I jumped on my newly 80 pally last night and discovered that I still had time to return the Triumph-emblem libram for the Heroic-emblem libram which had been recommended. I did the return but haven’t purchased the other one yet (I had to log off).
Before that, though, I ran regular UP and FoS. I was nervous about FoS but it went fine, although we lost two dps on the final boss. UP was a tanking problem – either a DK with a relatively low health pool or a warrior who couldn’t hold aggro. Between the two of them we managed but it was an adventure.
Our BDL Wednesday night alt runs have become just my and my healer friend pugging a random, but we did UK again last night. Healer says my new cobolt armor makes his job easier, so thanks Yeti and I think Shin Kell who made the suggestion. Still trying to negotiate a different night so that I can pug raid on Wednesdays instead; I hate seeing all those people in trade looking for healers and I can’t volunteer when no one needs me on Friday (my current raid night).
This week’s random on Cairne is ICC, so ICC pugs were relatively plentiful; I picked up a group and healed 'em through Saurfang, at which point I dropped out. I’m now sitting on about 120 Frosts, but I can’t decide if I want to use 'em for my Shadow or Disc spec. Decisions, etc.
Oh I forgot to ask about Sacred Shield – am I supposed to keep that up on the tank at all times? Or just at the pull? I’m a little unclear on the mechanics and when to use it.
Not sure if you were joking or not, but I did summon Perky Pug near a tree druid last night, while waiting for my random heroic to pop. No interaction with the tree was apparent.
Tom Scud, I’ll go back to the jousting thing tonight and try it your way.
Sacred Shield is a little weird because it’s a buff that procs a buff that…sort of procs a buff.
It breaks down thus:
When you cast the ability, the target receives a 30 second (60 talented) buff called Sacred Shield. This in itself provides no bonus; it just tells you that the shield is primed.
When the shielded player takes damage, the shield activates for 6 seconds (12 talented) and grants the player a certain amount of damage absorption which is increased by spellpower. The shield will reactivate, renewing the buff timer and renewing the damage absorption, only every 6 seconds.
During the active shield time, if you cast Flash of Light on the shielded player the crit chance is increased by 50%.
It’s complicated, but what this means on your end as the healer is that once you cast it, it’ll automatically do its thing and you just need to cast FoL to get any more juice out of it.
Because the Shield is wholly reliant on the tank taking damage to be of any use, you certainly don’t want to keep it running between pulls if there’s a long downtime. But during combat, it’s always good to keep it running.
So will the buff keep renewing as long as the tank is taking damage? Will I have to recast it during a fight as long as the tank keeps getting hit?
I think my problem last night was not not knowing when to cast it, but not knowing when to re-cast it. I think I need to add the buff to my Grid display so I know when it’s gone.
You only need to recast at the end of the 30- or 60-second mark. During that time, the damage absorption and FoL crit chance will continually renew.
And yes, absolutely add it to Grid. I use GridIndicatorCornerText so Sacred Shield’s overall buff counts down in the lower left corner of the target’s Grid box. I think you can set it so the damage/FoL countdown also appears, but I don’t think I have that set. If you have Divine Guardian talented, the damage/FoL bonuses will always be up as long as SS is up.
Lag/latency can be a big problem when jousting. Sometimes you’ll get the NPC apparently tossing a shield breaker and charging you almost simultaneously, when there should be a cooldown between them, or tossing a shield breaker when in melee range, which they shouldn’t be able to do. For what it’s worth, I made a video of myself jousting a while back. It’s more “watch & learn”, since there’s no voiceover or instruction, but it might help:
That’s a really annoying quest. The key is that you have to be in melee range (strange, I know, when one of your attacks is a ranged breath weapon), so you need to fly right smack up to the balcony the dude is standing on. Use the protodrake’s knockdown ability (don’t remember what it’s called) every time it comes off CD, and then while he’s stunned, spam your two damage abilities. Lather, rinse, repeat, and he’ll go down fairly quickly.
I’ve been questing in STV, so it actually didn’t take me long to farm up the Heavy Leather I needed. The gorillas were … generous
I’ve had remarkably good luck fishing the book up from the Sagefish pools in in the river in Hillsbrad Foothills.
Thanks Bosstone. I’ll add it to Grid so I can watch it like I do Beacon of Light. I don’t have DG talented yet, but I was planning on redoing my talents at 80 anyway to include it.
Those counts aren’t 100% accurate. I seem to recall that all stats got wiped at some point in the past.
Here’s my time-tested jousting technique.
1.) Put up three shields.
2.) Start a match. As you click the dialogue option to initiate it, you should have your target selected already and be spamming your 1 button (melee attack). If you’re lucky, you can get an early hit in with that.
3.) As the jouster rides past you, turn to face them.
4.) Mash your 1 button while you’re in melee range; if they keep going past you far enough, start mashing your 3 button (charge). If you end up charging, close the distance again as fast as you can, mashing the 2 button (shield-breaker) at range and the 1 button while you’re in melee.
5.) Don’t move out of melee range on your own. Stay in place, mashing 1. When the jouster starts moving to range, start mashing 3 until you charge, then mash 2 while you turn back around and close the distance.
6.) Just keep repeating #4 until the jouster is defeated. Don’t forget to keep your shields up: if you lose a stack, get that up ASAP. If you have a three-stack with a low duration remaining (10-20 seconds), re-apply it to keep from having to restack from zero.
Are you reading carefully over the ability descriptions on the vehicle bar that you get when you mount up? Those will usually clue you in to what you should be doing.
I know. That was a sassy horn for a peeing-on-a-tree joke.
Not especially carefully, as I think of the term–certainly not the level of scrutiny I’d give to a proposed Order or anything.
But I know there’s a ranged breath weapon, a knockdown/stun, and a DoT that does more damage if applied to a stunned target. Last night I was spamming the breath weapon, and using the knockdown followed by the DoT everytime it came off cooldown. Guess I’ll try it from melee range again, but I really hate doing that. If I die that close, my body lands on his platform, and there’s no way to get it back without taking the 25% damage and absurdly long res sickness thing.
I had a hell of a time with this quest (on my third toon… you’d think I’d just skip it at this point) a week or so ago. Finally read about a nice trick (either here or at wowhead) that worked really well (if you have a flying mount, and ideally a class that can heal).
Just don’t bother with the dragon. Fly up to the platform and smack the guy a few times. When he channels the Volley, run away around the platform. Heal up, run back when Volley ends and smack him some more. Went down first try this way.
I’ve always imagined that while the Argent Tourney was in development, the jousting project was code-named “FHPB” by the devs. For those of you who aren’t classic FPSers, that means “Fuck High Ping Bastards.”
You think the latency at the AT is bad now? The original plan had it located in Crystalsong Forest… in range of Dalaran. So if you’re having problems jousting way out in BFE northern Icecrown, just imagine how much worse it could have been if your client was also trying to track everyone in that city simultaneously.
Just a quick thank-you to my friend and our guru, SFG for helping me get Da’ Wolk’ straightened up and out again. We’re heading back to Argent Stand tonight to kick some more ass.
BTW: Guy at my local GameStop was disappointed that I’m Alliance and not Horde till I told him I’m completely solo, not PVP and just playing the game for the enjoyment of it.
Then he said something which I didn’t know how to take:
“So since you’re playing alone, I guess you grind your levels a lot, huh?”
I didn’t go into detail that the reason I grind is because I sometimes don’t understand the quest instructions.:smack:
I haven’t received a survey invitation, but I did get an in-game email inviting me to play the Cata beta! I just have to go to the website and enter my battlenet id and password. Woot!
