On our Festergut 25 attempt this past Monday, I was blessed with being placed in the melee group. This meant I didn't get the barfs and could stand still and DPS the boss except when I was gifted with a spore I had to run to a ranged team. My DPS increased by 1300-1500 thanks to this placement And as expected, there was at least one public case of ruffled feathers over this placement.
Why did a shadow priest get this coveted placement over another DPS? Aren't shadow priests the class least affected by the having to run to and fro for Festergut? Alas, no, which should have been clear to the person asking me these questions if they had reviewed our raid logs. It takes a while for shadow priest DPS to ramp up. First, you have to get your 5 stacks of shadow weaving up. Next, you have to keep on refreshing that SW:P that you put up after those 5 stacks and during the use proc of your trinket, careful not to let it drop off. And finally, you want to keep your other DoTs up, without clipping them unnecessarily.
Yes, Devouring Plague is an instant cast. But Vampiric Touch isn't — it has a cast time so I can't cast it on the run. Ditto for Mind Blast. And Mind Flay is a channeled spell. And my Muradin's Spyglass rocks as long as I keep up my10 stacks at all times. So, not sure how one would come to think that the running in and out for spores would somehow not affect my DPS. I'm not just going to fling out DP until I am out of mana to try to keep the DPS flowing. And since you asked, no, in a fight with the entire raid taking damage, I'm not inclined to Shadow Word: Death myself either.
Being put on the spot, by someone I don't really know, who was jonesing for the special placement I'd gotten (which had netted me our #2 damage done slot overall for the fight, #4 on DPS) made me pretty uncomfortable. Personally, I wouldn't have brought it up in guild chat, or proceeded to whisper a guildie, asking them to justify why they deserved the spot. I stood in the middle because that's what my raid leader asked me to do, just as the prior week I'd stood at range, gotten the pukes just about every go, and done significantly less DPS.
This brings up a larger issue for me though which is not presuming to tell others how to play their class. Telling a guildie who excels at their class that they should do XYZ instead of what they are doing is out of line. Period. Firstly, it's not your business; if they want suggestions from the team they'll ask. And secondly, you don't top the damage charts by doing it wrong. You really don't. I promise. Facerolling OPd class du jour excepted, of course.
When in doubt, keep your opinions to yourself. When my guildie confessed he was jealous of my placement, after the harangue about my playing, I said "yeah." Because that much was apparent already, or we wouldn't have been having the conversation. A conversation that, to be totally honest, really turned me off. So next time you get the urge to offer some unsolicited advice to someone, considering keeping it to yourself. Or go tweet your thought or write a blog post. Your raid will be the better for it.
It took me a second to figure out why our other raiding lock was killing me on the meters during that fight. Same issue: she was center, I was ranged. Turns out all that running decreases the number of casts you have! Felt a bit better about myself then, but not by much. /facepalm
I don’t much understand offering playing advice that wasn’t asked for especially when it’s clear your output is juuuust fine. Not cool, dude, not cool at all.
This same person has tried to give Guld unsolicited playing advice which is major LOLs. Uh, the consistently top DPS player in the guild ISN’T DOING IT WRONG. kthxbai.
Just a question, but is this the type of fight where it would benefit an affliction lock, since they have a little more mobility over a Destro lock, or is that just a myth too?
Ugh, that is totally frustrating. Jerk.
I wish I could stand with the melee, but whapping the boss with my staff is not nearly as good as shooting with my gun/bow. 🙂 That said, we are able to keep shooting on the run, so it totally makes sense to move.
I liked my spot of being behind my marked person – running up and running backwards were a lot easier than running sideways, IMHO.
You know…I think it’s absolutely worth a try because even when I’m running those DoTs would keep ticking. I leveled Afflic and keep it as my off spec. I’ll do a swap the next time I face him and see what happens on the meters. Perhaps between that and the summoning circle, it’ll make a difference at least personally. Great suggestion, thank you!
I think the revised placement we tried out on Monday seemed to be a lot better than what we’d done previously.