My Battle with new Zenos fight - No Spoilers

I went through this duty as AST and I found the DPS check surprisingly tight--especially considering how quickly the first part of the encounter went, before we play the WoL. I hit 87 or 89% on the meter and thought to myself, "holy cow this would be hard if I wasn't already geared."

I'm not like crazy good at AST or anything, but I'm pretty good at spamming Malefic without clipping the GCD. So I don't remember if I entered the orb phase with a card to play or a Lord, but I feel pretty confident that I spent the entire time casting, and still came uncomfortably close to failing. I watched my husband play this duty as WAR and he finished the orb phase at 60% or something close to it, and finish the encounter in about half the time it took me. It made me wish I had just brought anything but a healer. That's totally broken.

So when people say healers need more damage, I don't think they are talking about abilities and self-buffs, they are suggesting that they (WHM especially) need some more baked-in potencies because in solo duties, bringing a healer makes the duty boring and unnecessarily long, as well as even dangerous/more difficult because it takes so long. This is bad design. Healers should have a toolkit and enough potency to do mandatory content, full stop.

And as part of the ongoing conversation that we're having as 5.0 approaches, WHM needs this the most. And while we've got a lot of WHM in this thread saying "yeah well, I did it no problem" but that doesn't make it fun, and that doesn't make it playable for the WHMs who aren't raid geared or well optimized. If a mediocre DRG can complete this duty, a mediocre WHM should be able to, as well.

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Originally Posted by tesni_g

I went through this duty as AST and I found the DPS check surprisingly tight--especially considering how quickly the first part of the encounter went, before we play the WoL. I hit 87 or 89% on the meter and thought to myself, "holy cow this would be hard if I wasn't already geared."

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Same. On SCH I cleared it with around 85% on the bar. If I was the minimum i360 I may very well have failed.

I was on WHM and cleared it well in advance of what I call "clenchy-buttocks-time".

Maybe I'm just used to mashing the everloving heck out of Stone IV in duties.

For the swords Aero+Presence of mind+Aero 3 and the problem solves itself for the most part. I did the duty twice between 2 characters (both times as WHM) and the only time I ran low on mp was when I held off on using Assize in preparation for the swords. WHM is great.

My opinion about this fight seems to be the general consensus, especially since every report is by a healer, lol. But the fight felt a bit lackluster, probably because the threat of failing was virtually non-existent, besides the dps check. I too had the gauge reach up to like 80, but since a majority of SCH damage comes from DoTs that's to beexpected. Plus the shield prevdnted most knockbacks and debuffs, and I had a continuous HoT from Lily. I've never felt more OP than in this fight.

Wow. I was totally oblivious to this. I didn’t even notice there was a bar. Just cleared it like I would have any solo and moved on. But now I keep reading about various people struggling on it, really makes me want to revisit it.

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Originally Posted by Blokeymon

Uh, we HAVE a damage buff.

Cleric Stance is an additional 5%, and coupled with PoM, that can deal some serious punch.

Can I safely assume you either potion-jumped or PotD/HoH boosted your healer, because uuuhhhhhh...

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Like I was counting to have that Dps check on that point in a blind run (200IQ). If I wipe of course I would save my cd to beat the dps check. If you can only beat DPS check with all CD you problay use a jump potion or PotD/HoH.

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Originally Posted by Felien

Like I was counting to have that Dps check on that point in a blind run (200IQ). If I wipe of course I would save my cd to beat the dps check. If you can only beat DPS check with all CD you problay use a jump potion or PotD/HoH.

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Cleric Stance is on such a short CD you should literally ALWAYS have it up when DPSing.

Also, if you look up there, I said - and I quote:

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DPS check? Pfft. Pure Stone IV spam took care of that phase before I even realised it was a check.

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"Pure Stone IV spam".

Meaning that was all I used for the DPS check.

Not cooldowns. Not Aero. Not Assize. Certainly not Holy. Just Stone IV.

Also, if you are SERIOUSLY telling me you never expected a DPS check on:

A) a boss we have already fought, and who had a DPS check then, and

B) a solo duty boss, which almost always have a DPS check

...then, uh, how did that jump potion taste?

It doesn't take a 200IQ to see it coming. Just experience. But that's not something you get with a jump...

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Originally Posted by tesni_g

So when people say healers need more damage, I don't think they are talking about abilities and self-buffs, they are suggesting that they (WHM especially) need some more baked-in potencies because in solo duties, bringing a healer makes the duty boring and unnecessarily long, as well as even dangerous/more difficult because it takes so long. This is bad design. Healers should have a toolkit and enough potency to do mandatory content, full stop.

And as part of the ongoing conversation that we're having as 5.0 approaches, WHM needs this the most. And while we've got a lot of WHM in this thread saying "yeah well, I did it no problem" but that doesn't make it fun, and that doesn't make it playable for the WHMs who aren't raid geared or well optimized. If a mediocre DRG can complete this duty, a mediocre WHM should be able to, as well.

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If you practice your DPS on a target dummy, WHM will always come out on top. The problem isn't a potency issue, the problem is a job design one. WHM's are the only healer who can't run and attack at the same time like AST & SCH can. They also have less oGCD healing, meaning WHM hemorrhages DPS whenever it isn't sitting still turreting DPS spells. There's a reason Stone IV has the highest potency out of the three healers.

The point I'm trying to make is, WHM is not disadvantaged on this particular fight. It actually has the easiest time out of all the 3 healers. One thing is certain though, playing a DPS or Tank class would make this fight a lot easier.

I died to it once and cleared it with the bar at like 88 or so the second time when I was ready for it.