A Hallow's End Tip

Here's a little tip I picked up during the Hallow's End festivities:

If you are transformed into a bat DO NOT attempt to fly. You have not actually been transformed into bat - you are merely wearing a bat costume. Any attempt to fly, say by jumping off a zeppelin, will likely result in a messy demise.

You have been warned.

Oops I Did it Again

Instead of Naxxramas, this Tuesday the guild leaders took us into Ulduar. This wasn't my first assault on Ulduar - we actually spent an evening messing with the bosses last week after our defeat of Kel'Thuzad. That night I picked up the Pyrite Infuser from Flame Leviathan and then proceeded to wipe the raid and then almost wipe the raid again on XT-002 when I couldn't pick up the debuff.

Due to a combination of different reasons we took forever to get going Tuesday. People had trouble connecting, others couldn't into the vehicles in their assigned spots (but could get in other spots). Then we took forever to explain to one raid member how to grab the pyrite barrels. She kept getting off the vehicle to try and grab the barrels manually. That episode fell into the 'you have to laugh otherwise you'd cry' category. Deafening cheers over vent when we saw the barrel get picked up.

We wiped twice on Flame Leviathan. The first attempt went badly when, despite warnings not to, the demolishers kept getting too close to Flame Leviathan. In addition I was assigned to assault the tank but my driver never launched me - so we never triggered an overload. Once we lost both demolishers the raid leader called for a wipe.

The second attempt went a little better. The other cannon fodder and I actually got onto the tank and together we took the turrets down. We got off the tank and were picked up. The bike riders stayed too close however and both bikes and their passengers died. With no way to cause an overload the rest of the party had no chance so that was another wipe.

We improved enough on the third try to actually come out ahead. I got launched early, the bikes and the demolishers stayed away, once FL overloaded we got picked up and back on the demolishers quickly. For the second assault on the turrets I was alone on the tank - I think the other guy died at some point. So bringing on the second overload took some time. Eventually we got it done though and, what do you know, the Pyrite Infuser dropped again.

With that out of the way we moved on to Ignis. To cut a long story short: he beat us. Twice. Then we bailed. A comment over vent after the first shot made me do a double take on the damage meter though:

I hit almost 3,400 DPS again (3,358 to be exact). Whoa!

On the second try I hit only 2,270DPS again. I did wind up in the slag pot three times for that fight but still. The binary nature of this switch tells me that something like a buff or a debuff is causing this. If the difference were caused by just getting lucky with procs or getting the rotation perfect I would expect to see cases where I hit 3,000 DPS or 3,100 DPS or 3,200 DPS. But I don't, I see either 2,800 DPS (max) or 3,400 DPS. Nothing in between.

Going over the Recount data last night I noticed two things:

1) I inflict much more damage when using Earth Shock than when Stormstrike. So I need to change my ability priority to favour Earth Shock over Stormstrike.

2) On the first fight my critical hit rate was almost 10% higher than on the second fight. I believe that for the first fight I had the extra critical rating from Worm Delight rather than the AP buff from Fish Feast because I had died to one of the revenants just before Ignis. That will be worth looking into.

Worgen Woods

I started out writing this post by taking the Goblin Gulch quests and then giving them a more worgen look and feel. After I did that I took a good look at how they worked together and realized that all those quests could be condensed into one simple task...

Worgen Woods

Kill every living thing in Worgen Woods including critters, other players and the quest giver. You have 15 minutes.

In fact I'm not sure worgen should have access to any quests at all. Just give them a permanent 100% XP bonus for killing stuff (200% rested bonus) and set them loose.

Naxxramas 10 Man - Kel'Thuzad

Last wednesday night I found myself, with nine other guild members, standing in front of Kel'Thuzad for the first time...

This was the first time here for at least three of us so the raid leader took time out to explain the fight.

He told us about the first phase with the corpses and the abominations and the banshees. He told us not to shoot the abominations in the alcoves. He told us about the frost tombs. He told us about the two beetle adds. He even told us about the void zones.

First Attempt

What he didn't tell us is what the void zones look like. Back in the military quarter the void zones are large black puddles on the floor. Kel'Thuzad's void zones are shoulder high red swirling lines. A key difference.

So when, about 5s into the boss phase, a void zone spawned on top of me it took me some time to recognize it. In fact it took one of the raid members yelling at me to move over vent to realize what was happening. By then of course it was too late and I spent basically the entire fight lying on the floor.

I didn't spend too long there though since one of the healers did exactly the same thing a few seconds later. With healing cut 50% the raid was screwed and the leader called it.

Second Attempt

Armed with new found knowledge about what his void zones look like We got Kel down to 40% and triggered the guardians. At some point heals on the off-tank handling the guardians got nixxed and he went down. That left the beetles free to graze on the healers and then move on to a main course of feral tank druid with assorted damage dealers for dessert.

I guess I was last on the threat meter because I wound up alone in the chamber with Kel'Thuzad and two very angry beetles. I ran him and his buddies around for a few seconds before I gave in to the inevitable.

Third Attempt.

I don't know. What to say? We all stayed out of the void zones. Myself and the ret pally got frost tombed. We had three melee so there was bound to be some overlap. I survived and he didn't. The off-tank got all the heals he needed while we lit Kel up. Once he was down we quickly disposed of the guardians.



The shaman helmet token dropped, but I passed to let the shaman healer take it since what I had was almost as good, if not better, while she still had a level 77 piece.

And that was it, Naxxramas cleared, my first complete raid dungeon.

Naxxramas 10 Man - Sapphiron

Raids reset today, so here is the continuation of the saga of last weeks Naxxramas 10-man raid:

At midnight on last Wednesday night for the first I time I stood in a Naxxramas instance with all four wings cleared. The way was open to Sapphiron and Kel'Thuzad. At first I wasn't sure we were going to continue, but then the raid leaders called us into Sapphiron's chamber and dropped a Fish Feast.

Besides being a dragon there are two things to watch on Sapphiron. Firstly he casts an AOE blizzard like effect that does damage and slows movement and attack speed. Secondly he periodicallyfreezes two random group members into ice blocks and then drops a ball of frozen breath stuff. The only way to survive that is to be hiding behind one of your frozen team mates.

Those two effects doomed our first attempt. I survived easily the first freezing. On the second go around, however, I stood in the blizzard (doh!) and then she cast the ice-block effect. Because I was still frozen from the blizzard I didn't make it to cover in time. Dead, along with a couple of others also, including one of the healers. So that was the end of that attempt.

The second attempt went much smoother. I moved out of the blizzard when it came down. Though that meant having to stop hitting the boss for a few seconds. Even worse a couple of re-positions pushed me too far towards his rear and I ate a tail-swipe. Just then he cast an ice-block so I had to run halfway across the room to safety. I made it a split-second before our druid healer did.

When the frozen breath dropped we came out and finished him off.



One more boss to go...

Goblin Gulch

My first reaction to the news that Goblins would now be a playable race was, at first, 'meh'. I did some thinking however, and, if done right, this could be a really neat idea. For example the starting area quests would have a distinctly Goblin feel to them...

Your Place in the World

Goblin Gulch is overrun with boar and someone is willing to pay to get rid of them. Presumably the more boar there are the higher the price will go. Use the boar pheromone to encourage the boar to breed until the price hits 20s. (daily)

Sarkoth

Hana'zua has been stung by Sarkoth and will die without anti-venom. Locate Hana'zua's relatives scattered through Goblin Gulch and tell each of them that they need to give you 10s to pay for the anti-venom or he will die, slowly and in agony.

Sarkoth - Part 2

Unfortunately Hana'zua died slowly and in agony while you were getting contributions for the anti-venom so you were unable to make any money off his extended medical care. To make up for this hit his relatives up again for another 15s each in return for exacting revenge on Sarkoth. Find a friendly orc to kill Sarkoth for you. Charge him 20s for the privilege.

Thazz'ril's Pick

Thazz'ril has left his magic glow-in-the-dark pick in the mine. Locate it and 'liberate' it from it's current owners. Then sell it on the Auction House for at least 19s. If he wanted his pick back he shouldn't have told you where it was should he?

Burning Blade Medallion

Word on the street is that Yarrog Baneshadow has something called a 'Burning Blade Medallion', which sounds like it might be valuable. Find and convince him to let you fence it for him. Offer him a fair share, no more than 15%, for any other medallions he might 'find'.

Kolkar Aggression

The centaur of Kolkar Crag are plotting to attack Goblin Gulch. Steal the attack plans and bring them to Lar Prowltusk. Then sell the copies you made back to the centaur. You did make copies right?

Winds in the Desert

Rezlak's convoy was attacked by Dustwind harpies, any more attacks and he could be out of business. Find the harpy leader and make a deal. You'll give them the convoy schedule and they give you half the stolen cargo in return. Take five sacks of grain as advance payment.

Securing the Lines

Somehow Rezlak was able to recover part of his latest shipment. Show the Dustwind harpies what happens to your associates if they screw up. Serve dinner and use the baseball bat on 10 Dustwind witches.

Coming soon, Worgen Woods...

Naxxramas 10 Man - Plague Quarter

It was straight from the spiders into the plague wing last Wednesday. Now I'm not a big fan of the plague quarter. Heigan's safety dance is just too gimicky for my taste, but something very interesting occurred on the first boss, Noth.

Noth is a fairly easy kill for us now. Hit Noth with everything possible and off-tank the adds until he teleports to the balcony. Then throw all the area damage spells possible at the adds until they're dead and he comes back down. I would say repeat each time he teleports but nowadays he only gets one teleport and then he's dead. After the kill the raid leader posted the damage count.

I looked for my DPS in the usual way : start at the bottom and work up, it's quicker. 8th place, no, whew! I wasn't last again. 7th, 6th, hmm, 5th, no, 4th, oh god what did I do?. 3rd, I must have screwed up and not done any damage. 2nd.

OMG I'm second on the damage chart, 3,400 DPS! How the heck did I do that?

Seriously, I did everything the same way I always do, but on this one fight I hit almost 1,000 DPS more than normal. Sadly I was so happy/confused I forgot to save the recount data to see what was different.

We did Heigan the 'nub' way described earlier. I died literally two feet short of the safe spot during the first, and only, safety dance. My body was lying with it's feet on one side of the stacked raid and it's head on the other. I really must get a run speed enchant on my boots one of these days.

The biggest problem I have with Loatheb is spotting the spores. The raid leader has Deadly Boss Mods call out when spores appear but it takes me ages to actually locate them in the room. Combine that with having to stop hitting him to run over to the spores meant that my damage was really low. Not quite 2,000 DPS. Loatheb did leave me his trinket though which was really nice.

Furthermore with his death all four wings are cleared and it's still only midnight...