Well, we cleared Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep. I know these are level 70 raids and shouldn’t pose much of a problem at level 85, but I found both enjoyable. There were some interesting mechanics involved in some of those fights. I especially enjoyed the Hot Potato passing feel of Lady Vashj.
We had a good raid leader taking us through and explaining the fights. Luckily, we had enough firepower to make many of the fights much less dangerous than they could have been, even for the level 85s in the group.
Since I reached level 70 for the first time a matter of weeks before the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, I didn’t have much time for raiding in Burning Crusade. I got myself geared up a bit and ran Karazan once before the expansion.
Afterward, there wasn’t much of a reason for me to go back. The gear was obsolete and I was more focused on new content. Since there was an achievement for it, my wife and I eventually wanted to complete it, but it wasn’t high on our list until we started working on[Outland Raider].
So, I was glad to see that our guild was running the old instances/raids for achievements. I was even more impressed that we had someone who knew the fights well and could explain them for us who hadn’t been there before.
Two more achievements down. Next, I’m looking at the Battle for Mount Hyjal.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
Why not kill Deathwing?
I'm not concerned with Deathwing's demise.
I'm not sure if I haven't been paying as much attention during leveling, but I don't have any feelings toward this world-changing upstart at all. It's almost the opposite. Thanks to Deathwing, I get to fly around Azeroth and witness some major scenery changes in the old world. He helped bring heroic versions of Deadmines, an instance I always liked and spent a lot of time running.
I have only leveled my main character to 85, but I didn't seem to learn too much about the black dragon supposedly bent on world destruction.
This is quite a change from the Wrath of the Lich King for me. As I leveled Morkk to 80, many quests gave me Arthas' backstory and I didn't like what he was becoming. I started a death knight, like everyone else, and absolutely loved that storyline. I was surprised by how much I wanted to kill the Lich King for telling me I was nothing and he was the next best thing to sliced bread. By the end of that chain, I was more than ready to off the big guy himself.
Of course, I had to wait. As others have commented, we got to storm all the way up to Icecrown Citadel and then turn around and fly off to Ulduar. Just you wait, you evil man, we'll be back for you. Then we had to prove that we were up for the challenge, which was a step I didn't mind, before getting a shot at Arthas himself.
Granted I don't raid much, and didn't spend much time in Ulduar or ToC until I needed gear for Icecrown. Mostly, I didn't care about those raids. But when the ICC 5-man instances showed up, I was all over those. They offered tougher fights than heroics at the time, and added even more to my quest to hunt down the Lich King. Plus, I got gear to help me be less of a smear against the floor in ICC.
In the end, I had plenty of reasons to want to see Arthas dead. Unfortunately, my guild and I weren't skilled enough to tackle him and I didn't get to see him drop. (Now, I have a new guild and am level 85, so you can't avoid death forever, Arthas.)
But in Cataclysm, I don't have that passion against Deathwing. It was interesting to see some folks from vanilla instances come back and the effects they had on the world, but I don't really see Deathwing as a threat.
I plan to pay more attention as I level up my death knight, but right now, I don't see myself caring if Deathwing lives or dies.
Does anyone think the "World Destroyer" needs to go down?
I'm not sure if I haven't been paying as much attention during leveling, but I don't have any feelings toward this world-changing upstart at all. It's almost the opposite. Thanks to Deathwing, I get to fly around Azeroth and witness some major scenery changes in the old world. He helped bring heroic versions of Deadmines, an instance I always liked and spent a lot of time running.
I have only leveled my main character to 85, but I didn't seem to learn too much about the black dragon supposedly bent on world destruction.
This is quite a change from the Wrath of the Lich King for me. As I leveled Morkk to 80, many quests gave me Arthas' backstory and I didn't like what he was becoming. I started a death knight, like everyone else, and absolutely loved that storyline. I was surprised by how much I wanted to kill the Lich King for telling me I was nothing and he was the next best thing to sliced bread. By the end of that chain, I was more than ready to off the big guy himself.
Of course, I had to wait. As others have commented, we got to storm all the way up to Icecrown Citadel and then turn around and fly off to Ulduar. Just you wait, you evil man, we'll be back for you. Then we had to prove that we were up for the challenge, which was a step I didn't mind, before getting a shot at Arthas himself.
Granted I don't raid much, and didn't spend much time in Ulduar or ToC until I needed gear for Icecrown. Mostly, I didn't care about those raids. But when the ICC 5-man instances showed up, I was all over those. They offered tougher fights than heroics at the time, and added even more to my quest to hunt down the Lich King. Plus, I got gear to help me be less of a smear against the floor in ICC.
In the end, I had plenty of reasons to want to see Arthas dead. Unfortunately, my guild and I weren't skilled enough to tackle him and I didn't get to see him drop. (Now, I have a new guild and am level 85, so you can't avoid death forever, Arthas.)
But in Cataclysm, I don't have that passion against Deathwing. It was interesting to see some folks from vanilla instances come back and the effects they had on the world, but I don't really see Deathwing as a threat.
I plan to pay more attention as I level up my death knight, but right now, I don't see myself caring if Deathwing lives or dies.
Does anyone think the "World Destroyer" needs to go down?
Monday, February 28, 2011
No winner makes me even sadder.
In a disturbing turn of events, no one won the Kalu’ak Fishing Derby on Saturday.
Normally, I participate in that tournament at every available opportunity. I really want the [Dread Pirate Ring] simply for The Princess Bride reference. Plus, extra 5 percent experience while leveling is always cool.
Anywho, it was Saturday again and I was busy writing an article for the local newspaper when my son tells me that the tournament has started. After I landed from my leap off the couch, I realized that by the time I started up the game and hauled my Draenei butt to Northrend, I might just be in time for Elder Clearwater to announce I was a loser yet again. Twice before, I have found the [Blacktip Shark] only to have someone else beat me to the turn-in.
So, I decided to save myself the grief and finish writing my article. I was supposed to be working anyway.
About an hour later, my son makes another announcement: the tournament is over.
What?!? The tournament never lasts more than six minutes. What are these strange words you speak?
But, sure enough, it was true. The tournament had expired because no one had claimed the top prize. I cried a little inside because I had been trying to get this goofy ring for such a long time and here nobody even wanted to try this week — the one week I was too busy to participate. Needless to say, I was not impressed. I will be even more frustrated when I fish up the shark next week just as Elder Clearwater announces the winner.
As a word of advice, if you are on the Dalaran server, I wouldn’t bother with the tournament on Saturday. This week, I’ll be carrying home the prize.
Normally, I participate in that tournament at every available opportunity. I really want the [Dread Pirate Ring] simply for The Princess Bride reference. Plus, extra 5 percent experience while leveling is always cool.
Anywho, it was Saturday again and I was busy writing an article for the local newspaper when my son tells me that the tournament has started. After I landed from my leap off the couch, I realized that by the time I started up the game and hauled my Draenei butt to Northrend, I might just be in time for Elder Clearwater to announce I was a loser yet again. Twice before, I have found the [Blacktip Shark] only to have someone else beat me to the turn-in.
So, I decided to save myself the grief and finish writing my article. I was supposed to be working anyway.
About an hour later, my son makes another announcement: the tournament is over.
What?!? The tournament never lasts more than six minutes. What are these strange words you speak?
But, sure enough, it was true. The tournament had expired because no one had claimed the top prize. I cried a little inside because I had been trying to get this goofy ring for such a long time and here nobody even wanted to try this week — the one week I was too busy to participate. Needless to say, I was not impressed. I will be even more frustrated when I fish up the shark next week just as Elder Clearwater announces the winner.
As a word of advice, if you are on the Dalaran server, I wouldn’t bother with the tournament on Saturday. This week, I’ll be carrying home the prize.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Sindragosa fight shows promise
Sindragosa fight shows promise
I found myself as the 10th man in a guild run shooting to down Sindragosa. I had read about the fight and watched videos on it, but actually being there is another thing.
For instance, it's easy to know that you have to run out of her Blistering Cold blast radius whenever she sucks you in with Icy Grip, but actually turning around and running out of range fast enough is much more difficult.
We decided to run back onto the stairs after she pulled us, but I have a hard time turning around and hauling my hooves up the stairs. Even with Tuskarr's Vitality, I couldn't get out of the way fast enough. On the last few tries, I started just running to the other side of Sindragosa to get out of the blast radius and then rejoining the group later. Sure, I didn't get to heal much doing all that running, but at least I could stay alive that way.
Other than running from her Blistering Cold, I didn't have many problems with the fight. Staying to the dragon's side always seems like a good idea any time I see one. Hiding behind frozen people reminded me of Sapphiron . While I didn't do that fight often, I had plenty of practice line-of-sighting Forgemaster Garfrost's Permafrost.
The group consistently got to Phase 3, even if I didn't make it that long on the first couple tries, but we couldn't seal the deal.
Even though we didn't make it out of there with phat lootz, I learned a lot about the fight and should be able to best her the next time I'm in there.
I found myself as the 10th man in a guild run shooting to down Sindragosa. I had read about the fight and watched videos on it, but actually being there is another thing.
For instance, it's easy to know that you have to run out of her Blistering Cold blast radius whenever she sucks you in with Icy Grip, but actually turning around and running out of range fast enough is much more difficult.
We decided to run back onto the stairs after she pulled us, but I have a hard time turning around and hauling my hooves up the stairs. Even with Tuskarr's Vitality, I couldn't get out of the way fast enough. On the last few tries, I started just running to the other side of Sindragosa to get out of the blast radius and then rejoining the group later. Sure, I didn't get to heal much doing all that running, but at least I could stay alive that way.
Other than running from her Blistering Cold, I didn't have many problems with the fight. Staying to the dragon's side always seems like a good idea any time I see one. Hiding behind frozen people reminded me of Sapphiron . While I didn't do that fight often, I had plenty of practice line-of-sighting Forgemaster Garfrost's Permafrost.
The group consistently got to Phase 3, even if I didn't make it that long on the first couple tries, but we couldn't seal the deal.
Even though we didn't make it out of there with phat lootz, I learned a lot about the fight and should be able to best her the next time I'm in there.
Monday, May 17, 2010
ICC progress report
Rotface is down.
Our casual guild finally made it through Putricide's other creation.
We didn't have any problems taking down the first four encounters plus Festergut, but Rotface stopped us dead. We gave him half a dozen tries the first night, and about that many more on the second night and we got him down.
Some may complain about the repair bill, but I enjoyed learning, troubleshooting and finally getting the fight down. Since ours is a casual guild, I know that others have accomplished this faster, but for us, this is a great achievement.
After downing him, we decided to take a few shots at his creator, but that didn't go so well. But at least I saw the fight, so I can read up on the strats more and it will mean something.
And just for fun, we decided to take a stab at the Dreamwalker encounter. As a healer, I was pumped for trying this one out, since the encounter calls for the dragon to be healed 6 million hps before completion. That's another fight that I will have to read up on because me and two other healers were only able to get her healed about 1.1 million hps before we wiped.
Obviously we have some more learning to do, but I have to admit I enjoyed fighting our way to the Lich King.
I hope to see him sooner than later.
Our casual guild finally made it through Putricide's other creation.
We didn't have any problems taking down the first four encounters plus Festergut, but Rotface stopped us dead. We gave him half a dozen tries the first night, and about that many more on the second night and we got him down.
Some may complain about the repair bill, but I enjoyed learning, troubleshooting and finally getting the fight down. Since ours is a casual guild, I know that others have accomplished this faster, but for us, this is a great achievement.
After downing him, we decided to take a few shots at his creator, but that didn't go so well. But at least I saw the fight, so I can read up on the strats more and it will mean something.
And just for fun, we decided to take a stab at the Dreamwalker encounter. As a healer, I was pumped for trying this one out, since the encounter calls for the dragon to be healed 6 million hps before completion. That's another fight that I will have to read up on because me and two other healers were only able to get her healed about 1.1 million hps before we wiped.
Obviously we have some more learning to do, but I have to admit I enjoyed fighting our way to the Lich King.
I hope to see him sooner than later.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Malygos Must Die
While this isn’t as exciting as Rahana downing the Lich King, but I’m happy to report that I was able to PuG my way through Malygos the other day.
I had gotten the key for the place out of Naxx a while ago, but only used it once before. Back before ToC came out, I tried it with a PuG, but we couldn’t make it past Phase 2 before the group fell apart.
This time, I ran with a group wanting to complete [Malygos Must Die]. Actually, I was surprised to see a group looking for that quest. This was the first time it came up as a random weekly raid quest since I restarted my account.
I knew enough to stay at the dragon’s side and I remembered reading about staying in the bubbles on Phase 2, but just before Phase 3, my computer bugged out on me and I died to his Deep Breath (I think, my computer seemed to think it was the ideal time to run an HP update).
Instead of half the group leaving after we wiped on the first try, we just talked about what we needed to change. (I still find it odd that some people like to hang out on a dragon’s tail.) Luckily, the group listened to the raid leader, (not me, I had no idea what I was doing) stayed to the sides of the dragon, moved to the biggest bubbles in Phase 2 and got the right rotation down on Phase 3 on our third try.
In the end, it wasn't too painful and I was glad to get that one out of the way.
Afterward, I also realized I received the [Champion of the Frozen Wastes] achievement out of the deal, so I had even more reason to celebrate.
Next step: find a way to PuG my way to Arthas' throne.
I had gotten the key for the place out of Naxx a while ago, but only used it once before. Back before ToC came out, I tried it with a PuG, but we couldn’t make it past Phase 2 before the group fell apart.
This time, I ran with a group wanting to complete [Malygos Must Die]. Actually, I was surprised to see a group looking for that quest. This was the first time it came up as a random weekly raid quest since I restarted my account.
I knew enough to stay at the dragon’s side and I remembered reading about staying in the bubbles on Phase 2, but just before Phase 3, my computer bugged out on me and I died to his Deep Breath (I think, my computer seemed to think it was the ideal time to run an HP update).
Instead of half the group leaving after we wiped on the first try, we just talked about what we needed to change. (I still find it odd that some people like to hang out on a dragon’s tail.) Luckily, the group listened to the raid leader, (not me, I had no idea what I was doing) stayed to the sides of the dragon, moved to the biggest bubbles in Phase 2 and got the right rotation down on Phase 3 on our third try.
In the end, it wasn't too painful and I was glad to get that one out of the way.
Afterward, I also realized I received the [Champion of the Frozen Wastes] achievement out of the deal, so I had even more reason to celebrate.
Next step: find a way to PuG my way to Arthas' throne.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Clearing Trial of the Crusader
Well, the weekly raid quest lured me into Trial of the Crusader for the first time last night. Luckily, I had a guild invite me to the run, so it was a smoother learning curve than would have occurred in a PuG.
Many of the group already understood the mechanics of the fight and could explain/remind those of us whom didn't know what we were doing. As healer, I didn't have to worry about quite as much as if I had been tank.
The Beasts weren't too much of a problem until Icehowl. He seemed fine until he turned his sights on me. I tried to get out of his path, but didn't quite make it before his charge. After his charge killed me, I popped Reincarnation and healed up myself and the tank. A bit later, Icehowl tried to punt me again, but I got out of his way and he was downed shortly after the stun.
Lord Jaraxxus went down without much of a problem and then we moved on to the Faction Champions. We wiped on these guys three times before we got them down. For the last attempt, I tossed on my PvP trinket to get out of Polymorph, but I still spent most of my time wandering around as a sheep as the mage seemed fixated on me.
After stumbling a bit on the PvP fight, we had little trouble with the Twin Val'kyr and Anub'arak. Overall it was a nice run and great learning experience for me.
Many of the group already understood the mechanics of the fight and could explain/remind those of us whom didn't know what we were doing. As healer, I didn't have to worry about quite as much as if I had been tank.
The Beasts weren't too much of a problem until Icehowl. He seemed fine until he turned his sights on me. I tried to get out of his path, but didn't quite make it before his charge. After his charge killed me, I popped Reincarnation and healed up myself and the tank. A bit later, Icehowl tried to punt me again, but I got out of his way and he was downed shortly after the stun.
Lord Jaraxxus went down without much of a problem and then we moved on to the Faction Champions. We wiped on these guys three times before we got them down. For the last attempt, I tossed on my PvP trinket to get out of Polymorph, but I still spent most of my time wandering around as a sheep as the mage seemed fixated on me.
After stumbling a bit on the PvP fight, we had little trouble with the Twin Val'kyr and Anub'arak. Overall it was a nice run and great learning experience for me.
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