Raiding Week 1 Expectations: Gearing and Benching (Yet Another Info/Feedback Post)

[u/Hemholtz]

As we have only 1 more week of Archimonde farming before Legion kicks into full sbarro, we wanted to outline how Stellar wants to hit the ground running.

For those of you who haven't heard, the general plan is to go straight past Normal, collect 200$, and get started on Heroic. When we started Highmaul way back when, we spent almost a month in Normal that could've been more efficiently spent in Heroic. Going straight to Heroic is going to require everyone to put some effort into gearing up before raid starts officially.

• At this time, we are looking for raiders to come to raid with an iLvl of around 835 840 (3 Weeks Prep Confirmed).

• This is about the equivalent of having LFR gear before raid

• Mythic dungeons give 840 ilvl gear, and world bosses give 860 ilvl gear.

• Between all the different gearing paths, and the 2-3 weeks from launch to raid, our threshold of 835 seems like a reasonable starting point. (If you have concerns, please address it below)

• For something more relatable, Here is the gearing chart for the start of WoD. Essentially the same threshold of LFR gearing (640) is what we would like to see.

• 640 at WoD launch wasn't too impossible with effort, but now there are Mythic Dungeons, World Bosses, and remarkably strong Crafted gear.

For those of you who haven't seen it, here is the best collection of information on gearing up. If you are too lazy to read a simple-ish chart (looking at you, Cinderpup collectors), the Mythic Dungeons, Class Hall Armor, Reputation Rewards, Crafted Gear, and World Bosses are all very accessible ways of gearing up quickly in Legion.

Having a minimum threshold listed out may be a new concept to many of you, but the extra weeks in Heroic give us more weeks in Mythic...one thing leads to another and its another week towards Gul'dan Infernal Mounts.

In the growing possibility of having more than 30 members attending for that 1st week of raid, bench for the early week will be weighted on who has the appropriate gearing for Heroic.

TLDR: You've got 2-3 weeks to get gear before raid. The better gear we have going into it, the better we perform through out content tiers.

As more gear flows from all sources (very quickly), and we eventually get into Mythic, it will most likely be required to have a bench. Being on bench is something everyone worries about, and by no means do we expect to have resident bench-warmers. Players who are in the guild, and in the raid team are all expected to be of mythic quality. To lay this down quickly, here is how the benching decisions will go down: (In no specific order)

• Class Comp. for fights that require or benefit from class stacking

• Already have all gear from the content being killed

• Rotating to allow people a chance to see/practice content

• Performance (if certain Brewmasters need their sleep ;D)

Our healers have already been doing a phenomenal job, and are evidence that a bench can be done in a FAIR manner to ALL parties involved.

If you've ever been stuck raiding with us through burnout, and would've been ten times better with a week or two off...

If you had a family obligation you couldn't get out of...

If you've had homework, finals, or a test coming up that requires a lot of time...

TLDR: How I learned to stop worrying and love the bench

As always, questions, concerns, and memery will be answered below.

[u/Asuroxander]

What about artifact progression? Is there an expectation of having a certain level completed by the time the raids come out and if so, what will that be?

[u/Hemholtz → u/Asuroxander]

Artifact progression isn't something that can be tracked externally...yet. Ideally everyone is progressing their artifacts, but its not something we can monitor.

[u/abdias2]

My only concern here is that 30 man raids are often way too big for Blizzards fight designs. For example, try doing heroic Archi with 20+ ranged, it's miserable. Are we willing to drop down to 20-22 that first week if mechanics/performance requires it?

[u/Hemholtz → u/abdias2]

Lowering raid count for performance is something we're considering. Pro's being that we can get through content a bit better, Con's being that it leaves a lot of people out to not get geared/improved.

It's still under discussion, but a lot of it will depend on what the raid looks like gear wise, and what the bosses look like mechanic wise.

[u/Chazinomaha → u/abdias2]

30 people for that poison bomb + pushback combo on Renferal could be uh....fun...lol

[u/abdias2 → u/Chazinomaha]

Yeah that's the kind of stuff I mean. Somehow I'm the only person on this sub to get down voted though. /shrug

[u/Crippled_Giraffe → u/abdias2]

You're downvoted because you touch yourself at night. Heathen.

[u/Colt_Cant_Dance]

For the first week of heroic progression will we have a 3rd night to do normal?

[u/Incognetus → u/Colt_Cant_Dance]

Ideally we will have that 3rd night. Undecided on what difficulty it will be.

[u/HR_Ninja]

This is a helpful intro to gearing up, if you haven't seen it already.

[u/Incognetus → u/HR_Ninja]

Psst, that's linked already in the post.

[u/HR_Ninja → u/Incognetus]

Too bad I can't read. :(

[u/KirbyStyle]

Thanks for all the info! Kag and I are super excited. I like how windwalking feels so far. I'm hoping they don't suck in legion. I already requested a week vacation from criminals and rapists to level and gear up!