It’s the part of the quest that they don’t tell you directly, and that makes it very frustrating for a lot of people:
Keep your eyes open for what looks like a ball of lightning around head-level to the giant… They’re around the landscape. When you’re low on juice, go up to one and grab it (using the grab attack). It gives both a heal-over-time to the giant and a substantial damage buff.
Just confirming that this works like a, er, charm. 
Having never been in Ulduar before, I collected 60 charms in about 5 minutes. Way more than I needed to get my last holiday achievement (the pet), so I put the other 5 necklaces in the guild bank.
I usually start off the fight on top of the fountain, and if/when one of the poison puddles reaches me I’ll consume the appropriate antidote. It’s nice being able to see everthing that’s going on.
ETA: My random heroic last night was HoL (as usual), but I queued for PoS and got in. No boots/belt (which are what I want) but I got a decent weapon upgrade (Surgeon’s Needle).
I don’t know if it’s because there are a lot more people on right now working on the holiday quests or what, but there sure seemed to be a lot of jerks on Cairne last night.
I signed on with my Belf paladin, and queued up for a random dungeon group as DPS. After the usual wait, I got Halls of Reflection for the first time.
Oh boy. I hadn’t researched this instance, since I thought that my gear score was too low. Guess I was wrong. So as we zone in, I warn the rest of the group that this was my first time through. “OK - we’ll help u thru” says the tank.
We start fighting the waves of spectres, but notice that the mage DPS is still standing back by the instance entrance. Obviously this handicaps us. Eventually the mage ‘wakes up’ and joins the fight on about the 3rd or 4th wave of spectres. We make it through the waves of spectres and take down the first boss without any deaths. Then, without explanation, the tank leaves the group. Great. The second wave of spectres starts and we have no tank. Naturally, we all die.
So we all fly back to the instance, rez, and requeue. after a couple of minutes, we’re joined by a druid. In Bear form, he has 50K hp - yow! We start fighting the second wave of spectres. We’re doing well, taking them down much faster than the first wave, when suddenly, somehow, the druid bear tank dies. I don’t know what happened. Naturally the rest of us wipe shortly afterwards. Then the druid leaves the group.
So we rez again, and requeue. This time we get a paladin tank. We make it through the second wave of spectres, kill the next boss, then head down the hallway and kill the giant skeletal scourge general without a problem. We observe the Lich King/Lady Sylvannis battle, and start running down the hallway with the Lich King in pursuit. We make it past the first wave of undead, but during the second wave I die. Instantly. I didn’t think the Lich King was close enough for the instant death, but apparently he was. A couple of others die as well, so we rez and reset that part of the instance.
This time we make it past the first wall/wave of undead, and the second wall/wave, and the third. We make it to the last wall, and all hell breaks loose. Undead everywhere, no aggro control, and we all wipe. When we’re flying back to rez, the tank and the mage get into a snit-fest over whose fault that was; the mage complaining that the tank wasn’t holding aggro, the tank complaining that the mage kept pulling the aggro off him. (I don’t take sides; frankly there are so many undead in that last wave I don’t know how any tank could hold them all.) But the end result of it is that both the tank and the mage leave the group. At that point I’ve had enough; I apologize to the others and tell them that I’ve got to go (a lie, but after 4 deaths I’m sick and tired of the whole Halls of Reflection instance). The two others remaining in the party say that they’re also quitting the run, so I feel less guilty.
Fortunately, I was then able to get into a PUG for Violet Hold; a nice, straightforward instance and get my two Frost Emblems for the day.
Argh, I hate runs like that. Thankfully they are the exception rather than the rule.
Wow, bummer about the HoR run.
One note: for the final part, with the Lich King chasing you, you can actually run off to the side and let him walk by; the monsters will spawn and run back towards you, and it gives you a bit more time because you don’t have to worry about him and his big, evil aura wiping you.
I still think it’s a kind of cheap way to run that part, but usually after surviving the waves I don’t care.
Chances are, Runestar, that the folks in your pug were not from Cairne. But they could have been.
I had a jerk in PoS last night too. I had my hands full keeping our undergeared tank alive through the first two bosses, and was for the most part keeping dps alive too (our DK died during the Ick fight, though - stood in the poison). The dps got low on health a couple to times, but we got through it. As we’re ready to go up the ramp toward the tunnel, the Hunter (the only one in decent gear besides me) says “Hey Kene, you planning on tossing any heals on the dps tonight?” I told him I’d stop healing him altogether if he’d like. He said “Can’t tell it would make a difference.” Grrr.
Looking back, I WISH I had posted a healing recount so he could see how many heals he and the others received. I also wish I had followed through and stopped healing him (which would have been hard, since most of my heals are multi-target). But I just let it go - I was eager to get done.
could someone explain the aggro concept please? Does it only apply when in groups?
“Aggro” is a priority list that mobs have that determines who they are going to attack. If you’re alone, it’s just you so it doesn’t matter. In groups, you want your tank (someone with a lot of hit points and armor) to be the aggro target, and not your healer (who has very little armor or HP).
So tanks have high-aggro creating skills and talents, and healers and most dps classes have aggro-reducing or aggro-redirection skills. The point is to keep the tank at the top of every mob’s aggro list, so they focus all their attacks on the tank. If the dps or healer steal aggro from the tank, or the tank loses aggro for whatever reason, Bad Things Can Happen.
Things that cause aggro are: attacking, doing damage, and healing. Also your proximity to the mob causes some aggro too; it’s better to stand back if you can.
If you mostly solo quest, you’re not going to care much about aggro, and in raids it’s usually not a problem, but in 5-mans you may have to be careful depending on the mob and the tank’s skill.
I will watch for any spells which cause mobs to attack me in preference to my voidwalker. Such spells would have a high threat rating if I understand correctly, and shouldn’t be used at the beginning of the fight?
I thought the latest patch prevented that now?
Pretty much. There are a couple related concepts, “threat” and “aggro”.
Generally speaking, monsters will attack the person who is damaging them the most, or doing the most healing for the group. Whichever person a monster is currently attacking is said to “have aggro”.
However, some classes (most classes, really) have abilities that allow them to do damage or healing while causing reduced “threat” (or drawing reduced attention from monsters), and tank classes have abilities that allow them to cause extra “threat” beyond what they’d normally cause due to the damage they do. Tanks normally don’t directly attempt to kill things; in a typical group the tank will be doing about half as much damage, or less, than the DPS (damage per second) players. Instead, they attempt to “hold aggro” on the monsters the group is currently fighting, by using abilities that generate extra threat, and by “taunting” monsters that start attacking other players (because the monsters arrived late to the scene (“adds”), or because the player “pulled aggro” off of the tank by doing too much damage or whatever).
In the normal run of things, DPS who attack the tank’s main target shouldn’t pull aggro off of him/her, while the tank should be doing enough area of effect attacks to keep any monsters from aggroing on the healer.
Another Q, I was running down a road across some highlands, and there were some big spider things by the road of level ?? What level does ?? represent?
Yeah. There is also an add-on called “Omen” which gives you a nice “threat meter” - your voidwalker will or should be at the top of the list, and you’ll be able to see if you are getting close to his threat level and be able to stop casting for a bit to let him regain the lead.
Too high for you. (More than 10 levels higher, I think.)
Damn thing attacked me on the road. Luckily it fixated on the voidwalker and I skedaddled down the road to safety. Discretion and all that. I think I will make my way to the Barrens for some sustained levelling. Howwould I get there from Silverymoon/Undercity?
Usually it represents a trip to the graveyard in your near future. (As Tom said, it’s a mob +10 levels above you).
If you really want to do the Barrens, you can take the zeppelin from outside Undercity to the Orc capital of Orgrimmar. You want the tower on the right (as you are facing with your back to UC) and you want the lower platform.
Once you get to Org, assuming you do not have any flightpoints in the Barrens yet, you’ll need to run south along the road until you get to Razor Hill. From there you can turn west and head to the Barrens. Follow that road until you get to The Crossroads, which is the first Barrens town.
However - if you’re the right level for Barrens, you might prefer questing in Ghostlands. Barrens is very very big and notoriously inconvenient for questing. But everyone should experience it at least once I guess! For levels 10-25 though, I prefered Ghostlands or Silverpine Forest.
From Undercity, take the zeppelin to Orgrimmar. (Ask the goblin on the flight tower where this zeppelin goes to, to confirm - you want the eastern zep tower, western landing pad.) While you’re there, go in Org and get the flight path at the top of the flight tower.
Then leave Org and ride south on the road, through a canyon, and to the town of Razor Hill. Take the road west just south of that town, and keep going west. Eventually you’ll cross a bridge over a river, and will be in the Barrens. From there ride west to the north-south intersection, and head south to the Crossroads. This is, understandably, a major place for leveling-up Horde characters. If this is too easy (early teens), head south on the Gold Road to Camp Taurajo.
I think I’ve finished Ghostlands. Just killed all the lieutenants and the head honcho in Deathholme. Am now level 21, just did some quest for the warlock trainer in UC, had to get a couple of guys hearts from miles and miles away (Spider encounter en route) I want some more condensed questing in a level appropriate zone. Looking on wowwiki made me think Barrens, but if you have any alternatoves to recommend, I’m all ears.
You probably want Hillsbrad Foothills - go south from Undercity, through Silverpine Forest, and east to Tarren Mill. There are a ton of quests there; the Barrens are for the most part too low-level for you now.