12-13-2005, 01:18 PM
Last night we knocked out all the eggs, and had Razorgore down to 41% health before wiping, mostly because we didn't know what to expect from Phase 2. Next time, we'll be ready.
Some notes from Monday night from the healers' perspective (crosspost from CA boards):
The Razorgore encounter involves lots of aggro control. Aggro on the orb controller, aggro on the kiting warriors (you guys were awesome last night), and aggro on the healers. In our best attempt last night, only 2 people were dead at the start of phase 2. It was not a coincidence that it was the run that required by far the least amount of healing on DPS characters - those of you on TS might remember me exclaiming how I hadn't needed to heal anyone yet after the first full minute or so of action. I was happy. Not having to heal means not having to die!
When a new mob spawns, it's going to go for either the controller, razorgore, or a healer. This is why the healers were all dying first. Not that we mind - that's our job - but it's the old "We die, you die" concept that causes trouble there. When the first 10 deaths in the raid are all Priests and Druids, that's telling you something.
In healerchat, we eventually made it our goal to keep the Druids up for phase 2, offering us Priests up as bait. Druids would avoid healing until I signalled that the Priests were all down. Due to the Priests' superior aggro control, we could cycle our fades and psychic screams to keep all mobs off us - something that Druids can't do. Besides, if we had 4 or 5 Druids standing for phase 2, we figured that they could keep the tanks up with their awesome single-target heals, and maybe combat res some Priests to boot.
In theory, it should work flawlessly. Unfortunately, the massive lag we had that night nixed that plan. Every time I died, it was due to lag - my inability to see I was being attacked until 2-3 seconds AFTER I was actually being hit, and then an additional 2-3 seconds to get off my "instant cast" scream or fade spell. In that time, I'd be on the floor as a spectator. The Priest players were a little frustrated by this - healing can be a real twitch game at times and you can't play well when an instant cast spell takes 2 or 3 seconds to cast. Thursday night will hopefully be better in that regard.
After our last run, a few DPS players suggested that the Priests and Druids simply not heal at all in phase 1. This gets me a little nervous. I understand the thinking, but it's fairly common that DPS players don't notice how much healing they get in fights. Especially for mages and warlocks, who have no solid way to get out of a jam, we were throwing a lot of heals around to keep people vertical - far more than simple bandages would have covered. There's two ways of addressing this:
1) Have more Paladins along for Thursday, and use their low-aggro heals in phase 1 to keep the DPS alive. Druids can sleep and do a little DPS, saving their mana, and Priests can Mind Control/Scream any legionnaires that make their way into the DPS crowd.
2) All DPS players must watch their aggro carefully and only go after DPS calls. Those who don't will die right away and we'll get to see **very** clearly who's been naughty without a healer around to transfer their aggro off them by healing. Think of it this way, DPS'ers - if you get aggro, you're basically murdering a healer.
Also, all DPS players must use bandages when they get hit.
So I'm all for having Priests/Druids not heal in phase 1, but if it ends disastrously on our first tries of that, I want to go back to what we were trying on Monday - hopefully in a less lagged environment. I can be a pretty effective kiter when I'm not lagged, using my fades and screams at just the right moment to buy people more time. But not in that lag.
Other healing notes:
It's clear that our kiting warriors are so well geared and so good at their jobs that they need very minimal healing. Even a dedicated Paladin might be overkill, but we do need SOMEONE looking after them. I'm considering that if we want to use Paladins as phase 1 DPS healers, that can free up a Druid or Priest to be the kite warrior healer, just for some heal over time spells. If we're going to have our Priests and Druids wait for phase 2 anyhow, let's free up a critical Paladin for DPS healing and put the Druids/Priests back on low-aggro kite heal maintenance.
-Bolty
Some notes from Monday night from the healers' perspective (crosspost from CA boards):
The Razorgore encounter involves lots of aggro control. Aggro on the orb controller, aggro on the kiting warriors (you guys were awesome last night), and aggro on the healers. In our best attempt last night, only 2 people were dead at the start of phase 2. It was not a coincidence that it was the run that required by far the least amount of healing on DPS characters - those of you on TS might remember me exclaiming how I hadn't needed to heal anyone yet after the first full minute or so of action. I was happy. Not having to heal means not having to die!
When a new mob spawns, it's going to go for either the controller, razorgore, or a healer. This is why the healers were all dying first. Not that we mind - that's our job - but it's the old "We die, you die" concept that causes trouble there. When the first 10 deaths in the raid are all Priests and Druids, that's telling you something.
In healerchat, we eventually made it our goal to keep the Druids up for phase 2, offering us Priests up as bait. Druids would avoid healing until I signalled that the Priests were all down. Due to the Priests' superior aggro control, we could cycle our fades and psychic screams to keep all mobs off us - something that Druids can't do. Besides, if we had 4 or 5 Druids standing for phase 2, we figured that they could keep the tanks up with their awesome single-target heals, and maybe combat res some Priests to boot.
In theory, it should work flawlessly. Unfortunately, the massive lag we had that night nixed that plan. Every time I died, it was due to lag - my inability to see I was being attacked until 2-3 seconds AFTER I was actually being hit, and then an additional 2-3 seconds to get off my "instant cast" scream or fade spell. In that time, I'd be on the floor as a spectator. The Priest players were a little frustrated by this - healing can be a real twitch game at times and you can't play well when an instant cast spell takes 2 or 3 seconds to cast. Thursday night will hopefully be better in that regard.
After our last run, a few DPS players suggested that the Priests and Druids simply not heal at all in phase 1. This gets me a little nervous. I understand the thinking, but it's fairly common that DPS players don't notice how much healing they get in fights. Especially for mages and warlocks, who have no solid way to get out of a jam, we were throwing a lot of heals around to keep people vertical - far more than simple bandages would have covered. There's two ways of addressing this:
1) Have more Paladins along for Thursday, and use their low-aggro heals in phase 1 to keep the DPS alive. Druids can sleep and do a little DPS, saving their mana, and Priests can Mind Control/Scream any legionnaires that make their way into the DPS crowd.
2) All DPS players must watch their aggro carefully and only go after DPS calls. Those who don't will die right away and we'll get to see **very** clearly who's been naughty without a healer around to transfer their aggro off them by healing. Think of it this way, DPS'ers - if you get aggro, you're basically murdering a healer.
Also, all DPS players must use bandages when they get hit.
So I'm all for having Priests/Druids not heal in phase 1, but if it ends disastrously on our first tries of that, I want to go back to what we were trying on Monday - hopefully in a less lagged environment. I can be a pretty effective kiter when I'm not lagged, using my fades and screams at just the right moment to buy people more time. But not in that lag.
Other healing notes:
It's clear that our kiting warriors are so well geared and so good at their jobs that they need very minimal healing. Even a dedicated Paladin might be overkill, but we do need SOMEONE looking after them. I'm considering that if we want to use Paladins as phase 1 DPS healers, that can free up a Druid or Priest to be the kite warrior healer, just for some heal over time spells. If we're going to have our Priests and Druids wait for phase 2 anyhow, let's free up a critical Paladin for DPS healing and put the Druids/Priests back on low-aggro kite heal maintenance.
-Bolty
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.