Picture of the Week

We had just killed Lei Shi on this week’s guild ToES run…

I only asked to repair….!

Raiding MSV (ranged DPS) for Noobs

My lovely guildmates affectionately (I hope!!) take the mickey that I am such a noob. They often have to help me out with explaining tactics – usually more than once – and where I should stand. Today we managed to one-shot all of MSV and first boss in HoF before our raid time came to an end and I didn’t die once! Yipee!!

One, a sneaky southerner by the name of Zolu, suggested I write a blog post for other clueless people. I think it was in jest, but I’m calling him so, here it is.

Things To Know

1. Accessed from Kun-Lai Summit – closest flight point is Temple of the White Tiger to the East

2. Take a flask and a banquet or you get told off

3. You need to be around 480 iLvl and hitting 70k dps to do this comfortably

4. Remember to gem, enchant and reforge for your current spec – that extra 10k DPS might make all the difference!

First Boss: The Stone Guard

• 3 large scary-looking stone dog things standing by the stairs
• They will be tanked in 2 groups – one alone by the less important tank (they give it a posh name “off-tank” to make it more paletable)
• Target one of the ones in the group of 2 being tanked by the main tank or you get moaned at

Second Boss: Feng the Accursed

• Fought on a circular dias – get inside it when they pull or you’re locked out and you get moaned at
• Phase 1: Stack in the middle and DPS boss. Our team alternates interrupts with a barrier to deal with the Epicentre Damage – if the Nullification Barrier is up (a big blue bubble)… get in it. Oh, and DPS the boss or you’ll be moaned at.
• Phase 2: Stack in the middle and DPS boss (see a trend here??). If you get the Wildfire Spark, run to the pre-designated spot and wait until it drops off you, then run and stack again. Don’t leave it in the middle, or you’ll end up fried.
• Phase 3: the boss will be pulled to the middle, so spread out. You may get a debuff called “Arcane Resonance”. THIS HURTS so don’t go near your team or you’ll hurt them too. However, if the ability “Arcane Velocity” is used, and you do not have the debuff, go stack in the middle til it’s over
• Remember to DPS the boss at all times…or you get moaned at.

Third Boss: the totem dude (aka Gara’jal the Spiritbinder)

• Fought on a circular dias… get inside!!
• For DPS this is pretty simple, yay. Stack to start and pop CDs.
• Totems: periodically, totems will spawn. These are delt with by 1 healer and 2 DPS entering the purple swirling misty stuff, killing the totem and being transfered to the spirit world. Don’t kill the totem before everyone gets there…
• Spirit World: Once you’ve killed the totem, you become all transparent and spirit-y. You loose lots of health so don’t panic! Kill as many bad guys as possible whilst inside. You have 30seconds to do as much damage as possible whilst the healer heals you to full health. When the timer reaches 5 seconds, click the button in the middle of your screen to exit. If you don’t, you die. Then you get moaned at.
• Voodoo Dolls: a debuff causing damage. You can’t enter the spirit world whilst you have this.
• Finally… at 20% pop all CDs and burn the boss down as he enrages and hope you don’t die in the process.

Fourth Boss: the Sprit Kings

• These guys are fun! Fought on a (yep!) circular platform.
• Four mini-bosses activate one at a time. Each boss killed grants one of his abilities to the current one…woopee.
• Qiang the Merciless: stack in front of the boss. When he uses “Annihilate”, run through his legs immediately, or you die. “Flanking Orders” is a line of scary dudes swinging their swords which cause lots of damage – get out of the way to avoid it (the raid leader will generally call which way to run)
• Meng the Demented: “Maddening Shout” is the ability to watch out for – he, literally, makes you crazy. Stack up and AOE to stop the damage.
• Subetai the Swift: spread out for this, but not too far. “Pillage” will see him charging at a specified person, so move out the way. “Volley of Arrows” causes lots of damage in front of him (they’re obvious and come flying at your face!) so move out the way. “Pinning Arrow” traps someone so free them before they die.
• Zian of the Endless Shadow: this guy is basically a game of avoiding all the stuff on the ground, avoiding the flanking orders and killing the purple floating skulls that attach themselves to someone. If you’re lucky enough to have the skull, do everyone a favour and take it away from the raid? That way, you won’t cause them damage too.

Fifth Boss: Elegon

• The awesome floaty dragon thing – the one you need lots of DPS for. Oh, it’s fought on a circular platform…just incase you were wondering.
• Each DPS is pre-assigned a pillar (the 6 spread around the platform). Remember it, love it, take care of it
• All ranged stack on right hand side of the console
• Phase 1: stack inside the platform so you become a pretty constallation and DPS the boss. Reset the “Overcharged” stacks (by stepping off the platform) when you hit 6. Or… let DBM remind you you’re about to “OVERLOAD!” if you live on the wild side. When the add spawns, kill it. Just before you do, reset your stacks or you get one-shotted and die.
• Phase 2: at 85%. Raid Leader will yell GET TO YOUR POST. Well, ours usually adds “biatch” or some similar compliment, but you get the idea! “Draw Power” is cast so DPS the orb attached to your pillar before it hits it. This gives a buff to increase damage. It also makes the damn things come quicker. In between each Draw Power, DPS the boss or you won’t manage the enrage timer! Try for 4 or 5.
• Phase 3: this happens when an orb reaches the power. Get off the platform or you die and get shouted at. Our guild fines you 100g if you die here. Ahem, I owe them a LOT… Anyway, the post you’re assigned to will power up – so kill it. Help your team kill theirs (if needed!), then get back to the console. Kill the adds.
• Rinse and repeat.
• Phase 4: after a second phase 3, everyone hops into the middle, pops all CDs and hope the healers don’t go OOM. You can’t reset your stacks as the outer ring is a death trap, so self heal and get him down.

Sixth Boss: Will of the Emperor

• Lots of moving required – be prepared
• Depending on your guild’s tacts, you either kill the adds or kill the boss. Or, throw hell to the wind and do both.
• Adds first (3 types, each have certain abilities to avoid), so kill them
• After 90 seconds, the bosses will spawn (they have a shared health, don’t panic!) and tanked opposite sides of the – you guessed it – circular dias.
• Avoid the crap on the ground, kill the adds, kill the boss. Simples.

Remember:

1. Turn up before the scheduled start time
2. Don’t stand in the stuff on the floor!
3. If you’re meant to be stacking… STACK.
4. Save cooldowns til you’re told to use them. Don’t pop heroism at the wrong time, or you get told off
5. Keep well-fed and flasked at all times
6. If you wipe constantly, don’t rage and get angry – it’s demotivating and you’re all still learning

and finally…

7. You will – most likely – never die as much as I do!

Good luck, and happy raiding.

A Marriage Made in Warcraft?

Mrs B and Mr B.

Playing together as a married couple is definitely not without its ups and downs. Our current set up is Mr B on the TV screen and Mrs B on the sofa on her laptop – not ideal, but until we can afford dual screen awesomeness, it’ll have to do.

So, the CONS:

• Definitely having a seasoned professional sitting 5 feet from you and refusing to help… how rediculous!!
• Constantly wanting help on every little thing. Then moaning when I don’t know the answer.
  
• Getting ganked and my Knight in Shining Armour not coming to rescue me. What’s all that about?
• Complaining constantly… e.g., when she gets ganked by a big group and I won’t help – she knows I hate PvP! Hmph, why play on a PvP server then :p
  
• He spends gold, I save it. He ‘borrows’ it for gear and I never see it again. Pffft.
• She sits on old mats worth 100’s thousand of gold she might need some time then never actually uses them… then goes on to complain that all her toons bags and banks are full.
  
• Linked accounts. Gah. We originally did it so I could have my character transferred across but I work so hard for my achievements – like Loremaster – then he gets the credit too *sulks* Blah blah!
  
• Asuming I know what he’s talking about when he says stuff with lots of acronyms.
• Asking me the same questions day after day because she forgets e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g…
  
• Disagreeing over the guild and how it’s ran. Disagreeing over tactics in raid. Disagreeing over what to do next. That’s because you’re wrong :p
  
• Telling me how to run the guild even though I’m the GM. They’re helpful suggestions. Honest!
  
• Him calling me by my WoW name IRL… I AM NOT A GNOME! Yes, she is.

The PROS:

• I kind of now understand his, well, our hobby. It’s nice to share something together as well as being with friends (even if it’s not IRL!).
• Being able to play whenever I want because she will aswell 😀
  
• We have a lovely 2 healer / tank and healer / tank and DPS set up going on, so if we decide to 2 man instances or raids, or grind dungeons for gear, we can and secretly laugh at the idiots in dungeon finder.
• Always having somebody to talk to and group with while playing.
  
• Sharing achievements… Sometimes.
• Sharing achievements… Always. WIN.
  
• Having lots of characters to use for professions and gathering… helps with all kinds of things.
• Having someone to level all of my profession and gather mats for achievements. Minimal effort, maximum output.
• Having lots of fun trying to two-man bosses
• Well, it’s fun until the 3rd wipe because she gets distracted by shoes or handbags 😉

Overall, I think – like any couple – it’s nice to have a hobby to share and we have lots of fun playing WoW together. However, moderation is definitely the key!

Us together

Last nights Guild fun

Mr B here! Last night we decided to have some fun as a guild and went to ICC to complete as many 10 man achievements as we could. After blowing through all the bosses gathering the achievements easily (we are 90’s so we did cheat i suppose), we came to The Lich King Arthas and proceded to try the achievement http://www.wowhead.com/achievement=4601/been-waiting-a-long-time-for-this-10-player .

After a few unsuccessful attempts using the tactics others had posted, we realised the reason we were failing is because Mrs B’s shammy couldn’t dispell the necrotic plague diseases… duh. So, we improvised and came up with our own tactics. These were:

• I stood on the boss with the adds.
• The rest of the group stood in the middle stacked up.
• When somebody got necrotic plague they would run out of the group so it wouldn’t spread.
• After i had about 20 adds on me we had the next person with necrotic plague come to me so it would spread to the mobs and everytime it ran out or the mob died it would carry on spreading adding a stack each time..
• Then we just kept me healed while waiting for the necrotic plague to stack up to 30 while anybody who got necrotic plague ran out of the group again.
• After it got to 30 we killed the mobs and then dps’ed the boss as normal.

We eventually managed to stack necrotic plague to 30 stacks (as per the achievement) only for it to jump to me and hit me for 2,000,000 damage. Ouch. This happened again when it jumped to me instead of the dps group stacking a way away. This time we did manage to push the King in to phase 2 before we wiped.

We were just about to give up for the night when we actually managed to do it – not without a few hiccups though. Necrotic plague didnt jump to me just once this time, but three times. The first two times I managed to mitagate the damage (was quick to shout out to Mrs B so she could spam heal). The time none of my cooldowns were up and it hit me for 2million and i promptly died. Luckily the other deathknight combat ressed me and I managed to pick up the Lich King before he wiped out the raid. We then managed to push it to phase 3 only for Mrs B to be carried and dropped off the edge by a mob.

So with no healer, me, a hunter and a mage managed to dps him down quickly enough   that we managed to miss a whole phase and score the kill – triggering loads of achievement spam in guild chat. In the end, after 3hours and lots of fun, we managed to walk away with our new Bloodbathed Frostbrood Vanquisher mount for me and Mrs B (pic below).

We do want to go back and do it on heroic next week to finish it off for those of the group who joined later so they can have thier mounts. Bring it on…!

Sightseeing in Vashj’ir

Mrs B:

During our afternoon of starting Glory of the Cataclysm Hero yesterday, we did the achievements in Throne of the Tides – in Vashj’ir, as you know. Now, don’t get me wrong, I loathe swimming, I did everything to avoid the Vashj quests when levelling, I only persevered to get Loremaster. Thank goodness for account-wide achievements!

Anyway, whilst grumbling along on my seahorse, I realised just how pretty Vashj’ir is. I mean, look at it:

Anyway, I realised I really quite like Throne of Tides instance. I definitely had a ‘eureka’ moment when I realised, since I hate swimming, why. It’s because of this:

How cool is it killing a massive squid?!

Black Temple

Mrs B: BT last night with some guildies. Allusion is a very small guild of regular players. We have been really lucky to get some very loyal people who are active and want to join in events. We like to run the old content for a variety of reasons: namely reminiscing, transmog and gear for twinks. Shameless pug though – we still need raid members (1 tank, 1 healer and 3 or so dps) for casual raid progression!

We took the opportunity to punch Illidan in the face last night, 4 of us altogether. It was rather satisfying! I managed to get a couple of pieces for my hunter transmog set and we had a nice team bonding moment.

I’m still not sure I like BT as a raid, I much prefer the mechanics of the WoTLK raids. More of that later!

Lorith, 90 mage; Pichouette (me), 90 hunter; Reezy, 70 warrior twink; Faerius, 90 hunter.

Appologies for the lack of a clear picture!

Welcome!

As you have seen in our ‘About Us’ page, we are a married couple who share a mutual interest in World of Warcraft.

Well, if ‘mutual’ translates to bickering over who gets to play on the better PC screen, that’s about right.

Although we’ve been playing on the same server for a while, we haven’t really done anything together. Perhaps that’s because of Mrs B’s love (and Mr B’s indifference!) of achievements – but recently this has changed.

Along with a few of our online friends, we run our guild <Allusion>. Initially set up to raid, we have recently decided it’s just too much hassle to organise, so instead we do the old raids, achievement runs and generally, have a laugh. It seems cliché, but we are pleased we have a small, friendly guild instead of a big, impersonal one. We just reached 25, so hopefully now we can pull in some new people ready for challenge modes, which we really want to start.

We don’t kid ourselves – we’ll never be great, but let’s have some fun with our WoW mates, right?

This blog, we hope, will be a fun – non-elitist – look at WoW and our adventures. Don’t expect revalations or in-depth thinking, but do expect an honest view!