Heroic Gorefiend can be challenging even for an overgeared group. I have noticed that when people mess up mechanics outside at just the right time, it occasionally makes the fight go better rather than worse, because extra DPS get sent into the stomach and do a better job of killing adds. This made me wonder when it could make sense to have a DPS deliberately suicide during phase 1.
The
wowhead guide shows the schedule of Shadow of Death casts for different raid sizes. Of note:
* There are 36 seconds between the first and second DPS sets going in, and between the second and third. That's basically no overlap, since people usually leave a few seconds before the 40-second maximum.
* For the first cast, there's a discontinuity between 12-person raids, where only one DPS is sent in, and 13-person raids where two are sent in. There's another discontinuity for the second cast between 14-person and 15-person raids.
The most dangerous part of the phase seems to be during the transition between the first and second DPS groups. The second DPS group (maybe just one individual) goes in and is overwhelmed by constructs, many of whom get through along with the Enraged Spirit, distracting the raid from getting the spirit down in a timely manner. If an essence also gets through during this period, it can often cause a wipe. A similar glut of adds sometimes makes it through near the end of the phase, but it's not as big of a deal since the raid is going into Feast of Souls. So if a DPS were to suicide in, doing so around 25 seconds to smooth that first transition would seem to make the most sense.
The caveats are:
* You can't pre-assign who goes in, particularly for the second phase 1, because anyone could have the debuff. But you could coordinate over voice who will go in after the first shadows of death cast happens.
* Having more than one person suicide could be dangerous. Players who go in get a 3-minute debuff, which will last basically until the same part of the next phase 1; so to be safe, you don't want more than half of your DPS going in during each phase 1. For particular raid sizes like 10 and 17, even sending in one extra DPS could be an issue if you are running with an extra healer.