This is a quick run-down of the whole VoA instance. Typing this out is actually longer than a good team will take to clear the place. Seriously, the instance has 3 bosses total. It used to be only one boss, but he got lonely and the Wintergrasp gods deemed it a trivial challenge. Along came Emalon, the explosive wind boss to give groups a royal headache. Then Koralon arrives to claim the crown. Earth, Wind, and Fire explained...
Fire - Koralon the Flame Warder
People start with the Fire boss on 10 and 25 man VoA because he's the most difficult. If your raid team can't beat this guy, why get saved for the week to the instance. Bring a good team, crush the "First" guy and collect your easy loot from the other two bosses.
Koralon drops Tier 8 PvE and PvP loot on 10 man. He also drops Tier 9 PvE and PvP loot on 25 man. Specifically the 232 and 245 Legs and Gloves for each set. This instance drops Class Specific loot. Bring a good mix of players. Woe to the group that bring 2 warriors, 2 priests, and 6 Mages to see Rogue and Shaman loot drop off every boss this run.
The strategy is simple. Koralon does a fire based AoE at his feet. The melee damage is shared among the tanks nearby. He also does a wide spread flame jet in circles every 30 to 60 seconds. That one hurts some. The flame jet gets harder as the instance progresses. Lastly, and most dangerously, he lobs out a fireball. This fireball does 10k per tick in 25 man. In 10 man VoA, it's a bit less but still seriously harmful to people. If you get hit with a fireball during a Flame-jet.... You're dead. Thx for playing. No amount of quick reflexes will get you safe unless you have ungodly amounts of health. In 10 man, you'll just be hurt badly. Expect a heal from your friendly Druid / Priest to get thru the next flame jet.
Rule 1 - Jump out of the dammed fire.
Rule 2 - Jump out of the dammed fire.
If you're casting a heal spell on the MT, pray another healer is also doing the same because if you don't move, you're going to die. Don't stand in the fire. You can't 9 man this instance. You may be able to do it at 24 or 22, but no one is geared enough to defeat Koralon with Fewer than 8 characters. Koralon hurts alot. He's a Gear check for healers and DPS. If you don't keep the MT alive long enough, the raid wipes. If your dps doesn't bring 3k or more, the raid wipes. If too many people die in fires, the raid wipes. Lots of things can go wrong. Burn Heroism early to maximize the impact of having as many people alive as possible.
Did I mention the floor?? The bright orange glow under the glass floor in Koralon's room is the exact color of the fireballs he throws out randomly. Did I also mention it does 10k per second? You have roughly 1 second to realize the difference during the melee. Ranged DPS and Healers have an easier time. As a hunter, I keep losing my pet to the fire. Almost guaranteed.
Koralon went down and I got Lv232 PvP Gladiator leggings for my Hunter. Rogue Tier 8 pants also dropped. Our guild one shotted this guy last night, after buffing, stat food, potions/flasks, and a solid explanation. We also had Ventrillo and are decently geared. No battle rezz was needed.
Wind - Emalon the Storm Watcher
Okay, hard boss down. Emalon requires coordination, timing, two tanks, and focused DPS. Each Wind guardian will explode if allowed to grow to full height. The guardians to this wing are a good warm-up to Emalon. If your raid wipes or allows the guards to explode, turn around. You're not ready. Emalon has 4 guardians in his entourage. When engaged, MT takes the 4 guardians. OT takes Emalon.
Ranged DPS nukes down Emalon. Don't bother with the 4 adds, yet. Every 30 seconds Emalon does a lightning Nova. Get out of melee range. Offtank stays in to keep the boss stationary? Not quite sure. He shouldn't move from the Right Side of the boss area.
Every 1 minute, Emalon "Overcharges" a minion to explode. The raid has 20 seconds to burn down this minion which gets fully healed, then grows to huge proportions. The raid has three challenges at this moment. 1) Get into position on the Left side of the room BEFORE the overcharge. Running across costs precious seconds. That leads to a wipe. 2) Listen for the command and locate the correct Warder. DBM places a skull on his head and he's the "Bigger" one stuck by lightning from Emalon. 3) Burn him down fast then resume dps on Emalon.
Repeat the Overcharge cycle and continue to hack away at Emalon's health. Emalon will also cast chain-lightning. Try not to stand next to the healers. They get annoyed at being nuked. Recall your pet during Lightning nova and recall him for the ovecharge. My cat has sprint and I Usually keep him near me for a second to add DPS plus some dots for that extra kick during "overcharge". Don't get STUPID. Raids decide to burn down Emalon instead of killing the "overcharge" during the last 10 % of health. If you can't kill him with certainty, the add will explode for 15k to 25k damage and it's a wipe.
Emalon dropped a 213 Caster Belt and Tier 7.5 Priest Pants.
Earth - Archavon the Warder
Seriously>? This guy is a vending machine. A loot piniata. While hunters can't quite solo him or use this boss for melee practice, he's not really a challenge any more. He drops Tier 7 and Lv 200 PvP Chest Armor. Super easy fight for 2 Emblems of Conquest.
Bring Two tanks. 1 tank + 1 pickup tank. Two healers. Rest DPS. Archavon will dps the tank and cast rain of spikes on a random opponent. Heal thru it and avoid standing next to the cloth casters. Every 45 seconds he will jump somewhere randomly and emit a low-level poison gas cloud. Don't stand in it. The MT will move the boss. You can cut thru it, but the damage is like 2k per second so I don't recommend fighting within for an extended duration.
Burn heroism only because it's up again. You can phone in this fight if your group or raid is in Ulduar or can handle Toc 10. Still, bring your alts for free gear and badges.
Lv 200 PvP Hunter chest and Tier 7 Warlock Legs droped. Okay. Guess I didn't have one. I banked it for later, being the only Hunter in our 10 man.
Earth, Wnid, and Fire. Nice tribute to a classic 70's funk band. WTG Blizzard. BTW, thanks for the loot. We'll be back next week.
The 25 man VoA is like this... but harder. Dots hit harder. The DPS threshold for Emalon is higher. Sadly, Archavon is still a joke. Still, Koralon drops Emblems of Triumph and Tier 9 gear. Last run it was all Priest or Rogue set pieces. So he's still on the menu. Next week, we hit up VoA 10 and VoA 25 again.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
XT-002 ( 25 man )
"That's one awfully big robot!" Raath said counting his ammo.
"Wonder what it drops?"
XT-002 has a couple of fun Gimmicks. Watch the Tankspot Video if you have tactical questions about it. Mine's more of a personal account of pitfalls and personal triumphs.
Step 1 Clear the corners. Big robot brings big adds. Best to clear what ya can.
Step 2 Assign a spot for Light Bombs and Gavity Bombs. Light bombs deal raidant energy. Gravity bombs leave a black spot of damage in their wake. Light right. Gravity Bombs Left. MT and OT switch out. Ranged DPS does alot of split DPS. We're assigned Bomb detail and add control. I wouldn't run my cat off a boss to charge a time-bomb. Too dangerous. Rather just pew pew pew it down and resume dps. Bring your cat out of Boss range for short range AOE Tantrums or keep a Mend going. DPS the bombs that walk up from the 4 corners. Someone should call it. If you get a gavity bomb, run away to a side. If you get a light bomb, run away to the other side. Resume DPS.
Step 3 When XT-002's heart pops out, nuke it down but not all the way. If you have alot of DPS, you CAN trigger hardmode. That boosts the robot's damage output, makes the Light/Gravity bombs hit harder, heals XT-002 to Full, and taxes the healers greatly. Otherwise, any damage done to the exposed heart transferrs to the Robot. Rinse repeat, and the robot goes down. Trigger hardmode and the robot gets REALLY pissy.
We stuck with regular mode XT. Hardmode is.... Way hard. We lost our MT/OT with our 25 man pug in regular mode. The remaining DPS had to finish him at the end.
Twisted Visage dropped and I won the roll. Woot!! That thing is best in slot for alot of un-capped Hunters. My other weapons are +Haste/+ArPen. Since I'm hit capped, the weapon is overkill, but with Tier 9 pants, I lose 59 Hit and will want it back badly. Luckily, this thing has alot of +Hit/+Crit to make up for it.
Get gear beacuse you need it, or Get gear because of what you plan on getting soon, or Lastly get gear because every other hunter on server has one. 5,000 other hunters can't be wrong. This thing does look great. I got it enchanted and keep it for my future Tier 9.5 set. Just waiting on a Epic Lv245 item Tropy from ToC25 to get my Triumphant Windrunner pants. Then.... Boom!! Tier 9 two piece bonus. Both items will cost me 105 Emblems of Triumph. I'll be able to afford it soon. Soon.... my precious. Lol. If VoA 10 / VoA 25 go my way, I'll just GET the pants/gloves.... but I'm never that lucky. It's always Shaman or Rogue gear.
"Wonder what it drops?"
XT-002 has a couple of fun Gimmicks. Watch the Tankspot Video if you have tactical questions about it. Mine's more of a personal account of pitfalls and personal triumphs.
Step 1 Clear the corners. Big robot brings big adds. Best to clear what ya can.
Step 2 Assign a spot for Light Bombs and Gavity Bombs. Light bombs deal raidant energy. Gravity bombs leave a black spot of damage in their wake. Light right. Gravity Bombs Left. MT and OT switch out. Ranged DPS does alot of split DPS. We're assigned Bomb detail and add control. I wouldn't run my cat off a boss to charge a time-bomb. Too dangerous. Rather just pew pew pew it down and resume dps. Bring your cat out of Boss range for short range AOE Tantrums or keep a Mend going. DPS the bombs that walk up from the 4 corners. Someone should call it. If you get a gavity bomb, run away to a side. If you get a light bomb, run away to the other side. Resume DPS.
Step 3 When XT-002's heart pops out, nuke it down but not all the way. If you have alot of DPS, you CAN trigger hardmode. That boosts the robot's damage output, makes the Light/Gravity bombs hit harder, heals XT-002 to Full, and taxes the healers greatly. Otherwise, any damage done to the exposed heart transferrs to the Robot. Rinse repeat, and the robot goes down. Trigger hardmode and the robot gets REALLY pissy.
We stuck with regular mode XT. Hardmode is.... Way hard. We lost our MT/OT with our 25 man pug in regular mode. The remaining DPS had to finish him at the end.
Twisted Visage dropped and I won the roll. Woot!! That thing is best in slot for alot of un-capped Hunters. My other weapons are +Haste/+ArPen. Since I'm hit capped, the weapon is overkill, but with Tier 9 pants, I lose 59 Hit and will want it back badly. Luckily, this thing has alot of +Hit/+Crit to make up for it.
Get gear beacuse you need it, or Get gear because of what you plan on getting soon, or Lastly get gear because every other hunter on server has one. 5,000 other hunters can't be wrong. This thing does look great. I got it enchanted and keep it for my future Tier 9.5 set. Just waiting on a Epic Lv245 item Tropy from ToC25 to get my Triumphant Windrunner pants. Then.... Boom!! Tier 9 two piece bonus. Both items will cost me 105 Emblems of Triumph. I'll be able to afford it soon. Soon.... my precious. Lol. If VoA 10 / VoA 25 go my way, I'll just GET the pants/gloves.... but I'm never that lucky. It's always Shaman or Rogue gear.
Ulduar 25 - Flame Leviathan
Super Tank!
Like the Super Kitty, Super Toilet, and the Super Bike.... this is one wish we wish you didn't make there, Timmy Turner.
The Flame Leviathan is a big ass tank. So darned big that we had to get into vehicles and destroy that thing with the combined might of tanks, pyrite, rockets, seige vehicles, and motorcycles. What a mad melee. Great fun tho. The vehicular combat of the first encounter doesn't even need a proper class balance or healers. Just folks that know how to operate machinery.... You've all had 10 levels of WotLK vehicles to learn. Griffons, then dragons, to tanks, and such. Now you're doing it with style for Level 226 Epic drops.
Step 1 Repair your stuff and re-arm. Brann and his personal army have a vendor, reagent, and repair dudes there. Ulduar 25 is a long instance. Hit them up then get into a tank for mayhem.
Step 2 Start the circus and attack the ground troops. Iron Dwarves die by the handful. Explosions, rockets, Evil gnomes on helicopters, and giants to nuke. Motorcycles create oil slicks to snare foes. Tanks shoot flames into them to create fire pits. Everyone else just shoots madly in circles. Primary targets are Giant constructs, then Turrets, then ground troops. It's just mayhem. As long as folks aren't AFK, you can roll over anything here with focused fire. First time at the controls and you'll figure out 3 easy buttons to operate your choppa. I had someone show up late and she rode "shotgun". Sure it's also called riding "bitch", but since the game has SO FEW female gamers, I chose to take the high path and be respectful. The first and second vehicle slots do all kinds of jobs. On every vehicle except the motorcycle. For that, she just hung around. There's an eject button that launches the player, but I'd rather not pitch the pally healer into a fire-pit or wedge her under the 10,000 ton Leviathan. We just dropped Oil slicks and ran around nuking smaller foes with our Air-Horn of doom. Great fun.
Step 3 Layer the "Doorway" with pyrite charges. There's a steady stream of pyrite being ferried around by propeller. Shoot it down and the Explosive charge will parachute to the ground. You want to keep that handy in the battle area. It's ammo for your tanks. Shoot down 20+ charges and then trigger the two door guards. That starts the Leviathan fight.
Step 4 "Run away Little girl!" One tank object becomes fodder for the Leviathan's wrath. The leviathan gives chase. You run away in a circle. The rest of the raid shoots pyrite and sets the tank on fire. Like 17 charges of 8 stacks each. Burn baby burn.
Motorcycles make oil slicks to slow down the Leviathan. Those catch fire and also burn the big guy as well. Try not to get smashed by it. DPS again. Down goes Super Tank.
Collect your Phat Lewt. Welcome to Ulduar 25!
Zero Hunter skills needed. Just remember, getting out of your vehicle is deadly before the gates are cleared. Those turrets and casters hit hard and your bike has 50k health. After seeing the amount of cannon fire, napalm, bullets, and Mad Max vehicular gnomeslaughter... you'd want to stay in your tank until the first event is wrapped up. After FL goes down, the rest of the place is open for exploration.
I'd be Geared to at least Naxx level. You could to Uld 10 in all Lv 187+ Blues, but you better be a Cracker-Jack team of professionals. As the number of idiots increases, the gear requirements increase and flawless execution of strategy becomes necessary. With a bunch of Lv 200 Epics on each character, the place becomes easier.
At our level, an average Pug should be able to grind 3/5 of Ulduar 25 man. We hit a few achievements, but nothing in Hardmode. Hardmode Ulduar 25 is for the established guilds with a few guests. All the raiders ARE epicced out and your DPS needs to be 3k or more.
Like the Super Kitty, Super Toilet, and the Super Bike.... this is one wish we wish you didn't make there, Timmy Turner.
The Flame Leviathan is a big ass tank. So darned big that we had to get into vehicles and destroy that thing with the combined might of tanks, pyrite, rockets, seige vehicles, and motorcycles. What a mad melee. Great fun tho. The vehicular combat of the first encounter doesn't even need a proper class balance or healers. Just folks that know how to operate machinery.... You've all had 10 levels of WotLK vehicles to learn. Griffons, then dragons, to tanks, and such. Now you're doing it with style for Level 226 Epic drops.
Step 1 Repair your stuff and re-arm. Brann and his personal army have a vendor, reagent, and repair dudes there. Ulduar 25 is a long instance. Hit them up then get into a tank for mayhem.
Step 2 Start the circus and attack the ground troops. Iron Dwarves die by the handful. Explosions, rockets, Evil gnomes on helicopters, and giants to nuke. Motorcycles create oil slicks to snare foes. Tanks shoot flames into them to create fire pits. Everyone else just shoots madly in circles. Primary targets are Giant constructs, then Turrets, then ground troops. It's just mayhem. As long as folks aren't AFK, you can roll over anything here with focused fire. First time at the controls and you'll figure out 3 easy buttons to operate your choppa. I had someone show up late and she rode "shotgun". Sure it's also called riding "bitch", but since the game has SO FEW female gamers, I chose to take the high path and be respectful. The first and second vehicle slots do all kinds of jobs. On every vehicle except the motorcycle. For that, she just hung around. There's an eject button that launches the player, but I'd rather not pitch the pally healer into a fire-pit or wedge her under the 10,000 ton Leviathan. We just dropped Oil slicks and ran around nuking smaller foes with our Air-Horn of doom. Great fun.
Step 3 Layer the "Doorway" with pyrite charges. There's a steady stream of pyrite being ferried around by propeller. Shoot it down and the Explosive charge will parachute to the ground. You want to keep that handy in the battle area. It's ammo for your tanks. Shoot down 20+ charges and then trigger the two door guards. That starts the Leviathan fight.
Step 4 "Run away Little girl!" One tank object becomes fodder for the Leviathan's wrath. The leviathan gives chase. You run away in a circle. The rest of the raid shoots pyrite and sets the tank on fire. Like 17 charges of 8 stacks each. Burn baby burn.
Motorcycles make oil slicks to slow down the Leviathan. Those catch fire and also burn the big guy as well. Try not to get smashed by it. DPS again. Down goes Super Tank.
Collect your Phat Lewt. Welcome to Ulduar 25!
Zero Hunter skills needed. Just remember, getting out of your vehicle is deadly before the gates are cleared. Those turrets and casters hit hard and your bike has 50k health. After seeing the amount of cannon fire, napalm, bullets, and Mad Max vehicular gnomeslaughter... you'd want to stay in your tank until the first event is wrapped up. After FL goes down, the rest of the place is open for exploration.
I'd be Geared to at least Naxx level. You could to Uld 10 in all Lv 187+ Blues, but you better be a Cracker-Jack team of professionals. As the number of idiots increases, the gear requirements increase and flawless execution of strategy becomes necessary. With a bunch of Lv 200 Epics on each character, the place becomes easier.
At our level, an average Pug should be able to grind 3/5 of Ulduar 25 man. We hit a few achievements, but nothing in Hardmode. Hardmode Ulduar 25 is for the established guilds with a few guests. All the raiders ARE epicced out and your DPS needs to be 3k or more.
Toc 10 - Anub'Arak
What is this with WotLK and big creepy bugs??
Seriously, I get the wierd factor with evil insects and the Undead Lich king. Bravo. We make the connection. Now we face yet another arch-opponent bug boss. After defeating the 10 man Faction Champions, the twins and this guy are just cake. Follow the strat, stand on the snowdrifts, DPS the adds, and you have a dead boss. No healing blocks or any wierd gimmicks. Just pew pew the frost orbs down and keep moving.
Phase 0
Enjoy the cutscene. The Lich King shows up and Lord Tiron Fordring asks him to lay down his Uber-Magic-MindControlling sword of Awesomeness... and walk away. No hard feelings. That line just had me in stiches. Arthas was not amused. He shatters the floor and sends the players into the caverns below the Argent tournament to face an ancient horror in the cold and dark below. Woooot! Thanks buddy.
Phase 1
DPS the boss. Ranged DPS, Nuke the floating frost orbs and make a couple dozen snow drifts. Try not to fall asleep. Don't linger on the snow drifts as it slows your movement / attack.
Phase 2
DPS the boss. DPS the small bug adds that appear. The boss will "Target" someone to impale from below. Just keep on the snow and you'll be fine.
Phase 3
At 30% health, Anub-Arak casts degenerative swarm and leeches 5% of your health per second from everyone in the area. Don't quote me on the numbers. Basically, it's a DPS/Healer challenge. Your raid will be reduced to 50% health or lower. Boss gets minimal regen from a weakened party. Your DPS goes all out to finish him. MT is the only one kept at 100% health. No one dies and everyone blows their cooldowns. Rest of you at 25% health rush to kill the boss who's leeching you all slowly. Tricky, the first time you do it. The third time you do it, it can be phoned in. Hunters, keep your pet alive but barely. The health leech is so slow, your renew can easily keep up. Even if your pet dies, the boss isn't far behind.
Down he goes, come collect your candy.
High Lord Tirion Fordring also appears after the fight with a friendly handshake and a free portal back out of the pit to Dalarn for your raid. WooT! How about that?!
Seriously, I get the wierd factor with evil insects and the Undead Lich king. Bravo. We make the connection. Now we face yet another arch-opponent bug boss. After defeating the 10 man Faction Champions, the twins and this guy are just cake. Follow the strat, stand on the snowdrifts, DPS the adds, and you have a dead boss. No healing blocks or any wierd gimmicks. Just pew pew the frost orbs down and keep moving.
Phase 0
Enjoy the cutscene. The Lich King shows up and Lord Tiron Fordring asks him to lay down his Uber-Magic-MindControlling sword of Awesomeness... and walk away. No hard feelings. That line just had me in stiches. Arthas was not amused. He shatters the floor and sends the players into the caverns below the Argent tournament to face an ancient horror in the cold and dark below. Woooot! Thanks buddy.
Phase 1
DPS the boss. Ranged DPS, Nuke the floating frost orbs and make a couple dozen snow drifts. Try not to fall asleep. Don't linger on the snow drifts as it slows your movement / attack.
Phase 2
DPS the boss. DPS the small bug adds that appear. The boss will "Target" someone to impale from below. Just keep on the snow and you'll be fine.
Phase 3
At 30% health, Anub-Arak casts degenerative swarm and leeches 5% of your health per second from everyone in the area. Don't quote me on the numbers. Basically, it's a DPS/Healer challenge. Your raid will be reduced to 50% health or lower. Boss gets minimal regen from a weakened party. Your DPS goes all out to finish him. MT is the only one kept at 100% health. No one dies and everyone blows their cooldowns. Rest of you at 25% health rush to kill the boss who's leeching you all slowly. Tricky, the first time you do it. The third time you do it, it can be phoned in. Hunters, keep your pet alive but barely. The health leech is so slow, your renew can easily keep up. Even if your pet dies, the boss isn't far behind.
Down he goes, come collect your candy.
High Lord Tirion Fordring also appears after the fight with a friendly handshake and a free portal back out of the pit to Dalarn for your raid. WooT! How about that?!
2nd Profession
I'm going to start a 2nd "production" Profession soon. Ages ago, I took up Skinning and Leatherworking. Then dropped it around 90 skill when I realized at level 20 my created items were always lagging behind my level. Once you can reliably make an item, its benefits are negligible or a downgrade to your current equipment. Armor kits were handy, but I used a number of materials like potions more often. Upon reaching level 25, I switched over to Alchemy / Herbalism. Those have served me well for years. Now I have three other high level characters with Herbalism / Inscription, Herbalism / Mining, and Blacksmithing / Mining.
I am seriously flush with materials. So much that, I m considering dropping Herbalism. Plus, the extra two gem slots could bring another +40 AGI to my character. That's hawt. Alot of Characters are Enchanter/Jewlers or Blacksmith / Engineers. A number of Endgame tanks also have double profs. ( +39 Sta gems and +30 Sta Enchants can add up quickly).
The Bad? Blacksmithing to 400 is a much longer trek. Mithril is always scarce and Thorium is a downright pain in the ass to find. The sheer bulk of materials could sell for several thousand gold pieces on the Auction House. If I need to two-box materials for mid-level zones, I'll have to bring my son's Paladin along to mine it.
The Ugly? I get some Blacksmith only recipies... which are mostly plate and some low level weapons and mail items. Getting to 450 is meh. Nothing at the top end of the skill is worth upgrading a Hunter. Re-forging is only rumored to be in the expansion and the expansion is still months to a year away. Also, not having Herbalism is going to dink up my Alchemy.
Herbalism is a natural pair to Alchemy. Now, dropping that for Blacksmithing robs me of a self-sustaining Potion/Elixir habit. The Northrend Flask rocks tho. It makes up for alot. Can't say enough nice things about the Eternal flasks in this expansion as well. The amount healed is paltry, use it in combat at your own peril. The amount of mana returned is also horribly small. The 1 minute cooldown outside of combat is just awesome.
I also lose out on a 1500 point emergency heal over time from Max level Herbalism. That may cut back on my effectiveness, being dead. Hopefully, I can put out that much MORE DPS to counteract that handicap. The heal is in addition to any Healthstone and Potion.
I am seriously flush with materials. So much that, I m considering dropping Herbalism. Plus, the extra two gem slots could bring another +40 AGI to my character. That's hawt. Alot of Characters are Enchanter/Jewlers or Blacksmith / Engineers. A number of Endgame tanks also have double profs. ( +39 Sta gems and +30 Sta Enchants can add up quickly).
In the Catalcysm expansion, the Re-forging skill allows Blacksmiths to redo the stats on mail and plate gear. That has untold benefits in the future. +40 Agi +20 Spirit Bracers? Not a problem. Just re-forge those babies into +40 AGI +20 Sta or +45 AGI +10Sta +5 Int bracers. Stat molding and crit/hit shifting. That kind of control over gear is just wicked powerful. Where do I sign up??
The Good? I get two gem slots to place in my equipment. One in my Gloves and one for my Bracers. Also, the first 100 points of Blacksmithing goes by ridiculously fast. I'm also sitting on a metric ton of Copper, Tin, Silver, Gold, Fel Iron, Adamantite, Khorium, Cobalt, and Saronite. Lastly, I can afford to burn a couple thousand gold maxxing out my skills.
The Bad? Blacksmithing to 400 is a much longer trek. Mithril is always scarce and Thorium is a downright pain in the ass to find. The sheer bulk of materials could sell for several thousand gold pieces on the Auction House. If I need to two-box materials for mid-level zones, I'll have to bring my son's Paladin along to mine it.
The Ugly? I get some Blacksmith only recipies... which are mostly plate and some low level weapons and mail items. Getting to 450 is meh. Nothing at the top end of the skill is worth upgrading a Hunter. Re-forging is only rumored to be in the expansion and the expansion is still months to a year away. Also, not having Herbalism is going to dink up my Alchemy.
Herbalism is a natural pair to Alchemy. Now, dropping that for Blacksmithing robs me of a self-sustaining Potion/Elixir habit. The Northrend Flask rocks tho. It makes up for alot. Can't say enough nice things about the Eternal flasks in this expansion as well. The amount healed is paltry, use it in combat at your own peril. The amount of mana returned is also horribly small. The 1 minute cooldown outside of combat is just awesome.
I also lose out on a 1500 point emergency heal over time from Max level Herbalism. That may cut back on my effectiveness, being dead. Hopefully, I can put out that much MORE DPS to counteract that handicap. The heal is in addition to any Healthstone and Potion.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Toc 10 - Twin Valkyrs
Everyone likes a pair of twins. Arroogah. oh wait.... They're undead winged twins of pure evil destruction? Okay. What do they sound like? Ohh. Well okay. What's the gimmick with the doublemint twins?
Two valkyr that share the same health pool. Deadly AoE and big Heal abilities. Avoid one and Interrupt the other... you're home free.
Light Valkyr. Made of light energy.
Dark valkyr. Made of dark energy.
Four Aura-Portals in the room. Two of each color on each side.
Split your team into two groups.
5 Light team on Dark Valkyr.
5 Dark Team on Dark Valkyr.
Two colors of spheres will flood the arena and fly around in random directions. Light spheres buff Light Aura'ed players. Dark Spheres buff Dark Auras. Hit the wrong sphere and it blows up doing short range AoE damage. Collect a chain of "buffing" spehres and you go into an overdrive mode doing extra damage to the opposite color. Collect a chain of "bad" spheres and you die. Healers and Tanks. Watch your back.
Have a tank for each Valkyr and a dedicated healer. Dps these bitches down.
Fast, easy fight once you execute the transitions and interrupts. The big problem is when someone screws up a "special".
Light shield / Dark Sield. One of the sisters will put a major heal on herself if you don't interrupt her by nuking down the shield with melee/spells and Stunning the caster.. You must adpot the opposite color and everyone - EVERY DPS CLASS nukes down the shield. You have like 12 seconds. Slow transitions = Raid wipe. If that interrupt doesn't happen, you're hosed. The twins will slowly die without those heals. Otherwise they heal to full.
Light Nova / Dark Nova is the other ability. Massive AOE nuke that destroys the whole arena. If you're wearing black and it's a white nova. You'll die. Find the color. DPS the opposite Valkyr for Extra damage. Then resume your normal color to dps your Normally assigned Valkyr. Again, slow transitions = wipe.
* For Nova - Even the OffTank and Off Healer have to switch. Everyone in the room will get hit. So everyone in the room must quickly adopt the right color to be "immune" to the effects.
Rinse and repeat this process. They nova twice. They Shield twice. Then they fell down and died of.... natural causes. Expect a 25% health drop per phase if they don't get off a heal. Your mileage may vary. Easy peasy.
After the Faction Champions, these girls are a "Loot Piniata". I got the 2H Defiance sword off them last run. Placed a +20 AGI gem inside and enchanted it with +85 Attack. Boo Yea! I'm rocking 5K Attack self buffed with 43% crit while hit capped. Now I'm upping Armor Pen Ratings and Haste next.
Two valkyr that share the same health pool. Deadly AoE and big Heal abilities. Avoid one and Interrupt the other... you're home free.
Light Valkyr. Made of light energy.
Dark valkyr. Made of dark energy.
Four Aura-Portals in the room. Two of each color on each side.
Split your team into two groups.
5 Light team on Dark Valkyr.
5 Dark Team on Dark Valkyr.
Two colors of spheres will flood the arena and fly around in random directions. Light spheres buff Light Aura'ed players. Dark Spheres buff Dark Auras. Hit the wrong sphere and it blows up doing short range AoE damage. Collect a chain of "buffing" spehres and you go into an overdrive mode doing extra damage to the opposite color. Collect a chain of "bad" spheres and you die. Healers and Tanks. Watch your back.
Have a tank for each Valkyr and a dedicated healer. Dps these bitches down.
Fast, easy fight once you execute the transitions and interrupts. The big problem is when someone screws up a "special".
Light shield / Dark Sield. One of the sisters will put a major heal on herself if you don't interrupt her by nuking down the shield with melee/spells and Stunning the caster.. You must adpot the opposite color and everyone - EVERY DPS CLASS nukes down the shield. You have like 12 seconds. Slow transitions = Raid wipe. If that interrupt doesn't happen, you're hosed. The twins will slowly die without those heals. Otherwise they heal to full.
Light Nova / Dark Nova is the other ability. Massive AOE nuke that destroys the whole arena. If you're wearing black and it's a white nova. You'll die. Find the color. DPS the opposite Valkyr for Extra damage. Then resume your normal color to dps your Normally assigned Valkyr. Again, slow transitions = wipe.
* For Nova - Even the OffTank and Off Healer have to switch. Everyone in the room will get hit. So everyone in the room must quickly adopt the right color to be "immune" to the effects.
Rinse and repeat this process. They nova twice. They Shield twice. Then they fell down and died of.... natural causes. Expect a 25% health drop per phase if they don't get off a heal. Your mileage may vary. Easy peasy.
After the Faction Champions, these girls are a "Loot Piniata". I got the 2H Defiance sword off them last run. Placed a +20 AGI gem inside and enchanted it with +85 Attack. Boo Yea! I'm rocking 5K Attack self buffed with 43% crit while hit capped. Now I'm upping Armor Pen Ratings and Haste next.
ToC 10 - Horde/Alliance Champions
The faction Champions are badass. They deserve to be the best representatives that the Horde can muster against your 10 or 25 man squad. If they played smartly, they would win every time. They are just UBER. These are PvP demigods set in a PvE setting. For the 10 man event, they are six NPCs at 430k health each of different classes and specialized abilities. They have a random aggro table and will focus on a specific player for a few seconds before wandering away to beat on someone else. They can be taunted, but don't have a specific aggro table.
Good News - They don't have an aggro table. They could leave you alone for a majority of the fight, and horribly mangle your other raid members.
Bad News - They don't have an aggro table. They could all randomly decide that it's Dwarf Hunter day, and you could wind up with a Mortal Strike Warrior, Rogue backstab, Deathknight, and an Enhance Shaman violating you at once. Yea. Sometimes, it's just unfair. That's PvP.
Divide and Conquer? - You'll die. Plain and simple. You can't face these guys 1 on 1. In the small encounter, the fight is stacked 6 on 10 but they have 430k health and the melee guys hit like trucks. The priest's Renew does 30k health. Nobody is that powerful. Ridiculous things like LoH by the paladin make this fight just insane if you try to whittle them eac down by yourself. CC / Fear what you can, Gang up on the healers, and whittle them individually down.
Say your prayers and die like a man? Not on my watch. I've had some seriously uphill battle that have come out with our side winning in PvP. The Raid leaders called a wipe and we kept digging until we got the enemy healers. Then the event all comes together. Then we beat this awful hard hard event. For this fight, there are no real tactics. You take out what you can, and CC / Distract / Snake trap / Frost trap / Ice Trap / Fire Trap whatever you can. Hardest mob to kill? The first one.
Fear is your friend. Banish Boomkins / Trees. Gouge, Sheep what you can. Ice trap big threats. Frost trap the rest so you can kite them. AOE is reduced by 75% here so you just can't shred them en masse. You'll have to grind these Heroes one by one. Interrupt / Lock down whatever you can.
Special props to my Boomkin friend for using cyclone to stop the Shaman >> Druid >>> Rogue and single handedly being a huge pain in their ass. No single player wins this fight. It requires every player looking out for themselves and using all of their skills to monkeywrench the opposing team.
Know your class and pray they don't gang up on you. Fear bomb. Use all of those Protection tank interrupts and sheild reflection skills. Rogue kick and improved Fan of Knives are UBER here for neutralizing casters. These mobs are immune to Mind Control. Don't try it. They take a while to kill, and the aggro table will help then hurt you as random times as the fight wears on.
Battle rezz. Blow your cooldowns. Get an early lead and maximize your focused damage. Look out for your buddies. There are 100 zen philosophies for trying to build a flexible team that can take out a vastly superior flexible team. Their weakness is the "computer AI" controlling their abilities. I've seen Undead mage spend her time nuking snakes from snake trap. Polymorphing my cat pet. And then the little witch will Ice Block just before we finish her off. They're smart, then dumb. You just have to know the other classes and what each one is weak against.
Gang up on their casters. Spread out yours. Guard your team-mates. Look out for your buddy and talk on Vent when you need help. Cheer your friends on. Dont' release if you die. There is no re-entry on this event. Army of the dead, Raise Ghoul, Fear pet, Feign Death, Misdirect, Mortal Strike / Aimed Shot use them whenever you can. Once the first healer goes down, you're 1/4 of the way there. Take out two of them, and the rest come alot easier. This is not a mana fight because the Shaman can 3 shot clothies at 6k per hit with his Windfury Totem and Dual wield. Burst damage. Evasion, and Focused Fire whatever you can bring down. There is no MT here. Everyone will have to run around and fend for themselves a little.
Every single time you face these six, respect them. They are the BIG Dogs of this event and will rip your team apart if you don't use everything in your bag of tricks. This means consumables, potions, flasks, and cooldowns whenever possible. Resilience is a joke here. Don't bother. Bring as much spikey aggro creating damage as possible. Stack up on Stamina if you think that'll help. Ice block, Vanish, Deterrence, shield wall, Feign, and Fade all you want. Whatever gets you thru it while bringing down their healers.
Survival is goal #1. Sure they say Killing is goal #1 but it isn't. I'll tell you why. If you don't look out for yourself before that first healer is dead, they will take you apart before you kill them. So, Focus fire and stay mobile. Watch out for yourself. Track your buddy and keep him alive as well. Interrupt / trap / and snare whatever you can reach without getting yourself killed. This event is complex and random. We're not geared enough to even think of this event on heroic difficulty. I've beaten the Regular 10 and Regular 25 man versions. Regular was tough enough.
After beating this, you've done something special in 10 man raiding.
General Strategies :
1) Fear shit whenever possible.
2) Frost Trap / Banish / Polymorph. Use everything you can that will disable a player. Remember diminishing returns. Cyclone one guy. Then cyclone another. My son did great on his boomkin and locked down a number of NPCs out of healing and Nuking others.
3) Heal your buddy. Every person is essentail to winnning. Tunnel vision kills.
4) Don't let one or two deaths lead to a wipe. Keep calm and don't give up.
We try to take out those annoying healers 1st (Priest > Shaman > Pally ). Then the Rogue / Warlock. Then whomever you feel like killing. Then Tanks, then the Boomkin / Mage. Pets and such are usually ignored as their damage is annoying but not lethal.
This was the 1st time I've used the PvP trinket to get out of a Polymorph in a long time. They Need to Nerf the Horde. Freaking 430k health on a priest? What the Eff were they thinking? Glad to know the Alliance Champions are equally impossible.
We've wiped multiple times to these guys. If you're 1 shotting this event, you're very good, or very lucky, or VERY well geared. Plan on a few wipes here. If you bring Pickup players or substitute players in, expect more deaths. The more cohesive your group is, the better you'll do. Experienced teams approach these PvP dudes with caution. Good luck. Enjoy the spoils.
Good News - They don't have an aggro table. They could leave you alone for a majority of the fight, and horribly mangle your other raid members.
Bad News - They don't have an aggro table. They could all randomly decide that it's Dwarf Hunter day, and you could wind up with a Mortal Strike Warrior, Rogue backstab, Deathknight, and an Enhance Shaman violating you at once. Yea. Sometimes, it's just unfair. That's PvP.
Divide and Conquer? - You'll die. Plain and simple. You can't face these guys 1 on 1. In the small encounter, the fight is stacked 6 on 10 but they have 430k health and the melee guys hit like trucks. The priest's Renew does 30k health. Nobody is that powerful. Ridiculous things like LoH by the paladin make this fight just insane if you try to whittle them eac down by yourself. CC / Fear what you can, Gang up on the healers, and whittle them individually down.
Say your prayers and die like a man? Not on my watch. I've had some seriously uphill battle that have come out with our side winning in PvP. The Raid leaders called a wipe and we kept digging until we got the enemy healers. Then the event all comes together. Then we beat this awful hard hard event. For this fight, there are no real tactics. You take out what you can, and CC / Distract / Snake trap / Frost trap / Ice Trap / Fire Trap whatever you can. Hardest mob to kill? The first one.
Fear is your friend. Banish Boomkins / Trees. Gouge, Sheep what you can. Ice trap big threats. Frost trap the rest so you can kite them. AOE is reduced by 75% here so you just can't shred them en masse. You'll have to grind these Heroes one by one. Interrupt / Lock down whatever you can.
Special props to my Boomkin friend for using cyclone to stop the Shaman >> Druid >>> Rogue and single handedly being a huge pain in their ass. No single player wins this fight. It requires every player looking out for themselves and using all of their skills to monkeywrench the opposing team.
Know your class and pray they don't gang up on you. Fear bomb. Use all of those Protection tank interrupts and sheild reflection skills. Rogue kick and improved Fan of Knives are UBER here for neutralizing casters. These mobs are immune to Mind Control. Don't try it. They take a while to kill, and the aggro table will help then hurt you as random times as the fight wears on.
Battle rezz. Blow your cooldowns. Get an early lead and maximize your focused damage. Look out for your buddies. There are 100 zen philosophies for trying to build a flexible team that can take out a vastly superior flexible team. Their weakness is the "computer AI" controlling their abilities. I've seen Undead mage spend her time nuking snakes from snake trap. Polymorphing my cat pet. And then the little witch will Ice Block just before we finish her off. They're smart, then dumb. You just have to know the other classes and what each one is weak against.
Gang up on their casters. Spread out yours. Guard your team-mates. Look out for your buddy and talk on Vent when you need help. Cheer your friends on. Dont' release if you die. There is no re-entry on this event. Army of the dead, Raise Ghoul, Fear pet, Feign Death, Misdirect, Mortal Strike / Aimed Shot use them whenever you can. Once the first healer goes down, you're 1/4 of the way there. Take out two of them, and the rest come alot easier. This is not a mana fight because the Shaman can 3 shot clothies at 6k per hit with his Windfury Totem and Dual wield. Burst damage. Evasion, and Focused Fire whatever you can bring down. There is no MT here. Everyone will have to run around and fend for themselves a little.
Every single time you face these six, respect them. They are the BIG Dogs of this event and will rip your team apart if you don't use everything in your bag of tricks. This means consumables, potions, flasks, and cooldowns whenever possible. Resilience is a joke here. Don't bother. Bring as much spikey aggro creating damage as possible. Stack up on Stamina if you think that'll help. Ice block, Vanish, Deterrence, shield wall, Feign, and Fade all you want. Whatever gets you thru it while bringing down their healers.
Survival is goal #1. Sure they say Killing is goal #1 but it isn't. I'll tell you why. If you don't look out for yourself before that first healer is dead, they will take you apart before you kill them. So, Focus fire and stay mobile. Watch out for yourself. Track your buddy and keep him alive as well. Interrupt / trap / and snare whatever you can reach without getting yourself killed. This event is complex and random. We're not geared enough to even think of this event on heroic difficulty. I've beaten the Regular 10 and Regular 25 man versions. Regular was tough enough.
After beating this, you've done something special in 10 man raiding.
General Strategies :
1) Fear shit whenever possible.
2) Frost Trap / Banish / Polymorph. Use everything you can that will disable a player. Remember diminishing returns. Cyclone one guy. Then cyclone another. My son did great on his boomkin and locked down a number of NPCs out of healing and Nuking others.
3) Heal your buddy. Every person is essentail to winnning. Tunnel vision kills.
4) Don't let one or two deaths lead to a wipe. Keep calm and don't give up.
We try to take out those annoying healers 1st (Priest > Shaman > Pally ). Then the Rogue / Warlock. Then whomever you feel like killing. Then Tanks, then the Boomkin / Mage. Pets and such are usually ignored as their damage is annoying but not lethal.
This was the 1st time I've used the PvP trinket to get out of a Polymorph in a long time. They Need to Nerf the Horde. Freaking 430k health on a priest? What the Eff were they thinking? Glad to know the Alliance Champions are equally impossible.
We've wiped multiple times to these guys. If you're 1 shotting this event, you're very good, or very lucky, or VERY well geared. Plan on a few wipes here. If you bring Pickup players or substitute players in, expect more deaths. The more cohesive your group is, the better you'll do. Experienced teams approach these PvP dudes with caution. Good luck. Enjoy the spoils.
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