Tips/tools to help track group buffs on players?

[TheBlob]

Hello!

My main character is a magician so I posted here, but the question would also apply to priests. In raids, one of my roles is to keep everyone Aegis of Ro'ed (33 DS + 33 FR) against Fire AoE mobs. Since I do not know who is in which group, I find it hard to follow who received the buff and who didn't.

Right now, my "Soandso is enveloped by the Aegis of Ro" message is mixed with all spells dans melee damage, so the first step would be to create a window just for this message, but again I think I can manage if there are 3 or 4 groups, but with more people it will be hard to keep track of, especially if I need to recast on everyone every 6 min.

Any tips? Tools?

Thanks!

[DeathsSilkyMist]

For Priests and Enchanters it is easier. Guild members will do a /w guild shaman and ask for buffs directly. This is because the relevant buffs last a lot longer. For something short duration like Avatar, I'll ask my group/guild if anyone needs it.

Aegis of Ro is in a weird spot, as it is a short duration group cast resistance spell. It isn't like Circle of Summer/Winter, where any group member can just periodically ask any druid for a recast.

My suggestion would be to learn who the group leaders are, and periodically ask them if they are still part of their group. Then just set a 6 minute timer and cycle though all the group leaders.

[loramin]

Simple approach: cast it on yourself first. When it runs out you'll know it's time to recast.

Of course, group buffs make this much easier, but it's viable with pretty much all Priest buffs, unless they're really expensive, you're casting them on the majority of the group, and/or you're already mana strained (e.g. from healing).

P.S. For tracking, just cast in group window order. Unless you're stoned or drunk you can remember who you buffed last, and whoever is next on the list (that needs it) gets it next.

If you don't know who is what class (so who needs what buff), that is worth taking a sec to get clear on when you join.

[bcbrown]

Here's my approach as a druid when buffing raids. While we're all organizing I'll use clicky regrowth to tell when a group's fully formed and ready for potg, and I always first cast both circles so that potg is further down the list in case of dispells. During the raid I'll wait for tells for refreshing circles, but if I notice it's faded on me I'll refresh all the groups.

Setting up separate chat windows for combat and spell effects will certainly help. In smaller raids of 3-4 groups I don't really have trouble remembering who is in what group, but I think some larger guilds have a system where each group has a group leader whose responsibilities include sending tells for any group buffs needed.

Loramin's right in that noticing when it wears off of you is a good way to tell when it's time to refresh, as long as you remember that when you cast a group buff on someone else it lands on you too, so you'd need to recast on all the groups one after the other.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Originally Posted by bcbrown [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Setting up separate chat windows for combat and spell effects will certainly help. In smaller raids of 3-4 groups I don't really have trouble remembering who is in what group, but I think some larger guilds have a system where each group has a group leader whose responsibilities include sending tells for any group buffs needed.

I do have separate windows for combat, spell effects, and tells. This helps for sure.

Big guilds don't really have a more advanced system. Aftermath certainly didn't from what I recall, even when we were the top guild on the server.

The thing about big guilds is they switch targets and characters more often. So it isn't really practical to keep a running list of players you need to rebuff. They will probably be CoTHed away, on another toon, or in a different zone by the time most buffs wear off. You may switch to a different toon as well based on the need. Obviously some raids take longer than others, but big guilds need to be able to operate quickly on a quake.

From my experience in big guilds, most buffs simply come from individual people /telling the relevant class. If you need a dedicated Shaman in your group for Torpors or w/e, the Shaman will handle those duties themselves without a leader telling them what to do. Big guilds generally expect their members to be more proactive. If a group needs to be formed, just do it and invite people LFG.

Aegis of Ro is a bit unique, since it is a short duration resistance spell that isn't a bard song. If your guild is only using 1 or 2 mages to buff the entire raid, then those Mages just need to step up and keep track of who they need to buff.

[Defo]

nParse is great for this, specifically.

[loramin]

Oh, I missed the raid context when I answered, my mistake. For buffing raids, I think the correct answer is "PST for *class* buffs". Expecting the buffer to remember who needs what is rough.

[bcbrown]

Originally Posted by DeathsSilkyMist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Big guilds don't really have a more advanced system. From my experience in big guilds, most buffs simply come from individual people /telling the relevant class.

I'm not talking about individual buffs, just group buffs. I only raided on Blue once, in Halls of Testing, but that guild had a system where whoever formed the group was the one responsible for all group buffs. So for example when my cleric died and got rezzed, instead of directly asking for POTG and C2/GOPT, the group leader made the request.

I think the idea was to prevent a scenario when multiple members of the same group ask different people for the same buff, and you get something like two different druids casting POTG on the same group and wasting a bunch of mana. Made sense to me, but like I said I only raided with them once.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Originally Posted by bcbrown [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I'm not talking about individual buffs, just group buffs. I only raided on Blue once, in Halls of Testing, but that guild had a system where whoever formed the group was the one responsible for all group buffs. So for example when my cleric died and got rezzed, instead of directly asking for POTG and C2/GOPT, the group leader made the request.

I think the idea was to prevent a scenario when multiple members of the same group ask different people for the same buff, and you get something like two different druids casting POTG on the same group and wasting a bunch of mana. Made sense to me, but like I said I only raided with them once.

Personally I haven't seen a rule that requires all group leaders to be the group buff liaison in a big guild. At least when I was raiding.

I have been in plenty of groups where the group buffs were acquired by whomever. You can just cancel a buff request if you sent one out and your group got the buff already.

As I said before, big guilds want proactive players. There are obviously group leaders who prefer to be the group buff liaison. But that doesn't mean you should assume all group leaders do this. Ask your group if you can send out a PoTG request. If nobody objects, then go for it.