For us over here in Canada (Yes I'm Canadian, sorry to have deceived you all this time), the Fall of Deathwing LFR encounter was released (as with the rest of the world) and I was quite excited to be able to "see this encounter" as I am a "casual" player/raider, we only raid oh wait...we've gone from one day a week to three. Okay so not so casual. But still not heroic content and or completing all encounters within 10 days progression. I am a ranked BM Hunter if that means anything. (LMAO?)
ANYWAYS. I queued up and got thrown into a group on Spine of Deathwing. I was hoping "please please just let me be a replacement for one dps who couldn't finish the encounter". Nope. Corpses all over the airship.
Now what was really lacking was good leadership and also good following-instructions-skills. This is what was going on as I zoned in.
"Okay, get it to 9 and kill 3 corruptions and kill blood". Say what? Get what to 9? What's a corrupted? What blood? Then they started the encounter. Whoa, tentacles. Do I have to latch on? Do I kill 'em? How many do we kill? Whats with this big add, oh these slimes are the bloods, what do we do?
I BELIEVE this group tried to do the encounter a la Regular Mode and tried to trigger barrel rolls. NO WAY LFR will require 25 pugs to execute that properly. I reckon all we had to do was stand in the middle. (Which worked when I ran this again).
This group totally failed and half the group left. By this time I had picked up on pretty much what needed to be done. We needed to single out ONE big add, have a tank hold it near Deathwing's plate (WHICH IS THE AREA CLOSEST TO HIS NECK), then someone else hold the other 2 until we need 'em. Since you only need to blow up his plates 3 times, we only kill 3 tentacles to get 3 big adds. Ideally. Essentially killing slimes buffs the big add, so we want to kill 9 slimes near the big add until it does it's nuclear explosion.
Simple enough?
Ok, so I tried to convince people to listen. We set up markers and all the jazz. First we marked a tentacle as Moon and said "Don't kill Moon". Moon died. Oh well, it's LFR the offtank can handle 3. Then we marked the big add and told people to kill slimes near it until it got 9 stacks of buff. Nope. It died before it hit 5 buffs. Apparently "Stop DPS" means "Keep killing fools". That's okay, we still have 2. We get a big add to 9 buffs, and the tank does not move it to the plates. Failed. We run out of big adds. Wipe it.
I requeued after trying to lead this group a couple more times and one-shot 3/4 of the Deathwing encounter until we magically decided to have a Server Restart just as we were killing Kalecgos' claw on Madness. Oh well. Oh and ranged, PLEASE kill Blistering Tentacles that grow out of Deathwing's claw in case you have no idea what people are yelling about. Thanks!
It still amazes me the amount of not paying attention that goes on and also the amount of rudeness lately. Yes, Pugs are super super excruciating at times, if you had read my GUILD chat complaints you would have been crying from the profanity. However on the raid side I was trying to be calm and organized and shit but alas, that does not work.
Turby Looking for Rage
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
No Stride
Heh so I had said that I'd take this new patch in stride... that is until we actually strode into Dragon Soul with our regular raid roster. Morchok was easy, but for Yor'sajh and Zonnzonn...we were either lacking in DPS (only 2 of us were over 20k) or heals. Blah. You know what, I'll just have to push out another 2k dps to make up for it!
So anyways, I had said I'd take this new Deathwing stuff slowly, since we're going to be stuck with it until MOP or until secret mini-raid in 4.4 hits. My goal was to get valor capped on my two mains. Oh yes, my Warlock is now my main again now that I've gotten her geared up! It turns out I got valor capped on five toons. The plan is to use two of the toons VP to gear up Turby and Truny first (two are healers, they have quick queues).
LFR = good times. With a semi-organized group, these are pretty much free hand-outs of tier gear and trinkets. My hunter got very lucky and won two pieces of T13 off one boss, my warlock won a shoulder and a nifty trinket, my priest won a robe and a healing trinket, and of course my resto druid...he wins nothing. He hasn't won anything since his first raid in TOC when a nice warlock gave him the Perdition staff.....maybe this week will be different.
So without further ado, here's some quick tips for the current LFR bosses:
Morchok: AOE heal his stomp. Run close to a crystal if it has a beam on you. Run behind a pillar when he uses Black Blood. Too easy.
Yor'sahj the Unsleeping: Also known as "Skittles" due to his slimes. This fight is confusing at first until you get a hang of his slimes. Essentially the priority of the slimes is generally accepted to be:
-Purple > Green > Yellow > (Then I would use) Blue > Red > Black, depends on your heals. But the first three, PURPLE GREEN YELLOW are generally accepted. Sometimes you'll see Purple Yellow Green. But essentially in LFR, if you manage to kill any one you're good, the most important part is communication. Don't have some people run to one slime, and some to the other. I'm not going to explain what each slime does, but rather explain what to expect for some combinations.
So say the boss casts Purple, Yellow, Black. Automatically you should know to kill purple, then aoe down adds. You have to prepare this as you are going to kill the purple slime.
Say the boss casts Red, Green, Blue. What do you do? Kill Red, expect aoe damage from green and all dps have to prepare to kill mana void. This is when I double check lifebloom is up, or even blow tree form for multiple life blooms in anticipation of the void. Depends.
Say the boss casts Purple, Red, Green. Go kill purple, but also prepare to STACK since you see red. Red does damage based on your proximity to the boss, and we've seen a lot of casters who hang back get one shot.
Warlord Zon'ozz: Also known as Ping Pong. Now the LFR version of this boss is severely undertuned as to the actual mechanics of the fight. Essentially have a couple people handle the void ball, or actually it might have just been moving by itself....have the tank face the boss away, then stack when he does his massive AOE phase, rinse and repeat.
Hagara the Stormbinder: Aka the boss where NO ONE listens to tips.
TANKS: The one thing to look out for is "Focused Assault". If she starts doing this. MOVE AWAY FROM IT. It's the same abilities the flayers cast. You can totally strafe or sidestep or move back, or run through the boss to avoid this totally unecessary damage. MOVE AWAY FROM FOCUSED ASSAULT MOVE AWAY MOVE MOVE MOVE. (I tried doing this while healing it and the tanks didn't listen, they lived, but I don't like wasting mana as with most people right?)
Ice Phase: Everyone run to the outside ring, and kill the ice crystals in a clockwise manner. Be wary of ice walls/waves that spawn and also move clockwise. You'll have to be pro-active and run ahead of the waves rather than waiting for it, for it maybe too late. Surprisingly a lot of people die to this, and perhaps they are not [Ready for Raiding].
Lightning Phase: In this phase, Hagara spawns an add that must be killed near one of the lightning conductors around the edge of the platform. Once it dies it will overload the conductor and charge the players around it, it would be best for everyone to gather in one area while lightly spread and run together around the room by maintaining the lightning chain to overload the rest of the conductors.
But most importantly move out of Focused Assault, your healers are trained to be as efficient as possible and if you try to tank it it means they'll have to cast three or four fast-expensive heals!
So anyways, I had said I'd take this new Deathwing stuff slowly, since we're going to be stuck with it until MOP or until secret mini-raid in 4.4 hits. My goal was to get valor capped on my two mains. Oh yes, my Warlock is now my main again now that I've gotten her geared up! It turns out I got valor capped on five toons. The plan is to use two of the toons VP to gear up Turby and Truny first (two are healers, they have quick queues).
LFR = good times. With a semi-organized group, these are pretty much free hand-outs of tier gear and trinkets. My hunter got very lucky and won two pieces of T13 off one boss, my warlock won a shoulder and a nifty trinket, my priest won a robe and a healing trinket, and of course my resto druid...he wins nothing. He hasn't won anything since his first raid in TOC when a nice warlock gave him the Perdition staff.....maybe this week will be different.
So without further ado, here's some quick tips for the current LFR bosses:
Morchok: AOE heal his stomp. Run close to a crystal if it has a beam on you. Run behind a pillar when he uses Black Blood. Too easy.
Yor'sahj the Unsleeping: Also known as "Skittles" due to his slimes. This fight is confusing at first until you get a hang of his slimes. Essentially the priority of the slimes is generally accepted to be:
-Purple > Green > Yellow > (Then I would use) Blue > Red > Black, depends on your heals. But the first three, PURPLE GREEN YELLOW are generally accepted. Sometimes you'll see Purple Yellow Green. But essentially in LFR, if you manage to kill any one you're good, the most important part is communication. Don't have some people run to one slime, and some to the other. I'm not going to explain what each slime does, but rather explain what to expect for some combinations.
So say the boss casts Purple, Yellow, Black. Automatically you should know to kill purple, then aoe down adds. You have to prepare this as you are going to kill the purple slime.
Say the boss casts Red, Green, Blue. What do you do? Kill Red, expect aoe damage from green and all dps have to prepare to kill mana void. This is when I double check lifebloom is up, or even blow tree form for multiple life blooms in anticipation of the void. Depends.
Say the boss casts Purple, Red, Green. Go kill purple, but also prepare to STACK since you see red. Red does damage based on your proximity to the boss, and we've seen a lot of casters who hang back get one shot.
Warlord Zon'ozz: Also known as Ping Pong. Now the LFR version of this boss is severely undertuned as to the actual mechanics of the fight. Essentially have a couple people handle the void ball, or actually it might have just been moving by itself....have the tank face the boss away, then stack when he does his massive AOE phase, rinse and repeat.
Hagara the Stormbinder: Aka the boss where NO ONE listens to tips.
TANKS: The one thing to look out for is "Focused Assault". If she starts doing this. MOVE AWAY FROM IT. It's the same abilities the flayers cast. You can totally strafe or sidestep or move back, or run through the boss to avoid this totally unecessary damage. MOVE AWAY FROM FOCUSED ASSAULT MOVE AWAY MOVE MOVE MOVE. (I tried doing this while healing it and the tanks didn't listen, they lived, but I don't like wasting mana as with most people right?)
Ice Phase: Everyone run to the outside ring, and kill the ice crystals in a clockwise manner. Be wary of ice walls/waves that spawn and also move clockwise. You'll have to be pro-active and run ahead of the waves rather than waiting for it, for it maybe too late. Surprisingly a lot of people die to this, and perhaps they are not [Ready for Raiding].
Lightning Phase: In this phase, Hagara spawns an add that must be killed near one of the lightning conductors around the edge of the platform. Once it dies it will overload the conductor and charge the players around it, it would be best for everyone to gather in one area while lightly spread and run together around the room by maintaining the lightning chain to overload the rest of the conductors.
But most importantly move out of Focused Assault, your healers are trained to be as efficient as possible and if you try to tank it it means they'll have to cast three or four fast-expensive heals!
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Truny's Epic Summary of the Dragon Soul 5 Mans
Patch 4.3 hit yesterday and everyone was in a clamour to try out the new Raid Finder and also dabble amongst the various flows of time in the Dragon Soul 5 mans.
As my hunter had absolutely no need for the upgrades in the new dungeons, I sent Truny the Warlock to gear up. She made some great progress going from 366 to 372 in mere hours.
Let's start at the first dungeon shall we:
End Time
Echo of Bain: Tank and Melee on one platform, heals and ranged on another. (I tanked him on my druid actually). He'll shatter a platform, swim to another, get him away from lava and dispel the magic. He throws a totem, click it and throw it back at him to stun him. Done.
Echo of Sylvanas: Once again Sylvanas remains the envy of hunters all 'round Azeroth and she deserves the longest explanation. She has some potent attacks, including a shot that leaves an undispellable dot that ticks for about 25k every 2 seconds. Dodge her "thing on the ground" and once you get her health low enough, she'll spawn a circle of ghouls around the group. Essentially the ghouls form a "link" and you want to "open" the "door" to this link by killing a ghoul, best mark the ground where you want a ghoul dead, stay in FRONT of the ghoul and burst it down, then simply stroll out to safety.
Echo of Tyrande: Melee stand in, ranged stand out. Ranged dodge circly things and 3 pronged things. Done.
Echo of Jaina: Interrupt frostbolt volley, stand in fire blob on ground, dodge 3 pronged ice. Done.
Moruzond: Blow ALL cooldowns, pew pew, dodge swirls, click hour glass when overwhelmed, rinse and repeat.
Well of Eternity:
Satyr Demon Guy Name Starts with P: Uhhh nothing special, but when he puts you all into camouflage mode, run around and don't get "seen" by his eyes or he one shots you. Pushover.
Queen Azshara: Kill mages, high priority is to kill hands MC'ing people, and when she does her big thing to be interrupted, get an interrupt on her. Pretty easy actually.
Varo'then and Mannoroth: Kill Varo'then, dodge fel flames, help Tyrande when she whines and then burn down Mannoroth. Make sure to click on Varo'then's sword to chuck it at Mannoroth.
Hour of Twilight
This last dungeon is so easy and brainless, and also Thrall is almost annoying as he's one of the slow "walk with me" type NPCs.
Feludius: This is the first ice boss, no one really cares about his name. Umm, dispel people chained and dodge falling ice, when he starts doing AOE, burn him. Easy sneezey.
Asira Dawnslayer: She'll mark you and there's a chance that she'll silence you on every spell cast you do, just stand behind the tank and let them take the knife hit bwahaha.
Archbishop Benedictus: Umm......dodge waves. All his other abilities don't really hit for anything.
Summary
The new dungeons are nice and all but rather easy compared to the introduction of the Zandalaris? Quick easy gear ups for the preparation of Dragon Soul. The running of all three dungeons is probably quicker than a single Deadmines, which is nice!
Now I know it's hard to please everyone but there should be a very clear cut standard between easy, challenging, and annoyingly difficult. Let's take a look at the beginning of Cata when most everyone was saying that the 346 heroics were hard. Ok, I give it to people getting used to the new class systems and new types of mechanics, but really they weren't "hard", they were just "not Wrath facerollable".
To pull off some of the achievements at or below gear level was impressive and that was the challenge. You required 329 to get in, not a big gap, 17 ilvl.
Then come the Zandalaris. They were 353 requiring 346 to enter, not a big gap and the boss mechanics were done very nicely, I would have to say there's our true challenging stuff. Staying out of crap, co-ordinating with group members and what-not.
Now the new dungeons. I would have to say they are very "cool". End time is very bleak and dreary but the bosses are pretty much throughput with dodging. Murkozond is cool because, hey who doesn't want to be able to use Metamorphosis five freaking times in a row?!
Well of Eternity is "cool", I guess. It's not really a dungeon moreso just sneaking around with Illidan. Perhaps this is the first dungeon that represents what I have been pushing for, a skirmish. Easy, casually gained 378s. Nice! Other than the one very obvious interrupt in the dungeon, there isn't much of a challenge rather just throughput.
I am kind of disappointed with Hour of Twilight (HoT). You would think this being the third in the series it would be as epic and "difficult" as Halls of Reflection. I remember when we were doing top 6k dps in Wrath the Arthas Gauntlet still felt fairly epic, or at least my constant shouting made it epic. HoT is essentially run down a hall, kill a boss. Run a bit further, adds, kill boss. None of the bosses really require multiple player co-ordination like Corla's ascendents.
Then again perhaps I'm just too used to "mechanics", and this is how dungeons in the low levels are anyways. Though it's nice to have some quick 150 VP dungeons that feel very current and "now". I mean come on, even though the regular heroics give 150 VP, it would still feel odd getting Throne of the Tides and thinking "uhhh where is this again?"
As my hunter had absolutely no need for the upgrades in the new dungeons, I sent Truny the Warlock to gear up. She made some great progress going from 366 to 372 in mere hours.
Let's start at the first dungeon shall we:
End Time
Echo of Bain: Tank and Melee on one platform, heals and ranged on another. (I tanked him on my druid actually). He'll shatter a platform, swim to another, get him away from lava and dispel the magic. He throws a totem, click it and throw it back at him to stun him. Done.
Echo of Sylvanas: Once again Sylvanas remains the envy of hunters all 'round Azeroth and she deserves the longest explanation. She has some potent attacks, including a shot that leaves an undispellable dot that ticks for about 25k every 2 seconds. Dodge her "thing on the ground" and once you get her health low enough, she'll spawn a circle of ghouls around the group. Essentially the ghouls form a "link" and you want to "open" the "door" to this link by killing a ghoul, best mark the ground where you want a ghoul dead, stay in FRONT of the ghoul and burst it down, then simply stroll out to safety.
Echo of Tyrande: Melee stand in, ranged stand out. Ranged dodge circly things and 3 pronged things. Done.
Echo of Jaina: Interrupt frostbolt volley, stand in fire blob on ground, dodge 3 pronged ice. Done.
Moruzond: Blow ALL cooldowns, pew pew, dodge swirls, click hour glass when overwhelmed, rinse and repeat.
Well of Eternity:
Satyr Demon Guy Name Starts with P: Uhhh nothing special, but when he puts you all into camouflage mode, run around and don't get "seen" by his eyes or he one shots you. Pushover.
Queen Azshara: Kill mages, high priority is to kill hands MC'ing people, and when she does her big thing to be interrupted, get an interrupt on her. Pretty easy actually.
Varo'then and Mannoroth: Kill Varo'then, dodge fel flames, help Tyrande when she whines and then burn down Mannoroth. Make sure to click on Varo'then's sword to chuck it at Mannoroth.
Hour of Twilight
This last dungeon is so easy and brainless, and also Thrall is almost annoying as he's one of the slow "walk with me" type NPCs.
Feludius: This is the first ice boss, no one really cares about his name. Umm, dispel people chained and dodge falling ice, when he starts doing AOE, burn him. Easy sneezey.
Asira Dawnslayer: She'll mark you and there's a chance that she'll silence you on every spell cast you do, just stand behind the tank and let them take the knife hit bwahaha.
Archbishop Benedictus: Umm......dodge waves. All his other abilities don't really hit for anything.
Summary
The new dungeons are nice and all but rather easy compared to the introduction of the Zandalaris? Quick easy gear ups for the preparation of Dragon Soul. The running of all three dungeons is probably quicker than a single Deadmines, which is nice!
Now I know it's hard to please everyone but there should be a very clear cut standard between easy, challenging, and annoyingly difficult. Let's take a look at the beginning of Cata when most everyone was saying that the 346 heroics were hard. Ok, I give it to people getting used to the new class systems and new types of mechanics, but really they weren't "hard", they were just "not Wrath facerollable".
To pull off some of the achievements at or below gear level was impressive and that was the challenge. You required 329 to get in, not a big gap, 17 ilvl.
Then come the Zandalaris. They were 353 requiring 346 to enter, not a big gap and the boss mechanics were done very nicely, I would have to say there's our true challenging stuff. Staying out of crap, co-ordinating with group members and what-not.
Now the new dungeons. I would have to say they are very "cool". End time is very bleak and dreary but the bosses are pretty much throughput with dodging. Murkozond is cool because, hey who doesn't want to be able to use Metamorphosis five freaking times in a row?!
Well of Eternity is "cool", I guess. It's not really a dungeon moreso just sneaking around with Illidan. Perhaps this is the first dungeon that represents what I have been pushing for, a skirmish. Easy, casually gained 378s. Nice! Other than the one very obvious interrupt in the dungeon, there isn't much of a challenge rather just throughput.
I am kind of disappointed with Hour of Twilight (HoT). You would think this being the third in the series it would be as epic and "difficult" as Halls of Reflection. I remember when we were doing top 6k dps in Wrath the Arthas Gauntlet still felt fairly epic, or at least my constant shouting made it epic. HoT is essentially run down a hall, kill a boss. Run a bit further, adds, kill boss. None of the bosses really require multiple player co-ordination like Corla's ascendents.
Then again perhaps I'm just too used to "mechanics", and this is how dungeons in the low levels are anyways. Though it's nice to have some quick 150 VP dungeons that feel very current and "now". I mean come on, even though the regular heroics give 150 VP, it would still feel odd getting Throne of the Tides and thinking "uhhh where is this again?"
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Last Minute Success
"We must down rag before the next patch!"
We made some futile attempts just this past Sunday to no avail. Poor add management and engulfing flames prevented us from killing Ragnaros. We switched up our roster and tried again yesterday.
Four futile attempts, we got him all the way down to 20% a couple times but alas, meteors overwhelmed us along with some player deaths.
Our last attempt was beautiful, all adds downed with plenty of time to spare, all fire on the ground avoided, meteors kited like bosses and BAM 10%! With more than 12 hours to the next patch! Yes even though this is the dummy version of Rag, we could still say we did it without having GROSSLY overgearing the content. And I got a hunter necklace to boot!
Turby the Too Soon
We made some futile attempts just this past Sunday to no avail. Poor add management and engulfing flames prevented us from killing Ragnaros. We switched up our roster and tried again yesterday.
Four futile attempts, we got him all the way down to 20% a couple times but alas, meteors overwhelmed us along with some player deaths.
Our last attempt was beautiful, all adds downed with plenty of time to spare, all fire on the ground avoided, meteors kited like bosses and BAM 10%! With more than 12 hours to the next patch! Yes even though this is the dummy version of Rag, we could still say we did it without having GROSSLY overgearing the content. And I got a hunter necklace to boot!
Turby the Too Soon
Monday, November 28, 2011
Gearing Up in 4.3
Patch 4.3 means exciting times with the onset of LFR and Dragon Soul. The general formula I have for my alts once they hit 85 now is as follows:
The gear gaps and jumps will roughtly look something like this for a fresh 85:
316: You might be 316 if you rushed through or power levelled through Cata zones.
329: The magic number to start doing heroics for 346 items! Spend/save your JP for T12, which is 378!
333: Regular 85 dungeons and heroics.
346: Regular heroics and should have enough JP to buy some 378 tier gear.
353: Hour of Twilight heroics, these dungeons are relatively easy for their gear level and drop 378 items.
365: Hour of Twighlight heroics, they are faster and easier than reg dungeons because most people are "geared" going in. Random Firelands pugs, which also drops 378.
372: This is the magic number, now you can start doing LFR for 384 tier/items from the first 6 bosses and also 390 items on the last two.
378: Go try out Dragon Soul for kicks for 397! You should also start using your VP for rings/capes/belts if you are getting lucky with token drops in LFR.
This is how my alts tend to get treated upon hitting 85, note I have 6 toons at 85 so running heroics isn't my cup of tea:
1. I will use any extra JP to get them bracers, and whatever JP they have for their main spec tier 12 gear.
2. Check the AH for cheap 378 items.
3. I will throw my toon into our weekly random Firelands run once they are close to mid 360 ilvl.
3. If my toons are really close to the magical 372, say sitting at 369 PVE gear, I will consider buying them the 377 pvp gear to boost them into LFR. Though this method isn't recommended if you are going to do a full set of 377 pvp gear, people will get mad at you.
4. Once you're 372 the world is yours.
Truny the Gearful
The gear gaps and jumps will roughtly look something like this for a fresh 85:
316: You might be 316 if you rushed through or power levelled through Cata zones.
329: The magic number to start doing heroics for 346 items! Spend/save your JP for T12, which is 378!
333: Regular 85 dungeons and heroics.
346: Regular heroics and should have enough JP to buy some 378 tier gear.
353: Hour of Twilight heroics, these dungeons are relatively easy for their gear level and drop 378 items.
365: Hour of Twighlight heroics, they are faster and easier than reg dungeons because most people are "geared" going in. Random Firelands pugs, which also drops 378.
372: This is the magic number, now you can start doing LFR for 384 tier/items from the first 6 bosses and also 390 items on the last two.
378: Go try out Dragon Soul for kicks for 397! You should also start using your VP for rings/capes/belts if you are getting lucky with token drops in LFR.
This is how my alts tend to get treated upon hitting 85, note I have 6 toons at 85 so running heroics isn't my cup of tea:
1. I will use any extra JP to get them bracers, and whatever JP they have for their main spec tier 12 gear.
2. Check the AH for cheap 378 items.
3. I will throw my toon into our weekly random Firelands run once they are close to mid 360 ilvl.
3. If my toons are really close to the magical 372, say sitting at 369 PVE gear, I will consider buying them the 377 pvp gear to boost them into LFR. Though this method isn't recommended if you are going to do a full set of 377 pvp gear, people will get mad at you.
4. Once you're 372 the world is yours.
Truny the Gearful
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)