Random Daily Heroic - 4/14/11

Today my daily random heroic dungeons were Halls of Origination on Wranngar and Blackrock Caverns on Brieanna.

I did Halls of Origination on Wranngar first. The tank on this run had an item level of 330, 11 unenchanted items, 5 missing glyphs, 2 unsocketed items and was missing the Ebonsteel Belt Buckle. This goes back to my always saying that 329 item level is too low for a Tank or Healer in heroics and when you get someone like this, well, they shouldn't be tanking anything.

Needless to say the run was a little rough. I wouldn't expect a healer to be able to keep that tank up at all but the healer we had, one of my guild mates, did a pretty good job. We didn't wipe at all but came close a few times. The tank died a few times, which is to be expected with the way they were geared, but we got through it somehow. I was pretty happy when they went right to the last boss when we got up top instead of trying to do all four, I had enough of a repair bill as it was. I didn't get the Chaos Orb from this run, a Warlock that came in right before the last boss got it...

After that I jumped on my Hunter Bireanna and did Blackrock Caverns. It had been awhile since I was on her and it was like learning to play her all over again. I really need to rotate through my characters more, I don't even want to think what it will be like when I finally get back on my Shaman Breeonna again.

We had a pretty smooth run through Blackrock Caverns, no wipes and the Healer was able to pick up a few items they needed. I was hoping the bow would drop off the last boss but it didn't. The only time I ever see the bow drop is if I am not on my hunter. As Brieanna doesn't have any professions that use a Chaos Orb she wasn't even in the roll for it.

I did get my 70 Valor Points on both toons though and will be able to get my Cloak on Wranngar in 4 more days.

Random Daily Heroic - Halls of Origination 4/11/11

Today the random daily heroic I completed on Wranngar was Halls of Origination. As you might have noticed I said completed. The first one I was in for my random daily was Deadmines. Deadmines is a tricky one and I would say the second hardest heroic after Grim Batol.

I got in to Deadmines right after the group I joined finished downing the third boss, Foe Reaper 5000. I figured it would be a pretty easy 70 valor points, boy was I wrong. I noticed in the very first fight that the tank, a Deathknight, was looking kind of squishy. The Healer had 103k mana using a flask so I figured we would be ok anyway. Wrong again. We made it through the trash between Foe Reaper and the boat without too much difficulty, but when we got to Ripsnarl, the next boss, things went downhill fast. The Healer was running out of mana about a quarter of the way through the fight, which tells me he had very low Spirit/Regen, I ended up innervating him a few times but it was not enough. To make a long story short we wiped on Ripsnarl 5 times before I finally bailed. I was doing 12k dps which was double what the next highest person was doing, we just didn't have the dps to get him down. Funny thing is we came the closest to getting him down on the first attempt.

After I bailed out of Deadmines I requeued and got Halls of Origination. Once again I didn't get in at the start, I got in right after the first boss. I figured that was from someone either getting what they were after off the first boss and leaving or not getting what they were after off the first boss and leaving. This group turned out to be pretty decent and we only took down the bosses we needed to so it was pretty quick too. I didn't get any gear, any upgrades I get from here on out will be coming from raid mobs/bosses, but I did get the Chaos Orb at the end so I was happy. I also got my 70 valor points for the day.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I strongly believe that a 329 item level is too low for a Tank or Healer to be entering heroics. It is too low for a lot of the dps too in my opinion. The bosses in heroics, as well as the trash mobs, have a lot of health and hit hard. Low dps makes the Healer run out of mana because the fights take too long. An under geared Healer is going to run out of mana anyway because they didn't have enough to begin with and an under geared Tank is not going to be able to stand up to the beating required to tank a heroic. If you get a 5 man group of people in a heroic who all have a 329 item level it's just not going to happen.

Buying gear with justice points combined with 333 item level drops from normal dungeons and rep gear can get you an item level of at least 340, why not wait?

Halls of Origination - Random daily Heroic 4/9/11

Today Wranngar's random daily heroic was Halls of Origination. I did it with 2 other guild members and it went pretty well even though the tank pulled the group after the first boss then bailed. He got what he was after from the first boss and pulled the next group before bailing just to be a jerk. I switched to bear form and tanked the group with no problem.

We didn't do all the bosses, just the ones we had to plus one extra one at the end because the healer was hoping for the mace to drop but it didn't. On the Rahj fight both the guild members I was with died when he did Inferno Leap. I battle rezzed the Mage and we got Rahj down without a wipe. Druids are the only class that can rez while in combat, all the other classes that can rez have to wait until out of combat, that is why it is called a battle rez. Because I am glyphed for it, I rez the person back to 100% health.

All in all it was a pretty quick and easy run and I collected my 70 valor points but didn't get the Chaos Orb.

Daily Random Heroic Dungeon - 4/5/11

Today my daily random heroic dungeon, on my Druid Wranngar, was The Vortex Pinnacle. I ended up running this one twice on heroic through the random dungeon finder.

It was a very smooth run. I did it with a guild member who was on their Mage. My dps was great, it is getting better every day. Completing this earned me 70 valor points which I will be using to buy a piece of 359 gear when I have enough.

We had a really good group and everyone was pulling over 10k dps. Needless to say it went pretty quick, unlike my second run through there, but I will talk about that in a little bit. Everyone in the group was experienced running this instance on heroic so the group pulls, which can be a little tricky, went nice and smooth and the bosses went down fast.

After that I ended up getting Halls of Origination through the random dungeon finder. I did this on Wranngar again with the same guild member who was on a different toon. That went pretty quick too and I ended up getting exalted with Ramkahen while I was in there. One of the reasons this one went quick was the tank only wanted to do the bosses we had to do to complete it. He was only after his 70 valor points. One of the people, a Hunter, was in there for a specific drop off one of the last 4 bosses but the tank wanted to skip that boss. I reminded him that skipping bosses was not his decision alone to make, he was part of a 5 man group and it would be a shame for him to get kicked so close to the end and not get his 70 valor points. He saw the logic behind that and we did the boss the Hunter wanted to do. The Hunter got the item he was after so that worked out well. We went on to do the last boss and completed the instance.

Next I ended up back in The Vortex Pinnacle on Wranngar again. I was with the same guild member who was on yet another toon plus another guild member. The original guild member was healing this one. This run didn't go as smooth as the first run, not by a long shot. The tank was severely under geared, he had 128,000 health buffed. When I looked him up in the Armory I found he had an item level of 329 and was missing 6 glyphs, 8 enchants, one gem and his belt buckle. Basically he should not have been attempting to tank a heroic dungeon. I am a strong believer that 329 item level is too low for a tank or healer in a heroic dungeon. I didn't go into a heroic dungeon on Wranngar until I had a 340 item level because I didn't think my dps would be good enough. If there wasn't 3 of us from the same guild he probably would have been kicked.

Anyway the tank was pretty squishy and he died quite a few times. He died on almost every group pull and the last boss. How he made it through the other bosses is a mystery to me. I ended up switching to bear form and taking over the tanking when he died and that went quite well. I asked the healer if I was squishy and he said I wasn't half as squishy as the tank was lol. The tank died on the last boss because he didn't get into the grounding field.

I didn't get any more orbs today so maybe I will have better luck tomorrow. The orbs are the reason I ran all of these on Wranngar instead of switching over to one of my other toons, he is the only one of them who can use them. Well, that and the fact that I am really enjoying playing him lately.

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.

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: Halls of Origination

I healed Heroic Halls of Origination on my Priest, Brieonna, last night for the first time. I was after one of two particular items. I was after the heroic version of either Soul Releaser or Scepter of Power. I currently have the normal version of Scepter of Power.

The run went very well, better than I could have hoped. The group I got in with knew what they were doing, used a lot of CC, and went at a normal pace. I have found, from experience, that it is usually the poorly geared, inexperienced, tanks that will not use CC and like to move along at a breakneck pace. They think running from one fight to the next before the last mob has even dropped makes it look like they know what they are doing. All it does is scream inexperience and usually doesn't end well.

Unfortunately neither of the items I was after dropped so it looks like I will be queuing into H HoO every day until one of them does. I went through that on my Hunter, Brieanna, in The Lost City of the Tol'vir, trying to get the heroic version of Seliza's Spear to drop. It took me about a week of running it every day before I got it. I guess I will have to settle in and run HoO every day until one of them drops for Brieonna too.

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.