Posts
Before the beginning of Cataclysm, I knew there would be a lot of moving around across the globe. I didn't realize portals would be in Stormwind (or the Horde's Orgrimmar) such that people would just move in there. Because I was dumb, and not a mage, I started acquiring a few items. I've added a few but they all seem to come in handy for various activities. Here's my list.
[Direbrew's Remote] - Need a quick pitstop? Need to smelt some dark iron? Want an ugly hearth between Ironforge and Stormwind? It's better than a boat or zeppelin. Just don't be a jerk and use it a BG and ask people to click it for a present.
[Baradin's Wardens Tabard] - This is a wonderful secondary hearth. Land in the quest hub and click on the portal to Stormwind. Or you could actually do your dailies if you're going for a mount or pet.
[Wrap of Unity] - Another wonderful secondary hearth that level 15 Cataclysm guilds can provide. There are Horde and greater / lesser versions.
[Band of the Kirin Tor] - How often do you need to get to Northrend? Or Dalaran? No? What about going to Dalaran and taking the portal to the Keepers of Time and Dragon Soul instance? This thing used to be considered expensive. Now a few thousand gold is pocket change. There are other styles and upgrades, but there's really no point to them other than the hearth.
[Blessed Medallion of Karabor] - Need to get to Outlands and not near a portal to The Portal? This will get you there nicely. And if you're doing dailies for your drake mounts you'll crave this item.
[Argent Crusader's Tabard] - Would you like another Northrend port? How about to that dailies hub that has all those mounts and pets? For DPS waiting in a queue, this is a nice immediate activity.
[Hearthstone] - The list wouldn't be complete without this handy item, right? Level eight guilds augment it with[Hasty Hearth]. A long time ago, I accidentally dropped mine. I was quite relieved to learn I just needed to talk with an innkeeper for a new one.
[Stormpike Insignia Rank 6] - If you're a BG'er, this can have its uses; This is especially true if you're going for achievements.
And there's simply hoofing it. But hunters should do it in style: [Master Riding], [Mount Up] and a [Blue Dragonhawk] (ss).
If I was an engineer, I'd have a generator or two, but alas I'm stuck in my ways and not going engineering. I'm also not interested in expensive consumable hearths to Deepholm since I'm not an alchemist.
And if you're in a group, you should show that you're extremely fast and a gentleman to the lesser classes by tossing a [Have Group, Will Travel] summon.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Average Agility of Kiril, Fury of Beasts?
The average agility gain of the proc from Kiril, Fury of Beasts is a somewhat complex thing to discover. What I found is a little disappointing.
I have the normal polearm which, on proc, provides +107 agility buff once a sec to a stack count of ten and then persists for ten more seconds. The LFR version provides a stacking +95 agility. The heroic provides a stacking +120 agility. With some modeling and a 45 sec ICD, I expected the normal to provide approximately an average of 365 agility in the best case scenario when averaged over the course of a whole five minute fight.
For the record, I expected the LFR version to provide 324 and the heroic version to provide an average of 410 agility.
That was very optimistic and simplistic modeling. I was guessing I could get it to proc within the first second when it really only as a 15% chance to proc per shot. Put another way, I was expecting to have some level of the buff (from one stack to ten stacks) for 44.67% of a five minute fight.
What I see in practice is quite different. Below is a heroic Ultraxion and normal Gunship from last night. I expected to see much much better buff numbers and uptime from Ultraxion. I see only 27.9% and 31.7% overall uptime of any stack count. In the below images, the green zones are when the buff is active (at increasing stack counts):
Given these observations I'm thinking my optimistic theory-crafting is supplanted by the observed data. My average uptime is really only about 30% so my average agility for a fight is about 68% of my original calculations. So the average agility gain from the proc would land around these:
I have the normal polearm which, on proc, provides +107 agility buff once a sec to a stack count of ten and then persists for ten more seconds. The LFR version provides a stacking +95 agility. The heroic provides a stacking +120 agility. With some modeling and a 45 sec ICD, I expected the normal to provide approximately an average of 365 agility in the best case scenario when averaged over the course of a whole five minute fight.
For the record, I expected the LFR version to provide 324 and the heroic version to provide an average of 410 agility.
That was very optimistic and simplistic modeling. I was guessing I could get it to proc within the first second when it really only as a 15% chance to proc per shot. Put another way, I was expecting to have some level of the buff (from one stack to ten stacks) for 44.67% of a five minute fight.
What I see in practice is quite different. Below is a heroic Ultraxion and normal Gunship from last night. I expected to see much much better buff numbers and uptime from Ultraxion. I see only 27.9% and 31.7% overall uptime of any stack count. In the below images, the green zones are when the buff is active (at increasing stack counts):
Given these observations I'm thinking my optimistic theory-crafting is supplanted by the observed data. My average uptime is really only about 30% so my average agility for a fight is about 68% of my original calculations. So the average agility gain from the proc would land around these:
LFR: 221
Regular: 249
Heroic: 279
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
No Woes to the Nerf
I'm not going to complain about the increasing nerf. It certainly makes heroic modes much more attainable. This past raid week we put some learning in on Yor'sahj and got him to 40%. He's typically the second heroic kill for guilds so we should have him soon. (For whatever reason we found heroic Ultraxion easier.)
Let me tell you, the 10% debuff does have some weird effects on normal modes. We have easily nine-manned bosses. Last night, our raid leader jumped "accidentally" off the gunship. I suspect he just wanted to /afk on a boss we don't use call-outs for.
On normal Deathwing, we were taking down limbs before they even started casting Cataclysm. Then we wiped because we did too much damage. We brought limbs down to below 70% just as a tentacle popped; This meant we were spread out for the tentacle but we had blistering bloods on the limb just ripping us to shreds. So we had to dial our dps back a ton. We are working on the Chromatic Champion achievement to learn the fight in different ways.
It is kinda nice to think that all the heroic modes are within reach. I can't recall thinking that before.
Let me tell you, the 10% debuff does have some weird effects on normal modes. We have easily nine-manned bosses. Last night, our raid leader jumped "accidentally" off the gunship. I suspect he just wanted to /afk on a boss we don't use call-outs for.
On normal Deathwing, we were taking down limbs before they even started casting Cataclysm. Then we wiped because we did too much damage. We brought limbs down to below 70% just as a tentacle popped; This meant we were spread out for the tentacle but we had blistering bloods on the limb just ripping us to shreds. So we had to dial our dps back a ton. We are working on the Chromatic Champion achievement to learn the fight in different ways.
It is kinda nice to think that all the heroic modes are within reach. I can't recall thinking that before.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Heroic Ultraxion 10man for Hunters
Earlier this week we downed Heroic Ultraxion. It's not news of any sort, but I thought I'd share some tips and tricks I learned along the way. Next week Dragon Soul gets the 10% nerf so more guilds may be attempting it. Here's my hunter view on the fight and the differences from normal.
Taking Turns with Hour of Twilight
Instead of just one tank staying in for Hour of Twilight, two people must stay in in heroic-10. When/if a player stays in, they get a debuff which will insta-kill them if they stay in again. The debuff lasts two mins, which means that you need six people taking the hour of twilights in a cycle in groups of two. What's great for hunters, is that we have an AMAZING ability with deterrence. It is available every two mins AND it prevents ALL damage. That combination isn't that common. That means you want to step up and do it.
Hitting Deterrence or the Heroic Will Button
Ultraxion's cast time for Hour of Twilight in heroic is much faster. It goes from five seconds in normal to only three seconds in heroic. If you have much latency you'll see it as two seconds. What this means is that you always need to be ready to hit the right button. Initially, you'll want to just hit it immediately. After you get comfortable with your timing, you can slip in an extra shot and cut it closer. But no matter what, you can't be surprised by it. Know that it's coming and be ready before it's there.
If it's your turn to stay in and deterrence then you should know when the hour of twilight is coming and you should either have a double-stop-cast deterrence macro, or you shouldn't have any long casts that could delay your deterrence.
Thankfully, the Heroic Will button will cancel any cast.
Note: you should only use Deterrence if your raid[leader] tells you to or if you're in the rotation.
Fading Light
The fading light debuff will affect two dps and one tank in heroic-10 -- instead of just one dps and one tank. This means you have a good chance of taking a fading light. To make it more fun, the debuff no longer starts from between five and ten second before it insta-kills you. It seems to start between three and seven seconds. If I'm playing with 250ms latency it seems to start at two seconds because of the rounding that occurs with debuffs.
Again to address this, you always need to be ready for fading light. Don't wait for it to reach zero. Watch DBM for the timers and be ready. Don't let this screw up a follow-on deterrence or second heroic will. There is a situation that can rarely occur; Heroic will has a 5sec CD so it is possible for it be on CD if fading light and hour of twilight occur closely. In that case make sure to fade for fading light a little early.
When to DPS: Before the First Twilight
There are no fading lights before the first twilight occurs. Lay into him and blow CDs. Prepot. Whatever you can do. The fight is over five minutes, so Rapid Fire away. It it pure dps with no interruptions. Since everyone is in-phase and not interrupted, we found it a nice time to hero. This is the only time to get dps tunnel vision.
When to DPS: Trinkets
If you have on-use trinkets there are times when you'll want to defer using them for five seconds or so. A good time to hit them is right after a twilight. For the 1.5min trinket this aligns nicely. You just don't want to have that lovely dps burst interrupted.
When to DPS: Through and After a Twilight/Fading Light
Once you have the heroic will down, you can start to lay in more shots. As SV you'll have a few options. The biggest thing is that you want your DoTs to keep rolling while you're not there. If you have the option to slightly clip an Explosive Shot's DoT right before fading, you should. If the consequence is to greatly clip the DoT, then don't!
Fading Lights can be very quick. I was able to pretty easily always fade with less than two seconds left on the debuff. If DoTs are ticking so much the better. But Hour of Twilight is a little bit longer of a dps hiatus. The boss has the casting bar and then it doesn't actually occur until the wave passes over the group. And it's whereever on the platform the group could be. Then and only then do you come back to the twilight.
If you are deterrencing for an hour of twilight, you must have a cancel aura macro on hand. Do the deterrence; wait for the wave to pass over you; cancel the deterrence; hit every dps CD you have and slam into him. You'll have a second or more of extra dps that you wouldn't have if you had faded.
Surviving
This is a dps race. You're doing this with two healers and some smattering of other health and healing abilities. But you need to survive. Until about 4.5mins into the fight it's all about proper execution. Some time after that point it becomes about dps'ng while helping the healers. When you notice everyone's health really low, consider helping the healers keep you up.
Hunters don't have group damage reduction CDs, but they can cheaply help themselves. If you're a Dwarf, you can have eight seconds of 10% damage reduction. When you're DPS'ng from the stairs in a nice tight group, hunters can both attack as melee and range. Don't pass up a big DPS but if it's only an Arcane Shot vs staying alive, go with staying alive. Smack a glyphed raptor strike. Healthstones are also a nice thing to chew at that time. If you somehow fell into bringing a pet for some buff (it better pay off!) who can intervene now's the time to use it on the active tank.
Loot
The kill can net you the heroic chest, bracers, and another shot at the trinket and ring. In sadness, please note that the ring is both laden with expertise and best in slot. For the record: I won the chest this past week. I have passed (for the moment) on the ring for rogues and ferals.
Taking Turns with Hour of Twilight
Instead of just one tank staying in for Hour of Twilight, two people must stay in in heroic-10. When/if a player stays in, they get a debuff which will insta-kill them if they stay in again. The debuff lasts two mins, which means that you need six people taking the hour of twilights in a cycle in groups of two. What's great for hunters, is that we have an AMAZING ability with deterrence. It is available every two mins AND it prevents ALL damage. That combination isn't that common. That means you want to step up and do it.
Hitting Deterrence or the Heroic Will Button
Ultraxion's cast time for Hour of Twilight in heroic is much faster. It goes from five seconds in normal to only three seconds in heroic. If you have much latency you'll see it as two seconds. What this means is that you always need to be ready to hit the right button. Initially, you'll want to just hit it immediately. After you get comfortable with your timing, you can slip in an extra shot and cut it closer. But no matter what, you can't be surprised by it. Know that it's coming and be ready before it's there.
If it's your turn to stay in and deterrence then you should know when the hour of twilight is coming and you should either have a double-stop-cast deterrence macro, or you shouldn't have any long casts that could delay your deterrence.
Thankfully, the Heroic Will button will cancel any cast.
Note: you should only use Deterrence if your raid[leader] tells you to or if you're in the rotation.
Fading Light
The fading light debuff will affect two dps and one tank in heroic-10 -- instead of just one dps and one tank. This means you have a good chance of taking a fading light. To make it more fun, the debuff no longer starts from between five and ten second before it insta-kills you. It seems to start between three and seven seconds. If I'm playing with 250ms latency it seems to start at two seconds because of the rounding that occurs with debuffs.
Again to address this, you always need to be ready for fading light. Don't wait for it to reach zero. Watch DBM for the timers and be ready. Don't let this screw up a follow-on deterrence or second heroic will. There is a situation that can rarely occur; Heroic will has a 5sec CD so it is possible for it be on CD if fading light and hour of twilight occur closely. In that case make sure to fade for fading light a little early.
When to DPS: Before the First Twilight
There are no fading lights before the first twilight occurs. Lay into him and blow CDs. Prepot. Whatever you can do. The fight is over five minutes, so Rapid Fire away. It it pure dps with no interruptions. Since everyone is in-phase and not interrupted, we found it a nice time to hero. This is the only time to get dps tunnel vision.
When to DPS: Trinkets
If you have on-use trinkets there are times when you'll want to defer using them for five seconds or so. A good time to hit them is right after a twilight. For the 1.5min trinket this aligns nicely. You just don't want to have that lovely dps burst interrupted.
When to DPS: Through and After a Twilight/Fading Light
Once you have the heroic will down, you can start to lay in more shots. As SV you'll have a few options. The biggest thing is that you want your DoTs to keep rolling while you're not there. If you have the option to slightly clip an Explosive Shot's DoT right before fading, you should. If the consequence is to greatly clip the DoT, then don't!
Fading Lights can be very quick. I was able to pretty easily always fade with less than two seconds left on the debuff. If DoTs are ticking so much the better. But Hour of Twilight is a little bit longer of a dps hiatus. The boss has the casting bar and then it doesn't actually occur until the wave passes over the group. And it's whereever on the platform the group could be. Then and only then do you come back to the twilight.
If you are deterrencing for an hour of twilight, you must have a cancel aura macro on hand. Do the deterrence; wait for the wave to pass over you; cancel the deterrence; hit every dps CD you have and slam into him. You'll have a second or more of extra dps that you wouldn't have if you had faded.
Surviving
This is a dps race. You're doing this with two healers and some smattering of other health and healing abilities. But you need to survive. Until about 4.5mins into the fight it's all about proper execution. Some time after that point it becomes about dps'ng while helping the healers. When you notice everyone's health really low, consider helping the healers keep you up.
Hunters don't have group damage reduction CDs, but they can cheaply help themselves. If you're a Dwarf, you can have eight seconds of 10% damage reduction. When you're DPS'ng from the stairs in a nice tight group, hunters can both attack as melee and range. Don't pass up a big DPS but if it's only an Arcane Shot vs staying alive, go with staying alive. Smack a glyphed raptor strike. Healthstones are also a nice thing to chew at that time. If you somehow fell into bringing a pet for some buff (it better pay off!) who can intervene now's the time to use it on the active tank.
Loot
The kill can net you the heroic chest, bracers, and another shot at the trinket and ring. In sadness, please note that the ring is both laden with expertise and best in slot. For the record: I won the chest this past week. I have passed (for the moment) on the ring for rogues and ferals.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)