Rotface[25] Down

So, Wednesday started off looking damn good.  We one shot everything up to Saurfang, who we still two shot.  We then start our way down the Plagueworks, and face Festergut, whom we proceeded to wipe on for two and a half hours.  Healers missing their CDs, Ranged missing spore stacks, melee not running out when we had two spores in the middle, ranged chaining the vomit due to not spreading out enough.  You name it, and it went wrong. 

Thus we start off last night and head over to Festergut.  I think it took us about four attempts to get it right, not counting the time one of our other druids decided they wanted to pre-faerie fire the boss before we started the pull (that didn't end well for them).  The only real problems we had for some reason, were people missing spores, and some of the ranged running into melee, thus causing there to not be enough ranged targets for the vomit, and he'd target the melee, instantly killing half the raid.

We then headed over to Rotface, prepared to wipe on him for the remainder of the night. I think it took us about 3-4 attempts though, and we had him down.  The first couple times, people just couldn't kite the ooze, or they would be the first to get an ooze right after an explosion, would run to the OT, get cleansed, but then run back into melee, not realizing they were getting beat on by an ooze.  This would cause us to have many oozes out then, since multiple people would do it, then we'd have a big ooze in the middle and it was over.

That said, the attempt that we did get him down, was an extremely clean kill.  People dodged what they needed to, kiters were on target, and everything seemed to click with everyone.  The first 70% was definately the easier (and seemed quicker) part of the fight.  Once we got to the 30% 'all hell breaks loose' point, we popped Heroism, and I think only got the boss down to 20 or 18% during that time.  The rest of the time, people just decided to actually put on their game faces, and did exactly what they were supposed to do, when they needed to do it.  All in all was a very fun fight.

We did put in 3 of our 10 attempts on Putricide, however, the two tanks that were trying to be the Abomination (one gave it two attempts, the other a single attempt), did a really bad job of it.  Slime pools were out of control, and no ooze were getting slowed.  They said that the UI seemed bugged, and they didn't have any of the actual controls available to them.  Also for some reason they were under the impression that the drink slime ability was channeled, and instead of realizing it wasn't right away, just stood there while nothing happened.

Our plan is to break into two 10 man groups on Saturday, and get to Putricide, so we can use some attempts on the 10 man version learning the fight, and then give it another go on Sunday.

Here is to hoping we have the same raid turn out that we have been having.  Getting to raid with a full guild group once again is awesome, and it's amazing how much a difference it makes when we don't have to pug a single person.  It seems when we do, people decide to play 'Blame the PuG' and slack off themselves.

Festergut [25] down

Took us about two hours, since our shaman decided to go all emo and not raid, but after a couple 1-2% enrages, we got Festergut downed on 25 man.

Now to work on Rotface.  This seems to be an easier fight for DPS and healers, and is more just a technical movement fight.  So far I'm liking it, but the little oozes not being tauntable so far seems shitty.  Mainly because if one goes after a healer, then we have to try and either drag the healer to the big ooze to join them, or the big ooze gets kited through the raid and just messes everyone up.

Tonight our second 10 man group will attempt ICC.  I suspect we should get Festergut down pretty quickly, since everyone has now seen the fight, so there isn't a learning curve to it.  With luck we will get Rotface down as well.

In the 'Pie on Face' category, however, I did all of our attempts on Festerget, in my moonkin gear.  Was missing about 100 MP5 and 300 spell power.  Um, Oops.

Saurfang down

After a few nights of attempts, we finally got 25 Saurfang down.  With two days left in the raid week, that gives us some solid attempts at Festergut and / or Rotface.

I question whether we have the DPS for Festergut, so it will be interesting to see what comes of it.

I've been working up some additional information regarding the Rapid Rejuvenation glyph.  From what I've been seeing thus far however, it does seem to be mostly a playstyle choice, and doesn't change much overall.  The main thing it does do, however, is change the pattern of how the healing is spread out.

This pattern change is where the playstyle decision comes in.  So, more on that to follow!

Raw HPS of Rapid Rejuv Glyph

There is much debate on the real benefits of the Rapid Rejuvenation glyph for druids.  It goes back and forth on how you can't blanket a raid as well with it, or how it all goes to overheal, or how it is worse for tank healing because it causes you to cast Rejuv on the tank more, and thus be able to cast fewer nourishes.

Most of the debate is all anecdotal and hand waving, without any math to back it up. Sooo, let's look at some numbers!

First, I will assume effective healing, and not count overhealing.  This will help make the comparisons a bit more straight forward.

I will use the healing numbers from myself on the last raid we had done that was uploaded to WOL.

My Rejuv healed for 877.0, with an overheal of 66.1%

Since 877.0 is the effective healing done, that means that 877 = total healing * (1-.661).  Total healing done is then 877/.339 or 2587 per tick

Using the same math on the other spells we come up with the following

Regrowth Direct Heal: 2761.3/(1-.628) = 7422.8 per cast

Regrowth HoT: 469.9/(1-.628) = 1263.2 per tick

Wild Growth: 270.7/(1-.671) = 822 per tick

Nourish: 4838.5/(1-.472) = 9163.8 per cast

Lifebloom HoT: 257.2/(1-.590) = 627.3 per tick

Lifebloom Bloom: 833.6/(1-.802) = 4210.1 per bloom

Now, at least when I'm hotting a tank, I will slow roll lifeblooms to three stacks, while keeping regrowth and rejuv up on the tank.

For a moment, let's pretend I have awesome reflexes, and recast every spell exact when it needs to be done, while also living in a frictionless vacuum.  We will also assume haste cap, even though not many people are there yet.

Thus, in a 5 minute fight, on a single tank, we would come up with the following HPS without the Rapid Rejuvenation glyph.

Rejuv = 2587 / 3 seconds = 862 HPS
With 18 second duration, it will be cast 17 times (with some splash over beyond the end of the fight).

Regrowth Direct Heal = 7422.8 per cast.
Regrowth duration is talented to 27 seconds.  Thus we will have to cast this 12 times to keep the HoT up full time.  This equates to 27*12*7422/300 or 296.9 HPS

Regrowth HoT = 1263.2 per tick or 421 HPS

Lifebloom will be cast once every 9 seconds, and bloom every 27 seconds.  That is 34 casts of Lifebloom, and 11 blooms.

The HPS for this one is difficult to model, simply due to the fact that the average numbers above, are from lifebloom being rolled already, and not really a uniform stack size at any given time.  However, for the sake of this excersize, it is really only important that these numbers (and the number of casts) are consistent.

Lifebloom HoT = 627.3 per tick, thus 627.3 HPS

Lifebloom Bloom = 4210.1 per bloom or 168.4 HPS

Now, in our 300 second time window, we will cast:

17 Rejuvs x 1 second cast time = 17 seconds
12 Regrowths x 1.33 second cast time = 16 seconds
34 Lifeblooms x 1 second cast time = 34 seconds

17+16+34 = 67 seconds spent casting HoTs

This keeps our HoTs up and rolling on our tank, thus allowing us to take full advantage of the Nourish Glyph.

In a 300 second fight, this leaves us with 300-67 = 233 GCDs left available for Nourish Spam.

Now, Nourish gives us 9163.8 HP per cast.  9163.8*233/300 = 7117.2 HPS for the duration of the fight.

This gives us a total of:
    7117.2 (nourish)
    862 (rejuv)
    296.9 (regrowth direct)
    421 (regrowth hot)
    627.3 (lifebloom hot)
+ 168.4 (lifebloom bloom)
=================
9491.9 single target HPS without RR glyph.

Now, to add the RR glyph, we simply need to tweak the HPS for rejuv and the number of casts for rejuv and nourish.

Rejuv = 2587 / 2 seconds = 1293.5 HPS

With 12 second duration, it will be cast 25 times

25+16+34 = 75 seconds spent casting HoTs

This leaves us with 225 Nourish's to cast now.

At 9163.8 HP per cast, 9163.8*225/300 = 6872.25 HPS for the duration of the fight.

This gives us a total of:
    6872.25 (nourish)

    1293.5 (rejuv)

    296.9 (regrowth direct)

    421 (regrowth hot)

    627.3 (lifebloom hot)

+ 168.4 (lifebloom bloom)

=================

9679.35 single target HPS with RR glyph.

This is an increase of 9679.35/9491.9 = 1.0197, or about 2%.

If we take into account Living Seed, I suspect the numbers would converge back closer to being the same.

Thus, unless I've completely missed something, the RR glyph for tank healing is essentially up to personal taste from a raw HPS standpoint.  Now of course in practice, and depending on fight mechanics, it could shine more or less (we all know healing is not simply an HPS game).