I’ve only ever done this quest on my druid, which is nice, because if you hit the flight button fast enough you’re set when this happens. Unfortunately, if he’s flying low enough over something at that moment, you may not have a chance.
I haven’t yet done the random group thing, so I may try with my needs-gear-badly warlock first, then continue on with my priest. Otherwise I’m going to end up as the charity case being led through raids by my guildies cause my gear will suck rocks compared to the random-happy guildies who are grinding emblems.
One of my guildies, a hunter, was complaining that he’d been kicked out of a random group. Considering what I’ve seen from him and his lack of skills, I can’t say I’m surprised.
I don’t follow. There’s three outcomes to the fight:
You lose all your HP, in which case you die, leaving your corpse in mid-air. Good thing you get a spectral flying mount in Storm Peaks.
You fail to maintain your grip (the counter in your buffs list reaches 0) because you didn’t mash 1 often enough, in which case you fall to the ground, usually taking enough falling damage to kill you outright (unless you’re a Drood). Hitting 1 twice for every attack you make is usually enough to avoid this outcome.
You succeed, in which case you fall to the ground along with the drake’s corpse and take no falling damage.
You can’t actually kill the drake with your phase 1 abilities; they simply won’t do enough damage before the game switches you to phase 2.
Actually you can, if you time your big hit just exactly right (or wrong). Only happened to me once, and the result is that though the dragon is dead you don’t get credit for it, and end up dead if you don’t have some kind of parachute.
Yeah, I’m noticing a lot of groups just plowing through heroics now. It’s great because it goes really fast, but still it’s hard to get motivated to do the old heroics. I’ve been trying to dps while healing now just to keep it interesting. I managed to almost break 1500dps, though I usually hover around 1k.
I am getting so, SO sick of this mob AI positioning bug.
In more positive news, I have determined that the average wait time for a well-geared tank for a random Heroic is less than five seconds. (I generally wait about 1-4 seconds.)
Hilariously, I’m also often the top damage-dealer in my PUGs, or near the top… as a tank. I probably pull about 2k in my tanking gear, but I’d gotten very used to that being at the way low end of the people I raided with, where it wouldn’t be unusual to see individuals busting 10k with certain fight mechanics.
Here’s my most :smack: LFG PUG story so far:
I decided to try to get some instance runs in on my 70 Mage. Utgarde Keep is selected. The tank… dies on the first trash pull, although the DPS manages to burn the mobs down before they wipe us. I check the death report for the tank (Acheron is an awesome addon), and I see that he got… almost zero heals in the last ten seconds of his life. Like, one Healing Touch and one tick of Rejuv. I look over at the healer, a Druid, and his big cow face is staring back at me. Huh, caster form, not tree form. As I go to inspect him, I see an ominous Say bubble pop up… something about “this is my dad’s.” Uh oh. And then his talent tree pops up, and whaddaya know. He’s full Feral. :smack::smack::smack: And when I vote to kick, I find that I can’t do that so early in a PUG. :smack::smack::smack: Fortunately, when I politely asked him in party chat to leave the group so that we could find a real healer, he obliged.
As has been observed, it’s a weekly, not a daily. It comes out at the same time that raid timers reset, so you should just make a habit of picking it up every Tuesday (or the first time you log in after the reset). Worst-case, your raidmates should be able to share the quest with you.
Keep a careful eye on the dialogue that pops up when you’re assigned a group. In my experience, it always at least says, “You are about to join a dungeon in progress,” even if it doesn’t give the exact number of bosses downed (which it sometimes does).
You might be able to get your groupmates to vote to kick you by asking nicely. Or by sitting there and refusing to do anything if that fails.
A fate worse than death: hundreds of holiday cards.
Warn them about it ahead of time and type in ALL CAPS in party chat if they’re not moving. You used to be able to do raid warnings in parties, but it looks like they removed that functionality (lame).
Enchanting is one of the best min/maxing professions out there right now. Compared to the bonuses from other professions, it’s as good or better. It would be nice if all the profs got a buff again (especially some like Alchemy that **still **need to be brought into line with the other bonuses), but as of right now, you’re riding high–don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, etc. etc.
That was the one thing I was curious about–when someone goes in as a (tank/heal)/DPS hybrid, they almost never end up DPSing (I haven’t once yet), but I wasn’t sure how the tank/heal dynamic would play out. Guess for your server, you’re shorter on tanks. And really, given ratios for raiding, that’s not too surprising. Healer ratios stay pretty constant from 5-mans up through 25s (about one healer per five players, give or take), but tanks drop off dramatically. A lot of 25-man fights require three tanks, quite a few only require one or two, and it’s very rare to find a fight where four or more tanks would even be considered. (The only time I remember doing it recently was on Crazy Cat Lady for Auriyayayayaya25.)
Not sure what you’re getting at, here, because the new DE function only works when there is an Enchanter in the group who can DE the item in question. It is not physically possible, given the mechanics Blizzard has in place to keep individual realm economies isolated, for an Enchanter on a run to pick up items for the group, DE them, and then distribute the shards as end loot. As I’ve told you repeatedly, Blizz’s only option is to assume that NO Enchanters would DE items for other group members, and create a definite shortage of shards, or to assume that ALL Enchanters would DE items for other group members, creating a potentially larger influx of DE mats.
I don’t think it would be a bad idea to remove the DE option for *BoE *items, but for BoPs, the system **must **stay as it is.
Then consider I’m arguing with a stupid, selfish, shortsighted idea rather than with you.
There’s a vendor somewhere in Dalaran. Check Wowhead for Arctic Fur, and if it doesn’t already show who “sells” it, you should be able to find the name in the Comments tab.
Quiet, you. I post at the Dope pretty much exclusively from work–outside those hours, I’m out with friends, playing WoW, reading, catching up on desperately needed sleep, and so on.
Never underestimate the power of finding the right buyer at the right time.
Well, I play some on Cairne, and a *lot *on Borean Tundra, which is in the same battlegroup, and I don’t see any problems like this, at least not consistently. What are the specs on the box you use to play WoW?
Yup, they don’t stay put. They’ll constantly shift around and often move behind you. It’s worst in groups, but it’ll even happen with lone mobs… sometimes even bosses.
You’ve been very lucky. Mostly, this bug means that the mob drifts around *behind *you, which is not good for anybody.
Welcome! I think I caught you online when I popped over to Ye Olde Hunter for a while this weekend.
Deep breaths. Deeeeeep breaths. If all else fails, warn people going in that you’re inexperienced. Some people have a tendency to assume that everyone has been doing their role for fifty billion years.
It’s a little hard for me to tell, since my gear is so far toward the max end of what you could have pre-3.3, but it seems like I’m mostly getting people who are at least adequately geared, even if they don’t quite make it up to my level. I will confess that I’ve been using the GearScore addon. While the number in and of itself doesn’t mean anything, it’s dead useful for getting a quick screenshot of your PUG group, especially if, like me, you have to decide who to throw Vigilance on before you see how much damage and threat various players put out.
You can do it! For the critter achievement, I’d recommend finding a flock of penguins on an ice floe. I converted an entire berg’s worth once, just for the hell of it. I still have a screenshot around somewhere of me with my army of minions.
Aces High is exponentially easier in a group. It actually exists as a way to train and practice for ph3 of Malygos–the drake vehicles have the same abilities for both the daily and the raid. Having even just one more person so that one of you can focus on healing while the other focuses on damage makes all the difference.
Fun fact: While, as people have observed, the instance is in fact the Stormwind Stockades, there was another instance tentatively planned for the city, Stormwind Vault. You can still see portal entrances with gates in front of them, and IIRC there used to be an exploit to get inside, though of course it was empty. (FWIW, Stormwind Keep is the area of the capital that has, among other things, Varian Wrynn in it, so if you ever come faction-leader raiding, you’ll get to see the inside of that, too.)
Everybody has access to everything. And, technically speaking, Horde could always run Stocks and Alliance could always run RFC… it was just a question of getting yourself to the instance portal.
I just came up with an interesting theory last night that you’d be welcome to test.
Players are excluded from some of the higher-level dungeons if they don’t meet minimum gear requirements, right? So what if you put together a random set of greens, then queued while wearing that? Presumably, that would restrict you to the easier Heroics, and you could just swap into your normal gear after you’ve queued.
Of course, I’m not 100% sure that this happens, nor am I sure how the matchmaker scans gear. (After all, if you queue as a hybrid, you can only be wearing one set at a time. So what if your DPS set is great but your healing set blows?) It could be that the restriction only applies to being able to run Heroics vs. being able to run regulars, or something like that. But it might be worth a try.
As of Monday night, the bug still wasn’t fixed.
Because your RL/GM needs to grow a pair and start having consequences for people who don’t honor their commitments or don’t pull their weight.
It sure is purdy. WTB a tanking Legendary one of these days, though.
A very good policy. The only time I had a DPS flip out on me was toward the end of a H-UK run, when after he aggro’d a group of mobs before I could get to them (after I’d seen him pull trash through carelessness or whatever else before), I told him that if he wanted to be the tank, he should have rolled one, and that if I saw him pull a group of mobs again, I’d just let them eat his face off. The rest of the party thought it was hilarious, but he went all capslock nerdrage.
Best of luck.
You’re always welcome, and thanks again for the compliments.
The best thing to do when you encounter a new vehicle fight is to take a deep breath and remember that nothing is going to kill you in the first five seconds. Don’t just start randomly mashing buttons in the hope that something works. Actually take the time to read each tooltip–they’ll tell you exactly what you need. When you use an ability, pay attention to any buffs or debuffs it gives you, and read those tooltips. IME, any time that someone things a vehicle fight is insanely hard, it’s 'cause they were never able to take the time to really sit down and look at the abilities they’re given.
I’m obscenely overgeared for H-ToC5, and even *I *hate that comp. Grats!
I pretty much just chain-pull while keeping an eye on mana. I don’t think I’ve had any instance take more than 30 minutes, and most of them come in closer to 20.
Yes, yes, we know, you lucky so-and-so. I mean something **I **can use, 'cause it’s all about me. I mean, hey, they put a Legendary Bow in for Hunters–why not a Legendary Shield for Warriors and Paladins? They could even have it come in tank or caster flavors, so you could pick it up on Shammies and Holy Pallies, too.
My husband has been doing random dungeons over the last week as his (healing) shaman. A couple of his anecdotes:
He ends up in a group, and the tank asks him what his gear score is. He (honestly) replies, “Don’t know, don’t care.” The tank says “OK” and the run goes fine. First off, approximate gear scores are matched so that shouldn’t be that big of a deal, and they do have addons now to give the score on mouseover. And second, he’s lately been quoting a post he saw on the official forums - “Tell me when they make a ‘Skills Score’ addon, then I’ll be interested.”
He does a short heroic (AN, I think) with a group, where he didn’t really notice until the second boss that the tank was waiting until all had rolled greed on the Frozen Orb, and then rolled Need. Nice. He sucked it up and finished the run, don’t remember if he complained about the tank’s little maneuver. Knowing him, he probably did.
Oh yeah, more Minor Guild Drama - some emo teen boy rejoined the guild, after oh so DRAMAtically leaving a number of months ago in a flourish of emo-ness posting on our forum. I can’t even remember the content, but I think this was the guy who loved to quote anime lines and expected everyone to be seriously “feeling” the game the way he did. Dude, xfer RP realm plz thx. My husband voted to abstain in the “readmit y/n?” vote in the officer channel, and the GL winced slightly when he reminded her of who this guy is. She promised she’d /gkick him herself if he ticked her off even once.
Heh. I’m not that lucky–I’m sure I’ll never see that axe (or at least not until we’re a couple of tiers past it), since my tank is an alt and I like my mage main too much to change. His only hope of getting it is maybe getting lucky on rolls in our weekly alt run if it drops.
I want a caster DPS Legendary, dammit. We haven’t seen one since Atiesh, which isn’t exactly lighting the world on fire these days. I mean, seriously, a legendary BOW? Useful for one class? If they do end up with a caster legendary, I’ll have to be fighting off all the locks, spriests, probably a few shammies, a stray paladin…it’s not fair, I tell ya! We’ve had a bow, a healer mace, and warrior glaives (which, I might add, they haven’t retrofitted so DKs can use them), but nothing for caster DPS.
This is why I’ll often wait to see what other people are rolling, so that if someone tries to ninja it, I can at least have a chance to snag it back and then do a free roll. (Or can you even trade Frost Orbs, since they don’t bind?)
The alternative is to have everyone roll Need on the orb, but that would need to be set out at the beginning of the instance (or at least before the last boss).
I will never understand why people like this are let back into a guild. I have never once seen it work out well in the long run–sooner or later, they return to form and cause an even bigger blowup, maybe this time taking more people with them, and at best eroding confidence in the guild leadership.
The other night I was healing H CoS and we had reached the Infinite Corruptor with plenty of time left on the clock. I start tossing heals around and all of the sudden the boss runs past me and starts running down the street. I’m thinking, WTF? Why is the tank kiting the boss down to Market Square? I’m so caught off guard that some of the party is out of my healing range when I start to run after them.
So I’m running after everyone down the street, and finally the IC goes down. I start topping everyone off, and one of the dps guys says “WTF?” and the tank says “You kept pulling aggro, so I thought you wanted to tank it.” The DPS had pulled aggro and started running away, and the tank just let the boss chase after him.
I thought it was hilarious, although I wish the tank had given a little bit of warning.
I love the addon BigBrother. I set it to report to me when anyone misdirects (or does the rogue version, blanking on the name atm) and to whom it goes to, when anyone breaks CC, that kind of thing. We were doing the new heroic 5-man chain with my priest healing and Guild Hunter Who Complained of Being Booted From a Random almost never misdirected. I mentioned it later when he got aggro (“Misdirect is your friend!”) so on the next pull he MD’d to a DPSer. :smack: I just said calmly in Vent, “Please don’t misdirect to So-and-So.”
Remembered another anecdote: My husband had been using the random dungeon thingie, still on his resto shaman, when they had to deal with Halls of Reflection (? - the third part). During the “fight the two dudes and their lackeys” part, the tactic was to cluster in the side hall around the corner. Except that at least one DPS who somehow wasn’t getting heals went outside the hall, around the corner - he didn’t realize that until he ran back in and saw a PC skeleton there. Oh, that’s why the heals were OOR/out of LOS. Idiot.
It’s a tough fight because there are both mages and gunmen in addition to the melee trash. The tank always says to stay in the little hall to funnel the enemies in, but the ranged attackers stay well back, and it’s only too natural for the DPS to go haring off after them, and the tank can’t easily keep aggro on ranged enemies. The DPS die, things fall apart.
Don’t feel bad, I was in a pug that got oculus and one of the DPS immediately dropped and the rest of us got pissed for about a second before we realized none of us wanted to do it either and it would take all of 2 minutes to find another group.
Can I just say I really dislike that part? A fight where the big plan is to all squish into one corner of a huge room, so that if all goes well you have a horrible cluster of confusing mobs stacked on top of players all spamming attacks on each other. HATE, and I’ve only done it one and a half times. Even though I get awesome DPS out of it through basically unlimited corpse explosions.
Best of luck.
We’ve had a bow, a healer mace, and warrior glaives (which, I might add, they haven’t retrofitted so DKs can use them), but nothing for caster DPS.