Those who want to visit the current Heroic raids regularly with “Randoms” in WoW can certainly tell some tales of suffering. However, a new “PUG meta” is currently said to be very successful, provided all players meet the requirements.
What is this PUG meta? On Reddit, the WoW player ImNotMackydee shared a screenshot showing the new meta for randomly assembled raid groups (PUG stands for “Pickup group”). All players need the following three gems for rings:
- Citrine of Storm Channeling (Chance to protect allies with absorption shield)
- Sanctified Citrine of the Navigator (Chance for healing to jump)
- Bardic Citrine of Ancient Salt (Chance for over-time healing for 5 nearby allies)
Those who possess these three gems only need consumables and Discord (for listening in), according to the raid leader. Requirements for experience or item level – which are normally checked – seem to play no role.
And does it work? The raid leader himself explains in his post that he has already organized 347 successful runs in the Palace of Nerub’ar this season, where Queen Ansurek has been defeated on the Heroic difficulty.
The trick of this meta: If all participating players deliver the three gem effects, an overwhelming amount of healing hits the injured players, allowing the raid to be played completely without healers. The larger number of damage dealers, in turn, ensures that fights and critical phases are noticeably shorter.
Speaking of raids in MMORPGs:
Strong option also for dungeons
How does the community rate this meta? On Reddit, the post has so far garnered more than 1,180 upvotes and 180 comments.
- Drakhya has already experienced the meta in practice (via Reddit): “I did this yesterday with a friend and the queen died as the first portals fell in phase 3. We had a few deaths, but they were dead because they did not play the mechanics correctly.”
- According to WiseMouse69_, this is also used in non-PUGs (via Reddit): “We did this in my guild the other day. Hilarious.”
- agreed88 has another recommendation on Reddit: “Fun fact – These are by far the best gems for Mythic Plus dungeons. Since all of them rely on RPPM, they effectively keep everyone shielded nearly permanently, which is almost immediately refreshed to anyone within the dungeon, resulting in a constant healing of about 200,000 to 300,000 per second.”
RPPM stands for “Real Procs per Minutes”, referring to the possible number of procs per minute, with the value of haste positively affecting procs.
The new meta has a certain taste of bitterness, as healers have already had to look back on some difficult phases due to WoW: The War Within. It certainly doesn’t help that they can now be replaced by gems. More on the relief for healers that came in December 2024: Blizzard is listening – WoW is becoming easier for tanks and healers
