[10] Hodir Hardmode (buff prioritization)

[Ceridwena]

Tanking, I finally attempted and completed a few Ulduar hardmodes last week and then again attempted a few with another raid last night on my warlock. My warlock's raid was the one who was unable to complete Hodir's hardmode despite having a few otherwise successful attempts on him. Since the raid I tanked it with just a few days before was, well... damn amazing, we not only had little trouble completing it, but the fight was barely re-explained before hand... Thus, also because I was tanking and using the NPCs buffs to their full potential was not -my- concern, I have little idea of the priority our caster dps put on buffs. I need to go back and ask them when I have a chance.

So, when struggling with the encounter on my warlock, I had little idea of how to best execute the fight even though I'd just tanked it. I know, that's terrible. Anyway... their plan/priority list for buffs was Stormcloud > Starlight > Fire. They had the two hunters on at the fire to stack Singed, but otherwise the rest of us caster dps was nowhere near it at the fault of Starlight spawns. When I talked with a friend who was doing 25man hardmodes he said that standing by the fire outweighed Starlight. Now, of course, the guy who was saying Starlight > Fire had also done it 25, but it makes me confused. I know even Tankspot put the fire over Starlight, but reading around I'm seeing both.

Blah blah blah. What is your argument for either? I personally prefer the idea of not having to move between every cast because I'm far out of range of a fire for the sake of Starlight. I need some convincing arguments against running around after Starlight spawns though. I'd hope you would run to one if you had Stormcloud maybe, but I personally feel like because of my class and my amount of Haste moving between casts starts negating the benefit of a faster cast anyway. Also, having Heroism while I'm standing in a Starlight and not near a fire makes me rage a little inside.

[fafhrd]

Starlight without fire for ranged is kinda dumb because having faster casts is mostly negated by having to move after every spell to avoid buildiing biting cold. Fire without starlight has no such drawback, and gives you bonus damage and builds up the debuff faster.

On the other hand fire doesn't matter for melee since they can mostly (not arms warriors really) jump or strafe constantly without losing anything, while being next to starlight gives them a very real DPS boost while just jumping in the beam. Singed does proc on the magical attacks most melee do (everyone other than ferals and warriors), so fire + starlight is nice if you can manage it (not enough to be worth moving a boss from one light to another though).

Stormpower is amazing for everyone, even the tank. I haven't seen anyone top the meters by prioritizing anything over stormpower uptime.