Life and death - whispers

Finally. After all the headache, Lady Deathwhisper is done. I honestly wanted someone to start singing "Ding! Dong! The Witch is Dead!" Well, briefly.

It was epic. Isn't that how all good stories start out? I remember the first, completed attempt on 10 man. After some "ironing out" of our strategy for the first boss, we moved on with a bit more confidence to the second. Progression raids. They can be both intoxicating and frustrating, often at the same time. When we made it all the way through the 10 man with relative ease, we exuberantly marched onward to our genuine attempts at 25 man. Onward, fellows. Glory surely awaits us. Our "epicness" is apparent. As is our overinflated, collective ego. How could it not be? We just aced 10 man ICC (Icecrown Citadel.) We're now allocating that raid for farming. Foolishly thinking, "We got this. We've got the basic strategy down, we've got epic dps, our tanks are well-geared, and our healers are among the top on our server. What could possibly go wrong?"Oh, how humbling it can be to see your fellow players, those players that know their class better than anyone, those individuals you've learned from and admire their skills in their class: the mage or hunter with dps so high it could only be possible as a glitch with Recount, the over-the-top geared tanks that can shrug off inconceivable amounts of damage, the valiant healers that seem to be capable of keeping death itself from taking hold of even the most innocent or arrogant of top damage dealers that, by mistake or on purpose, accidentally pull aggro...all dead!

Oh! The humanity!

And the aggravation! Imagine the preparation...

Studying videos created by people who "know these things." Trying to grasp a better understanding of each fight. Multiple attempts from the previous (3?) weeks. Getting a good "feel" or "rhythm" for the fight. Quietly noting those things to avoid as they nearly "one-shot" your dps/threat/healing off the face of the world. Constantly trying to stay on top of your game. Making sure you have enough materials like flasks, potions, and Lord help you if you forget gold for repairs. Making sure your keybindings are furiously spammed in a desperate attempt to push your dps just that much more. Pushing your abilities past your previously thought limits. Watching the numbers display smaller, and smaller percentages with each frustrating attempt. Victory, so close it's palpable. You can practically touch the epic loot that will surely follow after your team wins. You can even see the image of that one, sweet item, that you know will make your character that much more epic. Then...a brief, eerie silence suddenly descends...someone calls out, "Burn hard!" Somehow, your keyboard manages to hold it's plastic pieces together despite the terrible punishment that it's taking. Someone yells, "Three percent!" Pause, "Two percent!" Longer pause, "One percent!" And then...a long, ominous silence that portends only two things: epic victory or overwhelming defeat. And then the statement no one wants to hear...that dreadful call over your headphones, "I'm down!" Followed by the "death" of every other team member, one at a time, as they heroically attempt to stave off the inevitable. Thinking that, somehow, someway, you'll be able to do it! Don't give up now! You can do it! You'll do just a bit more dps/threat/healing to make it through that last one percent. Finally, nothing. Reset.



/facepalm


/RAGE





Ok, well that was my amateur attempt at creative writing. Hope you like it! On to other important stuff. I am not a clicker. I love my keybindings and, yeah, I turn with my keyboard. This is because my free hand is over the number pad. It's the best way for me to push my dps, even though by the end of the Lady D fight my hands felt so sore that I seriously considered asking the raid leaders to look for a replacement. But, we did it. It..was..AWESOME!

Speaking of keybinds, my keybindings didn't magically fall exactly where I wanted them too. In fact, it took quite a few weeks, maybe even several weeks, before I memorized each binding and what ability was tied to that binding. This is because I had to learn which keybindings are the most important when I'm raiding. For a dps'er, those abilities that do the most sustained or burst damage are obviously the most important. As a fury warrior, this means two primary abilities: BT (Bloodthirst) and WW (Whirlwind.) Really, that's it. As long as your spec is good, you'll want deep wounds, which should naturally come with impale, and 2h weapon specialization, follow the 'standard' fury spec build in that tree, and you're good to go. Oh, and that darn rotation. Yeah. Well, it's pretty easy to understand, a bit of practice to get it down. I usually open with WW, however, due to multiple mobs or trash pulls, this is not always a good idea. But the standard rotation is to start with WW as the cooldown will allow you to perform two BT's if timed correctly. Of course, while this is going on, and if you have enough rage, hit either HS (Heroic Strike) or Cleave while waiting on cooldowns, depending on how many mobs are left. Wait for one GCD (Global Cooldown) and start with WW again. And only hit Slam for instant hits, IF - AND ONLY IF, both WW and BT are on cooldown. (Caps = important.) Giving Slam priority over WW or BT will lower your dps. I've often lost the instant Slam proc because the timer ran out. This is because WW and BT will always do more damage than Slam. True, you may crit a Slam to perform a large hit. But risking a possible crit over a solid single hit from BT or multiple hits from WW isn't going to help your dps. Eventually the WW and BT cooldowns will be nearly synchronized and you'll have to start the rotation again with WW. If you have difficulty getting the rotation down, go practice on the practice dummies in the major cities. Seriously. Sometimes I get ridiculed by other players who wonder what I'm doing at a practice dummy. You know, "a level 80! With your lvl of gear? Cmon, dude! Why u goofing around with dat dummy." You'll often find me there as well practicing my fury rotation, or my prot pvp keybindings. Practice makes permanent, not perfect. Cool quote huh? I've no idea where I read that. But basically, as I pointed out, it took me weeks to get my keybindings exactly how I needed them. I was constantly adjusting my keybinds to make it easier for me to press them when I needed. As a result, I had trouble memorizing the primary abilities I had tied to a specific keybind. So, I practiced and practiced until I finally got it down. Still working on my prot pvp keybindings though. But, I'm always improving.

And I will eventually own all in bg's...I will.

XD

Anyways, more to follow. I hope. :-)