Well it comes that time when we get to see our first sneak peak at the next tier sets. Here’s what they have to say about our Resto Druid pieces;
Restoration two-piece Your periodic healing from Lifebloom has a 40% chance to restore 1% of your base mana each time it heals a target. Restoration four-piece When your Lifebloom blooms, it instantly heals up to 2 nearby injured targets for the same amount.
First thoughts are, yet another set bonus linked to Lifebloom /sigh then WHAT TWO OF THEM?
This is not because it’s not a spell I dont use or that I dislike, it’s because it’s a spell that we are now managing on a single target. I miss my rolling lifebloom across multiple tanks, but I digress.
The 2 piece bonus, I have to say is a little meh, + mana is nice and all, but I love a bonus that directly affects my healing output/throughput. The mana regen portion of it to me looks overpowered, but I’m yet to see the intensity of the raid content, I’m assuming heroic level raid gear will be more than enough for entry level raiding in 4.2. I have a feeling that the 40% is going to be dropped significantly during PTR testing.
The 4 piece really seems like such a situational ability that I wonder how much use we will get from it. If the LB is rolling on our tank, and like most fights the tank is taking a beating while melee are on the bosses sides/arse I wonder what the range on the bloom will be. In fights were you have 2-3 tanks in the same area it has the potential to be very useful but I can see myself switching the 4 piece in/out depending on the encounter.
I get the feeling the 2 piece bonus is only there to take ease the mana costs of letting LB bloom for the 4 piece ability and rerolling on your target after.
The only real way to use this would be to ToL and LB the raid. It’s a lot of prep time and skill to time it to pop JUST right though.
What would I have liked to see instead? Perhaps a bonus that affected the amount of absorbs Living Seed did on your target? But that’s an optional ability so doubt that would ever happen. Perhaps a bonus that directly affected the cast time on some of the annoyingly slow spells like Healing Touch/Nourish? Perhaps a 4 piece that affects one of our raid heals? Perhaps a 4 piece that makes our tree form look sexy? lol
The general feeling is that the concept of the new Guild Finder and the Recruitment side of it for GM’s is great, however it lacks some key features and functionality that means it will never truelly compete with other recruitment processes where a lot more information is required.
I found that the information I could provide to recruits was not enough to ensure they knew what we were all about, and on the flip side it encourages lazy applications (the kind we at Bizarro frown upon).
Some of the key annoyances I had with the system;
Clicking “Invite” or “Message” would generally do nothing because the applicant was nearly always offline (for me anyways).
No history or flag to say that I had actuall contacted an applicant (this gets to be an even bigger issue for guilds handling large numbers of applicants at once).
No means of inviting or declining all applicants (again a big issue with large volumes).
No way of copying the applicants name so that I could send them an ingame mail.
Needing to rekey or have a text file with template mails.
So I got to thinking that these issues would be common for other GM’s/Officers and so Recruitment Enhancement was born on curseforge.
The initial objective was to simply add a “mail” button to the frame that would load a predifined ‘template’ subject and body into a mail message (if the mailbox was opened).
It has since extended to handle a lot of other things lacking in the first offering by Blizzard.
Onscreen notification that a new application has arrived
Minimap Icon that is only shown when you have applicants
Simple output of current online applicants
Redesigned Buttons (looks purty no?)
Mass Invite/Decline
Manageable Mail Templates
View Applicant Archive including inbound and outbound mail
Visibility of Online Status
Invite or Decline Selected Applicant
Mail Applicant based on the selected template (I have one for good apps and one for fail apps that suggests they put in more effort)
View the WHOLE application comment, because the Bliz UI doesn’t always.
View the Armory Link for the character so you can copy and paste it for easier review
View applicant correspondence
Disabling of buttons that are not able to be used because;
The applicant is currently offline
The mailbox is not open
Here are some additional screenshots of the Addon for your viewing pleasure!
I figured I would take the chance the update my blogger list. If you are a blog and want to be linked from upyursh.com leave me a comment and I will add you to the list.
Thanks to Janyaa’s post on twitter about this for pointing this out for me
WowTrack – http://www.wowtrack.org provides a ranking tool, that unlike WowProgress seperates 25man and 10man content.
For those of you who didn’t know or notice, WoWArmory used to publish boss kill details via the Activity feed for a toon and guild. This information is now not available through the armory, well not in a way that easily allows seperation of 10man vs 25man kills. So WoWProgress is unable (using there current methods) to split the progression details.
What this means is that for those guilds who have stayed true to their 25man ways since Cataclysm, that they dont necessarily get the credit they should.
Enter WoWTrack who are using loot awarded to characters in a raid to define a 10 vs 25 man. If 6 people receive loot from a boss at around the same time, that’s a 25man kill. I would imagine it’s not a perfect system, but I prefer it to being lumped in with guilds who are going down the 10man path.
My one dislike about the site is the plugins as a rule, look terrible I have instead decided to download the data as an xml feed and update my site based on that. That way I can format and manipulate the data as I see fit
This means that our “ranking” has jumped from a /sadface 13th to a respectable 4th. It also clearly highlights that the majority of 25man raiding guilds from Wrath have moved into a 10man raiding environment.. I didnt realise how many had done that
Saw this here and was just amazed. Looks really cool, just not sure how ‘practical’ it would be. A Keybouard that interacts with games that well WOULD be cool though. Or even a G13 type gamepad that does /drool
Well it’s finally happened.. after thinking/talking about it for so long I have finally had the time to get another healing class to max level (being alone in the US has obviously helped with this lol). I got her to 76 before the expansion but just ran out of time with my US trip being planned and wanting to spend time with my girl friend etc.
Enter DrQuinne my Disc Priest
I had a couple of objectives with leveling another healing class;
To broaden my knowledge of healing and hopefully gain some insight into those other people hanging in our healing channel
To provide a viable alt for guild alt runs. I have no interest in DPS (I fall asleep more often than not) so this was a good option
I would like to be able to have knowledge of all healing classes but I’ll get this one geared up before firing up another alt
Ayr version 1.3 comes with some new fancy things that you may or may not appreciate the efforts involved in making it happen haha
For those who have missed it Ayr (aka Are You Ready) is an addon that provides tools for self checking. This is currently split into 2 distinct flavours;
Ready Check - Will check for Flasks/Elixirs and Food when a Ready Check is called for by your Raid Leader
Preperation Check – Will evaluate your gear, chants, gems, addons and inventory for key attributes required for raiding. For example; it’s a requirement to bring 20 +90 stamina buff foods to a raid
Version 1.3 comes bundled with additional tools for Raid Leaders/Officers to gather raider data and view it; as well as an option panel for configuring the requirements you have for your raiders, for example on a night you know you will be pushing progression, you may wish for raiders to bring 40 pieces of food.
Raid Leaders can request a Preperation Check (either quiet or loud) of it’s raiders based on the requirements defined in their options panel, rather than the raider checking against there own requirements.
This makes for a much more dynamic and useful process for Leaders.
The below is the current Options Panel allowing configuration of key requirements such as;
Buff Food
Flasks
Pots
Etc etc
The following is the Scan Frame that Raid Leaders will use to trigger for a review gathered data;
To make the Ready Check process that much clearer and more obvious (because previously warnings were printed to the chat window) I have added a new frame that can be triggered from the Scan Panel or will auto fire when a ready check is called for and you’re failing at something (flask, food or buffs). The window is pretty simple with icons representing the areas requiring your attention.
This is all icons available visible (which should never happen for you in reality) and clicking on the icon will print to your chat window a description of what you’re missing.
Bizarro are currently working on this encounter and I thought I would share some of our thoughts and tips with you all
This is one of the most unforgiving encounters I’ve seen (I didn’t see a lot of H-LK but I assume it’s up there) which is made that much more unforgiving with the plague of high latency and the seemingly unended lag that oceanic servers seem to face on a regular basis.
In my opinion the fight comes down to two critical aspects;
Interrupts – Which has, for whatever reason been an ongoing issue for Bizarro in any encounter that relies heavily on this mechanic (Ulduar General is a great example)
DPS/Mana Check – By this I mean, it’s such a healing intensive encounter that sooner or later your healers will be oom, so do you have the DPS to kill the purty dragon before he rips your tanks a new one?
So this is a 3 phase fight, with each phase having some interesting mechanics within them (personally although I feel I’ve been grinding my testicles in a blender for 60+ attempts, I think it’s a cool fight is that healthy?)
Phase 1
Basically a tank and spank in this phase with some OMGWTFWASTHAT abilities that you need to be aware of. Both Ony and Nef will be in the game and need to be tanks
Children of Deathwing (buff) – This will increase the attack speed of both bosses by 100%, this is easy enough to avoid by tanking the bosses on opposite sides of the area.
Our Phase our positioning is as shown below;
Onyxia is cross and Nef is Skull
Electrocute - This goes off every 10% of Nefs health that goes down and does a HUGE amount of unavoidable raid damage. It is important that leading up to a 10% health lot all raiders are topped off. It is also very important that you time your dps so that this ability wont go off with any other high damage abilities. It is for this ability that ranged and heals are stacked in the middle of the room to share AOE Heals like Healing Rain and Eff.
Ideally you will go through 2 Electrocutes in Phase 1 while Ony is being DPS’d down by your Ranged DPS (with a handful switching to Nef as required too). You should have Ony to about 10-15% as the second Electrocute goes off, once that’s done all DPS switch and finish off Ony to Trigger Phase 2. You should also keep an eye on Ony energy if she gets to 100% then SQUISHRAIDDEADED
Other abilities of note;
Onyxia – Electric Discharge – This done massive amounts of AOE damage to the raid (and gives your healers heart attacks) but is easily avoided by turning the boss so she’s facing the wall just prior and turning back after the Discharge is completed. WARNING – We found that sometimes the discharge stopped and then started again so get used to how long the ability goes for and make sure you dont turn her back too soon.
Onyxia – Tail Lash – Basically tough luck, you will get hit by this sometimes, it’s just gonna happen while the tank is stopping Discharge from hitting the entire raid
Nefarian – Hail of Bones – This ability will be cast 6 times and will spawn an Animated Bone Warrior each time, these should be picked up and tanks off to the side. As long as they are kept away from the dragons fire they will eventually run out of energy and die (they will be re-spawned in Phase 3 so this is why we want them off to the side so they are easily managed then.
Phase 2
Once Ony is killed Phase 2 starts, Nef takes off and everyone should get to their allocated Pillar. Ideally each pillar will have;
2 Healers
2 Melee Interrupters
1 Backup Ranged Interrupter (we use a floating, if someone is lagging etc then our ele sham goes to that pillar).
Even spread of other DPS.
The floor will drop and you will be standing in lava, you need to get to the top and get onto the pillar in as little time as possible. I found with US latency I was getting up with 4-5 stacks, others seemed to be 5-6 and the bads were 7-10. Basically the more stacks you get the more damage you take by the abilities once you get up there.
Pro Tip: I struggled to get onto the pillar when just hitting space to jump up out of the lava, float up slower and wait for the platform to drop completely then do a single swim up and out onto the pillar. Also do not stand against the pillar, stand 5 yards away otherwise you’ll get trapped under the pillar lid thingymejiggy. It WILL take some practice but eventually everyone will get it.
Once you’re up, this whole phase is really about interupts. Again you are trying to get 2 Electrocutes, you may need to stop DPS on adds towards the end on 1 of the pillars but while all this healing and interrupting is going on range should be burning Nef as much as possible to push him through the 10% brackets.
Use your cooldowns, health pots, bandages, health stones, survival abilities, ANYTHING in this phase ESPECIALLY if interrupts are failing.
Interrupters need to get a rotation sorted and make calls over voice when they stuff it up so someone else can pick it up. If you have feral/balance druids get a rotation for Tranq going after Electrocutes. The ability you need to be killing is Blast Nova
So at the end of this Phase Nef will be around 60% hopefully.. enter Phase 3
Phase 3
Basically this Phase is now all about DPS and whether you can get the boss down before the Add tank(s) get overwhelmed or your healers go oom. We have 1 tank pick up the spawning adds and kite them along the path shown below with the Add Tank Healers tracking behind the tank (that means the tank is kiting the adds towards the healers not the other way around), while the other tank picks up Nef and moves him over to the side. We have dps and heals stack up out of the way as much as possible.
The kiting path is to avoid Shadowblaze, this will energise the adds and spread very quickly if it’s being touched by anyone.
If the adds get energy back at any stage then we have our trusty (hate them) mages to run out and freeze the adds in place to give our healers and tanks a little break.
So that’s the encounter and a run down of our strategy, for healers you really need to get your mana management perfect to pull this off. My strategy is;
Get an early Innervate off, ensure that you’re not clipping your buff though (i.e. you dont hit 100% too early or it’s wasting the regen)
We had 2 shams for most of last night so they were dropping Mana Tide on a rotation, this made it much easier but you want to ensure that your innervate is off and finished with enough time for you to use a bit of mana before tide goes off. Again about maximising your regen potential for the encounter. This is where communication is good, have your shams add a macro to let you know in your healing channel that Tide is being used. This will with practice allow you to get the most from Innervate.
With these two things you should pretty much be heading into Phase 2 with near full mana, by the first Electrocute you should have your Innervate back up again so pop it as soon as it’s available.
If you’re lucky enough to be on a pillar with a sham you may get another Mana Tide, if not you shouldn’t NEED it anyways
Pop your mana pot when again you can get the most out of it (you can probably leave this till about half mana), if mana is looking ok then save it for Phase 3
Phase 3 you will probably be healing pretty full on especially on Electrocutes, get mana back where you can and keep an eye on innervate you may get a 3rd one towards the end of this phase too
That should get you through the encounter, pretty much healing 100% if you’re smart with what you’re using Enjoy this fight, it’s pretty amazing in terms of using all your healing tools to their best
Well from the notes, not much really. There has been a lot of talk about a Druid Cooldown to pull us (and our blue chain healing friends) inline with other classes like priests and pallies. Even a blue post saying;
We agree with the sentiment among some players that Restoration druids and Restoration shaman are lacking in the healing cooldown department. The shaman buff and Power Word: Shield adjustment above should bring all healers reasonably close in terms of throughput. The decision on who to bring then might end up being dictated by the strong cooldowns offered by paladins or priests. This isn’t the kind of thing we can address via a hotfix, but it is something we are looking at for the next major content patch.
The general feeling amongst the community is there are a couple of different options to achieve this;
Enhance Barkskin – There has been a lot of talk over the years about Barkskin being castable on other players, this would definately be one way to provide a ‘shield’ type ability and easily lends itself to fullfilling that cooldown/catchup type ability we currently lack.
Enhance Mushrooms – mushrooms are a cool little ability, reality is for Resto it’s unused except while stuffing around. Adding a +heal or mitigation to the ability could be a cool way of getting some use out of this spell. Biggest issue here is the GCD’s that would be required to make it work. Maybe a way of forcing the shrooms to auto detonate would remove this restriction.
Add a new Proc to an existing ability- Adding a proc type ability that add damage mitigation to Swiftmend or crits from Nourish/Healing Touch is an interesting thought. It would definately encourage the use of more crit in the resto gear sets but may not be as reliable as you would like for a cooldown, but if it is a high proc rate with lesser benefits like 15% damage mitigation per proc to a max of 90% it builds in an interesting mechanic to our healing. Incoming big damage, land 4-5 big heals on a tank prior to the hit and build up the mitigation percentage.
Enhance Efflorescence – Either change the effect or add a new damage mitigation to our only new spell in Cata would make this ability more interesting. At the moment it is a weak ability at best, just adding a little (1k per tick if you’re lucky) extra healing, but it definately isnt high on the priority list.
The 4.1 PTR Notes are pretty thin for Druids at the moment but a little sniff of change is there;
I'm a 30yo guy from Adelaide, Australia. I have worked overseas in KL where I met my lovely fianceLeng and we are now back in Adelaide where I work for a software development company. I also play wow on the Khaz'Goroth server.
I am GM of Bizarro, a long standing guild on the server and am pushing through as much new content as we possibly can :D
I have instead decided to download the data as an xml feed and update my site based on that. That way I can format and manipulate the data as I see fit 
