New guild

[Sibylle Profile]

Warning: This thread doesn't really have a specific purpose. I'm just bursting with nerves right now and who would understand if not my fellow druids?


I just heard back from that raiding guild I applied to. And they accept me for a trial! Me, who's only ever raided on a healing priest, and who's never done anything but DS raid finder on my kitty. AAAAAARGH!!

To say that I'm nervous would be a gross understatement. What was I thinking? Me in my hodgepodge gear? It's easy to feel good about one's dps in raid finder, but this is normal and some hc Dragon Soul. What if I totally suck and they kick me??

I'm trying to remember all of the "D'oh thread" and NOT do those things. So, I won't feral charge the mana void if red ooze was last up, I won't dps in tanking gear, I won't... um... I'll try not to do anything stupid, and I hope, I seriously hope that my dps will be up to par, lol.

So if the server transfer happens fast enough, I'll raid with them for the first time tomorrow night. Please, my dears, offer a prayer on my behalf to the Azerothian kitty gods, whoever they may be...!

[Tinderhoof Profile]

I DPS'd in Tank spec not gear! Regardless good luck with your new guild. Just remember pratice will make perfect and don't beat yourself up about mistakes. Own 'em then fix em next week. You will do fine.

[Sibylle Profile]

Haha, I meant to write tank spec / healing gear, see how nervous I am?

Thanks for the support. I'll spend tomorrow's work day reading up on normal mode melee-ing to make sure I haven't missed anything.

[Samskeyti Profile]

Aww good luck to you Remember, every fight you do with your new guild, every try, you figure out something new to improve. I also rejoined my 25man raiding community last week, after just raiding LFR and a couple of normal DS 10 (up to boat). I died a lot! Well, I still am

Here's a couple of tips:

Get plenty of Potion of the Tol'vir. It's a nice boost.
If you do hc Hagara (or probably normal too): Don't try and squeeze the last 5th combopoint on the icepillar in the frost phase. The wave will get you, and it goes off earlier than when it appears to come out of the ground! This has been my biggest issue, I want to try and get as much dps out as possible, and think it's still quite far back and boom, I go splat (again) But Stampeding Roar is great to save yourself and your group when there's ice on the ground and you're slowed down. Also, don't ress people while you're in between waves :-p
Your health is probably lower than the one from the other guildies with higher gear, so things can kill you that don't kill the others. Use your SV cooldowns as much as possible. On hc Morchok, if the beam is on you and he does a stomp, run out, don't be close or you will die.
On the ship, it's tempting to run in the purple circles but if it's just you and you're not on full health, you'll probably die.
On Ultraxion, switch to Glyph of Mangle, but don't forget to switch back after.
And on Madness, don't wait with Berserk till the bloods spawn, just use it whenever off cooldown.

I guess all in all, try to stay alive rather than to try and help with everything, once you get better gear and more used to the fights, that will come.

TL;DR: Dead kitty does zero dps.

I'm sorry if you already know all this, it's what's been my biggest issue since raiding with my community, trying to do too much and focus too much on performance and dying to avoidable things.

I'm sure you'll have a great time, and all your questions will be answered here. And, everyone dps'es with a fishing pole or wrong spec once in their life

[Sibylle Profile]

TL;DR: ...

You joking? I read the whole thing like three times! Thank you soooo much Yes, I did "know" most of these things, I've done those fights on my priest after all, but to see them summarised from a kitty perspective is amazing and very very helpful. Even more so because these people have been raiding all this time and it's true, their iLevel is an average of 10 above mine, so yes I will be squishy until I've caught up.

[Sibylle Profile]

Sooo, after the raid.

Summary: Oh jeez - I suck.

Details: Samskeyti, I so know what you mean now! I died... and I died... and then I died a third time. Ouch! I also did sh*t dps. Alright, so on one try on Deathwing where we wiped on the forth platform, I was third in dps - 41k - but otherwise I made more mistakes than I can count, and generally was too busy staying alive to play properly. On our Deathwing kill I did, I think, 38k

It is really a huge difference to be healing these fights in 25man, and melee dpsing them in 10man, is my excuse. Plus of course, my gear is worse than theirs. I'm still determined to do a lot better next time. The guildies are very nice though and I think I'll be a happy kitty there.

Thanks again for the help!


P.S. Oh, oh, and the kitty got new boots! They actually gave me the lvl403 Molten Footpads that dropped, which was really very nice of them considering that it was my first trial run

[Laurind Profile]

next time, you can watch Feral PoV of the fights to know what you have to do... there are a bunch of people here that upload their fights, so you can be prepared.
Try to see when they use CDs, when to run... read the "fix my dps" thread in Kitty topic, the tips from raid forum in here, you can get great things.

Good luck on the new guild

[Sibylle Profile]

Thanks I'll do that. I have read lots in the forum before and it's been incredibly helpful with my dps, but it's completely different re-reading it now that I'm actually doing those fights. And I'll have to find the time for the videos! I usually read during my breaks at work, but we're not allowed streaming video there so I must do that from home.

[Samskeyti Profile]

Aww I'm glad you're enjoying it Grats on the boots too! Don't mind the dying, next raid you'll have more experience already and an idea how it goes, so you'll already improve just by having seen and experienced fights.

Our other feral had the heroic Flamescythe and I have the RF Kiril, so she said how she'd love to be giant kitty. I said, well, you can be giant fire kitty! So in the next fight, I equipped my normal Flamescythe at the start, then swapped to Kiril once I had firecat form and it worked! And she won normal Kiril so we'll have fun being huge and flamey

[Sibylle Profile]

Awww, I'd love to see that! Any screenshot of the two giant flame kitties? I'm so sorry I never raided in tier 12. I joined a Firelands PuG last week but they were so bad we fell apart before downing anything. I did get a Ranseur of Hatred though that dropped from the trash, and that's still my weapon. I badly want a Kiril's!

We don't have another kitty in the raid, but we do have a bear tank that I purred at as soon as I arrived, hehe.

My new guildies are lovely though. They told me my dps wasn't so bad for my iLevel, and said their last trialist was a warlock who did 9k dps! I also started a friendly competition with our resident shaman who is closer to me in iLevel and did only 200 or so more dps on Deathwing. I mean to leave him in the dust by this time next week!

[Samskeyti Profile]

Hmm, according to your picture, you're nightelf... and with crossfaction raids... if you're on an eu server I'm happy to join and see if we ever get a firelands run organized. No cat should be without flame staff! I don't have a screenie yet, but will take one tomorrow night

Dps buddies are great, I used to race the rogues back when I had decent gear, but now, I race the tanks I'm happy the guildies are nice, makes raiding fun if the environment is a friendly one.

[Laurind Profile]

oh, and most important....
Plz don't AFK on trash, don't AFK to get a res after a wipe (if someone stay alive and you don't have Mass Res debuff, or they tell you not to release).
Be on time, don't log in just to get invited, and log an alt to lvl, bg, or whatever, if the RL is wasting his time trying to get the raid grouped, have some solidarity, and stay there, chat a bit, or something, I'm sure he would prefer being doing stuff instead of looking for people to get into raid while standind on SW or Ogr...
(all those things bother me as a Raid Leader)

Be carefull if you get a BRes, wait a few seconds if there is a OMGBIGAOEWEAREGOINGTODIE, more if you get it from a DK or a Warlock, wait till aoe or hit is done, then res, or you're going to be dead (again) without a chance for the healers or you to do anything. This also goes for Ice phase on Haggara

[Sibylle Profile]

oh, and most important....
Plz don't AFK on trash, don't AFK to get a res after a wipe (if someone stay alive and you don't have Mass Res debuff, or they tell you not to release).
Be on time, don't log in just to get invited, and log an alt to lvl, bg, or whatever, if the RL is wasting his time trying to get the raid grouped, have some solidarity, and stay there, chat a bit, or something, I'm sure he would prefer being doing stuff instead of looking for people to get into raid while standind on SW or Ogr...
(all those things bother me as a Raid Leader)

Be carefull if you get a BRes, wait a few seconds if there is a OMGBIGAOEWEAREGOINGTODIE, more if you get it from a DK or a Warlock, wait till aoe or hit is done, then res, or you're going to be dead (again) without a chance for the healers or you to do anything. This also goes for Ice phase on Haggara

i so know what you mean!! These things bother the heck out of me, too. Thankfully I already have that kind of experience, having raided on my horde priest for quite a while. My priest is in a 25man raid, which can be even more annoying because having an undisciplined 25man raid is like herding cats. My horde guild are great though, we've played together for some time and everyone pulls their weight.

@Samskeyti: I'd loooove to do that some time! You're a star for even suggesting it <3 And yes, I am in EU, on Alonsus now, and my character is Wildharp. I've never used Real ID so far, do you need e-mail address for that? Let's PM some.

[Sibylle Profile]

Today I got a Belt of Flayed Skin to go with my boots! Very happy to have replaced the 378 one from Well of Eternity.

I also did slightly more dps, didn't die at all, and only once did something stupid. My dps friend beat me on Zon'ozz (that's where I did the stupid thing - oh gods, I can't even say it, but it cost me several seconds of dps) and on Hagara, where I took Samskeyti's advice to heart and moved so carefully I ended up between two ice waves without a crystal to dps, lol. BUT, I was way ahead on Yor'sahj, mostly because I was allowed to stay on the boss and ignore the oozes. 3rd in dps on that one

I am still on trial and get rotated sometimes - today they killed heroic Morchok without me - but I don't mind. I'm so happy I can finally raid normal with a nice group after all those weeks of raid finder with incompetent and/or rude PuGs.

Alright, I promise I'll shut up now!