Double Feature: PuD & Glory of the Hero

Two big topics, of which I am impatient to delay writing about. D-D-D-Double Post.

Pick Up Dining
Most everyone that plays this game can say they've participated in the running of a dungeon or downing of some elite with a smattering of strangers, joined together with a common goal - a pick-up-group.

Saturday, I had the awesome opportunity to go pick-up-dining. A reader of Aertimus and my blogs had picked up on a number of similarities between us. Both play warriors, have wives that are teachers, work in the IT field, and live in the Harrisburg, PA area. These commonalities in mind, they bravely shot Aertimus and I an email invitation to go down some elite foodstuffs at a restaurant with him and his wife, which we accepted.

It was an awesome experience. We ended up hanging out at the restaurant and talking for over two hours, just sharing experiences (WoW, Teaching, Guitar Hero & Work), and getting to know each other some. It's defiantly something we'll repeat.

So on this, I'll say - consider reaching out / responding to the people with whom you interact with online (keeping safety in mind). Bloggers tend to be niche type people in the first place - so revel in the fact that you may find someone who understands all the obscure hobby-jargon you using online, offline!

Glory & More
I was busy this weekend.

One of the recent thing's Aert and I have been doing with our time, and as a way to keep in touch with people, was working on finishing up Glory of the Hero. We both had about six left when we decided to start spamming execute.

The big break, was when our VH group got Ichoron as one of our two random boss-spawns. He's required for Dehydration, an achievement that we knew the random number generator could keep out of our hands if it really wanted to. Our wonderful group mates were even willing to wipe after he did absorb one of the little guys on our first shot, and go through all twelve (12!) waves to do him again (he was the second random boss).

After that came Less-Rabi, which was Aertimus's last one. I still needed Intense Cold, which she lol-druid-shifted her way to, long ago. Finally on Monday, Free Action Potion and PvP trinket in hand, I got mine.

We then both got ours out of the mail, headed to Crystalsong, and did a photoshoot. It was Proto-gasmic.

The whole Glory of the Hero bit was alot of fun to do. The challanges were unique, required some out of the box thinking, and some felt like huge accomplishments. Making five man content have more of this kind of fun challange and reward is really what should have been added to respark interest in heroics, rather then the 3.2 solution of just turning them into the loot/emblem treadmills. Change it so that only bosses you earn/do the achievement on drop a higher type of badge, and all of a sudden the content takes on new life in a good way.

Flying around on the new drake felt like a good a time as any to hit the last two spots I needed for Explorer in Crystalsong. Bam - Triple Achievement.

And then to wrap up the point orgy, I did the last two AVs I needed to hit exalted, and get 20 Exalted Reputations.

Lose Your Steelbreaker

Solid return to Uld-10 last night, if I may say.

We did a repeat FL+4, on the second try. He may become another hard mode we repeat Ad Nauseam, since the trash is technically shorter, and we get an extra item. Then Razorscale, to put a couple more notches in our frying pan. XT-Hard was one shot, and finally finally coughed up an Aesir's Edge.

We couldn't make up our mind on whether to do Iron Council Hard or Thorim Hard next, so we did a quick vote, and hit up Thorim. His hard mode adds more damage and health to him, and includes (fake) Sif running around adding in frost damage and snares. It doesn't require a ton of changes to the normal strategy as far as tanking or DPSing is concerned. Healers (who really are the ones most often challenged/shafted by hard modes) need to adjust for cleansing/dispelling frost novas, and healing the frost bolt volleys.

The screenshot is somewhat deceptive - we were doing awesome down till the last few percent... when I mistaunted (just a stupid move) and got owned. He then turned back to the other tank who soon took an Unbalancing Strike, and that spelled his end. Two DPS got taken out, but at that point we were just waiting for him to roll over to friendly-mode.

Feeling bolstered by our kill, we moved over to Iron Council. I'd read different accounts on if Molgeim or Brundir should die first, but we found Brundir dying first to be easiest. With DPS on him, people had easier times interrupting and running out of overload. We did have death runes to worry about in p2, but that was balanced by having a rune of power up for the first half of the all-important Steelbreaker burn.

Killing Molgeim (the second boss to die), was by far the hump to get over. I ate some powerful hits off Steelbreaker who got Runes of Power (more often) under him at this point, when he was already rocking damage increases from the first dead boss, and I was slow getting him to move out of them. I really just had to get on the edge of the hit box, have Molgeim as a focus target (to see his cast), and be ready to strafe the hell away from him (and his awkward hitbox) so he'd get out of the buff. You do have to move him way farther then you'd think.

On our first attempt we killed Molgeim, we won. I was on Steelbreaker first, and just was able to ride it out with my Indestructible Potion (that I'd used with ~1min left till Molgeim died, to get full effect), Last Stand, Stoneform, and Heart of Iron's procs. None of them really seemed crucial, though, with three healers on me.

The Overwhelming Power debuff he puts on you is pretty sweet. It reminded me alot of Burning Adreneline - you get double sized, and start putting out some serious damage. We had him to ~30% before I blew up, in part due to Molegrim's lingering rune of power + heroism. Taking out the then remaining 40% in the following minute was cake (ot at least seemed like it, from my vantage point). Our other tank was even so benevolent, that after the boss died, he ran to a safe place to meltdown (instead of playing hug-the-raid).

Guildmaster, No More

I've had complaints about T8 for some time now. Not that the content was necessarily bad, but that it's the roughest tier ever released from a human (gnome?) resources standpoint. I won't rehash it all - but widely accessible content, and a large difficulty gap between normal and hard modes (which doesn't match the rewards for a guild that isn't getting/competing for server firsts) - has made getting and keeping enough of the right people to consistently run high-functioning raids, a draining job.

T8 stressed me out, and made me an unpleasant person to be around. Aertimus has been witness to my entire range of frustrations with people/bosses, even when I would then take a moment to compose myself, and return to vent a calm and collected raid leader. After so many aggravating nights, it was too much for her to deal with, and she left LOKI. Looking back, I don't blame her.

When she left, I had to evaluate my priorities. It didn't take much to realize that maintaining a hobby (raiding) that keeps me engaged for three evenings a week (in addition to the out of game work I'd put into it), and that would continue to frustrate me, would only serve to push us apart more.

I began to go about the task of organizing my departure. I knew that the departure of the GM, following multiple weeks of fruitless Yogg-attempts, had the potential to seriously damage the morale / stability of LOKI. My first order of business was to kill him - and the next raid, we did. That was the last boss I killed with LOKI.

I first set up my successor. I had previously identified the person that would be willing to take leadership if there was something sudden and tragic that took me away from the game for a period of time, but another option had come up since then. Aeralith - a guy who had been Ruffianx's (the original LOKI GM) right hand man, since the very beginning of LOKI (before I even started playing). Aeralith was only ever able to raid one night of our three, since BC - which is almost certainly why he wasn't the one that was made GM when Ruffianx left. This had changed in T8, and he was now a consistent three night a week player, who I'd always turned to for advice.

The following week, I did my best to maintain a semblance of normality. I informed the officers of my intentions, and had myself sat out. I wanted to see them succeed at a second full clear / Yogg-kill, without me - and not just for my sake, but for theirs. When I left, I wanted people to know that they were entirely capable of succeeding without me, because they allready had.

When I checked the Wednesday's WWS posting on Thursday morning, I saw that it was done. Yogg went down in the last minutes of the raid. I began writing my letters.

Sunday, before they went in to clean up optional bosses, I gave my speech. I got whispers. I got /salutes and /cry's. We all got blast wave'd by some horde standing around the steps. The entire process was short, and somewhat surreal. I then left them go into Ulduar completely and officially under new leadership, and stood there in an empty tabbard.

They went on to do Razorscale, Ignis, and LOKI's first medium mode Iron Council kill. I put up my post on LOKI's forums for those that were not present that night, and sent the 37 personal messages that I'd composed via forum mail. Finally, I joined the placeholder guild that Aertimus made, "Low Key". Get it? We're witty people.

So now what?

I'm not done with WoW, and I'm not done with blogging. I'm just stepping away from leading a guild.

I'm going to try my best to keep the ten man group that I'm part of going. It went by the wayside this last week (as did my blogging) while I got things in order, but its a fun group of people, and may be how I continue to see content. I know that I don't plan on doing 25 man raids, short of some pug stuff on an alt mabey.

I've started working towards Loremaster.

I couldn't stand running around and wtfpwning boars while wearing uberepic armor - so I started just equiping the gear I picked up. I still one shot everything, but it feels more right this way.

I even got to be a tree!

Another side project I'm checking out, is soloing old content. I started with Geddon/Garr for a shot at bindings. Garr was easy, but Geddon took a specific setup and healthy dose of fire resist. (the other person in the raid was in Darlaran, and just had to be there so I could zone in).

I also may start taking some shots at rare mounts.

I did huntsman suprisingly easy, and then did Maiden for kicks.

So I'll still be posting. There is plenty in this game to do, and plenty to reflect on. For me, theres just also lots more time outside of WoW, and I'm taking advantage of it. I've attended 208 on time calls, gotten DKP for some 600 hours of raiding / standby in the last two years. This last week of not having to be online at a certain time has been invigorating. I know that I'll miss spending so much time with the people I've come to know so well, as time passes. But for now, I'm all about getting more quality time with Aertimus.

Heartbreaker: XT Hard Mode Guide (10 Man)

This was the first ten man hard mode my group tackled, and has been the most easily repeatable. If you have any two handed weapon users in the group - expect them to want said repeats over and over till Aesir's Edge drops, too.

I suggest 2 Tank, 3 Healer, 5 DPS (with 2+ Ranged) for your composition. It's the most stable comp, and should beat the enrage timer if all members perform reasonably.

The first 25% goes like normal. Don't slack on damage at this point, since you are working against the enrage timer already. Move away with bombs, heal the weaksauce tantrums, and push him into the heart phase.

On the heart, blow heroism, and give it everything you have. All three healers should be DPSing their little healey hearts out. Shattering throw. Army of the Dead. Avenging Wrath. If you can't manage it (perhaps with the help of some speed potions) - you likely aren't ready for the rest of the fight.

When the heart goes over, pop a light cooldown to ease into the increased damage, and tank away (I suggest using some cooldown following every tantrum, while healers get themselves back and casting on you). Ranged will need to peel off momentarily to kill the adds in the bank (that will only spawn this once, since he never goes into heart phases again).

The first thing you'll notice is his increased damage on the tank. Make sure his damage is consistently debuffed, and tanks are rocking survival setups. Next thing you'll notice, is that tantrum damage is increased, to the point of lethality on unhealed targets, even if they aren't taking any other damage. DKs and Druids of all specs can pop IBF and Barkskin on every tantrum to help healing, and non healing-spec paladins and shamans can (and should) drop heals during the duration.

Besides increased damage, your now dealing with enhanced light/gravity bombs. Gravity bombs drop a void zone under the person when they go off. Have gravity bomb affected people head towards the entrance door, and drop off their void zones as tight as possible - like Grobbulus. Make sure they don't get out of range of healers, but are far enough that they don't drag others to them with the explosion. After, *get right back to the group*. People getting spread out hurts healing, makes bomb people have to run further, and in general is a bad idea.

Light bombs spawn an add when they finish. This is where the second tank comes in. Grab them from the person that ran away from the raid, and having them tanked off to the side. Ideally, the ranged shouldn't have to turn at all to kill them. The faster they die, the less AoE damage they do to the raid - so make sure 2-3 ranged immediately kill them as soon as they are tanked. Having one up during tantrum just stresses healers more. The add tank can attack/debuff XT when nothing else is going on - the contribution *will* be noticed.

When all the above aspects are learned, the fight just becomes an endurance battle. DPS has to be strong the whole way through, and even then expect to have close calls on the enrage timer. Healers need to not let anyone go down on tantrums, and use intelligently use cooldowns when a bomb/tantrum combo happens. Tanks need to contribute DPS as best as possible, and keep a steady flow of cooldown use to minimize total damage taken.

Yogg. Down. Finally.

After far too long, we did it. Everything went as planned.

We had a full 25 people in there that could play at the required level. No scrounging around for someone to fill this or that roll, and no under-performers.

Wrath is not an easy expansion from a guild management point of view, and the length of time we took on Yogg is a testament to that. I've seen more people lose interest in raiding faster then ever before, and replacements (generally) only slowly live up to the shoes of the departed. I don't know if players new to WoW as of T7 will ever be able to develop the finely aged skills of those whom were punished by challenging content repeatedly in the previous six tiers - T7 was like trying to sharpen a blade on a sponge. I see some people that show great promise, but it's taken a long time to get our hands on them.

That, and content isn't exclusive. Once upon a time, we could have 10+ people on standby, knowing that we were one of few guilds on our server that could show them past 4/5 Hyjal 3/9 Black Temple. Now talent is spread out over twice the number of twenty-five man guilds, and countless ten man's (which can let people "see" content in an even less demanding fashion). There is little reason for a person to join a guild that can't give them a large majority of bosses each week, forcing guilds to run on skeleton crews, and causing flexibility issues.

I don't know what the future of the twenty-five man guild is, but it's been a rocky road in Northrend. We'll certainly stick to it, but I wonder how rough Blizzard will let things get.

Orbit-uary: Flame Leviathan Four Towers (Hard Mode) Guide

The ten man group I'm running with two nights a week set our eyes on this hard mode last Thursday. We spent about four hours that Thursday working it, then this Thursday finally clenched it in another hour.

I enjoyed this (and am sure some hate it) - because its nothing like WoW. I could take any computer game savvy person, and they could perform as well as a hardened WoW veteran on this fight.

I won't lie that a decent amount of this fight seems random-esque. Not coin-flip win-or-lose, but there are tons of factors that can make things rough one attempt, and easy the next. That said a group of people with a solid strat, and some dedicated time, can come out on top (and collect three conquest emblems, three pieces of loot, and a good chance at a runed orb / pattern).

How to do it

I'm going to assume you've done FL before, and have basic knowledge of vehicle abilities. FL himself will act the same, but with greatly increased health, increased damage with his normal attacks, reduced damage taken from your Pyrite, and (of course) the addition of four orbital defense systems.

Vehicle Setup (at start) :
Demolisher with Driver & Co-Pilot
Demolisher with Driver, Loaded Passenger (Non-Hunter Ranged DPS) & Co-Pilot (Non-Hunter Ranged DPS)
Siege Engine with Co-Pilot
Siege Engine with Co-Pilot
Chopper Driver.

Hazards All Drivers Must Deal With

Thorim's Beams: These are the stationary white/blue beams. They'll appear randomly scattered around the map, twice during the fight. When they activate, all vehicles will take some damage, but vehicles close to them will take far more. Note that these two beam activations take place early on in the fight, so it will seem like you've taken a ton of "unavoidable" damage (around 40%) early on - but when the second set of beams is done, your incoming damage should drop off dramatically.

Mimiron's Fire: This is a orange beam that leaves a trail of fire. It travels in a diamond shape around the map, and can easily trap someone in a corner. Its easy to avoid damage from this beam in general - its true danger is in limiting your escape options from other hazards.

Hodir's Beams: These blue/white beams are "random", and highly annoying. Each beam will pick a vehicle and attempt to move on top of it - while these are moving, they pose no threat. When the beam stops, however, it starts to send down a ball of ice. If this lands on any vehicle, that person is frozen - taking a large amount of damage until they are broken out with a siege cannon blast, burning tar, boulder, or pyrite. The beams can change targets at any point.

These are most dangerous to Demolishers, that need to keep FL in their sights / stay by pyrite, and are therefore most hurt by needing to move erratically to avoid being frozen. Forward movement will always get you out from under them in time, but reversing can sometimes get you caught.

Freya Adds: These spawn in the corners periodically. Each wave has several small ones, and one large lasher. Left alone, these can take out vehicles rapidly. Drivers with adds on them can attempt to drive in/through lit tar, to damage them (though this isn't required).

Jobs by Vehicle / Position

The Demolisher Driver with just One Co-Pilot has a straightforward job: keep ten stacks of pyrite on the boss. Get ten stacks on him right off the start, then switch to weaving in boulders to conserve pyrite (since its the tick of the pyrite DoT that deals damage, not the actual landing of the pyrite on him, and the DoT lasts somewhere around 6-10 seconds). I alternated one boulder : one pyrite during times that I had to move lots or was far away, but occasional was able to do two boulders : one pyrite when I knew the last pyrite would hit in time to keep up the stack.

Keep in communication with your co-pilot, as to when the area around you is running out of pyrite. You'll want to have a full tank *before* you start moving, so you can keep applying it as you move.

The Demolisher Driver with a Loaded Passenger waits for FL to pursue his first target, -then- launches the first Non-Hunter Ranged DPS. Shoot earlier and the person will fly right past him. After they are on FL, act like the other Demolisher (above). When FL finishes overloading, your current co-pilot (the other non-hunter ranged DPS) will load himself into the catapult, and get fired as soon as FL starts pursing the other person. You'll be without a co-pilot for a short while, while the chopper driver drops off your previous passenger.

Demolisher Driver Co-Pilots primary task is keeping their demolisher stocked with pyrite. This is half actually targeting and reeling in barrels, and half communicating with your driver. Your driver needs to know when he can sit in one spot and blast away, and when the surrounding area is empty of pyrite - and they need to start navigating elsewhere. Giving speed boosts is important as well - you'll want them when FL chases you, or when you need to get to a fresh pyrite-containing corner - but your use of speed has to be carefully measured due to its cost. During periods that you aren't scouting for / picking up pyrite, shoot down more of it.

For the two People Being Launched - you'll want to let the first person being launched get in first, and then get into the catapult. When you get shot up, start going to town on the turrets. Call out when you estimate that overload is ten seconds away, and then five seconds away. After you get shot off, look for the chopper driver, and GET IN. Any of FL's abilities will kill you, including flame jets (if he was casting it when he went into overload).

The person remaining in the Demolisher should not load themselves until the overload is over - they should remain in position to collect and shoot down pyrite until ready to be shot. When they load themselves, they should call it out - this is the cue for the other person who's passenger in the chopper to jump out, and immediately into the demolisher. If they jump out before the other person is in the catapult arm, they will not be able to get in - and die.

Siege Drivers have an un-complicated job. Don't get melee'ed by FL, ram adds when possible, and interrupt flame jets. Melee'ing FL isn't worth the danger associated with it, and losing a Siege causes Demolishers to be pursued more (and do less damage) - so don't sweat it. When there is five/ten seconds left till target change, back away from FL. Consider that the target person can then steam rush away, and the one not targeted can rush towards him and int erupt (if needed).

Siege Passengers have an un-complicated job as well. First priority is Cannon Blasting Adds - using mini-missiles on them (or to ignite tar) while its on cooldown . When adds are dead (and they come in waves, so there should be down time) - shoot down pyrite. While FL is overcharged, if there are no adds - you can shoot at FL, but this should be the only time.

Chopper Driver has lots to do. Sonic horn grabs aggro on adds extremely well, and when combined with speed boosts, lets him kite adds around. Laying down tar snares adds, and burning tar damages them also. Adds left on a siege or demolisher will kill it in short order, so protecting them is key. As a bonus, you get to pick up the ejected person during overloads, and ferry them to the demolisher they were shot from. Make sure you raid mark the two people being launched so you can find them easily.

All Passengers: Pre-Shoot Pyrite Barrels from the sky before each pull.
Shoot down pyrite before pulling. Having tons to start out with saves you time during the actual fight. Make sure to get 7+ canisters landed in the two close corners (as you look at him), and lots in the back right. Back left corner just doesn't have much ever fly over it.

That's it

If things go well, you'll go through two to three overloads before he bites the dust. Each job is simple on paper, but performing them correctly while simultaneously avoiding hazards takes some practice. Make sure you set aside a large chunk of time for people to master their jobs, then keep plugging away. Sometimes FL and Hodir's Beams will target your demolishers constantly (bad), and sometimes they'll stick to siege engines (good). Things can go wrong at any point, and sub 10% wipes are very possible (and likely). You won't know the fight is really over until your vehicle falls apart underneath you.

Keeping Positive

Still no Yogg-25 kill. I'll talk about that in depth when we get him.

Instead, I'm going to try to focus on the things I am looking forward to in 3.2. Of course there are some changes I disagree with in violent and passionate ways - but I think I need to just let that go, and stay positive.

Shield Spec giving rage on block/dodge/parry.

Warrior 2p T9 set bonus (now -2 sec on taunt CD & +5% Dev damage) is slowly getting better. Slowly.

Devastate damage increase.

Engineering. I thought this day would never come.
- Remote Bank Access (via Jeeves). I can now keep my frost resistance gear (and any other random, highly situational crap) out of my bags.
- Dimensional Folder: Northrend Access on a non-hearth CD.
- Steam Powered Auctioneer: Northrend AH access. My bank alt will see far less action.

Raid ID extension. On late-instance progression, this will effectively add 3-6 per week of progression boss attempts (we only raid 3 nights at 3 hours each, so a bit is spent clearing early bosses). With the speed at which we've gone to DEing Uld25 gear and giving tier pieces to 2nd and 3rd specs, I doubt many people will mind the accelerated rate at which we can start finish (and then start farming) the whole instance.

Ability to trade BoP's to other people in the raid & eligible for the kill, in a two hour time window. The end of "ooops, mislooted" or "wait, this isn't as much of an upgrade as I thought" tickets.

So for now, I'm going to hope/assume that the positive changes are going to go through, and the ill-contrived ones will be thrown out. Time will tell.