Friday, September 18, 2009

ToC 10 - Northrend Beasts

Northrend is the place WoW gamers go to test themselves. Ulduar is difficult. Hardmode is truly Hard for alot of players. Eventually, Icecrown is going to supercede that place with ToC and Arthas's Stronghold / Castle being the top of the level 80 difficulty chain.

This post deals with the 10 man event at the Argent Tournament. The Trial of the Crusader with four contests, consisting of seven fights. You may add/remove players from the party. Leave to repair/reload / re-buy reagents. Even spread the Trials out over a number of gaming sessions, if you want to progress slowly or you're still learning the fights. Our guild does them all in one evening. We'll substite about 1/2 way along because people need to come and go during the night. Probably 3 to 4 hours tops. If you one-shot all of the encounters, you can finish just over the 2 hour mark, but we aren't that pro. If you're that good, do the 10 man on Heroic.

The first "trial" consists of the Northrend Beasts. Jormok the Impaler, The Twin Terrors, and Icehowl. That's right. You have to beat 4 bosses here before you even see a loot chest or a Badge of Triumph. They really make you EARN those. Let's take apart things one by one.

Jormok seems like a tank n spank. Big melee boss with a nasty spear. The spear is a random stab with Mortal Strike. Usualy in Close melee range. On his back are Elite Snobolds. They ride along and launch large clusters of napalm. These random fire bombs suck. Stay out of the fire. Randomly, every 20 of seconds, one of his riders will jump off and land on a player. He will be stabbing the player with a low level damage ability. You can't target the mob on your back, so players will have to rely on others to get the annoying Snobold off. Roughly 40-60k health and then DPS can resume back no Jormok. Jormok will also do an AOE stun / spell lock via his thunderstomp. Healers, watch for this as a lockout + mortal strike can mean a dead tank. Kill the Snobolds. Stay out of the fires. Keep the casualties to zero.

If you're having people die to Jormok, your raid is doomed. He's the warmup act. The real issue is TIME. You cannot re-enter the 10 man ToC during a trial. Battle rezz and Jumper Cables are usable, but you're constantly in combat. Save those for phase 2. Finish phase 1 with as much mana, health, and cooldowns as you can. Also, in 10 man ToC, every casualty reduces your chance of finishing a tough event. Healers get a workout.

The Twin Terrors are Dreadmaw and Acidscale. These guys suck and will break an unprepared team. One is a fixed mob and the other one is a moving target that leaves clouds of poison gas behind him. Dont' stand in the poison. Rogues and Hunter pets die here. Don't stand in front of either snake unless you're MT or OT. This fight gets more complex, really fast. Dreadmaw will be tanked by the Offtank and spits paralytic poison randomly around the room. One ore more people will get the poison. Usually it's anyone in front of him. He also has a short range an earthquake effect for minimal damage. Hunter Pets die yet again. The paralytic poison will stun you then kill you if not cleansed. You have to run to the MT by the Other snake. ( Still following ?) The MT will be taking damage from Burning Bile. The only cure for the Paralytic poison is Burning bile from the other snake. That's right.... If you turn green, run on over to the MainTank who's glowing red from Burning Bile. Poison damage stops and your movement debuff clears. Don't cross the poison cloud behind the worm.

I was a dumbass my first try on 25 ToC and just died in the poison cloud. Run to the TANK to clear your debuff. Then resume pew pew pew. I believe pets are immune to Paralytic Poison. Snake traps may offer a distraction, but the pulse AOE on Dreadscale shreds them before they can be good substitute targets. Seriously, that paralytic poison has no cure. You can't dispell it and it ticks away horribly fast. Run to the MT (Red Tank) when you turn green. People will call your name out in vent. Then resume your job. If a primary healer gets hit, the Tanks and other healers will have to "improvise" until that healer gets cured.

So, MainTank takes damage from Burning Bile and kites around not leaving the raid in a poison cloud. OffTank taunts the immobile snake and everyone DPS'es him down. About 40 seconds into the fight, both worms burrow underground, then trade positions. Alot of groups just stay on the Poison worm and deal with the enrage when the the Burning Bile worm loses his buddy. I'd be okay with the MT taking a bit more damage. Honestly, DPS can then focus on 1 target and finish the battle without complication. The alternative, is to split dps and worry about 1 to 4 people getting poison then getting cured for the whole encounter. bleh.


Use two tanks. If one dies, I'd recommend a Battle Rezz. I've seen a single MainTank take over tanking for both worms, but the odds are stacked against surviving that fight. We won, but that was chaotic as both tanks wound up dying and I feigned to get in somre additional DPS before the worms came for me. We finished the worms on ToC 25 with just DPS and healers standing then battle rezzed the MT for Icehowl. For 10 man, you should be rather smooth with the kill, using vent and staying out of poison clouds. The second event is the big hurdle.

Burn your cooldowns on this fight. You don't want to worry about multiple poisonings, toxic gas clouds, worm bile, and random damage for too long. Get it over with. Aggro doesn't seem to be a real problem here, but use Omen to keep aggro on the tanks. If another player gets burning Bile instead of the MT / OT.... that shit hurts. You've messed up and may not get the steady stream of heals the MT was getting to stay alive. Alot of PuGs fall apart here. Coordination and Cooperation is key to winning against the Twin Terrors.

Count your dead. Bandage up. Clear the doorway for Icehowl.

There's a 5 second pause to announce the next foe, but no real break in this fight. This guy is a simple tank and spank with a couple tricks. Icehowl doesnt' cast. He is a brutal melee opponent. Every 30 seconds he will breathe frost and freeze opponents in place in front of him. Face him away. He will also thunderstomp the ground and send people to the walls. The raid is stunned and he will pick a random player to charge. You get a DBM warning. You hear bells. You even get an 8 second speed buff. As soon as you can move away, GTFO. He will 1 shot whomever he hits or any fool in his path. If you don't move, you will die and Icehowl gets an enrage buff to his damage. Icehowl is a dammed cookie at the end of the encounter. If you aren't horribly lagged, you can easily escape his charge and Icehowl will slam into a brick wall. He's stunned for 15 seconds and takes extra damage. Pound away at him and have the MT pick him up. Then Rinse and Repeat. Icehowl is easy peasy. Get your badges and epic loot. That challenge down, you can talk to the Arena master for the next Crusader's Challenge.

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