase 2.

  • I don’t think I’ve seen a longer list of cooldowns in my life. All defensives and Mass Dispels were included. Might have to edit MRT to show just my CDs to shrink down the footprint of the window.
  • Mobility problems as a Priest continue to be a bane. With our ad tank being a Demon Hunter, there’s an early set of eggs that involves him leaping across the room. I’m struggling to keep up while navigating the Ionizing Charge and ensuring I don’t run into anyone else.
  • Review the tank soaks with the Detonating Stoneslams. It’s been nerfed but it’ll warrant further discussion if we need to provide help with added soaks or defensives. Can’t soak it twice in a row due to a debuff on the first soak which would lead to lethal damage on the second.
  • Chugging a channeled mana potion is hard. There doesn’t seem to be a safe time to use it to allow for a full duration. I have to keep experimenting and finding one that will work.
  • We entered phase 2 with 61 million health left which is unfortunately too high. We need to enter that transition with about 50 million or so health instead. Lots of options being explored. We could take one player off of the ad group. We could also play with one person focusing on the boss at the start and then rotating to ads after the first wave. Testing will answer that question to see which one’s more feasible.
  • Recruiting a Death Knight and a Warlock is next on our priorities list. But we’re at the point in the tier where raid extensions are all that’s left. With spring and summer coming up, I need to make sure we have a solid group of players do that no raids are canceled due to excessive absences and to help rotate breaks.

Looking forward to week 2 though! If we’re lucky, we’ll be in striking range of getting Diurna down. In the meantime, I’ve been grinding the new Diablo 3 season ever since it came out. My altar is almost complete. I’m just hard stuck at this Staff of Herding step. What a grind.

Matt’s Notebook: Dathea Defeated

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I’ve been surprised again. I did not think this was the weekend that we would get Dathea down. I figured it would’ve taken us longer than 9 hours, but we managed to do it in one raid week. We swiftly cleared Eranog and Primal Council before engaging this giant bag of, uh… air. Even though I didn’t participate in this one, I was still observing from the side and making notes or reminders here and there in the event any cooldowns need to be moved elsewhere.

  • We started with 5 healers but dropped to 4. As I was the only healer in the composition without an interrupt, it made the most sense that I was on the sideline for this one. A Shadow Priest took over to ensure Fortitude buff was still in place. I actually felt relieved more than anything as I’m not my strongest in encounters where there are movement-inhibiting abilities or large knockbacks. There were times I would deliberately angle my knockback into a tornado and get redirected upwards. May as well put that Panda fall damage racial bonus to good use right?
  • Static Discharge management. On Mythic, Conductive Marks don’t disappear. You need to run it over an inactive Infuser that’s just sitting there. After it gets 10 stacks, it activates and needs to get tanked and then defeated. Whenever a player dumps a Mark, everyone gets a Static Discharge buff for several seconds. Typically, healers can handle 3 to 4 stacks of that DoT without anything else going on (and with a full raid on the main platform). Initial progression was spent learning how to handle the timing for it and how high we could wrestle with the stacks before healers started croaking.
  • Masterclass in stun, interrupt, and knockbacks. With 6 Thunder Callers on each side platform, we had to make sure each group had enough control. Interrupt the Thunder Callers and knock them in to maximize the effectiveness of AoE stuns like Capacitor Totems or Leg Sweep. Healers had to commit at least one delayed major healing defensive to survive.
  • We completed this encounter without a Death Knight. That is like an affix on it’s own. Death Knights are integral to controlling platform ads and bringing them together. Credit to the DPS units for making this work and mapping out every interrupt and stun.
  • Platform efficiency. We settled on going for 4 platforms and then ignoring the fifth. Each group went up twice. We kept two DPS on the boss at all times and they did not join any of the platform groups. We reasoned that if they did so, then boss health would’ve been higher and the encounter would’ve taken longer which meant a higher chance of getting overwhelmed at the end.
  • Traffic control. Someone who was on the main platform at all times could issue instructions specifically on when it was safe to drop Conductive Marks and to which Infuser. There are times where it is not safe to spawn an Infuser and times when we needed to accelerate it. This allowed players to focus on their own survival from abilities and concentrate on their DPS rotation and uptimes. It was much more reassuring to have someone confirm your decision-making and timing.
  • No more farm. Now that we’re knocking on Diurna’s doorstep, reclears are off the table. We project it’ll take another weekend or two to master the egg breaking routes and the increased damage then the real progress starts with Raz. That might take another 4-6 weeks. With potential nerfs coming, that timing might shrink.
  • Roster needs. I have to got to find another healer. We’re about to enter the spring season which means there maybe some additional time away for players on some weekends. We need the added coverage. A Preservation Evoker is high on my list but a Discipline Priest is a close second.
  • Cutting Edge is now within striking distance. I’ll admit, I had reservations about getting there after the final season of Shadowlands and the personnel we had then. But we were able to put together a strong, determined roster since Dragonflight debuted. Even though we raid 6 hours a week, most of the raid discussion happens during the week leading up to it. The strategy preparation and contribution from all areas of the raid group played a strong role in minimizing downtime on game days and allowed for big gains in progression pulls.

Mage PoV of the whole encounter: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1742671538

Diurna progress starts this week!

Mythic Dungeon Season 1 Isn’t Fun

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I want to take a moment and just discuss the state of keys and dungeons for this first season of Dragonflight. There’s some definite negativity going around with the dungeons, the affixes, and the season in general. I’m not immune to it and I understand it. But I’ve never participated in a season where I’ve witnessed players just bailing on keys mid-run.

This just happened to me the other day. I mean, yeah it’s Tyrannical this week, but I don’t think it was impossible. It would’ve been very close.

Anyway, I find the atmosphere around keys have been quite gloomy and not as optimistic. Some of my friends in previous seasons who aimed to push and test their ability to climb as high as possible aren’t going for it this season. They’re content to just get their +20s done and unlock their portals then call it until the next season.

Why Is That?

Because it’s not fun!

Thundering is just not enjoyable at all. You get a buff that’s difficult to discern in what is often a visual cornucopia of ground effects, spell effects, and other bullshit on your screen. In order to handle it effectively, you need to have some Thundering Weak aura installed that gives you and your team the best chance of clearing it at the right time so you can track who has what debuff and where they are. It can be hard to tell the differences between two shades of gray when you’re on other sides of the room or a mob pack without it.

Seriously, I would’ve made the positive a bright purple and the negative a Lucio green or something to make it pop that much more.

Furthermore, if you fail to clear it, you get stunned and you take damage that normally isn’t bad by itself and is survivable, but when combined with other incoming attacks is often lethal to one person. It’s at the point where I’ll clear it within 5 seconds right away to not have to deal with it. The 30% buff to performance just isn’t worth the risk.

Let’s look back.

Shadowlands Season 1

  • Prideful: It was okay, but if you didn’t utilize the Prideful buff, you risked completely bricking your key. You sure did feel amazing though when you had the Prideful buff.
  • Tormented: Better. You got to pick a buff. Your character got stronger and stayed that way for the course of the dungeon. Depending on your role, there were certain must-have picks. It may have been boring, but it wasn’t actively punishing.
  • Encrypted: Easily one of my favourites. The relics were great and it spawned a mob that you had to deal with which buffed your party temporarily. Priest Boon of Ascendance with near-unlimited cooldown recovery was just fun even if it was for a few seconds. You could tailor your routes accordingly by targeting Wo and using invisibility to get around.
  • Shrouded: Alas, this one was also kind of boring since it was just a flat stat buff as you progressed. But if you defeated the Infiltrators, you still gained a buff and you could feel your character get that much stronger over time within the dungeon.

None of the ones here felt overly punishing. Even if the affixes themselves seemed dull, that’s okay. Let the dungeon itself provide that fun factor.

I won’t touch too much on the BfA affixes. Those ones were just extra things that made the dungeon more challenging and didn’t offer much of a benefit except for Awakened which was neat and allowed for creative pathing with the Obelisks and the alternate universe.

In any event, Thundering doesn’t provide an impactful performance when playing. I’m not sure how I would really fix it. One thing I would do is make it less punishing — Remove the stun if two people don’t clear and just leave a DoT on the affected. At least it gives the players some chance of recovery. If they do it, great. If not, well they’re dead anyway. A DoT plus a stun is excessive. It’s so punishing that it leads average players (like myself) to not even risk a long duration of the buff. If it was just a few DoT ticks, I can make that tradeoff calculation in my head and decide whether it was worth that extra party damage and healing through it.

The seasonal affixes have the opportunity to make even the most dreadful dungeons appealing.

King’s Rest?

Shrine of the Storm?

Sanguine Depths?

De Other Side?

Cathedral?

I absolutely hated healing through all of these, but give me Encrypted or Tormented and even the most hated dungeons go from “hell no!” to “okay, fine!”. As for the other dungeon affixes, I don’t have a strong opinion about them one way or the other. The Bolstering change has been incredible. This week with Tyrannical, Bolstering, and Volcanic is a great push week. Managed to get to +2400 on my alts to the point now where both my Mage and my Evoker have more portals than my Priest. But for the designers, I implore you. Incentivize the players with the benefit of doing the seasonal affix. Don’t punish them. If you want to make dungeons difficult, the rotating weekly affixes already do that. If you want a challenge, then let the dungeon trash or boss do that. But adding another pain point in the form of a seasonal affix that operates under “If you don’t do this, bad things will happen” is backbreaking. Make the seasonal affix something that players look forward to and are eager for.

The Dragonflight Launch Experience

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Mine was awful.

I know it’s been over two months since the game launched but this was one of the less smooth launches I’ve experienced in recent history. I was able to click the portal in Stormwind harbor to get through, but after that my game experience degraded significantly. My spells would go through but I didn’t get any feedback or response from the world. I was constantly rubberbanding. After a few minutes of this, I gave up. It didn’t help that I was on Stormrage, which is one of the more populated Alliance servers. I ended up switching to my other Priest on Emerald Dream and slowly leveling that. Ultimately, what I ended up doing was spending about 40 minutes there leveling and unlocking Dragonflying solely so I could collect all the Dragon glyphs. I knew they were account bound. I leveled my Emerald Dream Priest up to level 62 with some light questing and exploration before taking another attempt on my main. Thankfully, it seemed most of the players had already spread out and moved on from the area which eased congestion.

The Legion and Battle for Azeroth launch experiences were terrific in that it allows players to select where to start questing first. Shadowlands and Dragonflight switched back to that linear storytelling and caused a great crush of players funneling through one area. Even though it didn’t seem as bad in Shadowlands, it wasn’t an enjoyable opening experience for me in Dragonflight. Either way, the Dragon glyphs helped me catch up immensely and I was able to reach max level well after midnight.

Thankfully, there isn’t as much of a forced grind anymore. The updated renown system is fun and does not feel required. I can choose to participate in a hunt or a feast and not feel guilty if I decide to forego it. At this point, I’ve maxed out my Iskarr and Dragonscale Expedition reputations and I’m taking it easy on the rest of the activities. I can focus more on my alts (a Frost Mage, an Evoker, and a second Holy Priest). Definitely still racing on all my characters though since it’s about 2000 gold per character.

After Christmas and New Year’s, DJ’s is currently sitting at 4/8 Mythic with a disappointing 5% wipe on Kurog last weekend. Kurog will go down this weekend for sure. Unfortunately, the wipe occurred due to a call that in retrospect wasn’t the correct play to make at the time, but that’s another story for another day. (Edit: We killed it this week putting us up to 5/8 M)

With Media Temple shutting down and merging operations with Godaddy, I decided it was time to switch hosts again. I’ve gone through multiple themes and looks over the year, but for this iteration, I wanted to pare down. I want the focus to be on the content and I’ve updated the look to reflect that. It’s much more minimalist than before. Could use a logo refresh though, but I’m out of ideas. Maybe a globe in there somewhere.

To all the Wrath Classic players who’ve stumbled in here for the old Ulduar healing guides, I hope you find something useful. I can’t guarantee accuracy anymore since the game and raid philosophy has changed greatly.

Still looking for a job. If anyone needs an experienced producer, PM, or project coordinator, let me know!

So Long, Shadowlands!

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You were a rough expansion to start but ultimately just okay. Ultimately, it ended up being pretty fun towards the conclusion of the expansion.

What happened to me during the past several months?

After my previous guild decided to disband from raiding and leadership stepped down, I was idle for several months before I signed on with Death Jesters on Stormrage (Yes, that Death Jesters). It’s been a thrill and although I’m disappointed for not being able to secure Cutting Edge in any of the tiers, I’m looking forward to Dragonflight. Although the organization isn’t pursuing top ranks and pushing high-end progression, the atmosphere continues to be fun and focused. It’s a far cry from previous years when they would frequently challenge for top placements. Now the guild is home to players on the older side with families and other obligations which prevent progression raiding.

I did it again

After a few months on the roster, I volunteered to help with recruiting efforts. I agreed to headhunt and recruit for specific classes or roles that we needed and continue posting guild ads on various communities to raise our visibility and profile for interested free-agent players.

That was enough to get me elevated to a leadership position.

I don’t know why this happens to me.

I hope I get a raise to my repair bill stipend at the end of the year.

It’s a weird spot to be in since after I winded down Conquest, I told myself I just wanted to play the game. Proper Villains allowed me to do just that all the way from the end of Legion through to Shadowlands before we succumbed to Castle Nathria.

Anyway, if you’re one of the few people that still check on my blog once in a while, DJ’s is looking specifically for:

  • DPS Warrior
  • DPS Monk
  • Any ranged DPS

The roster size is sitting at 25 but we would love to raise it up to 28. We raid Friday and Saturday nights from 11 PM Eastern to 2 AM Eastern. Raiding aspirations are CE for all of Dragonflight and to do that on a 2-night schedule means we need to be efficient and quick to learn.

Apply here!

Shadowlands Review

With the expansion wrapping up, it’s time to discuss what worked well and what didn’t. I had high hopes at the start. Torghast seemed like a fun piece of content but it quickly became an added requirement when legendary currency was tied to it.

What worked

  • Covenants: Seems like a big stride overall in the reputation system. This has carried over into Dragonflight with the four new factions. It reminds me of a mini in-game battlepass for each of them with assorted rewards and event unlocks.
  • Legendaries: Revisiting a few legendaries from Legion was fun. I would’ve appreciated more diversity in choice as a Holy Priest, but Flash Concentration was just too good.
  • Torghast: As mentioned at the start, the roguelike content for WoW was a nice diversion. I think revisiting something like this has it’s place in the game but the reward and systems structure warrant a closer look. I didn’t like feeling I had to run it twice every week at the start to continue to power up my legendary in addition to everything else that needed to be farmed.
  • Fated Raids: A bit controversial among some, but I felt it was a neat mechanic to revisit and recycle Nathria and Sanctum to make them somewhat relevant again. Great way to add a bit of complexity and depth to some of the Mythic encounters while training players to zero in more on the buff mechanics.
  • Threads of Fate: One of the few alt friendly systems added to the game. It was easy to just zone out and complete various quests without following a linear track. Glad to see it come back to Dragonflight.
  • Creation Catalyst: This was a late expansion addition as an element of bad luck protection for gear. Makes sense with the introduction of tier gear again to give everyone an eventual path to their full set.
  • Dinar Tokens: Another fun late expansion addition saw a way for players who missed out on certain weapons, trinkets, and rings as an alternative way of obtaining them. Yes, I’m looking right at you, Soulwarped Seal of Wrynn. The hard limit of 3 tokens was a fair restriction. I ended up with a surplus of 2 tokens that I’m just going to use on Shadow gear for leveling (Hello, Antumbra, Shadow of the Cosmos).
  • Zereth Mortis: It was just pleasant to be in a new outdoor zone that’s vibrant and not all doomy or gloomy. Still not sold on Poc-o-Poc then again, I’ve never really been into those pet things or any of the cool outdoor features.
  • Tazavesh: I hope we get to come back to this place in the future as it’s own capital city somehow. It made for a fun mega dungeon. Between this, Mechagon, and Karazhan, it’s been my favourite.
  • Castle Nathria and Sepulcher: Although Nathria was where my Proper Villains stopped raiding, I still enjoyed the encounters. Denathrius was one of the better end-tier bosses. Sun King is one of those rare bosses that also emphasizes healing directly as a mechanic and allows us to go off (especially Holy Priests).
  • Mythic+: The end-game dungeon system gets further refinement. Not only did we get new affixes, but now we’re getting a seasonal rotation of dungeons. It started with Season 4 and revisiting old favourites like Mechagon and Karazhan, but boy if there was ever a case against voting and democracy, Grimrail Depot is the perfect example of it. Definitely not fun in a close-quarters environment with the likes of Quaking and Shrouded.

What didn’t work

  • Currency grinding (Anima, Soul Ash, etc): Three straight expansions worth of grinding for borrowed power gains gets kind of annoying. We had Artifact Power in Legion, Azerite Power in Battle for Azeroth, and then a combination of Anima, Soul Ash, Soul Cinders, and Cosmic Flux (to a lesser extent). Normally, I’m fine with most currency grinds but this just felt excessive.
  • The Maw: For the first few weeks, this wasn’t so bad. What got to me was the constant weekly hunt for souls to turn in at our Covenant in order to unlock more of the features (and it ended up increasing in quantity). I liked the element of constant danger but the inability to mount was just so troublesome. I was extremely happy after getting the Maw mount as it made traversing the large zone that much easier. If there were more teleports to areas around the zone, it might’ve helped eased the frustration and annoyance I felt.
  • Korthia: I can’t explain why this zone didn’t connect with me. Maybe it just reminded me of the Maw too much. There were some nice activities and fun encounters, but aside from the story progression and the various character moments, Korthia wasn’t a zone that Iooked forward to.
  • Soulbinds: Didn’t really feel connected with any of them. It did feel more like a hassle to switch to the one I wanted to use for various activities (Raiding vs M+).
  • Conduits: This might be why I didn’t care much for the soul binds. Not only did we have to get the right conduits to drop, but we also had to progress and upgrade them accordingly. I already that for normal gear and it was an annoyance to me to need to do that for abilities and spells.
  • Covenant Swapping: Although Covenants were fine, it was the swapping between Covenants that proved to be an undertaking at the start of the expansion. Some were suited for raiding and others were better for M+. Had to jump through multiple hoops and grind some more just to change allegiances. The current iteration should’ve been in from the beginning.
  • Sanctum of Domination: Painsmith and Sylvanas were absolute grinds. I did not look forward to stepping into this place and my best showing was only 1 Mythic boss cleared when it was level relevant.

There are more things that I’ve forgotten about or that have changed over the course of the expansion, I’m sure. Right now, all eyes are looking towards Dragonflight at the end of the month. Whether or not Shadowlands will be remembered fondly or not is a question to be answered in the next decade.