(WoW) Dragon and Dungeon
Well, we didn't have a raid scheduled, but Saturday nights are sort of our "raid nights" in WoW. If there are enough people, we'll try to round them all up and do something. We had some difficulties to start with, but managed to get folks together and try the next 10-man guild in "progression" after Naxxramas: Obsidian Sanctum. It's only got one boss, with three sub-bosses who you can leave up if you want a harder (and more rewarding) fight. Being our first time, we figured we'd clear them all and do the boss alone.
Sartharion
Yep, not the Overwhelming Dragon Damage of Onyxia by any means. We downed patrols and each of the drakes handily enough. The whelps on Tenebron were troubling enough for the off-tank to go round them up. I'm not sure they would have killed anyone, but it was a very valid concern and probably just as well. Tanking the drakes? Boring, honestly. While everyone else jumps through the portals, I get to stand there and poke at an immune enemy twiddling my thumbs. ;)
Sartharion himself wasn't too bad either. We had some trouble rounding up the fire elementals, but I don't think anyone died. I didn't see anyone eat a lava wave, though maybe they did and survived. I didn't get Sarth exactly where I wanted, but there's only so much that can be done with such a massive hit box, and it was close enough to move out of the waves.
The whole instance (short as it is) was surprisingly easy, even given that some of our roster are fresh level 80's or otherwise not "first tier" in the guild.
Drops: Satchel of Spoils (5 EoCs and some amount of gold), Dragon Hide Bag, tier 7 glove token (a priest got that, I think?), and a Signet of the Accord (BOE tanking ring)
So we felt that was cake, and decided we'd blow off Eye of Eternity and head for Ulduar.
Flame Leviathan
I'm not a huge fan of WoW vehicle combat. It's interesting sometimes, but almost always somewhat clunky. Having the first (and unavoidable) boss of Ulduar use this mechanic is somewhat annoying. They do, at least, give you some "warm up" time in taking down towers and hordes of smaller enemies on the way (though I wish buildings showed health in some way, and the section is sort of long).
The fight itself worked out okay. I was driving a siege engine - which meant chasing and ramming, trying to interrupt FL's steam vents ability, and running like a little girl from it the one or two times that happened. We lost a motorcycle rider early on (arguably due to low item level/health), and I didn't see the other putting down tar in front of FL, but I was usually behind or running away so I wouldn't have seen it anyway. Gathering Speed hit about 11 stacks before we won, and FL was moving awful fast. I would say you would generally want to launch your person/pair onto FL form the demolishers to take out the turret and get that buff off it at around 10 stacks - but we didn't have that planned and the boss went down shortly thereafter anyway, netting us an achievement for it.
I seem to remember he dropped bracers and bracers (plate tanking and the other must have been the BOE cloth caster). The Flamewatch Armguards would have been a very slight upgrade for me, but I lost the roll so they shall go to someone's tank spec and probably make a bigger difference anyway.
Ignis the Furnace Master
... kicked our butt.
In fairness, we really only tried once, and almost no one had any idea what we were doing. I was directed to avoid the Scorch by going through him. I found this really doesn't work when two scorch spots stay up at once (I can't go back and forth). Our newly-80 holy paladin picked up an achievement for surviving being in Ignis' pot. Heh.
I think what bit us in the ass was uncertainty on where to move the boss, and probably insufficient handling of the adds. Watching the Tankspot video, I'm more inclined to go with a four-point kiting path around the center. The rest of the raid can then stay more or less in the center.
The adds... hmm... So someone has to pull them into the scorch spots. They have to remain there for ten seconds (one stack of the debuff per second), and most of what I've seen/read seems to indicate that's best done not by active off tanking, but by crowd control (druid roots or frost nova are mentioned). Then they have to be pulled into the water, where they are stunned and turned brittle. At this point, some ranged DPS hits them with a single shot for over 5k and they explode (dealing damage around them). From all that, there is no place for melee DPS to do anything with the adds (though they could kite them, theoretically), and being around them when molten or shattered is downright bad. A tank might survive, but the less damage people take, the better.
Sartharion
Yep, not the Overwhelming Dragon Damage of Onyxia by any means. We downed patrols and each of the drakes handily enough. The whelps on Tenebron were troubling enough for the off-tank to go round them up. I'm not sure they would have killed anyone, but it was a very valid concern and probably just as well. Tanking the drakes? Boring, honestly. While everyone else jumps through the portals, I get to stand there and poke at an immune enemy twiddling my thumbs. ;)
Sartharion himself wasn't too bad either. We had some trouble rounding up the fire elementals, but I don't think anyone died. I didn't see anyone eat a lava wave, though maybe they did and survived. I didn't get Sarth exactly where I wanted, but there's only so much that can be done with such a massive hit box, and it was close enough to move out of the waves.
The whole instance (short as it is) was surprisingly easy, even given that some of our roster are fresh level 80's or otherwise not "first tier" in the guild.
Drops: Satchel of Spoils (5 EoCs and some amount of gold), Dragon Hide Bag, tier 7 glove token (a priest got that, I think?), and a Signet of the Accord (BOE tanking ring)
So we felt that was cake, and decided we'd blow off Eye of Eternity and head for Ulduar.
Flame Leviathan
I'm not a huge fan of WoW vehicle combat. It's interesting sometimes, but almost always somewhat clunky. Having the first (and unavoidable) boss of Ulduar use this mechanic is somewhat annoying. They do, at least, give you some "warm up" time in taking down towers and hordes of smaller enemies on the way (though I wish buildings showed health in some way, and the section is sort of long).
The fight itself worked out okay. I was driving a siege engine - which meant chasing and ramming, trying to interrupt FL's steam vents ability, and running like a little girl from it the one or two times that happened. We lost a motorcycle rider early on (arguably due to low item level/health), and I didn't see the other putting down tar in front of FL, but I was usually behind or running away so I wouldn't have seen it anyway. Gathering Speed hit about 11 stacks before we won, and FL was moving awful fast. I would say you would generally want to launch your person/pair onto FL form the demolishers to take out the turret and get that buff off it at around 10 stacks - but we didn't have that planned and the boss went down shortly thereafter anyway, netting us an achievement for it.
I seem to remember he dropped bracers and bracers (plate tanking and the other must have been the BOE cloth caster). The Flamewatch Armguards would have been a very slight upgrade for me, but I lost the roll so they shall go to someone's tank spec and probably make a bigger difference anyway.
Ignis the Furnace Master
... kicked our butt.
In fairness, we really only tried once, and almost no one had any idea what we were doing. I was directed to avoid the Scorch by going through him. I found this really doesn't work when two scorch spots stay up at once (I can't go back and forth). Our newly-80 holy paladin picked up an achievement for surviving being in Ignis' pot. Heh.
I think what bit us in the ass was uncertainty on where to move the boss, and probably insufficient handling of the adds. Watching the Tankspot video, I'm more inclined to go with a four-point kiting path around the center. The rest of the raid can then stay more or less in the center.
The adds... hmm... So someone has to pull them into the scorch spots. They have to remain there for ten seconds (one stack of the debuff per second), and most of what I've seen/read seems to indicate that's best done not by active off tanking, but by crowd control (druid roots or frost nova are mentioned). Then they have to be pulled into the water, where they are stunned and turned brittle. At this point, some ranged DPS hits them with a single shot for over 5k and they explode (dealing damage around them). From all that, there is no place for melee DPS to do anything with the adds (though they could kite them, theoretically), and being around them when molten or shattered is downright bad. A tank might survive, but the less damage people take, the better.
Fortunately Ignis is listed as an "optional" boss >.> We can try Razorscale, or just move on through XT-002 the Deconstructor (turn your in-game voice volume down/off)
ReplyDeleteWell... what, you just want to blow off 'optional' bosses? We may not need to kill him (or Razorscale) to progress deeper, but... they're new content for us. I would think that warrants at least more than one attempt, but maybe I'm wrong?
ReplyDeleteWell, yes. I'd like to see some victories there, but I'm saying we shouldn't keep trying and see that as the be all and end all of the night. If we're getting stymied, we should try for the guy at the front door.
ReplyDelete