Risk and Reward or Risk and Fail?

That is the question I am asking myself right now. Ever since my return to WoW from my break, I have been looking for a guild to join. I want to join a guild for multiple reasons, but mostly to raid and experience content.

I did an experiment on my Mage last week, I joined a guild that I knew exactly zero people in. A slight change in my real life schedule and I can make their raid times, so I figured F it. I wrote an article about it located here.

I never really liked the guild much and after not getting a spot in this weeks raid, I have the feeling that I am a safe net for them, a certified bench warmer. Doesn't matter if I am the first person to sign up, they have a group they run with every week and I will only get invited if one of them doesn't show up.

I know I told myself that I was ok with this, but I am not. So my journey continues to find another guild that I can have a raiding spot in.

If you read my post yesterday you know that I rediscovered how much I like healing on my shaman.

See where I am going with this? No? Continue!

I was super tired when I got to work yesterday. So tired that right when I got in I immediately attempted to take a nap. My computer chair at work is not comfy at all...its rather blows to try to take sleep in.

So after about 5 minutes of attempting to take a nap, I decided to try to stay awake. I went to the plusheal forums and started looking around.

They have a section for guilds recruitment and for people to searching for guilds. I clicked on a link labeled "AoE Donkey Bombers LF Healers" only because I was so intrigued on WTF a Donkey Bomber is..

Anyway, they are a fairly new guild composed of real life friends and in game friends. They were in a 25 man raiding guild, but split off and decided to conquer 10 mans. Well, they beat all of the 10 man content and have about 20 or active players. The goal being 30 active people to run 2 groups of 10 man and 1 25 man raid.

I decided to check out their website and I was delighted on what I saw. These guys definitely know what they are doing, most of them have the achievement for 3 drakes up OS. They are very organized and well structure.

They application process is exactly how it should be, very detailed and strict. I started to fill out an application mostly to stay awake at work. I spent probably 2 hours or so filling the application out and making it look all pretty.

I took time and gave truthful, detailed, and descriptive answers just to see what they would say about it. I really wasn't excepting much. To my suprise though, they replied first thing in the morning...about 3 or so hours after I posted it.

They wanted to ask me some questions and talk to me. I gave them my email address and they said they would be contacting me.

This is where they really impressed me..

I got critted by their wall of text that the dude emailed me. I wont post the whole email but I will say that he gave me 4 solid paragraphs about what I should expect out of this guild and what he excepts out of me. He gave me a background of the guild and its future plans.

Then he wrote the following...

I talked with our Shaman guru, he pretty lives and breathes Shammy. He looked at your armory profile and said that you seemed to know how to make good decisions in regards to gear so he has no questions just yet. I though have a few questions for you.

Scenario 1

You have a 25-man raid where you have a MT, OT, 6 healers, and the rest dps. You have a resto shammy, 2 holy pallies, 2 disc priests, one of which has is dual spec'd holy, and 1 druid. You are engaged in a boss fight where you will be anticipating heavy raid damage. How would you delegate healing assignments?

Scenario 2

You're running a 10 man raid with 2 resto shammys, and one holy paladin. How would you set up your groups to optimize totems, and how would assignents go?

As a resto shaman,can you spec differently in order to put out more efficient single target healing as opposed to AoE healing? If so, can you show me the different specs? Also, when you typically run 10 or 25 man content, how many healers do you normally bring along? Do you have any questions for us?

Hopefully I don't scare you off with the wall of text. By the way, what blog are you running? Look forward to hearing back from you.

Well if I wouldn't be damned. This dude and his guild is for real people! I f'n love it and you know I am up to challenge to answer his scenarios...Oh fo sho!

So you want to know my reply?

I guess this is a WoW blog uh? Maybe the information that I write down will help absolutely noone someone right?

...

Yup, moving on

My respose

Scenario 1

You have a 25-man raid where you have a MT, OT, 6 healers, and the rest dps. You have a resto shammy, 2 holy pallies, 2 disc priests, one of which has is dual spec'd holy, and 1 druid. You are engaged in a boss fight where you will be anticipating heavy raid damage. How would you delegate healing assignments?

Holy Paladins: One will beacon the MT, the other one will beacon the OT. The one that beacon'd the the OT will then be assigned to raid heals.

Priests: I would have one of the disc priest use his holy spec. The holy spec would then be assigned to heal the raid. The disc priest would handle keeping the MT up with the other paladin handling the OT.

Resto Shaman: Would be on raid healing duty as primary, and tank duty as a secondary. With the new changes to Resto Shaman, we now have very good raid heals and also have alot of ultility to be a strong single target healer. I would assign the shaman to mostly cover the melee dps, that way it will get the tank(s) as well. It is important that you keep an eye on both of the tanks incase they need help.

Resto Druid: First off, I would just like to say that I think that restro druids are the best healers in the game imo. A good restro druid will do wonders for your raid and they especially excel at raid healing. I would assign the druid to raid healing specializing in ranged casters. If the fight involved alot of movement, I would probably reconsider, but given your scenario I am just going to consider a slighty non-moving raid encounter.

With my setup the raid healers would be the holy paladin, holy priest, druid. I guess the resto shaman would be consider raiding healing due to healing the melee along with the tanks.

My Tank healers would be the disc priest, holy paladin, and again...little bit of the shaman.

Scenario 2

You're running a 10 man raid with 2 resto shammys, and one holy paladin. How would you set up your groups to optimize totems, and how would assignents go?

Since your question was very generic, I won't get into detail about different type of encounters that a full raid can have.

I would assign the holy paladin to heal the MT and beacon the OT. Have one of the resto shamans use gear that favors pieces with crit, MP5, INT and SP. Crit should be at least at 28-30% self buffed (which is pretty high). That way with raid buffs it should be around 35%. This is important for a single healer to keep up ancestral healing and have enough throughput to also help out raid healing. This way they should be able to handle and balance both duties with ease.

The other resto shaman should be focusing on raid healing only. Gear should favor high intel, haste, and mp5. This should make the shaman shines in every fight where you cast a lot of spells per minute and require a lot of chain heals over a long time.

Overall - Your healing team should be working together as a team and figure out what the best combo will work for them. All about team work, but this is how I would assign them overall.

Talents

The spec that I am currently rocking is in my opinion the most intelligent spec a raiding shaman should have. The only other spec a raiding resto shaman should have is 0/13/58. The only difference is that you are trading mana regen for spell power.

Even though raid mp5 has been nerfted, we still received a +25% increase to our own mp5 due to our gear.

The difference is very situational and how comfortable you are with your own mana regen. If you are having issues with your own mana regen, taking the mp5 talent over the sp is the way to go. If you are not having issues with mana regen, I suggest you go with the additional sp due to that fact that Resto Shaman gear itemization goes as follows...

spell power>intellect>mp5>haste>crit

With glyphs like Glyph of Water Mastery (the passive mana regeneration of your Water Shield spell by 30%) available, you would probably see how it is better to go for the sp talent over the mp5 talent.

Is the Risk Worth it?

I received a reply back from him stating that I did get accepted into the guild, but a guild "test" run would be needed. So that would be the first risk. I transfer my shaman to his server and go on this "test" run. I screw up and they say don't invite me or I don't make a big enough impression on them and they don't invite me to raid, but I get to wear the guild tag.

Another risk is would be that they are a newer guild. They have only been together raiding as a guild for a little over a month. The long a guild has been together, the better they have a staying together.

Risk number 3 isn't really a risk at all, but I will say it anyway. Missing my own server and my real life friends that I play with. I will still have my mage and all of my alts, so I would still be able to play with them...but I don't know...just doesn't feel right not having my healer avialable if they need him. I am leveling a druid, currently level 51, and I do have plans to make his spec resto. So I will have a healer in due time.

Some other risks in no particular order would be not having my alchemist and people not knowing who I am on my current server. I am not known on the server for my Mage or any of my other alts....I am known for my Shaman. Not that I am well known or anything hah.

The Reward?

The reward would be joining up with an intelligent group of raiders that know how to play their class and completely rock face in raids. Not to mention meeting new people and making new relationships.

One part of the game that I need to in order to enjoy WoW is raiding. I don't need it all of the time, but I do need it. I love going into a place I have never been, learning the strats, and conquering all that stand in my way. The teamwork you and the rest of your raid have to do in order to take down a boss is something that I miss ALOT. So gaining these things would be worth it in my opinion.

I will still be around on my current server, just not on my Shaman.

Role play much?

Thats right biatches! The server is a role playing server lol. I am thinking about making my name something super ghetto and taking on that character while I am on that server lol.

I never role played in WoW, but I think it would be funny to be a Cow Tauren named Detroitbusstop. I can say I'm from the streets of Thunder Bluff and where I'm from, people get murda eva day son! Talk about my childhood growing up in the hood supporting my people by selling herbs and pimpin heifers. You know, just tryin to SURVIVE!

haha...

Good times. No, I am not being serious, I am not a role player. It would be funny thing to do one day though lol.

WTFspaghetti's Dumb of the Week

You knew it was coming...I would tell in your...uh...eyes? Anyway, yeah, this weeks weekly dumb is a winner in my book. All I can do is laugh. As always, the link is work safe.

Song of the Day

"Rapper's Delight"
Erick Sermon, Keith Murray & Redman


Quote of the Day

“Don’t do drugs, don’t have unprotected sex, don’t be violent. Leave that to me"
-Eminem

Till next time people, I'm WTFout!