Stealing The Staff
Illustra was lounging about today, looking for something to do. One of the guild members in Fury was looking a for a DPS to substitute into an ongoing Sethekk Halls run. Heroic mode, no less. I hadn’t done heroic Sethekk Halls to date, but I thought it might be interesting. Some of the Fury guys are pretty good, and I got a chance to see some of the more veteran members in action.
The group was composed of myself (70 affliction Warlock), Wayneboo (70 arms Warrior), Balzamon (70 Mage), Midgetie (70 protection Warrior), and Valoron (70 restoration Druid), all members of Fury. Valoron has been farming heroic Sethekk Halls, looking for the Raven Lord mount. When I jumped into the group, they were clearing towards the chamber where Anzu is summoned.
This was of course the first time I’ve seen the fight with Anzu. He is summoned in the center of the room, and comes down from the ceiling. Sethekk Halls is usually filled with flying birds anyway; for this ceremony it seemed several more were swirling about the room. He comes down and the fight begins…the tricky part for casters is his Spell Bomb debuff. I got it about three times…when you have it, you can’t cast spells…if you do, it blows out 1000 health and 2000 mana. I managed to have it safely removed twice, but the third time he caught me with it just before a Shadowbolt casted off. I didn’t enjoy being hit so sneakily by him.
Anzu also summons a large group of birds (at two-thirds and one-third his health). We all gather into the center and attempt some AoE. We had plenty to go around between, the Mage and myself. The encounter is quite interesting. The Druid is kept busy by throwing HoTs on the bird statues in the room. Over the duration of the HoT, the statue animates and benefits the party in some way.
We didn’t have any problem dealing with Anzu, but this was a veteran group that has worked together and run this instance many times (except for me, of course). Anzu dropped the Talon of Anzu.
We cleared towards the final boss with some difficulty. In short, the crowd control wasn’t great. I was only asked to get out the succubus once I believe (which is perfectly fine with me). After we cleared some of the trash pulls, there was a bit more opportunity for me to “crowd control” a mob via chain fearing. Chain fearing is something I’m much better at. We did wipe several times…all it would take is for one of the mobs to get a Mind Control on the healer, or a fear on the tank or healer and we had issues recovering. There was quite a bit of cemetery running.
The fight with Talon King Ikiss resulted in a wipe on the first attempt. This was just some bad luck, perhaps everyone wasn’t prepared for the opening of the fight. I was the first one to be dropped, because the tank was polymorphed, I got one-shotted behind a pillar. The second attempt was smooth and everything was under control. I love being a Warlock and running away from a boss or mob for positioning purposes, but still being able to DoT him while facing another direction. Other classes can play with the offensive angle and make an attack while running away to some extent, and other classes wouldn’t be able to attack at all.
Talon King Ikiss dropped a Primal Nether (needed by Balzamon), the Shoulderpads of Assassination (needed by Valoron), the Sethekk Oracle Cloak (needed by Balzamon), and Terokk’s Shadowstaff (needed and won by Illustra). As we were clearing between Anzu and Talon King Ikiss, Balzamon had been relishing the idea of the epic staff dropping and he carrying it into Karazhan that night. When I threw down a superior need roll, I stole it away from him. Huge upgrade for me, and it was a major piece of the upgrades I’d like to win out of the five-man instances. I’ve already put the +40 Spell Damage enchant on it!
Keepers of Time Revere Rockstar
Rockstar led another group through the Black Morass. On this occasion, the group was composed of myself (70 protection Warrior), Wymeven (70 resto Druid) of Shameless Elite, Norfax (70 Rogue) of HonorBound, Deathfabove (70 Mage) of Ascensions, and unguilded Fearlol (70 Warlock).
Progression through the Rift Lords was smooth and efficient. Chrono Lord Deja dropped the Ring of Spiritual Precision. As we cleared through the next several portal trash mobs, Norfax was able to receive the Pattern: Stylin’ Jungle Hat pattern. Temporus dropped the Laughing-Skull Battle Harness. Aeonus dropped the Helm of Desolation and the Cowl of the Guiltless.
As we slew the final boss, the reputation gain pushed Rockstar into Revered status with the Keepers of Time. This has been my goal for some time now, as it allows Rockstar to purchase the Timewarden’s Leggings and the Glyph of the Defender from the Keepers of Time quartermaster. These items are huge improvements in my tanking armor set.
I’m having some sort of issue with my Recap add-on, and wasn’t able to record damage metrics for this instance run.
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)
Illustra PUGs Heroic Mechanar
Another day, a few more badges. I’ve found the out all my (non-healing) toons, the Warlock is the most likely to be invited to a PUG. But maybe it has something to do with the utility of the Warlock in the easier heroic instances. For heroic Mechanar, this is no exception. Enslavement and banishment are outstanding tools against the demons. Seduction can help delay a mob’s involvement (I don’t really care for it myself). But definitely dousing Nethermancer Sepethrea with DoTs is the way to go.
This group for heroic Mechanar was comprised of myself (70 affliction Warock), Iakona (70 protection Paladin) and Foneyboney (70 Mage) of Shameless Elite, Milye (70 holy Priest) of Deadly Intent, and unguilded Sookie (70 Hunter). It’s always interesting to watch Paladin tanks at work, because the good ones must know exactly what they’re doing. It’s not hard to spot the bad ones.
We did have an early wipe…the Mage wasn’t paying attention to the optional patrollers (which we skipped of course) and their enhanced aggro radius. We had a perfect clear to Mechano-Lord Capacitus, as I would expect, since it’s Warlock time. Mechano-Lord Capacitus dropped the Hammer of the Penitent (Iakona won the shard). The Cache of the Legion dropped Capacitus’ Cloak of Calibration (Sookie won the shard). I’m not sure if I’ve seen that cloak drop to date.
The group would end up skipping the second boss, saving her for last. Several of these trash pulls call for two forms of crowd control. I hate using Seduction, because I don’t think it’s very good…I’m glad we had a Mage and Hunter for these. The fight with Pathaleon the Calculator was pretty straightforward. Milye performed the first fear on the adds, and I had the second. Pathaleon burned quickly. Someone ended up being mind-controlled, but I’m not who it was (I think the Hunter). Pathaleon the Calculator dropped a Primal Nether (won by Illustra), Handguards of the Steady (taken by Sookie), Defender’s Tanzanite (needed by Iakona), the Abacus of Violent Odds (sharded), and Baba’s Cloak of Arcanistry (needed by Foneyboney).
With such a successful outing on the final boss, we moved back to engage the second boss. I’m not sure everyone had seen this fight before, at least in heroic mode, there were some poor examples of fire elemental kiting. It seemed like everyone was bunched together and ended up getting multiple Hellfires from the elementals. We had one wipe here. The second attempt was really excellent, for most of the fight I had two elementals on me. I stayed on the opposite side of the fight, kiting the elementals in a half loop. I also like to make liberal use of the platform where the boss initially stands. Nethermancer Sepethrea dropped the Nethershrike (Milye won the shard).
The damage output was the following:
- Foneyboney was at 29% (594 dps)
- Sookie was at 28% (569 dps)
- Illustra was at 27% (430 dps)
- Iakona was at 16% (264 dps)
Rockstar Defends the Guardian Medivh
Rockstar is really beginning to enjoy tanking in the Black Morass. Once things get kicked off, the tank simply runs, engages a Rift Lord or boss, builds threat, lets DPS bring the mob down, mounts up, rides to the next portal, and repeats. As long as DPS is good enough to intercept and bring down the adds who are trying to destroy Medivh’s shield, and the healing is good enough to keep the tank up, things should go pretty well. And so it was with this run.
This group was composed of Rockstar (70 protection Warrior), Marinatin (70 Priest) of MidKnights, Dragonshock (70 Shaman) of Citadel, Deathfabove (70 Mage) of Reckoning, and Jazmira (70 shadow Priest) of Knights of Asylum. I remember running with Deathfabove before, I can’t remember for sure, but I thought that particular Mage complained about not being able to handle the adds alone in a previous run.
As we began working through the portals, I noticed that the DPS was pretty good on the Rift Lords. I frequently have to use Taunt to keep a Rift Lord off a Shaman (hmm, I have to do that in a lot of instances)…apparently Shamans are pretty bold with their damage and steal aggro quite often. Jazmira noted that normally she can’t go full out because tanks don’t hold aggro well, but with me tanking, she said she was able to go full out and DPS. It’s nice when a shadow Priest is able to say that.
I wasn’t really able to devote enough attention to whether or not the Mage was able to DPS down the adds quickly. With some mana streaming in from Jazmira’s efforts, there should have been no problem with the Mage’s mana. I was throwing down a Thunderclap every other time mobs came out of the portal, so hopefully that helped. The bosses were as easy as the regular trash mobs.
Chrono Lord Deja dropped the Ring of Spiritual Precision (greeded by Marinatin). Temporus dropped the Millennium Blade (greeded by Rockstar). This weapon is just a toy for PvP I think, it has a bit of stamina and resilience on it. There are much better tanking weapons available. I wasn’t going to take it at all, but it was still lying on Temporus as we were about to exit the instance, so I just took it. Aeonus dropped the Primal Surge Bracers (taken by Deathfabove for disenchantment) and the Cowl of the Guiltless (also taken by Deathfabove for disenchantment).
As far as loot goes, I didn’t get the drops I was looking for, but it’s not a huge deal. The real rewards pertaining to the Black Morass (at least for tanks) comes from the reputation rewards with the Keepers of Time. As it stands, I’m about one more Black Morass run away from revered reputation…at which point, my head glyph and tanking pants become available.
Rockstar Tanks Botanica
It was time Rockstar to head into the Botanica in order to obtain a fragment for his Key to the Arcatraz. The group was composed of myself (70 protection Warrior), Arkalas (70 Mage) and Zadrun (70 holy Paladin) of Fury, Mortena (70 Shaman) of Acheron Keeper, and Mardonis (70 Rogue) of Aggro Nation.
Since it was my first time through, I was trying to learn a little bit more about the mobs as we went along. I’ve gone through Botanica so many times as a DPS class, where the main thing that matters is DPSing through the kill order. You don’t think about the rationale behind the markings so much. But as a tank, I find that I’d like to learn why the kill order it set the way it is. Between the high DPS level and the impatience of Mortena, this run would not be very good for that.
Clearing to the first boss was pretty trivial, although some of the pulls weren’t as clean as they should have been. The group was veteran and the healing was good, so this made the pulling and fighting very forgiving as far as making mistakes was concerned. Commander Sarannis was pulled and we blew her down very quickly. Commander Sarannis dropped the Towering Mantle of the Hunt (greeded by Zadrun).
Mortena was already getting impatient and was warning us that we didn’t have very long, so we pressed ahead. I figured the second boss wouldn’t be a huge problem. We began the encounter with High Botanist Freywinn. The DPS was excellent as expected. During the first Tranquility, three of us moved to a position out of line of sight…Arkalas was a bit slow on the rotation. These DPS-happy mages…sheesh. But it wouldn’t matter, as Freywinn was burned down before a second Tranquility could occur. High Botanist Freywinn dropped the Stormreaver Warblades. I don’t think anyone really needed them, and as we were leaving, Mardonis quietly picked them up.
Clearing towards the third boss wasn’t bad. Unable to crowd control demon adds, I attempted to get aggro from all four in the pull. These were messy pulls, with healer pulling aggro and Shaman pulling aggro, but we all lived through the fights. I only keep a single piece of gear with any fire resistance on it (about 10 FR), so I tanked the third boss in my normal tanking set.
During the fight with Thorngrin the Tender, I never got sacrificed…which is fine with me. I’m not sure whether I have time to run out of the Hellfire, or whether I’m supposed to stand firm and tank him in the Hellfire. I tried both, and it feels like I should tank him right in the Hellfire to keep him stationary. Maybe it depends on the ability of the healer. We dropped him pretty quickly. Throngrin the Tender dropped the Dreamer’s Dragonstaff. No Druids in the group, so we moved along…Mardonis quietly picked up the staff. It’s funny how loot sticks to the hands of Rogues.
As we cleared Laj’s room, the Shaman was complaining about time again. We pulled a pack of Mutant Fleshlashers and Mutant Horrors…my temper flared so I chain pulled the next pack while there were still a couple clinging to me. Let the Shaman burn his mana out. After the monsters were killed, everyone had an empty mana bar but I had a full rage bar, of course. I asked if we ready for the boss pull (I should just have pulled), and this time, the Shaman needed a rest. What do you know. The Shaman took the left add and the Mage took the right add, and we burned Laj down. Laj dropped the Mithril-Bark Cloak (needed by Mortena).
In Warp Splinter’s room, we pulled both trash pulls at the same time. The AoE was a bit messy, and resulted in some running around with several AoE attempts. No one was endangered, and everything died, so that’s what really counts. I decided to tank Warp Splinter near the bridge and the plan was all-out DPS. It worked. Warp Splinter dropped the Beast Lord Cuirass (greeded by Arkalas) and the Greatsword of Forlorn Visions (needed by Rockstar). It should make a nice DPS toy.
The damage output was the following:
- Mortena was at 37% (832 dps)
- Arkalas was at 26% (881 dps)
- Mardonis was at 24% (576 dps)
- Rockstar was at 14% (247 dps)
Too Many Wipes in Heroic Steam Vaults
Illustra responded to a PUG needing a Warlock for heroic Steam Vaults. I did get a Primal Nether out of it, but that’s probably the only good thing I have to say…dying six times in what is basically a pretty straightforward heroic instance isn’t my idea of a good time.
The group consisted of myself (70 Warlock), Thundazz (70 protection Paladin) of MidKnights, Babusska (70 resto Shaman) of Digital Gathering, Sryanna (70 Mage) of MidKnights, and Torture (70 Shaman) of MidKnights. In my opinion, for a really smooth ride through Steam Vaults, you need at least two forms of reliable crowd control.
The first wipe came on the tricky corner pull, where the four naga mobs are pulled around the corner into the tunnel, while making sure the patrolling elementals group doesn’t get aggro. Apparently the tank didn’t have some macro in place, and ended up never tanking skull. This meant a silence got placed on the healer. Despite Warlock power, I couldn’t save everyone through this.
By the time we made it to the first boss, most of the group had died at least twice. Luckily I was present to banish one of the adds from the first boss. The fight with Hydromancer Thespia went well (and by well, I mean everyone was alive at the end of the fight). Hydromancer Thespia dropped the Scintillating Coral Band (needed on by Thundazz). At this point, we had a roster substitution. Artemax (70 Hunter) of Empyrean came in to replace Sryanna, who had somewhere else to be. Losing a Mage and gaining a Hunter is a notch down on the “reliable crowd control” scale…so I think we all had more reason to be skeptical about this group’s chance at success.
As we cleared the few naga in the tunnel full of slaves, we unbelievably died on the third pull from the second boss. On this pull, two nagas and one slave should be brought down pretty quickly. Skull went to the slave, the Hunter was given a naga to trap, and the paladin tank should presumably pick up skull and cross. The problem is, the Hunter’s playstyle is “drop trap first, pull mob to it” and the tank’s playstyle is “I’ll drop consecrate wherever I feel like it”, and it’s obvious what happened. A lot of the cause for wipes on this run was the tank’s consecration blowing out our crowd control.
The fight with the second boss was flawless. We seemed to be having a classic case of one-shotting bosses, and wiping on every other trash pull. Mekgineer Steamrigger dropped the Recoilless Rocket Ripper X-54 (not sure who picked this up).
We cleared towards the final boss, but not without problems. Along the way, there were several deaths, and we would have a full wipe on the first pull through the open doorway leading into the final room. Not sure is line-of-sight issues on the ramp played a part, but the careless consecration or bad trap placement cause a melee naga to clock the casters in one shot. About this time, Torture had to take off (only 3 pulls left!). He was replaced by Lumar (another 70 Hunter) of MidKnights. With two Hunters in the group able to lay down traps, the final two trash pulls were flawless. That would have helped us throughout the instance.
We put one shot on Warlord Kalithresh. Warlord Kalithresh dropped a Primal Nether (won by Illustra), the Sash of Serpentra (needed by Babusska), the Beast Lord Leggings (needed by Lumar), the Wrathtide Longbow (needed by Lumar), and a Shifting Tanzanite (needed by Thundazz). All in all, I made a small profit (considering what a nether is worth), but the run was poorly executed (Illustra died six times, and wasn’t the leader in the deaths category) and consequently took much more time than necessary.
The damage output was the following:
- Illustra was at 25% (404 dps)
- Torture was at 22% (510 dps)
- Artemax was at 15% (414 dps)
- Sryanna was at 13% (572 dps)
- Thundazz was at 13% (200 dps)
Dorino Booted From Black Morass Run
Rockstar’s first run in Black Morass could have gone a bit smoother. From a staffing perspective, that is. Rockstar was invited to tank for Areos (70 holy Paladin) of Crush, and three members of Fury – Ditzlebee (70 Rogue), Gillne (70 Hunter), and Dorino (70 Hunter). Even as we were in transit to the summoning stone, Dorino was refusing to handle adds. Gillne was wanting to “share adds”. As a tank who can hold aggro on the Rift Lords and bosses, I know the only thing that can go wrong really is a DPS class who can’t handle the adds. That made the begin of this run very ominous.
We started, and I made sure to position myself to get a look at what was going on with the adds. As a Warrior tank, I have the opportunity to Thunderclap and draw freshly-arrived adds to me, at my discretion. Sometimes I elect to do this in order to buy a couple of extra seconds for the DPS class assigned to adds. These new adds can always be pulled away from me with some damage, but it’s nice to let them stick to me for a second.
I could see the Hunters were having trouble with the adds, and one of them ended up dying. A death so early in the run is pretty much no good, as Black Morass is as much of an endurance fight as it is anything else. Areos and Dorino began squabbling about Dorino’s abilities, and soon I saw “Dorino has left the group.” I thought he dropped out, but according to Fury guild chat, he claims he was booted. Just as well. We picked up Arkalas (70 Mage) who is more than capable of dealing with the adds solo.
The second attempt through was a lot smoother. Chrono Lord Deja was a pretty straight forward kill; his Arcane Blast and Time Lapse abilities aren’t of much concern to me. Chrono Lord Deja dropped the Mask of Inner Fire (greeded by Areos).
I find tanking Temporus a bit annoying because of his knockbacks. I’ve seen that if a Rift Lord or boss is moved too far away from the portal, they begin evading and it’s impossible to keep up with the flow of mobs from the portal to Medivh. It’s very important to keep the Rift Lord or mob tanked near the portal. Temporus is also apparently immune to taunts…I haven’t noticed yet, because my I usually keep up my threat rotation of revenge and devastate up during the whole fight. Temporus went down easily, and dropped Star-Heart Lamp (needed by Arkalas).
During the last phase, I think a few people ended up using their Chrono-Beacon. A lot of times, it’s difficult for the tank to tell, unless the Chrono-Beacon summon ends up tanking the Rift Lord. The fight with Aeonus is always interesting because I must keep enough threat on him to retain aggro, even through Time Stop. We didn’t have any Warlocks or shadow Priests in the group this time, so I didn’t have to concern myself with the worst DoTs. Aeonus dropped the Bloodfire Greatstaff (taken by Gillne) and the Moonglade Pants (taken by Areos).
The damage output was the following:
- Arkalas was at 33% (745 dps)
- Ditzlebee was at 30% (541 dps)
- Gillne was at 24% (528 dps)
- Rockstar was at 13% (210 dps)