Last week, CLOSED underwent its second guild merger of the summer. The first merger was a drama-filled disaster, with only a handful of the original members of THE OROBORUS staying with Closed. But last week, we went from 8 or 9 online on a raid night, to 30-something! As a result, we were in Ulduar-25 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. On the down side, a lot of the new folks hadn’t seen a lot of the Ulduar fights at all, or had not seen them in a 25-man raid. So what do you think happened? Yep: Wipes, and lots of ‘em. But that’s okay: I’m sure by month-end we’ll be one-shotting the first six or eight bosses in one night.
One of my biggest aggravations in WoW is when a wipe is called…and it takes forever to wipe. How hard is it to die? After a few nights of screaming into my microphone (fortunately, PTT not engaged!) following our recent guild merger, I thought I’d compile this list of what to do, and what not to do, when a wipe is called.
DO…
- DIE, as quickly as you possibly can. See Note 1.
- Stop DPSing
- Stop Healing
- Stop Tanking (although chances are there are no tanks alive, which is why the wipe was called in the first place)
- STAND IN THE FIRE, or whatever else it takes to die, quickly. On Auriaya, for example, run about 10 yards away and let the feral defender one-shot you
- Know what convention your raid leader (RL) uses to call the wipe: "Wipe it up," "It’s a wipe," or whatever.
- Release and reenter the instance ASAP
DON’T…
- Say anything in Vent or /raid about "it’s a wipe" unless you are the RAID LEADER. If you are the GM, or any other officer, but are not the RL, S T F U. See Note 2.
- Keep DPSing, healing, or tanking
- Shadowmeld, Vanish, or Feign Death
- Use Divine Intervention near the boss’ spawn point, especially after the rest of the raid has started to reenter the instance. See Note 3.
- Do anything else to further waste the time of the other 4, 9, or 24 people with you
- Wait for a resurrection. Trust me, if I’m released and running back, you damned well better be also, unless you’ve previously receive the RAID LEADER’S permission to be rezzed.
- Call the wipe when the boss is under 5 (10?) percent. First, you really aren’t saving any time. Second, miracles do happen.
NOTES:
- If nothing else, standing absolutely still will probably get you dead as quickly as anything. In some cases, you can hurry things along by "standing in the fire" (or equivalent bad stuff).
- There is nothing more aggravating than having a bunch of wimps (to keep this relatively polite) throwing in the towel early. Hopefully, your raid leader is smart enough to recognize when the situation is hopeless. Your RL may also want to give people more experience with a particular phase of the fight, or allow them to observe different events during a particular fight. Until the raid leader says, "It’s a wipe," you better be busting your ass to keep and build threat (if you’re a tank), beat the crap out of the boss (if you’re DPS) or keep everyone alive (if you’re a healer). Finally, there is a reason that "Raid Leader" is a separate rank in many guilds: That’s their job! Let ‘em do it!
- Few things
are more annoyingpiss me off more than dying in the expedition formation grounds of Ulduar before I even get a chance to repair from the last wipe. In Ulduar especially, it just doesn’t take that long to get back to any of the bosses. Besides, you should repair. (How annoying is it when everyone is at 100 percent durability except for that guy, whose weapon is broken and everything else is red?)
This is a very helpful posts for both new and experienced raiders alike. And also, What’s more annoying than after a wipe when you release and run back to get into the instance only to find out that you are locked out because one person decided to bubble and run all the way back to the beginning. It totally kills momentum and the pace of the raid.
By the way…you should consider having your WoW related posts syndicated over at WoWphiles or feel free to write an article there. I like your work.
Take Care,
Jason
.-= JasonZ´s latest blog post is Racial Analysis: Draenei =-.
Thanks, Jason, and I agree–same as the hunter who feigns and tries to run back, while 24 other people are trying to get back in.
As for WoWphiles…I don’t support sites that advertise gold-selling or leveling services or anything else that violates or advocates violating Blizzard’s Terms of Service or EULA. But thanks for the compliment.
Stop DPSing
Eh… I disagree to some extent. More DPS, if anything, means we get threat quicker and die quicker.
Plus maintaining my rotation is almost muscle memory by the time a wipe’s called unless it’s super-early.
.-= Rilgon Arcsinh´s latest blog post is Yo, Fordring, I’m happy for you, and I’ma let you finish… =-.
If there’s a fire, poison cloud, or other way for you to die faster, you better be getting into it asap, though. Arayaia is a particular one where it’s obvious people aren’t paying attention: Staying grouped around her instead of (a) jumping in the void zone or (b) moving away so you can get pounced is bad form.
Couldn’t agree more. I really hate the person who runs instead of just standing still and wiping – especially in a guild where repairs are covered by guild funds. You can’t outrun trash, and most bosses theses days can’t be reset. Die, get up, and start running.
Generally if I call a wipe and it’s not happening fast enough I just DI the tank, or if I’m tanking I’ll DI another pally – or just bubble. Nothing wipes a raid like having Vezack run loose, or when you BoP the rogue right before an interrupt….
I gotta disagree with you on Feigning Death. While not applicable in all cases, if you know you’re in a safe area, FD removes you from the list of people who the boss still has to kill before he resets. Not to mention that if your guild doesn’t pay repair bills, that’s one less death to repair.
I’ve seen too many hunters (like, every.single.one) pop out of FD before the boss resets almost every time. In addition, even if by some miracle the hunter DOES wait till the boss resets, there are 24 other people waiting to get back into the instance. And no sympathy on the repair bill: Warriors, pallies & DKs wear plate, so I’m pretty sure they don’t care about your mail armor. (And if you can’t afford the repairs, even less sympathy: Do your dailies!)
Bottom line: Wipe now, wipe fast, and let’s restart.
There is an extremely good reason not to FD or Shadowmeld. If Heroism/Bloodlust has been used, the debuff will persist and you will be unable to get Hero for the next attempt.
Ohh…now there’s an excellent point I hadn’t even thought of! Thanks for that valuable reminder!
One thing to consider on long attempts is releasing. Some times it’s quicker to DI someone and have them rez people right there, instead of having everyone run back.
One example is General Vezax. It can be faster to get everyone rezzed up (especially in 10-man) instead of everyone running back. If you do this though, make sure to rez other rezzers first!
Unfortunately, I haven’t been as far as Vezax. Yet.
And I agree on the releasing: Certainly in some of the Outland instances, there were some long runs, and of course we told everyone to NOT release; we DI’d a rezzer, and had everyone back up quickly. Naxx and (most of) Ulduar…just doesn’t take that long to get back.
I usually unequip my weapon and taunt the nearest boss. That usually makes me die right quick.
.-= shopshopshop´s latest blog post is Recruiting, Officer or Not =-.
Hah! I bet it does!
Kes,
Got to admit – I’m guilty on the ‘stop DPS’ faux pas you mention above – though I’m getting better at it, I think. Generally speaking, though, I’ll find myself still trying to play what I’d do if the wipe hadn’t been called, which will kill me pretty quick, since it usually involves pulling the boss mob off a healer while in my DPS gear. I’m one of those who will sacrifice myself if I think that something absolutely needs to be done to keep the rest of the raid up for just a little while longer – such as blowing myself up to detonate a bomb on XT to keep 5 ScrapBots from being abosorbed, or pulling mobs off of healers to bring them back to the tanks, and the likes. I think I’ve got a bit of a tank mentality, even when I’m playing DPS, which can get me killed, but generally keeps a healer alive, which keeps the tank alive, which, hopefully, keeps the raid up a bit longer.
That’s the hope, anyhow. I don’t like getting killed for my charity, but at least in raid situations, I generally don’t, as our tanks are usually pretty good about grabbing aggro back.
I think, though, your advice above makes good sense – no reason to continue if the fight is pretty much over. I will say it’s a bit disappointing how quickly wipes can be called, sometimes, given the nature of some fights – like when we call wipe when one of our two tanks goes down early against Gormak the Impaler (ToC 10), since it’s nigh-impossible to run Acidmaw and Dreadscale with only one tank… I always find myself thinking “At least fight through Gormak… that’s good practice for everyone!” But we generally hear, “Tank down, wipe it up. Can’t do the worms with one tank.”
Ah well. Such is the life of a raider in progression.
My 2 yen,
Akiosama
.-= Akiosama´s latest blog post is Out with the Old and In with the New? =-.
You’re right: Continuing to DPS is generally a pretty sure way of getting dead faster, especially with the tank(s) down. However, my broader point, as I think you understood, was “If you can die faster, do it!” E.g., jump in the fire/poison/whatever.
I also agree that just because one tank is down in a two tank fight, you might not want to call the raid right away, especially if you have raid members who NEED to see more of the fight, in order to better handle the next attempt.
Good observations; thanks for sharing them!
Fantastic post. My only regret is that this post, in its entirety is not plastered all over the log in screen for every WoW player. At least for a week or so. Well okay maybe a month. Alright, a year. A year of seeing this every day might, just might, get people to heed your brilliant advice.
.-= Jederus´s latest blog post is All About the Patch 3.2.2 Economy =-.
I’m wacky. If I were RL I’d never call for a wipe while progressing. I’d make my raiders keep moving where they’re supposed to, looking for debuffs/adds and studying the mechanics. Practice makes perfect, after all!
I also hate when people release before all are dead. I’ve learned a LOT from lying dead on the ground and watching the fight.
.-= Kimberly´s latest blog post is Achievement Roll Call =-.
On Twitter: @ladygypsy
Then there are those who release…and we win the fight! OOPS! Sure hope they didn’t need one of the drops (but it sure drives home that lesson in a big way!).
Sometimes, wipes come so fast and are so ugly (tanks die right away, or don’t get aggro right away and the REST of the raid goes belly up really fast) that there’s nothing to be gained by prolonging the agony. But generally, yes: In a progression fight, the deaders can learn by watching; the survivors can learn by doing.