The Perfect Raid - Alternate Composition

For posterity's sake, and because Rohan alluded to a comp that I had toyed with before settling on the one in my last post, here is the other version of my perfect raid, solving the "I want a 3rd healthstone" problem but creating issues with group stacking. Swapped in: Resto Druid, Destro Warlock; Swapped out: Holy Paladin, Feral Druid...

G1 - Tank
Protection Warrior
Protection Paladin
Restoration Druid
Restoration Druid
Affliction Warlock

G2 - Melee
Enhancement Shaman
Retribution Paladin
Arms Warrior
Combat Rogue
Combat Rogue

G3 - Agility Stackers
Restoration Shaman (Grace of Air totem)
Survival Hunter
BM Hunter
Destruction Warlock
Feral Druid

G4 - Caster DPS
Elemental Shaman
Destruction Warlock
Fire Mage
Fire Mage
Shadow Priest

G5 - Healers
Restoration Shaman
CoH Priest
Imp. DS Priest
Holy Paladin
Shadow Priest

This raid composition gets more raw DPS from the addition of the Destruction Warlock to replace the Feral Druid, but loses a true tank, which would force the Arms Warrior into tank gear on certain encounters. The Resto Druid in place of the fourth Paladin is a fine choice, I just love having four blessings as a Ret Paladin, otherwise I miss out on Blessing of Wisdom. I'm selfish. I also swapped the Holy Paladin from the tank group into the healer group, and put the second Resto Druid in there. Double tree aura on the tank! (Tree? No. Double tree? Hell yea! - Mitch Hedberg reference, he was a funny man.)

My issue with this composition is the Agility group (G3). The Destruction Warlock is receiving Ferocious Inspiration and a Mana Spring Totem, but is hardly benefiting from the Grace of Air Totem or the Leader of the Pack buff. I feel like this can be done better. In my previous post, there was no question about where to put people, this comp is a bit murkier...

EDIT: Argent suggested using a Felguard-Demonology Warlock in g3 instead of another Destruction Warlock. It's an idea that crossed my mind, but I have had no experience with Demo Warlocks in raids aside from when our Destro Warlocks respecced for Soul Link when we were learning Leotheras and Kael'thas. I agree that having a Soul Link'ed Warlock in the raid would be useful for caster-tanking on fights like Leo, Kael, and Illidan, but is the damage capability of a Felguard-lock at all comparable with Destruction or even Affliction? Someone link me some WWS reports of t6 Felguard-locks in BT or Sunwell, I want to know.

The Perfect Raid

BRK recently made a post asking readers to take a pool of 25 raid members and align them into groups for a raid. Raid leading and organization is a hot-button topic with me, because I think I know better than everyone. I'm secretly an elitist jerk, I just try to suppress that side of me, well, always. It leaks through though. I'm working on it. DON'T JUDGE ME!

Anyway, one topic that I always have in the back of my mind whenever I'm thinking about raid composition is how a raid would look if I could pick any classes/roles and mix 'em together to create the ultimate, unbreakable, catch-all raid composition. Here's what I would come up with:

Tanks: Protection Warrior, Protection Paladin, Feral Druid, Feral Druid

Physical DPS: Enhancement Shaman, Combat Rogue, Combat Rogue, Arms Warrior, Retribution Paladin, Survival Hunter, BM Hunter

Caster DPS: Fire Mage, Fire Mage, Affliction Warlock, Destruction Warlock, Shadow Priest, Shadow Priest, Elemental Shaman

Healers: CoH Priest, Imp. DS Priest, Holy Paladin (Imp. Might), Holy Paladin (Imp. Conc. Aura), Restoration Druid, Restoration Shaman, Restoration Shaman

And how would the groups look? I'm glad you asked!

G1 - Tank
Protection Warrior
Protection Paladin
Holy Paladin (Imp. Might)
Restoration Druid
Affliction Warlock

G2 - Melee
Enhancement Shaman
Retribution Paladin
Arms Warrior
Combat Rogue
Feral Druid

G3 - Agility Stackers
Restoration Shaman (Grace of Air totem)
Survival Hunter
BM Hunter
Combat Rogue
Feral Druid

G4 - Caster DPS
Elemental Shaman
Destruction Warlock
Fire Mage
Fire Mage
Shadow Priest

G5 - Healers
Restoration Shaman
CoH Priest
Imp. DS Priest
Holy Paladin (Imp. Conc. Aura)
Shadow Priest

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Why did I create the groups like this? Group synergies. The Resto Druid tree aura boosts healing on the 2 "main" tanks, the Prot Pally and Prot Warrior. The Holy Paladin and Prot Paladin can run Improved Devotion Aura and Retribution Aura in that group, respectively. The Affliction Warlock gives the tanks both Blood Pact from his Imp. And the Prot Warrior can give the Prot Paladin Commanding Shout.

The melee group set-up is pretty standard - Enh Shaman gives the group Unleashed Rage and Windfury, while the Ret Paladin gives Improved Sanctity Aura and the Arms Warrior supplies Improved Battle Shout. The Feral Druid gives everyone Leader of the Pack and a bit of healing on the side.

The agility group gets the Survival Hunter's Expose Weakness as high as possible with maximum up-time, and the BM Hunter's Ferocious Inspiration boosts everyone's damage. The Resto Shammy is there basically just for Grace of Air.

The caster group is set to get fun caster totems and a mana feed to the Mages.

The healer group gets Mana Spring/Tide and Wrath of Air from a Resto Shaman, and a mana feed from the Shadow Priest.

The raid has 2 healthstones, 4 Paladin blessings, full Judgements on the main target, Blood Frenzy from the Arms Warrior, Expose Weakness, 2 curses, 3 battle res's, 8 healers (more if the Ele Shaman or Prot Paladin throw on healing gear for a fight), 4 capable tanks (with a 5th potential tank if the Arms/Ret throw on tank gear), 4 Heroisms, and 2 Misdirects. The Holy Paladin (Imp. Conc. Aura) can be swapped out for an extra DPS, likely a Warlock.

The best part is that the 2 Feral Druids can swap into their DPS suits and go "rawr kitty!" form when they are not needed as tanks for certain encounters. So, for a fight like Anetheron, the Warrior could tank Anetheron and the Paladin could pick up the infernals, while the kitties scratched away at the dreadlord's behind. For a fight like, say, Karathress, you would still have 4 high-armor, high-dodge tank options to employ.

The only thing this raid is missing, for me, is a 3rd Warlock for the extra healthstone and curse. I want to keep the raid with 8 dedicated healers, otherwise I'd drop the 4th Paladin for another Destruction Warlock. I don't know how to remedy this. Any ideas on how to keep the 8 healer number and the delicate raid balance and still mix in another Warlock? Perhaps dropping the Elemental Shaman for a 2nd Destro Warlock would work - higher personal damage and an extra curse might be better than totems for the caster group. What'cha think?

The End of the World (of Warcraft)

Larisa posed a hypothetical question to the Blog Azeroth community that Matticus had used in a past interview:

Let’s hypothetically assume Blizzard goes out of business and decides to shut down their servers and WoW for good. You have 5 hours before the server shutdown is permanent. What would you do in 5 hours?

An interesting question, to be sure. Armageddon is striking Azeroth and Cathmor's only got 5 hours to live? Well, I'd probably start by logging into my character and engaging in panicked discussion with my guildmates, lamenting the imminent loss of our main source of after-work entertainment. After that went on for about 10-20 minutes, I'd strap on my PvP gear and muster as many people as I could for an all-out attack on a major Horde city. I'd probably go after Orgrimmar or Silvermoon City - Undercity and Thunderbluff confuse me. The combined might of the Alliance would be thrown at the front and back gates of Orgrimmar simulataneously as we attempted to sweep through the city and assassinate Thrall. I've never killed a faction leader, and I want to do so before I quit playing.

After an hour or two of city raiding, I'd probably indulge my RP side and make a pilgrimage to Uther's Tomb, paying homage to the first Paladin of the Order of the Silver Hand. Letting the moment sink in, I would move on to the gates of Stratholme and cleanse the city of undeath one last time, taking as many other Paladins in there with me as I could. I'm thinking a 5-man all-Pally group: 3-4 level 70 Ret Paladins, 1 level 70 Holy Paladin, and 1 Prot Paladin depending on how many Ret's I take. We'd clear the city completely, purging the Scourge and the Scarlet Crusade from the once-proud city's streets.

Upon completing those tasks, I would most likely take down some contact information for the players I'd like to stay in touch with and log out, likely back in Stormwind in the Cathedral of Light. I wouldn't stick around for an end-of-the-world party, I'd just hearth, park, and log. And that's that.

Item Spotlight: Shard of Contempt

Today we will be taking a closer look at one of the finer items in the game for melee DPS, the [Shard of Contempt], and consequently the Expertise skill's impact upon raid DPS. This is a trinket that most DPS'ers covet, and I feel it is my duty to explain why to the uninitiated.

Acquisition
The Shard of Contempt, hereafter referred to as SoC, can be acquired from Priestess Delrissa in Magister's Terrace when she is defeated on heroic mode. The Priestess drops several other potent trinkets when killed on heroic, namely [Vial of the Sunwell], [Commendation of Kael'thas], and [Timbal's Focusing Crystal]. Subsequently, it should not be hard to find a group looking to hunt down and kill this boss.

The Priestess encounter is fairly difficult, so come prepared. It is much like a PvP encounter - the Priestess is flanked by four other NPC's of varying abilities, creating a 5v5 match. The NPC's all are made to mirror a certain class, and have the strengths and weaknesses associated with their class. For example, one NPC is usually a warrior - snare effects are very effective in keeping him at bay, since a melee DPS which can't close to melee range won't be able to do much damage. For more information on the Priestess encounter and how to best her, check out her Wowwiki page.

Evaluation
The SoC may only be item level 115, but it is one of the few readily available items with expertise rating. Expertise is an excellent DPS stat, as it reduces the chance for opponents to dodge and parry the user's attacks. For a melee DPS'er, parry is not a concern since one should always attack from behind the target (you do stay behind your targets, right?), but enemies in World of Warcraft can and will dodge strikes no matter what direction they come from. With 44 expertise rating on it, SoC is the item with the single largest expertise total in the game. Enemies have a 6.5% base chance to dodge attacks - SoC's 44 expertise rating cuts that nearly in half. Add onto that the Disdain proc, which grants the user a chance with each melee strike to gain 230 attack power, and it is not hard to understand why SoC is such a sought after trinket. Reducing an opponent's dodge by a percentage will by proxy increase the user's number of landed attacks by a percentage, which means this trinket will increase damage in a scaling manner. No matter how laughable or scary one damaging attack is from the user, SoC will increase the number of attacks that land by ~2.75%, which is not bounded by anything. As one's gear improves, SoC's effect is magnified.

Conclusions?
A must-have for all Retribution Paladins, the Shard of Contempt is easily one of the best trinkets available in-game. Run Heroic Magister's Terrace into the ground and get this bad boy.