Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Lessons From First Night of Raiding

Last night was the first night I got to step into a 25 man raid with my guild, Conquest. (Which we are recruiting quite a few classes so I would recommend checking them out with the link on the sidebar.)  I was only in for one boss, Halfus, since they had been wiping to the second boss all last week and wanted the experienced people in there for that fight.  Here are a few things that I found out while raiding:

1) Moonkin mana may not be as big of an issue in 25 man raids. - It may have just been the mechanics of the first fight, but I was never below half mana thanks to Eclipses, etc.  As I start to get some actual raid gear, I may see this improve over time.  I'm not gonna change my spec based off of one single boss kill, but if this continues, I may take points out of Moonglow and move them into Owlkin Frenzy.

2) Raid bosses are fun - Halfus is not the most involved fight in the game, but it sure is a lot of fun.  Between the dragon breathing fire on you all the time to activating the drakes and whelps, it is a hectic fight, but a lot of fun.  Which brings me to the next point.

3) Threat has changed - In 25 mans in Wrath, for the most part, I could open up on a boss almost immediately due to MDs, Tricks of the Trade, etc. to give the tank aggro.  Not the case anymore.  If I am popping Treants, Starfall, Wild Mushroom, adding DoTs, and start casting my nukes, I can pull aggro easy.  It even lead to our second wipe.  Now, it is better to delay slightly and let all the tanks pick up what they are going to pick up, then start bombing.

4) DPS standards have gone up - At the end of Wrath, I was pulling 13k - 15k DPS on most boss fights with highs of around 17k.  Last night, I pulled 18k on the Halfus kill.  It would have been great if the tank hadn't pulled 18k as well. (Admittingly, there are a lot of adds in that fight which add to tanks DPS) Most of the other DPS was above 20k + DPS.  This shows mainly one thing, if you think you are gonna step into a raid with any green pieces and do great, it is not gonna happen.  I still have a green 318 head that needs to be replaced in my moonkin set.  Also, I really need something with a meta to get increased damage percentage. (Once they fix the Chaotic meta gem) I'm at 1700 JPs approximately, so I'm sure the head will now be my next purchase. 

5) Trash Is Tough - Going back to trash like we saw in Ruby Sanctum, I think we had at least 6 - 7 different types of CC at one time on trash and we wiped more on trash then on bosses.  The trash it tight and tough and is easy to pull extra groups.  It requires special awareness to know that you are not pulling stuff you shouldn't.  Also, goes without saying, Starfall is a no-no on this trash.

So overall, I enjoyed the first night of raiding.  It was good to get back in the swing of things and am looking forward to more raiding with my guild. 

Also, just a reminder about the Header Contest.  The last day for entries is this Friday.  After that, I will post the nominees the week after and will let the readers vote on the next header for the blog.  Also, next Monday, I will have some major announcements on the new blog projects I talked about yesterday.
       

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