I really want to do this quest chain before it disappears come Cataclysm.
Of course, it requires doing Blackwing Lair at least twice (and three times if you don't time it right on parallel quest chains), Molten Core once (plus one additional visit that doesn't require any boss kills) and Onyxia once. Blackwing Lair, since it can't be solo'd (the first boss, at any rate) and since cloaks are needed for Nefarion, will probably be the trickiest part. (Actually, it looks like there is a way to avoid the AoE shadowflame Nefarion casts upon landing. WoWWiki suggests that standing behind the throne as he lands permits you to avoid it. Clever.)
But the initial push to get to neutral with the Brood of Nozdormu (starting at 0/36000 hated) is probably the part that makes me least likely to get this done in time.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Retro Raiding
We only had 8 people show up for the 10-man ICC raid tonight, so we ran old content instead. (Same thing happened on Tuesday and we spent forever doing Maly for the weekly raid quest...with current gear, we blow through the first two phases, generally getting him down to 40% or so...and then we wipe after about 30 seconds on phase 3 because we have no idea how to use the drakes. Did you know that you have to target the HoTs on yourself? Ridiculous.)
After a bit of debating, we arbitrarily chose Blackwing Lair. Only one of us had ever been before, and that was back during vanilla. It was awesome. Blackrock Spire is an amazing instance. Huge, by modern standards, and incredibly life like. My favorite remains Blackrock Depths (a full city of dwarves surrounded by lava! It's real and alive! None of these little 20 minute dungeon runs with three bosses placed in ludicrous positions.), but the Spire was pretty cool and I'd forgotten how massive it is inside, in the vertical direction.
Forgotten, that is, until our tank got knocked off a ledge (the trash mobs still knock level 80s back a good distance) and fell all the way into the Lower Spire. He survived, of course, because he's a magic bear. Actually, he landed in lava. Only in WoW do the laws of physics state that a huge fall into lava goes to the runner. It still took him 20 minutes to find his way back up to us though.
After that, we killed the General, nabbed the UBRS achievement on these toons (we got Jenkins too...Leeeeeeeroy!) and got properly attuned so that we can just use the Orb of Command next time (the quest had amazing flavor text, including "Good luck storming the castle."). Which is almost a shame, given how amazing the Spire is.
We burned our way through the raid. And I do mean burned. If the bosses weren't on fire, we generally were. We got to the corrupt red dragon and the chatter over vent was immediately concerned. "I hear he's hard!" "Is he still a raid-wiper?" No. We destroyed him. He barely had time to feel sorry for himself as his face was melting off. He wept tears of joy. But only for 15 seconds. Then he died.
The suppression rooms were hilarious. Having no clue what was going on (our rogue tried to disarm them once, but couldn't figure it out), we simply ran through, killing everything in our path, never stopping, never tarrying, very....very....very...slowly. While humming the Chariots of Fire intro music over vent. "Epic" barely begins to describe it.
Nefarion himself is on a stunning ledge, looking out over the desolate landscape below. Very far below. We couldn't jump. I tried. More than once. I handed out cloaks so we wouldn't need to worry about shadow flame, and we were off and running. He was actually tricky, and managed to destroy our hunter's bow. Oops. He shouldn't have made her mad. After he died, she took pleasure in skinning him. And I sat on the throne and lorded over myguildmates minions.
All in all, a good night.
After that, four of us went and killed Hakkar in Zul'Gurub (I still needed the achievement on my alliance toon). We only took down the raptor boss first, and by this point the rogue was fairly drunk and the hunter was pretty loaded with opiates. Hakkar was a bit of a challenge. The rogue died. Twice. That'll teach'm.
As a side note, I always go resto and stay tree form during fights where the boss can mind control. You see, a mind-controlled tree still can't do any damage. There's always a second when the spell is first cast when I simply stand there. I imagine the algorithm in the depths of Blizzard's servers is going "Damn, a tree...what now? Aha, he'll heal the boss! Damn! He doesn't even have any good burst healing abilities. What a schmuck."
The only classic raid most of us still need is the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj. The Ruins were epic and utterly stunning in terms of scenery and setting. Four of us tried the Temple and couldn't make it past the first boss. Mind controls turned us into our own worst enemies. But I'm guessing eight of us could down him, and after that it's clear sailing to the Twin Emperors, or so they tell me. Should be fun. Maybe next time we come up short, I'll push for that...
After a bit of debating, we arbitrarily chose Blackwing Lair. Only one of us had ever been before, and that was back during vanilla. It was awesome. Blackrock Spire is an amazing instance. Huge, by modern standards, and incredibly life like. My favorite remains Blackrock Depths (a full city of dwarves surrounded by lava! It's real and alive! None of these little 20 minute dungeon runs with three bosses placed in ludicrous positions.), but the Spire was pretty cool and I'd forgotten how massive it is inside, in the vertical direction.
Forgotten, that is, until our tank got knocked off a ledge (the trash mobs still knock level 80s back a good distance) and fell all the way into the Lower Spire. He survived, of course, because he's a magic bear. Actually, he landed in lava. Only in WoW do the laws of physics state that a huge fall into lava goes to the runner. It still took him 20 minutes to find his way back up to us though.
After that, we killed the General, nabbed the UBRS achievement on these toons (we got Jenkins too...Leeeeeeeroy!) and got properly attuned so that we can just use the Orb of Command next time (the quest had amazing flavor text, including "Good luck storming the castle."). Which is almost a shame, given how amazing the Spire is.
We burned our way through the raid. And I do mean burned. If the bosses weren't on fire, we generally were. We got to the corrupt red dragon and the chatter over vent was immediately concerned. "I hear he's hard!" "Is he still a raid-wiper?" No. We destroyed him. He barely had time to feel sorry for himself as his face was melting off. He wept tears of joy. But only for 15 seconds. Then he died.
The suppression rooms were hilarious. Having no clue what was going on (our rogue tried to disarm them once, but couldn't figure it out), we simply ran through, killing everything in our path, never stopping, never tarrying, very....very....very...slowly. While humming the Chariots of Fire intro music over vent. "Epic" barely begins to describe it.
Nefarion himself is on a stunning ledge, looking out over the desolate landscape below. Very far below. We couldn't jump. I tried. More than once. I handed out cloaks so we wouldn't need to worry about shadow flame, and we were off and running. He was actually tricky, and managed to destroy our hunter's bow. Oops. He shouldn't have made her mad. After he died, she took pleasure in skinning him. And I sat on the throne and lorded over my
All in all, a good night.
After that, four of us went and killed Hakkar in Zul'Gurub (I still needed the achievement on my alliance toon). We only took down the raptor boss first, and by this point the rogue was fairly drunk and the hunter was pretty loaded with opiates. Hakkar was a bit of a challenge. The rogue died. Twice. That'll teach'm.
As a side note, I always go resto and stay tree form during fights where the boss can mind control. You see, a mind-controlled tree still can't do any damage. There's always a second when the spell is first cast when I simply stand there. I imagine the algorithm in the depths of Blizzard's servers is going "Damn, a tree...what now? Aha, he'll heal the boss! Damn! He doesn't even have any good burst healing abilities. What a schmuck."
The only classic raid most of us still need is the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj. The Ruins were epic and utterly stunning in terms of scenery and setting. Four of us tried the Temple and couldn't make it past the first boss. Mind controls turned us into our own worst enemies. But I'm guessing eight of us could down him, and after that it's clear sailing to the Twin Emperors, or so they tell me. Should be fun. Maybe next time we come up short, I'll push for that...
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Best way to wipe your Naxx alt raid...
Put down a cleansing totem during Grobbulus.
Oops...I don't usually play a class that can do anything about diseases, and it didn't occur to me that it would be a problem. I did think people were being really sloppy until I figured it out...
Oops...I don't usually play a class that can do anything about diseases, and it didn't occur to me that it would be a problem. I did think people were being really sloppy until I figured it out...
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Mount Hyjal
Last Thursday was the final raid night for our long-time holy paladin, so when a few people had to leave after our first few attempts at Festergut, we decided to go do something epic that none of us had ever seen before. We headed to the Caverns of Time and, after a few false stumbles, found our way into the Mount Hyjal instance. There were, as I recall, 6 of us, but we rolled through the entire 25-man raid until 2 more lost the connection to the server just before Archimonde.
It really is an epic fight. I ran through the world zone of Hyjal back in 2005, on my tauren druid, before they fixed the door hack. It was a beautiful zone, with a dead world tree and the skeleton of a giant demon resting on its roots. Seeing that battle from a first person perspective was amazing.
The initial fight in the human base was pretty easy for us in our mixed T9/T10. We did get a nasty surprise when, after channeling a "mass teleport" for a while, Jaina teleported herself and her troops to safety, but left us behind. It was funny for a moment, and then got really exciting as wave after wave of ghouls started shuffling and prancing over the hills and towards us at high speed. Only half of us made it to the Horde base...the rest got dismounted and had to be left behind (though they joined us after a quick graveyard run).
The waves of trash at the Horde base were far more epic. The first time I saw a giant frostwyrm slowly coming in over the trees, I just gaped.
With full T9 gear, this can easily be done with half a dozen people, so everyone should check it out if they get a chance! I extended our lockout, so hopefully we'll be able to take out Archimonde sometime this week.
I'm looking forward to this becoming an active zone again in Cataclysm. Though I suspect it will be mostly on fire, if Ragnaros is alive and kicking.
It really is an epic fight. I ran through the world zone of Hyjal back in 2005, on my tauren druid, before they fixed the door hack. It was a beautiful zone, with a dead world tree and the skeleton of a giant demon resting on its roots. Seeing that battle from a first person perspective was amazing.
The initial fight in the human base was pretty easy for us in our mixed T9/T10. We did get a nasty surprise when, after channeling a "mass teleport" for a while, Jaina teleported herself and her troops to safety, but left us behind. It was funny for a moment, and then got really exciting as wave after wave of ghouls started shuffling and prancing over the hills and towards us at high speed. Only half of us made it to the Horde base...the rest got dismounted and had to be left behind (though they joined us after a quick graveyard run).
The waves of trash at the Horde base were far more epic. The first time I saw a giant frostwyrm slowly coming in over the trees, I just gaped.
With full T9 gear, this can easily be done with half a dozen people, so everyone should check it out if they get a chance! I extended our lockout, so hopefully we'll be able to take out Archimonde sometime this week.
I'm looking forward to this becoming an active zone again in Cataclysm. Though I suspect it will be mostly on fire, if Ragnaros is alive and kicking.
Allison Robert's new Restoration 101 Shifting Perspectives Column
Allison Robert, druid columnist extraordinaire, has written up a three page guide on the basics of healing as a tree over at wow.com.
Very good, and good to see this sort of resource out there, especially with everyone trying to run as a healer or a tank under the new LFG system. (The other big guide on tree healing you should read is Lissanna's, over here at restokin.com.)
As Allison alludes, some of the druid resto kit is quite situational. Improved Tranquility, for example, is well worth taking if you only run 5-mans. Tranquility has saved me a few times in Heroic Halls of Reflection already. It's fairly useless for raids, though, particularly since it will only work on people in the same party as you.
My only other contention is that you should think twice about getting the Glyph of Wild Growth. This increases the maximum number of targets for your Wild Growth from 5 to 6. All of them must still be within 15 yards of your primary target, however. My problem is that, as a 10-man healer, I rarely see 5 people, let alone more than that, clumped up enough to take full advantage of Wild Growth. I still use it. A lot. I just don't think the glyph would improve it for me.
Allison actually responds to this concern in the comments of her column (three cheers for responsive writers! hip hip hurray!). She agrees that a lot of recent fights, especially in ICC, encourage groups to scatter, especially the ranged. However, as she points out, if you have more than 5 melee, or if you're doing fights with large amounts of raid damage where the raid still stays fairly close together, the extra Wild Growth landing can be a godsend. I may try switching out Rapid Rejuv for Wild Growth tonight and see how it goes.
EDIT: Lissanna just posted in response to my comment as well. She carries a stack of Rapid Rejuv and a stack of Wild Growth glyphs with her, and switches out fight-by-fight. Her other two glyphs are in line with mine: Nourish and Swiftmend. I may start carrying a few of the first two with me to experiment a bit.
Very good, and good to see this sort of resource out there, especially with everyone trying to run as a healer or a tank under the new LFG system. (The other big guide on tree healing you should read is Lissanna's, over here at restokin.com.)
As Allison alludes, some of the druid resto kit is quite situational. Improved Tranquility, for example, is well worth taking if you only run 5-mans. Tranquility has saved me a few times in Heroic Halls of Reflection already. It's fairly useless for raids, though, particularly since it will only work on people in the same party as you.
My only other contention is that you should think twice about getting the Glyph of Wild Growth. This increases the maximum number of targets for your Wild Growth from 5 to 6. All of them must still be within 15 yards of your primary target, however. My problem is that, as a 10-man healer, I rarely see 5 people, let alone more than that, clumped up enough to take full advantage of Wild Growth. I still use it. A lot. I just don't think the glyph would improve it for me.
Allison actually responds to this concern in the comments of her column (three cheers for responsive writers! hip hip hurray!). She agrees that a lot of recent fights, especially in ICC, encourage groups to scatter, especially the ranged. However, as she points out, if you have more than 5 melee, or if you're doing fights with large amounts of raid damage where the raid still stays fairly close together, the extra Wild Growth landing can be a godsend. I may try switching out Rapid Rejuv for Wild Growth tonight and see how it goes.
EDIT: Lissanna just posted in response to my comment as well. She carries a stack of Rapid Rejuv and a stack of Wild Growth glyphs with her, and switches out fight-by-fight. Her other two glyphs are in line with mine: Nourish and Swiftmend. I may start carrying a few of the first two with me to experiment a bit.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Festergut 10-man, Attempt No. 1
We tried Festergut about half a dozen times last week. Our first time actually knocking heads with a Plagueworks boss. I think we probably should have started with its slimier cousin, Rotface. Festergut is a gear check, with a five minute enrage timer, a huge amount of raid damage and an absurd amount of tank damage.
This isn't a strat post, since we haven't found something successful yet. Just a series of musings. In general, we kept melee and tanks in the center, on the boss, and had ranged fan out in a semi circle. Festergut will cast pools of Vile Gas at ranged targets, dealing damage and causing them to loose control and vomit, dealing yet more AoE damage to those around them and knocking them out of commission for a few seconds. Ranged should stay 10 yards apart.
However, people need to gather around players marked with Gas Spores in order to get inoculated against shadow damage to avoid a raid wipe once Festergut inhales all the Gaseous Blight and releases it again, dealing around 50k damage to everyone. So we need to gather up and make sure at least one marked player is at range and one at melee. Meanwhile, the healers can never stop going because there's large raid damage while the Blight is still out and about, and ever increasing tank damage as the Blight gets inhaled.
We never lasted longer than 60 seconds. I think I'm going to go as a tree next time. With 3 healers we almost certainly won't beat the enrage timer, but hopefully we'll live long enough to actually get some practice. Once we get used to the movement, the collapsing and spreading out, and the healing and survival cooldowns that are required, I'll try switching back to atomic death chicken mode and we'll see how it goes from there.
Of course, this all depends on the raid not falling apart after the first 90 minutes. The problems of a late night raid guild. By 2am, some people are getting a little sleepy (or, in the hunter's case, drunk).
This isn't a strat post, since we haven't found something successful yet. Just a series of musings. In general, we kept melee and tanks in the center, on the boss, and had ranged fan out in a semi circle. Festergut will cast pools of Vile Gas at ranged targets, dealing damage and causing them to loose control and vomit, dealing yet more AoE damage to those around them and knocking them out of commission for a few seconds. Ranged should stay 10 yards apart.
However, people need to gather around players marked with Gas Spores in order to get inoculated against shadow damage to avoid a raid wipe once Festergut inhales all the Gaseous Blight and releases it again, dealing around 50k damage to everyone. So we need to gather up and make sure at least one marked player is at range and one at melee. Meanwhile, the healers can never stop going because there's large raid damage while the Blight is still out and about, and ever increasing tank damage as the Blight gets inhaled.
We never lasted longer than 60 seconds. I think I'm going to go as a tree next time. With 3 healers we almost certainly won't beat the enrage timer, but hopefully we'll live long enough to actually get some practice. Once we get used to the movement, the collapsing and spreading out, and the healing and survival cooldowns that are required, I'll try switching back to atomic death chicken mode and we'll see how it goes from there.
Of course, this all depends on the raid not falling apart after the first 90 minutes. The problems of a late night raid guild. By 2am, some people are getting a little sleepy (or, in the hunter's case, drunk).
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Deathbringer 10-man
Raid Comp: 2 Tanks, 2 Healers, 6 DPS
Lucky Numbers: Stand 12 yards apart and kill the blood beasts as fast as possible
This fight is deceptively simple. If you have a skill discipline priest, it's actually not deceptive...it's simple and fun. We have a skilled discipline priest. Still took us three weeks to realize he should switch from holy though...
The entire trick with this fight is managing the Deathbringer's blood power. He gets power by dealing damage with special attacks, or whenever his blood beasts deal damage. When he reaches 100 blood power, he casts Mark of the Fallen Champion on a random raid member. That person starts taking roughly as much damage as the tank every time the tank is hit. This persists through death, so don't battle res anyone. If that person dies, the Deathbringer regains 5% of his max health. As an added bonus, he gets blood power each time that person takes damage, so he gets back to 100 faster.
How does the Deathbringer get blood power? There are five total ways.
Rune of Blood...Blood Beasts..Blood Nova...Blood Blood Blood. Do you see a pattern? Yes, that's right, he's a vampire... Anyways, the tank (or whoever is highest on the aggro table...it had better be the tank!) will sometimes get hit with Rune of Blood. The other tank should taunt immediately. The Deathbringer will deal 5-6k extra damage with each hit and regain 50-60k health at the same time. This is why two tanks are needed. Also, note that the Deathbringer will do 1% more damage for each blood power point he has (he'll look bigger too), so tanks should be ready to start cycling cooldowns if necessary. Tanks should also avoid AoE damage or threat moves whenever the blood beasts are about to spawn. If they stick to the tanks and can't be properly kited, blood power just goes up faster.
The Healers: Discipline is Key
We have tended to use a paladin to heal the tanks and a discipline priest to shield as many people as possible. The trick is, the Deathbringer only gains blood power when he or his beasts actually deal damage. By shielding the current tank, anyone affected by Boiling Blood, and anyone getting munched on by a blood beast, you can drastically reduce the rate at which he gains blood power and hopefully take him out with a single Mark up.
Healers should stand as close to directly in front of the Deathbringer's platform as possible. One will be a little to the right, one a little to the left (essentially where the ramp to the gunship meets the Deathbringer's Rise). This keeps you in range of everyone and means that the blood beasts, who often aggro the healers first, will start moving predictably straight down the middle (towards the ramp to the gunship) and stay in range of all of the ranged DPS.
Ranged DPS: Kite Those Beasts! Fly Like the Wind!
Ranged DPS should stay at least 12 yards apart from each other and fan out in a semi circle (with the healers in the center) around the platform where the Deathbringer appears. Stay on the Deathbringer whenever the blood beasts are down, and be ready to blow all your survival and damage cooldowns if you get Marked. We have hunters place frost traps between the Deathbringer and the healers on a rotation, so that there is always one up when blood beasts spawn.
When the beasts spawn, the ranged needs to pull them, kite them, and take them down before they manage to reach anyone. We use frost traps, then root one and concentrate on the other first. We generally have two or three hunters, so they trade off taunting with distracting shot and let the beast run back and forth until it dies. Boomkin can also use typhoon, and mages and shamans can slow them with frost. If they hit anyone, the Deathbringer will gain more blood power, so do you best to kite.
Melee DPS: Hit Him With Sticks
Or whatever you use... Stay up with the tanks and slam the Deathbringer as hard as you can. I've heard that some groups have melee switch to the blood beasts as well to take them down fast. That could work well. Just remember that if they turn on the melee, they can start hitting them right away, so have a shield ready. We just have them stay on the Deathbringer.
That's all there is to it. It's a simple fight. You just need to stay fanned out, kite the beasts, heal anyone who gets Marked like crazy, and blow cooldowns once he enrages to try and get him down before you screw up and lose a tank or let a Marked raid member die and watch his health shoot up.
After that, you can go through his door and head towards any of the three remaining wings of the Citadel...
Lucky Numbers: Stand 12 yards apart and kill the blood beasts as fast as possible
This fight is deceptively simple. If you have a skill discipline priest, it's actually not deceptive...it's simple and fun. We have a skilled discipline priest. Still took us three weeks to realize he should switch from holy though...
The entire trick with this fight is managing the Deathbringer's blood power. He gets power by dealing damage with special attacks, or whenever his blood beasts deal damage. When he reaches 100 blood power, he casts Mark of the Fallen Champion on a random raid member. That person starts taking roughly as much damage as the tank every time the tank is hit. This persists through death, so don't battle res anyone. If that person dies, the Deathbringer regains 5% of his max health. As an added bonus, he gets blood power each time that person takes damage, so he gets back to 100 faster.
How does the Deathbringer get blood power? There are five total ways.
- He has a special attack he can use on the tank. If it deals damage, he gets a point of blood power.
- He casts Boiling Blood on random raid members. It's a DoT, and if it deals damage, he gets a point.
- He casts Blood Nova on random raid members, sucking life from them and anyone within 12 yards of them and converting it into blood power.
- He summons two blood beasts that go after raid members. Each time they hit someone and deal damage, he gets a point.
- After he has cast his first Mark, he gets a point each time the Mark deal damage.
Rune of Blood...Blood Beasts..Blood Nova...Blood Blood Blood. Do you see a pattern? Yes, that's right, he's a vampire... Anyways, the tank (or whoever is highest on the aggro table...it had better be the tank!) will sometimes get hit with Rune of Blood. The other tank should taunt immediately. The Deathbringer will deal 5-6k extra damage with each hit and regain 50-60k health at the same time. This is why two tanks are needed. Also, note that the Deathbringer will do 1% more damage for each blood power point he has (he'll look bigger too), so tanks should be ready to start cycling cooldowns if necessary. Tanks should also avoid AoE damage or threat moves whenever the blood beasts are about to spawn. If they stick to the tanks and can't be properly kited, blood power just goes up faster.
The Healers: Discipline is Key
We have tended to use a paladin to heal the tanks and a discipline priest to shield as many people as possible. The trick is, the Deathbringer only gains blood power when he or his beasts actually deal damage. By shielding the current tank, anyone affected by Boiling Blood, and anyone getting munched on by a blood beast, you can drastically reduce the rate at which he gains blood power and hopefully take him out with a single Mark up.
Healers should stand as close to directly in front of the Deathbringer's platform as possible. One will be a little to the right, one a little to the left (essentially where the ramp to the gunship meets the Deathbringer's Rise). This keeps you in range of everyone and means that the blood beasts, who often aggro the healers first, will start moving predictably straight down the middle (towards the ramp to the gunship) and stay in range of all of the ranged DPS.
Ranged DPS: Kite Those Beasts! Fly Like the Wind!
Ranged DPS should stay at least 12 yards apart from each other and fan out in a semi circle (with the healers in the center) around the platform where the Deathbringer appears. Stay on the Deathbringer whenever the blood beasts are down, and be ready to blow all your survival and damage cooldowns if you get Marked. We have hunters place frost traps between the Deathbringer and the healers on a rotation, so that there is always one up when blood beasts spawn.
When the beasts spawn, the ranged needs to pull them, kite them, and take them down before they manage to reach anyone. We use frost traps, then root one and concentrate on the other first. We generally have two or three hunters, so they trade off taunting with distracting shot and let the beast run back and forth until it dies. Boomkin can also use typhoon, and mages and shamans can slow them with frost. If they hit anyone, the Deathbringer will gain more blood power, so do you best to kite.
Melee DPS: Hit Him With Sticks
Or whatever you use... Stay up with the tanks and slam the Deathbringer as hard as you can. I've heard that some groups have melee switch to the blood beasts as well to take them down fast. That could work well. Just remember that if they turn on the melee, they can start hitting them right away, so have a shield ready. We just have them stay on the Deathbringer.
That's all there is to it. It's a simple fight. You just need to stay fanned out, kite the beasts, heal anyone who gets Marked like crazy, and blow cooldowns once he enrages to try and get him down before you screw up and lose a tank or let a Marked raid member die and watch his health shoot up.
After that, you can go through his door and head towards any of the three remaining wings of the Citadel...
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