Yup, the PTRs are good practice for new fights, but they’re not 100% how content gets cleared. Not all fights get posted to the PTR before they go live, and fights aren’t always posted in their final versions on the PTR.
P.S., it’s not just the world-top guilds who get practice in on the PTR. The guild I was in for about two seconds before coming to FoW was working on Ulduar on the PTR before it went live, and I’d say they rank a bit below FoW.
This. Enhance shamans have the nifty Spirit Wolves which apparently heal the shaman for a percentage, plus they have Bloodlust/Heroism which is a lvl 70 spell that buffs haste by 30% for the entire party/raid for 40 seconds. (OMNOMNOM) Not to mention Unleashed Rage, which is a passive talent and raidwide dps buff on procs. Their totems buff a wee bit better than the other two trees’ totems do, as well.
I haven’t run with a lot of ele shamans so I don’t know what all they can do, other than have insane burst dps.
Well it starts at 8, and I would imagine the winner would probably be announced in 10-15 minutes. You can keep fishing for the hour hoping to get a shark, though.
So nah, I don’t think we’ll need to push the alt runs back.
Are you sure Bloodlust/Hero is Enh-only? I thought it was just a general Shaman spell, not tree-specific.
Eesh, you’re right. I looked it up and while it’s in the Enh tree, it’s a general spell that all shamans can use.
Never mind! /Emily Litella
That said, tonight is Naxx. Eee. I hope we can get enough people from guild together to run it – I definitely would love to get Gluth down, although I got an earful about Thaddius from one of our part-time officers. :eek:
Thaddius isn’t that bad. Go to Heroic Mechanar and practise on Mechano-Lord Capacitus if you’re having a tough time with the polarity shifts - Thaddius is easier since you don’t even have to worry about bombs floating all over on Thaddius, heh.
ETA: that’s Heroic Mech, not normal, just for clarification
Yes, I did have some other programs running, Hon, thanks.
And I’ve gotten used to Wolkie and Silka at that size, so I guess if I’m playing solo that’s okay, and also if I’m grouping it’s okay, because the aspects are the same for each toon? (You see yours with your settings, and vive versa)
I spent my last talent point just raising the “oomph” of it a notch rather than choosing something new?.
(We might as well discuss this while it’s going on: Sometimes a word will fail me and I’ll resort to onomatopoeic words and sometimes even they will be wrong, so just one more thang to add to the list, ah reckon?
) Okay, back to the post…
Q
Right, your camera settings have no impact on anyone else’s camera settings. But, just for the record, the “size” isn’t what’s changing. Think of walking towards an object, and how it seems larger, as it takes up more space in your vision. Then walk backwards, and the object seems smaller, as you get further away. The camera controls are like that - when you use the mousewheel to make Wolkie “bigger”, it isn’t his size that’s changing, rather the game distance between you and him is shorter. Same thing when you use the mousewheel to make Wolkie look “smaller” - you’re just backing away from him so you can see more of what’s around him in the game world. Make sense?
Sure does, Words, thanks!
Q
I’ve had my Elemental Shaman four years now - I’m like you, but flipped in that I’m very vague on what Enhancement Shammies do.
As noted, ALL Shamans have bloodlust
Elementals who are deep into their tree have Totem of Wrath, which is a raid-wide buff to casting other Shamans don’t have. Our chain lightning spells are, if I recall, a bit better than yours. We also have that AoE/knockback called Thunderstorm which other Shamans don’t have (another “deep in the tree”, so not all Elementals have it, either). There’s “astral shift” which diminishes damage taken when we’re stunned, feared, or silenced.
There’s also considerable overlap in gear between Elemental and Restoration, which makes dual-speccing as the two easier than dual-speccing either with Enhancement.
Also - strictly opinion, but based on observation - since Elementals are ranged DPS and usually not in the thick of the battle I think it’s easier for us to throw out a back-up heal when appropriate as compared to the Enhancement guys, who would probably get chopped up a bit if they paused to cast a heal during a battle.
The hardest part about the Thaddius fight is making the jump across. The rest of the fight is easy.
All you need to do is watch your boss mods to see when a change is coming and move to the other side if your charge changes. Our strat was negative charges group on the left of the boss, positive on the right. If your charge changed, you always crossed to your right. So positive -> negative went behind the boss, negative-> went around the front of the boss.
Speaking of Elemental Shamans - I’m looking for a way to improve mine. There doesn’t seem to be much up-to-date on Elemental talent trees, gearing, strategy, etc. out there. Or perhaps my Google-fu is weak (yes, I already checked out Elitist Jerks). Anyone have ideas on where I should look? Although I’m up to Ulduar level raiding I’m a theory-crafting idiot, so sites in plain English are preferred.
I suspect what I really need to do is improve my gear/gems/enchants, but I also think my talent tree could use tweaking.
After running Heroic ToC for what seems like fifty times, I finally got myself Mariel’s Sorrow for my priest. I think I’ll still hold on to Spectral Kris for my dps set, though.
I really need to start getting into some Pug 10-mans so I can collect some Emblems of Triumph (I have all the Conquest gear), but I don’t know any of the fights. I guess I’ll need to so some research so people will be willing to take me along.
Congratulations on the mace, it took a long time for my pally to get it as well. I have also been saving any of my Northrend purples as I replace them. Since they all disenchant into an abyss crystal, and they’re really cheap now, I figured maybe I’ll just hang on to them a bit longer until I know that they’re out-dated.
Have you been doing your daily heroic quests from Dalaran? Reward is 2x emblem of triumph. Its not much, but it adds up over time…I’ve picked up the ring and shoulders so far just off of doing the daily.
I managed to sneak in on a few pug 10 man ToC runs as a healer (we’re in demand!). I thought it was a blast and pretty straight forward. Usually the raid leader will fill you in on the strategy and key points to remember. Use your own experience to fill in the blanks.
To my shame, I utterly failed this on our Thaddius fight last week. I was the secondary tank, and just could not do it. I always fail badly on these jumps, whether it’s the one on the way into LBRS/UBRS or this. At least on my priest I could hit Levitate and float over, but I was stuck as my druid. I finally just sat down in the ooze until I died, then flew back to Naxx to rejoin the group. (It was faster than running back through the quarter.)
It’s almost always going to be to your benefit to put more points into a talent than to start a new one. So, better to have 3/3 in Talent A than 1/3 in Talent A, 1/3 in Talent B, and 1/3 in Talent C.
I don’t know what the hell it is about that jump–you can make it 99 times, and still fuck something up somehow even staring straight down on the 100th time. Don’t forget you can ask a Mage for a Slow Fall or a Priest for a Levitate.
The big killer on Thadd is lag. If you don’t see your buff change, and everybody else switches properly but you don’t, you’re going to get pretty much insta-gibbed.
Grats on the new gear! For boss strategies, I highly recommend Tankspot videos (search YouTube–they’re posted by Ciderhelm), WoWWiki pages, and Wowhead pages. If you have specific questions, I might be able to answer them, too. While my knowledge is centered around tanking, I do have to generally have an overview of the entire fight–and I know there are other people here running ToC, Ony, and VoA.
ETA: Ferret Herder, you’re not totally screwed if you miss the jump on Thadd (especially as a Druid who can heal yourself). Run back to the doorway and get out of the green goo. Then run up on a platform and jump back down. Now, here’s the important part: stay the hell back until you pick up the correct buff for the side you’re on. For example, if you jump to the left side of the boss, and your group is doing negative on the left, wait until you get a negative charge and then run forward to join the group.
Yeah, ToC as a healer is pretty easy, although most guides are written for the entire raid and it can be difficult to distill them down to the essentials. Some general things for a healer, without all the rest of the stuff:
Beasts:
[ul]
[li]Magnataur: keep an eye on the health of guy who gets a kobold on his head;[/li][li]Worms: if you get fire on you, go to the guy with poison on him, and vice versa. Watch out for the mobile worm, it has a frontal acid spray;[/li][li]Yeti: when everyone gets thrown to the wall, if the Yeti is looking at or near you, run along the wall to get behind/to the side of him.[/li][/ul]
Jaraxxus:
[ul]
[li]Heal the guy with incinerate flesh (DBM will warn you);[/li][li]Run in a straight line to the wall and around the edge of the room if you get legion flames on you (DBM will warn you about this, too);[/li][li]Get out of hellfire.[/li][/ul]
Faction Champions:
[ul]
[li]Try not to die. Don’t stand there like a goober if something is hitting you - running away from it will frequently get it to switch targets, and may prevent some hits from landing if there are hunter frost traps, earthbind totems, or other snares on the target.[/li][li]If you have time, and see a hostile totem, whack it… DPS classes are notoriously bad about hitting them, in my experience, and nothing makes this fight take longer than a rampant healing stream totem working on all the mobs.[/li][/ul]
Twins:
[ul]
[li]There are dark portals and light portals: click the one that’s the same colour as the Twin you’re standing near, or whichever colour you like if you’re in the middle;[/li][li]There will be orbs floating at around the room - avoid orbs that are the opposite of your colour (moving your camera to a top-down view can help);[/li][li]Click the other coloured portal when DBM yells at you.[/li][/ul]
Anub’arak:
[ul]
[li]Watch out for the spikes on the ground when he submerges underground (they will insta-kill you if they touch you);[/li][li]If the spikes are chasing you (DBM again), run away from the spikes and get a patch of frozen earth (a white spot on the ground) between you and the spikes;[/li][li]At 30% he does a leeching swarm ability - don’t heal anyone to full except the tank, try to keep everyone around 20-30% health, because the more health people have, the faster Anub’arak steals it and heals himself.[/li][/ul]
Also, imo, ToC-25 is easier than ToC-10 simply because there are more healers to share the burden, and one or two bad DPS won’t kill the raid like it will on a 10-man. YMMV
Oh, I jumped throughout the fight - when I wasn’t waiting to match the buff, that is. Failed repeatedly. :smack: I think part of it is the keyboard on my laptop is a little screwed up in places, plus I apparently just suck at jumping.
Entirely possible it was a keyboard fail. Swear to god I had the same problem the last time I ran Naxx–I hammered my spacebar and ran right off the edge anyway. :smack:
That’s why you see people randomly jumping while in an encounter listening to the fight description…they’re really just testing their keyboards to make sure it’s fully functional.
There’s also always a guy testing wasd keys and running in circles around the group…