This is the first Raider Homework post for Uldir and BFA. Raiders both new and old should pay a lot of attention!

Focus: Normal

For now, we’re going to be focusing on normal bosses for Uldir. Many videos (like FatbossTV) cover both Normal and Heroic in the same video. Please cross-reference videos with Uldir Abilities to see which abilities are not in normal mode so you don’t get overwhelmed by excess mechanics you don’t need to know right now.

Many videos (such as fatboss) also cover theorycrafting of each boss, how Blizzard could change the boss, etc. Don’t worry about that information. We want you to know the mechanics as they are, not what they could be. Also, assume bugs will have been smoothed out before the raid drops. We are not going to penalize you if abilities have changed or are different as a result of bug fixing between beta and live.

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Two small and one big change coming to the site today!

New Top Banner

First, the banner at the top of every webpage has been updated. It used to be our kill pic from Nighthold:

Now, it’s our kill pic from Heroic Antorus:

New Raiding Homepage Banner

Remember the AOTC Mount Photo and submissions?

PvP Pages

Last, but certainly not least, we have a PvP section on the website now.

Much like the Raiding homepage, the PvP homepage has the most recent 10 PvP posts, and links to the rules and complete PvP news feed. It also includes a handy list of PvP-only resources, like addons and macros. The homepage lists requirements for partaking in both casual and rated PvP, and features the picture of us on our mounts after achieving For the Horde.

I continue to try to push out quality of life changes and add new, useful, and fun features to the website for the guild. If you have an idea or a suggestion, fill out the Feedback form and let me know! Is something broken? Submit a Bug Report!

I made a slight change to the Raiding Rules & Regulations page today. It was pointed out that I still had “Monday / Wed” listed as the days. This has been corrected to Thursday / Friday.

Also a reminder that because the Raiding Rules were updated for the new season, everyone must re-read them, including those who raided previously or are already Vanguards. We want to ensure that everyone is on equal footing.

Didn’t read it yet? You should! Check out the Uldir Pre-Raid Planning Meeting Minutes. It’s required reading for future raid attendees!

Additional questions / clarification I’ve added to the post that I’ve received since the meeting:

Do we need to have the videos memorized / mechanics all memorized?
No! Sorry, that would be totally unreasonable of us. We want you to have a good understanding of mechanics but we do not expect perfection on day one. There are going to be a lot of “Oh, that’s what they meant by XX!” moments as we start raiding.

Can you clarify what you mean by “neck level”?
Yes, of course! By “neck level” we meant “Azerite Level / Artifact Power Level”. We did not mean Heart of Azeroth ilvl. I’ve edited the aforementioned text [in the original post] to clarify this point.

I didn’t read X because Y reasons / I didn’t see it in your post / I must have misheard:
If you don’t see information listed, don’t hesitate to reach out to us – we might have forgotten. Also, if we say something verbally, feel free to tell us “Hey you should add that to a post / put it in raiding announcements”. We don’t want to forget to share important information!

But let me reclarify and reiterate: EVERYTHING posted in Raid Announcements, the Raid News feed, AND the Raider Homework feed is required reading. I also suggest reading the Player Performance category, though that is not currently required.

You can easily cut this down to the “Raid Announcements” and “MoD Website Feed” Discord channels if you don’t want to check the website specially. NOT ALL INFO WILL BE CROSS-POSTED. IT IS ON YOU TO FOLLOW THE APPROPRIATE INFORMATION CHANNELS. “I didn’t see it / didn’t know where to look” is not a valid excuse anymore!

TLDR:

(I’ve also edited some typos. We’re no longer proudly interested in receiving pictures to show off your member.)

Wow, guys! What an amazing turnout. We’d like to thank everyone who listened to us and asked good questions about the plans we have for raiding this tier. We hope to see you!

Below is the agenda and the meeting minutes, all information you’ll need to be ready for raids, and more!

Raid Pre-Planning Meeting Agenda:

  • Introduction from the Warlords
  • Rules and Regulations changes
  • Where to Find Important Announcements
  • Required Pre-Raid Reading / Viewing
  • Other Helpful Informatives
  • Helping the Raid Pre-Uldir
  • Raid Loot Distribution and Rolling
  • Raid Composition for Week 1
  • Minimum Requirements for Raiding
  • Q&A

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We expect a big turnout for the Uldir Raid Info meeting on Thursday. 50+ people have signed up. If even half of those who signed up attend, it’s going to get real crazy in the Discord channel. Please mute your microphone during the meeting and do not ask questions or speak up out of turn. Hold off on questions and commentary until the very end. Anyone who speaks up out of turn may find themselves muted and even removed from the channel.

If you have questions before (or that arise during) the meeting, keep track of them in a notepad or otherwise on your own device. Don’t ask/type them during the meeting until Q&A time, please. It will only distract yourself and others and you may miss important information while the Raid Leads are talking.

There will be a post in the Raiding Announcements channel that will have a hand emoji react on it. If you have a question (or several), please react to it. We’ll be answering questions based on the names that react to the post. This is to keep 20 people from speaking up at once all over one-another. Once your question or questions have been answered, feel free to un-react to the post (this is especially useful if multiple people have the same question).

One or more of us will be taking minutes during the meeting so we can share and reference all the information we cover as well as the questions that we didn’t anticipate ahead of time.

From Raid Leader Zextol:

We will be holding a mandatory pre BFA raid meeting on 8/23/18 (see the guild calendar to sign up). All raiders/new guild members seeking to raid Uldir please make it a point to attend; the event starts at 4:00p server (7:00p Eastern). We will be discussing weekly progression times, rules and requirements, establishing roles and just overall tips for preparing for the first week of Uldir. Speak to a raid leader if you will not be able to catch the meeting and we will do our best to accommodate you. We look forward to seeing you all!!

This will be my last wrap-up until BfA and Uldir. pre-patch is going to be hectic, and we’ll be focusing more on personal changes to classes and how to raid with those changes, than on raid mechanics.

Wednesday: Heroic Lower

We had a few new & returning players to our heroic run this week!

Imonar we got a little too excited and too hasty on, with crossing the bridge the second time. We’ve become a little overconfident, and a little lax in being careful. As a result we had a wipe at only 6% health left. Raid Lead Reminder: stay behind the tanks! There’s no point in getting there first and missing heals or stepping in something bad.

Kin’Garoth, similarly, had a few mechanics issues. We had early Ruiner deaths across the board. We try to give ample time for calling out Ruined ahead of time, but you should all have timers that show when these things are being cast (especially you new folks). Raid Lead Reminder: Keep an ear out for important callouts. Ruiner and balls are both avoidable medhanics. We’ll do our best to help you by making others cut extraneous chatter.

Varimathras had tank issues again. Our first pull was really good. After that, we could barely get between two movement rotations before wiping. Once we got those issues sorted out, we downed him.

Wednesday Logs

Saturday: We did it, Reddit!

WE DOWNED COVEN!

It only took us 3 attempts that night. Basically, we needed decent RNG on the add phases. If we could have everyone up for the healing adds, we were golden. We finally got a good one, and took those bitches down.

After that, we rolled onto Aggramar for a while, and then Argus. Aggramar had 4 wipes, including one that was very nearly a kill. Mostly, we’re struggling on add management and CC. Our first add phase will often go well, while the second…is a mess. We also had the large adds brought too close to one another, or too close to smaller adds, on a couple occasions. Aggramar is….aggravating…and requires us to be very precise in our movements.

Saturday Logs

Sunday: Bonus Argus Kill

I didn’t take logs. We killed him, for the first time, with no PUGs. It was great to get one final kill in on Heroic before the squish and great to do it “alone”. It’s been a great season and that was a lovely way to wrap it up.

Monday: Alt Night

First off, we had no wipes. That doesn’t happen much, especially not when we go for a record-setting 9 kills on raid bosses.

We had a very good and relaxed time. We had multiple tanks at points, multiple people under our minimum requirements (last night before squish – why not have some fun with it?), and plenty of fresh faces. We hope you guys will come back! Here’s some quick tips on the various fights:

Garothi: DPS should run decimation to the right-hand side of the screen.

Coven: Melee should never be on Noura; make sure not to stand close to one another when we have lightning adds; don’t stand in the middle during flames!

Aggramar: Everybody did a great job. We can tell that the newbies did a great job listening to raid lead calls and really worked hard here. We had only two deaths!

Argus: We could use a few more DPS paying attention to when orbs spawn, and some of the blights were messy. Make sure to bring blights back as far as possible in phase 1. Conversely, move the buff drops to the right. Be good about practicing only interrupting the proper spell on normal, and by the time you face Heroic, you’ll be a-ok!

Felhounds: Nobody died. I got the Charhound. Can’t complain 😉 Ranged, be sure to stack tightly on the blue (ranged) marker unless you have the fire mechanics. This will prevent hardships on the healers, and is good practice for heroic, when fear becomes an issue.

Eonar: It’s hard to mess her up these days. Enjoy the free tier pieces!

Imonar: We had a few people who didn’t quite understand sleep canister, but repeating directions of where to stand or go, I could see that listening comprehension was pretty good in this group. We rearranged and moved together pretty well. Lasers were an issue – I had to call out too many people who needed to move to one side or another. Be sure to watch videos of this fight, and pay attention to your in-game warnings! We also had a ton of people simply plow over mechanics on the bridge back across. Much like on heroic, wait for tanks to go first (unless you’re REALLY self-assured).

Kin’garoth: Some of you died to avoidable mechanics like Ruiner. And not many were stacked properly. It’s incredibly important that after you dodge a mechanic, like Ruiner, you get back to blue as soon as possible. It is better for you to stop DPS and run, than to stop-go-stop-go and mess up the raid with bad Ruiner placement. This week was no problem, but next week, Raid Leads will be naming names on who is not standing in the right spot. It’s not about shaming you, it’s about making sure you can make things easier on the tanks, healers, and your fellow DPS. The other advantage to standing on blue is that when Ruiner comes out, you can run in the direction of where you’re supposed to go next. This is especially important on heroic – dodging Ruiner in the direction of Yellow or Purple will make it easier for you to get to that location when you need to, thus increasing your DPS output 🙂

High Command: NOBODY died? Woah. Great job, healers! And tanks and DPS, I guess. DPS, make sure to stack behind and to the left of the boss, and be sure to dodge bombs that get placed under your feet. Again, Raid Leads will be naming names in the future instead of making general comments. Again, not to shame, but just so you know to pick up your awareness on some things a little more.

Monday Logs

Final Thoughts

Congratulations everyone on a wonderful Raid Season and expansion in general. We started coming together this year for raids and I’m super proud of how far we’ve come. I know the other Raid Leads are as well. I know we’re all very excited for BFA and for Uldir, and I know you are too.

Please take a few minutes to read our plans for raiding until BFA launch and Uldir launch.

New guys, I hope you return. Veterans and old hats, thanks for sticking with us.

Here’s to an amazing Battle for Azeroth.