[Progression Journal] Zhengma's Tier 17 (7+2/17 H, 1+0/17 M)

[zhengma]

Since last time I posted, I've been stuck for quite a while, both due to the increment of the difficulty in subsequent boss encounters and to the holidays.

After some adjustment of our roster, of which details I hate to share, we killed Heroic Ko'ragh on the second-to-last day of 2014, as a new year present.

HKoraghdown.jpg (50.53 KiB) Viewed 16034 times

I was the orb soaker for two reasons: AT is the only "heal" that works for caustic energy, and Blazing Speed+Glyph of Rapid Displacement can cover larger area than most other classes.

At 1% health of the boss, I miss estimated the amount of shield remaining on me and died to an orb, glad we still made it.

WCL entry

[Komma]

At 1% health of the boss, I miss estimated the amount of shield remaining on me and died to an orb, glad we still made it.

It is actually a good idea to die to an orb to prevent the raid from taking massive amounts of damage. All the damage we do to the shield doesn't matter in the end anyway!

[zhengma]

A few hours ago, after many attempts, we scored our first N Imperator kill as a guild group:

WCL entry

Due to a lack of more agile ranged DPS, I was ordered to handle http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156238 (and all of its variations, of course). It's a significant DPS loss for me, part of which is because my partner is even less familiar with this mechanics, but more importantly it's due to my unfamiliarity with both the timeline of the encounter and with my own rotation.

In the last phase I more or less restrained from doing AoE, because in my untrained eyes, http://www.wowhead.com/npc=78077 from the transition phase (which could be still up) has a same(?) 3D model as what the http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77809 splits into. Since the overall condition of our health wasn't quite optimistic in this phase, even less so are the mana reserves of our healers, I couldn't risk the former blowing up.

[zhengma]

At 1% health of the boss, I miss estimated the amount of shield remaining on me and died to an orb, glad we still made it.

It is actually a good idea to die to an orb to prevent the raid from taking massive amounts of damage. All the damage we do to the shield doesn't matter in the end anyway!

1. In ideal condition, each person with barrier can take exactly 10 orbs, but since the shield is deduced by all the "expel magic" abilities and by the the suppression field (I haven't seen evidence that the orb hitting inside the field will do less damage, so I just assume I have to get in and soak it), I can usually take 8 orbs only, and occasionally 9.

2. I usually do the Ko'ragh encounter in a lower morale, because both Recount and Skada apparently omit damage done to the barrier on the boss. But I still want to deplete his barrier a bit faster, so that our orb soakers can get our own barriers a bit earlier. Damaging the boss when he's recharging his shield is risky, because basically anything other than Frostbolt and FFB may potentially aggro the adds, making it much harder for the tank to put them into the suppression field. In transition phases I usually help with CCing and bursting the adds, for which purpose I have plenty of tools (RoF, Welly Freeze, IN, etc.)

[zhengma]

This is what I wore after I finished my Imperator kill. The two new pieces of loots I obtained from the Imperator replaced two 645 pieces from follower mission with which I raided tonight.

As you can see, I wear THREE pieces of 660 Primal Gladiator gear in raiding. I heard many raid leaders are enraged by raiders wearing arena gear, which I seriously don't see the point: in this patch there's no power/resilience, just ilvl scaling upon entering BG/arena, and 660 arena gear with the correct secondary stats are good for progression when 670 H Highmaul gear is temporarily out of reach. A raid leader I knew said: "The problem being: a progression raider should spend all his gaming time studying and practicing boss encounters. Doing arena sounds so wrong." However, my very limited experience in arena since last season actually sharpened my senses and taught me a lot about survival and about doing burst damage, which I don't find detrimental at all to my raiding skill.

My raid leader knows I wear arena gear and is cool with that (despite she herself is more "exclusively PvE" than the majority in the guild), but one officer resigned for her not banning arena gear in her raids. Hence, I'm here to ask: are you cool with wearing arena gear or seeing others wearing them while raiding?

[ShaObito]

My raid leader knows I wear arena gear and is cool with that (despite she herself is more "exclusively PvE" than the majority in the guild), but one officer resigned for her not banning arena gear in her raids. Hence, I'm here to ask: are you cool with wearing arena gear or seeing others wearing them while raiding?

Why would you? The items are surely better than items that you would use otherwise, especially when on progression. If the officer is against pvp gear because 'they have less/worse stats' that's simply not true anymore.

[zhengma]

On second thought, I shouldn't have put the Recount into the picture. Kinda like a disgrace to our class.

[zhengma]

With the instability of our roster and recruitment in a stall, we're currently turning our attention to BRF instead of Mythic Highmaul.

I'm switching spec for BRF. Here is the BiS list I've submitted to the loot council of the guild.

I can still make minor changes to it before Tuesday. So if there's any typo, anything missing or any notes inappropriate, feel free to point out.

[zhengma]

I could have done better damage if I had been more comfortable with Ice Floe.

Maybe I'll just go Blazing Speed next time?

Still, got some Mythic before BRF, so better than nothing.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/aC12GgQbVYvD3pMX" target="_blank

[Anarza]

Good luck in BRF. Hoping you guys found another mage, I know how annoying being the only one in a raid group can be!

[zhengma]

Besides this I got another shoe from trash and YET ANOTHER shoe from bonus roll.

[zhengma]

Good luck in BRF. Hoping you guys found another mage, I know how annoying being the only one in a raid group can be!

Should I forward this to my raid leader?

[Komma]

Besides this I got another shoe from trash and YET ANOTHER shoe from bonus roll.

You need two shoes to make a pair.

[zhengma]

Besides this I got another shoe from trash and YET ANOTHER shoe from bonus roll.

You need two shoes to make a pair.

K, "pair of shoes". You know I'm not a native speaker of English.

Anyway, after reading Komma's reply in the other post, I was planning to switch to Arcane tonight when this http://www.wowhead.com/item=119342/furn ... us=561:566 dropped from trash.

Considering it's H WF, I can only assume that God was giving me the message to go Frost for one more night. Sigh, what am I gonna do with it when I switch to Fire/Arcane? I haven't seen WF gear much during my WoW career, much less winning one with a big roll.

[zhengma]

Killed H Hans&Franz, but I don't have a screen capture.

Because I died to Pulverize, which make me felt that I'm carried thru a kill.

During the entire night, I was among the people who take comparatively less damage (and fatality) from Pulverize, but that doesn't matter the slightest, because I died to it during the one pull that we actually killed them, which people will memorize.

I've been looking forward to a guild first down in which I'm MVP in some way. Later I found I don't look like I have the mineral for that, then I strive to not be the defect in a guild first down. Eventually I found that, more often than not, can't be guaranteed either. I'm among the few casualties during the Gruul guild first, and I'm the only early casualty of the Hans&Franz guild first.

It might take time for me to walk out of the depression of tonight.

==========

Anyway, the WCL entry is here: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/Hr ... 7P#fight=4

Frost, IN+MI+TV, a most conservative build that helps me to focus my mind on familiarize the mechanics.

[zhengma]

Wiped ~30 times on Oregorger during the past two days.

Among the 18 deaths I got tonight, there are 6x http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155897, 4x http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156240 and 3x run over. Got one-shot by http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156240 multiple times today and yesterday.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/vzrWNcH21nXG8hVP Suggestions will be welcomed.

[zhengma]

Still, I and a fellow raider did some study.

The results might have been known on Beta (even Alpha) months ago, but it's original for us, so we're still quite exciting.

Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/ ... slide=id.p

[zhengma]

Besides, tonight, for the very first time in my not-so-long PvE career, I was effectively benched from 2 last progression pulls.

I just wish to make a public apology on AT.com for being benched as the only representative of our class in the guild, which risks tarnishing the reputation of our class.

It was based on the "average time of first death" as calculated by WCL. I DC'ed twice tonight which contributed two extraordinarily low percentages there. However, even taking those two pulls out of the picture, I still have some deaths in the first Phase 1 due to Acid Torrent, and THREE(!) times of being rolled right over.

I'll analyze the parse further, and prove to my fellow guildies in future raids that our class is a strong one in this encounter, having the potential to perform well in damage, mobility and survivability.

[Shangalar]

Acid Torrent deaths are in no way your fault. If you get one shot by Acid Torrent it's because the tank didn't use his defensive cooldowns or he didn't get external cooldowns.

Getting rolled over, well, that one sucks.

[zhengma]

Acid Torrent deaths are in no way your fault. If you get one shot by Acid Torrent it's because the tank didn't use his defensive cooldowns or he didn't get external cooldowns.

Getting rolled over, well, that one sucks.

It seems that GI won't prevent being one-shot by getting rolled over from full health.

However, GI will surely prevent being one-shot by Acid Torrent, even with not-so-full health. The problem is: it's not easy to tell which Acid Torrent I need to use my GI on. Our tanks are a DK and a bear. Log and experience shows that, I should use my GI on Acid Torrent when the bear is taking the initial physical damage. Therefore, I have to monitor the @targettarget to decide. Of course, I can ask the bear to call out something like "I'm taking this Acid Torrent, use your personal" and such, but don't you think it's too much of a self-insult for him?

I'm still among the people who died the least to rolling. However, I'm the one in the guild who studied the detail of Phase 2 of Oregorger, and dying at all in Phase 2 doesn't look good for the credibility of my study.