Mythic Raiding
Mythic Raid Nights
We raid only two nights a week.
Thursdays 6-8 pm
Saturdays 2-6 pm
Due to our very tight raiding schedule, we do have some fairly high expectations that in our six hour raid week, we accomplish as much as we can. For details on our expectations, please see below.
Disclaimer: We are not a cutting edge guild. In reality we spend most of our time in heroic, and usually get a slight taste of Mythic before the next tier comes out. In the case of out-for-eternity tiers like Siege, we can manage a full mythic clear. The reason we try to maintain a mythic sized roster is that we know we will, after several weeks, get into Mythic difficulty, and we'd like to be ready for it.
Details on our progress, past and present can be found here, if you're curious.
Progression Team Kill Videos
Videos/streams of our raid team in action can be found at:
twitch.tv/dj_berly (resto druid pov) - Druberlymore
twitch.tv/decemptance1 (rogue pov) - Zuc
Windykyn @ Youtube - (enhance/resto sham pov) - Kyñareth
Mythic Roster
We're planning on running with a roster of 25ish players, so that when players must miss raid night we're not forced to bring in pugs or beg friends to come on their alts. This will require some flexibility/juggling when all raiders can attend.
Tanks (2):
Nephesh - Blood Death Knight
Calim - Protection Warrior
DPS/Tank (2):
Votimosis - Retribution/Protection Paladin
Tyrang - Feral/Guardian Druid
Healers (4):
Druberlymore - Restoration Druid
Sistercis - Discipline Priest
Zaheer - Mistweaver Monk
Ellius - Restoration Druid
Healers/DPS (1)
Shamira - Holy/Retribution Paladin
DPS/Healers (3):
Trevv - Balance/Restoration Druid
Thal - Retribution/Holy Paladin
Kyñareth - Enhancement/Restoration Shaman
DPS (13):
Andronon - Frost Mage
Hakkapolite - Arcane Mage
Slowbleed - Marksmanship Hunter
Darkthorn - Marksmanship Hunter
Evilissereni - Balance Druid
Shortstax - Affliction/Destruction Warlock
Demondep - Destruction/Affliction Warlock
Zuc - Rogue (all specs)
Gutslicer - Subtlety/Combat Rogue
Oakshanir - Marksmanship Hunter
Kunsaa - Elemental Shaman
Rolentusk - Shadow Priest
Hapie - Affliction/Destruction Warlock
Member Count: 24
Trial:
Members who are currently trialing with the Mythic team to possibly become core members!
Highsepton - Shadow Priest
Standby:
Members who are not currently available for full-time raiding due to real-life complications, but who should be back soon!
Jugsy - Arcane/Frost Mage
Levix - Fury/Protection Warrior
Expectations
1) Show up as often as possible. Don't miss raid because you were baking cookies. Miss for good reasons only please.
2) Respond to the calendar. One click. Do it.
3) Be on time to raid. It's only twice a week. Btw, asking for a summon at 6:01 does not count as "on time." 5-10 min early please!
4) Be prepared. Have all possible gems and enchants applied *before* raid time.
5) Know your class. Research if necessary to always be at the top of your game. Icyveins.com is your friend.
6) Put in time outside of raiding to get as awesome as you can. Garrison missions, crafting, valor, etc.
7) Know the fights. Fatboss it up!
8) Take suggestions/criticism with grace. We mean well. We just want everyone to be as awesome as possible. Conversely, if you have questions or want advice and/or weakauras to help you improve, please ask! We love to help people that are willing to learn.
9) Be kind.
Loot
We require raiders in this group to download and turn on two addons that greatly expedite loot distribution for this group.
1) Best in Slot
2) EPGP Lootmaster ("Core" Module only)
Important Note: We are NOT using the EPGP system. We are simply using their loot rolling addon.
We essentially distribute loot similar to a Need > Greed basis, with rolls making the ultimate determination, with one major change. Instead of just two options ("Need" and "Greed"), we use several "tiers of need" when making these decisions. Essentially, the higher up you are on your need tier, the more important it is to us that you get the item, and the more likely you are to get it over other players, and vice versa. The top tier of need is "BIS" or "Best in Slot," meaning that if a neck drops, and it is the very best possible neck for you in the entire instance, whereas Jim-Bob over there likes the neck, but ultimately has his eye on a different one, then it's your neck. Even if it's an upgrade for him, even if he outrolls you. Because ultimately, he'd trash that thing like yesterday's newspaper if the other neck came along, whereas you will cherish it forever. Or, until a warforged version of it drops, anyhow.
Here is how the addons work together to help us accomplish this.
1) Best in Slot
This addon walks you through putting together your Best in Slot list, so that you know exactly which pieces you will be rolling BIS on, and so do we. Extremely easy interface allows you to go through and pick your shopping list of bestest possible gear in the "BIS Manager" tab.
Note the "Import from other difficulty" portion at the bottom. This means that you can make this list once (for mythic difficulty), and then can simply import that list into heroic and normal. All three lists done, for the time it took to do just one!
Viewing the "Overview" tab is extremely helpful for determining on which bosses you will use bonus rolls, as it splits up your needed items by boss.
The best part about this addon is that we can see your list as soon as you finish making it, simply because we are in the same guild. This helps us as raid leaders to see how players are doing in hunting down their desired gear. Lastly, and perhaps most conveniently, the addon puts a tooltip in any piece of gear that is on your BIS list. So if your BIS neck drops and you hover over it, you'll see a reminder from the addon that you are looking at your BIS neck, and should roll accordingly.
2) EPGP Lootmaster
This is the addon that essentially spawns the pop-up box that raiders use to rank their need for items that drop during raid. Here is an example of a loot window.
The "tiers of need" are...
1) BIS (Best-in-Slot) - Roll this if the item is on your BIS list, and you don't yet have it. *
2) Upgrade - Roll this if the item is an upgrade for your main spec, but it isn't your BIS.
3) Sidegrade - Roll this if the item is technically, *slightly* better than what you've got, but not by much, and you'd like to make yourself last priority to receive it, if others need it more.
4) Priority OS - Roll this if the item is something you need for your offspec, AND you have an offspec that we frequently ask you to use during raid time. This is primarily to make sure that our backup tank/healers are ready to rock when we need them.
5) Off Spec - Roll this if the item is something you need for your offspec, but it's not a spec we'll expect you to use during raid.
*Exception: Let's say your BIS cloak drops from Heroic Beastlord, but you are sporting a warforged cloak from Mythic Oregorger that you obtained either in a previous run or via a mission. Even though the cloak that has dropped is technically your BIS, you may decide you don't really think you want it, at least until the Mythic version drops. In this case, simply pass. If it's anyone else's BIS, they'll appreciate it.
As the loot master, once everyone sends in their rolls, I basically look at the highest tier of need that received a response, and give it to the highest roll (usually) from that subset of people. This usually takes me 1-2 minutes after rolls come in, while the rest of the group starts the next trash pack, greatly expediting our efficiency, especially on farm night, when we might kill 8 bosses in 2 hours. Having the whole group stand around for 5 min of loot after each fight becomes 40 minutes quite quickly. This method keeps us moving. :)
Three last, important things to know:
1) EPGP forces you to "auto-pass" on loot you can't equip.
For instance, as a holy paladin, if a vanquisher token drops, I auto-pass. If a staff drops, I auto-pass. Wand? Auto-pass. This means I won't even see a rolling window for these things. I'll only have to roll on loot that is meaningful to me.
2) We only use this whole loot system for our progression (Thurs/Sat) group.
This kind of system only works when you have a dependable roster of individuals, wherein you trust that when you hand Raider X a piece of loot, he/she will be back the following week to put that loot to use for the good of the raid. For this reason, our fun-time Wednesday runs do not use this method. We simply do a Main Spec > Off Spec system. The roster for Wednesdays, due to the very casual nature of the run, is simply too variable for more complex systems to make sense.
3) Sometimes the gear doesn't go to the highest roll.
If you're really curious about what I'm up to after the rolls are sent to me, you can download the EPGP Lootmaster - ML module, in addition to the "core" module, in which case I believe you get to see the same information I do at the end of each roll. You basically get to see which players pressed each button, as well as what numerical value each player was assigned as their "roll." Just to be 100% transparent, and to show you that there's no secret favoritism going on, you're welcome to do this.
However, you will sometimes see me assign loot to someone other than the highest roll, which might seem fishy. Here are the scenarios where that might happen, if you care to know.
a) Three people roll BIS. For two of them, it's an upgrade from a 670 to a 685. For one of them, it's an upgrade from a 655. The guy wearing the 655 gets it, even if one of the other two out-rolled him. This is something we voted on as a group prior to WoD coming out. The result was that larger upgrades should be given priority, as long as it's within the same tier of need. Luckily, the ML module includes a column that allows me to see exactly what each raider is currently wearing in that slot, so I can tell who needs it most.
b) Two people roll BIS on a tier chest. If Raider X wins it, it'll be his third piece of tier. If Raider Y wins it, it will make his 4 set. Raider Y will get the piece, even if Raider X is the high roll. it's simply better for the raid as a whole to get set bonuses completed. And now, Raider X is guaranteed to win the next one.
c) A tanking neck drops. It has strength/agility, multistrike, and bonus armor. Both tanks roll Upgrade, and so does a hunter who's not paying attention to the bonus armor part. I don't care how high the hunter rolled. He's not getting the piece. The higher roll of the two tanks will win it.
d) Three people roll BIS on a cloak. When I check over my BIS list, I notice that the person who rolled the highest didn't actually put this cloak down as his/her BIS cloak. In this case, I assume the roll was made in error, and assign the loot to the highest roll of the two remaining people, for whom the cloak actually is BIS.
e) I often have people tell me "Oh, disregard my roll on that please" while I'm handling loot. Some of them say it in vent, some say it in raid chat, and some whisper me. Reasons for this are usually, "oops, didn't see it had spirit on it." or "Scratch that, just won it on a bonus roll!" etc. In this case, the next highest roll will get the piece.
f) *NEW* Throughout this "content drought" at the end of the HFC tier here, attendance/dependability has become an issue with a small subset of our players. They are frequently no-shows, or extremely late, or must afk for 30 minutes at a time mid-raid, etc. We are not removing these players from our roster*, because on some nights, they are the 20th player we need to continue to kill bosses. However, due to our inability to be certain they will continue attending, these players are now bottom of the priority list for loot. In other words, regardless of how high their roll is, they are only receiving loot if none of our other, more dependable, "core" players has need of it. This isn't a "we don't like you, so here's your punishment" thing. It is purely a logistical measure. The purpose of loot is to make a raid team stronger. If you're only a part of our raid team ~25% of the time, then giving loot to you doesn't really make us stronger. If you're offended by this, it probably makes you're one of the flaky ones, so step it up!
*We are, however, quietly recruiting new people to fill their spots.
That's probably more than anyone wanted to know, so if you're still reading, good for you! I just wanted to make it clear that there's nothing weird going on here. We just want to use and distribute loot as efficiently as possible!
If you have any questions, feel free to ask Nephesh and/or Shamira at any time.
