The Care and Keeping of Recruits

by

Welcome mat

One of the best bosses I ever had was fond of saying:

“Expectations without support erode trust.”

My beloved guild lets me handle pretty much anything to do with Priests, without making me be an actual officer. I do the recruiting and the interviews, I give input on Priest-related loot council and raid spots, and make the recommendation for full membership. I appreciate the respect and autonomy my Raid Leader and Officers have given me, and in return I make sure that our Priest-corps is always prepared to do the best we can.

Sydera recently wrote a great article on how to recruit a healer, and the 10th step hit home: Follow up:

Your guild has a new healer, and you are the person she knows best. Serve as her mentor, and check in with her often. If the guild isn’t happy with your recruit’s performance, be the one to explain why. If it seems that the guild is a good fit, be her champion when the officers vote on whether she should be promoted to full member.

This is so unbelievably true, and I think is a huge reason that some guilds experience high amounts of recruit turn-over. They can get players in the door, but one or two epics later, they’re gone again. The reason seems to be that the new raiders never really found a warm welcome, or a sense of belonging – just a lot of high-pressure to perform with little feedback and even less help. Here’s how I avoid turnover with my recruits, and help them realize their Priestly potential.

Set Clear Expectations

This process starts in the interview. Be explicit with your expectations – gear, consumables, punctuality, and attendance. I tell Holy recruits that I’m looking for a Priest to take my place. I want them to out-heal me, to be more familiar with the class and fights than I am, and to teach me a thing or two. If they accept that challenge, I tell them I will help them gear up, adjust their UI’s and learn the fights – and invite them to my guild.

Give A Sense of Structure

Tell them what the Raid schedule typically is. Sure, they may know that you raid M-Th 6-10 server, but if you know that Monday is guaranteed to be a progression boss with no Trials in attendance, tell them. If you don’t know exactly what’s on the menu, at least give them the options for the next day. It could go something like this: “We’ll probably raid Sunwell tomorrow, so be prepared for that. If [Paladin] can’t come, it’ll be BT. You’ll be required for BT, but may have the night off if it’s Sunwell.” That way, they can plan ahead – they may need time to farm shadow resist gear, or different consumables. They may need to adjust their dailies for more repair bill or respec money. Be courteous, and give them the information they’l need to make a good impression.

Make Yourself Available

Let the recruit know when you’ll be available for last minute questions before the raid. Seek them out, and ask them what assistance they need – not if they need assistance. (A subtle but important difference.) Remember, you’re the recruiting officer of the big, scary progression guild – and that can be intimidating, even if the night before you told them to seek you out.

Make Sure They’re Really Prepared

At this point, you know their gear is okay from the interview. But raid-prep can get glossed over. Typically, I ask specific questions about a few things:

  • Do you have enough elixirs, flasks, and mana pots?
  • Do you have enough food?
  • Do you have enough cash for repairs and/or respecs?
  • Do you have enough reagents?

    • I also make sure that I’m clear about my definition of “enough”. Their old guild might have been okay with 10 elixirs and 20 candles. I carry full stacks of 3 kinds of elixirs and 200 candles. Don’t get me started on food, pots, oils, and flasks. The idea is to avoid any lack of communication that could result in your recruit being singled out as unprepared. You know what the expectations are, but they do not. Help them. Personally, I always bring enough consumables to a recruit’s first raid for both of us. If they forget anything or need anything, I want them to ask ME in a whisper, not the raid in vent. These small things matter, and a recruit who is nervous over something as minor as reagents will not perform at their best. Help them make the best first impression they can.

    Raid Mechanics

    Most guilds are pretty good about making sure recruits get a run-down of how the fight is done – even with a basically similar strat, most guilds have a few quirks that should be explained to avoid confusion. What gets missed are the details of how your Raid works overall. Make sure your new player knows any extra channels they should join (class channel, healer channel, etc.), what officer gives out the target-assignments, and how to bid for loot (& whether they’re eligible.) It’s not as big an issue with DPSers, but for healers, give specific healing assignments. “Heal Joe”  may mean something to you, but if it is really Joeblaze, the Warlock tank in Group 4, that could make a difference. Also, if you’re in a situation where tanks are passing aggro – think Netherspite, Hydross, BloodBoil, or Kalecgos – and calling on vent, make sure players know to say their names.”I’ve got it!” wastes time, but “Stefizzle, taunting” means new healers don’t have to guess whose voice goes with what .

    Give Feedback

    I’ve made my position on meters pretty clear. They’re a very visible part of my UI. One of the biggest reasons is that I’ve noticed the best way to improve performance is to give timely feedback, whether positive or negative. With Recount open at all times, I can tell if my new CoH Priest is using CoH 84% of the time, and not using ProM at all. More importantly, I can tell him how to modify his style to improve, right now. I can also quicky find out how much overhealing is going on, whether the right targets are being healed, what was responsible for killing someone, and any other information that allows me to analyse my recruits’ performances. (Personally, I also set the recruit as my focus – I pay attention to their casting bar, spell rank, timing, target, health and mana levels.) Creepy? Sure. Relevant? Absolutely. Telling a DPSer that they need 10k more output to catch up with the mage above them, or a healer that another 3k will top that Shammy gets results. They work harder and faster. When they do well, I’ll also link the meter in the appropriate channel. Nothing makes someone’s day like showing them in the #1 spot to the whole raid. (I usually just link the first or second spots to avoid high amounts of spam.)

    Back Them Up

    Sometimes, bad things happen. Players die, raids wipe – and in the spirit of fixing it, we all look for the cause. Be an advocate for your recruit. It’s easy to blame the new healer for the Tank’s death, but if you know the real problem was something else, speak up. What are sound reasons coming from you may sound like excuses coming from them. On the other hand, If the problem really WAS the recruit, you can help them fix it.

    When They Struggle

    Even the best applicants can turn out to be lackluster players. Be prepared to talk to them, either 1:1 or with your Raid Leader, about their perspective on the problem, and possible solutions. Provide resources outside the game for them to peruse and soak up information. In the end, if they’re not a good fit, or not talented enough to keep up with the content, you’ll both be able to make the best decision – no waiting to “see if they get better or whether they just need a little more experience”.

    If you’ve given them the help, environment, and resources they need to be successful, you can part company on good terms – and they, with a full understanding of your expectations, may even be able to refer other players who would be a better fit.

    And you thought the hardest part of recruiting was finding good players! The thing to remember is that different personality types thrive in different environments. Personally, nothing will make me perform better than a situation where I have to fight to prove that I’m the best – provided that once I’ve done so, the achievement is recognized. Others seem to need a bit more coaching, and relatively well-defined requirements and goals. Tailor your leadership style to their needs; don’t force them to conform to you. Just remember that although their job is to impress you, your job is to make sure that they know how to do theirs.

    Luv,
    Wyn

    Future Overachievers Anonymous: How Achievements Will Rock the Social World of Wrath of the Lich King

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    Ever since the first articles started coming out about the Wrath Alpha, I’ve been intrigued by the achievements interface. Most writers in the blogosphere are excited about the change–at the level of the individual player, the achievement system will enhance the fun factor of playing the game. Check out this article from Matticus to see what I mean. The achievement panel as it currently exists in the Beta is a detailed look at your character’s past, and it serves as a scrapbook or photo album of that character’s virtual life.

    sydera best achievements

    On a personal level, I could not be more excited about the achievements. Many of the cleverly-described feats on Sydera’s achievement screen took very real blood, sweat, and sleep deprivation from my entire guild to accomplish, and seeing them spelled out makes me feel quite proud. As for the personal achievements, I feel nostalgic when I see how many quests I did in certain areas or how many horde fires I extinguished during the Fire Festival.

    While the achievement system may be new to the World of Warcraft, it’s not exactly an innovation in the gaming universe. The WoW achievement system is a descendant of the character progress-tracking systems in console games and single-player PC games. High score tables such as those found on old-school arcade machines like Ms. Pacman or Donkey Kong are among the earliest achievement systems. When video games first invaded the living room, Atari pioneered a system of clothing patches you could earn by mailing them a photograph of your TV screen. In more recent years, achievement systems have become a fully articulated means to track one’s virtual progress and experience. For example, in Neverwinter Nights, my heroine’s feats were described at length in a journal, to which I could add my own notes if I wished. I really enjoyed reading through that journal at the end of the game–while I’m not a roleplayer per se, I do delight in story and character.

    The direct ancestor of achievements in Wrath, however, is the system developed by Microsoft for the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 achievement system is unique in two ways: the console stores achievements independent of specific games, and all Xbox 360 games are designed to have achievements. The company also intends for players to view and react to others’ achievements through Xbox LIVE gamer profiles. As their website cheerily declares, “Half the fun comes in comparing your own achievements to those of your friends and competitors.”

    In Wrath, players will similarly be able to “compare achievements” when they inspect each other, opening up a whole new avenue of uses for the system.

    isidora compares achievements

    The crucial difference between Wrath and Xbox LIVE is that Warcraft is a fully-fledged social universe with millions of citizens who constantly interact in profound and diverse ways. The revolutionary aspects of the new WoW achievement system will thus be in the realm of player interaction. And now, I will break out my fuzzy pink [Future-Predicting Dice of the Monkey] and prophesy for you what will happen when the WoW community meets the achievement panel. Based on my observations of the current social customs of WoW players, sweeping changes will occur in the following four areas.

    1. Guild recruiting

    This is the potential change that interests me the most, as I really enjoy interviewing new players for my guild. With the achievement system in place, my interview criteria are going to change. In addition to a chat over vent, I will start requiring a character-to-character interview. The recruit and I will have a seat in the Pig-n-Whistle, and we will mutually check each other out. One of my main goals will be to read the character’s achievement panel and ask interview questions based on what I learn. Even if the achievement panel ends up as part of the armory, it will still be useful to go through the achievements in “person,” if you will.

    At the most basic level, the achievement system will allow a guild recruiter to verify the information that a potential new member shares about himself. Up until now, I have had to rely on very limited tools–mostly my own intuition–to decide whether someone could be trusted. The following questions always go through my mind: “Is this player who she says she is? Did she really clear Naxx back in Vanilla WoW?” The achievement system will effectively give me a way to do a background check. In addition, it will also let me get to know the recruit a little better than I might otherwise. Like a series of Twitter updates, individual achievements don’t say much on their own, but considered together, they reveal a lot about a player’s personality and how she chooses to spend her time. If I see that the recruit has many holiday-based achievements in addition to her string of boss kills, I might guess that she would enjoy the silly social aspects of my guild as well as the raids.

    2. Bragging rights

    As if trade chat weren’t bad enough now, just wait till hundreds of achievement points become available. Any time a new standard of comparison is created, the trolls come out from under their bridges to celebrate. Who’s got the most achievement points on your server? You’ll know soon enough. As an example of the chicanery that might result from the new system, consider the case of a certain infamous druid on Vek’nilash, who I’ll call Stinkleaf. This person was a highly ranked arena player, and he made sure everyone knew it! When Stinkleaf got Season 3 shoulders, he spammed Trade Channel for days calling himself “The Best in the World.” Every time I would run into him in Ironforge, he would harass me for my obvious adherence to PvE: “OMG wut is dat PvE crap, durids R for arena!” Let’s just say I was really, really happy when this person left the server for an easier battle group. We may see similar things arise in Wrath with achievement point griefing.

    3. Alt discrimination

    isidora and syd worry about discrimination

    I have three characters at 70, all of whom took quite different paths to get there. Marfisa, a paladin, was my main all throughout Vanilla WoW. Sydera has been my main and my only raiding character in BC. Isidora, my delightfully evil affliction warlock, is my farming character. When I look through the achievement panels for all three, it’s really clear which characters have been alts and mains at different times. Any character who has been an alt during any phase of the game will look inexperienced. Sydera was only level 40 when BC hit, and of all the achievements in Classic WoW, she’s really only done the Deadmines. Marfi, however, has credit for most of the 5 man dungeons, all the world exploration, and many of the quest-based feats. Isidora, however, has practically nothing. Since the process of awarding credit for old instances is uneven, she doesn’t even have points for the few dungeons I did take her to. What would happen if I wanted to do what I did when BC came out and switch mains? Isidora has no titles–she hasn’t even been to Karazhan. She would look like a colossal n00b, even though the player behind her has a great deal of raiding experience. The achievement system might, for the upper tier of raiders, lock players into sticking with their longtime mains instead of branching out to try something new. That would sadden me, because alternating among my characters is one of the things that keeps the game new and fresh for me.

    4. Roleplaying

    I’m no RP expert, but I’m fairly confident that the achievement system will offer RP-ers new conversation-starting tools. In order to start a roleplaying style conversation with a stranger, you have to have something to talk about. Players will learn to inspect the folks they encounter and quickly compare achievements. Anything might spark a conversation; for example, you could say: “Hail, slayer of Van Cleef! What news from Westfall?” As you can see, I’d be a terrible roleplayer, but the potential is there. Any time new information is available about a character, the possibilities for story creation increase.

    These are only four possible consequences of the new achievement system, and only time will tell if the changes have long-term good or ill effects. Personally, I can’t wait to see them implemented–for me, the good outweighs the bad. However, if I ever want to raid with a new guild as Isidora, I think I’ll have to bring Syd along for the interview too.

    The Utility of Utility

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    IDSvCOH2

    I consider myself to be an okay tank healer, but an excellent raid healer.  I love Circle of Healing, and when you catch me off-guard enough to admit it, I’ll say my favorite spells are the ones I can cast while pounding my spacebar and hopping around.  Yes, I am “that type” of raider.   I also seem to be in a rather unusual raid group where, up until recently, we had a surplus of single-target healers (paladins coming out our ears,  our only resto druid is a Dreamstate-wants-to-be-a-doomchicken Healing Touch spammer) and raid healing came from one Shaman and a few CoH.  We had no priests with Divine Spirit on our roster because we simply couldn’t afford them.

    Unfortunately for me, I’m also a spirit junkie.  I would LOVE to go into every raid with an extra +50 spirit, not to mention the +10% dmg/heal the buff gives as well.  Even though my group’s makeup needs raid healing, not to slot a priest in a tank heal, IDS utility spot, I decided to turn the question around (for purely selfish purposes, of course).  Circle of Healing is an awesome spell in T6 raiding, but if IDS is considered mandatory, what exactly will it bring to the raid?

    Spellpower

    One of the largest arguments against IDS is the fact that it’s only a significant buff to holy priests and tree druids.  None of the other healers or DPS have a spirit focus, so the damage or healing they gain is minimal.  I decided to check and see how minimal the gain actually is.  I used my guild as an example, and spent some time with the Armory and a calculator.  Unsurprisingly, our Holy Priests had the highest spirit out there.  We ranged from ~550-650 unbuffed spirit, and the gain from IDS gave each holy priest somewhere between 60 and 70 +heal.  What did surprise me was the fact our mages tied our DS druid for second place in the spirit race.  They ran from 250-350 unbuffed, which left them getting 30-40 more damage or healing.  This is roughly equivalent to nearly two Teardrop Crimson Spinels for the druid, and three Runed Crimson Spinels for the mages.  Paladins, Warlocks, and Shaman tied for third, each in the 100-200 spirit range, got 15-25 damage or healing.  If your raid group is heavy on priests, druids, and mages, IDS’s utility increases.

    Talents

    If the results of IDS on mages is so surprising because they are not a class that gains much from spirit, what about the classes which have a spirit focus, or talents specifically relating to spirit?  That’s right, I’m talking priests and Trees. 

    For priests, those talents are Spiritual Guidance and Spirit of Redemption.  Spiritual Guidance increases dmg/heal based on 5%/10%/15%/20%/25% of the priest’s total spirit.  Spirit of Redemption, in addition to that whole “heal while dead” thing, gives a flat 5% increase to total Spirit.  Those two spells work beautifully together, and are a must for every healy-priest regardless of spec.  Both of these talents are also multiplicative, meaning the more spirit you have, the more you’ll get as a result.  We get the 60-70 +heal IDS grants at base, plus another 13 (25% of the 50 spirit of the buff for Spiritual Guidance) and 3 (5% of the 50 spirit of the buff for Spirit of Redemption) added on. In T6 gear, the average increase in +heal a priest gains from having IDS is 75-85. The healing Priests get from IDS is equivalent to the +heal to weapon enchant.

    For tree druids, there are also two talents which deal directly with spirit: Tree of Life and Living Spirit.  Much like with priests, these talents were designed to go together.  Tree of Life also increases healing based on 25% of the Tree’s spirit, but instead of the healing done by the tree, it’s healing done to anyone in the tree’s group.  Living Spirit increases spirit by 5%/10%/15%.  As we don’t have any trees in our guild, I can’t use guildie figures for this, but poking around other guilds at our level of progression, their trees seem to have spirit numbers on par with our holy priests.  That gives the same 60-70 +heal from IDS at base, in addition to another 7 (15% of the 50 spirit boost) to everyone in the tree’s party.  In T6 gear, the average +heal gained by the tree’s party is increased by 65-80.  Tanks in a tree group healed by holy priests with IDS using max-coefficient spells will see an increase in healing received by 140-165 per hit.

    Regen

    In addition to the healing gained based on spirit for both holy priests and tree druids, regen must be taken into account as well.  Both have equivalent spells.  Meditation for priests and Intensity for druids each give 10%/20%/30% regen while casting.  The formula for determining regen is the same regardless of class as well:  Mana Regen = 5 * sqrt(Int) * Spirit * Base_Regen

    regen

    All names slightly tweaked as I didn’t speak to them before posting.  Jadey is a tree, whereas the bottom four are myself and 3 other priests in my guild.  Both Int and Spirit numbers are unbuffed and pulled directly from armory.  OOC and IC refer to out of combat and in combat regen numbers.  OOC IDS and IC IDS show how the numbers change if we’ve got IDS up, and the final columns show the differences between buffed and unbuffed stats.

    Buffs

    Moving back to the general raid utility, because the gain in spellpower due to IDS is based on a percentage, the amount can also be increased by use of buff food and elixirs.  Blackened Basilisk, that favorite of DPS casters everywhere, gives 23 damage and 20 Spirit.  With IDS, suddenly it’s giving 25 damage.  If you use Bloodberry Elixir in Sunwell, in addition to buffing your stats, you’re picking up 6 extra spell damage.  Priests that use Draenic Wisdom will see an increase of 11 healing (versus the 7 they get from it without).  The buffs you give yourself anyway become more powerful with the addition of IDS.

    Is IDS awesome enough to be considered “mandatory” in today’s raid environment?  It’s really going to depend a lot on the group composition you have available.  If you have more healing priests and druids than you have paladins and shaman, or more mages than warlocks, you need IDS in your raid.  Find the raid healers, put a priest on tank healing so they can have the buff.  But… not me.  I’m going to be over here, hopping around and spamming my CoH button.

    Troubleshooting Gurtogg Bloodboil: A Healer’s Perspective

    by

    breaking

    syderatagimageIn my mind, Gurtogg Bloodboil is the toughest boss to heal in Black Temple. Many guilds stagnate at 4/9 in BT, and others continue to have difficulties with Bloodboil long after their first kill. From my own personal experience, nothing turns a happy tree into a miserable pile of mulch faster than an untimely Fel Rage! This boss is never truly on farm status: every time you bring a new healer or try a new group composition, you might spend hours relearning the fight. The lessons of Mr. Bloodboil are important ones for any healer to learn–they reveal how Blizzard conceptualizes endgame healing and healers’ roles in a raid. The skills you must master in order to take this boss down consistently are the same ones that will allow you to succeed in any of the demanding fights at the finale of the Burning Crusade.

    This article will help your raid win at the Bloodboil encounter even if you do not have the ideal group makeup. In a perfect world, a guild would always have ten healers and two shadow priests just itching for a chance at this encounter, but in practice, we all have to learn to work with the tools we have available.

    gurtoggbreakfast

    The Boiling Basics

    This encounter alternates between two phases, both of which are fairly hectic.

    Phase 1

    Tanks: The fight requires three main tanks, all of whom will trade Gurtogg’s aggro around like a hot potato. They will suffer a stacking debuff called Acidic Wound, and all three will need consistent healing even when they are not the boss’s active target.

    Healers: Split them between the main tanks and the bloodboil groups. Melee needs some, but not much, attention. Heals over time are extremely useful for the two tanks who are not Gurtogg’s current target.

    DPS: Your mages, warlocks, and other aggro monkeys can pew-pew as usual, with the caveat that they must stay below all three tanks on threat.

    Bloodboil: Gurtogg applies the “Bloodboil” debuff to the five players furthest from him every three seconds. This damage over time spell is En-Ay-As-Tee-Why. To survive the dreaded boils, a raid must rotate the players who soak them–the ability stacks, and if a person gets “double-boiled,” well, she’s a goner. Typically ranged dps and healers make up the bloodboil sponges. We designate groups 3-5 as bloodboil groups, and we have a caller whose main job in the fight is to indicate when groups should move into the waterfall area furthest from the boss to take the DoT.

    Phase 2

    Fel Rage: Gurtogg afflicts one lucky player with Fel Rage. If this is you, congratulations! On the plus side, you become a giant version of yourself and gain 30,000 health and 15,000 armor (sweet!). Moreover, your healing done increases by 100%, and your damage output increases by 300%. Sounds great, right? However, on the minus side, Gurtogg has been buffed too, and now he’s targeting YOU. If you are the victim, you must do everything you can to heal yourself or mitigate the damage.

    Bloodboil: You guessed it! Still ticking.

    Geyser: Gurtogg casts this AoE damage spell on the Fel Rage target at the beginning of the phase. Spread out to avoid too much splash damage.

    Tanks: Acidic wound continues to tick, so they need maintenance healing. Heals over time are ideal.

    Healers: Healers must pick up the Fel Rage target immediately and spam that player with with their largest heals, always of maximum rank. If the Fel Rage target dies, Gurtogg will revert back to the tank with the highest threat, and in his strengthened form, he will make mincemeat of him. Meanwhile, raid and tank healing must continue.

    DPS: Every player except the Fel Rage victim receives the (resistable) debuff “Insignificance.” The insignificant ones can unleash all the pain they desire on the boss without fear of pulling aggro.

    In order to take this boss down, your raid has to survive the horrors of Phase 1 and Phase 2 multiple times. How is this possible? It isn’t easy, but the tips below will certainly help. These tips will carry over into the rest of your Burning Crusade healing–master them, and you will be ready for Illybeans, Archimundo, and the whole Sunwell gang, who deal out the splash damage like candy on Halloween.

    gurtogg defeated

    Four Key Tips
    Tip #1: Make detailed assignments

    For this boss, healing assignments must be exact and phase-specific, and they must suit the individual healers’ abilities. See the table below for sample healing assignments by phase and class. Many groups, including my own guild, find that this fight is easiest with ten healers, but an experienced raid can use eight. If your raid is learning this fight, asking a priest to re-spec for Pain Suppression can be very helpful.

    Healer

    Ideal Class

    Other Options

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    1

    		 Paladin Priest Gurtogg’s Current Target Fel Raged Player

    2

    		Paladin   Gurtogg’s Current Target Fel Raged Player

    3

    IDS priest (extra credit for Pain Suppression

    		 Paladin Gurtogg’s Current Target Fel Raged Player

    4

    		 Druid Shaman

    HoT all tanks

    HoT all tanks

    5

    		 Shaman Priest Melee

    Fel Raged Player

    6

    CoH Priest

    		 Shaman

    Bloodboil Group #1

    		 Bloodboil Group #1

    7

    CoH Priest

    		  

    Bloodboil Group #2

    Bloodboil Group #2

    8

    CoH Priest

    		  

    Bloodboil Group #3

    Bloodboil Group #3 (until the debuff clears, then Fel Raged Player)

    9 (optional)

    		 Druid Any

    HoT all tanks / Swing Healer

    		 Fel Raged Player, subs for any other healer who is Fel Raged
    10 (optional) Any Any

    Gurtogg’s Current Target

    		 Fel Raged Player
    Tip #2: Change targets efficiently (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Macros)

    Make sure you have macros that let you switch targets in a timely manner. To pick up Gurtogg’s target, my guild’s healers use the following macro:

    /target gurtogg bloodboil

    /cast [target=targettarget,help] [] Holy Light

    For “Holy Light,” sub in your largest heal. You will need it for the Fel Rage victim!

    Even as a resto druid, I find this macro very useful, as it helps me identify either the tank of the moment or the unlucky soul with Fel Rage. I use it with Regrowth, but if I am healing the Fel Rage target, I will switch to Healing Touch spam after some initial HoTs. I also use a separate macro to help me pick up each of the three tanks. In this fight, there is no time to waste on targeting! If you hesitate, someone will die. I find some version of this basic macro useful in many different fights.

    Tip #3: Don’t be a hero

    In earlier content, a healer might get away with covering someone else’s assignment. In this particular encounter, it will always look like there isn’t enough healing on group 3, or the tanks, or the Fel Rage target. Healing is a scarce resource in this fight, and the whole darn thing is an emergency situation. You must stick to your assigned target, no matter what. Several weeks after we first killed Gurtogg, my guild spent an entire evening wiping to him. When we looked at wws, we found that healers were not adhering to their assigned targets–when you try to “save” people in this fight, you let your whole raid down.

    Tip #4: Do a post-mortem analysis

    It’s entirely possible that your healing team is already following tips 1-3. Yet, Gurtogg is still laughing in your faces as he slaughters the Fel Rage target every single time. In order to identify problems and difficulties, use both your own powers of observation and diagnostic tools like Recount and wws. When my guild has had trouble with Gurtogg, it has always been due to one of the following five classic blunders. Take this boss as a primer in troubleshooting: if you can diagnose the problem with Bloodboil, you can do so again when you face the end bosses of T6. For each boss you encounter, keep notes on the usual causes of failure–never let your research go to waste.

    Potential Problem Areas
    Problem #1: Your bloodboil rotation is off

    This is the primary thing that has killed Collateral Damage while we were supposed to be “farming” Bloodboil. Check and make sure that people are moving in and out of the waterfall area with perfect coordination. The bloodboil groups are performing a lovely little dance–make sure everyone else isn’t spoiling the ballet by being too far off to the sides. You must also have designated bloodboil substitutes in case one of your original soakers dies.

    Problem #2: The healing assignments don’t suit your group

    Healers should confer with each other after unsuccessful attempts. If someone was unable to do his job properly, find out why! It may not be his fault. Many times, the arrangement that worked for a previous group has to be adjusted when new players enter the field. You can still win if your healing roster isn’t ideal–try scrambling around the assignments after each attempt until you find what works.

    Problem #3: The Fel Rage targets are caught by surprise

    Everyone who gets Fel Rage must do everything possible to lessen the burden on the healers. Panic is deadly–every player should have a Fel Rage plan before the boss is pulled and stick to it when the time comes.

    Problem #4: Fel Rage healers are over-confident

    Some Fel Rage healers forget that healing needs increase throughout Phase 2. You have to keep spamming those heals, even if your target looks stable. In a moment or two, they won’t be.

    Problem #5: Your raid’s dps is low

    Sometimes it’s just not a healer’s fault. Even if the team is doing everything right, Gurtogg will eventually overwhelm the raid if you go through too many Fel Rage cycles. I’ve seen us lose people to Fel Rage and still win, but only if the dps is good. The bad news is that the wipes will always look like the healers’ fault. You will need to check wws to see if your dps was on track for the attempts in question.

    In summation, Gurtogg Bloodboil is a complex fight, and a win or loss depends on many factors. Keep these tips in mind, and you’ll be well on your way to that perfect one-shot.

    Twisted Nether: Wynnicus Podcast Now Available

    by

    wynnicus-podcast

    Clocking in at under 90 minutes, the Bre, Fim, Wyn, and Matt show is now available for download from the TNB website. If you were unable to catch the whole show (consider yourself lucky ^^), you can grab the edited and pared down version.

    Highlights

    • Beta talk (lots of it)
    • Blogosphere highlights
    • Wyn
    • An saga tale

    Don’t miss the epic saga

    A tale of two Priests. . .

    A broken promise. . .

    A friendship tested. . .

    More drama than the loss of a Hunter bow to a Rogue. . .

    A betrayal that no one would have believed possible. . .

    This is the must listen Podcast of the year. If you download only one podcast this season, make it The Twisted Nether Blogcast: Episode 16.

    Note: I ran out of movie cliches. Anyone got any?