“I’d rather have someone in here doing 1k less dps but able to move out of the fires.” – My Raid Leader
The key to your raid getting a boss on farm is for you to get the boss on farm first. When I’m learning a new encounter, and it looks like there will be wiping, my goal is to die when all hell has broken loose; I want to be the last dwarf standing.
Wiping is a natural part of progression raiding. It happens. The fights in ICC have a lot of movement and require tons of raid awareness to get through them.
The biggest mistake that I see people make is they perceive their class function to be their primary job, and as such they prioritize this over everything else. And why not? It’s the one thing that doesn’t change from encounter to encounter. It’s the one thing you already know how to do; it’s easy.
The reality is survivability should be the number one priority and everything else should be secondary until the mechanics of each fight are second nature to you. Survivability is a responsibility of everyone in the raid. It is not about healers doing a better job of keeping you alive, it’s about you avoiding as much damage as possible, even if it comes at the expense of your dps. It’s about understanding the fight and reacting to events immediately. As Rilgon over at Stabilized Effort Scope writes, you should never hesitate.
How does one get better? How do you go about getting a boss on farm? You can start by putting away the meters. On these early attempts the meters are nothing but a distraction. If you can’t bring yourself to disable the meters, at least keep them minimized and review the numbers after the fight.
Get familiar with your defensive capabilities and have them at the ready. Deterrence isn’t a standard part of my rotation, but when learning fights such as the Blood Queen I find it to be an invaluable ability. Also, consider going with a speed enchant such as Tuskarr’s Vitality. Some high-end guilds actually require all of their raiders to have some form of speed enhancement.
Actively use a boss addOn such as DBM or DXE. Don’t just install and forget it. Take the time and familiarize yourself with the timers and alerts for each encounter. Since the first few attempts are likely to be wipes, try backing off the dps and watching these mods. The information they provide is incredible. Seriously they are like GPS for boss fights.
Evaluate what you did wrong after each attempt. If you died to a specific mechanic, make a point to not die by that same mechanic next attempt. Find a new way to die. 😛
Finally, try setting a goal for yourself for getting the boss on farm. I’d like to think that I can figure out the mechanics of most encounters in six or so attempts. It doesn’t always happen, but more often than not I find that I’m the last dwarf standing.
Good Hunting!
