Some Random Daily Heroics

I was able to get on the last few days and run my random daily heroic on Wranngar, for the Valor Points, and tonight I was able to get Relic of Golganneth. That replaced the item level 346 relic I was using.

Over the last few days I have done The Throne of Tides, Stonecore, Grim Batol, and tonight, The Vortex Pinnacle. I have been getting into dungeons in progress a lot lately but that is ok, I just want a chance to win the Chaos Orb and get my Valor Points. There is no gear left for me in the old heroics.

I got into Throne of Tides after the first boss and we skipped the optional boss so that ended up being a pretty quick run for me. I didn't win the orb.

The Stonecore I got to run satrt to finish but I didn't win the orb in there either. That was a pretty good run with no wipes. Sometimes the first and third boss can be pretty tough in there but we didn't have any problem.

Grim Batol I got in at the last boss, literally. I zoned in and I was standing there looking at him. That suited me just fine. The third boss in there can be pretty tough sometimes. And apparently the last bosss too because someone left. We got the last boss down without a problem though and didn't let the adds hatch any eggs. The adds didn't even get to any eggs. I didn't win the orb in there either.

Tonight in The Vortex Pinnacle I died once at the last boss, I was lagging so bad I didn't see him making a grounding field until the storm hit and that killed me. I did win the orb from that run so it was worth it though.

I think I am going to start running the two new heroics tomorrow. They drop 353 gear and I would like to replace my remaining 346 gear with that.

Random Daily Heroics - 5/5-6/11

It's been awhile since I logged into WoW and even longer since I posted anything. I did the random daily heroic the last couple days on Wranngar.

Thursday I got Shadowfang Keep for my daily. That went well even though I didn't have DBM or Recount loaded. I was in there with a friend and they let me know what Recount was saying, I was having a little lag but not doing bad on the DPS. I averaged 13k for the run. We didn't have any problems on the run. There were a couple deaths but I wasn't one of them. I didn't get the orb, just my 70 Valor Points.

Friday I had Grim Batol. I got in after the second boss and we skipped the third boss so it was a pretty quick run. We did wipe once on the last boss though, the only one I fought. In heroic Grim Batol you have to plan how to take the adds before you engage the last boss. I guess the tank was in a hurry though and charged right in. When the adds came out I picked the right side each time. None of the adds on my side hatched an egg. Unfortunately the same could not be said about the mobs on the other side. Each of the ones that went to the other side hatched an egg, so we were getting dps'd by the dragonwhelps and they were healing the boss. We wiped.

After that they decided to assign sides. I got the left side, opposite of the side I was doing on the first attempt. We tried it again, again none of the adds on my side hatched an egg but one got hatched on the other side. We made it through that time though and got him down. I got my 70 Valor Points and the Chaos Orb so it was a good run for me.

Now when I look in the dungeon finder it says I can do five more dungeons this week. It also shows 70 Valor Points as the reward. I think they made it so you can do all seven of your dungeons in one day, and get 70 Valor Points from each, but the cap is seven per week. After your seven for the week are up I would assume you get gold like you would have after your first one each day. I am not sure, I will try it out the next time I am on.

Posted on A World of Warcraft Blog - 5/7/11

Heroic Grim Batol Walk Through

This post will walk you through heroic Grim Batol and the boss fights.

You start by killing trash mobs so you can get to the drakes. Once you have the drakes free you use them to do a bombing run. It is very important to do a good job on the bombing run if you don't want to be in there all day. The bombing run softens up a lot of the trash you have to kill on the way to the bosses and if you don't do a good job you will end up spending a lot more time than is necessary on the trash. After the bombing run you kill the trash between you and the first boss.

The first boss is General Umbriss. He is the easiest boss. He has two main attacks, Blitz and Ground Siege.

Blitz will one shot you. When he is going to cast Blitz he will look at someone and begin to cast, all you need to do is move left or right to get out of the way, there is plenty of time to do this.

Ground Siege appears to be a targetless attack but you don't want to be in front of him when he does it as it is just avoidable damage and it will stun you.

Every so often throughout the fight, Umbriss will call on some Troggs to come help him. One Malignant Trogg and three Trogg Dwellers will spawn the first time. You will want to CC the Malignant Trogg, as opposed to killing it, if you can because if it does not die Umbriss will not summon more Trogg Dwellers, or another Malignant Trogg, otherwise the Trogg Dwellers will continue coming in groups of three every time Umbriss calls them. Trust me when I tell you this is the way you want to do it.

If you do decide to kill the Malignant Troggs, make sure you do it away from other troggs and the boss otherwise they cast an AoE of Modgud's Malice turning other nearby troggs into Malignant ones, and increasing the boss' damage by 100% if it hits him.

After Umbriss you will clear a little more trash until you get to Forgemaster Throngus. This boss walks a beat so keep an eye out for him when you are clearing the trash.

Throngus can be tough and you really have to stay on your toes to stay alive. He has three "equip" weapon attacks he does plus Mighty Stomp which will cause a cave in on top of random players, just move out of the way.

When Throngus equips his Mace he will become encumbered, which will slow him down, but deal a lot of damage. This is where the tank will want to kite him and stay out of reach. During the Mace encounter he will randomly pick a player and do Impaling Slam on them which incapacitates them. His mace will also drip lava while he is walking along so you want to stay out of that.

When Throngus equips Dual Blades he will start doing a lot of damage to the tank through attacks and a stackable DoT. The DoT is magic and can be dispelled.

When Throngus equips his Shield it shoots flames and he is only vulnerable from behind, you are going to want to make sure you are behind him during this encounter. When he is in Shield phase you will be taking a lot of AoE damage from unseen archers shooting flaming arrows, there is nothing you can do about that but heal through it.

Throngus will go through all three of these "equip" phases before he starts again so if the first one is Mace and the second is Dual Blades you know that Shield is coming next, what you don't know is what the fourth "equip" phase will be as they will most likely not be in the same order as the first time.

Some more trash brings you to Drahga Shadowburner. This is the hardest boss in there as far as I'm concerned. He alone is not too bad, but when he is on his dragon, Valiona, he can deal out a lot of damage. He will summon Invocation of Flame and they will one shot you and anyone around you so you will want to make sure to kite them if they are on you or burn them down if they are not. This encounter is in three phases.

In phase one you will want to concentrate on dpsing Drahga and killing the Invocations of Flame. Drahga's primary attack is a Burning Shadowblot that can be interrupted, so if you have an interrupt it will make your healers job a lot easier. Around 25% health Drahga will run over and jump off the platform, landing on a dragon, that starts phase two.

In phase two you will be fighting the dragon. The dragon he summons, Valiona, has an ability called Devouring Flames, a 180 degree frontal attack, and it does just what it says, it will devour you if you are in front of him when he uses it. This is a good fight for melee as long as the tank has the sense to move Valiona out of the stuff that gets put down when Valiona does Shredding Swipe and moves Valiona if an Invocation of Flame is spawning under him. The stuff on the ground slows everyone down who is in it and you don't want to be slowed down if an Invocation of Flame is after you. When Valiona does Devouring Flames you will want to get behind him. At about 20% health Valiona states "I will not die for you Drahga" and leaves.

This takes you to phase three where you finish off Drahga. Make sure to keep an eye out for the Invocation of Flames he will be summoning. With a good group that knows what they are doing it is actually pretty easy to down him.

A little more trash will bring you to the last boss, Erudax. This boss has a few moves. One is Binding Shadows. This will root you in place and heal the boss. If you see him target you move to the side. This debuff is magic and dispellable but why heal the boss? The next move he has is directed towards the tank and it is Enfeebling Blow. It will knock the tank back and put Feeble Body on the tank, just wait for boss to walk back up to the tank.

One of his major moves is Shadow Gale. When the boss casts this you will see a vortex looking circle on the ground, get into it. It is like the eye of the storm. Everyone needs to get into the "eye of the storm" including the tank. Directly after Shadow Gale he will summon two Faceless Corruptors. Everyone, including the tank, will need to dps these down very fast. They will be trying to hatch the eggs along the side of the room which will spawn Dragonkin Hatchlings that will dps the group and heal the boss. You will go through this process several times before the boss is finally down.

I used to think this heroic dungeon was next to impossible but after doing it a few times it is really not that bad. You will need to have a fairly decent geared group that can work together to get through this without too much trouble. I wouldn't attempt it with a group of people with a 329 item level but a group with 335+ item level and up you shouldn't have much trouble.

Good Luck

-Wrann

Random Daily Heroic's 4/6/11 - 4/7/11

My random daily heroic's for the last couple days, on my Druid Wranngar, were Lost City of the Tol'vir and Grim Batol.

There was a time when I used to think that Grim Batol was all but impossible, but now that groups are better geared it is not too bad with the exception of the third boss, Dragha Shadowburner. Dragha Shadowburner is still pretty tough on heroic difficulty. The main reason for this is the dragon breath attack he does while he is mounted on the dragon. He usually does this attack while he also has a fire elemental summoned and it is hard to get out of the dragon's breath and kill the elemental at the same time. If the elemental gets to someone it kills them in one shot when it explodes. It will also kill anyone standing near them. I have been killed quite a few times from going after the fire elemental to kill it only to have the person it is attached to stand there and let it run right up to them. We also had a Mage in our group today that ran up to the fire elemental when it was attached to him instead of running away. Not sure what that was about as a Mage is a ranged fighter. I think the hardest part of this boss strat is to get people to run from the fire elemental when it is attached to them. You would think it is just plain common sense to run from it but it seems very few people have common sense any more. If a group is going to fall apart in this dungeon, this boss is usually where it is going to happen.

Lost City of the Tol'vir is one of the easiest heroic's in my opinion. We usually breeze through that one without any major problems as long as the healer is somewhat decently geared. The last two bosses in Lost City can be a mana drain on a healer so it is best if they have good mana and good regen. I don't mind seeing this one come up for my daily at all, I look at it as an easy 70 valor points.

I am a little bit closer to getting a piece of valor gear and will keep plugging away every day for my valor points.

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 Cataclysm Random Heroic Dungeons 1/9/11

I did some more random heroics on Brieanna tonight and completed Grim Batol and Halls of Origination. Halls of Origination wasn't bad, the tank had an attitude and I was thinking about kicking him but he said he was having a bad day and apologized. We got through that one ok, but I didn't get anything out of it. I also queued into heroic Lost City of the Tol'vir to see if my new heroic weapon would drop, it didn't.

Grim Batol was another story, it is brutally hard. The third boss, Drahga Shadowburner, is anyway, the others aren't too bad. Drahga Shadowburner starts off pretty much the same as in normal but in heroic the fire adds he calls will one shot you, so you have to kill them before they get to their target and kite them if you are the target. In normal they hit for around 60,000 damage. Make sure you are not near anyone if they are going to make it to you or it will take them out too. The other thing he does that is different than normal is the dragon he gets on in phase 2 has an ability called Flame Breath that shoots out 180 degrees in front of him, you don't want to get caught in that either.

Being a ranged melee I usually stand way back when I am fighting, but that is not a good idea here. You want to stand close enough to him so you can get behind him quickly when he does flame breath. You can not outrun it. You will want to stay out of any clouds on the ground too.

The only real difference I saw with the last boss was he has an ability called knock back that isn't there in normal and he summons 2 adds at a time, after Gale Storm, instead of just the one in normal. Of course the fights last a lot longer in heroic than they do in normal but that is to be expected.

I got a new pair of boots out of Grim Batol so I guess it was worth the 26 gold repair bill.

Now I have Heroic Grim Batol, Halls of Origination, Lost City of the Tol'vir, Shadowfang Keep and The Vortex Pinnacle out of the way in my Cataclysm Dungeon Hero achievement.

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.