Nice one Ferret. Those hogs are pretty sweet.
It’s hard with a PuG because both of those fights can be ruined by one bad player (even a bad DPSer, which your average 25-man PuG will have at least one of).
PuGs were spoiled by ToC25, where getting hit by the Yeti was really the only thing a bad DPSer could do to screw the raid (well, I guess bad DPS overall made Anub hard, but nothing before that). Rotface you can easily wipe your raid group by not running out with the ooze, and Festergut just needs higher overall DPS than your average PuG is going to pull, at least until the next buff.
Progress report for Jagaya: No luck on the LK 25-man… got him to 55% though, and got much better at handling the Valks/Defiles as the day went along.
10-man got Marrowgar, Gunship, Saurfang, Festergut, and Rotface on heroic mode, as well as the Portal Jockey achievement (although I missed the last couple of those…).
Some things that helped us get over the hump:
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Assign somebody to watch the timers and announce when Defile and Valks are coming up (sometimes they’re very close, so you have to move fast).
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When Valks are coming, have everybody clump up in front of the LK, slightly to one side of the center of the circle. That way you can control the direction they go. If they fly off in multiple directions, they’re much harder to deal with.
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When Defile is coming, have your DPS divide into two camps and spread out a ways away and on either side of the LK (we put one group over near the steps to the throne and the other over by the teleporter, for ease of communication). Have everybody put LK on focus. He will focus the Defile target about 1 second before he casts, so that will give people more time to get out of the way. It doesn’t seem like much but it’s a huge help. As soon as the Defile is dropped, have everybody clump up again to prepare for the next Valks.
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If you have warlocks, have them put their little port thing down near the edge. It doesn’t always work, but if the Valks carry them near it, they can port back to it after they’re dropped off the edge, so your DPS has one fewer target to worry about. (Edit: Actually, have the locks run out to the edge instead of clumping for Valks, and drop their teleporter. That way if the Valk grabs them, they will be in range of their porter. No chance involved.)
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If the LK is close to 40% and the Valks are up, push him to 40%. You’ll still want to slow/kill the Valks if you can, but he puts up the extra ice ring around the area and they’ll no longer drop your people over the edge.
The “two camps for Defile” thing made the difference for us. Before that we were trying to do it in a single group and just have everybody move away from the Defile target, and it wasn’t working. After we changed, we consistently got to phase 3.
Excellent stuff, thanks - I’ll be posting that over at our guild board.
We were doing some of them (1 and 2) but hadn’t thought of splitting into two groups for defile, or setting focus to LK. Great ideas.
It’s tricky for us, only having two days (and six hours) to raid, but I’m hopeful we can get him down soon. There didn’t seem to be any problem with the tanks or overall raid DPS.
Quick question - we always had one raging spirit up after the transition (at maybe 50-60% health). Is this OK, or do we need to have them all dead before that phase ends? If one is still up, should we DPS it down first before switching to the LK, or let cleaves take care of it?
So I’d like to get you folks’s opinion about something that happened this weekend. I know how I feel about it, but I want some other viewpoints.
Somebody in our guild has a regular ICC-10 run (not a main raider run–mostly socials, alts, and the occasional out-of-guild PUG). Three weeks ago one of the tanks couldn’t make it, so I volunteered my paladin tank. He was a little undergeared, but no more than the other tank who was there. The run went great, and clearly my tank was capable of handling the content. I let the leader know that I’d be available any time one of their regular tanks couldn’t make it.
The next week, she was looking for people to fill out the group. She asked me if I wanted to come as DPS. I told her I would, but (a) my DPS wasn’t that great (my ret set isn’t nearly as good as my tank set) (b) I asked if I could roll main spec on tank gear if I did come, and off-spec on DPS gear. She said sure, no problem. (BTW, this is something that’s done regularly in our guild–people are always rolling main spec on things other than what they’re currently playing, and everybody is cool with it as long as it’s announced ahead of time). She told me that the other tank (a DK) wanted to bring his druid tank in for Putricide for a chance to roll on the tank trinket that drops there, but I could roll on it too.
So that week went fine too. (The trinket didn’t drop, but that’s irrelevant). I picked up a few DPS upgrades that the Holy paladin rolling main spec on Ret gear didn’t want, and all was good.
So that brings us to this Saturday. She actually sent me an invite to the group this time, and I accepted. Once again I was DPS since both tanks showed up. She said it was fine if I rolled on tank gear again.
We killed Marrowgar, and a very nice tank neck dropped. Huge upgrade for me (I was wearing the 219 neck from heroic ToC5). I rolled Need, as did the DK tank (the paladin tank had it already). I won, and got the neck. There was some loot drama in the meantime over an out-of-guild PUG DPS shaman rolling Need on and winning the Sliver of Pure Ice (a healer trinket with a boatload of spellpower), so they were sorting that out. They moved on to the trash for Lady Deathwhisper.
Next thing I know, I get a whisper from the raid leader. “I’m wondering if you wouldn’t mind passing that neck to (DK tank). It’s the only thing he was after in here.”
Uh.
I inspected DK tank: his gear is way better than mine, and he’s wearing a 232 neck. But still, I really don’t want to cause loot drama, so I said, “I guess,” and opened trade with the DK to give it to him.
So I spend the next two bosses seething about it. I wouldn’t have minded at all if they’d told me ahead of time that either (a) it wasn’t cool to roll on tank gear if I’m DPSing, or (b) this guy was after this neck and he was getting it if it dropped. But to just be asked to give it up after I’d won the roll and been awarded the item kind of rankled.
At the break I whispered the RL and said, “You know, I’m not going to do anything about it and I certainly don’t want to cause trouble, but I feel I have to let you know that I don’t like the way this was handled.” We talked for a bit (she’s very nice, and neither of us was angry) and she admitted that she’d mishandled the situation. Apparently she also whispered the DK about it, because next thing I know I’m getting a whisper from him saying that he’d declined the trade because he didn’t want to cause drama either. I looked in my bag and sure enough, I still had the neck! I told him that it was a bigger upgrade for me, but if he really wanted it I would give it to him. We kind of hemmed and hawed at each other (him not definitively saying he wanted it, and me not definitively offering it to him–he was going on about the good of the raid, but that didn’t hold much water with me because his gear was better than my DK’s was when he tanked a LK kill, and he has more chances to raid than I do).
So anyway, basically it all just trailed off and nothing came of it. I kept the neck, he didn’t say any more about it, and life went on. I told the RL I wouldn’t be offended if she didn’t invite me back as DPS (my DPS isn’t very good) but I would be happy to come if she needed a body to fill a spot, or a backup tank. We left it at that and I got invited to the run next week, since she said that my knowledge of the fights and my ability to do what I need to do and not stand in things outweighs my DPS deficiencies.
Whew, that was a wall o’ text! But what would you guys have done? Would you have kept the neck, or given it up?
Those two were probably the biggest helps to us out of all the things I suggested.
Yeah, having one spirit up and about half dead at the transition is fine. That’s usually where we are too. We just drag it over to the LK and kill it quick.
You’ll probably have two up during the second transition, and that’s okay too. Just burn them down as fast as you can afterward.
You did nothing wrong. The problem is that the guild or raid leaders either aren’t making clear loot rules, aren’t keeping to them, or are keeping to them and then subverting that with emotional pressure. Any of the three is unacceptable to me. It’s traight nonsense, but you did as you were allowed and permitted to do.
In my book, nobody has a “right” to gear, morally or otherwise, except as raid rules allow. That’s it, period, end of story. The fact that he really wanted the item doesn’t mean squat to me. Now, if you had won it and chose to hand it over, fine. If there was a glitch or other issue, that was one thing - the raid master may have to deal with it. But there should never be a case of arbitrarily grabbing loot and handing, or manipulating people, or trying to blackmail others into handing loot over.
Sadly, there are a great many people who run raids and think that things are “supposed” to come out a certain way just because it feels right to them. Weak sauce.
The faction discounts we’re discussing are for flying training. While race-specific mount vendors are limited by your race and/or rep with the race in question, flying training (and mounts) are only restricted by faction.
Note, too, that you don’t need any specific rep with your own race to purchase its mounts. So your rep *will *make a difference for those mounts.
I wouldn’t find it distracting, but that’s just me. 
And there’s definitely no reason for it unless the person is in some kind of AOE like lava.
How far is your camera scrolled in? Pull it back. Personally, I play with my camera scrolled all the way out when I’m tanking (after using a console command to get it even farther than the normal max) and way further in when DPSing, but even when I’m DPSing, I’m still far enough out that I have a good idea of what’s going on.
No, it’s both. Armor Penetration (ArP) is, however, a purely *physical *DPS stat. It works best for Warriors, Rogues, and Hunters. Because it only affects *physical *damage, it’s a so-so stat for Ret Paladins.
You’re better off not reading 'em, for the most part, IMO. One author in particular is terrible. Like, *bad-fanfiction *terrible.
From what I recall of leveling my Tailor, the vast majority of the gear you can make isn’t good for much other than DE fodder when compared to the items you get as quest rewards or from instances.
That’s 'cause you didn’t have anyone targeted. You could have also manually typed out **/me pets the horse **and it would show up in the chat lot as Wolkenlaufre pets the horse. Another emote that works this way is /hug–if you don’t have anyone else selected, it will say <Name> needs a hug.
As jayjay observed, that’s a hawkstrider, the Blood Elf racial mount. However, ther was some misinformation about where Alliance players can get one. It does *not *come out of Sunwell, which was the endgame raid of TBC. It *does *drop off of Kael’Thas in the Heroic version of Magister’s Terrace, where he’s the end boss. MT was a five-man added at the end of TBC, much like the ICC five-mans, and was the most difficult dungeon (vs. raid) of that expansion.
That’s always been my MO, too. I leveled all the way from 10 to 70 in TBC as one of the “worst” leveling specs: Prot Warrior. And, I gotta tell you, it’s not that bad. Sure, the are specs that are faster and slower, but these days, all of them are at least viable.
AFAIK, any daily will only give you XP the *first *time you do it.
I’d disagree. I’d say:
Rend > Execute > Overpower > MS > Slam
With Bladestorm *only *after an Overpower.
I believe we call that a “Battleground.”
As suggested, I personally favor Wowhead. There’s also Thottbot, an older site without as much flexibility as far as interface and searches, and the WoW Armory itself.
Grats on the bike! FYI, though, some of those parts can be “skinned” off of mechanicals like Flame Leviathan in Ulduar by someone with Engineering. So if you want to make another, you might want to see if you can get in on some Ulduar PUGs or guild runs with the understanding that you’ll get that loot.
The #1 rule of loot rules is: BE CONSISTENT AND STICK TO THE RULES. The other tank should never have tried to guilt you into trading the neck over, because it was agreed that everyone would have equal weight when rolling for main spec. People don’t get to warp the rules after the fact because they didn’t like the outcome. If there’s a particular item someone is running for, that needs to be expressed and agreed to at the start of the run.
You can also go over to the forums at Elitist Jerks. They are big on the BiS gear (best in slot) and talent specs and rotation/priority lists. And spreadsheets and whatnot.
I can be a bit dense, but it’s worth a read.
Re. spirit/stam gear: Isn’t that stuff for warlocks and priests?
I’d say you did nothing wrong. I think that if anyone was at fault, it was the RL (as she seems to have admitted) for not making the loot rules clear. That being said, it sounds like everyone involved handled the situation like a grown-up. And since you’ve since been invited to another raid, it looks to me like no harm has been done.
No, while it does vary with gear level, due to the 50% crit bonus and superior scaling Overpower will on average hit harder than Execute , that is why one should still use it even when the target is below 20% health.
There are two reason why I gave MS a higher priority when the target is above 20% health.
The first and most important one is a rage issue. If you hit Execute first it will consume up to 30 rage and you may not have the 30 rage needed for MS. But if you use MS first you only need to have 15(10 with talents) rage left in order to use Execute.
The second reason is the cd on MS, if you don’t use it as soon as it is available you will lose cooldown time. The chance of losing a Sudden Death proc during that one GCD you spend on an MS is pretty small, but the lost cooldown time is a certainty.
I won’t argue about the Bladestorm, though. 
I’d have given it up because I try to put everyone before me. (Or if you want to be uncharitable, I’m a doormat. :p) But I agree, you didn’t do anything wrong. You abided by the rules set down beforehand; they didn’t.
There was actually an article posted on WoW Insider today for a very similar situation. One player really really really wanted a certain item and had made it known publicly, but someone else won it according to the agreed-upon loot rules and didn’t feel he should have to give it up. This pretty much demolished the guild, with the first guy ragequitting along with a bunch of supporters, with a ton of people getting mad at the officers for not gkicking the guy who followed loot rules.
Even in friendly situations, if there is a possibility of a conflict arising, clear expectations and boundaries need to be set and adhered to. This avoids issues where two or more people want something and squabble over it (or the reverse, they want it but they’re so nice they all want to give it to the other person and nobody accepts). Where there’s conflict, politics arise. But if everyone follows the preset rules, the conflicts are over before they begin. While someone may be disappointed in the result, it was honestly come by and it’s hard to hold a grudge in that situation. (Though obviously, as the article shows, it’s still entirely possible to if you’re kind of a jerk.)
Hell, this is the same reason prenuptials are drawn up, even when the two people getting married are in love; it avoids the messy pain of a conflict down the line.
Heh. Nah, this guy was jumping non-stop from the moment he zoned in at the beginning of the run until we vote-to-kicked him.
In dungeons my camera’s pulled back quite a bit farther than I have it when soloing. I also entered the console command some time ago to allow me to zoom out farther than the default, though I can’t recall exactly what I set it to. But I don’t zoom out to maximum, for two main reasons: 1) If I zoom too far out I can’t see what I’m doing; I have trouble “flying on instruments”, and 2) too far out and I get disoriented and driven completely batty by the camera auto-zooming in and out depending on objects/walls behind me.
Cool. I haven’t gemmed or enchanted for it (I’m gemmed straight STR, except for my meta gem and one prismatic to activate the meta), but it shows up on a lot of DPS plate.
I had the misfortune yesterday of the RDF dropping me into HoR for my first random heroic of the day. The group I was with did much better than the previous group I tried it with. We were taking down the waves relatively easily, until the last wave when we wiped unexpectedly - nobody was sure exactly what happened. So we tried again, and on the second attempt we made it through all the waves, and then finally wiped on that boss guy when we had him down to about 8k. Nobody was really interested in a third try (we pretty much all agreed at the very beginning that we all hate HoR), so we queued up together for a different random. Everybody re-entered the instance to rez and then teleported from there to the new instance (HoL), and at this point I had to admit, with much embarrassment, that I had no idea where the HoR instance entrance was*. Fortunately, the people in this group were patient and with their help/directions I finally found it (it took about 10 minutes).
So we ran HoL successfully, though I died more times than I usually do in there. One spot I always seem to die, though, is that area where all those “Slag” mobs are. I get that I have to just run straight through there and up the stairs on the other side, and I’m getting through pretty much unscathed, but then once I’m on the stairs something I’m not seeing is insta-killing me. Any idea what’s happening there? I seem to be the only one in the group that dies there, so I’m guessing I’m doing something I shouldn’t.
I was a bit worried that I wasn’t going to get my Frosts since we didn’t finish HoR, but I saw I got them after HoL. How does that work, anyway? Do you always get the Frosts for the first random you complete? So if I had dropped as soon as I saw I was in HoR, would I have gotten the Frosts after completing the next random? Or did I get them because the whole group from HoR stuck together for HoL after we gave up on HoR?
Anyway, 8 more Frosts will give me 50, and I’m upgrading my cloak (which happens to be the piece of my gear with the lowest iLvl, 219, so that works out well). Well, okay, my Inscribed Ring of the Kirin Tor is iLvl 213, but another 1000g will fix that. After my cloak, I’m concentrating on upgrading my helm, belt, and boots, which are all iLvl 226.
- Why did I have so much trouble finding the entrance? I griped that the “directions” the initial ICC questgiver in Dalaran (the one who sent me to find Jaina) were remarkably vague; she just said the entrance was “in the side of Icecrown Citadel”. Well come on, it’s a big, tall, round building. Which side? How high or low? I was never able to find it when I had that initial quest. Neither QuestHelper nor the new built-in quest tracker thing were any help at all, because Jaina was inside the instance and so didn’t show up on the map of Icecrown … I went round and round and round ICC looking for it, but simply couldn’t find it. So my first trip through FoS/PoS/HoR on Normal was with my little group of friends, and we just grouped up and zoned in from Dalaran.
Correct. You receive your bonus emblems on killing the final boss of the instance as long it was a random dungeon. The first final boss you kill each day, you get bonus Frost instead of bonus Triumph. Your group members are completely irrelevant in whether or not you receive the bonus emblems.
I don’t know, but you’re not the only one. I’ve had to talk people to the entrance before, and it’s maddening. I’m sorry, but I don’t think “As you’re in the Citadel courtyard facing the Citadel, look up and to your right. On the side of the Citadel is an Argent Crusade banner. The entrance is on the platform above the banner,” is all that difficult, even if you’re spatially challenged.
I had a quick post written up but I see Bosstone got to the linked article faster than I could. 
So I’ll just note that I’m plugging away on Loremaster. I’ll queue into bgs while I’m fed-exing various body parts around Kalimdor and chatting to friends. Slows down the inevitable insanity nicely, and so far I’m to 591/685 Kalimdor. We won’t talk about EK though. I’m leaving OL and NR for last though.
The Wowhead client addon is really, really useful for Loremaster, by the way. So if any of you catch a case of insanity and want to try for this achievement too, that is the way to go. I find it much better than Everyquest, which doesn’t differentiate between repeatables and non very well.
Each slag explodes when they die. People like to AOE bomb them (as they do with everything) which means the slags typically all explode at once. You either stand clear of the blast, or use something drastic to survive it like Divine Shield.
I think part of the problem is that the in-game descriptions very strongly suggest that Jaina (or her Horde counterpart) has discovered some sort of “secret” entrance, or some sort of crack in the citadel’s wall. So people aren’t looking for a big, wide-open door at the end of a broad walkway. And when you die and you’re trying to run/fly back, the corpse icon appears right where the big obvious raid entrance is, and the arrow points you right down that tunnel.
I figured out the problem: As you run through there you get a “Melt Armor” debuff, which reduces your armor by 15000. In my case, that left me with 810 armor :eek: Once I saw what was happening, I was all, “I’mma go stand over there”, well away from those Slags.
ETA: Oh yeah, I ran enough heroics today to collect enough Triumphs to upgrade my hat to the Helm of Thunderous Rampage
This assumes a significant percentage of people pay attention to lore in-game. Even when an NPC is voiced, I doubt many people pay much attention.
Definitely a bigger culprit. Folks are about as savvy as Khan when it comes to thinking in the Z axis. Tombstones are never very trustworthy when you die in instances.
The first few times I had trouble finding those entrances, too. But now I’ve died enough times in HoR that I can find it with my eyes closed!
One of my guildies (from AL) says I’m wording my guild message wrong, and that I shouldn’t mention that there are quest or skills items in the vault, so could one of you just write me a “pattern” message, please?
Also when I type the message, is there are way to “save” it and resend it so that I don’t have re-type the whole thing?
Guild vault is filling up, slowly but surely with all kinds of stuff I can’t use, and I’m putting stuff that I CAN use, but not level for (71-75), in the bank. I’m just glad and proud that I’m able to do this!
Also, I think jaejae told me that officers can recruit, is that correct?
ETA: Haven’t joined a dungeon raid yet. Just wanna make sure I have it all “down pat” (what I should and shouldn’t use) before I do that and that’s gonna take some writing down and taping to screen! 
Also, can I keep “battle shout” up?
Thanks
Q