Windzarko
Well-Known Member
Many of you are fairly familiar with the basic drill for a raid boss; buffs up, flask up, eat the fish feast (demonic or otherwise), and likely have a mana potion or somesuch at the ready. But are you really maxing out your potential?
Granted, flasks are good, mana pots are damned handy, and the fish feast is a great buff, but are all of these the best for your class/spec combo?
I challenge all of our raiders now, most particularly the DPS but also the tanks and the healers, to look at what they most commonly use on the harder bosses we fight. This doesn't matter as much for ones we can practically faceroll, but for later bosses in Ulduar and pretty much all of ToC, that little extra power from each person could make all the difference.
I won't go into full details, but here are a few examples of how you can boost yourself that little bit extra:
Buff Food
Fish Feast : 80 attack power, 46 spell power, 40 stamina
Blackened Dragonfin : 40 agility, 40 stamina
Dragonfin Fillet : 40 strength, 40 stamina
Cuttlesteak : 40 spirit, 40 stamina
Imperial Manta Steak : 40 haste rating, 40 stamina
Mighty Rhino Dogs / Spicy Fried Herring : 20 MP5, 40 stamina
Rhinolicious Wormsteak : 40 expertise rating, 40 stamina
Snapper Extreme : 40 hit rating, 40 stamina
Spiced Worm Burger / Spicy Blue Nettlefish : 40 crit rating, 40 stamina
Spiced Mammoth Treats : increases pet's strength and stamina by 30
For some classes, one of those foods listed above might be better for you than the Fish Feast, whether it be all the time or only situationally; for example, I personally (on Arithidrimme) would use the Strength food most of the time and the Fish Feast for any fights with a -lot- of AoE if the things being AoE'd were being a problem (as it would give more benefit to my consecration). Whilst for some people the Fish Feast is flat-out better, I reckon that a few people would do better using something else. I'd also think it a safe bet that most of our hunters don't use Spiced Mammoth Treats much, if at all (I'd say this applies to Unholy Death Knights as well, but that's hardly a common thing in our raids).
Flasks/Elixirs
I sometimes spot a few people not using flasks in raids; now, for some fights that is absolutely fine; Razorscale and Deconstructor are easy enough for us to get away with it, and it's fine on Ignis if we aren't struggling. Hell, it's a waste to use one for Flame Leviathan. But to be honest, anything past the first four bosses (with perhaps the exception of Kologarn) at least warrants the DPS flasking up.
Before everyone runs about trying to stockpile extra flasks, however, I again challenge people to look at their class/spec combo carefully; is the relevant flask for you actually the best thing to use? Would you benefit more from a specific elixir combination? This was more true in Burning Crusade than now, but the flask might not always be the best to use, and you could be better off with something else.
The list of elixirs is a little too extensive for me to post it all here to have a look, so take a peek at this list instead:
http://www.wowhead.com/?items=0.2&filter=minle=80;cr=131;crs=1;crv=0
Also, alchemists remember your Mixology when working out what's best for you, and don't remember to use your Flask of the North on easier bosses and trash where it'd be a waste to use anything else!
Potions
This one is likely where the most significant potential for improvement lies. I'd guess that the average guildie carries health and/or mana potions to raids with them, be they Runic, Endless, or Injectors. In fights where the heal of the potion could be an encounter-saver or where you're so strapped for mana that the potion is critical, then fair enough. But I know a good number of the DPS don't need the mana potion, and I know that judging the usage of a health potion can be tricky (sod's law tends to kick in, with a healer paying attention to you at the same time as you chug the potion...), so are there better potions for you? Short answer, yes.
Here are a few examples:
Potion of Speed: increases haste rating by 500 for 15 seconds
Potion of Wild Magic: increases critical strike rating and spell power by 200 for 15 seconds
Indestructible Potion: increases armour by 3500 for 2 minutes
Powerful Rejuvenation Potion: restores 2475 to 4125 mana and health
Heroic Potion: increases strength by 70 and health by 700 for 15 seconds
Insane Strength Potion: increases strength by 120 but decreases defense rating by 75 for 15 seconds
Fel Mana Potion: restores 3200 mana over 24 seconds but reduces spellpower by 25 for 15 minutes
Crazy Alchemist's Potion: 3100-3500 health and 4200-4400 mana, sometimes gives a random elixir buff if you don't have one. Alchemists only.
Of those above, the first two in the list are cheap and easy to make loads of, and are extremely beneficial to DPS. The indestructible potion would be great for tanks (and in a pinch, as a DPS boost for classes with talents that give attack power from armour). The Heroic Potion and Insane Strength potions work brilliantly for strength-based DPS (although sadly both are Outland world drop recipes). The Fel Mana potion, despite how it looks, does have one use; in the General Vezax fight, it is the only potion that still restores mana (just like a Dark Rune).
The Crazy Alchemist's potion should obviously be the one that any Alchemist brings to a raid if they ARE using Health/Mana potions.
I reckon everyone could see a noticable increase in their DPS if they used one of those potions on each boss fight; time it with Bloodlust or other cooldowns and watch your numbers soar! This is the kind of thing people need to do for hard modes, for example, and I'd love to see people getting into the habit of using them.
Other?
This is a little lesser than everything above, but still something to think on: scrolls.
You can only have the one scroll buff at a time, and it won't stack with related player-given buffs. The Strength/Agi scrolls won't work if there's a Death Knight or Shammie using the Strength of Earth Totem present. The Int scroll won't work if there's a mage present, Stamina/Spirit if a Priest is present.
In the coming patch, the Stamina buff can be provided by leatherworking-crafted drums that, to my knowledge, any player will be able to use to buff a raid with a buff equivalent to an untalented level 80 Power Word : Fortitude. But what about the other buffs? If you benefit from a stat that isn't being buffed, perhaps it'd be worth using a scroll on yourself. They drop often enough, and they're cheap for scribes to craft, so perhaps look into it.
In finishing, take a look at your class and see if there's things like this that you can change to get even more out of your character. Some of it might be going a little too far (like if you'd have to pay some random alchemist a lot of gold to get him to supply you with one of the Burning Crusade world-drop potions), but much of it is perfectly easy to do.
To help people with this, we have the guild bank. We have herbs going spare, we have enough pygmy oil in my mailbox to turn the entire guild into gnomes, we have more spices than we'll ever need, and some uncooked meat and fish. Most of what we don't have, we can get. So if there's anything that would really benefit you in a raid, shout it out, here or in-game! If we know what you need, we can work on making it for you. If you're a Raider in the guild, then most anything we can do that'd be of benefit to our raids and not heavy in cost can be done for you for free!
Granted, flasks are good, mana pots are damned handy, and the fish feast is a great buff, but are all of these the best for your class/spec combo?
I challenge all of our raiders now, most particularly the DPS but also the tanks and the healers, to look at what they most commonly use on the harder bosses we fight. This doesn't matter as much for ones we can practically faceroll, but for later bosses in Ulduar and pretty much all of ToC, that little extra power from each person could make all the difference.
I won't go into full details, but here are a few examples of how you can boost yourself that little bit extra:
Buff Food
Fish Feast : 80 attack power, 46 spell power, 40 stamina
Blackened Dragonfin : 40 agility, 40 stamina
Dragonfin Fillet : 40 strength, 40 stamina
Cuttlesteak : 40 spirit, 40 stamina
Imperial Manta Steak : 40 haste rating, 40 stamina
Mighty Rhino Dogs / Spicy Fried Herring : 20 MP5, 40 stamina
Rhinolicious Wormsteak : 40 expertise rating, 40 stamina
Snapper Extreme : 40 hit rating, 40 stamina
Spiced Worm Burger / Spicy Blue Nettlefish : 40 crit rating, 40 stamina
Spiced Mammoth Treats : increases pet's strength and stamina by 30
For some classes, one of those foods listed above might be better for you than the Fish Feast, whether it be all the time or only situationally; for example, I personally (on Arithidrimme) would use the Strength food most of the time and the Fish Feast for any fights with a -lot- of AoE if the things being AoE'd were being a problem (as it would give more benefit to my consecration). Whilst for some people the Fish Feast is flat-out better, I reckon that a few people would do better using something else. I'd also think it a safe bet that most of our hunters don't use Spiced Mammoth Treats much, if at all (I'd say this applies to Unholy Death Knights as well, but that's hardly a common thing in our raids).
Flasks/Elixirs
I sometimes spot a few people not using flasks in raids; now, for some fights that is absolutely fine; Razorscale and Deconstructor are easy enough for us to get away with it, and it's fine on Ignis if we aren't struggling. Hell, it's a waste to use one for Flame Leviathan. But to be honest, anything past the first four bosses (with perhaps the exception of Kologarn) at least warrants the DPS flasking up.
Before everyone runs about trying to stockpile extra flasks, however, I again challenge people to look at their class/spec combo carefully; is the relevant flask for you actually the best thing to use? Would you benefit more from a specific elixir combination? This was more true in Burning Crusade than now, but the flask might not always be the best to use, and you could be better off with something else.
The list of elixirs is a little too extensive for me to post it all here to have a look, so take a peek at this list instead:
http://www.wowhead.com/?items=0.2&filter=minle=80;cr=131;crs=1;crv=0
Also, alchemists remember your Mixology when working out what's best for you, and don't remember to use your Flask of the North on easier bosses and trash where it'd be a waste to use anything else!
Potions
This one is likely where the most significant potential for improvement lies. I'd guess that the average guildie carries health and/or mana potions to raids with them, be they Runic, Endless, or Injectors. In fights where the heal of the potion could be an encounter-saver or where you're so strapped for mana that the potion is critical, then fair enough. But I know a good number of the DPS don't need the mana potion, and I know that judging the usage of a health potion can be tricky (sod's law tends to kick in, with a healer paying attention to you at the same time as you chug the potion...), so are there better potions for you? Short answer, yes.
Here are a few examples:
Potion of Speed: increases haste rating by 500 for 15 seconds
Potion of Wild Magic: increases critical strike rating and spell power by 200 for 15 seconds
Indestructible Potion: increases armour by 3500 for 2 minutes
Powerful Rejuvenation Potion: restores 2475 to 4125 mana and health
Heroic Potion: increases strength by 70 and health by 700 for 15 seconds
Insane Strength Potion: increases strength by 120 but decreases defense rating by 75 for 15 seconds
Fel Mana Potion: restores 3200 mana over 24 seconds but reduces spellpower by 25 for 15 minutes
Crazy Alchemist's Potion: 3100-3500 health and 4200-4400 mana, sometimes gives a random elixir buff if you don't have one. Alchemists only.
Of those above, the first two in the list are cheap and easy to make loads of, and are extremely beneficial to DPS. The indestructible potion would be great for tanks (and in a pinch, as a DPS boost for classes with talents that give attack power from armour). The Heroic Potion and Insane Strength potions work brilliantly for strength-based DPS (although sadly both are Outland world drop recipes). The Fel Mana potion, despite how it looks, does have one use; in the General Vezax fight, it is the only potion that still restores mana (just like a Dark Rune).
The Crazy Alchemist's potion should obviously be the one that any Alchemist brings to a raid if they ARE using Health/Mana potions.
I reckon everyone could see a noticable increase in their DPS if they used one of those potions on each boss fight; time it with Bloodlust or other cooldowns and watch your numbers soar! This is the kind of thing people need to do for hard modes, for example, and I'd love to see people getting into the habit of using them.
Other?
This is a little lesser than everything above, but still something to think on: scrolls.
You can only have the one scroll buff at a time, and it won't stack with related player-given buffs. The Strength/Agi scrolls won't work if there's a Death Knight or Shammie using the Strength of Earth Totem present. The Int scroll won't work if there's a mage present, Stamina/Spirit if a Priest is present.
In the coming patch, the Stamina buff can be provided by leatherworking-crafted drums that, to my knowledge, any player will be able to use to buff a raid with a buff equivalent to an untalented level 80 Power Word : Fortitude. But what about the other buffs? If you benefit from a stat that isn't being buffed, perhaps it'd be worth using a scroll on yourself. They drop often enough, and they're cheap for scribes to craft, so perhaps look into it.
In finishing, take a look at your class and see if there's things like this that you can change to get even more out of your character. Some of it might be going a little too far (like if you'd have to pay some random alchemist a lot of gold to get him to supply you with one of the Burning Crusade world-drop potions), but much of it is perfectly easy to do.
To help people with this, we have the guild bank. We have herbs going spare, we have enough pygmy oil in my mailbox to turn the entire guild into gnomes, we have more spices than we'll ever need, and some uncooked meat and fish. Most of what we don't have, we can get. So if there's anything that would really benefit you in a raid, shout it out, here or in-game! If we know what you need, we can work on making it for you. If you're a Raider in the guild, then most anything we can do that'd be of benefit to our raids and not heavy in cost can be done for you for free!
!
