Name: Quetzie (ket-zee)
Alts: are for suckers
Aliases: Raef, Jen
Role: Raid Mom, Web Master
Claim to fame: Former #1 Horde AP collector on the server
Likes: Herding cats, terrible puns
Check her out on the WoW armory!
Submit a bug report
Two minor Quality of Life updates for the website this week!
First, I’ve added a Search Page to the menu. Now if you can’t find a particular post, or don’t remember what it was categorized under, it’s only a click away from being found! Included on the page are a list of recent posts and a list of all categories (with the number of posts within those categories next to it).
Lunzzul got lucky this week! On top of getting the Fiery Warhorse from Attumen in Karazan, AND Deathcharger from Rivendare in Stratholme, she also picked up Invincible from Lich King in Icecrown Citadel. All because she has a good friend in moose-man TrueType!
“WHEW
I need to shout out Truetype for LITERALLY PASSING UP INVINCIBLE. Even though I would have liked if you had rolled on it, thank you tons. You’re the best <3 Love you, bud”
Two things pop into mind: this ditty from The Beatles, and of course the theme from Toy Story. Good luck, good friends, and good times are what World of Warcraft and the Ministry of Defense is all about!
(And that’s after getting 3 pieces of tier within a day last week. Somebody rub that cat for good luck!)
Want to see your content on the website? Use the Member Submission to brag about achievements, drops, and more, and your post could end up on the Member Content page!
Wednesday was rough. We usually treat it as a farm day, but we struggled as a group with basic mechanics on account of a number of new faces to heroic and a number of silly mistakes. We can usually get by basic mistakes on account of sheer ilvl and brute force of will, but it became apparent that we needed more tact to down the bosses.
On Imonar, phase 1 now has a more organized strat for ranged and healers for sleep canister. We will continue to use this strategy in the future. In essence, range and healers will bunch into 2 groups. When you have sleep canister, run to the middle. When you don’t, you run away from the middle – you only need to strafe a little bit for this to be effective. 2-3 seconds is NOT a long period of time to run out of the group, so it’s equally important for the group to run away at the same time. This is especially true when we have 20+ man groups!
In between phases 2 and 3, people continually blow one another up on bridge crossings by not being careful when walking around. You really need to be careful, as this is a primary reason for our wipes.
Kin’Garoth was a struggle as well, mostly because people are screwing up the rolling purple orb mechanics. DPS all need to be standing on the proper side of the adds in the add phase. Healers will need to pay attention as well (unless you are the healer in charge of ball soaking).
When it comes to the add phase, make sure that you are past the add, and facing your camera towards where the balls are coming from (stand at “Blue” side, or the upper-left side of this photo). This will make it much easier to see and dodge mechanics! You can either achieve this by running past the add on your way from “Yellow” (right-hand) side, or run the long way around, passing Blue and then coming around to Skull (where the add is in the above photo). This is to prevent DPS and Heals from getting slammed in the back with rolling balls. The only people who should be towards Yellow side should be the tanks and the ball-soaking healer. Any DPS or non-ball-soaking healers on the red-cicled portion of the above image are standing in the wrong spot and could potentially cause a wipe. This will also help the healers, as people will be more closely grouped together, with nobody spread all the way back at yellow while DPSing adds.
Raid Leader Commentary: We’re going to become more hard-assy about people making mistakes that are basic and causing raid wipes. With 20+ people we need to start coming down hard on time wasters. You still get 3 chances before you’re sat, but we’re keeping a much closer eye on those 3 chances now.
More Kin’Garoth struggles. Some of the struggles of the week were due to an up-and-coming tank who is still getting solid gear (but you’re doing a great job and learning fast, so don’t feel bad!). We swapped tanks and had an easier – albeit not easy – time on Kin’Garoth, again because people are failing basic mechanics like balls avoidance.
After a one-shot on Varimathras, we decided to bang against Coven some more. We’re seeing better mastery of many basic mechanics from some, while others are continuing to get hit by daggers or fire blades.
On account of our colossal screw-ups, we opted to dive into Coven before doing Aggramar. It was disheartening even to see seasoned raiders continually getting hit by daggers and blades in even normal Coven. It’s one thing to get caught out when there’s a Storm on heroic, but there’s no excuse for heroic Raiders to be caught out in normal. Sadly I don’t have logs for Coven as I got a later start before joining the raid than I intended.
Aggramar had a minor “oopsie” moment with tank swaps again, and then was downed easily. Argus was one-shot, too! We then took a quick break and decided to down heroic Garothi and look at some of the other lower heroic bosses as practice and loot chance. Unfortunately, we only took down Garothi due to some gear-checks on heroic Hounds, but that’s ok. Alt Night is all about learning, and we’ve definitely seen progress!
Monday also saw the promotion of Symderella to Raider rank, as well as Treeson fast-tracked to Raider rank (Treeson was formerly on Bloodscalp, but transferred to join the cool kids on Aerie Peak). You can check them out on the Raid Team page! I’ve also added Symderella, Treeson, and Qwaylas to the Wow Audit Spreadsheet to help them track their gear and progress.
In order to make things easier for Zextol, the raid leaders are going to be splitting up more of the chores and tasks that he has been handling previously. Quetzie will be the primary point of contact for Raid invitations and pre-raid questions (think qualifications, rules, confirmations, etc). Telanlan will be the Loot Master in all senses, dealing with not only Master Loot distribution but also personal loot trade rolls – you’ll be whispering him, not Zex, when you have a piece of gear you don’t need. Foxxie will be your general point man for more targeted questions about fight mechanics, class rotation, talent choice, and more.
Of course, none of the raid leads are locked into a particular role. Sometimes Telan may take over invites, Foxxie might have a better grasp on loot needs, and Quetzie is known for routine fight analysis. Overall, this is done to help Zex be able to focus more thoroughly on calling timers and explaining mechanics while also giving him more down-time before raid and in between fights to catch up on Real Life business.
Finally, always remember that if you have a question or a concern, you can contact any of the Raid Leads or officers within the guild to help you resolve the situation.
Also since I didn’t have a relevant meme for raiding this week, please enjoy this gentle reminder from our priests:
“Saturday night progression we will be SKIPPING Coven and attempting Aggramar. Aka watch the posted videos in discussion and PM a raid leader if you have any questions.” – Zextol
Can I get a hell yeah?
And congrats to Symderella for making Raider this week! You get to be part of the Raid Team page, have more money to spend on repairs, and access to Raider tabs. There are a number of other potential raiders “on deck” for promotions soon, so be sure to keep your attendance up and you’ll get to be part of the team, too!
Wednesday was a generally successful run. We downed 5 bosses in relatively quick succession with one another before banging our heads against Kin’Garoth. We almost 1-shot High Command due to sheer numbers, but we do still need to manage our bombs better. It gets hectic on the second loop through.
Kin’Garoth, of course, gave us some trouble. DPS need to be smarter about moving sooner. Those assigned to purple add also need to remember to switch to red in the second add phase.
Regarding the Master Loot changes, you can see updates to the Rules & Regulations page with a clarification on Master Loot for tier bosses. We’ve also made a few other changes that retain the heart of the rules, while paring down excess verbiage.
Kin’Garoth was a big struggle for us again. It’s important for tanks to use proper mitigation and save cooldowns for those big hits of Forging Strike. Thanks to Grim for taking over as the healer on ball-duty!
Varimathras was a struggle as well. Tank swapping became an issue. Remember, DBM timers are likely to be off – you can’t trust them entirely. Communication with the other tank is crucial.
We ended the night slamming our heads into Coven again. This boss is becoming a combination DPS and RNG check. Please practive Heroic Coven in your downtime!
Raid Lead Comments: Please keep the comms clear. We’ve had 20+ raids multiple times now, so commentary during fights is absolutely problematic. We’re going to start coming down on people who keep talking even when told to be quiet. Tanks need us to be quiet unless it is a Raid Lead making calls! If you are not a Raid Lead, do not make calls or talk over the raid leads unless directed to do so.
Props to Wyte for coming to lend us a hand on heals and for killin’ it in spite of being “undergeared” and not having joined us previously. Thank you to the PUG who put up with our many wipes for so long as well.
We welcomed Tiv as a new Raid Leader and Lunzzul as a new Raider. Congrats to you both!
Monday was a big raid for us – 23 people! Lots of new or returning faces, which was great to see.
Garothi Normal has Decimation issues, but was otherwise an easy kill. Aggramar and Argus we each wiped once. Agg had an initial “whoopsie” for tanks, but after understanding the mechanic, we took him down easily. Argus wiped us once and we took him down the second time. Raid Lead Comments: please be paying attention to the markers on your head. Match them to the marker on the ground in Phase 2. Please move the buffs in phase 1 to the right, and move blight to the back.
Next we tackled heroic Garothi. Raid Lead Comments: Please move Decimation out of the group. DBM is a great tool, but only if you bother to use it!
We actually had three legendaries drop on Monday. Most notably, Zextol got the Amanthul’s Vision trinket.
We’ve got a number of new things posted this week on the site to help our raiders!
First, we have a new Raid Attendance management system. Take some time to read about what it means and how we track your attendance for Raider status.
I wrote up an in-depth look into Warcraft Logs for DPS (though I suggest tanks and healers reading it, too!). This will help you determine the proper talents, trinkets, and rotation to increase your output.
We’ve updated the Raiding Rules and Regulations so please take a look.
Finally, we have a few Website Changes that include a new Raiding sub-menu to make the raid-related pages easier to navigate, and added a Roster to show off our illustrious Raiding Team. I will be tweaking these two features for the next several days to improve their use.
Made 2 changes to the website today – one functional, one fashionable.
First, I’ve added a new submenu to all Raid-related pages. The raiding homepage, NEW Raid Team page, Raiding Rules & Regulations page, and the Raid Attendance page are all easily accessed from one-another. When you’re on a non-raid page, the submenu disappears to conserve space.
Second, and more exciting, I’ve added a Roster page. This page has a small badge for each Raid Lead, Raider, and their Alts. Raid Leads have red backgrounds (just like in Discord), Raiders have orange background (like in-game and in Discord), and alts have grey backgrounds.
Different classes have matching color names, avatar border, and ilvl text. Clicking on a character’s image will bring up a full view of their transmog in their class hall. Clicking their name will bring you to their WoW Armory page. Hovering over the items will show you their name, stats, etc.
Now, our Raiders have an extra incentive to maintain their status – and up-and-comers have an extra incentive to keep coming.
(Note: This page may load slowly from time to time as a result of API calls to Blizzard servers. This is normal.)
Over the weekend I updated Uro’s transmog on the About the Ministry of Defense page, and added Telanlan and Foxxiê. They now have access to the site to post content of their own.
I continue to try to push out quality of life changes and add new, useful, and fun features to the website for the guild. If you have an idea or a suggestion, fill out the Feedback form and let me know! Is something broken? Submit a Bug Report!
Most of the time when we raid, someone ends up running a Warcraft Log (WCL) for us. We’ll paste the link in the #raiding-logs channel and discord, people will glance at their parse number, and move on. But WCL is an amazing tool that can help boost your damage and survivability, if you spend the time to dig around in it. Today I’ll dig into how read the charts to improve your DPS. For Healers and Tanks, you’ll want to pay attention to Method 1 to see how your talents and trinkets stack up with others. Otherwise, feel free to take a nap during today’s class.
(Author note: This post and the page this post discusses are best viewed on desktop rather than mobile due to the size of the content)
In light of some recent changes and to keep our Raiders better informed, I’ve taken all of the attendance information from May and June and added it to a Raid Attendance page. You can access this right from the Raiding homepage, under the basic rules and to the right of the raid times. This new system has a few bells and whistles, so let’s dive in and see what you can do!
Whether by plan or by accident, Wednesday was spent working on single-target bosses we haven’t gotten many kills on.
Imonar the Soulhunter had a late wipe on account of too many dying during the bridge crossings; 3 died before the first one was complete, and too many died on the second crossing. Some people also criss-crossed lasers. By contrast, the second run (and subsequent kill!) had nobody die from either bridge crossing or lasers, so there was much improvement.
Kin’Garoth was more of a struggle. Too many people are not moving fast enough – maybe to Ruiner, maybe away from purple balls, maybe moving their mechanics to the outside edge. Eventually, we had to cull a few people just to get a kill on the boss. Raid Leader Tips: Look around! Be alert! You need to be incredibly cognizant of the location of other raid/party members. Much like Coven, running into one of your allies can lead to both of your deaths from botched mechanics.
Remember, there’s a set timer for when he can and cannot take damage:
This means you should use 30 second cooldowns at the start of the boss fight; 1 minute CDs when he opens up to damage after the first adds; 2 minute cooldowns on the first add phase; and 3 minute cooldowns at the second add phase. Alternatively, you could use your 3 minute cooldowns on the first add phase, to have it up for the 3rd add phase. RLs may be revisiting strategies on this boss.
Unfortunately, our planned “hand picked” group had too many absent members, so we ran with a group that included several people we did not anticipate running with and who were not as well prepared for the boss fight (I was also on an unfamiliar computer. RIP my timers and addons). We never progressed past 50% health on the boss. We still have a lot of people dying to avoidable damage. But, there was much better organization on add kills (assuming the RNG wasn’t poor in combination with Storm). We also had 2 people go from being the most killed last week to being some of the least killed, so it shows great improvement and that practice does work. With luck this week we will down the boss.
After it became apparent that there wasn’t going to be any real progress on Coven beyond 50%, we brought our spirits up a bit by doing some quick kills on Eonar and High Command. Eonar was about the cleanest and fastest we’ve ever done it – most mobs didn’t even make it to the tree. High Command was likewise very clean – only one (late) death throughout the whole fight from too much bomb damage.
Raid Lead Comments: if you intend to ever do Heroic Coven with us, you should be practicing Heroic Coven in other groups during the week. Also, we will start running Normal Coven on Mondays so people practice the Normal mechanics.
Monday was a good night all around. There was one wipe the whole night, on Aggramar, from a “whoopsie” tank moment where adds did not get repositioned. Otherwise, clean throughout. This says good things about some of the up-and-comers, as well about the patience and skill from our seasoned raiders. On a side note, alt-night Argus often takes us over 10 minutes. For a fast kill, we should consider lusting at the beginning of the fight, just to get his HP pool down.
Most interesting, we got the present members a few achievements towards Glory of the Argus Raider. Specifically, we did Worm-Monger, Hounds Good to Me, and Spheres of Influence.
Monday Warcraft Logs (not useful on Garothi or Felhounds)
Do you feel like you can’t keep track of your gear, or what your next goal should be? Maybe the Wow Audit Spreadsheet can help. Take a look at this post on another useful tool for Raiders.
(Author note: This post and the attached link are best viewed on desktop rather than mobile due to the size of the content)
A few weeks ago, I added a link to the Raid Announcements channel on discord: a Ministry of Defense WoW Audit.
https://wowaudit.com/us/aerie-peak/ministry-of-defense/raiders
This is a useful tool for Raiders and Raid Leads alike. I’ll walk through the basics of each sheet.