Ulduar 10 Cleared!

A long time coming, we two shot Yogg-Saron in Ulduar 10. I think we had up to about 60 attempts on this boss, which makes it by far the hardest boss I've encountered to date, including hard mode bosses. Part of the issue with the number of attempts was the turn over in personnel, I think we ended up having more than 20 toons cycled through our Sunday and Monday night raids before we got the boss down.

Everything came together nicely on the night, and our fantastic brain room team gave us plenty of breathing space upstairs. I really enjoyed solo tanking the encounter, and from the moment we entered phase one, scoring an extra mob early it just felt right.


After he was down, I opened the champagne and we contemplated what to do with the rest of our raid night.

The choice was simple really... Heroic TotC10. After clearing normal TotC10 in under 50 minutes (and the week after in 40), we were all keen to get back into the heroic version. We took a little while to adjust to how quick you need to move out of the fire, the speed at which snobolds should die (I like to think they should be vapourised) and getting the Gormok taunting down. Then we focused on some better execution for the worms, and finally Icehowl was safely pwned in good time before the enrage timer.

We played with a couple of strategies for Jaraxxus before calling it a night. After the all the frustrations with Yogg, it was fantastic to finally get him down. Heroic Northrend Beasts was icing on the cake.

Relegated... to the mobile office

His only company? A portable mailbox and ever loyal (robotic, programmed) man servant.

I'm going to be upfront. I despise the completely backward changes made to Emblems in Wrath of the Lichking. While I spend a fair bit of time in game, I consider myself a casual, but talented player. Going back to farm content (daily heroic for EoTs, heroic farming for EoCs) regularly in order to gear up has crushed my alts... well at least one of them.

Poor Borgelmir has been relegated to his mobile office. Now that I feel compelled to run the daily heroic on my *cough* important toons, I have been just dreading gearing this guy up. His current schedule? Well, it's just as well he's both a jewel crafter and an engineer...

... so here's a day in the life of Borgelmir:

• Get the JC daily, and wormhole to the location (30s)
  
• Kill stuff (30s - 2m)
• Hearth (10s)
• Grab Jeeves (so I don't have to run all the way to the bank) and get the small gems for the JC daily and hand in (20s)
• Scan the auction house in Dalaran (4m)
• Grab bargains for the guild bank, post my own auctions (2m)
• Cut gems for fellow guildies (0 - 30s)
• Logout... no more playtime for you today

10 minutes tops. If he wasn't a 450 JC and 450 engineer, with the capacity to become my primary AH toon... I may have actually ditched him altogether.

of the Nightfall

The story starts with Borgthor, back on 21st August, having a free moment, and watching trade and looking for group vigilantly to find that exciting PuG opportunity. It came in the form of the following, "LF pro tank for Sarth+3D 10 man zerg". I responded immediately, and got the nod. Naturally we then had to wait a while to find a suitable shaman (isn't that always the way?).

The strategy was quite straightforward.

• 1 Tank, 1 Healer, 8 DPS
• Rogue vanishes to reset Sarth, everyone gets into position
• As soon as Sarth appears, pop hero and unload
• Tank picks up 1st drake while continuing to pump high threat into Sarth
• Just before Sarth is at 25% health (drake enrage), a DPSer taunts the extra drake, and runs like hell
• The drake enrages, but Sarth is dead before the drake can 1) kill the DPSer who taunts and 2) make it back to wipe the group

Much to my surprise, everything went like clockwork in this PuG, and we one shot Sarth. I was pleasantly surprised how much threat I was able to generate (given that you need some serious DPS to make it work) and the threat lead I had enabled me to pick up the drake without worrying about slowing the DPSers down (or letting them rip).

I missed out on the drake, but it was such a nice group that we went to do 6 minute Malygos.

We got some momentum behind a guild attempt of Sarth+3D, but it took a little while to fit in the schedule. On 14th September we managed to get a group up and running. Monday nights haven't been easy to organise since we introduced them as an extra 10 man night. Some people have a preference for 25 mans (which we are now running two nights per week) and other people just have a more limited schedule. So... it came as a little bit of a surprise that Zenborg was actually the best available healing option for the fight.

The issue with only needing one tank, one heal and having trouble finding 10 toons up to the challenge was that once we could grab our Pally tank, Borg was no longer required in the tanking department. Next up was the DPS / taunting role. My wife Jondayla has really taken to her kitty offspec, and has been putting out some serious DPS (including in recent hard modes, where a healer go DPS option has given us a great deal of flexibility). So she had the DPS / taunt gig, which left us without a healer. So Zenborg it was. After all, I had recently announced to Jondy, "I finally get priest healing, everything before now was sooo awkward".

By the time we filled out last spot, we had a balance druid, and we decided that the range would give them an advantage in the 'taunt and run' department. In hindsight I could have passed the healing assignment back to Jondy, but I was probably too excited to think of that option.

Our group was

• Prot Pally
• 3x Hunters
• Destro Warlock
• Balance Druid (+taunt and run)
• Feral Druid
• Rogue
• Elemental Shaman
  
• Holy Priest

We had a lot of fun over our many attempts, and it took a little while to get used to keeping DPS up while dodging waves (particularly from the left side was painful), getting the taunt mechanics down, and learning just how awesome binding heal can be.

When we did get him down, it took just 1m48s. Our dedicated DPS were between 4.5 - 5.5k DPS (or equivalent*), and Zenborg was well and truly dead. Congratulations to Helly, who walked away with the [Reins of the Black Proto-Drake].

If you must take a slightly less than ideal healing option, I highly recommend a priest. Spirit of Redemption was absolutely overpowered for that last 15 seconds of totally uninterrupted healing. In most fights it's not that big a deal, but 15 seconds in a 1m48s fight is pretty huge.

Raiding Roundup - 10 Man - Ulduar Hard Modes

Our first night of Ulduar hard modes and achievements was a lot of fun, and went really well.

Nuked from Orbit (Flame Leviathan - 3 towers)

We added Freya's tower to the mix, and our gunners expertly dispatched the flowers as they appeared. It required a couple of attempts, and a lot more pyrite... but we defeated FL with 3 towers up. I think adding in Mimiron's tower will take a lot more in the way of execution than our 3 towers effort but I think we're up for the challenge.

Stokin' the Furnace (Ignis - sub 4 minutes)


We went 2 tanks, 2 heals for this encounter, with Jondy swapping into kitty spec. Given our usual strategy is a zerg, I think we'll be doing it this way from now on. The two healers handled it very comfortably, and he was down before any real spike damage could hit the tanks.

Heartbreaker (XT Hard Mode)


Heartbreaker was a lot of fun, and our first true hard mode kill. I got to go Arms for this fight, and give the heart a good pounding which was great fun. Just to ensure that the heart went down, Jondy switched to kitty in healing gear and gave it a bit of a swipe too. Our kill was a fairly long one I think, with me back into defensive stance to taunt / tank the sparks while ranged brought them down. Next time I think we could be a little slicker in dealing with the sparks for a quicker kill. Zeltan got [Aesir's Edge], which is a fitting reward for the the hard mode.

We had a couple of runs at Iron Council hard mode, but ran out of time. The most exciting part was watching Adirix (holy pally) get Fusion Punch himself and hit the ground. Still not sure why it happened... but it was well worth it. ;)

I found tackling the hard modes quite rewarding, and I think everyone on the night had a great time. However, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to fill a group to go into Ulduar 10. My highest priority for 10 man is to down Yogg-Saron, and recently trying to get the right brain room team has been looking a little bleak. Add to that, people's enthusiasm for TotC10 (both gear and EoTs) and you get ... stuck. The last couple of weeks have seen me alternatively running a second TotC10 group with additional guests, or running guild groups on consecutive nights on different toons. While getting 17-20 guildies through TotC10 is great for the experience and gear, it's just not what I look forward to my 10 man nights for.

To quote myself from a recent conversation with one of my favourite hunters:

I don't raid for loot. Loot comes as a side effect of raiding with great group with decent loot rules. I raid for the challenge of difficult encounters.

When it comes to 25 mans, it is all about the guild. I want to expose a greater selection of guildies to raiding, and help them progress. We even had guildies that picked up the Tier 8.5 chest from Hodir, even though it's available from farming heroics. We often take undergeared, and more casual guildies over PuGing, but perform very well for our two nights per week raiding.

10 man on the other hand, I really want to pwn! It's a chance to form a tight knit group of skilled and dedicated raiders and work on some tougher content. Hopefully we'll be back to that for my next 10 man roundup.

Raiding Roundup - 25 Man

Lots to update since we one shot Anub'arak in 10 man TotC in the first week he was available, but this is the 25 man post.

We've been working our way through the keepers. Since the introduction of TotC, we've had limited opportunities to really sink our teeth into them, but they have been dropping.

Our Hodir kill was a very close call, after a number of frustrating wipes. It was a huge relief to get him down, with a little help from our cold, cold friends. The number of people that got themselves frozen attempt after attempt was pretty funny (in hindsight), and I enjoyed DPSing for this fight. I have developed an ever diverse set of phrasing to describe each of the fight mechanics, including my patented, "off the circles... onto the circles" over vent during the fight. As it was we managed to get the kill with 7 dead, so I'm looking forward to beating the enraged timer by a significant margin with the whole raid alive.

Freya was another fight that took some time to learn on 25 man, despite a solid strategy and good looking team. I think everyone needs to experience how much the detonating lashers hurt when they explode before they will listen to the advice to single target them at low health. Getting the three elementals down at the same time also proved to be a challenge, and it's very tempting just to add an extra 10% health to the instruction 'stop DPS on X'. Maybe it's something that again needs to be experienced before it's handled better. One of the things I think we do well as a guild, is try and explain the fight from first principles, so that there's a better understanding of why we employ the strategy we do. It takes a little extra time, but I think once the fight has been learned, and won, the terse instructions given for a boss that's on farm seem to stick a little better.

Finally, Thorim went down in Ulduar 25, after just a few attempts over two different nights. In the arena, focus fire (and probably too little DPS on the first night) was the biggest issue, but when we got the balance right, and added a 2nd tank to hallway team, it went like clockwork. A couple of people died in the lightning charge... but we got him down convincingly.

The following week, we went for a romp in TotC25, and got 4/5 straight up. I really enjoyed one shotting the faction champions... with more tanking / plate wearing options to distract the melee, more CC options and interrupts galore it was so much easier than we had found in 10 man. Hopefully Anub'Arak will fall this weekend.

What a long, strange trip...

It all ended with my favourite festival in WoW, Brewfest. I had completed every possible achievement available the year before and logged in early on the first day of Brewfest only to find that Coren Direbrew wasn't due out until the 'start' of the event in 'US time'. I had even disturbed the peace as soon as I could get to Dalaran sans mage port when the expansion came out.

It was well worth the wait, as Brewmaster is the most cherished of all my titles associated with festival events in WoW... which I temporarily forgot about... because I had mail!

I didn't expect the mount to feel a whole lot faster, and it didn't at first. The fact that it's so BIG had me thinking, is this really 310% speed? Then I looked at where I was on the map after my test flight and decided - YES! this is freakin' 310% speed!

The violet protodrake (violet, not pink, Obe) is a great looking beast for starters. Then the speed... oh the speed. I can't describe how good it... oh wait, yes I can. The speed feels awesome. So awesome in fact, that it has made mining FUN again. I even decided to take a lap through Sholozar Basin while putting a guild progression raid together, and by the time everyone had decided to log on... I had 80+ saronite ore, and all the eternals and gems to go with it.

The most exciting part of Brewfest this year, was obtaining my long sought after ram mount! I got the kodo last gear, which I admit after 12 months of use, does suit a tank rather well... but I was still hanging out for the ram. He doesn't disappoint, and is the only land mount I'm using at the moment.

It is such a relief to have the Violet Protodrake, and to look forward to a year, almost festival free. While I thoroughly enjoyed brewfest, I can't say the same for most of the other festivals. In fact the person most happy to see me find a 310% speed mount in my mail was my wife, Jondy... who is hoping that the coming festival season will see WoW related swearing drop by about 50%.

Secret Warlock

This toon is an inscriber, so I can't show you his face... or tell you his name. What I can reveal to you is that he is a warlock, decked out in heirlooms, with a level appropriate helm from a recent run in Zul'Farak.

My secret warlock was once a mighty coin generating machine, and is now free to level and experience the sights and sounds of Azeroth before it all changes... forever. One day, when people of all races look back fondly on the highs and lows of the gylph market, he'll even be able to show his face.