Guilds complain that "The third drake lands and all our DPS just die?? WTF is that happening to you too???"
It is the reflected DPS part - the DPS killing themselves. As soon as our guild realised that was what was happening (even though we knew we didn't grok it for a ling time), and we told DPS to turn OFF their recount and manage their health (ie slow/stop DPS if they are low, save healthstones etc etc) we got Sarth down THAT NIGHT!
So, I suspect that is exactly what is happening to you, yes YOU! out there in Teh Internets!
Soooooo
Heres the scoop :)
Setup:
4 tanks
Bear tank 50+k HP raid buffed (as big as possible)
Warr tank - Drakes (all of them)
Prot pally AND a DK - adds
6 healers:
1 holy pally - soley on the furry tank (yes, you can solo heal this with a few hots)
1 Direct healer - Warr (shamans chaining to melee here is pro)
1 Direct healer - add tanks
3 raid healers - holy priests and resto droods - hots up on any and all tanks in range.
15 DPS - yes. Take them. Make sure they are stocked with haste potions. Try to take more ranged than melee if possible.
Strat (with useful TIPs!!!)
Tank sarth near the door - tank him on that little island thing, moving to the main island for flame wall. Rinse repeat till dead.
Drake 1: take him up the back.
TIP! If the first Flame wall is a "ranged one" (ie the gap is in the middle) you can jump in the lava to dodge the flame wall and continue to DPS much faster than running to the middle.
Those precious seconds count (look this up on teh nets). Our tank then drags the drake to the middle slowish (to maintain melee DPS) ready to pick up the second drake.
DPS use heroism on this first drake. This drake should be dead (or very close to it) before the second drake engages. Dont stand in blue shit (melee stack up and call out on vent when they need to move, range do something similar). Self manage, dont die. 25 people should be alive at the end of drake 2.
Add tanks: run around like dickheads pulling adds to them. the DK is pro at picking up the adds, the pally is pro at tanking them. We found this combo to be really effective and it made a massive difference to DPS and more especially healers grabbing aoe healer aggro.
Drake 2: MD to warr who tanks it on left side (as you enter).
TIP!!! Make sure there is a clear path from where the drake lands to where the warr tank is or people will die to cleaves and flame breath.
Repeat stuffs from drake 1, except no heroism - use haste flasks. Drake 2 should be sub 20% when drake 3 lands.
Drake 3: GAH THIS IS IT PEOPLE!!!
Sarth tank - use a single cool down per flame breath to assist the pally healer, call out 4sish before each breath for a "oh $#!t" ability to be used on him - hand of sanc, pain supporession, the holy priest save from deaht one I have temporarily forgotten the name of. You will need about 4, more than 4 and you are taking too long to kill the second drake. Organise an order, ensure all healers are clear on what they are doing and when.
MT pally healer HoS first - bacon yourself and heal through it. This healer will need to save their bubble to perhaps stand through a firewall as well, and this part is the hardest on them. Save mana for this. If you need, enlist help from the add tank healer. Go hard, win.
Other healers - just go hard healing. As hard as you can.
Warr tank, get an MD from the third drake and use your shield wall/last stand/other CDs to help your healer as much as you can.
Add tanks - continue as normal.
DPS - WINNING TIP! At this stage, all your DPS on the second drake is being reflected back onto you. This is why alot of guilds die at this point. DPS are so focussed on kill drake fast, they are actually killing themselves. Self manage. If your health is getting low, stop/slow DPS and use your healthstones (save for this point). the retard spec wont help at this point (it might be making things worse if you are not a prot pally). Ret pallys switch from matryr to command. DPS SMART. Get that drake down within 40s (that's 4 OH $#!ts from the healers on the MT) 40s is a long time...
Right, second drake down - NEARLY home free, but first get rid of all those adds. DPS them down down down fast.
Drake 3 portals - GET in NOW! all DPS and 1-2 aoe healers (1 is best, there's still a lot of damage going on outside and tanks will be low and healers will be on low mana). Anyone in plate can tank those adds - best is a dps warr throwing on a sword and board (macroed to defensive stance is the best). Manage DPS to ensure that the portal adds die just AFTER a flame wall has passed - so those on the outside need to yell it out - or everyone will pop out of the portal only to go splat on a fire wall. Trust me, this is annoying! finish add, burn drake 3.
Rinse repeat.
Sarth. OMG OMG OMG OMG 3 DRAKES DOWN!!!! Dont lose it too much, even if you have half your DPS down, you can at this point still win! just keep focussed, dont die in a fire and your save your second heroism for the mini enrage at the end.
Collect Phats lewts and title.
Showing posts with label MaxDPS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MaxDPS. Show all posts
Friday, March 20, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
Heroism and YOU!
Another MaxDPS post (whew for a healing toon, I am posting a lot about DPS at the moment!)
One of my guildies posted this posty thing. I asked him if I could post it here and he graciously acquiesced. Here is a treaty on Heroism and cooldowns.
--
The correct timing of heroism is crucial to pushing our raid DPS up through the roof. I am always mindful of when it should be hit, and so are our RLs. Between us 3 the call is usually made at just the right time, and when it happens its a beautiful thing.
As an individual raider, Heroism can be a tricky thing. The ideal situation is for Hero to be popped, and then all your cooldowns blown in time with it to maximise its effect. However, there are times when it may be better to blow your cooldowns independently when you feel that the extended spread of your abilities over heroism outweigh the spike DPS of blowing them in sync. This would be most obvious in fights where Hero is saved for an Enrage timer (I blow my CD's at the start of the KT fight, and save the second and third round for the 40% burn down); but also in fights like Malygos, with external effects (power sparks and Vortex's). This means that in some fights there will be times when your cooldowns are up, but you should not use them. The time spent saving these cooldowns is referred to me as dead space, and is where your DPS will be at it's most inefficient. However the reward for saving these cooldowns can sometimes be greater than the loss you suffer through the dead space (see Malygos below).
Heres what I mean about Overall benefit vs Burst Benefit, and your "dead space":
Kel'Thuzad
Saving Cooldowns for the 40% burn
Using Cooldowns at the beginning and then saving for Heroism
Constantly using Cooldowns when they're up
It is up to you to decide which cooldown method will be the best to maximise your DPS in any particular situation. Know the length of the fight, know whether to save for Heroism and how many times you can use Cooldowns in a fight. The difference between a 6 minute fight and a 7 minute fight is massive when considering how to engineer your cooldowns. If a fight is only long enough for one set of cooldowns (3 or 4 minute fights for most classes) then save it for Hero.
Of course not every fight will be as straightforward as KT, so this is why we always emplore you to research every aspect of an upcoming battle. With Malygos, for instance, we blow heroism when we have two sparks on the ground and right after a Vortex. This is a fight where it is a good idea to leave some "dead space" at the start of the fight, and blow all your cooldowns when the Hero comes up. The combination of two power sparks buffing your damage, and the time to use all of heroism, makes up for the extra DPS you may have gotten at the start and end of phase 1. This is a good example of how important knowledge of the fight mechanics is in regards to maximising your DPS.
I'll end by saying that all shammies should be particulary concerned with how Heroism works in a fight, and how crucial the timing can be. It is your ability after all, and you are the ones who push that magic button.
One of my guildies posted this posty thing. I asked him if I could post it here and he graciously acquiesced. Here is a treaty on Heroism and cooldowns.
--
The correct timing of heroism is crucial to pushing our raid DPS up through the roof. I am always mindful of when it should be hit, and so are our RLs. Between us 3 the call is usually made at just the right time, and when it happens its a beautiful thing.
As an individual raider, Heroism can be a tricky thing. The ideal situation is for Hero to be popped, and then all your cooldowns blown in time with it to maximise its effect. However, there are times when it may be better to blow your cooldowns independently when you feel that the extended spread of your abilities over heroism outweigh the spike DPS of blowing them in sync. This would be most obvious in fights where Hero is saved for an Enrage timer (I blow my CD's at the start of the KT fight, and save the second and third round for the 40% burn down); but also in fights like Malygos, with external effects (power sparks and Vortex's). This means that in some fights there will be times when your cooldowns are up, but you should not use them. The time spent saving these cooldowns is referred to me as dead space, and is where your DPS will be at it's most inefficient. However the reward for saving these cooldowns can sometimes be greater than the loss you suffer through the dead space (see Malygos below).
Heres what I mean about Overall benefit vs Burst Benefit, and your "dead space":
Kel'Thuzad
Saving Cooldowns for the 40% burn
Fight Start 40% Heroism
----------------------------------------------
{cooldowns--------}
{---------Dead-Space----------} ~60% (Not good lulz)
Using Cooldowns at the beginning and then saving for Heroism
Fight Start 40% Heroism
----------------------------------------------
{cooldowns-------} {cooldowns--------}
{-Dead-Space-} ~20% But with Added Burst in
the early stages of
the burn phase
Constantly using Cooldowns when they're up
Fight Start 40% Heroism
----------------------------------------------
{cooldowns-----}{cooldowns-------}{cooldowns----}
No Dead Space, but less syncronisation with heroism.
It is up to you to decide which cooldown method will be the best to maximise your DPS in any particular situation. Know the length of the fight, know whether to save for Heroism and how many times you can use Cooldowns in a fight. The difference between a 6 minute fight and a 7 minute fight is massive when considering how to engineer your cooldowns. If a fight is only long enough for one set of cooldowns (3 or 4 minute fights for most classes) then save it for Hero.
Of course not every fight will be as straightforward as KT, so this is why we always emplore you to research every aspect of an upcoming battle. With Malygos, for instance, we blow heroism when we have two sparks on the ground and right after a Vortex. This is a fight where it is a good idea to leave some "dead space" at the start of the fight, and blow all your cooldowns when the Hero comes up. The combination of two power sparks buffing your damage, and the time to use all of heroism, makes up for the extra DPS you may have gotten at the start and end of phase 1. This is a good example of how important knowledge of the fight mechanics is in regards to maximising your DPS.
I'll end by saying that all shammies should be particulary concerned with how Heroism works in a fight, and how crucial the timing can be. It is your ability after all, and you are the ones who push that magic button.
On the back of DPS tips
I spied today one of the best quotes I can think of for the use of WWS and Recount as DPS tools (and what I mean by comparing stats as not a pissing contest)
DPS stats are exactly that - merely a tool to see relatively what you were doing during that fight. I cannot express my opinion more strongly than that. Never use them for anything more than measuring your own DPS and gauging rotations and where you might benefit from a bit more crit or a bit more haste or whatever to tweak your gear.
There are many things that affect your or others DPS in a fight. These include the sheer mechanics of a fight. Wondering why your mages have low DPS? see how much decursing or CCing they were doing. Perhaps your ret pallies DPS dropped mid fight - see what mana return they got for the fight. There are many mechanical reasons why DPS or damage can be low for a fight. Perhaps the fight required a lot of movement (GET OUT OF THE FIRE!!!) or the boss had a specific mitigation mechanic that needs to have something special dont to neutralise it. Perhaps the boss is resistant to a certain school of machic (nature or frost for example)
All these things play a part in the stats and you need to really understand all this before you go making judgements on your guildmates.
Players place too much emphasis on this. It’s a tool. Balancing around recount stats is like using a thermometer to predict the weather.
DPS stats are exactly that - merely a tool to see relatively what you were doing during that fight. I cannot express my opinion more strongly than that. Never use them for anything more than measuring your own DPS and gauging rotations and where you might benefit from a bit more crit or a bit more haste or whatever to tweak your gear.
There are many things that affect your or others DPS in a fight. These include the sheer mechanics of a fight. Wondering why your mages have low DPS? see how much decursing or CCing they were doing. Perhaps your ret pallies DPS dropped mid fight - see what mana return they got for the fight. There are many mechanical reasons why DPS or damage can be low for a fight. Perhaps the fight required a lot of movement (GET OUT OF THE FIRE!!!) or the boss had a specific mitigation mechanic that needs to have something special dont to neutralise it. Perhaps the boss is resistant to a certain school of machic (nature or frost for example)
All these things play a part in the stats and you need to really understand all this before you go making judgements on your guildmates.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Quick Tips for upping DPS
Here is a quick tips list for how to up your DPS when you first start raiding. You will quickly find that raiding is not like 5mans, and 10mans are much less forgiving than 25 mans. So here are some ideas on where you can start looking so that you can be the best you can be as a DPSer.
Be raid aware - You cant DPS dead. I often find that this is the easiest and best way to improve raid DPS. Learn the fights, watch movies on youtube, read up on bosses. Get DBM or bigwigs installed so you know when boss CDs come up or when they are going to use an ability. Time your trinkets and other CDs for the right time. Call out heroisms so people all pop trinkets and CDs (for example treants + heroism is win for aboomkin) together with a heroism. Get co-ordinated and work as a well oiled team :)
Know your class - go read up on what all the cool kids are doing these days with spells and rotations and stuff.EJ is a good place if you like numbers and spreadsheets, MMO champion is also a decent place to start. And if all that is too much, try wowwiki.
Know your gear - What you have and what you need and where to get it. Get Rawr, use the Armory, look at atlasloot ingame. Make a plan, what you need, where it drops and enact that plan.
Know your gems/enchants/glyphs etc - go get a socket for your belt, give someone an enchanting point and get your gear enchanted. Learn which glyphs you should be using for your spec and rotation. No seriously, do it. Do it NOW and as soon as you get new gear. Bring mats with you to raids so you can instantly use new gear.
Know your stats - hit is the single most important stat if you think your DPS is low. Melee/huntards do much of their DPS from white damage, the more your miss the more your DPS will drop. locks and mages need hit to actually have their spells LAND. There are plenty of things out there on the net to help you. Learn the way of Google Fu.
Learn the difference between crit and haste and how much you should have of each (it is a very difficult concept to know the difference between throughput and DPS, but they ARE different) they are stats which should be balanced - find your sweet spot for your class and spec.
Know your threat and your tank - By this I mean their TPS. Learn what your tanks average TPS is, and how hard and fast you can cast and still maintain a safe buffer on the threat meters for those crits. Know where you can sit safely and pump out the most DPS based on what your tank is capable of. If you are having issues, perhaps talk to your tank about what they can do to help up their TPS as well as looking at what you can do to reduce threat.
GET MODS - first up get quartz. this will improve your throughput by letting you know what your current lag is. Cast the next spell in your rotation as soon as your cast bar hits the red. EVERY caster should have this or a similar mod (yes even healers).
Next get Omen. This is a totally essential mod, learn how it works, learn what all the options mean and where you should be aiming for on the meters relative to your tank.
Get DBM or bigwigs (see above)
Get Ora2 or CTRA so you can set your tank lists and all kinds of other nifty raid features the more people in the raid have them, the more useful they are as a tool.
Get raidframes of some kind - they provide so much more information than the vanilla frames it is stupid and blizzard are looking into fixing it.
Get recount, now this will give you a immediate feedback on what of your spells is doing the most damage so you can maximise output. THIS IS NOT FOR A PISSING CONTEST! It will also show you real time what the raid DPS is (really handy) and how fiddling with it affects your real output.
There are more mods than this, but these are the basics I would recommend.
Know your consumables - you can cover off gaps in your character with food buffs and pots and flasks and elixirs. There is +40 hit food available, MP5, SD, Haste, expertise... all kinds of things. You should all have consumables up all the time. If you don't you are letting your raidmates down. DRINK POWERTHIRST!
Be raid aware - You cant DPS dead. I often find that this is the easiest and best way to improve raid DPS. Learn the fights, watch movies on youtube, read up on bosses. Get DBM or bigwigs installed so you know when boss CDs come up or when they are going to use an ability. Time your trinkets and other CDs for the right time. Call out heroisms so people all pop trinkets and CDs (for example treants + heroism is win for aboomkin) together with a heroism. Get co-ordinated and work as a well oiled team :)
Know your class - go read up on what all the cool kids are doing these days with spells and rotations and stuff.EJ is a good place if you like numbers and spreadsheets, MMO champion is also a decent place to start. And if all that is too much, try wowwiki.
Know your gear - What you have and what you need and where to get it. Get Rawr, use the Armory, look at atlasloot ingame. Make a plan, what you need, where it drops and enact that plan.
Know your gems/enchants/glyphs etc - go get a socket for your belt, give someone an enchanting point and get your gear enchanted. Learn which glyphs you should be using for your spec and rotation. No seriously, do it. Do it NOW and as soon as you get new gear. Bring mats with you to raids so you can instantly use new gear.
Know your stats - hit is the single most important stat if you think your DPS is low. Melee/huntards do much of their DPS from white damage, the more your miss the more your DPS will drop. locks and mages need hit to actually have their spells LAND. There are plenty of things out there on the net to help you. Learn the way of Google Fu.
Learn the difference between crit and haste and how much you should have of each (it is a very difficult concept to know the difference between throughput and DPS, but they ARE different) they are stats which should be balanced - find your sweet spot for your class and spec.
Know your threat and your tank - By this I mean their TPS. Learn what your tanks average TPS is, and how hard and fast you can cast and still maintain a safe buffer on the threat meters for those crits. Know where you can sit safely and pump out the most DPS based on what your tank is capable of. If you are having issues, perhaps talk to your tank about what they can do to help up their TPS as well as looking at what you can do to reduce threat.
GET MODS - first up get quartz. this will improve your throughput by letting you know what your current lag is. Cast the next spell in your rotation as soon as your cast bar hits the red. EVERY caster should have this or a similar mod (yes even healers).
Next get Omen. This is a totally essential mod, learn how it works, learn what all the options mean and where you should be aiming for on the meters relative to your tank.
Get DBM or bigwigs (see above)
Get Ora2 or CTRA so you can set your tank lists and all kinds of other nifty raid features the more people in the raid have them, the more useful they are as a tool.
Get raidframes of some kind - they provide so much more information than the vanilla frames it is stupid and blizzard are looking into fixing it.
Get recount, now this will give you a immediate feedback on what of your spells is doing the most damage so you can maximise output. THIS IS NOT FOR A PISSING CONTEST! It will also show you real time what the raid DPS is (really handy) and how fiddling with it affects your real output.
There are more mods than this, but these are the basics I would recommend.
Know your consumables - you can cover off gaps in your character with food buffs and pots and flasks and elixirs. There is +40 hit food available, MP5, SD, Haste, expertise... all kinds of things. You should all have consumables up all the time. If you don't you are letting your raidmates down. DRINK POWERTHIRST!
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