World of Warcraft

[Relambrien]

Originally Posted by Squeek

Thorim advice

Yeah, we do it on 10 easy. But on 25 we just can't get it done. In 17 wipes, we got to phase 2 twice--and that's only because the arena team died just shortly enough before we got to Thorim that we initiated the second phase.

It's pretty much always the arena team dying. You can't have dps casters in the arena because they will virtually always be locked out of casting thanks to Stormhammer. The Evokers put annoying bubbles on the other enemies that have to be dispelled, because they can't be damaged through. The champions have to either be disarmed or tanked out of the raid, otherwise whirlwind wipes you.

The problem that usually happens is that someone in the arena team dies. And with that person dead, there isn't enough dps to take down the evokers or champions, or that person had a pivotal role like disarming. Basically, if a single person in the arena dies, it's a wipe. That's with the 16/9 split.

The gauntlet has been doing better. We eventually settled on two tanks. We go through the first floor as normal, no real problems, mini-boss goes down easy. It's usually around this point that the arena team dies. If they don't, then we kill the two Evokers that come with the stairs, have the off-tank pick up the Honor Guards and just tank them, then go up to beat on the mini-boss. After he dies, we take down the now-buffed honor guards.

Unfortunately, if a single person in the gauntlet dies, it's also a wipe.

But yeah, we have no trouble on Hodir except during Frozen Blows, but our healers are usually good enough with that that it isn't an issue. Freya is similarly easy, only problem we've ever had is coordinating dps on the lashers/water spirit. Mimiron isn't difficult as long as everyone is mindful of the mechanics. We just can't get down Thorim.

[Kagome]

Apparently I forgot to go to the next page before making my post. Oops.

My question was answered in the post above.

[Tokzic]

thorim is the biggest contrast between 10 and 25 difficulty, sadly

drastically undertuned on 10 and slightly overtuned in 25

[Squeek]

We need advice for Yogg =/

We finally got to Phase 3, but there were so many tentacles up. We thought they'd despawn, but unfortunately all of them were still up. 2 Crushers and 5 Corrupters.

One of our biggest problems is that there's no time between brain phases for the melee to kill Corrupters. They literally cannot get any DPS into them. As soon as they're out, someone (usually one of them) is Constricted and there's -5 seconds right there. 10 seconds until the next brain phase. They need Sanity. They don't even have enough time to run to the Wells and recharge before the next brain phase. It's horrible.

We decided to try 4 DPS (me offhealing) in the Brain and that got us to Phase 3 except that there were too many tentacles up. Even if we have 3 DPS and 1 healer in the Brain, we can't kill all of the Corrupters.

[argo15]

Just leveled to 68 on my main. Time to buy Lich King =).

[Squeek]

3rd try of the night. First try we had two people go down and two crushers left up and 7 corrupters and got him to 15%. Second try was just bad luck. Third try was perfect. Two brain phases (first got him down to 39% before we left and dots took him to 33%). Only two corrupters. No crushers. We were so fast we just decided to kill the corrupters to make it a joke. I wish I had the screenshot that had the time he died. Took just over ten minutes.

Our damn priest pretty much went AFK for phase 3 FACING YOGG so he got MC'd. Dumbass.

Sorry you weren't there Tsugo.

[tsugomaru]

I really don't mind. Brannigan and I were hogging up all the attempts yesterday, besides, I was doing stupid crap elsewhere.

~Tsugomaru

[ImEric12]

Grats! Also, I didn't notice it before but I <3 your guild name.

[mr.mooman]

Hey anyone know a good dual weild spec for dks at level 73?

[tsugomaru]

From what I understand, a dual wielding spec isn't highly viable for any Death Knight unless you have extremely good gear at level 80. Your best shot is to wait till 3.2 if you really want to dual wield because sites are saying that the designers are trying to make dual wielding viable again.

~Tsugomaru

[Grandiagod]

hybrid DW spec was fine until 3.1 until they gutted it along with a lot of other pve dps classes

[Squeek]

Just did Orbit-uary (FL 4 towers up), followed by Heartbreaker for some people, followed by Disarmed (break both arms within 12 seconds of each other then kill Kolo), followed by Con-speed-atory (20 minutes from the first trash pack engaged in Freya's room to her death).

I got the chest from XT which ended up being a downgrade because I apparently cannot read stats but whatever. I thought it had a ton more haste and SP than what I currently have but it doesn't. It also removes my 4pc bonus, which is -200dps right there.

Thorim didn't drop my damn shoulders again. This is about the 7th week of getting Vanquisher. In fact, 3/4 of the bosses seem to drop Vanquisher every week. Our resto druid has a fully-geared Feral offspec in t8 because of this. Our DKs all have DPS and Tank suits. It's annoying.

Oh, and with that FL kill, we're the 4th best Horde on the server and 8th best overall.

Edit: I just now realized... we've been doing Uld25 for weeks now. Not a full clear, but anywhere from 1 to 8 bosses (about 30 boss kills in all I'd say). We've never seen a legendary fragment.

Edit: Boy, it's looking to be a great time to level an alt when 3.2 comes out.

First, mount costs were dropped. Dramatically. Talking like 90% decrease in price. And you can buy them sooner to boot.
Second, a new piece of heirloom: chests. +10% exp from monsters and quests (yes it stacks).
And now, this. Tome of Cold Weather Flight. Heirloom item only buyable at level 80 from a Cold Weather Flying trainer. The item can be sent to an alternate character to teach them Cold Weather Flying at level 68.

[Relambrien]

Whoo, this week's raiding has been fantastic.

Last night, we got all the way up through Hodir and killed Razorscale. I managed another 10k dps while being dead for half the fight thanks to me misjudging the range of Ice Shards.

Tonight we cleared out the other three keepers. And Thorim, who we wiped to about 25 times before finally killing him, was one-shotted. As was Freya. Mimiron was two-shotted. Then we went and killed Ignis for good measure.

With all that done, only Iron Council, General Vezax, and Yogg-Saron are left. We raid two more nights this week. Vezax is going down

In other news, once 3.2 hits I might actually bother to level an alt. +20% experience through heirlooms, much cheaper and earlier mounts, maybe the leveling process could be bearable again.

[Squeek]

Vezax requires a little bit of research and planning, but is among the easiest bosses in Ulduar once you understand the mechanics of the fight. I guarantee you guys will have no trouble downing him.

The basic strategy:

Tank does his tanking. During Surge of Darkness, tank pops a cooldown to mitigate his damage. You can also start walking him around the room as he debuffs himself with slow movement speed but it's not necessary. A DK tank with IBF basically guarantees the fight continues as normal every time he uses Surge.

Melee do melee. You'll be slower in attacking, but you don't have to worry about much. You should have several melee dedicated to interrupting in a rotation. If he casts Searing Flames once, it'll be a wipe. Do not assign ranged people to this task.

Caster DPS. Party time. Do not cast anything without standing in a Shadow Crash (unless it's a clearcasting free spell, but even then...). Shadow Crash pools give you 2x haste, 2x damage, and 1/4th mana costs. They're amazing. Just be careful not to get hit by shadow crash. Easiest way to do this is to stay at max range the entire fight.

Ranged DPS can benefit from it too, but it's primarily for casters.

Healers: Panic. If you're used to regenning mana through spirit or mp5, you're going to hate Vezax. None of these work. In fact, as far as I know, Lifebloom is the only skill that is not affected. To regen mana, you have to have dps break Vapors for you (and make sure you break one before the 8th one spawns (this won't be a problem)). You will regen mana at the cost of HP. It's a 1:2 ratio and it scales exponentially. 100/200, 200/400, 400/800, 800/1600... 12,800/25,600. The damage is Shadow and partially resisted through resistance, but still, get out after 5-6 stacks. You can pop back in and start over at 100 if you must.

You can heal from Shadow Crashes to save mana costs, but your heals will be too ineffective to keep people alive. You must heal outside of Shadow Crashes (unless you're using Power Word: Shield or Lifebloom or Earth Shield).

Note that a raid that doesn't know what its doing will wipe moreso from general damage. Nobody should ever take any damage in this encounter once you understand how it works (aside from Mark of the Faceless, but this is minimal). Vezax hits hard, but very, very slowly. There shouldn't be a problem in keeping the tank alive.

Speaking of MotF, it's a 15yd range. Make sure you're getting away from Marked people as they get away from you. Assign a location (the back of the room works fine) for people to run to when they're Marked.

Oh, and you must have a certain number of people outside of his melee range (15 yards around him) or he will wipe the raid. With a normal group composition, this is not a problem. See, he won't use MotF or Shadow Crash on anyone in melee range. That is assuming you have a certain number of people outside of it. It's >3 in 10 man and >9 or so in 25. Dunno for sure.

ps - i've never done vezzy in 25 so if any of this is inaccurate then don't hate me =(

[Grandiagod]

It's exactly the same on 25

[Squeek]

Goddamn. I'm glad to see they're changing Warsong Gulch in 3.2

I just had one that took an hour. At least. The timer at the end just said "1hr", and I know how Blizzard loves to round times once they're past minutes.

64 HKs though, with 24 KBs. Solid.

It's funny to see how much Elemental Shaman suck in Arenas and compare it to how much we kick ass in Battlegrounds... assuming we're not alone and not fighting a paladin or priest or warrior or rogue... or anyone who knows what they're doing really. Oh no four alliance rushed the flag room *aoe roots* drop fire nova keep myself alive for 5 seconds *aoe stun* gogogogogo

I can't do anything alone though. All I can do really is annoy people until they kill me. But I'm really good at that.

[SKG_Scintill]

God, by seeing this thread I feel like playing WoW again, but only the first 60 levels and I don't want to pay... there, that horrible idea is solved

[Grandiagod]

My WoW subscription just ran out.

It might be time I quit this game. I have over 80 days played on two characters, with another two at 60 days. Plus tons and tons of alts. That's a lot of life gone by.

[bender5]

You have almost 10 times what I had racked up, and I quit because it was taking up too much time. I feel almost sorry for you sir.

[Sullyman2007]

Mmmph. My subscription ran out a few weeks ago and I haven't renewed. Better yet, I didn't tell my guild I was going anywhere so I'm probably in for some bitching once I do log in again.