BWL Policies

[Waldonnis]

Blackwing Lair Policies and Rules

As with Maube’s Molten Core raid, any problems, concerns, questions, or large sums of gratuitous cash are to be directed to Verissi (or your class leader; more on this shortly). I don’t want any bad feelings to fester, so bring up problems before that happens. We’ve had good times together in MC and I want that to continue.

General Rules:

* Repair before you come in

We’ll likely wipe a lot learning each encounter, so make sure to start off in good condition. Repair bots don’t grow on trees either. This is more important once BWL starts on its own night rather than as an epilogue to Friday’s MC.

* Bring enough reagents, ammo, pet food, and shards

Be considerate to the others in your class and bring enough buffing reagents. Nothing slows down a raid more than having to wait for mana regen from the same 1-2 people because they’re doing all of the buffing (not to mention the cost burden on them). There are also no trash mobs in the beginning to farm shards off of, so come prepared. Shaman and druids need to bring enough seeds and ankhs. You never know when your reincarnate/rebirth may make the difference between win and wipe.

* Be on time

Again, more important when this run has its own day, but something to get used to with MC. Because we have no trash mobs to farm, don’t expect any summons under normal circumstances. Shards are more useful for soul/healthstones than getting your butt to the Mountain because you waited too long to leave that battleground…

* The drama llama is not welcome in BWL

No petty BS whispers, bickering, etc. If we want to succeed in BWL, we absolutely MUST work together, even if people don’t like each other or are upset about someone else taking loot. If an issue comes up during the raid that upsets you, please try to set it aside and deal with it later. The last thing the raid needs is a few key people being distracted at the wrong time. In short, let’s all be the adults that we are.

Raid Structure:

Fights in BWL are much different than the “show up, DPS the crap out of it, collect loot” style of fighting that we’ve grown accustomed to in MC. BWL bosses are more technical, sometimes aggro-sensitive, and often have phases associated with their encounters, much like Onyxia. To ease the burden on just one or two raid leaders to watch every detail or know which people are best suited for a specific function of a fight, I’m making a more formal raid leadership structure that includes class leaders.

Raid leader: Verissi

Assistant raid leader/Grand overseer: Maube

Class leads:

Mage: Ghules (alternate: Maube)

Rogue: Scryll (alternate: Roh)

Hunter: Khanak (alternate: Gordantell)

Warlock: Chemmy (alternate: Vrugz)

Priest: Molox (alternate: Kytae)

Warrior: Relikk

Druid: Oriahtundra (alternate: Amahli)

Shaman: Baracko

Class leads will select a backup in case they’re unavailable. Talk to these people for questions about your role in each fight and assignments. Also, help your class leads by being prepared for the fights. Study up on how each fight works so that we can cut down on the time needed to explain every detail of the fights and instead focus on what our approach will be. I'll be posting several links very soon that give the lore and technical aspects of BWL bosses and trash mobs to help with this (and for those interested in the background of the drakes and the flight represented in BWL).

Loot and DKP:

* Zero-sum, but independent of MC’s DKP pool

* Training DKP will NOT be awarded (there are many reasons for this)

Raiders will gain DKP at alternate destinations while we’re learning (Onyxia, AQ40, etc). Loot in Onyxia or other places will follow the normal Clan Skullcrusher Onyxia loot rules (have to run with us once prior in order to roll on loot, otherwise, it’s “random 100”). BWL LDKP determines the loot distribution for the very first drops from Razorgore. After that, we’ll use DKP in a regular fashion for all loot.

DKP costs for items:

Tier 2: 125 dkp (same as MC)

BWL weapons and accessories: 200 dkp

Nexus crystals: 25 dkp (same as MC, although I suspect we’ll have less to offer for awhile)

Raid bank will be shared with MC until the raids diverge in needs.

Elementium drops will go to the raid bank, to be smelted and distributed to those doing the Thunderfury quest.

The recipients of the heads of the Broodlord and Nefarian will be chosen in the same fashion that we currently handle Onyxia’s head (raid leader’s discretion). Feel free to lop off Vael’s head and play dodgeball with it, though

Add-on Policy:

I tossed this around and, while I hate doing this, I have to insist that folks install at least a couple add-ons to make both my and your lives easier in BWL:

CT RaidAssist – The king of all raid add-ons; includes debuff curing, buff monitoring, and I’m sure they’ll even toss in dancing bears eventually since it has everything else already.

KLHThreatMeter – Some mobs/bosses are immune to taunt, so pulling aggro off of the tanks will wipe the raid. Use this to monitor and meter your own aggro.

That’s about it for add-ons…use others at your discretion and chat with your class leads for advice on other add-ons that may be helpful for you. Boss notification mods and such will be run by myself or Maube for raid-wide announcements, but you’re welcome to run your own as well for personal notification. Additionally, we will be continuing the policy of not allowing damage meter results in the raid. I obviously cannot stop anyone from running them, but please respect the rules and keep the results to yourself.

That’s about it. Let’s keep it fun, but remember to stay focused. I’ll need everyone to bring their A-game every single night that we’re in there.

Links to boss fights (from WoWWiki) below. It's always good to know how the fights work and be prepared!

• Razorgore the Untamed
  
• Vaelastrasz the Corrupt
  
• Broodlord Lashlayer
  
• Firemaw
  
• Ebonroc
  
• Flamegor
  
• Chromaggus
  
• Nefarian
  

Edited November 21, 2006 by Waldonnis

[Waldonnis]

A small addendum...

MC lately has been a bit lax and sloppy, as I think we have all noticed. I know MC is easy for many of us at this point, but let's use that time to tighten up and really get coordinated. The sooner we do that, the easier it will be to deal with the utter chaos of Razorgore's first phase and the transition into the second phase...as well as many of the other fights in BWL that require superb raid coordination.

Things that need to be improved that I've seen:

* Aggro management - Pulling aggro off of the tanks in taunt-immune fights is very bad, so don't do it.

* Wait for DPS calls - This includes you, hunters and warlocks...feign can be resisted and warlock dots do generate hate. I'd rather wait five minutes for the tank to be certain he has the mob's focus than spend 10mins rebuffing the raid after a wipe. If we can't get this to be a habit in MC, where it's not so hazardous....

* Watch your surroundings - We've wiped a few times recently because people got too close to mobs that they knew were there. Keep a safe distance from neighbouring mobs and always look where you are going before you go there to be sure nothing extremely bad is awaiting you.

* If you're going to AFK, let Maube or I know....and try to avoid going afk for more than a minute or two right before a boss fight. I know things come up, but it sometimes leads to even more lengthy delays because buffs dropped while we were waiting or such.

I KNOW we can do better than we have been. I want us to walk into BWL as the group that did MC in one night in a pinch...not as the group that wiped twice on trash. Let's tighten up and show Razorgore what the Crushers and our friends are capable of!

[Qiris]

Ah love it when you talk all strict with meh.

*shiver*

Seriously looking forward to this, sorry I've been out for a couple of weeks. Look for more Xiris sort of next week and definitely after that.

[chemmy]

anyone know a good site where i can read up on the boss fight's in BWL?

[Jeroabem/Sabrianica]

WoW Wiki

[Baracko]

I find WoWwiki to be the best so far... they are a little slow to post changes in encounters with patches, but overall, the strategy is sound.

www.wowwiki.com

Happy reading everyone!

[Maube]

::salutes to V::

Raid Nazi-ing commence

[chemmy]

ok, thank you, i will read up and do my research on what a lock should do in boss fights in there

[Waldonnis]

Just a quick follow-up...

I've intentionally not provided much info for our first night in BWL...new place, new strategy, new organisational structure...it's alot to take in all at once. Couple that with some strategic differences between what I want to do and some of the guides that I've seen, I just want to make sure that we don't have a ton of confusion before walking through that gate. I'd rather go in there and introduce everyone to the fight together where we're all actually seeing the same thing than have 40 people walk in with different ideas in their heads.

Class leads (with a few exceptions...working on helping Molox out with an alternate) know the duties and will be able to answer questions and make assignments for tonight's entry, so we're not totally walking in "cold". Honestly, it's really a fight that you have to see to comprehend how crazy it is...describing it almost doesn't do it justice and I'd rather experience it together and learn that way than link some guide on how Alliance Guild #112589234 takes down Razorgore. We worked through MC together, often deviating from some very commonly suggested tactics, and I'm sure we'll "do it our way" again in BWL

That having been said, one more thing worthy of note is that class leads do have quite a bit of power AND responsibility. Don't beat them up too badly and if there are any problems with the structure of the raid, please let myself or Maube know in private...but please try to work with the class leads first. I want this raid to almost run itself performance-wise with me playing more of the part of a conductor than a dictator, so work with the others in your class, trade tips, etc....I've learned tons from the other mages as I'm sure that I've passed along some useful info as well. I'd like to see that kind of spirit throughout our time in BWL.