April 29th, 2011 by Setta

Greetings everyone!  While most of you probably have looked up the new, wondrous items that are available in 4.1, WoWHead has got a great layout for all upgrades for all armor types.  I strongly suggest taking a look!

4.1, Freelance Tax Collector, FTC, Gearing, Patch 4.1

April 28th, 2011 by Setta

Third day of patch 4.1 and FTC has taken down both of the new heroics!  Good times, and we can definitely see that these instances are going to clear up a lot of the loose blues we’ve got in our character slots.

Wowhead has a great, concise table of strategies / abilities of the bosses in each of the new heroics.  Definitely worth a look, it can be found here.

I thought I’d put together a list of quick “remember this” parts of each fight if you haven’t seen one instance or the other.

Zul’Aman

Zul’Aman hasn’t changed a great deal from what it was when originally released.  The only boss with a significantly new ability is Akil’zon, who instead of rocketing people into the air will now call birds to carry off party members.  Here is the quick laydown of the fights.

Akil’zon (Eagle)

Special Notes:  Being kidnapped does not prevent you from doing damage or healing.  Electrical Storm is the killer in this fight – if you are not under the lifted party member, you die.

DPS (in order of importance):

1. If the boss is casting Electrical Storm, stand under the player up in the air.
2. Kill the Amani Kidnapper (Giant white bird) who has one of the party members.
3. Kill the boss while spread out.

Healers:

1. If the boss is casting Electrical Storm, stand under the player up in the air.
2. Dispel Static Disruption, this is mana intensive and happens a lot.
3. Keep an eye on the health of any party member being kidnapped.
4. Heal as normal while spread out.

Tanks:

1. If the boss is casting Electrical Storm, stand under the player up in the air.
2. Keep the boss in a generally central area of the platform to allow people to spread out.
3. Tank as normal, adds cannot be controlled.

Nalorakk (Bear)

Special Notes: This boss requires movement to make sure no one get’s Surged twice in a row.  If you do not have at least three ranged (including healer), then  melee may be required to move out to ensure no one else dies.  Set up a rotation ahead of time to make sure 3 people rotate who is farthest away from the boss, any less than three and one person will get surged twice.  During bear phase, this does not apply but party members should be ready.

DPS:

1. Move out to farthest away from the boss if you are up on the rotation – this is more important than DPS.
2. DPS the boss while ensuring you’re not farthest out.

Healers:

1. Move out to farthest away from the boss if you are up on the rotation.
2. If boss is in bear form be prepared for heavy healing on the tank and occasional silences.
3. Heal as normal (tank heavy healing fight).

Tanks:

1. Keep boss steady so DPS and healer can move as per the rotation.
2. Use cooldowns when boss is in bear form and applies both bleed effects.

Jan’alai (Dragonhawk)

Special Notes:  At 35% he frees all remaining unhatched eggs – this can lead to a wipe if DPS goes too fast on the boss and not enough eggs are released earlier.  Once the eggs are at a low level, let the boss hit 35%, kill all the adds then burn down boss.  DPS should kill one Hatcher, let one hatcher open several eggs (7-12) then kill that hatcher.  Do not die to the fire bombs.  Hatchers open eggs VERY quickly.

DPS:

1. Do not stand near fire bombs, move to a safe place.
2. Spread apart and when targeted by the boss with Flame Breath, move out of the line of fire until it fades.
3. Kill hatcher you are assigned to.
4. Kill dragonhawk adds.
5. DPS the boss down to 40%
6. If most eggs have been hatched, bring boss below 35% and kill adds.
7. Kill boss.

Healers:

1. Do not stand near fire bombs, move to a safe place.
2. Spread apart and when targeted by the boss with Flame Breath, move out of the line of fire until it fades.
3. Be prepared for dragonhawk adds.
4. Dragonhawk adds will debuff their target with additional fire damage taken, can be dispelled.
5. Heavy tank healing and a frenzy sub 20%.

Tanks:

1. Do not stand near fire bombs, move to a safe place.
2. Spread apart and when targeted by the boss with Flame Breath, move out of the line of fire until it fades.
3. Pick up adds so DPS can kill them.
4. Tank the boss in a generally central location to allow DPS / Healer to spread out.
5. Save cooldowns for mass hatch sub 35% and frenzy at 20%.

Halazzi (Lynx)

Special Notes: Water Totem can either be killed or just outright avoided.  Corrupted Lightning Totem can be killed by the tank.  Phase changes at 66% and 33%.

DPS:

1. Kill Water Totems if necessary.
2. Kill Spirit of the Lynx (during second phase).
3. Kill Boss (during phase 1 & 3).

Healers:

1. Fairly descent damage to tank during phase 1 & 3.
2. Large amounts of random damage during phase 2, spirit of lynx has no aggro table.

Tanks:

1. Keep boss out of Water Totem area of effect.
2. Spirit of Lynx has no aggro table, kill Corrupted Lightning Totems during phase 2.

Hex Lord Malacrass

Special Notes:  Adds can either be crowd controlled the whole fight, or killed.  Special abilities are drawn from party members present.

DPS:

1. Kill adds if they are not being Crowd Controlled.
2. Avoid standing in fire or other harmful area of effects.
3. Dispel harmful effects if possible.
4. Kill boss.

Healers:

1. Large amounts of AoE damage.
2. Dispel harmful effects if possible.
3. Tank damage can vary depending on boss’ current abilities.

Tanks:

1. If adds are not being CCed, tank adds until dead.
2. Tank boss generally in a central location.  Move him away from harmful ground effects.

Daakara

Special Notes:  There are only three phase changes during this fight, at 66% and 33%.  Phase 2 and 3 are random amongst four animal spirits.

DPS:

1. Phase 1, DPS boss and avoid whirlwind if possible.
2. Eagle Phase: Avoid Cyclones, kill Lightning Totems, kill boss.  Watch self damage if you are a spellcaster.
3. Bear Phase: Move out if your are up on rotation for the Surge ability, DPS boss.
4. Dragonhawk Phase: Avoid Flame Columns, DPS boss.  Flame WW is unavoidable.
5. Lynx Phase: If you are targeted by Claw Rage, use vanish / ice block / bubble / feign death / etc to avoid damage, DPS adds, DPS boss.

Healers:

1. Phase 1, heal those affected by Grievous Throw to full health, heal as normal.
2. Eagle Phase: Avoid Cyclones, watch self damage.
3. Bear Phase: Move out if your are up on rotation for the Surge ability, dispel Creeping Paralysis off tank.
4. Dragonhawk Phase: Avoid Flame Columns, flame WW is unavoidable.
5. Lynx Phase: If you are targeted by Claw Rage, use vanish / ice block / bubble / feign death / etc to avoid damage.

Tanks:

1. Phase 1: Tank generally centrally.
2. Eagle Phase: Avoid Cyclones, kill Lightning Totem, boss may be immobile.
3. Bear Phase: Use cooldowns after creeping paralysis.
4. Dragonhawk Phase: Avoid Flame Columns, flame WW is unavoidable.
5. Lynx Phase: Taunt boss after he starts attacking someone Claw Rage, use cooldowns as this will destroy you if you take the full duration of the attack (ideally split damage between you and the original target).

I’ll put up an explanation of Zul’Gurub soon!

~Setta

4.1, Akil'zon, Boss, Daakara, Dungeon, Freelance Tax Collector, FTC, Guides, Halazzi, Hex Lord Malacrass, Jan'alai, Nalorakk, Patch 4.1, Zul'Aman

April 7th, 2011 by Setta

Dungeon Finder:  Call To Arms (4.1)

So, I’ve been reading a lot of comments and posts about the new Dungeon Finder: Call To Arms that blizzard is planning on introducing in patch 4.1  (Source).  There’s been a lot of drama over the decision though the patch isn’t even out yet.  Let’s go over some of generalized comments on what people think.

• Awesome, I’m a tank and I do Heroic Randoms, this is great news!
• WTF, why is Blizzard giving MORE things to Tanks?
• WTF, why is Blizzard catering to the hybrid classes again?
• Huh, this affects me but I’m not sure what I think about it quite yet.
• Awesome, I’m DPS and I get better queue times.
• Oh noes, more bad tanks!

Overall everyone has a slightly different opinion on how this will affect them.  DPS seem to generally be unhappy that Tanks / Healers will be getting rewards for queuing into the Dungeon Finder and they will not.  Others are happy that queue times will shrink down.  Others think a ton of DPS / Healers will switch to tanking to get the benefit of the new goodie bag.

Let’s go over this just for a moment.  Queue times for DPS are absurdly long.  As a tank, I generally never notice this until I decide I want to try knocking heads in my retribution spec for a while.  Then comes the 45-60 minute queue time.  That is a bit ridiculous and it’s no small wonder why people are so upset.  So, to offset this, Blizzard has been trying to think of ways to generate more tanks and healers in the system.

With that in mind they decided a good idea would be to offer additional incentives for the less represented roles (Tanks and Healers) so they would have additional reason to join up into the LFD Tool.  Naturally they tried to avoid incentives like Justice, Valor, Honor or Conquest Points as that would tend to disrupt their current gearing model.   Additionally this wouldn’t work out for long as soon the less represented roles would be geared out and have less of a reason to join again.  So they went with gold, gems, pets and rare mounts.  Overall this is a pretty effective “bribe” as shown by the sheer number of people upset or very happy with the change based on the rewards presented.

Why do people keep referring to this as a Tank Bribe?  Well, so far as we have seen, tanks are definitely the least represented role.  Why?  We’ll get to that.  So these rewards will typically be given to the tank as the call to arms will usually be that role.  Now what would this do?  This will bring out a few tanks who had no reason to queue up anymore (no reward from heroics normally, typically from high gear levels), convince several hybrids that are capable of tanking to start trying their hand at tanking and possibly get several people to switch mains.

Overall this will mean a higher population of tanks.  That most people seem to agree on as the rewards offered in the goodie bag are fairly well accepted as good rewards.  What type of tanks?  Well, there will be the high geared tanks (which everyone wants to start queuing more often), the medium geared tanks (which most people will accept) and the ungeared tanks (previous DPS or new which no one wants).  Skill levels will naturally be varied as well – obviously those with more time spent as tanks (and probably more gear) will be the best received.  There will be completely clueless people joining up as tanks, possibly will full DPS gear and a shield.  Several people are really concerned about that.

But, in the end, this will increase the tank population.  Bad / rerolled / DPS tanks will either stick with it, get better and get more gear, or they’ll quit out.  Old tanks that are interested in the rewards will probably be in it for the long haul as the rewards that most want (pets and rare mounts) will take a while to achieve (as anyone who has done Baron Mount Runs can attest).  Why will they take a while?  Because low drop rates (sub 1%) combined with 40 minutes per run will result in a very low chance of the Called role to actually get the rarest mounts.  It merely provides a means of which for them to access it a little faster than usual (instant queue versus travelling around the world to specific dungeons and farming).

So the queues for DPS will likely decrease from this change.  How much?  No one really can say but if the rewards are enough (which for me I know I like the rewards) then it will generate more people in the dungeon queue.  Overall that’s a pretty win-win situation.  Naturally DPS is a bit left in the dust when it comes to the rewards but at least the reward here is shorter queue times.  For all the complaining, this is a step forward for Blizzard in an attempt to figure out ways to bring more tanks to the table.  Maybe not the best, but definitely a step.

~ Setta

4.1, Blizzard, Bribery, Call To Arms, Dungeon, Dungeon Finder, Dungeon Queue, Dungeon Queue Time, News, Patch 4.1, Patch News, Tank, Tank Bribe, World of Warcraft, WoW