I think deathwhipser is going to be a PITA for pugs for a good long while. Ive done it twice successfully and unsuccessfully before as well, and seen much crying about the fight in Trade chat.
It just seems that the initial strats for the fight stated to put a group on the shield, and a group on the left side and right side. Every pug tries this (one I was in tried it also and failed) The successes simply said fuck the strat, and split all of the raids dps, we ALL burned down the 3 adds, with half the raid burning one side, half the raid burning the other, with a single group of dps assigned to move to the back add after both sides were down.
The other two groups simply resumed dps on the shield once the 6 adds were melted. This worked perfectly twice, and despite the melee's running back and forth, and general discomfort of target switching and trying to cast on a Adherent yet its dead before you can since theres so much dps......it worked out fine. Fight felt like a faceroll the two times we did it that way.
On the pug this week though? They refused that strat, and wiped repeatedly trying to do it the way they read it. Each wipe because there wasnt enough dps to kill the adds all before the following wave. Its going to take people a while to realize that the fight is a waste of your time if you cant kill the adds fast enough, the shield isnt a problem, phase 2 isnt a problem, not even the curse of torpor is a problem with dispels, but not getting those waves down will cause 99% of your wipes.
Theres 30 seconds in between each wave. With all, and I mean ALL (even the slow ramp up dpsing affliction locks, NO exceptions) on the adds they are melted in at ridiculous speeds, allowing 80% of the dps to get back on the shield.