Blog Archives - Working as IntendedUS-Aerie Peak (A)CTR Moonfang

Progression has occurred! Normal Imperator; Mythic Kor'agh Down

12/18/2014

Great first two nights to our raid week. Cleared farm content in Normal and Heroic very quickly and managed to kill two progression bosses: Normal Imperator Mar'gok and Heroic Kor'agh. Great job by all involved! The gear gods have been very kind to us as I'm happy to report we still have yet to shard a drop during this tier. As a team we're over 656 ilvl which is fantastic.

Mythic Kargath Video Guide (WATCH WATCH WATCH)
This Sunday will definitely involve our first look at Mythic and possibly some attempts at Heroic Imperator.

Happy Holidays to everyone and good luck on Sunday! I'll be back from vacation to raid on the 28th! We'll discuss the return of Groupme once our regular raid schedule resumes!

A Look at Raidwide Damage on Kor'agh

12/16/2014

Here's a look at the raidwide damage that goes out during the Kor'agh fight. While there are definitely additional challenges - moving away from suppression zone smashes, single target healing during Rune of Nullification (Phase 2) on the soaker and the add tank, and finally keeping the MT up as Kor'agh's stacks grow near the end of the Barrier portions (Phase 1) - this is a significant challenge to the raid team to manage through the raidwide damage that goes on.

I'm not sure there are any great weakauras for the timers on the Expel Magic casts out just yet due to the way the timers go on pause when the raid pushes him into Phase 2 and then pick up where they left off for Phase 1. I'll set about creating something usable.

Our team personally got much better at moving out of the avoidable stuff as progressions continued and our tanks got better at controlling the adds. Feels like we'll have this thing nailed very soon.

Raid Week #2 Down - Progress on Kor'agh...Incomplete

12/14/2014

Good efforts to take down Kor'agh. Felt like we spent the first hour getting our bearings, the second hour learning how to stop taking avoidable damage and the third hour we saw some actual progress. Had a 6% wipe that was bordering on a kill. A couple of later attempts in the night that were super clean until a mishap or two took us out. 100% confidence we'll see this guy dead early into the next raid week!

Next week is our last full week of raiding until Jan 6th lockout. Let's all plan to get in early and get ready to wipe the floor with Normal and clear through as much of the already cleared heroic content as possible on Wednesday. Until then, here's a few a links to keep you busy:

Vox Immortalis Guide

Weekend Update & Comments Regarding Mythic Roster

12/13/2014

Plans for Sunday are to progress on Heroic Kor'agh and then evaluate Mythic Kargath progression vs Normal Impregnator. There are pros and cons to going into either fight. The biggest contributor to making this decision is based around what gives us the best chance for loot. In either case, make sure to study up on both Mythic Kargath and the Impregnator fight.

One of the behind the scenes activities taking place is to review performance for the past week and start making decisions for the 20m comp heading into Kargath. Our plan has always been to carry a 25 raider team into Mythics, with the obvious understanding that 5 players will have to sit during these fights. We've managed this situation in a very balanced method as Siege of Orgrimmar wound down in 20 raider mode and while 10 person raiding was still a thing. We'll continue to do this in the manner that gives us the best chance to progress with the understanding that we will swap players in and out based on the comp feels and, of course, as progression becomes farm to keep gearing up the roster. Its obviously disappointing to learn you're not going to be participating in a fight, at least off the start, so with that in mind, I wanted to share what the officer crew is considering as we analyze numbers and evaluate performance.

Damage Taken (all players) - this is fairly universal and as mechanics ramp up from a slight drain on mana to pure chaos this a top priority
Effective use of interrupts and cooldowns - being adept at the thankless jobs that keep mechanics in check
Damage/Healing done - numbers checks are always a critical factor to Mythic fights
Raid Comp fit - buffs aren't really a concern anymore but raid cooldowns, range vs. melee mix and class fit to fight are all relevant here.

These are all listed in relative priority to the analysis. I don't plan on sharing the analysis with the team as a whole, but if you are interested in discussing where your performance fits, officers are open to discuss.

5/7 Heroic Down

12/11/2014

3 New Heroic Bosses Downed - Tectus, Brackenspore and Twin Ogrons

Great work by the team to take care of some unfinished business from Tectus last Sunday and to take out two new bosses in a fairly minimal amount of pulls. Had some great individual performances on fights as several players ranked in the top 50 world numbers at the time on warcraftlogs.com. Took a few attempts on Kor'agh to start fine tuning the strategy but no kill just yet.

6/7 Normal + 2/7 Heroic Downed

12/10/2014

It was a great night to head back into Highmaul. We cleared all of our previously cleared content and downed Butcher Heroic for good measure. Saw a number of DPS improvements and yet to shard any gear drops. Seems like the Loot council is doing a pretty good job at sharing the wealth.

Some video keepsakes of the night (to the right) for the heroic kills. Down below is one of the more fun moments of the night. Feels good to be back killing bosses again!

Highmaul Week #2

12/10/2014

Headed to Highmaul again tonight. Planning to do 6/7 NM tonight and spend remainder of the week working on HMs. Given the lukewarm reception to the RNG of Personal Loot, we'll be delving back into Lootmaster mode this week. Remember our strategies are posted in the forums (members only). To the right are links to the wowhead guides to Highmaul and the Fatboss video guides.

Thought of the week for gearing: If you haven't been capping Conquest weekly, start doing it. Investing an hour or so in 2v2 arenas at a 40% win rate (fairly easy to do even if you just tank your MMR up front by AFKing a few) will net you a nice 660 necklace in one week. Bankrolling CP to the next week will pretty much have you in any armor piece you want. 3-4 weeks of capping will have you in a 660 weapon. In addition to your Arena CP Cap, you can also earn an extra 200 CP weekly by participating in Ashran. Killing Cronus (Alliance side) will earn you 25CP and defeating High Lord Volwhatever is worth around 250 or enough to get your cap. You can also join into Group Finder raids that are killing the mini PVE bosses inside Ashran for easy 25CP and free PVP gear (not conquest) daily. So even if Arenas aren't your thing, you can still manage to hit conquest cap weekly via Ashran.

TL;DR Highmaul Guides

Fatboss Guides to Highmaul

Wowhead Guides to Highmaul

WELP... HM Night #1 Recap

12/7/2014

So we killed Kargath! Put in some effort to Tectus and hit enrage once but didn't manage to seal the victory. A little more gear next week and we'll see how we stack up against these heroic bosses again. Next raid night 5:30p - planning to roll through 6/7 in normals and collect some more loots!

Stream Highlights - SpencerHD

HM Night #1 - Highmaul & Reminder of Your Raid Preparedness

12/7/2014

We're heading into heroics on Sunday. Currently 6/7 on NM. Time to get some more gear and see what kind of damage we can do to heroics during the first week's lockout! See you all there at 5:30p PST!

Week before raid
 Study up – boss guides, MMO Champion class forums, whatever your preferred preparation method
 Read up on team strategy as posted in WAI Roster Mgmt spreadsheet
 Practice in LFR, Normal, or Heroic
 Log your practice sessions and review your logs for areas of trouble & opportunity

2 days before raid
 Make a list of upgrades so you’re prepared in advance of loot dropping
 Note your boss requests in the WAI Roster Mgmt spreadsheet

1 day before raid
 Reboot your PC and router (if that’s likely to be helpful)
 Gather personal consumables (food, potions, flasks, elixirs)
 Make sure RCLootCouncil is installed and enabled.

30 minutes before raid
 Check your gear for temporary items (Dalaran ring, Stormwind cloak, etc.)
 Repair your gear
 Double-check your gear optimization (best pieces, gems, enchants)

15 minutes before raid
 Get into CTR Mumble Raid 20
 Whisper Prema “Working” (without quotes) for auto invite
 Get to the instance and help kill trash

Raid time
 Check your food and flasks before each fight
 Check your talents and glyphs before each fight
 Get your raid buffs out and keep them up as needed
 Be quick to select your loot options after each fight
 Trash killing is social time, when trash is dead, clear Mumble for boss-killing time

Bring a cheerful attitude and the confidence of knowing you are well prepared to every raid. This is a team effort; none of us can succeed or fail on our own.

We're Live!

12/6/2014

Welcome to the one safe source for information regarding the Working as Intended raid team on US-Aerie Peak. In the upcoming days, you'll find key information relating to updates, raid plans, and more. Additional strategy and class specific information is part of our team member only section of the website. For any raiders interested in joining our team, we'll be posting links to our recruitment details here as well.