(WoW) Mogu'shan Vaults Preview
Well, hey, that's what Normal mode of Mogu'shan Vaults looks like. At least up until the first boss. Ha! We sooo got our collected asses handed to us. Not that I expected anything different at this point. After half a dozen attempts on the Stone Guard, I have a better personal feel for how it needs to work, but we kept losing one or more people early and things just collapsed from there.
This raises some question of how much of the problem is skill/performance versus gear. We definitely have some people undergeared at this point, but when you look at it closely, the actual difference in defenses/DPS/healing between item level 440 (roughly where you come out of leveling up) and 470 (heroic dungeon + a few epics, required level for LFR) probably amounts to around 5-10% of whatever numbers you're looking at. Everything else is how well players execute rotations and react to the situations presented in the raid encounters.
So how do you whip people into shape such that they perform efficiently and do things like avoiding puddles of death on the floor and sticking together? That's always the question...
I'm not sure where that leaves us. I am personally glad to have seen the fight with guildmates. I don't know that everyone else feels the same, though, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was a few weeks before people are willing to try again. And while our guildleader had the thought of sending in tanks and healers to "practice" without DPS, I really don't see any value in that - it's just consigning some people to guaranteed repair bills in the hopes that half of the required people gain familiarity with the fight. Sorry, but everyone else needs to learn their parts too.
This raises some question of how much of the problem is skill/performance versus gear. We definitely have some people undergeared at this point, but when you look at it closely, the actual difference in defenses/DPS/healing between item level 440 (roughly where you come out of leveling up) and 470 (heroic dungeon + a few epics, required level for LFR) probably amounts to around 5-10% of whatever numbers you're looking at. Everything else is how well players execute rotations and react to the situations presented in the raid encounters.
So how do you whip people into shape such that they perform efficiently and do things like avoiding puddles of death on the floor and sticking together? That's always the question...
I'm not sure where that leaves us. I am personally glad to have seen the fight with guildmates. I don't know that everyone else feels the same, though, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was a few weeks before people are willing to try again. And while our guildleader had the thought of sending in tanks and healers to "practice" without DPS, I really don't see any value in that - it's just consigning some people to guaranteed repair bills in the hopes that half of the required people gain familiarity with the fight. Sorry, but everyone else needs to learn their parts too.
The first response from the Blue: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/5847924838#7 Are repair bills that much of an issue with a 50k guild bank's pockets to cover the cost? I figure isolating the main "trick" of the fight (tanks trading) while giving them the ability to survive learning it (having the healers) without the distraction of the other players (the DPS) might be a better learning experience. It's not like there's a "wipe-free" version of doing this you and Elly can practice that I am aware of.
ReplyDeleteOkay, repair bills aren't really that big a deal. Morale issues are more a concern. Yes, the fight mechanics emphasize tank coordination and healer ability. I just don't feel the "answer" to that is to tell half the team to go practice with zero chance of actual success even if they get their execution down perfectly. That sorta... lacks any reward for motivation. The reward for doing well is... uhh... longer fights and the vague promise of perhaps success when the other join in? If we're stumped on a DPS check fight, are all the DPS assigned to go in alone? Or practice against target dummies for an hour or something? I dunno, it just seems like the entire team could use the practice, so the entire team probably should be involved in the practicing. That said, if Elly and the healers were really up to it, I wouldn't bow out. Personally, I feel like the concept behind the guardian rotation has clicked in my mind. That's a step up from reading/watching it. And perhaps a step away from actually performing it, but I'm not sure if I've reached that step because we really didn't live past one or two taunts that I recall on any of the attempts. I'm not sure if that's our tank performance, or healer performance, or gear (though gear probably shouldn't be that touchy). I'd like to hear more input from the healing side - were they distracted by healing people taking environmental damage, distracted by dealing with environmental damage themselves, or simply unable to keep up with the damage the tanks were taking even while focusing on that. Whatever the case, it seemed like Elly or I were the first ones to drop. In thinking about our tactics a little more, I have an additional observation. The "recommended" method (I use this term based on the write-ups I've seen) involves trading the two non-petrifying guardians. The method we started using was just taunting the petrifying one back and forth. As far as guardian energy gain, it shouldn't much matter either way. As far as tank coordination, the latter is easier (only one tank is taunting one guardian at a time, instead of both having to taunt one). But our method does have the disadvantage of switching 1) the vulnerable guardians' position with every taunt (as the solo one has 90% damage reduction) and 2) which tank is taking the most damage (because we'll be swapping who's tanking how many). I don't know which way is better, per se...
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