Mutual Assured Destruction
July 1st, 2008 Posted in Bosses, DungeonsFor the most part, when raiding, there is a hierarchy of responsibility when it comes to wipe prevention on boss attempts, and that is healers, then tanks, then DPS. If heals don’t land on the tank, it will be a wipe very quickly. If the tank fails to use his defensive abilities, it will likely also be a wipe very quickly. A good example of this is shield block – without it, crushing blows will land like rain and the healers will be very overtaxed very quickly. The DPS are much further down – for many encounters, so long as enough of them survive long enough to beat the enrage timer, it doesn’t really matter too much how they perform.
Then comes Black Temple and Mount Hyjal. Suddenly the DPS have a lot more to worry about than just staying alive. The first hints at this start with Azgalor where if the Doomed players don’t make an effort to run to the right place, they end up wiping out the raid. It continues with Teron Gorefiend. Just one person messing up their Constructs means a wipe, and these are people who have previously had “Don’t pull aggro” as their most important thing to do.
Suddenly, everything has changed. While before the group was tanks, healers, and a few DPS along for the ride, now they actually have to actively be good at certain actions in order for the raid to succeed. Even after downing Teron Gorefiend for the first time, many guilds will struggle for the next couple of kills as everyone perfects (or learns!) how to control their ghosts correctly.
Archimonde is more of the same. Suddenly just one person allowing themselves to die causes a wipe, and the responsibility that rested on the healers and tanks heads catches up with the rest of the raid. It’s not a pleasant experience to suddenly realise the success of the raid is suddenly and irrevocably in your hands. The same goes for Gurtogg Bloodboil. Learn to rotate correctly or the entire raid will suffer, and your raid leader will be driven slowly but surely insane.
Everyone has the ability to wipe the raid and a responsibility to practice their actions until they are satisfied that they won’t. Of course, mistakes can and will happen – and I don’t blame anyone for those, I’ve probably made more than my fair share myself – but in this latter content, everyone needs to examine their actions and attempt to improve accordingly. Without doing so, you’ll be crying out to go back to the Tier 5 instances where, unless you really screw up, you’re pretty safe.
Of course, all the way back to Karazhan (Nethersite springs to mind here) and Gruul and Magtheridon’s lairs, there’s some level of raid responsibility. It just takes on a whole new meaning when you absolutely have to rely on everyone performing brilliantly to succeed.
3 Responses to “Mutual Assured Destruction”
By Tankette on Jul 2, 2008
Just getting DPSers to stop and start when they are supposed to has been a major challenge for us in SSC.
By Softi on Jul 2, 2008
Oy, you mean I’m going to have to start paying attention in raids now? Damn!
I found yr blog through your link on Blog Azeroth… imagine my surprise when I see you’re a fellow alliance from Bloodhoof EU!! I’m in Lightwalkers having recently transferred over to join them cause another wow-blogger I befriended plays with them.
Small world!
I’ve added you to my feeder, look forward to reading more!
By Aurik on Jul 4, 2008
I’m annoyed – I did a search a while back for any bloggers on Bloodhoof and what did it tell me? NADA! Nothing! Damn google search.
Anyways, Softi pointed me here so I thought I’d drop by and say hi as another Bloodhoofian Blogger.
Personally, I agree to some extent with what you say – DPS-ers are not so important pre-BT / MH wipe-wise (except maybe for Magtheridon pre-nerf?). If they’ve at least learned enough not to over-aggro then they can make more screw-ups than a healer / tank can.
However, anyone who cares enough should have been paying enough attention prior to BT / MH that they don’t find the transition too difficult, hehe.
/hug
/vanish