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 Heroic: Stonecore - 4/23/11

Today Wranngar's random daily heroic was Stonecore. If you can make it past the first boss in this one you have it made.

We had a good group today and making it past the first boss, Corborus, was not a problem although the healer did die. The thing you have to watch out for on this boss is when he is underground. He travels around and comes to the surface in random spots that you will see as a dust cloud on the ground. Standing in that cloud, or even too close to it, is instant death. That is how the healer died. Fortunately the healer died during the bosses second time underground so we were able to finish him off when he surfaced without any problem.

From there we cleared some more trash and got to the next boss, the dragon Slabhide. This boss is pretty easy as long as you keep your eyes open and your wits about you. Make sure to get behind a column when he does his crystal barrage, don't stand in any lava or dark spots and you have it made. We took this boss down easily.

A little more trash and we were at the third boss, Ozruk. The secret is to tank this boss facing the wall in the tunnel he is in. Just take him back and forth, side to side so when he does his ground slam it goes into the wall. After that make sure you put a DoT on him when he has the blue glow around him and get away when he does shatter if you are melee. We wiped once on this one but that was not too bad considering it was the tanks first time tanking him.

Some more light trash got us to the last boss in this dungeon, High Priestess Azil. There are a few things you have to do here, stay out of the gravity wells, interrupt her force grip and don't stand in, or near, any dust on the ground. We got her down with ease.

That completed my random daily heroic and I collected my 70 Valor Points. I didn't win the Chaos Orb but I did go on to run 5 more random heroics in which I won 2 orbs total.

Posted on A World of Warcraft Blog 4/24/11

Random daily Heroic - Shadowfang Keep 4/18/11

I had a little trouble getting my random daily heroic done on Wranngar today, they kept restarting the server half way through. I started a Deadmines run only to have it reset half way through Ripsnarl. I started a Stonecore only to have it reset before the first boss. Finally I got into a Shadowfang keep that I was able to finish.

My dps started off slow in SFK, it usually does when I first enter an instance. Once I got rolling it was ok though. By the time we got to the first boss I was in my groove. We got the first boss down without any trouble. This boss can be kind of scary. I can't imagine what people must think when they are in there for the very first time on heroic, especially the healer. The boss does this thing called strangulation which incapacitates everyone and brings their health down to about 1 HP. I remember the first time I did it, I figured we were going to wipe.

We did all the bosses on this run and I got an achievement out of it. On the next to the last boss, Lord Walden, my dps passed 15k which is a personal best for me on Wranngar. I was a little surprised it happened on that boss as you have to run around when he does certain attacks and that usually reduces your dps.

As I was the only one able to decurse, I had to decurse on the last boss. The last boss has a curse he puts on you called Cursed Bullets. This curse will do a lot of damage if not removed. The last five ticks of this curse will hit for 10k, 20k, 30k, 40k and 50k, hitting you for 150k damage in five ticks. I know I don't have 150k HP to spare or 150k HP for that matter. We got the last boss down without a problem to complete my daily random.

I won the Chaos Orb along with collecting my 70 Valor Points. That enabled me to get my new 359 cloak, Viewless Wings. That cost me 1250 Valor Points. The next item I will be getting is a relic for 700 Valor Points. That will take me 10 days of randoms to get.

Random Daily Heroic - Shadowfang Keep 4/15/11

Today my daily random heroic on Wranngar was Shadowfang Keep.

I ran it today with two other guild members so all we had to pug was the healer and one dps. After a couple close calls on the trash before the first boss the healer told us that this was his first time healing a Cata heroic. With that in mind we headed over to the first boss. Healing SFK can be pretty demanding, especially on the first boss. We made it by the first boss without any deaths though and the healer did pretty well. We cleared the trash in the courtyard and made our way to the next boss without any problems. When you are clearing the trash in the courtyard you will want to pull the large mobs back up inside and fight them there as they fear and you don't want them fearing anyone out into the courtyard where they might aggro other mobs. We got the next boss down, skipped the third boss, and finished up without any major problems.

I won the Chaos Orb from that run and got my 70 Valor Points, only 3 more days until I can get my new cloak with my Valor points.

I went on to run 5 more heroics after that, some with guildies and some that I pugged through the random dungeon finder. I ran one Deadmines, two Blackrock Caverns, one Halls of Origination and one Stonecore. I was lagging in my next to last dungeon which was Blackrock Caverns, and I was lagging so bad in my last one, Stonecore, that I could not get away from the third boss fast enough to get away from his shatter move. In Stonecore we had 4 guild members and one pug. The tank from our guild was really new to tanking and it took him a few tries to get the third boss down, but that is a learning experience, that boss is pretty tough. On the plus side he had the routine down by the time we finally got the boss down. The way I dealt with my lag was I just ran away from him after one of his moves when I knew the shatter was coming in a few seconds.


I had a lot of fun running these with guildies and with the pugs too. I used to think the heroics were really hard but now that I have run them all quite a few times they are pretty easy. Grim Batol can be rough if you don't have a really good group but that is the hardest heroic in my opinion.

Bracers of Some Consequence

After running heroic Stonecore and heroic Deadmines every day for 5 days in a row my bracers finally dropped.

The pair I finally got, Bracers of Some Consequence, dropped off Vanessa VanCleef. The other pair, Elementium Scale Bracers, drops off Ozruk in heroic Stonecore.

They replaced my item level 333 bracers, I got from a quest in Grim Batol, bringing my overall item level up to 348. That also makes 346 my minimum equipped item level piece again.

Now it is time to start raiding for more 359 gear.

Cataclysm Dungeon Hero

I got the Cataclysm Dungeon Hero achievement on my Hunter Brieanna yesterday after completing heroic Stonecore. You earn this achievement for completing all the Cataclysm dungeons at the heroic level.

Recently I replaced my item level 352 PvP bracers with a pair of item level 333 PvE bracers because PvP gear is just no good in dungeons. In doing that I lost a point off my item level but my dungeon score on WoW Heroes went up. Now I am running heroic Deadmines and heroic Stonecore every day, as well as my random daily heroic, to try and get the 346 bracers that drop in there. That will bring my minimum item level back up to 346.

I ran each one yesterday but had no luck, I will try again today when I get on later. I have around a 30 minute queue time with my DPS toons compared to a up to 2 minute wait on my healer. That gives me time to get my Tol Barad daily's done on my DPS toons while I am waiting for the queue to pop.

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 Cataclysm Dungeons

I recently switched guilds on my Hunter, Brieanna, and Priest, Brieonna. The reason was my old guild just wasn't doing anything. I liked the people but there were only a couple of us that were actually active and I wanted more from a guild. I wanted a guild that runs dungeons, heroics and raids together.

Within 20 minutes of joining my new guild I was healing heroic Lost City of the Tol'vir on Brieonna in a guild run. I went on to heal The Throne of the Tides that night as well.

Lost City of the Tol'vir went really well considering it was only the second Cata heroic I ever healed. I didn't lose anyone until the last boss, Siamat, and I ended up dying and losing a couple others. We did finish it though and it wasn't a wipe. I got the achievement for that one.

Right after that we ran The Throne of the Tides because one of the guild tanks was after a trinket off the second boss. That one wasn't as smooth but wasn't horrible, we wiped a couple times but it was a learning experience for me who had only done it once before on normal on my Hunter. We did finish that one too, and I got the achievement.

Last night they wanted to run another heroic and I agreed to heal. I didn't realize it was a random heroic and we ended up in Deadmines, the last place I wanted to be. This is another dungeon I had only done once on heroic and then it was on my Hunter. Unbelievably it went really well until we got to the nightmare, things went down hill from there. We wiped a couple times but got through it and I got the achievement.

So far that is 4 of the heroic Cata dungeons I have healed and completed including Stonecore. I still need to get my base mana, 77,202, up a little higher. I would like to get it over 80k base. On some of the longer boss fights I do OoM but not always. I have really been working on not over healing to conserve mana and it seems to be paying off.