So, I took myself to task to up my DPS, as it seemed fairly far off from spreadsheets, rather than somewhat close.
The last post was the result of that and some dummy testing. So how did I do?
Well, I did quite well. I went from being about 85% for ranking status on most 10 mans to being a top record holder on many of the fights (as according to World of Logs). Needless to say, faster fingers do wonders when dealing with below GCD haste levels.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Are you fast enough?
This question is a larger question than you might think, and all aspects of it are valid to ask and discuss.
Firstly, are you fast enough to be observant?
Then, are you fast enough to move (usually out of the way of something bad)?
Are you fast enough to react to a raidlead's instruction (brez, adjust, etc)?
For these 3, and other similar issues, please see my previous post on raid awareness, much of it applies to how quickly you are aware, reducing the time it takes you to do everything else.
Can you move fast enough to get out of said problem?
AKA, do you use tustkar's or cat's swiftness? Do you make use of travel form, sprint/dash, blink, rocket boots?
If you can't say yes to any of the above...you need to.
Lastly, and my main focus and inspiration for this, are you fast enough to do max dps?
Let's assume you can stand in 1 spot and never have to move (since all of that is covered in the above areas).
You will have 3 main things that determine how fast you can cast and get a spell out.
1) Do you have enough haste?
Make sure you're at LEAST at the soft haste cap (roughly 400 as a boomkin with full raid buffs).
Get more, more is better.
2) Is your ping/latency low enough?
There are many ways that people go about dropping this, but they all boil down to network settings changes. The simple and easy answer is to look up leatrix latency fix for you Windows users, their faq also has info on how to do the same via command line on Mac. Sometimes it helps, other times it doesn't. Some folks, especially in other countries from their game server, will use a third party game proxy service. You're aiming for something in the <50 range, but even 200 is playable. If you have huge latency, especially as a boomkin, use crit instead of haste once above the soft cap, or just pure SP (as most do anyway).
3) Do you understand how spell queueing works? How about for instants or shorter than GCD casts?
Let's take the easy example of Starfire (since it will pretty much never be non-queued).
When you cast starfire, it takes longer than the GCD. Once the GCD is done AND the spell is about to finish, you can press it again and it will be queued. This lets the server start casting it as soon as the other spell is done, for a net result of no lost cast time. The most effective way to get this to happen is simply to spam your cast key, so you'll get into that queue window asap, even if you have bad latency.
Now let's look at a spell like wrath (which will drop below the GCD cast time easily once in mostly 264 gear, when you proc on crit, if not before). I'll use me as an example. wrath takes .7 sec to cast, the GCD is 1 sec, so I have a minimum theoretical time of .3 sec every sec of not being casting. This is how any kind of dps spreadsheet or RAWR will look at things, for the most part.
Now let's look at how this is implemented, technically. You press the wrath keybind (you're not clicking are you?), your client checks to make sure you're not inside the GCD...if you are it throws away the keypress, then it checks to see if you're CC'd or unable to cast for some other reason...if so it throws out the keypress, then it checks to see if you're casting...if you are, and you're not in the queueable window, it throws away the keypress...then it sends the wrath command to the server (internet latency), then the server checks to make sure you're not doing anything else, then the server executes your command. This is where a lot of people end it, but it is important to note the next step too. Your client doesn't start the GCD (local on the client) until the server tells your client (internet latency), that your command has started.
Now that you know how it works, let's talk about speeding up Wrath casting. The average button spammer hits the keyboard about 4-5 times per second. For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to use 5 times/sec, which means you hit the key every .2 seconds on average. So, looking at our wrath example, you cast, get back a gcd, at which point you need to INSTANTLY hit the wrath button. In our average situation, you're going to miss by anywhere from almost nothing to .2 seconds. .2 sec on a spell that only takes 1 sec (only because of the GCD) is fairly significant...making it up to a 20% increase in cast time used for 1 cast. Clearly, the answer is to "FACEROLL HARDER!" Seriously though, we need to generate more wrath commands faster, so that we loose less time doing nothing. Bliz has stated that programable keyboards and such are violations of the ToS and User Agreement, and can result in a ban...but there is an easy answer. Most people can use 2 fingers alternately, almost as effectively as a single one. So, if you use...say, 2, as your wrath button. Put wrath into the 3 slot as well and use 2 fingers to mash on it. You won't be consistant with 1 vs the other, one will probably end up slower sometimes or get you off pattern, but just try to get comfortable with alternating fingers to hit the keys. This can bring your tap time down easily to about .1 sec instead of .2...which means now you do 10% more dps while casting wrath (assuming your latency is reasonable).
This is applicable to any chain casting class that is hitting the GCD with the same spell, including restos using intants and mouseover targets. Please let me know if this helps you too! :)
Firstly, are you fast enough to be observant?
Then, are you fast enough to move (usually out of the way of something bad)?
Are you fast enough to react to a raidlead's instruction (brez, adjust, etc)?
For these 3, and other similar issues, please see my previous post on raid awareness, much of it applies to how quickly you are aware, reducing the time it takes you to do everything else.
Can you move fast enough to get out of said problem?
AKA, do you use tustkar's or cat's swiftness? Do you make use of travel form, sprint/dash, blink, rocket boots?
If you can't say yes to any of the above...you need to.
Lastly, and my main focus and inspiration for this, are you fast enough to do max dps?
Let's assume you can stand in 1 spot and never have to move (since all of that is covered in the above areas).
You will have 3 main things that determine how fast you can cast and get a spell out.
1) Do you have enough haste?
Make sure you're at LEAST at the soft haste cap (roughly 400 as a boomkin with full raid buffs).
Get more, more is better.
2) Is your ping/latency low enough?
There are many ways that people go about dropping this, but they all boil down to network settings changes. The simple and easy answer is to look up leatrix latency fix for you Windows users, their faq also has info on how to do the same via command line on Mac. Sometimes it helps, other times it doesn't. Some folks, especially in other countries from their game server, will use a third party game proxy service. You're aiming for something in the <50 range, but even 200 is playable. If you have huge latency, especially as a boomkin, use crit instead of haste once above the soft cap, or just pure SP (as most do anyway).
3) Do you understand how spell queueing works? How about for instants or shorter than GCD casts?
Let's take the easy example of Starfire (since it will pretty much never be non-queued).
When you cast starfire, it takes longer than the GCD. Once the GCD is done AND the spell is about to finish, you can press it again and it will be queued. This lets the server start casting it as soon as the other spell is done, for a net result of no lost cast time. The most effective way to get this to happen is simply to spam your cast key, so you'll get into that queue window asap, even if you have bad latency.
Now let's look at a spell like wrath (which will drop below the GCD cast time easily once in mostly 264 gear, when you proc on crit, if not before). I'll use me as an example. wrath takes .7 sec to cast, the GCD is 1 sec, so I have a minimum theoretical time of .3 sec every sec of not being casting. This is how any kind of dps spreadsheet or RAWR will look at things, for the most part.
Now let's look at how this is implemented, technically. You press the wrath keybind (you're not clicking are you?), your client checks to make sure you're not inside the GCD...if you are it throws away the keypress, then it checks to see if you're CC'd or unable to cast for some other reason...if so it throws out the keypress, then it checks to see if you're casting...if you are, and you're not in the queueable window, it throws away the keypress...then it sends the wrath command to the server (internet latency), then the server checks to make sure you're not doing anything else, then the server executes your command. This is where a lot of people end it, but it is important to note the next step too. Your client doesn't start the GCD (local on the client) until the server tells your client (internet latency), that your command has started.
Now that you know how it works, let's talk about speeding up Wrath casting. The average button spammer hits the keyboard about 4-5 times per second. For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to use 5 times/sec, which means you hit the key every .2 seconds on average. So, looking at our wrath example, you cast, get back a gcd, at which point you need to INSTANTLY hit the wrath button. In our average situation, you're going to miss by anywhere from almost nothing to .2 seconds. .2 sec on a spell that only takes 1 sec (only because of the GCD) is fairly significant...making it up to a 20% increase in cast time used for 1 cast. Clearly, the answer is to "FACEROLL HARDER!" Seriously though, we need to generate more wrath commands faster, so that we loose less time doing nothing. Bliz has stated that programable keyboards and such are violations of the ToS and User Agreement, and can result in a ban...but there is an easy answer. Most people can use 2 fingers alternately, almost as effectively as a single one. So, if you use...say, 2, as your wrath button. Put wrath into the 3 slot as well and use 2 fingers to mash on it. You won't be consistant with 1 vs the other, one will probably end up slower sometimes or get you off pattern, but just try to get comfortable with alternating fingers to hit the keys. This can bring your tap time down easily to about .1 sec instead of .2...which means now you do 10% more dps while casting wrath (assuming your latency is reasonable).
This is applicable to any chain casting class that is hitting the GCD with the same spell, including restos using intants and mouseover targets. Please let me know if this helps you too! :)
Progression Update
Hey everybody. I've been busy with my new job and enjoying my, and my wife's, birthdays. Sorry for the lack of posts.
A quick update on progression. We've been working on RS 25 HM for a while now...and have come to a saddening realization.
We just don't have the gear. We are now at a point where we do the fight without people dying, and have a solid P3 attempt almost every time, but even when P3 is perfectly balanced, we don't quite have the dps output to beat the enrage timer. Thankfully, for those of you not trying for top server or world spots, this is pretty much a non-issue in heroic 10, and is definitely not an issue in 25 normal.
As a result, we're not going to try LK HM 25 instead. It is a "harder" fight, but the fight is not a gear check (except perhaps on healers and a tank), but more of an awareness check. We're good at that in general, so we'll see how this works out. We pulled LK twice last night after clearing everything else, and both were P2 attempts. We need to work on logistics of who stuns/kills which valks, and getting everybody stacked up a little better so that the valks literally stay on top of each other for cleaves, rather than mostly sorta going the same way. I have no doubt that will be taken care of tonight and we'll get to enjoy the fun that is P3. :)
A quick update on progression. We've been working on RS 25 HM for a while now...and have come to a saddening realization.
We just don't have the gear. We are now at a point where we do the fight without people dying, and have a solid P3 attempt almost every time, but even when P3 is perfectly balanced, we don't quite have the dps output to beat the enrage timer. Thankfully, for those of you not trying for top server or world spots, this is pretty much a non-issue in heroic 10, and is definitely not an issue in 25 normal.
As a result, we're not going to try LK HM 25 instead. It is a "harder" fight, but the fight is not a gear check (except perhaps on healers and a tank), but more of an awareness check. We're good at that in general, so we'll see how this works out. We pulled LK twice last night after clearing everything else, and both were P2 attempts. We need to work on logistics of who stuns/kills which valks, and getting everybody stacked up a little better so that the valks literally stay on top of each other for cleaves, rather than mostly sorta going the same way. I have no doubt that will be taken care of tonight and we'll get to enjoy the fun that is P3. :)
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Progression update
Unfortunately we were short a couple of our core raiders in the kill. But we went into ICC, downed a lot of things...did horrible on the first attempt of PP, then killed it cleaner than normal. After that, it was on to progression, Sindragosa HM. We were all elated to have 1 shot it. I think we got helped out a bit here, because our shaman, who is one of the best healers we have, never got unchained magic in the fight. But, no complaints, really...if I can still output 5-6k hps through the course of the fight and take unchained off of most other heals by getting it...every...single...time...that's a good thing. :)
This now pushes us to 11/12 HM in ICC 25 (have long been farming that on 10 man), and RS down in 10 and 25 as well. HM RS attempts, and soon HM LK attempts should be coming asap as well. It is exciting to see and fun to do. :)
This now pushes us to 11/12 HM in ICC 25 (have long been farming that on 10 man), and RS down in 10 and 25 as well. HM RS attempts, and soon HM LK attempts should be coming asap as well. It is exciting to see and fun to do. :)
Monday, July 5, 2010
Halion HM
So, I went in and put down a couple hours of attempts on Halion in heroic 10 man last night on my mage to study it.
Once again, mage mechanics are completely OP in this fight due to having blink, absorbtion, and an often unused ability mage armor. But let me get down to specifics of the fight.
Boss has 4.5mil or so more health.
In general abilities you should've avoided before, but didn't care much in normal, you now have to actually care about (where the debuff is dropped and how fast, standing in fire, etc).
Tail swipe appears to still just be a stun, though especially in twilight with beams...that can easily kill you.
P1 in 10 man doesn't really change at all. No fire elementals (25 hm only), just things hit harder and debuffs need to be dropped smartly so as not to blow up others in the raid.
P2 adds an extra set of spheres, so instead of staying in half the room, you stay in 1/4 the room. Other than that, nothing but the usual heroic mode (hits harder, has more health) is different. That being said, the twilight aura that ticks raid wide shadow damage is actually significant here, and took all 3 of the heals we had to keep people up.
Placement of the debuff drops is key. As the mage, it was easy, blink out, decurse myself, run back in. Others used rocket boots, and rogues/druids sprint/dash to get out quickly. In heroic though, if you wait too long, or you're too close, you will wipe the raid easily by not doing this. Stop mid cast as soon as you get the debuff and run. Maybe it was due to caring to run away, but the circles dropped appeared to grow much faster per time the debuff was left on than in normal.
Strategy:
We were tanking the physical realm at an angle along the edge, allowing for the whole room to run away into and drop the debuff, this seemed to work pretty well, with people generally stacked up near the middle. This becomes important for 2 reasons.
1) Debuffs have 3/4 of the edges of the room to get towards where they can drop the fire spot.
2) The fire spots left on the ground DO NOT disappear when you go into shadow (they do over time, just as if you were staying in physical though).
So, if you were not quite in the right place and you left a patch of fire on physical side near the middle...you've now made it so that melee either have to not dps at a period of time or wipe...and if you get the debuff in that same area (while spinning around with the beams), then you pretty much are gonna just wipe, since the debuffed person going to the edge will probably hit most people who are standing away from the fire spot, pulling them to the outside and wiping the raid.
We were using the strategy of tanking the boss in the middle in p2 and rotating it, much as we did in my guild's 25 man. This seemed to work fairly well...it was amazing when we didn't move until the spheres charged up, allowing full ranged dps for most of the time since not having to move, and allowing debuffs to be more easily placed next to each other near the edges. Other strats I've seen tank the boss here along the edge. I don't recommend this though, due to making debuff dropping harder (less space that isn't on/near somebody) and constant kiting.
We didn't make it to p3, but it was more than I expected for a pug, and a decent chance to actually analyze the fight in heroic. With guild tanks and heals being quite a bit better, I'm hopeful for a real chance at downing this next week on mains.
Once again, mage mechanics are completely OP in this fight due to having blink, absorbtion, and an often unused ability mage armor. But let me get down to specifics of the fight.
Boss has 4.5mil or so more health.
In general abilities you should've avoided before, but didn't care much in normal, you now have to actually care about (where the debuff is dropped and how fast, standing in fire, etc).
Tail swipe appears to still just be a stun, though especially in twilight with beams...that can easily kill you.
P1 in 10 man doesn't really change at all. No fire elementals (25 hm only), just things hit harder and debuffs need to be dropped smartly so as not to blow up others in the raid.
P2 adds an extra set of spheres, so instead of staying in half the room, you stay in 1/4 the room. Other than that, nothing but the usual heroic mode (hits harder, has more health) is different. That being said, the twilight aura that ticks raid wide shadow damage is actually significant here, and took all 3 of the heals we had to keep people up.
Placement of the debuff drops is key. As the mage, it was easy, blink out, decurse myself, run back in. Others used rocket boots, and rogues/druids sprint/dash to get out quickly. In heroic though, if you wait too long, or you're too close, you will wipe the raid easily by not doing this. Stop mid cast as soon as you get the debuff and run. Maybe it was due to caring to run away, but the circles dropped appeared to grow much faster per time the debuff was left on than in normal.
Strategy:
We were tanking the physical realm at an angle along the edge, allowing for the whole room to run away into and drop the debuff, this seemed to work pretty well, with people generally stacked up near the middle. This becomes important for 2 reasons.
1) Debuffs have 3/4 of the edges of the room to get towards where they can drop the fire spot.
2) The fire spots left on the ground DO NOT disappear when you go into shadow (they do over time, just as if you were staying in physical though).
So, if you were not quite in the right place and you left a patch of fire on physical side near the middle...you've now made it so that melee either have to not dps at a period of time or wipe...and if you get the debuff in that same area (while spinning around with the beams), then you pretty much are gonna just wipe, since the debuffed person going to the edge will probably hit most people who are standing away from the fire spot, pulling them to the outside and wiping the raid.
We were using the strategy of tanking the boss in the middle in p2 and rotating it, much as we did in my guild's 25 man. This seemed to work fairly well...it was amazing when we didn't move until the spheres charged up, allowing full ranged dps for most of the time since not having to move, and allowing debuffs to be more easily placed next to each other near the edges. Other strats I've seen tank the boss here along the edge. I don't recommend this though, due to making debuff dropping harder (less space that isn't on/near somebody) and constant kiting.
We didn't make it to p3, but it was more than I expected for a pug, and a decent chance to actually analyze the fight in heroic. With guild tanks and heals being quite a bit better, I'm hopeful for a real chance at downing this next week on mains.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Loot Sanctum is go
Ruby Sanctum is out, and at least in normal is pretty easy to do, especially in today's gear with a decent raid comp.
There are lots of strats that say things like kite the dragon in a circle, make sure people run away, etc...
Don't count on pugs to do this, and quite honestly, for most of the mechanics don't worry about it for normal mode.
Let me break this down for you.
All phases: it is a dragon, so it has the usual dragon things...tail swipe (stun, didn't even seem to hit for damage...just don't be a healer getting stunned, or stunned at a horrible time in twilight), cleave, breath
P1: physical realm
This is a tank and spank for the tanks and dps, simply avoid anything on the ground and you win. Heals, and/or casters, get to make use of dispells/decurses (anything except remove poison effects will cleans/dispell the effect). This will drop a circle on the ground that will also knock everybody in it away, the longer the dispell takes, the larger the circle. In normal mode, this doesn't need to be worried about, just drop it where you are as quickly as you can, even if you're melee on the boss. There will only ever be 2 of these drops out at a time, as the oldest fades just as a new one comes out, and it is easy to shift to another place to keep dps'ing. While all this is happening, a spot will be chosen for him to drop a meteor on (easily seen by the fire ground effects for several seconds prior), which will then land and spread fire from it. In 10m normal mode, this fire does almost no damage, so just make sure to move out of it quickly and not get hit by the meteor itself.
P2: twilight realm
This is the same as P1 as far as the dragon is concerned, but the mechanics of the area change. The main 2 differences are as follows. Instead of doing a knockback when dispelled, it is now a pull of those surrounding to the person dispelled. Instead of a meteor dropping, there are orbs that circle around the room (2 in 10 man, 4 in 25), and will charge up periodically. When they charge up, they form a beam between them that cuts the room in half. Simply don't get hit by the beam (it will 1 shot and then teleport you into the physical realm in the process).
P3: both realms
There is nothing special or different in p3, except that now you split up your group and the 2nd tank stops being bored. One tank, and half the dps (generally melee due to the constant movement required) will stay in the twilight realm while the other tank will go back to the physical realm with the other half of the dps. Generally the physical realm takes no damage except for the tank, but the twilight realm does, so if you're using 3 heals in a 10 man, you should leave the 3rd healer in the twilight realm. DPS should be fairly evenly split up here, but if it is not, you can adjust on the fly by sending somebody from one to the other (the portals stay up). This is so that the boss will continue to stay in both realms. Note: if one of the realms wipes, it doesn't wipe the other realm, but halion will start healing in about 10 seconds after nobody is attacking her in a realm much faster than you'll be able to damage her. If you're at 1% or 2%, send a sacrificial dps down to go hit halion a few times to prevent the heal from happening and still burn her down.
Collect loot.
This will take a few wipes for most pugs to understand each phase, but after that should quickly become a joke as all mechanics are simple, straight forward, and with the exception of standing in a meteor landing or the orb link, nothing is all that lethal. The 2 things that will often cause you to wipe are if the tank, or the tank healer, get killed by a beam in the twilight realm.
I found it to be a fun raid encounter, but at least in normal mode it isn't very challenging. This should let a lot of people gear up fairly easily. I'll be doing 25m (hopefully with some heroic attempts) tonight with my guild, so expect some more info then.
There are lots of strats that say things like kite the dragon in a circle, make sure people run away, etc...
Don't count on pugs to do this, and quite honestly, for most of the mechanics don't worry about it for normal mode.
Let me break this down for you.
All phases: it is a dragon, so it has the usual dragon things...tail swipe (stun, didn't even seem to hit for damage...just don't be a healer getting stunned, or stunned at a horrible time in twilight), cleave, breath
P1: physical realm
This is a tank and spank for the tanks and dps, simply avoid anything on the ground and you win. Heals, and/or casters, get to make use of dispells/decurses (anything except remove poison effects will cleans/dispell the effect). This will drop a circle on the ground that will also knock everybody in it away, the longer the dispell takes, the larger the circle. In normal mode, this doesn't need to be worried about, just drop it where you are as quickly as you can, even if you're melee on the boss. There will only ever be 2 of these drops out at a time, as the oldest fades just as a new one comes out, and it is easy to shift to another place to keep dps'ing. While all this is happening, a spot will be chosen for him to drop a meteor on (easily seen by the fire ground effects for several seconds prior), which will then land and spread fire from it. In 10m normal mode, this fire does almost no damage, so just make sure to move out of it quickly and not get hit by the meteor itself.
P2: twilight realm
This is the same as P1 as far as the dragon is concerned, but the mechanics of the area change. The main 2 differences are as follows. Instead of doing a knockback when dispelled, it is now a pull of those surrounding to the person dispelled. Instead of a meteor dropping, there are orbs that circle around the room (2 in 10 man, 4 in 25), and will charge up periodically. When they charge up, they form a beam between them that cuts the room in half. Simply don't get hit by the beam (it will 1 shot and then teleport you into the physical realm in the process).
P3: both realms
There is nothing special or different in p3, except that now you split up your group and the 2nd tank stops being bored. One tank, and half the dps (generally melee due to the constant movement required) will stay in the twilight realm while the other tank will go back to the physical realm with the other half of the dps. Generally the physical realm takes no damage except for the tank, but the twilight realm does, so if you're using 3 heals in a 10 man, you should leave the 3rd healer in the twilight realm. DPS should be fairly evenly split up here, but if it is not, you can adjust on the fly by sending somebody from one to the other (the portals stay up). This is so that the boss will continue to stay in both realms. Note: if one of the realms wipes, it doesn't wipe the other realm, but halion will start healing in about 10 seconds after nobody is attacking her in a realm much faster than you'll be able to damage her. If you're at 1% or 2%, send a sacrificial dps down to go hit halion a few times to prevent the heal from happening and still burn her down.
Collect loot.
This will take a few wipes for most pugs to understand each phase, but after that should quickly become a joke as all mechanics are simple, straight forward, and with the exception of standing in a meteor landing or the orb link, nothing is all that lethal. The 2 things that will often cause you to wipe are if the tank, or the tank healer, get killed by a beam in the twilight realm.
I found it to be a fun raid encounter, but at least in normal mode it isn't very challenging. This should let a lot of people gear up fairly easily. I'll be doing 25m (hopefully with some heroic attempts) tonight with my guild, so expect some more info then.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Raid Awareness
It is a topic often screamed about over vent, especially after many wipes.
"Pay attention!" "Get out of the fire!" "Why the heck did you get cleaved?"
After a few of these, especially in pugs, you will often hear "Get out of my raid!" along with a raid removal.
So, how do we actually be more raid aware? How do you NOT be that n00b that is oblivious?
There are a few things to do, some easy, some simple, and some that come with observation (counterproductive if you aren't).
1) SEE THE FIGHT!
This sounds obvious, but for so many people, it isn't. You can't be aware of what happens around you when you can't see it!
So here's how:
a) Make your raid frames small, get them out of the way. If you're a healer, keep them semi out of the way, but not burried. You need to see, but if you're only paying attention to a small corner of the screen, you still won't.
b) Put away your meters. Seriously...if you do better dps when you see somebody is ahead of you...stop slacking and do better all the time. Meters will not help you do anything other than hide the fight.
c) Hide addons for buffing and other random displays...you don't need them during a fight, they just cover up what is happening around you.
2) KNOW THE FIGHT!
Yes, we all know the basics of a fight once we've seen it. Hit boss, stay out of fire, run to/away from this person when this happens. But what does it mean to really KNOW a fight?
a) Understand the abilities and how they work. This is simple, go read them on wowwiki. Knowing how slime spray works, or how defile works...will let you react to it in a more intelligent way, such as using nature resist aspects or rocket boots.
b) Use something like DBM (Deadly Boss Mods) to tell you when those abilities are happening. They don't just tell you the raid warning of "Defile on X" when you see a black puddle, they tell you exactly when this is going to happen. You can move the size and style of all those warnings so that they catch your attention at just the right time, but aren't in the way the rest.
3) FOCUS THE BOSS!
Target the boss and type /focus . I don't care if you are healing, dps, or a tank, this can save you lots of headaches. You will be able to see their casts...and if you're smart and have target of target turned on, you'll even see who the defile is being cast on before it happens. If it is you, you can know to run away from the raid even more than your typical spread. If it isn't, you can start to run back in to stay away from the person with the defile. If you're even smarter, you can set up macros that target your focus (or your focus' target) with abilities when a modifier key is held down. This is great when you need to dps one thing and cc another, or do fast target switching but still know if you can pop that aoe ability (like starfall) or if that will just push the boss into the next phase at a bad time.
4) REST!
Seriously. Get some sleep...the extra Red Bull and coffee you just had really don't help, and will be worse later. If you are rested you will be more alert, more reactive, have more stamina to focus, quicker reflexes, and a much higher mental capacity and state of thought.
5) DON'T BE EMOTIONAL!
This is a game. Yes, it is serious and people have more fun when things go down, and you don't want to be the one keeping it from happening. But in the end, it is just a game, so if you screwed up, don't worry about it...just keep performing as you know how. The time to get lost in thought and reflect on how to do better is not in the middle of the fight when malleable is coming at your face...that's the time to move. Reflect on how to do it better while you're collecting loot or doing the corpse run.
6) DON'T BE ON SOMETHING!
a) If you get off on your e-peen...don't be on it. How good you say you are doesn't matter, and it'll just piss people off. Besides, if you have to talk about it instead of it just being noticed, it isn't that big anyway.
b) Don't be getting high. Seriously...if you're high, just walk out and let somebody who doesn't know a thing and has blue gear take your place. They'll do better. This includes getting drunk, among other things.
7) LISTEN AND READ!
Your raid leader will be telling you things...either in raid chat/warnings or in vent. The boss and encounter will also tell you things in emotes and sounds. If you can't hear any of them over your music or see it through the spam on your screen...turn it down instead of rocking out and make a new chat frame with only the raid in it. Great music is great, especially when it puts you in just the right groove...but not at the expense of knowing that you got battle rez'd 2 minutes ago while you were looking at youtube, and you would've let the raid beat the enrage timer they just missed by 5 seconds.
Most fights have gimmicks in them. Most of those gimmicks are easy to avoid if you know their trick. If you have a clear screen they are easy to see. Most of those are easy to spot when you know what is going on. If you can't do any of that, mods, the game, and your raid lead will fill you in...though it'll be delayed. But you'll never be able to do any of that if you aren't rested enough to be alert and are of a clear mind.
The short version...DON'T BE A N00B!
Oh, and BTW...everything up there will also help your tanking or dps/healing output.
"Pay attention!" "Get out of the fire!" "Why the heck did you get cleaved?"
After a few of these, especially in pugs, you will often hear "Get out of my raid!" along with a raid removal.
So, how do we actually be more raid aware? How do you NOT be that n00b that is oblivious?
There are a few things to do, some easy, some simple, and some that come with observation (counterproductive if you aren't).
1) SEE THE FIGHT!
This sounds obvious, but for so many people, it isn't. You can't be aware of what happens around you when you can't see it!
So here's how:
a) Make your raid frames small, get them out of the way. If you're a healer, keep them semi out of the way, but not burried. You need to see, but if you're only paying attention to a small corner of the screen, you still won't.
b) Put away your meters. Seriously...if you do better dps when you see somebody is ahead of you...stop slacking and do better all the time. Meters will not help you do anything other than hide the fight.
c) Hide addons for buffing and other random displays...you don't need them during a fight, they just cover up what is happening around you.
2) KNOW THE FIGHT!
Yes, we all know the basics of a fight once we've seen it. Hit boss, stay out of fire, run to/away from this person when this happens. But what does it mean to really KNOW a fight?
a) Understand the abilities and how they work. This is simple, go read them on wowwiki. Knowing how slime spray works, or how defile works...will let you react to it in a more intelligent way, such as using nature resist aspects or rocket boots.
b) Use something like DBM (Deadly Boss Mods) to tell you when those abilities are happening. They don't just tell you the raid warning of "Defile on X" when you see a black puddle, they tell you exactly when this is going to happen. You can move the size and style of all those warnings so that they catch your attention at just the right time, but aren't in the way the rest.
3) FOCUS THE BOSS!
Target the boss and type /focus . I don't care if you are healing, dps, or a tank, this can save you lots of headaches. You will be able to see their casts...and if you're smart and have target of target turned on, you'll even see who the defile is being cast on before it happens. If it is you, you can know to run away from the raid even more than your typical spread. If it isn't, you can start to run back in to stay away from the person with the defile. If you're even smarter, you can set up macros that target your focus (or your focus' target) with abilities when a modifier key is held down. This is great when you need to dps one thing and cc another, or do fast target switching but still know if you can pop that aoe ability (like starfall) or if that will just push the boss into the next phase at a bad time.
4) REST!
Seriously. Get some sleep...the extra Red Bull and coffee you just had really don't help, and will be worse later. If you are rested you will be more alert, more reactive, have more stamina to focus, quicker reflexes, and a much higher mental capacity and state of thought.
5) DON'T BE EMOTIONAL!
This is a game. Yes, it is serious and people have more fun when things go down, and you don't want to be the one keeping it from happening. But in the end, it is just a game, so if you screwed up, don't worry about it...just keep performing as you know how. The time to get lost in thought and reflect on how to do better is not in the middle of the fight when malleable is coming at your face...that's the time to move. Reflect on how to do it better while you're collecting loot or doing the corpse run.
6) DON'T BE ON SOMETHING!
a) If you get off on your e-peen...don't be on it. How good you say you are doesn't matter, and it'll just piss people off. Besides, if you have to talk about it instead of it just being noticed, it isn't that big anyway.
b) Don't be getting high. Seriously...if you're high, just walk out and let somebody who doesn't know a thing and has blue gear take your place. They'll do better. This includes getting drunk, among other things.
7) LISTEN AND READ!
Your raid leader will be telling you things...either in raid chat/warnings or in vent. The boss and encounter will also tell you things in emotes and sounds. If you can't hear any of them over your music or see it through the spam on your screen...turn it down instead of rocking out and make a new chat frame with only the raid in it. Great music is great, especially when it puts you in just the right groove...but not at the expense of knowing that you got battle rez'd 2 minutes ago while you were looking at youtube, and you would've let the raid beat the enrage timer they just missed by 5 seconds.
Most fights have gimmicks in them. Most of those gimmicks are easy to avoid if you know their trick. If you have a clear screen they are easy to see. Most of those are easy to spot when you know what is going on. If you can't do any of that, mods, the game, and your raid lead will fill you in...though it'll be delayed. But you'll never be able to do any of that if you aren't rested enough to be alert and are of a clear mind.
The short version...DON'T BE A N00B!
Oh, and BTW...everything up there will also help your tanking or dps/healing output.
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