Vainamoinen

As much as it goes against all of my gut instincts, here is a parse for your viewing displeasure (names have been changed in order to protect the innocent):



Certainly not the prettiest thing in the world, but our MT/OT combination were able to hold aggro relatively well and we ran into only a couple hiccups in the zone. I was the unfortunate victim of a half-dozen amends death or so, but such is life (our groups warden healed like a maniac and kept me up much longer than I'm used to!). Healers healed, mages wiggled their fingers and the tanks tried to out-roll each other on all of the drops. The raid force may be far from ideal, but its a great bunch of people that are willing to listen to one another, despite the frustrations of slapping together an extremely odd combination of classes on a weekly basis.

Anyway, the parse shows only the top dozen and a half or so, but if this helps to give a better picture of how well/poorly some of the toons are performing based on the raid set-up I've already outlined, lemme know.

I am fully prepared for the worst, so flame away. If, however, your flaming affort amounts to shite, I'll go for the jugular :p

__________________
I was raised on TV,
Like so many of you I see around me.
Nothing to live or die for;
No religion too.

Jalathan

well looking at that and I'm wondering why you aren't either the MT or at the very least, the OT. Given your DPS in relation to what I'm seeing, you would probably make a better MT than the zerker, letting the Zerker OT. Your DPS isn't too bad given the group make up you are saying you have and while your extended DPS isn't that much higher than the zerker, the gap between the DPS and ExDPS is enought that I'm thinking it must do with dying alot and often early in the fight.

Even going into defensive, you shouldn't have too much trouble holding agro against those parses...

But speaking of those parses... what are some of you fighting with? Those are some mighty low parses even for the groups as you've outlined. The only raid I ever parsed that badly on (the pally near the bottom) was my first ever raid, where I didn't know what I was doing and was running around DT in a group of 3 (the raid only had 21 people) and in MC gear...

The first place I'd look is to see what you could do to improve their parses. What weapons are they using? The monk should be hitting higher than 208 ExDPS... By example, I normally hit in the 800 zw dps range (still low btw) on raids I'm MTing, with alot of spikes up around 1300-1400 at times (I take major drops when I drop to defensive to compensate for some of my gear on some fights) and I can tell when my damage just isn't there while I'm fighting as I am having to fight the agro, while some fights, you just know are going the right way.

I'd have some further recommendations, but most of them become moot next week anyways (get EoF legendary if you don't already have KoS fabled, etc). But you really need to work on getting those parses up. You all are hitting what? 10k zone wides (based on 1000 being 10% of your zw)? If you all can get that up to around 12-14k you would find zones like labs would go much more smoothly. We regularly clear labs with 13-14k and we are a real casual raid group, so I know it is possible without optimal raids

My biggest advice is to have your raid leader really look at the grouping he/she is putting together and question whether he/she is doing a disservice to the raid by putting people where he/she is. I know (were it me and I know now all the facts, which I don't ;)). I'd be seriously considering putting you in as the MT and the zerker in as OT. Putting that Assassin in G1 with you for hate and stack the MT group around you. The better the MT group does, the better the raid can do. That is why, even if the other three groups are not optimal, I will fight and scrape to get as close to optimal MT group as I can.

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Paladin of Antonia Bayle

Fidelus

It's cool you guys are trying to keep it casual, nothing wrong with that. But, if at all possible, you can produce a brigand, another dirge, a troub, etc...then you would be able start building something up. Til then you are shooting pool with a rope.

In the meantime, the only way you are really gonna be able to improve your dps thru group make-up is by putting as much melee in with that one dirge as you can. Make your MT group tank/temp/defiler/dirge/assassin/ swash. It's kinda weird but you might even consider taking the dirge out of the MT group if you or another paladin MT and can hold aggro w/o Seething Sonata. Then you put the dirge in a group with an inq or fury and your 4 best melee.

Vainamoinen

Thanks guys! I'll certainly try to make some more "educated" suggestions next time around.

There are certainly some people in the raid force trying to perfect their toons and their play-style. Coupled with the fact that some of the force are being 2-boxed in order to fill in gaps, the dps can be quite low. I've had the opportunity to try a bit of EH with a stellar raid guild and was able to parse around 1.2K-1.5K on single target trash mobs - so, I think the potential is there, we just need some fine tuning.[I could also use a decent 1H & 2H to improve the melee dps... I know I'll eventually get those pages and nameds in CMM!]

I've certainly considered the role of MT, but I feel that the tanks the Alliance has to offer as MT to a pretty stand-up job as it is. Some nights are harder than others, but the certainly make the best of what they have. Our guild is relatively new to the alliance as well, and many of the people we are raiding with have put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into getting some of these zones nailed down. Nonetheless, I'd still like to give it a whirl!

Maybe I should try and kick my pally addiction and go level my baby brigand, or role a troubie for that matter. Is there some sort of 12-step program or methadone treatment for pally addicts? ;)

One last question, do scout/mage hate transfers still have a chance of bugging out amends? If so, is there a way to have both transfers going without "overprinting" amends?

__________________
I was raised on TV,
Like so many of you I see around me.
Nothing to live or die for;
No religion too.

timmeh

You guys need more utility. Have some tanks change to illusionists or bards.

Kind of weird to see your tanks have 5 or even 10 minutes more combat time than your dps. I suppose this is a result of your lack of utility.

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Enrico

That parse includes a dirge, but the typical raid force you outlined does not.

If you don't have any agro buffs for the MT, then a warrior is going to have extreme difficulty holding agro. That might explain the low dps, since everyone is afraid of dying if they do any damage. Stack the MT group with agro transfers (swashbuckler and assassin) even if you have to drop down to two healers, I'd say, or use a well armored paladin with amends to compensate.

You have more priests than I'm used to seeing, so the healing paladins may be overkill, and they can focus on damage. But if you're doing damage and not tanking, don't assume that amends is a good thing. And of course if you have a paladin who enjoys healing and is outperforming half the priests, don't mess with the person keeping the raid alive

Vainamoinen

For the most part, yer spot on.

The typical force had a bard, but only if we're lucky.

I'm doing damage, and amends generally leaves me sniffing the floor. No that he MT has trouble holding aggro, its just that here is only so much he can do.

Anyway, I'll see if people are open to juggling groups. The likelihood of drumming up chanters and bards right away is slim, though.

__________________
I was raised on TV,
Like so many of you I see around me.
Nothing to live or die for;
No religion too.