The time is finally upon us! We are about 3ish weeks out from making the dive into the hard mode versions of the level 55 ops that we have grown accustomed to destroying lately. In light of this, I have decided to update the gearing minimums, parsing minimums, and loot rules that can be expected. These operations won't be a walk in the park, but from a raid leader's perspective, I have no doubt we can start making significant progress. So, lets start with some basics:Why progress into hard modes?
Several reasons I see to progress: keep current content from getting stale, the challenge aspect, and above all, the sense of pride when you complete that operation with 7 other people that took strategy, skill, and lots of fun.
Does moving to hard modes make us a hardcore raiding guild?
In my opinion, not at all. I believe it tells others that we are a close knit guild that is able to work together to clear some of the toughest content in the game. It shows we are willing to put in the work to gear ourselves and our fellow guildmates and work toward a common goal.
Which operations does this post refer to?
This post is strictly for the hard mode versions of The Terror from Beyond, Scum & Villiany and StoryMode Dread Fortress & Palace.
Gearing
Every member participating in these operations will be required to have a minimum rating of 162 on every piece of armor. These can be acquired by purchasing with elite comms, or from Arkanian loot drops in the story mode versions of these operations. Black Market pieces from the 55 hard mode flashpoints also work. At this time, we are not requiring you to have a set bonus. As always, your gear can be inspected in game or on a askmrrobot.com profile.
Augments
Along with the above gear requirements, members are required to have all 14 pieces of gear augmented with the mk-9 kits, and blue or purple level 28 augments. We have quite a few members who are able to craft both the augment kits and augments themselves. Riveni was good enough to start a crafting thread: http://www.newoutriders.org/forums/view ... =38&t=1371
Parsing
Due to the tight enrage timers on several of the bosses, our DPS players are going to have to be on their "A" games. To begin with, I would like to see all dps parse approximately 2200 at a minimum over a 5 minute fight on an ops dummy. This number will be subject to change depending on how close we get on the bosses. If I remember correctly, the last time I parsed my tank, he was sitting around 1500 dps, so I see no issue with our dps focused toons to hit this mark. TorParse is back, and once again our preferred ops parser. http://www.torparse.com
Good thread to watch: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=658495
Homework
Oh Noes! Not Homework! To begin with, we will be running TFB. There are a ton of boss guides out there, but I usually stick with Dulfy's site: http://dulfy.net/2012/09/26/swtor-terro ... ss-guides/ Knowing what to expect before hand saves a ton of time while in the instance and saves me from having to explain it everytime
Teamspeak 3
Because of the crazy mechanics and tight timers, TS3 with 2-way comms will be required. We will take 5-10 min breaks at certain points to allow for breaks and idle chatter, but should keep it to an absolute minimum during the fights. This allows tank swap, debuff, DoT, etc callouts to be heard. Any needed explanations will be done by the raid leader. CC markers will be assigned at the beginning, and will persist through the entire operation.
I realize a lot of this sounds really strict, and most likely overwhelming, but its almost the same as when we made the jump into the story mode versions. After getting all the essentials above squared away, you don't have to think about them much after. This post is a living document, things are subject to change as we move along. I highly recommend anyone interested in running these operations to ask questions, do research, and listen in on TS3 when other operations are happening to hear how these progress and how we interact as a group. I think it would be great to get some High Council (hint hint) and/or other raid leaders from other games in TS to listen in, and possibly offer suggestion/advice after.
As always, if anyone has questions/comments/hate messages, you can find me in game everynight, or direct them to me on this forum. I am more than willing (and I know many others are also) to help out with gearing, specs, rotations, flashpoints, pvp, crafting, or whatever else you need. I am insanely excited to get this rolling and I hope you all are also!
Revisions
July 9, 2013 v1.0
July 12, 2014 Updated the parsing section due to removal of TORParse
July 17, 2013 Updated parsing section for acceptance of MoX as our parser
December 2, 2013 Updated title of thread to reflect new ops
