Rising from the Ashes

Well, after a load of unfortunately fruitless runs in Heroic: Magister's Terrace...I finally got one of the items I was looking for...

The Phoenix Hatchling finally dropped last night. I was pretty psyched to see it. It's not the white hawkstrider I've been after...but it's a step in the right direction.

He's really a pretty cool pet. It definitely stands out from the rest with it's fiery orange flappy-ness. I love it!

Oh, and what a miseryfest H:MgT was last night...U..G..H! It took me 4 tries to get Kael'Thas down....

Let me explain a little bit about the Kael'Thas fight...just so you know why I was so frustrated.

In order to even reach Kael, you have to kill all of the bosses in the instance...This is a list of bosses you'll encounter if you decide to head into MgT or H:MgT to farm the mount or the pet...

1. Selin Fireheart

• Clear the room! There are a bunch of little guys in there...Withered Husks and Brutes...and if you don't clear them first they will all come to aid Selin when you engage him. I've tried to take them on along with him and the incoming damage was just too much to take on solo. If you have other people in the instance with you that can help burn them and Selin down, then it might not be an issue. I tend to go in alone, so I'm basing my outline on going solo.
• I sometimes pull all three groups at once...and sometimes I pull each group separately. It depends on how much "fun" I want to have really. They're easy enough and when pulling just one group at a time are easily and quickly burned down.
• When you finally get to Selin, it's super easy. He stands there and takes it in the face. He has a few magical attacks and a bit of melee but nothing a decently geared tank can't handle.
  
• Every once in awhile he'll run to a green crystal and buff himself up. Still easy. (Sorry, Sel, but your green crystals don't scare me.) I stay right on him and just keep smacking him around until he dies. Usually I can get him down shortly after the 2nd crystal. I've never tried doing this as a kitty, though I'm sure it's totally doable.

2. Vexallus

• First, if you're a class that can stealth...do it right after Selin. That way you can skip all the goofy worms in Vex's room. If you can't stealth, pull a group at a time until you figure out how much you can actually take. When a worm dies, it applies a stacking debuff that increases the damage you take by X amount. I've had this stack up WAY too high (by pulling the ENTIRE room full of worms at one time) and have died. Lesson learned. I pull one or two groups at a time if I need to, but normally I just pop into kitty and prowl past them all. They won't aggro when you fight Vexallus as long as you stay up on his platform.
• Occasionally, there is a walking patrol that will walk in from the door behind Vex and toward the entrance of the room. There's nothing special about this mob at all and can be easily killed for rep if you like. If you're not really wanting to fight it, just wait until he/she patrols back out through the door behind Vex. I've never seen it come back after it leaves.
• The Vexallus fight...This one...took me a few tries. Vexallus himself doesn't do a great deal of damage to you, but he will summon Pure Energy sparks. I think on heroic he summons two of these.
• A note about the sparks: My first few tries at this fight were pretty frustrating. I tried to avoid killing the sparks, but found that the damage they were dealing plus what Vex was hitting me with was just a bit too much. Plus, Vex will take an eternity to kill without getting the "debuff" that the sparks provide. When you kill a spark, you gain a buff/debuff that increases the damage YOU deal by 50% per stack but also deals periodic damage to you that increases with each spark you kill.
  
• Vex doesn't have any spiffy knockbacks or anything (which is why I said that clearing his room is totally optional) and really it's a race to kill him before the incoming damage is more than you can handle. Soloing this as a bear is really pretty easy, especially considering that my druid is an herbalist and can rely on lifeblood to repair some of the damage if I get precariously close to death. Swipe is the best for this, as it kills the sparks (with ~42 hitpoints) and also continues dealing damage to Vex. Near the end of the fight, I've seen my maul hit for almost 20k. Brings a tear of joy to a bear's eye to be able to dish out that much pain...it really does.

3. Priestess Delrissa & Co.

• This was another pretty interesting learning experience the first time I met her on my own. Delrissa isn't alone. She will be standing there with 4 of her darling friends. There are 8 possible "friends" for her to choose from:

1. Kagani Nightstrike (Rogue)
2. Ellrys Duskhallow (Warlock)
3. Eramas Brightblaze (Monk)
4. Yazzai (Mage)
5. Warlord Salaris (Warrior)
6. Garaxxas (Hunter)
7. Apoko (Shaman)
8. Zelfan (Engineer)

• I usually focus on Delrissa first, since she has a lot of priestly abilities. She can dispel magic, cast Power Word: Shield and Shadow Word: Pain...and Renew. Once she's down, the rest of them are pretty easy. On occasion, I'll get stuck with the warrior and rogue, which makes for a stunfest...when that happens I try to take one or both of them out before returning my focus to Delrissa. Being stunned while getting pounded on by five mobs, even if they're 10 levels below you makes for a miserable amount of damage incoming.
  
• This fight is pretty easy. I've never really had too much trouble except when I picked a bad spot to fight her and got feared (by the warlock) into another set of mobs. That was a disaster. If you see that Ellrys is with her and you're concerned about potentially getting feared into another group, you can clear the room. I don't find it necessary to do so, however.

4. Kael'Thas Sunstrider, Lord of the Blood Elves

• This guy...-_- This is probably the only truly challenging fight in the instance if you are in here soloing him. Bear in mind that, while you can stealth past most of the trash in the instance, the group of mobs in the room with him MUST be killed before he will begin his 5 minute long speech. When he's done rambling, you can attack him.
• First things first: You must get Kael'thas to 50% or below within the first 60 seconds of the fight or he bubbles himself in his Shock Barrier and begins to cast pyroblast. Pyroblast is death...unless of course you're a paladin and can bubble through it. It deals an enormous amount of damage...somewhere in the ballpark of 50K on heroic I believe. If you get him to 50% in the first minute of the fight, however, you don't have to deal with this.
• Shock Barrier absorbs about 10k damage, and if you are quick enough, you can burn it down and interrupt his pyroblast...but you'd have to be incredibly quick...Pyroblast is only a 4 second cast...sounds like a long enough time...but trust me. I've tasted Pyroblast flavored death a BUNCH of times in here...
• Now, the fight...Because I'm a "rage-fueled" tank, this fight gets a little tricky. Here are the two strats that I've used that have worked:

1. Kitty Then Bear: If I am feeling ducky, I open up in kitty form first, dealing as much damage to Kael as I possibly can right off the bat. Unfortunately, kitty form has very minimal damage mitigation, so the incoming damage starts to tear you down pretty quickly. I DO NOT use berserk when I'm in kitty form. Yes, it would probably help but...Once he summons his phoenix, I pop into bear form and beat on both of them. I never drop to focus on the phoenix because I want to focus all of my damage on Kael'thas to make sure I get to that 50% mark fast enough. I usually hit Lifeblood around this time along with Enrage and Berserk. Usually that gets me to the 50% mark on him. I try to AVOID using Frenzied Regeneration because it eats up rage and converts it to health...while staying alive here is important...I'd rather try my luck with Lifeblood, a health potion, or even barkskin because if I don't get him down to 50% fast enough...I'm dead anyway. The only reason I don't like this strategy as much is because it becomes difficult to stay alive. Kitty form deals a lot of damage right off the bat, but takes a lot of damage. By the time you switch to bear, you've already taken a pretty harsh beating and need to work on recovering a bit of HP while trying to finish getting him to the cutoff point.
2. BEAR...All the way, baby! I really sort of prefer to stay in bear for the first phase of this fight, if only for the damage mitigation. The reason that opening this fight in bear form is difficult (and I often don't reach that magic cutoff point) is because Kael really doesn't do much to help me generate rage until his phoenix comes out to play. Rage generation is much sexier when you're fighting melee bosses and Kael doesn't seem to like to get his hands dirty. (Druids gain rage from getting hit and from dodging attacks - Magical attacks can't be dodged...) It's difficult to get him to the 50% mark fast enough in bear form without much rage generation, but here is where Enrage and Berserk help out a bit (I use enrage first and when that wears off if I find I'm a little rage-starved, I'll hit berserk for some manglespam action)...

• I can't tell you how many times I've gotten him to 51% and then he puts up that shock barrier...and have had to fight the urge to throw my computer through a window because I was only 1% away...and will have to start over again...Grrrr!!! I will say that it's TOTALLY doable in bear form, just make sure to keep mangle ticking to help out your lacerate stacks and gogogogo!!!
  
• You need approximately 2000 SUSTAINED dps for the first 60 seconds in order to reach that magic 50%...it's doable. It's tough, but doable. Bringing a friend along for this fight makes it go so much faster and less painfully...so if you have someone willing to spend a few minutes in MgT with you, by all means, drag them along for the ride!
• Once Kael'thas reaches 50%, he will stop attacking and run to the center of his little room and mumble something about turning your world...UPSIDE DOWN. At this point, he'll suspend you in the air and summon three large orbs. The "chain" he uses to suspend you deals a little damage, nothing to really worry about unless you are ridiculously low on health. The orbs however, will deal considerable damage if you just sit there and let them hit you.
  
• Orb Phase Movement: When you are in "Anti-Gravity" mode, you move around by "swimming" through the air. For any of you arrow-key people, you might need to use your mouse here, sorry. You can also use the letter keys to move up and down, in combination with your arrow keys...(Works for me because I'm an arrow key person...yeah yeah...I know...I've heard it all before...lol)
  
• Orb Phase: I generally "swim" back to the entrance of his room and heal myself up as much as I can, then pop into kitty form. The only damage you'll be taking during this phase is from the orbs and from the "chain" Kael has on you while he's got you floating around, so you won't need to be decked out in tanking awesomeness to survive here. You can move around the room and the orbs will chase you very...very...very slowly. If you can draw them toward the door or away from Kael, you'll be able to fly down and dps him a bit during the anti-gravity spell. After a few moments of this floaty phase, he'll drop you and collapse to his knee in the middle of the room. Unleash on him. He won't even flinch. He'll just sit there and take it like a good little blood elf. If you don't kill him, the anti-gravity spell will be cast again and you just continue doing this until you kill him (or you die...which would really suck because this is the easiest part of the fight).

And that's Kael'thas. Actually that's all the bosses in Heroic Magister's Terrace...hehe.Oh, Kael...give me the damn hawkstider already, please?

Last night I think it took me about 4 tries to get him down, but I finally did and I was pleased to see that, to reward me for my efforts and tenacity in trying to kill him, he had given me his prized phoenix hatchling. Thanks, Kael! You're so sweet!