Cataclysm Heroics: Making Better Raiders?

Let me say right off the bat that I do not believe that Cataclysm Heroics are overly difficult.  I also, however, do not side with the camp that argues they are too easy.  Can they be rolled by a well geared raiding guild?  Of course they can.  Do they pose a significant challenge to a randomly assembled crew fresh out of the normal dungeons?  You better bet they do.  With that in mind, are these five player instances serving their purpose?  I think they are and find out why after the bump.

Guild Recruiting the Right Way

Recently, I have been posting a lot about guild management.  This is because, as of late, fulfilling my Guild Master duties has been sucking up tons of my time.  Holding a guild together during the transition between expansions is tough.  Growing it is even tougher.

As the last breezes of summer stir a wildfire of raid fatigue, I am frequently finding myself short raiders for our guild 25 mans.  As a result, my leadership team and I have sprung into recruiting mode.  We have been at this long enough to learn there is a right way and a wrong way to go about building your raiding guild's roster.  After the bump, I'll offer my lessons learned by providing tips on how to recruit for your guild the right way.

Symbiosis in Warcraft: Building the Perfect Guild

Symbiosis is a biological term used to describe the interactions between different living organisms.  Generally speaking, three different kinds of symbiotic relationships exist within the natural world: mutualistic, commensalistic, and parasitic.

Now you may be asking yourself what in the world all this has to do with guild management.  Well, within the ecosystem that is World of Warcraft, a guild can easily be likened to a living organism.  It moves, grows, and seeks to fill various needs.  Similarly each guild member also exists as an independent organism.  The relationship between a guild member and a guild can then logically be defined as symbiotic.  After the bump, we'll walk through the different kinds of symbiosis and how, through a World of Warcraft lens, each type can help or harm your guild.

No New Raids Before Cataclysm

Blizzard poster Zarhym announced yesterday that Blizzard has no plans to release any new raid content before Cataclysm hits shelves.  Though there will be a final major content patch before Wrath of the Lich King bites the dust, no raid will be included.  Instead the patch will simply introduce some of Cataclysm's features to the live realms.  Feel free to read Zarhym's post to confirm the details for yourself.

Odds are, this announcement will only exacerbate the feelings of burnout sweeping across Azeroth.  With each passing day, more and more raiders are deciding to take a break from World of Warcraft until Cataclysm hifts.  At this point, Blizzard can only hope that Cataclysm packs enough punch to bring everyone back.

Unintended Consequences: Why Badges and Expansions Don't Mix

Many World of Warcraft players these days, especially those on the higher end of the raiding spectrum, have been taking vacations from Azeroth.  Claiming everything from burnout to boredom, there is a certain dissatisfaction amongst the harder-core adventurers that has lead large numbers of raiders to hang up their epic boots until Cataclysm.  This sort of migration is not at all uncommon in the summer, where real life events and trips hinder raid scheduling.  Further, a certain sense of player fatigue near the end of an expansion's shelf-life is to be expected.

This time, however, something seems different.  Rather than being limited to just a hand full of progression pushers, even middle tier raiders are feeling the need to spend some time without their spellbooks.  Some have speculated that this migration is simply a sign that the level of Warcraft participation has reached the top of its bell curve.  I, however, believe that certain design choices made in Wrath of the Lich King as well as changes planned for Cataclysm have contributed to the recent decline in player activity.  Find out what they are after the jump.

Lich King 10 Man Strategy

As World of Warcraft Patch 3.3.5 slides into place and the Ruby Sanctum looms, it is time to clean up all those loose ends you may have left back in Icecrown Citadel. Namely, it is time to bring Arthas down and finally claim that ever elusive "King Slayer" title. The challenge may seem daunting, but it is surmountable with the right plan, practice, and a bit of luck.

Below is my quick and easy guide to defeating the Lich King in ICC 10 normal mode. This strategy is designed for those guilds and groups looking to get their first kill. It is not the maximum dps strategy and is designed to make some concessions for insufficient gear and mechanical prowess. This approach should give your raid members the maximum possible chances of surviving the encounter to the end. Considering how forgiving Arthas' enrage timer is, staying alive really is the name of the game.

You may also notice that I identify what other guides consider transitional phases (1.5, 2.5, etc.) as their own independent phases. I believe this makes things clearer and hope you agree.

Raid Set Up

For the ten man Lich King encounter, you will need two tanks. The fight is interesting in that there is not necessarily a consistent "main tank" throughout the encounter. Rather, the two tanks will each have a chance to stare down Arthas and must both therefore be geared enough to handle him. Each class of tank brings unique advantages and disadvantages to the encounter, so try not two have two of the same.

In terms of healers, you will want to bring three. Some of the best healers might be able to hold down the fort as a duo, but do not even consider it until you have the Lich King on farm. As with most of Ice Crown Citadel, a healthy combination of raid and tank heals will be necessary. As for which healer classes to bring, every single one has a chance to shine here, so just try to get a healthy mix.

For your dps, ranged is preferred and you will generally want to have at least two. If possible, try to find a hunter as they can make the first phase smoother. Warlocks also have a couple tricks up their sleeve which can turn the tides of battle in your favor, so get them in when you can. If you are melee heavy, the encounter is still doable, it just requires a bit more awareness and luck to see things through to the end.

Phase One

After speaking with Tirion and sitting through about a minute of role playing, the encounter will begin. One of your tanks will want to pick up Arthas and tank him directly to the frozen Tirion's left, facing the stairs. The melee will stack up right behind the Lich King while the healers and ranged will stack up about fifteen yards behind the melee. Your other tank should wait next to the frozen pillar to Arthas' left, standing on its Southern side.

During Phase One, the Lich King will summon two different kinds of adds at different intervals. The first are Drudge Ghouls, which he will create three at a time. The tank by the pillar will want to pick up as many of these as he can, while the tank holding Arthas gathers any stragglers. These adds are incredibly weak and will die to incidental damage. Aside from being held onto by the tanks, they can be ignored.

The other adds, Shambling Horrors, cannot be ignored. These adds will be summoned one at a time about 5 to 15 yards directly in front of Arthas. The tank by the pillar needs to immediately pick these adds up and hold them next to the pillar facing away from the center of the platform. A Hunter's Misdirect or Death Knight's Death Grip can be exceptionally helpful here.

The Shambling Horrors do a nasty frontal cone attack and periodically enrage. When enraged, the cone attack becomes a serious threat to an under-geared tank and two enraged Horrors launching cone attacks can kill even a well geared tank. A Hunter's Tranquilizing Shot and/or the tanks use of stuns can help keep the Horror's damage in check. Depending on how heavy your dps is on the Lich King, you will likely only see two or three of these during Phase One. As explained below, dps should not attack the Shambling Horrors.

Aside from the summons, the Lich King also casts an ability called Necrotic Plague. Necrotic Plague is a DoT that ticks for huge damage every five seconds. A single tick from the DoT can easily kill a player, so it needs to be dispelled within the first five seconds. What makes things challenging is that when the Plague is dispelled, not only does it hop to a new target, but it also buffs the Lich King with increased damage. Thankfully, Necrotic Plague not only jumps to other raid members, but the Lich King's summoned adds as well. The key is then to have a raid member infected with the plague immediately run to right behind the Shambling Horrors, get dispelled, and then return to position. This not only saves them from the DoT, but also infects the Horrors removing the need to dps them. The Horror tank wants to gather Drudge Ghouls as well as the Plague can "jump" from Ghoul to Ghoul, increasing in power and ultimately killing the Horrors faster. If the tank gets the Plague, simply cleans it.

The last ability the Lich King uses in Phase One is Infest. Infest applies a rather heavy DoT effect to every single raid member which can only be removed by bringing the target's health above 90%. A Druid's HoTs can be extremely helpful here as the healing ticks can immediately bring an infested raid members health back above 90% after only a single hit from the DoT.

At 70%, the Lich King will run to the center of the room and it is time to transition into Phase 2.

The Transition to Phase Two

As soon as the Lich King begins running to the center of the platform, your entire raid needs to run to the edge of the platform. This is because the Lich King will start casting Remorseless Winter at the platforms center. At the edge, your ranged should separate into two groups slightly to the South. Then you will want your Lich King tank and melee. On the edge nearest to the stairs will be your pillar tank, holding any remaining Horrors and pointing them away from the raid.

Phase Two

At the beginning of Phase Two, your pillar tank will simply hold any remaining Shambling Horrors until they die of Necrotic Plague. The tank will then need to be cleansed of the Plague far enough away from the rest of the raid so as to prevent a jump.

During Phase Two, Ice Spheres will appear in the center of the platform and slowly make their way towards the raid. Should they touch a raid member, they will explode knock everyone in range off the platform, so you need to assign a dps (preferably your Hunter) to kill them as they approach. The Spheres have very very little health, so this is a relatively easy task.

The central mechanic of Phase Two are Raging Spirits. Three of these adds will spawn over the course of the Phase and they need to be picked up and tanked by your Lich King tank. The Spirits do a devastating cone attack which both silences and packs enough punch to kill a cloth wearer, so they need to be tanked facing away from the raid. Gathering the Raging Spirits can be difficult as they each spawn on top of a random raid member and your tank may be silenced when the second and third ones appear. Once the Horrors are down, your other tank can and should help gather the Spirits. The Raging Spirits need to be killed as quickly as possible during Phase Two as you do not want to bring more than one of them with you into Phase Three.

Shortly after the third Raging Spirit spawns, it is time to transition into Phase Three.

The Transition to Phase Three

In the transition to Phase Three, the Lich King will shatter the outer edge of the platform, so your raid needs to run to the middle as quickly as possible. Your Raging Spirit tank needs to bring any remaining Spirits (hopefully only one) to the middle as well, being careful to keep them pointed away from other raid members to avoid deaths and/or silences. Your tank who is not handling the Raging Spirits will want to grab the Lich King and park him right in the center. He does not cleave, so the tank does not need to worry about his facing.

Phase Three

At the very beginning of Phase Three, your entire raid (except Warlocks as explained below) will want to stack right in the very center of the platform while your dps quickly burns down any remaining Raging Spirits. During this Phase, the Lich King will continue to cast Infest, but the real challenges here come from Defile and Val'kyr Shadowguards.

Right at the beginning of Phase Three and every so often after that, the Lich King will summon a Val'kyr which will swoop down and pick up a random raid member where they stand. The Val'kyr will then carry that raider towards the edge and, if given the opportunity, drop them to their death. To prevent this from happening, your raid needs to stun and snare the Val'kyr while blowing it up with instant heavy, focused dps.

There are a couple tricks to dealing with the Val'kyr which will make your life easier. First, although the Val'kyr can be stunned, stuns used against them are also subject to diminishing returns. This means that although the first stun will last its full duration, the second's length will be cut in half, the third's will be cut to a fourth, and so on. As a result, it is best to use your longest stuns (likely Hammer of Righteousness) first. Also, be sure to call out and stagger your stuns so as not to waste cool-downs which would be better saved for subsequent Val'kyr.

Another trick involves Warlocks' Summoning Circles. A Warlock can use their Circle Teleport to avoid plummeting off the edge. Since a Val'kyr will always head directly towards the platform's edge, a Warlock can drop a Summoning Circle right on the edge, move a bit towards the center, and wait to be picked up. Since the Warlock can teleport to safety once dropped, a Val'kyr which picks up a Warlock can be ignored by the dps entirely allowing for tons of extra dps on the Lich King and a shorter Phase 3.

Defile is another dangerous raid killer in Phase Three. Defile will target one random raid member and place a small patch black smoke at their feet. Anyone who stands in the patch takes heavy damage every second and each time the patch does damage it grows in size. If people stand in Defile even for a couple seconds it can quickly fill the entire platform and kill your raid. Additionally, if Defile appears in the center of the platform, your raid will be unable to stack there for Val'kyr summons and your fellow raiders will likely be carried to their deaths. It is therefore important that each defile is placed near the edge of the platform and moved out of immediately.

To accommodate this, you will want your entire raid to spread out towards the edges of the platform just before Defile is cast. Most strategies simply direct the person infected with Defile to "run out," but the window of time they have to do so is less than two seconds. Spreading out just in advance of Defile removes some of the twitch factor from the encounter and reduces your chances of Defile related wipes. Once Defile lands, return as close to the center as possible.

Though both Defile and the Val'kyr are deadly in their own right, it is the interplay between them that makes Phase Three the most difficult part of the Lich King encounter. Sometimes, they will happen nearly simultaneously meaning ideally you would need to be both spread out and collapsed in the center at the same time. Do not panic. Generally speaking, a Val'kyr pickup near the edge is more deadly to your raid than a Defile towards the middle of the platform (assuming nobody stands in it that is). Be adaptive when these situations occur and focus on the bigger picture goals: keep the raid away from the edges and out of Defile.

The last ability of concern during Phase Three is Soul Reaper. This is a debuff the Lich King places on his target which, after five seconds, deals a massive amount of damage and temporarily buffs the Lich King's attack speed. A well geared tank can likely soak the Soul Reaper damage, but they will be left sitting at little health in danger of being killed by the Lich King's subsequent sped up melee attacks. To prevent this either your Lich King tank must use cool-downs to mitigate Soul Reaper damage or your other tank needs to taunt the Lich King off in the five second window between when Soul Reaper is applied and when it goes off. Taunting allows your healers time to repair the Soul Reaper target's health without the additional burden of the Lich King's melee attacks. Druids with the four piece tier ten bonus are especially adept at simply soaking Soul Reaper.

To track all the abilities in Phase Three, install an add on like Deadly Boss Mods. This will allow you to know whether the next ability case will be a Val'kyr Summon or Defile and you can have your raid preemptively spread out or condense accordingly.

At 40%, the Lich King again returns to the center of the platform and it is time to transition into Phase Four.

The Transition to Phase Four

At the very beginning of Phase Four, the outer portion of the platform will reappear and your raid will want to run out there immediately to avoid taking damage from Remorseless Winter. Phase Four is identical to Phase Two except that there are no left over Shambling Horrors and four Raging Spirits will appear instead of three. As a result, you will want your positioning to be the same with two ranged/healer groups and one melee group.

Phase Four

As with Phase Two, Ice Spheres will spawn and your designated ranged dps will need to resume destroying them. Ranging Spirits will also spawn one at a time just as during Phase Two. This time, however, since there are no Shambling Horrors, both tanks will be available to help gather them from the start. You will, however, want only one tank to ultimately hold all of them as the other tank will need to be free for the Lich King in Phase Five.

In terms of raw dps required, Phase Four is one of the most demanding parts of the encounter. This is because your raid needs to do as much damage as possible to the Raging Spirits to avoid carrying too many of them into Phase Five. As a result, it is best to use dps cool-downs and Heroism/Bloodlust during this Phase.

Shortly after the fourth Raging Spirit appears, it will be time to transition to Phase Five.

The Transition to Phase Five

At the start of Phase Five, the Lich King will once again destroy the outer ring of the platform, so your raid will need to get off it as soon as possible. Rather than going to the middle, however, your raid will want to stay relatively near the platforms new edge.

Have your tank with the Raging Spirits keep them pointed away from the raid while your other tank picks up the Lich King and brings him over to the edge. Your ranged and healers can spread out however they like, but they should avoid standing near the middle of the platform.

Phase Five

Phase Five is all about survival and does not require the precision of Phase Three to clear. At the beginning of the Phase, your dps needs to burn down any remaining Raging Spirits as soon as possible. In fact, this should be the only task for your melee dps until they have been eliminated.

Defile and Soul Reaper both return in Phase Five, now joined with Harvest Soul and Vile Spirits. Your raid should deal with Defile the same as in Phase Three making sure to leave the middle of the platform Defile free whenever possible. This is easier now because, without the Val'kyr to worry about, your raid is free to stay spread out and linger towards the edges of the platform. Your tanks should also handle Soul Reaper the same as in Phase Three. If one of your tanks could soak it before, they should now. If not, they will need to taunt as before and switch roles accordingly.

For Harvest Soul, the Lich King will target a random raid member and start damaging them with a rather hard hitting channeled attack. Healers will need to heal through the effect to prevent the target from being killed which causes Arthas to empower and likely kill the tank. Once the channel is finished, the target will be teleported to a small room containing a hostile NPC and a friendly NPC. The goal here is to see the hostile NPC destroyed while the friendly NPC survives. For dps, this is simply a matter of blowing up the hostile NPC as quickly as possible, throwing in the occasional stun or silence to mitigate the damage the friendly NPC takes. For healers, the goal is to keep yourself and the friendly NPC alive while it kills the hostile one. Should you be able to throw a bit of dps on the hostile one as well, all the better. Once the hostile NPC dies, you return to the platform with your other raid members.

Vile Spirits is really the central mechanic of Phase Five. Every so often, the Lich King will hold up Frost Mourn and summon ten Vile Spirits. While he is summoning, your tank and melee dps will want to make their way to the far side of the room. Your ranged will want to destroy as many Spirits as they can, before joining the rest of the raid and the Lich King on the opposite side of the platform.

After hovering in the air a few seconds, the Vile Spirits will pick random raid members and start moving towards them. Upon making contact with any player, a Vile Spirit will explode doing heavy, though likely non-fatal, damage. More than one of them, however, can easily take out a non-tank and one exploding in a group of players can cause massive raid damage. Since your entire raid has moved to the opposite side of the platform, the remaining Vile Spirits will be forced to make their way across the middle to reach their targets. Waiting for them in the middle will be your second tank who can hop around and pop the Vile Spirits before they reach more squishy raid members. Should one get away, it shouldn't be lethal, but the tank in the middle still has the option of taunting it.

The Vile Spirit mechanic is why you want to avoid putting Defile in the middle during Phase Five. A Defile in the middle of the platform not only makes it more difficult to move your raid and the Lich King from one side to the other, but it also leaves no room for your second tank to intercept the surviving Vile Spirits. Should a Defile appear near where the Lich King is being tanked, simply rotate slightly around the platform and continue executing the strategy. All that matters with the kiting is that you take the Lich King and the raid as far from the freshly spawned Vile Spirits as possible to give your tank every possible opportunity to blow them up.

This portion of the fight is a long, survival oriented slog. You will have been at the fight for quite some time at this point, so keeping your concentration up will be your biggest challenge. Stay alive and put dps on the Lich King whenever you can safely do so. At 10%, the Lich King transitions into a final role-playing stage (do not release) and the kill is yours!

Conclusion

The Lich King encounter is not an easy battle and Blizzard was correct in saying that it will thoroughly test many of the skills you have learned throughout the expansion. Even with the ICC buffs and gear from ICC 25, getting that first kill will likely take many wipes as people adapt to the level of concentration the encounter requires. Once you start to consistently clear Phase Three, the finish line is near.

It is a great encounter, however, and try to enjoy the ride. The battle with Arthas is World of Warcraft at its best. It is meaningful, exciting, and challenging. It requires teamwork and coordination while simultaneously asking each individual raider to step up an be a hero when the situation calls for it. Wrap up the expansion in style and put the Lich King in his place, I assure you it is well worth the effort.

If you have any questions about the guide or if you would like to provide any feedback, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. Also, I would love to hear about if/how this guide helped you bring Arthas down!

Guide to Gear Score

Love it or hate it, the concept of Gear Score has become a persistent part of life in Azeroth. It often plays a roll in determining what groups you can get into, what guilds you can apply to, and generally how other players perceive you and your character. Despite these facts, many players do not understand exactly what a "Gear Score" is, let alone how it works. Thankfully, I intend to clear that all up below.

What is Gear Score?

Generally speaking, a Gear Score is a numerical value assigned to a character based on the quality of the gear that player has equipped. There are many different programs and websites which can tell you your "Gear Score," but the number scale and value associated with each piece of gear can vary greatly from one source to the next. When referred to in game, however, players are generally referring to the number generated by the GearScore addon available on Curse Gaming and if someone in game asks you what your Gear Score is, they likely want to know what number the add on assigns to you.

What is My Gear Score?

There are two ways to find out your Gear Score. The first is to simply ask someone with the GearScore add on to tell you what it is in game. Generally a "Can someone whisper me my Gear Score" posted in Trade Chat will generate some quick responses. Keep in mind that the Gear Score you get from other players might be out of date as your number is only updated for other players when they actually encounter you in game.

The other, better way to learn your Gear Score is by installing the add on yourself. You can download the GearScore addon from Curse.com. You can then follow the install instructions listed under the "Install" tab to activate the add on. The next time you log into World of Warcraft, GearScore will be running and your Gear Score will be posted on your character page. Additionally, over time, you will start seeing the Gear Scores of other players whenever you mouse over them. Welcome to the future!

How is Gear Score Calculated?

GearScore looks at each and every item a player has equipped and assigns it a numerical value. The number is affected by both the items quality (Blue, Epic, etc.) and the stats on the item. Generally speaking, items with a higher Blizzard assigned "ilevel" will also have a higher Gear Score. The add on then adds the numbers for all a player's items together and viola: Gear Score.

How Can I Raise My Gear Score?

The simple answer is get better gear, but there are some tricks you can use to quickly or artificially inflate your Gear Score. First, go all Epics as soon as you can. Gearscore severely penalizes items that are not purple so even a single holdout blue item can drop your Gear Score by hundreds of points.

Second, get some PvP gear. One of GearScore's biggest weaknesses is that it does not differentiate between PvP and PvE gear. That means that even though your ilevel 232 PvE boots may be better for your performance, ilevel 252 PvP boots will net you a significantly higher Gear Score. Cashing in a handful of Honor Tokens is a fast easy way to boost your Gear Score, especially if you only have those pesky blue quest boots holding you back from full Epics.

Third, you can plan your upgrades around your Gear Score. The GearScore add on will not only show you players' composite Gear Scores, but will also show the Gear Score point value associated with each piece of armor in the game. Once you install the add on, you will be able to tell which pieces of equipment are holding your Gear Score back. By replacing these items first, your can push up your Gear Score as quickly as you can.

Lastly, as you can use PvP items to inflate your Gear Score, you can also use powerful items that are not particularly helpful for your character. Whether it is a high ilevel off-spec item or a random greed roll purple you picked up in a heroic, GearScore does not care if you need or want an item. GearScore only cares how powerful an item itself is. A melee swapping out his green Attack Power Trinket for an Epic Spellpower one can easily fool GearScore and get you in groups your "real" trinket might bar you from.

Isn't Gear Score Unfair?

Some would say it is, others would say it isn't. Really, the add on itself is just a tool that players can use in fair ways and unfair ways. Aside from the tricks above, GearScore is relatively successful at giving a raid leader a snapshot of the quality of a player's gear. However, as any good World of Warcraft player knows, gear is only part of the equation. There are plenty of heroes wandering Azeroth that have amazing gear, but little skill. Likewise, there are tons of green laden alts and noobs out there who know every raid encounter and their class like the back of their hands.

With some discretion, a reasonable Gear Score requirement for a particular raid or guild is not a bad thing in and of itself. It is when the requirements become unreasonable or all discretion goes out the window that the GearScore add on starts to get a bad rap. Fair or unfair though, Gear Score is something that will affect how you play World of Warcraft, so it is best to understand it.

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?

Guide to Feral Druid Hit Rating Gear

On the heals of my comprehensive hit rating analysis and advice in Bear Form and Hit Rating it is now time to review some of the gear that is available to pull you out of your Feral hit rating slump. Below is a slot by slot breakdown of some of the best Feral hit rating gear currently available. For information on the Feral Hit cap and ways to work around it, check out Bear Form and Hit Rating.

Head

Mask of Lethal Intent/Hood of Lethal Intent - 75 Emblems of Triumph
Geistlord's Punishment Sack - Blood Princes (ICC 25)

Shoulders

Spaulders of Black Betrayal - Falric (H Halls of Reflection)
Shoulderpads of the Intruder - Assembly of Iron (Ulduar 25)

Back

Tank:
Platinum Mesh Cloak - 25 Emblems of Valor
Cloak of the Makers - Auriaya (Ulduar 25)
Titanskin Cloak - Mimiron (Ulduar 25 Hard Mode)
Royal Crimson Cloak - Blood Princes (ICC 25)

DPS:
Drape of the Lithe - Iron Council (Ulduar 25)
Accursed Crawling Cape - Devourer of Souls (H Forge of Souls)
Shawl of Nerubian Silk - Lord Marrowgar (ICC 10)
Might/Strength of the Nerub - Anub'Arak (ToC 25)
Drape of Icy Intent - Hordir (Ulduar 25 Hard Mode)

Chest

Choking Hauberk - Marwyn (H Halls of Reflection)
Knightbane Carapace - Crafted Leatherworking
Ikfirus's Sack of Wonder (BoE) - Gunship Battle (ICC 25) and in Sack of Frosty Treasures

Wrists

Chewed Leather Wristguards - Ick (H Pit of Saron)
Bracers/Armbands of Dark Determination - Anub'Arak (ToC 25)


Hands

Malfurion's/Runetotem's Handguards of Triumph - 25 Emblems of Triumph

Legs

Malfurion's/Runetotem's Legguards of Triumph - 50 Emblems of Triumph
Legwraps/Leggings of the Broken Beast - Northrend Beasts (ToC 25)
Gangrenous Leggings - Festergut (ICC 25)

Boots

Acidmaw Boots/Treads - Northrend Beasts (ToC 10)
Treads of the Icewalker/Icewalker Treads - Anub'Arak (ToC 25)

Rings

Tank:
Abomination's Bloody Ring - Gunship Battle (ICC 10)
Ashen Band of Courage - Ashen Verdict Friendly Reputation Reward
Harbringer's Bone Band (BoE) - ICC Random Drop


DPS:
Planestalker Band/Planestalker Signet - Lord Jaraxxus (ToC 10)
Ashen Band of Vengeance - Ashen Verdict Friendly Reputation Reward
Band of the Bone Colossus - Lord Marrowgar (ICC 25)

Trinkets

Mark of Supremecy - 50 Emblems of Triumph
Battlemaster's Precision - 34,100 Honor Points
Tiny Abomination in a Jar - Professor Putricide (ICC 25)

Weapons

Orca-Hunter's Harpoon - Marwyn (H Halls of Reflection)
Tortured Earth - General Vezax (Ulduar 10 Hard Mode)
Twisted Visage - XT-002 Deconstructor (Ulduar 25)
Dark Edge of Depravity - Yogg-Saron (Ulduar 25 Hard Mode)
Hersir's Greatspear - Blood Princes (ICC 10)
Shaft of Glacial Ice - Rotface (ICC 10)
Cryptmaker - Blood Princes (ICC 25)

How to Defeat Blood Princes on 10 Man

The Blood Prince Council in Icecrown Citadel is not one the instance's most challenging encounters. It is not trivial, however, and many groups are falling victim to one of the many bad strategies floating around the Internet. Fortunately, Druid Digest has the cure for what ails you. Below is my quick and easy guide to defeating the Blood Prince Council in ICC 10 Man. Be prepared to be blown away by just how easy this encounter can be!

The biggest mistake 90% of raid make in this encounter is thinking that they need more than two tanks. Many websites will tell you to have a ranged tank/third tank take care of Keleseth. Do not do it! Even when properly handled, an Empowered Keleseth can do a ton of damage to his aggro target. Absent a dedicated healer or a switch heals with superhuman reflexes, a range tank would be quickly obliterated. Even having a third tank will spread your heals too thin as they must deal both with three targets taking consistent damage and an appreciable amount of ranged damage. Additionally, a ranged tank is going to have a hard time holding Keleseth's aggro when the dps switch to him, even with the benefit of a misdirect.

"Only two tanks...but there are three Princes?!?!"

Here is the breakthrough that will save your raid: One tank picks up Keleseth, the other picks up BOTH Valanar and Taldaram. The damage from the paired up Princes is more than manageable for a tank geared for the instance. Keleseth will also be trivialized as, so long as his tank gathers Dark Nuclei, the damage will be more than manageable, the tank can have a dedicated healer, and Keleseth will be on aggro lock-down for the target switch. Any tank other than a Warrior should have minimal difficulty gathering the Dark Nuclei needed to stay alive.

That is it. Two tank healers (or a geared Paladin with Beacon up) and one raid healer should be enough to keep everyone alive. Spread out during Empowered Shock Vortex, assign a dps to keep the Kinetic Bombs in the air, and collect your loot. It really can be that easy. Good luck!

Grand Black War Mammoth Sighting

With the arrival of Toravon the Ice Watcher yesterday, I finally found myself with a reason to return to the Vault of Archavon. After joining a successful group for the 25 man version, I decided to form my own group to tackle Toravon in 10 man mode.

Mechanically speaking, Toravon is a relatively straight forward encounter. Tanks need to swap to shed a stacking DoT and ranged dps need to quickly burn the Frozen Orbs which spawn to avoid the raid taking too much AoE damage. That is pretty much it. He is, however, a bit of a gear check as he has a dps demanding soft enrage (an AoE delivered stacking debuff which increases frost damage taken) and dishes out a hearty amount of raid damage.

After a two wipes and a handful of personnel changes, my 10 man proved to be a success and Toravon was tasting the Vault floor. Unfortunately, the loot was a bit of a bummer as only a PvP caster cloak was of any meaningful use to anyone. Oh well, at least we got some experience to carry into next week.

After Toravon's loot was disposed of, we lost a healer and a dps, but I decided to make a run at Koralon anyway. I find the encounter enjoyable and it seemed as though there might be upgrades available for a raid member or two. Our eight man proved rather easy and Koralon was down for the count. As with Toravon, Koralon's loot was as useless as can be, with only one notable exception. Much to my amazement, there between three pieces of Elemental Shaman gear were the Reins of the Grand Black War Mammoth!

I just sat and stared for a second. Thoughts of excitement, logistics, and potential drama all floated through my head. I announced the find to the raid resulting in a flood of all caps exclamations. "It goes to the raid leader, right?" I joked, giving rise to a chorus of "haha" and "NO."

I must admit, I briefly thought of taking it for myself. There would be outrage, sure, but I would only be offending seven people in a server of thousands. Assuming a handful of them could be bought off or talked down, my little stint as a ninja would likely only cost me the temporary ire of less than a single instance group's worth of raiders. My reputation on the server was sterling, so I was confident that even if a storm resulted, I could weather it and it would be brief.

In the end, however, I thought about how I expected to be treated as a raider and new I had to do the right thing. I typed out a very specific call for open rolls and the winning roll turned out to be the first one out of the gate: a perfect 100 within a second of my call. I waited for the other rolls to assure there wasn't a tie, passed the winner his loot, and offered my congratulations.

Sure, I would have loved to claim this rare prize for myself, but the excitement of just seeing it drop and knowing it was handled respectfully provides its own kind of joy. The only way to counteract all the stories of PuG ninjas is to create positive PuG experiences whenever you have the opportunity. Also, who knows, maybe the WoW karma gods will finally see fit to give me those Reins of the Raven Lord I have been farming...

Icecrown Citadel Raid Boss Difficulty Ranks

People often make the mistake of assuming that a raid instance follows a linear increase in encounter difficulty. It is also easy to get lost in your particular role and view an encounter's difficulty as gauged solely by your raid function. For example, a melee dps might consider Festergut a cakewalk while the healer is consulting his doctor about carpel tunnel syndrome. Below are my general difficulty rankings for the encounters available thus far in ICC, followed by role specific lists. Reasonable minds might differ and I would love to hear how your list would differ from mine.

From Hardest to Easiest:

General Difficulty:

1.) Professor Putricide

2.) Rotface

3.) Blood Queen Lana'thel

4.) Blood Prince Council

5.) Festergut

6.) Deathbringer Saurfang

7.) Lady Deathwhisper

8.) Airship Battle

9.) Lord Marrowgar

Tanking Difficulty:

1.) Professor Putricide

2.) Lady Deathwhisper

3.) Rotface

4.) Airship Battle

5.) Festergut

6.) Lord Marrowgar

7.) Blood Queen Lana'thel

8.) Blood Prince Council

9.) Deathbringer Suarfang

Healing Difficulty:

1.) Festergut

2.) Blood Queen Lana'thel

3.) Professor Putricide

4.) Rotface

5.) Lady Deathwhisper

6.) Deathbringer Saurfang

7.) Blood Prince Council

8.) Lord Marrowgar

9.) Airship Battle

DPS Difficulty:

1.) Professor Putricide

2.) Rotface

3.) Deathbringer Saurfang

4.) Blood Queen Lana'thel

5.) Lady Deathwhisper

6.) Blood Prince Council

7.) Festergut

8.) Lord Marrowgar

9.) Airship Battle

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

Onyxia: Back in Black

Blizzard has announced that as part of the celebration of the fifth anniversary of World of Warcraft, the Onyxia encounter will be re-released as a level 80 raid instance. The encounter should be available on the Public Test Realms relatively soon and will ultimately drop as one of many "big plans" to be revealed in content Patch 3.2.2. Check out the official announcement here.

According to information released thus far, the encounter will come in both 10 and 25 man flavors. Though the loot tables will be reworked for level 80 itemization, Blizzard plans to recycle many of the textures from the encounter's classic drops. The Black Dragonflight Brood Mother will also now have a chance of dropping a 310% speed Onyxia Broodling flying mount. Even if you choose not to tackle the new raid, players who log on during the month of November will find an Onyxia Brood Whelpling in their mailboxes as a gift similar to the Baby Blizzard Bear from World of Warcraft's 4th Anniversary.

Though it will be sad to see the classic 40 man Onyxia permanently depart, I am excited about the opportunity to head back to the Wyrmbog for some reworked old school fun. I am also curious whether or not the attunement quests will be back as well. At the very least, here's hoping for a new and improved Ancient Cornerstone Grimgoire. I would love the chance to bring my Summoned Skeleton out of retirement.

Isn't he precious?