This weekend we pwned every ICC10 boss, including 2-shotting Blood Queen Lathaniel, until Sindragosa.
The queen is so easy, just set a bite priority, then rock your dps, get together when linked, and spread during air phase... oh and run away on swarming shadows.
Sindragosa... that's a completely different matter.
The first phases, ground and air, are very easy. Stop when debuffedx5, use teleport to get away when pulled, and during air phase, spread out, get away from marked ppl, and slowly dps tombs, while rotating to LOS the bombs.
As to P3... a nightmare. It seems easy in theory, ie, when marked, run to a spot, everyone else (?) dps the tomb while LOS'ing the boss to clear the debuff... run away when pulled.. rinse and repeat.
In practice... it's way worse.
Or the healers are LOS from the tanks and they die, or the dps are to slow to dps the tomb, or to move away, and pretty soon there are 2 tombs, or the Instability soon kills someone that forgot to stop dps, or someone gets pulled and does not get away fast enough... miriads of problems.
We tried a few times on Sat and 10 times on Sun. No way.
The best we could do was 20%.. we tried with the standard positioning, ie, Sindra with the tail to the stairs, and then with Sindra head near the stairs, and the spot in such a way that the healers dont get LOS to the tanks, but neither worked.
I wonder why...
Monday, March 15, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
9/12 ICC10 and 5/12 ICC25 after Dream raid
This week we overpushed in ICC10 to get some progress. And progress we did. We downed Putricide and Valkyria Dreamwalker, both bosses are actually easy as long as you stick to a strict schedule.
For Putricide, always walk south and north, and dont stay near the middle during the green-rooting slime attack, to give time for the dps both to dps and to close-in on you, just in case. That's my best advice. And ofc stay away of every sh*t on the floor.
For Valkyria, prioritize your adds, with Blazing Skeletons as absolutely top priority, then supressors (unless someone is assigned to be in their neighborhood), then the Archmages, then Blistering Zombies (kite them from tank), and finally the Abominations... and kick your tank if he doesnt do good AoE when the abomination little spawns come out, they 2-shot hit you if you aggro them.
Nature res might help... that's all folks.
At the Blood Council, I tanked Keleseth again and I performe well enough to get ourselves the Orb Whisperer achievement, as I never got more than 25K spell hit, meaning 3 orbs or more were on me all the time. Well, that's supposed to be like that, if the range tank doesnt slack hehe.
Finally, we tried Sindragosa. The fight is insanely easy. The only thing that's a bit tricky is when ppl get frozen too much near the wall, and it's hard to see the direction where the bombs are coming from. It's also a bit tricky to match the destroying of the frozen tomb with the end of the bombing. We wiped twice and called it a night.
As to ICC25..we're stuck on Rotface, and this week we got stuck on Festergut as some impatient idiots left the guild, and they were doing good dps. Last week we had killed Fester with 2 secs to spare, this week we failed with Fester ending with... 50K on our best try. Crap !
Finally, an important achievement completed, I'm Exalted with 40 reputations.
On the LOTRO front, I'm enjoying it ! Luckily my trial-ended but a welcome back week started, so I'm getting 3 weeks of free play. I'm now a lvl 24 Minstrel and kicking ass. I like the deed/trait thing, it's a different breeze from a talent based spec. And the graphics are stunning, Bree Land is amazing. I'm getting ready for my first instance, Great Barrows, looking forward to do it with my n00b fellowship, 1 healer, 1 dps, 1 tank LOL
For Putricide, always walk south and north, and dont stay near the middle during the green-rooting slime attack, to give time for the dps both to dps and to close-in on you, just in case. That's my best advice. And ofc stay away of every sh*t on the floor.
For Valkyria, prioritize your adds, with Blazing Skeletons as absolutely top priority, then supressors (unless someone is assigned to be in their neighborhood), then the Archmages, then Blistering Zombies (kite them from tank), and finally the Abominations... and kick your tank if he doesnt do good AoE when the abomination little spawns come out, they 2-shot hit you if you aggro them.
Nature res might help... that's all folks.
At the Blood Council, I tanked Keleseth again and I performe well enough to get ourselves the Orb Whisperer achievement, as I never got more than 25K spell hit, meaning 3 orbs or more were on me all the time. Well, that's supposed to be like that, if the range tank doesnt slack hehe.
Finally, we tried Sindragosa. The fight is insanely easy. The only thing that's a bit tricky is when ppl get frozen too much near the wall, and it's hard to see the direction where the bombs are coming from. It's also a bit tricky to match the destroying of the frozen tomb with the end of the bombing. We wiped twice and called it a night.
As to ICC25..we're stuck on Rotface, and this week we got stuck on Festergut as some impatient idiots left the guild, and they were doing good dps. Last week we had killed Fester with 2 secs to spare, this week we failed with Fester ending with... 50K on our best try. Crap !
Finally, an important achievement completed, I'm Exalted with 40 reputations.
On the LOTRO front, I'm enjoying it ! Luckily my trial-ended but a welcome back week started, so I'm getting 3 weeks of free play. I'm now a lvl 24 Minstrel and kicking ass. I like the deed/trait thing, it's a different breeze from a talent based spec. And the graphics are stunning, Bree Land is amazing. I'm getting ready for my first instance, Great Barrows, looking forward to do it with my n00b fellowship, 1 healer, 1 dps, 1 tank LOL
Friday, March 05, 2010
Wee Festergut 25 down !
Last night, the damn boss that was keeping us from going forward in the Citadel came down for good.
The Strength of Wrynn, a buff that will go from 5% to 30%, set by Blizzard to allow us poor casuals to see WOTLK content, helped us. But we finished with a few seconds to spare, so I wonder if it would come down without the buff. Probably not. Gah.
Anyways, he's down, and last night we tried Rotface 25. It seems exactly the same as in ICC10, and it gets harder to the end. Our best try was 20%. We'll see tonight.
Must stay away from the Big Ooze, must stay away from the Big Ooze, must stay away from the Big Ooze. Hard to do it when the healer doesnt cure me while I'm waiting by the tank to provide a nice oozie and nothing happens for 5 secs...sooner or later one gets a hit or gets the feet on the green poo and...RIP.
I found a way that works nearly all the time to go for the tank.. simply create a macro that follows him. So when u get the debuff, you just click and there you go.. of course, dont go too near the tank because of the AoE. But just to play safe, keep moving the camera around the check his whereabouts.
Edit: As a lock, I've just found out that the Mutated Infection is Shadow Damage ! Shadow Damage Ha ha ha ! Ok, remember to use Shadow Ward every time I go for the tank, since I can't be dpsing. That's about 3 seconds of free running.
The Strength of Wrynn, a buff that will go from 5% to 30%, set by Blizzard to allow us poor casuals to see WOTLK content, helped us. But we finished with a few seconds to spare, so I wonder if it would come down without the buff. Probably not. Gah.
Anyways, he's down, and last night we tried Rotface 25. It seems exactly the same as in ICC10, and it gets harder to the end. Our best try was 20%. We'll see tonight.
Must stay away from the Big Ooze, must stay away from the Big Ooze, must stay away from the Big Ooze. Hard to do it when the healer doesnt cure me while I'm waiting by the tank to provide a nice oozie and nothing happens for 5 secs...sooner or later one gets a hit or gets the feet on the green poo and...RIP.
I found a way that works nearly all the time to go for the tank.. simply create a macro that follows him. So when u get the debuff, you just click and there you go.. of course, dont go too near the tank because of the AoE. But just to play safe, keep moving the camera around the check his whereabouts.
Edit: As a lock, I've just found out that the Mutated Infection is Shadow Damage ! Shadow Damage Ha ha ha ! Ok, remember to use Shadow Ward every time I go for the tank, since I can't be dpsing. That's about 3 seconds of free running.
Monday, March 01, 2010
A night at the circus: The Baloon Man
Some time has passed since my last topic. Not much progress has been done in ICC.
Well, a little.
In ICC25, we are pwning the first 4 bosses, but can't get past Festergut and its dps race. I'm usually in the top 3, but there are still ppl doing below 6K dps, and that leaves Festergut enraging at 15%. Tactics are fine, everyone now runs to the spores, my portal helps me get back and I nearly don't loose dps except when... a mage by my side activates the mirror images. I'd swear every time they become active, I start to vomit due to getting too close to the bloody images.
We also tried the blood princes in ICC25, I was the baloon man, but oh man, it's hard to move around fetching baloons, when ppl steal them from me, and when the damn knock back occurs 5 secs before keleseth activating, giving me no more time to fetch baloons before I get killed by a 25K Empowered Shadow Lance.
In ICC10, we're easily clearing Festergut, then Rotface.. it's a bit harder, a few wipes, damn oozes and the green sh*t that suddenly pops on the floor when we're right on top of it are damn hard. But we manage.
This week, we did the Blood Princes in ICC10, and again, I was the baloon man. It is so much easier, I managed to get it fine, both staying alive and aggroing with searing pain, so that dps can kill it. Now I have to learn how to also dps while I'm aggroing and pulling baloons. I've been using a few tricks, like a 0/43/28 spec, with soul link and the nether protection, plus a voidwalker for the sacrifice shield and also shadow ward. To pull baloons I'm using rank 1 Curse of Agony, which worked great in ICC and lasts 24 secs. To keep aggro, searing pain, ofc, but some ppl say that decimate works just fine during the 1HP phase.
We also tried Valkyria Dreamwalker, the boss where the healers have to heal the boss while we kill add waves... we healed her up to 77%, so next week she'll come down for sure. I think one missing trick was our hunter using Nature resistance aura. I told it in chat, but I guess it wasn't loud enough :)
So, all in all: 7/12 ICC10 and 4/12 ICC25
Ah, last but not least, we've been trying TOGC25, and... omg it's hard !!! The enraging timer for Icehowl is a pain, we got him to 1% (<300K to go) but it's damn hard.
On a different note, I've now stopped playing Dungeons and Dragons Online, since although it's free to play, our group of 3 (me as bard, and 2 melee friends) has run out of dungeons to do at lvl 6.
So, the last week we've been trying Lord of the Rings Online, and this time, I'm actually liking it. Of course, we will have to pay for it, and tbh, having 3 subscriptions (2 WOW and 1 LOTRO) is overkill for my free time.
I also tried Guild Wars to check, but the game is ugly, looks like an old AION (same company NCBS, actually).
And... I also tried WAR, now that is's also free to play. I bought the game in 2008 and played it for 1 month, but quit because it was too sluggish and with slow fps.
Now I've got an ATI 5770 and I can play at 50FPS with maximum detail, both LOTRO and WAR.
As to Warcraft, it's still a bit of a pain in 25-raids, I have to decrease some things to be able to get 20-30 fps, but it becomes playable then.
Enough talking. Let's play !
Well, a little.
In ICC25, we are pwning the first 4 bosses, but can't get past Festergut and its dps race. I'm usually in the top 3, but there are still ppl doing below 6K dps, and that leaves Festergut enraging at 15%. Tactics are fine, everyone now runs to the spores, my portal helps me get back and I nearly don't loose dps except when... a mage by my side activates the mirror images. I'd swear every time they become active, I start to vomit due to getting too close to the bloody images.
We also tried the blood princes in ICC25, I was the baloon man, but oh man, it's hard to move around fetching baloons, when ppl steal them from me, and when the damn knock back occurs 5 secs before keleseth activating, giving me no more time to fetch baloons before I get killed by a 25K Empowered Shadow Lance.
In ICC10, we're easily clearing Festergut, then Rotface.. it's a bit harder, a few wipes, damn oozes and the green sh*t that suddenly pops on the floor when we're right on top of it are damn hard. But we manage.
This week, we did the Blood Princes in ICC10, and again, I was the baloon man. It is so much easier, I managed to get it fine, both staying alive and aggroing with searing pain, so that dps can kill it. Now I have to learn how to also dps while I'm aggroing and pulling baloons. I've been using a few tricks, like a 0/43/28 spec, with soul link and the nether protection, plus a voidwalker for the sacrifice shield and also shadow ward. To pull baloons I'm using rank 1 Curse of Agony, which worked great in ICC and lasts 24 secs. To keep aggro, searing pain, ofc, but some ppl say that decimate works just fine during the 1HP phase.
We also tried Valkyria Dreamwalker, the boss where the healers have to heal the boss while we kill add waves... we healed her up to 77%, so next week she'll come down for sure. I think one missing trick was our hunter using Nature resistance aura. I told it in chat, but I guess it wasn't loud enough :)
So, all in all: 7/12 ICC10 and 4/12 ICC25
Ah, last but not least, we've been trying TOGC25, and... omg it's hard !!! The enraging timer for Icehowl is a pain, we got him to 1% (<300K to go) but it's damn hard.
On a different note, I've now stopped playing Dungeons and Dragons Online, since although it's free to play, our group of 3 (me as bard, and 2 melee friends) has run out of dungeons to do at lvl 6.
So, the last week we've been trying Lord of the Rings Online, and this time, I'm actually liking it. Of course, we will have to pay for it, and tbh, having 3 subscriptions (2 WOW and 1 LOTRO) is overkill for my free time.
I also tried Guild Wars to check, but the game is ugly, looks like an old AION (same company NCBS, actually).
And... I also tried WAR, now that is's also free to play. I bought the game in 2008 and played it for 1 month, but quit because it was too sluggish and with slow fps.
Now I've got an ATI 5770 and I can play at 50FPS with maximum detail, both LOTRO and WAR.
As to Warcraft, it's still a bit of a pain in 25-raids, I have to decrease some things to be able to get 20-30 fps, but it becomes playable then.
Enough talking. Let's play !
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Progress indeed 6/12 ICC10 , 3/12 ICC25
Well well well, it's been going well the last days. It's exhausting, for sure, but fun.
The last days, I killed Toravon the new (and last?) season boss.
I also, after three bloody years, went into Mount Hyjal and killed Archimonde.
I could see it was a beautiful raid in the old days, in fact the zone should much more used as it is now (locked!). The raid itself seems a bit boring, with waves coming and bosses coming, but then again, it was too easy now, I was doing about 15K AoE damage :)
Archimonde fight seemed also very easy, don't know if they nerfed, as I got several reports of how it still wiped 80-raids, when ppl didnt position properly.
Today Love was in the air, so I headed to SFK and downed a new boss trio, funny and easy to do. Supposedly drops the rocket mount. I once saw that once. Pray :) I never got lucky with the Kodo or headless mount in 2 years.
As to ICC25, on Friday we tried Saurfang, it came down up to 10-20% but then it was not possible to do anything, as soon as a ranged dps died, adds started to stay alive too long, boss healed too much and that was it. Dunno how to fix it tbh, besides getting more dps into the raid. Hopefully the gearing in ICC10 we did on the weekend will help.
So, ICC10. We came, we won. The first four bosses came down with no wipes, everyone showing skill and dps, so I got my 4/* ICC10 achievement easily :)
Then, Plagueworks. Oh boy, much more difficult.
Festergut is a dps race. We wiped a few times, and had some bad luck on spores, as they spawned 2x on ranged or 2x on melee a few times. But down he went.
Then, today: Rotface. Oh man, it's not a dps race, but it's damn hard to focus on aggro-contention, dps, switch sides due to the vomiting, watch for marked on yourself to run to offtank, watch for offtank position, watch for explosion, watch for which place to run in case of explosion. Too many things to watch for.
I did 1 mistake on aggro, as our MT is not exactly an aggro machine, and with Bloodlust at 10 secs and the Discipline Priest spell buff (forgot the name) I got, I went skyrocket aggro, soulshattered, and went again skyrocket, and then... died. HATE THAT :((
And I did 1 little mistake taking a bit long to find the OT after an explosion. Have to train where to go (entrance), but with all the maelstrom, who knows where the entrance lies :))
Anyway, a few wipes later, down he came !
Then we went to see Herr Dr PhD Professor Putricide.
Didn't seem tough, tbh, but it requires huge ranged dps, proper continuous repositioning, and a good knowledge of when to kite, when to stand still, when to hug and when to spread, which side to go, etc. Anyway, I think I will shine there, much more than I will ever shine with Rotface.
Got some gear, like waist, and could have needed a wrist, but didn't.. Hard to check what to need with all the nearly equivalent gear around.
Next week I'll have ICC25 with 2 other >>GS locks (5.6 or so), so my top dps times will be over.
Time to rest, no more raids until Wednesday, I'm tired !
Friday, February 05, 2010
ICC25 Second day - Gettting better
Hmm, today was a fun day, except for the part that I get tired like hell after 2 hours. The last 90 mins are an excrutiating pain, although fun. I'm too old for this :)
Anyways, Lady Deathwhisper came down after 3 attempts. I managed to find myself always going top dps, as I barely have to move to switch between dpsing the boss shield and the fanatics. The 2nd part seems fairly easy, as the ghosts can be spotted in flight, so they give more than enough time to move away, and they despawn fast too.
Now, the funny part. After we went for the gunship battle, I found out that I had been wearing my Chef's cooking hat, instead of my T9 4-set-bonus maker gear !!!
Anyway, dps races are ugly, I don't like them... except when I get to be on top at the end, using a Chef's hat and missing a tier gear and bonus! Then it IS funny !
[Slamming an old bearded head on the table]
It's also gratifying to see that my class is able to countepart some weak gear (I still use my old lvl 200 +haste/+crit trinkets). My class, meaning, my class, not my class. Got it ?
I got a necklace roll from the gunship, although I died at the beginning, although I think I did what I could do, but the damn mob came for me even with soulshatter, meaning tank hadn't touch it after about 5 seconds. Tough luck. It was good to see the fight, though, how ppl use the packs from ship to ship to kill the mage while the tanks controls the chief,
Finally, we tried Saurfang, and boy was he close (<20% or so), but not enough. He gets enraged at the end, and since he always healed a bit after a while, it was not doable. I still did well, I think, doing the most damage on the adds and coming 2nd overall dpser. Shadowflame becomes useful here, since the CD is fast and the stuns effective on multiple adds.
One of the tries, I decided to switch my +84 haste trinket for the +84 crit, bringing my haste down from 550 to 460, and ... what a difference (for the worse). I did about less 1K dps. So... no doubt, +500-600 haste is the way to go.
I also found out that with more haste, I'm really using a lot (a LOT) of mana, and the pool is going down very fast, even with replenishment from other raiders. May be it's time to go for 0/13/58 fom 3/13/55 and get +446 hit.
My new ICC25 necklace will help.
Fingers x-ed for tomorrow.
Anyways, Lady Deathwhisper came down after 3 attempts. I managed to find myself always going top dps, as I barely have to move to switch between dpsing the boss shield and the fanatics. The 2nd part seems fairly easy, as the ghosts can be spotted in flight, so they give more than enough time to move away, and they despawn fast too.
Now, the funny part. After we went for the gunship battle, I found out that I had been wearing my Chef's cooking hat, instead of my T9 4-set-bonus maker gear !!!
Anyway, dps races are ugly, I don't like them... except when I get to be on top at the end, using a Chef's hat and missing a tier gear and bonus! Then it IS funny !
[Slamming an old bearded head on the table]
It's also gratifying to see that my class is able to countepart some weak gear (I still use my old lvl 200 +haste/+crit trinkets). My class, meaning, my class, not my class. Got it ?
I got a necklace roll from the gunship, although I died at the beginning, although I think I did what I could do, but the damn mob came for me even with soulshatter, meaning tank hadn't touch it after about 5 seconds. Tough luck. It was good to see the fight, though, how ppl use the packs from ship to ship to kill the mage while the tanks controls the chief,
Finally, we tried Saurfang, and boy was he close (<20% or so), but not enough. He gets enraged at the end, and since he always healed a bit after a while, it was not doable. I still did well, I think, doing the most damage on the adds and coming 2nd overall dpser. Shadowflame becomes useful here, since the CD is fast and the stuns effective on multiple adds.
One of the tries, I decided to switch my +84 haste trinket for the +84 crit, bringing my haste down from 550 to 460, and ... what a difference (for the worse). I did about less 1K dps. So... no doubt, +500-600 haste is the way to go.
I also found out that with more haste, I'm really using a lot (a LOT) of mana, and the pool is going down very fast, even with replenishment from other raiders. May be it's time to go for 0/13/58 fom 3/13/55 and get +446 hit.
My new ICC25 necklace will help.
Fingers x-ed for tomorrow.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
First RGC-Silvermoon raid
Last night (bad choice, patch day, with immense lag spikes until 22h) was the first official ICC-25 raid.
Result ? Some mixed feelings.
People with will to do it, but a little underdps, a few ppl that were coming for the first time without having looked at the strategy.
One thing I didn't know about, and costed me 2 tries with highest damage taken, which was that coldflame can be mitigated by staying in the boss's hit box. However, this brings melee range, and therefore Saber Lash. We never did like that in ICC25 on Chromaggus. But we had better healing there, I think.
Overall, I got a lot of damage, and tbh, I don't know why. Too much Flame, too much Lash. The only thing I know, and that's weird, is that I had vigilance from my tank and during those 5 tries I got top damage taken (all but 1). At the 6th, we killed it, the warrior tank was replaced by a paladin, I lost vigilance and... I was no longer top damage taken, I was 8th or so. At the kill, I messed up with my macro, so I ended up missing a lot of Spikes :(
Weird. Vigilance lessens my damage taken. So was I 3% worse ? OMG !
Anyay, my dps was not bad, I was top 5, ex-aequo with a hunter. What was also weird was that the 3 rogues were the top 3 dps, with one of them with a similar GS.
I wonder what is going on.
At the end we tried Deathwhisper, (pulled all mobs at once and I my Rain of Fire come on top, which says that it's not so bad) and I made a misjudgement, so didnt start immediately dpsing the adds. After a bit, there was a loose one killing our top healer, so, bye. But I also found out that I dpsed the boss's shield on top by miles. So my rotation seems fine, even when switching to mobs.
I heard a comment from a guildie about the melee's reflect shield, and it's bad (when it' up) if a caster hits it, as it reflects to the whole raid with massive dmg. Have to check that, don' remeber that issue being raised on Chromaggus, or ever. Or may be he was talking about the need for the melee to do massive dmg to the shield in order to break it for us casters to hit the mob.
Tonight we go again. She'll come down, I swear to Elune.
Result ? Some mixed feelings.
People with will to do it, but a little underdps, a few ppl that were coming for the first time without having looked at the strategy.
One thing I didn't know about, and costed me 2 tries with highest damage taken, which was that coldflame can be mitigated by staying in the boss's hit box. However, this brings melee range, and therefore Saber Lash. We never did like that in ICC25 on Chromaggus. But we had better healing there, I think.
Overall, I got a lot of damage, and tbh, I don't know why. Too much Flame, too much Lash. The only thing I know, and that's weird, is that I had vigilance from my tank and during those 5 tries I got top damage taken (all but 1). At the 6th, we killed it, the warrior tank was replaced by a paladin, I lost vigilance and... I was no longer top damage taken, I was 8th or so. At the kill, I messed up with my macro, so I ended up missing a lot of Spikes :(
Weird. Vigilance lessens my damage taken. So was I 3% worse ? OMG !
Anyay, my dps was not bad, I was top 5, ex-aequo with a hunter. What was also weird was that the 3 rogues were the top 3 dps, with one of them with a similar GS.
I wonder what is going on.
At the end we tried Deathwhisper, (pulled all mobs at once and I my Rain of Fire come on top, which says that it's not so bad) and I made a misjudgement, so didnt start immediately dpsing the adds. After a bit, there was a loose one killing our top healer, so, bye. But I also found out that I dpsed the boss's shield on top by miles. So my rotation seems fine, even when switching to mobs.
I heard a comment from a guildie about the melee's reflect shield, and it's bad (when it' up) if a caster hits it, as it reflects to the whole raid with massive dmg. Have to check that, don' remeber that issue being raised on Chromaggus, or ever. Or may be he was talking about the need for the melee to do massive dmg to the shield in order to break it for us casters to hit the mob.
Tonight we go again. She'll come down, I swear to Elune.
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