We managed to get up to Putricide tonight. We made some decent progress, but ran into a couple of bugs which caused quite severe headaches.
Note: The below information is true for 10-man. I don't know about 25-man.
The main issue is that, sometimes, Putricide will only throw out one growing slime pool, or only one will spawn. This is a problem because it causes our abomination to be slime-starved -- keeping one pool up at a consistently low radius is ideal for a constant stream of slime, required to cast the only snare to have any effect on the volatile oozes and gas clouds.
Another issue, I think, is the following: Slime Pools are thrown out where people are currently standing. People who get hit by the Volatile Ooze's Adhesive ability can still be targeted with slime pools. Now, because of the way that the encounter just times itself, it is nearly always the case that a slime pool spawn will occur while a Volatile Ooze is roughly 25-50% of the way into its movement towards its target. This means the abomination has to be busy hitting the slime with a slow, and that there isn't enough time to consume a slime pool that spawns underneath the target.
The reason this is a problem is that it (to my mind, artificially) increases the difficulty of the encounter. If the Adhesive target gets a slime pool put under them, they are immediately taking 50% more damage than they were before. Additionally, because everyone has to group up on that player before the slime reaches them, so that the explosion damage is split and is healable, this increases the damage that everyone else takes.
I propose, then, that -- as with Marrowgar's Sabre Lash ability conferring an invisible immunity from Bone Spike Graveyard to its targets -- Adhesive should confer a mechanic which prevents the target from being the target of a slime pool. I am not at all suggesting that this should be abusable: If someone else (Person B) is standing too close to the Adhesive target when Slime Pools go out, and a Slime Pool targets Person B, the slime pool should still land and grow as normal. The way we are currently dealing with the timing on Slime Pools is that we only group up on the Adhesive target in the last few seconds before the Volatile Ooze reaches that person -- Naturally, this works 80% of the time, but the other 20% of the time a slime pool will target the Adhesive player and we're a bit screwed then.
I don't think anything else besides those two things really needs to change about the encounter. There is a bug wherein if Putricide casts Unstable Experiment shortly before entering Phase 2, the experiment (Which will be Ooze #2 if you're doing it right) will try to cast its Adhesive and, because of Tear Gas, will get an immune error. It will, then, just start charging towards a random player once Tear Gas has worn off. This is something that can be worked around, though: You can aim to push Putricide into phase 2 either before or after you have dealt with this experiment. You can't really work around a slime pool under Adhesive.
It's a very fun fight. We got him to 53% on our best attempt. Another 18% and it'll be a kill.
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Second Class Raiders.
There are a lot of problems with 10-man raiding. PTR testing of bosses results in 25-man values for certain boss mechanics getting assigned erroneously to 10-man content owing to the large number of people who test stuff in 10-man wearing 25-man (Normal or Heroic) gear. On Live servers, 25-man guilds will steamroll through 10-man content, outgearing it the whole way, and claim that it's "easier by design", when that is certainly not true (you can believe it's true if you want. I'm tired of trying to dispel the myth of 25-man content being any more or less challenging than 10-man content from a design and tuning perspective. Until a blue poster comes along to tell everyone that I'm right, I won't continue to waste my breath.)
But today, the thing that has annoyed me about 10-man raiding is the gear. Aside from the illogic of allowing 25-man Normal Mode raiders access to legendaries when 25N content is easier than 10H, there are problems of the itemisation and distribution of epics. In Trial of the Crusader, every single one of the 10-man trinkets was underbudgeted, and every single one of the 25-man trinkets was overbudgeted.
In Icecrown, 10-man spellcasters actually get a decent trinket. Please note: a decent trinket. Having gone back to look at the patch notes, I discovered this:
So the options are zero from 10-man raiding. If you happen to be unbelievably lucky, you can pick up Reign of the Unliving/Dead from a ToC25 pug.
But this is only half the problem. I could say, at this point, that since 25-man raiders are tuned 13 item levels above 10-mans, they don't need to worry about being unable to double-equip their Foreign Object; they're free to enter ICC10H with their 264 epics from 25N and overgear the place, thus allowing them to pick up the Spyglass. This, already, is unfair ...
But I don't need to make that argument, because there is a far stronger argument to be made here: 25-man casters already have two caster trinkets in their ICC 25-man loot tables. Not only do they have the one I have already linked, they also have the closest thing to Timbal's I've seen in this expansion.
Why should it be that 25-manners get absolutely no hassle at all with their trinket options, since they're given two trinkets to circumvent the unique-equipped problem, and 10-man raiders have to scramble around in ToC5, or, worse, a ToC25 or Sartharion25 PuG? Blizzard says that they like people to be thinking carefully about the gear they take ... So why are 25-manners not being made to think? Further, why should we 10-man raiders take our own raiding tier seriously if Blizzard acts as if 10-man raiding is a mere concession with no competitive or self-sustaining enjoyment within it -- merely as something to please the casuals?
But today, the thing that has annoyed me about 10-man raiding is the gear. Aside from the illogic of allowing 25-man Normal Mode raiders access to legendaries when 25N content is easier than 10H, there are problems of the itemisation and distribution of epics. In Trial of the Crusader, every single one of the 10-man trinkets was underbudgeted, and every single one of the 25-man trinkets was overbudgeted.
In Icecrown, 10-man spellcasters actually get a decent trinket. Please note: a decent trinket. Having gone back to look at the patch notes, I discovered this:
Icecrown Citadel Items: Normal and Heroic versions of Icecrown Citadel rings and trinkets are considered Unique-Equipped and cannot be used at the same time.Now, since the ToC10 trinkets were rubbish, that means we have to look to earlier tiers of content to find anything worth taking ... From a shadow priest perspective, with four pieces of Tier 10 in the middle-distance causing my Haste priorities to shoot up, do you know what my two BiS trinkets are, if I were to look at 10-man and 5-man content only? Spyglass, of course, and ... Abyssal Rune. Yep. My BiS 10-man-heroic ICECROWN-GEARED priest would be using an iLvl200 trinket if she hadn't lucked out in Obsidian Sanctum. Broodmother doesn't make the list, thanks to Haste far out-stripping crit at a 4T10 level. Neither does the gimmicky NIC, much as I might like it to.
So the options are zero from 10-man raiding. If you happen to be unbelievably lucky, you can pick up Reign of the Unliving/Dead from a ToC25 pug.
But this is only half the problem. I could say, at this point, that since 25-man raiders are tuned 13 item levels above 10-mans, they don't need to worry about being unable to double-equip their Foreign Object; they're free to enter ICC10H with their 264 epics from 25N and overgear the place, thus allowing them to pick up the Spyglass. This, already, is unfair ...
But I don't need to make that argument, because there is a far stronger argument to be made here: 25-man casters already have two caster trinkets in their ICC 25-man loot tables. Not only do they have the one I have already linked, they also have the closest thing to Timbal's I've seen in this expansion.
Why should it be that 25-manners get absolutely no hassle at all with their trinket options, since they're given two trinkets to circumvent the unique-equipped problem, and 10-man raiders have to scramble around in ToC5, or, worse, a ToC25 or Sartharion25 PuG? Blizzard says that they like people to be thinking carefully about the gear they take ... So why are 25-manners not being made to think? Further, why should we 10-man raiders take our own raiding tier seriously if Blizzard acts as if 10-man raiding is a mere concession with no competitive or self-sustaining enjoyment within it -- merely as something to please the casuals?
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Thursday, 31 December 2009
Happy New Year.
This is going to be one of those annoying posts about that place called "Real Life" I hear so much about. So, a warning, if you don't want to read such things, don't scroll down.
I'm always very cynical of the New Year celebration; I've always viewed it as a poor use of the Gregorian calendar as an excuse to get drunk -- it's a new year every day: every time the Earth reaches an arbitrary point along its orbit, it will have been just shy of 365.25 Earth Revolutions since it happened the last time. January the First isn't even notable in cosmological terms: it isn't a solstice, for instance.
Nevertheless, my life needs changing, thus, in-keeping with what I consider to be a less cynically inclined spirit of New Year, I've made some resolutions that I intend to stick to.
1. Play WoW less.
Oh, I know, you're all smirking that it's one of those resolutions or Lent sacrifices like "give up chocolate" -- it never happens, right? Fortunately I have a brand new shiny Xbox to keep me occupied. That sounds like I'm just switching one vice for another -- and, to an extent, there's some truth in that. It will, at the very least, get me into another room of the house. My bedroom, in which my computer resides, is up two flights of stairs, and feels like a bit of a crow's nest a lot of the time. Any excuse to push outwards from that and not feel bored or exposed would be very nice.
2. Fix my sleep pattern.
This is code for "Go to a doctor", which is a more general thing I need to do. You'll notice that quite a few of these blog posts go up either in the early hours of the morning (like this one), or even earlier than that: 2-4am, say. Rest assured, I am British. The reason why I might as well be on CET rather than GMT is that my sleep pattern has been messed up for the past two years or so, except on select days when the stars choose to align, or when I'm in a certain person's company. No matter what I try: Pulling all-nighters, taking courses of sleeping tablets ... nothing stops me from being awake until 4-6am whereupon I go to bed out of sheer exhaustion. It would be nice to go to bed for the sake of wanting sleep, rather than because my body quite literally can't keep itself awake any longer unless I push it into an all-nighter, with which it punishes me by stubbornly refusing to let me sleep until my usual time the following night (early-morning). This will help me with ...
3. Get a job.
I'm a graduate in a recession. Things have been bleak the past few months for graduates, with most jobs going to people who already have experience of the relevant workplaces. Having never worked in a "proper" environment, this puts me at a severe disadvantage to the legions of other out-of-work people. Fortunately, I do have unofficial, casual leads which I will follow up this very weekend, since I am going to ...
4. Be more open with those I love.
I finally had a long argument yesterday with someone with whom over the past couple of months I've been having a long, slow period of friction-building tension due to a lack of communication. She lives 400 miles away, in the city where I went to University -- Exeter -- whither I long to return as soon as possible. She is what I would call a "Very long-suffering friend", and we go through far too much strain and stress for one another. Fortunately this fued has been, mostly, resolved, and it only remains for me to hop on a train in three hours' time to go down there and celebrate the turn of the decade in her company.
Resolution 4 is already being put into action, since it is the reason for this post's creation: being open with whatever readership numbers I enjoy here. A lot of love goes into making Anathema understandable, easy to read, and overall as accessible as possible; same goes for Gone Blogal. So, to my silent readers, my vocal readers, and to my whole TWO! (2!) followers, I love you all: go out and enjoy the arbitrary starting point of 2010.
I'm always very cynical of the New Year celebration; I've always viewed it as a poor use of the Gregorian calendar as an excuse to get drunk -- it's a new year every day: every time the Earth reaches an arbitrary point along its orbit, it will have been just shy of 365.25 Earth Revolutions since it happened the last time. January the First isn't even notable in cosmological terms: it isn't a solstice, for instance.
Nevertheless, my life needs changing, thus, in-keeping with what I consider to be a less cynically inclined spirit of New Year, I've made some resolutions that I intend to stick to.
1. Play WoW less.
Oh, I know, you're all smirking that it's one of those resolutions or Lent sacrifices like "give up chocolate" -- it never happens, right? Fortunately I have a brand new shiny Xbox to keep me occupied. That sounds like I'm just switching one vice for another -- and, to an extent, there's some truth in that. It will, at the very least, get me into another room of the house. My bedroom, in which my computer resides, is up two flights of stairs, and feels like a bit of a crow's nest a lot of the time. Any excuse to push outwards from that and not feel bored or exposed would be very nice.
2. Fix my sleep pattern.
This is code for "Go to a doctor", which is a more general thing I need to do. You'll notice that quite a few of these blog posts go up either in the early hours of the morning (like this one), or even earlier than that: 2-4am, say. Rest assured, I am British. The reason why I might as well be on CET rather than GMT is that my sleep pattern has been messed up for the past two years or so, except on select days when the stars choose to align, or when I'm in a certain person's company. No matter what I try: Pulling all-nighters, taking courses of sleeping tablets ... nothing stops me from being awake until 4-6am whereupon I go to bed out of sheer exhaustion. It would be nice to go to bed for the sake of wanting sleep, rather than because my body quite literally can't keep itself awake any longer unless I push it into an all-nighter, with which it punishes me by stubbornly refusing to let me sleep until my usual time the following night (early-morning). This will help me with ...
3. Get a job.
I'm a graduate in a recession. Things have been bleak the past few months for graduates, with most jobs going to people who already have experience of the relevant workplaces. Having never worked in a "proper" environment, this puts me at a severe disadvantage to the legions of other out-of-work people. Fortunately, I do have unofficial, casual leads which I will follow up this very weekend, since I am going to ...
4. Be more open with those I love.
I finally had a long argument yesterday with someone with whom over the past couple of months I've been having a long, slow period of friction-building tension due to a lack of communication. She lives 400 miles away, in the city where I went to University -- Exeter -- whither I long to return as soon as possible. She is what I would call a "Very long-suffering friend", and we go through far too much strain and stress for one another. Fortunately this fued has been, mostly, resolved, and it only remains for me to hop on a train in three hours' time to go down there and celebrate the turn of the decade in her company.
Resolution 4 is already being put into action, since it is the reason for this post's creation: being open with whatever readership numbers I enjoy here. A lot of love goes into making Anathema understandable, easy to read, and overall as accessible as possible; same goes for Gone Blogal. So, to my silent readers, my vocal readers, and to my whole TWO! (2!) followers, I love you all: go out and enjoy the arbitrary starting point of 2010.
Sunday, 27 December 2009
"Until Cataclysm".
I have been looking with hungry eyes at Icecrown tanking gear for my Death Knight. Now, I know that I resolved to be a DPS through and through on my Death Knight this time around, but I've found it quite enjoyable to itemise myself differently to other tanks. Namely, I love +armour items, so I've picked up all that I have access to, giving me a 2,352 boost to my armour; roughly a 3.2% boost to mitigation (from 62.42% to 64.46%, both numbers with Horn. None of those numbers are typos -- that's the way armour diminishes.)
Anyway, I was looking at these, which I'll very likely never get -- they cost 8 Primordial Saronite, after all. And I happened to scroll down to that particular comment I've linked to. I thought it would be good at this late stage of Wrath to remind everyone of what "Until Cataclysm" actually means in terms of upgrades.
When Wrath was launched, Ensidia, in their iLvl164 epics from Sunwell, went straight into Naxxramas and cleared it. They complained that it was too easy. It wasn't. It was intentional. The way that gear has been designed after TBC is that the uppermost tier should be usable in at least the first raid of the new expansion, in order not to result in "Green is the new Purple" syndrome which afflicted people in the transition from Vanilla to TBC.
Now, let's look at some numbers, just to point out that this is something we can extrapolate reasonably from existing data:
BT/Sunwell Epics: iLvl 151/159-164. WotLK Heroic Epics: iLvl 200
Icecrown Epics: iLvl 251/264/277. Cataclysm Heroic epics: iLvl 300. It would make sense from the pattern that Cataclysm epics will be 300.
So, why is it that iLvl 164/264/364 epics will be viable for content from which, pre-farming, you can pick up iLvl 200/300/400 epics? The answer to that is itemisation. Blizzard has said* throughout Wrath that items are not perfectly itemised with every stat you could possibly want straight from the first tier of raiding because it's boring when a new tier comes out and the only gear-picking you need to do is "Well, this one gives +5 SP/Haste/Crit/Int/Stam, so that's my upgrade!". This is why, though we are getting somewhat simplified stats in Cataclysm, we're also getting the option of "Reforging" items -- adjusting their stats slightly to get them slightly more in-line with whatever stat we will want to focus on (Most likely, for us, Intellect, since it'll give spellpower, of course... But we'll see!) -- this forces us to think about our gear if we want to min/max.
We have also seen blue posts saying that Icecrown gear is far more perfectly itemised than any previous tier, because it's built to last.* Again, let's look at previous evidence. This comparison is between the BiS-crafted Sunfire Robe of Sunwell and a Priest's Tier 7.200 robe. Because Spirit was nigh-useless to us in 3.0.8 (A mere 11% spellpower from spirit thanks to talent and glyph. Remember those days? 11%!), the Sunfire Robe destroys the Tier 7 -- you could re-gem Hit rating wherever you would like in order to make up for it: your Tier 6.5 gear would be competitive, if not better in slots such as these; at the very least it would enable you to get into Naxx.
So, certainly it is the case that those legs, and every other item of iLvl264, and some of 251, will be viable in the Plain of the Elements (Which I think is going to be the first raid, but it might not be. We'll see the order in which they choose to do them when they give us more info). "Until Cataclysm" isn't quite right, and it suggests that you'll be sharding all your purples a week before the expansion launches just to get some final gold sprees from the abyss crystals. Instead, Icecrown loot will be useful "Deep into the Cataclysm raid on Normal difficulty".
*All quotes are without their respective sources, because I don't want to spend ages trawling through MMO-Champion to find them. Just trust me that they exist, though.
Anyway, I was looking at these, which I'll very likely never get -- they cost 8 Primordial Saronite, after all. And I happened to scroll down to that particular comment I've linked to. I thought it would be good at this late stage of Wrath to remind everyone of what "Until Cataclysm" actually means in terms of upgrades.
When Wrath was launched, Ensidia, in their iLvl164 epics from Sunwell, went straight into Naxxramas and cleared it. They complained that it was too easy. It wasn't. It was intentional. The way that gear has been designed after TBC is that the uppermost tier should be usable in at least the first raid of the new expansion, in order not to result in "Green is the new Purple" syndrome which afflicted people in the transition from Vanilla to TBC.
Now, let's look at some numbers, just to point out that this is something we can extrapolate reasonably from existing data:
BT/Sunwell Epics: iLvl 151/159-164. WotLK Heroic Epics: iLvl 200
Icecrown Epics: iLvl 251/264/277. Cataclysm Heroic epics: iLvl 300. It would make sense from the pattern that Cataclysm epics will be 300.
So, why is it that iLvl 164/264/364 epics will be viable for content from which, pre-farming, you can pick up iLvl 200/300/400 epics? The answer to that is itemisation. Blizzard has said* throughout Wrath that items are not perfectly itemised with every stat you could possibly want straight from the first tier of raiding because it's boring when a new tier comes out and the only gear-picking you need to do is "Well, this one gives +5 SP/Haste/Crit/Int/Stam, so that's my upgrade!". This is why, though we are getting somewhat simplified stats in Cataclysm, we're also getting the option of "Reforging" items -- adjusting their stats slightly to get them slightly more in-line with whatever stat we will want to focus on (Most likely, for us, Intellect, since it'll give spellpower, of course... But we'll see!) -- this forces us to think about our gear if we want to min/max.
We have also seen blue posts saying that Icecrown gear is far more perfectly itemised than any previous tier, because it's built to last.* Again, let's look at previous evidence. This comparison is between the BiS-crafted Sunfire Robe of Sunwell and a Priest's Tier 7.200 robe. Because Spirit was nigh-useless to us in 3.0.8 (A mere 11% spellpower from spirit thanks to talent and glyph. Remember those days? 11%!), the Sunfire Robe destroys the Tier 7 -- you could re-gem Hit rating wherever you would like in order to make up for it: your Tier 6.5 gear would be competitive, if not better in slots such as these; at the very least it would enable you to get into Naxx.
So, certainly it is the case that those legs, and every other item of iLvl264, and some of 251, will be viable in the Plain of the Elements (Which I think is going to be the first raid, but it might not be. We'll see the order in which they choose to do them when they give us more info). "Until Cataclysm" isn't quite right, and it suggests that you'll be sharding all your purples a week before the expansion launches just to get some final gold sprees from the abyss crystals. Instead, Icecrown loot will be useful "Deep into the Cataclysm raid on Normal difficulty".
*All quotes are without their respective sources, because I don't want to spend ages trawling through MMO-Champion to find them. Just trust me that they exist, though.
Thursday, 24 December 2009
Oh, right ...
I totally forgot to mention that on Monday 21st, Fancy Hat Club completed A Tribute to Insanity (10-player). I was on fire.
I now wonder how much nagging it will take to get everyone willing to do A Tribute to Dedicated Insanity. (And we still need to do Herald of the Titans.)
Maybe if I wish it from Santa. He owes me big-time after he failed to make the Gunship drop my telescope.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
I now wonder how much nagging it will take to get everyone willing to do A Tribute to Dedicated Insanity. (And we still need to do Herald of the Titans.)
Maybe if I wish it from Santa. He owes me big-time after he failed to make the Gunship drop my telescope.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
@Paolo: Planning for Tier 10.
My fine, Discipline-based fellow Priest Paolo has created a thread about gearing philosophy for Tier 10 -- weighing up the benefit of the Tier 10 set bonuses for Discipline against the gains of taking the SP/Crit/Haste bonuses available from non-set pieces.
The post is here, and you should go and read it before reading this post, since this is a direct response which was too long to fit in the comment box under the blog post itself.
The post is here, and you should go and read it before reading this post, since this is a direct response which was too long to fit in the comment box under the blog post itself.
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Anathema 1.3.
The new incarnation of the Anathema Shadow Priest guide will not be 100% complete until all database gaps on Wowhead have been filled and I can compile the appropriate BiS lists, and fiddle with them until I've come up with something I find to be correct. This will take some time; however, certain areas such as the Icecrown Citadel section of the "Specific advanced advice" will be updated as I gain experience of the fights. I will also try to make the "Pseudopower" section more informative and relevant to all tiers of play -- at the end of the expansion, this is substantially easier to do because I can suggest gear progression paths.
It'll take a while, but it'll be worth it.
Possible spoilers, just for the sake of it: My 10-man-H BiS list might contain a staff.
It'll take a while, but it'll be worth it.
Possible spoilers, just for the sake of it: My 10-man-H BiS list might contain a staff.
Friday, 11 December 2009
3.3: Overall first impressions.
I've had a few days to digest the main parts of the Icecrown Citadel patch, not only from my own class/spec perspective but from a more general perspective of the main features touted in the patch notes. So I'll divide it up appropriately from the specific to the general:
Shadow Priest DoT Haste Scaling
Well, let's be honest, what can anyone say but "awesome"? It's far from being an overpowered change -- it sits just nicely in with the buffs that almost all classes have received. Unfortunately, the one fight on which I would have excelled -- Deathbringer Saurfang -- I have yet to DPS. I switched to Discipline for that fight because I was worried that we might need three healers. Turns out we didn't -- the healing was manageable. I've not yet noticed an increase in my DPS because, in new content, I am more tentative of other fight mechanics at first. I have a feeling that the DoTs are the only reason I managed to come second on the Marrowgar meter, though.
Icecrown Citadel 5-man instances
Forge of Souls
I wish I could get into this more than once per day on Heroic without going through the randomiser. I had spoiled it partially for myself with the PTR sound files of Bronjahm's voice. The music while fighting him, though, makes it so much better than I could have anticipated. POWER-JAZZ. Additionally, of course, the instance music in general sets that mood. If you know that there is a James Brown-esque boss, you instantly notice the Hammond organ solos mixed in with the general spooky vibe that the place is intended to convey.
Devourer of Souls is somewhat annoyingly voice acted and you only get the hot Desire-esque face and voice if your group isn't decked out in 245 epics and zerging him super hard. The loot, however, is brilliant. Blizzard knew exactly what it was doing when it designed that boss and wanted to give maximum nostalgia to anyone who was in Black Temple.
Pit of Saron
This is where things start getting brutal in terms of difficulty. The trash pulls in FoS are more annoyingly-positioned than anything else. The trash in here, though, hits very hard. Magic damage is in the 10k region and melee damage 4k per strike. I feel that Scourgelord Tyrannus's initial conversion into Undead of the Coliseum Champions is not particularly well done -- they're turned from 330k-HP elites into 5k HP normals. I get that the idea trying to be conveyed is that he can turn them immediately, but another point of the Scourge is that the more powerful you are in life the more powerful you become in Undeath. Additionally, because they have so little health, and because Jaina only spawns at the instance entrance when you're already close to pulling the first trash mob yourself, her own "Empowered Blizzard" spell gets unnoticed as you just zerg through the non-elites yourself.
I feel, therefore, that the introduction to this instance is a bit poor -- in terms of specifics, though, rather than overall concept. I see what they're gunning at, but they don't tune the mobs correctly for what they're trying to convey elsewhere. Jaina should spawn much sooner from when you move away from the portal, and the Undead that Tyrannus spawns should be more powerful: it would give both Jaina and the Scourge a more realistic sense of their respective powers.
To move on with the actual instance, though -- Ick is fairly well-designed, but Pursuit (as yet) does not have a "non-tank" modifier -- i.e., it's possible for Pursuit to be trivialised 20% of the time because the tank can be targeted with it. Garfrost's adds are irritating to try to tank, because they are so spread out, and the platform itself lends itself to irritation on the melee DPS side of things. The idea is that, when Garfrost forges a new weapon, it gives you plenty of time to wipe your stacks of his Permafrost debuff by LoSing it. But for a Death Knight, say, with self-removal of the debuff, it's just inconvenient time-wasting because of the distance away to which he jumps. The trash before Tyrannus's gauntlet is the most brutal part -- heavy melee and magic damage, and if you don't have a disease dispeller, or people who read tooltips, you're a bit screwed. Tyrannus does win this instance's Best Voiceover award, though I deducted points for him being American. It would be nice if Blizzard were to get some British actors in when they want that type of voice, rather than Americans who can just affect a fairly decent accent.
Halls of Reflection
This is one of those instances where, if you don't know what you're doing, and you overgear the instance, you'll have minor problems resulting from mistakes. If you don't know what you're doing and you're in appropriate level (Ulduar-level) gear, you'll wipe. If you do know what you're doing and you're in appropriate level gear, it'll be a challenge, but not impossible. It is very well tuned, and I really hope Blizzard doesn't nerf it owing to people complaining that it is "too hard". Falric is an excellent DPS check and Marwyn is a superb group balance-enforcer. Either you have all four decurse bases covered, or you'd better have a damn good healer.
The lore retcon, ignoring a key questline in Icecrown, is rather annoying. There are some weak arguments that can be conjured up such as "Tirion is blinded by his zealotry to see the need for a Lich King", but I don't exactly understand how Blizzard is going to pull the "This new Lich King [Possible spoilers: Bolvar. Well, honestly, it's pretty obvious.] is good and/or won't destroy us!" rabbit out of the Lore Hat without the whole thing being comical.
The Escape from the Lich King event has just one flaw in it, which you only experience once but which is pretty silly: To activate the event, you have to talk to Jaina/Sylvanas. This is not indicated in any way by the hero, nor is it implied by what they say -- they say, quite clearly, "I can't hold him for long, we must run away RIGHT NOW!" -- so what my group did was run down the path. Then someone noticed that nothing was happening, so they went and talked to Jaina. The event started, and all four of us were on the other side of the first ice wall when it appeared. Instawipe. Irritating. "Make your preparations with great haste!" would convey the same sense of urgency without implying that the event starts with no player-given cue. Aside from this design flaw, the event itself is excellent. Watching Arthas inch closer and wondering if you have enough time to kill this mob before he unleashes wintry instadeath on you is quite scary, even after the first time.
Overall
Blizzard said it would be epic. It is epic. The whole three instances back-to-back form a 5-man raid more than a set of 5-man heroics. You really feel like it's easy to screw up and wipe, even if you're overgeared. Priests, naturally, should dust off their Shackle macros (Yes, you should have it macroed) and have a raid mark keybound to indicate a Shackle target.
Looking for Dungeon system
A success, without a doubt. I think the gear-matching system is a bit squiffy, as it seems to match players of equal gear, rather than matching "less experienced players with more experienced players" as Blizzard diplomatically puts it -- so it feels like the rich are getting richer and the poor ... not poorer, but certainly richer at a slower pace -- but maybe it's as golden for people in Tier 7 as it is in Tier 9.
The removal of /rw in parties has to be reversed, though -- or a /pw (Party Warning) command needs to be added. It is very irritating to have one's /rw Pulling %t now! macro disabled and having to resort to /s.
I will look forward to using this on my lowbie alts. It might even encourage me to level them solo instead of relying on the 3-man static group I occasionally enjoy on my shaman.
The one problem, of course, is Additional instances cannot be launched. Please try again later. Hopefully this will be fixed somehow.
Icecrown Citadel 10-player
"Balanced" is again the word to be used here. It was quite easy for us, but we're decked out in iLvl245 epics, which is a whole tier above the intended range for ICC10N. It is also epic. I would like to pick out two aspects I particularly like:
Trash
I think that Blizzard now has the balance perfect in terms of trash tuning. Good trash, to my mind, fills three purposes:
1) Prepares you, either through abilities or through mental strain, for the boss it prefaces. Some of the best examples of this were found in Ulduar: Dark Rune Thunderers before Thorim and Faceless Horrors before Vezax are the two strongest examples of direct mechanic training. Deathwhisper trash has such mechanics: some of the trash gets raised as an undead copy of itself once it falls, and the large single pulls demonstrate the importance of spreading out.
2) Can wipe you. This should not be in an overpowered sense, like Ulduar first-week trash being overtuned in 10-man, but rather it should feel like you need to use CC and you need to be careful, alert and awake to make it through.
3) Should be short. If it goes on for too many corridors, trash is just a waste of time that serves less and less of a purpose the more you increase its frequency.
These three rules serve one overall aim: for the whole instance to be fun -- not just the bosses. If you keep the trash short but hard-hitting, such that people take as much time over four hard packs of mobs as they would ten or twelve easy packs, then you create a much more enjoyable feel about it. It's boring when trash is a faceroll but goes on forever, and it's also boring when trash is too hard but goes on for a long time (see Tempest Keep trash). It's much more fun when you reach Deathwhisper and you can see that, yes, there is trash, but it's just four packs. It makes you more likely to take your time and enjoy taking your time.
The pace of the whole instance so far is enjoyable, and the remaining wings will be worth the wait. Some of the achievements for the Glory meta will require four weeks to get used to (I'm looking at you, I'm on a Boat), so the leisurely pace we can afford to spend is welcome.
Storyline
5-man retcons aside, the story in Icecrown is proving to be epic. I won't spoil anything, save to say that what happens after you kill Deathbringer Saurfang is rather moving and (on the part of certain characters for whom jerkassery is par for the course) surprising.
Disenchant button
Thank you, Blizzard. <3
Quest Tracker
Apparently it's inaccurate as hell for some categories of quest, so please do send in bug reports if it tells you to go somewhere that ends up being false according to the facts (Searched through Wowhead, of course).
Shadow Priest DoT Haste Scaling
Well, let's be honest, what can anyone say but "awesome"? It's far from being an overpowered change -- it sits just nicely in with the buffs that almost all classes have received. Unfortunately, the one fight on which I would have excelled -- Deathbringer Saurfang -- I have yet to DPS. I switched to Discipline for that fight because I was worried that we might need three healers. Turns out we didn't -- the healing was manageable. I've not yet noticed an increase in my DPS because, in new content, I am more tentative of other fight mechanics at first. I have a feeling that the DoTs are the only reason I managed to come second on the Marrowgar meter, though.
Icecrown Citadel 5-man instances
Forge of Souls
I wish I could get into this more than once per day on Heroic without going through the randomiser. I had spoiled it partially for myself with the PTR sound files of Bronjahm's voice. The music while fighting him, though, makes it so much better than I could have anticipated. POWER-JAZZ. Additionally, of course, the instance music in general sets that mood. If you know that there is a James Brown-esque boss, you instantly notice the Hammond organ solos mixed in with the general spooky vibe that the place is intended to convey.
Devourer of Souls is somewhat annoyingly voice acted and you only get the hot Desire-esque face and voice if your group isn't decked out in 245 epics and zerging him super hard. The loot, however, is brilliant. Blizzard knew exactly what it was doing when it designed that boss and wanted to give maximum nostalgia to anyone who was in Black Temple.
Pit of Saron
This is where things start getting brutal in terms of difficulty. The trash pulls in FoS are more annoyingly-positioned than anything else. The trash in here, though, hits very hard. Magic damage is in the 10k region and melee damage 4k per strike. I feel that Scourgelord Tyrannus's initial conversion into Undead of the Coliseum Champions is not particularly well done -- they're turned from 330k-HP elites into 5k HP normals. I get that the idea trying to be conveyed is that he can turn them immediately, but another point of the Scourge is that the more powerful you are in life the more powerful you become in Undeath. Additionally, because they have so little health, and because Jaina only spawns at the instance entrance when you're already close to pulling the first trash mob yourself, her own "Empowered Blizzard" spell gets unnoticed as you just zerg through the non-elites yourself.
I feel, therefore, that the introduction to this instance is a bit poor -- in terms of specifics, though, rather than overall concept. I see what they're gunning at, but they don't tune the mobs correctly for what they're trying to convey elsewhere. Jaina should spawn much sooner from when you move away from the portal, and the Undead that Tyrannus spawns should be more powerful: it would give both Jaina and the Scourge a more realistic sense of their respective powers.
To move on with the actual instance, though -- Ick is fairly well-designed, but Pursuit (as yet) does not have a "non-tank" modifier -- i.e., it's possible for Pursuit to be trivialised 20% of the time because the tank can be targeted with it. Garfrost's adds are irritating to try to tank, because they are so spread out, and the platform itself lends itself to irritation on the melee DPS side of things. The idea is that, when Garfrost forges a new weapon, it gives you plenty of time to wipe your stacks of his Permafrost debuff by LoSing it. But for a Death Knight, say, with self-removal of the debuff, it's just inconvenient time-wasting because of the distance away to which he jumps. The trash before Tyrannus's gauntlet is the most brutal part -- heavy melee and magic damage, and if you don't have a disease dispeller, or people who read tooltips, you're a bit screwed. Tyrannus does win this instance's Best Voiceover award, though I deducted points for him being American. It would be nice if Blizzard were to get some British actors in when they want that type of voice, rather than Americans who can just affect a fairly decent accent.
Halls of Reflection
This is one of those instances where, if you don't know what you're doing, and you overgear the instance, you'll have minor problems resulting from mistakes. If you don't know what you're doing and you're in appropriate level (Ulduar-level) gear, you'll wipe. If you do know what you're doing and you're in appropriate level gear, it'll be a challenge, but not impossible. It is very well tuned, and I really hope Blizzard doesn't nerf it owing to people complaining that it is "too hard". Falric is an excellent DPS check and Marwyn is a superb group balance-enforcer. Either you have all four decurse bases covered, or you'd better have a damn good healer.
The lore retcon, ignoring a key questline in Icecrown, is rather annoying. There are some weak arguments that can be conjured up such as "Tirion is blinded by his zealotry to see the need for a Lich King", but I don't exactly understand how Blizzard is going to pull the "This new Lich King [Possible spoilers: Bolvar. Well, honestly, it's pretty obvious.] is good and/or won't destroy us!" rabbit out of the Lore Hat without the whole thing being comical.
The Escape from the Lich King event has just one flaw in it, which you only experience once but which is pretty silly: To activate the event, you have to talk to Jaina/Sylvanas. This is not indicated in any way by the hero, nor is it implied by what they say -- they say, quite clearly, "I can't hold him for long, we must run away RIGHT NOW!" -- so what my group did was run down the path. Then someone noticed that nothing was happening, so they went and talked to Jaina. The event started, and all four of us were on the other side of the first ice wall when it appeared. Instawipe. Irritating. "Make your preparations with great haste!" would convey the same sense of urgency without implying that the event starts with no player-given cue. Aside from this design flaw, the event itself is excellent. Watching Arthas inch closer and wondering if you have enough time to kill this mob before he unleashes wintry instadeath on you is quite scary, even after the first time.
Overall
Blizzard said it would be epic. It is epic. The whole three instances back-to-back form a 5-man raid more than a set of 5-man heroics. You really feel like it's easy to screw up and wipe, even if you're overgeared. Priests, naturally, should dust off their Shackle macros (Yes, you should have it macroed) and have a raid mark keybound to indicate a Shackle target.
Looking for Dungeon system
A success, without a doubt. I think the gear-matching system is a bit squiffy, as it seems to match players of equal gear, rather than matching "less experienced players with more experienced players" as Blizzard diplomatically puts it -- so it feels like the rich are getting richer and the poor ... not poorer, but certainly richer at a slower pace -- but maybe it's as golden for people in Tier 7 as it is in Tier 9.
The removal of /rw in parties has to be reversed, though -- or a /pw (Party Warning) command needs to be added. It is very irritating to have one's /rw Pulling %t now! macro disabled and having to resort to /s.
I will look forward to using this on my lowbie alts. It might even encourage me to level them solo instead of relying on the 3-man static group I occasionally enjoy on my shaman.
The one problem, of course, is Additional instances cannot be launched. Please try again later. Hopefully this will be fixed somehow.
Icecrown Citadel 10-player
"Balanced" is again the word to be used here. It was quite easy for us, but we're decked out in iLvl245 epics, which is a whole tier above the intended range for ICC10N. It is also epic. I would like to pick out two aspects I particularly like:
Trash
I think that Blizzard now has the balance perfect in terms of trash tuning. Good trash, to my mind, fills three purposes:
1) Prepares you, either through abilities or through mental strain, for the boss it prefaces. Some of the best examples of this were found in Ulduar: Dark Rune Thunderers before Thorim and Faceless Horrors before Vezax are the two strongest examples of direct mechanic training. Deathwhisper trash has such mechanics: some of the trash gets raised as an undead copy of itself once it falls, and the large single pulls demonstrate the importance of spreading out.
2) Can wipe you. This should not be in an overpowered sense, like Ulduar first-week trash being overtuned in 10-man, but rather it should feel like you need to use CC and you need to be careful, alert and awake to make it through.
3) Should be short. If it goes on for too many corridors, trash is just a waste of time that serves less and less of a purpose the more you increase its frequency.
These three rules serve one overall aim: for the whole instance to be fun -- not just the bosses. If you keep the trash short but hard-hitting, such that people take as much time over four hard packs of mobs as they would ten or twelve easy packs, then you create a much more enjoyable feel about it. It's boring when trash is a faceroll but goes on forever, and it's also boring when trash is too hard but goes on for a long time (see Tempest Keep trash). It's much more fun when you reach Deathwhisper and you can see that, yes, there is trash, but it's just four packs. It makes you more likely to take your time and enjoy taking your time.
The pace of the whole instance so far is enjoyable, and the remaining wings will be worth the wait. Some of the achievements for the Glory meta will require four weeks to get used to (I'm looking at you, I'm on a Boat), so the leisurely pace we can afford to spend is welcome.
Storyline
5-man retcons aside, the story in Icecrown is proving to be epic. I won't spoil anything, save to say that what happens after you kill Deathbringer Saurfang is rather moving and (on the part of certain characters for whom jerkassery is par for the course) surprising.
Disenchant button
Thank you, Blizzard. <3
Quest Tracker
Apparently it's inaccurate as hell for some categories of quest, so please do send in bug reports if it tells you to go somewhere that ends up being false according to the facts (Searched through Wowhead, of course).
Sunday, 6 December 2009
Emblems of Frost
Emblem of Frost, the new token. This is a brief run-down for the ten-man raider in terms of accessibility.
10.251: 60/60/95/95/95 Emblems required.
When 3.3 drops, we can get 6 Emblems immediately from running through the new 5-man dungeons, starting with this quest. Handily, they're all one questline -- except the final one, which currently says on Wowhead "Repeatable", though I suspect that's just a PTR UI bug.
2 Emblems per day from the random heroic, of course.
5 per week for the weekly raid quest -- let's be honest, this is going to be hilarious. Either you get Marrowgar, whom you will kill as a matter of course for the sake of progression anyway, or you get to kill a boss from a previous tier of instance, which, unless you still wish to clear ToGC10 (which you may still want to do), will mean nothing more than steamrolling that boss with 1-3 tiers' worth of outgearing. A nice easy warm-up to a Wednesday progression night if ever there were one.
8 Emblems per week (initially) from the first wing (four bosses) of ICC. This will be the case for anything between 2 to 4 weeks, depending on Blizzard's final decision regarding gating.
4 Emblems per week (And, presumably, a shot at the pinata for Tier 10 gloves or legs!) from Toravon the Ice Watcher on 10 and 25-player [pending Season 8 release]. Fight mechanics can sort-of be seen here, though I want to strangle that Mage for having no raid frames at all. It's like Koralon, except the flame patches (Ice patches, in this case) come alive; and, instead of Meteor Fists, Toravon will just do a knockback on the tank, so tanking him up against a wall seems to be the standard.
So, 6 emblems to start you off, plus 14 + 5 + 8 per week for the first three weeks or so (until a new wing of ICC and VoA comes out)
Week 1: 33 Emblems
Week 2: 60 Emblems
Week 3: 87 Emblems. [Potentially +4, since Toravon might be released here]
Week 4: Yay, I pick up some Tier 10. \o/
My shopping list priority, if you're curious, goes Helm --> Chest --> Shoulders --> Gloves. After that, I'll be saving up all my EoF for Primordial Saronite, my priority there being Legs --> Boots.
Total EoF shopping list cost: 95 + 95 + 60 + 60 + (23 * 8) + (23 * 5) = 609.
I can see my Death Knight's EoF contributing to the Primordial Saronite costs to speed things up significantly.
In completely unrelated news I had four glasses of wine with dinner and woke up about an hour ago hungover.
10.251: 60/60/95/95/95 Emblems required.
When 3.3 drops, we can get 6 Emblems immediately from running through the new 5-man dungeons, starting with this quest. Handily, they're all one questline -- except the final one, which currently says on Wowhead "Repeatable", though I suspect that's just a PTR UI bug.
2 Emblems per day from the random heroic, of course.
5 per week for the weekly raid quest -- let's be honest, this is going to be hilarious. Either you get Marrowgar, whom you will kill as a matter of course for the sake of progression anyway, or you get to kill a boss from a previous tier of instance, which, unless you still wish to clear ToGC10 (which you may still want to do), will mean nothing more than steamrolling that boss with 1-3 tiers' worth of outgearing. A nice easy warm-up to a Wednesday progression night if ever there were one.
8 Emblems per week (initially) from the first wing (four bosses) of ICC. This will be the case for anything between 2 to 4 weeks, depending on Blizzard's final decision regarding gating.
4 Emblems per week (And, presumably, a shot at the pinata for Tier 10 gloves or legs!) from Toravon the Ice Watcher on 10 and 25-player [pending Season 8 release]. Fight mechanics can sort-of be seen here, though I want to strangle that Mage for having no raid frames at all. It's like Koralon, except the flame patches (Ice patches, in this case) come alive; and, instead of Meteor Fists, Toravon will just do a knockback on the tank, so tanking him up against a wall seems to be the standard.
So, 6 emblems to start you off, plus 14 + 5 + 8 per week for the first three weeks or so (until a new wing of ICC and VoA comes out)
Week 1: 33 Emblems
Week 2: 60 Emblems
Week 3: 87 Emblems. [Potentially +4, since Toravon might be released here]
Week 4: Yay, I pick up some Tier 10. \o/
My shopping list priority, if you're curious, goes Helm --> Chest --> Shoulders --> Gloves. After that, I'll be saving up all my EoF for Primordial Saronite, my priority there being Legs --> Boots.
Total EoF shopping list cost: 95 + 95 + 60 + 60 + (23 * 8) + (23 * 5) = 609.
I can see my Death Knight's EoF contributing to the Primordial Saronite costs to speed things up significantly.
In completely unrelated news I had four glasses of wine with dinner and woke up about an hour ago hungover.
Friday, 4 December 2009
Thursday, 3 December 2009
Hybrid Tax
There was a Ghostcrawler post recently that outlined, in proper detail, the logic behind capping Hybrid DPS just below that of a pure DPS class.
Tonight, we got Tribute to Mad Skill after wiping only once on Anub'arak, through nothing more than bad luck.
We almost wiped the second time because our main-and-off-tank-encounter-breaking-Paladin-healer died at around 7%.
We survived because both of our hybrid DPS -- Chayah and I -- switched to spam healing the tanks to keep them alive, with occasional support on Pen Cold healing so that our Discipline priest could provide Penance etc. Once our Anub tank had been stabilised after a Frost Slash that triggered her Ardent Defender, I switched back into Shadowform and continued to support nuking Anub'arak.
49 Attempts. Mad Skill. Cause? Hybrids.
That is why we are taxed. Accept it.
And we both still did over 5k DPS.
Tonight, we got Tribute to Mad Skill after wiping only once on Anub'arak, through nothing more than bad luck.
We almost wiped the second time because our main-and-off-tank-encounter-breaking-Paladin-healer died at around 7%.
We survived because both of our hybrid DPS -- Chayah and I -- switched to spam healing the tanks to keep them alive, with occasional support on Pen Cold healing so that our Discipline priest could provide Penance etc. Once our Anub tank had been stabilised after a Frost Slash that triggered her Ardent Defender, I switched back into Shadowform and continued to support nuking Anub'arak.
49 Attempts. Mad Skill. Cause? Hybrids.
That is why we are taxed. Accept it.
And we both still did over 5k DPS.
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
Upvote this.
I won't ask this often, because it invites trollish downvoting, but could you please upvote this comment for me? My irritation can be summed up by the final sentence.
If there is one thing worse than Thottbot comments that read "give this to [my caster class] because I deserve it more than [rival caster class]", it is people rabidly downvoting anything they see that refers to a certain class under the assumption that what is being said is redundant.
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Desert Buss..zzzzzz...
Every year for the past three years, Canadian comedy troupe LoadingReadyRun, known not only for the weekly videos posted to their own website but also their work on The Escapist through Unskippable and ENN, have played the most boring game in the world in support of Child's Play. The game is Desert Bus -- the more people donate, the longer they keep playing. Aside from smashing last year's donation record of over $70,000, they seem this year to be trying as hard as possible not to crash. They are currently working on their tenth point, which, after 83 hours of gameplay, means they have barely crashed at all.
For more information, to donate, and to join in with the live chat and live video streams of the event (which also feature various other ways to encourage you to part with your money for the sake of charity -- auctions and humiliation of Matt seeming to be the two most popular methods), visit desertbus.org. And do check out their video work cited above -- they are excellent comedians.
For more information, to donate, and to join in with the live chat and live video streams of the event (which also feature various other ways to encourage you to part with your money for the sake of charity -- auctions and humiliation of Matt seeming to be the two most popular methods), visit desertbus.org. And do check out their video work cited above -- they are excellent comedians.
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Light of Elune
One use only, so I was saving it for a special occasion. Used it tonight on a 3% Anub'arak wipe. No kill -- took him down to 1%. Alas.
We'll get him on Monday.
We'll get him on Monday.
Monday, 9 November 2009
13,300 mana / 1234 mana
= 10.
10*2.2s = 22s.
1,632,000 health / 22s / 6 DPS = 12k individual DPS.
Isn't going to happen, m8s.
10*2.2s = 22s.
1,632,000 health / 22s / 6 DPS = 12k individual DPS.
Isn't going to happen, m8s.
@C
[Sinespe] http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p3/tier10sneak/huge-sh.jpg
[Zicon] ... err, what?
[Sinespe] Shaman Tier 10
[Sinespe] Looking at that helm, what's your first reaction?
[Zicon] "who put that moose in the freezer"
ENJOY 3.3.
[Zicon] ... err, what?
[Sinespe] Shaman Tier 10
[Sinespe] Looking at that helm, what's your first reaction?
[Zicon] "who put that moose in the freezer"
ENJOY 3.3.
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Gear II: Gear Harder.
I wish I could drop this. I just can't. (Just as Paletress refuses to drop her trinket.)
I've already mentioned gear once, from a top-down approach. Now I need to return to the root and work upwards, because this is the position in which I find myself.
A certain website with a gear-score-based system (Whose name I am not going to mention ... But let's call them "Iamamazed-Champions") gives the gear score of my recently-80 Death Knight is a mere 1.8k. The reason I am linking you a screenshot to my page, rather than linking the page itself, is because I want to deny Iamamazed-Champions as much web traffic as I can. Now, I don't particularly care for the number itself. I more want to draw your attention to the "Progress bar" that they have. They insist that I should focus on Naxx25.
I'll back up a bit: My Death Knight dinged 80 three days ago. I have geared her up like a hardcore raider on steroids, Powerthirst and chocolate, inasmuch as luck would allow me to deck her out in free epics. I've never played a Death Knight before -- or, rather, I've never played one since 3.0.8, and they've changed a lot since then. As a result, I'm pretty much re-learning the class, and I will write later on about what it has taught me of the situation regarding melee DPS.
But, because I have a brain, I am capable of pulling between 3,498 and 4,124 DPS with that character, on a boss, depending on my raid composition. In a VoA 10-man Class Run with bad raid composition (No Feral Druid, no Enhancement Shaman, no Retribution Paladin ... pretty much all I had for physical damage was the Rogue), I was able to pull 3,750.2 DPS on Koralon. I topped that meter, and it was a one-shot. It was slower than if we had all been 5,000 DPS, but we cleared the required threshold.
Now, Koralon is not a benchmark for PvE DPS. He's designed as a PvP boss: with the exclusion of tanks requiring defence-based gear, competent PvPers working around hit caps and the like are supposed to be able to kill him. But, let's go through some DPS thresholds for a moment.
The following is on key, non-optional bosses for various raids, who have enrage or berserk timers and the fewest gimmicks I could find. Where there are gimmicks, I explain reasonable allowances in-depth.
I always assume the following:
Naxxramas 10-man:
Faerlina: 2,231,200 health, plus four adds of 83,408 health, for a total of 2,564,832 health. 60*4 + 60 = 300-second soft Enrage timer. RDPS requirement: 8549.44. Individual DPS requirement (One tank. Other tank on adds, so not added): 1554.44
Patchwerk: 4,322,950 health; 360-second hard Enrage timer. RDPS requirement: 12008.194. Individual DPS requirement (Two tanks): 2001.36.
Thaddius: 3,834,875 health; 360-second hard Enrage timer. RDPS requirement: 10652.43. Individual DPS requirement (One tank, other DPSing): 1704.38....
Loatheb: 6,693,600 health; 420-second Inevitable Doom Enrage timer. RDPS requirement: 15937.14. RDPS requirement (One tank, other DPSing): 2549.94.
None of these factor in mechanics such as damage boosts (Thaddius and Loatheb) or movement (Thaddius). At a guess, the +50% crit bonus on Loatheb would increase DPS by about 20%. So, the DPS requirement for Naxxramas 10-man is about 2.1k, give or take.
Naxxramas 25-man:
Faerlina: 6,763,325 health, plus two adds of 521,320 health, for a total of 7,805,965. 60*4 + 60 = 300-second soft Enrage timer. RDPS requirement: 26019.88. Individual DPS requirement (One tank. Other tank on adds, so not added): 1406.48.
Patchwerk: 13,038,575 health; 360-second hard Enrage timer. RDPS requirement: 36218.26. Individual DPS requirement (Three tanks): 1957.74.
Thaddius: 30,400,100 health; 360-second hard Enrage timer. RDPS requirement: 84444.72... Individual DPS requirement (One tank, other DPSing): 4386.73.... Actual Individual DPS requirement, given a 100% damage boost all of the time by Charges: 2193.36.
Loatheb: 20,220,250 health; 420-second Inevitable Doom Enrage timer. RDPS requirement: 48143.45. RDPS requirement (One tank, other DPSing): 2500.95. (Before crit bonus accommodation.)
Well, this is amusing. In the case of Patchwerk, the DPS requirement goes down on 25-man. But, again, we're left with roughly the same value: 2.1k DPS required for Naxxramas 25-man. This means you can do Naxxramas 25 in the same gear that you would be able to do Naxxramas 10: If you pull the requirement for Naxxramas 10, you pull the requirement for Naxxramas 25.
Malygos 10-man:
Malygos is a hard fight to gauge accurately, because of the strange way in which it works. However, we will model it thus: We will devote equal time between the three phases. This means you have 200 seconds in phase 1 to take him to 50%, then 200 seconds to kill adds, then 200 seconds to burn him down. The last of these cannot be modelled, because the drakes don't work that way. However, we will assume that if you have the DPS to take him down to 50% in three minutes you will have the gear required for your Drakes to be scaled far enough to burn him in phase 3, shall we? That sounds reasonable to me. We will also assume, from the nature of Sparks and Vortices, that Sparks contribute a 20% DPS increase. We will even do Iamamazed-Champions a favour here and assume that you are forbidden from taking Malygos below 50% health after phase 2 initiates.
Phase 1: 6,972,500 / 2 = 3,486,250 health. RDPS requirement: 17431.25. Individual DPS requirement (One tank. Six DPS): 2681.73. Factoring in the 20% DPS boost, Actual Individual DPS requirement: 2145.38.
The DPS requirement for Malygos-10 is 2145.38 DPS.
Malygos 25-man:
Phase 1: 19,523,000 / 2 = 9,761,500 health. RDPS requirement: 48807.5. Individual DPS requirement (One tank. 19 DPS.): 2502.94. Actual Individual DPS: 2002.35
The DPS requirement for Malygos-25 is less than 10-man.
Sartharion 10-man:
Drakes! We will include drakes here for your pleasure. Sartharion+0 and +1 have no Enrage timers. So, technically, there isn't a DPS requirement. It's very safe to put them with Naxx etc.
Sartharion+2: Two tanks are assumed here. Shadron will land 45 seconds after Tenebron does. Ideally, then, you want to kill Tenebron after 50 seconds maximum. 976,150*1.25 = 1,220,188 health. RDPS requirement: 24403.76. Individual DPS requirement for 50 seconds: 4437.04. Assuming you have a Shaman, this is reduced by 30% to 3105.93. Very hefty stuff compared to Naxx.
Sartharion+3: Two tanks with a DPS indisposed after 25 seconds on Tenebron to tank adds. Vesperon will land 95 seconds after Tenebron -- 50 seconds after Shadron. Ideally, the raid will have killed Tenebron and taken Shadron down to about 50% by the time Vesperon lands. 1,830,282 health. RDPS requirement: 19266.12. Remember, one DPS is out of the action after about 25% of the time, so he only counts as 0.25 of a DPS. Individual requirement is then: 4056.02.
There is a reason Sartharion10+3 was considered the hardest boss before Ulduar. The setup requirements are so tight with only 10 people that the DPS needed is very much inflated -- either you have three tanks, or you are under-tanked. If you are under-tanked, you can now do the Zerg method:
Sartharion+3Z: One tank, with a DPS (Feral druid, usually) indisposed from 35% onwards, kiting Tenebron away. This is not reflected, since it is pretty much balanced by Heroism, which you will have if you're trying this. 3,137,625 health. Time allowed: between 76 and 100 seconds, give or take. We'll say 85. RDPS: 36913.23. Split between 8(.5 for the tank): 4614.15 Individual DPS.
Sartharion-25:
Sartharion+2: Three tanks assumed, so there is no DPS requirement here. Lumped with Naxx.
Sartharion+3: Three tanks assumed, but this time you really do need to burn down Tenebron and Shadron pretty hard. We will say that they must both die by the time Vesperon lands. 5,578,000 health in 95 seconds. RDPS requirement: 58715.78. Individual DPS requirement (17 DPS): 3355.18 DPS.
Ulduar-10 Normal:
XT-002 is the obvious one here, but I'll also do others. Freya and Hodir are nice.
XT-002-N: 5,000,008 health, but with additional damage taken in Heart phases. Effective health is roughly 3,000,000. 600-second hard Enrage. Oh yes. You know where this is going, don't you? RDPS requirement: 5000. Individual DPS requ... Oh I can't even do it. Work it out for yourselves. What a joke.
Freyaaaaaaaa: One tank. Over 6 minutes, you must down different sets of adds -- one per minute. The highest health of these is the Children, with a combined health of 735,054.
Add phase RDPS requirement : 12250.9. Individual: 1884.75
Freya herself has 1,394,500 health, and you must kill her in 4 minutes before the Berserk occurs. She will negate 6,000 DPS. RDPS requirement: 6000 + 5810.41 = 11810.41. Individual: 1816.98.
Hodir: 8,115,990 health. 480-second Enrage timer. RDPS requirement: 16908.3125. Individual (1 tank): 2601.27. Assuming poor use of buffs, leading to a 30% increase in DPS, this means 1820.89 base individual DPS. This allows for a couple of pieces of Frost Res gear!
Thorim: 3,346,800 health on Normal mode. His stacking buff is gained approximately once every fifteen seconds, and it becomes impossible to tank and heal through once cooldowns have been blown around stack 14 on Normal. 15 * 14 = 210. RDPS: 15937.14; Individual DPS: 2656.19
Ulduar-10N DPS requirement: 2.7k. Now that you've seen my formula for Ulduar, I'm going to be brief with the rest of my analysis of this raid.
Ulduar-25N:
XT-002. Let's see if he's still a joke, shall we? 22,499,978 health, minus 40% again for the Heart. 13,499,987 health. RDPS: 22499.978. The Berserk timer makes this such a joke.
Freya:
Adds: 2,280,755 health in 60 seconds = 38012.58 RDPS = 2000.66 individual
Freya: 4,183,500 over 240 seconds. RDPS: 8000 + 17431.25 = 25431.25. Individual DPS: 1338.48.
Hodir: 32,477,904 health in 480 seconds. RDPS: 67662.3. Individual DPS: 3561.17. Account for poor use of buffs: 2492.82 DPS.
Thorim: 11,713,800 health over 210 seconds. RDPS: 55780. Individual DPS: 2935.78
DPS requirement for 25-man Ulduar: about 3k.
Ulduar-10H:
XT-002: He's no longer such a joke. Hopefully ... 5,000,008 health. 25% of that to enter the Heart phase, then kill the heart (900,000 health), then burn down another 7,500,012 health. A total of 13,400,020 health in 600 seconds. That sounds more like it! Let's try running those numbers. Raid DPS requirement: 22333.36. Individual DPS: 3435.90
Freya: I might be working with out-dated information. Tankspot claims that the adds and Freya gain a 72% health bonus with all three Elders up, but this could be wrong. But hey, I'll run with it.
Adds: 1,264,292 health in 60 seconds: 21071.548 RDPS. 3511.92 individual DPS.
Freya: 2,398,540 in 240 seconds. 6000 + 9993.91 = 15993.91 RDPS. 2665.65 individual DPS.
Hodir: 8,115,990 health in 180 seconds. 45088.83 RDPS. Seven DPS for this one with a couple of Frost Res pieces. 6441.26 individual DPS. Roughly a 70% increase in damage from good use of buffs. 3788.97 base DPS.
Thorim: 4,183,500 health in 210 seconds. RDPS: 19921.42. Individual DPS: 3320.23
DPS requirement for Glory of the Ulduar Raider (10 Player): 3.8k
Ulduar-25H:
XT-002: 43,124,962 health over 600 seconds. RDPS: 71874.93. Individual DPS: 3782.89.
Freya:
Adds: 3,922,899 health over 60 seconds. RDPS: 65381.64. Individual DPS: 3441.13
Freya: 7,195,620 health over 240 seconds. RDPS: 8000 + 29981.75 = 37981.75. Individual DPS: 1999.03
Hodir: 32,477,904 over 180 seconds. RDPS: 180432.8. Individual DPS: 9496.46. With good use of buffs, there's about a 100% multiplier here, so 4748.23 base Individual DPS.
Thorim: 14,642,250 over 210 seconds. RDPS: 69725. Individual DPS: 3669.73.
DPS requirement for Glory of the Ulduar Raider (25-player): 4.8k.
Trial of the Crusader-10:
Twin Val'kyr: 5,790,000 damage over 360 seconds. I'm not 100% certain on the DPS increase of the Light/Dark Attunement, but it feels like 25%, so I'll go with that. RDPS requirement: 16083.33. Individual DPS requirement: 2680.55; 2144.44 with DPS increase.
Anub'arak: 4,180,000. This is a little tricky to work out, but let's have a go. Berserk is 10 minutes. After three burrow phases, which adds up to 7 minutes and 30 seconds altogether, you'll need to be taking him into phase 3 and killing him.
100%-30%: 2,926,000 health over about 260 seconds. 11253.84 RDPS.
30%-0%. This is trickier. Anub'arak will drain 10% of your raid's health -- a minimum of 2,500 HPS. We'll assume, though, that you keep everyone at about 7,000 health (Offsetting tank health). That's 7,000 HPS for Anub'arak. 1,254,000 health over the remaining 150 seconds. 8360 + 7000 = 15360 RDPS. Individual DPS: 2560.
Depressing how low the threshold is, no? Only 2.6k Oh well.
Trial of the Crusader-25:
Twin Val'kyr: 27,890,000 over 360 seconds. RDPS: 77472.22. Individual DPS: 4077.48; 3261.98 with Attunement bonus.
Anub'arak: 20,917,500 health.
Phase 1: 14,642,250 over 260 seconds. RDPS: 56316.34. Individual DPS: 2964.01
Phase 3: 6,275,250 over 150 seconds. RDPS: 41835 + 17500 = 59335. Individual DPS: 3122.89
DPS requirement for ToC25: 3.3k
Trial of the Grand Crusader-10:
Beasts of Northrend:
Gormok: 2,789.000 health over 180 seconds, plus ~135,000 health by four snobolds: a total of 3,329,000. RDPS: 18494.44. Individual DPS: 3082.40. A DPS penalty applied for anyone Snobolled, resulting in roughly a 25% decrease in DPS. Actual Individual DPS requirement: 3853
Acidmaw & Dreadscale: 3,137,625 health over approximately 165 seconds. 19015.90 RDPS. 3169.31 Individual DPS
Icehowl: ~4,100,000 health over 195 seconds. 21025.64 RDPS; 3504.27 Individual DPS.
Twin Val'kyr: ~8,000,000 health over 360 seconds. 22222.22 RDPS; 3703.70 Individual DPS.
Anub'arak: The general idea here is to take two healers and go for a single Burrow phase. 5,440,000 health, with 2*235,000 adds every 45 seconds.
100%-30%: 38651.85 RDPS. 5521.69 Individual DPS: You would ideally have Heroism for this, bringing the requirement down to around 4693.43 DPS. After that, it's not so much a burn as a survival test and an intelligent, reactive healing test.
DPS requirement for ToGC10: 4.7k
Trial of the Grand Crusader 25-player:
Northrend Beasts:
Gormok: 11,853,250 plus 808,860*6 = 16,706,410 over 180 seconds. 92813.38 RDPS; 4884.91 individual DPS. The DPS penalty for being snobolled isn't quite so severe here, because of the increased abundance in general. 10%-ish. 5373.40 DPS
Acidmaw & Dreadscale: 13,387,200 over approximately 165 seconds. Individual DPS: 4270.24
Icehowl: 18,128,500 over 195 seconds. 4892.98 individual DPS.
Twin Val'kyr: 39,046,000 over 360 seconds. 5708.47 individual DPS. 4757.06 base individual DPS
Anub'arak:
27,192,750 health, plus at least 727,974*8 =
100%-30%: 24,858,717 damage in 180 seconds. 7268.63 individual DPS requirement.
Requirement for ToGC25: About 5.5k, with incidental AoE pushing up to 7.3k
Onyxia:
She doesn't have an Enrage timer, but 3.5k is more than acceptable. It all gets skewed by AoE anyway.
To recap, in order of increasing DPS:
Naxx10, Naxx25, Malygos 10, Malygos 25, Sartharion 10+0/1; Sartharion 25 +0-2: 2.1k DPS
Trial of the Champion 10: 2.6k
Ulduar 10: 2.7k
Ulduar 25: 3k
Trial of the Champion 25: 3.3k
Sartharion25+3: 3.3k
Onyxia10: 3.5k
Onyxia25: 3.5k
Ulduar 10H: 3.8k
Sarthation10+3: 4.1k
Sartharion10+3Z: 4.6k
ToGC 10: 4.7k
Ulduar 25H: 4.8k
ToGC 25: 5.5k
Before this analysis, I showed you a screenshot from Iamamazed-Champions. I've zoomed in on what I want to show (I'm sorry that it breaks my blog's template):
Now, let's look at the same image, with those actual, real DPS values taken into account. Remember, "Yellow" indicates what I should be focusing on -- i.e., what I am geared to complete, and where I am likely to get the most upgrades.
What's out of my reach in my current gear? Trial of the Grand Crusader 10, OS10+3Z, Ulduar 25H, Trial of the Grand Crusader 25.
So, to Iamamazed-Champions, I have only this to say: You have been measured, and found wanting.
I've already mentioned gear once, from a top-down approach. Now I need to return to the root and work upwards, because this is the position in which I find myself.
A certain website with a gear-score-based system (Whose name I am not going to mention ... But let's call them "Iamamazed-Champions") gives the gear score of my recently-80 Death Knight is a mere 1.8k. The reason I am linking you a screenshot to my page, rather than linking the page itself, is because I want to deny Iamamazed-Champions as much web traffic as I can. Now, I don't particularly care for the number itself. I more want to draw your attention to the "Progress bar" that they have. They insist that I should focus on Naxx25.
I'll back up a bit: My Death Knight dinged 80 three days ago. I have geared her up like a hardcore raider on steroids, Powerthirst and chocolate, inasmuch as luck would allow me to deck her out in free epics. I've never played a Death Knight before -- or, rather, I've never played one since 3.0.8, and they've changed a lot since then. As a result, I'm pretty much re-learning the class, and I will write later on about what it has taught me of the situation regarding melee DPS.
But, because I have a brain, I am capable of pulling between 3,498 and 4,124 DPS with that character, on a boss, depending on my raid composition. In a VoA 10-man Class Run with bad raid composition (No Feral Druid, no Enhancement Shaman, no Retribution Paladin ... pretty much all I had for physical damage was the Rogue), I was able to pull 3,750.2 DPS on Koralon. I topped that meter, and it was a one-shot. It was slower than if we had all been 5,000 DPS, but we cleared the required threshold.
Now, Koralon is not a benchmark for PvE DPS. He's designed as a PvP boss: with the exclusion of tanks requiring defence-based gear, competent PvPers working around hit caps and the like are supposed to be able to kill him. But, let's go through some DPS thresholds for a moment.
The following is on key, non-optional bosses for various raids, who have enrage or berserk timers and the fewest gimmicks I could find. Where there are gimmicks, I explain reasonable allowances in-depth.
I always assume the following:
- Tanks do 50% of the damage of DPS classes when tanking; and 75% of the damage when they have nothing else to do but DPS, making the further assumption (which will be very false in a great many cases, but I will nevertheless make the assumption) that they also have no Dual PvE DPS Spec.
- Raid composition is always 2 tanks, 3 healers, 5 DPS for a 10-man; 2 tanks, 5 healers, 18 DPS for a 25-man.
Naxxramas 10-man:
Faerlina: 2,231,200 health, plus four adds of 83,408 health, for a total of 2,564,832 health. 60*4 + 60 = 300-second soft Enrage timer. RDPS requirement: 8549.44. Individual DPS requirement (One tank. Other tank on adds, so not added): 1554.44
Patchwerk: 4,322,950 health; 360-second hard Enrage timer. RDPS requirement: 12008.194. Individual DPS requirement (Two tanks): 2001.36.
Thaddius: 3,834,875 health; 360-second hard Enrage timer. RDPS requirement: 10652.43. Individual DPS requirement (One tank, other DPSing): 1704.38....
Loatheb: 6,693,600 health; 420-second Inevitable Doom Enrage timer. RDPS requirement: 15937.14. RDPS requirement (One tank, other DPSing): 2549.94.
None of these factor in mechanics such as damage boosts (Thaddius and Loatheb) or movement (Thaddius). At a guess, the +50% crit bonus on Loatheb would increase DPS by about 20%. So, the DPS requirement for Naxxramas 10-man is about 2.1k, give or take.
Naxxramas 25-man:
Faerlina: 6,763,325 health, plus two adds of 521,320 health, for a total of 7,805,965. 60*4 + 60 = 300-second soft Enrage timer. RDPS requirement: 26019.88. Individual DPS requirement (One tank. Other tank on adds, so not added): 1406.48.
Patchwerk: 13,038,575 health; 360-second hard Enrage timer. RDPS requirement: 36218.26. Individual DPS requirement (Three tanks): 1957.74.
Thaddius: 30,400,100 health; 360-second hard Enrage timer. RDPS requirement: 84444.72... Individual DPS requirement (One tank, other DPSing): 4386.73.... Actual Individual DPS requirement, given a 100% damage boost all of the time by Charges: 2193.36.
Loatheb: 20,220,250 health; 420-second Inevitable Doom Enrage timer. RDPS requirement: 48143.45. RDPS requirement (One tank, other DPSing): 2500.95. (Before crit bonus accommodation.)
Well, this is amusing. In the case of Patchwerk, the DPS requirement goes down on 25-man. But, again, we're left with roughly the same value: 2.1k DPS required for Naxxramas 25-man. This means you can do Naxxramas 25 in the same gear that you would be able to do Naxxramas 10: If you pull the requirement for Naxxramas 10, you pull the requirement for Naxxramas 25.
Malygos 10-man:
Malygos is a hard fight to gauge accurately, because of the strange way in which it works. However, we will model it thus: We will devote equal time between the three phases. This means you have 200 seconds in phase 1 to take him to 50%, then 200 seconds to kill adds, then 200 seconds to burn him down. The last of these cannot be modelled, because the drakes don't work that way. However, we will assume that if you have the DPS to take him down to 50% in three minutes you will have the gear required for your Drakes to be scaled far enough to burn him in phase 3, shall we? That sounds reasonable to me. We will also assume, from the nature of Sparks and Vortices, that Sparks contribute a 20% DPS increase. We will even do Iamamazed-Champions a favour here and assume that you are forbidden from taking Malygos below 50% health after phase 2 initiates.
Phase 1: 6,972,500 / 2 = 3,486,250 health. RDPS requirement: 17431.25. Individual DPS requirement (One tank. Six DPS): 2681.73. Factoring in the 20% DPS boost, Actual Individual DPS requirement: 2145.38.
The DPS requirement for Malygos-10 is 2145.38 DPS.
Malygos 25-man:
Phase 1: 19,523,000 / 2 = 9,761,500 health. RDPS requirement: 48807.5. Individual DPS requirement (One tank. 19 DPS.): 2502.94. Actual Individual DPS: 2002.35
The DPS requirement for Malygos-25 is less than 10-man.
Sartharion 10-man:
Drakes! We will include drakes here for your pleasure. Sartharion+0 and +1 have no Enrage timers. So, technically, there isn't a DPS requirement. It's very safe to put them with Naxx etc.
Sartharion+2: Two tanks are assumed here. Shadron will land 45 seconds after Tenebron does. Ideally, then, you want to kill Tenebron after 50 seconds maximum. 976,150*1.25 = 1,220,188 health. RDPS requirement: 24403.76. Individual DPS requirement for 50 seconds: 4437.04. Assuming you have a Shaman, this is reduced by 30% to 3105.93. Very hefty stuff compared to Naxx.
Sartharion+3: Two tanks with a DPS indisposed after 25 seconds on Tenebron to tank adds. Vesperon will land 95 seconds after Tenebron -- 50 seconds after Shadron. Ideally, the raid will have killed Tenebron and taken Shadron down to about 50% by the time Vesperon lands. 1,830,282 health. RDPS requirement: 19266.12. Remember, one DPS is out of the action after about 25% of the time, so he only counts as 0.25 of a DPS. Individual requirement is then: 4056.02.
There is a reason Sartharion10+3 was considered the hardest boss before Ulduar. The setup requirements are so tight with only 10 people that the DPS needed is very much inflated -- either you have three tanks, or you are under-tanked. If you are under-tanked, you can now do the Zerg method:
Sartharion+3Z: One tank, with a DPS (Feral druid, usually) indisposed from 35% onwards, kiting Tenebron away. This is not reflected, since it is pretty much balanced by Heroism, which you will have if you're trying this. 3,137,625 health. Time allowed: between 76 and 100 seconds, give or take. We'll say 85. RDPS: 36913.23. Split between 8(.5 for the tank): 4614.15 Individual DPS.
Sartharion-25:
Sartharion+2: Three tanks assumed, so there is no DPS requirement here. Lumped with Naxx.
Sartharion+3: Three tanks assumed, but this time you really do need to burn down Tenebron and Shadron pretty hard. We will say that they must both die by the time Vesperon lands. 5,578,000 health in 95 seconds. RDPS requirement: 58715.78. Individual DPS requirement (17 DPS): 3355.18 DPS.
Ulduar-10 Normal:
XT-002 is the obvious one here, but I'll also do others. Freya and Hodir are nice.
XT-002-N: 5,000,008 health, but with additional damage taken in Heart phases. Effective health is roughly 3,000,000. 600-second hard Enrage. Oh yes. You know where this is going, don't you? RDPS requirement: 5000. Individual DPS requ... Oh I can't even do it. Work it out for yourselves. What a joke.
Freyaaaaaaaa: One tank. Over 6 minutes, you must down different sets of adds -- one per minute. The highest health of these is the Children, with a combined health of 735,054.
Add phase RDPS requirement : 12250.9. Individual: 1884.75
Freya herself has 1,394,500 health, and you must kill her in 4 minutes before the Berserk occurs. She will negate 6,000 DPS. RDPS requirement: 6000 + 5810.41 = 11810.41. Individual: 1816.98.
Hodir: 8,115,990 health. 480-second Enrage timer. RDPS requirement: 16908.3125. Individual (1 tank): 2601.27. Assuming poor use of buffs, leading to a 30% increase in DPS, this means 1820.89 base individual DPS. This allows for a couple of pieces of Frost Res gear!
Thorim: 3,346,800 health on Normal mode. His stacking buff is gained approximately once every fifteen seconds, and it becomes impossible to tank and heal through once cooldowns have been blown around stack 14 on Normal. 15 * 14 = 210. RDPS: 15937.14; Individual DPS: 2656.19
Ulduar-10N DPS requirement: 2.7k. Now that you've seen my formula for Ulduar, I'm going to be brief with the rest of my analysis of this raid.
Ulduar-25N:
XT-002. Let's see if he's still a joke, shall we? 22,499,978 health, minus 40% again for the Heart. 13,499,987 health. RDPS: 22499.978. The Berserk timer makes this such a joke.
Freya:
Adds: 2,280,755 health in 60 seconds = 38012.58 RDPS = 2000.66 individual
Freya: 4,183,500 over 240 seconds. RDPS: 8000 + 17431.25 = 25431.25. Individual DPS: 1338.48.
Hodir: 32,477,904 health in 480 seconds. RDPS: 67662.3. Individual DPS: 3561.17. Account for poor use of buffs: 2492.82 DPS.
Thorim: 11,713,800 health over 210 seconds. RDPS: 55780. Individual DPS: 2935.78
DPS requirement for 25-man Ulduar: about 3k.
Ulduar-10H:
XT-002: He's no longer such a joke. Hopefully ... 5,000,008 health. 25% of that to enter the Heart phase, then kill the heart (900,000 health), then burn down another 7,500,012 health. A total of 13,400,020 health in 600 seconds. That sounds more like it! Let's try running those numbers. Raid DPS requirement: 22333.36. Individual DPS: 3435.90
Freya: I might be working with out-dated information. Tankspot claims that the adds and Freya gain a 72% health bonus with all three Elders up, but this could be wrong. But hey, I'll run with it.
Adds: 1,264,292 health in 60 seconds: 21071.548 RDPS. 3511.92 individual DPS.
Freya: 2,398,540 in 240 seconds. 6000 + 9993.91 = 15993.91 RDPS. 2665.65 individual DPS.
Hodir: 8,115,990 health in 180 seconds. 45088.83 RDPS. Seven DPS for this one with a couple of Frost Res pieces. 6441.26 individual DPS. Roughly a 70% increase in damage from good use of buffs. 3788.97 base DPS.
Thorim: 4,183,500 health in 210 seconds. RDPS: 19921.42. Individual DPS: 3320.23
DPS requirement for Glory of the Ulduar Raider (10 Player): 3.8k
Ulduar-25H:
XT-002: 43,124,962 health over 600 seconds. RDPS: 71874.93. Individual DPS: 3782.89.
Freya:
Adds: 3,922,899 health over 60 seconds. RDPS: 65381.64. Individual DPS: 3441.13
Freya: 7,195,620 health over 240 seconds. RDPS: 8000 + 29981.75 = 37981.75. Individual DPS: 1999.03
Hodir: 32,477,904 over 180 seconds. RDPS: 180432.8. Individual DPS: 9496.46. With good use of buffs, there's about a 100% multiplier here, so 4748.23 base Individual DPS.
Thorim: 14,642,250 over 210 seconds. RDPS: 69725. Individual DPS: 3669.73.
DPS requirement for Glory of the Ulduar Raider (25-player): 4.8k.
Trial of the Crusader-10:
Twin Val'kyr: 5,790,000 damage over 360 seconds. I'm not 100% certain on the DPS increase of the Light/Dark Attunement, but it feels like 25%, so I'll go with that. RDPS requirement: 16083.33. Individual DPS requirement: 2680.55; 2144.44 with DPS increase.
Anub'arak: 4,180,000. This is a little tricky to work out, but let's have a go. Berserk is 10 minutes. After three burrow phases, which adds up to 7 minutes and 30 seconds altogether, you'll need to be taking him into phase 3 and killing him.
100%-30%: 2,926,000 health over about 260 seconds. 11253.84 RDPS.
30%-0%. This is trickier. Anub'arak will drain 10% of your raid's health -- a minimum of 2,500 HPS. We'll assume, though, that you keep everyone at about 7,000 health (Offsetting tank health). That's 7,000 HPS for Anub'arak. 1,254,000 health over the remaining 150 seconds. 8360 + 7000 = 15360 RDPS. Individual DPS: 2560.
Depressing how low the threshold is, no? Only 2.6k Oh well.
Trial of the Crusader-25:
Twin Val'kyr: 27,890,000 over 360 seconds. RDPS: 77472.22. Individual DPS: 4077.48; 3261.98 with Attunement bonus.
Anub'arak: 20,917,500 health.
Phase 1: 14,642,250 over 260 seconds. RDPS: 56316.34. Individual DPS: 2964.01
Phase 3: 6,275,250 over 150 seconds. RDPS: 41835 + 17500 = 59335. Individual DPS: 3122.89
DPS requirement for ToC25: 3.3k
Trial of the Grand Crusader-10:
Beasts of Northrend:
Gormok: 2,789.000 health over 180 seconds, plus ~135,000 health by four snobolds: a total of 3,329,000. RDPS: 18494.44. Individual DPS: 3082.40. A DPS penalty applied for anyone Snobolled, resulting in roughly a 25% decrease in DPS. Actual Individual DPS requirement: 3853
Acidmaw & Dreadscale: 3,137,625 health over approximately 165 seconds. 19015.90 RDPS. 3169.31 Individual DPS
Icehowl: ~4,100,000 health over 195 seconds. 21025.64 RDPS; 3504.27 Individual DPS.
Twin Val'kyr: ~8,000,000 health over 360 seconds. 22222.22 RDPS; 3703.70 Individual DPS.
Anub'arak: The general idea here is to take two healers and go for a single Burrow phase. 5,440,000 health, with 2*235,000 adds every 45 seconds.
100%-30%: 38651.85 RDPS. 5521.69 Individual DPS: You would ideally have Heroism for this, bringing the requirement down to around 4693.43 DPS. After that, it's not so much a burn as a survival test and an intelligent, reactive healing test.
DPS requirement for ToGC10: 4.7k
Trial of the Grand Crusader 25-player:
Northrend Beasts:
Gormok: 11,853,250 plus 808,860*6 = 16,706,410 over 180 seconds. 92813.38 RDPS; 4884.91 individual DPS. The DPS penalty for being snobolled isn't quite so severe here, because of the increased abundance in general. 10%-ish. 5373.40 DPS
Acidmaw & Dreadscale: 13,387,200 over approximately 165 seconds. Individual DPS: 4270.24
Icehowl: 18,128,500 over 195 seconds. 4892.98 individual DPS.
Twin Val'kyr: 39,046,000 over 360 seconds. 5708.47 individual DPS. 4757.06 base individual DPS
Anub'arak:
27,192,750 health, plus at least 727,974*8 =
100%-30%: 24,858,717 damage in 180 seconds. 7268.63 individual DPS requirement.
Requirement for ToGC25: About 5.5k, with incidental AoE pushing up to 7.3k
Onyxia:
She doesn't have an Enrage timer, but 3.5k is more than acceptable. It all gets skewed by AoE anyway.
To recap, in order of increasing DPS:
Naxx10, Naxx25, Malygos 10, Malygos 25, Sartharion 10+0/1; Sartharion 25 +0-2: 2.1k DPS
Trial of the Champion 10: 2.6k
Ulduar 10: 2.7k
Ulduar 25: 3k
Trial of the Champion 25: 3.3k
Sartharion25+3: 3.3k
Onyxia10: 3.5k
Onyxia25: 3.5k
Ulduar 10H: 3.8k
Sarthation10+3: 4.1k
Sartharion10+3Z: 4.6k
ToGC 10: 4.7k
Ulduar 25H: 4.8k
ToGC 25: 5.5k
Before this analysis, I showed you a screenshot from Iamamazed-Champions. I've zoomed in on what I want to show (I'm sorry that it breaks my blog's template):
Now, let's look at the same image, with those actual, real DPS values taken into account. Remember, "Yellow" indicates what I should be focusing on -- i.e., what I am geared to complete, and where I am likely to get the most upgrades.
What's out of my reach in my current gear? Trial of the Grand Crusader 10, OS10+3Z, Ulduar 25H, Trial of the Grand Crusader 25.
So, to Iamamazed-Champions, I have only this to say: You have been measured, and found wanting.
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