Community Project: Raiding and PvP

Welcome to the ninth blog post in the “Warcraft Community’s Top Things To Do Before WoD” series!

Raiding

This was a very popular topic of suggestions, from casual raiding, to Heroic progression and gear farming. I’ll add any quotes I don’t use next to their owners at the foot of the page – please do scroll down and check them out.

If you haven’t geared up yet, this is really the easiest and most perfect time to do it. With the Timeless Isle, valour and rep buffs and the upgrade system, it’s pretty easy. The best thing is? You don’t have to go into LFR to get to a pretty good gear level! Yay!

For those who have geared up and are wanting to raid but can’t find a group, I’d recommend trying Twitter first (we might be able to put you in touch with someone if you’re desperate!). If not, Open Raid. Open Raid is a site where you can register to the raid you’d like to complete (old or new) and the group is formed online. This obviously increases your immediate player base.

Remember, if you’re a causal player like ourselves, flex raiding is probably ideal for you. Don’t feel pressured into comitting time each week to wipe 38455389 times on Thok if you don’t want to. With cross-realm raiding in place, this has become very flexible indeed.

Challenge Modes

I’ve mentioned this before here. I know it’s not exactly “raiding”, but it certainly requires the same skills and you do get some excellent rewards (mounts, gold, transmog gear). I’d recommend trying these if you’ve exhausted SoO (I know I have!!).

Old Content

This was also a popular suggestion. Old content (upto Firelands) can be solo’d pretty easily now. You can 3 man Firelands without too much trouble too if you have some gear, so we would really recommend working your way through the achievements (MOUNTS!) and experiencing the raids if you haven’t before. Or if you want some pretty axes from ICC. Or the legendaries from Black Temple. Or the pets from SSC.  Lots of stuff to choose from!

Fancy a bit of fun? Check out our Naked Raids at Molton Core / Black Temple.

IRL druids playing IRL PvP. If only it was this cute in WoW!

PvP

This wasn’t as popular as I thought it would be, but Mr WoW loves it so much it’d be horror if I didn’t!! Here’s his advice:

It’s hard at first, as it’s a completely different skill set (although some may disagree). The best thing I can advise is to PRACTICE. The more the better. Keep your temper, and remember it’s not PvE – you die a LOT. You can buy beginner gear off the auction house, covert justice or just spam random battlegrounds until you get enough honour – it accumulates quickly.”

Also – remember the PvP mounts! If there’s ever motivation needed, it’s for those bad-boys!

As @XimVewDew sums up: “owning people’s faces <3″.

There are lots of PvP guides out there if you’re hesitant. I have a full PvP set (non-conquest because I can’t arena) but honestly, I do more damage in my PvE set so I just smash people looking fabulous. If you’re still worried, I’d recommend going with a pal, because repeatedly dying can get very boring when you’re alone!

I’m currently doing a “How To Survive PvP” series, so check back soon for that if you’re interested.

Contributors_________________________________________________________________________________________

• @XimVewDew
• @laplante_ent: [I’d recommend] casual raiding (which is hard to find with most being hard core & openly hostile to anyone that maybe isn’t as “good” as they should be)
• Velgana: (Old Raids) “There is always someone out there who is looking to get that certain tier set or even that one perfect piece to complete their transmog. Not to mention some of the really awesome mounts that have a chance to drop.”
• @Boomy_CTR: “Why I play: soloing content. I solo everything, trying Firelands right now.”
• @Mementh: “raiding!! Helping friends gear up!”
• Matt : (Raiding) “Fighting bosses and interacting with wonderful people is fun!
• Heallarious: “I know this isn’t really any special, but without raiding, I wouldn’t still be playing this game. Overcoming challenges together with your guildies is one of the best things there is gaming wise, standing out progress wise just makes my special snowflake glow!” [He wrote about his favourite raid too – go read it! 😉 )
• DrHannah: (Old content runs) “ I love going back to old raids/dungeons at max level to try to solo/duo them. I’ve managed to duo everything up to Lich King raid, and hoping that will be more manageable once I hit 100.”

 

 

 

Mr B Rogue-ing Around

So I kinda have an addiction to Rogues. Back in Vanilla, my first 60 was my undead rogue (still have this character actually).

At the start of each expansion since, I have tried to level another character and have always gone back to my rogue by the end of the expansion. In BC, I leveled a paladin at the start, then a mage and finished with my rogue. In WOTLK, I started with a warrior, then druid and ended with my rogue. In Cata, I started with my mage, then a dk and ended with my rogue. So far in MoP, I have played my death knight, warlock, monk, priest and now my rogue as well as lots of different alts.

Anyway this post is really about my first week at 90 on my rogue. I have gone from a lowly 335 ilvl when i dinged 90, to 479 ilvl in 5 days, mainly thanks to the wonderful troves of the Thunder King solo scenario. I got lucky on the way to 90 too: I got a Sha of Anger kill at 88 ish and got a Claw of Anger and the 496 tier trousers. Add to that, I already had the 476 Engineering goggles and I had pickpocketed around 20 junkboxes from which I managed to get a Krol Scimatar – the 476 agi sword. So… after I had bought the 450 rings and neck and the 458 PvP set, I was above 460 and ready to set foot into LFR.

My first trip in to the LFR was excellent, I got 7 pieces of loot from the 6 bosses. I then used the rest of my bonus rolls running the first part of the LFR another 3 times, managing to get to 470 with enough time to run the first part of HoF before reset. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know many people who manage to get such a good run of luck in LFR.

Since the reset, I have ran all the LFR’s but with no luck… only getting 1 piece of loot even with my12 bonus rolls I used. But, with that one piece and having enough valor to get the 522 next from Shado-Pan assault,  I have got up to 479: 1 short of being able to access the new Throne of Thunder raid!!

This coming week hopefully I will get the last 3 upgrades I need to replace the last of my blues. I will then be attempting the Brawlers Guild and recording and blogging about my attempts.

Not a bad week, eh? We’d love to hear your tips about the Brawlers Guild in time for my adventures.

 

Quick edit just as I was posting this I got a drop from a heroic taking me up to 480 in a week 😀

I like ToES…

It’s not often I blog about raiding with the guild, probably because we do it three times a week and it’d take too long, but this time I’m making an exception.

The guild I’m in is called Sinners (dreadfully manly, I know), and we have a lovely set of guys who love to look after me. Who am I kidding, they all take the mickey out of my Midlands accent!!! We have only recently started raiding properly, but almost always have to PUG someone as we are only casual and really, we just want to have a bit of fun. (I say ‘we’ as a royal we here!). As a result of this, it often takes a few attempts at clearing a boss due to the poor PUGs getting used to our way of working so progress is slow and steady.

However, this last week our progression has been, frankly, exceptional (Syntar maintains that he carried us through by repeatedly ‘facebutting’ the boss whilst we watched…). Until last week, we had 6/6 on MSV and 1 boss down in HoF and ToES. However, this last week we finally managed to get Wind Lord down, making it 3/6 in HoF, and… we completed ToES! /happydance

I know Lei Shi is a nightmare (harder than Sha I thought), but that was the encounter I enjoyed most in ToES.

I promised Warcool I’d but some screenshots up, so this is for you pal ❤

Munching before the Sha…

And he’s dowwwwwn!

Fearless at last ^^

We finished with a wonderful success against the first boss in ToT, Jinroch. Needless-to-say, we all started the week with rather large egos.

Next step, the Empress. All advice welcome!

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.

Mr B’s Problem Monk

OMG got my Monk to 90 in just over 3 days. At first, I was going to stay as DPS, but after running a few dungeons I found it massively boring so I decided to switch it to healer. That was just as bad! I’ve played as healer as my main character in nearly every expansion since my BElf paladin in TBC. With monk, there just seemed so much to do at the same time trying to jab the boss whilst healing everybody. There is also so many different spells to use to heal. I tried downloading healbot to help me use the spells, but trying to remember all the different mouse and modifier keys to use I ended up just getting confused. Having a low Ilvl didn’t help either…

After I decieded to not play the monk, I transfered my warlock across to do some raiding. I spent the few hours wiping on the first boss in Heart of Fear (I was the first to die with attenuation each and every time). They even ressed me after that phase once; only for me to die to the first one in phase 4 (idiot I know). After I asked them to replace me, I had a sulk about how awful I was at raiding. Also with the lock I was watching my dots so closely to keep my DPS up I wasnt focusing on what was happening around me.

S,o I realised I needed to play a healer I knew to have some fun. I was playing my priest a lot, but I didn’t really want to transfer it across to our new server. So, I have decided to level a new Resto Druid which was my main back in WOTLK. Again, I do still have that character on another server, but its Horde and again, dont wanna pay for a transfer. So I’m just going to level through dungeons whilst gathering herbs and skinning mobs as I wait to make some money while I level.

Wish me luck!

Tank and healer combination: a match made in marriage?

Mr B:

For a long time I played blood DK. Tanked raids, dungeon finder and LFR with the missus healing on her shaman. It worked quite well, we knew how the other played and as we play sitting next to each other, we can communicate easily.

However, I really hated tanking, especially dungeon and LFR. Probably due to the amount of idiots. I understand people speed running the instances, but I want to enjoy the mechanics of them (especially in early MoP). So, I changed my main to ‘lock – which I love.

BUT the wife stared nagging. Even more than normal. She wants to do challenge modes, we need a tank, etc etc. I caved. Anything for a quiet life!

So, I spent yesterday re-remembering how to play DK. Forgot how good the survivability is with the self-heals – quite enjoyed the change of pace from dps. It also means, if I tank, I am in charge – feel the power! Mrs B hadn’t played shammy for a long time too, so we spent yesterday running dungeon finder and did some Glory of the Cata Hero with the guild to try and remember how to work together.

This is what a half day of me bossing the wife about did to her:

I’m doomed!