Heroic Chimaeron 25 Man

Heroic:  Chimaeron (25 man)

For the first time since I started playing the game, I'm in a guild that can accomplish stuff.  

I'm going to start this off by congratulating the entire guild on our heroic kills.  The guild is currently 3/13 Hard Mode bosses, which is incredible.  For any of you out there that are running Cataclysm raids, you know that they're no walk in the park.  Heroic content is harder, much more chaotic, and much more demanding.  So, congratulations to everyone and thank you for working so hard.

This was also my first "guild first" heroic boss kill.  The even better part?  I was tanking for them.  Even better than that?  I didn't screw up as much as I was afraid I would.

Did I forget to mention that I lack serious confidence?  Oh.  Yes, I lack confidence when it comes to raiding.  Well, I guess it's more true to say I lack confidence in general.  Anyway...we're not here to psychoanalyze, right?

We're here to rejoice at another heroic raid boss down...another awesome night raiding and new lessons learned.  

What?  You didn't think I still learned stuff about my beloved druid?

Oh, believe me.  I do.  Chimaeron on heroic is no joke.  He hits like a freight train filled with lead at maximum velocity.  I learned a great deal more about precious cooldowns and how to use them more strategically in order to increase my TTL.  

TTL?

Time To Live.  You tanks out there should know that one...right?  

At any rate, we threw a BUNCH of attempts at this boss on heroic last night.  What I like about my guild is that we don't invest a few wipes then move on to something "easier".  I think that when you do that, you hurt your progress much more than helping further it.

What do I mean?

So many questions today...jeeeepers.  What I mean is...If you wipe, say, 4 times and either switch back to normal mode or move onto a "farm boss", I think people retain less of what they're figuring out from the wipes.  I know that wiping for 3+ hours straight on ONE boss is frustrating, but I think it forces people to look at what they did on the wiped attempt and try to tweak it for the next go at it.  I know that's what I do. 



The first few attempts - I had only a very, very poor understanding of what I needed to do and what was going on, despite watching numerous videos and reading as much as I could about tanking him.


The last few attempts - I had a much clearer idea of what I needed to do in the fight and how to help recover from losing a tank unexpectedly.  The lesson I learned:  Don't try to taunt Double Attacks with 2 stacks of Break on you.  It is deadly.

Each time we wiped, I learned a few more tricks.  We managed to get him into phase 2 two or three times before finally ending the night on our guild's 3rd heroic kill.  Vent practically exploded with happy raiders.

WOOOHOOOO!!!!

Now that we've downed another heroic boss, I'm eager to see if we can bring down Atramedes on heroic.  We've put in a bunch of attempts, but we've yet to get too far into the fight on heroic.  I'm hoping that last night's victory boosts morale and encourages everyone to focus that much harder on bringing down more heroic bosses (especially frakkin Atramedes...the bastard!!!).

Anyway, that's really all I've got for today.  Life has been absolute chaos again, so of course I'm finding little to no time to drop in and post and say hello to you all and see how you're doing.  I'm wondering if anyone else out there has stories to share?  Epic stories, funny stories, screen shots?  Anything goes.  It would just be nice to share what other WoWheads have to say.

OH!!!!!!!  Before I forget...For those of you who have hit my armory and have been jabbing at me and prodding me to drop the BoE crafted epics in order to get at least 2pc t11...I did that finally last night for my bear gear.  Initially, I didn't do it because the guild wasn't really sure whether they needed me more for healing or tanking, but since we've recruited a few more dedicated healers and I've been tanking on most encounters...I decided to take the plunge and grab some t11.  I have the chest and gloves right now, I believe.  I could easily buy the legs with Valor Points as well, but I'm going to hold off on that in hopes that we'll win Tol Barad on a night I can actually get into Baradin Hold and see what drops.

One other important thing that happened last night:  My passion for my bear was revived.  I've always "liked" tanking, but I've generally been in guilds that don't see much progression or they don't attempt "hard" content until it's been nerfed into the ground and it just wasn't satisfying for the longest time.  But now...the passion is there once more.  RAWR BABY!!! 

RAWWWWWWWWWR!

F*ckin' ugly jerk...

I have a screen capture I can post of our crew standing with our kill, but of course, that's at home and I'll have to add it to this later on. 

Nefarion's End

I don't have much time to write, but I thought I'd stop by and update on raid progression with my beloved druid.

First of all, the guild has me alternating between tanking and healing, depending on what we need for the run we're in.  Now, I can honestly say I'm still nervous when I get asked to tank, but once I get into the swing of things I'm content and happy to tank for them.

Second of all, I wanted to let you know that my druid is now 11/12 Raid Bosses down.  We cleared all of Bastion of Twilight a week or two ago with me and a paladin tanking.  We've been having some trouble with the coordination on Nefarion in Blackwing Descent for a few weeks but we did manage to get him down last night.

It was such a relief to finally see him go down on a night I've been tanking with the crew.  I had begun to believe it was an impossible kill...but we got it so I'm pretty stoked.

I also finally got to see Throne of the Four Winds.  The first boss encounter seems really easy if your group is coordinated enough to do it.  We got the first 3 down without a problem.  Al'akir, however...seemed like chain lightning was puttin' a whoopin' on us!

Ah well.  It's a new raid week.  I'm hoping we can get through Throne of the Four Winds though.  I'd really like to see my Al'Akir kill before level 90 lol!

Anyway, just thought I'd stop in, say hello, quickly update and share my giddiness over the Nefarion kill from last night  before I head back out into the RL world.

Take care!

Des

Zul'Aman: Final Round - Daakara The Invincible

Daakara, The Invincible

Daakara the Invincible is the final boss in Zul'Aman.  Sure, he calls himself invincible but it couldn't be further from the truth.  This fight really isn't that hard because it's basically a melting pot of abilities you've already seen with the first four Avatar fights.

In my experiences, Daakara is only able to draw upon two of the avatar spirits before he's ground into dust by the group.  But what kind of guide would I be if I didn't get into the details?

This fight has a few different phases and the number of phases you will see depends on how quickly your group can kill him...or how long you survive.  

Phase One is always Mr. Daakara in troll form.  During this phase, he will cast a nasty whirlwind, dealing 110% of normal damage to all within melee range.  Here's a tip:  Move.  It's avoidable damage and you really need to avoid it.  Another fun little trick he has during phase one is to cast Grievous Throw on a random party member.  This is reminiscent of an ability that Rokmar the Crackler had in The Slavepens called Grievous Wound.  Essentially, this is a bleed effect that cannot be dispelled and will not go away until that player is healed to 100% health.  It's not a huge obstacle to overcome.  Just throw a fluffy heal on that player and get back to your tank.

Phase two will be random.  Exciting, right? He will take on one of the four avatar aspects:  eagle, lynx, dragonhawk, or bear.


Here's a quick list of the aspects and the abilities to watch for:


Eagle
Daakara will create an Energy Storm in which he will summon cyclones that circle around him that you must dodge.  These Cyclones will zap party members for roughly 12k damage with each hit.  You need to get as far away from the cyclones as possible to avoid damage.  They will move around the altar and "chase" players, so you'll need to be on the move for most of this fight.  


He will also summon a lightning totem during this phase which is low health and needs to be killed as well.


Dragonhawk
Daakara will create columns of fire which players need to move away from.  These are sometimes difficult to see, but the damage is hefty and you need to move away from them.  


He will also cast Flame Whirl which leaves a debuff on party members that increases their vulnerability to fire damage.  I don't believe this can be dispelled, so players need to be careful and avoid the columns of fire and flame breath.


Flame breath is the only other ability in this aspect that players need to be mindful of.  It's the exact same flame breath that Jan'alai casts and can and should be avoided.  He will turn toward a party member to cast, so if he turns to you make sure to immediately strafe out of the line of fire. 


Bear
Creeping Paralysis is one of the key abilities to keep an eye out for, should you face Daakara in bear form.  This debuff, if not cleansed within six seconds will stun the player.  Both the paralysis and the stun can, and should be dispelled because he will also be surging at random party members, just like Nalorakk did.  The surge still has the same effect and you are still going to want to alternate who eats the surges to prevent an unnecessary death here.  


In Bear form, Daakara also has a warrior-esque ability called Nearly Overpowered Blow.  It works in the same fashion as Overpower for warriors.  It can be used whenever he feels like it after the tank dodges one of his attacks and hits for 115% of normal damage.  Fun stuff, really.


Lynx
During the Lynx phase, Daakara will summon lynx adds that should be burned quickly.  They do a pretty beefy amount of damage to both the tank and party members with the Lynx Rush and Claw Rage abilities and they leave bleed effects on their targets.  These adds can tear apart a party member if they're not taunted and deaded real quick like.  


That's basically the fight.  It's a recycled fight where you face similar abilities to the first four avatars.  It's fairly easy provided you avoid as much damage as possible and burn adds quickly.  It's doable.  I've seen groups soar during this fight and I've also been with some that crash and burn.  It's a test of your awareness, like so many other Cataclysm fights.  


So that's it for the Zul'Aman bosses.  I'll start working on the post about the trash, since that tends to be one of the biggest nightmares in this instance.  I haven't decided on a format for that post yet, but it's probably going to be a list-type post as it's just easier that way.


Until next time, take care and good luck pwning trolls!


With infinite love,


Des

Zul'Aman: Round #5 - Hex Lord Malacrass

The fifth boss you'll take on is Hex Lord Malacrass.  This boss is a little more complicated than the previous four because he will siphon abilities from your party members as you fight him.

Here is a rough list of the abilities he will steal:
Death Knight:  Death and Decay, Plague Strike (including Blood Plague), Blood Worms
Druid:  Lifebloom, Thorns, Moonfire
Hunter: Explosive Trap, Freezing Trap, Snake Trap
Mage:  Fireball, Frostbolt, Frost Nova, Ice Lance
Paladin:  Consecration, Holy Light, Avenging Wrath
Priest:  Heal, Mind Control, Mind Blast, Shadow Word:  Death, Psychic Scream, Pain Suppression
Rogue:  Blind, Slice and Dice, Wound Poison
Shaman:  Fire Nova Totem, Healing Wave, Chain Lightning
Warlock:  Bane of Doom, Rain of Fire, Unstable Affliction
Warrior:  Spell Reflection, Whirlwind, Mortal Strike


Obviously, you want to do your best to negate these abilities, avoid standing in the ground AoEs, and dispell as much as you can. 



There will always be two adds standing next to him drawn randomly from a pool of about 8 possible mobs.  That's according to old notes on the boss.  So far, I've only seen the blood elf, the snake, and the demon in some combination.

Generally, as you prepare to engage the boss, you'll crowd control both of the adds.  If you can only crowd control one of them, make sure to burn the other add right off the bat, then engage the boss.  You should always be able to remove one of them from the fight.  Keep it locked down with crowd control for the duration of the encounter.

The possible Guardians (and abilities) are:


A Blood Elf caster that heals Malacrass.
An Imp which casts fireballs at the party.
An undead which hits the party with a knockback and casts curses on the party.
An undead Wraith which will use an ability like Psychic Scream and AoE fear everyone.
An Ogre that regularly breaks CC and melees random party members.
A dragonkin with a flame breath and thunderclap.
A snake with a poison bolt volley.
An elemental which will cast an AoE nature damage.


So the basic concept of the fight is to deal with the little adds first, either via CC or nukefest and then obliterate the boss while dealing with abilities he steals from a random party member.  It's not a very difficult fight.  It just calls on your party to be aware and adjust a bit on the fly. 

Zul'Aman: Round #4 - Halazzi (Lynx Avatar)

The last of the four Avatar bosses you'll encounter, assuming your group takes the standard route through the instance is Halazzi.  It's really an incredibly easy fight if you pay attention.

Halazzi [Lynx Avatar]

Halazzi has two phases:  Normal and Lynx phases.  During his normal phase, he'll drop two types of totems, water and lightning.  When Halazzi drops a water totem, the tank simply needs to pull the boss away from it and all of your ranged, including the healer, need to stand inside the green circle. 

Now, I've seen quite a few caster dps NOT get in the totem which is just ridiculous.  While standing in the totem you have basically unlimited mana and it heals you.  Wait, rewind...let's see that again.  UNLIMITED MANA WHILE STANDING IN THE WATER TOTEM.  Whoa!

So if you're a mana user, just do yourself a favor and get in the green circle of amazingness.  You'd be dumb not to.  Hunters should just do it to reap the healing benefits, if nothing else.

The endless mana is going to be important for healing this fight, especially when Halazzi decides to enrage himself, decreasing time between attacks by 100% for six seconds.  That's a lot of damage, a lot of healing and a lot of mana. See?  Standing in the green circle of YAY is a good idea.

Halazzi will also drop Corrupted Lightning Totems.  Unless you're going for the achievement, you need to have your dps kill these ASAP.  These totems do pretty big damage and it's easier to just get rid of them right away.  

At both 66% health and 33% health, Halazzi will do something like a holy nova, splashing damage on all party members and healing himself to full.  At this point he'll summon Spirit of the Lynx.  You can't avoid the boss healing, so don't worry that you've done something to reset the fight.  You haven't.  It's just the way he works.

When Spirit of the Lynx is active, your party can either blow up the kitty or completely ignore it.  Most groups just ignore it and stay on the boss, knowing that the lynx will eventually despawn.  The lynx does pretty nasty damage, doesn't have a normal aggro table, and can't be CC'd.  It will "fixate" on a random party member and go to town.

When the lynx fixates on you, you can use damage reduction abilities or avoidance abilities to get away and cut your healer a little break.  For ranged dps, standing in the water totem ring will help the healer keep up with the lynx's Lynx Flurry damage.  Other than that, mages can use abilities like ice block or one of their bubbles, hunters can disengage, etc. 

The last notable ability of Halazzi is his Flame Shock.  It doesn't hit obnoxiously hard but leaves a DoT on the victim, inflicting fire damage to them.  I'm not entirely sure of the amount or duration, but I do know it can and should be dispelled.

But there you have it.  Halazzi in a nutshell.  Overall, it's a fairly easy fight as long as you use the Refreshing Water Totems to your advantage.  

Zul'Aman: Round #3 - Jan'alai (Dragonhawk Avatar)

And now for something you'll really enjoy...

Ladies and gentlemen...I present to you...Jan'alai!  [APPLAUSE}

Typically, Jan'alai will be your third encounter in Zul'Aman and unless your group knows what's up...he can be a tough kill.  The true key to winning this battle is coordination and awareness.  

There is a lot going on in this fight for certain and it's important that everyone in your group is paying attention.  Wait...it's not just important...it's imperative.  If people aren't focused, you're going to be running up against a spiked wall on this fight.  A lot of the damage is avoidable and for the sake of your healer, you should try your best to avoid it.


Jan'alai will target a random player and cast Flame Breath.  This does roughly 15k damage on impact and also leaves a line of fire on the ground for a few seconds afterward.  If he turns from the tank and looks at you, strafe to the side to avoid getting hit.  If you do happen to get hit, MOVE.  Don't stand in the fire.  It's bad.  K?  K.


Throughout the fight, Jan'alai will also summon Amani'shi Hatchers.  There are two trolls that will run onto the altar where you're fighting and will begin to hatch dragonhawk eggs.  There are two egg rooms at opposite ends of the altar and you don't want both sides hatching at the same time.  Decide before engaging the boss which hatcher you will kill (right or left) and which you will permit to hatch the eggs.  Once the eggs hatch, it's better to just have dps AoE them down, since they apply a stacking debuff to their target that increases fire damage taken.  It stacks and is difficult to cleanse, and it's really just better to have dps eat the debuff rather than risking your tank.


"But wait, Des, why let ANY eggs hatch?  Wouldn't it be easier to kill both hatchers?"


Sure it would.  But then when the boss reaches about 40 or 30% all of the unhatched eggs hatch and zerg your group.  Neat, huh?  Definitely wouldn't be fun for your healer OR your tank and would probably end in your group wiping.  Not so cool.  It's best to let one of the hatchers do his thing.

Oh gods!  Fire Bombs!  RUN!!!

Jan'alai's other "big" ability is called Fire Bomb.  The fire bombs look like orange orbs spread around the floor of the altar.  They're pretty big and easy to see, very easy to avoid, and do a nasty amount of damage.  Now, the elitist in me says, "If you get hit by one of these, you're an idiot" but I've been hit by one once.  It HURT.  It does nearly 80k damage and this damage is increased if you have the flame buffet debuff from the adds.  It could very, very easily one-shot you.  Do your absolute best to avoid these.  


Just looking at the words I wrote down here, the fight seems really easy.  I'm sure for DPS and tanks it might be pretty easy.  But from a healer perspective...it's more intense than the bear fight for sure.  There's a lot of damage and a lot of stuff that your healer has to move and avoid.  Do your best to help out your healer by avoiding as much damage as you can.  


If you haven't experienced this fight yet, you might not understand why I say awareness and avoidance is key here, but you will as soon as you try to slap around Jan'alai.  Once everyone's got the hang of this, it's pretty easy though.  I promise.

Zul'Aman: Round #2 - Nalorakk (Bear Avatar)

Well it has taken me a little while to get the rest of the fights posted here.  I apologize.  RL has been...wow.

Anyway, no blah blah today.  It's all  business.

hehe 

Okay, so in the last post, I talked about The Eagle Avatar (who has subsequently been nerfed it seems - and I can't express to you how thankful I am for that as a healer!), so in this post, we'll talk about Nalorakk.

This is typically your second encounter in Zul'Aman.  I'm not 100% sure why...it just works out that way I guess.  It seems most efficient to hit Eagle, Bear, Dragonhawk, then Lynx.  But that's for another post.  Once I get the main bosses down here I'm going to talk about the timed run and the warbear mount.


So what do you need to know about good ole Nalorakk?


First, this fight consists of two phases.  That's it.  Just two.  In my honest opinion, this fight is probably one of the easiest in here, hands down.


Phase one is his "normal form" phase.  He'll be slapping your tank around in troll form.  There are only really two things you need to know about this phase.  


The first ability he uses in "Normal Phase" is called Brutal Strike.  This melee attack hammers your tank for roughly 80k damage.  It's not hard to heal through it and there's very little AoE damage in this phase to worry about.  


I take that back.  The only "AoE" damage you'll have to worry about is Nalorakk's second ability:  Surge.  Nalorakk will charge the party member FARTHEST from him, inflicting roughly 35k damage to that person.  This leaves behind a debuff increasing the physical damage against the debuffed player by 500%.  That means you don't want to take 2 surges or you'll be dead.  It's that simple.


The easiest way to handle this is to have 3 party members take turns eating surges, since he does it 3 times before he transitions into phase 2.  Almost every group I've been involved in has used 3 different soakers for this.  All you need to do is stand further from him than everyone else.  After he surges you, move in closer than the other two ranged.  Then the other two designated "soakers" do the same.  Once he's done this 3 times, he'll shift into phase 2. 

Phase two is Bear phase!  YAY!!!!! 

Okay it's not really that exciting.  The biggest healer concern in this phase would be the silence and the Lacerating Slash, which inflicts about 180k damage over 24 seconds.  It's really not that hard to heal through, but you'll want to keep an eye on your tank's health.  The silence ability he uses is called Deafening Roar.  It only silences you for two seconds and cannot be dispelled.  To the best of my knowledge, it has unlimited range so there's no "safe place" to stand.  It's only 2 seconds though.  It really shouldn't cause any problems if you keep your tank close to topped off.


Now, I could be wrong here but I seem to remember him doing a thrash in bear form that hit all party members on my last run through there.  I don't see it noted on any of the boss guides though.  If that's the case, just know that the thrash inflicts a moderate amount of damage on everyone, but it's not going to cause the healer too much agony.  If I can do it, you can do it.


Overall, this boss is incredibly easy compared to some other Cataclysm bosses.  As long as your team knows what's up, this is basically free epics. 


That's the basic idea of Nalorakk - Bear Avatar.  Pretty simple.  Honestly, the trash leading up to him is FAR more aggravating than he is by himself.  I'll discuss trash in an entirely different post.  The trash in this instance is frustrating enough to earn itself a post!  


Off to work on the next writeup.  Hopefully I can get them all posted today.

Zul'Aman: Round #1 - Akil'Zon (Eagle Avatar)

We'll start with Zul'Aman, since I already griped about Akil'zon.

This guy....is definitely a test of coordination and awareness.  

The fight goes like this:

Once you engage Akil'zon, he'll randomly blast somebody with Static Disruption.  This inflicts roughly 35,000 nature damage on impact and leaves a debuff that increases nature damage to the affected target by 25% (and yes, it stacks).  At fairly regular intervals during the fight, an Amani Kidnapper will swoop in and pick up a random party member.  The bird does steady and pretty moderate damage to the player in its grip and must be killed IMMEDIATELY.  Amani Kidnappers are your kill priority whenever they're up.  He'll also cast Electrical Storm.  He'll select a random party member and launch them into the air.  The lightning storm will radiate from this person and it does a hefty amount of damage.  The idea is to stack under the person he's chosen to lift for the storm.

Seems easy enough right?

Yeah...maybe.  But the Static Disruption has to be dispelled.  It's pretty hard, if not impossible, to just heal through that debuff on all party members.  So that will be devouring your healer's mana pool for the entire fight.  The best thing you can do to help support your healer would be to stand 12 yards away from other party members. 

But his hitbox isn't that big...So if you've got 2+ melee dps in there along with your tank...your healer is going to want to throw their computer through a wall and punt bunnies all at the same time.  This spell will "splash" to everyone within 10 yards or so.  So if you're a rogue and you're standing on top of your tank...and he targets you with it...you're going to get your tank hit with it too.  See?  Not good.  Melee need to figure out how to be as far apart as possible while still being able to blow up the boss.  Oh, and as an added bonus.../range isn't even working right now for most of us.  I can /range 10 and be standing on top of someone and it'll never show up.  Good times...good times...

An important note about the Amani Kidnappers though is that they CAN be DPS'd by the person who has been "plucked" by them.  So that means, if you get snagged, you can blow the bird up.  Healers can also heal themselves and other party members from inside the bird's grip.  That's important to know.  If your healer doesn't know this, gently educate them.  GENTLY...don't be a jerk.  

Now let's talk about this Electrical Storm business...It's a fairly simple mechanic.  You get a warning that he's about to cast it and you should all start heading to the center of the platform.  Note that I didn't say stack up.  That's just asking for a wipe.  But when you see DBM or whatever boss mod you're using call out Electrical Storm, start moving toward the center.  The fewer ticks of the storm you take, the more your healer will adore you.  Trust me.  

Another pretty important thing about the combination of Electrical Storm and the Amani Kidnapper...I've been stuck in the bird's grip as Akil'zon starts to cast the storm while I've been trying to heal this fight.  DPS just left me up in the bird's claws.  The math looked like this:

Healer in bird's claws + taking bird claw damage + electrical storm damage = Dead Healer

Dead Healer = Dead Group

And guys, if your healer gets snatched up by a bird, they're PROBABLY not going to be dpsing themselves out of it.  The fight is very healing intensive.  Break your healer out of the bird's grip ASAP or you're doomed.  

If all of the above isn't fun enough for you, there are smaller brown eagles that randomly peck at everyone during the entire encounter, doing a decent amount of damage to the player they hit.  Fun, right?

One of the things I'd like to really ask of all of you dps/tanks...on this fight...be forgiving of your healer.  It's tough to heal through.  There's a lot of damage incoming and the debuffs that need to be cleansed...this is a pretty stressful fight even for a really well geared healer.  Be kind to your healers and give them a chance to sort it out.  Most healers, after a few tries will figure out how to handle it and you'll be fine.   

So that's Akil'zon in a nutshell.  I'll be working on the rest of Zul'Aman when I get a chance.

Zul Gur....ugh and Zul AmAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH

I was going to write about these when they first came out, but I didn't have much time to really get myself familiar with these two new instances.

I've gotten to know them from both a healing and a dps perspective now.

Let me just say...UGH and AAAAAAAAAAAGH

Actually, I kid.  They're really not all that bad once you start to understand what's going on and they've preserved the fights so they're essentially the same as they were at 60 and 70 only...tuned for 5 people instead of 10.  

Before I get going further into this, let me say THANK YOU to all of the tanks and healers that are running with groups to take these instances on.  As a dps, you definitely have a job to do but I don't think it's nearly as stressful as what the tanks and healers have to go through.

No, I haven't tanked either of these yet.  I'm not really looking forward to it.  But I HAVE healed them both all the way through on both my shaman and my druid.  

The most difficult out of both entire instances, BY FAR, is Akil'zon (Eagle Avatar).  This fight...from a healer's perspective can be pure hell.  No joke.  It's doable, assuming your group knows wtf to do.  If your group doesn't bring their A game...you'll probably struggle here.

So then I guess this means I'm going to blabber about the fights in each of these instances right?

Yup!  I'll post each fight individually though to allow for some better discussion.


At any rate, I'm sorry for the no-posting thing again.  Things have been stressful and the holiday...things...stuff...I'll keep trying to be better but obviously I'm a slacker.


Much love,


Des

MUSIC BREAK!!!

I like to share, which is good, right?  Well, I was venturing around Youtube recently, looking for music to listen to...and I came across two really awesome artists.

The first one is a guy named Phil Schawel.  Phil Schawel's older youtube channel has a bunch of covers he's done.  It also has the link to his current youtube channel, but he doesn't have music up there yet.  He's done some duets with Laura and I definitely recommend checking her out as well.

Here is one of Phil's covers:



He covers a lot of Paramore but he does it justice for sure.  I can't get enough of him!

For any Jack Johnson fans out there...you should really, REALLY check out Matt! 

Here's one of my favorite songs by Matt (and this is one of his originals)





I know, I know.  It's such "softy" music.  But talent is talent and I really, really dig these guys.


I figured it was good to take a break from the whole gaming thing and throw some attention at some artists out there who deserve it.  Give them a listen, subscribe if you're so inclined, and if you come across something amazing, feel free to share it with me here!


Much love,


Des
 

Ding! Wait...Now What?

Right, my little priestypants hit level 85 last night and now it's back to the rep and gear grind...joy...

Honestly, if I wasn't such a slacker, I'd already have my tailoring maxed and just be grinding out orbs to make a few epic pieces to make heroic grinding much less painful.  But I'm a slacker and a lot of the recipes in higher level tailoring require SO many volatiles...good god.  40 Volatile life for an herb bag?  Pffft...

The dreamcloth, which you can only make once a week even require 30 volatiles a piece!  Well, wait...before you new tailors cry... You can only make each dream cloth pattern once a week.  There are currently six patterns.  That's 6 pieces of dreamcloth you can make every week, assuming that you've been a good little bugger and maxed out your tailoring and can figure out how to get that many volatiles and orbs every week. 

LUCKILY, the epic patterns are semi-reasonable as far as cloth requirements go.  The only item that takes more than 6 dreamcloth is the Illusionary Bag and let's be honest here, a 26 slot bag would be NICE, but if you're anything like me and you just disenchant everything in your bags all the time...it's unnecessary.  The only two epic (359) items that take six dreamcloth are the legs - Breeches of Mended Nightmares and Flame-Ascended Pantaloons.

LOL PANTALOONS!!!  (Thanks, Blizz.  I needed a giggle!)

This is what pantaloons look like...

Oh wait...you're not here to listen to me giggling about PANTALOONS...

Well, here are my thoughts on my priest thus far:  Discipline healing is RAWR.  Shadow Priesting is confusing, but I can definitely see how pwnage could happen there.  My aim is to re-spec and try out Holy in all it's sparkly glory at some point in the very near future...maybe even tonight since there's playoff Hockey on and my plan is to stay home, glued to the TV and have a few beers with my brother.  Yeah, I have relatives.  Terrifying right?  I know.

Anyway, I'll do a little more homework, try out a few more specs and try to see if I can't get a better review up here on priesthood.  She's a brand new level 85 and I still have two more "item levels" before I can even get into a heroic.  Bleh...

So, since I'm not sure I'll be around much this weekend:  Happy Easter to all!  Hope your weekend is safe and happy!  (Oh...and watch out for Nippies!!! I hear he's on the loose!)

Little Miss Priesty Pants

In my spare time lately, I've been working on leveling a priest.  She's now level 84 which makes me happy, for the most part.  She's beastly, which makes me even happier.

Here, I define "beastly" as being able to heal and bubble her way through really, really rough pulls.  Discipline priests are godly.  

You all know the room in Stonecore, after you're done with Slabhide and heading toward Ozruk?  The room where an extra group of adds inevitably gets pulled every time I run this instance?  That room has done nothing but stroke my priestly epeen.  Two groups of mobs plus one of those big, one-eyed freak mobs?  No problem.  I got this.  

/grin

Now, see...I'm sure it would be a different story on heroic.  But for now I feel like a goddess.  Let's not destroy my happy just yet.  K? k.




So Discipline healing and I are pretty good friends by now.  I think I've got a decent understanding and generally, the only time the tank dies is when it's this Worgen Death Knight I run with usually...and when I'm in the mood for what I've come to call "Spontaneous Tank Sacrifice".   

Shadow, however, is an entirely different monster.  I...don't...get it...  I suppose that means I need to do a little research on proper stats and rotation (because for right now I just use my healing gear, which I'm sure isn't helping matters).  I've talked to a few friends to get friendly advice on how to drive the Shadow car down the path to awesomeness...but I'm just not getting there.  

It's only funny cuz it's true.

And we all know that since she CAN heal...that's probably what I'll need to do with her.  I'll probably go Holy/Discipline on her eventually.  I mean, holy is fun right?  Lots of sparkly, glowy fun to be had there.  Maybe I'll dust that off tonight and see how it feels.


I'm HOPING to finish up the grind to 85 tonight so that I can start getting her geared up.


I'm also starting to realize I have a serious problem here.  I'm...an altoholic!  EEEEEGADS! Quickly!  We need an intervention!

Curse you, Resto!

Let me be clear.  This post isn't really a rant as much as just an observation about the situation.  I finally get the balls to go back to raid tanking...and I end up finding a nice cozy spot in a raid guild as one of two resto druids there.  Life's good for my druid right now.  That's for sure.

Last night, the guild I raid with decided that, since our 25 man raiding team was having attendance problems...we'd switch to 2 ten man teams.  Such changes are common in larger raid guilds.  People either don't like the inevitable lag that comes with 25man raiding or there are attendance issues that either hold the entire group up or prevent it from running at all.

When I originally joined this guild, I was recruited by a friend to tank for the guild's 3rd 10 man team.  I was pretty excited and spent a week grinding out gear from heroics and badges and even picked up a couple entry level crafted pieces.   I tanked for them one night only and we did pretty well, considering this was my first time tanking any Cata raids and it was really the second time the group had ever run together.  The following week we were informed that our individual 10 man teams were going to be dissolved into one 25 man team.

I was asked to dust off my resto gear and heal.  Not a big deal.  I've done the resto thing for two expansions now and I guess I don't MIND it.  Even when I'm healing I get to see bosses go down and check out sparkly new purples, right?

And as it turns out, I'm doing alright for healing on most fights.  

Except you, Atramedes.  Screw you.  Srsly.

Anyway, with our ten people grouped up, zoned in, and ready to go...one of our tanks disconnected.  He lost power at his house and couldn't get back on or something.  While we were sitting there twiddling our thumbs waiting, the friend that recruited me suggested that I tank.  

Our group leader simply replied with, "No."

No one asked again and we ended up grabbing one of the guild's other tanks as he logged in and off we went.  We took down Trons and Magmaw and then t was on to Maloriak.

The druid tank that was on the boss got frustrated with his lag issues and offered to step down, suggesting again that I tank the boss and he could go boomkin.

Again, his suggestion was met with, "no."

Being the curious little druid, I asked why.  I have some nice tanking gear now, that I got on off-spec rolls while healing.  10 man raid buffed I'm around 165k health, a decent amount of damage mitigation and I'm fluffy...so I was curious.

The answer was this:  We need healers and you were the top healer on that last fight.

Oh.

DAMN IT!

So the role I think I'm the worst at, I end up actually being decent at and it's keeping me from raid tanking, huh?  Bah...

I really don't mind, in truth.  It's hard to be insulted when someone says, "You're a good healer and I'd rather have you do that than tank for now."  Healing is also a bit more challenging in Cata than in Wrath.  And...I love the fact that I can occasionally sneak in and top the healing meters.  Makes me feel very RAWR!  

But...let's face facts.  There's just nothing more delicious than charging in and smacking the smug grin off of some raid boss.  Something a bit more rawr about it.

Despite being denied a run at tanking last night, I DID manage to get some new healing shoulders.  You know...the OBNOXIOUSLY HUGE ones with the blue feathers?  Yeah, those.  They aren't the tier shoulders, but they're better than what I had.  Now I at least LOOK like a raiding druid. 

Even if my shoulders are ridiculously huge.

PS:  If Atramedes insists on chasing me around all night with tracking beam nonsense, the least he could do is drop the resto helm for me...but nooooooooooooo....the jerk...

I Kissed an Orc

Dear Drama Queens

I'm not going to lie to you.  The last two weeks have been miserable in-game.  I'm sure you saw the post from a few days ago that I was urged to take down.

Part of me really, really wants to resurrect that post but my better judgement knows what kind of fallout I'd have to face.  It's honestly just not worth it.  (Sorry, D!)

I left my Shaman's guild, where she was an officer/raid lead because well...if you don't feel welcome in your guild for whatever reason...it's just better to cut your losses and move on.  In the end, it's just a game.  Provided you aren't a complete baddie and are generally a nice person, you'll always find a guild to call home.

There was some fallout from me leaving my shaman's guild, unfortunately, and that's managed to drive me to the brink of insanity.  I know...I know..."it's just a game".  I get that.  It is clear that other people, however, do NOT get that.

Quick background - Let's call the guild my Shaman just left Angry, for the sake of protecting identities (though at this point I'm not even sure why I'm bothering to protect anyone...but I digress).  Two guilds merged into Angry.  One we'll call Uncomplicated and the other we'll call....Pie.  No, they're not real names.  Just...focus...

At any rate, when I left Angry I did so as quietly as I could.  When people asked why I was withdrawing, I simply stated that it had become clear that I was no longer welcome and it was better that I just moved on.  About two days after I left, the guild leader of Pie found that I was no longer in guild and asked why.  Because I'm friends with this GL, I told her what happened in much more detail.  She decided she was going to go back to Pie and bring her people back with her.  I was offered a raid coordinator position there and accepted.

So, long story short:  Angry lost the vast majority of its members over the course of a weekend and still more are trickling out and coming back to Pie.  One of the only officers from Uncomplicated that was still left in Angry took it upon himself to go absolutely apesh*t ballistic on the Guild Leader of Angry and then leave the guild.  He asked me for an invitation to Pie and then...the torrential downpour of drama washed over me like a tidal wave.

He asked me to log into vent to listen to his thoughts and feelings on the whole guild drama, then proceeded to tell me, basically what he expected of me.  I'm glad that he asked me to dedicate myself to Pie, but that was already my intention.  I have friends there that I adore and I'm willing to help them as much as I can. 

The main source of tension for this Uncomplicated officer is that my main is currently in a raid guild.  He feels that it's unfair for me to expect everyone in Pie to put forth 100% effort and loyalty if I cannot do the same.

Well, here's the thing:  The officers and guild members of Pie are both aware and fine with my main not being with them.  I would have thought that my dedication to Angry would have been sufficient enough proof that I'm willing to give it my all in my alts guild, but apparently it isn't for this one person.  One, miserable person...

I think the most frustrating part of the entire ordeal is that he informed me he'd be taking his main to a raid guild unless I pledged my dedication to Pie.  When I did so, that wasn't good enough.  He was still bitching at me about the whole thing.  I told him to go ahead and go to one of the "elite" raid guilds he claimed were just drooling over him.  That was also not the correct answer.  Then I realized he was just a drama queen and was bitching to hear himself bitch, nothing more and I told him I needed to go.

He continued to try to send me tells throughout the evening which were met with silence.

Listen, I try really hard to be a nice person both in and outside of the game.  I try to hear people's concerns and I try to help.  But if all you're just going to sit there and cause drama with me for the sake of causing drama, then you really just need to grow up.  The past two weeks have made me really bitter toward people.  That's not the kind of person I am and I refuse to let it continue.

I hate using the /ignore feature, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let childish drama ruin my fun.  I, like so many other people that play, have my own stress and drama IRL.  I log in to blow shit up and get my mind off of what's going on for a little while, have some fun with friends and all that.  I don't log in to listen to children whine at me. 

I seriously wanted to punch a kitten last night!  Or maybe just start wielding a cactus...

Wait...I just found out that I can /gkick people from Pie!!!  Game on, drama.  Game on.

Drama...**Post Removed by Author???**

DRAMA SUCKS

**This post has been removed**

Sorry guys...I'm sooooooooooooooo tired of drama...and for whatever reason, this batch is like the plague.  It just won't go away.

Quick summary

I left my alt guild because it was destroying my soul and the drama from the game ACTUALLY FOLLOWED ME INTO REAL LIFE...


Wait what?  Seriously?


Yeah...seriously...

The original contained more...specific...reasons as to why I left.  I was pretty pissed about the whole ordeal.  I felt like I could at least vent in my own blog.  I was wrong.  

So, in an effort to appease the almighty gods above and save what's left of my sanity from continuing drama...I deleted the post.

FYI, If you don't like what's being said here, move on because chances are...I don't want you here anyway.  

Seriously...butthurt much?

Long Absences

Hey everyone!  

I hate these posts because it is literally just me apologizing for being gone.  (Yes, I've gotten your emails.  I'm sorry I haven't posted.)

I only really have time for a quick explanation before I go back on this random hiatus and here it is:

My beloved druid is currently in a pretty good raiding guild.  They're keeping me really busy and I'm constantly having to research fights.  All of the work I put into becoming a tank again seems to have been for naught.  I'm back to healing for now, but that's cool with me.  I'm enjoying it.  Boss kills are boss kills - tanking or not.

My shaman has managed to fall into the dreaded "Guild Officer" position in an up and coming guild.  All of the free time I have away from learning fights for my druid's guild, I'm currently spending working on administrative duties for Furious.  I led my first raid for them last night and...well suffice to say my performance was sub par at best.  I haven't been an active raid lead in about two years, so it's going to take a little bit to get back into the swing of things.

Between the new guilds, the responsibilities I'm taking on for both, and everything going on IRL...I just haven't had the extra time to devote to blogging.

I think I might go to weekly posts on weekends, just so I can wriggle the time into the schedule to get back on here and keep doing what I love, which is writing here.

Until I can get back here and talk to you again...keep on keepin' on!

Much love!

D

Epic Moments: Episode 1

I promised I'd have a story time session with you guys and here it is.  Grab a seat and cozy up by the campfire with me.

SWEET! +4 Spirit!!!

Let's start with Heroic:  Deadmines.  This was the first heroic I've ever tanked in Cataclysm.  Suffice to say it was a little rough, but at least I have an idea of what to do...Okay, I still really don't but I have a better idea now than I did before.

There were a few rough trash pulls.  Feral Charge got me in trouble a time or two and I really need to work on pickup tanking, where CC pulls are involved.  I went with a group of friends and we somehow managed to get to the end.  That's where Epic Story #1 takes place.

We did really well on Ripsnarl, so when it was time to face Cookie, I was feeling pretty relaxed about it.  I mean, really there's no tanking him as much as blowing him up before he blows you up, right?  No adds to worry about.  No ungodly damage spells to worry about interrupting.  Just RAWR-FACESMASHING-TIME.

I love face-smashie time.  It's one of my favorite things to do...So we engage Cookie...


Before I get into how our encounter went, let me first explain the basics of this fight.


Basically, you engage Cookie and he hops into a little pot in the center of the deck.  From there, he tosses out two types of "food" onto the deck.  There are swirly green foods of AoE damaging doom and heavenly halo food of epic haste.


The idea here is to have each dps pick up 2 green foods, let the debuff wear off, then go back in and pick up two more.  This keeps the deck from getting totally covered in a swirling green death cloud of...well...death.  The dps is also supposed to pick up as many of the heavenly halo food as they can as it increases their haste exponentially.  With the increased haste buff on your group, the idea is to blow up Cookie before the AoE damage overwhelms the group.  Sounds easy enough, right?


Yeah...


When we engaged him, it seemed like only myself and the enhancement shaman were grabbing up the swirly green plates of destruction.  Everyone really SHOULD be doing it, but alas, it just wasn't happening in our group.


It wasn't too long before the deck was covered in swirling green death, the shaman and I had almost 8 or more stacks of the green death food debuff each (which is hell for the healer because it applies a dot to whoever eats it that stacks...it gets nasty fast), and people started to die.


Eventually it was only our healer, Kon.  As much as I despise paladins most of the time, I gotta give him kudos.  He ran, frantically, around the deck to avoid the green swirls of agony.  Most of us, myself and two dps I think, released and ran back to rejoin the fight.

Just try to imagine him running around a pirate ship like a sissy girl...healing for all he's worth!

And there's nothing more LOL inducing than running back up to a fight only to see your healer racing around the deck of a ship like a chicken with no head.  It's also sort of awe-inspiring.  Most healers would have just stopped healing and given up.  Not Kon.  He won't go down unless he absolutely has to.


Well, I threw an innervate on him and immediately ran back to smack Cookie around a bit more.  He still had a considerable amount of health left (roughly 40%), but Kon apparently wasn't ready to give up so I hopped over and started picking up green stuff so I could berserk and FACE-SMASHIE-FUN-TIME on Mr. Cookie.
 

Unfortunately, it wasn't too long before our dps was down again.  I popped whatever cooldowns I had and just went to town.  I'm not really sure how he kept me alive, but he did and we downed him.  And it only took us almost 8 minutes!  GO US!


Kon just piped in and said this fight lasted 7min 45sec exactly.  Apparently, it traumatized him so much that the fight time will be burned into his mind for the rest of his life...lol.


Crazy stuff happens to us all the time in Azeroth, but I've gotta say that this was one of the craziest things I'd seen since Cataclysm's impossible to deal with Heroics arrived.  I suppose I should throw a shout out to the entire group for not only putting up with me tanking (and struggling with it most of the run) but also for being a part of one of the craziest runs I've experienced so far.  So, special thanks to Sack, Pick, MK, and Kon for that.  


Moving on...

Epic Story #2 takes place in The Stonecore (heroic).  I bet half of you just cringed at that.  I know.  I did, too.  No love for Stonecore.  It's so...ugh...

First, let's discuss the group makeup.  I was on my druid, healing.  Kon was on his druid, tanking (so, Roars...I'm still not sure which he considers his main right now, so he can just be RoarKon or something), then we had J and S as warrior dps and D as our death knight.

See any issues there?


Yeah...absolutely NO crowd control and NO ranged dps.  From a healing standpoint...it was HELL.  We struggled with trash pulls because most of the trash pulls have spinning slash and other various AoE damage that normally would only hit 2-3 group members, but in our case was hitting 4/5 of us.  It was almost impossible to heal through, they weren't able to see and avoid it really...yeah it was just...yeah...


We managed to get through the instance though.  We downed the first two bosses.  I'll say that every fight in there is DEFINITELY harder with only melee dps.  Try it sometime.  It will make you want to curl up in a corner and cry, but we managed.


Then...we got to Ozruk.


I'm not going to post the strat on this because the strat actually explains it as if the group had ranged dps.  We didn't.  We had melee only.  It wasn't TOO hard to heal at first because with melee, they get a dot put on them just from hitting Oz, so they don't have to deal with the paralyze.  What they DO have to deal with is the Shatter ability he has.


I'm not entirely sure how but, one by one, our dps died.  Ozruk was still at or above 30% health...part of me just wanted to give up and wipe it out and try again, but I looked over and Roars flashed me a little teary-eyed, sad panda face so, well, I couldn't just give up on him, right?   


And then there were TWO...


Yep, just Roars and I were left standing to face Ozzy.  I just assumed we were going to wipe anyway, but I was curious to see how long we could go.  I innervated myself twice and I know Roars hit me at least once.  I threw a battle rez to J, but a serious of unfortunate events happened and, well, J got hit by either a shatter or a ground slam and died again pretty quickly...

And then there were STILL two!

Roarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs

Between Roars and I, we managed to actually two man this boss from about 30%.  I know he was popping cooldowns whenever he could.  There were a few times when I was totally OOM and couldn't even cast a moonfire on Ozruk during his Elementium Bulwark to avoid the paralyze and thus the spike damage from Shatter.  I'm not sure what all was going on on his end, but I know I was staring at his health bar, my mana bar and every "omg!" button I have available to me in the way of quick, efficient healing, mana regeneration, or other various life-saving yumminess! 

There was a point where I was totally oom, had no cooldowns left, no mana potions available, no trinkets to pop, was precariously low on health and then got paralyzed.  I thought for sure we were doomed...but SOMEHOW the spike damage after Paralyze didn't kill me.  I only had about 5k health left, but had regenerated just enough mana for a quick stack of Lifebloom for Roars and my lifeblood (Herbalism HoT FTW!) came off of cooldown.  It was as if the BlizzGods were smiling down upon us...

^ blizzgods smiling down on us, see?

And then...Ozruk went down!

I was SHOCKED when he finally died.  Again, Kudos to RoarKon for using his cooldowns intelligently and being extra careful to avoid damage.  Had he been a "typical" tank, well...I wouldn't be writing this here today.  



I have a feeling that there are many, many more epic adventures in store for us in the future and when they happen, I'll share them with you here.  Until then, take care and GG guys!