*Note to all repliers*
This is a fairly lengthy post in which I'll include a lot of detail for ease of helping you help us. I've tried my best but I'm no longer an expert on half these classes or this fight due to not farming it with another guild. I need help on where to improve. I'm not after a "do more deeps lulz" but if you can help in the slightest bit, even for only one person, then I thank you so much.
*Note to all mods*
This is NOT a name and shame post. All people I talk about will be guildys who I've talked to at great length about this. They are definately not random people who I am trying to slag off. Some of them know they are more of a problem than others, and I'm just trying to find areas where they can improve - if you guys have suggestions to positioning, ways to eek out more dps etc. I have permission from said people to do this in order to get us a kill we've been working on for over a month.
The Issue
In 30+ attempts, getting on for 40, we have got Cho'Gall to phase 2 maybe 5 times, more by luck than anything else, and it really does feel like I'm bashing my head against a brick wall. Our raid composition is as follows:
Tanks
Merinicus (Paladin) http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...nicus/advanced
Krisps (DeathKnight)
Healers
Phinx (Paladin) http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...phinx/advanced
Cantaya (Priest)
Tahani (Priest)
DPS
Gesar (Hunter) http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...gesar/advanced
Boombeer (Hunter)
Aeyla (Rogue, Combat offering to go Mut)
This is where it gets complicated. Due to work, depending on what day we go to Cho'Gall, we have 2 of the following in our usual team:
Coiren (Mage)
Highwind (Moonkin)
Bioz (Spriest)
Although we have not brought him recently, as I've been attempting to keep to the same team (ie ranged heavy), we have the capability to bring a frost death knight who seems to pull a very high dps number relative to everyone else - Michael (Deathknight)
Now... here comes the problem. I've given you the breakdown of our regular team and players - so that those with good knowledge of 1 particular class on this fight can pick and tear through my friends and help them out where they can. I was under the impression that you need to average about 13k dps over the entire fight to be able to keep up with the numbers (Factoring in a potential higher dps from ranged on the adds). Now, our 2 hunters, Gesar and Boombeer, always seem to do in the region of 15k dps, which I and others applaud them for. Bioz, Aeyla, and Coiren seem to jump between 11k and 13k, normally closer to 12k. Highwind knows he is a weak link, normally getting stuck at about 10k - however, despite this, he is more dependable than the tide and does not ever get hit by avoidable shit, meaning that he is our greatest assest if we can eek more dps out from somewhere else.
Tactically, we are following the same strategy (albeit 10man) as the best guild on our server. Their tactics are as follows, with killing the adds behind the portal in the corner, thereby funneling the adds in a nice tight line towards us, over a plethora of traps and magic mushrooms. We have tried the Tankspot strategy for about 25 attempts and it just doesn't seem to be working, so we try the following strategy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZy7Cs3Dpxc Only difference being that the ranged stack up under the boss so that my Avengers shield can bounce around like a buggar. For the adds - our 2 hunters take out the first 2 waves on their own with ease - on the 3rd wave (assuming Coiren isn't there), Highwind our moonkin helps out, then on the 4th wave, Highwind helps out again and we use those Frost Grenade things that act like an unbreakable Frost Nova ( http://www.wowhead.com/item=32413/fr...ade#created-by ). When Coiren is there however, the 2 hunters do the first 2 waves, we use frost grenades on the 3rd wave, and Coiren helps on the 4th wave as with an Impact proc, he tears the adds a new hole.
What I percieve to be the problem is low dps numbers, and people standing in Corrupting Crash, and having 30+ corruption at about 50% of the boss health. I know I'm tanking the boss but me and Krisps never seem to have more than 10 corruption whereas Aeyla always has about 60 and our healers have 30+. The following is a link to our WoL page, and then underneath, all the parses in chronological order to show our dps numbers (and corrupting crash hits - if someone could enlighten me as to whether we're having an abnormally large amount). Is there any reason why Aeyla always gets ridiculous corruption numbers? I just can't see it... I would've assumed Krisps would get the same due to sitting at the adds face... but no, he gets the same amount as me.
http://www.worldoflogs.com/guilds/92975/
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/pw19du5d0rlqbp9q/
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/wxkpwib4uaaxdjmk/
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/9z3xwlv8ofjyukct/
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/y9f1hq95gq461duc/ - last night.
In my opinion, we have no choice but to continue forcing people to do boring farm runs in an attempt to get them a gear level higher than most peopel have when they kill this, because we seem incapable of pulling the numbers. However, this has the downside of people are sick to death of farming runs, and I'm at my wits end as with what to do. Persist with farm runs and lose interest/people, or continue mashing my face into a brick wall and hope.
So - what am I after? Advice from any experienced dps or fellow raid leaders on how to get higher numbers out from people, whether we're undergeared (which is more unlikely than the existance of God...), or whether I need to get in fresh blood to keep the guild alive (Somethings I DESPERATELY do NOT want to do, we've been the same collection of friends since 1 month into WOTLK and we don't want to cause rifts).
So - a raiders plea - anyone who can pull a high dps number on this fight and has any tips for my beleagured raiders, or any tactical tips they can suggest, then please, I beg you. I don't care if its a massive sweeping comment about "do xyz, ??? profit" or whether you can just help out 1 particular raider, but all help will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much for all the samaritans out there
//Merinicus & the rest of Social Rejects.