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What follows is a sprawling, this-is-how-I-do-things post. It is not necessarily intended as a guide, it’s more me thinking aloud and pondering how I have adjusted my healing to suit the current encounters, in 10 man raids.



Shifting towards direct heals


Running with only 2 or 3 healers in 10 man raiding, there isn’t as much room for a resto druid to be simply placed on HoT-blanketing duty – ie, to simply go from person to person in the raid and put Rejuvs on them. Rejuv x 5, WG, repeat. This can be a common thing in 25s, but if you’re only running with 2 healers, you’re going to have to be using a higher percentage of direct heals. At least, that is what I have found. It’s just not possible for you to just be a Rejuv/WG bot the entire time – you need to weave in a lot more of your chunky heals.


TOC in particular has shifted us away from the “pepper the raid with Rejuvs, WG on every cooldown” mentality and forced us to use more direct heals. I’ve embraced this, where many people still baulk at the idea of breaking the (undeniably highly effective) Rejuv/WG cycle.


While Rejuv is still king for predictable damage, and WG+Nourish is what I would usually lean towards for raid top-ups where I can, I’m finding that I am using Regrowth quite a lot, despite the constant feeling that I’m not supposed to because it’s not optimal. And, while I don’t like using un-HoTted Nourishes, they’re sneaking in there, too, even though they are seen as quite undesirable for raid healing. Sometimes, in a pinch, it’s great to be able to pepper the raid with Nourishes to assist the other healer/s, even if WG is still on cooldown.


I often see people implying that throwing a Nourish on someone who doesn’t have a HoT on them is wrong or bad. Realistically, though, if all of your other options (NS, Swiftmend) are exhausted, and you need to get them a bit of health, fast (ie, they could die if they don’t get your 5k heal in the next second), there is nothing wrong with using Nourish without HoTs. Don’t be afraid to hit your Nourish button if you need to pick someone up quickly – that doesn’t make you a bad druid. Ideally though, you would use this as a last-resort – don’t make it a habit, because it’s not terribly good.


Unimproved Nourishes are a sometimes food.


Another thing to consider is that in 10 man raids there are less people on the floor, and so less people are bunched up. The result is that WG (and so the glyph and Revitalize) may not be as effective because there aren’t as many targets close together. 25mans have more people running all over the place, so you have a greater chance of hitting 5 or 6 people fairly reliably. Not so much in 10s. I’m finding that Rejuv and WG by themselves often won’t cut it for raid healing. So, in many fights, I’m finding that I still use Rejuv as a buffer, but my WG use is less than I would use in 25s, and my Regrowth and Nourish use is up.


It varies from encounter to encounter, as well as according to who my partner/s are, and I adjust my style to suit.



Dual resto specs


I’ve been playing around with having dual resto specs, and at first glance there’s very little difference between them – just 4 points rearranged. I’m trying to put one together that is more geared to HoT-heavy raid healing, and the other to more bursty fights (and/or times when I may be looking after a tank).





I think I will likely end up with two builds (once I have 4pc T9) – one built primarily around Rejuv/WG blanketing, and another build around burst damage. I’ve set up two specs already, but haven’t put points into Natural Perfection yet – I’m waiting on 4pc before I bother. Here’s what I’m thinking for then:


HoT blanketing (link)
- gear to the haste softcap, then perhaps look to crit, for Rejuv crit ticks
- WG glyph
- 3/3 Natural Perfection
- 3/3 Revitalize
- likely keep 2/3 NGrace for any required burst; Living Seed very situational.


Bursty, limited HoT use (link)
- probably more focus on haste, remember I can’t rely on raid haste buffs
- Regrowth glyph
- Still take 3/3 Natural Perfection, have room for it
- No Revitalize (not enough HoT use on raid to warrant it)
- 3/3 Grace and 2/3 Seed for fast burst healing and quasi-shields


As you can see, very little difference between the two specs – only a few points being rearranged. Most people probably wouldn’t even bother having an entire second spec to do this. You’ll notice that despite putting together a spec that focuses more on direct heals, I still don’t care about Tranquil Spirit. The reason for that is that I haven’t run into huge mana issues yet (early innervates plus a mana pot is usually adequate), and until I do, I won’t be putting points into that talent. I think points are better spent elsewhere.



Viva la Regrowth glyph! Um – sometimes


I’m finding that in 10s, some fights have very limited use of HoT-blanketing, so it seems silly to have the WG glyph and points in talents that are best for heavy-HoT use. There’s little point in boosting my WG and having Revitalize if I’m not spraying HoTs across the raid very much. On bursty fights, I wanted my Regrowth glyph back (especially on fights with heavy tank damage); plus the benefit of Nature’s Grace, and the Living Seeds left behind as a buffer.


Conversely, on HoT-blanketing fights, Nature’s Grace and Living Seed have extremely limited value because A) NG is only going to proc from direct heals (which I won’t be casting many of), and B) it’s only in the briefest of “uh-oh” moments where a seed might come in handy.


So the point is – I wanted to make sure that I was getting the most out of my talent points and glyph slots on fights that forced me to change my style.


In some fights I’m actually using Regrowth as repeat raid heals, because I want that HoT portion left behind. For example, on Faction Champions there will often be people in the raid who seem to be constantly pounded on, so I will almost treat them as tanks and keep HoTs up on them. Bigger Regrowths would help me here. I’m not sure about the math. Maybe it has horrible potential EHPS to do things this way. And certainly other druids may consider using Regrowth for raid healing as “wrong” – but I find that in 10s, with fewer healers to go around, leaving that HoT behind can really help give that person a buffer while I’m off healing someone else.


And, of course, healing tanks in TOGC10 in 10 man gear means lower HP tanks and heavier healing requirements – we don’t have the luxury of 25man-geared tanks and 25man-geared healers. It’s for reasons like this that I love the idea of having my big Regrowths back… if only for a few fights. I still use Nourishes as the staple direct heal, but if I can boost my Regrowths by 20% – why not?


Note: I’m still using Rejuvs and Nourishes in there – I don’t want people to think I’ve abandoned the staples! I just find the very long Regrowth HoT portion to be handy in some situations.


Examples


Here are a few fights that I would lean towards the second “bursty” spec. Remember – these are all 10 man fights – things would be different if they were 25.




• Steelbreaker – yes, this is actually a great fight for Rejuv and WG, but the real make-or-break part is the tank healing at the end. I use Rejuv on the raid primarily, and WG too, but having WG hit one extra target is not going to matter much. Revitalize won’t be missed too much; our DPS is more than high enough, and our mana never seems an issue. So, dropping the WG glyph in favour of Regrowth for some chunky tank heals at the end, plus Nature’s Grace and Living Seed, will make the final phase a lot smoother. The tank healing is what gives us problems, so it makes sense to spec for that, rather than trying to maximise my HPS for the sake of it. I’m not interested in winning on the meters, I’m more interested in the tank being able to survive.

• Thorim hard – this fight has everyone spread out, making the WG glyph mostly useless. DPS and mana are not an issue, as above, so Revitalize is not a big loss. Massive tank heals in the final seconds WILL make or break this fight; faster casting, seeds, and bigger Regrowths would be valuable.
• Yoggy – again, limited use for WG here, but big tank healing at the end. Also, with keepers down, even the first phase can be hairy, and I find myself using more direct heals on the raid.
• TOC/TOGC – So far (I’ve only done one heroic mode) much of the fights have been bursty, and the raid spread out. I definitely think I value the bursty spec for these. I’ve heard that some of the hardmode fights go back to our blanketing roots, but in general, TOC demands a higher level of direct healing.


How to decide which to use


It will probably come down to a couple of simple questions:

1. What is the biggest risk to our success – constant, heavy raid damage, or crazy damage on one or two targets?

2. Will I be blanketing the raid with HoTs frequently enough to warrant a WG glyph and points spent in Revitalize?


If there’s a big emphasis on cycling Rejuv & WB on the raid, go with Spec A and cash in on Revitalize procs and 20% more WG throughput.


If the fight calls for chunky burst healing and I can’t or won’t be peppering the raid with (as many) Rejuvs/WGs, swap in Spec B for bigger Regrowths and more emphasis on direct healing.



If you can’t afford a secondary resto spec, then a utility build will serve you just fine. Don’t feel that you have to break your neck for 20% bigger Regrowths and some Living Seeds. But if you can afford to have a second healing spec, it’s great to be able to swap in a spec and glyphs that will best suit the fight. I didn’t like feeling as though my WG glyph slot and Revitalize talent points were wasted on fights where we are spread out or there isn’t much raid damage – now I can swap specs and feel like I am getting better economy out of my spec and glyphs.


Sure, maybe you’ll win on the meters if you stick to HoT-botting and use the WG glyph – but if your raid is having trouble keeping the tank up through big hits, would the Regrowth glyph and Living Seed serve your group better?


At any rate, I’m having fun experimenting!

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While nothing has been announced, druids are reporting that the WG bug has finally been fixed.


If the above is true, self-casting should now work, even when your target is dead or out of range. While this is obviously kinda illogical, it was still annoying when it wouldn’t fire. It still occasionally tripped me up. It’s good to have it fixed without having to use canceltarget macros.


Please let me know if you run into any further troubles with it, as there hasn’t been any official announcement that the bug has been fixed.

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The Vezax fight is unique in that you cannot regen ANY mana during the fight (although you will get about 25% back from Lifebloom blooms). Pots, Innervate, MP5, spirit, none of it will help you get any mana back. On normal mode, you can stand in Saronite vapors to regen a little mana, but on the hard mode version, you can’t. So every little bit of mana counts, and once spent, you can’t get it back – so the more you spend, the harder it will be for you in the final moments of the fight.

Here’s an ultra-quick tip for those of you attempting hard mode. I use it each time and get a real kick out of it. You’ll need to practice the timing, but once you get into the groove, it’s easy.



1. Just before the tank runs in, set him up with a full stack of Lifebloom, a Regrowth, and a Rejuv.

2. As he runs in, refresh your Lifebloom, then Innervate yourself BEFORE you enter combat, to get back to full mana before the fight starts.
You may need to coordinate this with your tank – if he pulls too quickly you won’t get your mana back before you go into combat (remember, Innervate will stop working as soon as you enter combat) and if he pulls too slowly, your HoTs will drop off.
3. Quickly refresh your Rejuv also, while you have innervate. You should hit full mana before you enter combat.
4. After the tank engages the boss, refresh your Lifebloom stack just before it expires.
5. Refresh once more just before it expires – so that’s one initial stack, and two subsequent refreshes.
6. Let your Lifebloom expire the next time. This will (hopefully) give you a heal on the tank, and will also return part of your mana back.


You’ve just given your tank a Regrowth, Rejuv, three cycles of full Lifebloom ticks, and possibly a Lifebloom bloom (if he took damage at the right time), and all for “free” – you should be back at full mana after you let your Lifebloom expire.


Most people will pre-HoT tanks before pulls anyway – but this way you can guarantee that you start combat with full mana, and keep those full-strength Lifeblooms rolling for a couple of cycles – all for “free”.


Oh, and don’t forget – if you need to battle rez someone (and you’re the absolute last resort – DPS druids should be doing it before you if possible) jump in the black puddle to do it, if you can – it will save you some precious mana.

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One thing I’ve always loved about Grid is that I can set up my frames to change to – OH-GOD-LOOK-AT-ME-I’M-BRIGHT-PINK – pink when someone has a nasty debuff. The rapid colour change to something bright and obvious immediately prompts me to bomb them with heals, run away from them, run to them, etc etc.


But with the release of TOC, it seemed that most (if not all) of the custom debuffs weren’t working. This was especially annoying for debuffs such as Jaraxxus’ Incinerate Flesh, which absolutely must be healed through to remove it, or the raid will take massive damage. If you can’t spot the person with the debuff, you lose precious seconds. Boss mods will announce their name, but having to scour through 10 or 25 people to find them (particularly bad in PuGs where you don’t know people’s names and classes) makes things very difficult. PLUS, if you can’t see the debuff drop off (either through being removed properly, or cloaked, iceblocked, etc), you’ll likely throw out 2 or 3 completely wasted heals to a target that no longer has the debuff. I know, because I did.


If you’re a Grid user and you haven’t tried GridStatusRaidDebuffs before, I really can’t recommend it highly enough. The reason I didn’t use it before was because I preferred to just set up my own custom debuffs; but the fact that TOC debuffs didn’t work, coupled with the fact that there seem to be more and more debuffs that I need to be aware of, pushed me to give it a try.


The one major problem for me though was icon placement. The icon needs to be large enough to see easily (since there are often 2 or 3 major debuffs in a fight and you need to be able to see which one your target has), but NOT obscure your frame information. And that’s exactly the problem I had: the icon was great, but it was sitting right over the top of my Lifebloom text, and obscuring the health bar. Bad.


To get around this, grab a module named GridIndicatorSideIcons – so you can place your icons at the side of your frame, not in the middle.





As you can see, the icon is clear, but it doesn’t obscure my HoT counters, texts, health, or any other information.


Perfect!



How to copy it:


1. Grab GridStatusRaidDebuffs here (Curse).

2. Grab GridIndicatorSideIcons here (WowAce).

3. Under Frame > Icon (Sides) > Left Icon, scroll down and check the box “Raid Debuff” (this will make sure that the GridStatusRaidDebuffs are placed on the left side).





4. To adjust the size and positioning, go to Frame > Advanced > Icon (Sides) and use the slider bars to resize and nudge the icon into the position that you want.





Note: if the icon is still showing in the middle of the frame, you may also need to go to Frame > Center Icon and uncheck Raid Debuff, and Status > Raid Debuff and uncheck “center icon”. Make sure the “enable” box is checked.


Your raid debuffs should be a lot easier to track, without obscuring your HoT counters or other information – it should make life a lot easier!

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It’s not the size of your raid team, but how you use it – isn’t that how the saying goes?


This is our third week of 10 man raiding and we’re just tearing it up. Most hard modes are either one-shots or at most take us two or three tries. The only one that is giving us any problems (and justifiably so) is Firefighter, but that is to be expected. Just Mimiron, Freya, and Yogg0-3 to go (and Algalon, of course).


It’s been a lot of fun so far, and I find myself actually wishing I could speed up the raid reset so that we could get back in again. That’s never happened before – sure I’ve been keen to finish things off, but I’ve never wished for more raiding. I think it just shows how much more fun this format is for us.


I’ve done a couple of 25man runs lately and frankly, the more I do, the less I enjoy. I’m loving 10s. But it got me thinking back to 40 mans, early 25s, and some of the things that I miss/don’t miss about them.



Things I miss about large raids


1. Healing rotations and group assignments
No, really. I miss having sub-teams of healers assigned to heal various groups, and to step out at intervals to regen mana. I adored Dreamless Sleep potions. It’s probably why I enjoy the Vezax hard fight – I try to do as little healing as I can, early on – mostly a rejuv only if I can get away with it, so that I can come out both-guns-blazing in the Animus stage. And also why I loved the fight in Hyjal where dropping under a certain mana threshold would make you explode – so you had to step back and regen (or coordinate innervates – if only it had been changed to base mana back then!).


I get a real kick out of that feeling of the team really working together for the perfect balance of healing and mana management, that feeling that everything has to be coordinated, scheduled. Transitions. Regen calls.


2. That “epic” feeling
We’re never going to get 40man PvE raids back, but I do miss that epic feeling of so many people coming together with a common goal. Having to wrangle that many people was a nightmare (heck, trying to do it with 25 isn’t much better these days), but it sure did feel awesome when everyone came together.


3. Being at the pointy end
I’m absolutely loving 10 man raiding, but I still do get that twinge when I think about 25s. I don’t want to go back to them, but at the same time, it feels so odd doing the not-quite-endgame (where endgame is defined as top tier 25man hardmodes) content. I’m highly competitive, and it’s very strange to do 10s and not 25s. I know in my heart I’m not “settling”, I’m loving this.. but it’s hard to adjust to not being at the pointy end of 25mans.


It’s especially strange when planning gear and reading up on theorycrafting, because I’m no longer shooting for BiS gear but not-quite-BiS-**but**-BiS-for-what-I’m-doing. And since everything on EJ is aimed at the upper echelon of raiding and gear, some of the theorycrafting stands but much of it doesn’t. 10man raiding is still the bastard child of the raiding game, and I’m not sure when/if serious or “hardcore” 10man raids will ever be accepted as “real” raiding alongside 25s.


So despite having a blast, and most definitely NOT wanting to go back to 25s, it’s difficult to adjust to not doing them, and I do feel the occasional pang of jealousy. It’s weird, and hard to explain.


4. Buffs
A lot of our raids have been done with no pally and no priest. Ever tried raiding without fort and kings (for a start)? We’ve had to resort to the slightly dirty tactic of outside-the-instance buffing, but it’s not like we’re trying to get an edge – we’re just trying to get the most basic of buffs. Trying to do Vezax hard without fort, int or shadow protection is not as fun as you might imagine. It will definitely be good when they bring in the new profession buffs to help out.. but for the time being it can really suck not being able to rely on basic buffs, regen, a bloodlust, etc. This tends to make you “stack” your raid quite rigidly, leaving little room for people to swap in and out.


You really take those things for granted in a big raid.



Things I don’t miss (and why I’m loving 10s)


1. Lag
While everyone else is complaining about TOC being unbearable, we’re breezing through without a hiccup. Jumping into a 25 pug on the weekend, it’s noticeably more choppy. Ick. I don’t envy you guys trying to get your 25s done under those conditions.


2. People hugging the meters
In larger groups, meters seem to play a bigger part. In smaller groups, they seem to revert back to being a tool to find out who isn’t pulling their weight, and not so much about who is teh leetsauce. In 10 man groups I find that I don’t even think about meters (I haven’t used any myself since Kara). In 25mans I feel pressured to “perform”, to an extent – but in small groups, it’s all about just doing whatever is needed to get the job done. No egos, just teamwork. I forget that meters even exist. I love it.


3. Noise
The potential for 25 people to talk on vent vs 10 – it’s pretty obvious. With a 10 man group, we can all be having a chat while we’re doing trash (and sometimes even bosses) without vent being cluttered and loud and horrible. There’s the occasional time when we need to ask for vent to be cleared, of course, but it’s nowhere near as headache-inducing as a 25man raid channel. Being able to talk freely, and without it being overwhelming and noisy, really fosters that close-knit and relaxed feel in the team.


4. Loot systems
No DKP, no hoarding, no whoring, no wasting time with bids and rolls and re-rolls. If you need it for your main spec, go for it. If you’d like it for your offspec, feel free to greed. And with a smaller group, it’s easier for me to inspect the other few healers/casters to see if I want to pass to them instead. Looting doesn’t take 20 minutes, and doesn’t need to be recorded. If we bring an alt in to fill a role, they can grab loot as well – but everyone is mature enough to know when to step aside for a main or for someone we need to gear up a bit.


5. Herding cats
It’s early days, but so far things are going as I had hoped – being small, the guild can basically run itself. Raids, too. I simply put the times into the calendar, and off we go. There’s no pushing or cajoling or barking at people… they’re all grownups, they turn up on time and do their jobs.


6. $$$$$
We have about 25K gold in the bank at the moment, and a lot of mats. I turned guild repairs on for hard modes…. and then just left them on. Nobody has abused it (unlike back in the 25man days when I had to pull people up for repairing after 5 mans etc). But frankly, if it’s helping to gear us up – you can use it. And because we’re only 10 people repairing in raids, the gold will (roughly) go 2.5 times as far as before. And if I make pots or other consumables to share, we’re using 10 per attempt rather than 25. It also means I can be more generous with the gbank – there’s no need to sit and weigh up whether Bob has been in the guild long enough to get 6 shards for his enchant – we all know each other, we all do a good job, and I can just hand them over. It makes my job as GM a lot easier.


7. I can actually see sh#t on the ground
I never really noticed before (but then, I never ran Ulduar10 back in April/May) that 25 people (plus mobs) running around can make it pretty hard to see what’s on the ground. I honestly never realised how clear the runes were on the floor for Hodir – I used to have trouble spotting them, believe it or not. But it was probably because there was a mess of people running around all the time. And there are lots of situations where I’m glad for the extra space. Obviously you have to make sure everyone is in range for heals – but it’s nice to be able to spread out and not be right on top of people.


8. The atmosphere
The guild might be 2.5 times smaller, but it’s a hundred times more enjoyable. We run heroics constantly – obviously this is partly due to the badge change, but I think people are also more willing to mingle now that the guild isn’t so big. And with the speed and ease of gearing up alts, a lot of people have multiple characters to swap around and volunteer to do groups (and raids, if we need them). The sense of being a team seems to be much stronger now.





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What are the things that you guys really miss about old raiding – and what are you really glad to have put behind us?

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Warning: links in this post may contain offensive language and may be NSFW – click at your discretion


I need to send a quick shout-out to the newest addition to my blogroll – Cows from Cows Loves Cake.

I feel that I have found in him a kindred spirit – not just because of his love of cake, but because of his unrelenting and unapologetic seething hatred of the Oculus. To say I identify with him would be a gross understatement.

Cows’ blog doesn’t pull any punches – he says what’s on his mind and he doesn’t pussyfoot around.

And by that, I mean that he swears like a sailor, and makes no apologies.

But honestly – I find it really refreshing, because he’s not putting up that blogging facade where you need to act nice all the time, watch your words, stay calm, be neutral, don’t ever be abrasive. Not this one. Here’s my blog, here’s what I think, and I’m not going to reword anything to make it more P.C. so that I don’t offend your delicate sensibilities.

I genuinely love it and I can’t wait to read more.

It’s also great to have a couple of super-hardcore druids on the blogroll; I’m not in a hardcore 25man guild anymore but it’s good to have a mix of different player types in the druid blog community. I like having a well-rounded mix of blogs to read, from all walks of WoW. And you know I’ll always embrace people who are willing to do the theorycraft (read: math) where I can’t…

Welcome, Cows!

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Personal soapbox time!


Ok, so I may have inadvertantly stirred up a bit of a hornet’s nest on the Caelestrasz forums by making an innocent suggestion that our realm should have a separate progression ladder that only included self-proclaimed 10 man guilds.


Someone created a thread to discuss the phenomenon of 25man raiders bragging about 10mans being so easy that you can do them while drunk, etc. Going slightly off-topic, I said that it was a bit unfair for the 10man list to be full of 25man guilds, and that 10 man guilds should have a more meaningful progression list, because that is their sole channel of progression.


I originally stated that I thought it was a little unfair for the 10 man “progression” list to be full of 25man guilds, but the valid point was made that kills are kills and some of the 10 hardmodes are.. hard, so 25man guilds should still get credit. And I do agree with that – I don’t want to stop the larger guilds from displaying all of their trophies, be they 25man bosses, 10 man bosses, or various achievements.


But I still think that a “pure” ten man list would be good to have, so that the smaller guilds can gauge their progress against like guilds.



But what’s a “pure” 10 man guild?


This is where it started to get a bit dumb, in my opinion.


People started quoting GuildOx and saying that if we wanted a 10 man ladder, we’d have to stick to these “rules”. Have you ever seen their “strict” 10 man rules? These are the kind of things that people on my realm want to enforce for anyone to be included on the ten man ladder:




What are the 10-man ’strict’ rankings?


We recognize that 25-man guilds or guilds that regularly participate in 25m pug runs have a distinct advantage since they run 10-man content with higher iLevel gear. Consequently, our 10-man strict rankings aim to exclude guilds that access any 25-man content that offers higher ilvl gear than what the current 10-man normal content provides. If your guild members regularly run 25man pugs then you are not considered a 10-man strict guild.

Translation: nobody in the guild is allow to have fun on weekends and run PuGs. Y’know, like the majority of people like to do.

What is the 10-man ’strict’ criteria?


Guilds will be required to not earn any Coliseum 25 normal kills or any Ulduar 25 hard-mode kills.


Normally guilds will earn these 25m kill achievements when either 10 players complete a kill in the same raid or when 15 players complete the kill over time. We have added a special trigger for the Coliseum that will exclude a guild from strict rankings when 5 players achieve any boss kill in the same raid or a total of 10 players achieve it over time.
…
Please ensure you discourage your guild members from participating in any Coliseum 25 and Ulduar 25 hard-mode runs if you wish to remain on the strict rankings. Also be sure minimize the recruitment of players that have previously achieved these kills since they will contribute to the guild total, regardless of when they achieved it.

Last weekend, about 5 or 6 of us did a TOC PuG. We didn’t finish the instance in the end, but if we had, our realm would no longer allow us to be on the 10 man progression ladder.


I can definitely agree with the hard modes – people don’t usually PuG hard modes (nor would I want to attempt them in a PuG). If people in your 10 man guild start getting 25man hard modes.. I would smell a rat. But 25man TOC normal? Come on – so many people PuG that for fun. Now we’re not allowed to if we want to be included on the ladder?


No weekend PuGs ever, and don’t even think about inviting friends who have retired from hardmode raiding and want to chill with you and do tens, because their raiding history could end up costing you your place on the ladder.


Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with GuildOx having these strict rules – some people do want to see a strict listing of the guilds who are actually killing bosses using only the gear available to them in 10 mans.


But the players on my realm (mostly 25man raiders, interestingly..) are basically saying, “It’s not worth having a list – just go check GuildOx if you want to know the ladder.” I’ve half a mind to say exactly the same to them – why do YOU have a listing on the realm forum? Why don’t YOU just go check GuildOx to see your ranking?


Is it such a massive stretch of the imagination that 10 man guilds would like to compare themselves to other 10 man guilds?



My crazy definition of a 10 man guild is..


a guild that:



1. advertises and recruits as a 10 man guild;

2. runs 10 man raids in sanctioned raid times;
3. does NOT run 25man raids in-guild (pugs excepted).

I know, it’s pretty revolutionary – try to wrap your head around it for a few minutes. A 10 man guild is a guild that says, “We’re a 10 man raiding guild!”


But evidently, it seems that you are not allowed to claim 10 man kills if you do PuGs, have retired hardcore members with achievements, or even if you wear badge gear.



Why the huge opposition?


I don’t understand why people are so opposed to allowing the 10 man guilds to have their own listing, so that if someone comes to the server looking for a small guild or wondering what our 10 man guilds are currently up to, they can look at a list that isn’t basically a duplication of the 25man list. It’s not even about “winning” on the ladder, I would just like to see a list of 10 man guilds and what they are progressing through.


I’ve no doubt in my mind that many of the 25man raiders think I’m just wailing because I’m no longer a 25man raider and I want some glory – but honestly, I’m not about “winning” anymore. I genuinely think this would be a good thing to have – for all of the 10 mans.


Sometimes I feel like I’m speaking in another tongue or something though.


So few people understand what I am actually getting at, it seems. Some do, saying things like “10man guilds highly value 10man kills as real progression, maybe because they dont want to venture into 25mans or dont have the numbers to do so, however with the way this expansion has been moving both guild types have been able to successfully move onto each tier dungeon raid whilst maintaining their goal.” and “It’s like having a heavyweight come into my (bantamweight) division and clearing house and claiming dominance. You have your own weight class for a reason, your record is reflective of that weight class.”


It’s a relief to know that a couple of people can interpret my psycho-babble. But so many people are vehemently opposed to a 10 man list (mostly 25 man raiders) and I find it so disheartening. It’s not about ilvls, it’s about your guild philosophy, size, and what raids you run! It’s so simple – yet it seems like such a huge deal.


The arguments, in my mind, are so weak.


You can’t claim legit kills if you’re wearing the same gear as 25mans have access to (badges, PuG gear). If you PuG TOC25, you’ll be wearing the same gear as a 25man guild.
How on earth can anyone think that running a PuG on a weekend and MAYBE being lucky enough to pick up a piece of loot each week (most PuGs have a one-per-run rule), that puts you A) anywhere near the 25man guilds, and B) at a distinct advantage over someone who doesn’t?


Hardmodes, maybe – but I’m going to replace this chestpiece I got in a PuG with badges from 5 man dungeons. Everyone can gear themseves with Conquest and Triumph loot over time. The only “distinct advantage”, as I see it, would be from doing 25 hardmodes and collecting *that* gear.


If all you do is 10 mans, you should be high on the list anyway, we only do this in our spare time.
Skill, as always, trumps gear, but if anyone tells you that a 25man guild kitted out in 25man hardmode gear won’t generally have an easier time and go faster than a 10 man guild in 10man gear and a smattering of badge/PuG gear, then I want some of whatever they’re smoking.


Sure, you would expect a guild doing 20hrs a week to progress further than another guild doing 2hrs a week, despite being in lower gear – but this happens in ALL tier ladders, and you can’t really try to make meaningful comparisons. Just as we can now breeze through heroics barely trying (where back as fresh 80s they were difficult and took much longer), I’m going to go out on a limb and say that a 25man, hardmode-geared guild is going to have an easier time in 10mans and therefore not require as much time to chip away at them.


There’s already a list of 10 man guild contacts, why do we need another one?
We already have a list of 25 man guild contacts, why do we need another one with progress listed? See what I did there?

If someone wants to know who the most progressed 25man guilds are on the server, they look to the 25man progression post. If they want to know who the most progressed 10 man guilds are, they have to wade through about 15-20 of the same 25man guilds to try to find the 10s.

Is it really that hard to understand that a proper 10 man list would be more meaningful? Not to mention make the 10 man guilds feel like they don’t always have to compete against the 25mans?


Nobody ever complained before/There’s not enough interest.
I like this one. Nobody ever thought to improve the system, so why improve it now? Of course, makes sense. Truth is, few people probably thought to speak up. A few 10 man raiders have already said that they didn’t think of it or that they had thought about it but hadn’t said anything. They aren’t vocal like me Plus I also think that some guilds may look at the 10 man list, see it full of about 15-20 large guilds, and think, “why bother”. Maybe if there was a “real” 10 man list, they would be more keen to have their kills listed.


It would be complicated and extra work.
If there’s not many guilds, as everyone keeps saying, then how could it be very much work? I counted about a dozen 10 man guilds at a glance that would be on the list – how much work can it be to maintain a list of 12 guilds? Plus, I offered to help out and do it myself if it was too much. That didn’t go down so well.


You’ve only been a 10 man raider for a week, now suddenly it’s a big issue?
This is something I’ve been thinking about since back when I did my post on linear progression and people commented about 10man guilds getting screwed over. But becoming a 10 man raider did bring it back to the fore. Even so – what should it matter how long we’ve been around? We’re a 10 man guild, we’re raiding – how is it that we are less deserving to display our prograss than anyone else?


Hey, I’m not going to lie – going back to being a 10 man guild (I was in a 10 man guild at the start of TBC) does open your eyes up to how it feels to be in the tier of raiding that struggles to be accepted as “real raiding”.


25s are the professional sporting teams, and we’re kicking a ball around in the backyard, daydreaming about one day growing up and being just like them. Well, I suspect that’s probably what a lot of raiders think – that we’re only doing 10s because we can’t do 25s for some reason. In truth, I have zero interest in running 25s now (other than the occasional PuG). I’m loving 10s.


I just wish more people could see that this is real raiding to us – and why can’t we have a ladder that ranks us against others in our bracket?



Take it off. Take it alllllll off!


I’m just so frustrated, disappointed. Why do the 25man raiders find it so hard to understand that we want to bump up against other 10s, and that gear does not dictate whether you are a 10 man guild or not?


Nobody ever says to the 25man raiders that they can’t claim those 10 man kills because they were decked out in Uld25 hardmode gear. But if a 10man raider pipes up and says “I’d like to be able to see 10 mans against 10 mans on a ladder”, apparently we have to strip off all of our badge gear and PuG epics before we’re allowed to stake a claim to any kills. Huh?


Excuse the hyperbole, but everyone’s quick to point out the enormous injustice of a 10 man guild doing 25man PuGs and trying to claim progression against 10s that don’t PuG. But in the same breath people will also say that those puggers are now in the same gear bracket as the 25man guilds, many of which are running hardmodes in Ulduar and TOC, every week – and that’s fair.


My brain hurts.


If 10 man raiders want to be counted on a separate list, they have to take off 25man gear, because the only reason you would be on a separate list is if you’re super hardcore dedicated and you do everything in 10man ilvl gear, because that’s how nature intended. Nothing to do wtih the fact that you run a TEN MAN GUILD and would like to be on a ladder with other ten man guilds. Evidently it’s all about the ilvls and achievements, and that is what defines us.


I feel like back when I was vegetarian and people would challenge me at every corner to try to “disprove’ it, so they could say AHA! You’re not really a vegetarian after all! You’re cheating! OK, yes, I’m wearing leather shoes right now, but I’ve had them for 2 years and I’m not actually planning to eat them anytime soon, so could you please let me go about my business and stop trying to “expose” my web of lies?



Another ladder takes nothing from 25s, but helps 10s. Everyone wins, right?


I’m trying REAL hard to not sink to thinking that the 25s just wanna keep the 10s down, y’know? Because that’s silly and unnecessary. But it sure feels a bit that way, with the above “reasons” for why we shouldn’t have another ladder. It’s the 25mans that are complaining and trying to stomp on the idea – even though it affects them in no way. Trying to say there aren’t enough 10man guilds (which I think is the opposite of the truth, 10 mans are on the rise), and there’s not enough interest.


It’s hard to hold back and not say “this doesn’t even affect you, so why are you so determined to stop it?”


You can’t tell us what to do, 25mans. You’re not our real dad.


My suggestion takes nothing from the 25man raiders – they still get to list themselves in the 10man progression list. This dulls none of their glory, it hurts them in no way. But my list would be additional, purely for the people only interested in being 10 man guilds (and for people only interested in finding a 10 man guild). It’s an “everyone wins” deal.


But it seems like people are trying as hard as they can to find any possible reason to squash the idea. It’s too hard. It’s too hard to track. There are hardly any 10 man guilds.




Evidently, though: it seems to come down to one core argument: if you ever run a PuG on a weekend, you’re not really a 10 man guild. You’re a 25man guild with fewer members, trying to claim glory on the 10 man listing. Stop pretending to be a “real” 10 man guild, and deal with having to be in the 25man list with everyone else.

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I’ve had a few people ask me what happened to Kiiva, so I thought I would give a little bit of an update of what I’ve been doing in the world of the World of Warcraft.


Inexorable reformed

First, I reformed my guild.

Sentimentalism or masochism, or maybe a blend of the two.. I announced to the few core people who remained that I was going to open the guild back up as a 10 man group, retaining the same attitudes and standards, just relaxing the schedule a little. We now raid 3 x 3hr nights instead of 4 x 4hr nights, and leave Mondays open for whatever happens (later, this will probably be Algalon night, maybe Onyxia night too).

The announcement was very well received – I was overwhelmed by the number of whispers from well-wishers and people glad to see us back again.




I revamped our website and gave it a new banner (above). The first thing someone in the guild said was, “the picture makes no sense – but it looks good I guess.” The background picture is the Phoenix Nebula, so it does make sense, actually – although hardly anyone would know. But that’s fine. The text is a Japanese saying – fall seven times, stand up eight. I think it fits out guild very well.

We’re focusing on 10 mans, although we will likely join up with other guilds to run 25s here and there, but never with any pressure on members to do them. We want to stay small and tight-knit, with no leeches and dead-beat members this time. We’ve had to turn a lot of people away because the interest has been huge but we don’t want to have a really big guild with a large bench.

Raids so far have been smooth, “pro”, and fun. We cleared 9 bosses in Ulduar in one of our 3 hour nights, and TOC in another.




Next week, hopefully we will begin on hard modes in Ulduar, and jump into Trial of the Grand Crusader.

I can’t say how happy I am to be back with at least part of the guild that I loved so much. The people we have retained are excellent players and great people to be around. I’m having a blast with them in 10s and I really hope we go far.


Keeva

As far as my characters go, I have returned to Keeva (well, obviously, if Inex reformed..). Truth is, when 3.2 hit, it just made me realise how much I missed her, and the Horde, and I wanted to come back, even if it meant not having a guild to belong to, and not having much to do. I suppose I just feel more at home on this side. I would log into Dalaran on Alliance side and feel lonely (despite having a nice guild). When I logged over to the Horde, even though I was often the only one left in the yet-to-reform Inexorable, I felt like I was on a different planet, and that Dalaran was actually alive and I was home. Very hard to explain without sounding like a nutcase.

So, with Inex back together and starting into raiding again, I had to overhaul Keeva. I hadn’t raided in nearly 4 months, hadn’t a clue about the new gear out there, and for some reason my haste was an abysmal 287 (I don’t even know how that happened).

I had a look for the haste items I could pick up, including badge gear, and wrote down my wish list. I grabbed the Evoker’s Charm from badges, picked up Leggings of the Snowy Bramble from heroic TOC5 (which were a slight downgrade in spellpower, but good haste) and last night I got into a TOC25 and although I was actually lusting over the trinket, I scored Robes of the Shattered Kinship. My haste is now sitting at 403 unbuffed, and I’m happy with that. There are still items with haste that I’ll be picking up along the way, but now I don’t have to hunt for them – and obviously it means I have a little more wiggle room to take non-haste items.

I lost my 2pc 8.5 bonus (+10% to Swiftmend), but the robes are just so shiny that I don’t think I mind. It was an upgrade on every stat (except crit), including a decent amount of stam (which I’ll need for hard modes), good regen, a chunk of spellpower, and nearly 3% haste. I would have liked to keep it, but it’s certainly not the end of the world. I’ll be putting it back on for Herald of the Titans though!

Some other changes I made:



• dropped the Nourish glyph and went for Glyph of Innervate

• grabbed Idol of Flaring Growth (of course!)
• a full regem to epics, naturally
• changed to Lightweave Embroidery on my cloak


And that’s about it for the time being – now I have to rush off, Ulduar is starting!

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Meta gems

In my mind, there are two standout choices for meta gems, the Ember Skyflare Diamond (ESD) and the Insightful Earthsiege Diamond (IED). Of those two, the IED is almost always the better choice, despite what people will tell you.

Here’s why.


Why the Ember Skyflare is hardly ever right

I’m bound to start some fights with this one, but it’s a genuine problem that I see all over the place, and very few people understand the mistake they are making. That’s not saying they’re dumb or “noobs” or anything – if nobody explained it to you, it’s quite logical to consider the ESD to be the best because it has our favourite stat – spell power.


I certainly don’t consider myself an expert on every facet of druidism; I learn new things all the time, and I’m constantly looking for ways to improve. So if you’re using the Skyflare – please don’t take this as a criticism – I would just like to make sure people are open to all of the information and don’t simply adopt a choice because it seems logical.

The catchcry of the diehard ESD fan goes like this:

I never have any mana problems, so why would I want a mana restore meta?


Makes perfect sense, right? Remember, too much regen is a waste – so if you have all the regen you need, why pick up a meta gem that gives you even more mana back? That would be a waste – might as well pick up a small amount of spellpower instead.

Wrong!

So what’s the problem with the above statement? Nothing, if it’s true. The problem though is that most people say “I never have mana problems” but when you look at their Armory – often they are wearing double mana regen trinkets. Some even admit to using mp5 flasks or regen food. You can’t really claim to “never” have mana problems if you are still using regen trinkets – or you wouldn’t be using those regen trinkets at all – you’d have swapped them out for throughput (spell power) trinkets long ago.




This is not a criticism of people who use pure regen trinkets. I just want to try to explain to people that the reason that you perceive yourself to be immune to mana troubles is due in part to the fact that you have those mana trinkets.


That’s not a bad thing. If you’re still using regen trinkets, I assume it’s because you believe you need them for adequate longevity in a fight. So you do need regen – it’s just a case of adjusting our thinking to make sure we’re getting it in the most efficient way. If you team regen trinkets and consumables up with the ESD and justify the spell power meta by saying you “never have mana problems”, then that’s not really true.

Follow me?



Expanding on metas and trinkets a little

It’s all about trade-offs.

The ESD gives you +25 spell power and +2% Intellect.

The IED gives you +21 Intellect and a chance to restore 600 mana on spellcast. This has no internal cooldown, and due to resto druids’ ever-casting style, can be equal to anywhere from 40mp5 to 100mp5, depending on the fight.

For druids with around 1000 Intellect, the Intellect on these two diamonds basically cancel (although the ESD will scale slightly). So let’s discard that and focus purely on the ESD’s spell power and the IED’s mana return.

So you’re effectively weighing 25 spellpower against 40-100mp5 (let’s say 60mp5 average). This is key.

I found some examples of people at Elitist Jerks who are better at explaining than I am!



Trismegistus:
I think the point here is the stats that are available in slot. The two major sources of MP5 are Meta and Trinket.


Let’s compare the four stats on these two gems.


[Insightful Earthsiege Diamond] – +21 Int and [assumed] 75MP5
[Ember Skyflare Diamond] – +25 Spell Power and [assumed 1000 Int] +20Int


If we look at the available trinkets, they offer significantly more Spell Power than this meta, but the MP5 is much lower. It is therefore better to sacrifice the Spell Power from the Meta slot and use it for MP5 because it is the best slot on the entire gear sheet for that stat.

Boevis:
The proc is actually 5% chance to restore 600 mana which works out to be 100 mp5 if you cast every 1.5 seconds, 75 mp5 casting every 2 seconds, or 50 mp5 casting every 3 seconds.


Considering the HoT nature of druids (and the everpresent haste on gear) it’s going to trend toward the upper values. In comparison, 25 spell power is fairly weak when you take into account what trinkets you could swap out, 100 spell power trinkets are easy to find ([Darkmoon Card: Illusion]) and the best ones easily exceed 100 [Illustration of the Dragon Soul], while the best mana regen trinkets are likely [Soul of the Dead] or one of the 3 high Spirit ones.

Bregalad:
if I trade off ember skyflare for IED, I’m getting 70+ mp5 at a cost of only 25 spellpower (the int roughly cancels for most trees). There is no place on your gear where you can get a 50+ mp5 effective result that only costs you 25 spellpower. It’s only on special procs for trinkets/rings etc. that it even gets as close as my example. On regular gear, you typically give up almost 3 spellpower to get 1Mp5. That’s a tradeoff you generally don’t want to make unless you already have IED and regen trinkets and *still* can run out of mana on hard fights.


IED is the most efficient tradeoff, so it’s the first thing you should do in the regen department.

(Note: since these comments were posted, new items have come into the game and there are better trinkets available – but the underlying principle remains the same – particularly if you’re not raiding hard modes and TOC25, for example)


So in short, the IED is better “value” because you’re getting ~60mp5 for a trade of 25 spell power, which is something you can’t get in any other slot. Provided, of course, that you still have a need for more regen. If you are gearing straight spell power, have spell power trinkets, and still find you are comfortable with your mana, then opt for the ESD.


If you’re using the ESD and you still have pure regen trinkets, that’s not an efficient trade. You would be better having the mana restore meta and spell power trinket than a (weaker) spell power meta and (weaker) mana regen trinkets. Even better, grab one of the yummy +Spell Power/+regen trinkets out there.



Better options than ESD + regen trinkets


If you’re still using pure regen trinkets for everyday encounters, but you’ve opted for the ESD, it makes more sense to change to the IED and replace your trinket/s with throughput (spell power). Obviously, some hard mode encounters may demand more regen, so you might swap gear around and put in a regen trinket – there are special cases. Plenty of people keep particular trinkets on hand for hard modes. But if your standard gear for your standard weekly raiding includes pure regen trinkets and the ESD, you should consider swapping in the IED and a throughput trinket.

If you find you have plenty of regen and you want to dump some of it, you should leave the IED til last – because it is simply the best value, the best bang for your buck. Swap out regen trinket firsts, and DEFINITELY stop using regen flasks and food.

Here are a few of the spellpower trinkets available:



• Embrace of the Spider (Naxx 10)

• The Egg of Mortal Essence (40 x Emblem of Heroism)
• Darkmoon Card: Illusion (crafted)
• Forethought Talisman (Naxx 25)
• Titan-Forged rune of Audacity (25 x Wintergrasp Mark of Honor)
• Scale of Fates (Ulduar 25)
• Illustration of the Dragon Soul (Sartharion 25)


Or, even better, go for a balance of spell power and regen:



• Je’Tze’s Bell (world BOE drop)
• Sif’s Remembrance (Thorim 10 Hard)
• Show of Faith (Yogg 25 Hard)
• Solace of the Defeated and Solace of the Fallen (Trial of the Crusader 25)


To have a look at all of your trinket options, try a Wowhead filter: http://www.wowhead.com/?items=4.-4&filter=minrl=80;maxrl=80


Once your normal gear and your usual content dictates that you don’t need regen trinkets, gems, consumables etc – feel free to swap to the ESD. Just make sure the IED is the last thing you ditch – because it really is the best value for regen.

If you need regen – the IED should be your first port of call.

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