In the bowels of the Hellfire Citadel, the fel demon, Magtheridon is held captive by Illidian's orc legion. Heroes of the Burning Crusade, seeking treasure and glory, are delving into the Hellfire Basin and entering Magtheridon's Lair in hopes of freeing the beast, and slaying him.
Recently we have begun serious attempts at Magtheridon, and while we have yet to finish the task, Militiae Templi are closing in on the kill. It is a hectic fight, requiring precise actions and timing.
The trash leading up to Magtheridon, are on a 1 hour respawn timer, so given the clear time, you have approximately 45 minutes to work on him, between clears. The trash is also insanely hard, which has caused many guilds a great deal of frustration when that window shrinks to 30 minutes or less due to excessive trash wipes.
The trash consist of packs of 3 Orc casters who emit a Shadowbolt Volley hitting everyone in Line of Sight (LOS). These can be interrupted by kick, bash, gouge, shield slam etc., and should be at all costs. They also Death Coil and Fear, making tanking a challenge, and they DoT the raid with Shadow Word: Pain, and Unstable Affliction, making the cleansing a bit more challenging.
Our strategy is to pull one over the lip of the ramp, leaving 2 and some healers below LOS, while the raid works on one at a time. It has proven successful and we can now move through the various packs in under ten minutes time.
Magtheridon is a very complex encounter. He is not pulled until you engage one of the Channelers which are positioned around the room at the points of a pentagram, behind five floating boxes that rotate like a Rubik cube, and emit a beam of pink energy at Magtheridon, much like a Drain Soul spell. Once engaged, Magtheridon will begin to break his chains and will be free in two minuets. Your goal is to have 3-4 Channelers killed before that happens, but it took us a few days of attempts to get our DPS to that point.
Position your warlocks and hunters around the room, while remaining in range of the kill target, and have them control the Infernals that are summoned periodically. The Channelers can summon two maximum, so at first you can have as many as ten in the room, but that will decline as your DPS increases, and they remain for sixty seconds. They hit like trucks and have various abilities similar to the Warlock summon, so be sure to Fear, Banish, Ice Trap, anything to keep them under control.
The Channelers heal and cast Shadow Bolt Volley, and the heals must be interrupted or you will not be able to DPS them down fast enough to survive the fight. Focus on the heals, kill them as fast as possible and move on.
When Magtheridon breaks free, the Main Tank picks him up in the center of the room and holds him there. Continue killing the Channelers. When they are down switch DPS to the boss.
The only other tricky element of the encounter are the clickable Rubik cubes around the room. They can be used in unison to banish Magtheridon for ten seconds, and must be used to counter his ability, Blast Wave. Blast Wave is a channeled AOE that is going to wipe your raid if you screw up the Banish.
Assign groups of two (preferable DPS or the Channeler tanks) to each cube, and a rotation for those two people. When Magtheridon begin to cast Blast Wave, all five people assigned to first rotation, click the box and channel for the full ten seconds. Each will take approximately 800 damage per second for the duration, so they need high health or to be healed through it. If one dies before the channel begins, a replacement must be quickly assigned.
After the channeling concludes, those players will be affected with a debuff that prevents them channeling for a brief period. Group two must step up and prepare to channel the second Blast Wave.
Continue this cycle until he dies, and loot your epics as well as your first Tier 4 chest item.
Showing posts with label Warcraft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Warcraft. Show all posts
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Friday, April 13, 2007
Patch 2.1.0 Goes Live on PTR
Word has been trickling out of the Emerald Tower of Blizzard for the past few weeks, that this upcoming content patch would be a milestone of progress for the company and the player community. With the launch of the patch on the Public Test Realms today, we only now realize just how extensive the game changes have been. I for one am amazed at the incredible detail and progress that this patch brings to the tBC and aside from the complaints that I have regarding these changes, I am very optimistic about the patch as a whole.
You can read the entire patch notes here. Grab a chair, pour a beer, and prepare for a long read.
Of particular note, is Blizzard's attention to both player bases, the raid oriented and the casual gamer. With the patch comes the much heralded Black Temple opening, and with it the requisite cry that Blizzard caters to a vocal minority of players, while the vast percentage of the population will never see that content. However, 2.1.0 opens three new quest hubs, and reputation factions that can provide the solo player and small group with more epic quality rewards.
Heroic mode dungeons have been retuned to make them more accessible to the non-raid geared player and possible even to the average pick up group. In addition, end heroic bosses are now set to drop epic loot on every kill, making them a significant alternative to Karazhan for the casual player.
Content additions aside, this patch has addressed hundreds of minor bugs, game inconsistencies and interface issues, that they players have been complaining about for quite some time. Auto-dismount options on action use, for example, or my favorite, Gnomes now able to run in the Black Morass water like everyone else rather than needing to swim.
Blizzard, great job with 2.1.0 and we look forward to more content updates in the coming months. Please continue this trend of expanding the game for all players, and addressing the bugs and game mechanics that your players are pointing out.
You can read the entire patch notes here. Grab a chair, pour a beer, and prepare for a long read.
Of particular note, is Blizzard's attention to both player bases, the raid oriented and the casual gamer. With the patch comes the much heralded Black Temple opening, and with it the requisite cry that Blizzard caters to a vocal minority of players, while the vast percentage of the population will never see that content. However, 2.1.0 opens three new quest hubs, and reputation factions that can provide the solo player and small group with more epic quality rewards.
Heroic mode dungeons have been retuned to make them more accessible to the non-raid geared player and possible even to the average pick up group. In addition, end heroic bosses are now set to drop epic loot on every kill, making them a significant alternative to Karazhan for the casual player.
Content additions aside, this patch has addressed hundreds of minor bugs, game inconsistencies and interface issues, that they players have been complaining about for quite some time. Auto-dismount options on action use, for example, or my favorite, Gnomes now able to run in the Black Morass water like everyone else rather than needing to swim.
Blizzard, great job with 2.1.0 and we look forward to more content updates in the coming months. Please continue this trend of expanding the game for all players, and addressing the bugs and game mechanics that your players are pointing out.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Patch 2.10 Content Announcement
The next content patch and the opening of the now defiled Black Temple, home of Illidan and his minions has long been known. However, the patch is also introducing a great deal of new solo and 5-person content as well, with new rewards, factions, outdoor bosses, and items. As we’re approaching the release of the patch we wanted to share a glimpse into some of the upcoming content that hadn’t yet been confirmed for this next patch, or hadn’t even been heard of until now.
Druid Epic Flight Form
The Druid Epic flight form will be available through a series of quests, similar to the Warlock and Paladin Epic mount quests before it. This quest series will also open up a new boss in Sethekk Halls, and ultimately to the epic flight form.
Ethereum Prison
Players in good standing with the Consortium will be tasked to deal with the most recent activities of the nefarious Ethereum. With new quests, items, and content for the solo and small-group level 70 player, the Ethereum Prison will be the proving grounds for many aspiring to greatness.
Skettis
The Skyguard, Sha’tari warriors specializing in their command of the skies above Shattrath, have taken the offensive directly to the Arakkoa capital city, Skettis. Perched high in the mountains of Terrokar, and only accessible with use of a flying mount, Skettis holds new and exciting content for the solo or small-group level 70 player. All new quests, 5-person bosses, rare and epic items, and a new type of flying mount await those willing to lend their sword or
stave to the battle.
Nether Drake
The Netherwing faction and quest line continues and the long awaited Nether Drake becomes available. The Nether Drake is a special 280% speed epic flying mount that is obtainable through solo and small-group play. The quest to obtain one will be difficult, but the reward will surely show your dedication to the Netherwing cause as you soar through the skies of Outland on your very own ethereal drake.
Ogri’la
The Ogre plateau of enlightenment opens to those who prove their worth in Blade’s Edge Mountains. Level 70 players will be able to help the Ogres of Ogri’la battle invading forces and engage in new and exciting quests, such as a repeatable and ever popular bombing-run, this time using your own flying mount but with a dangerous twist! Featuring tons of new quests, the Ogri’la faction, 5-person bosses, and rare and epic items, Ogri’la is a place we’re hoping all
will aspire to enter.
Trinkets: New Darkmoon cards
You will now have the chance to find additional Darkmoon cards (Lunacy, Storms, Furies and Blessings) on high level creatures in Outlands, which you can turn in to the Darkmoon Faire to make powerful new Darkmoon card trinkets.
New Graveyards
Two new graveyards have been added to Blade's Edge Mountains.
New Flightpaths
New flight points: Felwood, Emerald Sanctuary (Both)
Ashenvale, Forest Song (Alliance)
New flight paths: Stormwind <-> Thorium Point
Grom'gol Base Camp <-> Flame Crest
Ratchet <-> Gadgetzan, Astranaar, Brackenwall Village
Brackenwall Village <-> Ratchet, Camp Taurajo, Freewind Post
Thunderbluff <-> Zoram'gar Outpost
Evergrove <-> Toshley's Station
Honor Hold <-> Shattrath
In addition, many flight paths have been adjusted to be shorter, faster flights.
Druid Epic Flight Form
The Druid Epic flight form will be available through a series of quests, similar to the Warlock and Paladin Epic mount quests before it. This quest series will also open up a new boss in Sethekk Halls, and ultimately to the epic flight form.
Ethereum Prison
Players in good standing with the Consortium will be tasked to deal with the most recent activities of the nefarious Ethereum. With new quests, items, and content for the solo and small-group level 70 player, the Ethereum Prison will be the proving grounds for many aspiring to greatness.
Skettis
The Skyguard, Sha’tari warriors specializing in their command of the skies above Shattrath, have taken the offensive directly to the Arakkoa capital city, Skettis. Perched high in the mountains of Terrokar, and only accessible with use of a flying mount, Skettis holds new and exciting content for the solo or small-group level 70 player. All new quests, 5-person bosses, rare and epic items, and a new type of flying mount await those willing to lend their sword or
stave to the battle.
Nether Drake
The Netherwing faction and quest line continues and the long awaited Nether Drake becomes available. The Nether Drake is a special 280% speed epic flying mount that is obtainable through solo and small-group play. The quest to obtain one will be difficult, but the reward will surely show your dedication to the Netherwing cause as you soar through the skies of Outland on your very own ethereal drake.
Ogri’la
The Ogre plateau of enlightenment opens to those who prove their worth in Blade’s Edge Mountains. Level 70 players will be able to help the Ogres of Ogri’la battle invading forces and engage in new and exciting quests, such as a repeatable and ever popular bombing-run, this time using your own flying mount but with a dangerous twist! Featuring tons of new quests, the Ogri’la faction, 5-person bosses, and rare and epic items, Ogri’la is a place we’re hoping all
will aspire to enter.
Trinkets: New Darkmoon cards
You will now have the chance to find additional Darkmoon cards (Lunacy, Storms, Furies and Blessings) on high level creatures in Outlands, which you can turn in to the Darkmoon Faire to make powerful new Darkmoon card trinkets.
New Graveyards
Two new graveyards have been added to Blade's Edge Mountains.
New Flightpaths
New flight points: Felwood, Emerald Sanctuary (Both)
Ashenvale, Forest Song (Alliance)
New flight paths: Stormwind <-> Thorium Point
Grom'gol Base Camp <-> Flame Crest
Ratchet <-> Gadgetzan, Astranaar, Brackenwall Village
Brackenwall Village <-> Ratchet, Camp Taurajo, Freewind Post
Thunderbluff <-> Zoram'gar Outpost
Evergrove <-> Toshley's Station
Honor Hold <-> Shattrath
In addition, many flight paths have been adjusted to be shorter, faster flights.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Profession Changes in 2.1.0
Blizzard has been hinting at upcoming changes to the way that alchemy works in an attempt to reduce the need for consumable farming in order to best the top tier content in the World of Warcraft endgame.
Today, we have been given some insight into the details of these changes, and while some aspects seem promising, there has been much speculation that some fairly disastrous consequences will arise to nerf any positive that these changes may bring.
From this post at the official forums:
The reduction of the vial cost is a much needed change, as a standard raid night was costing between 8-20G for the vials alone, for those of us on the cutting edge of content, let alone the farming time required to craft the necessary materials.
However, the Elixir changes, while seemingly will cut down on elixir usage, will only serve to drive more guilds to demand the usage of Flasks to compensate for the lost effectiveness of their members.
For example, as an Affliction Warlock, my standard raid consumable list looks like this for every pull:
Unless Blizzard retunes the encounters to account for these profession changes, they will be inadvertently forcing us to farm more rather than less.
Today, we have been given some insight into the details of these changes, and while some aspects seem promising, there has been much speculation that some fairly disastrous consequences will arise to nerf any positive that these changes may bring.
From this post at the official forums:
Alchemy
Elixirs now stack in two categories, Battle (Offensive) and Guardian
(Defensive) Elixirs. You can only have one of each type of Elixir up at a time.
As a result Elixirs now stack with class abilities such as "Arcane Intellect."
Four new defensive elixirs have been added. Two are on trainers, one is in
Halaa and one is in Cenarion Expedition. "Flask of Petrification" can no longer
be turned off during its duration, but it now will clear all threat from all
monsters for the duration of the effect. Though monsters may reaquire you after
the effect ends.
The cost to purchase Imbued Vials has been reduced.
The reduction of the vial cost is a much needed change, as a standard raid night was costing between 8-20G for the vials alone, for those of us on the cutting edge of content, let alone the farming time required to craft the necessary materials.
However, the Elixir changes, while seemingly will cut down on elixir usage, will only serve to drive more guilds to demand the usage of Flasks to compensate for the lost effectiveness of their members.
For example, as an Affliction Warlock, my standard raid consumable list looks like this for every pull:
Elixir of Major Shadowpower
Arcane Elixir
Blackened Basilisk
10 Superior Healing Potions
5 Superior Mana Potions
On Severe DPS race events, I will add a Flask of Supreme Power into that
mix, but those events are rare, and often only during the learning phase of
those encounters.
Unless Blizzard retunes the encounters to account for these profession changes, they will be inadvertently forcing us to farm more rather than less.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Slow News Week
It has been a very slow week in the gaming world from my standpoint, and I just couldn't rustle up the will power to invent a topic to discuss, so I just left well enough alone. Last night I hit level 70 on my warrior, Sunzu, and respecc'd deep protection to begin the instancing and raiding circut.
I have never had two raid ready characters before. I've posted in the past about how I lack the Alt fever that many players feel, and that I am enjoying the off-night fun of a totally different style of play. Ranged DPS on my Warlock and Melee tanking on my warrior. It is a perfect combo, and if I leveled either my priest or druid to 70 and had a healer, I would complete the trinity.
That being said, I am approaching uncharted territory. My guild is ramping up an alt Karazhan run on off-nights, which I assume will get underway within the next few weeks, and I will be raiding basically every night either on my main or my alt. Fortunately, Cyndre is basically done with Karazhan once I obtain my T4 helm, and I can take a break on Kara nights, though I can see the guild stopping as a whole once we get serious about Serpentshrine over the next month.
I love raiding, but I also need time off from it, in order to someday horde enough gold to buy my epic flying mount... on two characters...
Well I suppose we shall see how it goes, but the versatility I have now is amazing. I am LFG in guild and, my wife being a holy priest, we can basically form any group we want on the spot. Need DPS, no problem... need a tank, fine, I'll log over... Very nice situation to be in.
I have never had two raid ready characters before. I've posted in the past about how I lack the Alt fever that many players feel, and that I am enjoying the off-night fun of a totally different style of play. Ranged DPS on my Warlock and Melee tanking on my warrior. It is a perfect combo, and if I leveled either my priest or druid to 70 and had a healer, I would complete the trinity.
That being said, I am approaching uncharted territory. My guild is ramping up an alt Karazhan run on off-nights, which I assume will get underway within the next few weeks, and I will be raiding basically every night either on my main or my alt. Fortunately, Cyndre is basically done with Karazhan once I obtain my T4 helm, and I can take a break on Kara nights, though I can see the guild stopping as a whole once we get serious about Serpentshrine over the next month.
I love raiding, but I also need time off from it, in order to someday horde enough gold to buy my epic flying mount... on two characters...
Well I suppose we shall see how it goes, but the versatility I have now is amazing. I am LFG in guild and, my wife being a holy priest, we can basically form any group we want on the spot. Need DPS, no problem... need a tank, fine, I'll log over... Very nice situation to be in.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Is the Emerald Dream Coming to WoW?
Stormgaard over at Se7en Samurai has the scoop: Apparently Blizzard has been modifying
the MPQ file that contains the Emerald Dream, which is leading folks to
believe it's probably the next planned expansion - it's a bit too big to be
considered patch content like Ahn'Qiraj, or (likely) Grim Batol and Uldum.
Head over to his site to get a sneak peak at more cool screens of these unfinsihed zones.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Did Blizzard un-ruin Melee DPS?
As a follow-up to this post about the unintended effects that certain mob abilities have had on melee DPS classes in the Burning Crusade, Blizzard has announced the following changes in internal testing for Patch 2.1.0:
This change would go a long way toward reestablishing some balance in PvE game play for melee and ranged DPS classes. Good work, Blizzard and thanks for reading my blog... /wink
The following changes to cleave have been made for the 2.1.0 patch.
--Cleaves will only hit people in front of the creature.
--Cleaves will have a chain length equal to the combat reach of the
creature.
We still don't have an exact estimate on when this patch will be ready but
development is wrapping up and the test phase should begin relatively soon. As a
reminder, the patch undergoes internal testing before public, PTR testing.
This change would go a long way toward reestablishing some balance in PvE game play for melee and ranged DPS classes. Good work, Blizzard and thanks for reading my blog... /wink
Opening the Serpentshrine Cavern
This past week has seen two guild first kills for Militiae Templi, Gruul the Dragon slayer and Nightbane. Both possess quest items needed to unlock the first Tier 5 raid dungeon, Serpentshrine Caverns.
The quest to obtain the 'key' to unlocking the raid one is obtained in a heroic mode Slave Pens. Just after the first Boss, an imprisoned NPC offers a two-click quest. This process makes the quest unsharable with others, but is relatively easy to clear to, and posed no problems for our seasoned guild ranks as we prepared for our eventual kills on the end-zone raid bosses.
This week saw those two bosses fall, and many of us were present to loot the Blazing Signet and the Earthen Signet, and complete the chain to become attuned.
What mysteries await us in the lair of Lady Vashj, queen of the Naga?
The quest to obtain the 'key' to unlocking the raid one is obtained in a heroic mode Slave Pens. Just after the first Boss, an imprisoned NPC offers a two-click quest. This process makes the quest unsharable with others, but is relatively easy to clear to, and posed no problems for our seasoned guild ranks as we prepared for our eventual kills on the end-zone raid bosses.
This week saw those two bosses fall, and many of us were present to loot the Blazing Signet and the Earthen Signet, and complete the chain to become attuned.
What mysteries await us in the lair of Lady Vashj, queen of the Naga?
Gruul's Lair: pt. II
Last night, Militiae Templi ventured forth into the lair of the dread Gronn-lord, Gruul the Dragon slayer, and put the beast in his place. Despite our many attempts in recent weeks, we simply could not win the DPS war against this abomination, and though we had learned the mechanics of Shatter and were staying alive, his enrage damage boosts would eventually put him in a position to one shot our tanks before we could extinguish his life.
Apparently we were not alone, so in response to an overwhelming belief that the encounter was far too difficult for all but the most successful Uberguilds, Blizzard retuned the fight and many guilds found success where only failure had wallowed.
Gruul is a long encounter due to his extraordinary amount of hit points. Prior to the nerf, I think he was in the 4-5 million range, though that received a significant reduction during the hotfix this past week. In order to challenge the beast successfully, you will need to understand and master a few important details about this fight.
Gruul enrages periodically which boosts his attack speed and DPS. It was not uncommon to have him hitting for over 8000 damage on the main tank by the end of the fight and our DPS was firing hard. This makes it critically important to avoid unnecessary deaths because if too many of your DPS fall victim to the various periodic damage or your healers die, you will simply not have the gas to take him out before he becomes a tank killer.
Quite frequently, Gruul will knock the ceiling causing a Cave In, which is an AOE damage effect, that can easily be run out of. If you pay attention and move quickly, you will never lose a player to this effect, and if you see someone die, be sure to berate them for lack of situational awareness. You simply can not afford to lose anyone to this effect.
Next is the most difficult ability to learn. Ground Stomp sends every member of your raid flying through the air in a random direction. You must then space out quickly, before the Gronn-Lords Grasp immobilizes you in place, and you Shatter, causing damage to yourself and anyone within 20 yards of your location. If 3-4 people are grouped together, they will all kill each other and you might as well call it a failed attempt. If only 2 people are within range, you should take less than 5000 damage and can fight on.
Gruul also will silence the raid, and we found that this was a frequent time for tank deaths, so be sure to keep HoTs stacked on your main tank and off tank throughout the fight.
Tanking Gruul is a difficult task and requires two tanks with plenty of damage mitigation and tons of health. Your main tank will take nearly all of the attacks, but Gruul will switch to his second highest melee threat every once in a while and Hurtful Strike for 12-15000 damage. If your second highest threat player is not a protection warrior or feral druid, they are surely dead. Our guild has the Hunters cast Misdirection to the two tanks throughout the fight, every time the cool down is up, to boost their threat position against Gruul.
All in all, the fight has become quite manageable and he went down after a few short tries.
Apparently we were not alone, so in response to an overwhelming belief that the encounter was far too difficult for all but the most successful Uberguilds, Blizzard retuned the fight and many guilds found success where only failure had wallowed.
Gruul is a long encounter due to his extraordinary amount of hit points. Prior to the nerf, I think he was in the 4-5 million range, though that received a significant reduction during the hotfix this past week. In order to challenge the beast successfully, you will need to understand and master a few important details about this fight.
Gruul enrages periodically which boosts his attack speed and DPS. It was not uncommon to have him hitting for over 8000 damage on the main tank by the end of the fight and our DPS was firing hard. This makes it critically important to avoid unnecessary deaths because if too many of your DPS fall victim to the various periodic damage or your healers die, you will simply not have the gas to take him out before he becomes a tank killer.
Quite frequently, Gruul will knock the ceiling causing a Cave In, which is an AOE damage effect, that can easily be run out of. If you pay attention and move quickly, you will never lose a player to this effect, and if you see someone die, be sure to berate them for lack of situational awareness. You simply can not afford to lose anyone to this effect.
Next is the most difficult ability to learn. Ground Stomp sends every member of your raid flying through the air in a random direction. You must then space out quickly, before the Gronn-Lords Grasp immobilizes you in place, and you Shatter, causing damage to yourself and anyone within 20 yards of your location. If 3-4 people are grouped together, they will all kill each other and you might as well call it a failed attempt. If only 2 people are within range, you should take less than 5000 damage and can fight on.
Gruul also will silence the raid, and we found that this was a frequent time for tank deaths, so be sure to keep HoTs stacked on your main tank and off tank throughout the fight.
Tanking Gruul is a difficult task and requires two tanks with plenty of damage mitigation and tons of health. Your main tank will take nearly all of the attacks, but Gruul will switch to his second highest melee threat every once in a while and Hurtful Strike for 12-15000 damage. If your second highest threat player is not a protection warrior or feral druid, they are surely dead. Our guild has the Hunters cast Misdirection to the two tanks throughout the fight, every time the cool down is up, to boost their threat position against Gruul.
All in all, the fight has become quite manageable and he went down after a few short tries.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Jewelcrafting Resources
- I have recently been directed to this site. I would consider it the most useful Jewelcrafting and Cut Gem database currently on the Internet. A must-see for all Jewelcrafters and adventurers looking to optimize their gear.
- Tobold has a great write-up on the cash cow that Jewelcrafting has become for him. I was skeptical at first, but since reading the write-up I have refrained from selling my Adamantite Ore and last night I built up the nerve to take the gamble, and more than doubled my potential profits.
- Tired of whispering guildmates for which gem recipes they have, or worse, having them whisper you? You need this UI mod, GemHelper, and your troubles are over. You simply whisper a gem type, color or stat and the mod responds with a list of available recipes that the crafter knows. (example: /w Cyndre !gem Blood Garnet)
Monday, March 19, 2007
Did Blizzard ruin melee DPS?
There has been a lot of talk in recent weeks about the declining role of melee DPS classes and specs in the new tBC PvE environment. Top tier dungeons, heroics and the raid zones have such specific demands for crowd control, tanking and healing, that it has become necessary to pick and choose the class balance and more and more, guilds and groups are opting for DPS classes that can play multiple roles and still turn on the heat when the need arises.
Add to that, the apparent implementation of cleave, short range AOE, and other mob abilities that make it almost impossible for a Rogue, Catform Druid or DPS Warrior to stay in range and keep up with Warlocks, Hunters and Mages on the damage meters. So if the classes simply can not produce the same DPS as a ranged class, offer less raid viability and crowd control options, why would anyone want to fill spots with them?
Last night in Gruul's Lair, the top five spots on our guild's damage meters during our High King Maulgar kill were: 1) Affliction Warlock 2) Destruction Warlock 3) Shadow Priest 4) Marks Hunter 5) Marks Hunter...
The two Warlocks (myself and Sendrak, respectively) died with close to a minute left in the fight and still ended with close to 50,000 more damage than the #3 spot. Sendrak tanked one of the adds (Olm the Summoner), providing massive raid utility, and I was debuffing every mob with Shadow Embrace and Curse of Shadows, also providing utility over pure damage.
To me, the above two paragraphs imply a broken mechanic in the PvE realm. In fact, it has become so widely recognized, that top tier guilds have painted the strategy for the cleanest boss kills in Outlands as requiring two tanks, four tank healers (one of each healer class for raid buffs), five shadow priests, five affliction warlocks, and eleven destruction or SM/ruin warlocks. Any time that taking sixteen of one class to a twenty-five man raid is optimal, then mechanics and balance are currently major game issues.
Guildmates of mine mentioned last night that Blizzard has acknowledged the close range mob ability issue, however despite my searches, I can not locate a Blue response to this issue. In looking beyond the raid content currently available to most guilds, the disheartening fact remains abundantly clear... unless Blizzard makes significant changes to melee classes or to mob abilities, this problem will only continue to grow, rather than decline. As ranged classes gain greater and greater utility and mob cleaves grow in power and effectiveness, this divide will grow more pronounced and the spaces in raids for those effected class types will continue to dwindle.
Militiae Templi has a very skilled Rogue core, and we have one exceptional DPS warrior who continue to compete despite the challenges that they face. As a guild who values skill and commitment, they will always have a home, however we are not the norm for hardcore raid guilds, and the min/maxing guild officers are going to be seeing this trend and eliminating the less useful players and classes.
What steps must Blizzard take to fix these unintended mechanics? Retuning mob abilities is one step, or reworking class abilities to grant more viability in close combat with AOEs or Cleaves is really the only solutions. Do you see this trend or have suggestions on how to correct it?
Add to that, the apparent implementation of cleave, short range AOE, and other mob abilities that make it almost impossible for a Rogue, Catform Druid or DPS Warrior to stay in range and keep up with Warlocks, Hunters and Mages on the damage meters. So if the classes simply can not produce the same DPS as a ranged class, offer less raid viability and crowd control options, why would anyone want to fill spots with them?
Last night in Gruul's Lair, the top five spots on our guild's damage meters during our High King Maulgar kill were: 1) Affliction Warlock 2) Destruction Warlock 3) Shadow Priest 4) Marks Hunter 5) Marks Hunter...
The two Warlocks (myself and Sendrak, respectively) died with close to a minute left in the fight and still ended with close to 50,000 more damage than the #3 spot. Sendrak tanked one of the adds (Olm the Summoner), providing massive raid utility, and I was debuffing every mob with Shadow Embrace and Curse of Shadows, also providing utility over pure damage.
To me, the above two paragraphs imply a broken mechanic in the PvE realm. In fact, it has become so widely recognized, that top tier guilds have painted the strategy for the cleanest boss kills in Outlands as requiring two tanks, four tank healers (one of each healer class for raid buffs), five shadow priests, five affliction warlocks, and eleven destruction or SM/ruin warlocks. Any time that taking sixteen of one class to a twenty-five man raid is optimal, then mechanics and balance are currently major game issues.
Guildmates of mine mentioned last night that Blizzard has acknowledged the close range mob ability issue, however despite my searches, I can not locate a Blue response to this issue. In looking beyond the raid content currently available to most guilds, the disheartening fact remains abundantly clear... unless Blizzard makes significant changes to melee classes or to mob abilities, this problem will only continue to grow, rather than decline. As ranged classes gain greater and greater utility and mob cleaves grow in power and effectiveness, this divide will grow more pronounced and the spaces in raids for those effected class types will continue to dwindle.
Militiae Templi has a very skilled Rogue core, and we have one exceptional DPS warrior who continue to compete despite the challenges that they face. As a guild who values skill and commitment, they will always have a home, however we are not the norm for hardcore raid guilds, and the min/maxing guild officers are going to be seeing this trend and eliminating the less useful players and classes.
What steps must Blizzard take to fix these unintended mechanics? Retuning mob abilities is one step, or reworking class abilities to grant more viability in close combat with AOEs or Cleaves is really the only solutions. Do you see this trend or have suggestions on how to correct it?
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Torn Asunder... in a good way
I have always been a one avatar kind of guy. In my EverQuest days I tried to level alts but most often found myself either switching game play entirely or neglecting to spend the kind of grind time necessary to progress the character to a point where the investment was worthwhile. When Warcraft was released, I rolled a warlock on the first day, and then did not play another class until my wife joined the game, and I rolled a warrior to level beside her. As soon as she hit 50, I switched back to my warlock and helped her to 60, thus letting my warrior Sunzu, languish in his early 50s for about eighteen months.
Contrast that to a member of my guild who had a level 60 of every available class at the time, and you are looking at one very focused player. I play a lot, and my /played on Cyndre is a bit outrageous, but its what I enjoy, and I never saw a reason not to play that way before.
Until now that is. When raiding tapered off in the calm before tBC storm, I switched to Sunzu to farm and to finish his last few levels. He dinged 60 in Outlands on the second day of release, while Cyndre was stuck in a crashed Blood Furnace instance. As soon as Cyndre reached 70 and finished the Karazhan key, I began to level Sunzu.
Currently I am splitting time rather well between the two characters and enjoying it immensely, something I have not previously been very adept at doing. Sunzu is almost 67, Cyndre continues to round out his reps, gather epics and rares and certainly raid at every possible juncture. Now to add to the multiple personality disorder I am developing, my wife and I are starting to level some Draeni alts. She has started a Shaman and is 22, and I have begun a Priest who is a mighty level 11.
I can't help but think this is a very good thing. If anything, I have an overabundance of items on my virtual 'TO DO' list, and while I often wish I was on the other one, I seem to have developed the perfect anti-burnout strategy.
So the question to you, my readers, is do you weight your time in favor of a 'main' or do you prefer to alt it up? Taken to the next level, would two MMOs played simultaneous be possible or is that taking this too far?
Contrast that to a member of my guild who had a level 60 of every available class at the time, and you are looking at one very focused player. I play a lot, and my /played on Cyndre is a bit outrageous, but its what I enjoy, and I never saw a reason not to play that way before.
Until now that is. When raiding tapered off in the calm before tBC storm, I switched to Sunzu to farm and to finish his last few levels. He dinged 60 in Outlands on the second day of release, while Cyndre was stuck in a crashed Blood Furnace instance. As soon as Cyndre reached 70 and finished the Karazhan key, I began to level Sunzu.
Currently I am splitting time rather well between the two characters and enjoying it immensely, something I have not previously been very adept at doing. Sunzu is almost 67, Cyndre continues to round out his reps, gather epics and rares and certainly raid at every possible juncture. Now to add to the multiple personality disorder I am developing, my wife and I are starting to level some Draeni alts. She has started a Shaman and is 22, and I have begun a Priest who is a mighty level 11.
I can't help but think this is a very good thing. If anything, I have an overabundance of items on my virtual 'TO DO' list, and while I often wish I was on the other one, I seem to have developed the perfect anti-burnout strategy.
So the question to you, my readers, is do you weight your time in favor of a 'main' or do you prefer to alt it up? Taken to the next level, would two MMOs played simultaneous be possible or is that taking this too far?
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Heroic Mode Dungeons
As players reach level 70 and begin to work on their Karazhan attunement, run Dungeon 3 instances and begin to gather the gear set that will carry them through Tier 4 and Tier 5, they will begin to consider playing the five man instances of the Burning Crusade on Heroic mode. Much like in games of yore when we beat our favorite game and then proceeded to replay it on god mode for extra bragging rights, Blizzard has introduced a game mechanic that makes dungeon re playability sensible and valuable for the average player.
Heroic mode dungeons require reputation based keys from each of the five Dungeon 3 factions. Revered with Honor Hold is required for the Hellfire Citadel key, Cenarion Expedition for the Coilfang Reservoir key, Lower City for the Auchindoun key, Shattar for the Tempest Keep key and finally Keepers of Time for the Caverns of Time key.
Once you reach Revered with a given faction, you can purchase the Heroic key from the faction Quartermaster, and the group leader may then select dungeon difficulty in the group options tab on his picture tool tip. So why run Slave Pens on hard mode, you ask? Well, the answer is gear, fun, and relevant quests.
Thus far I have seen the vast majority of epic loot available in Karazhan and from the first boss Maulgar in Gruul's Lair, and I can attest that many Heroic rare and epic grade items are superior to the raid sets available currently. Blizzard has stated that they will be looking at these sets to provide a much needed buff, but until that time, the smart player is learning Heroics and gathering the best loot possible.
Difficulty is scaled dramatically. Five decently geared level 70 players entering non-Heroic Slave Pens would have very little trouble plowing through the instance, however Heroic Slave Pens requires precise actions, focus and a well skilled and reactive team. Balance, crowd control and constant vigilance is essential as every mob can one shot a healer or DPS and healing the tank is a constant strain on mana and timing efficiency.
The concept introduced by Blizzard is truly exceptional. They have created an avenue that normal players can find raid quality gear with just their local group of friends. Raid guilds can continue to improve their players and gear during off-nights or when all available content has been cleared, and feel as though their time is put to good use. Dungeon re playability has long been an issue for MMOs and this has made huge strides towards rectifying those problems.
I look forward to the day when I can attempt a Heroic Black Morass... O.o
Heroic mode dungeons require reputation based keys from each of the five Dungeon 3 factions. Revered with Honor Hold is required for the Hellfire Citadel key, Cenarion Expedition for the Coilfang Reservoir key, Lower City for the Auchindoun key, Shattar for the Tempest Keep key and finally Keepers of Time for the Caverns of Time key.
Once you reach Revered with a given faction, you can purchase the Heroic key from the faction Quartermaster, and the group leader may then select dungeon difficulty in the group options tab on his picture tool tip. So why run Slave Pens on hard mode, you ask? Well, the answer is gear, fun, and relevant quests.
Thus far I have seen the vast majority of epic loot available in Karazhan and from the first boss Maulgar in Gruul's Lair, and I can attest that many Heroic rare and epic grade items are superior to the raid sets available currently. Blizzard has stated that they will be looking at these sets to provide a much needed buff, but until that time, the smart player is learning Heroics and gathering the best loot possible.
Difficulty is scaled dramatically. Five decently geared level 70 players entering non-Heroic Slave Pens would have very little trouble plowing through the instance, however Heroic Slave Pens requires precise actions, focus and a well skilled and reactive team. Balance, crowd control and constant vigilance is essential as every mob can one shot a healer or DPS and healing the tank is a constant strain on mana and timing efficiency.
The concept introduced by Blizzard is truly exceptional. They have created an avenue that normal players can find raid quality gear with just their local group of friends. Raid guilds can continue to improve their players and gear during off-nights or when all available content has been cleared, and feel as though their time is put to good use. Dungeon re playability has long been an issue for MMOs and this has made huge strides towards rectifying those problems.
I look forward to the day when I can attempt a Heroic Black Morass... O.o
Monday, February 26, 2007
Times they are a changin
An actual Trinty undergraduate course:
COMM 3344: Games for the web (Interactive multimedia)Spring 2005Dr. Aaron Delwiche (a delwich @ trinity.edu)
Course meeting times: T + TH 2:10 - 3:25 (RCC 400 /402)Office Hours: M + F 10:30-1:30T + TH 9:30 - 11:30Office: Laurie 363Phone: 999-8153
Course description
A staple of nerd subculture for almost three decades, role-playing games have taken on new life in the era of networked computing. High-speed connections, sophisticated graphics and powerful microprocessors have paved the way for massively multiplayer games (MMOs) such as City of Heroes, Star Wars Galaxies, and Second Life.
The popularity of these virtual environments is staggering. At any given moment, at least 90,000 players are interacting with one another in Norrath -- the fictional world of Everquest. With game characters and virtual objects fetching thousands of dollars on eBay, sweat shops have been set up in developing nations to service this micro-economy (Dibbell, 2003). According to one recent study, the world of Everquest is the 77th richest “nation” on the planet with a per-capita GNP that outstrips China and India (Castranova, 2002).
In recent months, we have seen the emergence of second generation MMOs characterized by stunning visuals, improved artificial intelligence, and game dynamics that appeal to a broader variety of playing styles. One of these games, World of Warcraft, sold 250,000 copies in November 2004. It was the most successful PC game launch in history, outstripping the sales of Halo 2, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Half-Life 2.Of course, MMOs are just one subset of a much larger videogame industry. From home gaming consoles to arcade-based machines, gamers are confronted with a staggering array of choices. As more individuals turn to interactive media for entertainment, television and film audiences are dwindling. In 1999, “total videogame software and hardware sales in the U.S. reached $8.9 billion, versus $7.3 billion for movie box-office receipts” (Poole, 2000, p. 6). Clearly, videogames are here to stay.
In this course, we will conduct an ethnographic study of the behaviors, cultural practices, and motivations of MMO gamers. Along the way, we will play and critically analyze a variety of videogames. In addition to exploring game mechanics and video-game aesthetics, we will investigate sociological and psychological dimensions of virtual worlds as well as social controversies surrounding game violence and gender representations.
We have three objectives:
1. to explore themes of cyberculture studies through sustained interaction with other residents of World of Warcraft
2. to understand the behaviors, cultural practices, and motivations of MMO players through the use of ethnographic methods
3. to develop a critical vocabulary for analyzing all types of videogames
Prior technical and gaming experience is not required for this course. Course requirements and materials
Readings will be drawn from the course packet and from two assigned texts.
Communication 3344-1: Games for the web
Richard Bartle (2003) Designing virtual worlds. Berkeley: New Riders Games.
Vernor Vinge and James Frenkel (2001) True names: And the opening of the cyberspace frontier. New York: Tor Books.
World of Warcraft game software ($45)
World of Warcraft monthly subscription ($15/month. First month is free.)
The course packet, which costs $___, is available at Kinko’s Paw Prints on the third floor of Coates Library. You are responsible for all assigned readings, even if they are not addressed during class.
Throughout the semester, we will spend a significant amount of time in World of Warcraft. This virtual world is an ideal location for studying on-line gamers, cyberculture, and videogame aesthetics. A significant amount of class time will be spent in the game-world, but you are also expected to devote at least five hours a week to ethnographic research within World of Warcraft. To ensure that everyone spends enough time in the virtual world, two group gaming sessions will be held between 6:30 and 9:00 on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. You are expected to attend at least one of these sessions each week.
You are welcome to play the game on the lab computers when other classes are not using the facilities, and you may also be able to install the game on your personal system. If you want to install the game on your home system, it must meet basic system requirements.
If your computer is more than two years old, your graphics card may not be capable of rendering this three-dimensional environment. If this is the case, you will have to access the game via the lab machines.
COMM 3344: Games for the web (Interactive multimedia)Spring 2005Dr. Aaron Delwiche (a delwich @ trinity.edu)
Course meeting times: T + TH 2:10 - 3:25 (RCC 400 /402)Office Hours: M + F 10:30-1:30T + TH 9:30 - 11:30Office: Laurie 363Phone: 999-8153
Course description
A staple of nerd subculture for almost three decades, role-playing games have taken on new life in the era of networked computing. High-speed connections, sophisticated graphics and powerful microprocessors have paved the way for massively multiplayer games (MMOs) such as City of Heroes, Star Wars Galaxies, and Second Life.
The popularity of these virtual environments is staggering. At any given moment, at least 90,000 players are interacting with one another in Norrath -- the fictional world of Everquest. With game characters and virtual objects fetching thousands of dollars on eBay, sweat shops have been set up in developing nations to service this micro-economy (Dibbell, 2003). According to one recent study, the world of Everquest is the 77th richest “nation” on the planet with a per-capita GNP that outstrips China and India (Castranova, 2002).
In recent months, we have seen the emergence of second generation MMOs characterized by stunning visuals, improved artificial intelligence, and game dynamics that appeal to a broader variety of playing styles. One of these games, World of Warcraft, sold 250,000 copies in November 2004. It was the most successful PC game launch in history, outstripping the sales of Halo 2, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Half-Life 2.Of course, MMOs are just one subset of a much larger videogame industry. From home gaming consoles to arcade-based machines, gamers are confronted with a staggering array of choices. As more individuals turn to interactive media for entertainment, television and film audiences are dwindling. In 1999, “total videogame software and hardware sales in the U.S. reached $8.9 billion, versus $7.3 billion for movie box-office receipts” (Poole, 2000, p. 6). Clearly, videogames are here to stay.
In this course, we will conduct an ethnographic study of the behaviors, cultural practices, and motivations of MMO gamers. Along the way, we will play and critically analyze a variety of videogames. In addition to exploring game mechanics and video-game aesthetics, we will investigate sociological and psychological dimensions of virtual worlds as well as social controversies surrounding game violence and gender representations.
We have three objectives:
1. to explore themes of cyberculture studies through sustained interaction with other residents of World of Warcraft
2. to understand the behaviors, cultural practices, and motivations of MMO players through the use of ethnographic methods
3. to develop a critical vocabulary for analyzing all types of videogames
Prior technical and gaming experience is not required for this course. Course requirements and materials
Readings will be drawn from the course packet and from two assigned texts.
Communication 3344-1: Games for the web
Richard Bartle (2003) Designing virtual worlds. Berkeley: New Riders Games.
Vernor Vinge and James Frenkel (2001) True names: And the opening of the cyberspace frontier. New York: Tor Books.
World of Warcraft game software ($45)
World of Warcraft monthly subscription ($15/month. First month is free.)
The course packet, which costs $___, is available at Kinko’s Paw Prints on the third floor of Coates Library. You are responsible for all assigned readings, even if they are not addressed during class.
Throughout the semester, we will spend a significant amount of time in World of Warcraft. This virtual world is an ideal location for studying on-line gamers, cyberculture, and videogame aesthetics. A significant amount of class time will be spent in the game-world, but you are also expected to devote at least five hours a week to ethnographic research within World of Warcraft. To ensure that everyone spends enough time in the virtual world, two group gaming sessions will be held between 6:30 and 9:00 on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. You are expected to attend at least one of these sessions each week.
You are welcome to play the game on the lab computers when other classes are not using the facilities, and you may also be able to install the game on your personal system. If you want to install the game on your home system, it must meet basic system requirements.
If your computer is more than two years old, your graphics card may not be capable of rendering this three-dimensional environment. If this is the case, you will have to access the game via the lab machines.
Finding Meaning in Azeroth
This list, Seven Things I Learned From World of Warcraft, is really awesome. You should take a minute to check it out.
Thank you to Life in Azeroth for the link.
Thank you to Life in Azeroth for the link.
Gruul's Lair
Militiae Templi ventured into the first of The Burning Crusade 25-man raid instances last night for the first time. This instance is quite small, having only two bosses and a handful of trash pulls in the entire zone. We spent about 3 hours wiping to the fight to sort out the sorted details, then potioned up and walked away with some shiny epics.
Located in the northern reaches of The Blades Edge Mountains, Gruul's Lair is home to the evil Gronn, Gruul the Dragonslayer and his terrible legion of Ogre minions. The first of the two boss encounters in the instance, pits your raid against High King Maulgar, lord of the ogres, and his four advisers.
The advisers are:
Blindeye the Seer - Blindeye is a priest. He has two basic abilities, an AOE heal that must be interrupted by kicks, pummels etc., and a Power Word: Shield that must be DPSd through in order to interrupt his next heal.
Olm the Summoner - Olm is a warlock. Olm summons a Felhunter that is enslaveable. He casts deathcoil, and an AOE shadow DoT.
Kiggler the Crazed - Kiggler is a shaman. He uses a high damage lightning bolt, has insane melee DPS, an ability Arcane Shock which does damage, disarms and causes aggro reductions, and periodically polymorphs his highest threat target.
Krosh Firehand - Krosh is a mage. He casts a magic shield that reduces magic damage he takes by 75%. It can be spell stolen by a mage. He repeatedly casts a Fireball that deals 9000 dmg per hit, as well as an AOE fire nova centered on him that does massive damage.
This event requires precise positioning and some very specific mechanics for success. Prior to the pull, a group consisting of a Moonkin druid, healers and a hunter for Nature Aura move along the back wall to the far side of the cave, opposite Kiggler. Moonkin is the best shaman tank, as they can tank from range with spells and in form are immune to the polymorph.
Position your Main Tank in the center of the back wall. For this fight we used a feral druid to tank Maulgar, due to his high health and armor, and the spike damage caused by Maulgar is easier to withstand and heal through when your tank has 20,700 hit points.
A mage will need to tank Krosh on the right side of the raid, just below the small ledge. The mage pulls with an AP fireball and then immediately spell steals Krosh's mage shield thus reducing those fireballs from 9000 dmg to only 2250 dmg. They must have 10,000 health at a minimum, because not every fireball will be eaten by a shield, so be prepared to eat a few. Elyane, our mage, used a macro that announced to his healers "NO SHIELD, Prepare for 9000 damage!"
A warlock will be the primary tank for Olm, though you will need a warrior or bear tank to manage him at times. Olm summons a Felhunter that must be enslaved then used to tank Olm. It can Spell Lock his AOE shadow effect, resists the death coil, and takes the add out of the fight. The Felhunter will die before a new one is summoned, so your Off-Tank should be building aggro and be prepared to tank for a bit while the warlock gets the next add in position.
Maulgar is a warrior, that does massive damage, and periodically whirlwinds. He hit me for over 19,000 damage (on cloth) with a ill timed crit. Tank him against the wall, exactly where the druid or warrior set up for the pull.
The pull is the most challenging part of the event. It was chaotic and took many tries to sort out the mess to a point where our DPS could go to work in any meaningful fashion. We had our mage tank and our warlock inch up to range, and had hunters use misdirection/ aimed shot on Kiggler, Maulgar, Blindeye and Olm to their respective tanks. (Send Olm to the Off-Tank warrior, not the warlock.)
DPS goes all out immediately on Blindeye. When he dies, DPS switches to Olm and once again, goes all out. After Olm goes down, your assigned healers for those groups, should divide between your mage tank and your Main Tank, in order to further mitigate the spike damage and any unexpected events. Have a second mage building aggro on Krosh in case an untimely fireball kills your primary tank.
DPS runs around Maulgar to the far side of the cave and begins to DPS Kiggler from range. Do not melee at all, as he will own your melee and it will mess up his aggro. Have your melee run around and bandage everyone in the raid, while your DPS goes all out. After Kiggler dies, move back to Krosh, staying out of range of his Fire Nova. Same as with Kiggler, no melee DPS.
When all of the council are dead, move to Maulgar. It is important to have melee run out of range prior to the Whirlwind. Play it safe here and limit melee access to 25 seconds, as he will decimate your raid if you mistime this. DPS him hard until 50% at which time he enrages, gaining Flurry, Intimidating Shout and a random Intercept. Fear Ward if you have it, Tremor Totem, to break the fear, or have an Off-Tank positioned outside fear range and taunt him as soon as the fear goes off, to drag him out of your raid. Create a semi circle around him so that his charges do not send him into the entire raid. He would charge then Whirlwind at times last night, and it was nice to only lose 2-3 people instead of 15.
Maulgar take a bit of time to kill, but with careful aggro management and patience with your melee exposure, he is quite easy once learned. Finish him off and collect your Tier 4 shoulders and some other shiny objects.
Located in the northern reaches of The Blades Edge Mountains, Gruul's Lair is home to the evil Gronn, Gruul the Dragonslayer and his terrible legion of Ogre minions. The first of the two boss encounters in the instance, pits your raid against High King Maulgar, lord of the ogres, and his four advisers.
The advisers are:
Blindeye the Seer - Blindeye is a priest. He has two basic abilities, an AOE heal that must be interrupted by kicks, pummels etc., and a Power Word: Shield that must be DPSd through in order to interrupt his next heal.
Olm the Summoner - Olm is a warlock. Olm summons a Felhunter that is enslaveable. He casts deathcoil, and an AOE shadow DoT.
Kiggler the Crazed - Kiggler is a shaman. He uses a high damage lightning bolt, has insane melee DPS, an ability Arcane Shock which does damage, disarms and causes aggro reductions, and periodically polymorphs his highest threat target.
Krosh Firehand - Krosh is a mage. He casts a magic shield that reduces magic damage he takes by 75%. It can be spell stolen by a mage. He repeatedly casts a Fireball that deals 9000 dmg per hit, as well as an AOE fire nova centered on him that does massive damage.
This event requires precise positioning and some very specific mechanics for success. Prior to the pull, a group consisting of a Moonkin druid, healers and a hunter for Nature Aura move along the back wall to the far side of the cave, opposite Kiggler. Moonkin is the best shaman tank, as they can tank from range with spells and in form are immune to the polymorph.
Position your Main Tank in the center of the back wall. For this fight we used a feral druid to tank Maulgar, due to his high health and armor, and the spike damage caused by Maulgar is easier to withstand and heal through when your tank has 20,700 hit points.
A mage will need to tank Krosh on the right side of the raid, just below the small ledge. The mage pulls with an AP fireball and then immediately spell steals Krosh's mage shield thus reducing those fireballs from 9000 dmg to only 2250 dmg. They must have 10,000 health at a minimum, because not every fireball will be eaten by a shield, so be prepared to eat a few. Elyane, our mage, used a macro that announced to his healers "NO SHIELD, Prepare for 9000 damage!"
A warlock will be the primary tank for Olm, though you will need a warrior or bear tank to manage him at times. Olm summons a Felhunter that must be enslaved then used to tank Olm. It can Spell Lock his AOE shadow effect, resists the death coil, and takes the add out of the fight. The Felhunter will die before a new one is summoned, so your Off-Tank should be building aggro and be prepared to tank for a bit while the warlock gets the next add in position.
Maulgar is a warrior, that does massive damage, and periodically whirlwinds. He hit me for over 19,000 damage (on cloth) with a ill timed crit. Tank him against the wall, exactly where the druid or warrior set up for the pull.
The pull is the most challenging part of the event. It was chaotic and took many tries to sort out the mess to a point where our DPS could go to work in any meaningful fashion. We had our mage tank and our warlock inch up to range, and had hunters use misdirection/ aimed shot on Kiggler, Maulgar, Blindeye and Olm to their respective tanks. (Send Olm to the Off-Tank warrior, not the warlock.)
DPS goes all out immediately on Blindeye. When he dies, DPS switches to Olm and once again, goes all out. After Olm goes down, your assigned healers for those groups, should divide between your mage tank and your Main Tank, in order to further mitigate the spike damage and any unexpected events. Have a second mage building aggro on Krosh in case an untimely fireball kills your primary tank.
DPS runs around Maulgar to the far side of the cave and begins to DPS Kiggler from range. Do not melee at all, as he will own your melee and it will mess up his aggro. Have your melee run around and bandage everyone in the raid, while your DPS goes all out. After Kiggler dies, move back to Krosh, staying out of range of his Fire Nova. Same as with Kiggler, no melee DPS.
When all of the council are dead, move to Maulgar. It is important to have melee run out of range prior to the Whirlwind. Play it safe here and limit melee access to 25 seconds, as he will decimate your raid if you mistime this. DPS him hard until 50% at which time he enrages, gaining Flurry, Intimidating Shout and a random Intercept. Fear Ward if you have it, Tremor Totem, to break the fear, or have an Off-Tank positioned outside fear range and taunt him as soon as the fear goes off, to drag him out of your raid. Create a semi circle around him so that his charges do not send him into the entire raid. He would charge then Whirlwind at times last night, and it was nice to only lose 2-3 people instead of 15.
Maulgar take a bit of time to kill, but with careful aggro management and patience with your melee exposure, he is quite easy once learned. Finish him off and collect your Tier 4 shoulders and some other shiny objects.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Karazhan pt. II
Continued from this post.
Now that Moroes is dead, move back to the stairs position that you used for the first AOE packs and begin to clear the Ballroom to your right. Once again, you do not need to clear this entire room, simply take care of the roving patrols and the packs in the center and right of the room, and work your way around the outside-right of the Ballroom, to the stairs on that corner.
At the top of the stairs you will find more packs similar to those in the Ballroom, and you will see the option to head straight across to the Opera House or take a right half-way across the room. Clear this entire area, as you will need to do so eventually, and they will no longer respawn, as they are tied to Moroes, who is now deceased.
The path you are taking, is a short jaunt into the Guest's Quarters, your quest objective and ultimately the Maiden of Virtue, who has an unbelievably good loot table. These packs are a bit different than what you have seen thus far, and require some precision. There are two different packs, one Spectral Guardsman, are straightforward tank 'n spank mobs, that summon hound adds during combat. The hounds simply respawn after killed so just get the guards down then worry about them. The second pack consists of three different types of female mobs. Concubines have an AOE seduce, and are actually demons, thus can be Banished by your warlock. The other two have a variety of nasty AOE damage, dots and debuffs, so Shackle, Ice trap and DPS hard.
In the room flanked by the two large lion statues, on the table in front of the bed, lies the quest item that you require. Pull the three packs of female mobs, grab your book and move on to Maiden. If you are having trouble initially, you might consider getting Maiden out of the way first, because you are on a one hour respawn timer which will stop once she dies.
The Maiden of Virtue has four basic abilities, that create a very difficult fight. The first is an AOE holy damage aura that strikes anyone in melee range and extend close to the edge of her dais. This will have to be healed through and does not pose a great deal of trouble for the raid. The second is a chain lightning effect that will do massive damage if people are near one another. You are going to want no more than three people in melee, maybe four if they are perfectly spread out, or you will all get hit every time this is cast.
The third and easiest ability to counter, is Holy Fire. This is a single target direct damage spell that applies a DoT that ticks for over 1000 damage per tick. After much testing we have determined that this ability is cast upon the target closest to Maiden, but outside of her holy aura. Unlike the priest spell of the same name, this is fire damage, not holy damage, and can be cleansed. Thus, pick a Holy Fire 'tank' equipped with some fire resist, position them closest to Maiden and have them eat the fire. A good choice is a paladin, because they can cleanse themselves and heal or bubble is things go awry.
The final ability is truly a pain in the ass. Repentance causes a ten second stun upon every member of the raid. Zerk rage can break it, periodic damage can break it and bear form druids are often immune though not consistently so. Free action potions are reported to work as well, though we have not had sufficient opportunity to say for sure. Basically eat repentance, have your warrior stance dance before it hits and hope for the best.
On to the Opera House.
The trash leading up to the Opera event is some of the nastiest pulls in the instance. Skeletal Ushers hit very, very hard, and will essentially one-shot everyone but your tanks. They also have an Ice Block ability that freezes your tanks and resets his aggro. The strategy to deal with these guys requires three tanks in most cases, two building aggro individually and one building aggro on both, so that when they drop the tank, they leash to the third tank. Have your DPS hold until after the first tank transition, then burn these guys down as fast as possible fore another ice block.
Past those pulls are a few AOE packs, but most can be avoided by hugging the right wall and moving to the orchestra pit and up to the backstage area. In the backstage area, Spectral Performers and Stage hand can be pulled, and aside from one annoying ability they are quite easy. They explode when they die with a witty ability called 'Curtain Call.'
The Opera event is triggered by talking to the Stage Manager, who then proceeds to walk onto the stage and announce the upcoming performance. To this point you will be unsure of what you are facing, as this can be any of three different events, Romulo and Julienne, the Wizard of Oz, or the Big Bad Wolf. Each of the three have different strategies and loot tables.
Romulo & Julienne
The fight begins with Julienne on stage. She self buffs with Devotion which makes her spells cast much faster. This can be spell-stealed by a mage, or Devoured by a warlock Felhunter. She casts a self-heal that must be interrupted by kick, pummel, shield slam, Felhunter spell lock or mage counterspell. Sort out a rotation and she is a piece of cake. When she dies, Romulo spawns and duel wields poisoned rapiers. He casts a self buff, called Daring, that greatly increases his attack speed, thus must be Devoured or spell stealed ASAP. Cure Poison on your tank quickly and bring him down.
When both have been killed, they rez together and now you must DPS them down again, this time at exactly the same time. Start by bringing Romulo to about 30%, while having a small team keep Julienne from healing him. Switch DPS to Julienne and bring her to 10% or so then bring them together and finish them off at the same time, similar to the Tiger boss in ZG.
The Big Bad Wolf
Big Bad is a straightforward fight with one twist. Periodically the Wolf casts a debuff on a raid member and aggro switches immediately to them. They then start kiting around the stage while the rest of the raid DPS him hard. If you have done Buru in AQ20, it is the same concept only at full speed, with less room.
The Wizard of Oz
Dorothee - Has no aggro, and will move around the raid at random. Simply ignore her and heal the raid as she damages them. She summons Tito.
Roar - Warlock should chain fear Roar until he is up on your kill order.
Strawman - Fire spells cause Strawman to become disoriented and Warlocks and Mages should continue to cast on him.
Tinhead - Ice spells apply a 10% movement speed reduction on Tinhead that stacks up to 8 times.
Crone - Crone casts Cyclones that deal nature damage, and various other spell attacks.
Your Main Tank will pull Strawman, Tito and build aggro on them. Your Off Tank will place a few sunders on Tinman and then begin to kite him back and forth across the stage, while mages cast Ice spells on him to keep him at 80% movement speed reduction. Warlock chain fears Roar, and DPS hits Strawman hard, keeping fire on him whenever possible.
Your kill order is Strawman, Tito, Roar, Tinman, Dorothee. After Dorothee dies, grab Crone, get Nature Aura up and watch out for her Cyclones. Grab your Epics and move on.
To Be Continued...
Now that Moroes is dead, move back to the stairs position that you used for the first AOE packs and begin to clear the Ballroom to your right. Once again, you do not need to clear this entire room, simply take care of the roving patrols and the packs in the center and right of the room, and work your way around the outside-right of the Ballroom, to the stairs on that corner.
At the top of the stairs you will find more packs similar to those in the Ballroom, and you will see the option to head straight across to the Opera House or take a right half-way across the room. Clear this entire area, as you will need to do so eventually, and they will no longer respawn, as they are tied to Moroes, who is now deceased.
The path you are taking, is a short jaunt into the Guest's Quarters, your quest objective and ultimately the Maiden of Virtue, who has an unbelievably good loot table. These packs are a bit different than what you have seen thus far, and require some precision. There are two different packs, one Spectral Guardsman, are straightforward tank 'n spank mobs, that summon hound adds during combat. The hounds simply respawn after killed so just get the guards down then worry about them. The second pack consists of three different types of female mobs. Concubines have an AOE seduce, and are actually demons, thus can be Banished by your warlock. The other two have a variety of nasty AOE damage, dots and debuffs, so Shackle, Ice trap and DPS hard.
In the room flanked by the two large lion statues, on the table in front of the bed, lies the quest item that you require. Pull the three packs of female mobs, grab your book and move on to Maiden. If you are having trouble initially, you might consider getting Maiden out of the way first, because you are on a one hour respawn timer which will stop once she dies.
The Maiden of Virtue has four basic abilities, that create a very difficult fight. The first is an AOE holy damage aura that strikes anyone in melee range and extend close to the edge of her dais. This will have to be healed through and does not pose a great deal of trouble for the raid. The second is a chain lightning effect that will do massive damage if people are near one another. You are going to want no more than three people in melee, maybe four if they are perfectly spread out, or you will all get hit every time this is cast.
The third and easiest ability to counter, is Holy Fire. This is a single target direct damage spell that applies a DoT that ticks for over 1000 damage per tick. After much testing we have determined that this ability is cast upon the target closest to Maiden, but outside of her holy aura. Unlike the priest spell of the same name, this is fire damage, not holy damage, and can be cleansed. Thus, pick a Holy Fire 'tank' equipped with some fire resist, position them closest to Maiden and have them eat the fire. A good choice is a paladin, because they can cleanse themselves and heal or bubble is things go awry.
The final ability is truly a pain in the ass. Repentance causes a ten second stun upon every member of the raid. Zerk rage can break it, periodic damage can break it and bear form druids are often immune though not consistently so. Free action potions are reported to work as well, though we have not had sufficient opportunity to say for sure. Basically eat repentance, have your warrior stance dance before it hits and hope for the best.
On to the Opera House.
The trash leading up to the Opera event is some of the nastiest pulls in the instance. Skeletal Ushers hit very, very hard, and will essentially one-shot everyone but your tanks. They also have an Ice Block ability that freezes your tanks and resets his aggro. The strategy to deal with these guys requires three tanks in most cases, two building aggro individually and one building aggro on both, so that when they drop the tank, they leash to the third tank. Have your DPS hold until after the first tank transition, then burn these guys down as fast as possible fore another ice block.
Past those pulls are a few AOE packs, but most can be avoided by hugging the right wall and moving to the orchestra pit and up to the backstage area. In the backstage area, Spectral Performers and Stage hand can be pulled, and aside from one annoying ability they are quite easy. They explode when they die with a witty ability called 'Curtain Call.'
The Opera event is triggered by talking to the Stage Manager, who then proceeds to walk onto the stage and announce the upcoming performance. To this point you will be unsure of what you are facing, as this can be any of three different events, Romulo and Julienne, the Wizard of Oz, or the Big Bad Wolf. Each of the three have different strategies and loot tables.
Romulo & Julienne
The fight begins with Julienne on stage. She self buffs with Devotion which makes her spells cast much faster. This can be spell-stealed by a mage, or Devoured by a warlock Felhunter. She casts a self-heal that must be interrupted by kick, pummel, shield slam, Felhunter spell lock or mage counterspell. Sort out a rotation and she is a piece of cake. When she dies, Romulo spawns and duel wields poisoned rapiers. He casts a self buff, called Daring, that greatly increases his attack speed, thus must be Devoured or spell stealed ASAP. Cure Poison on your tank quickly and bring him down.
When both have been killed, they rez together and now you must DPS them down again, this time at exactly the same time. Start by bringing Romulo to about 30%, while having a small team keep Julienne from healing him. Switch DPS to Julienne and bring her to 10% or so then bring them together and finish them off at the same time, similar to the Tiger boss in ZG.
The Big Bad Wolf
Big Bad is a straightforward fight with one twist. Periodically the Wolf casts a debuff on a raid member and aggro switches immediately to them. They then start kiting around the stage while the rest of the raid DPS him hard. If you have done Buru in AQ20, it is the same concept only at full speed, with less room.
The Wizard of Oz
Dorothee - Has no aggro, and will move around the raid at random. Simply ignore her and heal the raid as she damages them. She summons Tito.
Roar - Warlock should chain fear Roar until he is up on your kill order.
Strawman - Fire spells cause Strawman to become disoriented and Warlocks and Mages should continue to cast on him.
Tinhead - Ice spells apply a 10% movement speed reduction on Tinhead that stacks up to 8 times.
Crone - Crone casts Cyclones that deal nature damage, and various other spell attacks.
Your Main Tank will pull Strawman, Tito and build aggro on them. Your Off Tank will place a few sunders on Tinman and then begin to kite him back and forth across the stage, while mages cast Ice spells on him to keep him at 80% movement speed reduction. Warlock chain fears Roar, and DPS hits Strawman hard, keeping fire on him whenever possible.
Your kill order is Strawman, Tito, Roar, Tinman, Dorothee. After Dorothee dies, grab Crone, get Nature Aura up and watch out for her Cyclones. Grab your Epics and move on.
To Be Continued...
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Karazhan
I had written a rather detailed and extensive review of Karazhn after last week instance reset, however, Blizzard retuned the entire instance, making significant changes to the encounters, and thus invalidating nearly everything I had to say. After a week of relearning these encounters, I have rewritten my review.
Karazhan is an amazingly well designed raid zone. As the first of a rather extensive end-game, designed for The Burning Crusade, Karazhan provides cutting edge encounters and gear, on the standard 7 day instance timer, with just 10 people required as opposed to the antiquated 40+ man raids of yesteryear.
Karazhan has changed considerably in the past seven days. Last week, in Militiae Templi's first foray into the tower of the Archmage, Medivh, we ran two raid teams through, and cleared up to the final boss of the instance, Prince Malchezzar. With few exceptions, the instance was shaping up to be a loot pinata, until the re-tune when mildly challenging has become unbelievably difficult and completely unforgiving. Grats to Blizzard on recognizing the need for a change, and fixing this zone before it was too late.
Gone are the days of 15 skilled, prepared raiders carrying a 40 man raid on auto-pilot through high end content. In every fight of Karazhan, one mistake is all it takes to wipe a raid, and every member of your team has many opportunities to make those mistakes.
Karazhan is located in the southern most section of Deadwind Pass, and requires an extensive attunement quest to gain entry. Every member of your raid must have The Master's Key in their Keyring, similar to the Onyxia raid encounter. Details of the attunement chain, can be found all over the web, though I recommend Wowhead for your Burning Crusade information needs.
You enter the tower and are greeted by a green con NPC who grants you your first quest and offers information about the instance. To your immediate right lies the Servants Quarters, home to elite spiders, bats and hounds. When the entire area is cleared a silver elite 'boss' spawns, and drops one epic item 'of Random Enchantment.' It is often better than current gear, however we consider it a waste of time and skip it. To your right up the stairs is access to the Guests Quarters, the Dining Room, The Opera House and beyond.
You will be heading left first, to The Stables. The Stables are on a strict 30 minute spawn timer, and if you pass this time, you will have to start over before attempting to fight Attuman the Huntsman and his steed, Midnight. This area consists of various packs of Spectral Steeds and Spectral Stablehands, which can be CC'd with Shackle, Ice Trap and Pally fear if necessary. DPS the Stable hands first as they can heal the Steeds, and have low HP. The Steeds hit like Mack Trucks and randomly Intercept, so keep an eye on the healing here, and try to keep your pace, as you are on a clock.
A well executed clear takes less than 15 minutes, and you are soon facing a non-aggressive Midnight. When spoken too, Midnight attacks, and at 95% health, Attuman spawns. Off-tank Attuman and continue to DPS Midnight. At 25% Attuman mounts up and their health is restored to full. DPS the mounted Attuman down and collect your epics.
To your left is another green-con NPC, and the objective of your first quest. Kill the mobs around him and turn it in. He will send you to the Guest Quarters to retrieve a book. Incidentally, at honored with The Violet Eye, he will also serve as your Blacksmith for repairs and vendoring trash drops. He also has a few epic Blacksmith patterns for sale.
Here, it is recommended that you return to the entrance and proceed up the stairs to the Ballroom. In front of you are packs of non-elite Spectral Guests who can be AOE'd down, but hit incredibly hard on your casters. Mixed in, are single pull, elite Spectral Valets and Skeletal Waiters. These guys can two shot well geared tanks with untimely crits and have a debuff that reduces armor to zero. Do your best here until you get the hang of it, and remember to just release and run back when you die. This can be zerged if needs be.
You do not need to clear every pack here, simply the wandering patrols and the two large packs in front. You are headed left eventually, so have your puller creep into the room and pull the table of dinner guests back to your position on the stairs. More AOE packs here and a few Waiters and Valets. Once the first wave is down, move into the Dining room, and stand on the first table to finish clearing the room.
Here you will see Moroes the Tower Steward for the first time. He is surrounded by four named elite mobs who are part of his event. They are four of six possible adds, and their name indicates their class and ultimately, how to deal with them during the encounter.
Lady Catriona Von'Indi - Holy Priest
Baroness Dorothea Milstipe - Shadow Priest
Lady Keira Berrybuck - Holy Paladin
Baron Rafe Dreuger - Retribution Paladin
Lord Crispin Ference - Protection Warrior
Lord Robin Daris - Mortal Strike Warrior
After numerous attempts to off-tank, shackle, trap and so on, we determined that the best method for controlling this encounter is to kill three adds and Shackle only one. Ideally, you will be perma-shackling Crispin, as he hits lightly yet has a ton of armor and HP, thus takes forever to kill. Your kill order should be Catriona, Keira, Dorothea, Rafe then Robin, depending on which of the six you get. In the meantime, Robin is a priority for CC as his DPS is high and one untimely Mortal Strike on your tank is GG.
Kill your three then target Moroes. Moroes is basically a Rogue on crack, with a few abilities that must be mitigated quickly, or he will destroy your raid. The most critical is he Vanishes periodically, reappearing behind a random party member and applying a Garrotte that ticks for 1000 dmg and lasts for 5 minutes... ya that's right, over 100,000 total damage. This can be removed by Ice Block, Blessing of Protection and the quest reward from EPL, The Luffa. Go get it or petition a GM to replace it if you sold yours. Leave Garrottes on your tanks and just heal through it, in order to save your BOPs for your healers and casters. Moroes also blinds and gouges your tanks, thus have two tanks fighting for aggro constantly, to avoid him leashing off your MT and slaughtering your healers. Otherwise, DPS him down, kill your fourth add, and collect your loot.
To Be Continued...
Karazhan is an amazingly well designed raid zone. As the first of a rather extensive end-game, designed for The Burning Crusade, Karazhan provides cutting edge encounters and gear, on the standard 7 day instance timer, with just 10 people required as opposed to the antiquated 40+ man raids of yesteryear.
Karazhan has changed considerably in the past seven days. Last week, in Militiae Templi's first foray into the tower of the Archmage, Medivh, we ran two raid teams through, and cleared up to the final boss of the instance, Prince Malchezzar. With few exceptions, the instance was shaping up to be a loot pinata, until the re-tune when mildly challenging has become unbelievably difficult and completely unforgiving. Grats to Blizzard on recognizing the need for a change, and fixing this zone before it was too late.
Gone are the days of 15 skilled, prepared raiders carrying a 40 man raid on auto-pilot through high end content. In every fight of Karazhan, one mistake is all it takes to wipe a raid, and every member of your team has many opportunities to make those mistakes.
Karazhan is located in the southern most section of Deadwind Pass, and requires an extensive attunement quest to gain entry. Every member of your raid must have The Master's Key in their Keyring, similar to the Onyxia raid encounter. Details of the attunement chain, can be found all over the web, though I recommend Wowhead for your Burning Crusade information needs.
You enter the tower and are greeted by a green con NPC who grants you your first quest and offers information about the instance. To your immediate right lies the Servants Quarters, home to elite spiders, bats and hounds. When the entire area is cleared a silver elite 'boss' spawns, and drops one epic item 'of Random Enchantment.' It is often better than current gear, however we consider it a waste of time and skip it. To your right up the stairs is access to the Guests Quarters, the Dining Room, The Opera House and beyond.
You will be heading left first, to The Stables. The Stables are on a strict 30 minute spawn timer, and if you pass this time, you will have to start over before attempting to fight Attuman the Huntsman and his steed, Midnight. This area consists of various packs of Spectral Steeds and Spectral Stablehands, which can be CC'd with Shackle, Ice Trap and Pally fear if necessary. DPS the Stable hands first as they can heal the Steeds, and have low HP. The Steeds hit like Mack Trucks and randomly Intercept, so keep an eye on the healing here, and try to keep your pace, as you are on a clock.
A well executed clear takes less than 15 minutes, and you are soon facing a non-aggressive Midnight. When spoken too, Midnight attacks, and at 95% health, Attuman spawns. Off-tank Attuman and continue to DPS Midnight. At 25% Attuman mounts up and their health is restored to full. DPS the mounted Attuman down and collect your epics.
To your left is another green-con NPC, and the objective of your first quest. Kill the mobs around him and turn it in. He will send you to the Guest Quarters to retrieve a book. Incidentally, at honored with The Violet Eye, he will also serve as your Blacksmith for repairs and vendoring trash drops. He also has a few epic Blacksmith patterns for sale.
Here, it is recommended that you return to the entrance and proceed up the stairs to the Ballroom. In front of you are packs of non-elite Spectral Guests who can be AOE'd down, but hit incredibly hard on your casters. Mixed in, are single pull, elite Spectral Valets and Skeletal Waiters. These guys can two shot well geared tanks with untimely crits and have a debuff that reduces armor to zero. Do your best here until you get the hang of it, and remember to just release and run back when you die. This can be zerged if needs be.
You do not need to clear every pack here, simply the wandering patrols and the two large packs in front. You are headed left eventually, so have your puller creep into the room and pull the table of dinner guests back to your position on the stairs. More AOE packs here and a few Waiters and Valets. Once the first wave is down, move into the Dining room, and stand on the first table to finish clearing the room.
Here you will see Moroes the Tower Steward for the first time. He is surrounded by four named elite mobs who are part of his event. They are four of six possible adds, and their name indicates their class and ultimately, how to deal with them during the encounter.
Lady Catriona Von'Indi - Holy Priest
Baroness Dorothea Milstipe - Shadow Priest
Lady Keira Berrybuck - Holy Paladin
Baron Rafe Dreuger - Retribution Paladin
Lord Crispin Ference - Protection Warrior
Lord Robin Daris - Mortal Strike Warrior
After numerous attempts to off-tank, shackle, trap and so on, we determined that the best method for controlling this encounter is to kill three adds and Shackle only one. Ideally, you will be perma-shackling Crispin, as he hits lightly yet has a ton of armor and HP, thus takes forever to kill. Your kill order should be Catriona, Keira, Dorothea, Rafe then Robin, depending on which of the six you get. In the meantime, Robin is a priority for CC as his DPS is high and one untimely Mortal Strike on your tank is GG.
Kill your three then target Moroes. Moroes is basically a Rogue on crack, with a few abilities that must be mitigated quickly, or he will destroy your raid. The most critical is he Vanishes periodically, reappearing behind a random party member and applying a Garrotte that ticks for 1000 dmg and lasts for 5 minutes... ya that's right, over 100,000 total damage. This can be removed by Ice Block, Blessing of Protection and the quest reward from EPL, The Luffa. Go get it or petition a GM to replace it if you sold yours. Leave Garrottes on your tanks and just heal through it, in order to save your BOPs for your healers and casters. Moroes also blinds and gouges your tanks, thus have two tanks fighting for aggro constantly, to avoid him leashing off your MT and slaughtering your healers. Otherwise, DPS him down, kill your fourth add, and collect your loot.
To Be Continued...
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Grats Abryn!
My wife, night elf Priestess extraordinaire, hit 70 last night!
Not a moment too soon, as Militiae Templi has begun running Karazhan this week, the first wave of brave souls, having ventured in Tuesday and spanked the first four bosses. I am leading the second wave through Sunday night, and I'll be sure to post an update Monday morning regarding the progress.
The drama I have been chatting about in previous posts, is starting to pick up steam. Ten man raids certainly make keeping everyone happy very difficult, and I think to some degree, our officers are getting over-analyzed with every action they take.
If they tell everyone in our 35-40 person per night guild that they will be in the Kara runs, then they are going to get slammed when they can't possibly deliver four balanced raids with equal leadership and success. If they make a lottery to distribute the spots, then class balance will be totally fucked and the raid will most likely wipe with little or no real progress... again, officers will be blamed for the failure.
In the end, they have chosen to basically offer very limited guidance on how Karazhan should be handled, and then stepped back and out of the line of fire as best they could. I and a few others stepped forth and organized our own runs, which alleviates a great deal of the pressure from them in some ways...
If I make a raid that fails, the officers will avoid blame, and no one will attribute it to anything more than a tough night of raiding. They will pick up and move on. Not so for the officers, they would get blasted for being unprepared, not taking the right classes, or worse, not taking the 'best players' to succeed. If I leave people out when forming my group, the officers have stayed above the fray by setting no guidelines on how the slots should be allocated. Its really up to me, and thus I take heat for any perceived favoritism.
Of course, knowing this, I created my group equitably. Everyone in our guild is talented or they wouldn't be in the guild, so I simply determined which class allocation we needed and then filled spots based on the first people to whisper me their interest. When a given class was missing (read prot warrior) I asked the only people available and keyed who could handle the job. No favoritism, no problems.
Now at first, I was particularly annoyed with the lack of structure that necessitated my stepping forward to take charge. These people are officer's, lets get some concrete policy and get rocking, I thought... Of course, the depth of frustration from those not invited to Tuesdays first big run, was also unexpected. If they run the show, they are likely to have a mutiny on their hands after a few weeks of people not getting into raids. After it all settles down, and enough groups form up and the rest of the guild gets to 70, the issue will all but disappear and they can step back in and shore up some future plans, without the visceral animosity that is now directed their way. Time cures all things, as they say...
Not a moment too soon, as Militiae Templi has begun running Karazhan this week, the first wave of brave souls, having ventured in Tuesday and spanked the first four bosses. I am leading the second wave through Sunday night, and I'll be sure to post an update Monday morning regarding the progress.
The drama I have been chatting about in previous posts, is starting to pick up steam. Ten man raids certainly make keeping everyone happy very difficult, and I think to some degree, our officers are getting over-analyzed with every action they take.
If they tell everyone in our 35-40 person per night guild that they will be in the Kara runs, then they are going to get slammed when they can't possibly deliver four balanced raids with equal leadership and success. If they make a lottery to distribute the spots, then class balance will be totally fucked and the raid will most likely wipe with little or no real progress... again, officers will be blamed for the failure.
In the end, they have chosen to basically offer very limited guidance on how Karazhan should be handled, and then stepped back and out of the line of fire as best they could. I and a few others stepped forth and organized our own runs, which alleviates a great deal of the pressure from them in some ways...
If I make a raid that fails, the officers will avoid blame, and no one will attribute it to anything more than a tough night of raiding. They will pick up and move on. Not so for the officers, they would get blasted for being unprepared, not taking the right classes, or worse, not taking the 'best players' to succeed. If I leave people out when forming my group, the officers have stayed above the fray by setting no guidelines on how the slots should be allocated. Its really up to me, and thus I take heat for any perceived favoritism.
Of course, knowing this, I created my group equitably. Everyone in our guild is talented or they wouldn't be in the guild, so I simply determined which class allocation we needed and then filled spots based on the first people to whisper me their interest. When a given class was missing (read prot warrior) I asked the only people available and keyed who could handle the job. No favoritism, no problems.
Now at first, I was particularly annoyed with the lack of structure that necessitated my stepping forward to take charge. These people are officer's, lets get some concrete policy and get rocking, I thought... Of course, the depth of frustration from those not invited to Tuesdays first big run, was also unexpected. If they run the show, they are likely to have a mutiny on their hands after a few weeks of people not getting into raids. After it all settles down, and enough groups form up and the rest of the guild gets to 70, the issue will all but disappear and they can step back in and shore up some future plans, without the visceral animosity that is now directed their way. Time cures all things, as they say...
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