# The Blinding Vale +13 — TIMED 26:36 · 3 deaths · Fortified, Tyrannical, affix 147 *2026-09-01 · 11:49 · `WoWCombatLog-090126_113535.txt`* > **AI-WRITTEN ANALYSIS** — The numbers come from the combat log. The verdict and notes were written by an AI reading them, and can be wrong in ways the numbers cannot. Written by Claude (Opus 5), from the combat log and the archive. **Tip:** Cleanse Toxic Spew first and Spore Spines last ## Everyone caught Bloodthorn Roots the same number of times; Shadow Priest held his eleven times longer, because the cleanse cooldown went to the cheapest debuff in the key. Timed with a minute and a half to spare, and the three deaths are the whole story of where the rest of it went: at +13 each one adds fifteen seconds, so 0:45 of the 26:35 was death penalty. Two of those three were one moment. On the 19:18 pull a Sporeblight Belcher landed Belch Spores twice, a second and a half apart, into a party already ground to 40-70% by Spouting Floret. The first wave took 475-678k off four people; the second killed the two who had nothing left to press. That pull cost 0:30 by itself. The other death, Shadow Priest at 16:59, was a 1.05M six-second window with no defensive pressed and 170k of healing reaching him. Hyporock's own sheet needs nothing fixed. Output rose 3.3x when damage landed, the long idle stretches sat in quiet time almost without exception, and every cleanse one dispeller could physically reach was taken. The thing worth changing is not how many cleanses were cast but which debuff they were spent on, and that is worth roughly 9M of party damage. **What to change** 1. Cleanse priority in Vale is Toxic Spew, then Bloodthorn Roots, then Spore Spines -- rank by damage per second of uptime, not by what is up most often. 2. Stop reflexively cleansing Spore Spines off the tank. It took 22 of 33 cleanses and is the cheapest debuff in the dungeon; the tank finished with zero deaths and 97% mitigation uptime. 3. Ask Shadow Priest to confirm Mass Dispel is bound. Bloodthorn Roots lands on the whole party, a second dispeller is worth around 9M here, and he took 57 of the 154 ticks himself. 4. Belch Spores gives about four seconds between the cast finishing and the first wave, and it reached players on only 3 of 10 casts this key -- it is dodgeable. Call it, or hold a party cooldown for the second wave rather than the first. 5. Nothing to change on output. Throughput and response were both above what the scale expects, the surge ratio is 3.34x and the idle time is in the right place -- this is the shape to keep. 6. Watch the Holy Power overcap inside damage windows: 57 of the 155 wasted fell in the worst quarter, worth about nineteen Light of Dawns. ## The run | | | |---|---| | on the clock | **26:36** — 24:18 fighting | | deaths | **3** — timer agrees (2.96 implied) | | party damage taken | **286,140,708** — 196,242/s while fighting | | enemies killed | **133** | | interrupts | **83/99** — 84% | | dispels | **37/58** — 14,075,754 came through | ## Players | player | spec | role | ilvl | DPS | HPS | taken/s | deaths | grade | |---|---|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|:---:| | Prot Warrior | Prot Warrior | tank | 316 | 127,123 | 21,572 | 68,353 | 0 | **C+** 71 | | Hyporock | Holy Paladin | heal | 314 | 20,223 | 102,819 | 26,437 | 0 | **A** 89 | | Devourer DH | Devourer DH | dps | 318 | 249,449 | 15,783 | 30,253 | 1 | **B** 80 | | Ele Shaman | Ele Shaman | dps | 290 | 200,874 | 4,935 | 28,877 | 1 | **B** 76 | | Shadow Priest | Shadow Priest | dps | 314 | 192,787 | 15,101 | 29,563 | 1 | **D** 55 | ### Prot Warrior — Prot Warrior — C+ (71/100) **Where the points went** - **-14 interrupts (rank)** — scored 56: 17 stops vs 33 expected - **-6 mitigation** — scored 80: 97% uptime of the 100% this kit can hold, 100% of worst windows covered - **-5 damage (rank)** — scored 76: 127,123 dps, 59% of the average DPS
All axes - **survival− 100** [no charge] — 0 death(s) - **mitigation 80** [w 31%] — 97% uptime of the 100% this kit can hold, 100% of worst windows covered - **damage~ 76** [w 21%] — 127,123 dps, 59% of the average DPS - **mechanics− 94** [−0.8 pts] — 1% of intake was damage comparable players did not take - **interrupts~ 56** [w 31%] — 17 stops vs 33 expected (group stopped 84%, not scored here) - **activity 77** [w 17%] — 97% engaged while alive in combat - **utility** — n/a. no utility cooldown with a measured recharge yet - _overcapped Rage: 31 of 18,104 generated (0%)_ - _not counted as button presses (procs, ticks): Ignore Pain, Shield Slam_
### Hyporock — Holy Paladin — A (89/100) **Where the points went** - **-7 throughput** — scored 80: covered 79% of the 168,239,947 that needed an outside heal (42% of the party's intake was self-covered or overkill); 11,842,697 absorbed - **-2 response** — scored 91: put back 49% of the 89,704,137 that landed in the party's worst windows - **-2 activity** — scored 86: 93% engaged while alive in combat
All axes - **survival− 100** [no charge] — 0 death(s) - **throughput 80** [w 34%] — covered 79% of the 168,239,947 that needed an outside heal (42% of the party's intake was self-covered or overkill); 11,842,697 absorbed - **response 91** [w 25%] — put back 49% of the 89,704,137 that landed in the party's worst windows - **mechanics− 100** [no charge] — 0% of intake was damage comparable players did not take - **interrupts** — n/a. no interrupt on the bar - **dispel 100** [w 16%] — 37/37 of what one dispeller could reach (58 landed; the rest overlapped a debuff already being cleansed) - **activity 86** [w 15%] — 93% engaged while alive in combat - **utility 99** [w 10%] — 66 used of ~82 the kit offered - _overcapped Holy Power: 155 of 790 generated (20%)_ - _not counted as button presses (procs, ticks): Reclamation_
### Devourer DH — Devourer DH — B (80/100) **Where the points went** - **-6 interrupts (rank)** — scored 81: 18 stops vs 17 expected - **-5 survival** — scored 72: 1 death(s) - **-5 activity** — scored 82: 95% engaged while alive in combat
All axes - **survival− 72** [−5.0 pts] — 1 death(s) - **damage~ 89** [w 42%] — 249,449 dps, 127% of the other damage dealers' median - **mechanics− 100** [no charge] — 0% of intake was damage comparable players did not take - **interrupts~ 81** [w 32%] — 18 stops vs 17 expected (group stopped 84%, not scored here) - **activity 82** [w 26%] — 95% engaged while alive in combat - **utility** — n/a. no utility cooldown with a measured recharge yet - _never pressed: Sigil of Misery_ - _not counted as button presses (procs, ticks): Reaper's Toll, Soul Fragment, The Hunt, Vengeful Retreat, Voidblade_
### Ele Shaman — Ele Shaman — B (76/100) **Where the points went** - **-13 damage (rank)** — scored 69: 200,874 dps, 90% of the other damage dealers' median - **-5 survival** — scored 72: 1 death(s) - **-3 activity** — scored 89: 97% engaged while alive in combat
All axes - **survival− 72** [−5.0 pts] — 1 death(s) - **damage~ 69** [w 42%] — 200,874 dps, 90% of the other damage dealers' median - **mechanics− 100** [no charge] — 0% of intake was damage comparable players did not take - **interrupts~ 91** [w 32%] — 26 stops vs 17 expected (group stopped 84%, not scored here) - **activity 89** [w 26%] — 97% engaged while alive in combat - **utility 0** [w 0%] — 0 used of ~60 the kit offered - _overcapped Maelstrom: 25 of 11,018 generated (0%)_ - _never pressed: Cleanse Spirit, Earth Elemental, Purge_
### Shadow Priest — Shadow Priest — D (55/100) **Where the points went** - **-14 damage (rank)** — scored 66: 192,787 dps, 86% of the other damage dealers' median - **-10 interrupts (rank)** — scored 68: 9 stops vs 17 expected - **-9 mechanics (rank)** — scored 54: 11% of intake was damage comparable players did not take
All axes - **survival− 72** [−5.0 pts] — 1 death(s) - **damage~ 66** [w 42%] — 192,787 dps, 86% of the other damage dealers' median - **mechanics− 54** [−9.3 pts] — 11% of intake was damage comparable players did not take - **interrupts~ 68** [w 32%] — 9 stops vs 17 expected (group stopped 84%, not scored here) - **activity 76** [w 26%] — 94% engaged while alive in combat - **utility 0** [w 0%] — 0 used of ~12 the kit offered - _overcapped Insanity: 33 of 6,280 generated (1%)_ - _never pressed: Dispel Magic, Mass Dispel, Purify Disease_ - _not counted as button presses (procs, ticks): Shadowy Apparition_
*Axes marked ~ are ranked against the other players in this key, not measured on their own. Someone is always in the middle.* ## Deaths 3 deaths in 2 separate incidents. The cascade at 19:40 (2 deaths in 0s) was the big one. **What was landing while people died** — Counts only the seconds before each death, not the whole key. | spell | in | damage | killing blows | |---|---:|---:|---:| | Belch Spores | 2 of 3 | 2,106,902 | 2 | | Spouting Floret | 2 of 3 | 1,010,118 | — | | Lightfire | 1 of 3 | 670,929 | — | | Grievous Thrash | 1 of 3 | 384,496 | 1 | ### Death · 16:59 · Shadow Priest · dps **16:59 · Shadow Priest · dps** — killed by **Grievous Thrash** for 384,496 from Spirit Bear took **1,055,425** · in **6.0 s** - Lightfire — 64%, 670,929 - **Grievous Thrash** (killing blow) — 36%, 384,496 **no defensive pressed** · 169,891 healed · Hyporock ### Cascade · 19:40 · 2 deaths in 0s — Devourer DH went first **19:40 · Devourer DH · dps** — killed by **Belch Spores** for 541,550 from Sporeblight Belcher took **1,318,216** · in **5.3 s** - **Belch Spores** (killing blow) — 86%, 1,138,486 - Spouting Floret — 14%, 179,730 Blur · 183,718 healed · Hyporock **19:40 · Ele Shaman · dps** — killed by **Belch Spores** for 493,939 from Sporeblight Belcher took **1,798,804** · in **11.3 s** - **Belch Spores** (killing blow) — 54%, 968,416 - Spouting Floret — 46%, 830,388 **no defensive pressed** · 864,314 healed · Devourer DH, Hyporock ## Where the time went | | seconds | | |---|---:|---| | combat | 1,458 | 24:18 | | routing | 87 | 1:27 | | death penalty | 45 | 0:45 | | lead in | 14 | 0:14 | Costliest pulls — *Cost is the time the pull lost: a wipe loses the whole pull, a pull that held loses only its deaths.* | pull | at | fighting | enemies | deaths | taken | cost | |---:|---|---|---:|---:|---:|---:| | 6 | 19:19 | 3:54 | 22 | 2 | 37,643,797 | 0:30 | | 4 | 14:13 | 3:35 | 10 | 1 | 25,275,822 | 0:15 | ## What the group left up **Casts that could have been interrupted and were not** - Light Bolt: 13 of 52 got through - Lightspore Shot: 2 of 13 got through - Light Bolt Volley: 1 of 11 got through **Debuffs that could have been dispelled and were not** - Bloodthorn Roots: 14x, up for 121s in total, 9,434,659 damage - Toxic Spew: 6x, up for 46s in total, 3,680,394 damage - Spore Spines: 1x, up for 28s in total, 960,701 damage **Damage one player took that similar players did not (check the raw hits before acting on this; a spell only one role can take looks the same)** - Shadow Priest: 5,124,626 (mostly Bloodthorn Roots) - Prot Warrior: 1,527,892 (mostly Void Leech) **Party damage eaten by shields on the enemies: 1.9% of what was dealt never landed (not graded)** - 24,240,293 absorbed of 1,232,711,710 landed - Spiny Shield: 12,252,180 - Lightbloom Pollination: 11,988,113 - on: Spineshield Beetle (12,252,180), Lightgorged Lasher (11,988,113) **Hit most of the party (not graded: everyone took it, so nobody is charged for it)** - Spouting Floret: 5/5 players, 200 hits, 32,307,665 (11% of party intake) - Oozing Xylem: 5/5 players, 258 hits, 26,652,747 (9% of party intake) - Bloodthorn Roots: 5/5 players, 154 hits, 13,626,382 (5% of party intake) - Bedrock Surge: 5/5 players, 147 hits, 10,443,063 (4% of party intake) - Lightcrazed Frenzy: 5/5 players, 204 hits, 10,401,841 (4% of party intake) - Thorncaller Roar: 5/5 players, 60 hits, 8,970,509 (3% of party intake) ## Notes ### The roots are a dispel problem, not a standing-in-it problem Arbiter charges Shadow Priest 5,124,626 of "over-exposure" -- damage comparable players did not take -- and that is most of why his mechanics score is 54 and his grade a D. The damage is real. The reading is not. Bloodthorn Roots carries two spell ids: 1259365 is the debuff, 1237330 is the damage. Split them apart and the applications are almost identical across the party: ``` player roots applied damage ticks damage Shadow Priest 6 57 6,085,493 Devourer DH 6 44 3,836,645 Prot Warrior 6 35 1,644,886 Ele Shaman 6 13 1,486,446 Hyporock 5 5 572,912 ``` Of the 154 damage ticks in the key, 154 landed on a player who was carrying the debuff at that instant and 0 landed on anyone who was not. So the tick count is not a measure of where somebody stood -- it is a measure of how long the root stayed on them. Shadow Priest was rooted the same six times as everyone else and was cleansed once. Hyporock was rooted five times, cleansed himself twice, and ate five ticks. Read the mechanics score with that in front of you. The axis is doing exactly what it is designed to do and it is still the wrong lens here: the cohort comparison is valid, but the mechanism behind the gap is a dispellable debuff nobody removed, which is a party finding filed under one player's name. ### Which debuff deserves the cooldown The dispel axis reads 100 -- 37 of the 37 that one dispeller could physically reach, given that Cleanse recharges in about nine seconds and up to five cleansable debuffs can be live at once. That number is honest, and it is a ceiling on count. It says nothing about allocation, and allocation is where this key was decided. The 33 cleanses went: Spore Spines 22, Bloodthorn Roots 9, Toxic Spew 2. By target, 24 of the 33 went to Prot Warrior. Rank the three by what they cost per second they are up, which is the number that should decide a contested cooldown: ``` debuff uptime damage per second up Toxic Spew 16s 4,666,805 291,986 Bloodthorn Roots 64s 13,626,382 213,764 Spore Spines 205s 7,307,486 35,644 ``` Spore Spines is six times cheaper per second than the roots and eight times cheaper than Toxic Spew, and it took two thirds of the cleanses. It is up almost constantly on the tank, which is exactly why it feels urgent and exactly why it should lose the race: it will still be there in nine seconds, and the tank was never in danger -- zero deaths, 97% mitigation uptime. There is a second dispeller available. Shadow Priest' loadout carries Mass Dispel, which strips a Magic effect from up to five allies at once and is the right shape for a root that lands on the whole party. He pressed it zero times. Worth one line of confirmation with him first -- a loadout entry is read out of COMBATANT_INFO and is not proof the spec grants the button. ### The double Belch Spores, second by second The Belcher started casting at 19:34 and finished at 19:35. The damage did not arrive until 19:38.9, and then again at 19:40.4 -- one cast, two waves, a second and a half apart. Going in, Spouting Floret had been ticking about 200k on everyone every two seconds and the party sat at 40-70%. First wave: Devourer DH to 218k, Shadow Priest to 121k, Ele Shaman to 315k, Hyporock to 301k. Shadow Priest pressed Dispersion half a second later and took 162k on the second wave instead of 500k. Hyporock pressed Aura Mastery 0.04 seconds before it and finished on 42,455 health out of 792,740. Devourer DH pressed Blur in the same instant the hit landed. Ele Shaman pressed nothing and took Reincarnation afterwards. The healer half of that window is not fixable. Even with the party-wide reduction applied to both waves, Devourer DH's 1,138,486 still exceeds what he had plus everything that reached him. The fixable half is upstream: the same spell was cast ten times in this key and reached players on only three of them, so it is dodgeable, and there were roughly four seconds between the cast finishing and the first wave landing. ### What I checked on the healer that turned out fine Three things looked like leaks in the tables and are not, and they are written down here so they do not get re-investigated. Shield of the Righteous took 270 of the 630 Holy Power spent -- 43%, against 360 into Light of Dawn and Eternal Flame together. That reads as healing diverted into a personal button. It is not: only 6% of its 141 casts fell in the worst-damage quarter of the key, against 25% for a button pressed at random and 66% for Light of Dawn. It is a downtime dump, which is what it should be, and it returned 231,415 mana on the way. The old holding habit is gone. Healing output in the worst quarter of the key ran 3.34x the rate everywhere else. Nineteen gaps over four seconds add up to 172 seconds, and exactly one of them -- five seconds -- sits inside that worst quarter. Idle placement, not idle total, is the tell, and this is as clean as it gets. Beacons are fine. Virtue was pressed 61 times and reached all five players; the Savior beacon moved as it should. No placement change. The one genuine item: 155 Holy Power overcapped of 790 generated, and 57 of those 155 fell inside the worst windows rather than the 39 a flat spread would put there. At 260k effective per Light of Dawn that is about nineteen casts, roughly 5M -- small next to the 9M sitting in the roots, but it is the only output-side number in the key with anything under it. ## Method Each axis is scored 0 to 100 against what this run allowed, not against a fixed target. A player is only scored on things their spec can do. An axis that does not apply is left out and the other weights are scaled up. 100 means nothing was missed; a solid, even key usually lands near 75. Survival and mechanics carry no weight of their own: they start at 100 and take points off when something went wrong. *Generated 2026-09-01T23:47:46 · schema 6 · written analysis: Claude (Opus 5), from the combat log and the archive*