Minipost: What IS Solar Beam?

Ever heard a lazer chicken splutter? It’s not the easiest feat, especially with that beak of theirs. But over the weekend, as the hubby and I ran some randoms and worked on some Cata dungeon achieves, I could hear the anguished cries from the other room “Oh COME ON!”

Why you ask?

Because I think we didn’t meet a single tank who understood what a solar beam was.

While a well-placed solar beam is sometimes placed on a lone caster to lure it into your tank’s waiting arms, more often, a solar beam would be dropped directly on a packed clump of mobs only for the tank to… remove them.

So ignore your cat-like reflexes which pull you out of dangerous AoE bad stuffs, and stay in the bloody solar beam! Your boomchicken will thank you.

This is a public service announcement brought to you by the Moonkin Sanity Council, Chapter 2493. Thank you for your support!

Expectations & LFR

When LFR was announced, I was excited. Finally, a venue for folks who didn’t have regular schedules, who didn’t want to go through an application process, who wanted something that let them see all that content, from questing to heroics to raiding so they could enjoy the end of the sweeping storylines that define Azeroth.

While these reasons didn’t apply to me, I had a more personal and selfish reason for being excited: it gave me a place to go dungeoneering with friends whom, for whatever reason, I couldn’t raid with. I loved that LFR was going to be 25-man because I find 25’s to have less individual pressure (especially when you’re horribly overgeared) even though my computer doesn’t handle all those pixels and boss mechanics at the same time with that raid size.

So now LFR has arrived. I spent a couple weeks flirting with the idea of doing a clear. I was lucky enough to do a full clear on normal before I gave LFR a serious look–between my own finals, and grading others–because there just wasn’t enough time. But I have spent the last few weeks doing a partial or full clear for the reasons above, and I’ve been thinking a lot about the purpose of LFR.

Furtive Father Winter Guest Post: An Ode to Leveling Alts

This year, Ababeko of Red Cow Rise hosted the Blog Azeroth Furtive Father Winter event, a secret santa guest posting event. Effy of Effraeti’s RP gifted me with this amazing guest post. Enjoy!

Happy Holidays to everyone, and especially to Windsoar, the recipient of this special Furtive Father Winter Event guest blog!  Also a big Thank You! to Red Cow of Red Cow Rise for organizing the FFW Event and to Blog Azeroth our home away from our blogs and the meeting place of minds to come up with all these wonderful events to keep us motivated.

For those of you who may not be familiar, I am Effy.  I write the blog Effraeti’s RP, which is a conglomeration of short stories, transmogging ideas, roleplaying thoughts, raiding adventures and any other thing that I come up with – usually relating to World of Warcraft, but not always.

I had to do some serious research on Jaded Alt to try and determine someplace where we might overlap in subject matter until I finally circled back to the obvious.  As you might hazard to guess from the title “Jaded Alt,” Windsoar has her very own collection of alts on WoW.

Bingo!  I have lots of alts too!

After reading her post Making a Buck While Leveling Alt No. 2349, I tried her technique myself.  I quickly realized that a heavy schedule of questing and collecting to level did not quite work for me.  (And selling everything?!  *gasp!*  How can I be a packrat without numerous bankalts loaded down with low level mats and gear I will probably never use??)  ><

Windsoar’s idea was great.  I just really wish I could level an alt and actually MAKE money that way, rather than barely breaking even.  Small jaunts of questing are about all I can manage, which probably sounds weird since I am such a lore geek.

So in a sister post to Windsoar’s, here is an Effy guide to leveling alts.  This technique has earned me entirely too many toons over the past six months or so and now it can for you too!

Elitism: You’ve put in the hours… Expectations and You.

Raiding is all about imperfect execution and doing it again and again until you get it right. However there’s a big difference between someone who can’t deliver proper execution and someone who is a faillock noob that’s standing in fire all time. I’m very forgiving of one, but not so much of the other.

Collecting the Loot: A Quick Guide to Dire Maul North’s Tribute Run

I’ve never made any secret about the fact that I’ve been playing this game for a long time. For the most part, I don’t think that changes much for the dynamic of the game, especially where I spend the majority of my time, killing end-game bosses. However, I can’t help being a little nostalgic about early dungeons, and I think part of the reason I enjoy leveling alts through the early levels in the dungeon finder is getting to run all those dungeons again. Sure, I had to walk across a mountainous passage during a blizzard to even find the entrance door, but I’m ok with these newer versions–they’re still fun! At least, most of them are fun. If I never see Dire Maul North (Gordok Commons) pop onto my screen again, I think I might die happy.

I’m Doing It Wrong, and I’m OK With That

Kurn recently wrote her thoughts on 4.2 in which she railed against the VP system which provides more valor (and faster gear upgrades) to those who run troll dungeons weekly than those progressing in raids and ignoring the 5-man scene. Scrolling through my twitter feed later in the day I came across this tweet by the lovely Oestrus:

Well I’m standing on the mountaintop and saying it for everyone to hear: I’m doing it wrong!

Or am I?

No Strings Attached

Please welcome Oestrus, who writes about all things holy priest at The Stories of O.

To me, running random Heroics is a lot like having a one night stand.

People decide they want one for a number of reasons. Maybe you have a genuine need for something or you just have a lot of free time on your hands. Maybe you weren’t in the right frame of mind when you decided it was a good idea. Perhaps you were lonely or desperate, even intoxicated.

The Window

New Content. New Encounters. New Strategies.

Did you miss the window?

Personally, I find myself standing on both sides of the window. My druid pushed through the new content pretty quickly, and is currently working on hard-modes. My gear is excellent for doing the random heroic, and I often find myself spending the fight in some kind of monologue about how everyone else could be doing things a bit better.

Am I Ready for Heroics?

If you’re asking this question it’s because you don’t trust that nifty little average iLvL in your character pane, and I can’t say that I blame you!

However, I got tired of gearing different combinations of classes and specs in Rawr to find out exactly what each class needed, so the following is a rough approximation for those who aren’t sure if they’re close enough or not.

Check Your Gear

Assuming that you have managed to understand the basic stat priorities for your class then the easiest thing you can do is hover over each little piece in your inventory pane and check its iLvL. You should have no more than three pieces that are less than 333. Why three? Ok, so maybe it is a bit random, but I’m assuming that you will have problems getting either rings or trinkets, and this gives you some wiggle room.

If you have more than three pieces under iLvL 333, do you have any pieces greater than 333? As long as your under 333 pieces aren’t lower than 316, you should be ok if you have some stronger 346 pieces to balance them out.

And before you ask — yes, you can kit entirely in 333 level gear without stepping foot into a heroic or buying anything with Justice Points. It’s called Quests, Regular Dungeons, and Reputation. The fastest way to upgrade gear if you’re sitting at 85 and waiting to do heroics is to run normal dungeons. You get Justice Points, and Reputation which have some of the better (346 level) gear available before heroics/raids.

Is your gear gemmed with at least +30 gems? If not, do this.

Do you have at least half of your gear enchanted? If not, do this. If you can’t stand (or afford) to enchant your entire kit which you are hoping to replace in the next couple of days, make sure that you enchant your weapon, offhand, and pick up the reputation enchants (head/shoulder). Those should give you the best stat bonuses regardless of class/role.

Check Your Stats

Health is honestly the best eyeball indicator on whether or not you are ready to step into a Heroic — if you don’t have enough, you’re either fibbing about your gear level or wearing the wrong type for your class. Healers and DPS should have about 80,000 health when they begin heroics, and tanks should be sporting at least 115,000. Mana users should be running between 55,000 and 60,000 mana.

I will warn those reading this, even this early in the cycle, you may get flak for sporting these numbers; however, they should be solid in terms of ability to complete the dungeon IF you are properly following the mechanics of the fight, and your group is utilizing CC and abilities for things like damage reduction, etc. If you have a group that is “too good” for basic good play, then you might find yourself unable to keep up.

Yes, Yes, but What’s the DPS Requirement?

Finally, as much as I hate throwing out a minimum DPS number, since fight mechanics and actually doing something other than DPS may negatively impact numbers, in general, a minimum of 5,000 DPS should be sustainable. If you’re playing with a dummy, and the best you can eek out is 5,000, then it likely means you need more practice and/or gear before entering a heroic dungeon since almost every encounter, from trash to boss, requires players to be involved in non-DPS maneuvers (running out of the fire) or assisting (CC, emergency healing, etc.)

In the end, whether or not you are ready for heroics depends almost entirely on you. Do you have the best gear you can lay your grubby little hands on? Have you taken the best care that you can with your gear, and made it sparkle with gems and enchants? If the dungeon finder tool is queuing you for heroics and you haven’t horribly messed up your stat allocation, then you can do it! But, it can definitely be painful!

Good luck with your heroic journeys, and if you take my sage advice (haha!) and find that I’m in error, come back and let me know so I can correct things for the next band of hardy adventurers.

 

Your First Cataclysm Heroic

You’ve run every dungeon on normal, and just gotten your iLvL up sufficiently to run a heroic–Congratulations and Good Luck! Cataclysm heroics are a class above what you have become used to in Lich King heroic encounters, with the tank grabbing everything, the dps AoE’ing the mobs into the ground, and the healer in the back casting a few hots to keep everyone up. In order to make your first Heroic a mite easier, make sure you’re prepared, and ready to take on the challenge!

Preparation

• Bring food.
• Bring bandages.
• Wear your best possible gear.
• If you have sockets, gem them. The cheapest option is the +30 cuts, which have been running about 30g on my server. This is a great investment for stats for gear you’re hoping to replace soon.
• If you have enchanting mats lying around, enchant the pieces that you suspect you’ll be keeping the longest.
• Reforge. It’s fairly cheap and easy to stack up your stats more to your liking.
• Check out a gear list for your class so you can continue to upgrade pieces from quests and crafters. Just because it’s heroic, doesn’t mean it’s the best!

In the Dungeon

General Notes

• If your healer is drinking, and you’re low on health, you should be too.
• If your healer is low on mana during an encounter use a bandage.
• If you have stat food or pots, now’s the time to use them, especially if you’re low on a cap, such as hit or expertise.
• If you have a warlock, get a healthstone and soulstone.
• Make sure you have all available buffs applied. See the buffs/debuff listto make sure everyone is contributing.
• If you have a mage, make sure a table is put down. Don’t forget that moving while summoning puts the table on cooldown, so don’t be a goof.
• Pets are awesome. Uncontrolled pets cause havoc. Better to have your pet on passive than to pull an extra add pack.
• Do not chain pull.

On Trash

• Mark targets. From a boomkin/resto druid perspective, tank threat feels solid, but not rock solid. You can lose threat juggling between dps on multiple adds. You’re also more likely to die the longer the fight goes on. Save everyone some work, and mark the kill order.
• AoE is a situational ability. Plan to single-target dps most groups into fine dust.
• Use crowd control. Seriously. If you’re not sure what your CC abilities are, or how to mark for the classes in your group, check out the Bossy Pally’s Compendiumon the subject. If you choose to ignore crowd control, in a win-win situation your healer will be OOM every trash pull. In most situations, you wipe.
• Be prepared to move, even on trash. There’s a lot of fire and ick on the floor, even with trash, so everyone–healer, tank and dps–should be prepared to move out of damage attacks. If you’re not the tank, and you’re taking damage, you’re probablyin something bad and should move.
• Healers cannot keep you at 100% all the time. Those massive mana pools = health for the tank. You see how big the tank’s health pool is? That means there is little room for error, and extraneous damage on ANY fight from trash to boss = death.

On Bosses

• Know the boss abilities. If you’re like me, you go into things blind. Expect to wipe. If you don’t want to wipe, and don’t know the strategy, download Deadly Boss Mods–it’s got a 5-man feature that works great. If someone knows a strategy and wants to explain — let them. Sheesh.
• Kill adds. You are not going to zerg the bosses down. When adds appear, they need to be killed 99.9% of the time. ALL dps will need to stop hitting the boss, trust me, no one cares about the meters when they’re dead.
• Read the boss’ buffs and your debuffs. Boss encounters are often finangled to give the boss a short or long-term buff, or a party member a short or long-term debuff that can drastically change the scope of the encounter. I’ve found this is especially true for tanks — boss buffs and player debuffs are being used to create “kiting” phases.
• Healer mana = soft enrage. Your healer can be out of mana for three reasons:
  1. They’re panicking and overhealing
  2. Someone stood in the bad, and was saved
  3. The fight went on too long.

  Generally, the second and third are the case. #2 can easily lead to #3, so it’s very important that all party members avoid “bad” mechanics as much as possible, including the healer!

• Be prepared to move. Blizzard loves to make us run, and boy are we ever. The days of the stationary boss fight are pretty much over.
  • Tanks: If you don’t use your mouse, at a minimum, know how to strafe. You should never, ever turn your back on the boss.
  • DPS: Know which abilities you can use on the move to keep the DPS rolling as you re-position.
  • Healers: Know which spells you can cast on the move so you don’t lose someone on a rapid retreat. Prioritizing heals is paramount.
  • All: Don’t forget that you can run THROUGH the boss — he’s not solid after all!
• Use your cooldowns! If you are not using every single cooldown on your bar every boss fight, ask yourself why not?! Some are pretty specific, and you just don’t need them, but anything that reduces damage (and you took it), increases dps (and you dps), or increases healing output (and you heal) should be used. What are you saving ’em for? The apocalypse?

Done correctly, a heroic will run less than an hour, done poorly, and you can be spending the better part of your evening banging your head against the wall, not to mention spending a small fortune repairing gear. While some death is to be expected as people learn new encounters, preparation and common sense can save your group a ton of headaches!