Random Daily Heroic - Halls of Origination 3/23/11

Today my daily heroic on my Hunter Brieanna was Halls of Origination. We did the quick version, only the bosses we needed to get it complete. I did it with two other guild members this time.

It was a pretty smooth and easy run, we had no problems at all. HoO is one of the easier Heroics. The only real challenge is the first boss where you have to jump down and throw the switches. On normal you can have one person jump down on each side and throw the switches, on Heroic the switches are "channeled" and it takes about 6 seconds each to "flip" them and the snakes will interrupt you. You need to have the entire group jump down, one person "flipping" the switch and the tank and dps taking care of the snakes. Then you run to the other side and do the same thing. That operation went really smooth, when I am healing I always end up with some poorly geared dps tanking the snakes who uses up all my mana.

After that we did the 4 Elementals, the boss guarding the door to the top floor, then killed Rahj. The last time I was in there on a group run, the tank, a different one from today, insisted we didn't get in the center when Rahj did, leaving people out of range of heals. This tank had a better grasp of the boss and it went off really well, we had no problems with him. I will be picking and choosing which guild tanks I heal for in the future.

Random Daily Heroic - Shadowfang Keep 3/22/11

Today my random daily heroic on my Hunter Brieanna was Shadowfang Keep. I did it with 3 other guild members, we had to PuG out the healer but they were good.

All in all it was a pretty smooth run and went pretty fast. We made it to the last boss without a wipe but our streak of good luck ended there. It was the bullet barrage that got us even though most of us were standing up top on the landing when you come in. Being a ranged dps I took very little damage though out the run and I guess the healer kind of forgot about me because at the last boss I didn't seem to be getting any heals. I ended up dying a second time there, along with a Shaman from guild, but we got the boss down anyway.

All in all it was a pretty good run and got me another 70 Valor Points towards my next 359 ring or trinket.

Daily Random Heroics - 3/19/11

Today my daily random heroics were Halls of Origination on my Priest Brieonna and Blackrock Caverns on my Hunter Brieanna.

I did Halls of Origination with a full guild group. There was one person in the group, a Paladin, that was a mana sponge from start to finish. I told one of the guild leaders, who was in the group, that it would be the last run I healed with that person in it. After asking them nicely to please target the tanks target and explaining to them how to do that, they went into every fight picking their own target and trying to tank it. Not being a tank they were taking massive damage so I had to split my time between healing them and the tank and throwing a heal or two to the other members of the party when I could. Basically they were taking more damage than the tank in every fight. Melee fighters take more damage than ranged fighters, that's a given, but when they are tanking and not geared for it that damage is multiplied. Sad to say I have healed pugs that were easier.

My Hunters daily was Blackrock Caverns and that wasn't a smooth run either but at least I wasn't healing so it was a lot less stressful. It was a PuG (Pick up Group). The main problem we were having was with the second boss Corla. There are 3 beams that need to be broken. That is done by standing in them to block them from the mob they are going to. The mob just sits there so all you have to do is block it. While you are blocking it you are building up stacks on yourself. At 80 stacks you need to step out of the beam and let the stacks wear off you, then you step back into the beam for another 80. Depending on how fast the group gets the boss down you will have to repeat that 6-10 times. If you are out of the beam too long the mob will transform into a Herald of Twilight and attack the group, if you stay in it too long you will become mind controlled and attack the group. They just didn't get it. We wiped 5 or 6 times on that boss before enough people left and were replaced so we could kill her. It was sad. After that the only problem we had was the healer not having any water so they were going into every fight with little mana.... Not sure why you would queue for a dungeon without water when you are queuing as the healer. Personally I carry 80 water on my healer and I replace what I use after every dungeon. That is the quality of people you get in a PuG but I can't say it was worse than our guild run.

I will get my new trinket on my Hunter tomorrow from Baradin's Wardens which should bring my item level up and increase my dps. The day after tomorrow I will get my new cloak with valor points and that will also increase my dps. I guess I will be saving up for the other trinket after that.

More Random Heroics - Grim Batol - 3/18/11

I have been doing my random heroic dungeon every day on my Hunter Brieanna to get Valor Points. You spend the Valor Points on level 359 gear from the Valor Vendor. I think I will be getting the cloak first. I am over half way through revered with Baradin's Wardens on her and will be getting my 359 trinket soon too. One of my guild mates made me a Dragonkiller Tunic the other day which is a 359 chest piece. I have noticed an improvement in my dps since I started wearing it. My dps is improving every day.

Today my random heroic dungeon was Grim Batol. Grim Batol is the hardest of the Cataclysm heroic dungeons and it took us a while to get through it today. It was also my random heroic dungeon yesterday too but we got through it a lot faster.

The first boss in Grim Batol, General Umbriss, is not much different on heroic than it is on normal, he just hits a lot harder with his blitz, hard enough to kill you in one shot if you do not get out of the way. He might call out a few more troggs too.

The second boss, Forgemaster Throngus, is a lot tougher on heroic than normal. On heroic he leaves behind pools of molten lava when he has his mace equipped and is being kited. When he equips his shield he shoots fire from it which he does not do on normal and changes direction a lot so you have to stay on your toes.

The third boss, Drahga Shadowburner is the worst boss in there on heroic in my opinion. He calls his fire minions in heroic just like he does in normal but in heroic they will one shot you and anyone around you while in normal they hit for around 60,000 dmg. He seems to call a lot more of them in heroic too, there seems to be one up just about all the time. His primary method of attack is a shadow bolt, he throws a lot of those at you but they are not too bad. Another thing he does in heroic when he is on the dragon is the dragons fire breath attack. He does it in normal but at best it just knocks you down, on heroic it hurts. A lot. It fans out 180 degrees in front of him and you have to get behind him fast. That was the problem we were having. If there was not a minion out we were dealing with we all had no problem getting behind him, if there was a minion out we were wiping. What you do when the minion comes out is kite it while the dps kill it. If you are involved in that and he pulls the fire breath thing it is hard to kite that, kill it, and get behind him all at the same time. We had a Mage that thought he would be smart and just ice block himself when the minion came after him instead of kiting it. Well, the minion exploded and the Mage was alright because he was ice blocked but it killed 2 dps and the healer so it was not a very smart move after all. After 5 or 6 wipes we finally got it down and got by him. Unfortunately, because it was a pug, we will never be together in that same group again so next time it will be starting from scratch again.

The last boss Erudax is not too bad. Like normal, heroic has the Shadow Gale that you will need to get out of. Shadow Gale is like a vortex and you will need to get into the "eye of the storm" to avoid damage. Most of the damage is directed at the tank but he does do binding shadows that will bind someone in place and causes damage to them. After he does Shadow Gale there will be 2 adds that need to be killed, unlike normal where there is only one add. It is very important to kill these add(s) before they can hatch an egg. If they hatch an egg it releases a dragon whelp that flies around and dps' the group while healing the boss, very important that doesn't happen especially on heroic. On normal you can usually get through it if only one egg gets hatched but not usually on heroic.

And that was my random heroic two days in a row now, I can only hope it won't be three days in a row. I am ready for one of the easier ones now like Halls of Origination or Lost City of the Tol'vir.

More Heroic Cata Dungeons

I have been doing heroic dungeon runs with my guild. If you have at least 3 people from your guild in the same run you get guild experience. So far I have healed all but two of the heroic Cata dungeons on my Priest Brieonna. Some are pretty rough and some are not too bad.

It seems we end up in heroic Deadmines a lot more than I would like to. At first it was brutally hard but it does seem to get easier each time. We usually don't have a problem until we are on the boat. Ripsnarl can be pretty tough when the fog rolls in. Cookie I thought was tough at first but the secret there is to eat the food he throws at you to keep your area clear of poison. Then you have the nightmare with Vanessa Van Cleef. The secret to that is to start moving as soon as you find yourself back in the smelting area. Some people have a hard time getting past the laser beams. They say having good Mario skills helps out there but I never played Mario so I just stay to the right hand side and keep my eyes open. One thing you want to remember about Vanessa is she is going to light off a keg of gun powder right as she dies, get away from her, it will kill you.

So far I have healed Blackrock Caverns, The Stonecore, Lost City of the Tol'vir, Shadowfang Keep, Throne of Tides, Halls of Origination and Deadmines on heroic. The two I haven't healed on heroic yet are Grim Batol and Vortex Pinnacle. I am not worried about Vortex Pinnacle but Grim Batol is brutal, I have done that one on my hunter Brieanna.

I guess I will keep plugging along and doing randoms and sooner or later the 2 I haven't done yet will come into the rotation. I run a lot of normal dungeons for loot I can sell to make gold and make quite a bit doing that.

Heroic Dungeons 1/8/11

I did some heroic dungeon runs on Brieanna. I completed Shadowfang Keep, Lost City of the Tol'Vir and The Vortex Pinnacle. They were not bad at all. They are a lot tougher than the normal dungeons which are hard enough but with a decent group it is not too bad. I would say the heroics are as hard, if not harder, than the Lick King 10 man raids.

I got into a Grim Batol heroic but didn't complete it. The group started out with a tank that didn't seem to be wearing any gear. I figured he had the naked buff but no, he wasn't wearing any gear. We got past the Troggs at the beginning then the tank pulled the next 3 mobs, elites, and ran out of the dungeon leaving everyone else to die. We tore him a new one and he said he would put his gear on but did it again. Then the healer and one of the DPS left. We re-queued and I told the other DPS that we would kick the tank as soon as we had a group again which we did.

We made it to the third boss in there before the group fell apart again. I decided to call it a night after that. You know how there seems to be one asshole in every group? Well, after someone else dropped we got this guy, Worgasaur. This asshole was shooting his mouth off like he was someone, you get losers like that on occasion and the best thing to do is just kick them. Other than that it was a learning experience and with a little better group I think we will have it next time. Hopefully we will get enough people in the guild to start doing guild dungeon and heroic runs then move on to raids.