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WoW Trailer: Unreleased Mists of Pandaria

Nov 4, 2011 world of warcraft|118views

Here is a fan-made trailer we got from YouTube, telling us a real story behind all of the announcements and poking fun at the new features.

I bet you won’t be disappointed if you’re a Mists of Pandaria fan, cause in this video, you’ll find out that there are a couple hilarious stuffs not only from the scenarios part and some graffiti drawings, but also the voice of the video maker. It seems that he is able to make fun of Blizzard, make fun of WoW, make fun of people who make fun of Blizzard and WoW, and make fun of himself at the same time. What do you think?

Besides, there are a few pieces of the video that I know for a fact will ring true, and I would love if Blizzard actually makes them into WoW.

Tags: Pandaria, Trailer, world of warcraft

World of Warcraft Argument Leads to Violent Dispute

Feb 19, 2010 world of warcraft|274views

Some people tend to get very obsessive, World of Warcraft clearly among this group of games that players cannot put down. However, at times this line of obsession can boldly be crossed as a form of addiction. James Swan proved this point just a few days ago, when he was playing World of Warcraft and doing some heavy drinking.

Just a note, I believe you can pin most of this on the alcohol.

The dispute took place at about 10 p.m., a reasonable time for younger children to be in bed. James Swan is not a young child, he is 27-years-old, but he does live with his mother and younger siblings. While the five children were trying to sleep, James was getting a little too loud in his WoW session. Reasonably, this led to the mother asking him to quiet down so others could sleep.

When Swan refused to be quiet, his mother asked him once more, leading to the beginning of the dispute.

James Swan grabbed his mother by the hair and threw her on the bed, doing the same to his younger brother when he attempted to see what was amiss. After the mother had regained her form, she quickly ran to call the police. James did not accept this course of action and decided to rip the phone from the wall, proceeding to smash his head into the area the phone formerly rested.

The dispute escalated to the point where Swan began choking his mother, threatening to kill her. When Grandfather checked in to see what was going on, the mother was already losing consciousness. The grandfather then attempted to intervene, at which point Swan threatened his life as well.

Swan’s grandfather was not going to take death threats sitting down, so he went into his room and picked up a gun. When Swan saw this, the two wrestled over the weapon, ultimately leading to the bullet bouncing off Swan’s head, and going through a nearby window.

Swan was only wounded by the bullet, and was taken to the hospital where he refused treatment and was arrested.

The Heroic Five Man Dungeons Guide

Dec 30, 2009 Articles Recommend, world of warcraft|362views

Fat chance that the Red Proto-Drake will be gone any time soon since it’s only a 280% flight speed mount. Still, anyone after the Red or Blue Dragonhawk mount (when Blizzard gets off their backsides and increases its speed to 310% instead of a measly 280%) from Mountain O’ Mounts should count the Red Proto-Drake among the 100 that they’ll need. Or you can just look a lot cooler riding on a big red proto-drake instead of a puny red or blue bird that looks like it would snap in half if a Tauren sat on it.

The achievements from the heroic five-man dungeons aren’t as difficult as they used to be pre-Ulduar, but a lot of them are still a pain in the backside. They’re all listed here per dungeon, all rated for their difficulty with the appropriate tactics and under the assumption that the groups trying for this are decked out in Naxx 25, Ulduar 10/25, or ToC 10/25 gear.

Utgarde Keep

On The Rocks

Defeat Prince Keleseth on Heroic difficulty without shattering any Frost Tombs.

Don’t use AoE attacks, period. Any tank can take Prince Keleseth without relying on their AoE skills. Frost Tomb is an indiscriminate spell, so the tank, DPS or healer could be a victim. Take multipurpose classes if you’re paranoid.

The Nexus

Split Personality

Defeat Grand Magus Telestra on Heroic difficulty after killing her images within five seconds of each other.

Simply using AoE attacks would do on Telestra’s images, but groups with fewer AoE attacks would do well with controlling the amount of damage done to their targets. 40% for each image would do if there are DoTs on each. Keep an interrupt-capable class on the Frost image to cancel her channeling or else she’ll refuse to die until her Blizzard’s channeling time has finished.

Though she should split twice for the fight, killing her before the second split still grants the achievement.

Chaos Theory

Defeat Anomalus on Heroic difficulty without destroying any Chaotic Rifts.

Clear out all of Anomalus’ rooms before you start this achievement. Your team will need several choke points to AoE the adds that spawn from the Chaotic Rifts without accidentally destroying any Chaotic Rifts. Your healer should be ready to heal everyone because of the massive arcane volleys from the adds until Anomalus stops channeling energy.

You’ll need at least two choke points. The first choke point is the first ramp leading to Anomalus and the second is next to the ramp leading to the bridges that go to the south exit of the room. If these aren’t enough, work your way to the south exit and beyond until Anomalus goes down.

Intense Cold

Defeat Keristrasza on Heroic difficulty without allowing Intense Cold to reach more than two stacks.

Equip your insignias and ready any of your root-removing spells to be safe. Once the fight starts, jump, strafe and squirm your way around the room to keep Intense Cold from stacking on you. If she roots you, use whatever you have handy to free yourself.

Even with the best gear, Keri will hit you with at least one Frost Nova.

Azjol-Nerub

Watch Him Die

Defeat Krik’thir the Gatewatcher on Heroic difficulty while Watcher Gashra, Watcher Narji and Watcher Silthik are still alive.

If your group’s gear is good enough, you can DPS your way through this without caring about the little details.

Groups with lesser gear beware: two of the three Watchers are nasty. One will poison the entire party and the other will disorient the entire party. Both have interruptible casts, but a Shaman is preferred for their Poison Cleansing totem while Insignias can deal with the disorientation.

If you’re taking it slowly, start the fight by killing the Skirmishers. They reset their threat tables frequently and hit hard and then turn your attention to the Webspinners.

And all throughout, keep everyone out of the web wrapping.

Defeat Hadronox on Heroic difficulty before he webs the top doors and prevents more enemies from spawning.

Cheat your way through this with ease. Take any class that can drop their threat table and have them engage the mobs on the web. After they lose their threat table, the mobs will despawn. Everyone should then run down the web to Hadronox’s lair just before the hole in the web. You have 30-45 seconds after Hadronox spawns to kill him. Don’t let the Hadronox’s poison kill anything or he’ll heal.

Gotta Go!

Defeat Anub’arak on Heroic difficulty in 4 minutes or less.

It’s a DPS race. Hit him until he burrows, then kill the mobs until Anub’arak comes back asking for more punishment. The time limit is incredibly generous.

Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom

Respect Your Elders

Defeat Elder Nadox on Heroic difficulty without killing any Ahn’kahar Guardians.

Take an off-tank with you and a second healer or have the off-tank survive long enough to nuke the boss.

Clear the area beyond Elder Nadox, particularly the balcony overlooking Prince Taldaram. Once you’re fighting Nadox, take him to that balcony. Your off-tank should stay inside Elder Nadox’s room and pull any Ahn’kahar Guardians before they go through the doorway and give Nadox immunity.

Defeat Prince Taldaram on Heroic difficulty with fewer than five people.

Okay, so bring four people and beat the bloodsucker into the ground. You’ll need to deal 40,000 damage to stop Embrace of the Vampyr before the victim is drained dry.

Volunteer Work

Defeat Jedoga Shadowseeker on Heroic difficulty without killing any Twilight Volunteers.

Jedoga gains a huge damage boost when one of the Twilight Volunteers is sacrificed. Melee DPS can be killed in one hit from a powered-up Cyclone Strike, so anyone in melee except the tank should beat feet until her enrage ends.

Volazj’s Quick Demise

Defeat Herald Volazj on Heroic Difficulty in two minutes or less.

Doing this requires that all of your DPS be competent enough to kill the illusions during Insanity. If each of your DPS can kill their illusions within 20 seconds or less during both phases, you’re golden. Just watch out for the Priest healer and its powerful Greater Heal.

Drak’tharon Keep

Consumption Junction

Defeat Trollgore on Heroic difficulty before Consume reaches ten stacks.

Trollgore casts Consume every 15 seconds. That’s 15 seconds for the tank to position Trollgore in a niche or hallway that gives time for the DPS and healer to run out of Trollgore’s line-of-sight.

Position an off-tank or melee DPS at the top of the stairs to deal with the adds that show up while the rest of the team takes to the fight downstairs.

Tank him in the hallway that you used to enter the room, with the DPS and healer standing behind either column. Every 10 seconds, everyone but the tank should hide before Trollgore casts consume.

Oh Novos!

Defeat Novos the Summoner on Heroic difficulty without allowing any undead minions to reach the floor.

The group only needs to position themselves on the stairs with the healer positioned to heal the off-tank and main tank. The minions themselves deal pitiful damage and don’t swarm that well, so dealing with them until Novos’ shields go down shouldn’t be a problem.

Better Off Dred

Engage King Dred on Heroic difficulty and slay 6 Drakkari Gutrippers or Drakkari Scytheclaws during his defeat.

The raptors needed for this fight are located in King Dred’s pen. Save time by waiting for King Dred to approach the entrance before you pull him, pulling 1 or 2 raptors at the same time.

Kill the raptors and as the fight progresses, pull more raptors to your tank by any means. The Gutrippers can reduce their target’s stamina by 15% only once. Don’t go overboard with pulling the Scytheclaws because each Scytheclaw can put a bleed effect on their target. Couple the bleed damage with Dred’s damage and his bleed damage amplification skills and only a miracle will save your tank.

These raptors do not respawn. If you kill too many, try this achievement again tomorrow.

Violet Hold

Defenseless

Defeat Cyanigosa on Heroic difficulty without using Defense Control Crystals and with Prison Seal Integrity at 100%.

This is no real achievement. Many players don’t notice the pink crystals on the walls around the room and can still keep the entry door at 100% the entire time. Wiping doesn’t affect this achievement either.

Lockdown!

Defeat Xevozz, Lavanthor, Ichoron, Zuramat the Obliterator, Erekem and Moragg on Heroic difficulty.

Run the dungeon a few times and if you’re not so lucky, spend the next week or so trying to unlock that one last boss for this achievement.

Dehydration

Defeat Ichoron on Heroic difficulty without allowing any Ichor Globules to merge.

Don’t expect to do this at the same time as Defenseless.

As you fight Ichoron, her shield loses a stack for every hit she takes. Once those stacks are gone, she explodes into several Ichor Globules that spread around the room and merge in the center.

Around the room are several pink crystals along the walls. Assign someone to click on them whenever Ichoron’s shield reaches 7-10 stacks. The crystals have a charge-up time. By the time the globules are out, the defense crystal should be ready to fire. After it fires, find another crystal for the next split.

A Void Dance

Defeat Zuramat the Obliterator on Heroic difficulty without killing any void sentries.

Focus fire on Zuramat the Obliterator, but have your dispels ready. His Shroud of Darkness reduces healing done to his attackers by 20% for each stack to a maximum of five stacks. With the AoE shadow damage done by the Void Sentries, this can turn very ugly if you spend more than a minute fighting him.

Gundrak

What the Eck?

Defeat Gal’darah on Heroic difficulty while under the effects of Eck Residue.

After killing everything in Gundrak except for Eck the Ferocious and Gal’darah, pay a visit to the giant gorloc. He’s in the tunnel that opens up after defeating Moorabi.

While fighting Eck, stand in front of him when he casts Eck Spit. It stings, but it’s the only way to get Eck Residue. Enjoy your ferocious smell for an hour.

Now make your way to Gal’darah and don’t die until he does. You’ll lose your Eck Residue if you do. Any immunity spells such as Ice Block and Divine Shield, so keep your fingers off your panic buttons.

Less-Rabi

Defeat Moorabi on Heroic difficulty while preventing him from transforming into a mammoth at any point during the encounter.

This achievement is a pain in the arse. The more damage you deal to Moorabi, the faster his transformations are. And if he transforms towards the end of his miserable life, your DoTs might kill him.

There are several party setups that will work. Some of the more popular ones involve at least one shaman with Reverberation who uses Wind Shear whenever it’s available.

His base cast times are 10 seconds while he’s above 50% HP, then 5 seconds below that. The cast speed increases based on how much health he has left. Below 30%, that cast time could be instant.

Depending on your latency, you can either time your interrupts or use one every 2-3 seconds after he reaches 30%.

Share The Love

Defeat Gal’darah on Heroic difficulty and have 5 unique party members get impaled throughout the fight.

While Gal’darah’s a rhino, he’ll impale one party member for a few seconds, dealing bleed damage while parading them around. If you’re lucky, he’ll impale each party member only once. If he feels like making you suffer for this achievement, you’ll get repeated impalements for one party member. If Blizzard feels like making you suffer, your heal will disconnect and you’ll wipe and have to do this all over again.

Ulduar: Halls of Stone

Good Grief

Defeat the Maiden of Grief on Heroic difficulty in one minute or less.

If you’re not in epic gear and don’t know how to DPS as your class, then forget about this achievement.

Your biggest enemy here is the Maiden of Grief’s Shock of Sorrow, a spell with a 4-second cast time that puts a 6-second damage-breakable incapacitation on the entire party. As she is casting Shock of Sorrow, stand in the black circles (Storm of Grief) that she casts earlier. One tick of damage from standing in the Storm is enough to break the incapacitation effect.

Depending on how much damage you can deal per second, the Maiden can cast this spell one to four times. That’s a maximum of 24 seconds wasted if you can’t put her out of her misery quickly enough.

Brann Spankin’ New

Defeat the Tribunal of Ages encounter on Heroic difficulty without allowing Brann Bronzebeard to take any damage.

Take a Death Knight or Paladin for tanking. Use the stairs at the entrance to the Tribunal’s room as a choke point to gather all of the adds before they can reach Brann. Hunters should drop Frost Traps to give the tank time to pick up everything.

Now just avoid the lasers and the giant black ball and you’ll be fine. If you wipe, you can attempt this achievement again.

And no, healing Brann to full health after he’s taken damage will not work.

Abuse the Ooze

Defeat Sjonnir the Ironshaper on Heroic difficulty and kill 5 Iron Sludges during the encounter.

Tank Sjonnir in the corridor you entered from and bring him down to 40-50% of his HP. When he starts casting Lightning Ring, get away from him and focus on the oozelings that start spawning. Leave them alone until they get to the middle of the room and merge into an Iron Sludge. Destroy this Iron Sludge before more spawn or suffer the AoE poison volleys that can rape your party.

Once you’ve destroyed the 5 sludges, Sjonnir can join them.

Ulduar: Halls of Lightning

Lightning Struck

Defeat General Bjarngrim on Heroic difficulty while he has a Temporary Electric Charge.

Before the fight, Bjarngrim moves around the other half of the room, casting Temporary Electric Charge on himself. This powers up any adds that are near him, so clear one of the platforms and the bridges next to it before starting the fight.

Bjarngrim and his adds gain a 30% increase to their damage as long as they have the Temporary Electric Charge. If Whirlwind hurt your DPS classes before, it will downright kill them if they don’t back off quickly enough.

Shatter Resistant

Defeat Volkhan on Heroic difficulty without allowing him to shatter more than four Brittle Golems.

Ignore the golems that spawn through the fight and attack Volkhan if he goes down. The golems only do around 2-3,000 damage per hit. Unless you’re in grays and whites, this shouldn’t be that hard.

Timely Death

Defeat Loken on Heroic difficulty in two minutes or less.

You don’t have to worry about stuns, but Loken’s Lightning Nova may have you running for your life, shaving 5-10 seconds off your attack time.

If you’re tough, your group can stand next to Loken and suck up the damage. Have around 20,000 HP to guarantee your survival and you should be fine.

Caverns of Time: Culling of Stratholme

Zombiefest!

Kill 100 Risen Zombies in one minute.

Take a Paladin tank with you for this one.

Fight through the encounter until Salramm the Fleshcrafter spawns. Take him all the way to the inn in the northeast area and tank him inside. Kill all the zombies that attached themselves to your group and wait for three minutes. Once the zombies outside the inn have respawned, kill Salramm.

Arthas will order you to meet him at the inn, but he’s an incredibly slow runner when he’s not in your visual range, so go make a sandwich.

Kill the third boss and then open the path to the burning alley. Have your Paladin tank return to the first area. Remove any reactive damage effects like Thorns before pulling all of the zombies in the first area. There should be around 70 or so there. Once the zombies have been pulled, run back to the burning alley and wait for the crowd of shamblers to appear on your map. Once the majority of the zombie train is in the burning alley, take them all out with area-of-effect attacks. Any remaining zombies that need to be dispatched can be found in the burning alley.

Remember Rule #1 when pulling zombies: Cardio.

The Culling of Time

Defeat the Infinite Corruptor on Heroic difficulty.

After Mal’ganis turns all of Stratholme into an undead carnival, you have 25 minutes to clear your way through 8 waves of Scourge monsters, 3 bosses and a burning alley laden with more Scourge freaks and zeds. Once you’ve passed the burning alley, take a left at the marketplace to find the Infinite Corruptor erasing one of the Bronze Dragonflight from existence.

The Infinite Corruptor can leave in the middle of the fight, so save yourself at least 3 minutes to kill him.

Depending on how quickly you work, you can allot one or two wipes for this.

Utgarde Pinnacle

The Incredible Hulk

Force Svala Sorrowgrave to kill a Scourge Hulk on Heroic difficulty.

Hulk no smash today.

I haven’t seen Svala trap a Scourge Hulk yet, but this achievement is still possible without it.

Pull a Scourge Hulk at the start of the fight and take it down to 15,000 HP. When Svala casts Ritual of the Sword, free your comrade and then place the Scourge Hulk under the sword. When the sword strikes, it should kill the Hulk. If not, there’s a damage-over-time effect placed on anyone who is caught in the blast made after the sword connects. If the Hulk dies to that, it still counts towards the achievement.

You can help the damage along, but it has to be Svala’s attack that deals the killing blow.

Lodi Dodi We Loves the Skadi

Kill Skadi the Ruthless within 3 minutes of starting the gauntlet event.

Like Hadronox Denied, you can cheat your way through this one. Engage Skadi at the start of the gauntlet, then retreat into Gortok Palehoof’s room. After the mobs in the gauntlet despawn, run to the end before Skadi respawns. Once he has, send someone back to activate the gauntlet.

But this will still not be enough to beat Skadi in 3 minutes, mostly because the Harpooners take so long to spawn. Check My Girl Loves to Skadi All the Time for the rest and get both achievements done in one go.

My Girl Loves to Skadi All the Time

Defeat Skadi the Ruthless after having killed Grauf from 100% to dead in a single pass.

You’ll need six harpoons split among three members of your team to pull this off. After gathering six harpoons, reset the encounter by running back to Gortok Palehoof’s room. Once all the mobs are gone, run to the harpoon guns before Skadi respawns. Once Grauf is within range of the harpoons, let loose and hit him with all the harpoons you have before he passes.

King’s Bane

Defeat King Ymiron on Heroic difficulty without anyone in the party triggering Bane.

Treat the fight as a DPS race. From the start of the fight, you have 20 seconds to damage Ymiron for 20% of his health. Bane is activated 20 seconds after Ymiron is engaged and after he loses 20% of his health. The timer for Bane is reset after he has been damaged by 20%, indicated by the party-wide stun he inflicts while running to the boats.

If your latency can handle it and your DPS can’t, Bane can be dispelled or stolen. But good luck with that. Unless your realm is fresh and without transfers, you’d be hard pressed to find a party with DPS using rusty swords, a tank made out of paper, and a healer who’s always OOM.

The Oculus

Experienced Drake Rider

On three different visits, get credit for defeating Ley-Guardian Eregos while riding an Amber, Emerald, and Ruby Drake on Heroic difficulty.

One: Do not allow your drake to die. If you can accomplish that three times with different drakes on each run, then you’re set.

Make It Count

Defeat Ley-Guardian Eregos within 20 minutes of Drakos the Interrogator’s death.

First off, go to your achievement menu and track this achievement.

This goes up there with Less-rabi in terms of difficulty. You’re not bound by the power of your character’s abilities, but the drakes instead. The good news is that the drakes scale with your equipment, so anyone who’s raided the Argent Coliseum can rejoice. Everything will be peachy as long as you don’t wipe.

After killing Drakos, take your drakes. A common composition of one Ruby, two Emerald, two Amber should work. Every 12 seconds, someone has to cast Stop Time to prevent aggro from the blue drakes surrounding the Oculus.

Fly to the central ring and destroy the constructs.

Once you’ve destroyed the last construct on the ring, mount up and fly through the rings towards one of the platforms with constructs on it. You should only need to kill 2-3 drakes to make a safe landing on the platform.

Tank the construct close to the edge where you landed, then mount up, hit Time Stop, then make your way to the next platform. Fly through the Oculus’ rings to spare yourself the nerd rage from pulling drakes.

With the constructs down, fly through the ring to reach Varos Cloudstrider. Once he dies, that’s the end of the drakes.

Fly up to Mage-Lord Urom and defeat him. Now you have only the whelps to worry about. Fly away from the ring and perch on one of the platforms surrounding the ring at the top.

If you’ve got five or more minutes left, then you should be safe. Fight Eregos, stay away from his large blue arcane balls, top up the drakes and win. If your drake falls, land on the ring and fight Eregos with bullets, arrows, axes, daggers, stones, and insults.

Amber Void

Defeat Ley-Guardian Eregos without anyone in your party using an Amber Drake.

Your damage will be weaksauce without the Ambers and this fight will take an eternity. Keep four Emeralds and a Ruby with you, make good use of Touch of the Nightmare and keep your drain attacks refreshed and maxed out.

Ruby Void

Defeat Ley-Guardian Eregos without anyone in your party using a Ruby Drake.

Ruby Drakes aren’t the only ones with the AoE attack to kill the whelplings, but the only ones that can mitigate damage from Eregos.

Have three Emeralds and two Ambers out if you only want this achievement. Personally, I’d rather go with a completely Amber party.

Emerald Void

Defeat Ley-Guardian Eregos without anyone in your party using an Emerald Drake.

There’s no one to heal you, but as long as your one or two Ruby drakes can handle the damage, the Ambers can cast Stop Time when Eregos enrages and have a spare Stop Time to take care of anything else.

Ruby and Emerald Void

Better to just get Amber Void and then get these two at the same time to be done with it. Order your party’s Stop Time casts. Each has a one minute cooldown and the effects last for ten seconds, so give it at least twelve seconds from the previous cast. You’ll take a little damage, but it’s nothing that can’t be shrugged off. Use the time to kill some of the whelps that show up. Their power is in their numbers and you don’t want to be there when the sky is full of screeching baby dragons.

As for Temporal Rift, it’s only useful if another party member is damaging Eregos during the channeling. You don’t have to order it like Stop Time but someone does need to take shots at Eregos to build up those charges.

Tags: Dungeons, five man, Glory of the Hero, world of warcraft

GAPP and Ministry of Culture clashing over Chinese WoW regulation

Nov 7, 2009 world of warcraft|285views

The New York Times has brought its journalistic bear to the story earlier this week about China deciding not to approve WoW’s release over there under new service provider Netease, and it seems what we thought was confusion between two agencies has turned into a war. One one side, you have the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), who earlier this week said that Netease (WoW’s local provider of Blizzard’s game in China) could not legally be collecting subscriptions on a game that GAPP hadn’t yet approved. But on the other side is the Ministry of Culture, who did approve WoW’s content when it was run by The9, and are now saying that GAPP “overstepped its authority” by thinking it could “penalize online gaming” at all.

Which means that the silly game of World of Warcraft has fallen smack dab in between two government agencies lobbying for power. In the past, says the NYT, GAPP has approved games pre-release, and the Ministry of Culture has overseen games once they’ve started running online. But WoW is a weird exception (it has been online for a few years already, and only went offline when Blizzard switched providers), and it looks like both agencies are grabbing for power and the sizable fees that come along with regulation. If they continue to clash, it’ll be up to the State Council, China’s cabinet, to determine who’s in charge. And the NYT says if that happens, the Ministry of Culture has the edge, with lots of friends in the cabinet already.

Meanwhile, Netease hasn’t taken the game offline yet, apparently — they still haven’t been given official notice to do so. There’s no word on how long this will take to shake out, but even China’s players are tired of the fighting; they just want to get back into Azeroth and play.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Tags: world of warcraft

Trial of the Crusader III-The Twin Val’kyr and Anub’arak

Oct 17, 2009 world of warcraft|459views

And it’s almost over. The fourth and fifth boss encounters are much more epic than the previous encounters, actually reaching the difficulty of some Ulduar bosses.

Boss Encounter 4: The Twin Val’kyr

Before the bosses enter, designate who will take the Dark Essence or Light Essence buff.

When you start the encounter, the Dark Val’kyr will move south and the Light Val’kyr will move north. They will stop close to the northwestern and southwestern points of the star design on the Coliseum’s floor. The essences will be on the northwestern, southwestern, southeastern, and southwestern.

You will need two tanks for these bosses. If you’re relying on a Paladin tank, have them tank the Dark Valkyr. Paladin tank skills will have very little effect on the Light Valkyr.

The tanks should pick the essence that is the same color as their target boss to reduce the amount of damage that they take. Classes with threat-directing skills will need to use those skills for the duration of the encounter.

This fight is healing-intensive, comparable to Ignis the Furnace Master in Ulduar. Surge of Light and Surge of Darkness will deal raid-wide damage every two seconds from the very start of the encounter. You can minimize the damage from one of the surges by picking an essence. The damage from the opposing element will increase, but the overall damage is lesser than not picking an essence at all.

Sphere Collection

As you go through the fight, light and dark spheres will appear at the edges of the arena. This happens before one of the Valkyr Twins casts a spell. Everyone in the raid should collect spheres that match their essence. They will take a little damage, but nothing compared to taking a sphere of the opposing element. If the bosses collect these spheres, it will add to their empowerment and once they’ve reached a certain number, will soft-enrage and deal considerable damage to the tanks for 15 seconds.

A popular tactic is to assign all ranged DPS to one essence and melee DPS with one healer to the other essence.

Ranged DPS should clump to the point that your character models overlap. During the sphere phase, the healer assigned to the melee DPS should filter any of the spheres that don’t match the ranged DPS’ essence. Melee DPS should do the same but to protect the tank in charge of their target boss. Ranged DPS will take in any matching spheres that are within 5-10 yards of their assigned position.

Once a player reaches 100 stacks of “Powering Up”, they will gain Empowering Light or Empowering Darkness, increasing damage dealt. Any threat-direction skills that they have should be used on the tanks before the massive surge of damage pulls the boss from the tank.

Post-Spheres: Boss Skills

After the Sphere Phase, one of the bosses will cast either a Vortex or Twins’ Pact. All players except the tanks should change their essence to match the boss casting the Vortex. Overheal the tank that doesn’t have a matching essence. Twins’ Pact is a 15-second cast that heals 20% of their total HP and cannot be interrupted until the boss casting it has their shield broken. Breaking the shield DOES NOT stop the cast, so give anyone who can interrupt the time to do so. If your DPS is good, you won’t need to change your essence to take down the shield while using the setup mentioned in Sphere Collection.

There is no set pattern for the spells, but the spells cast by the bosses will not repeat until the two Vortexes and two Twins’ Pacts have been cast.

Boss Encounter 5: Anub’arak

You can forget about the celebration for beating the first four bosses of the Trials. Just as everyone is about to get their mug of ale, the Lich King crashes the party and nerd rages at Tirion for not inviting him. As payback, he shatters the floor and sends you all plummeting into a pool of water while claiming the rights to your souls. He’d have done a better job if he hadn’t forgotten about WoW’s water physics.

At least the scenery beats the monotony of the Argent Coliseum. The frozen kingdom of Azjol-Nerub towers before you and at the far end of the frozen walls is Anub’arak, back to redeem himself after being such a mediocre five-man boss.

Designations

You’ll need two tanks, one for Anub’arak and one for the Nerubian Burrowers.

Assign one ranged DPS or one Death Knight to destroy the Frost Spheres floating above the raid for the duration of the encounter.

Phase 1: Tank-and-Spank

Your designated Sphere Breaker should take down at least 3 Frost Spheres during Phase One. These will create patches of Permafrost which will stop the Nerubian Burrowers from burrowing before the raid can kill them.

The main tank should tank Anub’arak near one of these patches. The off-tank should take the Nerubian Burrowers to the same patch used for Anub’arak.10-man encounters only see one Nerubian Burrower spawn every few seconds, so DPS should focus fire on every second Nerubian Burrower that spawns and then switch to area-of-effect skills to damage the Burrower and Anub’arak.

Anub’arak is a pushover to tank, dealing basic damage and stunning the tank every now and then. He also casts a damage-over-time spell on a few raiders, but it’s nothing that can’t be outhealed.

Nerubian Burrowers attack at a faster rate when they are near each other. One off-tank is often enough if the DPS can quickly kill those Burrowers.

If you have Deadly Boss Mods, the assigned Sphere Breaker should get to work 20 seconds before Anub’arak burrows.

And Anub’arak will burrow. No puny patch of ice will stop him.

Phase 2: Run, Period.

Once underground, the raid needs to get as far away from Anub’arak while keeping a patch of ice between them and him.

Anub’arak once again uses Impale, but he will chase a specified target this time. Players targeted by Anub’arak will have a mark similar to Hunter’s Mark above their heads. Anub’arak’ spikes speed up the longer they are uninterrupted by a patch of ice. This phase ends after a certain amount of time, not the number of times Anub’arak will have to crash into the ice patches. If you want to practice for hard mode, kite the spikes around.

Throughout this phase, Swarm Scarabs will spawn around the raid. Everyone should attack these adds even if they’re not a tank. Swarm Scarabs don’t hurt a lot, but they have a stacking damage-over-time effect that really hurts once you reach 3 or 4 stacks.

Once the timer is up, it’s back to Phase 1. Kill the Swarm Scarabs before going back to Anub’arak.

If you don’t want him to enrage, Anub’arak should only go into this phase twice.

Phase 3: They’ll Crawl All Over You

Once Anub’arak reaches 30%, he’ll cast Leeching Swarm. There will be no more Nerubian Burrowers for this phase so you won’t need the Frost Spheres.

Anub’arak will heal himself for 10% of the current health of each raid every second for this phase until his death, so DPS will need every skill they can muster. If your DPS can’t keep up with Anub’arak, let their health drop to 75-50% to reduce the health drained by Anub’arak.

And with Anub’arak down, the Heroic version of your raid is unlocked.

Tags: Trial of the Crusader, world of warcraft

World of Warcraft: Confessions of a Ganker

Oct 8, 2009 world of warcraft|445views

It’s happened to everyone in WoW; you’re deep in the jungles of Stranglethorn Vale and you’ve just murdered another animal for Hemet Nessingwary Jr. As you approach the hunter’s camp, pelts in hand, a powerful rogue comes out of the shadows and puts a 10k Ambush knife critical hit into your backside. You slam your hands on the keyboard in fury… he’s been killing you for hours. You pray that he won’t corpse camp you. After all, all you want to do is play the game.

As aspects of the player versus player experience, ganking and griefing are two of the most hotly contested topics in online gaming. Is there a difference between ganking and griefing? More importantly, why does it matter? Are the people responsible for these heinous crimes really demented citizens who were bullied as children and currently reside in their parents’ basement, as some forum threads might have us believe?

Fortunately, I can say that I was not bullied as a child, nor do I live in my parents’ basement, and yet, on occasion I take pleasure in ruining a low level character’s day when I ride through a zone to help a friend. Of course, there’s a subtle difference between a stray death coil to send a noob to the spirit healer, and corpse camping an unlucky player until boredom or higher level friends arrive. The difference between these two things is the difference between “ganking” and “griefing.”

As a game in the Warcraft universe, the developers have worked very carefully to push the tension of war into the player experience. While this option can be removed by playing on a Player vs Environment server, the real experience of leveling while looking over your shoulder is very much a positive element of the game.

By flagging yourself for PvP or by playing on a Player vs Player server, you accept the consequences of moving from safer gameplay into the warzone. More importantly, what makes getting killed and camped by a player any different than an NPC mob? Both occurrences are frustrating, but they create a challenge.

Ganking is life inside of the world of WoW– getting killed by something stronger than you is part of the game. How many times did a Son of Arugal or a Fel Reaver sneak up on you? Enough to make you be aware of them in order to scatter like cockroaches when ever they came around. Killing these monsters for many players is one of the more satisfying elements of the game. Being able to exercise your ability to look at something and make it die is just as satisfying–especially if it has killed you on other occasions.

Why do people gank? The answers are many and varied. Yes, some of them may be covering up deep psychological weakness, or covering up their inability to kill players their own level. Psychologists have noted that play allows children to deal with difficult situations and complex emotions in a safe way. In this way death and killing in an MMORPG can be therapeutic or the result of neurosis. More than likely, this is not the case.

Others, like me, do it because we can. We enjoy killing other players as part of the game. A flagged player is a flagged player; I fight anyone flagged and push to kill them before they kill me– whether or not they actually can. I also do it because it happened to me when I was leveling, and any revenge is enough to put my conscience at ease. When you’re bored at max level, sometimes it’s funny to see how persistent the lowbie will be– to see if he’ll keep trying to quest here before you get bored and take off. How many players gank critters at any chance? I know I do.

Other players attempt to gank low level characters in order to draw in max level characters so that some very satisfying world PvP can occur. World PvP can be more satisfying than any battleground or arena can ever be, and no fight will ever be the same. Sometimes knowing there’s another person there on the other end who will respond in kind, in anger, frustration, or laughter makes the killing all the better. It makes the game more real. Who wants to kill helpless AI anyway? At least a helpless player has an opportunity to learn and plan to avoid you or to run. And on top of everything else, it’s a lot more merciful than other forms of griefing, such as sapping or crowd controlling targets and preventing them from doing anything.

On the other hand, getting hunted, killed, and camped by a player of the opposite faction is far from fun, and most players certainly do not pay to have this happen to them. This is when ganking crosses the line and becomes griefing. Whether or not you intend to destroy the other player’s experience, at a certain point, your fun is coming at someone else’s expense. It’s also a jerk move. Killing lower level players is a form of cyber bullying, and those of us who do it will legitimately own up to it, griefing or not. Ultimately ganking is a lot like high schooler picking on a kindergartener. Whether or not you choose to engage in or otherwise condone the practice as an acceptable part of the game, it’s hard to justify it as anything else.

The difference between ganking and griefing is subtle enough that most players have difficulty separating the two, and such a task might as well be impossible. It’s safe to say, however, that WoW is not a lawless game and opening yourself to these results is ultimately your responsibility. Except in rare occasions, most players choose to engage allowing themselves the opportunity to be ganked.

Below are a few tips I’ve collected over my time in WoW that can be used to minimize downtime from ganking:

1. Prevent Ganking Outright- As I have mentioned, playing on a PvE server and not flagging yourself is the first step to keeping yourself protected. What if you want to fight people your level? Go to a battle ground, or suck it up and deal with the fact that that lowbie might be just a few yards from his max level friend.
2. Take skinning to hide - While it’s not always an option, hiding the trail of your killing can hide you from players who will hunt you. The same obviously goes for stealth and shadowmeld.
3. Travel with powerful friends - Having higher level allies from your faction may not keep you alive, but it will deter people from attempting to attack. At minimum, travel in groups.
4. Come back later - Get some fresh air, either in another zone or in real life. It’s just a game.
5. Don’t get frustrated - Of course, this is difficult, but if you’re really dealing with a low-life troll, your frustration showing in the game is one sure-fire way to invite corpse camping. And for the love of all that is holy, don’t message them on your cross faction alt. You’ll only be rewarding them by showing the misery they caused.
6. Keep a Kill on Sight (KoS) list - Either on paper or with an add-on. At least this way you can assure your revenge is appropriately dealt.

Tags: world of warcraft

Trial of the Crusader-Lord Jaraxxus

Oct 6, 2009 world of warcraft|619views

Welcome back to the Trials. If you were as disappointed as I was when I found out that there was only one boss encounter for the first week, you’ll be pleased to know that you get… one more boss. Yes, just one extra boss encounter after the Beasts of Northrend. The good news is that it’s just one boss this time, but it requires a lot more attention.

Boss Encounter 2: Lord Jaraxxus

General Designations

Two Tanks are needed for this fight, one for Jaraxxus and one for the adds that will spawn later. The main tank will kite Jaraxxus clockwise or counter-clockwise around the ring. You’ll get the reason later. The off-tank gets to deal with the Mistresses of Pain and Felflame Infernals.

Healers will need to watch for players who get hit with the Incinerate Flesh debuff. The player who gets it has 12 seconds to receive 30,000 or 60,000 points of healing, depending on the difficulty, to remove the debuff. If they don’t get healed, they explode into a Burning Inferno, dealing raid-wide fire damage every second for five seconds.

DPS should always kill the adds that show up, whether they are Mistresses of Pain or Felflame Infernals.

Movement

The main tank will kite Jaraxxus around to reduce the damage by multiple Legion Flames left left by the melee DPS or the tank. Any other players who take the Legion Flame should move in the direction opposite of the raid’s, similar to the Grobbulus fight in Naxxramas.

All of the raid should stay away from the Nether Portals and Infernal Volcanoes. The Mistress will target random players with her Spinning Pain Spike (AKA Piledriver). The Felflame Infernals also target random players with their charge, but throw in a channeled AoE that deals Fire damage to anyone within 15 yards after the charge before returning to the off-tank.

Ranged classes should maintain a 10-yard distance from each other to reduce the number of jumps made by Fel Lightning.

Extras

Jaraxxus will buff himself with 5 or 10 stacks of Nether Power, increasing his magic damage by 20% for each application. Use any dispels to take Nether Power off Jaraxxus before someone drops dead from a powered-up fireball or chain lightning.

And with Jaraxxus down, sit back, fume at the lack of bosses for your second week, then wait for the third week for something much more challenging.

Boss Encounter 3: Faction Champions

Before you start the encounter, get everyone to your faction’s arena side. The Champions will spawn on the opposing side once you start the encounter. They’re a patient lot and will let you make the first move but have no problem with laying the beatdown on anyone who happens to be hanging around their side of the arena.

Player rules apply to everything here, right down to the skills used by the Champions. Think like the arena, where your control skills last for a much shorter duration than on regular monsters, you could be the target if you’re the weakest and DPS are more likely to be among the first to die.

10-man encounters deal with 6 random champions composed of 2 healers and 4 DPS. 25-man encounters get 3 healers with 7 DPS.

This is not a tank-and-spank. There’s no threat table for the Champions. They can be taunted for a few seconds, but they will switch targets and will sometimes focus all their efforts into killing one person even if they happen to be several yards away. You can be hit with multiple skills in less than a second.

This is not a clump-and-AoE. The Champions take 75% less damage from all AoE spells and regardless of the AoE’s strength, it WILL break any control spells cast on the Champions.

Crowd Control

You will spend a lot of your time casting every control spell in your book. Polymorph, Fear, Entangling Roots, Freezing Traps and more will be the only way you can keep enough of your raid alive to focus their fire on one target.

Expect a lot of dispels to be cast against your control spells. Refresh and spam your control, but diminishing returns will cut down the frequency of your casts.

Designate someone to AoE Fear the Champions when they clump. Clumped Champions are usually chasing one person within the raid.

Dispelling any buffs placed on the Champions is just as key as turning them into pigs. Have a Discipline Priest ready with Mass Dispel with all other dispel-capable classes as support.

One or two interrupt-capable classes should be focused on the healers that the raid isn’t attacking.

Movement

The Champions don’t do much damage individually, but some of them are fans of AoE effects such as the Warrior’s Whirlwind. Spread out to reduce that kind of damage.

Move only when you’re being targeted by several Champions. You will have to use your protective cooldowns to survive the onslaught, but that’s enough time for the Champions to get the picture and move on to harass some other poor sod.

Kill Priorities

Regardless of the difficulty or composition, one of the healers has to go down first before the DPS. Forget about the other healers after the first one goes down to take the stress off anyone controlling the DPS Champions.

Discipline Priest…

You’re not targeting the Discipline Priest for the healing. If you wanted to kill a healer, what about the Druid, Restoration Shaman and Holy Paladin?

Kill the Discipline Priest for Mass Dispel, which will break every control spell you’ve tried to place so far, putting everyone back on the Champions’ dinner table to be served with a side of “pwnt”.

… or Restoration Shaman

With no Discipline Priest in sight, the Restoration Shaman becomes the next healer to target because he’s just as easy to burn. His heals can be interrupted and any totems he drops should be destroyed immediately, but have lots of dispels on hand to break his Earth Shield.

Hunter

The Hunter from the Trial of the Champion was targeted first because of its unpredictable targeting and overall damage. This Hunter is just a souped-up version of that, dealing utterly painful damage to anyone within range at ridiculous speeds. And just like any other Hunter, this one’s ranged skills are useless in melee.

Forget about the Hunter’s pet. Like most other Hunter pets, it’s one fluffy, scaly, or feathery budget meat shield against players.

Warrior

The Warrior dies next to stop Whirlwind from flying about and raping everyone close enough to catch it.

Enhancement Shaman

This one goes down because of all those buff totems, increasing damage with Windfury and Strength of Earth, dealing damage with Searing Totem, and pitifully healing with Healing Stream totem.

The totems only need one shot to destroy, so ranged DPS should be ready to crack those sticks in two.

Shadow Priest or Warlock

Tremor Totems will put an end to their fear attacks, but their DoTs will put a lot of hurt on the raid unless Mass Dispel has anything to say about it.

Balance Druid/Death Knight/Retribution Paladin/Rogue/Mage

These four can be taken out in any order. They’re mostly single-target attackers with an interrupt, control skill or two thrown in, but they don’t put themselves in a league of their own with their capabilities.

Restoration Druid

The Druid heals with HoTs. And like any buff, those HoTs can be dispelled the moment they land on the target, nearly wiping out the Druid’s usefulness among the Champions.

Targeting the Druid first is often one of the worst mistakes imaginable. The Druid is extremely difficult to burn because of the number of buffs that can get in the way of any dispels meant to target its HoTs.

Holy Paladin

This Paladin is like the rest that are controlled by players: Overpowered, irritating, and willing to hide behind invulnerability like the expletives that don’t deserve it. It can heal, but has very little utility amongst the Champions. Target it and it will be healed by the rest while it uses its bubble to make a mockery of you until a Warrior shatters the bubble. Just assign someone to interrupt the Paladin’s spells.

Warlock and Hunter Pets

When their master dies, the pets should despawn. Wish all you want but that isn’t happening unless you can pull such incredible mojo on the Hunter or Warlock that they die in one shot and the pet can’t comprehend what happened.

These pests just harass people but pose no major threat unless they’re backed up by several champions.

And with the third encounter completed, give the Faction Champions every /rude, /insult and /spit you can manage while you sift through their loot chest. Of course, you’ll have to go through them again on your fourth week, so any forgotten emotes can be saved for then.

Tags: Trial of the Crusader, world of warcraft

Easy Druid Leveling Guide of wow

Oct 6, 2009 world of warcraft|912views

Being a Druid is not for everyone. There is more to being a Druid than simple button mashing. You can choose from three different specializations. Yet, if you want to be a healing Druid, I suggest that you wait until you have reached maximum level, or have the money for dual specialization. The other two specializations are Feral and Moonkin. This guide is to help you level your character and will not go into detail on each specialization. Instead, we will touch on each specialization basics, and their functions for leveling. Remember, how fast you level is always going to be based upon how much time and effort that you put into it.

The Druid Feral specialization is actually two in one. You have your Cat form and your Bear form. The Cat form is a blast if you like to sneak up on your enemy and deal quick, mass damage. When you are looking for leather gear, make sure to get plenty of attack power and agility. Feral spec Druids will need to carry two sets of gear, one for cat form, one for bear. The Bear form comes into play for when you are looking to group for instance runs and they need a tank. For this gear set, look for armor, agility, and attack power. When a Druid checks their armor, they have to be in the appropriate form to compare stats. Bear form is also great for when you are out questing and pull too many mobs at once. Simply, use your heal over time spell (HoT), switch to bear form and finish the battle. Druids get Cat and Bear forms no matter what specialization they choose. They just are not going to be as powerful as if it were their main choice. Therefore, no matter the horrid situation you may find yourself in, pop a HoT, switch your form, and finish the job. Also, when leveling, always use your HoT’s before pulling anything. This will minimize your personal deaths, and repair bills. Learn to do this early on and you will find that leveling your Druid can be so much more fun and survivable.

The Druid Moonkin form is for those of us that enjoy casting spells, doing massive damage, and just looking cool. Just remember, Moonkins are considered a DPS class and in WoW, DPS is a dime a dozen. Therefore, unless you have made a name for yourself, you will spend a lot more time in the LFG than say your Bear form or Tree form. When you are leveling as a Moonkin, always start out with entangle roots followed by moon fire and star fire spells. Until you get higher level, the root spell will pop upon anything other than moon fire. Be ready to re-root and often. If you have time and patience, you can easily root, moon fire, rinse, and repeat until they are dead. It can be quite funny, but it is also very time consuming. Another important spell that every specialization gets is fairie fire. It is more powerful in feral spec but useable by all. This spell will allow you to pull a single mob out of a group. One of my favorite spells is hurricane. This area of effect (AoE) spell does a lot of damage. You should use this spell in conjunction with barkskin; it will help against spell interrupts. The gear you want here is for intellect, spirit, and spell critical percentage. Druid gear can be quite deceptive. Remember; always test your gear while in the appropriate Druid form. In example, both Tree form and Moonkins use spell power type gear; yet, the difference in the in forms can cause the same exact gear to have different results. You will also notice that most gear and weapons that drop for Druids rarely have plusses for Tree form.

As an Alliance Druid, you could actually go from level 1-60 solely in Night Elf territories. Everyone will have his or her own advice about how to level. Some will even try to power level a toon. I have many level 70-80 characters, and this is what I have noticed and found to be your best result for quick leveling. Questing is still your best bet for high experience and fast leveling. I personally can get a new character from level 1-40 in just 2 days played time. Do every quest you come upon and kill everything within reach all the way to the quest objective and all the way back to its turn in point. For a Druid, you will easily reach level 15 before reaching Darnassus. This is your main city hub where you can train and learn professions. Since Druids get a special spell to travel to the Druid training city of Moonglade, I suggest making this city your hearthstone home.

The next port you come to will be Ashenvale. I suggest at this point downloading a mod called, quest helper. This will give you a large arrow to follow and the shortest point to questing logistics. Next, grab every single quest available to you. Do not fret…the mod will sort things out and make a smooth route for you to follow. If at any point you find yourself having difficulty with a kill, ask for help in the general channel. Since WotLK, many high level toons will be in the area working on reputations or exploration for achievements. On the other hand, you may find other people leveling their characters and need assistance as well. Who knows, you may just make a new friend or two along the way. You will find that by the time you reach Astranaar, your character will easily be level 20-22.

Astranaar has many chain quests that will have you running back and forth, and between new areas. Do not stress about this. You can now train your Druid travel form and/or get a mount at level 20. You will find that this allows for faster questing than ever before. Astranaar is also home to the Night Elves first instance, Black Fathom Deeps. There are several quests for this instance in Darnassus, Ashenvale, and Astranaar. Make sure to pick as many up as possible before going to the instance. For maximum experience points, I suggest going to the instance with a level appropriate group. Go to Darnassus and start asking in trade channel for more. Open your LFG and start seeking others out. You should never have to pay for a run anywhere. Higher-level characters need this instance as well for their achievements. Some of the local quests will send you off to new zones. I recommend only going to turn in the initial quest and gathering the flight points, and returning to Astranaar. By the time you finish here, you should be level 30-35.

At this point, either you can continue following the logical Night Elf path for questing, or you may start to branch out into new world zones. Stonetalon, Desolace, Wetlands, and South Shore are all possibilities for you to explore and quest. Moreover, there are several low level instances for you to try out. To see what instances are available, open your LFG interface, choose dungeon and see what appears in the dropdown menu. These instances can have a lot of useful gear. Do not be afraid to try them. Grouping for instances now can help you learn your character better and learn a little instance etiquette. Make sure to turn off auto loot. If you are unsure about looting rules, ask the group leader. Just remember that instance runs are best beneficially when ran with level appropriate characters and if you have more than two quests for that instance.

As a Druid, once you hit level 56 it is safe to go on to the Burning Crusade zones for leveling. Pick up your flight form as soon as possible. In addition, the epic flight form no longer requires a long chain quest to get. The Outlands has thousands of quests for you to do and WoW has always had chain quests that send you to the next logical questing area. Do not worry about trying to epic gear your character, the blues and greens from quest rewards and drops do well for leveling your Druid. Questing here is no different from questing in the old kingdom. Gather all the quests available in one zone and work them until completed. If you have trouble, ask for help. Once you reach level 68, and as long as you have the WotLK, it is safe for you to start questing there. You can start in one of two sides, Stormwind or Wetlands. I suggest Stormwind side. The logic of the quest flow from one area to the next is much smoother than the Fjord side. You will be level 80 in no time!

Tags: world of warcraft

The first Trials of the Crusader dungeon encounter,The Beasts of Northrend.

Sep 18, 2009 world of warcraft|640views

The latest raid dungeon, the Trials of the Crusader, breaks the general rule established by every other dungeon: Access to all the bosses in one lockout period. Pick a raid leader who has experienced the most number of Trial bosses or you could be stuck going through only the first encounter and have to wait a week for the second encounter, another week for the third, and so on until you have access to the bosses and the feeling that Blizzard is just trying to extend the lifetime of a patch that doesn’t even come close to being as epic as Ulduar.

With my gripes done, we can cut over to the first encounter, the Beasts of Northrend. Similar to Mimiron from Ulduar, you’ll have to fight several bosses with little time for rest before actually beating the encounter. Wipe at any point and you’ll have to do everything all over again.

And if you want to start the encounters, talk to the NPC by the door.

Phase One: Gormok the Impaler

Two or three Tanks are needed for this fight. While Gormok has his weapon, he will cast Impale, a stacking damage-over-time effect that will put some serious hurt on the tank. When Impale is at three stacks, switch tanks until Impale wears off. Players with disarming skills should rotate their disarm usage to reduce the number of times Gormok can cast Impale on the tank.

Healers need to worry about two things: Staggering Stomp and Snobold Vassals. Staggering Stomp will interrupt your spellcasting, so shut those casts down before you’re shut down. The Snobold Vassals are much more obvious, sticking to your head and beating on you like a Blackrock drum to interrupt your casts and stun you. If you’re lucky, the Snobold Vassal will stick to one of the DPS classes instead.

DPS should always switch to the Snobold Vassals when they’re out and about. Macro “/tar sno” if you have to, but knowing your hotkey for changing non-player enemies works just as well.

Listen for the “PAFF” of Gormok’s Fire Bomb. You’re more likely to hear it before seeing the ground under your feet light up (depending on your latency), hopefully without you in it. Run out of the flaming area quickly before you’re grilled.

When Gormok goes down, tanks should get back to the entrance gate and be ready for the next phase.

Phase Two: The Twin Jormungar, Acidmaw and Dreadscale

If you hated the worms near Hodir in Ulduar or the ones in the Valley of Ancient Winters, you’ll hate these worms more than just twice as much. And they’re more than twice as huge.

Tanks from Gormok the Impaler should take position on each side of the large entrance gate, close enough to the wall to pull a worm and face them away from the raid to reduce the number of players affected by the worms’ breath attacks.

Acidmaw and Dreadscale have two stances, stationary and mobile, alternating between the two after burrowing. Hunters should mark both worms to track their locations, making it much easier for the tanks to chase their targets. The worms lose their threat tables after surfacing, so tanks should be on top of them by that time.

The tank for the mobile worm will need to kite the worm around the arena to keep any melee DPS from dying to the poison clouds left behind.

Melee DPS should constantly be on the mobile worm. Any melee DPS that attempts to attack the half-burrowed worm will die quickly from the worm’s 360-degree knockback sweeps.

Ranged DPS can choose between the two worms, but if achievements aren’t the raid’s priority, take down Acidmaw first.

Acidmaw will cast Paralyzing Poison on some members of the raid regardless of his positioning and Dreadscale casts Burning Bile. Paralyzing Poison lasts for 60 seconds and cannot be dispelled by any normal means. Burning Bile is a Fire DoT with a much shorter duration, but deals damage to anyone near the afflicted player.

Anyone who is afflicted with Burning Bile should run to players with Paralyzing Poison. If the only person with Burning Bile happens to be the tank, those with Paralyzing Poison should make the run instead.

After one worm dies, the other will enrage, increasing damage by 50%, hardly that painful compared to other paired mobs.

Phase Three: Icehowl

The Tank should get back to the arena gates and pull Icehowl close to a wall to cut any flight time spent after being hit by Icehowl’s knockback attacks. Apart from taking lots of damage, the Tank should expect a lot of stuns too.

Healers and DPS should fan out, reducing the number of players frozen and damaged by Icehowl’s random breath attacks. Melee DPS should be watch their health after being knocked back by Icehowl’s Whirl.

Icehowl will occasionally jump towards the center of the ring, knocking everyone to the walls, dealing damage and stunning them. A raid warning will then pop up. Don’t bother looking for the person in the raid warning. Watch the direction that Icehowl is facing instead and draw a straight and very wide line from him to the wall that he’s facing. You should not be in that line. After the stun wears off, you’ll have a 50% move speed buff to run away and clear a path for Icehowl.

If Icehowl hits the wall and is stunned, all DPS get a damage bonus to the yeti. If someone has a technological or mental malfunction and is trampled, Hunters should immediately use Tranquilizing Shot on Icehowl after enraging.

Tags: Trial of the Crusader, world of warcraft

World of Warcraft: Priestly Healing - Addons and Such

Sep 13, 2009 world of warcraft|1,781views

Once you’ve investigated various healing specs and have your priest adequately geared for raiding, the next step is getting the right add-ons for the task. There may be some classes who can raid with a bare minimum of mods, but healers cannot. If you want to be effective as a raid healer, you will need to utilize add-ons. You’ve prepared your character, now it’s time to prepare your UI for raiding, so you can cast your spells quickly and effectively.

Grid

There are a number of mods that are currently popular with raid healers. One popular mod is Grid. In a compact area, it shows all members of the raid and their state of being: their health, any debuffs, HOTs, etc. It is very lightweight, so should not cause lag and can be customized with a number of different modules. You click on the name of the person in the grid that you want to heal, debuff, etc. and hit the appropriate key. While initially a bit challenging to configure, this mod is very popular with healers. There are a number of good modifiers for this addon, which make it even more useful. Recommended additions to Grid are: GridIndicatorSideIcons, GridManaBars, GridSideIndicators, GridStatusRaidDebuff and GridStatusPWShield.

Clique

Another popular mod is Clique. This is often used in conjunction with Grid, as it allows click casting with the mouse. You can bind different spells to different mouse click and keystrokes. You can set up this mod so if you left click on a party member it casts Flash Heal; but if you shift-left click, it casts Great Heal. It also is designed such that left click to a friendly target can be configured to cast a the beneficial spell linked to the left click, while a left click on an enemy will cast the harmful spell linked to it.

,b>Healbot Continued

An alternative to the Grid/Clique combo is Healbot Continued. This combines in one mod, the features of Grid and Clique, but can be memory intense. If your computer can handle it, Healbot is a good choice. It shows all party members in a compact interface and shows their state of being. Do they need buffs? Are they diseased? Are they under a spell? Are they out of range? Is there a Prayer of Mending sitting on that player? Is your renew still ticking on them? It also allows click casting and while it comes with a default setting, it is easily customizable.

YuhDo

A new unit frame healing mod that is gaining in popularity is VuhDo. It can be configured for click-casting and gives extensive information on health, incoming heals, buff and debuffs. The author of this program is very active on the PlusHeal forums and is very responsive to user concerns. This mod seems to be an up-and-coming addon for raid healing and is giving Grid a run for the money in popularity.

Mouseover Macros/Keybinding

While not really a mod, mouseover macros are increasingly popular with priests. With 3.0 the class lost its ability to use down-ranked spells effectively so stopping a cast is increasingly important. Mostly priestly macros begin with /stopcasting and can be used to constantly keep a heal in the pipe, but uncast until needed. By adding the ability to merely mouseover, rather than having to actually click to cast, minuscule amounts of time can be saved, but all those fragments of seconds can add up. Find some good mouseover macros for priests at WoWWiki under Useful Macros for Priests.

Since speed is of the essence in raid healing, you’ll want to keybind your macros. You can do this manually or there are some keybinding mods to help you with the process. MyBindings2 is one such program, which is easy to use. Those with G11/G15 keyboards can download a mod that will keybind your macros to your G11/G15’s additional 18 keys. * The original G15 had 18 added keys. Currently the 18 additional key model is the G11, but both work with the G15 Buttons (continued) mod. *

Unit Frames

Macros can be used with any unit frame. I use Grid. A good general unit frame that can be customized for healing is Pitbull and I know it is popular with many of our raiders, including healing priests. Ag_UnitFrame is another popular choice among raid healers.

Visual Heal

Visual Heal is another mod, which can be valuable. “Whenever you cast a healing spell a bar will appear, which shows the health of the target, the incoming heal from others that will land before yours as well as the healing you are about to cast. This makes it extremely easy and fast to determine whether or not the heal is going to overheal.” This mod uses LibHealComm-3.0 so it should send incoming heal information from other raid healers using Visual Heal, PitBull, BunchOfBars, Grid, PerfectRaid and sRaidFrames because all of these mods use LibHealComm-3.0 to communicate healing.

,b>Event Alert

Event Alert signals when various talents proc. For Priests, it shows Borrowed Time, Martyrdom, Serendipity and Surge of Light. This mod plays a sound and pops an icon up on the screen, so you don’t waste mana-free heals and other important procs. This mod has not been updated for 3.2 but is working if you select Load Outdated Add-ons at the character screen.

Heads-Up Display

A Heads-Up display can be helpful for a priest by arcing important information around your character. It is very nice for priests, as it helps focus your attention on your character. I think all healers have a tendency to get their attention riveted on healing bars and tend to not notice the green goo, or the glowing red circle that they are standing in. With a good heads-up display your information is displayed in an arc around your character, which helps focus attention on you character and hopefully will alert the healer that he or she needs to MOVE! Two well-regarded HUDs are DHUD3 and IceHUD, which have both been updated for 3.2.

Decursive

If the unit frames you use for healing cannot be configured to show debuffs, you will definitely want to get the Decursive add-on. This can be configured to show who has a magic or disease debuff. Removing a disease or dispelling debuffs are important in many fights and this light-weight mod will identify those in need of help and gives you fast, one click debuff removal.

What mods do I use personally? For raid healing, I use Grid with keybound, mouseover macros. I also use Visual Heal and the DHUD3 heads-up display. In fights like Yogg, where dispelling/curing is of the essence, I will use Decursive, though mostly I use Grid for this purpose. I have a G11 keyboard and I use G15 (continued) to give me a visual representation of the spells I have bound to those keys.

Of course all raiders will want general raid addons like Deadly Boss Mods or Big Wigs, Omen, oRA2, Buff/Debuff bars, etc. Yes, there are some who prefer bare bones healing and a skillful player can heal effectively using the game provided UI and keybindings. However, I think most will agree that the prudent use of add-ons can enhance the game play of even the most skilled player, to the benefit of the entire raid.

Tags: world of warcraft

World of Warcraft: Priestly Healing

Aug 29, 2009 Articles Recommend, world of warcraft|1,552views

Priests are a versatile class. Other classes tend to have one area of healing excellence; priests can do well in almost any role. Holy specced priests will do best as area-of-effect healers; while Discipline specced priests excel as single target healers. As a general rule, holy priests will be assigned to raid heals and a discipline priest will be healing the tank or off-tank.

With dual specs now available, some healing priests will go with a dual spec of discipline and holy and will switch depending on the needs of the raid and the demands of the fight. Still, a shadow spec can make farming faster and easier and many priests will pick one healing specialization and take shadow as their second spec.

Talent Specs

There is no one cookie cutter spec for either the Holy or the Discipline priest and you will need to play around to determine what spec best suits your healing style. There are a few mandatory talents: All priests will put 14 points into the Discipline tree to get the Meditation talent. It gives you mana and without mana, you’re not healing. Most Holy priests will want Spirit of Redemption, Serendipity, Circle of Healing and at least one point in Holy Reach. Even if you only die on the rare occasion, Spirit of Redemption gives a very nice buff to your Spirit and is well worth the one talent point. You went holy to be a raid healer, so you’ll want Circle of Healing, and Holy Reach increases the range of that spell and Prayer of Healing. Serendipity is a tool to increase your haste for GH and PoH. Many fights are quite predictable and, if you have Serenity procced and ready to go, can make your Prayer of Healing spell a fast cast spell when massive raid damage hits.

Allocate your talents as best suits your personal style. If you cast Renew often, you’ll definitely want Improved Renew and Empowered Renew. If you seldom cast Renew, spend your talent points elsewhere. If you’re a Holy priest who won’t be using Power Word: Shield often, do not spend points on Body and Soul.

The big bread and butter spells for Discipline priests are Power Word: Shield and Penance. Power Word Shield mitigates incoming damage and is a fast cast spell, so Improved PW: Shield is a given. Penance is a powerhouse healing spell. Couple this talent with Aspiration, which reduces your Penance cool down. These two talents, together with Glyph of Penance, makes Penance an extremely powerful spell and the Discipline priest who wields it a powerful single target healer. Even with the nerf scheduled for 3.2, every Discipline priest will want this spell in his or her arsenal. Other talents the Discipline priest will find very attractive are Divine Aegis, Borrowed Time, Grace, Pain Suppression and Rapture.

The other primary spells you will use as a Discipline priest are Prayer of Mending and Flash Heal. You’ll be pre-stacking PW: S and PoM on the tank every chance you get. You can use these two spells, along with Prayer of Healing to help out when a large amount of raid damage comes in as well.

Glyphs

Attractive Minor Glyphs are Glyph of Shadowfiend (restores mana if your shadowfiend dies early) and Glyph of Levitate (goodbye light feathers). Most will choose either the Glyph of Fortitude or Fading for their final Minor Glyph.

For Major Glyphs, popular glyphs for Holy priests are Glyph of Flash Heal, Glyph of Renew, Glyph of Circle of Healing, Glyph of Prayer of Healing and Glyph of Guardian Spirit. Which three to choose will reflect on your healing style. For Discipline priests, Glyph of Flash Heal is also popular, along with the Glyph of Penance and Glyph of Power Word: Shield.

Spells

For a Holy priest, your main spells are Circle of Healing, Flash Heal, Prayer of Healing and Prayer of Mending. Remember that your Serendipity talent will speed up your Prayer of Healing Spell and have a three stack whenever you anticipate incoming raid damage. Also, don’t forget Hymn of Hope when mana gets low and Divine Hymn to deal with widespread raid damage.

For a Discipline priest, your primary spells are Flash Heal, Penance, Power Word: Shield and Prayer of Mending. Discipline even has a powerful AoE heal in Prayer of Healing. While not as powerful or fast as that of a Holy priest, it can still be valuable when raid-wide damage puts many in the danger zone.

Anticipation: Proactive and Reactive Healing

What separates the good healer from the great healer is being able to anticipate incoming damage and heal proactively. Many of the fights in Uldaur have predictable incoming damage. Learn the fights and have Serendipity 3 stacked ready to cast a hasted PoH when the Deconstructor throws Tympanic Tantrum or Kologarn casts Shockwave. Have the Renews ticking for Heat Wave in phase 2 on Mimiron and have PoM sitting there ready to start jumping. A Discipline priest will use Shield preemptively to mitigate incoming damage. Also know your fellow raiders. Are their members in your raid who are likely to steal aggro? Is the raid about the break a sheep? You might want to cast a PW: S on the mage who cast it. Tanks are good at grabbing aggro, but are not fail proof and mages are very squishy. Any healer can react to healing that is already done. The great healer anticipates incoming damage and starts to cast spells proactively.

Valuable Stats

What stats should you look for in gear? Intellect is probably your most valuable statistic for both Holy and Discipline. Crit is also important for both specs as is Spellpower. While the value of Spirit has decreased, it is still quite valuable to the Holy priest and of middling value to the Discipline priest. Stamina is also a valuable stat, but this statistic should grow at acceptable levels as your gear improves without any special focus. As a general rule, Spirit is a more valuable stat for the Holy priest than Mana per five, as it gives a boost to Spellpower as well as to mana regen.

Haste is more important for Holy priests. Elitist Jerks recommend that a Holy priest stack Haste up to 12 to 14%. Haste is less valuable to the Discipline priest and should not be stacked above 11%.

Enchants

When you come to raid make sure your gear is enhanced with the proper enchants. For your helm, you will want to be Revered with the Kirin Tor to get the Arcanum of Burning Mysteries enchant or with the Wyrmrest Accord for the Arcanum of Blissful Mending. For your cloak, Enchant Cloak: Greater Speed (+23 Haste). If you are a tailor, the Darkglow or Lightweave Embroideries are additional options.

Enchant Chest: Powerful Stats gives +10 to all stats. The choices for bracers are Enchant Bracer: Superior Spellpower (+30) or Exceptional Intelligence (+16). The best enchant for gloves is Enchant Gloves: Exceptional Spellpower (+28).

A tailor can make Brilliant Spellthread or Sapphire Spellthread, which can be used to enhance pants. Good enchants for boots are Enchant Boots: Tuskarr’s Vitality (adds +15 Stamina and minor movement speed) or Greater Spirit (+18).

For a one-handed weapon, the best enchant is Enchant Weapon: Mighty Spellpower (+63). For a stave, use Enchant Staff: Greater Spellpower (+81).

Gems

How you gem your gear depends on your needs and will change as your gear changes. The values to look for are Crit, Haste, Intellect, Spellpower and Spirit. Spellpower and Crit are always valuable, but at times you may with to boost your Haste to keep it in the recommended 12-14% range for a Holy Priest. There are also new epic Stormjewels, which give the highest pure stat boost. You’ll probably want to save this for that special Best-in-Slot item, as these are rare and therefore quite expensive. You’ll most likely be using the Insightful Earthsiege Diamond as the metagem for your helm.

Consumables

If you anticipate high number of wipes as your work on new content, Flask of the Frost Wyrm is the flask of choice. If the wipe risk is not high, good Battle Elixir choices are Guru’s Elixir (+20 all stats), Elixir of Spellpower (+58) or Elixir of Deadly Strikes (+45 Crit). Your best Guardian Elixir choice Is Elixir of Mighty Thoughts (+45 int).

You can use stat food to boost your Crit rate, Haste, Spellpower or Spirit. I personally tend to go for Crit, but will shift to haste if my gear changes bring Haste below 12%.

Be sure you come to raids with your gear fully and properly enchanted and gemmed. Bring sufficient supplies to keep your performance enhanced throughout the raid with flasks or elixir and food buffs. Also be sure to bring enough reagents to keep the raid buffed throughout the encounter.

Of course all this preparation brings us to actually casting spells, but that is a long post for another day.

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World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm: Why Level 85?

Aug 24, 2009 Articles Recommend, world of warcraft|672views

The Burning Crusade raised World of Warcraft’s level cap to 70. Then Wrath of the Lich King took it to 80. Why is it only going to 85 in the Cataclysm expansion? Tom Chilton explains.

Among all of the changes coming in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, raising the level cap to 85 instead of following the pattern set by the game’s previous two expansions is one of the strangest. Blizzard lead developer Tom Chilton took a little time during BlizzCon this past weekend to explain the smaller jump.

“It’s certainly different. More than anything else it’s a question of what we thought was the best use of our development time and what we thought the players really want the most. With this expansion we’re delivering more total level up content than we have before - it’s just not all post current max level.”

But don’t the players enjoy the rush to level up?

“We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from players that don’t necessarily like it when an expansion comes out and they feel that they have to level up to the new max level as quickly as possible and then go back to their endgame activities. There are players out there who enjoy the level up experience, but by no means is it all of our players.”

The decision all comes down to the goals of the expansion. With a brand new 1-60 experience on hand, the team really didn’t need to put the endgame that much further out of reach for the influx of new Goblin and Worgen characters.

“In this case, we’re trying to better balance the time and development effort we put into the different areas of the game. We’re trying to make sure we get a little bit more endgame content while still appeasing the level up crowd with five more levels.”

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World of Warcraft: Shadow Priest Leveling Guide

Aug 22, 2009 Articles Recommend, world of warcraft|1,644views

This article will discuss the leveling of a priest for maximum speed (therefore optimal fun). The best way to level a priest is shadow. They deal the most damage under the least amount of time and take the least amount of damage. If you’re going to level your toon solo for the most of the time like mostly everyone in the game, shadow is the way to go. If it is your plan to level up running instances constantly with friends, discipline (for the damage and healing capabilities) or even holy is for you (if you’re the designated healer of the group). I will break down the leveling process into section of 10 levels:

Level 10-20

You get access to talent points at level 10, and you should put your first points into Spirit Tap (And improved Spirit Tap) to begin your path down the shadow tree. This allows for mana regeneration after an experience delivering kill (or Mana Blast/Shadow Word: Death crit). Then place your next points into Improved Shadow Word: Pain and only three points into Darkness.

Level 20-30

Get Mind Flay immediately. This move slows down your opponent and makes grinding much easier. It is then a no brainer to keep investing the points into Improved Mind Blast so that you can blast your opponents away faster and stop relying on non-shadow moves. The main focus here is to get to Shadowform as fast as possible. Once you reach level 16, it is wise to get Shadow Weaving. Shadow Weaving makes your more powerful as your attack mobs. As you grind your way towards 20, I recommend you go back and fill in your points in Darkness as well because of the increased dependency on Shadow affiliated moves.

Level 30-40

Vampiric Embrace and Improved Vampiric Embrace. Heal yourself through DPS and regenerate mana through DPS, almost a grinding dream. Now you have a choice between Focused Mind and Shadow Focus. If you’re having trouble hitting mobs, put your next points in the latter, otherwise the saved mana could help out in the long run. The next three points should be placed into Improved Devouring Plague for that extra periodic boost in health production while taking on a lot of mobs. Vampiric Embrace will stack with this attack.

Level 40-50

Shadowform saves lives, literally. Grab this and watch your shadow power explode while minimizing damage. You should only be using shadow spells at this point anyway. Place your next five points to increase your critting abilities. Now you’re beginning to feel like a caster. Improve your Shadowform for less disruption while casting as well as two points in Misery to help hit your opponents as well as increasing spell power during battles.

Level 50-60

Snag Vampiric Embrace for that extra mana producing dot that will increase your damage and the duration in which you can do that damage. After this, place the maximum points into Pain and Suffering to save some mana while you’re burning a mob, but not in time for your Shadow Word: Pain to expire. This way Shadow Word: Pain continues to refresh and do damage as you Blast and Flay away. After this is maxed out, go back and finish your points in Misery to unlock the next tier of points. The point of a leveling/grinding spec is to maximize damage for as long as possible. At this point in the game, it may be time to put some points in Crowd Control, as the major damage increasing talents have been used up. I would personally recommend points be placed in Psychic Horror. An extra fear where the mob does not run away from you agroing other mobs is a priceless life saving talent. Mind Melt will help you more and more as you level and gear you find is more tailored towards a caster, or Priest specifically. Putting points in that and Improved Psychic Scream will maximize damage the most efficiently while giving you that extra play room with fear if you’re in trouble. If you’re like me and you want to pick that Elite from behind some regular mobs without aggroing them, it may be overdue to invest in Shadow Reach. This gives you the distance to pinpoint and pick out the mobs you need to complete certain quests. Most of the fighting you are doing as a solo leveling is one on one, with some random beating you over the head with his club or staff. This talent is not critical to leveling although it is a luxury.

Level 60-70

To continue blowing away mobs without a break, Dispersion would be good for your toon. As well as that “Oh, Shit” button you can slam when there are just too many mobs to handle. Dispersion looks like a pvp talent, but it has its uses in soloing as well. Now its time to start heading down the Discipline tree to help you stay alive while managing your mana a little more efficiently. Put 5 points into Twin Disciplines to give your instant casts a little boost as well as make way for the next two more important talents: Inner Fire and Improved Power Word: Fortitude. These two talents give out a little bit more spell power and health for staying alive while bashing some monsters.

Level 70-80

To finish off your massive grind on the way to 80, it is worth investing in Meditation for increased mana production while casting (stacks with Mana Tap). Inner Focus is a neat talent and acts like a power boost. I would recommend macroing this ability to Mind Blast for a very powerful Blast every once in a while (3 minute cooldown), as this ability does not trigger the global cooldown and can be used in congruence with other spells. That is as far as I would go into the disc tree, and the rest is up to you. Mind Melt and Twisted Faith are more damage boosting abilities to help boost your DPS.

I hope you enjoyed my Shadow Priest Talent Guide. I am sure there are other viewpoints out there, but experience tells me that Shadow is definitely the way to go if speed is your desire.

by Jimmy Thommes

Tags: world of warcraft

World of Warcraft: A Look at Battlegrounds

Aug 21, 2009 Articles Recommend, world of warcraft|512views

Online games and raw chaos normally go hand in hand. Ever since the early days of DOOM for the PC and other various first-person shooters, there has been a chaotic nature to online gaming that players couldn’t get enough of. As time went on, the evolution of online gaming brought about team-based variants such as Capture the Flag and Team Deathmatch. These variants have been such a huge success that they’re now staples for more or less any first-person shooter or third-person shooter that one could buy for the PC or console. Rejoice, fellow console gamers! World of Warcraft has a similar variant of gameplay that I find addictive and possibly the most satisfying aspect of the game. Today we will have a “console to WoW” look at Battlegrounds.

While I did mention Battlegrounds in the first entry of this series, I didn’t go into detail simply because Battlegrounds can either be a beginner’s favorite experience in WoW or the absolute worst. Battlegrounds, in my humble opinion, are the first real tests of PvP (player versus player) skills, strategy, teamwork, and spot on decision making that players will endure. The wrong decisions can result in getting killed, the loss of potential Honor Points (more on that in a second), and possibly the loss of the Battleground. It is here that the player will become fully aware of what his character is capable of and what his biggest weaknesses are.

Each Battleground - currently six exist - has a different theme and a different way to win. The objectives range from depleting the enemy’s army to capturing the flag to controlling certain points on the map. The game ends when one side reaches the maximum number of points needed, when the enemy has no more units, or if there aren’t enough players in the game to continue. Players are resurrected shortly after each death, so there isn’t a load of downtime in these game variants.

The first Battleground that players will encounter is Warsong Gulch. This one has a Capture the Flag theme which many console and PC gamers will be very familiar with. The theme is very simple to learn for those who have never played Capture the Flag: attempt to capture the enemy’s flag and return to your base while defending your own flag and ensure it doesn’t get captured. The player who is holding the flag is extremely vulnerable simply because using attacks, summoning a mount, or becoming invulnerable will cause him to drop the flag - and he won’t be able to pick it back up if he’s invulnerable.

The strategy for Warsong Gulch isn’t exactly as simple as Capture the Flag in Unreal Tournament or MechAssault mainly because one has to keep all of WoW’s different classes and abilities in mind. A flag carrier could look like he’s home free with a defender in tow when a Warlock could easily cast Fear on the defender and leave the flag carrier completely vulnerable to attack. There are also plenty of stun effects and other abilities that make strategy a vastly important thing in Capture the Flag when other games’ variants are fairly simple and to the point.

The second Battleground that players will encounter is Arathi Basin. This has a Capture the Point theme similar to King of the Hill in the Halo games or other capture variants that games like Unreal Tournament 2004/Unreal Championship have. The big difference between Arathi and the game variants that I’ve mentioned is that there are five different locations to think about during a massive power struggle between the Alliance and the Horde.

Each capture is begun by the player clicking on the location’s flag. This will make the location turn neutral for a brief period before ultimately being claimed by that player. However, other players can click on the flag and reverse this action during the neutral period and get extra Honor Points for defending the area. Each team will gain points over time depending on how many locations they have capture, and more points are earned if a team has more locations than the other.

There’s a lot more going on in this Battleground than in Warsong Gulch, and it usually calls for far more strategy. Players are forced to learn when to go for more location captures and when to defend their current locations. Going for more captures can be fun, but I’ve learned that defense is when a player will learn to best use his character. Also, running out on one’s own without proper backup to try for captures normally results in a quick and easy death.

Players participate in Battlegrounds for entertainment and for Honor Points. These points are awarded whether the player won or lost, but obviously more points are awarded for a win. Honor Points are also awarded for every Honorable Kill (assisting in killing an enemy player) obtained, and dishing out the killing blow on an enemy player also nets some bonus points. These points can be turned in to buy special items - mainly gear - that can only be obtained through the Honor system, and the gear is usually well worth it for lower level players who are just starting out. I definitely suggest running Instances and playing Battlegrounds to obtain great gear in the early levels.

As if the Battlegrounds weren’t chaotic enough, a wildcard is thrown into the fray that console gamers will immediately recognize and happily welcome: powerups. These special items are placed in certain areas around the Battleground map and can definitely help situations in a time of a need. For example, Warsong Gulch has a speed powerup that increases movement speed by 100% for ten seconds. This is a flag runner’s best friend when they’ve managed to capture a flag without any defensive backup and need to make a run for it.

Twinks

I want to mention Twinks only briefly because they are an extremely touchy subject in the Battlegrounds world. Twinks are defined as characters who obtain high level items or item enchantments that normally require large amounts of gold. The characters can get this gold from their main character (assuming the Twink is an alt) or from friends, guildies, etc. They usually level themselves to level 19 or 29 and play only Battlegrounds from that point on so they won’t level again - experience isn’t earned in Battlegrounds… yet. Some claim that Twinks have an unfair advantage in Battlegrounds while others argue that legitimate work is done to create good twinked characters and are therefore justified. I’ll leave that argument to you, the reader.

I tend to find Battlegrounds exciting and challenging just like I do the various different modes in Halo 3 and other console games I play. The strategy may be extremely different, but I find that it’s something that can easily grow on a player like an old favorite. With many different ways to play and powerups to help change things up, I believe that Battlegrounds will be something that every console fan who is trying WoW for the first time will enjoy.

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World of Warcraft: What to Do With your Shaman

Aug 13, 2009 world of warcraft|639views

Well, I’m back in the game now after a bit of time off and glad to see that not too much has changed. My main (and first) toon is an 80 Troll Shaman (restoration spec). I know, I know… Troll? What was I thinking? Well, I had no idea what I was doing when I made my toon originally but now with the wonderful help of hindsight clarity I would like to help you decide what to do with your shaman! Just a heads up for all of you out there, this article is for someone who is new to the game, I don’t get very technical and statistical so it should be easy to understand and evaluate what are the best choices for you and how you can enhance your WoW game experience!

There are three different ways to go with your shaman following your talent tree: Enhancement is a melee shaman, Elemental is a caster (dealing damage from afar) and Restoration is a healer.

If you are playing an Alliance character, your only option for Shaman is the Draenei. Now on the Horde side, if you’re looking to play a Shaman, you must decide between three races: Orc, Tauren, and Troll. Keep in mind that every race has a unique racial ability attached to it.

Orcs

Orcs get bloodfury, which increases melee attack power by (level*4)+2 AND your spellpower by (level*2)+3 for 15 seconds. Orcs also get three passive abilities: Hardiness reduces duration of stun effects by 15%, Command increases damage dealt by Warlock, Hunter, and Death Knight pets, and Axe Specialization increases your expertise with axes and two-handed axes. Looking at these racial abilities, the Orc seems to be specialized for melee combat, so if you are someone who likes to hit hard and deal damage, the Orc would be a good choice for an enhancement shaman.

Tauren

The Tauren, which is usually chosen for a warrior or melee class, doesn’t have any huge advantage as far as racials go for a shaman player. War Stomp is a nice move that stuns up to five enemies within eight yards. Taurens have Endurance that increases their base health by 5%, Cultivation that increases herbalism skill by 15 and Nature Resistance reducing the chance to be hit by nature spells by 2%. For a shaman, you could really go anywhere from enhancement to restoration with the Tauren as it does not lend itself to one of those specs in particular.

Trolls

As far as trolls go, they have some interesting buffs on them: Berserking increases attack speed by 10%-30%. Trolls have five, yes five, passive racials: Regeneration (increases health regeneration by 10%), Beast Slaying (damage dealt to beasts increases by 5%), Throwing Specialization (chance to critically hit with throwing weapon increases by 1%), Bow Specialization (chance to crit with bow increases by 1%), and my favorite “Da Voodoo Shuffle,” which reduces the duration of movement impairing effects by 15%. Important things to take into consideration here - Shamans cannot use bows! As these specializations are tailored more towards a hunter class, berserking is great for a caster and da voodoo shuffle is more helpful than you think as a healer. It is important in end-game raids as a healer to be able to heal 100% of the time. The less you are impaired by spells or other trickery from the environment the better. The Troll would definitely be a caster (elemental shaman) or healer (restoration shaman). I personally have enjoyed playing it as a healer but that differs person to person. Deal damage or save the day? Also keep in mind that Warriors, Rogues, Death Knights, and sometimes Paladins are abundant in melee.

No matter what you feel your endgame spec will be, it is important to know all of the specs of your toon. You never know what position might need to be filled in your guild or a raid group. I always recommend leveling a shaman as enhance/elemental spec. You will naturally want to put a few points in Restoration as you level, Totemic Focus (reduces the mana cost of your totems) is always a nice mana saver. But unless you plan on leveling in a group the whole way, restoration is slow and painful. You need to be able to deal damage as all your quests will require you to kill beats/creatures. Up until level 50 you don’t really need a spec’d healer for instances.

As far as professions go, it definitely depends on your endgame goals. For a healing/restoration spec I think mining and jewelcrafting is a great profession skill set. Once you reach level 80, being able to make your gems and make those epic rings can make all the difference. Gems are a money-maker for sure (as is mining) and jewelcrafting is priceless for a healer to have. For enhancement, you can do mining/blacksmithing but a lot of blacksmithing can lead to plate which you will not be able to wear. If you specialize armorsmith though, you will definitely be rewarded with some very nice axes you can make yourself. Elemental shamen can really pick any profession. Again, jewelcrafting would be nice, as would engineering. Inscription is growing and is a great profession to have for a guild, very useful and everyone needs glyphs. Also keep in mind as you level to not neglect your three basic skills: Cooking, Fishing and First Aid! People can let these slip away to the sideline but it is very important to keep on top of that as you go. Trust me it’s much easier that way than getting to 80 and realizing your cooking is still at 30… But whatever you do with your shaman, make sure it’s a profession you will like and a spec you will have fun in. Don’t heal just because someone needs it badly, play what you like. It’s a game and you want to get your money’s worth!

Tags: world of warcraft