So, in a heroic run to get the 'I wuz here' tag, we did all the heroics to get the Trial of the Naaru quests done. And then at 7 server tonight, we, as a guild first, downed Magtheridon. And in one shot. And with no missed clicks. With new people running the clickers.
It was a beautiful thing.
In the course of turning in the Trial of the Naaru: Magtheridon quest, some of us got the Champion of the Naaru title and others didn't... and we discovered the missing component! The Cudgel of Kardesh!
Egads, we said, thankfully before we did Gruul. So, since there were several of us in the raid that had also not done the Cudgel of Kardesh, a group of five of us splintered off from the raid and cleared to the quest giver in Heroic Slave Pens in 15 minutes. Then we summoned the people who needed the quest in, one by one.
And THEN we hit Gruul's. We one shot (barely!) High King... we had some odd issues, but as I was MTing the High King, I couldn't see what they were, other than jokingly Boon said, "It's just tanks and healers alive."
We two-shot Gruul's, as we had some issues with people standing in the Cave Ins and doing group therapy with Gronn's Grasp or whatever it is called.
The first time we did it... he was at 20 growths and growing, at 15% life. The second time, we did just peachy keen and fine.
So, we said... that's one half of the Cudgel. We still need Nightbane. And tonight is usually our Kara night and tomorrow is our ZA night! Oh noes! What will we do?
What we do is we grab a paladin tank, put together a group of the rest of us that need Nightbane and we zerg Karazhan. We take out Moroes and the Opera like we're taking a walk in the park and then we go and wipe the terrace with Nightbane.
And then we go BACK to Slave Pens, reclear the trash, and turn in the quest.
And FINALLY... I am Kathe, Champion of the Naaru!
I WUZ HERE!
Showing posts with label karazhan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label karazhan. Show all posts
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Second String
Most of us have one main, and a scattering of lesser geared alts.
The second string is defined as: The group of players that substitute for the starting players or from which substitute players are drawn on a sports team.
By that definition, the unspoken but true rationale is that your second string players aren't as good as your first choice, but are what you have left over.
Now in the world of professional sports, the second string players are still a skill level of a few galactic magnitudes above the rest of the world and are probably not that far behind in skill from the first string.
In the World of Warcraft, the second string players, our alts, are usually really not as good as our main characters. We don't devote the time to them to get them the gear, to get them the gems, the enchants, to learn how to play one effectively.
In short, second string WoW characters are usually craptacular.
Thus, when you find a second string (aka: Alt) person that is kicking ass, taking names and doing their makeup while driving down the road on the cellphone... you wonder what their main is like!
Now, this may be because despite their main being their main and their alt being their alt, they really are better at their alt than their main. We've all encountered this... the healer that couldn't heal their way out of a paper bag, but stick them on their dps character and they're solo-killing Brutallis while offtanking Magtheridon.
On the other hand, you have people who, though dint of trying, skill, knowledge of game mechanics and no life... who are pretty damn good at any character they put their hand to.
And yes, I do mean me! :D
(Kidding.)
(No, I'm not.)
(You believed me? I'm kidding!)
(... you believed that? *snicker*)
Now, I don't delude myself into thinking Kava the rogue is in the same league as Kikidas the warlock, immolate/spell rotation questions aside!, but I do think I make an okay rogue. I do think I make an okay hunter. I do think I make an okay (insert class here). Why is that?
Well, okay instead of OMFGWONDERFUL because of gear and time spent playing and researching. But I do read my stuff, I do research basic talents and builds and information on the class I'm intending on living in for the next little while.
I learn what attributes I want to emphasize, what hit rating I need to get, what talents are especially useful, what talents are a big waste of time, what pets are best to use when, what gear I should be looking for... etc.
Not everyone does that for their second string. Their second string are strictly for farming or for holding items or bank alts or for goofing around and dying on.
I suppose my point to this is... we're starting a second Karazhan run in our guild. We have only two warlocks, who also double as tanks. Kikidas/Kathe and Absitively/Posolutely. What this means is that unless we pug a warlock (or somehow recruit one or have someone make one), we're always going to be stuck in our DPS position as a warlock. In Abs/Pos' case, not a big deal, he doesn't have a second string DPS.
In my case, it's a little frustrating. I have people I want to get into Karazhan, some who are working towards that goal and will probably never get there (Kiya the hunter, we already have a ton of hunters and Kvasira the ret pally, because who would take a ret pally over another DPS.) and others who are working towards that goal and I'd like to get in there (Kava the rogue is at Kara level and I've been in there twice, eventually Karitei the mage and Karika the resto shaman. Additionally, I have Keyami the prot warrior, but she still needs a bunch of work.).
Thankfully, this week will work for me in our Wednesday/Monday run. We're splitting it - to Curator the first night, past Curator in the second evening. I was able to take Kava to the first half, no real need for a warlock... and we have a pug warlock coming in for the Monday half, which means I can still take Kava since we'll have a warlock for Illhoof.
In general though, I expect I'm going to be very frustrated with the fact that I'm going to get stuck with either my healer Kiljara, warlock Kikidas or rawr tank Kathe. Now, badges are nice, don't get me wrong and I want to take Kathe when a tank spot is available.... but dang. It would be nice to not have to be limited.
People who ONLY have one character that's Kara ready... well, they get to go. Because they don't have someone they could be otherwise. So... they get to go as that person, all the time. People who have multiple 70's who are Kara ready... we get the short end of the stick. We're stuck waiting to see what gets filled so we can fill in what's left, unless we say, "I want to go as this person.", and then we feel terrible when the spot we declare we want to take... leaves someone else out. :(
Sucks to be second string. :(
The second string is defined as: The group of players that substitute for the starting players or from which substitute players are drawn on a sports team.
By that definition, the unspoken but true rationale is that your second string players aren't as good as your first choice, but are what you have left over.
Now in the world of professional sports, the second string players are still a skill level of a few galactic magnitudes above the rest of the world and are probably not that far behind in skill from the first string.
In the World of Warcraft, the second string players, our alts, are usually really not as good as our main characters. We don't devote the time to them to get them the gear, to get them the gems, the enchants, to learn how to play one effectively.
In short, second string WoW characters are usually craptacular.
Thus, when you find a second string (aka: Alt) person that is kicking ass, taking names and doing their makeup while driving down the road on the cellphone... you wonder what their main is like!
Now, this may be because despite their main being their main and their alt being their alt, they really are better at their alt than their main. We've all encountered this... the healer that couldn't heal their way out of a paper bag, but stick them on their dps character and they're solo-killing Brutallis while offtanking Magtheridon.
On the other hand, you have people who, though dint of trying, skill, knowledge of game mechanics and no life... who are pretty damn good at any character they put their hand to.
And yes, I do mean me! :D
(Kidding.)
(No, I'm not.)
(You believed me? I'm kidding!)
(... you believed that? *snicker*)
Now, I don't delude myself into thinking Kava the rogue is in the same league as Kikidas the warlock, immolate/spell rotation questions aside!, but I do think I make an okay rogue. I do think I make an okay hunter. I do think I make an okay (insert class here)
Well, okay instead of OMFGWONDERFUL because of gear and time spent playing and researching. But I do read my stuff, I do research basic talents and builds and information on the class I'm intending on living in for the next little while.
I learn what attributes I want to emphasize, what hit rating I need to get, what talents are especially useful, what talents are a big waste of time, what pets are best to use when, what gear I should be looking for... etc.
Not everyone does that for their second string. Their second string are strictly for farming or for holding items or bank alts or for goofing around and dying on.
I suppose my point to this is... we're starting a second Karazhan run in our guild. We have only two warlocks, who also double as tanks. Kikidas/Kathe and Absitively/Posolutely. What this means is that unless we pug a warlock (or somehow recruit one or have someone make one), we're always going to be stuck in our DPS position as a warlock. In Abs/Pos' case, not a big deal, he doesn't have a second string DPS.
In my case, it's a little frustrating. I have people I want to get into Karazhan, some who are working towards that goal and will probably never get there (Kiya the hunter, we already have a ton of hunters and Kvasira the ret pally, because who would take a ret pally over another DPS.) and others who are working towards that goal and I'd like to get in there (Kava the rogue is at Kara level and I've been in there twice, eventually Karitei the mage and Karika the resto shaman. Additionally, I have Keyami the prot warrior, but she still needs a bunch of work.).
Thankfully, this week will work for me in our Wednesday/Monday run. We're splitting it - to Curator the first night, past Curator in the second evening. I was able to take Kava to the first half, no real need for a warlock... and we have a pug warlock coming in for the Monday half, which means I can still take Kava since we'll have a warlock for Illhoof.
In general though, I expect I'm going to be very frustrated with the fact that I'm going to get stuck with either my healer Kiljara, warlock Kikidas or rawr tank Kathe. Now, badges are nice, don't get me wrong and I want to take Kathe when a tank spot is available.... but dang. It would be nice to not have to be limited.
People who ONLY have one character that's Kara ready... well, they get to go. Because they don't have someone they could be otherwise. So... they get to go as that person, all the time. People who have multiple 70's who are Kara ready... we get the short end of the stick. We're stuck waiting to see what gets filled so we can fill in what's left, unless we say, "I want to go as this person.", and then we feel terrible when the spot we declare we want to take... leaves someone else out. :(
Sucks to be second string. :(
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Netherspite down!
As those who follow the drama that is the Knights of Utopia, you may have noted that while we get Attumen to Prince on farm, the dragons continually give us issues.
Last night, after some shuffling of ranks, we hit Karazhan running with two PuGgers (one of whom isn't really a pugger, but rather a good friend returning!). We got a bit of a late start due to my being late home and us shuffling people around and finding our last few people... but we cleared Attumen to Prince AND Netherspite by 11:30pm.
Our lineup? Of this I was most proud. Kathe was tapped for Main Tank. It was my first time tanking Prince (not to mention the dragon). I was kind of nervous. We did the movable fight. Keeping my back to the wall while trying to move left during a bad infernal placement... sucks when you're a bear.
No really. It does. S-U-C-K-S!
Anyway... Morphos was our OT and spent his nontanking moments DPSing as a kitty cat. (The rationale behind him being OT/DPS and me being MT is that Morphos is a MUCH better DPSer than I am in kitty form, whereas in our tanking gear, I think we were ROUGHLY equivalent (health about the same, his dodge is higher). His gear is better, but...)
Morphos is an old guildy from way back in the day that left to have some RL time with his family. He's recently come back. Thus far, he has avoided our attempts to kidnap him and make him talk sexy to us... erm, I mean, come back to KoU, but that didn't stop him from saying, 'Sure, I'll come to Kara with you guys!' and talk sexy to us in Ventrilo.
He's got this accent... it's like Antonio Banderas, only I'm never going to really hear Antonio Banderas, but I can hear Morphos. *drool*
We pugged a shadow priest, Katsua (which is apparently not really her name, because I can't find it on wow-heroes!). From our guild pool, we took Leghumper and Harikin the mages, Absitively the warlock, Boon the holy paladin (he may or may not have respecced ret to pvp by the time you read this!), Shougeki the resto shaman, Neshura the hunter who was later traded for Wolfinme the hunter and Siiro the hunter.
Now, I hear you saying... where are your interrupts? What if you get Romulo and Julianne? What about Shade?!
We lucked out in Opera and got BBW. Which, by the way, I was the FIRST person Hooded. The tank... being the first person hooded. W. T. F. Luckily, I didn't die because I have awesome healers. But damn. It seems to happen to me every-single-time. I'm not sure if it's because there's a HoT or a Prayer of Mending that flips over or WHAT, but it's really annoying.
As for Shade.. we were all prepared to eat a Polymorph/Pyroblast. But we killed him before he got to that point. Our resto shaman shocked whenever he had a free moment (which wasn't often) and I feral charged (and possibly Morphos as well, not sure) whenever I could to interrupt something (almost always after dodging an arcane explosion. Got me to the boss faster). And we downed him before he drank. Not LONG before he drank, but before he drank. It was beautimous.
We did have a single wipe on Shade (someone accidentally moved during Flame Wreath) and one wipe on Netherspite (he got hit by the green beam once or twice as we were figuring out how to stand).
For Netherspite, the two tanks and the paladin stayed in for his banish phase. We had the others run to the windows so the tanks could easily avoid the netherbreath. This way, he didn't move around when he popped out of banish phase and we could more easily swap between green and red beams by simply running through the boss's belly. I had one scary moment when two pits opened up under my feet and I had barely an inch of room to try to dance in and out of the red beam in. But we prevailed! And he died. And it was glorious. (And seeing my life jump to 50k while in the red beam. Yummy.)
Go Knights of Utopia! Yay! Our first 'new guild' downing of Netherspite. :)
As for druid tanking... it's great fun. Unless your group doesn't let you actually HIT the mob first. That's not so much great fun. Then it's chasing after a mob that's running through your group. Silly DPSers.
The other fun thing to do while you're druid tanking? The nonelite group pulls in the room before Moroes? Yeah. Barkskin + Hurricane and then drop to bear form when your healer starts to scream, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? OMG!". It's great. :)
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Mini-Rant and Other Things
Two of the blogs that I read recently discussed the PvP/Badge/PvE Tier gear question. Namely: Is it right that people can PvP or Heroic their way into T5 and T6 equivalent gear?
Neither said it was out and out wrong and people in "welfare epix" should be stoned on sight. Both posted their opinions on it and asked what other people thought (or implied that they ask, since it's a public open to comments blog).
One wasn't as happy with it and was recounting how in the past PvPers were crying how people in T2 armor were owning BG's and the dearth of people willing to do heroics for gear or badges since they can grind their way through some BG's and honor to get gear.
The other was kind of equivocal about it and said how he thinks progression gear needs to be fixed so that newcomers to level 70 don't have to PvP to "catch up quickly" to their raidmates for the high end raid encounters.
Both of them had people saying rather nasty things to (and in one case, about) them.
Now, one is BBB and I'm sure everyone who reads me reads him and knows all about the issue.
The other is a newer (to me) feral druid blog I've encountered. The blog was well written. It wasn't inflammatory. It basically outlined the blogger's point of view on the issue and WHY they had that point of view.
That's what a blog is for. Now, some blogs cater to the theorycrafters. Some cater to the ... not-theorycrafters. But in the end, a blog is a personal place unless it's something like WoWInsider, where you should expect a certain level of writing and a certain level of information (facts, not opinion). But a personal blog is just that. Personal.
We make it public because that's the type of people we, as a society, are. We want to say our thoughts outloud and in most cases, hear your opinions on it.
If the person posted his thoughts about why he thought TRB's opinion wasn't well thought out... that's one thing. This person however, said that the blog was boring, sounded like something off of trade-chat and that maybe the blogger should consider stopping blogging all together.
Now, maybe he does think it's boring. Maybe the trade chat he frequents is more high-brow than the trade chat that I'm used to reading. But his response was very rude and highly uncalled for, IMNSHO.
If you find someone's blog boring... you don't tell them to shut up. You stop reading their blog. Problem solved! Just because YOU find the blog boring, doesn't mean that other people do. Doesn't mean the person blogging does. So, just wander away and go be rude to someone else, plzkthx.
Now, onto other things. Non-WoW related. Go cry somewhere else if you're going to complain that my warlock blog is delving into bear tanks and real life briefly.
Wii Fit is ... addicting. And kind of embarassing to realize how out of shape I really am! I've unlocked everything so far. I typically spend most of my time on the Yoga and Strength training, with the advanced step aerobics and hula hoop exercises and a random assortment of two or three balance games each day.
Today.. I did the shoulder stand. I wasn't exactly STRAIGHT... but I did it. And damn does that feel good to accomplish!
I need to work on getting the wiimote to register right for the tricep extension exercise -- I'll do it but it won't register that I did it! And the push-up and side-plank exercise... sometimes won't register that I just grunted and groaned my way through a knee's down but complete push-up. Which makes me feel unappreciated!
Back to WoW!
I took my rogue into Kara last night. She got three drops - a something I can't remember (I want to say a ring, but I can't find it right now), a cloak and her gloves. Three drops. Out of the whole damn place. Everything that dropped was cloth healing gear or mail or plate! Hate. you. Karazhan.
She was 5th out of 6 DPS. She was pushing around 450-500 DPS. The people above me are all people who are in mostly epics, compared to my blue-geared rogue. I meet the "minimum" requirements that my guild requires, so I didn't feel too bad about coming in, but I was well aware that I wasn't as much of a help. I did however... live through Prince. The other rogue... did not. GO ME!
Boon wants to get his tank Fyzzgig up there, so expect more ret paladin stuff (yay, Kvasira!) to follow.
Plans for Kikidas are to try to figure out did I really DE my Spellstrike Hood, or is it just hiding from me? I can't find it anywhere, and I'm such an armor-hog (you should see my bank), I can't imagine that I DE'd it, but I can't find it anywhere! She's also going into ZA now so maybe I'll get something new and shiny! It's progression ZA, but ZA nontheless.
Hope everyone had a great 4th of July!
Neither said it was out and out wrong and people in "welfare epix" should be stoned on sight. Both posted their opinions on it and asked what other people thought (or implied that they ask, since it's a public open to comments blog).
One wasn't as happy with it and was recounting how in the past PvPers were crying how people in T2 armor were owning BG's and the dearth of people willing to do heroics for gear or badges since they can grind their way through some BG's and honor to get gear.
The other was kind of equivocal about it and said how he thinks progression gear needs to be fixed so that newcomers to level 70 don't have to PvP to "catch up quickly" to their raidmates for the high end raid encounters.
Both of them had people saying rather nasty things to (and in one case, about) them.
Now, one is BBB and I'm sure everyone who reads me reads him and knows all about the issue.
The other is a newer (to me) feral druid blog I've encountered. The blog was well written. It wasn't inflammatory. It basically outlined the blogger's point of view on the issue and WHY they had that point of view.
That's what a blog is for. Now, some blogs cater to the theorycrafters. Some cater to the ... not-theorycrafters. But in the end, a blog is a personal place unless it's something like WoWInsider, where you should expect a certain level of writing and a certain level of information (facts, not opinion). But a personal blog is just that. Personal.
We make it public because that's the type of people we, as a society, are. We want to say our thoughts outloud and in most cases, hear your opinions on it.
If the person posted his thoughts about why he thought TRB's opinion wasn't well thought out... that's one thing. This person however, said that the blog was boring, sounded like something off of trade-chat and that maybe the blogger should consider stopping blogging all together.
Now, maybe he does think it's boring. Maybe the trade chat he frequents is more high-brow than the trade chat that I'm used to reading. But his response was very rude and highly uncalled for, IMNSHO.
If you find someone's blog boring... you don't tell them to shut up. You stop reading their blog. Problem solved! Just because YOU find the blog boring, doesn't mean that other people do. Doesn't mean the person blogging does. So, just wander away and go be rude to someone else, plzkthx.
Now, onto other things. Non-WoW related. Go cry somewhere else if you're going to complain that my warlock blog is delving into bear tanks and real life briefly.
Wii Fit is ... addicting. And kind of embarassing to realize how out of shape I really am! I've unlocked everything so far. I typically spend most of my time on the Yoga and Strength training, with the advanced step aerobics and hula hoop exercises and a random assortment of two or three balance games each day.
Today.. I did the shoulder stand. I wasn't exactly STRAIGHT... but I did it. And damn does that feel good to accomplish!
I need to work on getting the wiimote to register right for the tricep extension exercise -- I'll do it but it won't register that I did it! And the push-up and side-plank exercise... sometimes won't register that I just grunted and groaned my way through a knee's down but complete push-up. Which makes me feel unappreciated!
Back to WoW!
I took my rogue into Kara last night. She got three drops - a something I can't remember (I want to say a ring, but I can't find it right now), a cloak and her gloves. Three drops. Out of the whole damn place. Everything that dropped was cloth healing gear or mail or plate! Hate. you. Karazhan.
She was 5th out of 6 DPS. She was pushing around 450-500 DPS. The people above me are all people who are in mostly epics, compared to my blue-geared rogue. I meet the "minimum" requirements that my guild requires, so I didn't feel too bad about coming in, but I was well aware that I wasn't as much of a help. I did however... live through Prince. The other rogue... did not. GO ME!
Boon wants to get his tank Fyzzgig up there, so expect more ret paladin stuff (yay, Kvasira!) to follow.
Plans for Kikidas are to try to figure out did I really DE my Spellstrike Hood, or is it just hiding from me? I can't find it anywhere, and I'm such an armor-hog (you should see my bank), I can't imagine that I DE'd it, but I can't find it anywhere! She's also going into ZA now so maybe I'll get something new and shiny! It's progression ZA, but ZA nontheless.
Hope everyone had a great 4th of July!
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Early Karazhan Gear and Misconceptions
I have this horrible preconception of certain things about raiding. I know it's wrong and I attempt to overcome it whenever possible.
Since the only time I ever really paid attention to Kiki's stats was when I was raiding TK and SSC... I've come to the notion that all raiders need those stats. That's what I did! That's what YOU should do too!
And I would be ... mistaken. (Not wrong, for I am never wrong.)
But one thing I am firmly against is 'gearing for Karazhan within Karazhan'. It caused problems, it will cause problems and it's generally a bad idea. (And it only works for DPS, unless your second rate healer/tank is partnered with a uber healer/tank that can pick up their slack, but generally, poor DPS is carry-able whereas a poor healer or tank is not.)
However, this doesn't mean that you have to run heroic after heroic after heroic after heroic after heroic to get all epics and badge gear before you ever step foot within Karazhan!
What this does mean is that you WILL have to run certain instances to get dropped gear, or you WILL have to craft gear, or you WILL have to get rep to get rep items, or you WILL have to PvP to get some needed hole in gear (damn you, druid tank shoulders! Damn you!) or you WILL have to buy gear. If you're an instance-hog, omg there are so many drops available to you to get you where you need to be. If you like heroics, please, do some. If you're a crafter, make whatever set is spec-appropriate for yourself. Etc. Etc. Ad Nauseum.
(If I could get Abs to show me how to do the wowhead links, like he promised, I've got some ideas for blogs I could write! But alas, alas, I cannot and he won't... *sob*)
Now, in order to be a successful run, REGARDLESS of the color of your gear, you need to have a certain amount of numbers. You can find a rogue in all purples that can't hit the broad side of a barn outside of PvP. This is because PvP attack gear is usually NOT what you want in PvE settings... and getting PvPers to understand this is sometimes related to banging your head against a wall repeatedly, while wishing it was THEIR head you were banging against a wall repeatedly. PvP attack gear usually doesn't have +hit or +spell hit on it, because in PvP, that isn't as important as attack power and crit rating and penetration and all that fun stuff I know next to nothing about. I don't care if you have 1 trillion attack power... it's useless if you can't hit your target.
Seriously, if you doubt the words that I say, get yourself a damage meter and play with it the next time you're in an instance or heroic or whatever. (not applicable against normal mobs, because normal mobs don't have the stats an instance or raid boss will have) And see. We've had someone in our group with amazing purple gear, he looked awesome. He had infinite cosmic attack power. And he was behind in DPS against two non-epixd players. Because his hit rating was through the floor.
Or you're a tank but you're stacking stamina instead of uncrittability, or ... I could go on.
But I digress!
(As you knew I would, so don't act all surprised.)
Here is a link to the recommended starting numbers for a Karazhan run. They aren't that hard to reach. And depending on how much leeway you're willing to give people, some of those numbers are fudgable, with buffs, kings, gotw, etc.
The other big thing that will help in your early runs is making sure everyone knows the pulls. You can find guides galore out there that discuss the strategy for the trash pulls and the bosses. There are probably as many different ways of doing those fights as there are ... uh, fingers on a hand. (I was going to say sand on a beach, but there probably aren't QUITE as many as that.) So just pick one that works for your particular group setup and run with it.
And above all.. have fun. It's a game.
Since the only time I ever really paid attention to Kiki's stats was when I was raiding TK and SSC... I've come to the notion that all raiders need those stats. That's what I did! That's what YOU should do too!
And I would be ... mistaken. (Not wrong, for I am never wrong.)
But one thing I am firmly against is 'gearing for Karazhan within Karazhan'. It caused problems, it will cause problems and it's generally a bad idea. (And it only works for DPS, unless your second rate healer/tank is partnered with a uber healer/tank that can pick up their slack, but generally, poor DPS is carry-able whereas a poor healer or tank is not.)
However, this doesn't mean that you have to run heroic after heroic after heroic after heroic after heroic to get all epics and badge gear before you ever step foot within Karazhan!
What this does mean is that you WILL have to run certain instances to get dropped gear, or you WILL have to craft gear, or you WILL have to get rep to get rep items, or you WILL have to PvP to get some needed hole in gear (damn you, druid tank shoulders! Damn you!) or you WILL have to buy gear. If you're an instance-hog, omg there are so many drops available to you to get you where you need to be. If you like heroics, please, do some. If you're a crafter, make whatever set is spec-appropriate for yourself. Etc. Etc. Ad Nauseum.
(If I could get Abs to show me how to do the wowhead links, like he promised, I've got some ideas for blogs I could write! But alas, alas, I cannot and he won't... *sob*)
Now, in order to be a successful run, REGARDLESS of the color of your gear, you need to have a certain amount of numbers. You can find a rogue in all purples that can't hit the broad side of a barn outside of PvP. This is because PvP attack gear is usually NOT what you want in PvE settings... and getting PvPers to understand this is sometimes related to banging your head against a wall repeatedly, while wishing it was THEIR head you were banging against a wall repeatedly. PvP attack gear usually doesn't have +hit or +spell hit on it, because in PvP, that isn't as important as attack power and crit rating and penetration and all that fun stuff I know next to nothing about. I don't care if you have 1 trillion attack power... it's useless if you can't hit your target.
Seriously, if you doubt the words that I say, get yourself a damage meter and play with it the next time you're in an instance or heroic or whatever. (not applicable against normal mobs, because normal mobs don't have the stats an instance or raid boss will have) And see. We've had someone in our group with amazing purple gear, he looked awesome. He had infinite cosmic attack power. And he was behind in DPS against two non-epixd players. Because his hit rating was through the floor.
Or you're a tank but you're stacking stamina instead of uncrittability, or ... I could go on.
But I digress!
(As you knew I would, so don't act all surprised.)
Here is a link to the recommended starting numbers for a Karazhan run. They aren't that hard to reach. And depending on how much leeway you're willing to give people, some of those numbers are fudgable, with buffs, kings, gotw, etc.
The other big thing that will help in your early runs is making sure everyone knows the pulls. You can find guides galore out there that discuss the strategy for the trash pulls and the bosses. There are probably as many different ways of doing those fights as there are ... uh, fingers on a hand. (I was going to say sand on a beach, but there probably aren't QUITE as many as that.) So just pick one that works for your particular group setup and run with it.
And above all.. have fun. It's a game.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Rawr! Kathe eats the big boys of Karazhan!
As I mentioned previously, my druid tank, Kathe, was tapped to be the second tank in Karazhan.
I got her up to snuff, I got her a set of healing gear for when she'd be tapped to offheal.
And she ate her way through Karazhan.
We had a few sloppy pulls in the beginning, mainly due to one of our members, a pugged healer, not being on ventrilo and standing where he'd get aggro. But we didn't wipe because Kathe is a BEAR! In more ways than literally.
Owaru, our main tank, did his usual awesome job.
Surprisingly, or not as you may see it, I tanked Maiden while Owaru offhealed (the whole dispel magic thing, likely!), we had BBW for Opera and I tanked him. We had a hairy moment when I wasn't top of his aggro meter two seconds into the fight, and he Red Riding Hooded me. You know.. when I'm standing next to him. But due to awesome healing and me running like the little girl I am, I lived.
We wiped on Curator due to our pug healadin not having any mana pots... Curator was at 4%.
We tried Illhoof, but with the healadin still refusing to get on ventrilo, took to long to get across to him who was being sacrificed and we lost too many people. So we skipped Illhoof.
On Shade, I put on my healing gear and was quasi-tank-dps-topping off heals. Thank god for druid HoT's, because we wound up having to survive a pyroblast. Not sure if druids are immune to Shade's poly or not, but I forgot to try to switch, as by the time the poly came, it was myself and the healadin, two hunters and a rogue still alive. I was too busy healing. Slapped a HoT on one of the hunters who was hurt, got poly'd and was like, woot, everyone will survive the pyroblast because I am just that awesome.
Chess went fine, though our rogue got teleported out of the chess event, and when we tried to tell the healadin to not kill Warchief until he got back, he did anyway. Then we said 'don't open the chest until he gets back, maybe he can still get it', he did anyway. And of course, a rogue piece dropped that our rogue couldn't get. Hopefully multiple tickets from the raid leader and raid members will get him his belt.
I then helped heal through Prince. And I got the T4 helm. The pretty pretty T4 helm. I have antlers. *dance*
Anyway, here's a few tips if you're the pug member of a raid.
1: even if you normally use TS, have ventrilo if that's what the raid is using.
2: don't go AFK every 10 minutes. (this fellow seriously went AFK about 17 times during the entire run)
3: don't plan on eating half way through the raid (gtg for 10 min, dinner)
4: come with flasks, pots, etc. When the tank dies in Curator because you didn't heal her, your words shouldn't be 'I have no pots', but 'I potted about three times in there! Sorry you died'.
5: if you really can't get vent or TS to work, make sure you pay attention to your raid chat, since that's the only way you can get directions. The raid leader shouldn't have to type something three times before you see it.
Something I learned about Karazhan... Karazhan thinks the only druid is a resto druid. I got more resto gear in one night...
And, on another note, Kiljara healed through Gruul's/Mags. In fact, in Gruul, she was one of the only healers left alive!
<3 myself :)
I got her up to snuff, I got her a set of healing gear for when she'd be tapped to offheal.
And she ate her way through Karazhan.
We had a few sloppy pulls in the beginning, mainly due to one of our members, a pugged healer, not being on ventrilo and standing where he'd get aggro. But we didn't wipe because Kathe is a BEAR! In more ways than literally.
Owaru, our main tank, did his usual awesome job.
Surprisingly, or not as you may see it, I tanked Maiden while Owaru offhealed (the whole dispel magic thing, likely!), we had BBW for Opera and I tanked him. We had a hairy moment when I wasn't top of his aggro meter two seconds into the fight, and he Red Riding Hooded me. You know.. when I'm standing next to him. But due to awesome healing and me running like the little girl I am, I lived.
We wiped on Curator due to our pug healadin not having any mana pots... Curator was at 4%.
We tried Illhoof, but with the healadin still refusing to get on ventrilo, took to long to get across to him who was being sacrificed and we lost too many people. So we skipped Illhoof.
On Shade, I put on my healing gear and was quasi-tank-dps-topping off heals. Thank god for druid HoT's, because we wound up having to survive a pyroblast. Not sure if druids are immune to Shade's poly or not, but I forgot to try to switch, as by the time the poly came, it was myself and the healadin, two hunters and a rogue still alive. I was too busy healing. Slapped a HoT on one of the hunters who was hurt, got poly'd and was like, woot, everyone will survive the pyroblast because I am just that awesome.
Chess went fine, though our rogue got teleported out of the chess event, and when we tried to tell the healadin to not kill Warchief until he got back, he did anyway. Then we said 'don't open the chest until he gets back, maybe he can still get it', he did anyway. And of course, a rogue piece dropped that our rogue couldn't get. Hopefully multiple tickets from the raid leader and raid members will get him his belt.
I then helped heal through Prince. And I got the T4 helm. The pretty pretty T4 helm. I have antlers. *dance*
Anyway, here's a few tips if you're the pug member of a raid.
1: even if you normally use TS, have ventrilo if that's what the raid is using.
2: don't go AFK every 10 minutes. (this fellow seriously went AFK about 17 times during the entire run)
3: don't plan on eating half way through the raid (gtg for 10 min, dinner)
4: come with flasks, pots, etc. When the tank dies in Curator because you didn't heal her, your words shouldn't be 'I have no pots', but 'I potted about three times in there! Sorry you died'.
5: if you really can't get vent or TS to work, make sure you pay attention to your raid chat, since that's the only way you can get directions. The raid leader shouldn't have to type something three times before you see it.
Something I learned about Karazhan... Karazhan thinks the only druid is a resto druid. I got more resto gear in one night...
And, on another note, Kiljara healed through Gruul's/Mags. In fact, in Gruul, she was one of the only healers left alive!
<3 myself :)
Friday, May 2, 2008
Countdown to Karazhan
Kathe has been tapped for my guild's Saturday Karazhan run, so I've worked overtime the last few days to get her ready for it.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get a few heroic drops that I've wanted, but I did get Slikk's badge cloak, then updated it with dodge. Got some 'chants and just a few gems, but I hit what's known as the 'minimum' for a druid tank in Karazhan.
415 defense (42o)
30% dodge (30.7%, 40% with trinket use)
12k health (11974 health, self buffed. I'm sure fort will pop me over.)
20k armor (21900 someodd armor, self buffed.)
I plan on eating warp burgers, drinking major agility and major fortitude elixirs and hopefully not needing to use my very pathetic healing gear for much!
Unfortunately, I couldn't get a few heroic drops that I've wanted, but I did get Slikk's badge cloak, then updated it with dodge. Got some 'chants and just a few gems, but I hit what's known as the 'minimum' for a druid tank in Karazhan.
415 defense (42o)
30% dodge (30.7%, 40% with trinket use)
12k health (11974 health, self buffed. I'm sure fort will pop me over.)
20k armor (21900 someodd armor, self buffed.)
I plan on eating warp burgers, drinking major agility and major fortitude elixirs and hopefully not needing to use my very pathetic healing gear for much!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Overconfidence.. how I loathe thee.
As I mentioned earlier in my blog, KoU ran Karazhan in around 3.5 hours the other week. This was a guild first for KoU and got all of our hopes high that we would be moving on from the sludge that our Karazhan runs had previously been.
We had a few changeups in our roster for this week's run, but everyone who was in was well geared, experienced and good if not great at their job.
We made it to Curator in 3 hours.
What was the difference? Overconfidence, IMNSHO.
Last week we kicked ass, we took names, we asked no questions and accepted no lies.
This week, a few people tried to go at it like we were decked out in Black Temple gear (or new badge gear! OMG! WELFARE EPIX! I kid, I for one am glad of the new badge gear.). As a result, we wiped on TRASH. On 'did we just die... in that pull?' trash.
There's a fine line between moving fast enough and moving so fast that we're pulling multiple groups at once. Like I said... BT gear, okay to do. Our gear, not so okay to do.
Our lineup: Annuubis (war) and Kiltic (pally) as tanks (Kiltic is a former KoU member who came back to tank for us that night), Kiljara (priest: me) and Shougeki (shammy: Owaru) as healers (mana conservation? who needs that! mp5 is yummy), Dhark (rogue: Boon), Absitively (warlock: himself), Neshura (BM hunter), Ravensfire (rogue), Kennywpbaker (hunter, old KoU member), BigPoppi (fire mage).
We had a minor switchup right before Curator, BigPoppi's computer went out on him and so we substituted Zsasha (ice mage: Orzag) for the Curator fight.
On a plus side, there were a few hairy pulls that we lived through, which tells me that with a little more coordination, we probably CAN start to do the true chain-pulling (one tank has a group, second tank goes to get a group, etc).
We had a few changeups in our roster for this week's run, but everyone who was in was well geared, experienced and good if not great at their job.
We made it to Curator in 3 hours.
What was the difference? Overconfidence, IMNSHO.
Last week we kicked ass, we took names, we asked no questions and accepted no lies.
This week, a few people tried to go at it like we were decked out in Black Temple gear (or new badge gear! OMG! WELFARE EPIX! I kid, I for one am glad of the new badge gear.). As a result, we wiped on TRASH. On 'did we just die... in that pull?' trash.
There's a fine line between moving fast enough and moving so fast that we're pulling multiple groups at once. Like I said... BT gear, okay to do. Our gear, not so okay to do.
Our lineup: Annuubis (war) and Kiltic (pally) as tanks (Kiltic is a former KoU member who came back to tank for us that night), Kiljara (priest: me) and Shougeki (shammy: Owaru) as healers (mana conservation? who needs that! mp5 is yummy), Dhark (rogue: Boon), Absitively (warlock: himself), Neshura (BM hunter), Ravensfire (rogue), Kennywpbaker (hunter, old KoU member), BigPoppi (fire mage).
We had a minor switchup right before Curator, BigPoppi's computer went out on him and so we substituted Zsasha (ice mage: Orzag) for the Curator fight.
On a plus side, there were a few hairy pulls that we lived through, which tells me that with a little more coordination, we probably CAN start to do the true chain-pulling (one tank has a group, second tank goes to get a group, etc).
Monday, April 21, 2008
Saturday Raiding
After a hellacious day at work (yes, I work Saturdays, /cry) I got home to a fun day of raiding!
As you all know, Kikidas is not in Knights of Utopia. Her guild was doing a Gruul's/Mag run... on the same day that KoU was going to do their first (disclaimer: the first Kara run under new management!) Karazhan run. Thankfully, the times were different enough that I could make both runs!
Ya'll know me. I'd live in an instance/raid if I could. It isn't about the gear (mostly). It's about the teamwork, the knowledge that I need to do everything right if we're going to succeed, pushing myself to my limits.. the works. For a while, before Boon got into raiding himself, we'd argue a bit about my wanting to raid. He thought that I was in it for the mad epix. I'd try to tell him that it wasn't so.
Finally, delving into the past, I compared it to Final Fantasy XI. (Yes, I just said it, WoW compared to FFXI! Don't have a heart attack, please.)
In Final Fantasy XI, the groups were hard to come by, you had to work your ass off just to kill a regular monster. And then there were skillchains. Skillchains were the key to beating a mob. I don't know how many of you guys remember or ever played FFXI, but a well put together group that was doing skillchains was a beautiful thing, it took SKILL. That's what raiding is for me. It's a measure of skill. It's a test of my skill more so than anything else.
He finally got it the one time he was in a really good raid with me. He said, "Wow. I think I finally understand what you mean.".
So, the Gruuls/Mag run went really well. We wiped once on Magtheridon because one of our cube clickers died and wasn't clear on what cube was now 'free'. We wiped once on HKM because of a shoddy initial pull. Since Resolve doesn't have enough members on its own for Gruul's/Mags, they were recruiting friends and some of their sister-guild members. I got Boon as his paladin and Absitively as his warlock into the group, Orzag a priest made it to Mags, Shougeki a resto shaman made it to Gruuls. Absitively got the cloak from HKM. Boon got the T4 shoulders. Shougeki got the T4 shoulders AND the T4 leggings.
Then we hit Karazhan! The makeup: Annuubis the prot warrior, Owaru the tankadin, Boon the healadin, Orzag the holy priest, Kikidas the warlock, Absitively the warlock, Bigpoppi the fire mage, Kaggomi the elemental shaman, Anolifer the dps warrior and Neshura the beast master hunter.
In four hours, we cleared everything except Netherspite and Nightbane. I know that for a 'badge-run', it would be considered slow. But for a Knights of Utopia run... that's three or four nights of raiding rolled into 4 hours.
We wiped only twice, both on Opera. Romulo and Julianne. The first time, our Romulo tank died because his healer got charmed. The second time, our interrupts accidentally thought the call for 'dps to switch to romulo' meant them, too.
Now, we did stack the deck by taking our best of the best characters. But there were some significant changes from the old way.
1: we kept pulling, one of the old management's problems was taking forever to pull. They'd get to Attumen with only 5 minutes left on the respawn timer. Consequentially, everything took longer to do. They'd wait on trash pulls for everyone to have completely full mana bars.
2: we took people who met a minimum requirement of not only stats, but playability.
3: only two healers, not three. The old KoU would only go in if they had 3 healers. What this meant was that the healer that was on group healing and in some cases, offtank healing, were bored out of their mind. One less DPS also made fights longer.
4: no explaining. People knew their marks. They knew the strats. We clarified briefly. ie: horseshoe vs. clumped on Curator, kill order on Moroes, killing or ignoring Kilrek, etc. This made for a faster run overall as we didn't waste time explaining what 9/10 of the people in the raid knew first-hand. Our one newb to the run was Neshura, and she read up on everything in advance and knew what to do.
When we start to bring our alts in there, Posolutely the warrior, Kathe the druid tank, Dhark the rogue, Shougeki the resto shaman... I'm sure it'll be slower. But hopefully never painful. Slow is okay. Painful is not.
We did switch out Owaru for Shougeki on Prince for extra healing, and Shougeki got the T4 helm, too. (What a lucky shaman, stealing from his paladin friend!)
All in all, in terms of raiding, it was absolutely frikken wonderful. Smooth. Clean. Quick. Skilled.
K want more!
As you all know, Kikidas is not in Knights of Utopia. Her guild was doing a Gruul's/Mag run... on the same day that KoU was going to do their first (disclaimer: the first Kara run under new management!) Karazhan run. Thankfully, the times were different enough that I could make both runs!
Ya'll know me. I'd live in an instance/raid if I could. It isn't about the gear (mostly). It's about the teamwork, the knowledge that I need to do everything right if we're going to succeed, pushing myself to my limits.. the works. For a while, before Boon got into raiding himself, we'd argue a bit about my wanting to raid. He thought that I was in it for the mad epix. I'd try to tell him that it wasn't so.
Finally, delving into the past, I compared it to Final Fantasy XI. (Yes, I just said it, WoW compared to FFXI! Don't have a heart attack, please.)
In Final Fantasy XI, the groups were hard to come by, you had to work your ass off just to kill a regular monster. And then there were skillchains. Skillchains were the key to beating a mob. I don't know how many of you guys remember or ever played FFXI, but a well put together group that was doing skillchains was a beautiful thing, it took SKILL. That's what raiding is for me. It's a measure of skill. It's a test of my skill more so than anything else.
He finally got it the one time he was in a really good raid with me. He said, "Wow. I think I finally understand what you mean.".
So, the Gruuls/Mag run went really well. We wiped once on Magtheridon because one of our cube clickers died and wasn't clear on what cube was now 'free'. We wiped once on HKM because of a shoddy initial pull. Since Resolve doesn't have enough members on its own for Gruul's/Mags, they were recruiting friends and some of their sister-guild members. I got Boon as his paladin and Absitively as his warlock into the group, Orzag a priest made it to Mags, Shougeki a resto shaman made it to Gruuls. Absitively got the cloak from HKM. Boon got the T4 shoulders. Shougeki got the T4 shoulders AND the T4 leggings.
Then we hit Karazhan! The makeup: Annuubis the prot warrior, Owaru the tankadin, Boon the healadin, Orzag the holy priest, Kikidas the warlock, Absitively the warlock, Bigpoppi the fire mage, Kaggomi the elemental shaman, Anolifer the dps warrior and Neshura the beast master hunter.
In four hours, we cleared everything except Netherspite and Nightbane. I know that for a 'badge-run', it would be considered slow. But for a Knights of Utopia run... that's three or four nights of raiding rolled into 4 hours.
We wiped only twice, both on Opera. Romulo and Julianne. The first time, our Romulo tank died because his healer got charmed. The second time, our interrupts accidentally thought the call for 'dps to switch to romulo' meant them, too.
Now, we did stack the deck by taking our best of the best characters. But there were some significant changes from the old way.
1: we kept pulling, one of the old management's problems was taking forever to pull. They'd get to Attumen with only 5 minutes left on the respawn timer. Consequentially, everything took longer to do. They'd wait on trash pulls for everyone to have completely full mana bars.
2: we took people who met a minimum requirement of not only stats, but playability.
3: only two healers, not three. The old KoU would only go in if they had 3 healers. What this meant was that the healer that was on group healing and in some cases, offtank healing, were bored out of their mind. One less DPS also made fights longer.
4: no explaining. People knew their marks. They knew the strats. We clarified briefly. ie: horseshoe vs. clumped on Curator, kill order on Moroes, killing or ignoring Kilrek, etc. This made for a faster run overall as we didn't waste time explaining what 9/10 of the people in the raid knew first-hand. Our one newb to the run was Neshura, and she read up on everything in advance and knew what to do.
When we start to bring our alts in there, Posolutely the warrior, Kathe the druid tank, Dhark the rogue, Shougeki the resto shaman... I'm sure it'll be slower. But hopefully never painful. Slow is okay. Painful is not.
We did switch out Owaru for Shougeki on Prince for extra healing, and Shougeki got the T4 helm, too. (What a lucky shaman, stealing from his paladin friend!)
All in all, in terms of raiding, it was absolutely frikken wonderful. Smooth. Clean. Quick. Skilled.
K want more!
Saturday, March 29, 2008
New Guild and Karazhan Updates
As you may (or may not) know, Kikidas is the Jonah of guilds. The last three guilds she was in self-destructed (or mini-destructed). As such, she was guildless for a little while there.
And may I say, when you are guildless, the game makes SURE YOU KNOW IT! You log in to 10 lines of 'You are not in a guild.'. And it repeats periodically. Like, gee, I didn't know. Thanks for reminding me! Let me go get in a guild, thanks to you!
Anyway, the guild that I was the PuG member of before I left for Florida accepted my application. Yay! So I'm now a member of Resolve. Which I like the name of... resolve. You resolve problems, you resolve difficulties... you resolve the boss with a well timed shadowbolt.
So, we had another Kara run Thursday night (they seem to like to do midnight Kara runs, which I can't do very often) and I convinced (okay, annoyed them into it!) them to let Dhark (my husbands rogue) join in.
It was gorgeous, yet again. Dhark was drooling. We had one tank (paladin) for the entire thing. When "two" tanks were needed, the shaman or healadin would get aggro temporarily while the rest of the group downed the primary target.
Then yesterday, I went into Kara with my hunter, Kiya. Now, Kiya isn't very well geared, mixed greens/blues. Kiya is a beast master with an lynx cub from the beginning of the Blades Edge Mountains (by Sylvanaar), named Bumper.
I was in there with three mages and one warlock for competition in damage. While my overall DPS wasn't the highest, it was consistently in the 400+ range. (One mage was 500, one was 450s, one was on par with me, warlock was 300) And for overall DAMAGE DONE, I was at the top (not counting pet).
We one shotted Attumen. We three shotted Moroes (only one priest and one ice-trap. Bumper did us all proud by being the tank on the adds and I did hunters proud by kiting and trapping my add until it was ready to be killed). We three shotted Maiden (we had a few 'cleanse' issues). We one shotted BBW. All this between the hours of 7pm (we got off to a slightly late start at 7:15) and 10:30pm.
Now, this was a KoU group. This was a SECOND TIER KoU group. Everyone in blues, maybe a few greens and a few purples. Our tanks were well geared and our healers were well geared, which gave us the time the low DPS needed to down the bosses. So, considering that ... WE DID AWESOME. Go Knights of Utopia: Annuu's Group!!
And may I say, when you are guildless, the game makes SURE YOU KNOW IT! You log in to 10 lines of 'You are not in a guild.'. And it repeats periodically. Like, gee, I didn't know. Thanks for reminding me! Let me go get in a guild, thanks to you!
Anyway, the guild that I was the PuG member of before I left for Florida accepted my application. Yay! So I'm now a member of Resolve. Which I like the name of... resolve. You resolve problems, you resolve difficulties... you resolve the boss with a well timed shadowbolt.
So, we had another Kara run Thursday night (they seem to like to do midnight Kara runs, which I can't do very often) and I convinced (okay, annoyed them into it!) them to let Dhark (my husbands rogue) join in.
It was gorgeous, yet again. Dhark was drooling. We had one tank (paladin) for the entire thing. When "two" tanks were needed, the shaman or healadin would get aggro temporarily while the rest of the group downed the primary target.
Then yesterday, I went into Kara with my hunter, Kiya. Now, Kiya isn't very well geared, mixed greens/blues. Kiya is a beast master with an lynx cub from the beginning of the Blades Edge Mountains (by Sylvanaar), named Bumper.
I was in there with three mages and one warlock for competition in damage. While my overall DPS wasn't the highest, it was consistently in the 400+ range. (One mage was 500, one was 450s, one was on par with me, warlock was 300) And for overall DAMAGE DONE, I was at the top (not counting pet).
We one shotted Attumen. We three shotted Moroes (only one priest and one ice-trap. Bumper did us all proud by being the tank on the adds and I did hunters proud by kiting and trapping my add until it was ready to be killed). We three shotted Maiden (we had a few 'cleanse' issues). We one shotted BBW. All this between the hours of 7pm (we got off to a slightly late start at 7:15) and 10:30pm.
Now, this was a KoU group. This was a SECOND TIER KoU group. Everyone in blues, maybe a few greens and a few purples. Our tanks were well geared and our healers were well geared, which gave us the time the low DPS needed to down the bosses. So, considering that ... WE DID AWESOME. Go Knights of Utopia: Annuu's Group!!
Friday, March 14, 2008
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!
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!
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Kiljara goes to Karazhan
Yesterday, my priest ventured into Karazhan after having not been played at all for ... oh gosh, a long long time.
She doesn't have any of her stuff enchanted, except for a glyph and runic spellthread on her kickass pants. I have all the Hallowed gear (except the pants, but that's okay.). But not my primal mooncloth set (working on it!)
Still, with a potion of healing power and golden fishsticks, she's at 1350 bonus healing, 400 something mp5 resting and something in the 100's while casting.
The only time I ran out of mana was during the Maiden fight, and that's because I died and soulstone doesn't restore a heck of a lot of mana.
I love my priest. :)
Anyway, the point of this post is that different healer types do different things well. You have your paladin healer, your priest healer, your druid healer and your shaman healer. Each of them play particular party roles.
The paladin is, from everything I've seen and read, King (or Queen) of single target healing. Low mana, high value heals. What they lack is any form of a HoT or any multiple-member-heals. But they are like the energizer bunny. They just keep going and going and going and going...
The priest is undoubtedly the Empress of healing. We have a HoT. We have low mana-moderate value heals, we have moderate mana-high value heals. We have party-heals. We have binding-heal. We have prayer of mending. Depending on particulars, we also have have circle of healing and lightwell. What we lack are FAST heals. Flash heal, IMHO, isn't as mana-efficient as me just anticipating and pre-casting a larger heal or greater heal. The only time I flash heal is when I NEED to give someone just that little bit of health ASAP. AOE'ers being hit whilst AOEing, for example. But I notice my mana drops a lot faster if I'm spamming flash heal than if I'm anticipating a greater heal or regular heal.
The druid is .. okay, I've run out of terms that are applicable. The druid is AWESOME at instant cast HoT's. They have the most HoT's, that they can turn into a big ass heal by using Swiftmend. And while they can main heal something like Karazhan on the main tank, I think utility wise, they make far better party-toppers than they do main-tank healers. Need a little rejuv here a little there, how about a lifebloom? Not that they can't do it, it just is a better utility of resources, IMNSHO*.
Shaman healers are good at .. not healing. Earth Shield, Health totems, chain healing, that silly little - spam little heals to get a big heal - whatever it is they do. Honestly, shaman healing is the one I'm most clueless about. They seem to fall in the middle of the road though. Big heals, little heals, fast heals. Owaru, I'm looking at you buddy. Fill me in.
Anyhow...
So, my priest is healing the offtank in Karazhan. This is fine. Except I didn't do much healing! Not merely because the tank had decent gear so wasn't taking much damage when he actually WAS tanking trash, but also because the same was true for the healer who was on the MT and the healer who was doing party heals. All of us were so READY TO HEAL!!!! that we were healing each others people. I know I saw a few HoT's that I didn't toss on my target on him. (I'm looking at you, druid! MY TARGET, MINE! HEALS OFF! ... (get it, hands off, heals off? Oh, nevermind!)).
I spent a vast majority of my time on trash mobs ... DPSing. I felt kind of guilty. For a while, I was pacing the OT on my DPS meter. Then I decided I should get down and serious and only healed... except for the occasional smite, mind blast and shadow word.
I don't know how other healers do it, but I tend to toss a renew and PoM on my target at the start of the fight and keep one up. Then I usually cast Rank 3 or Rank 4 Heal. Not Greater Heal. Heal. If I'm falling behind (not usually, but depends on the tank), I switch to mid-level Greater Heals. If a DPS class is getting whacked occasionally, I toss a renew on them and if the tank is doing their job, that's all I usually need to do. This obviously doesn't hold true if it's an AoE pull or something similar.
Like I mentioned earlier, the lowest on mana I ever got was 6500 mana on any trash pull, with me healing AND DPSing. (I have only 9something total mana)
For my shadowfiend... him I toss out when I get about 1/4-1/3 down on mana. This way if it's a long fight, he MAY be ready by the time I need him again. (Tip for Curator fight for priests, wait for his second evocate, if you can, before you sic your fiend on him. Double-damage means your mana bar jumps up! and double-damage to him, as well.)
To the warlock, I apologize for your death in the Maiden fight. I was hitting the wrong button and going 'Why the hell is her Holy Fire not going away?!'. I was hitting the RIGHT button for the entire rest of the evening, but for some reason, I didn't do it that time. In my defense, the paladin healer also didn't cleanse you in time, so it isn't entirely my fault! Sowwy.
(* In My Not So Humble Opinion)
She doesn't have any of her stuff enchanted, except for a glyph and runic spellthread on her kickass pants. I have all the Hallowed gear (except the pants, but that's okay.). But not my primal mooncloth set (working on it!)
Still, with a potion of healing power and golden fishsticks, she's at 1350 bonus healing, 400 something mp5 resting and something in the 100's while casting.
The only time I ran out of mana was during the Maiden fight, and that's because I died and soulstone doesn't restore a heck of a lot of mana.
I love my priest. :)
Anyway, the point of this post is that different healer types do different things well. You have your paladin healer, your priest healer, your druid healer and your shaman healer. Each of them play particular party roles.
The paladin is, from everything I've seen and read, King (or Queen) of single target healing. Low mana, high value heals. What they lack is any form of a HoT or any multiple-member-heals. But they are like the energizer bunny. They just keep going and going and going and going...
The priest is undoubtedly the Empress of healing. We have a HoT. We have low mana-moderate value heals, we have moderate mana-high value heals. We have party-heals. We have binding-heal. We have prayer of mending. Depending on particulars, we also have have circle of healing and lightwell. What we lack are FAST heals. Flash heal, IMHO, isn't as mana-efficient as me just anticipating and pre-casting a larger heal or greater heal. The only time I flash heal is when I NEED to give someone just that little bit of health ASAP. AOE'ers being hit whilst AOEing, for example. But I notice my mana drops a lot faster if I'm spamming flash heal than if I'm anticipating a greater heal or regular heal.
The druid is .. okay, I've run out of terms that are applicable. The druid is AWESOME at instant cast HoT's. They have the most HoT's, that they can turn into a big ass heal by using Swiftmend. And while they can main heal something like Karazhan on the main tank, I think utility wise, they make far better party-toppers than they do main-tank healers. Need a little rejuv here a little there, how about a lifebloom? Not that they can't do it, it just is a better utility of resources, IMNSHO*.
Shaman healers are good at .. not healing. Earth Shield, Health totems, chain healing, that silly little - spam little heals to get a big heal - whatever it is they do. Honestly, shaman healing is the one I'm most clueless about. They seem to fall in the middle of the road though. Big heals, little heals, fast heals. Owaru, I'm looking at you buddy. Fill me in.
Anyhow...
So, my priest is healing the offtank in Karazhan. This is fine. Except I didn't do much healing! Not merely because the tank had decent gear so wasn't taking much damage when he actually WAS tanking trash, but also because the same was true for the healer who was on the MT and the healer who was doing party heals. All of us were so READY TO HEAL!!!! that we were healing each others people. I know I saw a few HoT's that I didn't toss on my target on him. (I'm looking at you, druid! MY TARGET, MINE! HEALS OFF! ... (get it, hands off, heals off? Oh, nevermind!)).
I spent a vast majority of my time on trash mobs ... DPSing. I felt kind of guilty. For a while, I was pacing the OT on my DPS meter. Then I decided I should get down and serious and only healed... except for the occasional smite, mind blast and shadow word.
I don't know how other healers do it, but I tend to toss a renew and PoM on my target at the start of the fight and keep one up. Then I usually cast Rank 3 or Rank 4 Heal. Not Greater Heal. Heal. If I'm falling behind (not usually, but depends on the tank), I switch to mid-level Greater Heals. If a DPS class is getting whacked occasionally, I toss a renew on them and if the tank is doing their job, that's all I usually need to do. This obviously doesn't hold true if it's an AoE pull or something similar.
Like I mentioned earlier, the lowest on mana I ever got was 6500 mana on any trash pull, with me healing AND DPSing. (I have only 9something total mana)
For my shadowfiend... him I toss out when I get about 1/4-1/3 down on mana. This way if it's a long fight, he MAY be ready by the time I need him again. (Tip for Curator fight for priests, wait for his second evocate, if you can, before you sic your fiend on him. Double-damage means your mana bar jumps up! and double-damage to him, as well.)
To the warlock, I apologize for your death in the Maiden fight. I was hitting the wrong button and going 'Why the hell is her Holy Fire not going away?!'. I was hitting the RIGHT button for the entire rest of the evening, but for some reason, I didn't do it that time. In my defense, the paladin healer also didn't cleanse you in time, so it isn't entirely my fault! Sowwy.
(* In My Not So Humble Opinion)
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