4.3 Dragon Soul and Raid 1 (Jim's Group)

[Inori]

Time to air out the dirty laundry.

Season 10 ends on Tue. Nov. 29th which means that the Dragon Soul raid hits on Tue. Nov. 29th (recall that season 9 ended on Tue. June 28th and Firelands hit on June 28th). At the rate of 2H/7H, it will take us over six weeks to finish Andy's legendary staff. That's over a month. We only raid two nights a week - Sunday and Monday. If we don't improve our heroic rate in the Firelands, I'm going to veto wasting any more time in there to finish Andy's staff. We can just work on normal mode Dragon Soul progression and Andy can settle for an iLvl 397/403 upgrade (I think the legendary is only iLvl 397, so he only loses the proc). Andy can see if Jeff's raid wants to slog though Firelands after they finish Ryan's staff -- at 6H/7H rate, they'll finish it a lot faster. We'll just have to admit that we weren't up to snuff to finish a legendary staff.

I firmly believe that you can't just say that someone is bad at playing WoW.

Either:
A) They are constantly surprised by things happening during a boss fight. This is usually a UI issue which I just wrote a TL;DR post about.
B) They aren't surprised that something is happening, but they don't know how to react. This is a personal strategy issue. I wrote an old TL;DR post about it, but it can also be solved by doing research on the boss fight outside the raid.
C) They know how to react, but they can't make it happen. This is usually a keyboard accuracy/mouse accuracy issue which I just wrote a TL;DR post about.

Gear is not an issue. People not knowing their rotation is not an issue. Why? If all we had was just low DPS, we'd be hitting enrage timers when we wipe. Heck, I'm the lowest DPS in this raid, but my contribution is only 3% behind Andy's on Baleroc (although my DPS is 18% behind Andy directly, I know where I need to improve).

The problem are fatal errors made by individual players. Remember, if your raid wants a 90% chance to kill a boss, each of the individual 10 raid members needs to perform at 98.95% chance of not making a fatal error (0.9895^10 = 0.9). Look at points A, B, and C above -- those are what cause fatal errors.

I've made posts about healing. I've made posts about tanking. I've made posts about DPS. I've analyzed combat logs. I've analyzed videos. I thought that the strategies and tactics that I'm advocating for the boss fights are optimal, but maybe I'm horribly misguided. If you think my strategies are bad, then say so.

I have a legitimate interest in everyone getting better at playing this game. I have no interest in raiding with another guild because I like the people in this guild. I can only play one character. I can't watch someone else's screen, I can't hit someone else's keyboard, I can't move someone else's mouse. If people have legitimate difficulties in performing certain actions on their character, speak up. Say, "I can't do action XYZ while keeping an eye out for 123." and I'll see if there's a way to modify the strategy to account for that. I don't talk on vent, but I have two macro spots left on my priest so maybe I can make tells for people. I really don't know what to do other than give up if people aren't going to individually figure out what's going wrong.

For people in the third raid reading this, I want you to know that gear *is* an issue as well as knowing your rotation, reforging, gemming, and enchanting. All of that on top of A, B, and C above. Wiping on normal Beth'tilac due to being overwhelmed is proof of that.

-HP

[Benvolo]

I agree with the above. Even after the nerf batted the legendary, it is still about 3k more dps than the 416 staff from heroic dragonsoul, and 4k dps more than the 391 version fyi. also because it has 3 red gem slots with a 30int bonus.

[Aezelkvalae]

Since we are on the topic, you guys should know I am actively seeking a spot in group 2 or an otherwise different group. I have raided with Jim for years, and I can't say there is anyone in that raid I have any particular distaste for. However, whatever you want to call it, "synergy," "compatibility," etc., I don't have it with that group. People who have played with me for a long time know that in general I am a happy person to be around when I raid. That has not been true lately, and I need to find something else. After all, it's a game, and it is supposed to be fun, not stressfull.

I don't want to leave you hanging, and so far I have been benched this week, so if you want me to fill a spot this week if I'm still unsaved, I will. If you guys are too pissed that I'm jumping ship, then I will just say good luck!

[Phil]

Good times

[Sonasti]

I'm not sure if I am late or not. But I'm looking to join one of the raiding groups. At this point in the game i should have been raiding with a group of us that came from the horde a while back but that fell apart due to lack of DPS.

After a short while of not playing I have picked back up and im definitely looking to settle in a group and whoop ass. With that Said im generally open to any availability I am at work up until 7pm Eastern time Which would be 4 server time. Anytime after that works great for me. If i have posted in the wrong section my bad.... LOL =D

If i should write to someone in game then let me know also..

Thanks,