New WoW General Discussion Thread 6/8/10

The Game Room
2061

Once the portals go up, you’ve got a minute to get in and do your thing, regardless if anyone is in yet or not. The people going in should be standing by the portal areas ahead of time, waiting to get in the moment they can.

Once inside, there’s an array of illusions to kill before the brain is accessible. The catch is that there’s floating laughing skulls at random positions that will damage you and sap your sanity if you’re near them and looking in their direction, so it’s important to look around the room for them and plan your movement in a manner that keeps your back turned to them - side-strafing is pretty much mandatory. The other catch is that the illusions have a damage reflect on them that makes you take a decent chunk of the damage you deal to them, so if someone’s at low health they can kill themselves on this if they don’t stop attacking and address their HP. Having a hybrid class in there is very helpful - a ret or prot paladin, for instance, can beat up on the illusions, dispel most of the corruptor debuffs on anyone if they go into the portal with one, and keep people healed up enough to make it through the illusions.

When all the illusions are killed, the central area with the brain vision is accessible. While targetting the brain you can see its cast bar on ‘induce madness’ and thus know exactly how much time you have left. You smash it up, and then head for one of the three exit portals when there’s ~10 seconds left. The portal takes a little while to kick you out, so waiting til the last moment will get you zapped.

Speed is key. Once all the illusions have been taken out and the brain is opened up, Yogg and all his tentacles up in the main battle are stunned until the vision ends. This gives you free time to clear out whatever tentacles are left, and prevents him from popping up new ones - if the vision team is too slow, you’ll wind up with an extra wave of tentacles.

Since everybody far overgears the encounter these days, if you’re not doing hard mode you’ll probably need only two, or even one, vision phase to get through, if it’s executed properly.

2062

Also, Ferocity pets are sort of self-healing if they’re appropriately talented (Bloodthirsty).

But … but … my paladin is a real woman!

Which, of course, makes punching things naked even more entertaining :smiley:

Just for fun, I did get myself into the habit, when running around at level 80 doing quests in very low-level zones, of starting her out naked and unarmed and then equipping only items received as quest rewards. This had two benefits: Depending on the level of the quests, it reintroduced a small (very small, since she still had level 80 base stats, talents, and skills) amount of challenge, and also made it less painfully obvious to lowbies that this was a level 80 running around in “their” area. Okay, three benefits: I got to look at her punching things while naked :cool:

2063

Be a douche, reap the rewards.

I’m a BM hunter. I don’t do the super-high DPS marksmanship or survival may, because I mostly solo. No one has ever complained.

Well, doing a run in Utgarde. Prince Whats-his-name Frost Tombs the tank, so I break it off him and we finish the boss. Tank literally invokes the spit emote. When I asked why, he said I wasn’t doing anything other than autoshot. Funny, my half-full mana bar tells differently. I was using Volley and Arcane Shot a lot. And the the healer asks if I even care about his mana (tank died at the very end of battle, right after I broke Frost Tomb). So he continues to bitch me out, and the healer doesn’t heal me until we’re far into the next mob, which pisses me off. Then another DPS calls me a bad hunter.

But then they insulted my guildmate, who was the 3rd DPS. I don’t know much about mages, I’m a physical dmg class, but he was at the top of Skada.

I’ve never experienced anything like that, attacking both members of the same guild. I’m guessing they were trolling, especially since the two of us never died, never pulled aggro and no one has never complained about either of us before, same group or not.

But since every single one of them threw us an insult at some point, we dropped group right at second form of Ingvar. If there was at least one person in the party who wasn’t being a douche, I would have hung around to not screw them over.

2064

Sorry all, haven’t been able to respond to the thread in quite some time, so some of these comments may or may not be irrelevant. Congratulations on everyone’s accomplishments and my condolences to those who have had to deal with a lot of the crap WoW can dish out (guild drama, PvE headaches, etc.). Going to pull a SFG here and crit you all with a wall of text:

I still don’t understand why anyone would not go for their 4-piece T10 as quickly as possible with their Frost badges. It’s the only way to get the helm/shoulders/chest (which are often 3 of the 4 pieces used for the set for most classes/specs. The i264 stuff is decent, with some really nice pieces depending on your class/role, but for a mage, the 4 piece T10 is amazing. Even if you never plan on stepping foot in ICC 10 or 25, the 4 piece is great to have, and is far better than T9.

That’s awesome, SFG, I hadn’t heard how that turned out for you. Glad to hear it went well. I should get in that run for one of my alts, but I always feel weird spending gold on gear when I could just bring it in on our farm night (if we had another resto druid competent enough to take my spot…).

I think (as already mentioned) one of those axes is rather poor for Enhancement due to the quick swing speed, but if it’s top end is significantly better than your best option, I believe it should be ok (though you should take a i251+ slow one-hand weapon as quickly as possible).

As for Dual-Wield Death Knights, they are more than viable and are incredibly fun to play. A priority system as opposed to a set rotation, and a pet isn’t doing 10-20% of your DPS.

I’m late to the party on this discussion, and I believe some of the issues in rewarding EP for passing on the vanity items have already been discussed. I will just mention what our guild did for the vanity items: We sorted our EP/GP list just by EP and gave the 5 items to the top 5 people on the list for our first Shadowmourne. For the next, we gave it to the next 5, and so on, with the top person getting their choice of what item they wanted. I think sorting by EP is a fairly convenient way of sorting out those who have made the most contribution toward a raid group (it correlates with attendance) and the guild as a whole (we give EP boni out to people who contribute to the guild bank or make contributions in other ways). I believe you use a similar system, but YMMV.

For the standard Arcane spec, haste is valued higher than crit for all levels of gear. For Fire, those stat weights change as you increase your overall gear, with some mages valuing crit higher than haste at i277 levels of gear due to it increasing the 2-piece T10 buff’s uptime (which is amazing). Haste is still a fantastic stat for Fire mages, and should not be ignored just to pad crit. But, if you’re never going to ICC10, then as a general rule, haste > crit.

If you’re not raiding, then your hit is fine where it’s at, however, if you do ever plan on raiding then you will need significant amounts of +hit to reach the cap against boss-level mobs, especially as Fire (many mages will start out Arcane in ICC for the lesser amounts of hit required in order to be effective, then switch to Fire when they have the gear to support it).

Also, congratulations on Loremaster! I really need to get my butt in gear on those achievements, now that I finally have some time to do so.

A healer is not there to prevent DPS from losing GCDs, and that’s a pretty asinine way to place the entire role of healers for a raid. I should not have to heal someone through standing in fire because moving would cost them GCDs. That’s not the healer’s responsibility, that’s the DPS’ responsibility. When you overgear content, sure healers can put out heals so that DPS can stand in damage and get the fight over with quicker (i.e. Marrowgar’s Bonestorm), but that should never be considered our job. We do what we can to keep DPS from dying so that the boss dies, but most healers are GCD capped in harder fights as it is, so saying that it’s our job to use our GCDs (which we are capped with) in order to prevent a DPS from potentially losing a GCD of damage is a bit bass ackwards, to say the least.

As far as healing pets goes, it’s only ever an issue in 5-mans as in raids the incidental healing and the amount of buffs to damage taken that Blizzard has given pets usually is enough to cover them. I do think it’s the sign of a good DPS as someone who can take care of their own pet while still putting out solid numbers, but if you do want heals specific for your pet, ask the healer to do so. If the pet is so important for your DPS, then it’s not just the healer’s fault for it dying.

We use our guild bank for most of the things winterhawk mentioned, and are also stockpiling gold and mats for Cataclysm, so that we can be prepared to power level some professions as soon as possible and bankroll quite a few of the core members in doing so. Other than that, it’s just a repository for Fish Feasts, enchanting mats and BoEs that we sell.

Well, your brain team is aware of the portal inside the brain room (after you kill all the tentacles) that you’re supposed to take ~5 seconds before being MC’d, right? Because unless you drastically over-gear the content (and are doing 4-lights or something along those lines) and are popping Heroism/Bloodlust in there, there is no way you will get it down in one brain phase.

As for doing damage/healing inside the brain room, the DPS need to realize that they only are damaged in there while they’re attacking the tentacles. So, if they’re getting low, they need to stop attacking and wait for a heal. Usually, groups would split off where one group would go right, another left, and a third to the back in order to kill them all as quickly as possible, with one healer moving as they can and topping people off (it can be tricky with LOS issues in there).

That should provide ~30+ seconds of dealing damage to the brain (given today’s gear levels), and it should only take 3 or so brain rooms to get to P3. Hope this helps, and let me know if you have further questions.

2065

Okay, who ever told me that my pally should get that shield that drops from Tyrannus in regular PoS, you were joking right? Because I’ve run that instance nine times now and it hasn’t dropped once. I was a little nervous in one run with two shammies in the party, but silly me. The shield is a lie!

2066

Yeah, those are the only i251+ weapons I have had drop for me, period. My current “raiding schedule” as 25-man alternate has me raiding maybe 1 day every two weeks.

2067

I think it took me about 10 runs of heroic FoS to get Muz’s tank boots (I think, might have been dps) to drop for him. And he could do that a max of once/day.

2068

I wish I could only run it once a day, then I could get back to chain running heroics. I’m wasting a lot of time in PoS when I could be getting a lot more emblems the other way. I’m trying to limit myself to three PoS runs a day.

On another note – the nice thing about having hit 80 after only doing two zones in Northrend is that I have all those other zones to quest in, and the money just rolls in! Finished up the Basin last night. I even soloed Artrius the Heartless, which I could never dream of doing on my priest.

2069

That’s a challenge, that is. I couldn’t quite manage Not-So-Honorable-Combat solo on Rumpole, but Atrius shoud be easier.

2070

What is the WG situation on your server?

I’m on Elune, and we pretty much own WG. Horde rarely even bother to offer more than token resistance. While it’s fun to win, I can’t help thinking this has to suck from the Horde point of view. They’re virtually shut out of doing VOA, missing out on 4 frost emblems a week (huge for those not raiding ICC),collecting stonekeeper shards, or having access to the vendors.

From a design point of view, is it a good idea to merge the PVP and PVE worlds in this way?

I dunno what it is about WG–Horde just doesn’t seem to care. It’s really unusual—Horde tends to dominate most other BGs, from what I’ve seen, in our battlegroup. They win so rarely, it is not unusual to see freaking 'locks with nearly 100K hp with tenacity–and that is a crime against all that is right and Holy…

2071

On Cairne, it used to be absolutely horrible - Horde would only win a couple times a week. We’ve gotten more competitive, but it’s still held by Alliance more often than not.

It isn’t as bad as you’d think in terms of VoA availability, though; the advantage is that when we DO have VoA, it’s a priority and pick-up group raids get pulled together very quickly.

The thing about WG is that, unlike any other battleground, numbers aren’t limited, and (at least on our server) there are just more Allies than Horde players period. And it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy as well; who wants to join up and spend half an hour getting roflstomped by Allies who outnumber you ten to one? Tenacity doesn’t cut it.

BTW, did you get the jousting thing worked out?

2072

Yeah, I rarely get to do VoA – the rare times we hold it don’t seem to correspond with my playtime. Of course I share the blame; I’ve only joined two WG battles in the last month. I can’t complain about us not having WG if I don’t bother to join the fight.

2073

Nope, no luck with the jousting thing. I’ve tried several times since posting about it, but still can’t beat the guy. I generally give up after 30 minutes or so, and go do something else.

2074

Bummer. Sounds like it probably IS a latency thing if it’s giving you that much trouble.

2075

Yeah, I’ve had the guy down to about 8K hp left, and one charge would win it, but just can’t seem to get the killing blow in before he does. I’m doing a business trip at the end of the month, if the hotel has some sort of internet conenction available, I’ll see if I can get him…

If nothing else, I’ll take my laptop to my parent’s home over Christmas. They have dsl, so latency should be better. Maybe I can beat him then.

2076

Same situation on my server too. I only run WG once a week now when the quests refresh so I can get the shards and honour unless Horde have it then I always make the effort even if taking back is usually a breeze it is fun.

Yay ding 78 on my warlock so now can equip the frostsavage set and she’ll be hitting WG for the first time tonight. I expect to die a lot…

2077

So far, so good with the new guild. I’ve been getting quite a bit of positive feedback about my tanking,* as well as a chance to hash out some helpful discussion about gear with other tanks who have more experience with these hardmodes than I do. Time to start focusing some more on Armor, wooooo.

*I have recently made the observation that, both in WoW and in real life, incompetent people tend to call me incompetent, while competent people tend to think I’m also competent. It could be coincidence, but I can’t help but suspect that at least part of it has something to do with blaming anyone but themselves for their own failures.

Like someone else explained, a Critical hit (or heal) is one that does more damage (or healing) than it normally would. Crits are especially important for specs that have talents that feed off of them. For instance, if you were to turn Wolkie into a Fury Warrior, Crit would be important because of a talent that increases your attack speed when you critically hit.

As an Arms Warrior, Crit is a good stat for you to have. Here is a quick rundown of some stats are are good for you and some that are bad:

Good:
Hit, Armor Penetration, Strength, Critical Strike, Expertise, Haste, Attack Power

Bad:
Intellect, Spell Power, Spell Penetration, MP5 (Mana Regeneration)

This isn’t a complete list–just some examples. :smiley:

Nope. The three possibilities are:

1.) You didn’t have dual-wield trained (doubtful).
2.) You were in your Fury spec, but you didn’t yet have a talent point in Titan’s Grip.
3.) You had a talent point in Titan’s Grip, but you weren’t in your Fury spec.

Congratulations!

I’m pretty sure I’ve worn every other tabard I own at least once. Not the Loremaster one though. The Loremaster one is unspeakably hideous.

IME, these guilds can develop some of the worst drama, when raiding is involved. Because you have the tension among all the groups of people: those who want to raid more seriously, those who want to raid more casually, those who want to raid, period, but can’t find space on a team…

The Explorer one wasn’t bad. It actually matched my DPS set at the time I got it (level 73 or so and wearing a lot of Leather).

If the healer is busy keeping other player members of the group alive, it’s your job to heal your pet if you can. Hunters and Warlocks both have mechanics for keeping their pets alive. Frost Mages are kind of screwed, so they’re the ones who mainly have an excuse to bitch if their pet dies, since the summon for it is on a pretty long CD and their pets don’t seem to have the same AOE avoidance as the others do.

Yup. I have pets hidden on most of my characters, but my Priest has Grid set up to display 5-man with pets for dungeons.

In my alt guilds:

On the servers where we have a lot of alts together, my friends and I will usually form a vanity guild so that we can share a gbank. We use this for a pool of cash for paying for repairs for our alts, sharing chanting mats, sharing BOE gear that we think each other’s alts might be able to use, sharing mats and recipes for leveling professions, etc.

In casual/leveling guilds:

Anything people throw in there, with varying levels of usefulness. Everything from things like mentioned above, to vanity items, to useless crap. Very helpful to have someone dedicated to cleaning the bank out on a regular basis, with all proceeds funneling back to fund the gbank.

In raiding guilds:

Money for repairs, often with restrictions by member level and raid. (Some guild only pay for repairs during progression fights; others leave gbank repairs on 24/7.) Materials for Enchanting. Scrolls for Enchanting. Other item enhancements like leg armor and belt buckles. Potions and flasks. Mats for potions and flasks. Recipes and crafting materials that drop in raids (e.g., Primordial Saronite). BOE epics that drop in raids, either to be distributed to members or sold to finance the bank’s funds. Gems, cut and uncut. Buff foods and raw materials to make them; these days, mostly just Fish Feasts. These various materials are usually available to members at a price ranging from a discount off the AH (50% seems to be pretty standard) down to free.

Woohoo! Congratulations.

Back on Stormrage, Alliance dominated WG heavily. Here on Korgath, I’ve heard it’s pretty balanced, but I haven’t been around long enough to make any observations personally.

WG isn’t like a BG, because it pulls only from your individual realm, instead of your whole Battlegroup. Faction imbalances are much more emphasized because of the restricted population involved.

Oh, and Daedelus, I’d been meaning to thank you for hooking me up with that GDKP run, but then you were offline all week. :smiley:

2078

I forgot to post this screenshot I took in Netherstorm while working on Loremaster there … this is Mama Wheeler, after Papa Wheeler sent me to help her out. Her emote animation had me laughing so hard I had to keep canceling the quest turn-in so I could keep clicking on her to make her do it again. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hide my UI and still do it, but I think it’s still funny:

http://www.mister-rik.com/hosted/whaaaat.jpg

:smiley:

2079

Third night of poking at Sindragosa, and Team Friday got her to 7.5% last night. I’m looking forward to next Friday, since we should be able to down her given our overall progress (20%-15%-7%). We just need to ensure no bad luck on the tombs in P3.

I really like this fight. :smiley:

For Loremaster (306/550 EK), I got to the Cortello’s Riddle chain, that one’s a fun one, and I found a bridge in Swamp that I hadn’t known existed. In the process, I was riding past an owlbeast in Hinterlands and thought, “Self. Hmm. You know, I just need the OOX for this one. Well, okay, fine.” pew owlbeast falls over And as it turned out, that owlbeast did have the beacon that starts the quest. :smiley: So now I’m the owner of a fine robotic chicken. No rockets, sadly.

2080

I am so going to figure out if I can emote that once I get my female goblin shaman.