I never expected myself to get Kalecgos down before Illidan, but go figure. We knocked him out after roughly 3 hours tonight. First kill took 19 minutes and 28 seconds.
Phat loot
Chestguard of the Forgotten Vanquisher x 2 Chestguard of the Forgotten Conqueror Shroud of the Highborne Faceplate of the Impenetrable
Well, there we go. Illidan is dead and we have several months remaining to try to get Kil’Jaden down before Wrath debuts. That’s the happy part.
Here’s the disappointing part and to many of you, it will no doubt appear sad that I’m sad about this. I just found out tonight the the Paladin who has more DKP than I will be getting the Crystal Spire of Karabor before I will. There’s nothing I can do to stop it because he’s willing to put up a substantial amount.
I wish players would do a bit of reading and research to find out what items benefit which classes the most first. The Crystal Spire is a topic that’s been written about earlier and it’s a weapon that should go to Priests and Shamans first. Is it bad for a Paladin? No. But the other classes will be able to utilize it better. I do firmly believe that items should be awarded to players or classes who can make the most out of it.
This is the one of the few downsides of DKP systems, but I’ll leave that for Wyn to touch on when she returns.
Now that Illidan’s down, I suppose I can just relax and retire. Maybe I’ll buy myself an island off the coast of Jamaica somewhere. Or retire to a nice little cottage in the interior and do some golf once in a while or shoot some birds or whatever it is that retired people do.
I wanted to give a quick explanation for my recent absence, and weekend-only posts – Been working too hard! Unfortunately, my work-load got doubled about two weeks ago, and my resulting hours have stripped my calendar of the time I used to use for WoW-research and writing. I shall return, and Matt’s posts will once again be edited for grammatical and factual accuracy. I do have to go out of town next week, but should be back to some kind of regularity soon!
There’s a contest being held by Slideshare that I fully intend on entering.
I’ve been working on this for a while anyway so I figured I might as well go ahead and enter it once I finish. Here’s a few teaser slides that I’ve had so far. I think one can easily get the gist of the main story I’m trying to tell.
Why a presentation format?
I’m always interested in exploring new ways to share ideas and concepts. Other bloggers have released action videos, some decide to do podcasts, and I wanted to try something that hasn’t really been done before.
Second, I’m a student. As a student, you’re exposed to presentations on a daily basis. Eventually, you have to stand up and give your own. Some of the lectures and presentations given by my fellow student and teachers are jammed full of text. This is my way of learning how to use Keynote without putting a grade on the line.
EDIT: Nevermind! It’s been brought to my attention that there *is* in fact an all healer community in existence that’s been around under my nose for the longest time. Light Natured forums appear at first glance to be what I’ve been looking for. The community forum’s been broken down by class and has some extra sections devoted to general discussion and UI’s and such. How I’ve never found this place, I will have no idea. Obviously I didn’t look hard enough =). They need to do a better marketing and promotion job. I guess I’ll have to flex my blogging and WoW Insider muscle and raise some awareness. I do seem to be suffering some performance issues on the forums. They do take a while to get into the different sub sections.
This is one of the few pleasures I get from blogging. My interaction with readers sparks ideas. Sometimes they’re bad, sometimes they’re good, and sometimes I come up with a “EUREKA” of an idea that would’ve done ArchimondeArchimedes proud.
Tonight I had a discussion with neutralise as we were discussing the impact of a raid wide Prayer of Healing. Somehow, my brain went off on a tangent. I wondered if there was a community or forum specifically devoted to Holy Priests who would discuss their trade (similar akin to the Shadow Priest.com forums). After some quick searching, Twittering, and general asking around, I was amazed to discover that there wasn’t a community already in place.
Not only that, there doesn’t seem to be places for Resto Druids, Holy Paladins, or Resto Shamans specifically either.
The only place that I know of that represents anything close is the Elitist Jerks forums. I’m not going to lie. Every time I go there, I feel fairly intimidated. There’s also a lot of information to wade through to get an answer you’re looking for.
My vision
Seeing as there doesn’t seem be a local healer community, I thought to myself why not start a healer community?
Financing is not a problem. One of the reasons I run affiliate advertising on my blog is so that I can take what I earn and invest it directly back into the community. Heh, like it or not, money makes this world go round.
I’m picturing a discussion board where healers of all shapes, sizes and progression levels can:
Exchange ideas and tips amongst individual classes
Ask for help and advice during PvE content
Discuss upcoming healer changes
Interact with other healers overall
Come for early advice and support on getting started with end game
I’d handle the maintenance and logistics of the project myself including hosting, software and such. The design and structure would be an interesting challenge to undergo.
My obstacles
Moderation – It’s a no brainer that a community like this would most likely attract some big time morons. As much as I’d like to, there’s not a chance in hell that I’d be able to completely police the place. I’d have to realistically turn to volunteers that have proven themselves fair and in possession of a back bone.
Structure – Organization of this community would have to be done properly. Like boss fights, it’s one thing to know what to do. It all comes down to execution. If I can pull it off right, I have no doubt it would be a great community. Done incorrectly, and it would just be another failed startup project. Razorbax suggested a Forum/Wiki combination but I have my reservations about that. I could go forums first and then “immortalize” epic posts after into its own Wiki for easier navigation and access.
By the way, that quote Razorbax listed? Not me.
I swear.
Name – You guys might think this is silly, but the name is important. I don’t simply want to create forums and slap World of Matticus forums on it. A day might come where I won’t be around and it’d be nice for this community to be able to stand on its own. I’d sponsor and support it, but it should have a distinct brand of its own. The challenge here is to think of a name that’s catchy, easy to remember, and isn’t already registered on the WHOIS database.
Interest – But right now, I’m getting ahead of myself. What’s the point of establishing a community if there’s no one interested in it? I ran it by the night owls still awake in BA chat, and they seemed receptive and encouraging of the idea. Still, I’d rather ask you the community in general and get your thoughts.
Any ideas, feedback, questions, or comments would be welcome. But do answer the poll first below =).
Would you participate and be interested in a community aimed for healers?
It was going to be a boring Monday evening. I caught up with all the blogs and other good reads that I’ve missed during my short break isolated from the hive mind that is the Internet. I figured I’d finish up the Heroes 5 expansion Tribes of the East which I’ve been working on over the weekend.
My good friend Dave, the misguided Enhancement and Restoration Shaman that he is, pops into my vent channel and says to me in a voice that would have made any car salesman proud, “Hey Matt! Boy do I have a proposal for you!”
“No Dave,” I replied, “I’m not taking over your Gruul’s instance with those scrubs you wiped endlessly on.”
“Ah, but I’m talking about raiding Sunwell. We could use a few healers to help us out. Do you have any plans for the evening?”
I need to build up my tolerance. I can handle telemarketers and solicitors just fine. But a shot at Sunwell trash? My knees went weak at the thought of wiping in a raid instance that I’ve never done yet.
Odd, yes. I’m sure you’re used to it by now.
The setup
2 Tanks
8 Healers
15 DPS
The strategy calls for 3 tanks. The Guild I did it with (thanks Artifice!) performed with only 2 tanks. I don’t want to explain the fight in too much detail. Suffice it to say, it’s a bit on the complicated side. But after a few wipes and attempts, you get a feel for it quite easily. Think of the encounter as Romulo and Julianne on Ecstasy. There’s an inner demon that Kalecgos is working on and he needs help. Tanks are needed for the big dragon himself in the real world and on the inner demon in Kalecgos’ inner brain. Every once in a while, someone in the raid gets portal’d into his head and a portal appears at random around the area. The raid is divided into four groups. When a player gets portal’d in, his group has to follow him in there and help him out and burn the inner demon.
Like R & J, both the dragon and the demon need to be burned down together as close as possible. Once either of them hit 10%, they both enrage. As their health drops, their enrage gets that much stronger.
Thankfully, both the demon and the dragon are tauntable. Our tanks alternated as much as possible inside and outside to hold aggro on both bosses. The inside guy needs to be distracted as much as possible since he will be tanked by the human Kalecgos. If he dies, it’s game over.
My role as a CoH Priest is an easy one: Maintain raid health as best as I can. The four groups our raid was divided into had two healers each. One of them was on the tank, the other was on the group itself.
Things you want to hear over vent
Here’s a few key phrases that I heard as we were going through the encounter:
*tank name* taunting down low – A tank signaling that he’s in position inside and ready to open up on the demon.
*tank name* taunting high – A tank signaling that he’s got aggro on Kalecgos and any healers on the surface need to keep an eye on him.
Name, portal, group number – Indicates who has been portaled and what group number should be going in.
Portal, location – Says where the portal is so that the group that needs to go in knows where to run to.
Decurse – Person’s been cursed and needs it removed after a few ticks. The curse itself doesn’t actually fall off. It resets to 0 and jumps to another player.
Last points
If you’re having some problems, consider packing a Violet Badge. The boss does apply a random AoE debuff. Remember that this debuff is binary. Either you resist it or you don’t. There is no partial. I left mine in the bank but several DPS players had theirs equipped and I think it had a positive effect on healing.
We killed Kalecgos after 8 or so attempts. We were very close each time averaging around 9% or less before the raid buckled.
Loading ...
expansion 