Messages

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Upcoming Events & Strategy / Re: ToV - The Great Divide - T1 - Restless Assault

« on: January 31, 2020, 11:53:30 PM »

P -741.0898, 1463.2422, -235.0410,  240, 0, 0,  1,  RAID_-_SW

Here is the 3rd location I have.

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Upcoming Events & Strategy / Re: RoS - Overthere - T1 - Fell Foliage

« on: July 26, 2018, 08:40:52 PM »

Thanks Krinni, though I don't know how you would know that... :grin:

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Freelance Ramblings / Re: 8/26 SUL: Right Eye Roll (Spriggenx)

« on: August 27, 2016, 03:26:36 AM »

Yes, there was an error in the random for the eye.  It was my fault.  I mistook Spriggenx's negative dkp for his RA and wrongly disqualified his roll.  I realized my mistake a hair too late as the item was already looted.  I apologized =(.  We work to not have mistakes happen, but unfortunately occasionally they do.  I'm sorry.


[Fri Aug 26 20:39:12 2016] You told spriggenx, 'sorry buddy, my fault there.  I saw your neg dkp and took that for your RA.'
[Fri Aug 26 20:39:29 2016] Spriggenx tells you, 'whatevs... im done w fl... gl'

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Freelance Ramblings / Re: cant seem to log in

« on: August 26, 2016, 11:26:16 PM »

I'm getting that on both of my accounts when I attempt to log in as well.  =(

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Freelance Ramblings / Re: The Freelance Raiders Handbook *Required Reading*

« on: September 29, 2015, 03:06:59 AM »

What is this "holiday" you speak of?

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Freelance Ramblings / The Freelance Raiders Handbook *Required Reading*

« on: September 28, 2015, 06:33:38 PM »

FREELANCE RAIDERS HANDBOOK

SICK DAYS

We will no longer accept a doctor or surgeon's statement as proof of sickness.  If you are able to go to the doctor or surgical theater, you are able to come to Raids.

PERSONAL DAYS
Each Raider will receive 104 personal days a year.  They are called Sunday and Monday.  Tuesday and Wednesday you will be expected to be improving key multi-binds and reclaiming experience from unwarranted and unauthorized deaths during raids.

FOOD BREAKS
Skinny people will be allowed 30 minutes prior to raid call to get food to bring to their desks as they need more to eat, so that they can look healthy.  Normal-sized people get 15 minutes prior to raid call to get a balanced meal to maintain their average figure.  Fat people (most of you) get 5 minutes prior to raid call as that's all the time that is needed to drink a Slim Fast.  Trips to the refrigerator during Wipe Recovery will only be condoned if said refrigerator is within arms-reach of your keyboard.

DKP BONUSES
It is advised you come to raids geared according to your Platinum & DKP holdings.  If we see you wearing your Burden of Truth helm, Ancient Cloak of Flames, clicking your Elder Holgresh Beads and bragging about your stack of 20 Kronos, we assume you are doing okay and therefore do not need a DKP bonus.

If you come poorly geared in your group armor, you need to learn to manage your DKP better so that you may bid on nicer items, and therefore you do not need a DKP bonus.

If you come geared in-between, you are right where you need to be and therefore you do not need a DKP bonus.


BEREAVEMENT LEAVE
There is no excuse for missing raids.  There is nothing you can do for dead friends, relatives, or co-workers.  Every effort should be made to have non-raiders attend to their final arrangements.  In rare cases where raider involvement or attendance becomes necessary, the funeral should be held during weeks when there are no raids scheduled.

RESTROOM USE
Entirely too much time is being spent in the restroom between wipes (no pun intended).  There is now a strict 3 minute time limit in the bathroom in the event that such frivolities were not properly taken care of before Raid Call.  At the end of three minutes Furro has programmed an alarm to sound.  The toilet paper roll will retract, the bathroom door will open and a picture will be taken.  After your 2nd offense, your picture will be posted on forums under the thread "Chronic Offenders."

Thank you for your loyalty to our great team, Freelance Raiders.

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Freelance Ramblings / Re: Returning Player - Any Chance of Raiding with Freelance Again?

« on: December 19, 2013, 12:09:12 AM »

Hi Tate!  Welcome back.  Anyone meeting the current requirements is welcome to join us on Freelance's Raid nights.  Make sure you are early and get to the event-giving NPC as soon as you can after the MOTD raid call has been made.   As the team is currently quite popular, spots fill quickly.  Hope to see you soon.

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Upcoming Events & Strategy / Re: CoTF - Bixie Warfront - Saving Jacyll

« on: October 24, 2013, 11:51:18 PM »

Thanks for your question Nuttann. 

Each drum group (Priest, Hybrid, Melee, Caster) will have a maximum of 6 participants.  When you hit the drum a song plays in the Song Window (alt E) for the next 30 seconds unless someone else hits the drum.  When someone else hits the drum the former song is overwritten.  When you hit the drum the raid gains the benefit (and the unbenefit) and the drummer is given the debuff Weakness.  Weakness acts as a 3 minute timer disallowing you to hit the drum again until Weakness wears off.  Unlike the caster song, when a priest or a hybrid hits the drum is the only time the benefit of playing the song is realized.  As Tmon pointed out the math makes it so that if a song is allowed to play in full for everyone in the chain (30 seconds x6), Weakness wears off (allowing you to hit the drum again) when we are back to the top of the order.  So it makes sense for a caster song order to allow the full song to play before hitting the drum.

As a Priest and/or Hybrid this same logic would seem to hold true.  However whereas the purpose of the Caster song is to keep enemy casters quiet, our job is to clear a detrimental effect (Pollen Cloud/Venomous Sting) off of the raid or off of the mini-boss (Chaos Rune/ Hive Mind) if you are a hybrid drummer.  If we click/hit the drum BEFORE that detrimental effect is apparent, that drummers effort is wasted and we lose 3 minutes until his Weakness debuff has worn off.  Hopefully as a priest/hybrid the detrimental effect we are trying to counter will happen no less than 30 seconds between instances so that we can try and maintain a readiness for the next drum hit.  But it may not always happen that way

-- So anyway the short answer to your question is:  Click the drum when it's your turn and the detrimental effect is active, Thereafter informing the next person in the chain to BE READY to click the drum.

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Upcoming Events & Strategy / Re: HoF - Epicenter - An End to Fear

« on: September 07, 2013, 11:00:54 PM »

[Fri Sep 06 21:58:03 2013] Xaric  detects the presence of powerful foes.

I have seen this one several times when I was one of the last ones alive in the instance -- right before I was summoned and killed.  Fading doesn't seem to remove you from danger if you are still in the zone.

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Raider Essentials / Re: Gear Check!

« on: October 06, 2011, 08:42:59 AM »

.

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Raider Essentials / Re: Druid Twinheal, Impress your Raid Leader

« on: May 16, 2012, 03:37:01 AM »

Spell gems can be cast by hitting alt #, you can also do it by typing /cast # where # correlates with a spell gem.  Or as you meant to say AAs can be cast typing /alt activate #. 

I'm not sure I understand your confusion.  When you program a macro to condense keyboard commands, you still need to hit the assigned macro key to trigger that series of commands.  Bank2 (18 keys) is full, so I'd have to change banks to hit the key assigned to Egress.  By the time I did that, I'd be dead.

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Raider Essentials / Re: Druid Twinheal, Impress your Raid Leader

« on: May 16, 2012, 02:33:15 AM »

It would mean changing macro banks as all of bank2 keys are populated, which takes time.  But your right, when I really need the spell gem, I'll work it out and reclaim it.

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Raider Essentials / Re: Druid Twinheal, Impress your Raid Leader

« on: May 16, 2012, 02:20:59 AM »

The macros capture and reproduce keystrokes. So <shift 6> selects hotkey bank 6 <shift F1> selects group member #1 and <2> casts my multi-bind heal key etc.  All of that would be in one macro.

Whatever keys you can depress (or hold down and however long you hold them) on your keyboard can be macro'd.

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Raider Essentials / Re: Druid Twinheal, Impress your Raid Leader

« on: May 15, 2012, 04:49:07 PM »

Ssark said, 1) I think the twincast spells either don't have quite the same range as the heal spells do (possibly do to foci), or, you need to see the target's target.  Sometimes I had gotten an error message even though neither the tank nor I have moved.  But I find this to be a very rare occasion on our current raids.

The nuke component is influenced by your Range Detrimental focus which is never been an issue for me.  The thing that does become an issue for me upon occasion, is the the Line Of Sight requirement for the spell.  You need to be able to see your target's target which is a drag if you are hiding behind a post or wall to avoid LOS AEs.

Ssark said 6) The different level ones are really on different timers?  WHOA.  I might experiment with two of them, like you said, can almost always get 3 heals in between Blessing casts.  If the lineup could be Blessing-Heal-Heal Blessing-Heal-Heal... in 6 casts, it's 8 heals.  With B-H-H-H, B-H-H-H, it's 8 casts, 10 heals.  I'll take 8/6 vs 10/8, depends though on how the heal icons refresh and stack up.  Might be a waste of time, dunno, but worth a look.

Although the second spell gem icon is not greyed out after casting the first, I suspect that the higher level spell will over-write the lower, but it could still possibly get one more twinned cast in there.  If I weren't such a slacker I'd know :chuckle:  So there's something with which to experiment.

Ssark said Other questions unrelated, but just "My healer is my second character so I don't have the history you do" type:

2) Why Egress where there is an AA button for that too?

I know, and although I've purchased it, I've never used it.  I can't seem to get it to fit into my spell gem.  No seriously, I can't seem to find a place for it in my primary Hot-key line-up and I don't want to go looking for it on adjacent bars.  I need it NOW!!  Though I could combine it with my Exodus button maybe, hmmm.... just thought of that.

3) How often are you using Survival of the Prosperous, and when (group and raid)?

I reserve the Survival line for group emergencies, to save that er try and save that ranger.  :duck:  I don't usually cast it unless someone has dropped to 10-15%.  I love to see that proc for 120k.

4) How often do you use the Promised spell line?  I've been told in the past it's useless, though I tended to use it for events like Decon just before the tanks activated 6 clicknar.

Yes, this spell has a lot of limitations.  I use it when someone else is not, which means that you have to be watching the tank's icons to know.  (Personally, I think it should stack like DoTs, but it doesn't.  It will over-write someone elses cast.)  I use it before we stage an attack, like just as we're headed into a room for Tick Tock.  I will also cast it on a puller just as they leave to grab a critter.  They one cool thing about the spell is that the target gets the aggro for the heal and not the caster.  Also it doesn't seem to mess with FD.  When I'm the sole healer in a situation, I cast it at the beginning of my fast cycle so that it goes off right at the end of my slow cycle.  That's where it's most effective.  I find that I use it much more in a group setting than in the raid.

5) You have it as situational, I just wanted to take a moment to inform folks that the druid auras have some very unfortunate conflicts with things like RB and CoL, which often makes me such a sad panda I've stopped turning them on during raids. Sad

Yes druid auras are mostly borked.  They don't play well with others - like most druids themselves.  I end up using Aura of Life most of the time as it will stay up there longer and it doesn't interfere with anyone elses auras.  As it's a lvl 70 spell it doesn't heal much, but every little bit helps.  I usually cast it before we start and replace it in the gem with Skin for combat rebuffing.  I've been frustrated with the fire and cold auras as I'm always having to recast them.  I want to cast them at the beginning of a long fight and have them stay resident throughout the duration, but alas.  They are more useful when I'm soloing or in group situations when I can more easily afford the spell gem.
      

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Raider Essentials / Druid Twinheal, Impress your Raid Leader

« on: May 15, 2012, 09:25:50 AM »

Well Okay,  Furro has asked me to expose myself and explain what I do (especially concerning proc'd twinheals) when I'm raid healing.  Maybe with some feedback I'll get to be a better healer through this excercize.  But better yet, I'll get Furro offa my back!  :duck:

My line-up:

Gem 1:  Invigoration Rk.II (lvl 95)
Gem 2:  Sanavida  Rk.III (lvl 92)
Gem 3:  Survival of the Prosperous Rk.III (lvl 93)
Gem 4:  Lunamelioration Rk. III
Gem 5:  Egress (lvl 52)
Gem 6:  Adrenaline Flood Rk.II
Gem 7:  Stonebark Skin Rk.III / Aura of Life (lvl 70) / Wildblaze Aura Rk.III (lvl 92)  --situational use--
Gem 8:  Promised Revitalization Rk.III (lvl 92) / corruption, curse, disease (whatever) cures --situational use--
Gem 9:  Hide of the Reptile Rk.II (lvl 92)/  secondary cures --situational use--
Gem10: Unfettered Growth Rk.III (lvl 92)
Gem 11: Sunbreeze Blessing Rk.II (lvl 94)
Gem 12: Preincarnation Rk.II (lvl94)

My Equipment

Logitec G15 (Programmable keyboard - It has 3 banks of 18 programmable keys)


I have hot-keyed a multi-bind heal button.  My multi-bind heal button seeks out the fastest casting heal that's currently available in my line-up and casts it.

I have programmed bank2 of the keyboard for the majority of my raid keys. 

My Left Hand

Keys G1-G6 I have programmed to target corresponding group members 1-6 and depress my multi-bind heal button. 
Keys G6-G12 I have programmed to target ETW slots 1-6 and depress my multi-bind heal button.
Keys G13-G15 I have programmed to target ETW slots 8-10 and depress my multi-bind heal button.
Key G16 repeatedly depresses my multi-bind heal button.
Key G17 casts spell gem 4 (group heal).
Key G18 casts spell gem 11 (assist/nuke/proc twinheal)

(Obviously I have my ETW filled with potential healing targets:  1-6 are usually tank-type, 7 is Raid MA, and 8-10 are filled with clerics, enchanters or knights situationally)

Hot-keys & shift/alt/ctrl + 1-6

My Right Hand

Mouse
Arrow keys/keypad
Hot-keys & shift/alt/ctrl + 7-12

Twinheals

Okay, so we're finally here.  Druids, like clerics, have the ability to proc a Twinheal on command.  What that means is that after casting the proc-producing spell, your next 2 healing spells will fork and duplicate the effect of that heal, provided they are both cast in the next 18 seconds - which is a LOT of time.  This works whether the next spells you cast is an individual healing spell or a group healing spell.  It doesn't differentiate as long as the spell heals.  With the same effort we would use to cast 3 spells, we can instead get the effect of 4.  The proc-producing spells are found under Direct Damage>Twincast and are available starting at lvl 84.  They are called Sundew Blessing (lvl 84), Sunrise Blessing (lvl 89), and Sunbreeze Blessing (lvl 94).  Our Twincast spells are actually easier to use than the clerical equivalents.  We can be healing the MT (or anyone that has a MOB targeted) and without having to re-target can cast one of the blessing spells.  The spell will automatically nuke that target's target, and cause the afore-mentioned twincast proc.  A word of warning:  Because of the nuke part of these spells, I NEVER cast Blessing when I have an Enchanter or Bard targeted (or situationally a necro) for fear of waking whatever mob they may have mesmerized.

Blessing spells take 1.0 seconds to cast.  Although they cast fairly quickly it takes some practice to know when to cast it.  A poorly timed cast can be disasterous.  I try to cast Blessing when the MT (or other target) has just been topped off and is not taking so much damage that they are going to die in the next 3.5 seconds.  I also try to cast this just before the speed cycle of my multi-bind button thereby taking up the slack caused by casting Blessing.  What I mean by that is as Invigoration only takes .5 to cast and Adrenalinie Flood takes 1.8, they always cast in that order, very quickly.  Whereas Sanavida takes 3.3 seconds to cast and will cast twice whilst Invigoration and Adrenaline Flood recycle.  If you cast Blessing just before the slow cycle of the multi-bind key you will have delayed an already slow-casting spell from landing and even though the healing potential is doubled, quite often the target will die before it hits.  Depending on the speed/urgency of my casting, I am usually able to cast Blessing, the 2 twinheal casts and usually 1 other non-twinheal cast before Blessing has refreshed and is available again.  Cast properly I've seen twinheals land for as high as 146k.  That's a lot of healing.  I also find it useful to cast Blessing just before I cast a group heal.  It fills the group with the potential healing power of 632k+ hps.  As blessing has a nuke component it also has the potential of triggering the necro spell Reluctant Benevolence which for me is another potential 168k of healing.  Gotta love that well-AA'd necro in your group!!

Now, the downside to this healing technique is that it uses a ton of mana and produces extra aggro.  To combat the former, I always try to have the AA Spirit of the White Wolf running, either single or group versions (I know, some of your groupees will not like to be in wolf form - Tough Luck.  When there's time, I'll target another healer -usually a cleric from my ETW- when I cast the group version, so they have white wolf as well, thereby reducing the bitching from the melee in my group and increasing that healer's potential as well.  It's also a great way to identify where my or another group is standing, White wolf is easy to see in a raid).  While in this form your healing spells take less mana, heal for more, have a greater chance to proc - including natural twinheals, and provide some resistance to cold.  This seriously reduces the volume of mana expended especially when Spam/Burn-Healing.  To combat the later I use the AA Silent Casting when I feel I'm starting to tip the aggro balance.  I hardly ever get summoned, until everyone else is dead.  As soon as you start to get summoned, it's time to Fade/Exodus/Egress.

So anyway, that's what I do.  There's probably someone that does it better or can make suggestions to my set up - that's evolved over 13 years of trained druid reflex - difficult to retrain, hence the strange spell gem order.  I'm in the process of replacing Gem 12:  Preincarnation as I have the AA version on an adjacent Hotkey bar, with another Blessing, but haven't experimented with it enough to know how it affects the timing of things.  I DO know however that the lvl 94 blessing is on a different timer than the lvl 89.  So it's very feasible to have 2 Blessings in the line-up... oh the mana it will burn...

- Dimbly, The Halfling.