…. to bring you the following.
As of Thursday, Pyo is taking a break from World of Warcraft and the healing game. Too much drama that I don’t want to deal with right now as I cope with a possible faction transfer/ immersion in a new game. I will be on break for an undefined period of time, but I will eventually be back.
Behave yourselves until then. Stay angry!
~Pyo
With no lore- based plotline to explain her sudden return, nor bad ass ‘stick her head on a pole, that’ll teach the enemies of the Horde’ bonus. /sadpanda Regardless, one of my favorite old world bosses revamped and ready to take down your raid once again. After all, she usually has to leave her lair to feed.
ONOEZ DEEP BREATH
Anyways, Ony has the same abilities and stat as her previous incarnation, but, in case you old timer’s have forgotten (or you’re new to raiding and have never seen her fight), we’ll discuss her tactics:
Onyxia has 3 effective phases: Phase 1 is a ground phase, phase 2 is her Air and ‘OMG Deep Breath’ phase, and phase 3 is her ground ‘I’m gonna fear your raid’ phase, all of which are health based- 60 and 30% respectively. In phase 1, you’ll have one tank to worry about healing, plus the raid. She is a dragon, so she does have a frontal Cleave and a rear Tail Swipe, so avoid those areas. She also summons Onyxian Whelps (MANY WHELPS LEFT SIDE- yes, I did have to do that) that will attack your raid. Your raid should split up on either side of her and dps- AoE the Whelps when they spawn, but other than that, its pretty much a tank ‘n spank.
In phase 2, Ony will run towards the entrance of her room and take off into the air. From the two whelp pits, dozens of Onyxian Whelps will spawn, as well as 1 Onyxian Warden each (for a total of two.) Everyone jump to the middle of the room. The Wardens need to be tanked and burned, and the whelps need to be AoE’d. It is VERY important that everyone in the raid pays attention to where Ony is located in the air- when she Deep Breathes, everyone needs to split off and go to the wall- the attack will fill up about 1/3rd of the middle of the room. Deep Breath = instagib, incidentally, so if someone gets caught in it, they will not survive. Ranged will need to then promptly target Ony and start attacking to get her to phase 3.
In phase 3, she’s back on the ground. This time, she causes lava to burst up out of the floor (Heigan TOTALLY stole this move from her) and fears your raid. At this point in time, it becomes a healer battle- keep the tank up and hope the DPS doesn’t get caught in the lava, and Ony is as good as dead.
Ony drops some decent loot and 3 Emblems of Triumph, plus a sack of gems, a 22 slot bag, and her head (which has a quest associated with it). I won’t ruin the surprise for you- but I will say that the quest ending is anti-climactic and disappointing. But I got a nice ring, so hey, bonus, I suppose.
Anywho, that’s it for now. Happy hunting!
FOR THE HORDE!
~Pyo
Though, seriously, I am having a very hard time figuring out how this helps me beat Arthas. -shrug-
Anyways…
In my last post, I covered the strats for Northren Beasts, the first of 4 bosses in 25 man Trial of the Crusader. You’d think it gets easier than that. It doesn’t. Next up on the list is a demon of considerable power. The scene starts off with your raid still in the Coliseum. Tirion Fordring announces that a summoner of great power will bring in your next challenge.
In walks… a gnome- Wilfred Fizzbang, or some such nonsense- who proceeds to tell you that he will summon you a great demon to test your strength against. Lo and behold, he does manage to open a portal to the demon realm, but he doesn’t just summon ‘some random large demon.’ Oh no… he summons Lord Jaraxxas, Eredar Lord, whom he then promptly tried to subjugate through force of will alone.
Yeah, not so much. Jaraxxas one shots the gnome, then moves onto your raid.
His abilities:
Summon Sister of Pain- or whatever they’re really called. A portal opens and one of the four- armed demonesses steps through and starts pummelling your OT. She has a variety of her own abilities, including Whirlwind and a series of brutal physical attacks. she needs to be tanked and DPSed down.
Summon Infernals- these look like the little volcanos Supremus used to summon in Black Temple. Only they spawn Infernals that need to be picked up by the OTs. There will be more than one, and they will almost always go after a healer if they are not picked up immediatly by and OT.
Fel Fireball- NEEDS to be interrupted. Period. Its kinda like Vezax’s channeled cast, insta-wipe fire spell.
Legion Flames- Targets a random non- tank raid member and puts green flames under their feet. The person needs to run in outward widening circles until the debuff disappears, and then avoid the area, as the Flames will kill even a tank.
Incinerate Flesh- a Debuff that needs to be healed off, i.e. a certain amount of healing needs to be done to the target or the debuff makes them explode. I wanna say 30k healing needs to be done to the target, but don’t quote me on that.
This fight isn’t too bad if you have good OTs that can keep the adds under control, both the Sister of Pain and the Infernals. The key here is keeping the MT and OTs up and operating- if those 2/3 people are kept up the whole fight, and your people are more than moderately situationally aware, raid damage should be fairly minimal. MT and OTs should have dedicated healers. There should also be a healer dedicated to getting rid of Incinerate Flesh.
Faction Champions:
Let me say this: I am not a big fan of Arenas. I do love me some Battlegrounds on occasion, but Arenas are BAD, mmkay. That being said, before Tirion fordring can summon his Argent Champions to face you, King Varian Wrynn steps up and tells him (and you) that HIS champions are certain to provide a great challenge, and insists that they take the place of the Argent Champions.
Stupidest idea EVAR- but Fordring allows it. And then, suddenly, you have 10 pissed off Alliance on your hands.
The Champions consist of any combination of the following class/ specs (NOTE: this is only from the perspective of the Horde. I have no idea what the Alliance sees, though I am certain Garrosh is as much of a douchebag about it as King Chinface):
Holy Paladin, Resto Shaman, Resto Druid, Boomkin, Arms Warrior, Subtelty Rogue, Survival Hunter with Cat, Mage, Warlock with Felhound, Discipline Priest, Shadow Priest, Death Knight, Retribution Paladin (italics are the comp my guild beat them on the first time.)
There really is no base strat for this except kill the damn Resto Druid and Discipline Priest FIRST. The tree’s Rejuv ticks for 10,000+ a tick, and the Discipline Priest will Mana Burn your healers’ mana away in seconds. They need to die. After that, find what works best for your raid- we killed the Resto Shaman after the Resto Druid and had our Rogues keep the Holy Paladin locked down. We had 2 burst healers healing the Rogue and Warrior targets. Then we took out the pets and the DPS. Now, remember, these guys are computer controlled and they are fully specced- so know what to look for! The Arms Warrior will Intercept Stun spellcasters and Bladestrom through the middle of your raid. The Felhound will silence you, as will the Death Knight. The Shadow Priest will use Psychic Scream. The Warlock will Fear and use Unstable Affliction. The Shaman will drop totems that need to be destroyed. The Holy Paladin will bubble- you can even force this! The Ret Paladin will Divine Strom half of your raid. This fight is an Arena battle- don’t let anyone fool you. Think like you would in PvP- equip your PvP trinket, and be prepared. This fight is difficult at best, downright horrendous at worst. Your people- everyone- needs to be on their toes. There is NO threat table, so tanking one of them is not an option.
After you finally get through kicking the shit out of these guys, Tirion Fordring verbally bitchslaps Varian/ Garrosh. It makes it all worth it. Then, still not convinced you’ve proven yourself worthy of going after Arthas with him, he has the doors opened, and in fly Eydis Darkbane and Fjola Lightbane, otherwise known as the Twin Valk’yrs, lieutenants of the Lich King’s Scourge Army.
It is very important to remember that these Twins are more like Twin Emperors and less like the Eredar Twins- they share a health pool and are capable of healing a significant amount of damage. When they come out, Eydis Darkbane will be on the left, and Fjola Lightbane will be on the right. They will each spawn a dark and a light portal. Your raid will need to be split on half and they will need to get either the light or dark debuffs by clicking on the portals- the color of the debuff they take should be the opposite of the Val’kyr they’re fighting, i.e. Fjola Lightbane’s DPS should have the dark debuff. Think of them like charges. Their abilities:
Twin’s Pact- One of the Twins will bubble herself and begin casting Twin’s Pact, which will heal the pair for 20%. The bubble needs to be burned down by all DPS and the heal interrupted.
Light/ Dark Vortex- One of the Twins will start to ‘spin up’ a massive AoE attack that will kill people with the opposite charge. Everyone of the opposite charge needs to switch to the appropriate color to avoid the damage.
Orbs- light and dark orbs will apprear around the room. Avoid the ones of the opposite color, as they explode on you, and absorb the same color- its a major DPS boost. Healers should try to avoid both as much as possible, as it does nothing for healing.
This fight is VERY healing intensive. The Twins do a steady AoE damage, and there will be people who eat orbs and need to be healed, so there is LOTS of raid healing to be done. The tanks also take a fair amount of damage- each will need a dedicated healer. Just to give you an idea, here’s what my guild’s healing meters (for overall healing) looked like for this fight:
I know that healing meters are just a tool, but GOOD GOD.
And, as long as your people swap light and dark at the right times and don’t blow themselves up, you’ll get one of these!
Those are some dead bitches.
That’s it for now! Next up: Anub’Arak, the Nerubian Lord that just didn’t ge enough in Azjol-Nerub!
FOR THE HORDE!
~Pyo
… though I don’t really see how winning a tournament is going to help me defeat Arthas and possibly undead!Bolvar. -gasp- Yes, I said it. Its my speculation, and I can flaunt it if I want to!
Anyways.
My guild, such as it is, has moved onto Trial of the Crusader. No, we haven’t done either 10 or 25 man on Heroic yet, but that’s fine. No need to be TOO hardcore now. As such, we have gotten through most of the current bosses in 10 and 25 man Normal ToC. No, we haven’t killed Yogg yet- school juts started back up, which means half of my guild went ‘OMG homework!’ >< We’ll get there, I promise. But, I want to discuss healing strategies for ToC now, so… bear with me (no pun intended.)
Good things about ToC: No trash!
Bad things about ToC: Well… We’ll get to that soon enough… onto the fights!
Northrend Beasts:
Possibly the longest fight I’ve ever encountered, including Illidan (who had a LOOOONG fight). The northrend Beasts consisit of:
Gormok the Impaler- a magnataur from the ‘deepest caverns of Storm Peaks.’
Acidmaw and Dreadscale: huge Jormungr worms often referred to as ‘the twin terrors’ (and for good damn reason.)
Icehowl: Big. Ass. Yeti.
Each fight has its own strat, and no, you do not get time to rez between fights- you live through them all, or you’re dead through it all (so, DPS, do NOT die on Gormok- we trees will not waste our Rebirth on you.)
Gormok the Impaler: Again… a huge magnataur from Storm Peaks who comes equipped with annoying little snobolds. The fight is pretty easy. 2-3 tanks are needed, as he will stack an Impale debuff on the tank with the highest threat, that does quite a bit of damage- 4 stacks is enough ot kill most tanks. So heals will need to be intensive on the tank with the aggro. He’ll do a melee AoE stomp that does medium damage- nothing a Circle of Healing or a well- placed Wild Growth can’t handle. He drops fire on random players- GET OUT OF THE FIRE, DPS, WE CAN’T HEAL THROUGH IT. And his snobolds will jump off of his back and onto random players’! Ranged DPS will need to attack the snobold until it dies, as it will stun and silence anyone it’s on- obviously an issue if its on a healer or tank, both of which i’ve seen happen. Most of the damage in this fight is on the tank, with some raid. Take care of the snobolds and avoid the fire, and you’ll be ok.
Acidmaw and Dreadscale: a pair of huge, hungry Jormungr. One is always stationary- its lower body will be in the ground- and one is always mobile. Which one is which varies- and they swap everytime they dive into the ground and move. Acidmaw does a variety of poison based attacks- Poison Spit Volley, he drops a ring of poison like Grobbulus, and a Poison Breath. Dreadmaw does fire based attacks- Fire Breath and Fire Spit Volleys. What makes these 2 dangerous are their debuffs- Dreadscale puts a DoT Fire debuff on random players- usually only 1, but i’ve seen more. Acidmaw puts a paralyzing poison debuff on random players. Players with the poison debuff must run to players with the fire debuff and have it ‘burned’ off before they are unable to move. People with the Fire debuff just need to be healed (it doesn’t do too much damage). And everytime the pair dive underground and move, they reset aggro, and switch positions- if Acidmaw was in the ground, he’ll now be mobile, etc. Once again, most of the damage from this fight is on the tanks and melee, with minimal raid damage. People just have to be smart and not stand in the poison, get the poison debuff cleansed, and not pull threat.
Icehowl: The best fight. Period. He’s a huge yeti (you can see him fast asleep outside the Coliseum, tied to the ground) that charges into the ring and does massive melee damage to the tank. He will occasionally use Freezing Breath, like the Sons of Hodir lookin’ guys in Ulduar, but mostly, he’ll beat on the tank. His signature move, however, is his targeted charge. He’ll jump up in the middle of the ring and knock everyone to the walls, stunning you for a few seconds. He’ll then select a target that he will furiously charge at. After the stun wears off, a speed buff will activate, allowing the person targeted (and everyone near him) to move out of Icehowl’s way before he rams you fullforce with his head. If you move in time, Icehowl cracks his skull off of the coliseum wall and is stunned for a few seconds, taking increased damage. If he hits his intended target (or some other unfortunate who got in his way) he will instantly kill the person and enrage- this can be salvaged, but it can wipe your raid- which means you have to start ALL OVER from Gormok. This particular fight is very healing intensive, so watch out. And don’t get hit!
That’s it for now! Until next time!
~Pyo
Because I occasionally feel the need to be a smart ass. Because sometimes the DPS just don’t seem to learn their lesson. And because its funny (and I need to post at least once this week.)
Why You Dead: A Primer by Alie
We really do think like this. ASK ANYONE HERE.
Aaaand…
nub!branch? Not Anymore!
Read it. Live it. Learn it. Love it. And be angry, healers! Good night, world!
~Pyo
This post brought to you by: ToC
-When the tank stands in the green puddles because they’d never had the rogue before
-When the tank tanks the two non-caster mobs away from the caster, and eventually loses caster aggro to the healer (repeatedly taunting =/= holding aggro)
-When the mage backs into the second group of adds
-…and the third group of adds
-…and pulls aggro on the ghouls
…and this wasn’t even a pug! Alts are dangerous, man. The mage was a main, though, so don’t ask me. Just…don’t. I may or may not have let him die. >.>
