I'm still here, waiting for better times. It really sux, but there's just not enough time for a proper geek marathon any more. Hopefully I'll get some chances to do this during summer, which means the start of July. Yeah, the exams will last for whole June, and I dare not to reenter the whole thing until I'm done with them. The old guild is rebelling as well, some are transferring horde, so that was a major letdown; I knew it would be hard for me to get a hold of a credit card, but I really wanted to transfer back to Frostwhisper and rejoin Order of Azeroth, even if it means we'd just hang on ventrillo and do 5-mans. And now most of them are going horde. Now I don't have anything against horde, but my hunter, Duco, will definately not faction change! I want to have a night elf bitch for the rest of the days.
So yeah, I really don't know what's gonna happen... Time will tell I guess, let's just hope my enthusiasm lasts until summer. It would be great if it did.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Update
Since my last post on this blog was from January this year, I guess I should really tell a bit more why I'm not into WoW at the moment. Or, to be more precise, wannabe excuses. Of course I want to play it! The most significant problem, though, is that I've lost contact with the game. After... 3 years? it is the first time I've stopped reading World of Raids / MMO-Champion alltogether. I don't know (as of current) how the Icecrown Citadel looks like and if Arthas has been killed yet. It sux, I know. And the worst of all, for which I'm really disappointed about is that I don't even know the active situation about hunters any more. Gah! My heroin, my hunter!
And it's the first time in my history I've been so detached from the game - I reactivated the account for 2 months, but probably spent 4 hours of that 2 months in-game. I'm so out I can't come back easily. Obviously I could come back if I had enough time, but with couple of hours a week, it's really hard. Especially when you know you'll have to invest heavily into catching up.
So what have I been doing so that I'm so busy with the faculty that I can't play. Well, for one I'm not sure, I just try to do more sports, I've been quite busy with playing the guitar (although I'm not there yet :P), and I try to socialize, do more stuff you know. The only game addiction I have is playing CoD MW 1 with 2 mates on weekends. It's lots of fun, although when I think about it, WoW might be the more obvious choice.
But I've not really been lying to my colleagues from the old guild - I really want to come back and if not else, my last deadline is June after the exams. The problem (real!) is also a credit card holder that would let me use it to transfer back to Frostwhisper...
So yeah... I miss WoW, but it just takes so much time (even casually!). Totally fitting for summer nights <3.
So, cya in Azeroth, bitchez! Sooner or later!
And it's the first time in my history I've been so detached from the game - I reactivated the account for 2 months, but probably spent 4 hours of that 2 months in-game. I'm so out I can't come back easily. Obviously I could come back if I had enough time, but with couple of hours a week, it's really hard. Especially when you know you'll have to invest heavily into catching up.
So what have I been doing so that I'm so busy with the faculty that I can't play. Well, for one I'm not sure, I just try to do more sports, I've been quite busy with playing the guitar (although I'm not there yet :P), and I try to socialize, do more stuff you know. The only game addiction I have is playing CoD MW 1 with 2 mates on weekends. It's lots of fun, although when I think about it, WoW might be the more obvious choice.
But I've not really been lying to my colleagues from the old guild - I really want to come back and if not else, my last deadline is June after the exams. The problem (real!) is also a credit card holder that would let me use it to transfer back to Frostwhisper...
So yeah... I miss WoW, but it just takes so much time (even casually!). Totally fitting for summer nights <3.
So, cya in Azeroth, bitchez! Sooner or later!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Well well well
It appears I'll have to rename this blog :). If my wishes come true (ofc they will, they always do! gah!) I'll return to my old server - and, hopefully claim my old name, Duco, back. So I dunno how I should rename it ... hmm
Friday, September 18, 2009
FTW Disbands
Well, it wasn't disbanded as of this writing yet, but it's gonna hit pretty soon. I haven't been in-game lately so frankly all I know about the reasons is what I've read on the forums. And frankly, that really sux big time. First there were some raiders leaving, most of them the long-standing members of the guild. Reason being them not having fun any more, or that they wanted to play with their IRL friends etc.
Sadly you can't do much about that. The problem is that those were the small pebbles that stroke an avalanche of guild departures, climbing up the ladder rank, and more and more excuses were made because "So many old members left I don't enjoy it any more".
Reasons are all valid, but frankly, it's the way WoW works. There will always be people leaving for IRL reasons, going casual, getting a GF and cancelling accounts (hehe), and new players coming in, some horrible, some weird and some brilliant. All you have to do is open your eyes and try to get by with the new people, because otherwise, you'll just bite the dust, be it sooner or later. And that's what exactly happened to the guild. I don't blame anyone, but I don't think disbaning a guild because you think it's not a good feeling any more is the right way to go. It just proves you want to leave the crisis and remember the old guild in its bests, and go for a new start. I understand guild leaders and/or officers doing that, because frankly, leading a hardcore raiding guild is an insane dedication job. But still, going for a new start will not bring you back with old people.
I just find it a shame that nobody wants to stand up to the challenge of leading the guild. Hell even if it'd be a social guild of 10 ppl, seriously, why disband it??
Even in Kara days when I freshly dinged 70 I remember leaving the guild after GM said he's gonna make it casual guild for his irl friends, and we had an insane amount of talented people in there. It's just against my logic to simply disband it.
So meh that's it. Now I need to ask my IRL friends what they're gonna do, but if they're gonna apply to Lost sadly I won't follow them. I don't really have that much time.
Should rethink why I transferred in the first place...
Sadly you can't do much about that. The problem is that those were the small pebbles that stroke an avalanche of guild departures, climbing up the ladder rank, and more and more excuses were made because "So many old members left I don't enjoy it any more".
Reasons are all valid, but frankly, it's the way WoW works. There will always be people leaving for IRL reasons, going casual, getting a GF and cancelling accounts (hehe), and new players coming in, some horrible, some weird and some brilliant. All you have to do is open your eyes and try to get by with the new people, because otherwise, you'll just bite the dust, be it sooner or later. And that's what exactly happened to the guild. I don't blame anyone, but I don't think disbaning a guild because you think it's not a good feeling any more is the right way to go. It just proves you want to leave the crisis and remember the old guild in its bests, and go for a new start. I understand guild leaders and/or officers doing that, because frankly, leading a hardcore raiding guild is an insane dedication job. But still, going for a new start will not bring you back with old people.
I just find it a shame that nobody wants to stand up to the challenge of leading the guild. Hell even if it'd be a social guild of 10 ppl, seriously, why disband it??
Even in Kara days when I freshly dinged 70 I remember leaving the guild after GM said he's gonna make it casual guild for his irl friends, and we had an insane amount of talented people in there. It's just against my logic to simply disband it.
So meh that's it. Now I need to ask my IRL friends what they're gonna do, but if they're gonna apply to Lost sadly I won't follow them. I don't really have that much time.
Should rethink why I transferred in the first place...
Monday, June 22, 2009
My nostalgy knows no limits...
And indeed it doesn't! The reason for this post is that I'm just so undecided about what to to with my WoW situation. I have all, and I mean it all options to raid hardcore. I've got good guild, full of skilled people that have a dedication to raid 24/7. That dedication's what's killing me. The thing about our guild is that (especially if 3.2 patch is coming at the end of summer) we will almost 100% still raid 5 days out of 7 (and 10-mans other 2 days) for hard modes. We've got quite some of them already, but Mimiron's gonna take his toll, of that I'm sure. Others are not that much of a problem to be honest, but Mimiron and then Algalon (if we're that good yeh!) will require weeks of wiping. Well, not Algalon since he's on 1 hr despawn timer, but Mimiron will.
And here is where my uncertainty begins. I've got only 1 week and it's my last exam. I'm not really concerned about that, but I'll have 2 jobs during summer, and even now I can just see I'll be flooded for first couple of weeks. Flooded with work that is. And the few hours I'll have free I really wish to spend them with my IRL colleagues, not in WoW. Or, not raiding hardcore and become a zombie.
The thing that has arised is that if I continue raiding (and I haven't raided almost a thing in last 2 weeks or so), I should really get 2 raiding professions on my hunter (enchanting + LW), and I'd trade herbalism and skinning on my alt. And the idea was to transfer my 70 priest from Frostwhisper as well. She already got herbalism so I'd just have to level skinning, which'd be fast, and get her to 77. And I got a promise from a friend he'd even give me the 5k gold for epic flyer, since I'm so clueles at making money.
But that won't be the case. I'm really deciding about going to casual or even social status in the guild. Reason being that for the free evenings (I'll have many of those, whole July & September) I just don't want to raid intensely for 4 hours, and during weekends farm all the neccesary mats. Last time I had it much the same, but it was a bit better, I was not in such a hardcore guild, and it was only a month or so.
After transfer I thought it'd really be joy playing with IRL mates, and to a degree it is. It is awesome, I don't deny that. But I think I'll just go for casual. I know guild won't like it, and neither will my irl friends, but hopefully they'll join me :P. This raiding thing is too much of an effort for mere mortals. I mean if I had no job, I'd prolly easily go for it. Now though, I'd rather spend some evenings outside, go on some trips etc., you know, after all even if I'd ever have an Ironbound Proto-Drake, it doesn't really matter. New mounts will come anyway.
Hopefully if there is somebody from guild reading this, he won't take it as an offence. I really wanted to experience Ulduar first-hand, you know, when you are together with 24 other people pulling your guts out to kill that boss, and it was an amazing experience. Besides I'll still be available for raids, and I'll always be prepared and do my best if I come. I just don't want the responsibility to HAVE TO raid 4 nights a week or so.
The second thing is that I really miss Frostwhisper, the Order of Azeroth is just a thing of a lifetime. I miss playing with great people for the sake of playing and socializing with them, or even just chatting about random nonsense. It doesn't afford any in-game achievement or adrenaline rush like when you down a hard mode, but it's much more personally rewarding and a thing you'll definately remember. It's the point of WoW, which is still, after all, MMO. And now after so much raiding (okay, I admit lots of people raid way more, but I guess I'm just not the no-life kind of guy in this way), I just feel WoW is my 3rd job and a routine that, except the thrill of progress, doesn't reward anything else.
So yeah... that's why I won't transfer my priest to Ghostlands but try to level her to 80... and in doing so, refresh some connections and social bonds with people on Frostwhisper... while still be available to my guild on Ghostlands for some evenings. If I'll have more time I could also actually level my 2nd character, a mage which has almost full heirloom gear, and he can be a skinner&herbalist then. Plus even after this, I'll be more free in organizing my time.
So um yeah, that's about it. I'll see how things go, but that's my current situation and plan. Frostwhisper, I'll come back.
.... now you see why my nostalgy knows no limits :)
Some people will say that you sometimes have to leave past behind, but I just can't. I'm just too afraid I'll eventually lose touch with people from Frostwhisper if I leave them alone for so long (I'd never play with them again if I decided to leave past behind), and that would seem such a wasted opportunity for me. Don't know why, just have that gut feeling. I'm one of the few believers that do think online "friends" can be a bit more than the guy you're raiding with.
And here is where my uncertainty begins. I've got only 1 week and it's my last exam. I'm not really concerned about that, but I'll have 2 jobs during summer, and even now I can just see I'll be flooded for first couple of weeks. Flooded with work that is. And the few hours I'll have free I really wish to spend them with my IRL colleagues, not in WoW. Or, not raiding hardcore and become a zombie.
The thing that has arised is that if I continue raiding (and I haven't raided almost a thing in last 2 weeks or so), I should really get 2 raiding professions on my hunter (enchanting + LW), and I'd trade herbalism and skinning on my alt. And the idea was to transfer my 70 priest from Frostwhisper as well. She already got herbalism so I'd just have to level skinning, which'd be fast, and get her to 77. And I got a promise from a friend he'd even give me the 5k gold for epic flyer, since I'm so clueles at making money.
But that won't be the case. I'm really deciding about going to casual or even social status in the guild. Reason being that for the free evenings (I'll have many of those, whole July & September) I just don't want to raid intensely for 4 hours, and during weekends farm all the neccesary mats. Last time I had it much the same, but it was a bit better, I was not in such a hardcore guild, and it was only a month or so.
After transfer I thought it'd really be joy playing with IRL mates, and to a degree it is. It is awesome, I don't deny that. But I think I'll just go for casual. I know guild won't like it, and neither will my irl friends, but hopefully they'll join me :P. This raiding thing is too much of an effort for mere mortals. I mean if I had no job, I'd prolly easily go for it. Now though, I'd rather spend some evenings outside, go on some trips etc., you know, after all even if I'd ever have an Ironbound Proto-Drake, it doesn't really matter. New mounts will come anyway.
Hopefully if there is somebody from guild reading this, he won't take it as an offence. I really wanted to experience Ulduar first-hand, you know, when you are together with 24 other people pulling your guts out to kill that boss, and it was an amazing experience. Besides I'll still be available for raids, and I'll always be prepared and do my best if I come. I just don't want the responsibility to HAVE TO raid 4 nights a week or so.
The second thing is that I really miss Frostwhisper, the Order of Azeroth is just a thing of a lifetime. I miss playing with great people for the sake of playing and socializing with them, or even just chatting about random nonsense. It doesn't afford any in-game achievement or adrenaline rush like when you down a hard mode, but it's much more personally rewarding and a thing you'll definately remember. It's the point of WoW, which is still, after all, MMO. And now after so much raiding (okay, I admit lots of people raid way more, but I guess I'm just not the no-life kind of guy in this way), I just feel WoW is my 3rd job and a routine that, except the thrill of progress, doesn't reward anything else.
So yeah... that's why I won't transfer my priest to Ghostlands but try to level her to 80... and in doing so, refresh some connections and social bonds with people on Frostwhisper... while still be available to my guild on Ghostlands for some evenings. If I'll have more time I could also actually level my 2nd character, a mage which has almost full heirloom gear, and he can be a skinner&herbalist then. Plus even after this, I'll be more free in organizing my time.
So um yeah, that's about it. I'll see how things go, but that's my current situation and plan. Frostwhisper, I'll come back.
.... now you see why my nostalgy knows no limits :)
Some people will say that you sometimes have to leave past behind, but I just can't. I'm just too afraid I'll eventually lose touch with people from Frostwhisper if I leave them alone for so long (I'd never play with them again if I decided to leave past behind), and that would seem such a wasted opportunity for me. Don't know why, just have that gut feeling. I'm one of the few believers that do think online "friends" can be a bit more than the guy you're raiding with.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Onwards into the Ruins
I told you that Zul'Gurub (almost) clear won't satisfy me. So here I am, wondering if I should try and go into Ruins of Ahn'Quiraj (AQ20), since many classes (including a prot pally in our guild) are said to be able to solo it easily. I've never really been to AQ20 before, so it was all new experience for me. And what an experience it was!
Okay, first thing I learned is that trash has way larger aggro range than what trolls in ZG had. And even moreso, if I just remember thinking Blood Drinkers in ZG are annoying, trash here owns them in terms of annoyance. Bees that charge you every 5 seconds, enraging gladiators with too much hp... It's not hard really, my pet was surviving really nicely, but it's very annoying. Especially from the start, because you need to clear an area around the first boss otherwise you'll just wipe. Later in the instance, it gets better since you can mostly just walk around, and if neccesary, run through some guys and then Feign Death. So, let's proceed with the strategies. Oh, btw, I one-shotted all bosses, but I admit I've read some WoWHead and BRR's info before attempting them, so I had some knowledge how things work.
1. Kurinnaxx:
Okay, so this boss is really not much of a challenge. I had more problems clearing trash (wiping once because of massive aggro range) than actually killing him. He has a Mortal Strike-like debuff that stacks, but with Glyph of Mend Pet and all the talents for +healing received, my pet didn't really have any problems surviving. When he stacks the debuff Gorilladin's health went down to like 13k or so, but it quickly recovered back to 21k when the debuff faded off. The second thing he does is every 7 seconds or so he'll spawn some moving sand thingie underneath "random raid member", therefore you, and you need to run away from it before it's complete (like Anub'Rekhan in AN), because you'll get damage and -75% to hit, which is not a nice thing. So it's just that... oh, don't take aggro from your pet because boss will insta teleport you to him. Easy to be honest.
2. General Rajaxx:
In my opinion the hardest boss of the instance. As you can see from the screenshot I was really on low health after the kill, and I once barely survived at around 30% (got to like 500 hp!). This fight is also long, but phase 1 is easy. You talk to Lieutenant General Andorov and say you're ready, and you follow him and 4 other elites with warblades towards the area where Rajaxx is. Then there will 7 waves of mobs consisting of some gladiators, some flying women, and each time a different Captain. As usual, just wait till they all get in range, set auto-cast on Thunderstomp, throw Misdirection on Gorilla and Mend Pet, and I just nuked down one by one. Each of 7 Captains has different ability, but apart from 1 they aren't dangerous at all. One of them has a self-enrage though, on that one I killed him first while using Tranquilizing Shot to cool off his enrage everytime he did it. After 7 waves, all 5 of the allied NPCs were dead, but who cares :).
At this point, Rajaxx will rush towards you. He's basically got 2 abilities that in combination make fight quite more intense than other bosses. First is that he'll do an AoE knockback that will always reduce your current health by 50%. So first time it'll be around 12k, then 6k, then 3k etc., down to 250 or so. That stuff doesn't affect pet, but it's so long range you can't really outrange it (at least I couldn't). The second thing is he will occasionaly (after knockback) attack you instead of your pet, where you have to use Feign Death/Deterrence. Sometimes you'll just have both on cooldown, and with low health (you'll never be on high health due to constant knockbacks) he can really scrap your health down fast. That's why I used bandages and herbalism heal everytime I could. That's about it, keep it going and he should go down (hopefully) before you die.
3. Moam:
This boss is very easy. He will drain your mana and, after reaching a certan mana amount himself, turn into a statue and summon 3 sparks. At that time he will start doing some heavy AoE, as will the sparks. Luckily, our pets get -75% damage from AoE, so no worries :D. Just single target nuke sparks down, and boss will return to normal state again with 0 mana. He resets aggro though, so throwing Misdirection did help. Oh, and the thing I did I also used Viper Sting everytime off CD, to slow his accumulation of mana. That's really it. Keep Mend Pet up, and nuke. Really easy for us hunters, since we can't really go oom (Aspect of the Viper ftw).
4. Ossirian the Unscarred:
The first thing here is that you should clear the whole grounds before this boss, since you'll be kiting him around. There are around 8 of those huge walking guys over here, and you should nuke down each of them fast. Reason is that they randomly cast a Comet that, when hitting you, deals 13k (actually it's split between everybody hit, but since you'll always be the only one hit...), so you don't want to get 2 of those to land on you. Other abilities of them are not dangerous, they summon some low hp adds, do some DoT, explode on death... usual stuff.
So, after clearing the area it's time to pull the boss. The boss has a very hefty buff that increases his damage by A LOT. The only way to dispel this is to use the crystals that spawn (1 at a time can be up) when he's near. The first crystal is, luckily, in front of him, so I just hopped onto mount, pulled him down to the first crystal, dismount, Misdirect on the pet and start nuking him. One thing - you always try to save Bestial Wrath, Deterrence and Feign Death for when he will stun your pet, so you can unstun it / tank the boss for that 5 seconds. Keeping Mend Pet up should suffice for all incoming damage. More important thing is that as soon as you use one crystal, you start looking for the new one. Normally (80% of the time) they'll spawn somewhere close nearby, so you don't have to run much. Put pet on passive, follow, and move to next crystal. Also, you should use the new crystal around 5 seconds before the debuff from last crystal runs out, because it takes some time for it to affect him. The only thing that's a bit harsh is if there's no crystal in visible range. That means it's farther away. Put pet on passive and follow, and start looking for the new crystal straight away, otherwise he'll get bonus damage and you'll be dead meat. Repeat this, and he should go down. It's not really a hard fight, but it's really fun to do. He also got loads of health so you're fighting him for like 10 mins or so. Awesome fight.
Generally, I'm really surprised at how awesome the fights are. Except from the first boss the strategies are really innovative and fun, also there are 2 bosses I didn't try because they are rather hard for hunters, but so far as I've read on them they're fun as hell as well!
I really encourage any class that has some solo capabilities to come here. It's really lots of fun, if you don't let it scare you from first look.
Okay, first thing I learned is that trash has way larger aggro range than what trolls in ZG had. And even moreso, if I just remember thinking Blood Drinkers in ZG are annoying, trash here owns them in terms of annoyance. Bees that charge you every 5 seconds, enraging gladiators with too much hp... It's not hard really, my pet was surviving really nicely, but it's very annoying. Especially from the start, because you need to clear an area around the first boss otherwise you'll just wipe. Later in the instance, it gets better since you can mostly just walk around, and if neccesary, run through some guys and then Feign Death. So, let's proceed with the strategies. Oh, btw, I one-shotted all bosses, but I admit I've read some WoWHead and BRR's info before attempting them, so I had some knowledge how things work.
1. Kurinnaxx:
Okay, so this boss is really not much of a challenge. I had more problems clearing trash (wiping once because of massive aggro range) than actually killing him. He has a Mortal Strike-like debuff that stacks, but with Glyph of Mend Pet and all the talents for +healing received, my pet didn't really have any problems surviving. When he stacks the debuff Gorilladin's health went down to like 13k or so, but it quickly recovered back to 21k when the debuff faded off. The second thing he does is every 7 seconds or so he'll spawn some moving sand thingie underneath "random raid member", therefore you, and you need to run away from it before it's complete (like Anub'Rekhan in AN), because you'll get damage and -75% to hit, which is not a nice thing. So it's just that... oh, don't take aggro from your pet because boss will insta teleport you to him. Easy to be honest.
2. General Rajaxx:
In my opinion the hardest boss of the instance. As you can see from the screenshot I was really on low health after the kill, and I once barely survived at around 30% (got to like 500 hp!). This fight is also long, but phase 1 is easy. You talk to Lieutenant General Andorov and say you're ready, and you follow him and 4 other elites with warblades towards the area where Rajaxx is. Then there will 7 waves of mobs consisting of some gladiators, some flying women, and each time a different Captain. As usual, just wait till they all get in range, set auto-cast on Thunderstomp, throw Misdirection on Gorilla and Mend Pet, and I just nuked down one by one. Each of 7 Captains has different ability, but apart from 1 they aren't dangerous at all. One of them has a self-enrage though, on that one I killed him first while using Tranquilizing Shot to cool off his enrage everytime he did it. After 7 waves, all 5 of the allied NPCs were dead, but who cares :).
At this point, Rajaxx will rush towards you. He's basically got 2 abilities that in combination make fight quite more intense than other bosses. First is that he'll do an AoE knockback that will always reduce your current health by 50%. So first time it'll be around 12k, then 6k, then 3k etc., down to 250 or so. That stuff doesn't affect pet, but it's so long range you can't really outrange it (at least I couldn't). The second thing is he will occasionaly (after knockback) attack you instead of your pet, where you have to use Feign Death/Deterrence. Sometimes you'll just have both on cooldown, and with low health (you'll never be on high health due to constant knockbacks) he can really scrap your health down fast. That's why I used bandages and herbalism heal everytime I could. That's about it, keep it going and he should go down (hopefully) before you die.
3. Moam:
This boss is very easy. He will drain your mana and, after reaching a certan mana amount himself, turn into a statue and summon 3 sparks. At that time he will start doing some heavy AoE, as will the sparks. Luckily, our pets get -75% damage from AoE, so no worries :D. Just single target nuke sparks down, and boss will return to normal state again with 0 mana. He resets aggro though, so throwing Misdirection did help. Oh, and the thing I did I also used Viper Sting everytime off CD, to slow his accumulation of mana. That's really it. Keep Mend Pet up, and nuke. Really easy for us hunters, since we can't really go oom (Aspect of the Viper ftw).
4. Ossirian the Unscarred:
The first thing here is that you should clear the whole grounds before this boss, since you'll be kiting him around. There are around 8 of those huge walking guys over here, and you should nuke down each of them fast. Reason is that they randomly cast a Comet that, when hitting you, deals 13k (actually it's split between everybody hit, but since you'll always be the only one hit...), so you don't want to get 2 of those to land on you. Other abilities of them are not dangerous, they summon some low hp adds, do some DoT, explode on death... usual stuff.
So, after clearing the area it's time to pull the boss. The boss has a very hefty buff that increases his damage by A LOT. The only way to dispel this is to use the crystals that spawn (1 at a time can be up) when he's near. The first crystal is, luckily, in front of him, so I just hopped onto mount, pulled him down to the first crystal, dismount, Misdirect on the pet and start nuking him. One thing - you always try to save Bestial Wrath, Deterrence and Feign Death for when he will stun your pet, so you can unstun it / tank the boss for that 5 seconds. Keeping Mend Pet up should suffice for all incoming damage. More important thing is that as soon as you use one crystal, you start looking for the new one. Normally (80% of the time) they'll spawn somewhere close nearby, so you don't have to run much. Put pet on passive, follow, and move to next crystal. Also, you should use the new crystal around 5 seconds before the debuff from last crystal runs out, because it takes some time for it to affect him. The only thing that's a bit harsh is if there's no crystal in visible range. That means it's farther away. Put pet on passive and follow, and start looking for the new crystal straight away, otherwise he'll get bonus damage and you'll be dead meat. Repeat this, and he should go down. It's not really a hard fight, but it's really fun to do. He also got loads of health so you're fighting him for like 10 mins or so. Awesome fight.
Generally, I'm really surprised at how awesome the fights are. Except from the first boss the strategies are really innovative and fun, also there are 2 bosses I didn't try because they are rather hard for hunters, but so far as I've read on them they're fun as hell as well!
I really encourage any class that has some solo capabilities to come here. It's really lots of fun, if you don't let it scare you from first look.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Slaying the Blood God
I decided that I would try to get the Gahz'Ranka in Zul'Gurub today. Seeing how much effort&gold I've put into getting my pet tanking gear, it was a test I was really looking forward to. I remember that I once went ZG with PvE spec and PvE pet, and I couldn't even kill the first (snake) boss. It was horrible, and it kept me out from ZG for quite some time.
The first thing I had to do is to go into ZG, get to a special area called Pagle Point (there's alcohol bottles scattered all around the place, heh), pick up some tape that once belonged to Nat Pagle, and return it to his owner. Sadly, Nat Pagle is currently residing in Dustwallow Marsh, which is way off ZG. Luckily you only need to do the quest once, then you can buy Lure from the man. I bought 20 pieces (each costs 1g). Then you have to go back to ZG, and in the waters around the Altar of Hakkar there are some "Muddy Churning Water"-s, and you need to fish 5 Zulian Mudskunks from those pools. Then all you have to do is combine the lure and the fish while in Pagle Point, and Gahz'Ranka will spawn. As you will see, Gahz'Ranka encouraged me to clear more than half of the instance, so I'll go step by step and comment on what I think is important if you're a lost hunter trying to solo ZG (well, any class really).
1.Gahz'Ranka:
Basically this fight is trivial and really really easy. The only tough thing about it is that she knocks the tank back occasionaly, so check my pic. See that huge stone head in the top left corner? Tank it there, and the tank will receive no knockback. Her hits are quite low, the only thing about this fight is that it lasts long because she/he got a really large health pool. It just comes to keep Mend Pet on pet all the time, and Feign Death when neccesary, and nuke. One-shot.
2.High Priestess Arlokk (panther):
I was not aware at all of this boss's strategy, but nevertheless I made it by the way. The boss does some DoT which you can't do anything about. Then it's the second thing, she will cast some kind of Mark on you (never on pet) which spawns loads of panthers that come in waves and attack you. Sometimes during this time she will also disappear for a minute or so. What I found out was that when I have the mark and boss is not present, I'd just Feign Death and let the pet take care of panthers. They hit very low and got almost no life, so couple of Thunderstomp should finish them off. Otherwise I'd just use Explosive Trap and Volley to AoE them down quickly. And that's all there is... Just keep repeating this and you've won. The key here is only that you avoid taking too much damage from panthers, because you don't really have time to bandage. One-shot. Sadly the boss despawned already as I returned for screenshot.
3.High Priest Thekal (tiger):
This boss was the first one that was a bit trickier. One thing about the trash (I wiped once!!), send pet in and let it grab some solid aggro on tigers, and then nuke down one by one. If you get a pack of those tigers on you you're dead man. They will perma-stun you, really. It's so annoying.
Anyway, the boss. I've read about the strategy and made 2 macros, which I'll post here:
/tar zealot zath
/cast scorpid sting
/tar zealot lor'khan
/cast viper sting
Firstly when you start the fight nuke the 2 tigers down, they die fast. The boss himself has 2 adds, one is kind of rogue, while other is kind of priest. Rogue will do some insane damage, and occasionaly gouge you or the pet. The priest will keep silencing you (or Thekal, dunno lol), and he'll be healing. Note that the damage rogue and Thekal output is quite high, and counting that you'll be silenced 80% of the time, you really need to spam Mend Pet. First time I wiped because I wasn't keeping Mend Pet up 100%. It's extremely vital! So even if it's on half of duration and you don't have silence, refresh it. This also means you'll be loads more in Viper, but it's neccesary if you want to kill the boss. Then I nuke down one by one, first Thekal, then the rogue and lastly the priest, while spamming both macros everytime Viper Sting is off CD. Of course priest will heal them so you'll have to switch some targets in between. Anyway, when I got one to 10% I put Thunderstomp on the pet on off, and nuke them each separately. They need to die in 10 seconds between each other, otherwise they respawn with full hp and mana. After you've done this though, you've won. From here on the fight is piece of cake. Misdirection on pet, keep Mend Pet up, and nuke the boss. At around 30% the boss started spawning some tigers, I just ignored them and nuked the boss down. Sadly no mount, but I'll definately be farming this boy for it now I know how to kill him. 2-shotted.
4.High Priest Venoxis (snake):
This one's such a cake. Really. You go in, send pet, wait till snakes rush on him, and start spamming Thunderstomp. The damage it'll receive is minimal, keeping Mend Pet up will result in it having 90%+ health all the time. I just waited a minute or so for pet to get aggro, and then nuked the boss. I ignored the snakes completely. One-shot.
5.High Priestess Jeklik (bat):
Basically this boss is not hard in itself, it just lasts long. First time I've wiped, the reason being because I didn't know that she's an avid self-healer. Give her 3 heals, and she'll heal 100% of her HP back. I don't know wheter Pummel from Gorilladin or Intimidation worked on interrupting heals or not, I was getting Immune message although people on WoWhead say that's only for the silence effect. Basically she transforms to human form at 50%, and the bat riders start running in, and if you can't nuke her down you'll just be overrun (the bat riders don't actually join in the fight, they just fly around and throw fire bombs at you & pet). Solution: drain her mana to 0 before getting into phase 2 (getting her to 50%). Here's what I did. Pet was just tanking her for like 3 minutes or so, while I was just Viper Stinging her when it was off CD (I didn't attack her!). After pet got a sufficient aggro I also put pet on passive and stay, so the boss was basically smacking my pet while pet didn't respond, and the only thing I did was Viper Sting her. This is because even if pet was just attacking it she'd be at 50% way before she'd reach 0 mana. Oh, the bats that come in, I'd just put Explosive Trap down and Volley them to death, they die in around 4 Volleys (interruption counted in), so no hard deal. After 50%, it's nuke (pet can attack again), and keep her Viper Stinged everytime it's off cd. That's crucial, she can cast heal with barely few mana, so it's essential she's on 0 as much as possible. Two-shot.
6.High Priest Mar'li (spider):
This boss was a bit trickier, but as I read the strategy in advance I managed to bring her down in first try. It's not really hard either. When she's in troll form, nuke her, and more importantly, nuke the spiders she summons. They don't have that much health, and with luck you can bring them close to your pet where it can AoE tank them. Then you just single-target nuke them down. Keep Mend Pet up, and nuke the boss. When the boss switches to spider form I normally just pop Bestial Wrath, so first time she'll try to snare pet with web it's immune. Also, keep Mend Pet up here, she hits a tad harder. She will eventually manage to web your pet though. Use Master's Call to get rid of 2nd web on pet. If she manages to web the pet for the 3rd time, she'll go after you. Just feign death or pop Deterrence, whatever you prefer. This is the whole fight, keep doing this and she should go down quick. One-shot.
7.Hakkar:
After all 5 priests were dead I decided to try Hakkar, since he's much easier without the buffs from priests. You can skip all the trash on the Temple itself with some clever moving, so you can get to the back of the pyramid, away from the pats. Pull Hakkar, and kill him. It's that easy. It's your normal tank'n'spank fight with little incoming damage. The fight kinda feels more like Patchwerk, but only because of the insane amount of health he has, not because of his damage. Mend Pet should keep pet on basically 100% all the time. And if you're wondering if his soul drains will do anything... he only got 1 player to drain :). It's really easy... One-shot. Piece of cake!
So that leaves me the 3 optional bosses which I'll definately try. The Bloodlord Mandokir for the mount, Edge of Madness because I've never done it before and Jin'do the Hexxer well... just for the sake of it. I'm really looking forward to more adventures though, I'm sure I could kill more stuff in AQ20 and finally solo those TBC 5-mans, maybe even some heroics. It really makes difference having right glyphs, right gear and right talents.
The first thing I had to do is to go into ZG, get to a special area called Pagle Point (there's alcohol bottles scattered all around the place, heh), pick up some tape that once belonged to Nat Pagle, and return it to his owner. Sadly, Nat Pagle is currently residing in Dustwallow Marsh, which is way off ZG. Luckily you only need to do the quest once, then you can buy Lure from the man. I bought 20 pieces (each costs 1g). Then you have to go back to ZG, and in the waters around the Altar of Hakkar there are some "Muddy Churning Water"-s, and you need to fish 5 Zulian Mudskunks from those pools. Then all you have to do is combine the lure and the fish while in Pagle Point, and Gahz'Ranka will spawn. As you will see, Gahz'Ranka encouraged me to clear more than half of the instance, so I'll go step by step and comment on what I think is important if you're a lost hunter trying to solo ZG (well, any class really).
1.Gahz'Ranka:
Basically this fight is trivial and really really easy. The only tough thing about it is that she knocks the tank back occasionaly, so check my pic. See that huge stone head in the top left corner? Tank it there, and the tank will receive no knockback. Her hits are quite low, the only thing about this fight is that it lasts long because she/he got a really large health pool. It just comes to keep Mend Pet on pet all the time, and Feign Death when neccesary, and nuke. One-shot.
2.High Priestess Arlokk (panther):
I was not aware at all of this boss's strategy, but nevertheless I made it by the way. The boss does some DoT which you can't do anything about. Then it's the second thing, she will cast some kind of Mark on you (never on pet) which spawns loads of panthers that come in waves and attack you. Sometimes during this time she will also disappear for a minute or so. What I found out was that when I have the mark and boss is not present, I'd just Feign Death and let the pet take care of panthers. They hit very low and got almost no life, so couple of Thunderstomp should finish them off. Otherwise I'd just use Explosive Trap and Volley to AoE them down quickly. And that's all there is... Just keep repeating this and you've won. The key here is only that you avoid taking too much damage from panthers, because you don't really have time to bandage. One-shot. Sadly the boss despawned already as I returned for screenshot.
3.High Priest Thekal (tiger):
This boss was the first one that was a bit trickier. One thing about the trash (I wiped once!!), send pet in and let it grab some solid aggro on tigers, and then nuke down one by one. If you get a pack of those tigers on you you're dead man. They will perma-stun you, really. It's so annoying.
Anyway, the boss. I've read about the strategy and made 2 macros, which I'll post here:
/tar zealot zath
/cast scorpid sting
/tar zealot lor'khan
/cast viper sting
Firstly when you start the fight nuke the 2 tigers down, they die fast. The boss himself has 2 adds, one is kind of rogue, while other is kind of priest. Rogue will do some insane damage, and occasionaly gouge you or the pet. The priest will keep silencing you (or Thekal, dunno lol), and he'll be healing. Note that the damage rogue and Thekal output is quite high, and counting that you'll be silenced 80% of the time, you really need to spam Mend Pet. First time I wiped because I wasn't keeping Mend Pet up 100%. It's extremely vital! So even if it's on half of duration and you don't have silence, refresh it. This also means you'll be loads more in Viper, but it's neccesary if you want to kill the boss. Then I nuke down one by one, first Thekal, then the rogue and lastly the priest, while spamming both macros everytime Viper Sting is off CD. Of course priest will heal them so you'll have to switch some targets in between. Anyway, when I got one to 10% I put Thunderstomp on the pet on off, and nuke them each separately. They need to die in 10 seconds between each other, otherwise they respawn with full hp and mana. After you've done this though, you've won. From here on the fight is piece of cake. Misdirection on pet, keep Mend Pet up, and nuke the boss. At around 30% the boss started spawning some tigers, I just ignored them and nuked the boss down. Sadly no mount, but I'll definately be farming this boy for it now I know how to kill him. 2-shotted.
4.High Priest Venoxis (snake):
This one's such a cake. Really. You go in, send pet, wait till snakes rush on him, and start spamming Thunderstomp. The damage it'll receive is minimal, keeping Mend Pet up will result in it having 90%+ health all the time. I just waited a minute or so for pet to get aggro, and then nuked the boss. I ignored the snakes completely. One-shot.
5.High Priestess Jeklik (bat):
Basically this boss is not hard in itself, it just lasts long. First time I've wiped, the reason being because I didn't know that she's an avid self-healer. Give her 3 heals, and she'll heal 100% of her HP back. I don't know wheter Pummel from Gorilladin or Intimidation worked on interrupting heals or not, I was getting Immune message although people on WoWhead say that's only for the silence effect. Basically she transforms to human form at 50%, and the bat riders start running in, and if you can't nuke her down you'll just be overrun (the bat riders don't actually join in the fight, they just fly around and throw fire bombs at you & pet). Solution: drain her mana to 0 before getting into phase 2 (getting her to 50%). Here's what I did. Pet was just tanking her for like 3 minutes or so, while I was just Viper Stinging her when it was off CD (I didn't attack her!). After pet got a sufficient aggro I also put pet on passive and stay, so the boss was basically smacking my pet while pet didn't respond, and the only thing I did was Viper Sting her. This is because even if pet was just attacking it she'd be at 50% way before she'd reach 0 mana. Oh, the bats that come in, I'd just put Explosive Trap down and Volley them to death, they die in around 4 Volleys (interruption counted in), so no hard deal. After 50%, it's nuke (pet can attack again), and keep her Viper Stinged everytime it's off cd. That's crucial, she can cast heal with barely few mana, so it's essential she's on 0 as much as possible. Two-shot.
6.High Priest Mar'li (spider):
This boss was a bit trickier, but as I read the strategy in advance I managed to bring her down in first try. It's not really hard either. When she's in troll form, nuke her, and more importantly, nuke the spiders she summons. They don't have that much health, and with luck you can bring them close to your pet where it can AoE tank them. Then you just single-target nuke them down. Keep Mend Pet up, and nuke the boss. When the boss switches to spider form I normally just pop Bestial Wrath, so first time she'll try to snare pet with web it's immune. Also, keep Mend Pet up here, she hits a tad harder. She will eventually manage to web your pet though. Use Master's Call to get rid of 2nd web on pet. If she manages to web the pet for the 3rd time, she'll go after you. Just feign death or pop Deterrence, whatever you prefer. This is the whole fight, keep doing this and she should go down quick. One-shot.
7.Hakkar:
After all 5 priests were dead I decided to try Hakkar, since he's much easier without the buffs from priests. You can skip all the trash on the Temple itself with some clever moving, so you can get to the back of the pyramid, away from the pats. Pull Hakkar, and kill him. It's that easy. It's your normal tank'n'spank fight with little incoming damage. The fight kinda feels more like Patchwerk, but only because of the insane amount of health he has, not because of his damage. Mend Pet should keep pet on basically 100% all the time. And if you're wondering if his soul drains will do anything... he only got 1 player to drain :). It's really easy... One-shot. Piece of cake!
So that leaves me the 3 optional bosses which I'll definately try. The Bloodlord Mandokir for the mount, Edge of Madness because I've never done it before and Jin'do the Hexxer well... just for the sake of it. I'm really looking forward to more adventures though, I'm sure I could kill more stuff in AQ20 and finally solo those TBC 5-mans, maybe even some heroics. It really makes difference having right glyphs, right gear and right talents.
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