All information here is copyrighted and cannot be reproduced without permission.
SpeedRunHowTo
From FuStrats
Contents |
Other Information
If you're interested in specific boss strategy guides or other raid information, please visit Main_Page or follow the links below:
If you came here via the BT speed run video and want to read a page on that specifically, we have SpeedRunBT.
Motivation
One motivation for a speed run is simply something fun and challenging to do. It makes an old instance more interesting as you try to beat your end-to-end times, and keeps people engaged and focused to prevent old content from turning into irresponsible wiping.
The other motivation, however is longer lasting: Being able to stack a raid for Teron Gorefiend doesn't really do much for your ability to conquer future progression content more effectively, unless you didn't know how to stack a raid before. But being able to tear through BT in less than three hours? The only way you can do that is if your raid is experienced in paying attention, reacting quickly to changing situations, and knowing their role on a boss without being handheld through it each time.
WWS is neat, but most people pay attention to "who is on top" rather than "who died the least", "who kept the tanks up even during a double pull", "who intercepted and pulled that mob off the mage before it killed him" -- a speed run is the best measure of your guild's ability to raid well, and is far more indicative of general raiding prowess than a high WWS dps parse is.
Those skills are something that will make a difference every week: you'll spend less time on old content and get faster to the new content. Your raiders will be more engaged and happier because there's less downtime -- everyone likes efficiency.
It can take practice for a guild that doesn't regularly focus to get good at running dungeons quickly, but the payoff is worth it.
Deaths
Deaths slow you down more than anything. A speed run doesn't mean killing quickly, it means moving quickly -- so don't overaggro.
If 2-3 people do die, rezzers call out on vent or in raidchat who they are rezzing so rezzing goes quickly. Rebuff as you move, don't pause.
DPS
A common misconception is that a speed run is about killing bosses quickly. When we mention a BT speedrun one of the first questions is often "how fast did you kill Gorefiend?"
First off, a speed run is all about the trash, not the bosses. On our clear of BT in 1 hour 49 minutes, only 31 minutes of that time were spent on bosses, and that's weighted more in the favor later bosses since Council & Illidan are long fights with zero trash in between them. While there's little you can do to speed up a boss kill, there's a lot you can do to speed up trash.
Furthermore, stacking DPS or pushing DPS hard is more likely to result in overaggro and death than it is a fast run. Control and skill are the keys to success, along with raidmembers reacting quickly when something goes wrong (during our BT speed run in the video, we pulled two packs unexpectedly about 4-5 times throughout the night, but we never wiped or lost more than a handful of people.)
Gear
Gear is not the key to a speed run either (see DPS above), although it can help if it's in terms of more stamina on DPS and tanks, more threat gear on tanks, and more haste on healers.
DPS stats just don't help you that much if you don't have good control on the mobs. However, if you *do* have solid control, DPS cuts tens of minutes (but not hours) off the clear time. It also can come in handy on a bad pull when you call for the raid to burst a few mobs down.
Remember: DPS/gear are meaningless if you are not dpsing a target. Steady pulls and keeping targets in the camp for continual dps (IE: chainpulling) is a much more effective use of DPS than simply adding more gear (or wishing you had more gear.) While we did this clear in Sunwell gear, we regularly were clearing BT in less than three hours every week, without trying hard, before Sunwell even launched.
Loot
Masterlooter is excellent for speeding up your crawls. Don't hang around the boss corpse: have an officer be the master looter and hang back to assign loot while everyone else continues the pulls. This works no matter what your loot system (random, DKP, loot council, etc.)
How to take breaks
Even on normal dungeon runs, your raids run smoother if you know how to take breaks.
How not to take a break: whoever wants to announces "afk for a few" in raidchat. Pulls stop if they're critical.
How to take a break: train your guild to expect 5-10 minute breaks in the middle of harder dungeons or between zones, or when flask timers drop during progression.
Pack skipping and other cleverness
Our SpeedRunBT guide goes into details on how we go through BT quickly, including what packs we skip, how to use your porting necks to speed up your clears, etc. It's a good starting point for understanding how to move from "clearing quickly" to an actual dungeon speed clear, but ultimately they're parlor tricks for shaving a bit more time off of a run.
The real keys aren't pack-skipping, AE'ing an entire room at once, or stacking for DPS: they're control, communication, coordination, and chain-pulling.