So, as you all know, firelands has now been on live servers for the last two weeks. So, what do you need to know before heading in? Are you and your guild ready for the challenges that await? If you've been farming heroic mode tier 11 for a while now, then yes, you undoubtedly are and have already cleared the instance with little trouble. But, what if you haven't? What if you're in the <Average Joe's>?
Well, if you've been clearing normal mode content in t11 for a while now, then you likely have acquired the gear necessary to down the encounters. But, it won't be easy. Some of the fights gave my heroic guild a bit of trouble, and would have been much more difficult in lesser gear. So, what do you need to know?
First off, read your dungeon journal. Familiarize yourself with the bosses abilities and relevant debuffs. Perhaps watch a kill video or two so you can see some of the mechanics in action. Knowledge is your best friend when stepping into a new raid instance. The more you and your raid know about the fight, the faster you will get the kill.
Work on your gear. Even if you are full ilvl 359, there are some good upgrades that are easily attainable. There are 365 cloaks available for completing the Thrall questline. There are purchasable 365 items from doing dailies in Mt. Hyjal. And, there are 378 items easily attainable from Avengers of Hyjal rep inside the raid instance. Do a trash run or two, and soon you will have 3-4 good items to get off on the right foot. The extra dps/hps/survivability is too easy to attain to ignore.
Expect to wipe. And don't get discouraged when you do. There are some difficult mechanics, even in the normal modes. Communicate with your fellow raiders, and think outside the box. A strat you get from somewhere else, may not work with your group. Find the reason you are wiping, and come up with a way to fix the problem with the abilities and people you have at your disposal. Don't be afraid to speak up if something is just not working.
Coordinate your cooldowns. There are some fights with some pretty intense healing requirements during some periods. The lower your healers skill/item level, the less likey you are to survive them. So, use the cooldowns at your disposal to get over the hump. Line up a cooldown order for periods of predictable, heavy raid damage. Things like aura mastery, divine guardian, spirit link totem, and power word: barrier can be invaluable to survive mechanics that would otherwise kill you when used properly. Also, don't forget about the trinket from Tol Barad rep. The one that gives mastery and resistance on use. It's not just a tank trinket, and it has a short cooldown. My raid used it as a cooldown in the rotation on heroic Nefarian. If dps is adequate, but damage taken is too high, it could be worthwhile to purchase the trinket, and pick up a kill your gear would not otherwise allow.
Watch your feet. On trash, on bosses, when you're eating the feast. There are a multitude of bad things to stand in, many of them mobile. So, watch what's going on around your feet as well. You're no good to the raid if you're dead. Better to do less dps/hps/tps than to die.
And finally, have fun. After all, that's what we're all there for, isn't it? Lifegrip your favorite meter padder away from the group on an aoe trash pull. It's even better if you can coordinate among other priests in your raid to do it multiple times in a row. That guy who always ninja afk's? Chain grip him into the lava, and watch him die. It's good fun, I promise.
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