Random Daily Heroic - Blackrock Caverns 4/20/11

Today I got Blackrock Caverns for my random daily heroic on Wranngar. This instance isn't too bad as long as you have a decent group that knows how to do the second boss.

After clearing a couple groups of trash we were ready to take down the first boss, Rom'ogg Bonecrusher. This boss has a few moves but the most dangerous is the binding chains he puts on you and the skullcracker he does immediately afterwards. It is very important that you dps down the chains as fast as you can so you have time to get away before he does the skullcracker. We wiped on this boss because someone got too close to a group of mobs the tank didn't clear, sloppy playing combined with sloppy clearing. After we got by this boss we cleared some more trash which brought us to Corla, Hearld of Twilight.

This is where a group has to work together. I have seen so many wipes trying to take this boss down because people don't know what they are doing. It is not a hard boss, but everything has to be done right. You need three people to block the beams. As you are blocking the beam you are building up stacks, you need to step out of the beam when you hit 80 stacks. I usually start moving around 75 stacks. You stay out of the beam until the stacks wear off then step right back into the beam. Repeat this until the boss is down. Simple. I have seen so many wipes on this boss.

Some more trash brings you to Karsh Steelbender. Simple boss. Just run him through the fire once in awhile and dps him down. DPS goes up as the stacks do so you can burn this boss down pretty fast.

Once you have Steelbender down you have some more trash to get you to Beauty. Beauty has 2 smaller dogs with her, Lucky and I think the other one's name is Buster or Spot. There is also Runty in the back but you don't need to deal with him. Use some kind of CC on the two smaller dogs, remembering to refresh it once in awhile, and take the boss down, pretty easy stuff.

A little more trash brings you to the last boss, Ascendant Lord Obsidius. He will have 3 "followers" with him that someone in the group will have to kite. I have found it pretty easy to kite them in Bear form on my Druid, with my Hunter and it looks like Mages can do it easily also. Once in awhile during the fight he will switch places with one of his "followers" so whoever is kiting will need to pick that one up while the dps switches back to the boss. Usually not a hard fight.

I completed this as my daily and received my 70 Valor Points as well as winning the Chaos Orb. I now have 17 Chaos Orbs in stock, I think it is time to make something.

Originally posted on A World of Warcraft Blog on 4/21/11

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.

Brieonna - Level 82 Holy/Shadow Priest

I got a little bored leveling Brieanna, and I really wanted to try out Shadow Spec on Brieonna, so I started working on Brieonna.

Instead of going the usual route, straight to Vashj'ir then to Deepholm, I decided to start at Mount Hyjal. That was a mistake. I didn't like it there and there was nothing I was killing that I could skin so that wasn't working out. I did about half of level 80 there then headed over to Vashj'ir. I think knowing where all the quests are and knowing what to do in Vashj'ir had a lot to do with it. I got to level 82 no problem in Vashj'ir.

From there I headed over to Deepholm and started questing there. I will stay there until I reach level 83, then I will be off to Uldum. I discovered the entrances to The Throne of the Tides, Blackrock Caverns and Stonecore so I can start doing random Cata dungeons on her. I might switch back and forth between Brieonna and Brieanna, as a matter of fact I am almost sure of it. Get bored in one place switch and quest in another place for awhile.