News and Opinion

General news and opinion about WoW.

7 Cliche’d Ideas to Jump Start Your WoW Related NaNoWriMo

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nanowrimo

For those of you that might not be aware, November is National Novel Writing Month. So what exactly is it?

According to Wikipedia:

National Novel Writing Month (also known as NaNoWriMo) is a creative writing project in which participants attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in one month.

Unfortunately, I cannot participate this year. School, WoW, and blogging keep me fairly busy. If I were to tackle another project, I know I’d probably get yelled at by a few of my friends.

That doesn’t mean I can’t help participate in my own way, however. In my off time when I’m not thinking about blog posts to write, I think about stories I’d like to tell (Yeah. I know. I can’t find an off button).

So here’s a few ideas Anna inspired and ones that I came up with the other day.

Important leaders kidnapped

A summit meeting has been planned by all major faction leaders. They have all agreed to use Shattrath as the meeting point. The war against Illidan has taken its toll. Neither faction can unseat him without the help of the other. Suddenly, a leader from the opposing faction has been intercepted and kidnapped en route which has sent talks to a virtual stand still. Not only that, but a bomb plot has been discovered. Explosive Mana bombs have been planted in various capital cities in Azeroth. You have to uncover the plot and rescue the captured dignitary (Inspired by 24).

Special teams working together

You are the leader of task force Echo, one of your faction’s special forces units. Your unit was important in the take down of Kael who subsequently disappeared. New intelligence from SI:7 (or the Horde equivalent) has reported that Kael is still alive. Your team has been asked to lead the charge in establishing a beach head on Quel’Danas. The catch? You’ll be working with the opposite faction. Can both teams work together and overcome their differences? (Rainbow Six)

Framed for murder

Several officials arrive at your residence, serve a warrant and proceed to arrest you. Taken to court, you discover that you have been framed for a murder you did not commit. You suspect that one of your rivals are behind this but you don’t know which. You must escape from the Stockades and find out the truth to clear your name.

Doomsday scenario

When you get to Illidan and you look up, you can sort of see Azeroth. It looks rather large, doesn’t it? And it’s getting closer. Gnomish and Goblin scientists have independently verified that Outland is about to intercept Azeroth’s orbit. Time is running out. You have to find a way to save both Azeroth and Outland from destruction before the world’s collide (literally). (Armageddon)

Unstoppable monster

A sentient Ooze-ling from Wetlands has been gaining strength and momentum from devouring other Oozes and creatures. After traveling through the zone and absorbing (eating) just about everything in its path, it has set its sights on the closest township. It’s a race against time as you and your friends must come up with a way to stop Oozezilla from wiping Menethil Harbor off the map. (Random monster movie)

Vengeful hero

All your life, you have been nothing more than a simple farmer. You dreamed of a life of glory and adventure but the love you had for your family has prevented you from pursuing this opportunity. You return home one day from business in the city to find your home destroyed. Your wife and child have been mutilated and murdered. With nothing more than a pitch fork, you swear vengeance intending to bring these brigands to justice.

Forgotten evil

An expedition has been commissioned by your faction to explore the Maelstrom closely. You are a retired veteran who has been chosen to lead your team and explore it. A ship is being built combining the brute strength of Goblins and the ingenuity of Gnomes. A crew needs to be assembled to venture into swirling unknown. When you arrive, you discover that a great and terrible evil has been awakened. With no hope of backup and reinforcements, its up to you and your crew to contain and banish the threat back where it came from.

Good luck to everyone who is participating this year! I know there are a number of WoW bloggers that are involved (Ego, Bre, and Ratshag at least, though I’m sure there are more).

Do you plan on taking part this year? Have you gotten your story ready?

Undisputed Method of Earning Damage Control

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damage-control

You can earn the Damage Control achievement by either dishing out 300000 points of damage or healing 300000 points of health. Now you could always just grind AV in the hopes of getting lucky and having the game last long enough.

I think my way is a little easier but no less frustrating. Warsong Gulch will continue to be the undisputed stalemate of BGs for a long time to come even at level 80.

Don’t Worry, it Gets Harder

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I just finished doing a partial Black Temple clear on my Priest. I decided to swap Priest specs for the night and try my hand at full Discipline. I really like it a lot. Would I switch to it full time at 80? That’s going to depend on the healing corps we have then. I’m grown comfortable between deep Discipline and deep Holy specs that I don’t foresee it being any trouble at all. I think every healing Priest should take the time now where it doesn’t really matter to try out both sides of the coin and become fluent with both types of specs.

Yes, it really doesn’t matter.

I’m being outhealed by Retribution Paladins and Healing Stream totems. But that doesn’t bother me at all one bit. The game has fundamentally changed and raid instance difficulty has been toned down a lot to the dismay of some and the delight of others.

Karazhan now takes an average of 1 hour.
Zul’Aman bear runs can be done with 17 minutes left remaining on the clock.
Black Temple? Illidan down within 2 hours.

And that’s a good thing.

But don’t take the current game in stride. Don’t assume that things will be this easy at level 80, because it’s not going to be. You get yourselves new bosses, new mechanics, and new challenges to toy with. Relax now while you can and have some fun. It’s back to work when you ding 80. Allow yourself to get complacent for a while, but keep it in the back of your mind that things will only get harder from here on out.

Some guild’s are pissed off because all that they worked hard for means nothing. Some guild’s are happy (and back together) because they were able to get over the hump that stopped them from raiding in the first place. My guild was able to take down Kalecgos and Brutallus for the first time this week. We still have some time remaining in order to bring down the rest of Sunwell. I know I’ll be working hard to get that Kil’Jaden achievement (I’m up to 2175 points).

The clock is ticking. Now is the time to hurry and explore the game. Visit the bosses that you thought you’ve never seen. Raiding guilds should trial players for the time being. Swap players around and bring in alts.

It will get harder. Don’t take it for granted.

Guides to 3.0.2

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Didn’t feel the need to do one of my own. Already technically contributed to the Priest column (and really inaccurately at that).

Happy patch day!

Most likely not going to update a whole lot of addons. Not sure how much more we’re going to raid. Just going to update raidframes and thats it. Going to try to configure key bindings via WoW default interface (Thats going to be fun).

To do list

  • UBRS for the Leeroy title
  • Leveling every capital city and smashing said leaders
  • World domination

Might squeeze in some study time in there. Who knows?

Healing Naxxramas – Four Horsemen (10 man)

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4H-title

Here it is. Welcome to the most potentially complicated 10 man boss ever. By popular request (from Jove!), I’ve nailed down the process of how to handle the Four Horsemen on Normal Naxx mode. I’ve seen a few questions asked by a people asking me if I’ve ever done this fight before. I did do it on 25 but I didn’t feel qualified to address this on 10s. I’m not going to write about a fight until I get to experience it myself first hand (and that will continue to always be the case with boss fights).

The Four Horsemen have had a reputation for being the most difficult encounter before Burning Crusade hit due to the level of timing and coordination that it required from players. The Wrath variants, while a little easier, will still require some semblance of coherent teamwork.

The Abilities

The Knights have their own individual debuffing marks which gradually increase the amount of damage that tanks and other players around them take:

Note the fact that it is a stacking debuff which increases the amount of damage you take. The first debuff is applied after 20 seconds and then every 12 seconds after that. It has a max range of approximately 65+ yards and is applied one everyone within the vicinity. You cannot use any abilities to make the Mark fall off (Divine Shield, Ice Block, etc).

Every Horseman must have a player nearby that can get the Mark. If there is no player within 65 yards of the Horsemen, the raid will take massive damage and subsequently wipe.

Each Knight has it’s own unique spell:

Placement

4H-placement

Four Horsemen is unlike most encounters you’ll see in the game as the bosses are on preset scripts that take them to specific locations. Sir Zeliek will always go to the back right of the room, for example. When setting up, send your Caster/Healer pairing to the back end along the left and right walls respectively.

4H-right Note: I really recommend using a healer class and a class that has the ability to heal itself (Balance Druid or Elemental Shaman), but I stress that the fight can be done without either of the two. The healer in the back has to compensate by being really on the ball with their regeneration and healing if such a player is unavailable.

Left: Matticus sneaking up the right wing. Those Knights won’t know what hit them!"

To activate the event, all you need to do is walk up to them and shoot them before they automatically race off to their locations.

Lady Blaumeux and Sir Zeliek do not move from their positions at all for the duration of the encounter and remain stationary. Korth’azz and Baron Rivendare are tauntable and movable.

Strategy

This strategy used makes sense if you remember the fact that each Knight has their own debuff that they apply. Each tank is required to pay strong attention to their debuffs.

Raid DPS starts out at the front of the room working on Korth’azz and Baron Rivendare. The raid will be positioned on the front left side of the entrance engaging Korth’azz first to eliminate the Meteor effect as quick as possible.

Caster tanks

Once the Knights are in place, they’ll start locking onto the players that are closest to them. Zeliek does have his own chain damage type spell (Holy Wrath) and that’s why the Zeliek tank is going to be alone for the first half of the encounter.

The magic number of debuffs before you move? 3 maximum.

Once you get 2, signal the other tank on Lady Blaumeux. Remember, the debuffs have ranges. The only way to shake them is to outrun the original Knight.

Example

I was tanking Zeliek and I had a boomkin as a partner on Blaumeux. When we got to 2 debuffs, we’d slowly cheat towards the middle. Once we hit 3, we made a mad dash to the other side and star tanking each others original mob. As I ran by, I loaded up my boomkin partner with Renews, a Prayer of Mending, and a Shield. Similarly, he’d hit me with a full stack of Lifeblooms.

4H-switch-caster

Center: Me and my Boomkin homeboy tag teaming. Note the Shadow Bolt from the left and the Holy Wrath from the right about to nail the two of us. He’s running right towards my original Knight and I’m running left towards his Knight. Void zone on the bottom left.

Don’t worry extensively about the damage being done. The Holy bolts hit me (clothie Priest) for about 2500.

4H-DPS-Z

Be aware that Lady Blaumeux does put out void zones. She targets the player when she does so. Keep your eye on the ground and when you see the black hole, side step it. Try to be tactical and strategic about your placement. Don’t place them in the path between Blaumeux and Zeliek. (Pictures at the bottom)

Melee tanks

Set up 1 healer on the front right and the front left. Those healers will be assigned to the tanks that are immediately close to them.

Got the raid set up on the left? Good. They need to stay within 8 yards of Korth’azz to distribute the meteor equally. Here’s the tricky part of the encounter which is based mainly on observation and inquiry.

Tanks will still switch after 3ish or so debuffs, but there is a trick. The two tanks for Rivendare and Korth’azz have to run towards each other and meet in the middle. Then they taunt off each other, and turn around and run in the direction they were originally coming from. The raid group and the supporting cast will need to stay in their locations. Some things have changed. The DPS group runs towards Korth’azz (meteor guy) and the lone healer on Rivendare will also follow. The idea here is to shake off the original debuffs. Let the tanks switch their targets. When the original debuffs fall off, they return to their original targets.

Example

That last part may not have been clear, so let me try again.

Ubertank the Death Knight tank is on Korth’azz left. PseudoPally the Paladin tank is on Rivendare on the right. The third mark’s about to hit, so they run towards each other.

At this point, they’re within melee range of each other and will soon begin to acquire debuffs from both Knights.

PseudoPally tanks Korth’azz, turns around, and drags him back to the bottom right. UberTank, the smart Death Knight that he is, realizes that PseudoPally’s taunt affects more than 1 mob at a time and waits for PseudoPally’s taunt to go off before using his own taunt to peel Rivendare off and back to the left.

The two Knights have now switched locations allowing time for the original debuffs of the raid to wear off. DPS stays for a few seconds and DPS Rivendare. After the FIRST MARKS WEARS OFF, they run towards Kor’thazz and the Paladin on Rivendare switches back to healing PseudoPally.

Both Knights should die within seconds of each other as the DPS will be split amongst them fairly equally.

Korth’azz and Rivendare down

At this point, the initial Knights are dead. The entire raid will then move up and start working on Zeliek and Blaumeux. The same tank switching principle applies. All healers will collapse back to the original spawn platform where the Horsemen stood. If any player that isn’t a tank picks up too much of one debuff, have them turn around and run back towards the south side of the central platform. At that distance, the Mark should easily slip off and allow them to resume.

Get the raid to focus on Blaumeux first before the Void Zones become a pain. You don’t want to deal with Ziliek’s proximity chain Holy spell just yet anyway.

After 3 Marks, PseudoPally and Ubertank will have to switch and continue to do so. Just mind the Void Zones! Keep that up, and the boss will go down.

Congratulations! You just killed what was once considered the toughest boss in Naxx!

Healing

For Priest tanks, I suggest keeping a Renew on yourself to help lessen the blow. When you reach around 60%, drop a Greater Heal. If you’re healing the other tank near you, don’t forget to use Binding Heal and maintain Renews on the two of you.

When you’re on the just the two Caster Knights, work out a rotation with the healers. Try not to eat the Marks. Sometimes you have to because of LoS issues or because you just have to.

Action shots

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Above left: Even at this distance, I can still hold aggro against this boss. Note the positions of the Void Zones. As I’m tanking, I try to position as many of them together in a cluster as much as possible.

Above right: Me trying to shake off the two Marks on me. I’m at the back of the platform not healing and the other 2 healers are aware of this. We’re each taking turns switching on and off.

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Above left: A Starfire about to kill Void Zone queen here.

Above right: The results of our labor. A 2H sword. Where’s my freakin’ caster loot?

EDIT: 11/25 – Modified strategy for the Kor’thazz and Rivendare aspect. Look for the Strikethroughs.

Did I forget anything? Please post a comment! Questions? Post those too! I’ll do my best to get to them! Otherwise, feel free to check out my healing guide for the Naxxramas bosses.