Roles, Rotations, Parsers and the Group Dynamic

First off this isnt a guide to teach you how to min/max your spec. It isnt a guide on how to spec MY way. Do things your way first and foremost. That being said I feel it necessary to create this thread to outline some things about dungeons you might need to know, and to answer a few questions and claify a few points that have been brought up.

When in a dungeon (pug or family) you are trying to fill a certain role in the dungeon, be it DPS, Tank, Heals, or Support. And of course that role may change as the group dynamic changes. One may go into a dungeon as a DPS and the heals disconnect and that DPS may wind up healing the dungeon. One should be prepared for this occasion because it happens (ALOT more then u would think and more in pugs then family). However, when it does happen the group changes and the group's needs change. Rift has given us MANY options when choosing the way you wish to do things. There is no ONE way of DPSing, ONE way to heal, ONE way to tank and therefore there is no cookie cutter build that will make you the best DPS/Tank/Healer/Support you can be.

That being said, when you are trying to fullfill a role in a group it is good to have more then one role (Roles are your friends). Many of use want to play a certain way and that is fine and of course many of us want to be the best (Insert role here) that we can be. But many do not know how to do that. This is where Roles, Rotations and parsers comes into play. Bellow you will see the definitions of these.

Role (aka spec): A preconfiguration of your souls in your soul tree. For example: (Warrior) 51/riftblade 15/Champion. It's basically how many points you have put into certain souls in your soul tree. Rift allows you to have more then one role and it gives you the ability to change that role on the fly (As long as you're not in combat).

Rotations: A certain set of skills that are used in a certain order to maximize their effect. A very simple example: (Cleric) Flash over + Heal = Crit heal. One skill may effect another, increasing it's effect, making it a crit, etc. and therfore one should use those skills in a certain order to maximize their effect. This is called a rotation.

Parsers: A program that allows you to track how much damage or healing you are doing. Currently I am aware of two. RJP and ACT. RJP is much easier to config but not as detailed as ACT but it will get the job done. This will allow you to become familiar with what spec can do more dmg/heals it also allows you to become more familiar with what rotations are better. Parsers are not only for elitest. Us non-elitest use them to track what skills to use in certain situations. Just because you use a parser does NOT make you an elitest.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to be the best (Insert your role here) you can be. This does not make you an elitest. I prefer to contribute 100% of my ability to the group. Which means that I spend the time on learning what does what and when it does it, what role for my calling is better for DPS/Heals/Tanking/Support, etc. There are lots of forum posts on the subjects and reading them is ALWAYS beneficial.

The trees can be a bit confusing at first but with practice and playing around with your spec and using the Training Dummys and a parser you will become more familiar with what you want to do and how to get the most out of it. And never forget the old adage: Practice makes perfect.

You will see that alot of the dungeons/rifts/raids have certain mechanics in them. For example in the lvl 50 dungeon Expert Charmer's Caldara there is a boss named Jultharin who has roughly 212,000 health, he must be killed within a certain time frame or you wipe (Meaning everyone dies). There are others but im using this one as an example. If that time frame is 120 seconds then the group must do roughly 1768 DPS (As a whole group not individualy) to down him in that time frame. Since there can only be 5 people in the group each must pull roughly 353 DPS. Heals and support may not be able to do alot of DPS and heal/support at the same time this changes that value. This is not an elitest attitude it is a mathmatical equation and a mechanic in the game. It MUST be done to progress in the dungeon. So you can see where a parser CAN help you reach that goal. It allows you to define your character's strong points and weak points and can help you get the most out of YOUR character.

All that being said with practice and a little information gathering you can be SURE you are ready to fill any role your character can fill and fill it to the best of your ability.



» Edited on: 2011-09-29 09:48:44

"Parsers: A program that allows you to track how much damage or healing you are doing. Currently I am aware of two. RJP and ACT. RJP is much easier to config but not as detailed as ACT but it will get the job done. This will allow you to become familiar with what spec can do more dmg/heals it also allows you to become more familiar with what rotations are better. Parsers are not only for elitest. Us non-elitest use them to track what skills to use in certain situations. Just because you use a parser does NOT make you an elitest." I personally dont care if ppl have parsers, what I care about is using those parsers to point out other peoples lack of dps or to tell them they arent good enough. THAT is what bothers me. There is noting worse to a new player or even a veteren player to be told, your dps needs work, youre not good enough for tihs dungeon, etc. That is not how we treat our family. It defeats them, makes them feel useless and unworthy. Heck I was even feeling it in a group this week and my focus is 250, and spell power is 1100. But I felt like I was being told youre not good enough, work on your skills etc. I have thick skin, imagine how some of our members feel with just a simple snide sounding remark. You can try your hardest and still not be be good enough in some peoples eyes, you can have the best gear, best spec whatever, but if you dont give ppl a chance they give up, if you dont encourage and praise they want to quit, if you throw random elite raid person in our raids, some get the feeling "you" think we are not good enough to do this ourselves as a family. At least let us try, we have better people than some think we do. We have old raiders, with tons of experiences in raids, dungeons etc. we need to be using them to the fullist, not pulling in, (yes I will say it )FoH people, its a slap in the face for some of us. Everyone deserves chance at whatever they want to do. Adren makes great points, but use these points wisely and not be snide or snippy to your family if thier dps just isnt quite up to your expectations or they are just learning to heal, back them up! We are not FoH or some other random raid guild, we are Gaiscioch and we need to protect, encourage and nurture our family members. Please

Hey Abi:) I agree with what you've said here and to be honest, it is disgusting to say the least that family members do this to each other. I've run in some pugs with people who were a whole heck of a lot better geared than me and they had no issues with my gear or my healing. We did the runs and had a great time! Flew through them with no issues as a matter of fact. (Granted I got lucky on those pugs) but the point is that those that I've ever known in gaming, all the way back to those EQ1 days that were really good at their roles and truly the best players around didn't mouth off or run people down at all! (Like those that I met in those pugs) The parsers are good things as you said, to help see where you're at and find ways to improve, but when people start using them to accost family members or other players there is another stat shown, who not to play with. And yeah, those who do that sort of thing are not the sort I want to be around. I play to have fun and make friends and if that's not there, then neither am I. And sad as it is to say this, I thought this guild was going to be this last bastion of nice friendly family type players and it was .. but my gawd if wow-teen mentality hasn't begun to rear it's ugly head and I am so not going there again! Hurry up GW2 !!

I don't quite understand this. Parser's? Gear? WoW mentality? I'm not a raider, never was. I log in and hang out (when I did, that is). It sounds to me like some of this raiding stuff can be serious business. I guess that my logic then tells me some of you can do things in game I can't. That's cool, if I wanted to I would find a way to catch up or get to that point. I'm just not able to currently. Now if I was to try, and found myself competent but in need of assistance, I would just ask. If someone had to tell me I was not ready or good enough, then either I'm not and made a mistake, or someone's being a dick. I would not ask my family to support me or gimme free stuffs, but if I'm good to go and passed over for any other reason than not fitting a group's design... Well I'd get pretty pissed. Matter of fact, I'd raise hell. Luckily for me I'm Gaiscioch. I don't need to feel that pain, I just need to be prepared. I don't need to complain, I start a conversation. And I don't need to alienate someone over a mistake, I welcome all. This shit is silly. Family first.

I <3 all you folks…… yes, I do. You’re fun to play with, you’re nice, you’re supportive and fun to chat with in game chat and on vent. I’ve never been happier playing online, during the last almost three years, then I have been during the short time I have been a part of this family/guild. It is good here in Gaiscioch. And I have a biassed feeling that it is even better here on the Defiant side. :-) The family events, the Crifting, the family dungeons; there seems to always be something family oriented going on. And at the end of the work day, I really look forward to logging in, putting all the cares and concerns of RL behind me, and just playing with you all. I’ve had the pleasure of watching Adren tank and DPS in many dungeons and off tank in Raid Rifts. He knows what he is talking about. I am impressed by his calm manner and his willingness to discuss each of the boss fights, in detail, as we have gone along. It’s been obvious that he has researched and had practical experience with the boss fights and knows what to do. He is a good role model. Thank you for your post Adren, I am going to use it to become a better warrior tank and warrior DPS so that I in turn can then help other family members as you are doing now. Thank you Abbi and Bella for bringing to mind that we are Gaiscioch and we need to protect, encourage and nurture our family members. I’m really glad to see Adren doing that. During my time playing WoW, I was told many times that I was not good enough… ouch! It does sting a bit ~ hurt when that happens… But you know what? I just decided to get better. It was very satisfying later earning the 10 man raid “Kingslayer” title. But then a month later after WoW Cataclysm came out wouldn’t you know it, I wasn’t good enough anymore. Lol Since, I have been in the family, no one has told me that I am not good enough and I’ve not heard anyone be told that. I hope it will stay that way. I really enjoy, that the atmosphere in Gaiscioch seems to be one of protecting, encouraging and nurturing our family members. I heard about The Gaiscíoch (Divine Warriors) Family on the Rift forums and transferred here from Sunrest. I will always be glad that I did. "lean do chroi"

Hey guys, I have scheduled a Defiant Side meeting for tonight. Theres some growing pains going on right now and a lot of the issues that have come up are mostly my fault for not laying things out in stone sooner. I'd like you all to attend tonight if you can. I will be sending an October Ceannards Notes to all of those subscribed to our newsletter that will address a lot of the issues. There's a simple truth here, The Gaiscioch are made up of several sub communities, the Raiders, The Roleplayers, The Crafters, The PvPers, and the Casuals. These in a sense are rooms of our house. Now on guardian side about the time we hit 1,000 characters we had a major issue arise. Raiders were forcing Casuals to try to raid, and Casuals were trying to force casuallness on Raiders. Let me remind you all: "Play how you want, When you want, as long as you want" Yes, we are growing, and yes it may appear that there are "Cliques". However these "Cliques" are in actuality sub communities. These sub communities naturally climatize others who fit their playstyle togehter. Part of the problems we find are when we grow too slow, there aren't enough of one sub community to fit the needs of that community. Thus we have players trying to do the nice thing and drag some other people into their playstyle. While in their intention was pure, the fact they are dragging a casual or a roleplayer into greenscale is not going to help us. It will do the opposite. A person who is not understanding of how a mechanic works will grow discouraged, they will take things personal, they will get hurt, and lines will be drawn in the sand. Take for example if I took a bowler, slapped on a football helmet and said go get em son! And out to the middle linebacker position they go. How do you think the bowler will feel? A: Hes going to be out of his confort zone. B: He's going to be surrounded by people better than them. C: He will have no freaking clue what the hell he's supposed to be doing. Then when he gets trucked by a little 200lb running back hes gonna get angry and quit. The same is true with games. Throwing someone in head first without a chance to prepare will always turn bad quick. Gamers want to learn about a fight before they get into one. Some don't even want to be in that style of fight to begin with. The truth is that from a casuals perspective you want everything to be low key, relaxed, and take it as it comes. Let me tell you, GSB is not low key, relaxed, and able to be taken as it goes. You must have the right gear, you must have the right understanding, and you must have the right skills (on your quick bar). Otherwise you will wipe, over and over again. There are bosses in this game that have to be killed before the timer runs out or everyone dies. When someone says "We just don't have enough DPS." This isn't an attack, its the truth. Without enough DPS some bosses in this game can not be killed. This is a Mechanic not a personal opinion. Please do not get offended because you cant clear the games mechanic. It's not about you at all. Instead step back and ask for some help on how your specced or geared so that you can better fit the fight. I think if we as a family stop trying to force people to play how their not confortable we can as a family grow stronger. Remember, We did not kill Sylver and Orphiel with just casuals. We had our Raiders, our Crafters, our roleplayers, our pvpers and our casual all working together to obtain the goal at hand. That is where the beauty of the Gaiscioch really shines. "Play how you want, When you want, as long as you want"

I'm really looking forward to growing better together with all you guys on the Defiant side. =D "lean do chroi"