Hit Rating and Expertise are important stats for Feral Druids to keep tabs on. Unfortunately, they can also be rather confusing. To help take some of the mystery out of these stats, I have put together a brief guide laying out everything you need to know about these stats and your performance as a Feral DPS or Feral tank. Read on after the bump to find the answers you have been looking for.
Showing posts with label Guides. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guides. Show all posts
Monday, January 3, 2011
Monday, October 18, 2010
Balance Druid Rotation in 4.0.1
In World of Warcraft Patch 4.0.1 Balance Druids were given a new resource to manage in the form of an updated Eclipse mechanic. As a result, Moonkins find themselves quickly trying to smooth out a new rotation. Lucky for you, I have already done the heavy lifting. After the bump, you will find everything you need to know about the Balance Druid spell rotation in Patch 4.0.1.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Best Feral Tanking Spec for 4.0.1
Now that we have gone through how to Feral tank in patch 4.0.1, now it is time to make sure our talents are in the right place. At the moment, there appears to be one clearly superior spec for Feral tanking. Though there is some room to tweak the talent layout to suit your preferences and play-style, this spec will serve you well in terms of survivability and threat generation. Find out why I choose these talents after the bump:
Feral Tanking Guide for 4.0.1
After a brief sabbatical, I have returned to Druid Digest just in time to help you sort through the confusion that is Patch 4.0.1 for World of Warcraft. As anyone who has logged onto the realms recently can tell you, World of Warcraft's mechanics have drastically changed. This is particularly true for everyone's favorite fur balls: Bear Tanks.
Don't panic though. Many have speculated that these changes may lead to the extinction of Feral Tanks, but I am here to help put those rumors to rest. Feral Tanks are every bit as viable as they were before the pre-Cataclysm patch. Are things more difficult? Absolutely, but using the tips I have outlined below, you will be back out there as a clawed threat machine before you know it. Read on after the bump.
Don't panic though. Many have speculated that these changes may lead to the extinction of Feral Tanks, but I am here to help put those rumors to rest. Feral Tanks are every bit as viable as they were before the pre-Cataclysm patch. Are things more difficult? Absolutely, but using the tips I have outlined below, you will be back out there as a clawed threat machine before you know it. Read on after the bump.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Tips for Being a Better Raid Leader
Some might argue that a raid is only as strong as its weakest link. I must admit, that has not always been my experience. In fact, many times, I have seen raids plow through ICC's end-wing bosses with more than a couple weak links in tow. On the flip side, I have seen a raid of decked out hardcore raiders crumble after Saurfang or wipe on Rotface. The difference, some raids have a solid raid leader at their helm, while others do not. In my opinion, a raid is only as good as its leader.
A raid leader is the glue that holds a raid together. If a raid group is a finely tuned automobile, the raid leader is equal parts engine, brakes, and occasionally air bags. Without competent leadership, a raid can quickly devolve into a herd of cats throwing themselves harmlessly at content. With solid leadership an under-geared and green group of raiders can easily find themselves staring down the Lich King at breakneck speed. Below are my top five tips for being a better raid leader in World of Warcraft.
1. Set Your Raid Up For Success
As a raid leader, you have the ultimate say in who comes to the show and who is left on the sidelines. While you might be tempted to use anything that breaths and has a keyboard to fill out your roster, a little extra time spent finding the right raiders can make all the difference. A successful raid setup should have three things: reasonable class balance, good players, and clear expectations.
As for class balance, it is okay to have a couple classes missing from your raid setup, especially in ten man. As anyone who has ever run a raid with all Paladin healers can tell you however, a complete disregard for class balance can tank your raid before it gets started. Not only could you end up missing valuable buffs and abilities like Mark of the Wild or Bloodlust/Heroism, but you are also creating loot nightmares should you somehow manage to down a boss. If you have more than two of a particular class in your ten man or four in your twenty-five (except maybe Paladins and Druids) you might want to make some replacements.
Finding "good players" can and should mean many different things. Generally, you will want to find raiders with their combination of skill, gear, and experience to clear the content you have set your eyes on. Keep in mind that a deficiency in one area can often be made up for in strength in another. For example, you will often be better served by an under-geared Shaman who has defeated Putricide five times than by a Frost Badge gear laden Shaman who has never seen past Marrowgar. If a raider seems shaky, unless you are able and interested in carrying them, don't risk it. There truly are other fish in the raiding sea. Spend the extra time to find one that doesn't smell funny.
The last and potentially most critical part of setting your raid up for success is establishing expectations for your raiders. You want to make it clear not only what you expect from the people in your raid, but also what they can expect from you. First, you want raiders that will be in it for the long haul, so let everyone know exactly how long the raid will last and make sure everyone is available for that amount of time. Nothing wears out a raid like the dreaded search for replacements. Second, set benchmarks for your team. A simple dps or heals per second target can often be all it takes to turn a raiding zero into an Icecrown hero. For that extra bit of motivation, tie it to a tangible reward like loot. Lastly, set break times and stick to them. People need to leave their keyboards from time to time. Setting aside specific periods for these diversions can fend off the dreaded pre-boss ready check fail.
2. Know and Explain the Encounters
In an ideal world, all your raiders will know all of the encounters you will be tackling like the backs of their virtual hands. Unfortunately, the world is not ideal and, at best, you will likely have a couple raiders accustomed to ineffective or outdated strategies. At worst, you may have a couple rookies in your mix.
Taking a pre-boss break to have people watch strategy videos is always a safe bet, but it can be draining on your raiders who do know the fights and severely draws out your raid. Instead, you be the video. If you plan on leading a raid, you should know every aspect of a given encounter and how it will affect your tanks, dps and healers. You should also be able to condense that information into easily digestible nuggets of strategy which you can spoon feed to those raiders who need it.
What separates an effective explanation from an ineffective one is often brevity. Let's say you are about to fight Blood Queen and you have two green dps. They don't need to know about the tanks being linked. They don't need to know the details of your full bite order or even the reasons for it, they only need to know who they should bite, when, and how. They just need to know to run to the middle if they start to flash pink, to run out if they get the purple shadow debuff, and to spread out during the air phase. Don't overwhelm your raid with information. They won't retain any of it. Tell each individual what they truly need to know and then rock and roll. Better to have a "you have to see it to learn it" wipe after a two minute explanation than after a ten minute one.
Also, continue to lead while you are engaging the encounter. Call out dangerous mechanics and remind people of how to avoid them when they are activated. If you have a new player or two, watch their debuffs and call them out by name when they need to do something. Do not micromanage to the point of tanking your own performance, but a little coaching is often all it takes to avoid a soul crushing uber wipe.
3. Keep Things Moving
As many a frustrated raider will quickly admit, a slow moving raid can be a painful experience. Dead time encourages people to go afk and can preclude you even making attempts at later bosses before you are flooded with "I gtg" tells. Chain together trash pulls as quickly as your healers can manage. Once you reach a boss, lay down a feast and get the buffs going immediately. The second the buffs are up and you have confirmed that everyone knows the fight, it is time to ready check and pull. If a wipe happens, have everyone immediately run back and start buffing.
One source of delay you should try to mitigate is loot distribution. Try having a dps in charge of the loot so that your tanks and healers can move on to trash while shiny epics are being handed out. To make things even faster, just pick up the loot and hand it out on the run. Blizzard lets you trade raid loot for a reason. Grab it all and hand it out as you go. There is no reason to just kneel next to the boss's corpse for three minutes while your Retribution Paladin tries to figure out whether that plate helm really is a main spec upgrade. You have trash to kill, no reason you can't do it with loot in tow.
4. Make the Tough Choices
As a raid leader, you have the play experience of several raiders resting in your hands. That is a lot of responsibility and should not be taken lightly. Assuming your goal is clearing content quickly and efficiently, it is sometimes necessary to put the needs of the raid as a whole before the interests of individual members. For example, let's say you find yourself hitting Festergut's enrage timer. Perhaps it is time to stop carrying that 3k dps Warlock. Will he be pissed that you drop him? Hopefully not if you politely explain why he needs to go, but regardless if you keep him around you have doomed your raid. Someone needs to pull the trigger and that little crown next to your character portrait means it must be you.
Similarly, you might have a fantastic performer who continually goes afk or is otherwise disruptive to the flow of the raid. All the healing throughput in the world won't help you reach the Lich King if your entire raid must sit through fifteen minutes of failed ready checks before each boss pull. You can be a nice guy and a good raid leader, but eventually you will be faced with a situation where you can elect to either do what needs to be done or let your raid continue to struggle. A good raid leader does the former. A great raid leader does it kindly without alienating anyone.
5. Be Consistent
If your raiders know what to expect from you and like the way you operate, they will come back again and again. If they don't like the way you run things, you likely don't want them in your raid anyway. If you give the appearance of being wishy-washy, deceptive, or unfair, your raiders will resent you, won't perform their best, and may not even show up at all. On the flip side, if you prove yourself to be a conduit to consistently downing endgame bosses quickly and efficiently, you will have solid players banging down your door to come along.
Have clear expectations for those around you and stick to them. Do not make excuses for your raiders or yourself. A little predictability makes for a smooth run and happy raiders.
Feel free to share your storys about successful and not so successful raid leaders you have had in the comments. What about a raid leader makes or breaks your raids?
A raid leader is the glue that holds a raid together. If a raid group is a finely tuned automobile, the raid leader is equal parts engine, brakes, and occasionally air bags. Without competent leadership, a raid can quickly devolve into a herd of cats throwing themselves harmlessly at content. With solid leadership an under-geared and green group of raiders can easily find themselves staring down the Lich King at breakneck speed. Below are my top five tips for being a better raid leader in World of Warcraft.
1. Set Your Raid Up For Success
As a raid leader, you have the ultimate say in who comes to the show and who is left on the sidelines. While you might be tempted to use anything that breaths and has a keyboard to fill out your roster, a little extra time spent finding the right raiders can make all the difference. A successful raid setup should have three things: reasonable class balance, good players, and clear expectations.
As for class balance, it is okay to have a couple classes missing from your raid setup, especially in ten man. As anyone who has ever run a raid with all Paladin healers can tell you however, a complete disregard for class balance can tank your raid before it gets started. Not only could you end up missing valuable buffs and abilities like Mark of the Wild or Bloodlust/Heroism, but you are also creating loot nightmares should you somehow manage to down a boss. If you have more than two of a particular class in your ten man or four in your twenty-five (except maybe Paladins and Druids) you might want to make some replacements.
Finding "good players" can and should mean many different things. Generally, you will want to find raiders with their combination of skill, gear, and experience to clear the content you have set your eyes on. Keep in mind that a deficiency in one area can often be made up for in strength in another. For example, you will often be better served by an under-geared Shaman who has defeated Putricide five times than by a Frost Badge gear laden Shaman who has never seen past Marrowgar. If a raider seems shaky, unless you are able and interested in carrying them, don't risk it. There truly are other fish in the raiding sea. Spend the extra time to find one that doesn't smell funny.
The last and potentially most critical part of setting your raid up for success is establishing expectations for your raiders. You want to make it clear not only what you expect from the people in your raid, but also what they can expect from you. First, you want raiders that will be in it for the long haul, so let everyone know exactly how long the raid will last and make sure everyone is available for that amount of time. Nothing wears out a raid like the dreaded search for replacements. Second, set benchmarks for your team. A simple dps or heals per second target can often be all it takes to turn a raiding zero into an Icecrown hero. For that extra bit of motivation, tie it to a tangible reward like loot. Lastly, set break times and stick to them. People need to leave their keyboards from time to time. Setting aside specific periods for these diversions can fend off the dreaded pre-boss ready check fail.
2. Know and Explain the Encounters
In an ideal world, all your raiders will know all of the encounters you will be tackling like the backs of their virtual hands. Unfortunately, the world is not ideal and, at best, you will likely have a couple raiders accustomed to ineffective or outdated strategies. At worst, you may have a couple rookies in your mix.
Taking a pre-boss break to have people watch strategy videos is always a safe bet, but it can be draining on your raiders who do know the fights and severely draws out your raid. Instead, you be the video. If you plan on leading a raid, you should know every aspect of a given encounter and how it will affect your tanks, dps and healers. You should also be able to condense that information into easily digestible nuggets of strategy which you can spoon feed to those raiders who need it.
What separates an effective explanation from an ineffective one is often brevity. Let's say you are about to fight Blood Queen and you have two green dps. They don't need to know about the tanks being linked. They don't need to know the details of your full bite order or even the reasons for it, they only need to know who they should bite, when, and how. They just need to know to run to the middle if they start to flash pink, to run out if they get the purple shadow debuff, and to spread out during the air phase. Don't overwhelm your raid with information. They won't retain any of it. Tell each individual what they truly need to know and then rock and roll. Better to have a "you have to see it to learn it" wipe after a two minute explanation than after a ten minute one.
Also, continue to lead while you are engaging the encounter. Call out dangerous mechanics and remind people of how to avoid them when they are activated. If you have a new player or two, watch their debuffs and call them out by name when they need to do something. Do not micromanage to the point of tanking your own performance, but a little coaching is often all it takes to avoid a soul crushing uber wipe.
3. Keep Things Moving
As many a frustrated raider will quickly admit, a slow moving raid can be a painful experience. Dead time encourages people to go afk and can preclude you even making attempts at later bosses before you are flooded with "I gtg" tells. Chain together trash pulls as quickly as your healers can manage. Once you reach a boss, lay down a feast and get the buffs going immediately. The second the buffs are up and you have confirmed that everyone knows the fight, it is time to ready check and pull. If a wipe happens, have everyone immediately run back and start buffing.
One source of delay you should try to mitigate is loot distribution. Try having a dps in charge of the loot so that your tanks and healers can move on to trash while shiny epics are being handed out. To make things even faster, just pick up the loot and hand it out on the run. Blizzard lets you trade raid loot for a reason. Grab it all and hand it out as you go. There is no reason to just kneel next to the boss's corpse for three minutes while your Retribution Paladin tries to figure out whether that plate helm really is a main spec upgrade. You have trash to kill, no reason you can't do it with loot in tow.
4. Make the Tough Choices
As a raid leader, you have the play experience of several raiders resting in your hands. That is a lot of responsibility and should not be taken lightly. Assuming your goal is clearing content quickly and efficiently, it is sometimes necessary to put the needs of the raid as a whole before the interests of individual members. For example, let's say you find yourself hitting Festergut's enrage timer. Perhaps it is time to stop carrying that 3k dps Warlock. Will he be pissed that you drop him? Hopefully not if you politely explain why he needs to go, but regardless if you keep him around you have doomed your raid. Someone needs to pull the trigger and that little crown next to your character portrait means it must be you.
Similarly, you might have a fantastic performer who continually goes afk or is otherwise disruptive to the flow of the raid. All the healing throughput in the world won't help you reach the Lich King if your entire raid must sit through fifteen minutes of failed ready checks before each boss pull. You can be a nice guy and a good raid leader, but eventually you will be faced with a situation where you can elect to either do what needs to be done or let your raid continue to struggle. A good raid leader does the former. A great raid leader does it kindly without alienating anyone.
5. Be Consistent
If your raiders know what to expect from you and like the way you operate, they will come back again and again. If they don't like the way you run things, you likely don't want them in your raid anyway. If you give the appearance of being wishy-washy, deceptive, or unfair, your raiders will resent you, won't perform their best, and may not even show up at all. On the flip side, if you prove yourself to be a conduit to consistently downing endgame bosses quickly and efficiently, you will have solid players banging down your door to come along.
Have clear expectations for those around you and stick to them. Do not make excuses for your raiders or yourself. A little predictability makes for a smooth run and happy raiders.
Feel free to share your storys about successful and not so successful raid leaders you have had in the comments. What about a raid leader makes or breaks your raids?
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Restoration Druid Keybinds
Below are the keybinds I use when healing as a Restoration Druid. For general information on how to set up your keybinds see How to Set Up Keybinds in Warcraft's Default UI. Also, check out the bottom of the post to review keybinds for other Druid specs.
Keep in mind when reviewing these binds that I have them set up both on my Tree of Life action bar and my caster form action bar when I am in Restoration spec. This is so that if I need to drop into caster form for some reason, I can continue to spam heals until the opportunity presents itself to become a Tree again.
F = Nourish: Nourish is your go to top off spell and also your bread and butter when tank healing. Depending on your role, spec, and style, however, you may want to consider swapping it for Rejuvenation (for dedicated raid healing) or Healing Touch (if you are spec'd for it and spamming it such as for Dreamwalker). Long story short, assign whatever spell you cast the most to the F key.
C = Rejuvenation: You will be tossing around this lovable HoT quite a bit, so it is important to keep it in a comfortable spot on your keyboard. C is a nice fit for me.
X = Lifebloom: Odds are you will not be using Lifebloom all that much unless you are tank healing, so the slightly out of the way X key is a fine place for it. I also like the consistency of always having my "stacking spells" (Lifebloom and Lacerate) associated with the same key.
G = Regrowth: To keep a healthy supply of mana, you want to avoid casting this spell too often. The G key is just far enough out of the way to keep you from spamming it out of panic, but close enough that you can still cast it when needed.
E = Wild Growth: For most Restoration Druids, Wild Growth is a go to spell every single time its brief cooldown is up. Hence the accessible E key is dedicated to this beast of a healing spell.
Q = Swiftmend: Swiftmend is a solid emergency heal, so having it easily accessible, but set off slightly from your other spells makes perfect sense. Q fits that bill perfectly.
Here are the specific keybinds I recommend for other Druid specs:
Feral Tanking Keybinds
Feral DPS Keybinds (coming soon)
Balance Druid Keybinds (coming soon)
Keep in mind when reviewing these binds that I have them set up both on my Tree of Life action bar and my caster form action bar when I am in Restoration spec. This is so that if I need to drop into caster form for some reason, I can continue to spam heals until the opportunity presents itself to become a Tree again.
F = Nourish: Nourish is your go to top off spell and also your bread and butter when tank healing. Depending on your role, spec, and style, however, you may want to consider swapping it for Rejuvenation (for dedicated raid healing) or Healing Touch (if you are spec'd for it and spamming it such as for Dreamwalker). Long story short, assign whatever spell you cast the most to the F key.
C = Rejuvenation: You will be tossing around this lovable HoT quite a bit, so it is important to keep it in a comfortable spot on your keyboard. C is a nice fit for me.
X = Lifebloom: Odds are you will not be using Lifebloom all that much unless you are tank healing, so the slightly out of the way X key is a fine place for it. I also like the consistency of always having my "stacking spells" (Lifebloom and Lacerate) associated with the same key.
G = Regrowth: To keep a healthy supply of mana, you want to avoid casting this spell too often. The G key is just far enough out of the way to keep you from spamming it out of panic, but close enough that you can still cast it when needed.
E = Wild Growth: For most Restoration Druids, Wild Growth is a go to spell every single time its brief cooldown is up. Hence the accessible E key is dedicated to this beast of a healing spell.
Q = Swiftmend: Swiftmend is a solid emergency heal, so having it easily accessible, but set off slightly from your other spells makes perfect sense. Q fits that bill perfectly.
Here are the specific keybinds I recommend for other Druid specs:
Feral Tanking Keybinds
Feral DPS Keybinds (coming soon)
Balance Druid Keybinds (coming soon)
Feral Tanking Keybinds
Below are the keybinds I use when tanking in Bear form. For general information on how to set up your keybinds see How to Set Up Keybinds in Warcraft's Default UI. Also, check out the bottom of the post to review keybinds for other Druid specs.
When reviewing these keybinds, keep in mind that I have a macro which adds Maul to every single one of my other abilities so I have no need to cast it separately. I also choose to click cast my defensive cooldowns, Berserk, and Enrage. If you want to add additional abilities to my set, you can use the Z, V, and R keys though you will need to assign other keys to auto-reply and sheath weapon. You can also use 1, 2, 3, and 4 if you don't mind moving up from AWSD. If you are going to add additional abilities I would recommend Barkskin be the first.
F = Swipe: Generally speaking, you should put whatever ability you use the most often in the F slot. It is simply the easiest key to reach when your hand is resting at AWSD. For Bear Tanks, that ability will be Swipe.
G = Demoralizing Roar: G is actually one of the more difficult keys to reach within my keybinds, so I assign a less crucial, infrequent use ability to its slot. You may want to replace this ability with Barkskin should you find yourself rarely using Demoralizing Roar.
E = Feral Faerie Fire: Just behind F and tied with C, E is an easy key to tap, so a high volume attack like Feral FF fits well here. I also like having a ranged attack on a key above the middle of the keyboard just from a conceptual standpoint.
Q = Feral Charge: Relatively easy to reach, but set off from your other keybinds, Q is the perfect choice for Feral Charge placement. This ability is situational and serves a unique purpose, so setting it off a bit makes Q a nice fit.
C = Mangle: The same logic for Feral Faerie Fire at E applies to Mangle at C. It is a high volume ability and therefore deserves a prime spot on your keyboard.
X = Lacerate: This ability is not spammed except to build up stacks and therefore makes a perfect fit for the comfortable, but not too comfortable X key. Putting it next to Mangle also keeps your single target melee abilities together for conceptual consistency.
Here are the specific keybinds I recommend for other Druid specs:
Feral DPS Keybinds (coming soon)
Restoration Druid Keybinds
Balance Druid Keybinds (coming soon)
When reviewing these keybinds, keep in mind that I have a macro which adds Maul to every single one of my other abilities so I have no need to cast it separately. I also choose to click cast my defensive cooldowns, Berserk, and Enrage. If you want to add additional abilities to my set, you can use the Z, V, and R keys though you will need to assign other keys to auto-reply and sheath weapon. You can also use 1, 2, 3, and 4 if you don't mind moving up from AWSD. If you are going to add additional abilities I would recommend Barkskin be the first.
F = Swipe: Generally speaking, you should put whatever ability you use the most often in the F slot. It is simply the easiest key to reach when your hand is resting at AWSD. For Bear Tanks, that ability will be Swipe.
G = Demoralizing Roar: G is actually one of the more difficult keys to reach within my keybinds, so I assign a less crucial, infrequent use ability to its slot. You may want to replace this ability with Barkskin should you find yourself rarely using Demoralizing Roar.
E = Feral Faerie Fire: Just behind F and tied with C, E is an easy key to tap, so a high volume attack like Feral FF fits well here. I also like having a ranged attack on a key above the middle of the keyboard just from a conceptual standpoint.
Q = Feral Charge: Relatively easy to reach, but set off from your other keybinds, Q is the perfect choice for Feral Charge placement. This ability is situational and serves a unique purpose, so setting it off a bit makes Q a nice fit.
C = Mangle: The same logic for Feral Faerie Fire at E applies to Mangle at C. It is a high volume ability and therefore deserves a prime spot on your keyboard.
X = Lacerate: This ability is not spammed except to build up stacks and therefore makes a perfect fit for the comfortable, but not too comfortable X key. Putting it next to Mangle also keeps your single target melee abilities together for conceptual consistency.
Here are the specific keybinds I recommend for other Druid specs:
Feral DPS Keybinds (coming soon)
Restoration Druid Keybinds
Balance Druid Keybinds (coming soon)
How to Set Up Keybinds in Warcraft's Default UI
Most World of Warcraft players will tell you that click casting is an inefficient method of accessing your characters spells and abilities. The preferred method of moving away from the old mouse are keybinds. Below I will briefly explain how to set up some basic keybinds in the default World of Warcraft UI. For all those Druids out there, check out the links at the bottom to see my preferred keybinds for the various Druid specs using the setup described below.
There are several third party programs out there for assigning and managing keybinds, but the default World of Warcraft UI does a fine job of handling them on its own. To set up your keybinds, go to the World of Warcraft Options Menu and go to Keybindings. A long scroll menu will then open up listing all the functions which can be keybound alongside their currently assigned key or keys.
To start adding bindings, scroll down to the part of the menu which governs your Action Bar buttons. You will see that they all have their numerical keys listed in Key One column of the menu. You will want to click the Key Two column where it should say "Not Bound" and assign the following keys to whichever action bar buttons you like: Q, E, F, G, X, and C. Now those keys will activate the abilities you place in the corresponding action bar slots. Now it is just a matter of putting the abilities you want in the rights slots and presto, you are using keybinds!
This method of setting up your binds is great because you can convert it use by multiple characters and specs simply by shifting around the buttons on your action bar to put your high use abilities into your bound slots.
Here are the specific keybinds I recommend for Druids:
Feral Tanking Keybinds
Feral DPS Keybinds (coming soon)
Restoration Druid Keybinds
Balance Druid Keybinds (coming soon)
There are several third party programs out there for assigning and managing keybinds, but the default World of Warcraft UI does a fine job of handling them on its own. To set up your keybinds, go to the World of Warcraft Options Menu and go to Keybindings. A long scroll menu will then open up listing all the functions which can be keybound alongside their currently assigned key or keys.
To start adding bindings, scroll down to the part of the menu which governs your Action Bar buttons. You will see that they all have their numerical keys listed in Key One column of the menu. You will want to click the Key Two column where it should say "Not Bound" and assign the following keys to whichever action bar buttons you like: Q, E, F, G, X, and C. Now those keys will activate the abilities you place in the corresponding action bar slots. Now it is just a matter of putting the abilities you want in the rights slots and presto, you are using keybinds!
This method of setting up your binds is great because you can convert it use by multiple characters and specs simply by shifting around the buttons on your action bar to put your high use abilities into your bound slots.
Here are the specific keybinds I recommend for Druids:
Feral Tanking Keybinds
Feral DPS Keybinds (coming soon)
Restoration Druid Keybinds
Balance Druid Keybinds (coming soon)
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Taking Down Anzu
So, I am only about 10 kills deep in my quest for Reins of the Raven Lord and the daily trips out to tackle Anzu are already getting tiresome. I fly down to Sethekk Halls and prowl my way through the instance, being sure to give Darkweaver Syth a wide berth (he sees through stealth you know). Once I reach Anzu's chamber, regrettably at nearly the end of the level, it is time to clear the trash. Thankfully, you can ignore the back left group, but the others need to be dealt with. I always kill the Prophets first to avoid getting feared. Then it is finally time for Anzu.
The big bird is actually more trivial than the add packs that precede him. Occasionally he will stun you for six seconds using Paralyzing Screech and at 66% and 33% he will banish himself and call down a flock of ravens called "Brood of Anzu." Thankfully, the damage from the fight is not enough to make up for my Improved Leader of the Pack Aura and death is never really a threat. Even if my gear were weaker or I did not have a Feral Spec, he would still be doable because there is a brief "heal break" every time he summons his adds.
The big bird is actually more trivial than the add packs that precede him. Occasionally he will stun you for six seconds using Paralyzing Screech and at 66% and 33% he will banish himself and call down a flock of ravens called "Brood of Anzu." Thankfully, the damage from the fight is not enough to make up for my Improved Leader of the Pack Aura and death is never really a threat. Even if my gear were weaker or I did not have a Feral Spec, he would still be doable because there is a brief "heal break" every time he summons his adds. So far I have seen two greens and one epic gem. In case you were wondering, I leave the Spirit Shards behind. Here is hoping you will all see a picture of me atop my new Raven Lord mount sooner rather than later.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Icecrown Citadel Lower Spire Quick Tips
Back by popular demand, it is time for another Quick Tips guide. This time we will cover the bare bones information you need to stay alive in Icecrown Citadel's first four boss encounters. As with our Onyxia Guide and our Trial of the Crusader Guide, this guide does not cover everything the encounters will throw at you, but they should give you enough of a heads up so that you do not embarrass yourself in front of your raid mates.
Lord Marrowgar:
Tanks: Stack on top of each other. Point Marrowgar away from the raid. Taunt after Bonestorm whirlwind to regain aggro. Don't stand in fire.
DPS: Quickly burn bone spikes which impale other players. Stay behind the boss. Run out of Bonestorm whirlwind and fire.
Healers: Heavy heals on tank if unstacked. Heavy heals on impaled players. If healer is impaled, others need to step up healing. Run out of Bonestorm whirlwind and fire.
Lady Deathwhisper:
Phase One:
Tanks: Pickup the adds that spawn. Boss has no aggro. Kite Deformed Fanatics. Warriors and Druids take casters, DKs and Paladins take melee. Don't stand in Death and Decay.
DPS: Don't stand in Death and Decay. Skeleton casters are immune to magic and skeleton melee are immune to physical damage. Burn adds as they spawn, dps boss whenever you can. Crowd control Dominate Mind targets (25 player only).
Healers: Don't stand in Death and Decay. Boss will Shadowbolt random targets.
Phase Two:
Tanks: Swap at three stacks of Touch of Insignificance. Don't stand in Death and Decay. Interrupt Frostbolt casts.
DPS: Do not stand in Death and Decay. Watch aggro carefully. Interrupt Frostbolt casts. Run from summoned ghosts. Crowd control Dominate Mind targets (25 player only).
Healers: Do not stand in Death and Decay. Run from summoned ghosts.
Gunship Battle:
Team One:
Tanks: Grab adds that spawn from portals. Do not stand in red circles.
DPS: Burn adds that spawn from portals. Do not stand in red circles.
Healers: Do not stand in red circles.
Team Two:
Tanks: Jetpack to other ship and grab faction leader. Point leader away from raid. Jump back to own ship when opposing mage is killed.
DPS: Man turrets and alternate different attacks or help Team One. Jetpack to other ship and burn mage fast when turrets are frozen. Hop back immediately when mage is killed.
Healers: Heal Team One until turrets are frozen. Heal Tank when he hops to enemy ship. Heavy heals on Rending Throw debuff target.
Deathbringer Surfang:
Tanks: Stack on top of each other facing Deathbringer towards the door. Taunt off the tank with Rune of Blood immediately.
DPS: Stun and burn Blood Beasts immediately with single target attacks. Stay spread out.
Healers: Stack on melee dps. Heavy heals on the target with Mark of the Fallen Champion. Shield targets with Boiling Blood if possible.
For a more detailed breakdown of the Deathbringer encounter, check out the How to Beat Deathbringer in ICC 10 guide. Good luck!
Lord Marrowgar:
Tanks: Stack on top of each other. Point Marrowgar away from the raid. Taunt after Bonestorm whirlwind to regain aggro. Don't stand in fire.
DPS: Quickly burn bone spikes which impale other players. Stay behind the boss. Run out of Bonestorm whirlwind and fire.
Healers: Heavy heals on tank if unstacked. Heavy heals on impaled players. If healer is impaled, others need to step up healing. Run out of Bonestorm whirlwind and fire.
Lady Deathwhisper:
Phase One:
Tanks: Pickup the adds that spawn. Boss has no aggro. Kite Deformed Fanatics. Warriors and Druids take casters, DKs and Paladins take melee. Don't stand in Death and Decay.
DPS: Don't stand in Death and Decay. Skeleton casters are immune to magic and skeleton melee are immune to physical damage. Burn adds as they spawn, dps boss whenever you can. Crowd control Dominate Mind targets (25 player only).
Healers: Don't stand in Death and Decay. Boss will Shadowbolt random targets.
Phase Two:
Tanks: Swap at three stacks of Touch of Insignificance. Don't stand in Death and Decay. Interrupt Frostbolt casts.
DPS: Do not stand in Death and Decay. Watch aggro carefully. Interrupt Frostbolt casts. Run from summoned ghosts. Crowd control Dominate Mind targets (25 player only).
Healers: Do not stand in Death and Decay. Run from summoned ghosts.
Gunship Battle:
Team One:
Tanks: Grab adds that spawn from portals. Do not stand in red circles.
DPS: Burn adds that spawn from portals. Do not stand in red circles.
Healers: Do not stand in red circles.
Team Two:
Tanks: Jetpack to other ship and grab faction leader. Point leader away from raid. Jump back to own ship when opposing mage is killed.
DPS: Man turrets and alternate different attacks or help Team One. Jetpack to other ship and burn mage fast when turrets are frozen. Hop back immediately when mage is killed.
Healers: Heal Team One until turrets are frozen. Heal Tank when he hops to enemy ship. Heavy heals on Rending Throw debuff target.
Deathbringer Surfang:
Tanks: Stack on top of each other facing Deathbringer towards the door. Taunt off the tank with Rune of Blood immediately.
DPS: Stun and burn Blood Beasts immediately with single target attacks. Stay spread out.
Healers: Stack on melee dps. Heavy heals on the target with Mark of the Fallen Champion. Shield targets with Boiling Blood if possible.
For a more detailed breakdown of the Deathbringer encounter, check out the How to Beat Deathbringer in ICC 10 guide. Good luck!
Monday, December 14, 2009
How to Beat Deathbringer Saurfang in ICC 10
In World of Warcraft patch 3.3, Blizzard unveiled the first section of Icecrown Citadel's raid instance, the Lower Spire. The Lower Spire consists of four boss encounters including Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, the Icecrown Gunship Battle, and lastly, Deathbringer Saurfang.
Though each of the Lower Spire encounters is challenging in its own way, odds are, Deathbringer Saurfang will present the gravest threat to your raid. This is because, though the fight appears rather simple, unless each role is executed flawlessly, the combination of Saurfang's heal mechanics and Mark of the Fallen Champion will leave your raid dead and disappointed.
Below is a quick guide to defeating the Deathbringer in ICC 10 man. Some of the advice will also apply to 25 man and feel free to modify the strategy to fit your raids particular strengths. This is not the only way to defeat Saurfang, but it certainly appears to be one of the easiest.
1. Raid Stacking
The first key to defeating Deathbringer is having the right combination of classes and roles on board. To efficiently take down Deathbringer, you will want the following in your raid:
2 x Tank
2 x Healers
6 x DPS
Many people hit a wall with Deathbringer because they bring too many healers. Though it may not appear so because of relatively slow damage output, the Saurfang encounter is one long burn phase that requires huge amounts of dps. Replacing your third healer with a dps works because burning Saurfang quicker greatly reduces the healing needed at the end of the fight. I would recommend bringing a healer with a geared dps offspec whenever you go to ICC 10, so that they can make the switch for this encounter. Keep in mind, two healing this encounter is challenging, so you will need very solid healers to pull it off.
2. Positioning
Deathbringer should be tanked right where he spawns facing directly back towards the door he came out of. It is important that he be facing right at the door, because that will make managing the Blood Beast spawns infinity easier. Melee dps will obviously want to stand directly behind Saurfang. Healers will stack on top of melee dps.
Ranged the ranged dps will form a large arc around Deathbringer, being sure to stay at least 15 yards apart from each other so as to prevent Blood Nova damage from becoming an issue and giving Saurfang extra Blood Power. At the point of the semi-circle preferably put a Mage or Elemental Shaman. To either side of that point your ranged dps will fan out in semi-circle.
All raid members should spend as much time as possible in these positions so as to limit the effectiveness of Blood Nova and to make the Blood Beast burning as quick and efficient as possible.
3. Managing Blood Power
The central mechanic of the Deathbringer Saurfang encounter is Blood Power. Most of Saurfang's abilities, as well as the attacks of his summoned minions, cause him to generate points of Blood Power. These points increase his damage done, but even with full Blood Power, his output is more than manageable. Blood Power is a problem because every time Deathbringer reaches 100 Blood Power, he resets his counter to zero and casts Mark of the Fallen Champion on a random raid member. Mark of the Fallen Champion not only does very large amounts of damage, but also generates Blood Power every time it procs. As a result, Saurfang's Blood Power generation rate increases exponentially every time a Mark is applied.
To prevent your healers being overwhelmed by Mark of the Fallen Champion damage, it is then important to minimize Deathbringer's Blood Power generation whenever possible. Staying spread out is step one as Blood Nova AoE damage gives the boss points of Blood Power. The second step is properly dealing with the Blood Beasts.
4. Blood Beasts
One of the most important elements of this fight are the Blood Beasts Saurfang summons every 30 seconds. In Icecrown Citadel 10 man, Deathbringer will summon two Blood Beasts at a time, one directly on his left and one directly on the right. The Blood Beasts do relatively little damage and have no remarkable special abilities other than a resistance to AoE damage, but every time they do damage, Saurfang gains a point of Blood Power. As a result, one of the keys to this encounter is killing the Blood Beasts quickly and preventing them from attacking anyone.
To minimize the Blood Beasts attacks, they must be stunned as much as possible and burned immediately. Have your raid focus fire on the right Blood Beast, then the left. While the right blood beast is blown up by your dps, have a Rogue or other class with a decent disable mechanic incapacitate the one on the left. If necessary set up stun rotations to maximize Blood Beast down time. Do not forget your tank's stuns either as they will easily be able to turn and hit the Blood Beast where it stands.
The Beasts are also susceptible to snares and stuns, so Frost Traps and Concussive Shots are a must. This makes kiting the Blood Beasts directly back another viable strategy if your raid is low on stuns. The Blood Beasts have relatively little health and if your dps is tuned to the encounter, you should be able to burn them well before they threaten your kiter. If you are having trouble, make sure all dps is switching as soon as possible and is doing single target dps to the focus target.
5. Rune of Blood
Fairly frequently, Saurfang will cast Rune of Blood on the tank. This causes the Deathbringer to heal himself for 10% of the damage he does to that target. Back when 3.3 was released, it was 5% so many raids went with only a single tank. Now, however, tank swapping is necessary and the tanks will need to taunt back and forth to take Deathbringer's attention off of whoever has the Rune.
If a taunt fails or a tank is down, one can still mitigate some of the effects of Rune of Blood by using damage reduction cooldowns when the Rune is active. Since the healing received is tied to the damage done, less damage converts to less healing. Saurfang's overall damage on the tank is low and steady enough that you should be able to save some of your damage reduction effects for limiting his Rune of Blood heals.
6. Mark of the Fallen Champion
Once Saurfang reaches 100 Blood Power, the first Mark of the Fallen Champion will hit one of your raid members. If you have been minimizing Blood Power gains and your dps is geared enough for the encounter, Saurfang should be at around 50-60% health before this happens. At this point, your raid needs to make an important choice: keep them alive or let them die.
If one of your miscellaneous dps gets the Mark and dies immediately, Saurfang loses the benefit of the Blood Power he would otherwise get from the Mark. This means your raid will have significantly more time before a subsequent mark drops, but you will be sacrificing a dps for that luxury. Base this decision off the strength of your heals and dps. Also, when someone with Mark of the Fallen Champion dies, Saurfang regains 5% of his total health, so keep that in mind as well.
Regardless, Saurfang will reach 100 Blood Power again and a second Mark of the Fallen Champion will hit someone. The same choice presents itself again, but it will be exceptionally challenging to counteract Saurfang's heals with two dps out of commission. Usually after the third Mark, but almost certainly at the fourth, the healing required becomes too much and your raid will wipe. It is therefore critical that you prolong the time between Marks by limiting Blood Power gains and burn the boss hard.
Before you even try it, keep in mind that the Mark cannot be erased. Even if a player dies and is resurrected, they will still come back complete with the debuff. There is, unfortunately, no way around it.
7. Frenzy
At 30% health, Saurfang goes into a Frenzy, increasing his attack speed by 30%. This increases the Tank's incoming damage as well as the damage done to raid members with Mark of the Fallen Champion as the debuff ticks are tied to his melee attacks. Additionally, he will be gaining Blood Power from his melee attacks and the Marks 30% faster. If that is not enough to deal with, he will also be procing his Rune of Blood heals 30% quicker meaning the hill your dps has been climbing the whole battle will become slightly steeper.
During the Frenzy, the Tank's incoming damage should still be manageable, but the Marked raid members will need noticeably more healing. If Blood Lust or Heroism is available, using it during the Frenzy is advised.
8. Boiling Blood
Boiling Blood is a damage over time effect Saurfang will occasionally apply to random raid members. Its ticks grant Blood Power to Deathbringer, so shedding it however possible is advised. A priest's shield will also absorb the ticks and prevent Blood Power gains, so having a Discipline Priest makes this encounter much easier. Otherwise, the target raid member will simply need some attention from the healers.
9. Concluding Tips
The combination of Frenzy and the exponential increase in Blood Power gains caused by Mark of the Fallen Champion means that your attempts will generally not fall apart until the closing seconds of the encounter. It is not uncommon for Deathbringer to take a group that is doing "well" and quickly blow them up when he is at less than 5%. Do not get discouraged and just remember that this fight is all about the details. Even one or two unnecessary Blood Power points can make all the difference. With a little practice, precision, and encounter appropriate gear, however, you will down this Deathbringer in no time.
Though each of the Lower Spire encounters is challenging in its own way, odds are, Deathbringer Saurfang will present the gravest threat to your raid. This is because, though the fight appears rather simple, unless each role is executed flawlessly, the combination of Saurfang's heal mechanics and Mark of the Fallen Champion will leave your raid dead and disappointed.
Below is a quick guide to defeating the Deathbringer in ICC 10 man. Some of the advice will also apply to 25 man and feel free to modify the strategy to fit your raids particular strengths. This is not the only way to defeat Saurfang, but it certainly appears to be one of the easiest.
1. Raid Stacking
The first key to defeating Deathbringer is having the right combination of classes and roles on board. To efficiently take down Deathbringer, you will want the following in your raid:
2 x Tank
2 x Healers
6 x DPS
Many people hit a wall with Deathbringer because they bring too many healers. Though it may not appear so because of relatively slow damage output, the Saurfang encounter is one long burn phase that requires huge amounts of dps. Replacing your third healer with a dps works because burning Saurfang quicker greatly reduces the healing needed at the end of the fight. I would recommend bringing a healer with a geared dps offspec whenever you go to ICC 10, so that they can make the switch for this encounter. Keep in mind, two healing this encounter is challenging, so you will need very solid healers to pull it off.
2. Positioning
Deathbringer should be tanked right where he spawns facing directly back towards the door he came out of. It is important that he be facing right at the door, because that will make managing the Blood Beast spawns infinity easier. Melee dps will obviously want to stand directly behind Saurfang. Healers will stack on top of melee dps.
Ranged the ranged dps will form a large arc around Deathbringer, being sure to stay at least 15 yards apart from each other so as to prevent Blood Nova damage from becoming an issue and giving Saurfang extra Blood Power. At the point of the semi-circle preferably put a Mage or Elemental Shaman. To either side of that point your ranged dps will fan out in semi-circle.
All raid members should spend as much time as possible in these positions so as to limit the effectiveness of Blood Nova and to make the Blood Beast burning as quick and efficient as possible.
3. Managing Blood Power
The central mechanic of the Deathbringer Saurfang encounter is Blood Power. Most of Saurfang's abilities, as well as the attacks of his summoned minions, cause him to generate points of Blood Power. These points increase his damage done, but even with full Blood Power, his output is more than manageable. Blood Power is a problem because every time Deathbringer reaches 100 Blood Power, he resets his counter to zero and casts Mark of the Fallen Champion on a random raid member. Mark of the Fallen Champion not only does very large amounts of damage, but also generates Blood Power every time it procs. As a result, Saurfang's Blood Power generation rate increases exponentially every time a Mark is applied.
To prevent your healers being overwhelmed by Mark of the Fallen Champion damage, it is then important to minimize Deathbringer's Blood Power generation whenever possible. Staying spread out is step one as Blood Nova AoE damage gives the boss points of Blood Power. The second step is properly dealing with the Blood Beasts.
4. Blood Beasts
One of the most important elements of this fight are the Blood Beasts Saurfang summons every 30 seconds. In Icecrown Citadel 10 man, Deathbringer will summon two Blood Beasts at a time, one directly on his left and one directly on the right. The Blood Beasts do relatively little damage and have no remarkable special abilities other than a resistance to AoE damage, but every time they do damage, Saurfang gains a point of Blood Power. As a result, one of the keys to this encounter is killing the Blood Beasts quickly and preventing them from attacking anyone.
To minimize the Blood Beasts attacks, they must be stunned as much as possible and burned immediately. Have your raid focus fire on the right Blood Beast, then the left. While the right blood beast is blown up by your dps, have a Rogue or other class with a decent disable mechanic incapacitate the one on the left. If necessary set up stun rotations to maximize Blood Beast down time. Do not forget your tank's stuns either as they will easily be able to turn and hit the Blood Beast where it stands.
The Beasts are also susceptible to snares and stuns, so Frost Traps and Concussive Shots are a must. This makes kiting the Blood Beasts directly back another viable strategy if your raid is low on stuns. The Blood Beasts have relatively little health and if your dps is tuned to the encounter, you should be able to burn them well before they threaten your kiter. If you are having trouble, make sure all dps is switching as soon as possible and is doing single target dps to the focus target.
5. Rune of Blood
Fairly frequently, Saurfang will cast Rune of Blood on the tank. This causes the Deathbringer to heal himself for 10% of the damage he does to that target. Back when 3.3 was released, it was 5% so many raids went with only a single tank. Now, however, tank swapping is necessary and the tanks will need to taunt back and forth to take Deathbringer's attention off of whoever has the Rune.
If a taunt fails or a tank is down, one can still mitigate some of the effects of Rune of Blood by using damage reduction cooldowns when the Rune is active. Since the healing received is tied to the damage done, less damage converts to less healing. Saurfang's overall damage on the tank is low and steady enough that you should be able to save some of your damage reduction effects for limiting his Rune of Blood heals.
6. Mark of the Fallen Champion
Once Saurfang reaches 100 Blood Power, the first Mark of the Fallen Champion will hit one of your raid members. If you have been minimizing Blood Power gains and your dps is geared enough for the encounter, Saurfang should be at around 50-60% health before this happens. At this point, your raid needs to make an important choice: keep them alive or let them die.
If one of your miscellaneous dps gets the Mark and dies immediately, Saurfang loses the benefit of the Blood Power he would otherwise get from the Mark. This means your raid will have significantly more time before a subsequent mark drops, but you will be sacrificing a dps for that luxury. Base this decision off the strength of your heals and dps. Also, when someone with Mark of the Fallen Champion dies, Saurfang regains 5% of his total health, so keep that in mind as well.
Regardless, Saurfang will reach 100 Blood Power again and a second Mark of the Fallen Champion will hit someone. The same choice presents itself again, but it will be exceptionally challenging to counteract Saurfang's heals with two dps out of commission. Usually after the third Mark, but almost certainly at the fourth, the healing required becomes too much and your raid will wipe. It is therefore critical that you prolong the time between Marks by limiting Blood Power gains and burn the boss hard.
Before you even try it, keep in mind that the Mark cannot be erased. Even if a player dies and is resurrected, they will still come back complete with the debuff. There is, unfortunately, no way around it.
7. Frenzy
At 30% health, Saurfang goes into a Frenzy, increasing his attack speed by 30%. This increases the Tank's incoming damage as well as the damage done to raid members with Mark of the Fallen Champion as the debuff ticks are tied to his melee attacks. Additionally, he will be gaining Blood Power from his melee attacks and the Marks 30% faster. If that is not enough to deal with, he will also be procing his Rune of Blood heals 30% quicker meaning the hill your dps has been climbing the whole battle will become slightly steeper.
During the Frenzy, the Tank's incoming damage should still be manageable, but the Marked raid members will need noticeably more healing. If Blood Lust or Heroism is available, using it during the Frenzy is advised.
8. Boiling Blood
Boiling Blood is a damage over time effect Saurfang will occasionally apply to random raid members. Its ticks grant Blood Power to Deathbringer, so shedding it however possible is advised. A priest's shield will also absorb the ticks and prevent Blood Power gains, so having a Discipline Priest makes this encounter much easier. Otherwise, the target raid member will simply need some attention from the healers.
9. Concluding Tips
The combination of Frenzy and the exponential increase in Blood Power gains caused by Mark of the Fallen Champion means that your attempts will generally not fall apart until the closing seconds of the encounter. It is not uncommon for Deathbringer to take a group that is doing "well" and quickly blow them up when he is at less than 5%. Do not get discouraged and just remember that this fight is all about the details. Even one or two unnecessary Blood Power points can make all the difference. With a little practice, precision, and encounter appropriate gear, however, you will down this Deathbringer in no time.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Onyxia Quick Tips
After getting some positive responses from our Trial of the Crusader Quick Tips guide, I have decided to follow it up by giving Onyxia's Lair the same treatment. As with that guide, the tips below do not cover every intricacy of the Onyxia encounter, but they should give you the knowledge you need to prove a valuable member of any Onyxia raid.
Onyxia's Lair Trash Tips:
Tanks: The Onyxian Warders have a large aggro radius and long paths so pull carefully. Off-tank should pick up a second Warder if it patrols into the group. Point the Warders away from melee dps.
DPS: Stay behind the Warder's because they cleave.
Healers: AoE heal the melee dps through Fire Nova. Tank will be taking relatively heavy damage.
Onyxia Phase One Tips:
Tanks: Main tank should run right down the middle, straight through Onyxia and back into the back wall. Use mitigation cooldowns on the pull and right before Flame Breath casts. Off-tanks watch your aggro and pick up whelps if needed.
DPS: Wait until the tank has turned Onyxia before getting close to avoid a Tail Sweep. Stand on her left side between where she cleaves and her tail swipe.
Healers: All heals on the tank. Big heals after Flame Breath.
Onyxia Phase Two Tips:
Tanks: Grab whelps from openings in the cavern's sides and draw them to the center for AoE. One tank grabs Onyxian Guardians who spawn at entrance and tanks them near where they enter. Other tank(s) help dps Guardians and pick up later whelp spawns. Move yourself and your aggro target to the side of the cavern when Onyxia "takes a deep breath."
DPS: Ranged and Melee AoE the first whelp spawn. Ranged burn down Onyxia stopping only to AoE whelp spawns. Melee burn down the Onyxian Guardians as quickly as possible and help with whelps when idle. Move to the side of the cavern when Onyxia "takes a deep breath."
Healers: Assign a healer to each tank. Be prepared for heavy tank damage especially from Guardians. Stand in the center as much as possible to help whelp gathering. Move to the side of the cavern when Onyxia "takes a deep breath."
Onyxia Phase Three Tips:
Tanks: Main tank needs to be ready for Onyxia to land at 40% health. Bring her back so she is cleanly facing the back wall. Use fear avoidance/breaking abilities before Bellowing Roar. Off tanks should pick up any remaining whelps or guardians and tank them away from Onyxia. Off tanks should watch aggro on Onyxia.
DPS: Stay out of Onyxia's way as she is being positioned to avoid being hit by Cleve or Flame Breath. Kill any remaining whelps and Guardians before targeting Onyxia. Stand at Onyxia's side to dps. Use fear negating abilities on the tank.
Healers: Stay out of Onyxia's way as she is being positioned to avoid being hit by Cleve or Flame Breath. Heal your target tank until adds are dead and then focus heals on main tank. Stand on Onyxia's side. Use fear negating abilities on the tank. Cast protective spells and HoT effects on the tank right before Bellowing Roars.
Onyxia's Lair Trash Tips:
Tanks: The Onyxian Warders have a large aggro radius and long paths so pull carefully. Off-tank should pick up a second Warder if it patrols into the group. Point the Warders away from melee dps.
DPS: Stay behind the Warder's because they cleave.
Healers: AoE heal the melee dps through Fire Nova. Tank will be taking relatively heavy damage.
Onyxia Phase One Tips:
Tanks: Main tank should run right down the middle, straight through Onyxia and back into the back wall. Use mitigation cooldowns on the pull and right before Flame Breath casts. Off-tanks watch your aggro and pick up whelps if needed.
DPS: Wait until the tank has turned Onyxia before getting close to avoid a Tail Sweep. Stand on her left side between where she cleaves and her tail swipe.
Healers: All heals on the tank. Big heals after Flame Breath.
Onyxia Phase Two Tips:
Tanks: Grab whelps from openings in the cavern's sides and draw them to the center for AoE. One tank grabs Onyxian Guardians who spawn at entrance and tanks them near where they enter. Other tank(s) help dps Guardians and pick up later whelp spawns. Move yourself and your aggro target to the side of the cavern when Onyxia "takes a deep breath."
DPS: Ranged and Melee AoE the first whelp spawn. Ranged burn down Onyxia stopping only to AoE whelp spawns. Melee burn down the Onyxian Guardians as quickly as possible and help with whelps when idle. Move to the side of the cavern when Onyxia "takes a deep breath."
Healers: Assign a healer to each tank. Be prepared for heavy tank damage especially from Guardians. Stand in the center as much as possible to help whelp gathering. Move to the side of the cavern when Onyxia "takes a deep breath."
Onyxia Phase Three Tips:
Tanks: Main tank needs to be ready for Onyxia to land at 40% health. Bring her back so she is cleanly facing the back wall. Use fear avoidance/breaking abilities before Bellowing Roar. Off tanks should pick up any remaining whelps or guardians and tank them away from Onyxia. Off tanks should watch aggro on Onyxia.
DPS: Stay out of Onyxia's way as she is being positioned to avoid being hit by Cleve or Flame Breath. Kill any remaining whelps and Guardians before targeting Onyxia. Stand at Onyxia's side to dps. Use fear negating abilities on the tank.
Healers: Stay out of Onyxia's way as she is being positioned to avoid being hit by Cleve or Flame Breath. Heal your target tank until adds are dead and then focus heals on main tank. Stand on Onyxia's side. Use fear negating abilities on the tank. Cast protective spells and HoT effects on the tank right before Bellowing Roars.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Tips for Creating a Successful Guild
Running a successful World of Warcraft guild takes a great deal of time and effort. With proper planning, the right attitude and a hearty helping of patience, however, anyone can sit atop the guild of their dreams. Below are some tips to help you make your World of Warcraft guild leader dreams a reality.
1. Decide What Type of Guild You Want and Plan Accordingly
What makes a guild "successful" is inherently defined by the drive of its members. If a guild exists only as a social space for friends, the bar for success might be as low as having a couple bank tabs and keeping everyone happy. On the other hand, a progression guild might only be successful if it is capable of clearing the latest raid content or if it can master challenging achievements. Lastly, a leveling guild might solely be judged by the size of its membership.
If you have low expectations for your guild, your initial effort and ongoing administrative burden will similarly be low. If, however, you plan to compete with the top guilds on your server, you better be prepared to do your homework and put serious time into keeping your guild rolling. Make sure to not bite off more than you can chew while similarly not falling short of your own reasonable expectations.
Contemplating the kind of guild you want is also important in that you must be able to clearly express your expectations for the guild to potential members. If you do not have a clear idea of what goals you have for the guild, it is going to be impossible for other players to know if joining your guild will help them further their own personal goals.
2. Choose a Reasonable Name
John Locke once said that there is much in a name and that holds true for guilds as well. Though you and your friends may find the name "ZomgPawners" hilarious, odds are you will have a harder time recruiting your server's top players into a guild where the first impression your name creates is "these guys are ridiculous."
If you do not care about your guild's "status" or the size of its membership, the name you pick is largely irrelevant so long as it is not obscene or a violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Service. If, however, you want to grow your guild, try to pick a name that will appeal to a broad audience. Lacking inspiration, try paging through a dictionary to get your creative juices flowing.
3. Form, Then Fill
Every guild, no matter its type, starts with 10 signatures on a Guild Charter. Many players make the mistake of trying to track down the entirety of their guild's membership BEFORE the Guild even exists.
If you are truly committed to forming your own guild, do not get too hung up on who signs your charter. Obviously, if you have friends or acquaintances who are on board and available, may as well have them be founding members. Otherwise, any warm body will do. Targeting new players and or offering a gold or two per signature can quickly fill your charter and have your Guild ready for business.
4. Offer Guild Benefits to Draw and Keep Members
Though there is a great deal to be said for the sense of community and organizational benefits a guild provides, that is not enough for most players. If you want to draw quality players into your guild, you are going to need to offer perks.
The perks start with a guild bank. A well stocked, multi-tab guild bank with reasonable use restrictions is a must for any respectable guild. Be certain to protect the bank from ninjas by restricting access to new members, but also do not preclude its use entirely. Give your members the trust they deserve, but nothing more. A guild tabbard is also a nice touch even though most high level characters will neglect it entirely. For a leveling or PvP guild, however, it is nearly a must.
If you are serious about your guild competing with the big boys, you will need to offer meta game benefits as well. For any serious raiding guild, a Ventrilo server is a necessity. You can purchase these servers for only a couple bucks a month from companies like Dark Star Communications. A website will also go a long way towards boosting guild communication and organization. There are many free guild website hosting providers available. I generally recommend Guildtag.com as they offer lots of customization options at a truly free price point.
5. Screen Applicants Carefully
Never forget, your guild can never be more successful than its members. If you are only looking to create a large guild, go ahead and invite whoever you can. If, however, you are trying to form a raid guild of any kind, quality is always superior to quantity. It is better to have a strong core group of players and have to PuG a couple slots for raids than to have bad attitudes and lazy players poisoning your guild. Eventually, the quality players you meet in those PuGs can be brought into the fold. It will take a while for your guild to be independently raid ready, but the results will be well worth the extra time and effort.
6. Be Flexible
As your guild grows and changes, it is important that your leadership grow and change with it. Allow trusted members to take on certain guild administration responsibilities. Modify schedules, raid targets, and policies as needed. It is your guild afterall, but unless you are flexible and adaptive, it will ultimately be a guild of one, sitting in Dalaran and wondering what might have been.
1. Decide What Type of Guild You Want and Plan Accordingly
What makes a guild "successful" is inherently defined by the drive of its members. If a guild exists only as a social space for friends, the bar for success might be as low as having a couple bank tabs and keeping everyone happy. On the other hand, a progression guild might only be successful if it is capable of clearing the latest raid content or if it can master challenging achievements. Lastly, a leveling guild might solely be judged by the size of its membership.
If you have low expectations for your guild, your initial effort and ongoing administrative burden will similarly be low. If, however, you plan to compete with the top guilds on your server, you better be prepared to do your homework and put serious time into keeping your guild rolling. Make sure to not bite off more than you can chew while similarly not falling short of your own reasonable expectations.
Contemplating the kind of guild you want is also important in that you must be able to clearly express your expectations for the guild to potential members. If you do not have a clear idea of what goals you have for the guild, it is going to be impossible for other players to know if joining your guild will help them further their own personal goals.
2. Choose a Reasonable Name
John Locke once said that there is much in a name and that holds true for guilds as well. Though you and your friends may find the name "ZomgPawners" hilarious, odds are you will have a harder time recruiting your server's top players into a guild where the first impression your name creates is "these guys are ridiculous."
If you do not care about your guild's "status" or the size of its membership, the name you pick is largely irrelevant so long as it is not obscene or a violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Service. If, however, you want to grow your guild, try to pick a name that will appeal to a broad audience. Lacking inspiration, try paging through a dictionary to get your creative juices flowing.
3. Form, Then Fill
Every guild, no matter its type, starts with 10 signatures on a Guild Charter. Many players make the mistake of trying to track down the entirety of their guild's membership BEFORE the Guild even exists.
If you are truly committed to forming your own guild, do not get too hung up on who signs your charter. Obviously, if you have friends or acquaintances who are on board and available, may as well have them be founding members. Otherwise, any warm body will do. Targeting new players and or offering a gold or two per signature can quickly fill your charter and have your Guild ready for business.
4. Offer Guild Benefits to Draw and Keep Members
Though there is a great deal to be said for the sense of community and organizational benefits a guild provides, that is not enough for most players. If you want to draw quality players into your guild, you are going to need to offer perks.
The perks start with a guild bank. A well stocked, multi-tab guild bank with reasonable use restrictions is a must for any respectable guild. Be certain to protect the bank from ninjas by restricting access to new members, but also do not preclude its use entirely. Give your members the trust they deserve, but nothing more. A guild tabbard is also a nice touch even though most high level characters will neglect it entirely. For a leveling or PvP guild, however, it is nearly a must.
If you are serious about your guild competing with the big boys, you will need to offer meta game benefits as well. For any serious raiding guild, a Ventrilo server is a necessity. You can purchase these servers for only a couple bucks a month from companies like Dark Star Communications. A website will also go a long way towards boosting guild communication and organization. There are many free guild website hosting providers available. I generally recommend Guildtag.com as they offer lots of customization options at a truly free price point.
5. Screen Applicants Carefully
Never forget, your guild can never be more successful than its members. If you are only looking to create a large guild, go ahead and invite whoever you can. If, however, you are trying to form a raid guild of any kind, quality is always superior to quantity. It is better to have a strong core group of players and have to PuG a couple slots for raids than to have bad attitudes and lazy players poisoning your guild. Eventually, the quality players you meet in those PuGs can be brought into the fold. It will take a while for your guild to be independently raid ready, but the results will be well worth the extra time and effort.
6. Be Flexible
As your guild grows and changes, it is important that your leadership grow and change with it. Allow trusted members to take on certain guild administration responsibilities. Modify schedules, raid targets, and policies as needed. It is your guild afterall, but unless you are flexible and adaptive, it will ultimately be a guild of one, sitting in Dalaran and wondering what might have been.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Trial of the Crusader Quick Tips
Say you have just gotten into a Trial of the Crusader PuG and realize you have no idea what you are supposed to do. Now imagine it is your Guild's first run at the instance and you keep wiping, but you are not sure why. Lastly, picture you are a raid leader putting together a group for Trial of the Crusader and you need a quick easy way to explain the fights to that one new dps you just invited. In any of those situations, the Trial of the Crusader quick tips below are for you!
These tips do not lay out all the nuances of each encounter, but they should be sufficient to keep you alive and productive in both the 10 and 25 man version of Trial of the Crusader.
Beasts of Northrend Tips:
Gormok the Impaler
Tanks: Taunt off the other tank whenever the stacking debuff reaches three. Taunt the target back when your debuffs have gone away.
DPS: Do not stand in the fire. Immediately shift your dps to any Snobolds which are attacking you or your party members.
Healers: Do not stand in the fire. Call out for help if a Snobold is on you. Increase heals on the tanks when their debuff is at three.
Acidmaw and Dreadscale
Tanks: Point your worm away from the raid. Move the mobile worm out of poison clouds. If you get a Paralytic Toxin debuff, call out for a raid member with a Burning Bile debuff to come to you or, if necessary, go to them.
DPS: Burn down Acidmaw. Stay spread out. If you get a Paralytic Toxin debuff, immediately run to a raid member with the Burning Bile debuff. Do not stand in the poison clouds.
Healers: Stay spread out. If you get a Paralytic Toxin debuff, immediately run to a raid member with the Burning Bile debuff. When one worm dies, the other increases its damage, so step up the heals. Do not stand in the poison clouds.
Icehowl
Tanks: Only one tank is required. Tank him near the center of the room. After he knocks everyone to the wall, run out of his way if he is aimed to charge towards you.
DPS: Stay spread out. After he knocks everyone to the wall, run out of his way if he is aimed to charge towards you. Blow your cooldowns and hit him hard after he crashes into a wall.
Healers: Stay spread out. After he knocks everyone to the wall, run out of his way if he is aimed to charge towards you. Land big heals to keep the tank alive after Ferocious Butt.
Lord Jaraxxus
Tanks: Main needs to hold Lord Jaraxxus in the center of the room and interrupt Fel Fireball casts whenever possible. Off tank needs to pick up the Mistress of Pain who spawns from each Nether Portal and tank her away from the raid. Off tank needs to pick up the three Felflame Infernals who spawn from each Fel Volcano and tank them away from the raid as much as possible despite their aggro dumps.
DPS: Stay spread out. Interrupt Fel Fireball whenever possible. Spellsteal or dispell the Jaraxxus' Nether Power buff. When you are standing in green flame, run out of it towards the wall. Ranged dps should immediately switch to burning Felflame Infernals or Mistresses of Pain whenever they spawn.
Healers: Stay spread out. When you are standing in green flame, run out of it towards the wall. When a player gets the Incinerate Flesh debuff, immediately heal them until the debuff is removed. This fight is healing intensive.
Faction Champions:
Tanks: Go to more PvP viable offspecs if you can. Keep melee dps classes off of other players using Taunts, snares, and crowd control (subject to diminishing returns). Contribute damage to focus fire targets as much as possible.
DPS: Focus fire. Kill healers first. Use all crowd control and snares at your disposal. Heal yourself if you can. Kite mobs if necessary to survive.
Healers: Use all crowd control and snares at your disposal. Land heavy heals on the mobs focus fire target. Keep yourself alive and kite as needed.
Twin Val'kyr:
Tanks: Click the portal of the opposite color of the Val'kyr you plan to tank. Tank the Val'kyr close together. Touch orbs that match your color when possible.
DPS: Click the portal of the opposite color of the Val'kyr you are dpsing. If a Val'kyr begins casting Twin's Pact, switch dps to it (switching your color if needed) to break its shield and then interrupt the spell. If a Val'kyr begins casting Vortex, immediately switch to that Val'kyr's color to avoid being killed by the resulting AoE. Touch same color orbs whenever you can. Avoid opposite color orbs. The Twins share a health pool so dps whichever is convenient at any given time.
Healers: If a Val'kyr begins casting Vortex, immediately switch to that Val'kyr's color to avoid being killed by the resulting AoE. Touch same color orbs whenever you can. Avoid opposite color orbs. Try to stay the opposite color of the dps so as to increase orb absorption.
Anub'arak:
Tanks: Main tank holds Anub'arak where he starts, facing him away from the raid. Off tank picks up adds and tanks them on top of blue permafrost. When Anub'arak is underground, tanks help dps kite small adds and run from spikes if chased. Draw spikes into permafrost to destroy them if they you can no longer outrun them.
DPS: One ranged dps shoots floating orbs so as to scatter permafrost around area. Switch target to big adds and burn them down whenever they appear. Kite and kill small adds when Anub'arak is underground. Run from spikes if chased. Draw spikes into permafrost to destroy them if they you can no longer outrun them.
Healers: Run from small adds when Anub'arak is underground. Run from spikes if chased. Draw spikes into permafrost to destroy them if they you can no longer outrun them. When Anub'arak begins casing Leeching Swarm, let everyone but the tanks' health hover as low as you can.
These tips do not lay out all the nuances of each encounter, but they should be sufficient to keep you alive and productive in both the 10 and 25 man version of Trial of the Crusader.
Beasts of Northrend Tips:
Gormok the Impaler
Tanks: Taunt off the other tank whenever the stacking debuff reaches three. Taunt the target back when your debuffs have gone away.
DPS: Do not stand in the fire. Immediately shift your dps to any Snobolds which are attacking you or your party members.
Healers: Do not stand in the fire. Call out for help if a Snobold is on you. Increase heals on the tanks when their debuff is at three.
Acidmaw and Dreadscale
Tanks: Point your worm away from the raid. Move the mobile worm out of poison clouds. If you get a Paralytic Toxin debuff, call out for a raid member with a Burning Bile debuff to come to you or, if necessary, go to them.
DPS: Burn down Acidmaw. Stay spread out. If you get a Paralytic Toxin debuff, immediately run to a raid member with the Burning Bile debuff. Do not stand in the poison clouds.
Healers: Stay spread out. If you get a Paralytic Toxin debuff, immediately run to a raid member with the Burning Bile debuff. When one worm dies, the other increases its damage, so step up the heals. Do not stand in the poison clouds.
Icehowl
Tanks: Only one tank is required. Tank him near the center of the room. After he knocks everyone to the wall, run out of his way if he is aimed to charge towards you.
DPS: Stay spread out. After he knocks everyone to the wall, run out of his way if he is aimed to charge towards you. Blow your cooldowns and hit him hard after he crashes into a wall.
Healers: Stay spread out. After he knocks everyone to the wall, run out of his way if he is aimed to charge towards you. Land big heals to keep the tank alive after Ferocious Butt.
Lord Jaraxxus
Tanks: Main needs to hold Lord Jaraxxus in the center of the room and interrupt Fel Fireball casts whenever possible. Off tank needs to pick up the Mistress of Pain who spawns from each Nether Portal and tank her away from the raid. Off tank needs to pick up the three Felflame Infernals who spawn from each Fel Volcano and tank them away from the raid as much as possible despite their aggro dumps.
DPS: Stay spread out. Interrupt Fel Fireball whenever possible. Spellsteal or dispell the Jaraxxus' Nether Power buff. When you are standing in green flame, run out of it towards the wall. Ranged dps should immediately switch to burning Felflame Infernals or Mistresses of Pain whenever they spawn.
Healers: Stay spread out. When you are standing in green flame, run out of it towards the wall. When a player gets the Incinerate Flesh debuff, immediately heal them until the debuff is removed. This fight is healing intensive.
Faction Champions:
Tanks: Go to more PvP viable offspecs if you can. Keep melee dps classes off of other players using Taunts, snares, and crowd control (subject to diminishing returns). Contribute damage to focus fire targets as much as possible.
DPS: Focus fire. Kill healers first. Use all crowd control and snares at your disposal. Heal yourself if you can. Kite mobs if necessary to survive.
Healers: Use all crowd control and snares at your disposal. Land heavy heals on the mobs focus fire target. Keep yourself alive and kite as needed.
Twin Val'kyr:
Tanks: Click the portal of the opposite color of the Val'kyr you plan to tank. Tank the Val'kyr close together. Touch orbs that match your color when possible.
DPS: Click the portal of the opposite color of the Val'kyr you are dpsing. If a Val'kyr begins casting Twin's Pact, switch dps to it (switching your color if needed) to break its shield and then interrupt the spell. If a Val'kyr begins casting Vortex, immediately switch to that Val'kyr's color to avoid being killed by the resulting AoE. Touch same color orbs whenever you can. Avoid opposite color orbs. The Twins share a health pool so dps whichever is convenient at any given time.
Healers: If a Val'kyr begins casting Vortex, immediately switch to that Val'kyr's color to avoid being killed by the resulting AoE. Touch same color orbs whenever you can. Avoid opposite color orbs. Try to stay the opposite color of the dps so as to increase orb absorption.
Anub'arak:
Tanks: Main tank holds Anub'arak where he starts, facing him away from the raid. Off tank picks up adds and tanks them on top of blue permafrost. When Anub'arak is underground, tanks help dps kite small adds and run from spikes if chased. Draw spikes into permafrost to destroy them if they you can no longer outrun them.
DPS: One ranged dps shoots floating orbs so as to scatter permafrost around area. Switch target to big adds and burn them down whenever they appear. Kite and kill small adds when Anub'arak is underground. Run from spikes if chased. Draw spikes into permafrost to destroy them if they you can no longer outrun them.
Healers: Run from small adds when Anub'arak is underground. Run from spikes if chased. Draw spikes into permafrost to destroy them if they you can no longer outrun them. When Anub'arak begins casing Leeching Swarm, let everyone but the tanks' health hover as low as you can.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Bear Form Threat Guide
For some time now, Feral Druid tanks have been a viable option for even the most challenging of World of Warcraft's encounters. When designing a new Bear tank, most players put a great deal of thought into survivability, tweaking gear, gems, glyphs, and enchants to generate huge health pools and a hearty dodge percentage. That is all well and good, but absorbing damage is only half of a good Druid tank's job. Aggro management, or holding your targets' attention, is the other piece of the tanking puzzle and is just as important.
For a fresh level eighty Feral Druid, maintaining threat can be a huge problem. In heroics and introductory raids, you will frequently find yourself fighting alongside veteran damage dealers. Aside from generating well over 3k dps with little effort, these players are likely accustomed to an AoE burn play-style that pays little attention to threat management. As a result, any Feral Tank who neglects threat maximization will quickly find them self surrounded by the corpses of soon to be former group members. To help you avoid this terrible fate, I have laid out some Bear Form threat tips below that should help your targets stick to you like glue.
1. Bear Form Rotation
Using the right abilities in the right order is key to maintaining threat.
For Single Targets:
Generally speaking, you should always open a pull with Feral Faerie Fire because it is ranged, super high threat, and free. If you cast this while closing on your target or Charging, your global cool down should be up by the time you reach it meaning you can immediately follow up with Mangle. Then, it is time to start stacking Lacerates up to five. To maximize your initial threat, interrupt your Lacerate stacking whenever Mangle or Feral Faerie Fire is available. Once you hit five stacks of Lacerate, use Swipe in its place making sure to Lacerate only enough to keep the debuff rolling at five stacks.
It is also important that you Maul on every single melee attack. Maul generates huge amounts of threat and a missed Maul can spell disaster for your party. Obviously you must make concessions if your rage is limited, but you will want to cut your post five stack Swipes rather than your Mauls. They are just that important.
In summary, for single target Bear threat:
Keep Maul up throughout, open with Feral Faerie Fire, Mangle, stack Lacerate to five interrupting to Mangle or Feral Faerie Fire whenever possible, and then Swipe whenever Faerie Fire and Mangle is on cool down except where Lacerate is needed to prevent the debuff falling off
For Multiple Targets:
For large pulls, simply spam Swipe and Maul while cycling targets. Use the Infected Wounds debuff to track which targets have yet to feel the wrath of your Maul and keep them targeted until they get the debuff. As long as you are spreading around your Mauls and pounding mercilessly on your Swipe key, you should be able to hold on. If trouble strikes, use Challenging Roar to lock down the group while you catch back up to the dps.
For smaller multiple target pulls, Berserk and Mangle/Maul spam can quickly lock down your targets. If Berserk is unavailable, Maul and Swipe while target cycling just like with the larger pulls. If a particular target is threatening to pull away, hit it with Mangle. This will not only generate a quick burst of threat, but will enhance Maul damage on the target for the duration of the debuff increasing your chances of holding it for the long run. Just be sure not to neglect too many Swipes as you may lose track of your other targets.
2. Glyph for Threat
Unless there is a very specific reason to the contrary, every Bear Druid should have Glyph of Maul equipped. Hitting two targets at once with this threat hammer is key to holding the attention of more than one mob at a time. Bear Tanks with serious threat problems may also want to swap out Glyph of Frenzied Regeneration or Glyph of Survival Instincts for Glyph of Growl to increase the chances of recovering from dropped threat.
3. Gear for Threat
Particularly in a raid setting, when a Bear Tank has threat problems it is often due to not enough of a Druid's attacks connecting. This problem is easily remedied through increasing Expertise. Though you should not gem for Expertise, working it into your gear will appreciably help your threat by reducing the percentage of your attacks which are dodged or parried. Push your Expertise Rating to 213 then feel free to start mixing in Hit Rating to further increase your threat generation. A Druid tank will stop seeing any benefit for Expertise at a 492 rating and for Hit at 262.
There are also threat boosting glove enchants available in the form of Enchant Gloves - Threat and Enchant Gloves - Armsman, but you should try to stay away from these as you would be better served by Stamina boosting Heavy Borean Armor Kits. If you are going to get one of these enchants anyway, may as well go with Threat as it will likely be cheaper and Bears do not benefit from Armsman's parry boost.
4. Prepare for Pulls
Going into a pull with a healthy amount of Rage and targets marked will make maintaining threat infinity easier. As for Rage, shift in and out until your Furor procs and then pop Enrage. If your threat is exceptionally weak, let Enrage run its full course before charging in. If you have a little wiggle room, simply take the initial Rage dump for the ability, cancel the debuff (so as to avoid the damage reduction) and head in swinging.
For the exceptionally lazy Bear you can auto mark the primary attack target with Faerie Fire by using the following macro:
#showtooltip Faerie Fire
/cast Faerie Fire (Feral)
/script SetRaidTarget("target",8)
/startattack
5. Macro for Threat
As mentioned in the rotation section, to maximize your threat, you will want to Maul on every single white attack. Firing up all those Mauls manually can be exhausting, distracting, and can easily lead to mistakes. As a result, automating your Mauls can not only make your life much easier, but can also help increase your threat output.
Thankfully, automating your Mauls is as simple as creating Macros for all your key abilities (Faerie Fire, Lacerate, Swipe, and Mangle) which causes them to also trigger Maul. Use the template below to generate your Macros replacing ABILITY with Swipe, Lacerate, etc.
#showtooltip
/cast ABILITY
/cast !Maul
6. When All Else Fails
Sometimes your dps will out gear you to such an extent that even despite following all the tips above, aggro will still be an issue. At that point, it is time to turn to your group mates for help. A Hunter's Misdirection or a Rogue's Tricks of the Trade can really help you lock down a target, especially if used as many times as their cooldowns allow. Additionally, many dps classes have threat reducing or dropping abilities and you would be wise to caution them to watch their threat and use those abilities as needed.
Also, do not forget your Growl and be quick to use it whenever a target turns away. Increased hit rating will help your Growls land more consistently. Also, immediately follow up your Growls with a high threat ability like Mangle or Faerie Fire to lock your target back in place. If Growl fails Challenging Roar is your go to backup. If both fail or are unavailable, Berserk driven Mangle spam will give you the best chance of reclaiming aggro. Good luck and happy tanking!
For a fresh level eighty Feral Druid, maintaining threat can be a huge problem. In heroics and introductory raids, you will frequently find yourself fighting alongside veteran damage dealers. Aside from generating well over 3k dps with little effort, these players are likely accustomed to an AoE burn play-style that pays little attention to threat management. As a result, any Feral Tank who neglects threat maximization will quickly find them self surrounded by the corpses of soon to be former group members. To help you avoid this terrible fate, I have laid out some Bear Form threat tips below that should help your targets stick to you like glue.
1. Bear Form Rotation
Using the right abilities in the right order is key to maintaining threat.
For Single Targets:
Generally speaking, you should always open a pull with Feral Faerie Fire because it is ranged, super high threat, and free. If you cast this while closing on your target or Charging, your global cool down should be up by the time you reach it meaning you can immediately follow up with Mangle. Then, it is time to start stacking Lacerates up to five. To maximize your initial threat, interrupt your Lacerate stacking whenever Mangle or Feral Faerie Fire is available. Once you hit five stacks of Lacerate, use Swipe in its place making sure to Lacerate only enough to keep the debuff rolling at five stacks.
It is also important that you Maul on every single melee attack. Maul generates huge amounts of threat and a missed Maul can spell disaster for your party. Obviously you must make concessions if your rage is limited, but you will want to cut your post five stack Swipes rather than your Mauls. They are just that important.
In summary, for single target Bear threat:
Keep Maul up throughout, open with Feral Faerie Fire, Mangle, stack Lacerate to five interrupting to Mangle or Feral Faerie Fire whenever possible, and then Swipe whenever Faerie Fire and Mangle is on cool down except where Lacerate is needed to prevent the debuff falling off
For Multiple Targets:
For large pulls, simply spam Swipe and Maul while cycling targets. Use the Infected Wounds debuff to track which targets have yet to feel the wrath of your Maul and keep them targeted until they get the debuff. As long as you are spreading around your Mauls and pounding mercilessly on your Swipe key, you should be able to hold on. If trouble strikes, use Challenging Roar to lock down the group while you catch back up to the dps.
For smaller multiple target pulls, Berserk and Mangle/Maul spam can quickly lock down your targets. If Berserk is unavailable, Maul and Swipe while target cycling just like with the larger pulls. If a particular target is threatening to pull away, hit it with Mangle. This will not only generate a quick burst of threat, but will enhance Maul damage on the target for the duration of the debuff increasing your chances of holding it for the long run. Just be sure not to neglect too many Swipes as you may lose track of your other targets.
2. Glyph for Threat
Unless there is a very specific reason to the contrary, every Bear Druid should have Glyph of Maul equipped. Hitting two targets at once with this threat hammer is key to holding the attention of more than one mob at a time. Bear Tanks with serious threat problems may also want to swap out Glyph of Frenzied Regeneration or Glyph of Survival Instincts for Glyph of Growl to increase the chances of recovering from dropped threat.
3. Gear for Threat
Particularly in a raid setting, when a Bear Tank has threat problems it is often due to not enough of a Druid's attacks connecting. This problem is easily remedied through increasing Expertise. Though you should not gem for Expertise, working it into your gear will appreciably help your threat by reducing the percentage of your attacks which are dodged or parried. Push your Expertise Rating to 213 then feel free to start mixing in Hit Rating to further increase your threat generation. A Druid tank will stop seeing any benefit for Expertise at a 492 rating and for Hit at 262.
There are also threat boosting glove enchants available in the form of Enchant Gloves - Threat and Enchant Gloves - Armsman, but you should try to stay away from these as you would be better served by Stamina boosting Heavy Borean Armor Kits. If you are going to get one of these enchants anyway, may as well go with Threat as it will likely be cheaper and Bears do not benefit from Armsman's parry boost.
4. Prepare for Pulls
Going into a pull with a healthy amount of Rage and targets marked will make maintaining threat infinity easier. As for Rage, shift in and out until your Furor procs and then pop Enrage. If your threat is exceptionally weak, let Enrage run its full course before charging in. If you have a little wiggle room, simply take the initial Rage dump for the ability, cancel the debuff (so as to avoid the damage reduction) and head in swinging.
For the exceptionally lazy Bear you can auto mark the primary attack target with Faerie Fire by using the following macro:
#showtooltip Faerie Fire
/cast Faerie Fire (Feral)
/script SetRaidTarget("
/startattack
5. Macro for Threat
As mentioned in the rotation section, to maximize your threat, you will want to
Thankfully, automating your Mauls is as simple as creating Macros for all your key abilities (Faerie Fire, Lacerate, Swipe, and Mangle) which causes them to also trigger Maul. Use the template below to generate your Macros replacing ABILITY with Swipe, Lacerate, etc.
#showtooltip
/cast ABILITY
/cast !Maul
6. When All Else Fails
Sometimes your dps will out gear you to such an extent that even despite following all the tips above, aggro will still be an issue. At that point, it is time to turn to your group mates for help. A Hunter's Misdirection or a Rogue's Tricks of the Trade can really help you lock down a target, especially if used as many times as their cooldowns allow. Additionally, many dps classes have threat reducing or dropping abilities and you would be wise to caution them to watch their threat and use those abilities as needed.
Also, do not forget your Growl and be quick to use it whenever a target turns away. Increased hit rating will help your Growls land more consistently. Also, immediately follow up your Growls with a high threat ability like Mangle or Faerie Fire to lock your target back in place. If Growl fails Challenging Roar is your go to backup. If both fail or are unavailable, Berserk driven Mangle spam will give you the best chance of reclaiming aggro. Good luck and happy tanking!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Essential Druid Glyphs
In World of Warcraft, Glyphs are used to customize a player's character by slightly modifying that character's abilities or attributes. Next to talent specialization and itemization, Glyphs are the surest way to adapt your character's capabilities to your play style. For hybrid classes, such as Druids, Glyphs go a long way in defining your characters role, be that healing, tanking, or damage dealing.
Though there is a great deal of flexibility in the Glyphs you choose for your Druid, it is generally accepted that to fill certain roles you ought to have certain Glyphs in place. Below, I will explore these "essential Glyphs" for each of the Druid's main roles as well as providing information on other Glyphs you might use to fill out your character.
Bear Tanking Glyphs
Essential:
Glyph of Maul - In terms of multi-target threat, this Glyph is 100% necessary. It also helps survivability in that it allows you to quickly spread around your Infected Wounds debuff. No Druid tank should ever be without this Glyph.
Glyph of Frenzied Regeneration - One of these glyphs off of the Auction House... about 9 gold. Adding a 20% boost to ALL healing received for the entire 10 second duration of one of your few panic buttons... priceless!
Optional:
Glyph of Survival Instincts - An extra 10% of you maximum health for a full 20 seconds whenever you use Survival Instincts certainly can make the difference between life and death, but it probably will not. Assuming you use the skill whenever the cool down is up (which you probably shouldn't be doing), this Glyph increases your effective health by just over 1%.
Glyph of Berserk - An extra 5 seconds of unrestricted Mangles will certainly help your front end threat. This Glyph also slightly buffs Cat Form so it is a good option for those Ferals who haven't committed to a role.
Glyph of Growl - An extra 8% chance for your Growl to hit is hardly worth a Glyph slot, especially considering a decent geared Bear will not hardly miss anyway, but it is an option.
Feral DPS Glyphs
Essential:
Glyph of Savage Roar - As a good Kitty, you should have Savage Roar up constantly. As a result, this single Glyph will buff all damage you do by 3%. Take this Glyph.
Optional:
Glyph of Rip - This is a go to Glyph for most Cats. Rip accounts for a great deal of feral damage and bumping its duration by 4 seconds both helps overall dps and smooths out World of Warcraft's most complicated DPS system. If you are on the fence or uncertain as to what you should take, grab this Glyph.
Glyph of Shred - Most Feral DPS will have this Glyph alongside Rip and Savage Roar. An extra six seconds on Rip is a boon to any Cat trying to juggle buffs and debuffs. Obviously this Glyph shines the most on bosses and requires positioning to function, but it is still more than solid for any Feral dps.
Glyph of Berserk - Though it seems great, this Glyph is more for Bears than Cats. Odds are, you will have little to no energy left when you hit those extra 5 seconds making them largely a waste. The Glyphs above are better options for Feral DPS.
Glyph of Mangle - If someone else in your groups handles bleed debuffs, another Feral or an Arms Warrior, obviously stay away from this Glyph. If you need to keep Mangle up, however, this can smooth out your rotation and make your life a little easier. That comfort, however, will generally cost you some of the dps the other Glyphs bring to the table.
Druid Healing Glyphs
Essential:
Glyph of Swiftmend - Swiftmend is an amazing instant heal, but who wants to blow global cool downs and mana replacing the heal over time spells it eats. As a liberal use panic button, you will want Swiftmend to come with as few strings attached as possible making this a great Glyph.
Glyph of Nourish - If you plan on doing any tank healing, you will be casting Nourish quite a bit and this Glyph is a huge bonus to those heals. If you are an endgame healer, you will want this Glyph.
Optional:
Glyph of Wild Growth - Unless you do not raid, this Glyph takes up the third slot for most Restoration Druids. It will shine more in 25 man raids than in 10, but is a solid healing boost either way. Take this Glyph unless you have a strong reason to pick up one of the others.
Glyph of Lifebloom - If you are consistently rolling Lifeblooms up to a stack of three, you will see a slight return from this Glyph. Otherwise, certainly stay away.
Glyph of Regrowth - In those situations where this Glyph would be helpful, you should probably be casting Nourish instead. Unless you cast Regrowth more than you should, this Glyph is a waste of a slot.
Glyph of Rejuvenation - Odds are you will not want to rely on Rejuvenation to help out a target below 50% health, meaning the mileage you will get out of this Glyph is likely low.
Glyph of Innervate - If you are often hitting other targets with your Innervate, yet also somehow find yourself having mana problems, you lack judgment and this may be the Glyph for you.
Moonkin Glyphs
Essential:
Glyph of Starfire - Any experienced Balance Druid knows that Moonfire's damage is really about the damage over time effect. Extending that effect with a spell you cast anyway both boosts your damage output and smooths out your rotation.
Glyph of Insect Swarm - With this Glyph, you can trade in a -3% chance to hit debuff for an extra 30% damage for the spell. That is one deal you do not want to leave on the table.
Optional:
Glyph of Moonfire - As mentioned before, for sustained damage, Moonfire's initial impact takes a back seat to its DoT. This ability appreciably increases the total damage per Moonfire cast, but you may miss seeing those initial blasts. Take this Glyph if you are concerned about numbers and can stomach the change.
Glyph of Starfall - Being able to bust out this AoE superstar 30 seconds sooner obviously will not hurt, but you will likely get more mileage out of the Glyphs above.
Glyph of Focus - The Glyph provides a noticeable boost to Starfall's damage, but at the cost of having to cozy up to within 15 yards of your targets. If you are set on buffing Starfall, you would be better served to take the Glyph above instead.
These are certainly not all the Druid Glyphs available, only those which will provide you with the most overall benefit in PvE encounters. If you are interested in PvP, the essential Glyphs become less essential and you may want to consider the possibility of working Glyph of Barkskin, Glyph of Monsoon, or Glyph of Entangling Roots into your collection depending on your talents and play style.
As for Minor Glyphs, check out our Druid Minor Glyph Breakdown for advice on what you should take.
Though there is a great deal of flexibility in the Glyphs you choose for your Druid, it is generally accepted that to fill certain roles you ought to have certain Glyphs in place. Below, I will explore these "essential Glyphs" for each of the Druid's main roles as well as providing information on other Glyphs you might use to fill out your character.
Bear Tanking Glyphs
Essential:
Glyph of Maul - In terms of multi-target threat, this Glyph is 100% necessary. It also helps survivability in that it allows you to quickly spread around your Infected Wounds debuff. No Druid tank should ever be without this Glyph.
Glyph of Frenzied Regeneration - One of these glyphs off of the Auction House... about 9 gold. Adding a 20% boost to ALL healing received for the entire 10 second duration of one of your few panic buttons... priceless!
Optional:
Glyph of Survival Instincts - An extra 10% of you maximum health for a full 20 seconds whenever you use Survival Instincts certainly can make the difference between life and death, but it probably will not. Assuming you use the skill whenever the cool down is up (which you probably shouldn't be doing), this Glyph increases your effective health by just over 1%.
Glyph of Berserk - An extra 5 seconds of unrestricted Mangles will certainly help your front end threat. This Glyph also slightly buffs Cat Form so it is a good option for those Ferals who haven't committed to a role.
Glyph of Growl - An extra 8% chance for your Growl to hit is hardly worth a Glyph slot, especially considering a decent geared Bear will not hardly miss anyway, but it is an option.
Feral DPS Glyphs
Essential:
Glyph of Savage Roar - As a good Kitty, you should have Savage Roar up constantly. As a result, this single Glyph will buff all damage you do by 3%. Take this Glyph.
Optional:
Glyph of Rip - This is a go to Glyph for most Cats. Rip accounts for a great deal of feral damage and bumping its duration by 4 seconds both helps overall dps and smooths out World of Warcraft's most complicated DPS system. If you are on the fence or uncertain as to what you should take, grab this Glyph.
Glyph of Shred - Most Feral DPS will have this Glyph alongside Rip and Savage Roar. An extra six seconds on Rip is a boon to any Cat trying to juggle buffs and debuffs. Obviously this Glyph shines the most on bosses and requires positioning to function, but it is still more than solid for any Feral dps.
Glyph of Berserk - Though it seems great, this Glyph is more for Bears than Cats. Odds are, you will have little to no energy left when you hit those extra 5 seconds making them largely a waste. The Glyphs above are better options for Feral DPS.
Glyph of Mangle - If someone else in your groups handles bleed debuffs, another Feral or an Arms Warrior, obviously stay away from this Glyph. If you need to keep Mangle up, however, this can smooth out your rotation and make your life a little easier. That comfort, however, will generally cost you some of the dps the other Glyphs bring to the table.
Druid Healing Glyphs
Essential:
Glyph of Swiftmend - Swiftmend is an amazing instant heal, but who wants to blow global cool downs and mana replacing the heal over time spells it eats. As a liberal use panic button, you will want Swiftmend to come with as few strings attached as possible making this a great Glyph.
Glyph of Nourish - If you plan on doing any tank healing, you will be casting Nourish quite a bit and this Glyph is a huge bonus to those heals. If you are an endgame healer, you will want this Glyph.
Optional:
Glyph of Wild Growth - Unless you do not raid, this Glyph takes up the third slot for most Restoration Druids. It will shine more in 25 man raids than in 10, but is a solid healing boost either way. Take this Glyph unless you have a strong reason to pick up one of the others.
Glyph of Lifebloom - If you are consistently rolling Lifeblooms up to a stack of three, you will see a slight return from this Glyph. Otherwise, certainly stay away.
Glyph of Regrowth - In those situations where this Glyph would be helpful, you should probably be casting Nourish instead. Unless you cast Regrowth more than you should, this Glyph is a waste of a slot.
Glyph of Rejuvenation - Odds are you will not want to rely on Rejuvenation to help out a target below 50% health, meaning the mileage you will get out of this Glyph is likely low.
Glyph of Innervate - If you are often hitting other targets with your Innervate, yet also somehow find yourself having mana problems, you lack judgment and this may be the Glyph for you.
Moonkin Glyphs
Essential:
Glyph of Starfire - Any experienced Balance Druid knows that Moonfire's damage is really about the damage over time effect. Extending that effect with a spell you cast anyway both boosts your damage output and smooths out your rotation.
Glyph of Insect Swarm - With this Glyph, you can trade in a -3% chance to hit debuff for an extra 30% damage for the spell. That is one deal you do not want to leave on the table.
Optional:
Glyph of Moonfire - As mentioned before, for sustained damage, Moonfire's initial impact takes a back seat to its DoT. This ability appreciably increases the total damage per Moonfire cast, but you may miss seeing those initial blasts. Take this Glyph if you are concerned about numbers and can stomach the change.
Glyph of Starfall - Being able to bust out this AoE superstar 30 seconds sooner obviously will not hurt, but you will likely get more mileage out of the Glyphs above.
Glyph of Focus - The Glyph provides a noticeable boost to Starfall's damage, but at the cost of having to cozy up to within 15 yards of your targets. If you are set on buffing Starfall, you would be better served to take the Glyph above instead.
These are certainly not all the Druid Glyphs available, only those which will provide you with the most overall benefit in PvE encounters. If you are interested in PvP, the essential Glyphs become less essential and you may want to consider the possibility of working Glyph of Barkskin, Glyph of Monsoon, or Glyph of Entangling Roots into your collection depending on your talents and play style.
As for Minor Glyphs, check out our Druid Minor Glyph Breakdown for advice on what you should take.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
World of Warcraft Hallow's End Achievement Guide 2009
Below is a guide to completing all the Achievements for World of Warcrafts Hallow's End 2009. For a general guide on the holiday or more information, check out the World of Warcraft Hollow's End Guide 2009.
Hallowed Be Thy Name
To complete this seasonal meta-achievement and earn the title "The Hallowed," you will need to complete all the Achievements explored below.
Trick or Treat
This is the easiest achievement of the bunch. Go to a candy bucket in almost any World of Warcraft inn and accept/complete the quest it offers. No effort of any kind required for this one and you get some tasty candy to boot.
Bring Me the Head of... Oh Wait
The Headless Horseman is a seasonal boss which can be summoned in the Scarlett Monastery Graveyard in Tirisfal Glades during Hallow's End. Like Brewfest's Coren Direbrew, each player may summon the Horseman once per day using a daily quest obtainable in the instance. Any player level 75 or higher can summon him.
The Headless Horseman is incredibly easy to kill, so completing this achievement is simply a matter of finding a group. For level 80s, this is a piece of cake, especially early in the holiday when everyone is scrambling to complete the achievement and gather loot. Even from level 75 through 79, you are likely to be able to find a group willing to take you along as you bring a summon to the party. If you are in this range and have a hard time finding a group, try forming your own.
Below level 75, you will likely need to buy your way into a Headless Horseman group. As you do not have the ability to summon the Horseman before 75, you are dead weight for a group. It will then take some greasing of the wheels to get yourself the kill you need. Find some friends, charitable strangers, or open your pocket books if you want to finish this achievement before level 75.
That Sparkling Smile
All this achievement requires is a single Tooth Pick. These novelty items can be found in the Treat Bags you get from Trick or Treating at any World of Warcraft innkeeper once per hour. You can also find them in the Crudely Wrapped Gift you can loot once per day from the Large Jack-o'-Lantern left behind after thwarting the Headless Horseman's attacks on Goldshire, Azure Watch, Kharanos, Brill, Razor Hill, or Silvermoon City.
Tooth Picks are rather uncommon in both Treat Bags and Crudely Wrapped Gifts, so you will want to maximize your potential finds to complete this achievement. This requires completing the dailies each day and Trick or Treating as many times as you can. If you are diligent in doing your hourly Trick or Treat, you will almost certainly complete this achievement in time.
G.N.E.R.D. Rage
The G.N.E.R.D. buff referred to in the achievement is gained by eating G.N.E.R.D.S. candy. This candy is one of four different pieces of candy which can be found in the Handful of Candy rewarded whenever you complete the quest at the Buckets of Candy found in World of Warcraft's many inns. Each Handful of Candy can contain multiple G.N.E.R.D.S., making obtaining a supply for this achievement incredibly easy.
As for getting your honorable kills, simply make your way into Alterac Valley or any other Battle Ground. Keep popping G.N.E.R.D.S. whenever you resurrect and try to stay near the action. The achievement requires honorable kills, not killing blows, so you should be able to wrack up 50 in no time.
The Masquerade
Of all the Hallow's End achievements, this one will likely take the most work. The wands needed to cause the achievement's transformations can be found in both Treat Bags and Crudely Wrapped Gifts. Unfortunately, they cannot be used on yourself and can only be used to transform party members. As a result, you will need to rely entirely on other players to secure the transformations you need.
Absent having an army of helpful friends at your disposal, there is no simple way to complete this achievement. There are, however, two primary methods of getting the job done. First, you can simply buy the transformations you need. Many players harvest wands during Hallow's End and then sell the transformations to players working on the achievement for anywhere from 5 to 25 gold. If you have deep pockets and not a lot of time, this may be the way to go. You could also harvest your own wands by Trick or Treating and doing the daily and then trade your transformations with other players. This method may take longer, but costs nothing and should ultimately get the job done.
Keep in mind that Hallowed Wand - Random transformations do not count for the achievement. Also, you do not need to be transformed to get credit, the relevant wand simply needs to be used on you. This means that other transformations which might defeat the wand's effect will not prevent you from checking a particular wand off your achievement list.
Tricks and Treats of Azeroth
There is no trick to completing this achievement, it will just require some traveling. Hit the candy buckets at all the locations listed in Tricks and Treats of Eastern Kingdoms, Tricks and Treats of Kalimdor, and Tricks and Treats of Outland achievements to polish off this challenge. Do not forget that the Handful of Candy is unique meaning you will need to empty it between buckets. Also, if you want to hit Northrend's candy buckets as well, be sure to do it before working on this achievement due to a bug which Blizzard had yet to fix. Lastly, do not forget to save your G.N.E.R.D.S. if you have not completed G.N.E.R.D. Rage.
Out With It
Eating 5 or 6 pieces of candy from a Handful of Candy in a row will trigger the spew needed to complete this achievement. The Hallow's End Pumpkin Treats you get from doing the Hallow's End daily quests can also cause achievement completing vomit if consumed in excess. As a heads up, the candy from Trick or Treating's Treat Bags, such as Lollipops and Candy Bars, do not make you sick despite the fact they would seem to fit within the achievement's language. Stick to the buff candy and you will be puking in no time.
The Savior of Hallows End
To complete this achievement you will need to complete one of the quests given by the Masked Orphan Matron in Goldshire, Azure Watch, Kharanos, Brill, Razor Hill, or Silvermoon City. To complete the quests, simply use buckets of water obtained from the nearby basin to put out the fires the Headless Horseman starts every 15 minutes. If you are having trouble completing the quests, move to a more populated town as combined effort assures success. As long as all the fires are put out, it does not matter whether your character even participated. This is a simple achievement easily completed by players even at low levels.
Rotten Hollow/Rotten Hollow
For this achievement, you will have to complete two faction specific quests involving spoiling the other factions Hallow's End fun and possibly some PvP combat. For the Horde, visit Darkcaller Yanka west of the Undercity. He will send you on two quests to cause havoc in Southshore in Hillsbrad. Complete the quests and claim the achievement.
For the Alliance, speak with Sergeant Hartman in Southshore. He will have you clean up stink bomb debris in South Shore and will also send you on a quest to visit the Forsaken's Wickerman Festival which takes place due west of the Undercity in Tirisfal Glades. Do as he says and the achievement is yours. It really is as simple as that.
Check Your Head
To start this achievement, you will need to get your hands on some Weighted Jack-o'-Lanterns. You can get a steady supply of these by completing the daily Hallow's End quests in Goldshire, Azure Watch, Kharanos, Brill, Razor Hill, or Silvermoon City both as rewards for the quests themselves and inside Crudely Wrapped Gifts. The Headless Horseman also drops these in large numbers, so looting him a handful of times should give you all the ammunition you need to get the achievement.
To hit all your targets either hang around a major city like Dalaran or take to the Battle Grounds. To get credit for a hit, your target must not be in any way transformed and must also not already have a pumpkin head. Keep in mind that if you throw a Weighted Jack-o'-Lantern at a player who already has a pumpkin head or is otherwise transformed you will not get credit and your Weighted Jack-'o-Lantern will be wasted, so be careful if you have a limited supply.
Sinister Calling
If you are going for the Hallow's End meta-achievement, this achievement will likely cause you a great deal of stress between now and November 1st. Neither the Sinister Squashling nor the Hallowed Helm are easy to come by and you will need both. Each has a tiny, tiny chance of being found in a Treat Bag or Crudely Wrapped Gift, with the latter appearing to have a slightly better chance of containing one. So completing the dailies and Trick or Treating whenever possible are good ways to maximize your chances of landing this achievement. The Headless Horseman also drops both of these items somewhat rarely, but you will likely see at least one of the two most of your runs. Be sure to kill him each day if you are working on this achievement.
Though they are slightly buggy and somewhat unreliable, there are also a couple tricks which might help you with this achievement. When the Headless Horseman drops a Hallowed Helm, the player who wins the role will get credit for collecting the helm. They can then trade the helm to other group members who, upon logging out and back in, will usually also get credit for the achievement, though their have been some reports of this method failing, sometimes even the next day. A single Sinister Squashling drop can also meet two players achievement needs as the looting player often gets immediate credit for the achievement. When this occurs, they can then trade the pet to a group member to learn how to summon the pet, also triggering the achievement. Again, these methods are inconsistently effective and you would be best served to simply maximizing your opportunities for obtaining the items.
Other Hallows End Achievements:
Though NOT needed for the Hallowed be Thy Name and "the Hallowed" title, the following Achievements can also only be completed during Hallow's End:
The Mask Task
For this achievement, you simply need to loot a single mask from either a Treat Bag or a Crudely Wrapped Gifts. A daily quests or Trick or Treat attempt is all that is required to generate a chance at a mask. Any mask will do, so even the least dedicated of Hallow's End revelers should finish this achievement early on in the holiday. Once the achievement is completed, feel free to get rid of the mask without fear of losing your Achievement Points.
A Mask for All Occasions
This achievement was removed from the Hallowed be Thy Name Requirements this year and with good reason. To complete the achievement, you must collect all 20 of the different Hallow's End masks found in Treat Bags and Crudely Wrapped Gifts. What makes this extremely difficult is that the masks repeat and you can find the same mask multiple times during the course of the holiday.
To accomplish this feat, you will want to maximize your mask finding chances by religiously completing the holiday daily quests and Trick or Treating every hour. Only 20 Achievement Points are on the line, so many players will likely take a "if it happens, it happens" approach to this achievement. If, however, you are committed to doing it, it can certainly be completed in a single year. Also, no need to hold on to those masks as you go as your progress is permanently recorded when you loot them. This also means you can work on this achievement again next year should you intentionally or unintentionally come up short in 2009.
For more information, check out our World of Warcraft Hollow's End Guide 2009.
Hallowed Be Thy Name
To complete this seasonal meta-achievement and earn the title "The Hallowed," you will need to complete all the Achievements explored below.
Trick or Treat
This is the easiest achievement of the bunch. Go to a candy bucket in almost any World of Warcraft inn and accept/complete the quest it offers. No effort of any kind required for this one and you get some tasty candy to boot.
Bring Me the Head of... Oh Wait
The Headless Horseman is a seasonal boss which can be summoned in the Scarlett Monastery Graveyard in Tirisfal Glades during Hallow's End. Like Brewfest's Coren Direbrew, each player may summon the Horseman once per day using a daily quest obtainable in the instance. Any player level 75 or higher can summon him.
The Headless Horseman is incredibly easy to kill, so completing this achievement is simply a matter of finding a group. For level 80s, this is a piece of cake, especially early in the holiday when everyone is scrambling to complete the achievement and gather loot. Even from level 75 through 79, you are likely to be able to find a group willing to take you along as you bring a summon to the party. If you are in this range and have a hard time finding a group, try forming your own.
Below level 75, you will likely need to buy your way into a Headless Horseman group. As you do not have the ability to summon the Horseman before 75, you are dead weight for a group. It will then take some greasing of the wheels to get yourself the kill you need. Find some friends, charitable strangers, or open your pocket books if you want to finish this achievement before level 75.
That Sparkling Smile
All this achievement requires is a single Tooth Pick. These novelty items can be found in the Treat Bags you get from Trick or Treating at any World of Warcraft innkeeper once per hour. You can also find them in the Crudely Wrapped Gift you can loot once per day from the Large Jack-o'-Lantern left behind after thwarting the Headless Horseman's attacks on Goldshire, Azure Watch, Kharanos, Brill, Razor Hill, or Silvermoon City.
Tooth Picks are rather uncommon in both Treat Bags and Crudely Wrapped Gifts, so you will want to maximize your potential finds to complete this achievement. This requires completing the dailies each day and Trick or Treating as many times as you can. If you are diligent in doing your hourly Trick or Treat, you will almost certainly complete this achievement in time.
G.N.E.R.D. Rage
The G.N.E.R.D. buff referred to in the achievement is gained by eating G.N.E.R.D.S. candy. This candy is one of four different pieces of candy which can be found in the Handful of Candy rewarded whenever you complete the quest at the Buckets of Candy found in World of Warcraft's many inns. Each Handful of Candy can contain multiple G.N.E.R.D.S., making obtaining a supply for this achievement incredibly easy.
As for getting your honorable kills, simply make your way into Alterac Valley or any other Battle Ground. Keep popping G.N.E.R.D.S. whenever you resurrect and try to stay near the action. The achievement requires honorable kills, not killing blows, so you should be able to wrack up 50 in no time.
The Masquerade
Of all the Hallow's End achievements, this one will likely take the most work. The wands needed to cause the achievement's transformations can be found in both Treat Bags and Crudely Wrapped Gifts. Unfortunately, they cannot be used on yourself and can only be used to transform party members. As a result, you will need to rely entirely on other players to secure the transformations you need.
Absent having an army of helpful friends at your disposal, there is no simple way to complete this achievement. There are, however, two primary methods of getting the job done. First, you can simply buy the transformations you need. Many players harvest wands during Hallow's End and then sell the transformations to players working on the achievement for anywhere from 5 to 25 gold. If you have deep pockets and not a lot of time, this may be the way to go. You could also harvest your own wands by Trick or Treating and doing the daily and then trade your transformations with other players. This method may take longer, but costs nothing and should ultimately get the job done.
Keep in mind that Hallowed Wand - Random transformations do not count for the achievement. Also, you do not need to be transformed to get credit, the relevant wand simply needs to be used on you. This means that other transformations which might defeat the wand's effect will not prevent you from checking a particular wand off your achievement list.
Tricks and Treats of Azeroth
There is no trick to completing this achievement, it will just require some traveling. Hit the candy buckets at all the locations listed in Tricks and Treats of Eastern Kingdoms, Tricks and Treats of Kalimdor, and Tricks and Treats of Outland achievements to polish off this challenge. Do not forget that the Handful of Candy is unique meaning you will need to empty it between buckets. Also, if you want to hit Northrend's candy buckets as well, be sure to do it before working on this achievement due to a bug which Blizzard had yet to fix. Lastly, do not forget to save your G.N.E.R.D.S. if you have not completed G.N.E.R.D. Rage.
Out With It
Eating 5 or 6 pieces of candy from a Handful of Candy in a row will trigger the spew needed to complete this achievement. The Hallow's End Pumpkin Treats you get from doing the Hallow's End daily quests can also cause achievement completing vomit if consumed in excess. As a heads up, the candy from Trick or Treating's Treat Bags, such as Lollipops and Candy Bars, do not make you sick despite the fact they would seem to fit within the achievement's language. Stick to the buff candy and you will be puking in no time.
The Savior of Hallows End
To complete this achievement you will need to complete one of the quests given by the Masked Orphan Matron in Goldshire, Azure Watch, Kharanos, Brill, Razor Hill, or Silvermoon City. To complete the quests, simply use buckets of water obtained from the nearby basin to put out the fires the Headless Horseman starts every 15 minutes. If you are having trouble completing the quests, move to a more populated town as combined effort assures success. As long as all the fires are put out, it does not matter whether your character even participated. This is a simple achievement easily completed by players even at low levels.
Rotten Hollow/Rotten Hollow
For this achievement, you will have to complete two faction specific quests involving spoiling the other factions Hallow's End fun and possibly some PvP combat. For the Horde, visit Darkcaller Yanka west of the Undercity. He will send you on two quests to cause havoc in Southshore in Hillsbrad. Complete the quests and claim the achievement.
For the Alliance, speak with Sergeant Hartman in Southshore. He will have you clean up stink bomb debris in South Shore and will also send you on a quest to visit the Forsaken's Wickerman Festival which takes place due west of the Undercity in Tirisfal Glades. Do as he says and the achievement is yours. It really is as simple as that.
Check Your Head
To start this achievement, you will need to get your hands on some Weighted Jack-o'-Lanterns. You can get a steady supply of these by completing the daily Hallow's End quests in Goldshire, Azure Watch, Kharanos, Brill, Razor Hill, or Silvermoon City both as rewards for the quests themselves and inside Crudely Wrapped Gifts. The Headless Horseman also drops these in large numbers, so looting him a handful of times should give you all the ammunition you need to get the achievement.
To hit all your targets either hang around a major city like Dalaran or take to the Battle Grounds. To get credit for a hit, your target must not be in any way transformed and must also not already have a pumpkin head. Keep in mind that if you throw a Weighted Jack-o'-Lantern at a player who already has a pumpkin head or is otherwise transformed you will not get credit and your Weighted Jack-'o-Lantern will be wasted, so be careful if you have a limited supply.
Sinister Calling
If you are going for the Hallow's End meta-achievement, this achievement will likely cause you a great deal of stress between now and November 1st. Neither the Sinister Squashling nor the Hallowed Helm are easy to come by and you will need both. Each has a tiny, tiny chance of being found in a Treat Bag or Crudely Wrapped Gift, with the latter appearing to have a slightly better chance of containing one. So completing the dailies and Trick or Treating whenever possible are good ways to maximize your chances of landing this achievement. The Headless Horseman also drops both of these items somewhat rarely, but you will likely see at least one of the two most of your runs. Be sure to kill him each day if you are working on this achievement.
Though they are slightly buggy and somewhat unreliable, there are also a couple tricks which might help you with this achievement. When the Headless Horseman drops a Hallowed Helm, the player who wins the role will get credit for collecting the helm. They can then trade the helm to other group members who, upon logging out and back in, will usually also get credit for the achievement, though their have been some reports of this method failing, sometimes even the next day. A single Sinister Squashling drop can also meet two players achievement needs as the looting player often gets immediate credit for the achievement. When this occurs, they can then trade the pet to a group member to learn how to summon the pet, also triggering the achievement. Again, these methods are inconsistently effective and you would be best served to simply maximizing your opportunities for obtaining the items.
Other Hallows End Achievements:
Though NOT needed for the Hallowed be Thy Name and "the Hallowed" title, the following Achievements can also only be completed during Hallow's End:
The Mask Task
For this achievement, you simply need to loot a single mask from either a Treat Bag or a Crudely Wrapped Gifts. A daily quests or Trick or Treat attempt is all that is required to generate a chance at a mask. Any mask will do, so even the least dedicated of Hallow's End revelers should finish this achievement early on in the holiday. Once the achievement is completed, feel free to get rid of the mask without fear of losing your Achievement Points.
A Mask for All Occasions
This achievement was removed from the Hallowed be Thy Name Requirements this year and with good reason. To complete the achievement, you must collect all 20 of the different Hallow's End masks found in Treat Bags and Crudely Wrapped Gifts. What makes this extremely difficult is that the masks repeat and you can find the same mask multiple times during the course of the holiday.
To accomplish this feat, you will want to maximize your mask finding chances by religiously completing the holiday daily quests and Trick or Treating every hour. Only 20 Achievement Points are on the line, so many players will likely take a "if it happens, it happens" approach to this achievement. If, however, you are committed to doing it, it can certainly be completed in a single year. Also, no need to hold on to those masks as you go as your progress is permanently recorded when you loot them. This also means you can work on this achievement again next year should you intentionally or unintentionally come up short in 2009.
For more information, check out our World of Warcraft Hollow's End Guide 2009.
World of Warcraft Hallow's End Guide 2009
The pumpkins have been carved, the Headless Horseman has donned his spurs, and Hallow's End has arrived in Azeroth. Hallow's End is often set beside Brewfest and Winter Veil as one of World of Warcraft's most involved and popular holidays. There is a lot to do before the holiday ends on November 1, so it is easy to get overwhelmed and miss some of the opportunities the holiday has to offer. To help you sort through all the mayhem, below are some tips for getting the most out of Hallow's End. Reader beware, you are in for a scare!
Trick or Treating
Once every hour during Hallow's End, your character can "Trick or Treat" at any one of Azeroth's many inns. To take your chance at delicious treats, simply talk to an Innkeeper and select the "Trick or Treat" chat option. If you are lucky, you will get a treat in the form of a Treat Bag which can contain candy themed food, a random mask, a wand used to put costumes on your party members, or another more rare treasure such as a Tooth Pick, a Penny Pouch, a Sinister Squashling pet, or a Hallowed Helm. If you are unlucky, you will be tricked and transformed into one of a number of random creatures including a cat, bat, or ghost.
You will want to take advantage of as many opportunities to Trick or Treat as you can both to obtain fun items and to make progress on the various Hallow's End achievements. There is also profit to be made in that many players working on The Masquerade achievement will pay for needed wand costumes. Check out our separate Hallow's End Achievements Guide more information.
Candy Buckets
As part of Hallow's End, there are quest giving candy buckets in many Inn's across Azeroth. These buckets provide a quick turn in quest for a Handful of Candy with no travel required. The locations of Azeroth's buckets are listed in the Tricks and Treats of Eastern Kingdoms and Tricks and Treats of Kalimdor achievements. Outland's buckets are to be found in the locations listed in the Tricks and Treats of Outland achievement. There are also buckets available across Northrend, but they are not tied to an achievement and are currently bugged and therefore may not be accessible. The candies received from the quest provide stackable buffs to hit rating, spell power, and defense, but be sure not to eat to many at once or you will lose your lunch and your buffs.
These buckets are a boon to lower level players as the quest turn in at each bucket awards experience and, even in the upper 70s, dropping by all the inns can net you a relatively easy half a level. For level 80 players, unless you are chasing achievements or really want the buffs, which do stack with each other and other food buffs, you may not want to bother tracking them all down.
The Headless Horseman
One of the more exciting parts of Hallow's End is the season specific level 80 boss, the Headless Horseman. The Horseman is located in the Scarlett Monastery Graveyard in Tirisfal Glades and can be summoned once per day by any character level 75 or higher through a daily quest which can be picked up in the instance. On your first day doing him, you can summon him twice by thwarting the Horseman's efforts in Goldshire, Azure Watch, Kharanos, Brill, Razor Hill, or Silvermoon City by fighting fires as per the Costumed Orphan Matron's quests. You can do both that quest chain's summon and the daily summon on your first go around. Savvy players might use this day of double summons to participate in two Horseman Groups, giving you 10 or more shots at loot rather than just 6.
As for equipment, the Headless Horseman drops the Ring of Ghoulish Glee, The Horseman's Seal, the Wicked Witch's Band, The Horseman's Horrific Helm, and The Horseman's Baleful Blade. He also drops several Weighted Jack-o'-Lanterns which can be used for the Check Your Head achievement. Lastly, he has a smaller chance of dropping either a magic broom mount which can be ridden during the holiday, a Sinister Squashling pet, a Hallowed Helm, or even the Horseman's own mount through The Horseman's Reins.
The Headless Horseman is an incredibly easy kill. Even level 75 players should be able to survive the encounter without much difficulty. All you need to know strategy wise is that whenever the Horseman dismounts, shift all dps to his floating head. As long as your healer isn't afk, your tank picks up the adds, the ranged dps spreads out, and you burn the head, this fight is no challenge at all for even just three level 80 players. If you are over level 75, try to kill him everyday until you have the loot you desire. If you are not 80 and are having a hard time getting into groups, make one yourself.
Hallow's End Profit
For the entrepreneurial player, Hallow's End can be a very profitable time of year and it is all thanks to the achievement The Masquerade. To complete that achievement, a player must rely on other players to transform them using the different transformation wands found in Treat Bags and Crudely Wrapped Gifts. Many players are willing to pay between 5 and 25 gold per transformation. An army of alts camped at innkeepers who Trick or Treat once an hour can generate a healthy supply of wands, the charges from which can then be sold for a decent profit. Considering the wands are free, this is a pure gold making method that requires no investment and has absolutely no chance of loss. If you have time, the spirit of a salesman, and a handful of alts, Hollows End can be a great opportunity to expand your coffers.
Achievements
Check out our separate World of Warcraft Hallow's End Achievement Guide 2009 to learn all you need to know to complete all of the Hallow's End Achievements.
Trick or Treating
Once every hour during Hallow's End, your character can "Trick or Treat" at any one of Azeroth's many inns. To take your chance at delicious treats, simply talk to an Innkeeper and select the "Trick or Treat" chat option. If you are lucky, you will get a treat in the form of a Treat Bag which can contain candy themed food, a random mask, a wand used to put costumes on your party members, or another more rare treasure such as a Tooth Pick, a Penny Pouch, a Sinister Squashling pet, or a Hallowed Helm. If you are unlucky, you will be tricked and transformed into one of a number of random creatures including a cat, bat, or ghost.
You will want to take advantage of as many opportunities to Trick or Treat as you can both to obtain fun items and to make progress on the various Hallow's End achievements. There is also profit to be made in that many players working on The Masquerade achievement will pay for needed wand costumes. Check out our separate Hallow's End Achievements Guide more information.
Candy Buckets
As part of Hallow's End, there are quest giving candy buckets in many Inn's across Azeroth. These buckets provide a quick turn in quest for a Handful of Candy with no travel required. The locations of Azeroth's buckets are listed in the Tricks and Treats of Eastern Kingdoms and Tricks and Treats of Kalimdor achievements. Outland's buckets are to be found in the locations listed in the Tricks and Treats of Outland achievement. There are also buckets available across Northrend, but they are not tied to an achievement and are currently bugged and therefore may not be accessible. The candies received from the quest provide stackable buffs to hit rating, spell power, and defense, but be sure not to eat to many at once or you will lose your lunch and your buffs.
These buckets are a boon to lower level players as the quest turn in at each bucket awards experience and, even in the upper 70s, dropping by all the inns can net you a relatively easy half a level. For level 80 players, unless you are chasing achievements or really want the buffs, which do stack with each other and other food buffs, you may not want to bother tracking them all down.
The Headless Horseman
One of the more exciting parts of Hallow's End is the season specific level 80 boss, the Headless Horseman. The Horseman is located in the Scarlett Monastery Graveyard in Tirisfal Glades and can be summoned once per day by any character level 75 or higher through a daily quest which can be picked up in the instance. On your first day doing him, you can summon him twice by thwarting the Horseman's efforts in Goldshire, Azure Watch, Kharanos, Brill, Razor Hill, or Silvermoon City by fighting fires as per the Costumed Orphan Matron's quests. You can do both that quest chain's summon and the daily summon on your first go around. Savvy players might use this day of double summons to participate in two Horseman Groups, giving you 10 or more shots at loot rather than just 6.
As for equipment, the Headless Horseman drops the Ring of Ghoulish Glee, The Horseman's Seal, the Wicked Witch's Band, The Horseman's Horrific Helm, and The Horseman's Baleful Blade. He also drops several Weighted Jack-o'-Lanterns which can be used for the Check Your Head achievement. Lastly, he has a smaller chance of dropping either a magic broom mount which can be ridden during the holiday, a Sinister Squashling pet, a Hallowed Helm, or even the Horseman's own mount through The Horseman's Reins.
The Headless Horseman is an incredibly easy kill. Even level 75 players should be able to survive the encounter without much difficulty. All you need to know strategy wise is that whenever the Horseman dismounts, shift all dps to his floating head. As long as your healer isn't afk, your tank picks up the adds, the ranged dps spreads out, and you burn the head, this fight is no challenge at all for even just three level 80 players. If you are over level 75, try to kill him everyday until you have the loot you desire. If you are not 80 and are having a hard time getting into groups, make one yourself.
Hallow's End Profit
For the entrepreneurial player, Hallow's End can be a very profitable time of year and it is all thanks to the achievement The Masquerade. To complete that achievement, a player must rely on other players to transform them using the different transformation wands found in Treat Bags and Crudely Wrapped Gifts. Many players are willing to pay between 5 and 25 gold per transformation. An army of alts camped at innkeepers who Trick or Treat once an hour can generate a healthy supply of wands, the charges from which can then be sold for a decent profit. Considering the wands are free, this is a pure gold making method that requires no investment and has absolutely no chance of loss. If you have time, the spirit of a salesman, and a handful of alts, Hollows End can be a great opportunity to expand your coffers.
Achievements
Check out our separate World of Warcraft Hallow's End Achievement Guide 2009 to learn all you need to know to complete all of the Hallow's End Achievements.
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