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| "u can haz fear LOL" |
Friday, April 15, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Sambas: How Frumpy of You to Join Us!
Many moons ago... when I was still learning the tricks of my trade, partying it up in the Barrens, I remember asking myself a question: "For if thine Barrens of ye World, Oh great land of Azeroth hath fine lion-esque creatures, why the hell don't we have full-maned lions?"
I didn't dwell too long upon that simple question, for through the Beast Masters of lore and having heard many a muted whispers amongst the dry plains near the Crossroads (aka Google), I learned of a rare creature known as Echeyakee. This white lion was renowned and was a signature companion for all worthy hunters. After a very daunting 20 seconds of trying to form a primal bond with this cat, he ultimately became my hunting partner, swearing that he would help me reach level 60 and help to sniff out a Devilsaur.
So now we come upon the most recent moon (if that even makes sense), and as I was switching out the various pets into my active companion bar (there's no point taming them and not even calling them to your aid right?) I realized that I had claimed most of the "unique" skins except for Sambas. Sambas the Frumpy Lion.
Now I say Frumpy because at that point in time I only had one image of Sambas in my head, and that is of a small blurry screenshot of its side. I remember seeing a big lion comprised of 80% giant mane and I thought "eww". I did a bit more research (aka look at more than just a thumbnail) and realized that this lion is very nicely modelled and has blue eyes to boot. So I setup my trusty hunting macro (/tar Sambas, its really high tech) and set out for Twilight Highlands ...again!
For several days, his various spawn points remained empty and I then proclaimed that "he doesn't exist!". Until one lazy afternoon, Sambas had magically spawned in a location that I had just flown over several minute ago. A friend was saying how he found a rare so I had tabbed out to google what the heck it was. When I came back in I saw a red dot on my mini-map (I had always thought Sambas would be Neutral) and mousing over it was "Sambas". I chose to release my unnamed, unlevelled Deathmaw in favor of this full-maned Lion.
Actually, several hours later he did join us in the murdering of Magmaw!
Turby the Frumpy
I didn't dwell too long upon that simple question, for through the Beast Masters of lore and having heard many a muted whispers amongst the dry plains near the Crossroads (aka Google), I learned of a rare creature known as Echeyakee. This white lion was renowned and was a signature companion for all worthy hunters. After a very daunting 20 seconds of trying to form a primal bond with this cat, he ultimately became my hunting partner, swearing that he would help me reach level 60 and help to sniff out a Devilsaur.
So now we come upon the most recent moon (if that even makes sense), and as I was switching out the various pets into my active companion bar (there's no point taming them and not even calling them to your aid right?) I realized that I had claimed most of the "unique" skins except for Sambas. Sambas the Frumpy Lion.
Now I say Frumpy because at that point in time I only had one image of Sambas in my head, and that is of a small blurry screenshot of its side. I remember seeing a big lion comprised of 80% giant mane and I thought "eww". I did a bit more research (aka look at more than just a thumbnail) and realized that this lion is very nicely modelled and has blue eyes to boot. So I setup my trusty hunting macro (/tar Sambas, its really high tech) and set out for Twilight Highlands ...again!
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| He didn't seem very happy with my Flurry of Hearts |
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| He's ready for some serious business raiding! |
Actually, several hours later he did join us in the murdering of Magmaw!
Turby the Frumpy
Monday, April 4, 2011
The Deathwing Encounter - Madness of Deathwing
*****PLEASE NOTE: I made this up as a prediction to the Deathwing Encounter many many many months ago even before Zandalaris were released, for the REAL encounter, I can give you some tips for LFR down below*****
*Puts on Mass QQ Ear Plugs*
The Deathwing Encounter contains seven phases:
(10 man, assume everything is doubled in 25 man)
Phase 1:
With the help of Therazane, the dragon aspects manage to bind Deathwing through a series of quests that the player must undergo if they want to see what fully happened (And I'm too lazy to write out the entire story). The group approaches a bound Deathwing, but his will and innate bond with the Earth summons up the deadliest boss adds you have ever seen. Deathwing will spawn a wave of 20 adds upon the group. Have you ever had to maintain CC, interrupts, and high dps all during a heal-intensive high damage, high movement, high raid awareness fight? Now you will!
The raid has eight minutes to kill all the adds before Phase 2 begins regardless of adds, where Deathwing breaks free.
The 20 adds consists of:
Twilight Earth Sunderers: These are huge polearm wielding Twilight drakonoids + earth elemental hybrids. Two will spawn and should be picked up by the tanks. I'll add some annoying thing they do to their tanks at a later date, perhaps a cleave and some stacking debuff that requires multi-tank switching. Their signature move "Shale Torrent" is a random target spike effect spell that acts like chain lightning. It will travel towards it target along the ground, ultimately doing 75,000 physical damage and hitting four other raid members for (75,000 * (4-0.95X)) damage before reaching its destination. This spell has a very fast 1 sec cast time and should be interrupted by a nimble melee, if the interrupt is missed the four other raid members have a chance of counteracting this spell by jumping over the shale torrent. Both of the Sunderers will cast this until they are downed. Since latency is an issue and the spell travels along the ground fairly quickly, the Shale Torrent is designed to "harass" its target for about 0.5 seconds before the damage is applied, if you jump right before it hits you or while it is still festering upon you then you should be safe.
Pyrium Laced Flayers: Remember the stone flayers in Deepholme? Well Deathwing summons a total of EIGHT super charged Pyrium reinforced Flayers to shred the raid to bits. They have no aggro table and will run around flaying anyone they see for 25,000 physical damage every 0.5 seconds for six seconds (10 second cooldown). They are susceptible to stuns, roots, snares, all CC applicable to flayers and should be kited and downed ASAP. They CAN be taunted by the tanks if they feel they are resilient enough, but after the taunt effect wears off they will run free again. Their "Flay" spell is also interruptable if all else fails.
Pumice Drakes: Pumice drakes will share the same model as the Volcanic Stone Drake mounts and once they emerge they will take to the air to pummel the raid with various dusts and sands, doing mild AOE damage to the group and also debuffing the group with poisons, diseases, curses, slows, stuns, interrupts, snares, you name it. Heals get ready to dispel and cleanse, and everyone should use all their survival tricks! Once again they have no aggro table and ranged DPS should focus on the Pumic Drakes. A total of four Pumice Drakes will appear.
Wayward Elementium Geode: The last group of adds are four giant Elementium Geodes which act as the "buffer" for Deathwing's minions. They cast spell reflect, damage reflect, and damage absorption buffs on themselves and charge up for six seconds before transferring the spell onto any other add on the battlefield. Any raid member may "steal" this spell by doing enough damage to them. Throughout the fight the geodes will either burrow underground or float up high above the raid and after a period of time, will either burst from the ground targetting a single raid member doing 50,000 AOE damage to anyone 15 yards from them and knocking them 40 yards into the air, or slamming down on a single raid member and anyone within 15 yards of them for 50,000 damage and knocking them back 25 yards. If your group is highly mobile-competent I recommend saving these for last, as their buffs will definitely come in handy! There is an achievement for not even damaging them for the entire fight!
Stuff Deathwing Does When Bound
You think Deathwing is just sitting there idle while you beat upon his minions? Oh no! All throughout phase 1, as the binding spell weakens, Deathwing will begin to cast various horrible annoyances upon the raid as the adds count reach 18, 12, 6, and 2 respectively.
At 18, Ash Storm: When any two mobs die Deathwing gains an ability called Ash Storm, by using the sheer heat emanating from his body he stirs up the dust around him creating many small cyclones on the ground. DPS and Heals may want to get hit by ONE cyclone as it will increase attack speed and mana regen by 12% for 20 seconds. However, if you choose to get hit by a cyclone, getting hit by a second cyclone will shut out all your spell-trees for 12 seconds and deal 17,500 damage every second for six seconds. Cyclones persist until the end of Phase 1 (as far as I know).
At 12, Crackling Roar: When eight adds have been downed, Deathwing will roar loudly every 30 seconds or so, cracking the very earth into four "plates" with the faultlines spawning from his body. The raid has three seconds to move away from the faultlines as they will then erupt into walls of fire (our favourite raid killing item) dealing 45,000 damage every second to anyone who is in it. This should be fairly easy to dodge, all while managing everything else, and given the walls of fire will obstruct your view.
At 6, Flame Flurry (Name pending): As Deathwing's binds weaken even further he begins to breathe fire over the raid, albeit a weakened version. The flame will swirl from his maw (think of an Incinerate fire wall type beautiful spell) dealing 30,000 damage per second to anyone caught in it, then leaving a fire DOT on its target for 75,000 fire damage over 12 seconds. This spell CAN be spell reflected onto the remaining mobs if you choose to leave the Geodes up!
At 2, Empowering Call: Once the raid reaches the last two adds, Deathwing will heal the last two adds to full and increase their attack speed and damage by 100%. Nothing you can do about it. Not even Tranquilizing shot.
Once the last add is dead, Deathwing will break free from Ysera and Therazane's spell and the raid must face the rage of the Destroyer head-on!
*Note there aren't any "run out of the raid" annoyances, but there should be...on heroic mode perhaps!
**There are also no "click on this thing" or vehicle mechanics, just awareness for P1.
Turby the Makes Stuff Up
*****REAL Deathwing Encounter*****
Alright, welcome! Either you read through my AMAZING phase 1 or you just scrolled down here to learn some tips for the actual Madness of Deathwing encounter. As I've only completed this in LFR, I will be providing you with some tips.
Phase 1: Platforms.
There will be four platforms you will be fighting on, each with a dragon aspect at it. The important thing to note is that once you "beat" each platform, that respective aspect's bonus ability will disappear as they will then go to blast Deathwing in the face with lasers.
Alextrasza: +20% health. Helps kill Blistering Tentacles and slows down Blood adds.
Nozdormu: +20% haste. Provides a time zone to help slow down Elementium Bolts.
Ysera: +20% healing. Provides a "button" for you to "dream", reducing all damage done by 50% for a few seconds.
Kalecgos: +20% damage. Provides a magic buff which lets you do splash damage.
Here is the exact flow of mobs for P1. Kill these in order:
Mutated Corruption: This is the giant tentacle at the back of the platform, kill ASAP.
Elementium Bolt: While you are killing the first add, at around 50% ish, Deathwing will launch this at the group. It's destination will be marked by an obvious yellow swirl. Ranged quickly switch to it as fast as possible, sometimes it's hiding behind the main claw of deathwing and you can't see it, simply tab target and burn it down. You'll know why when it lands. The big claw should be almost dead now, finish it off!\
Regenerative Blood: These are slimes that will spawn and need to be AOE'd down, or single targeted before their energy bar reaches 100%, or else they regen some health.
Wing/Claw Tentacle: This is the big wing/claw of Deathwing on the platform, burn this down. You also have a few seconds into each platform to burn this before the Mutated Corruption spawns.
Blistering Tentacle: This will cause wipes if not handled correctly. Now before you clear Alex's paltform, she will actually kill these for the group faster than anyone can dps 'em. Once you clear her platform, everyone who can reach and with strong direct damage should snipe these down as they do a stacking fire damage/debuff on the entire raid and stuff gets really healing intensive.
Here is the flow of mobs in P2:
Once you have cleared all four platforms it is pretty much a win. Almost. Deathwing's head will slump forward on a platform, and everyone must jump over and kill the Elementium Fragments on the ground. They shoot shrapnel at random people and these hurt. Deathwing will also spawn 2 adds with a stacking damage debuff on the tanks so these must be burned down. Once they are burned down, burn Deathwing's face and rinse and repeat!
I still prefer my Deathwing encounter, my adds were cooler and more interactive!
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| "i are bringing teh death LOL" |
*Puts on Mass QQ Ear Plugs*
The Deathwing Encounter contains seven phases:
(10 man, assume everything is doubled in 25 man)
Phase 1:
With the help of Therazane, the dragon aspects manage to bind Deathwing through a series of quests that the player must undergo if they want to see what fully happened (And I'm too lazy to write out the entire story). The group approaches a bound Deathwing, but his will and innate bond with the Earth summons up the deadliest boss adds you have ever seen. Deathwing will spawn a wave of 20 adds upon the group. Have you ever had to maintain CC, interrupts, and high dps all during a heal-intensive high damage, high movement, high raid awareness fight? Now you will!
The raid has eight minutes to kill all the adds before Phase 2 begins regardless of adds, where Deathwing breaks free.
The 20 adds consists of:
Twilight Earth Sunderers: These are huge polearm wielding Twilight drakonoids + earth elemental hybrids. Two will spawn and should be picked up by the tanks. I'll add some annoying thing they do to their tanks at a later date, perhaps a cleave and some stacking debuff that requires multi-tank switching. Their signature move "Shale Torrent" is a random target spike effect spell that acts like chain lightning. It will travel towards it target along the ground, ultimately doing 75,000 physical damage and hitting four other raid members for (75,000 * (4-0.95X)) damage before reaching its destination. This spell has a very fast 1 sec cast time and should be interrupted by a nimble melee, if the interrupt is missed the four other raid members have a chance of counteracting this spell by jumping over the shale torrent. Both of the Sunderers will cast this until they are downed. Since latency is an issue and the spell travels along the ground fairly quickly, the Shale Torrent is designed to "harass" its target for about 0.5 seconds before the damage is applied, if you jump right before it hits you or while it is still festering upon you then you should be safe.
Pyrium Laced Flayers: Remember the stone flayers in Deepholme? Well Deathwing summons a total of EIGHT super charged Pyrium reinforced Flayers to shred the raid to bits. They have no aggro table and will run around flaying anyone they see for 25,000 physical damage every 0.5 seconds for six seconds (10 second cooldown). They are susceptible to stuns, roots, snares, all CC applicable to flayers and should be kited and downed ASAP. They CAN be taunted by the tanks if they feel they are resilient enough, but after the taunt effect wears off they will run free again. Their "Flay" spell is also interruptable if all else fails.
Pumice Drakes: Pumice drakes will share the same model as the Volcanic Stone Drake mounts and once they emerge they will take to the air to pummel the raid with various dusts and sands, doing mild AOE damage to the group and also debuffing the group with poisons, diseases, curses, slows, stuns, interrupts, snares, you name it. Heals get ready to dispel and cleanse, and everyone should use all their survival tricks! Once again they have no aggro table and ranged DPS should focus on the Pumic Drakes. A total of four Pumice Drakes will appear.
Wayward Elementium Geode: The last group of adds are four giant Elementium Geodes which act as the "buffer" for Deathwing's minions. They cast spell reflect, damage reflect, and damage absorption buffs on themselves and charge up for six seconds before transferring the spell onto any other add on the battlefield. Any raid member may "steal" this spell by doing enough damage to them. Throughout the fight the geodes will either burrow underground or float up high above the raid and after a period of time, will either burst from the ground targetting a single raid member doing 50,000 AOE damage to anyone 15 yards from them and knocking them 40 yards into the air, or slamming down on a single raid member and anyone within 15 yards of them for 50,000 damage and knocking them back 25 yards. If your group is highly mobile-competent I recommend saving these for last, as their buffs will definitely come in handy! There is an achievement for not even damaging them for the entire fight!
Stuff Deathwing Does When Bound
You think Deathwing is just sitting there idle while you beat upon his minions? Oh no! All throughout phase 1, as the binding spell weakens, Deathwing will begin to cast various horrible annoyances upon the raid as the adds count reach 18, 12, 6, and 2 respectively.
At 18, Ash Storm: When any two mobs die Deathwing gains an ability called Ash Storm, by using the sheer heat emanating from his body he stirs up the dust around him creating many small cyclones on the ground. DPS and Heals may want to get hit by ONE cyclone as it will increase attack speed and mana regen by 12% for 20 seconds. However, if you choose to get hit by a cyclone, getting hit by a second cyclone will shut out all your spell-trees for 12 seconds and deal 17,500 damage every second for six seconds. Cyclones persist until the end of Phase 1 (as far as I know).
At 12, Crackling Roar: When eight adds have been downed, Deathwing will roar loudly every 30 seconds or so, cracking the very earth into four "plates" with the faultlines spawning from his body. The raid has three seconds to move away from the faultlines as they will then erupt into walls of fire (our favourite raid killing item) dealing 45,000 damage every second to anyone who is in it. This should be fairly easy to dodge, all while managing everything else, and given the walls of fire will obstruct your view.
At 6, Flame Flurry (Name pending): As Deathwing's binds weaken even further he begins to breathe fire over the raid, albeit a weakened version. The flame will swirl from his maw (think of an Incinerate fire wall type beautiful spell) dealing 30,000 damage per second to anyone caught in it, then leaving a fire DOT on its target for 75,000 fire damage over 12 seconds. This spell CAN be spell reflected onto the remaining mobs if you choose to leave the Geodes up!
At 2, Empowering Call: Once the raid reaches the last two adds, Deathwing will heal the last two adds to full and increase their attack speed and damage by 100%. Nothing you can do about it. Not even Tranquilizing shot.
Once the last add is dead, Deathwing will break free from Ysera and Therazane's spell and the raid must face the rage of the Destroyer head-on!
*Note there aren't any "run out of the raid" annoyances, but there should be...on heroic mode perhaps!
**There are also no "click on this thing" or vehicle mechanics, just awareness for P1.
Turby the Makes Stuff Up
*****REAL Deathwing Encounter*****
Alright, welcome! Either you read through my AMAZING phase 1 or you just scrolled down here to learn some tips for the actual Madness of Deathwing encounter. As I've only completed this in LFR, I will be providing you with some tips.
Phase 1: Platforms.
There will be four platforms you will be fighting on, each with a dragon aspect at it. The important thing to note is that once you "beat" each platform, that respective aspect's bonus ability will disappear as they will then go to blast Deathwing in the face with lasers.
Alextrasza: +20% health. Helps kill Blistering Tentacles and slows down Blood adds.
Nozdormu: +20% haste. Provides a time zone to help slow down Elementium Bolts.
Ysera: +20% healing. Provides a "button" for you to "dream", reducing all damage done by 50% for a few seconds.
Kalecgos: +20% damage. Provides a magic buff which lets you do splash damage.
Here is the exact flow of mobs for P1. Kill these in order:
Mutated Corruption: This is the giant tentacle at the back of the platform, kill ASAP.
Elementium Bolt: While you are killing the first add, at around 50% ish, Deathwing will launch this at the group. It's destination will be marked by an obvious yellow swirl. Ranged quickly switch to it as fast as possible, sometimes it's hiding behind the main claw of deathwing and you can't see it, simply tab target and burn it down. You'll know why when it lands. The big claw should be almost dead now, finish it off!\
Regenerative Blood: These are slimes that will spawn and need to be AOE'd down, or single targeted before their energy bar reaches 100%, or else they regen some health.
Wing/Claw Tentacle: This is the big wing/claw of Deathwing on the platform, burn this down. You also have a few seconds into each platform to burn this before the Mutated Corruption spawns.
Blistering Tentacle: This will cause wipes if not handled correctly. Now before you clear Alex's paltform, she will actually kill these for the group faster than anyone can dps 'em. Once you clear her platform, everyone who can reach and with strong direct damage should snipe these down as they do a stacking fire damage/debuff on the entire raid and stuff gets really healing intensive.
Here is the flow of mobs in P2:
Once you have cleared all four platforms it is pretty much a win. Almost. Deathwing's head will slump forward on a platform, and everyone must jump over and kill the Elementium Fragments on the ground. They shoot shrapnel at random people and these hurt. Deathwing will also spawn 2 adds with a stacking damage debuff on the tanks so these must be burned down. Once they are burned down, burn Deathwing's face and rinse and repeat!
I still prefer my Deathwing encounter, my adds were cooler and more interactive!
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