Researching the Arcane #2: Problems with gearing through raid and burnout

Everyone's favorite spider boss. Maybe playing fire or arcane would be better here?

HC Sark, easiest end boss this Fated season.

So these last two weeks have been dominated by two things: making it clear how limited HC raids are when it comes to gearing, and how much the playerbase is burning me out.

HC raids currently have some issues that makes the rewards somewhat obsolete:

• Hero track items needs aspect crests to be better than Champion track items, so the difference between getting NM drops and HC drops isn't actually a difference at all (except the Very Rare drops that drops on Myth track in HC raids). You get those crests in Mythic raid or +6 and higher keys, so if you do neither HC raids is dead content really fast.

• Bullion items are flat out better if you do content that drops Aspects, making lots of raid drops pointless to begin with.

• There is a very finite amount of items, and everyone has to roll on them. And the "need" button is a very relative button that can be pushed without the person needing it in actuality.

• So besides raid being entertaining to do (which I currently do think!) the only thing that feels like a good reward are wyrm crests. Once you are done with those, it's all over.

When it comes to playerbase issues:

• The whole boosting thing is becoming more prevailent - I know more people that get them to avoid dealing with all the other issues at hand here with the game and community, and I know more that does boost runs for gold (to then buy boost runs themselves for other characters).

• The hustling. This season I have repeatedly gotten boost offers with a price list automatically (it seems) after I have signed up for some keys and some raids. "Can't get into 10s and need a hand? Need HC Final 2 bosses to get into raids? Just pay us X gold and we can run you through!".

• This was what made me not play classic, because how a large portion of the playerbase plays the game (especially the ones that organize things) - they want to monetize their hobby. If you arent trying to rake in something, you are doing it wrong. Pay for GDKP runs, run GDKP runs once you are geared. Rush to have a +10 key at the start of the season, sell those off during boosts early on instead of just running it normally.

Perhaps it has in actuality been like this since Legion, but I've never felt it be so all encompassing. Maybe because I'm increasingly in the pug/streamer world where everyone is out for a payoff, while guild/friend groups made the game seem like it had never changed. But this has burned me out somewhat on trying to improve or earn things the old fashioned way. So we will see how that pans out in the end.

Esmëralda (project Mage)

Main spec: Frost

iLevel: 513 [+6]

Raid Progress: Vault (7/8 HC), Aberrus (9/9 HC), Amirdrassil (7/9 HC).

Keys Ran (after 3 resets): 29 [+11]

Of which had at least one friend/guildie: 8 [-] (~28%) [-~16%]

OK progress with gear and raid since last time, considering it's one raid night of 2 hours and 5,5 keys per reset. Guildies are not playing retail much, so the friends & guildies stat will be in the dumpster.

Performance has been all over the place the last two weeks. While meters and parses gets affected by being behind on gear and I can blame that to an extent.

With 26 bosses, all having different things going on, playing 3 specs would be ideal - I think Fire might be better for Sennarth with moving scorch and instants, for example.

Some of the bosses - like Primalist Council - might be better served with an m+ build since there are four targets that don't move much.

But let's be real - if I farmed +6s to cap Aspects that would be the biggest dps increase here.

Navarim (project Warlock)

Main spec: Demonology

iLevel: 500 [+9]

Raid Progress: Vault (8/8 NM), (Aberrus (9/9 NM), Amirdrassil (9/9 LFR)

Keys ran (after 3 resets): 1 [-]

Of which had at least one friend/guildie: 1 [-] (100%) [-]

Navarim has run into the archtype modern wow progression problem, or any modern day problem really. Keep clearing normal raids, but not getting drops nor Wyrm crests means hard stuck at this iLevel. To get into HC raids as a pug, you need to have cleared HC already have like 2/3 of your gear or so be upgraded with crests. If you don't want to farm keys, you only choice is to A) get a guild that will take you or B) buy one or more boosts. Doing just pug raids has proved to be impossible. So that was an easy answer to that test :)

As for rotational things, I am struggling loads with CDs. Without Grand Warlock's Curse, nothing really aligns. With it, I have to press things on CD, and without building things up those CDs might get really suboptimal. One thing is to do target dummies, but if you are moving for mechanics and make a puny Tyrant and need to wait 10-20 secs for the extra Felguard on top there's a lot of dps loss going on.

Destruction is all the rage at the moment, including for some obscure reason a damage buff after the season started, so if I was smart I'd go Destruction instead to pick up stuff. I am assuming I'll just log on for one raid a week on this character as long as I am subbed, so could do some comparisons later maybe.

And much like Esmëralda - if I spammed m+ for crests there would be a big dps increase. But also make heroic raids obsolete.

Parse Status

Managed to attend HC raids on both Esmëralda and Esmënet to have the main comparison going, Navarim still struggling however.

Esmëralda Parses

No change here as Amirdrassil happened during last update.

Did not have Vault parses last time. There were some learning hiccups, and died halfway through Broodkeeper by being out of range of healers (my fault). I should prolly play m+ spec on Primal Council, and find a better way to position on Sennarth.

Navarim Parses

Navarim raided Normal Vault through a twitch streamer during that reset, and pugged a Normal Abberus. But did not manage to get into a HC pug of either - most require 510+ ilevel unless you know someone or go with a community/guild.

Benchmark Hunter Parses

I am pretty happy with these parses. I accidentally went downstairs on Sarkareth without needing to, but other than that it's just rotation details I could have done better.

No change here since Amirdrassil was not on the rotation these past two weeks.

Vault still a learning process, think this is my first orange dps parse on HC. A tank killed the entire ranged camp with the frontal on Grimtotem, but since output is what it is these days could finish the boss with a quarter of the raid dead at start still - so no new parse there.

Status

So from 3 raids, Esmëralda has a better parse on Council of Dreams (an ideal Frost Mage boss) and Grimtotem (where Esmënet died both times). Not exactly a vote of confidence.

With the amount of people that just do Remix now, the upcoming holidays and already dwindling signups this week, I might just do raid next week on Esmëralda, maybe pug Vault week after if guild raid will be swapped to Remix raid or something.

Looking at these progress parses, I think it's safe to say no amount of Arcane Intellect or Healthstones is worth the dps tradeoff. And if raid gets boring after Curve, not playing better than going for a spec more suited to have fun reclearing with.

The Key Competition #2: Well Geared

Rounding out my raid progress standing under a dying dragon's butt, such a glorious occupation...

On one hand the craze of the first two weeks dwindled these past two weeks, both for myself and the people I had grouped with. On top of people's interest in redoing raids and dungeons not being skyhigh to begin with, reset 4 saw Mists of Pandaria Remix and a new Diablo 4 season released at the same time.... Making the amount of guildies for groups disappear entirely and general lfg activity plummet.

On the other hand, the season is very easy to gear and get what you want in. I might have had very few social m+ sessions, but both Dominator and Esmënet got a bunch of gear. And did some scoring runs on my own. Pugs have improved massively in iLevel for what dungeons they do, the same with knowledge. Making what was really hard week 1 become really easy week 3 onwards. Except getting into +8s and higher as dps... I was in one +8 where there were 60+ people queued 15 seconds after the key was listed. The reduced number of keys makes the key happening much faster, but there is a general shortage of keys listed and tanks/healers. Nothing new, just seeing new heights of DPS getting bottlenecked. State of healing and tanking obviously at fault, too.

Dominator (the tank)

iLevel: 509 equipped [+8]

Score: 2075 [+119]

Keys ran (after 2 resets): 59 [+24]

Of which had at least one friend/guildie: 31 [+4] (~53%) [-~24ppt]

Did the homework Wyrm crest farm by myself both resets, as there is low interest in 2-5/7 keys from people I know. Getting wyrm crests from raid "for free" obviously means most mains only need to do m+ for wyrms on alts, that most people doesn't play this season. Caught a whole 2 keys with known people both resets. A stark reminder that having a character to mostly play with others is not a sound plan.

Was a bit confusing how few gains Dom got over two resets. The score increase to get KSM and little else. Next to no iLevel gain if you take away the crest spending, meaning there were no drops? Bit weird.

One big change from last two seasons is that surviving has been changed to be pretty hard for tank again, a lot of things hits hard. "Kiting"/mob control/stop spams are back on the menu, which means Vengeance DH is god again. Combined with healers getting an output reduction for some unfathomable reason makes doing progress keys really stressful again.

Motivation took a hard hit for this character - the feeling of being a relic of the past increasing.

Dom's highest key (tied) these two resets, with some familiar faces.

Esmënet (the ranged)

iLevel: 522 equipped [+11]

Score: 2280 [+131]

Keys ran (after 4 resets): 82 [+29]

Of which had at least one friend/guildie: 13 [+4] (~16%) [-1ppt]

With about half the keys done compared to reset 1-2, the drop in craze is very visible. Most of these keys were simply Aspect crest runs, and some wyrm runs. With the odd score run sprinkled in, just to have something to test the gear in. The few social keys I did was low ones with guildies for the mythic dungeon weekly quest in week 3.

I still enjoy this project however. The fact that I can just drop raiding whenever with no strings attached, and take long m+ breaks because I don't need to perform in a group setting just removes all the pressure. At other times it really sucks, because doing progress keys in a pug world is the very definition of wasted time. And talking about a lot of nonsense adds some chill to it all.

Esmënet's highest key these two resets. Much less stressful to dps than to tank. No familiar faces in sight.

Current state of the competition

Gearing

Esmënet a 13 [+3] iLevel lead. Lucky with drops, have capped Aspect Crests. Will be full build in 2 weeks or so, after which potential iLevel increase is very low and pure RNG. Question is if Dom will do enough Aspect crest m+ in ~4 resets to match?

Score

Esmënet with a 205 [+8] point lead. Spreading out where I did the Aspect crest farm (even doing Uldaman and Halls of Infusion!) trickles in points. Most of Dom's score gain came from first doing the easy dungeons, then doing easy dungeons again with friends, which makes for few points.

Social

Dominator leading with 37 percentage points [-23ppt]. With 2 more weeks on the horizon of 10 wyrm crests pugs each, Esmënet is one prog night invite away from a clean sweep. Both characters did 4 social runs, lending some credence to the idea that nobody wants a tank after reset 1 or 2 if they aren't doing max vault runs or progress keys.

Opinions on the start of the lull phase of the season

Gearing

• For the "optimizing" character, the season is almost over gear wise.

• For the non-optimizing who isn't grinding, there is a big gap.

Dungeons

• Algethar, Brackenhide, Azure Vaults and Ruby has so far seen the most success and less iffy pulls

• Uldaman and parts of Halls of Infusion can be really sketchy.

• Neltharus and Plains are mostly boring, and are usually bottlenecked with some trash pulls (before 3rd boss in Plains) or boss (spearboss in Neltharus) where pugs tends to instadisband.

Right now I'm guessing I will keep motivation to play until mid June, at most. I am happy I got to do the Vault raid on Esmënet and do the season 1 Dragonflight dungeons properly - but content is used up and only the gear and social bits makes me log on and do homework keys.

Researching the Arcane #1: Openings

Fyrakk, did I not see you 3 resets ago?

Aberrus, the raid with the most interesting bosses from the expansion I think. Urge to cast Glacial Spike increasing.

This Fated season I have one goal: testing Mage and Warlock in guild raids, while doing as few m+ keys as possible. And compare them to each other and the Hunter who is also doing keys, but stopping raid early.

I enjoyed playing casters the last two raid tiers, and want to continue doing that in The War Within. But if I can't do say, 5-10 hour WoW weeks as a caster and still do well in raids I doubt I will have the motivation to not mainswitch during a raid tier.

Esmëralda (project Mage)

Main spec: Frost

iLevel: 507

Raid Progress: Vault (8/8 LFR), Aberrus (4/9 HC), Amirdrassil (7/9 HC).

Keys Ran (after 3 resets): 18

Of which had at least one friend/guildie: 8 (~44%)

Replaced Serwaswathan by leveling up last patch - wanted to have a naming convention going and retire some of the old characters. Was originally out of guild raids due to a change in raid days, but was given leeway to attend once a week at most.

Since the character was freshly leveled and had by far the lowest ilevel and shoddy performance first raid, I've done a bunch of keys over the last two resets to "catch up". In this reset's raid I was raid average iLevel and was on the upper half of the guild meter so I can slow down going forward.

So far bought Whispering Incarnate Icon and Vessel of Searing Shadows with bullions, due to simming. Shouldn't have; Whispering crit does nothing at the moment and should have gotten Grieftorch instead of Vessel with how raids and keys have been going with the amount of deaths happening.

Raid progress is mostly slow due to missing both the Vault raids, and the Aberrus and Amirdrassil "progress" nights. Assume both Aberrus and Amirdrassil will be one night HC clears next two resets, as long as enough people are still wanting to do Fated raids... As general interest seems to be going downhill, fast.

Navarim (project Warlock)

Main spec: Demonology

iLevel: 491

Raid Progress: Aberrus (9/9 LFR), Amirdrassil (9/9 LFR)

Keys ran (after 3 resets): 1

Of which had at least one friend/guildie: 1 (100%)

Did not manage to level alt to keep with naming convention, so old warlock it had to be.

Did LFR to pick up Bullions the last two weeks, four m0 this week for the dungeon weekly and 1 m+ with full guild as I was capped on wyrm crests on the Mage.

Spent bullions on Dreambinder and Seal of Diurna's chosen as they were big iLevel upgrades. Got unsure about replacing my current trinkets with the better sim ones after the Mage got hosed there, so focusing on other slots first.

Hoping to attend either guild raids once bringing alts is possible, or bring the character to the community raid thing my Hunter attends. Should prolly be over iLevel 500 before I do either, so will be a couple resets yet.

Parse status

I am going to just compare HC parses here, as normal and lfr parsing doesn't really tell much.

Esmëralda Parses

The Aberrus parse I was undergeared and we only did 4 bosses - one of which wasn't even approved. Primary suspects are Power Infusion and Aug buffs.

Amirdrassil had green logs instead of greys, so improvement. Not starting the raid with scuffed gear helped. Council parse could have been higher (great for Frost mage in general). But the tanks valued not randomly killing dps so much by not moving bear around, preventing cleaving. Which I fully support as a tactic, but it does not help parsing :)

Navarim

Navarim did not do any HC bosses the first 3 resets.

Benchmark Hunter parses

I did not start the massive Esmënet farm from reset day, which led to not having super gear the first raid. Hadn't done the raid on normal or heroic before, so was a lot of adjusting and learning instead of padding for parses.

For Amirdrassil I had a big gear jump. The week had the Dungeon Weekly quest - which awarded bullions instead of the normal random loot chest, which let me buy the Grieftorch trinket. Which had massive value, especially on Smolderon, due to the low geared raiders dropping like flies to passive raid damage and mechanics. Reclearing Amirdrassil is not fun, so this parse will stay the benchmark I think.

Aberrus had a big ilevel jump from Vault, due to buying the Rasz bow for bullions. And upgrading it to max with relentless m+ spamming. Also fairly well known content, no need to learn anything. Unsure why my Zskarn, Magmo and Echo parses were so low, though. This was before Grieftorch, so assume next Aberrus clear with have a parse jump on several bosses.

Status

As of right now, Mage beats Hunter on the Amirdrassil council fight and nothing else. Not a great sell on just showing up to raid with Mage.

Missing week 1 makes a big impact there, but it will be interesting to see how many resets will be needed before parsing better on any other bosses.

Coming as the m+ tank for 6-8 weeks (as dps in the raid, backup tank if need be) still clearly the best option - but switching from paladin to druid to be able to be caster might be the best option for that. But there is way less need in the guild raid for a druid compared to a mage or warlock. But worth thinking about if this does not pan out well.