Totem & Ankh: When to Use Bloodlust/Heroism
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This week in Totem & Ankh: When to Use Bloodlust/Heroism
Totem & Ankh: Spreading shaman love each week for your totems, ankhs, and more! Sit down, relax, and have a glass of Dalaran wine on the house.
What is bloodlust – also known as heroism? It is a special ability only shamans can use. As an instant cast it increases the melee, ranged, and spellcasting speed of everyone in the party or raid. It lasts 40 seconds and creates a debuff called Sated (or Exhausted in the case of heroism). Sated/exhausted prevents gaining the benefits of another bloodlust/heroism for 10 minutes. The radius is 100 yards, which in most cases, will cover the room in which the boss is located.
Some shamans use bloodlust/heroism as often as possible. When running dungeons or heroics, bloodlust/heroism is popped as soon as the first boss is engaged. These shamans are crazy for the extra benefits. Some believe it should only be used after the boss is at 35% - this is the so-called Execute phase. Other shamans avoid bloodlust/heroism even when their raid leader is screaming for it.
How does the intelligent shaman know when to use bloodlust/heroism? Do you need to know every boss and every situation on a case by case basis to make the decision? Or are there some general guidelines to help shamans with the mad power of some crazy bloodlust?
It’s always wise to know as many situations as possible and benefits you can bring with your class. Shamans have an extremely diversified set of tricks with their totems and spells, as well as with the ability to use bloodlust/heroism. As often as possible, be prepared for the situation you are planning to enter. If you are going into Icecrown Citadel, you should know the various bosses you’ll be facing. If you’re going to try to do Obsidian Sanctum with 3 drakes up, knowing when to bloodlust for the zerg method (dpsing for maximum effect in order to avoid the major strategy and mechanics of the fight) is very important.
Sometimes the raid leader will expect bloodlust/heroism to be used only on command. Regardless of whether this is the case, understanding the best time to bloodlust and informing the raid leader of your opinion will only help your raid. Even if the raid leader disagrees, you will be showing that you are researching and thinking about your class and each situation and what you can bring to make the raid as successful as possible. Sometimes the raid leader won’t know or even remember about bloodlust/heroism. Whisper him in-game and let him know what you think.
Note the glowy red hands show that bloodlust is affecting your character.
In general, use bloodlust/heroism at the beginning of a boss fight. Make sure everyone in the raid knows when you are going to pop bloodlust/heroism. In the beginning, most people will use their trinkets and any effects with cooldown because the cooldowns will be over allowing the effects and trinkets to be used again. Stacking the trinkets and effects with each other and with bloodlust/heroism will produce the maximum benefit as many of these are based on percentages. Another good reason to bloodlust early is everyone is still alive, giving the maximum amount of benefit – bloodlust/heroism does no good to dead characters.
However, there are some fights in which you may want to save your bloodlust/heroism in order to get past a particular boss’s mechanic. If a boss has a soft-enrage timer, saving bloodlust/heroism for this phase can be very helpful in adding to the survivability of the raid. If the boss has any difficult mechanics or tricks later in the fight, bloodlust/heroism can save the day, helping your raid to prevail rather than wipe.
Several sites provide a mathematical analysis on whether to use bloodlust/heroism at the start of a fight or at the 35% execute phase. Most of the math comes down to the numbers being nearly equal, assuming all other factors are the same. That is, if the boss is a straightforward dps race with no unusual mechanics and everyone remains alive and doing their best dps throughout the fight, using bloodlust/heroism at the start provides an equivalent dps to using it at the execute phase.
In practice, characters tend to die and do no dps when lying on the floor. So if the raid is asking for bloodlust to be saved during a flat-out dps race, they are wrong. It might help their personal dps assuming they survive the entire fight but it will not benefit the raid in any way. There is a tendency among many people to be more concerned with personal recount numbers than the success of the raid as a whole. Avoid the temptation and pressure to bow to the wishes of the few who may benefit from using bloodlust/heroism during the execute phase.
Remember to use your bloodlust/heroism. You will often be told when to use it, but pushing the button is still your responsibility. Remember to save mana for your bloodlust/heroism! If you know you have to use it later in the fight, don’t find yourself without mana or so low on mana that you cannot take advantage of bloodlust/heroism because you’ve run dry.
If there are multiple shamans, please plan beforehand who will use bloodlust/heroism. Often there is hesitation in popping bloodlust/heroism because each shaman thinks the other will be doing it and since everyone gets the effect, not everyone will want to use their mana to cast it. Once you have the sated/exhausted debuff, a second bloodlust/heroism can’t be cast, so you won’t waste mana even if you cast is just after someone else does. Even so, there is no need to undergo an unnecessary delay in using the effect due to miscommunication.
So, now you have a basic guideline for when to use your bloodlust/heroism. Be confident and lusty/heroic when you attend raids. It’s one of the coolest and most useful abilities any class can bring. Knowing when to pop this hasty treat of increased speed for attacks and casting will prove you’re the best shaman to bring along and will often mean the difference between success and failure on challenging bosses.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 15 September 2010 00:01 Written by Savoire Tuesday, 14 September 2010 13:43