Raid Consumables

Over the past few raids, I've been watching the Big Brother consumables chart quite closely. It always pains me to see people with no flasks or potions while we're fighting a boss. Even worse, I often see people without food buffs even after being reminded to eat something before the fight.

Now I realize that not everyone is a master chef like I am, but it's just a part of being dedicated to the raid - and those that are unwilling to take the time to skill up in cooking or just don't want to buy food off the auction house are not team players in my opinion. Every raid I attend I have food in my bags. Often, food I can't even use (+Agility, +Strength). I try and hand them out when I see people are short on food - it happens to us all, but I have never run out of +Spell Damage food and I always have a few +Stamina/+MP5 fish sticks in my back pocket just in case. Yeah, it's annoying to carry all that food around, taking up bag slots, but it's something you just have to do when you're raiding Tier 5 content in my opinion. A +23 spell damage food buff is huge - that's 2 extra epic red gems in my case. You can't just ignore that boost. Add on top of that the spirit I receive to keep my mana in tip-top condition, and there's just no excuse to not be using food buffs.

Perhaps even more egregious is the ignorance of flasks and potions. A while ago I stopped using potions altogether due to the fact they don't persist through death. This last Tuesday night while we were taking down Magtheridon and Lurker, I had to pop two Flasks of Pure Death. Yeah, it's expensive, but it's +80 damage to ALL of my spells. Add that with a food buff, and that's +103 damage. Like Vetarra pointed out in raid chat a while ago, that's an extra piece of equipment. You wouldn't come into a raid without your gloves or boots. Why come in without flasks or food?

Ok, I realize that not everyone plays just one character like I do. I know that during the week you might not have time to do dailies, but the two flasks require me to outlay about 120g a week (usually just one flask if we go to Gruul and I can use a Blade's Edge Elixir) or even less if I get a Mark of the Illidari. But in a quick trip around the Outlands, I can easily do the Shattered Sun quests in Nagrand, Blade's Edge, Netherstorm, then head south to Hellfire Peninsula and then back to Shattrath to turn them in (sometimes with a stop to bomb in Skettis). All told, it takes maybe 1/2 an hour and nets me 100 or so gold. Pick up the fishing quest and cooking quest and you'll be in any zone required for those two quests while making your circle and they will also net you free food and fish along with even more gold. Excuses about not enough time to gather gold are worthless to me. You have time. You don't have to level that alt just now. If you're committed to the raid, you'll gather a few gold and pick up a couple flasks and if you're not a cook, buy some food.

As always, WowWiki has a great listing of flasks - find an Alchemist and have some made. I can usually get my Flask of Pure Death made for free if I provide the Fel Lotus and the Nightmare Vine (which I always have extras of to make Superior Wizard Oil with. So go do your dailies, level up your cooking, and show up to your raids prepared!