Scowl Goes to Hellfire Ramparts
I believe this is the first time I’ve done a Burning Crusade instance before level 70, and my first one ever with a shadow Priest. This group consisted of myself (60 shadow Priest), unguilded Mooshyface (60 protection Paladin), Owsley (61 Rogue) of Damnbassadors, Archangle (60 shadow Priest) of Psych Ward, and Caleal (70 holy Priest) of Shadowed Soul. With a level 70 Priest and a pair of shadow Priests along for the ride, it would be interesting to see how low health bars would drop (if at all).
When I joined the group, Mooshyface asked in party chat, “what is cc”, and I had to grimace. So, another tank with no clue how the game works. I defined it as “crowd control”, and expected the matter to end. When he asked “and what’s that”, I thought about dropping out of the group.
Mooshyface is not a great tank…(good) Paladins are terrific at holding the aggro from multiple mobs, and Mooshyface wasn’t really able to do that. Luckily the other shadow Priest and I were able to help keep mobs off of each other by alternatively mind flaying one that was approaching us, while the other attempted to Mind Control. Approaching the first boss, we avoided several wipes in this matter. With our Vampiric DoTs at work, the health bars remained pretty stable. The Priest was able to focus on the tank the whole time. (And I must say, this is the first 5-man I’ve been in, where 4 of us were able to resurrect.)
We engaged Watchkeeper Gargolmar. The intent was to burn the adds down first. I figured it would be a good time to experiment. My first Mind Control was resisted, which really upset the Watcher. He charged me, but I got a second Mind Control on him. I tried to use a Heal on the tank, really not sure how well that worked out. I was able to put a Shadow Word: Pain on the boss. In the end we had to burn down the healers and then the boss. Watchkeeper Gargolmar dropped the Bracers of Finesse. At this point, Mooshyface left the group without explanation.
We got a new tank, Cardea (60 fury Warrior) of Unleashed. Not a proper protection tank, but it didn’t really matter. He wasn’t really paying attention and rounded the corner after the first boss…we hadn’t yet cleared those mobs, so we had a quick wipe. He apologized for thi, and we moved forward.
The trash pull with the group of Warlocks is one of the trickier pulls in the instance. We pulled them down the ramp, and there was just too much craziness going on. The much Fear, shifting line of sight issues, all of this resulted in a second wipe. We attempted the fight again, and it was smooth. Both of our shadow Priests were able to get Fears off, and I had a temporary Mind Control going. I think DPS was focused more on the tank target during this go than on the previous one. The second try was much more efficient.
Omor the Unscarred was tanked steadily by Cardea, and the shadow Priests were fueling the group’s health and mana. Incoming mana supply really helps during this fight, as some of the summoned Felhounds may end up draining mana supplies away. Omor burned very quickly and dropped the Garrote-String Necklace (needed by Cardea).
We quickly cleared to the final boss and began the encounter. Vazruden was engaged and we steadily brought him down. In my opinion, Cardea was extremely slow in picking up Nazan. The Nether Drake was already landed and got off a few attacks before the tank picked him up. Once Cardea was engaged on Nazan, Archangle and I finished burning down Vazruden. Fighting Nazan was trivial, as Cardea’s health bar remained quite steady. The Reinforced Fel Iron Chest dropped the Mok’Nathal Clan Ring (needed by Cardea) and the Kilt of Rolling Thunders (Scowl won the shard).
All in all, a good first experience for me instancing as a shadow Priest. The spell rotation is quiet a bit different, as I don’t have to continuously shield myself, and I can focus on getting DoTs to multiple targets. I’m anxious to experiment more with this in the future.
The damage output was the following:
- Owsley was at 26% (204 dps)
- Scowl was at 26% (147 dps)
- Archangle was at 20% (181 dps)
- Caleal was at 14% (144 dps)
- Cardea was at 7% (104 dps)
- Mooshyface was at 6% (110 dps)
Watchkeeper Gargolmar Getting 2-Manned
2 man aggro, 1 boss die. While two-manning normal Hellfire Ramparts, Predictys the Druid and Rockstar the Warrior bring down Watchkeeper Gargolmar. No heals required.
Hellfire Ramparts Cleared With Two
Rockstar (70 protection Warrior) and Predictys (70 feral Druid) killed all three bosses in Hellfire Ramparts last night. That’s right…two-manned…by tanks. There are several trash mobs that be skipped along the way (and this includes the Bonechewer Beastmaster), and that’s exactly what we did.
Clearing up to the first boss was tricky, in the sense that we had to walk by several trash mobs without causing aggro. Having just come from two-manning Lower Blackrock Spire, we had a lot of practice doing this. By hugging the wall on the right, and waiting for the Bonechewer Beastmaster to patrol away, there are three consecutive sets of pulls that can be skipped.
Beating down pulls consisting of a couple of warrior-types and a couple of caster-types was not much of an issue. On several of these types of fights, we could win with 95% to 98% of our health remaining…not much of a worry at all. Predictys would handle the main tanking. I would assist on his target, after tapping an off-tank target to ensure I wouldn’t suffer from rage starvation, and this worked pretty well. With some of the larger pulls of 5-6 including a caster or two, Predictys would be susceptible to Rain of Fire, and we’d have to kite the trash out of the fire effect as soon as possible.
We burned down both healer adds first to open the boss fight with Watchkeeper Gargolmar. At 40% health he emotes “Heal me, quickly!” The artificial intelligence behind this should really be changed to “You’ve killed my healers!” if his healing adds are both already dead…because that’s what usually happens. With the healers down, bringing down Watchkeeper Gargolmar is easy. Watchkeeper Gargolmar dropped Bracers of Finesse (greeded by Predictys).
Clearing towards the second boss is more straightforward, but a little more dangerous. Often groups will have trouble with the ring of casters at the top of the circular stairwell…probably this is where our health dropped the most, as the fire effects were tearing through the armor. Nevertheless, we still had at least half our health at the conclusion of the fight.
Omor the Unscarred was an exercise in trading taunts and running away from each other when one of received the Treacherous Aura effect. When not damaging the boss, there’s always a Felhound to beat on. Omor the Unscarred did not put up a significant fight and dropped the Tenacious Defender (needed on by Rockstar).
The trash between Omor the Unscarred and Vazruden the Herald was quickly cleared, and the final boss fight began. Vazruden went down fairly easily, and Predictys intercepted Nazan when he landed. I taunted Vazruden to me, and finished him off. Preidctys was taking a beating from the fire damage…Liquid Flame can be avoided to some degree, but the Cone of Flame is going to be right in the tank’s face. When Predictys dropped a bit in health, I taunted Nazan to me, and we finished him off. The Reinforced Fel Iron Chest yielded the Band of Renewal (greeded on by Predictys) and the Mok’Nathal Wildercloak (greeded on by Rockstar).
All in all, this was a very successful attempt. It wasn’t a full clear as we skipped many trash mobs, but all three bosses were killed in one shot. I was very surprised to find that at least one of the BC instances can be 2-manned…by tanks.
Shaky Heroic Ramparts
Illustra joined a PUG for heroic Hellfire Ramparts; it was the daily quest. Today’s group consisted of myself (70 Warlock), Zadrun of Fury (70 Paladin healer), Annieoakley of Council of Faith (70 Hunter), Gwendoline of Crush (70 Mage), and Jondalar of Undercats (70 Druid tank).
This wasn’t a flawless run, but it was successful. I haven’t thought too much of Annieoakley as a Hunter with a well-rounded set of abilities before. She opened with an early over-aggro death on the first pull. At that point I was hoping the PUG wouldn’t be a dismal failure. To add to the problem, she brought a level 63 wolf pet in with her. It’s nice knowing that your teammates are really giving the run their all, isn’t it. The wolf would finish the at level 64, and have contributed 19 dps to the fighting. 19 dps is pretty pathetic…a Warrior adding a spike to his shield…that might account for 19 dps over the course of a dungeon run.
A bit further in, Gwendoline would die at the hands of a Bonechewer Destroyer. The ice came a bit late, I think. As we cleared to deal with the first boss, Jondalar had a bad pull and caused the first boss, his 2 adds, and the attempted pull of 4 mobs to aggro to the group. That led to a full wipe.
Once we cleared, the first boss was a simple fight. Gwendoline kept one add sheeped for the duration of the fight. Watchkeeper Gargolmar dropped the Wild Stalker Boots (Gwendoline won the shard) and a Steady Chrysoprase (greeded by Jondalar).
The fight with Omor the Unscarred was a one-shot. As a Warlock, there’s quite a bit to do. I can get a round of DoTs off before the first hound spawns…he gets banished. A few more DoTs get applied, then the second hound spawns…he gets enslaved. A few Shadowbolts cast, the third hound spawns…he gets feared. I think the hounds only got 1 mana burn off, and that was on me. Fortunately I can Life Tap and blast him right back. Omor the Unscarred dropped a Primal Nether (won by Annieoakley), the Crimsonforge Breastplate, another Steady Chrysoprase (greeded by Annieoakley), and the Crimson Bracers of Gloom (needed by Illustra). I was sort of surprised to get a wrist upgrade. Up until this point, I had been wearing bracers from Shattered Halls.
The tank was complaining about poor fire resistance gear…despite having his self-buff, the paladin’s fire resistance aura, and my imp’s Fire Shield buff, I think we wiped on the third boss because he spent too much not moving out of the fires. On the second attempt, he was able to position the boss around so that he wasn’t constantly burning. The Reinforced Fel Iron Chest yielded the Chestguard of the Prowler (needed by Jondalar), the Feltooth Eviscerator (”accidentally” taken by Gwendoline), and the Light Scribe Bands (also “accidentally” taken by Gwendoline).
Blizzard really needs to fix this auto-loot procedure. This is ridiculous when people have it enabled and loot bosses. The “picking up this item will bind it to you” message doesn’t cut it when there are 3 possible BOP items you’re looting. It’s really disgusting. They need to fix that message to indicate WHICH item you’re attempting to pick up. Or disallow it on bosses altogether.
The damage output was the following:
- Annieoakley at 29% (421 dps)
- Gwendoline at 26% (417 dps)
- Illustra at 26% (364 dps)
- Jondalar at 18% (246 dps)