Monday 30 April 2012

Guild Wars

No, it's not really about Guild Wars. I just wanted to discuss Guilds in WoW. I have been with my current guild Knights of Ni for about 2 years now, they are a friendly, casual raiding guild. I guess most guilds fit this category these days. To be honest that is about as much as I know about the guild, which considering how much time I spend with these people is appaling. How the hell did I manage this feat of ambivalence?

The first guild I joined was by accident, I had no idea that people actually grouped together to help each other. I was running around Kharonos probably killing boars, when I got a random invite and accidentally pressed yes. This is about as much as I remember of this guild. My wife on the other hand found some very helpful people whilst trying to solo Chok'sul. In vanilla WoW it was not unusual to encounter group quests and for the unsuspecting, soloing these Elites was not really an option. This band of intrepid adventurers took my wife under their tutelage and later would join a guild with them. The guild leader was a teenager from Manchester who spent more time talking than playing and in particular would prey on female characters in game. In my opinion this is a dangerous ploy in a role playing game were the sex of the character was no guarantee of the sex of the player. In this case he latched onto 3 female Night Elves and was shocked to find that two the Night Elves were in fact married to each other. The guild was <Insert Guild Here> which I later joined because they all seemed to be having a lot of fun, more than I was having. My wife and I would eventually meet up for a meal with 5 members of this guild and forge a long lasting relationship with two of them.

One day I logged onto the game and found that all 5 members that we had met with were no longer in the guild or as it appeared on the Realm. After several hours of distraught searching, we found out via email that they had all taken free realm transfer to a new server. I remember at the time feeling a strange form of abandonment. My wife and I did not not want to follow our friends onto another realm if they were in fact trying to get away from us. We did in the end move to the new server but the free realm transfer was now closed and at £10 per character I felt quite aggrieved.

Guilds came and went and it all came right when I joined a guild called "Ctrl-Alt-Elite". This was the first time I felt at home in a guild. In time I would get to know or at least speak to nearly every member of the Guild. The timing was perfect, Blizzard had introduced 5 man Heroics and removed the atunement to enter Karazhan. The guild would come together for my first taste of Raiding and it was new, exciting and very tough. The bond would of course not last forever. The Guild Leader took some time out and a new Guild Leader took over. The guild leadership was changed at this point and my wife and I both ended up as Officers. This for me was the most exciting time in WoW.

After Karazhan there was a little design flaw for the small guilds who could only just manage to muster 10 people on Raid, the next 2 Raids were 25 Man only Gruul's Lair and Serpentshrine Cavern. As a guild we never quite made the journey to Zul'Aman mostly due to the shortage of gear by missing 2 raids.

Around this time the previous Guild Leader returned, and demanded to re-instated as the Guild Leader. This created friction, because everybody was happy with our new Guild Leader. Once re-instated as Guild Leader, he embarked on reign of terror. Attempting to crush everybody who opposed him and generally treating the Guild as his own personal fiefdom to do as he pleased with.

After a few weeks of this behaviour I /gquit and removed all my characters one after another. I said nothing of my reasons, I just knew I needed to get out. I was soon followed by my wife and few others. None of it was planned but just to give a placeholder and a place to meet we set up a guild, barking for signatures in Stormwing and Goldshire. Within a week we had been joined by 75% of the old guild. We never actively sort out any of our former guildies, it all happened by whispers.

The only thing I disliked about the new Guild was the Guildname, "Once More With Feeling". I might be a Buffy fan but this is the award winning episode that I could never bring myself to watch. I am not a fan of musicals and the idea of load of actors suddenly thinking they can sing , was too much to bear. The Guild name was of course a good rallying cry after a Raid wipe.

The guild would eventually witness the Real Life split up of two officers and coupled with the low number of online members in an evening would eventually lead to the demise of the Guild.

I joined a Raiding Guild and was amazed to be part of a guild with 30 active people every night all wanting to take part in Raids and rapid Turkey shoot Heroics. I discovered the advantages of a Guild that Raids with Ventrillo or Mumble and how much more organised the raids could be. The one thing I never got used too was the vile and puerile language, much of it homophobic or misogynistic. It comes to something when you want to report members of your own guild.

I am now in the guild "Knights of Ni", it is a safe place to be, the people are nice and nobody bothers you. I have been in the Guild for around 2 Years now, and I have one faithful friend who has lasted through 3 of the Guilds that I have been associated. We are are older players who help each other along and sometimes we even talk to each other. I have occasionally raided with the Knights but I can safely say that I have never been an active member of the Guild. I have already lost too many good friends in this game and am getting too old to make new ones. Most of contacts in game via my wife and since she left the game I just keep my head down and get on with playing my solo game in a large MMO. It is safe to say that the Knights have never got the best out me.

Anyway I would like to say a big thank you to all the absent friends I have made and lost on the way, I would like to name them personally but I can't remember most of their names.

No Heavy Petting


Children's Week is here, and with this particular holiday comes a plethora of pets to obtain. From Azeroth there is Mr Wiggles, Scooter the Snail, Seedy the Turtle, and Whiskers the Rat. From The Outlands Egbert, Legs, Peanut, and Willy. Finally from Northrend there is Curious Oracle Hatchling, and Curious Wolvar Pup.

Over the years I have dipped in and out of these seasonal activities. This year I saw the opportunity to bag myself some pets and some achievements at the same time. First up was Veteran Nanny, for picking up the third of my Outland pets, the missing piece was the Elekk Training Collar. From Stormwind I collected Whiskers the Rat and from Northrend I picked up the Curios Wolvar Pet. I have done the Oracle quest twice by accident in previous years.

This activity left me two pets short of the Menagerie achievement. The cheapest Auction House options were Mechanopeep and one of the many Hatchlings. This obviously leads to receiving the Brilliant Kaliri, and a Guildy informing me of Lil' Taregosa which I had no idea was available from the Guild Vendor. I am now sat on 127 Companion pets, but I am unlikely to pursue the the next 23 until the Pandafest makes hundreds more available.

The thing I can't understand is why I feel the need to collect these pets. I very rarely get the pets out and seem only to collect for the sake of the achievement. I get the feeling I am going to end up doing Pokewow for the same reason, but at least I will have plenty of pets to choose from.

Thursday 26 April 2012

Captain Pugwash

Yes the school boy humour of this old classic. This is all of course an urban myth, there was no Seaman Staines, or Master Bates, or Rodger the Cabin Boy. I know it is a real let down but the truth was Master Mates, Tom the Cabin Boy and my all time favourite Seaman Willie from Wigan. Why from Wigan I have no idea, it may have a pier but it is not known for it's nautical pioneers.


So what induced this latest batch of pining for my childhood? Let me introduce the latest effort from the immature imagination of the combined Blizzard team, Master Baiter <Fishing Supplies>.

So far we have several attempts rooting through animal excrement, here and here. Also in WotLK we had this hilarious quest for the alliance, here. Normally I like Blizzard's humour and pop culture references, its like the Simpsons in computer game form, but occasionally they slip down into the level of American Pie.

Tuesday 24 April 2012

I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself?

The title of this post just about sums up what I feel about World of Warcraft at the moment. Even the Blogosphere is devoid of interesting topics, with the exception of the fantastic Darla post by BigBearButt. Just out of curiosity does anybody else have access issues with his site? I assume the filter police don't like the usage of butt in the title.One of the best WoW blogs ever written was one that I could never get a work - Righteous Orbs, this was always flagged as being pornographic.

When you don't know what to do in game, it makes it very difficult to find something to write about. I was going to write about Guilds but it maybe became a little too personal, who knows I may return to the draft copy. The wait between last patch and new expansion seems to be getting worse. WotLK was a long time between that they ended up sticking a useless extra patch. Anyone remember the great success of the Ruby Sanctum? This was probably not the worst thing in WotLK, that accolade belongs firmly with the Argent Tournament. Anybody fancy a joust on a land mount? no thanks. Cataclysm went one better and put us with lance in hand on the back of the worst flying mount ever designed. Its main design principle was the simple housebrick.

I am seriously considering being disloyal to World of Warcraft and spending some quality time with her sister Diablo III. I have never played any of the Diablo series, but judging from the hype, the screenshots, and the fact that I will get a free copy makes it very appealing indeed. I may not know what to do right now, but in a months time I am planning on being unfaithful.

Friday 13 April 2012

Money Money Money

Money, what is it good for? I obviously want to say absolutely nothing. I am going to talk about WoW economy not Real Life, because having no money in RL does not make for a hot topic. The internet and in particular WoW Blogs are full of people offering sagely advice about how they made money and how you can also make money hand over fist. Some of these people even want RL money for their pearls of wisdom and carefully crafted guides, but what is it good for? Besides the basics for repair bills, food and potions what do we really need the extra for?

Historically I started the game with no money and proceeded like this for 60 levels. It was like being a student, having no money but somehow never going without the important things in life, like beer and food. When The Burning Crusade came out and allowed the general populace to fly around the Outlands, everybody wanted the flying skill and a flying mount. In those days I think the basic flying package was about 5100 Gold with no discounts for reputation. This was a must have ability at an outrageous price. At a rough guess 99% of the player base did not have that kind of money and at Level 70 it was the first thing that people tried to get. The big money making professions were Tailoring with their assortment of bags and the new kid on the block Jewelcrafting. Competition was fierce in both markets and the majority people spent their time gathering, ores, skins and herbs. The other big markets was for motes and primals, the rarest and most expensive were Fire and Air. The elemental plain in Nagrand was packed morning noon to night with farmers. The irony was that to get to the elemental plain you needed a flying mount. I personally spent hours farming elementals, voidwalkers, clefthoof and talbuks. This was the game at the time, mindless grinding of resources, grinding reputation, and grinding gear. The balance only changed with the advent of the daily quests. Suddenly Flying mounts was not such an issue for all of your alts, it still took time to accumulate the money but it was at least achievable.

Since those heady days, and its only just by writing this post about how much grinding we used to do, there have been very few must have items in the game. Super Fast flying 310% and Cold Winter Flying were far less roadblock items. Dual spec cost a whopping 1000 Gold at its introduction, it now costs 10 Gold and a sticky toffee.

The major goldsinks now are all mounts Mekgineer's Chopper, Traveller's Tundra Mammoth, and Vial of Sands. These are not compulsory must have items, but are excellent show off, elitist items. It is not a game breaker if you cannot afford these items.

So lacking a roadblock goldsink, what do you need your money for? The answer is for gemming, enchants, transmogrification, and reforging, but this only requires chump change unless you want the epic gems. Blizzard has made these exceptionally rare and put them only in the hands of the regular raiders. Per increase in stat these Epic gems over their Rare equivalent work out very expensive indeed.

I have long studied the best ways to make money within the game, from transmutes, jewelcrafting and the ultimate goldmaker inscription, but I gave up actively seeking money 12 months ago. Before the maximum goldcap was raised, I did actually hit this level ( 214,748 G 36 S 47 C) not on one character but spread over my army of alts. Since then I have kept a steady amount at a lower level than the old goldcap. The reason I stopped was I couldn't justify the amount of time spent in the pursuit of more gold. I don't use the stash I have, and still will not buy items I believe to be overinflated or just plain not worth it. I will spend a few thousand on gear, but will not pay over 10,000 Gold for something that will be replaced in a matter of months. Mounts are for life, not just for Christmas, but gear is only current for a single patch. Just remember Green will soon be the new Purple.

Thursday 12 April 2012

Safety Dance Cata Style



 
Does anybody remember Heigan the Unclean? Of course you do. Anybody who went into Naxxramas during the WotLK expansion will remember the dance, and the deaths. It was always gratifying to watch the new person stepping into Naxx for the first time, and watching them die within seconds of the first dance. The dance was fairly easy to execute once you got the muscle memory working, it was slightly odd in the fact that you knew what you had to do, but the slightest slip would end up with you becoming a greasy smear on the fiery surface. I remember doing this boss only the healer and the tank alive, no enrage timers meant that if you can dance then eventually Heigan would fall.

Naxxramas was of course originally conceived as a 40 man raid in vanilla WoW, its is still worth watching the dance performed by 40 people scurrying across the erupting floor in unison. Blizzard believed that so few people had seen this content that it was worth bringing back in 10 and 25 man versions. The fight mechanics were still very fresh and interesting and as a raid Naxx only became vacant and empty once the raiders had discovered Ulduar and the 4 versions of Trial of the Crusader that everyone felt obliged to complete.

Ulduar was actually a masterpiece of design, and many people see it has being the best raid in the game, of course after Karazhan. Progressing from Naxxramas to Ulduar was a massive leap in terms of difficulty, skill and dance. Even the trash mobs were likely to kill the unwary and unprepared. For me the biggest issue with the whole instance was that every week, we needed to get into our mechanical devices to defeat the very boring Flame Leviathon. As with other bosses that require people to stop being mages, shamans, warriors etc. they end up becoming universally unloved, (yes I am looking at you Oculus).

Ulduar was not just about powering your way round the raid, even now "look at the size of my DPS" does not completely trivialise the content. Hodir still causes problems for people who cannot co-ordinate their movements. 25 man Heroic Yogg-Saron with achievements can still be a nightmare for a team that lacks leadership and co-ordination.

This brings me round to the subject of Cataclysm raids. Last night I volunteered to do 10 man Heroic Blackwing Descent. Assuming this to be a simple case of turn up grab some achievements and be out in 45 minutes flat. Well I can safely say that Magmaw is still laughing at us, and the guild repair bills have taken a hefty dent out of the guild treasure trove.

What went wrong? definitely under prepared, taking the raid too lightly, lack of good movement, possibly low dps due to movement, changing targets etc. So I am going to use this space to research and record the Heroic Magmaw fight and assess if this is good or bad design on Blizzards behalf.

The following is a comment left at Wowhead:

"The add that is summoned every 35 seconds is called Blazing Bone Construct.

They actually spawn from a Meteor (
Blazing Inferno) that lands on the ground. The area it is going to hit looks very similar to the ground effect used for Pillar of Flame, the ability that spawns Lava Parasites. You want to move out of the way of the Meteor before it lands, for it deals about 75k fire damage on impact, AND leaves Ignition (fire patches) on the ground in a "S" type shape, that deal about 55k per second you stand in them (they also move VERY FAST so don't stand anywhere near them). You will die before you can get out of it, barring a good damage mitigation cooldown. It is 100% avoidable.

At 20% HP the Constructs cast
Armageddon, an 8 second cast that when finished, does about 125k fire damage to the raid, effectively a wipe. So why not just have a tank grab them all and never DPS them, to avoid Armageddon? They hit extremely hard - after a certain amount you just can't heal through it (if 3 are up at the same time your tank should be using cooldowns until one is dead). So when a Construct is about to go down, have all DPS hard switch to it, to kill it before the cast finishes.

Basically, you should avoid all avoidable damage to make this fight easier."


The statement basically suggests avoid all the crap on the floor, Don't let things spawn on your head, and be very careful when you kill the adds. This sounds like a hell of a lot of things that could go wrong with this fight. Everything sounds so random and lethal. It is interesting that our 2nd attempt got Magmaw down to 3% but all subsequent attempts failed in several places. I would expect that the performance would improve until a point where fatigue and boredom kick in.

What could we have done different and what is the key to success? I found a guide at Jinxedthought, which after reading through several times, suggests that the bulk of the group should form in a melee group near Magmaw and only 1 Tank, 1 Kiter and 1 Healer should be outside of this group. If this is the case it puts a lot of pressure on these 3 players, but I can see how this might work. There would be a lot less movement from the team and one would assume greater DPS as a result.

Is this really a good design? If there is only one true way to consistently do this fight, then this is bad design. Once the WoW community has done its research then the one true way becomes a faceroll, just by changing the group positioning. Prince Malchazaar in Karazhan was a similar fight which involved fighting in nooks and crannies in an attempt to remove the random placement of fire totems. Whilst I applaud the WoW community for working these tactics out, I am not sure it is great design on Blizzard's part.

Wednesday 11 April 2012

The Late Show

Just a little something I have been pondering recently. If you have been away from the game for some time and have just returned via a Scroll of Resurrection or just a bit of pre Panda curiosity, or in my case have undergeared alts, what is the easiest way to get some gear quickly?

I have all my healers in LFR Dragon Soul equipment but what about gearing up those pesky damage dealers. In my opinion and it will probably get me lynched, get hold of the latest crafted PvP set. This will be enough to get into the the 4.3 Heroic 5 mans. As your gear will be 25% gimped by having resilience dripping from your gear, I suggest supplementing this with the BoE i Level 378 Justice gear. There is plenty floating on the market, that will cover the wrist option, and maybe some gloves and boots. One of the best ways to increase Dps is to obtain the best weapon that you can afford. In my case I have used the Blacksmith crafted i Level 365 weapons. They are still expensive to craft due to the large quantities of Truegold required. Depending on your level of competence put some cheap enchants, and get some buff foods and possible some flasks/elixirs.

Start at the 1st of the linear set of Heroics End Time. Oddly enough this instance is probably the hardest of the 3. Each instance comes with 2 or 3 quests all rewarding i Level 378 gear, 150 valor points for completion and 70 Justice points per boss, not forgetting the random Boss loot.

In case you are worried about your own performance especially wearing PvP gear, you can get a Guild run or alternatively use the LFD which is probably a nicer environment than you remember because most of the angry noobs can be found hanging out and wiping in LFR. Klepsacovic wrote about this phenomenon back in February. Other tips for LFD are either be nice and chatty or quiet as a mouse and hope nobody notices your sub par performance.

The 2nd Heroic instance Well of Eternity comes with some hefty buffs so don't get too excited about your 30-40K Dps score at the end of the instance. From experience the early buffs seem to favour melee and the later buffs benefit ranged.

The 3rd Heroic instance Hour of Twilight is straight forward with exception of some adds on the run down to Wyrmrest. My tip is to kill the Borer first, they are easy to spot looking like an eye on a stalk.

After running the full set, run the random version a few times and hopefully you get to fill your troublesome gear slots, mainly Trinkets and then you should be able to enter the roller-coaster ride that is LFR.

Neck Deep in Deepholm

Previously I stated how annoying Shoulder Enchant Rep grinds can be. Blizzard fixed this in WotLK by making the enchants Bind on Account, thereby allowing all the alts in your stable to be able to fully enchant all their gear. All of my alts followed similar paths whilst levelling:

  1. All of Hyjal
  2. Obtain 1 part of the World Pillar in Deepholm
  3. All of Uldum
  4. Obtain the portal ability in Twilight Highlands
Since I wrote the original post on how I would not be grinding 9 characters through Deepholm, I have of course been doing the opposite. So far I have steered half of my team through the dark purple area known as Deepholm, and I am surprised by my findings. Deepholm is quite a good zone. I can safely say it is vastly superior to the long watery road to hell that is Vashj'ir. Back at launch Murloc Parliament described the zone as Deepholm: It is like Netherstorm except really depressing.

For those people suffering from short-term memory loss, Deepholm is a deark forboding place with splashes of bright vibrant colours (see pictore above). The zone is fairly evenly divided by the 3 seperate quest chains to retrieve the World Pillar initiated by the Earthen Ring. The first part is help the Earthen defend their homeland against the Troggs. The second part is uncover the cult of the Twilight Hammer, and the last part is the befriending of Therazane's Stone Lords. Of course the objective of all this is to achieve the last part of the quest. With the portal in Stormwind and Ogrimmar it is easy to dip into this zone whenever the mood takes you.

The reputation grind starts at Hated and will move in very large chunks until the quests stop just shy of revered status. At this point grab a tabard and if the mood takes do some Dailies. Personally I think that is step too far.

As well as gaining the right to enchant your shoulders, there are some impressive side effects. Doing quests at max level will net yourself a considerable chunk of change, also the zone is usually devoid of other adventurers and there are plenty herbs and ores up for grabs. The zone is home to Heartblossom and due to its unique status makes this herb worth more than the more plentiful Whiptail from Uldum. Surprisingly for a lower level zone of the expansion I have found plenty of Rich Elementium Nodes. One other advantage of this zone is the abundance of closely packed troggs waiting to be AoE'd into oblivion for the quest Test Your Strength and for the seasonal quest to make Lovely Charm Bracelets (Love is in the Air).

I can safely see all my characters leveling through this zone in the months ahead, and in some respects I am even looking forward to it.





Tuesday 10 April 2012

The Looking for Raid Homesick Blues


After a long relaxing weekend and yet more strife in the LFR, I thought it might be time to sum up everything that is required for a satisfactory raid conclusion. Using a guide created by MMO Melting Pot, I decided that it contains far too many words for the average LFR raider. Taking it as read that the Tanks already know what to do, this is the Idiots Guide to DPS LFR:







Morchok
Phase 1
· Everyone stand close to him, but tanks closest.
· Tanks swap on Crush Armor.
· When he uses Resonating Crystal, three players go stand close to it until it explodes.
Phase 2
· Hide behind spikes until Stomp.
· Don’t stand in the Black Blood.
Idiot Guide - Hit boss, Hide behind spike, don't stand in crap. Loot Boss
Zon’ozz
Phase 1
· Ranged stand behind the tank. Melee stand behind the boss.
· Bounce the ball between the tank and the ranged group.
· When the ball has bounced between 5 and 10 times, tank move out of the way so that it hits the boss.
· Healers dispel Disrupting Shadows.
Phase 2
All stack up on the boss and pop DPS and healing cooldowns.
Idiot Guide - Hit Boss, Stack, Loot Boss
Yor’Sajh the Unsleeping
· Tank and spank when oozes are not up.
· Kill one ooze each time they appear. Priorities: purple > yellow > black > red
Oozes
· If YELLOW is active, spread out unless BLACK is active, in which case stack and heal through damage.
· If BLACK is active, stack and AOE down the adds.
· If RED is active, stand as close as possible to the boss.
· If BLUE is active, DPS down the Mana Void as fast as possible.
Idiot Guide - Hit Boss, Kill same slime as everyone else (Do not stand autoshotting boss for the entire fight). Hint Healers can't heal without mana so get rid of the Mana Void ASAP. Loot Boss.
Hagara the Stormbinder
Fight will either be Main -> Ice -> Main -> Lightning -> Main -> Ice and so on, or Main -> Lightning -> Main -> Ice and so on.
Main Phase
· Tank and spank. Offtank taunt and kite Hagara away from everyone on Focused Assault.
· When a melee player is targeted by Ice Lance, healer or ranged DPS step in the way of the missiles.
Ice Phase
· Move clockwise with the waves. Attack Frozen Binding Crystals wherever possible.
Lightning Phase
· Tank Bound Lightning Elemental next to Crystal Conductor and kill it.
· Then form a chain of players to the next Crystal Conductor, which will charge it. Chain to the next again, and so on.
Idiot Guide - Hit Boss, run round the outside like a headless chicken like everyone else. Don't stand in Ice Spikes. Loot Boss.
Ultraxion
· Stack up throughout the fight.
· When Hour of Twilight is cast, everyone use Heroic Will to leave the Twilight Realm.
· Use Heroic Will in the last 5 seconds of Fading Light if it is cast on you. Tank-swap on Fading Light.
· Healers should click the one of the healing buff crystals as they appear. Red does 100% healing increase, Green does huge AOE healing, Blue adds haste and reduces mana costs.
Idiot Guide - Hit Boss, Stack, press large Purple button in the middle of screen when Dragon is casting Hour of Twilight, Loot Boss.

Warmaster Blackhorn
Phase 1
· Tanks pick up Twilight Elite Dreadblades and the Twilight Elite Slayers. Alternate which add you pick up in each phase.
· A few melee DPS use the Harpoon Guns to drag the Twilight Assault Drakes closer to the ship.
· DPS Twilight Assault Drakes before other mobs.
· 2 players soak Twilight Barrage by standing in it.
· When Twilight Assault hits, all the raid stand in it.
Phase 2
· Tank Blackthorn. Ranged focus on bringing Goriona down, while melee focus on Blackthorn.
· Get out of the fire and spread out to avoid Shockwave.
· Tank-swap on 2 stacks of Devastate.
· Ranged stand at least 10 yards from Blackthorn.
Idiot Guide - Ranged hit dragons, kill anything that moves, melee kill anything that moves. Stand in big swirly purple thing. Do not stand in front of charge. Phase 2 Hit Boss don't stand in crap, Loot Boss.

Spine of Deathwing
· Kill one Corruption.
· Tank 1 take the Hideous Amalgamation and 2 Corrupted Blood. Tank 2 take the rest of the Blood.
· Raid stacks next to the Armor Plate, and DPS the Hideous Amalgamation down to 15% or so.
· Kill Corrupted Bloods with AOE damage.
· When the Hideous Amalgamation hits 9 stacks of Absorbed Blood, kill it. Everyone move 10 yards away.
· Quickly then kill the Burning Tendon.
· Kill the next Corruption.
Idiot Guide - If you don't know what you are doing, do nothing. Go make a drink and let the good players finish the job. Loot the chest.

Madness of Deathwing
Phase 1

Clear the platforms in the order: Ysera’s Platform, Alexstrasza’s Platform, Nozdormu’s Platform, Kalecgos’ Platform.

For each platform:
· DPS priority: Elementium Bolt, Mutated Corruption, Regenerative Blood (AOE), Tentacle.
· Tanks pick up Mutated Corruption and face them away from the raid. Blow cooldowns on Impale, incl. the encounter cooldown Dream.
· Get away from the golden swirl where Elementium Bolt lands.

On the third and fourth platform:
· Don’t bring the Tentacle to 75%, 50% or 25% until both the Mutated Corruption and Elementium Bolt are dealt with.
On the fourth platform:
· Healers blow CDs on Elementium Bolt, which will now do massive damage.

Phase 2
· Dps Priority: Elementium Fragments, Elementium Terrors, Deathwing’s Head.
· Tank the Elementium Terrors.
· Blow CDs to kill Deathwing before the stacking damage becomes overwhelming.
Idiot Guide - Kill Adds quickly. Especially AOE damage dealers like Elementium Bolt. Listen to raid instructions about single targeting and AOE. Always kill the adds, every single one. Kill Boss and grab yourself a weapon if you don't get ninja'd.