Dungeon Guide: Hellfire Ramparts

I'm stealing a page from Bremm's book. I'm going to start writing brief guides on the dungeons. Sure, they have this all listed at WoWWiki... but WoWWiki isn't me. I'm going to talk about pulls, tricks, bosses and all of it done with my typical style and flair. You can't wait to continue, can you?

So to begin... the first instance you likely encounter upon hitting Outlands... Hellfire Ramparts.

There are several quests involved with this instance, although you'll probably go in here enough at the beginning that if you do it the first time without the quest, don't worry, you'll be back.

(What, you want me to link the quests for you too? What do I look like, your personal guide to Outland dungeons?... oh wait, that's what I'm doing, isn't it? Tough luck. Click the link above.)

As soon as you zone in you're confronted with the 'if you take one step too far forward, you start a fight' scenario. A GREAT way to start your first instance!

Two fellows guarding a bridge, with a patrol. Fun fun, no? Typically, a first time tank will tank too far from the entrance, and the pat will aggro and try to eat your healer. Or, a DPS-Melee (I'm looking at you, rogues!) will be behind the mob and grab aggro (and it will go try to eat the healer. You know.. healing is a very dangerous job. Go ahead and respec to feral/balance elemental/enhancement tankadin/dpsadin or shadow ... it's safer.) ... (I jest. Without you darling healers, we wouldn't be able to do anything!)

You make it across that pesky bridge and associated mobs and right around the corner is a group of three (with archers, Blizzard loves us) and a doggy patrol. Here's where mistake #2 usually happens -- people fight right at the bridge! And then the patrol aggros and then the healer dies.

By this time, the healer is getting pissed. He's already died twice (or three times!) and the instance has barely started!

Crowd control, unless you've got a few 70's running with you, is the name of the game. The dogs can see through stealth, so rogues are limited in their use in this instance at times. The nice thing is the dogs are non-elite, though they put out some nasty damage. They don't NEED to be crowd controlled, just tank-controlled long enough for the DPS to kill them. If you want to CC them, go ahead and do that to. Whatever floats your boat. Just keep them off of your cloth healers, or you'll have to start looking for another healer. Mark one dog to die first, the second dog to die second, so your DPS focus-fires them.

This instance is riddled with caster/ranged type mobs. The archers are no big deal, we've all learned how to pull archers. People seem to forget the rules for casters. They get impatient and don't let them finish their aborted spell casts (they try to cast, then can't, then run up and try to cast, and can't, then run up... and so forth) and start trying to kill them before they're pulled.. which pisses off the melee DPS and the tank, just sayin... Healers are notorious for getting caster aggro that someone is trying to kite by staying in the line of sight of said mob.

The big first group of casters you encounter is 7 pulls in. (2 at head of bridge, 1 patrol, 2 at foot of bridge, 3 group stationary, 3 group patrol, 3 group stationary, 4 dog group stationary...) You see a group of three casters and one melee class. That melee person is a nasty customer. He isn't CCable and does a fair bit of damage. The casters are cake, with one exception -- they do short burst fears.

The usual tactic is to have the tank thwack the melee and go high tailing it around the corner. CC pick up their targets as applicable. So, they're casters. So if you're pulling them to your CC (hello, hunters, I'm looking at you now!) be ready with some form of spell interrupt/silencing shot or have a friendly mage or shaman stop their casting. Now, the other nasty thing they do, as I mentioned above, is short burst fear. This is why we don't fight them where they are, that and there's a dog patrol that walks to their position.

So, CC what you can, if you can't CC it, assign a DPS to kill it. They usually can die pretty quick with good DPS and a good healer who can keep the DPS and the tank alive. All other DPS should focus on the melee, since it does quite a bit of damage and has a decent chunk of hit points.

Fun, no? Whether you pull the dog patrol or not depends on whether it's on it's way up to you or not. The next pull is a beastmaster and two archer types. This part is really important... KILL THE BEASTMASTER FIRST AND FAST. All out DPS. Don't worry about aggro. Just hose the fellow. If you don't, he'll call in three dogs. Which, in a good group, probably nothing to worry about but in a new group, a wipable issue. Ideally, the two archers were CC'd just as the tank was engaging the beastmaster, so the DPS can just focus on the beastmaster and not worry about CCing.

Snag the doggy patrol after this group. Next is a group of four - two casters, two melee. Nothing special. Then you approach the hallway of the first boss. Here my memory is a bit fuzzy on the pulls, so forgive me if I leave one out.

There's a group (usually by a chest) under a pavilian. It has two dogs and at least two orcs (sometimes 3, not sure if it's a heroic vs. non-heroic difference). Cake.

There's a group next to them, two dogs, one melee. Cake.

On your left, half hidden by a wagon, is a group of one melee and two casters. This is right in the boss patrol zone, so you HAVE to pull them back. If I'm dps, I'll instant something on them and run away. Rogues and kitties can sprint, hunters can cheetah. Just run around the corner, then the tank can pick up the pieces.

One thing to be cautious of here... okay, a few things!

1: The boss. Try not to aggro him at this stage.

2: a lone patrol. He patrols in such a way that if you try to yank him before you clear the dog-3-pull, you'll usually grab them too. An experienced puller can get him first without clearing. However, to be on the safe side, I usually clear one group first. I usually kill that group and when he pats into their position, grab him. Alternatively, you can grab him with the wagon-group.

Once you've cleared the patrol and the wagon, now you have the boss. He has two healers who are CCable (or killable!) and ... obviously big ugly himself. You have a few options - kill the healers first, then the boss... OR kill the boss first while CCing the healers. The healers DO heal him, so you don't want to leave them loose. If you have a mage(s), sheep healers are usually left til last, otherwise, other forms of CC are considered relatively unreliable for this and usually the healers are killed first. The tank should stay on the boss at all times.

The boss charges and knockbacks his charge target. So don't fight him with your ranged DPS having their backs to mobs. This is what's known as a Bad Idea. Thankfully, it also doesn't happen often anyway.

Boss down. Yay! Skirt the wagon by hugging the left, then run along the diagonal crack in the floor to the opposite wall. You skip two or three groups on the right this way. There's a two pull in front of the door.

Up the stairs is a 5-pull of casters. The same method works if you want to use it. Another method I've seen used, if you have good AOE... is LOS pull them around so they are clumped in the doorway, then AOE the hell out of the casters. The tank needs to keep the melee on himself and off the healer/dps. You do NOT want to fight them in their hallway, there is a two-pull that you can be feared into.

Nab the two pull by the door. Do not go out the door. Repeat, DO NOT go out the door!

To your left is a five-pull (2 dogs, 3 orcs), to your immediate right is a 3 pull (melee and two archers) and patrolling around in a circle is a patrol (2 dogs, 1 orc). DO NOT pull the patrol first.

The order is right THEN left or patrol, then patrol or left. I typically nab the patrol after the right group.. pull the patrol when it is on the right side of the door. The 5-pull can be a wipe-fest if you aren't careful. Usually you have one caster in the group and two melee. CC as best you can. Remember, dogs can smell stinky rogues.

The 5-group is usually standing on a chest. Yay! Chest!

Now you have the other half of the room. A 3-pull of two archers and one melee is usually next, because the other pull is tricksy.

The last pull in the circle is a group of two casters, one melee and two dogs. The melee is a minor patrol around a box in the corner. HE CAN BE SAPPED without aggroing the dogs. The rogue needs to sneak onto the hall by him and sap him at his furthest pat from the dogs. This is the tricksy part. 1: sneaking around him and 2: the hall by him has a two pat of it's own you have to avoid.

Otherwise, cake!

You want to go to your right (from entrance) first. Kill the two pull patrol. At the end of the hall are two casters. You can fight them where they are.

Now you're on boss #2. Yay! Boss! Here's another trick. He doesn't move. Really, he doesn't. Some strategies are to have a ranged DPS "tank" him by holding the most aggro. Melee DPS and the tank can go in and whackitywhack on him, as long as they don't steal aggro. He summons felhounds, which the melee can then pick up and kill. The boss does a levitate-kick ability. Don't worry, you won't fall off, it's a tether ability. He also curses people -- if you don't have a good decurser, you want to make sure you aren't standing near to other people when you're cursed... it's a good way to get your party pissed at you. Melee are at a disadvantage for that, but ranged should be spread out anyway.

Now, after he dies, you do have to deal with the felhounds. (FYI: Heroic Mode: Tankadin, Healadin, Warlock, Mage and Some-Other-Mana-DPS-With-No-Melee-Abilities (ie: it wasn't a hunter, but I don't recall what it was)... NOT a good group for this. The felhounds eat your mana. And then we died. Because we couldn't kill the damn non-elite felhounds. It was pathetic.)

Yay! Boss 2 down. The last ramp has a group of two patrolling, then two stationary.

As soon as the stationary mobs are dead, the dragon will land and drop off his rider, so don't go nuts on the stationary mobs. Conserve mana. (By the way, if you wipe on the boss, these stationary mobs respawn.)

The tank needs to pick up the rider and we all start to have fun. The dragon, while in the air, spits fireballs on the ground. Now, you'd think this is common sense... but...

MOVE OUT OF THE FIRE.

Usually when the rider is close to dead, but not quite dead, Nazan will descend. The tank NEEDS to pick up the dragon. It usually bee-lines for the healer.

This means the tank has the rider AND the dragon hitting him. If he's a good tank, the rider will stay on him until dead. His main concern is the dragon at this point. ALL DPS STAY ON THE RIDER until he's dead, then switch to the dragon.

An alternative strategy is to have some ranged DPS on the dragon while it's in the air.

Nazan does frontal arc fire bursts while on the ground. The tank needs to move, either in a circle to stay out of the fire, or pull back or something along those lines. Again...

MOVE OUT OF THE FIRE.

There are multiple strategies on this fight listed on WoWWiki.

IMNSHO, unless you have a good group of DPS and healers, a NEW tank to Outlands can't tank the dragon. They just don't have the hit points or armor to do it. This doesn't mean they really can't, I just haven't seen it done without a good party behind them. With your brand spankin new group... well, at least your repair bill at this point in time isn't bad.

Once Nazan is dead, a chest will spawn. If you kill Nazan on top of the chest, don't miss it, he'll cover it with his body.

To get out, go to the entrance of Nazan's platform and the instance door is down and to your right. You can jump down and right on outside.

And you have just completed Hellfire Ramparts. Congratulations!

N.B. The melee classes in HR hit very hard. If you are cloth DPS, be VERY CAREFUL not to draw aggro from the tank because you will probably get 2-shotted (level/mode appropriate).

(Fun in the Sun, Day 4) aka (SHAMU)

Today we went to Sea World! That's right, an overpriced theme park where they exploit poor innocent sea creatures. I had a blast!

We saw Shamu first and the orca exhibit. It was ... well, it didn't go according to plan. They were maybe 3 minutes into the show with non-Shamu orca's when they just decided that they weren't going to play today. The instigator literally DROPPED its trainer in the water (the trainer was doing the stand on the nose while they propel themselves through the water) and swam away. The second orca followed suit. Finally, one of the orcas decided to come back and play.

As the trainer's said... when a killer whale decides it doesn't want to perform today, there isn't much they can do about it!

Finally, Shamu came out! He was HUGE. He also didn't have any trainer in the water near him at all.. probably due to his size and that he almost drowned someone once? Anyway... it was great.

We saw the dolphin and whale show, which was also spectacular. We rode the Kraken, which was an amazing roller coaster. Saw some sharks and beluga whales, a few puffins and penguins.

A good day all around, especially since it contained almost my entire family.

Tomorrow I return home, I can't wait for that. I miss my husband and my doggies and my kitties.

(Fun in the Sun, Day 3)

I slept.

No, really. I slept almost all day. It was thrilling.

Tomorrow is Sea World... with Chloe, brother, sister-in-law, uncle, aunt, 10-year-old twin boy cousins, grandma, grandpa and mom and dad.

That should be interesting.

(Fun in the Sun, Day 2)

I woke up earlier today. Something buzzes in the bedroom. I have yet to discover it, but it's very annoying.

I went for a quick bike ride this morning, by myself, as my mother was taking the dog to the vet to have some staples removed. I didn't do the marathon ride we did the other day, but just a quick ride down the road to the beach.

I don't recall seeing them yesterday, but today the beach was covered with dead sea urchins. It was ... rather sad, actually. All these dead sea urchins. Were they dead before they washed ashore, or did they die afterwards, suffocating in the air?

What can I say, I have morbid thoughts.

Then we went to play mini-golf. I hit the ball way too hard and I wound up hitting it off of the green almost every shot. There is also this one hole that has a water shot that you have to hit the ball into the water and have it run down and onto the hole. So, mom goes and hits the ball into the water and down it goes. And dad goes and hits the ball and down it goes. And I hit the ball and.. it hits an eddy and twirls around without going down. Then it starts to go UP stream. I mean.. c'mon! Upstream?

Afterwards, we have lunch at the Longhorn and then we go S'platters, the ceramics place. I didn't find a my little pony, but I did find a dragon. So I painted a dragon. I won't get to see what it looks like for a little bit, since they have to fire it. But it was very much fun. I'm going to look and see if I can find a place like it where I live, because you could do plates and mugs and all sorts of interesting things, mosaics, glasswork... I had a good time and before I realized it, they were closing! I had spent almost 3 hours painting a little figurine.

Got home and had some excitment, as Katie makes a mad dash out the front door and starts to go running all thoughout the condo complex.... and out into the road! We had to head off two cars that she tried to kill herself with until we could get her caught. Have you ever tried to catch a running Greyhound? Then naturally, once we got her inside, I notice that she's bleeding and because she went running around on some concrete and stone like an idiot, she tore her front pads to shreds.

That was most of my day. Had dinner, got icecream, post this. Lastly, I'm going to play some Gin 500 (house rules!) with my mom.

One annoying thing about my trip... every time Chloe does ANYTHING, my dad takes pictures, then immediately makes it into a home movie and shows it to us. Like we didn't just watch her do it 2 minutes ago. Don't get me wrong. She is cute. And home movies are fun to watch. But... I just watched her do it, I don't need to see a home movie, do I?

So ends (almost) day 2. I may go take a dive into the pool tonight again, but we shall see.

I know this isn't WoW related, which is why the title is in parenthesis. But this is still something I'm ... I don't know, typing about. I should probably post it in my MySpace blog, which has more to do with my real life than gaming life.

But I know you guys want to know what I'm doing. Who doesn't? So I'm going to post it here, too.

(Fun in the Sun, Day 1 in Florida)

I'm on my mother's laptop and my entire post was just erased, entirely. This is frustrating, to say the least. I had links! It also, being a laptop with a touch pad, keeps jumping the curser around as I'm typing, making this take three times as long as it should!

So, to recap my recap...

I slept in and woke up to fresh scrambled eggs and fruit. I naturally added a slice of American Cheese onto my toasted English Muffin, loaded it with the eggs and had myself a little sandwich!

Then we went on a bike ride to Casey Key, where Steven King lives and where John Gotti has (had?) a mansion. I don't know if he still owns it or not, and in fact, I'm not sure if Gotti owned it or if one of his associates owned it, but the place is a beautiful fortress.

After returning from the bike ride, my mother and I went to Siesta Key to walk the beaches. The beaches in Siesta Key are considered the best in the world. The sand is so soft and cool, even on the hottest day. Being Spring Break for everyone and everywhere BUT for my husband (who couldn't come with me), the beaches were jam packed. But Mom and I walked them anyway. Of course, every time the water came up and splashed my ankles, I gave a very girlish squeal of 'Ooh, that's cold'.

After the beach, we went and got myself a bathing suit (blegh, bathing suits!) and I also bought some My Little Ponies! Three for myself and one for Chloe.

Chloe is my almost 2 year old niece. I've been getting her ponies as gifts ever since she started to get gifts! Her first gift was a pair of 'vintage' 80's ponies (in played in condition, so no heart attacks for any pony enthusiest!) and one G3. I've been getting her G3 ponies since then. She got one at her 1st birthday party and I had two at home waiting for when I could see her again (from Christmas), and I found a Pinkie Pie that actually looks pretty as opposed to dumb like she usually does, so I grabbed her (both for Chloe and myself!)

After shopping, we returned home and I went on a motorcycle ride with my Dad on his hog. We saw the other side of Casey Key this time around. Some of those homes are outrageously gorgeous, and then right next to them are these little run down shacks. It's so strange. But the land those shacks sit on is ... probably worth more money than I'll make in my entire lifetime.

After I got back, my brother, his pregnant wife and my niece showed up. Chloe is very cute and rather smart, too. She isn't yet 2 and talks in sentences (a little mumbled, but sentences. When she can't find her dad or mom, she says 'where is mommy' or 'where is daddy'). She got to open one of her ponies today, the FIRST TIME EVER. Her mom has been keeping them out of reach for a while until she got old enough. She first tried to pick up and hold all three pony boxes. It was very cute. Then she walked around with the pony in her hand and would give it kisses on the head.

At first, once it was open, she wouldn't pick it up. So I put it on the floor. And she then gets down on all fours and leans over so she can look at it on its level. Talk about absolutely adorable!

At one time, she was doing something my brother didn't want her to do, and he called her over to him. She looked at him over her shoulder with this impish little coy look, like 'are you talking to me, daddy? heeheehee!' and she ran into the other room, away from him, giggling.

Uh.. so, we had dinner and played a domino's game called Mexican Train. At first, we were playing it however they played it the other day, which because I wasn't there for the first time they played it, I was reading the rules. And ... uh, yeah. They were playing a game loosely based off of Mexican Train. So I found rules that were a little easier to follow (I love the internet) and we had much more fun, as the game as it really plays has a little more strategy involved.

When my brother left, I got into my bathing suit and I went to the pool. Yes. I went swimming at 11pm. The water was a little cool but you know... that's fine. I did a few laps, stretched my muscles a bit and was refreshed.

The funny thing.. or not so funny, all things considered ... is that one of the first things I did when I got to my parents house was teach my mother how to clip her dogs nails. They used to have to muzzle her and have my dad restrain her. I did it by myself. I also taught her the rudiments of 'stay', which she didn't know.

I go on vacation and I'm still working! Not that I mind. Katie the greyhound is a great dog (not a rescued greyhound, they've had her since she was 4 months old, she was going to BE a racing greyhound, but my dad is... well, my dad, and wound up with her instead. I'll relate that story later if I need to.

So ends Day 1. I'm going to go to sleep and try to wake up tomorrow to take another quick swim before we get started on the day. I think the tentative plan is to play miniature golf and go to a store called Splatter, where you pick an unpainted ceramic statue, paint it and they fire it. And it's yours! And... my parents were pretty sure they had a My Little Pony in there. I can't wait!

Kikidas returns to Karazhan

I feel like I've returned home!

I was on Kiya, farming Life, when I answered a call for a 'well geared, non-noob, experienced warlock' for Karazhan. I asked a few questions and when the answer came back as '3-4 hour, whole raid clear', I said I'd go.

It was absolutely GORGEOUS. Only two wipes, both of them an 'oops'. A smooth, clean, quick, gorgeous clear of all trash, one-shots on all the bosses. No explanation given or needed other than mild clarification on particulars.

I cried, just a little bit. Especially when the Lightning Capaciter dropped. Initially I was going to pass, because I was the PuG member in a guild run. But then one of the tanks gave me a /tell and said 'Open rolls, go ahead and roll for it'. And I did. And I won. And *squee* now I'm all pretty in purple! (I'm such a gearist!)

It was a very nice way to end my 'night' before I go on a week of vacation.

...

Calm down. It'll be alright. It's only a week. I'll be back on the 20th. Where am I going? Florida. Sunny lovely Florida.

...

Since my current guild is also in the process of disbanding, after a long slow quiet deterioration, I went ahead and asked the kindly tank if I could see their guild website. He gave it to me and said I could submit an application if I wanted to. I'm hopeful that means that he likes me (he likes me, he really likes me!) and will put in a good word when my application is reviewed.

Maybe I shouldn't have written the application at 4am...?

Nah. I'm sure it's fine.

Tomorrow I'm going to be doing a lot of house chores and laundry to prepare for my trip. When am I leaving? Tomorrow at 4:30pm. No problem!

Theorycraft and Sethekk Halls

So, I have decided that theorycraft and myself will never mix. I don't like math anyway. I'm going to basically wait for someone else to do the math and make my decisions that way. Simple! (Hah!) Thankfully, WoWWiki supplies a lot of information so I have to do as little math as humanly possible.

As for the FSW/SI vs. Mixed Tier armor question... I decided to not go visit Mr. Boom, Doom, whatever, because my FSW/SI stuff isn't very well gemmed and I'm not about to sink a ton of money into gems, mainly because 1: I'm not that rich and 2: I'm not convinced enough that even though my DPS may go up, I'll lose too many other stats to make it worthwhile enough for my playstyle.

Instead, I leveled my mage to 36. (Somewhat boring. The most fun I had was when I solo'd the 'Forsaken Courier' and company.)

Then I logged in Kiya, my BM hunter, and said 'You know, I keep telling myself that since I hit 70, I haven't actually trained..', so I went to IF and trained. Then while I was just idly browsing in the LFG channel, someone advertised for a regular Sethekk. Since Kiya is almost entirely in greens, I looked and said 'oh, there's stuff in there for me', and said I'd go.

And I got a lesson in how you can turn a simple Sethekk Halls run (arguably one of the easiest of the Aunchindoun dungeons) into a 2 hour hell-fest.

Lesson 1: Don't inspect your tank. He's a paladin tank. They're all good! Ignore the fact that your pet has almost as much health as he does. It isn't important.

Lesson 2: Inspect your 'competition', the Marksman hunter. Inwardly cringe because they're decked out in blues and you're in mostly greens.

Lesson 3: Scream in party chat that you've been controlled by the totem and the other DPS has to take out the totem. It's a good way to stretch your vocal chords, because that's all it will accomplish. Eventually, that pesky totem will wear off.

Lesson 4: Don't insist on marking even though the leader of the group doesn't know what they're doing, isn't marking or using appropriate CC.

Lesson 5: Suggest to the paladin tank that they can pull faster, since you have two hunters and an ice mage and while after each fight, that 1/16th of mana ideally should be drunk away, it's really alright. Watch as your suggestion is either taken entirely wrong (see next lesson) or ignored (can we go NOW? How about now? Now please?... please?)

Lesson 6: Forget entirely that the tank so far has exhibited no signs of common sense and watch in dismay as he ignores your trapped bird (the single pull on the way to Syth) that you trapped so the group could move up safely, and without marking anything, shield pulls the next group of three.

Lesson 7: Watch in even more dismay as a "four-pull" as it now is, becomes wipe #1 because the ice-mage gets knocked back into the room and pulls a group of three, the totem (remember lesson 2?) takes over the other hunter who fears my pet into the two-pull guarding the boss room. (wipe 1)

Lesson 8: After returning and clearing what didn't die, don't bother eating or drinking, because the paladin will face pull Syth. (wipe 2)

Lesson 9: The words "The prophet's fear and spawn ghosts that you need to avoid, so pull back to fight them" apparently don't translate well. (wipe 3)

Lesson 11: The so-called competition doesn't need arrows. They can kill things with sheer good looks and elite speak.

Lesson 12: The competition also doesn't like the fact that you're doing 20% more damage than they are and doesn't understand that pet damage factors into damage-meters. Her meter counts her pet, but not mine. My meter counts my pet, but not hers. This is confusing.

Lesson 13: Needing to sleep and having no arrows, plus getting a drop off of the first boss, is a very good reason to say 'GTG, bye!'

Lesson 14: "I didn't realize the birds were hitting me when I pulled that group." is a common disease of some types of Paladins. As is wearing no pants. (He AFK'd to put on pants. I swear to God.) (wipe 4)

Lesson 15: Decide on a kill order in the room just before Ikiss. We didn't need one before.

Lesson 16: One-shotting Ikiss ... wait. That happened. Holy hell, it's a miracle!

On the plus side, I got a new ring for Kiya.