Friday Strats – Auriaya

Mittens! You leave Miss Prissypants alone!

Ugh, Auriaya.  I’m gonna go ahead and lay it out there right now, I hate this fight.  It’s not exactly difficult, but there are complications involving the adds that come with her, wonky pathing issues and the spawn that will arrive soon after pulling her.  Mix all that with the fact that if your tank isn’t perfect, and I do mean perfect, at picking up the adds or if your healers are a split second too slow on cooldowns or heals, and that’s literally less than a second, then you will see a lot of spike damage and the fight becomes a lot more difficult.  But let’s stop with the horror stories since it’s beena  couple of weeks since we’ve had a Strat post and dive right into it, eh?  So let’s have a look see for the crazy cat lady herself, Auriaya.

The Prep

You’ll need all three tanks working and ready to pull the adds that come with Auriaya.  We also usually set up cooldown targets for the healers in order to avoid the insta-deaths that plague our tanks during the initial pull.  You will also need the raid to set up out of line of site from the pull spot, usually one of the entrances to the closest hallways to the staircase.  We usually set up just around the corner from the stairs while a hunter places a snake trap down on the pull spot.  It is also extremely important that everyone stay stacked up right on top of the tank for the duration of the fight.  Auriaya doesn’t cleave or anything, so don’t worry about extra raid damage from that.  Once everyone is buffed and hidden around the corner, simply buff up, place the trap, and wait for her to come.

The Fight

The reason for all the prep and los for the pull is that when she comes, she’ll have four adds with her that rush your group and pounce on anyone in los, who should only be tanks.  The pounce ability deals up to 8,600 damage and an additional amount of damage every second for five seconds after that, I believe around 5,000.  However, the damage done is magnified by 50% per member of the pack that’s still alive and within close range of each other.  This means that if a tank is hit by more than two pounces back to back he or she will most likely die, causing the adds to run wild through the raid unless another tank is on the ball and grabs them.  They also have an attack called Rip Flesh which will deal up to 5,375 damage every two seconds for 20 seconds and can stack up to 100 times.  For all these reasons the adds must be tanked spaced out and burned down very very quickly.  Once they’re all dead, the raid can focus on Auriaya herself.

If you kill all the adds without anyone in your raid dying, the fight will become a lot easier, but no less annoying.  Auriaya herself has a few very annoying abilities, one of which is Horrifying Screech which is an AoE fear that will hit your entire raid.  Having Shadow Protection buffed on the raid will help to reduce the time that everyone is feared and priests should put fear ward down on the tank whenever it’s up to make sure she doesn’t move too much while people are running.  Once fear ends, everyone must collapse back to the original spot as quickly as possible.  After she casts fear, she’ll almost always begin casting Sentinel Blast.  This is a channeled ability that when it’s cast will deal 6000 shadow damage and places a debuff on the raid that increases shadow damage taken by 100% for 5 seconds.  This stacks up to 5 times and is channeled, but is also interruptible, so you’ll want everyone with an interrupt to be spamming it as soon as they return to position or else she will most likely wipe the raid.  This also makes fear warded warriors the ideal main tank for this fight.

Her third ability will be one called Sonic Screech which deals up to 215,000 damage to the raid, split evenly amongst everyone stacked up in front of her.  This is the major, but not only, reason why the raid must be stacked up on the tank in front of her.  Her final ability is called Guardian Swarm where she summons a swarm of small panthers who run around dealing raid wide damage.  The damage is more annoying than anything and usually won’t wipe your raid, however, she the annoying habit of repositioning right after she casts it, forcing your raid to move in order to avoid too little of the raid eating a Sonic Screech and wiping.

After about a minute into the fight, she’ll summon a Feral Defender, which starts out with a 9 stack of buffs called Feral Essence which increases it’s damage done by 50% per stack.  It has two main abilities, one called Feral Rush which deals up 1,690 damage and leaves behind a bleed effect for 6 seconds while interrupting casting and another called Feral Pounce which deals up to 698 damage and stuns the target for 4 seconds.  Once you kill him, the Defender will leave behind a void zone called Seeping Essence which will deal about 9,000 shadow damage every second.  You must either have your tank pull him from the group at 10% and stun him and burn him asap or have the entire raid move as quickly as possible if it pops under the raid.  A few moments after he dies, the Defender will revive himself at the cost of one of his Feral Essence stacks.

So that’s the high and the low of the fight.  I’ll just say that this fight is extremely annoying and possibly one of the worst encounters in the new zone simply for the fact that the RNG has a significant chance to kill one of your tanks on the initial pull which can then very easily wipe your raid.  Not to mention that tanks have a tendency to die when the raid gets feared because all of the healers are running away instead of healing.  Then there’s the constant moving and the fact that she jukes around when she casts a spell.  It all adds up to make this fight super shitty and is often our sloppiest showing in Ulduar thanks to it.  As for healing, the only truly stressful part other than when you’re feared is during the initial pull.  Pop cooldowns and spam heals and hopefully the gods will be kind.

The Loot

10 Man

Elemental Focus Stone – Possibly one of the best dps trinkets in the game at the moment, Shadow should be all over this like stink on a monkey.

Mantle of the Preserver – Malygos drops a better pair, but as far as crit shoulders go, these bad boys aren’t too shabby.  Good for all specs.

Nurturing Touch – This is the second best wand in the game for holy and hit capped shadow priests and the better one isn’t that much better.  Disc priests have better options elsewhere, but shouldn’t turn their nose up at this.

Raiments of the Corrupted – This is a sweet hit bonus robe, especially with the gem slot.  Though I’d prefer less stamina and more int on it.

25 Man

Cowl of the Absolute – There are definitely better options out there for hit bonus head pieces, but shadow should definitely try to grab this if they need the hit.

Ring of the Faithful Servant – Not the best ring for disc, but definitely in the top 3 or 4.  Shadow may want to pick this up as well.

Sandals of the Ancient Keeper – The new BiS for holy priests unless you are desperate for haste (weirdo), in which case you should grab the Arcanic Tramplers from Malygos.  Disc and Shadow may also want to give these some attention.

Next week we’ll get started on the Keepers of Ulduar when we meet with the father of the most annoying rep grind in Wrath, Hodir.

-Dueg

Friday Strats – XT-002 Deconstructor

For a robot, this guy's kind of a baby

So with steam tanks brushed aside, dragons grounded and furnaces extinguished, we come to the final baddie of the first area of Ulduar.  XT’s fight is a fairly straightforward one that will test raider awareness and prove healer’s mettle.  There is occasional, unavoidable raid wide damage mixed in with the random AoE damage centered on individual players.  Everyone will need to be quick on their toes and bring their A-game, but once you understand the fight, he becomes surprisingly easy.  So let’s take a look, shall we?

The Prep

You’ll want to split up your healers evenly on the east and west side of the room then split up the dps as well.  It doesn’t matter how you set them up, it’s more a case of wanting to spread everyone out, but making sure they’re covered by heals.  Once you have them separated, you’ll need to assign one MT for the boss and two OTs in order to pick up adds during the heart phases.  All melee will need to rush up the middle and try to stay a little spread out behind the boss who will have a well sized hit box.  Players on the sides should also make sure to spread out and not clump up, aiming to spread out about 10 yards from each other.  Once everyone is sure of their positions, simply buff up and go.

The Fight

The tank will want to engage him in about the center of the room and bring him close to the stairs, facing him away from the entrance to the room.  The first part of the fight is pretty much a straightforward tank and spank except for the occasional bomb that XT will throw out.  He has two types, which he’ll toss out randomly.  One is a Light Bomb which deals 3,500 damage a second to both the target and anyone in an 8 yard radius around them.  He also has a Gravit bomb, which will explode for around 15,000 damage on the target and in a radius around them as well.  It will also yank anyone in a 20 yard radius to the point of the explosion, interrupting casting and dealing damage if you’re too close.

These bombs are the reason why you have to be quick and alert, making sure not to deal damage to anyone around you.  If you’re ranged, you need to move a little closer to the wall, but don’t take off running too far or you’ll range the healers.  The melee should simply pull off a little ways back down the middle which should be clear.  Again, don’t move too far for light bombs, the range isn’t huge and they only last for a few seconds.  After about a minute and every minute after that, he will also cast Tympanic Tantrum, which is where your healers will really need to shine.  While he’s casting that, everyone in the raid will take 10% damage every second for 8 seconds.  All enemies will be dazed though so you can focus on keeping everyone up, but you have to be quick and use your most powerful heals.  I’ll usually pop Divine Hymn during one of these.

At 75%, 50% and 25% health, he’ll enter his heart phase for exactly 20 seconds, wherein he’ll stop attacking and his mechanical heart will pop out of his chest, allowing you to dps it.  All people should open up and go crazy, dealing as much damage as they can.  However, you do not want to kill the heart (which isn’t a simple task for 25 man anyways), as doing so will cause the fight to enter hard mode, which you must definitely be ready for before attempting.  The way this phase works is that however much percentage of total health you deal to the heart is returned to the boss’ next 25% of health when it’s retracted.  However, you don’t want to deal too much damage or you risk the heart going from one heart phase to the next very quickly.  This is bad because while in heart phase, he begins to summon adds.

He’ll summon three different types of adds: XS-013 Scrapbots, XE-321 Boombots, and XM-024 Pummelers.  The most important ones are the Scrapbots and the Boombots, the Pummelers can simply be picked up and off tanked until the end of the fight with minimal damage to the tank himself.  The Scrapbots will need to be AoE’d down as quickly as possible in order to keep them from reaching the boss.  Every Scrapbot that reaches him will heal him by 60,000 damage and they will not stop running for him, so you have to be on the ball.  The Boombots will explode for 16,000 fire damage when they reach 50% life, so you need to have range blow them up before they get too close to the raid.  They hit NPCs with the explosion as well, so if you can get them to explode in a group of scrapbots, good on ya.

Try to focus dps on him during the heart phase, even having the healers help out where they can, but don’t let Scrapbots get too close to him either.  So make sure to call out when they appear in order to give dps a chance to find them and focus on them.  Same deal with Boombots because you don’t want them to get too close and blow up in the middle of the melee dps.  As for healing, it won’t be too difficult except for the Lightbombed and occasional Gravity Bomb explosions.  However, you’ll need to be ready for raid wide burst damage during tantrum and watch for anyone too close to a Boombot explosion.  This fight shouldn’t stress a decently geared healing team.

The Loot

I’ve decided that I’m simply going to keep the 10 man and 25 man loot analyses even though the strats are for 25 man.  The fights are so similar that you can still get the idea of how to do it from these strats and, at the moment especially, 10 man Ulduar loot is definitely viable for it’s 25 man counterpart.

10 Man

Conductive Cord – This is almost as good as the BiS pre 3.1, Leash of Heedless Magic.  The high stats make this good for all three specs.

Plasma Foil – This is something that is so very rare, a sweet healing dagger.  There are better one hander choices for disc and shadow, but holy might want to take a look at this bad boy coupled with Igniter Rod from Ignis for a very nice 1-2 punch.

25 Man

Mantle of Wavering Calm – This is an awesome shadow choice but somewhat meh for disc and holy unless you are of the haste>crit philosophy (which I am not).  If you are a haste hound though, these are the shoulders for you.

Sandles of Rash Temperament – These are extremely sweet shadow boots.  The hit makes them useless for healers unless you desperately need the upgrade.

Quartz Crystal Wand – This has shadow priest written all over it.  Healers should definitely leave it alone.

Charm of Meticulous Timing – Drops from hard mode, this is almost definitely going to be BiS for Disc and a very attractive upgrade for Shadow.  There is a better spirit necklace out there for holy, but it’s also a hard mode drop, so go for this if you have a chance.

Grasps of Reason – Definite contender if not winner for new BiS, pick these guys up if you ever see them, which may not be too often as this is hard mode loot.

So there you go, next week we’ll move further in and begin the fight for the Antechamber of Ulduar.

-Dueg

Wish I May, Wish I Might, Loot These Purps I Want Tonight

Khaeli of Shadow Weaving posted an excellent guide to people looking to gear out their Discipline Priest post 3.1.   It’s an excellent post and I suggest you look it over even if you’re a holy or shadow priest in order to get a good look at what could be given priority for you to shoot for.  Since it’s mainly geared towards Discipline priests, though, it’s not too much help for the other priestly varieties.  No matter though, for I shall shamelessly steal her idea and make Dueg’s own wish list!

I did get to dive into 10 man Ulduar last week and while there was able to down Flame Leviathan, Razorscale, Ignis, XT-002 Deconstructor, The Assembly of Iron, Kologarn, Hodir and Thorim.  Unfortunately, I did miss out on two fights thanks to having to leave early one night, and we were unable to down Mimiron though we got plenty of attempts on him (that guy is straight up crazy).  However, there was one underlying theme through all these fights.  No loot for Dueg.  It was terrible.

So I’ve been spending the last few days doing some research as it’s been coming in in order to try and figure out where all the good stuff is.  Now this list is going to be incomplete for the moment due to the fact that not all of the bosses have had their loot tables thoroughly explored.  But from what I’ve seen so far, I’ve got a good idea who’s going to be dropping things to make Dueg say squee.  So I present to you, Holy Dueg’s Super Fun Happy List of Ulduar Boss Drops for Holy Priest Fun:

The Siege of Ulduar

Flame Leviathan

Possibly the most fun fight in Wrath at the moment, this one involves hopping on some vehicles and blowing the crap out of a bunch of dwarves and buildings and then taking on a massive tank at the end of it.  Three different flavors of vehicles means people get to have a lot of different jobs.
10  Man
Energy Siphon – I would only recommend picking this up if you are just desperate for mp5, otherwise leave it for the shamans, I hear they like that sort of thing.
Lifespark Visage  - A very nice piece of gear, but the first of what I believe might best be thought of as mage gear in Ulduar.  With the current changes to the mage class, they like spirit, but they don’t need it droves like we do.  Since this item only has half as much spirit as int combined with haste, it might be better served on a mage or warlock’s head.
25 Man
Constructor’s Handwraps - You want these, you want these bad.
Embrace of the Leviathan - A solid upgrade to start the raid with, comparable towards Leash of Heedless Magic from Maly.
Growing Ring of Reclamation – Reclaim this if you get a chance.
Boots of Fiery Resolution - Drops from the hard mode version of this fight, I couldn’t find how many towers had to be up for it.  These are a solid upgrade and currently better than any other pre 3.1 boots.

Razorscale

This fight is best described as “mobile.”  Adds spawn randomly along the outside of this platform you’re fighting on.  You gotta shoot her down with harpoons to land her then dps her to 50% before she’ll stay down permanently.  While she’s in the air she shoots people with fireballs and the blue ones leave a flaming circle on the ground that will kill you pretty quick.  You have to be aware and ready to move instantly.
10 Man
Binding of the Dragon Matriarch  - Definitely grab this if it comes across your plate.
Eye of the Broodmother – This is an extremely sweet little trinket and I would most definitely recommend picking it up for the effect if you don’t already have a similar effect.
25 Man
Shackles of the Odalisque – This is a fantastic little piece of spirit gear right at the front of the zone.
Guiding Star - Comparable to the KT mace, Definitely  go for it if you have a chance, but you might be better served looking for something with crit over haste.

Ignis the Furnace Master

This fight has been buggy as hell since it was first released, but has been hotfixed and should conceivably be all better.  He hits hard but won’t be two-shotting your tanks anymore.  Occasionally he rushes a raid member and drops them into his slag pot, dealing some crazy burst damage to them that if they’re kept alive through will leave a haste buff behind.  Other than that, it’s about controlling their adds and mmaking sure your positioning is on the ball.
10 Man
Igniter Rod – A fantastic little off hand for you, I would recommend grabbing it as soon as you can.
25 Man
Pyrelight Circle – With a mix of haste and crit, this might be a nice item to grab, even without the spirit.  Just don’t give up too much spirit for me.
Scepter of Creation – Highly recommended.  A very solid upgrade.

XT-002 Deconstructor

This is an interesting fight that involves getting him to 75, 50 then 25% health, at which point he spits out his heart which you then have to dps.  You can’t kill the heart or else you enter hard mode and you can’t dps too much or else he’ll re-enter heart phase very quickly and you’ll get overwhelmed by adds that spawn while his heart is exposed.  He also occasionally throws a tantrum that does a LOT of AoE damage, so healers have to be ready for that or else you’ll lose a couple of raiders.  It’s a tight dps race that takes fine tuning.
10 Man
Conductive Cord – Very nice crit belt, grab it if you can.
Plasma Foil – This is a sweet healing dagger, one of the few you’ll ever see.  Pick it up, but it’s not better than some of the old BiS items for main.
25 Man
Mantle of Wavering Calm – With haste over crit, I’m not sold on this.  There are better items out there, but this is a solid upgrade.
Charm of Meticulous Timing –  This is better than the current BiS in the game,but drops from hard mode, so not exactly easy to get.

The Antechamber of Ulduar

The Assembly of Iron

This fight involves three mobs and is also a slightly mobile fight.  These mobs gain buffs based on the order you kill them in and there’s a lot of mobile AoE damage.  Be aware, look for burst damage and you have to dispel any and every debuff you can as quickly as possible.  In fact, we had to assign a dedicated dispeller to the tank or else he would die.
10 Man
Runetouch Handwraps – another one of the mage items I was speaking of earlier.  With the lower spirit bonus, I’d recommend looking for something a little better.
Watchful Eye – I’d prefer crit, but with the gem slot and the spirit, might not be too bad of an upgrade.  More dps oriented I’d say though.
Lady Maye’s Sapphire Ring – This feels more like a healer ring with haste on it to me than the previous one.  A solid upgrade.
Stormtip – A solid main hand upgrade for a healer, but again, my philosophy leans more towards crit bonus.
25 Man
Unblinking Eye – I stare longingly at this for hours.
Rapture – This is a solid staff upgrade choice.  I will be gunning for this hard.
Raiments of the Iron Council –  Feels more dps oriented, but worth a look if you’re still in Naxx gear.
Sapphire Amulet of Renewal –  This is a pretty sweet neck and would be a solid upgrade.  Drops from hard mode.

Kologarn

This guy is a giant stone construct that blocks a bridge.  You have to move when he shoots laser eyes at you that you can sort of see coming or else you’ll take spike damage.  We one shotted this guy and I never got hit with the eye beams, so I was mostly focused on health the whole time.  a tip I can give you is that if you get too close to him, you will definitely fall off the edge, so be aware of that.
10 Man
Spark of Hope – …maaaybe.
25 Man
Handwraps of Plentiful Recovery – A solid haste piece for hand slot.
Ironmender – Another solid haste piece, this one for your off hand frill.

Auriaya

I only got to do a few wipes on this mob.  She pats with a couple of adds who can pounce on raid members and will seriously mess your raid up.  You have to bunch up in front of her because of an AoE ability that needs to split damage among your raid.  She also mass fears, so be ready to run back into position asap.  Shadow prot is a must for this fight.
10 Man
Mantle of the Preserver - This is a very solid upgrade for your shoulder area.
Nurturing Touch – Solid upgrade for the wand slot, also very geometrical.
25 Man
Sandals of the Ancient Keeper – Definitely try to grab these, they are quite delicious.

The Keepers of Ulduar

Freya

Unfortunately I was not present for this fight, but I hear it’s very doable once you understand the mechanics.
10 Man
Valorous Gloves of Sanctification - The new tier gear, this is definitely worth picking up.  Try to get the two piece bonus if you can, but the 4 piece will most likely not be super attractive for a holy priest.
25 Man
Conqueror’s Leggings of Sanctification – This is a fantastic upgrade, of course, I would prefer a crit bonus, but I’d still try to pick these up.
Boots of the Servant – A solid upgrade for your toosies.
The Lifebinder – There are some better options out there, but a good staff if you’re still holding Naxx gear.

Hodir

This is another mobile fight involving chunks of ice falling from the ceiling and keeping adds un frozen and making sure you’re standing in the correct spots.  It’s not too difficult, we were able to two shot him on 10 man, but you do have to be alert and ready to move.
10 Man
Valorous Leggings of Sanctification – The ten man version of the tier leggings.  There’s better loot in the game, pre Ulduar, but this is a good upgrade otherwise.
Icecore Staff – This drops from the hard mode, which is basically means how fast you kill him.  This is a very solid upgrade and you should definitely try to pick this bad boy up.
25 Man
Conqueror’s Robe of Sanctification – I will definitely be shooting for this bad boy.
Staff of Endless Winter –  Possibly the new BiS for staves, this one drops from hard mode in heroic.

Thorim

This was our best fight on 10 man, managing to one shot him with no deaths.  One group runs a gauntlet to get up to Thorim himself  while the other keeps some mobs in the arena busy.  Once they reach Thorim he jumps down into the arena and the entire raid engages him.  I was in the arena group with a pallie and we had a tree go with the gauntlet group.  There’s a lot of AoE damage and tanks have to be quick to pick up adds.
10 man
Valorous Shoulderpads of Sanctification – The tier shoulder piece, this is not a very solid upgrade what with the low spirit and red gem slot.  Feels like it leans more towards a disc priest.
Handwraps of Resonance - This is an excellent upgrade for any holy priest.
Leggings of Unstable Discharge – There are better drops pre 3.1 in the game, but this is a very nice upgrade if you can snag it.
Sif’s Remembrance – I would very much like to have this, please.  Comes from hard mode though.
25 Man
Conqueror’s Cowl of Sanctification – A very, very solid new head piece, go go ninja priest!
Leggings of Lost Love – These are another solid upgrade, try to grab yourself a pair.
Scale of Fates – A nice new SP trinket, the on use proc could definitely come in handy in sticky situations. 

Mimiron

I have done a lot of wiping on this one and let me tell you, he is extremely difficult.  There is a lot of spike damage flying around, a lot of movement is necessary to keep fro getting one shotted, and raid damage flies around like crazy.  It’s a matter of knowing your raid team, being on the ball and making sure you have the right composition of players at your disposal.  I feel Mimiron will become the final door for a lot of guilds before they enter the Descent into Madness area of the zone.
10 Man
The normal mode of Mimiron drops the same ten man gloves token, the same as Freya.
Pulse Baton – An excellent mace upgrade, try to grab this if it drops.
25 Man
Conqueror’s Gloves of Sanctification –  The 25 man version of the tier gloves, I’m not sure why Blizzard is putting so much haste all over the gear here.  I think there are better crit options out there, though these are a strong upgrade no matter what.
Asimov’s Drape  - I would pick this up for the name alone, good thing it’s a pretty awesome item otherwise.

The Descent into Madness

General Vezax

I haven’t seen anything for this fight, sorry.
10 Man
Vestments of Piercing Light - Slightly better than current BiS, definitely get this if you can.
Underworld Mantle – Defintiely try to get you dirty little mitts on this bad boy
25 Man
Mantle of the Unknowing –  This is a fantastic upgrade.
Scepter of Lost Souls –  Even though there’s no spirit on these, it has a boatload of crit and haste and sp mixed in.  Very attractive.
Handwraps of the Vigilant - Drops off of hard mode, these look a contender for new BiS, and I’d be surprised if there was better.

Yogg-Saron

Again, little is known about this fight and I certainly haven’t seen it.
10 Man
He drops the tier set for shoulders, same as earlier. 
Treads of the Dragon Council – There are better items out there, but not too many.
25 Man
Conqueror’s Shoulderpads of Sanctification – Like the 10 man version, I feel this fit more for a disc priests gear, but still extremely good for holy priests.
Cowl of Dark Whispers – I am in love.
Shawl of Haunted Memories – This cape is something you will never want to let go.
Vanquished Clutches of Yogg-Saron - This is a sweet sweet load of crit, but I don’t see the proc being too useful for a healer class.

Celestial Planetarium

Algalon the Observer

lol

-Dueg

Parity Problems, A Priest’s Lament

Pictured: A run of the mill healing priest

So lately there’s been some mumbling and grumbling going on concerning the new tier 8 healing priest set.  The problem is not the look of it (though some people aren’t too happy about the rogue look), but more to do with the new bonuses we get from having multiple pieces.  I’ll review them real quick:

2P Bonus — Increases the critical heal chance of your Prayer of Healing by 10%.

4P Bonus — Casting Power Word: Shield also grants you 250 spell power for 5 sec.

Both of these are somewhat “meh” to begin with, but when viewed through the eyes of holy spec, even more so.  The PoH bonus is weak because as a holy priest, you’re more likely to use CoH with PoH being a back up.  Even with the changes to Serendipity, this will only give an extra incentive to cast PoH if you have it glyphed and even then I’d choose my spots to cast it carefully.  This is more of a “shrug” sort of bonus for both specs, something that’s nice to have, but you wouldn’t exactly miss it if it was gone.

However, it’s the 4 piece bonus that really highlights one of the issues a lot of priests are beginning to have concerning Blizzard’s recent major changes to the priest class.  The problem here is that this tier bonus is obviously aimed at Discipline spec priests.  Even though it’s kind of lame (I mean, c’mon, 5 seconds, Blizzard?  That’s like kissing your cousin), it’s something a disc priest wouldn’t mind having in their arsenal for the occasional boost.  However, as almost every holy spec priest I’ve read over the last few days has pointed out, if you’re running with a disc priest in your raid, you’re probably not casting power word: shield because you don’t want to cut part of what makes a disc priest so damn discy.

But here’s the problem: The stats on the gear are very very nice for holy spec.  Not BiS (tier armor almost never is) but damn close in all cases and something that anyone wearing only Naxx gear will jump at the chance to pick up.  However, the stats are only mildly interesting for disc priests, who are not looking to stack the spirit heavy pieces that are part of the tier 8 armor set.  This essentially means that both specs have a reason to find these attractive and a reason to turn their nose up at them.

Look, Blizz… can I call you Blizz?  Blizz, you’ve done a fantastic job turning the discipline priest into a true PvE healing class.  You did such a good job, in fact, that you’ve actually made it into a wholly different type of healer, pretty much a completely different class.  The style, mindset, major spells, important stats, hell, even the importance of secondary stats are completely different than that of a holy healer.  They cast different heals at different times, basing their job performance on what buffs are up when and how much damage they help the tank avoid.  They chortle condescendingly when we suggest spirit is fantastic and reach for that extra helping of int instead, and that’s actually pretty awesome.  It’s also your fault, Blizz.

You created a system that rewards the disc priest by how much mana they have and how fast they can cast their spells, turning them into haste hungry int mutants terrorizing the countryside.  Though you’re set to change their major form of mana regen with the rapture nerf, it’s still based on a percentage of total mana, meaning any smart disc priest will forgo spirit in favor of extra int and straight mp5 where they can get it.

Holy priests on the other hand love them some spirit.  When you’re pushing 1,000 spirit (and top geared priests will), you don’t really give a crap about mp5 because you don’t need to.  You have enough mana regen that your i5sr amount should be equivalent to someone stacking mp5 instead of spirit.  The only difference is that your spirit also adds a straight sp bonus, making it one hella sexy stats for us.  I’m talking stilettos here, people.

So we come to the crux of my argument: Why are you trying to please both sides, Blizz?  Why do you have to make a single healing set for the priest class?  I understand that we’re the only class that has two specific healing specs, but you’ve changed them to the point where they might as well be a dps and healing spec because they’re so wildly different.  Classes with three distinct specs such as shamans and paladins get three distinct tier sets, but we’re forced to put up with tier bonuses optimal for disc and disc is forced to put up with stats optimal for holy.

Back in BC this argument would not have been really necessary because it could be argued that the PvP set was the disc set.  But with a switch in priorities for the spec and the rise of Blizz’s “bring the player, not the class” philosophy, that idea’s gone right out the window.  There are also changes in the mix to make disc into an even more attractive raiding class which will ensure more than a few holy priests picking it up as a secondary spec instead of dps.  Because of this, you’re going to see a lot of priests passing up tier gear in favor of items that don’t have spirit slathered all over them.  Holy priests will still take them, but the idea of losing the tier bonus won’t really give them pause.  This idea of forcing the needs of two fundamentally different specs into a single set devalues the gear for both specs.

Let me close with this.  Blizzard, you have turned the priest into three different classes, two of which are healing classes.  However, they’re not the same type of healing classes.  They’re like Resto Shamans and Druids when it comes to what they want in stats.  They do a lot of the same things and have the same end result, but what they value when they’re looking for gear is wildly different.  You wouldn’t expect them to seek out the same type of gear stats-wise, yet you seem to think that priests will quietly do just that because we’re united under a common class name.  You divided us, and we’re happy for it, but the time has come to finish the job.  Acknowledge that we’re just too different to be happy with the same gear for both specs.  Otherwise, you probably won’t get much healing in the next Naxx run.

-Dueg

For to Wear – A Guide to Pre-Heroic Gear

So recently my good friend Lyrandre hit 80 and some malcontent absconded with my friend Anea‘s boots (honestly, hell in a hand basket).  Both of these got me thinking about that most precious of flames for us moths of WoW: Gear.  I had been wanting to write a gear guide for a while, so I figured I’d start small and try to help everyone find gear you can wear when getting ready to do your first heroics.

Now let me preface this by saying I never looked at “target numbers” for your stats, though they do have their place.  I was lucky in that I was able to regularly get PuGs and my MO for leveling was PuG a dungeon till I got all the blues out of it I wanted, then finish the level with quests, then move to the next dungeon on the suggested levels list.  When I was finally ready to enter heroics, I had a full set of Northrend dungeon blues except for one trinket, so I felt confident without looking at my target numbers.  So in this guide I’ll be showing you the items I personally targeted and the ones I think would be good for shadow and disc as well.  So let’s get this show on the road and we’ll start with…

Head

Cowl of the Vindictive Captain / Volkhan’s Hood – These pieces are close enough in stats that they are pretty much interchangeable.  They are good pieces of haste gear, due to a lack of higher level spirit headpieces before heroics, all specs might want to shoot for them.  The cowl is a quest reward within Utgarde Pinnacle and the hood drops from Volkhan in Halls of Lightning.
Hat of Wintry Doom - This is gonna be a best in slot for shadow spec until you start raiding, so definitely try to pick one up.  It’s a tailored item, so shouldn’t be too difficult to find.
Static Cowl - This is an excellent crit item for all specs, so you should decide if you prefer haste or crit and plan accordingly.  This item drops from Sjonnir the Ironshaper in Halls of Stone.

Chest

Bauble-Woven Gown - Possibly your easiest get, this one is a quest reward from Utgarde Pinnacle.  The quest giver spawns right when you zone in and all you have to do is pick up a bunch of little items as you run through the zone.  You can turn it in right by the exit on your way out after defeating the King.  These are an attractive entry level heroic robe for any spec.
Raiments of the Titans - The gem slot makes these robes slightly more attractive than the Bauble-Woven Gown.  Simply choose what stat you feel is more crucial to your spec and insert the proper gem.  Drops off Loken in Halls of Lightning.
Robes of Lightning - The end reward of a very long and lore heavy questline that will get you started with the dreaded Hodir rep grind, these robes are a good item for shadow priests looking to get that hit cap.  You have to defeat Loken in order to get them.
Vestments of the Scholar - I highly recommend these robes for discipline and shadow priests.  Holy priests may want to pick them up in order to up their crit, but balance it with how much spirit you would lose and make sure it’s really worth it first.  Drops from chest at the end of Occulus.
Robes of Refrained Celebration - These are good for entering level 80 dungeons, sketchy for heroics.  I consider these “if all else fails” robes.

Shoulder

Mantle of Electrical Charges / Silken Amice of the Ymirjar - These items are exactly the same… way to go, Blizzard.  Excellent for all specs, although disc priests may want to look elsewhere in order to shore up other stats.  The mantle drops from General Bjarngrim in Halls of Lightning, and the Amice from Skadi the Ruthless in Utgarde Pinnacle.
Mantle of the Intrepid Explorer - Good for holy and especially for shadow, these shoulders are are a great way to up secondary stats without sacrificing spirit.  Reward from a quest in Halls of Stone, picked up after you kill you the final boss.
Lightning Infused Mantle - A quest reward for defeating one of the bosses in Halls of Lightning, this item is another “if all else fails” item.
Mantle of the Flesh Giant - Quest reward from a long chain in Icecrown, these bad boys are excellent for a disc or shadow priest looking to up their haste.  Holy priests should look elsewhere.

Cloaks

Cape of Seething Steam / Dark Soldier Cape – Another case of identical items, these are excellent pieces of hit gear for shadow priest but healers should probably pass this up.  Seething steam drops from Volkhan in Halls of Lightning and the Dark Soldier is a rep purchase from the Knights of the Ebon Blade.
Shroud of Dedicated Research - Pick this up if you’re looking to up your haste any, but I would leave this more for shadow spec.  This is a rep purchase from the Kirin Tor.
Shroud of Resurrection - I highly recommend this one for healing priests although a little mp5 never hurt dps either.  The int and sta are identical to Shroud of dedicated Research, so it really comes down to if you value mp5 or haste.  Drops from Gortok Palehoof in Utgarde Pinnacle.

Wrist

Ancestral Sinew Wristguards - These are the best wrists you can get without running heroics.  Good for any spec and very flexible with the gem slot.  Requires revered rep with the Wyrmrest Accord.
Demonic Fabric Bands - These are your best bet for holy spec, shadow and disc may want to weigh other options.  Drops from the chest at the end of Culling of Stratholme.
Verdisa’s Cuffs of Dreaming - These are a better option for shadow or discipline as the gem slot will allow you to properly customize them for you.  Holy priests shouldn’t be afraid to pick these up either.  Drops from Drakos the Interrogator in Occulus.
Rune Giant Bindings - If all else fails, these guys drop from random mobs in Halls of Stone and are BoE so you might be able to grab them for cheap from the AH.

Hands

Sterile Flesh-Handling Gloves - These bad boys are another heroic level item that can be picked up without doing heroics, making them excellent for all specs.  Requires revered rep with Knights of the Ebon Blade.
Gloves of the Azure-Lord - A decent pair of gloves for holy, better for disc or shadow though due to low spirit levels.  Drops from Varos Cloudstrider in the Oculus.
Gloves of the Time Guardian - These are a better option for holy while disc and shadow should shoot for the previous gloves.  Quest reward from within Culling of Stratholme.
Light Blessed Mittens - Only very slightly better than the Time Guardian gloves, I’d only recommend getting these if you can pick them up for cheap or are a tailor yourself (hint: that means they’re tailored).
Muddied Crimson Gloves - Another alternative to Gloves of the Time Guardian, all three of these are pretty much interchangeable options.  These required revered rep with the Wolvars.
Thundercloud Grasps - These are definitely the best item a disc priest can find without grinding out the wyrmrest rep.  Drops from Ionar in Halls of Lightning.

Waist

Deep Frozen Cord - Best item for a disc priest or any other priest looking to up their crit bonus.  It’s tailored, so shouldn’t be too hard to find.
Fishy Cinch - This is going to be the best option for a holy priest with such a high spirit count on it.  Requires revered rep with Oracles.
Sash of the Wizened Wyrm - Excellent for a shadow priest looking for more hit, otherwise I’d recommend the Deep Frozen Cord for you.  Requires honored rep with the Wyrmrest Accord.

Legs

Frostmoon Pants - Your best option for holy priests, other specs may want something with a higher int to spirit ratio.  This item is tailored.
Ring-Lord’s Leggings - With a higher int count, this is better served for disc or shadow priests due to low levels of non spirit pants.  These are a random drop from the Oculus.
Leggings of Burning Gleam - These are good for any spec until you can pick up a more specific item for yourself.  Drops off Krystallus in Halls of Stone.

Feet

Aurora Slippers - Best selection for holy spec with the extra spirit, also a tailored item so keep an eye out for one.
Silky Iceshard Boots - I really don’t recommend these boots unless you are seriously hurting for haste and crit.  These strike me as more for PvP.  They’re a tailored item.
The Conjurer’s Slippers - Best item for a disc priest or a shadow priest looking for the extra haste, these drop off of Mage-Lord Urom in the Oculus.
Fur-Lined Moccasins - An ok item till you can pick up Aurora Slippers, these are easier to get as a reward from a quest to kill a Gundrak boss.  Disc should definitely pass these up.
The Darkspear’s Footpads - A decent holdover, disc or shadow should look into these if they need a nice blue.  These are a quest reward from a mob int he middle of Icecrown.

Maces

Gavel of the Brewing Storms - Best pre-heroic mace you can pick up, the crit and haste coupled with high sp makes this a must have for any mace enthusiast.  Requires revered rep with Wyrmrest Accord.
Beguiling Scepter - A decent mace, the crit especially makes Dueg smile, any spec should shoot for this.  Drops from chest at the end of Culling of Stratholme.
Totemic Purification Rod - This mace is geared more for haste lovers, but really any spec can use it.  Requires revered rep with the Kalu’ak.

Daggers

Flameheart Spell Scalpel - The only decent dagger for heroics, this is more for shadow priests obviously with the hit.  Requires revered rep with the Kirin Tor.

Staves

Malygos’ Favor - If you are a holy priest in need of spirit, pick this bad boy up and hold on for dear life.  Drops from the chest at the end of Oculus.
Sempiternal Staff - Better suited for disc or shadow priests, with the extra crit bonus, holy priests not hurting for spirit may want to take a look at this staff.  Drops from Chrono-Lord Epoch in the Culling of Stratholme.

Wands

Ancient Measuring Rod - This is a good wand for shadow, but also not a bad pick up for disc.  Though the hit is useless, this wand has the highest int of any pre heroic wand.  This drops from Loken in Halls of Lightning.
Brazier Igniter - This is a holy priests’s best friend.  Pick it up from Svala Sorrowgrave in Utgarde Pinnacle.
Purifying Torch / Shinygem Rod - These wands are basically a choice between wanting crit or wanting mp5.  I don’t recommend either, but if you desperately need to up either of those categories, these are good options.  The torch requires revered rep with the Argent Crusade and the rod requires revered rep with the Oracles.

Off Hand Frills

Prison Manifest - A random drop in Heroic Violet Hold, these items are BoE so you might be able to pick them up in the AH.  An excellent off hand for anyone starting heroics.
Seal of Valgarde - Nice haste item for a disc or shadow, holy might want to look for something with spirit.  Drops from Gortok Palehoof in Utgarde Pinnacle.
Tome of Salramm - With crit and spirit, holy and shadow priests should be all over this.  Good for disc priests who need crit as well.  Drops from Salramm the Fleshcrafter in Culling of Stratholme.
The Witching Grimiore / Bonecaster’s Endgame - These items are both from the same quest in Icecrown and are basically a “healer” and “dps” version of each other.  A holy priest will obviously look at the grimiore first and the disc vice versa, shadow will most likely be interested in the endgame.

Amulets

Dragon Prow Amulet - Random drop from heroic Utgarde Keep, check the AH to pick this up.  Best for holy priests, but a good item for anyone entering heroics.
Chaotic Spiral Amulet - This is a fantastic holy or shadow priest, but disc priests shouldn’t be afraid to pick it up.  Drops from Loken in Halls of Lightning.
Timeless Beads of Eternos - Comparable to the chaotic spiral amulet, you can definitely grab this one as an alternative.  Drops from Drakos the Interrogator in Oculus.
Chain of Fiery Orbs - Definitely one of the better disc amulets till you reach heroics, this one comes from the Maiden of Grief in Halls of Stone.

Rings

Enchanted Wire Stitching - This is a great overall ring and one of the best you’ll find before entering heroics.  Pick it up from Meathook in Culling of Stratholme.
Signet of Ranulf - Best pre heroic disc ring, this is also a nice compliment to any shadow or holy priest’s gear set.  Drops from King Ymiron in Utgarde Pinnacle.
Ring of Northern Tears / Windfire Band – These are jewelcrafted rings and are great for shoring up weak spots in your stats.  Search for them in AH or ask a friend if you need a little oomph.
Ringlet of Repose - This is a good mid level ring for holy specs to start heroics with, but I would try to balance it with at least one higher level item.  Drops from Maiden of Grief in Halls of Stone.
Arcane Focal Signet - This is better for discs, same as previous though, shouldn’t be your better ring.  Drops from Moorabi in Gundrak.

Trinkets

Soul Preserver - This is the best healing trinket in the game pre heroics and can even serve you well in Naxx.  Drops from chest at the end if Culling of Stratholme.
Tome of Arcane Phenomenon - An excellent dose of straight sp for a trinket, this is very nice for someone looking to up their number in that department.  Drops from chest at the end of Oculus.
Cannoneer’s Fuselighter / Cannoneer’s Morale - Out of these two I would recommend the Cannoneer’s Fuelighter, but some people might really be jonesin for the mp5, in which case you can’t go wrong with the morale.  Both items are from the same quest in Icecrown.

Now this list is not exhaustive, it’s basically all the easier to obtain blues from the upper dungeons I could find.  I didn’t include BoE creations obviously.  I will mention though that tailoring has two sets that make excellent alternatives that you can use to patch holes in your gear.  One is a PvP set called Frostsavage Gear which has resilience, but it also has decent doses of crit on each item and the other is a PvE haste set called Black Duskweave Gear.  Neither set has spirit, so they’re better for disc priests, but will do in a pinch.  I also welcome any suggestions in the comments section and keep in mind that I did not include epics on this list as I’ll be covering that in a later post.

-Dueg

Friday Strats – Heigan the Unclean

"Dance, you disco ducks, dance!"

Ah yes, Heigan the Unclean.  One of the more famous fights in the dungeon, this joker is famous for forcing raiders to do “the dance” as it were.  One of the easier fights in the dungeon, this guys should be absolutely no problem for a halfway competent raider who has decent gear and can adequately judge distance.  So pop on your dancing shoes, gentle jerkwads, cause it’s time to show your raid what you got.

The Prep

When you enter the room, you can squeeze over to the corner directly to the right of the door without pulling aggro.  Heigan will be standing on a platform in the middle of the Northeastern wall.  Make sure to rotate shamans one to a group as it will help enormously later on if they can drop a disease cleansing totem.  Other than that, there’s not much prep, simply buff up and pull.

The Fight

When Heigan is first pulled, all ranged DPS and healers should immediately run up onto his platform.  Heigan has an ability called Spell Disruption which has a 30 yard range and will increase casting time by 300%.  Your tank should try to keep Heigan far enough away that casters aren’t affected by this ability, but close enough that he or she doesn’t range the raid.  You can’t always rely on this however, so learn to love your instant spells in this case.

To the right here you can see a handy dandy chart showing the various safe spots your tank can stand while meleeing Heigan.  After eight to ten seconds of standing in the first spot (which is where your tank should pull to), he’ll cause an eruption in all other parts of the room except the platform.  The eruption ability deals up to 7,350 nature damage to anyone on the very edge and quickly escalates in damage the farther into the explosion you are.  Standing more than a yard in will pretty much guarantee a one shot. 

After the first explosion, the tank must pull Heigan to the next spot.  Make sure that the tank gives enough space for the melee dps to be able to stand out of the next explosion.  The order of the explosions will be 1 – 2 – 3 - 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 – 2, etc, etc.  Heigan has a huge reach (described as “monkey arms” in my guild) so make sure the tank understands that he has to move a fair amount to get Heigan to move.  Heigan will also occasionally randomly cast Decrepit Fever on random targets every three seconds.  This ability deals 3,000 nature damage and reduces hp of all surrounding players by 50%, so remove these as quickly as possible.  This phase is usually referred to as the slow dance.

After 90 seconds of the slow dance, Heigan will teleport to the platform and begin the fast dance portion of the fight.  This is the part that will usually make or break the raid.  All the ranged need to vacate the platform quickly because Heigan will have an AoE Plague Cloud ability up while he’s up there.  This deals 7,500 nature damage every second to anyone on the platform, making it impossible to stand near him without dying. 

A few seconds after teleporting, the dance will begin again with 1 being the first safe zone.  The entire raid will have to dance in the same order as the melee and tank did before, except this time there will only be one second between eruptions, meaning you have to be much quicker.  A safe bet is to run and stop before the next explosion, if you’re not in the middle try running a little farther or a little less depending on how close or far you are from the next lava burst.  You can’t just run straight through though as doing so will result in you overshooting the safe zone and getting smacked. 

Heigan is still targetable and able to take damage during this phase so ranged dps might be able to squeeze off a spell or two while running, but the main idea is to keep yourself alive, so don’t waste too much time trying to dps.  After 45 seconds, Heigan will run back into the raid and begin the slow dance phase all over again.  Wash, rinse, repeat.

As I said, healing is going to be all about your instant cast ability.  Though there is a sweet spot where your tank can stand that you’re still in range, but outside of Heigan’s Spell Disruption ability, you can’t count on him to find that spot every time.  You can try adjusting where you stand on the platform, but be prepared to throw out a PoM or CoH if it’s needed.  During the dance phase, you will most likely not have enough time to cast a healing spell, so try to pop CoH every time it’s up, cast renews while running and even use Holy Nova if a group heal is called for.

The big issue with this fight, of course, is the dance portion.  The most annoying part is that if your guild is good at this fight and you are not, you won’t get more than one chance a week to practice it.  Don’t get discouraged though, once you get the timing down, the fight is really a breeze.  Heigan himself is such a weak boss that just a single tank and healer can probably beat him if they really tried.

The Loot

Heigan’s Putrid Vestments - A very very nice dps robe, this bad boy will most likely last you till you can pick up a BiS item.  Holy and Disc should leave this for their shadow brothers unless no one needs it and they want an off spec item.

Serene Echos - These boots will definitely draw the interest of a Disc or Shadow priest and should be rolled on.  Holy should ignore these in favor of more spirit heavy items, but don’t be afraid to pick them up in order to replace a dungeon blue or green.

So there ya go, that’s Heigan.  A final note: As my good friend Mella pointed out last week, I haven’t exactly been completely honest with the loot portion of my posts.  There are some items of loot that have a chance to drop from almost every boss in the zone and some that drop from a select few bosses.  I’m planning a post to cover those specific loot drops sometime in the future, maybe as a bonus weekend post or something.  Come on back next week when we’ll finish up Plague Wing by putting down Loatheb.

-Dueg

Friday Strats – Noth the Plaguebringer

Ah, back into Naxx 25 for a leisurely stroll down Plague Wing.  Considered the second easiest wing of Naxxramas, Plague Wing should be a breeze for most guilds who are even halfway geared for Naxx.  So I will now introduce you to what is commonly thought to be the easiest boss in the end game, Noth the Plaguebringer.

The Sauce is Weak with this One

The Prep

When you first enter the room, you’ll see Noth wandering aimlessly in the middle looking slightly confused.  Everyone should sneak into the corner just to the right of the door and buff up. When ready to pull, make sure everyone runs out of the corner and stays grouped in the middle.  Random mobs will spawn, so if you’re squishie, make sure you have the safety of the herd around you (Discovery channel ftw).  The main thing to remember is don’t stand near the piles of bones.

The Fight

Now Noth hits relatively lightly and healingthe main tank should not be an issue.  The main problem with Noth’s fight is that he will periodically blink away from the tank and melee dps.  When he does this it will be a complete aggro wipe, so the MT will need a few seconds to re-establish aggro. 

He will also cast Cripple on all those standing in the area he blinked from.  Cripple slows movement speed by 50%, attack speed by 100% and lowers strength by half.  It is very important that this is removed from the tank as quickly as possible so he can get threat back, but all melee dps should have this removed before it runs it’s full time.

He will also randomly cast Curse of the Plaguebringer on 10 raid members.  This absolutely must be decursed within 10 seconds or else the target and all allies within 30 yards will be afflicted with Wrath of the Plaguebringer.  Wrath will deal up to 6,450 shadow damage immediately and then a further 3,850 every two seconds for ten seconds after that.  23,000+ damage over ten seconds will most definitely tax your healers, especially if the raid member drops it in a big group of allies.  Wrath of the Plaguebringer is Noth’s one ability that can very very easily wipe your whole raid, so I can’t stress how important it is for your decursers to be on the ball with this one.

Every thirty seconds he will summon a Plagued Warrior Skeleton from a bone pile.  They can cleave and will quite gladly eat your healers and ranged DPS so have a tank prepared to pick them up.  This is also why it’s good for casters to group up in the middle away from the bone piles as they can get torn up pretty quick if the tank is slow for any reason.

At 1:50 into the fight, Noth will teleport away from the raid to a balcony, become invulnerable and begin to summon waves of skeletons.  The ones to worry about during the first teleport phase are Plagued Champions who have an AoE shock ability that deals up to 3,500 shadow damage on all raid members within 25 yards that they cast quite often.  During the second and third teleport phase, Noth will also summon Plagued Guardians, who also have an AoE ability, but one that deals 6,000 arcane damage.  If your raid can down Noth before the second teleport phase (an easy task for a good raid group) then you won’t see the Plagued Guardians.  After 1:10 of summoning Noth will once more become vulnerable and teleport into the raid.  This resets his teleport timer.

If Noth is not dead by the third teleport phase, he will Enrage when he returns and most likely tear your raid apart, so don’t dawdle.  Other than that, he’s cake.  Make sure tanks stay alert and pick up adds and keep your eyes peeled for raid healing as random adds mean most clothies will take at least a swipe or two.  The key is that magic effects and curses MUST be dispelled as quickly as possible.  It can spell doom rather quickly and any raid who can’t down Noth will have the whole server cracking wise about their mommas very quickly.  Only people with promiscuous mothers fail at Noth, it’s a fact, look it up.

The Loot

Bands of Impurity - A very nice wrist slot item, these bad boys will do quite nicely until you pick up the best in slot ones from Sartharion.  More geared for Holy and Shadow, Disc should pick these up only if they’re replacing a blue or green.

Gloves of the Fallen Wizard - Excellent piece of Shadow gear, definitely pick it up if you’re of the dark side.  Disc and Holy should leave it for deeps or maybe pick it up for off spec if no mains want it.

Robes of Mutation - An awesome entry level robe, this one will put a smile on any spirit loving priest until you can pick up your tier robe.  Disc, you know the drill.

An easy fight, Noth should most definitely not be a problem for a raid that is decently geared even if that gear is mostly dungeon blues and greens.  If your guild is banging it’s head against this wall, you might want to evaluate the members and make sure everyone is doing their part.  Join me next week when we’ll be putting on our dancing shoes, dropping that disco ball, and having a little do-si-do with Heigan the Unclean.

-Dueg

Friday Strats – Malygos the Spellweaver

Ah yes, Friday.  The air’s a little cleaner, tastes are a little sweeter and strats are a little… uh, stratier.  So this Friday we’re going to take a look at… what was that?  No, I didn’t say we were starting Plague wing today, that’s next week.  Don’t believe me?  Go ahead and look back to last week here.  Uh huh, feel a little foolish now, don’t you?  I most certainly didn’t go back and edit it!  Now shush, for the time has come to look upon this week’s baddie: Malygos the Spellweaver. 

"Hi, I kind of look like a pony"

The Prep

Malygos is located in the Eye of Eternity which is the uppermost portal in the center of the Nexus.  When you initially enter, you’ll be standing on a large circular platform in the middle open space with Malygos flying slowly around you.  There’s no other mobs in the zone and located in the center of the platform is a large orb.  In order to summon Malygos to the platform, someone with a Key to the Focusing Iris has to activate the orb.  You can obtain the key by looting it from Sapphiron and then speaking to Alexstraza after beginning the quest line.  The heroic version of the key will open the normal version, but not the other way around, so make sure someone in your party has the appropriate key before you begin.  Other than that, simply buff and pull, making sure everyone except the main tank is on the opposite side of the platform before Malygos lands.

The Fight

When Malygos lands you should have your tank already in position on Malygos’ incoming side of the platform.  Don’t worry about positioning behind Malygos because unlike other dragons, he does not have a tail swipe.  The tank needs to quickly pull aggro so that Malygos does not get a breath off on anyone standing in the raid party though.  His breath will land for up to 32,000 arcane damage in a 40 yard cone in front of him and leave a 5s debuff on anyone hit by the breath.  When the debuff expires, that person will deal  21,000 arcane damage to everyone surrounding them, potentially wiping your raid.  In theory, only the tank should ever be hit by the breath, therefore no one should be hit by the debuff.

Occasionally Malygos will turn around and throw arcane missiles at the raid, striking random members for up to 10,500 damage each.  The fact that he turns and faces the raid momentarily can startle some people, but as long as he turns right back around again, there shouldn’t be a problem.  Occasionally Malygos will summon sparks from the void surrounding you that will slowly fly towards him, giving him a 50% bonus to all damage.  The sparks can be killed though and once they are, they leave a patch of electricity on the ground that gives anyone standing in it the same 50% bonus to damage buff.  You can stack multiple sparks in the same location, increasing the buff by 50% each time.  A Death Knight using his grip spell works wonder for this.

Occasionally Malygos will fly up in the air and throw everyone around with his vortex ability.  While you’re flying, everyone takes 2,000 every second for ten seconds and then dropping them on the ground for a further 10% of their total health which is enough to kill most clothies and wipe your raid.  Instant spells are still castable while in the vortex.  The sparks will stop moving while you’re flying around, but resume once you land, so make sure people position themselves correctly coming out of the vortex to avoid Malygos eating a spark or someone in the raid taking a breath shot.

Malygos has a very slow melee attack that though powerful, won’t really burn your tank up.  However, the breath is the real problem, so make sure your tank is topped off as much as possible to prevent a quick and untimely death.  Raid healers are going have their hands full with all the random damage taken, but it’s all very manageable.  During vortex, cast any and all instant heals when they’re available to you and use HoT’s liberally to help soften the damage.  Vortex can easily kill your cloth wearers and most of the raid will need big heals as soon as they land, so be prepared for that.

Once he’s at 50% health, he’ll fly up into the air and begin phase 2 of the encounter.  He will still be targetable for a few seconds while transitioning so DPS should continue to burn him while healers regenerate mana.  Eventually he summons Nexus Lords and Scions of Eternity and phase 2 will truly begin.  The Nexus Lords will float down on discs and need to be tanked normally while the Scions of Eternity will float out of range and start barraging the raid party with spells.  The lords can haste themselves and hit their targets with an arcane shack that deals up to 15,800 damage while the Scions will randomly shoot raid members for up to 19,000 damage.  When one of either mobs die, they drop the disc they’re on which can then be picked up by dps to fly up and attack the scions.  Once they leave the platform, dps is no longer affected by damage received by the raid on the platform.

Occasionally Malygos will throw a Power Overload on the plaform, knocking anyone who gets hit by it back aand creating a large purple dome that will slowly shrink.  It is very important for whoever is left on the platform to always be standing in one of these as they reduce arcane damage taken by 50%.  Without this buff your healers will quickly become overtaxed and the raid will wipe.  Move quickly to any new domes that form and don’t get caught outside when Malygos casts Deep Breath.  He hits everyone on the platform for 5,000 damage per second for five seconds with this ability so it is absolutely important everyone be within the dome for this.  He will also occasionally throw arcane missiles, striking random targets for up to 10,500 each.  Once all the Lords and Scions are dead phase 2 will end.

During phase 2 the raid will be taking a lot of heavy and random damage, so healers need to be aware of when and where to pop their heals.  Keep an eye on the tanks as well as they will still be taking regular damage from mobs as well as the occasional random damage ability.  Try to top off as many people as you can before they run to a new dome, because they might take spike damage during the run from old to new.

At the start of phase 3 Malygos will shatter the platform and discs everyone is standing on, dropping them onto red dragon mounts waiting for the player.  You will gain a vehicle UI with 6 new abilities.  The 1 key will be Flame Strike which deals up to 1,000 fire damage.  Costs 10 energy and awards 1 combo point.  2 will be a finishing move called Engulf in Flames which deals 1,500 fire damage every 3 seconds for every combo point and can lasts up to 22 seconds at full strength.  Costs 50 energy and will wipe all combo points.  3 is Revivify, a HoT that lasts 10 seconds and heals 500 damage per second.  Costs 10 energy and awards 1 combo point.  Note that if you switch targets and cast Reviviy on a new drake, you lose all previous combo points.  4 is Life Burst, a huge AoE heal that increases the caster’s healing by 50% for a length of time depending on the number of combo points at casting.  Heals up to 15k to all surrounding allies at full strength, costs 50 energy and will wipe all combo pints.  5 is Flame Shield, which casts a shield that reduces all incoming damage by 80% for up to 6 seconds at full combo point strength.  Costs 25 energy and wipes all combo points.  6 is Blazing Speed, increasing movement by up to 500% for 8 seconds.  No energy or combo point cost, but has a 30 second cooldown.

During this phase, Malygos has three abilities: Arcane Pulse, which is an AoE effect radiating 30 yards out from Malygos himself.  Will quickly tear up anyone standing too close to him, so be wary of how close you are, but is extremely easy to avoid.  Static Field will occasionally target a random drake and hit them with a 30 yard AoE ability.  This is your classic “Don’t stand in the fire” ability so make sure everyone moves out of the field or your raid will quickly wipe.  Finally you have Surge of Power, which will randomly target three members of the raid and deal roughly 12,000 damage every half second for 3 seconds and will quickly kill anyone who doesn’t have flame shield active for at least part of the ability.

The trick in this phase is to manage your combo points so that you always have at least two or three and 25 energy available if you get hit with the Surge of Power.  It can be tricky, but the main thing is not to just spam your combo abilities and then hit your finishing move.  Do it deliberately in order to give energy a chance to regenerate between casts.  Some people recommend going to full combo and some think it’s easier to just do two or three to make sure you’re not wasting all your energy.  Find what works best for you and stick with it, the main idea here is to stay alive and put as many dots on Malygos as possible.  They will stack infinitely, so keep them coming.  At this point you can really feel the dps race aspect of the fight bearing down on you.

You really only need three healers during this phase and it doesn’t matter who does it, so even as a healer, be prepared to go dps mode in this phase.  Healers should be targeting themselves and casting Revivify to full combo points then hitting their AoE heals in order to keep the entire raid healed up as much as possible.  If someone else needs a heal desperately, you can switch to them to Revivify, but make sure to build your combo points and cast Life Burst before switching to a new target.  Also keep in mind that you must target drakes and individual players themselves will not be targetable during this phase.  If you’re having trouble staying with the group when you strafe out of the static field, find a player who’s good at it and put them on follow for this phase.  Again the idea is to stay alive as long as possible, so the people who are best at staying alive to the end of the fight should be made the healers.

This fight is a DPS race because Malygos has a 10 minutes timer before he hits frenzy.  Our guild has gotten to the point where we’ve been able to one shot him two weeks running, but we’re still taking till about 9:45, which is cutting it extremely close.  If you hit the frenzy timer, keep going because if there’s a substantial portion of your raid up, you might have up to 30 seconds or so before he can wipe everyone.  Once Malygos is at 0 life, Alexstraza will appear and strike him down, spawning a small chest where you can grab the loot and your badges.  She also summons a separate item called the heart of magic that loots the item necessary to complete the quest begun by the looting the key from Saph.

The Loot

Malygos drops some insanely awesome caster gear, so this section should make a lot of you salivate.

Leggings of the Wanton Spellcaster - Extremely attractive for shadow spec if not best in slot, these pants will be hotly contested.  Healing priests should leave them for the deeps peeps unless they’re trying to build an off set and even then I wouldn’t take them from someone who will use regularly.

Mantle of Dissemination – Best in slot for holy and shadow priests who are hit capped, be prepared for some competition from other spirit healers and deeps for these shoulders.  Disc priests will most likely be better suited looking for something that spends more of it’s item budget on something other than spirit.

Hood of Rationality- Another best in slot for holy and hit capped shadow and anyone else who loves the spirit stat.  Disc priests should try to pick up Gothik’s Cowl from Naxx instead of this if they get the opportunity.  This helm is a Dueg favorite.

Blanketing Robes of Snow- Best in slot (seeing a pattern here?) for holy and hit capped shadow priests, alot of people will be trying to snag this from you.  Disc should look for an item with less spirit.

Leash of Heedless Magic - Yet another best in slot for holy and capped shadow specs, this belt is very very sexy.  Add a gem slot if you can with the smithed buckle, but other than that, wear with pride.

Living Ice Crystals- One of the few “meh” items for priests dropped by Malygos, a disc priest might want to pic this up if they need the extra mp5.  Otherwise, leave it for a shaman, they seem to like those sort of things.  The on use effect is fairly useless, but can have it’s moments.

Arcanic Tramplers – Best in slot, holy and hit capped shad, competition, disc look elsewhere, blah blah blah.

And that’s Malygos.  Phase 3 is notorious because so many people are unused to all of a sudden becoming a completely different style of player for such strenuous boss fights.  For practice, you can speak to an NPC standing at one of the upper tiers of the Nexus outside of the instance who give the Aces High!quest.  This quest requires you to ride on a red drake that has all of the same abilities as the one you ride on inside the Eye of Eternity.  Once you’ve completed it, you can return and do the quest as a daily.  Anyone who’s having difficulty surviving phase 3 should either grab a group of guildies or solo this quest for practice.  Tune in next week when we’ll be heading back to Naxx for Plague Wing.  For reals this time.

-Dueg

Loot, and the Whores who Love it

Pictured: A filthy, filthy whore

So, you’re a fresh level 80 player who’s entering raids for the first time.  Excitement rules you and all you can think about is the upcoming fights and how great it’s all going to be.  You’d done dungeons, but all that was just practice, this is it, man, the big show!  The first boss comes and you feel it in the pit of your stomach, the butterflies flittering about, your palms slowly starting to sweat and for some reason your hands are freezing cold.  The strats are explained and you hunker down, neck cramping from the tension as you do your part, slaying the mighty boss.  You run over, eager to see what’s dropped and right click on the corpse, leaning forward as the loot window pops up.

That’s when it happens.

You see it there, floating in all it’s purple glory within the magical loot box.  It whispers to you, tells you how badly it needs to be with you, that it’s caress alone can help to cease all your woes.  Funny things begin to happen to you, sensations and thoughts you’ve never felt before are suddenly running rampant through your brain.  With shaking hands you type /roll and watch with bated breath as the results come in.  Then you to see that you’ve won!  That purple floats over to you and you put it on, and yes, it is delicious… for a while…

What can I say, gentle jerkwads?  I love loot.  We all do, it’s part of what drives us to play, true, and it keeps us coming back, butting our heads against harder and harder content.  Sure, for some, it’s the thrill of the encounter and for others they have their PvP, but for me, it’s all about the purps.  I get all tingly when I switch out old gear for new and see the little numbers in my stats box bounce back and forth and I hardly think that I’m alone.

But when is it too much?  How far does one go in their love for loot before they’re labeled a “loot whore?”  Though I love loot, and again, allow me stress that I do indeed love loot, I have yet to build an off set.  Even with dual specs looming, I can’t bear to spend more than one DKP on an off spec item for fear that I’m truly taking it away from a guildie even though I know it’s probably somebody else looking for an off spec item.

We’ve all heard the horror stories before: someone’s running a raid group and that perfect item drops, the one they’ve been looking for for the past couple of weeks.  Everyone rolls or bids and that person comes up short.  Then whoever does win it says something along the lines of “sweet, now my (insert random spec here) set is complete.  You feel your jaw clench and murder flashes through your thoughts as you go ahead and type a grats out.  But you don’t wish him grats, oh no… no grats for the loot whore.

When you run a PuG, you expect this sort of thing to happen, but the fact of the matter is that this might be a test of the guild you’re in.  If you’re going on guild runs and the loot is consistently going to people who are using it as sidegrades over members who legitimately need it as an upgrade, then that demonstrates an unaware leadership and greedy members.  The point of a guild is to help each individual member become as strong as possible so they can commit that strength back into the guild.  When you get a piece of loot, it’s not something that you have gotten on your own, it’s something the guild has given you.  But here is where being a loot whore can hurt not just you, but everyone who you play with… that’s right, just like drugs… dun dun dun.

Your guild officer core should know who needs what and be prepared to intervene in the case that a loot whore tries to take from a player trying to gear up for guild runs.  If they’re consistently just passing loot to whoever rolls for whatever without an eye out for whether people will use it, the they are allowing weak spots to form in the guild.  Good leadership should make sure that gear is spread evenly across all classes and specs and off spec items should only be handed out once main spec has had a chance to roll.  If this isn’t happening, then it might be time to consider moving on.

There’s also an individual responsibility involved.  You must avoid being the loot whore because you have to understand that others in your guild will need it more than you sometimes.  Keep an eye out and make sure that everyone is getting their fare shake because this kind of activity will not only weaken the guild, but will also break guild morale.  And besides, nothing’s worse that a loot whore.  

What’s that?  My helm?  Why yes, that is a Hood of Rationality, and yes, it is quite delicious.

-Dueg

Friday Strats – The Four Horsemen

So you’ve managed to Mind Control some understudies and went all emo on Gothik’s ass.  Now comes time to complete military wing and claim all glory due to you and your raid group.  Walk quickly down the hall, make a left and enter the humongous antechamber.  There you’ll find what was once considered the most difficult encounter in the game.  Gentle jerkwads, I present to you, The Four Horsemen:

Thinly veiled allegories FTW

The Prep

When you first enter the room you’re going to see all four of the horsemen standing on a raised dais in the center of the room.  Our group will usually hang a tight left and gather in the east corner of the room in order to prepare and pass out healing assignments.  Each compass point must have a tank and a healer assigned to it and they must move into position before the boss is pulled.  Everyone else should remain in the eastern corner.  Once you have everyone in position and buffs are out, you can begin the fight.

A quick note on the compass points: When you enter the room, note where north is on your minimap.  Because the room is all the way in the southeastern corner of the zone and is tilted against the axis, it can become a little confusing when people call out points.  Double check if you have to because if one of the corners becomes empty too soon, it will wipe your raid.

 The Fight

The encounter begins with the four horsemen splitting up and quickly running to the four corners of the room.  Thane Korth’azz will run to the eastern corner, Baron Rivendare to the north, Sir Zeliek to the west and Lady Blaumeux to the south.  Zeliek and Blaumeux will stay in the spot they run to while Rivendare and Korth’azz can move if their target starts shifting around.

All four apply a unique debuff called Mark of (Death Knight casting it) that can stack up to 99 times.  The first time it lands it will do 0 damage, the second it will do 500, the third 1,500, the fourth 4,000, the fifth 12,500, the sixth 20,000 with each subsequent stack doing the previous amount of damage plus an additional 1,000.  Everyone within 45 yards will be hit with this debuff and the damage cannot be resisted although the application of the mark can be.  The marks will last 25 seconds and reduce the threat of anyone hit by 50%.  Blaumeux and Zeliek will cast their marks at the same time and Korth’azz and Rivendare are also on the same timer for marks.  If there is no one in range to receive Zeliek or Blaumeux’s mark then they will begin hitting everyone in the raid with a powerful AoE, wiping the entire raid in seconds.

Thane Korth’azz- Korth’azz is mainly a tank and spank fight except for an ability called Meteor.  He will periodically cast this which does up to 52,500 damage split equally amongst all players in an 8 yard radius.  This ability is a raid killer if you don’t have enough people stacked up on him.  As I stated earlier, our strategy is to have the entire raid stacked up on him.  When he arrives we pop Bloodlust and burn him down as quickly as possible.

Baron Rivendare- Also mainly a melee fight except for a shadow based dot he’ll cast on his primary target called Unholy Shadow.  This will hit for up to 5,500 damage and then tick for an additional 12,000 over 8 seconds and is cast every 15 seconds.  Since the Baron will chase his target, make sure there is a tank there to pick him up at all times so he doesn’t start popping squishies in the raid.

Sir Zeliek- Has a static position so he won’t need a tank per se, but melee needs to be careful because of his abilities.  He can cast Holy Bolt which has a 2 second cast and will deal up to 10,000 holy damage on his closest enemy.  His other ability is the real killer though.  Called Holy Wrath, it deals up to 3,300 damage, but also has a chance to jump to another target within 10 yards, dealing an additional 50% damage with each jump.  He’ll cast it ever 15 seconds and it has the ability to jump infinitely so ranged and casters should spread out and stay away from melee.

Lady Blaumeux- Also a static enemy, she’ll cast Shadow Bolt on the closest enemy, doing up to 9,500 shadow damage.  She’ll also summon a void zone under a random player in range, dealing 4,250 shadow damage per second to anyone standing in it, so keep an eye out and move if one pops under you.  The void zones will last 75 seconds and she will cast multiple ones so try to position yourself near one so they all end up in the same spot.  Like Zeliek, you can get away with having a plate wearer instead of an actual tank as her primary target.

Like I said, I recommend burning down the Thane as quickly as possible in order to get his ability out of the way.  Individually the Death Knights are not that rough, it’s your raid’s ability to watch their marks that’s going to determine how difficult the fight will be.  If your dps is good you should be able to burn down Thane before you reach five marks.  Once that happens, your dps should move to Baron and try to get him down in order to leave you with just the static Death Knights in the back.

Now if Thane isn’t dead then the dps might have to get hit with a fifth mark in order to get him down before you have to switch.  After that, no one should take more than four marks, but I suggest moving once you hit three in order to stay safe.  Should it become imperative to switch between Thane and Rivendare, have the tanks move to the middle, taunt off of each other and then return the bosses to their proper corners.  Be careful though, if a tank is left alone within melee range of the Thane then he will almost definitely be one shotted by Meteor. 

The key to this fight is communication.  Each corner needs a healer at all times so make sure that if you’re moving from a spot you call out that someone needs to come replace you.  You can move to the raised dais in order to continue healing and not get hit by a mark, but you will lose line of sight of some people, so don’t rely on that.  Other than that, the main thing to watch is for void zones as they can kill you quickly if you’re not paying attention. 

This fight is not terribly taxing on a healer as long as you’re alert.  Also, don’t tunnel vision when you’re moving from one spot to another as healers running past you will most likely need some healery action themselves.

The Loot

Once all four are down a chest will spawn on their original pull spot and you can loot it for your badges and the following priest friendly items:

Urn of Lost Memories - Very nice off hand frill for a Disc priest and definitely up on the list for Holy if you can’t find one with spirit.  Obviously with the extra mp5, it’s more of a healer item, but shadow can definitely use it if they’re looking for a decent off hand item.

Mantle of the Corrupted - This item is really more of a mage piece, but if you’re still wearing dungeon blues, will be a nice upgrade for shadow.  Holy and Disc should leave this for dps unless they’re looking to build an off set.

Damnation - Coolest.  Staff.  Ever.  There are better staffs in the game, but this one is definitely worth picking up for either Holy or Shadow spec.  You will have competition though as this is also nice for druids and warlocks.

Breastplate of the Lost Conqueror - This is the token for our tier 7.5 chest piece.  Your tier gear is not necessarily the best in slot automatically, but it’s definitely in the top three.  It’s more skewed towards Holy spec though, so Disc priests might want to look elsewhere.  There’s also a shadow version, so pick it up for your deeps.

This fight is not difficult for a self aware raider.  As I’ve stated, the key is to focus and communicate, making sure that the raid knows healer positions at all times.  Be aware of the abilities of the mob you’re currently fighting so you can look out for them and this fight should be cake.

A final note: This is not the only way to do this fight and in fact, there’s an achievement for killing them all within 15 seconds of each other which you will most definitely not accomplish with these strats.  This is my preferred method because it’s easiest on the raid as a whole and makes the fight fairly painless.  If anyone wants to add to this or mention something I forgot, please post it in the comments.  Tune in next week when we take a constitutional down Plague Wing over to the Eye of Eternity (yes, this was always here, no, you read it wrong the firt time).

-Dueg