Consumables in 5 Mans

Lately I have been pugging 5 mans. I get frustrated at the level of consumables I go through.

Obviously I am not going to use a flask. Depending on the healer and the difficulty of the instance though I often buy some +30 stam food. I buy some sort of oil. I always go through 6-10 mana pots. I drink an obscene amount of water, 40-60, and rarely have a mage with me.

Has anyone found a good way to mitigate this cost?

Thanks.
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http://armorylite.com/us/medivh/michaelberea

My solution would be to not go on any PuG where you think you'd need consumables to get through it. I never use any consumables in 5 mans outside of the very occasion pot (no more than 1-2 per run). Based on your mana pt consumption, you likely need to change either your threat rotation or your gear. I don't run a full threat rotation on trash...I generally open with AS/JoR/max rank consecrate + then simply rely on Holy Shield + downranked consecrate to hold aggro. That results in much less downtime than going full throttle the whole time.

Beyond that, make sure you run with enchanters. That way you should get either a piece of gear or a shard out of most runs. If the AH price of a shard isn't more than enough to cover your consumables and repairs, something is going very wrong.
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[quote="MichaelBerea"] I drink an obscene amount of water, 40-60, and rarely have a mage with me.[quote]

just hit up a BG when you logon and stack mage water there, sets you up with free water all night (or just pay a mage to make you a table as paying him 2-4g beats 20g at vendor)

The BG idea is a good one for water, though I almost always am running things with my girlfriend who plays a 70 mage, so water isn't really a problem. Mostly I just hate have so much downtime.

Solution:
1) Wear spell damage gear. More damage, threat, and mana back. I don't need 30% dodge to tank a 5-man.
2) If you are going OOM, as has been said often on this site, PULL MORE MOBS
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Things I do:

• run threat consumables, because then my threat is cheaper in mana - more threat per mana. I've been known to flask for 5-mans. I still flask for Kara, which is part of why I can clear it in two hours (the rest is: two SPs, both in my group, no 2nd tank, two healers and T-6 DPS). I always use wizard oil, it's ridiculously cheap.

• heavily prioritise a SP in a 5-man.

• Wear threat gear. More TPM, more incoming DPS = more mana. If you have to, tank in your healing gear....

• If your healer has full mana, and you're empty, back to mob will double incoming damage at least. If I'm multi-tanking, I'll deliberately get stuff behind me sometimes for more mana.

But by far the most important tip is twofold. Part 1: Read my sig. Part two: Pull more.

Tune to suit your gear level, but for hero Shattered Halls, I don't have mana problems or have to drink much, but I use zero CC, and I do things the entire gauntlet in one pull. Gauntlet was the worst for me, constant mana starvation until I worked out the following:

(1) AS on first 3 mobs.
(2) Rocket boots or speed pot
(3) Run to the end of the gauntlet.
(4) Pop auto-blocker or moroes trinket, wings and consecrate.
(5) Hope your healer arrives in time.

Tip: You don't want the mini-boss. Or at least, I don't, but then again, I can't tank Brutallus yet.

Your aim is income damage over 1k DPS, prefer 1500-ish. Tank as many as it takes. Seven mobs pulls in a heroic are about right for that at my gear level.

TL;DR: PULL MOAR MOBS!
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Don't bother with 30 stam food for 5 mans at least - work on your fishing if need be, but use the 20 stam/spi foods as they are much easier to come by - or fish for sporefish and you get a bit of mp5 to help your mana problems too.
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20 stam food is fine, add that to everlasting underspore pod and a stack of 20 water and your good to go. I might use 2-4 potions an instance as a guide.

Barathorn
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'Don't mind Guillex, he thinks he's Dorvan' - Lore at his best March 2008.

I try to avoid potting in 5-mans...I don't play much except for raids anymore and have trouble as it is keeping up with respec costs.

If I feel like I'm going to go OOM I start dropping consecrate out of the rotation first (this is usually at the end of pull, so not all mobs are up), judge wisdom if possible, and hope my threat lead hangs on until the mob is dead. If it doesn't in 5 mans you can buy yourself another 9 seconds minimum very cheaply (mana wise) by using HoJ and then taunting. There's always BoP too.

Sorry if it sounds cheap, I will certainly pot if I have to to save someone from dying (repair bill>mana pot cost) and on bosses if needed, but not being an alchemist pots are just too expensive to blow a bunch on a heroic. You can also avoid going OOM with great success if you plan ahead with JoW and your rotation.
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I go for wizard oil and +20 stamina food. Hitting up BGs for mana biscuits is a good idea. If you PvP, you might want to use those extra AV tokens to get yourself some Combat Mana pots.

I down-rank Consecrate to rank 4 after the first pull, unless I'm with a bunch of DPS maniacs.

I tend to take a stack of water (or 2) with me into instances, and drink along with the other casters. I've always treated it as a 'hidden' cost of running instances. Although when I'm not fighting serious mobs, I tend focus on Holy Shield and having Seal of Righteousness or Seal of Vengeance up after the first threat rotation. If I'm over 1/2 mana, I'lll consecrate and spam Judgements.
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Lv 70 Paladin Mythi, moving soon to Emerald Dream
(inactive due to overseas deployment, atm)

Your best help is pulling more and getting hurt more. I dont stop moving until i see the healer is at 20% or less then i stop chain pulling (always in combat) so that its get done faster. Only time i take it a bit slower is heroic bf, those buggarts hit like trucks with nuclear payloads near the end.

dont use consumables unless it is a must use to survive situation. I carry round 5 mana/health/rejuv pots at all times and if someone manages to pull a side pack and almost oom, only then i pop a mana pot.

Altho, if you have one of those "this tank has way too low health to tank heroic X!" healers, either tell him "if we wipe more than once before first boss, rep me with someone else" or use consumables. Dont bother with the second option and unless you are having a hard time, ask a guildie/friend to heal you. Heroics with 10k health and a green quest shield, wasnt so hard, was more like a warrior tank with loads of CC and same toughness.
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