What's the opposite of being in the right time at the right place? This.

There’s a chance, a small chance, that I might be able to sneak my way into a 10 man Ulduar group bent on earning both their Rusted Protodrakes and the title, Herald of the Titans. I’m so excited!

Herald of the Titans is awarded when a group successfully kills Algalon, but only if they’re wearing 10 man gear. Fortunately Blizzard isn’t too picky about what constitutes 10 man gear and just put a restriction on the item level. Getting to Algalon in the first place requires you to complete all the hard modes: Flame Leviathan+4, Heartbreaker, Steelbreaker, Thorim+Sif, Hodir speed kill, Firefighter, Freya+3, General V without vapor and Yogg-1. All those 10 man hard modes award item level 226 gear. The same item level on normal mode 25 man Tier 8 gear.

I was asked: “What Ulduar gear do you still have?”

Perhaps they just want me for my Dispersion. Who knows and who cares, right? There’s a title at stake!

I knew that I still had my Tier 8 set in the bank. I’m a bit of a hoarder when it comes to armor. But I wasn’t sure what I had kept.

Unfortunately about a month or two ago I went through a mad Disenchanting spree in an attempt to clear out my full bank bags. Any item that I had no sentimental attachment to was turned into an Abyss Crystal. Fortunately I still had my weapon to go with my Tier set. But not much else. My belt from Ulduar still exists, although I put that down to pure luck.

I’m not sure exactly who is in this 10 man group. But I know that my friend in the group has killed Algalon on another character.  I’m sure that’s likely the case with some of the others in the group. I just know we’re up to the challenge, regardless of our gear.

My Herald of the Titans Set So Far

10 items. That still leaves a lot of slots empty including: Offhand, Wand, Neck, Back, Wrists, Feet, Ring.

A Patch 3.3 Shadow Priest in Ulduar

The interesting thing is that I’m not really trying to resurrect my old gear set. I’m not a Patch 3.1 Shadow Priest anymore. Things have changed, Shadow Priests have changed, and itemisation for Shadow Priest gear has certainly changed since then.

In Ulduar, in Patch 3.1, Shadow Priests geared for Spell Power alone. And when we couldn’t get that, we took Critical Strike Rating. Haste had next to no value to us – once we reached about 10% or 11% Haste it was enough to smooth out the hiccups in our rotation. In August of last year I posted:

The gear goals are:

• About 11% haste
• 263 hit rating (Heroic Presence) or 289 hit rating (No Heroic Presence)
• Heaps of Spellpower and Critical Strike

These days it’s all about Haste. We now have modified talents that allow two of our most powerful DoTs to tick more quickly based on our Haste Rating. In my Icecrown Citadel gear I’m sitting at around 1000 Haste Rating.

But I look at the remnants of my Tier 8 gear and my decisions back then are starting to haunt me. First and foremost, why didn’t I at least buy the Shadow Tier 8 legs for my glory box? At the time choosing the healing legs instead of the Shadow legs seemed like such a sensible decision. I did have a 4 piece set (Helm, Shoulders, Gloves and Robe) but was quite happy to scale back to my 2 piece bonus (Helm, Gloves, Robe) when I upgraded to Amice of Inconceivable Horror.

I much prefer Amice of Inconceivable Horror now and then, but I can’t quite decide if my 4 piece bonus (a temporary Haste boost) might be really worthwhile now even if it wasn’t back then. I think it just might. Especially since Algalon is a single target fight where I should be able to sink into a straightforward rotation with lots of time to Mind Blast > Mind Flay > Mind Flay.

I’ll probably regem for Haste instead of Spell Power too. At least that’s easily fixed.

Depending on how my set turns out I know that I can boost Hit or Haste will my buff food on the day.

Lets Go Shopping

So if I assume that I just might get an invitation to this group, I’d like to be prepared. Perhaps having my gear set all ready to go will be the reason that I get an invite.

I have 7 item slots to fill. I’d like to get some Haste gear. I’d like to get another 150 Hit Rating. But if I can’t do that, then I can work towards an extra 110 Hit Rating and bring myself up to Hit Cap with buff food.

The first thing that I did when I figured out what was missing was open up my Tailoring panel. What ilvl 226 BoE items can be sewn? Boots and belts. That might be the way to go to get some appropriate shoes. I could consider replacing my existing belt with Sash of Ancient Power. (I find this dilemma amusing because I had the same dilemma about this time last year. Never did decide if it was worth the gold.)

The next place I can go shopping for level appropriate items is the Emblem Vendors. They offered me these:

1. Evoker’s Charm (19 Emblems of Conquest, ilvl 226)
2. Disguise of the Kumiho (25 Emblems of Valor, ilvl 213)
3. Wraps of the Astral Traveler (60 Emblems of Valor, ilvl 213)

There’s also a belt available through Emblems but I think the crafted options are much better.

I’ll check out the Auction House for BoE items which drop in Ulduar but I don’t expect many to be available since nobody really runs Ulduar anymore. I think when I was running Ulduar I wore Asimov’s Drape which is BoE. But I’m not sure I’d choose to wear a Spirit/Crit cloak now even if I could get my hand on it again.

For my second, and only missing, ring slot I think I might purchase Band of Channeled Magic or more likely I’ll work up to buying Etched Signet of the Kirin Tor. The gold cost of the ring doesn’t concern me too much because I almost bought this ring when I started the grind for The Insane title just to get the free trip to Dalaran every 30 minutes (I haven’t had my hearthstone set to anywhere Northrend for almost a month now).

Still Missing

The tricky slots to fill, I think, will be my Wand and Offhand. Perhaps the new Icecrown Citadel dungeons can offer me something for these.

Here are all the potential Off Hand items from Wowhead. Oh why did I disenchant my Ironmender? Will I be back to buying (again, for the second time) and using Ward of the Violet Citadel? Perhaps I should keep my eye out for the raid weekly and, if I’m really lucky, I might score Ignis’s 10 man Igniter Rod.

Here’s a question. Do offhand items count as “weapons” or “armor”. I think I was told that you could use ilvl 232 weapons for Herald of the Titans – I presume that one of the hard modes dishes out ilvl 232 weapons as a reward – so perhaps I can use a ilvl 232 two handed weapon or a ilvl 232 offhand?

From Wowhead comments (if you trust such a thing):

This achievement is very poorly worded. I got this achievement tonight, using an ilvl 232 weapon and wand. Due to the way 10man hardmode loot works, you can still get this achievement using ilvl 232 weapons, offhands, wands, ranged weapons, sigils, idols, etc etc. You cannot be wearing any armor, or using any trinkets higher than 226.
– Hina9888

Armour (all armor, rings, trinkets, necklaces, cloaks) must not be higher than ilevel 226. It does not matter where you got it from.
Weapons (main hand, off hand and ranged) must not be higher than ilevel 232. It does not matter where you got it from.
– Shadowtion

Here are the ilvl 232 off hands. Now the beautiful Shriveled Heart, from Halls of Reflection, is available. Or I could go for a 232 staff. Like Pit of Saron’s Engraved Gargoyle Femur. That’s one way to solve my concerns about Hit rating.

Here are the ilvl 200-232 wands. Falric in Halls of Reflection drops a 232 wand, Soulsplinter, if I want to play it risky. I think my best bet might be to grab Rod of the Fallen Monarch from Anub’arak in Azjol-Nerub during a daily Heroic.

To 4 piece or not to 4 piece… and to take a risk or play it safe

So I’m left with a few decisions to mull over. I could try and get my hands on a Tier Token and pick up my Shadow set legs. But if I can’t get that, do you think I should try and hold onto my 4 piece set bonus even if it means losing Amice of Inconceivable Horror?

And finally, I should I play it safe and stick to ilvl226 weapons, offhands and a wand? Or should I try and win the ilvl232 staff and wand available from the Icecrown Citadel 5 man heroics? Can I use my very pretty Frostsycthe of Lord Ahune?

Either way, I’ve got a lot of Emblems to grind.

Chriara enters the Spark of Imagination

Last week I had the opportunity to do something that I’ve been avoiding since the release of Wrath of the Lich King: raiding with my Rogue.

I’d logged off my Priest for the night when my roommate asked me if I’d come in and help him finish Ulduar 10. While I had been raiding ToC with my guild some old WoW friends had organised an impromptu Ulduar raid. I was excited for them – most of them were experiencing Ulduar for the first time. Of course I was happy to help.

By 11pm – when they asked me for help – they had defeated most of the keepers and were absolutely thrilled by their progress. They had successfully beaten most of the bosses on their first attempt, aside from a small hiccup on Hodir (but it is kind of hard to describe good snow vs bad snow). I wasn’t nearly as surprised as they were. They were friends, were used to playing together and were being led through by an experienced, and patient, Elemental Shaman who knows Ulduar inside out. Plus, they all had pretty nice gear. So there was absolutely no reason to think their first Ulduar raid would be disastrous.

Cassandri was already saved to Ulduar 10 so I had two options left open to me:

1. Log into Lathere’s account and play her extremely undergeared Shadow Priest
2. Log onto my BC main, a Rogue, also extremely undergeared

I was kind of excited by the prospect of playing Lathere’s Priest. First off, I’d love to get her some decent gear. And secondly, I thought it would be fun to play something I know really well, without the benefits of good gear… and possibly without even being hit capped.

Unfortunately, I soon discovered that Lath no longer uses the same password for World of Warcraft that she used to (damn you Battle.net). So the only thing I could do to help was to offer up the services of my Rogue on one proviso: nobody was allowed to make fun of my gear.

Since the release of Wrath of the Lich King I’ve been avoiding my Rogue. I’ve tried, and failed, in the past to maintain two raiding characters at once. It may sound strange but I feel that if I log onto Chriara and set a small, short term goal (for example, doing the cooking daily quest), that I might end up setting another goal, and another until I find that I’m farming Emblems and pugging raids for gear. And I know that for me, that path lies major burnout.

So I put off leveling Chriara to 80. I made excuses not to join heroic runs. I refused to complete the Storm Peaks quest line to unlock the Sons of Hodir reputation grind. I rarely skinned my kills because leveling Leatherworking seemed like too much commitment. I even put off buying her gear.

I haven’t read one article about Rogues since Wrath was released. I knew that there was a couple different hit caps to look out for: a hit cap to never miss with special attacks, a hit cap to never miss with poisons and the (impossible) hit cap to never miss with white auto attacks. Oh yeah, and an Expertise cap. I didn’t know what talent spec performed the best in raids. I didn’t know what weapons suited what builds.

But the important part is… I didn’t want to know. My head is filled with enough Shadow Priest stuff, thank you very much!

That said, I had made a very small amount of effort after doing my first and only heroic and purchased some stuff for Chriara (fortunately for this late night Ulduar raid). I re-talented to something more suitable for raiding. I was happy with my talent build – Combat Swords, nothing exciting, I know. I’m capable of 2k DPS without buffs. I’m pretty proud of that.

I knew that most of the members of this Ulduar group couldn’t care less about my gear. They were happy that they were all raiding together again and succeeding. And inviting me to raid with them was probably much more appealing than pulling some stray out of Looking For More. Plus they were getting pretty darn tired and knew that they might not actually complete the run. It’s bad form to PuG someone under those circumstances.

So, after agreeing not to grief me about my gear, they summoned me right down to Mimiron (yay for Warlocks). The single pugged member of the raid – a DPS warrior with attitude – had a bit of a go about my level 70 items but we all ignored him. Then I remembered …

I’d offered to fight Mimiron as melee.

So our Shaman buddy is doing his best to explain How to Mimiron (and probably going into way too much detail) and I’m thinking back to how our melee-ers in Vitare went when we were learning the encounter.

Proximity mines.

Shock blasts aka dying for not running out in time.

Oh yeah, rockets.

Yep. I’m gonna die.

How in holy hell do you do Mimiron as melee? How do you know when to run out? Is it a cast bar? Is there an emote?” I frantically whisper one of the Rogues from my guild to ask for some advice. I’d already heard of Cloak of Shadows, but thanks for trying anyway Vip.

I start to mentally revisit my long history of failing-at-running-out. Including how often I died to Prince Malchezaar’s Enfeeble back in the day (it scares me that I didn’t need to look up the name of that ability – I still remember it). I have a long history of failing-at-running-out, you know. Fortunately Failbot hasn’t been around the whole time and doesn’t keep a detailed history of my failures.

Vitare took a good few weeks to get Mimiron down. It was long enough that our GM got serious about our mistakes and was minus DKPing people left, right and center. For dying to stupid stuff. Like Laser Barrage. Or rockets. Or mines. I think our Restoration Shaman lost nearly 1000 DKP before he got the hang of Laser Barrage. Other casters and healers lost quite a bit of DKP too. And I’m pretty darn sure that a few trial raiders failed their trial period based on their performance (and mistakes) while wiping on Mimiron.

But if melee died to Shock Blast – not running out of range in time, or if they did run out only to hit a land mine and die – they were often excused. It was deemed unfair to punish the melee as harshly since the fight is so much more difficult for melee. And our melee died a lot.

Yep, I’m so going to die.

By now our Shaman, Rummy, has almost finished explaining the final phase of Mimiron and over Vent people are starting to get totally confused “so where do we stand for the first phase, again?”. Since Rummy and I are the only two there who have previously experienced the fight, he very politely asks me over Vent if he’s forgotten anything. I remind him about bombs and rockets. Which he explains. And we run in to give it a go.

By the way, my UI totally sucks when you’re tracking combo points. (Note to self: fix Chriara’s UI)

Sure enough, first Shock Blast and by the time I see what’s going on the cast bar is half way through. I die. “I thought you’d know to run out for that, Cass?”. I stop laughing long enough to apologise over Vent. I told you I was going to mess it up first time, didn’t I?

But now that I know what to do, I’m set. We all run back (because while I was laughing to myself about dying so early, our tank was discovering that they needed something special to survive Plasma Blast), review the strategy and try again.

This time I’m staring at Mimiron’s frame waiting for that cast bar. I can angle myself around so that when it’s time to run like hell I can just strafe right through a gap in the circle of land mines. And I actually remembered to hit Adrenaline Rush and Blade Flurry and stuff! Then our tank died again and we came back for another attempt.

Third time round I’m having a great time. Spamming Sinister Strikes, running out, Cloak of Shadowing, dodging rockets, hitting cooldowns. We get to the second phase – you know, the deadly Laser Barrage one. I’m dodging his rockets, running from side to side to minimise his machine gun fire and then he winds up to unleash Laser Barrage. What do I do? Nothing! I moved like 2 steps and it was over. Just like that. Too easy.

Time for Phase 3. I hacked away at the Assault Bots, remembered that I have an AOE, and did some Fan of Kniving when all the little Junk Bots came out. Oh yeah. Then my roommate – who was assigned to “pick up” the Bomb Bots – got me killed by not standing where he was meant to stand. I made him apologise over Vent. After all, it was totally his fault and I had been having so much fun right up til that moment.

We came back to give it one more go. Unfortunately we didn’t make it very far into the final phase as we slowly lost raid members to rockets and stuff, but we came close. The raid was a little dissapointed at their failure since they’d breezed through all the bosses up until that point. But Mimiron is not a fight you can easily explain, or master, until you’ve tried it a couple times for yourself.

So we logged off for the night.

I couldn’t believe how much fun I had. I didn’t care if we wiped or not. I didn’t care about loot. I didn’t care when other people died to silly things. I was just happy to be doing something I knew well from a new perspective.

But the main thing I learnt that night was this: Mimiron is easier for melee. It’s easy! Having taken both my Shadow Priest and Rogue to that fight I can tell you that it’s not harder to dodge rockets and avoid land mines as melee. It’s not harder to run out in time. It’s easier than avoiding Laser Barrage as a caster and you don’t lose DPS time.

And I realised that auto attack is OP. If you get targeted by rockets as a caster, or need to avoid Laser Barrage, you have to stop casting and move. Sometimes you need to run a lap of the whole room. As a Rogue? You can just keep attacking, shuffling a few steps left as Mimiron turns.

Why did my GM never minus DKP for running out of Shock Blast? Perhaps, as a DPS warrior, he’s more sympathetic to the trials and tribulations of playing a melee DPS? Yeah, that’s what I think. He certainly had me convinced that Mimiron was more difficult to do as melee.

But after that night in Ulduar playing my Rogue I can confidently say that’s just not true. Now every time my GM offers some strange explanation for why we’re wiping and I don’t agree, I say this:

I did Mimiron as melee and it was easy.

This is where I go to cry...

For the last four blissful months I’ve been the sole, main spec, Shadow Priest in my guild. That time has come to an end. We’ve just accepted a new Shadow Priest into the guild.

I don’t like them already. They have much better gear than me (and seem to have ridiculous gear luck – 2 pieces from Onyxia 25 in 2 weeks!?), they used to be Horde and they use a stupid 1990s “futuristic” font on their user interface. I know cause they had to submit their UI as part of their application.

Of course, I tell myself that I should be happy. This is an opportunity to learn from another Shadow Priest. Trade tips, swap ideas and annoy the rest of the entire raid by theorycrafting over Ventrillo. Debate whether it’s worth casting Vampiric Touch on Heroic Lord J‘s Nether Portals and Infernal Volcanos or if it’s more DPS to just skip it to try and spam just one more Mind Flay (and really, what’s the difference anyway because my DPS contribution to these burst phases is so small). Or what the hell is the best way to up DPS on Twin Val’kyr? And I’ve only got a few weeks to mess around with this one until we come and try it on Heroic.

Perhaps if I keep reminding myself of all the positives, I’ll actually feel excited.

Raiding in World of Warcraft is like living in a fish bowl. Your whole experience, the sum total of your opinions, are based on the other 24 people you raid with. If you have 1 Warlock in your guild, and they come last every fight, you’re going to be sympathetic to any conversation that includes buffing Warlocks – they so need it after all! Play with 1 amazing Elemental Shaman and you’ll be left wondering why Blizzard decided to buff them with the Onyxia patch and just about ignored everyone else.

So in my little fish bowl there’s a tank of each class, a DPS or two of each pure class, the weird hybrid crowd (1 Ele Shaman, 1 Enh Shaman, a Boomkin) and some healers and me. Ask me “What is the current state of Death Knights?” and I’ll make up some vague response based on what our Death Knight can do. Surely the vice-versa is true. For the rest of my guild, I represent 99% of what a Shadow Priest can do.

Uh uh uh, no longer. Now I can be compared. There are only 2 things that separate me and this new Shadow Priest. Gear. Skill. We’re doing the exact same encounters under the exact same circumstances.

Gear upgrades have never really bothered me before. I’m not the kind of player to dump all my DKP on the first item that drops that could be an upgrade. I tend to gear up at the end of a raid release cycle. Yeah, I know, I’m still wearing my spaceman suit from Ulduar. With a ToGC 25 offhand. Go figure!

Blizzard intend to repeat their level-the-gear-across-the-board with each new raid release. Honestly, it just makes me hate all Emblem rewards including Tier tokens. I love looking at my gear and remembering the fight that delivered it into my hands. My shoulders glow orange (I know, not my favourite colour either) but they’re from Yogg+1 on 10 man and the night we got that I thought it was a pretty damn big deal. I look at my shoulders and recall that sense of achievement. Open up the Achievement panel and I just don’t get the same buzz.

I love that if someone else inspects me (well if they know their cloth gear) they’ll know that I was good enough, and put in the effort, to succeed at that encounter.

Before the Achievement system was introduced your gear was your travelogue of all the strange and wonderful places you’d been. Tamarind totally gets it. And the tricky bosses you had defeated along the way. I’m having difficulty letting that go.

People out there will argue that it’s no different than what happened when Sunwell was released but in my mind it is different. Badge of Justice rewards didn’t pretend to be the same thing. They had different names, different stats and different models. You could inspect someone and see the difference between a Rogue wearing Tier 6 and the Badge Boots (cause perhaps they hadn’t won anything better) and a Rogue wearing all the Badge gear who probably hadn’t stepped out of Karazhan.

So these two things combined (Blizzard’s inevitable gear-resets and another Shadow Priest) have made me determined to push a bit harder to get geared up more quickly when the next raid tier is released. Of course you could argue that the next raid is the final one of Wrath of the Lich King so what difference will it make if I take 1 month or 5 months to upgrade.

Now if only we could make these Trial of the Crusader bosses drop something other than Plate and that stupid robe. I swear I’m going to rage if I see yet another Plate tanking item go to offspec bids next week. WTB 1 Spellpower weapon. Any Spellpower weapon.

I’ve been planning to write a post about the 1-main per expansion “rule”. The best time to change your main is when a new expansion is released because having a new max level cap is the true equaliser. But with the Emblem changes bringing your Alt up to a comparative gear level to your Main is easy and soloable and doesn’t require your guild to go and run old Tier content. So you could switch pretty easily mid-expansion now. Yet the Achievement system makes me much more invested in my Wrath of the Lich King main (my priest) than any other character I have, or could plan to have… so is there really a choice anymore? I know, I know, one problem at a time.

Back to this topic. I raided with the new Shadow Priest for the first time tonight. They successfully ran away from Icehowl and thus earnt an A+ from me right then. Yes, his DPS was higher than mine but we were pretty equal on Damage Done. We won’t dwell on the fact that I was receiving Power Infusion for half the night.

I just have to include these absolutely amazing videos which probably do a better job capturing what raiding Ulduar was/is all about than any Achievement list or piece of armor. Perhaps this is the new way to remember your raiding history. How the author, Invisusira, got their entire raid to walk up the stairs to Kologarn I’ll never know. 1000g each? The promise of gold can do amazing things, you know. Most impressive part of the movie in my opinion. I can’t even get 10 people to face the same way for a screen capture.

[youtube tCG2Q8iQzEE Ulduar: The Movie (Part 1 of 3)]

[youtube yUOaq01rj0E Ulduar: The Movie (Part 2 of 3)]

Rhonin was suitably grateful (thank you for the cloak, btw). We had a nice turnout at the Eventide, too.

Our 10 man group defeated Algalon the Observer on Sunday. If you’re following Lathere’s and my Achievements closely you probably already know that. It took us 3 weeks: 2 hours and 33 minutes all up to kill him. The learning curve for us went something like this:

Week 1: Our two tanks got their timing perfect
Week 2: Our star killer got his timing perfect
Week 3: We managed to stop accidentally phasing out

Thus… you may now address me as Starcaller Cassandri!

I’ve blogged about Algalon before, I think, and I have to put him up there are one of my all time favourite boss encounters. For Shadow Priests it’s actually really quite straight forward.

1. Equip your Glyph of Dispersion
2. DPS the dude
3. Don’t stand on a Collapsing Star when it’s low on health
4. Don’t stand within 10 yards of those nasty red void things
5. Hit Dispersion before he finishes his Big Bang cast

Video

[youtube eS4yQUs9GKs Vitare vs Algalon (10 man) - click to enlarge]

Enjoy the video! Make sure you have your sound on, I love both these songs and the Celestial Planetarium ambiance track.

Lathere had a much trickier assignment – gather up all the constellations with healing agro and maneuver them to close up the black holes without accidentally phasing herself – all while healing, of course!

And the best part about our victory was that we beat the other guild 10 man to it. And they got Firefighter almost 1 month before us (which they bragged about quite a bit!) Gotta love a bit of friendly competition, hey?

The glory of 10 mans

Cass and I have been raiding 10 mans a lot more than we usually do in the last couple of weeks. This is because some of our raiders have mysteriously vanished on progression nights and we’ve been left short of a full 25 man roster. There has been several nights when the raid has been called and we have split into two 10 man groups.

During our 10 man last week the conversation came up:
What do people prefer? 25 mans or 10 mans?

I’ve always preferred the thrill of downing bosses in 25 man. When there are so many more people to coordinate it seems so much more satisfying when you finally complete progression content with 24 other people.

Our tank who was raiding when level 60 was still end game, admitted he much preferred doing 10 mans. Considering this is someone who has always played pretty seriously and is definitely the type to want the best gear available for his class, I was surprised. Quite a few of the other raiders also piped up that they preferred the 10 Man environment as well because they felt they contributed more to the team and that the intimate environment was something they enjoyed.

So if many serious raiders prefer the 10 man environment, why the hell is everyone still raiding 25 mans?

I’ve been thinking quite hard about this since that night and, to be honest, with the difficulties we’re having in TOGC (heroic, or whatever you want to call it) 25, I’m starting to agree with them – I welcome the 10 mans. It’s quite a relief to scale down some nights.

So why the change in heart? Perhaps the main reason for this is I really like the majority of people that play in our 10 man crew. While we have played together in a 25 man setting for months, the current 10 man group has only been together for approximately 3 week. There’s about 13 or so that shuffle depending on who’s online. Most of us are fairly aware of each others strengths and weaknesses and we’re proving to be pretty successful – we cleared Heroic TOC 10 last night for the first time, got our rusty drakes last week.

I don’t think I’m the only one who feels this way, Keeva from Tree Bark Jacket recently wrote a post on how much she is loving the 10 man atmosphere now that she has reformed her guild.

The most popular post I’ve written for this blog has been the gear guide for 10 Man/Casual raiders. I think I’ve gotten approximately 3 times as many hits on that page in comparison to my 25 Man raider page.

A fellow Barthilas blogger has also scaled back from 25 man raiding and actually created a separate branch in his long term guild specifically for 10 man raids. His aim was to create a group that only raided 10 mans a couple of times a week but with the efficiency and quality of hardcore players.

So is the only reason to enter 25 mans status, progression ranks and gear? I’m not completely convinced. When it’s put like that it sounds quite elitist and shallow. Mercenary even. These are not traits that come to mind when I think of the other members of our 25 man guild.

What do you guys think – why do you want to raid 25 mans? Remind me of all the good stuff please!

Last night we had a dream raid. We went right in to kill Auriaya (no problem) and 1 shot Hodir and earnt the achievement. First attempt! And I recorded it for you all. I can’t believe we made it because we had about 3 people disconnect and at least 2 end up in Frost Tombs as a result. I think the main reason we got it was because we dropped down to 3 healers. That’s amazing – 3 healers!

So what was in his rare cache? The Staff of Endless Winter that our holy priest had wanted for such a long time. I’m just not that keen on staves in general, but I think most of the casters had seen the weapons available in Trial of the Crusader so the staff wasn’t really in demand.

I took a screen capture of the DPS but it seems silly to post it in hindsight. About 6 of us tipped over the 10k DPS mark and I came in last in that group. I think I was up there with a couple warlocks, a mage, a rogue and a boomkin.

After three hard modes I couldn't have said it better

We went on try Thorim hard mode for the very first time and 1 shot it. That’s unbelievable. I dropped lots of suggestions but our raid leader didn’t seem all that keen on using the Aura of Celerity method so no extra achievement or Mind Control. Maybe next week. I’m still carrying around my Frost Resist set just in case.

We also got Freya + 1 last night. We had previously tried Freya with the Iron Roots Guardian, and failed. Last night we tried Freya with the Sunbeam Guardian and … won! Got that one in the first attempt too.

We went on to try General Vezax hard mode… and stumbled. No more 1 shotting. Maybe next week.

Oh yeah and we had several of trash epics drop and five epic weapon enchants – Blade Ward x 4 and Blood Draining x 1. How lucky is that?

New gear for Alliance and Horde Shadow Priests in 25 man ToC

It’s always hard to get your head around what gear/upgrades are the smartest to make when a new bunch of gear is released in game. This post is for:

1. The 25 Man raider who plays a Shadow Priest as their main spec
2. The 25 Man healing Priest who intends to gather a offspec Shadow set
3. The raider who also completes 10/25 hard or heroic modes
4. Me

My weightings are based off the theorycrafting work done by Shadowpriest.com (with some personal preference to how Haste and Hit are valued). This list showcases the best items available to you – as a 25 man raiding priest – with a Hit/Haste/Crit option per slot.

Tier 8 and 9 Set Bonuses Compared

Tier 8 (Conqueror’s Sanctification from Ulduar)
Tier 8 Items and set bonus/s
2 set bonus = 122 dps or 61 dps per item
4 set bonus+2 set bonus = 231 dps or 58 dps per item

Tier 9 (Velen’s/Zabra’s Triumph)
Tier 9 items and set bonus/s
2 set bonus = 133 dps or 66 dps per item
4 set bonus+2 set bonus = 259 dps or 65 dps per item

As you can see with both Tier sets you’re really not gaining a significant boost in DPS for your investment when you wear 4 pieces of Tier gear. Basically I translate this into: if you get a really really awesome piece of gear that’s going to drop you down to 3/5 Tier 8 or 9… take it.

I plan to be wearing a 2 piece Tier 8 and 2 piece Tier 9 set for a while.

Weakest Piece in Tier 9
If you do intend to try the Tier 9 4 set bonus (and I’d still like to try it) the helm is the least desirable item in the set. The Priest healing Tier 9 helm or, cheaper still, the badge option are better.

Weakest Piece in Tier 8
In Tier 8, the Shadow Priest legs are the weakest piece in the set.

Hit (Cap) and Haste

The gear goals are:

• About 11% haste
• 263 hit rating (Heroic Presence) or 289 hit rating (No Heroic Presence)
• Heaps of Spellpower and Critical Strike

Gear List

View the list at LootRank.com. Excluded items from hard, hard, hard modes – but they’ll show up if you click through to Loot Rank.

Not all ToC 10 and 25 Heroic loot has been announced and some of this may be incorrect.

Helm
Velen’s/Zabra’s Cowl of Triumph ToC 25 Heroic (Crit)
Hood of Fiery/Smouldering Aftermath 75 Emblems of Triumph (Hit/Haste)
Helm/Hood of Clouded Sight 75 Emblems of Triumph (Crit)
Velen’s/Zabra’s Cowl of Triumph ToC 25 (Crit)

Neck
Cry/Wail of the Valkyr ToC 25, Twin Val’kyr (Crit/Haste)
Pendant of Fiery Havoc Ulduar 25, Flame Leviathan HM (Hit/Haste)
Pendant of the Shallow Grave Ulduar 10, Thorim HM (Crit/Haste)
Darkbane Amulet/Pendant ToC 10, Twin Val’kyr (Hit/Crit)

Shoulder
Velen’s/Zabra’s Mantle of Triumph ToC 25 Heroic (Tier 9/Crit)
Mantle/Pauldrons of Catastrophic Emanation 75 Emblems of Triumph (Hit/Crit)
Velen’s/Zabra’s Mantle of Triumph ToC 25 (Tier 9/Crit)
Amice of Inconceivable Horror Ulduar, Yogg-Saron HM (Haste)

Back
Cloak/Shroud of Displacement ToC, Faction Champions 25 Heroic (Hit/Haste)
Drape of Mortal Downfall Ulduar, Iron Council 25 HM (Hit/Crit)
Cloak/Shroud of Displacement ToC, Faction Champions 25 (Hit/Haste)
Pennant Cloak OS, Sartharion +2 or +3 Drakes (Crit/Haste)
Drape/Shawl of the Refreshing Winds ToC, Northrend Beasts 25 (Haste)

Chest
Merlin’s Robe Crafted (Crit/Haste)
Velen’s/Zabra’s Robe of Triumph ToC 25 Heroic (Crit)
Velen’s/Zabra’s Raiments of Triumph ToC 25 Heroic (Tier 9/Haste)
Skyweaver Vestments/Robe ToC 25, Twin Val’kyr (Hit/Haste)
Velen’s/Zabra’s Robe of Triumph ToC 25 (No Tier bonus/Crit)
Flowing Vestments/Robes of Ascent ToC 25, Northrend Beasts (Haste)
Velen’s/Zabra’s Raiments of Triumph ToC 25 (Tier 9/Haste)

Wrist
Bejeweled Wizard’s Bracers Crafted (Crit/Haste)
Dark Essence Bindings ToC 25, Twin Val’kyr (Hit/Crit)
Grasps of Reason Ulduar 25, XT-002 HM (Haste)
Armbands/Bindings of the Ashen Saint ToC 25, Anub’arak (Haste)

Hands
Velen’s/Zabra’s Handwraps of Triumph ToC 25 Heroic (Tier 9/Hit/Crit)
Gloves/Handwraps of the Lifeless Touch ToC 25, Anub’arak (Crit/Haste)
Velen’s/Zabra’s Handwraps of Triumph ToC 25 (Tier 9/Hit/Crit)

Waist
Belt/Cord of Biting Cold ToC 25 Heroic, Faction Champions (Hit/Crit)
Belt/Cord of Biting Cold ToC 25, Faction Champions (Hit/Crit)
Belt/Cord of the Tenebrous Mist ToC 25, Northrend Beasts (Haste)
Cord of the White Dawn Crafted (Crit)
Sash of Ancient Power Crafted (Hit/Haste)

Legs
Velen’s/Zabra’s Pants of Triumph ToC 25 Heroic (Tier 9/Hit/Haste)
Breeches/Leggings of the Deepening Void ToC 25, Anub’arak (Hit/Crit)
Velen’s/Zabra’s Pants of Triumph ToC 25 (Tier 9/Hit/Haste)
Leggings of the Soothing Touch ToC 25, Jaraxxus (Haste)

Feet
Boots/Sandals of the Mourning Widow ToC 25 Heroic, Faction Champions (Haste)
Treads of the False Oracle Ulduar 25, Yogg-Saron HM (Crit/Haste)
Boots/Footpads of the Icy Floe ToC 25, Anub’arak (Hit/Haste)
Boots of Fiery Resolution Ulduar 25, Flame Leviathan HM (Haste)
Sandals of the Silver Magus/Sunreaver Magus’ Sandals ToC 10, Faction Champions (Hit/Crit)
Boots/Sandals of the Mourning Widow ToC 25, Faction Champions (Haste)

Finger
Nebula Band Ulduar 10, Algalon (Crit/Haste)
Band of Deplorable Violence/Lurid Manifestation ToC 25, Anub’arak (Crit)
Band of the Invoker 35 Emblems of Triumph (Haste)
Signet of Manifested Pain Naxx 25, Kel’Thuzad (Crit/Haste)

Trinket
Reign of the Dead ToC 25, Anub’arak
Rumored to drop from Anub’arak in ToC 25 man. Sounds sweet!
Flare of the Heavens Ulduar 25, General Vezax HM
Eye of the Broodmother Ulduar 10, Razorscale
Illustration of the Dragon Soul OS 25, Sartharion
Dying Curse Naxx 25, Multiple Bosses (Hit)

2 Handed Weapon
Excluded because the ToC 25 maces and daggers are vastly superior.

1 Handed Weapon
Sunreaver Disciple’s Blade ToC 10 Heroic, Faction Champion (621 Spellpower/Crit/Haste)
Val’anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings Ulduar (621 Spellpower/Crit/Haste)
Misery’s End/Suffering’s End ToC 25, Anub’arak (621 Spellpower/Crit/Haste)
Barb/Blade of Tarasque ToC 25, Northrend Beasts (621 Spellpower/Hit/Haste)

Off Hand
Symbol of Transgression/Talisman of Heedless Sins ToC 25, Lord Jaraxxus (Hit/Crit)
I’m so glad I spend DKP on this!
Chalice of Searing Light/Mystifying Charm ToC 25, Twin Val’kyr (Crit)
Chalice of Benedictus/Lightbane Focus ToC 10, Twin Val’kry (Hit/Haste)

Wand
Rod/Scepter of Imprisoned Souls ToC 10, Northrend Beasts (Crit/Haste)
Scepter of Lost Souls Ulduar 25, General Vezax (Crit/Haste)
Brimstone Igniter 25 Emblems of Triumph (Hit)
Scepter of Creation Ulduar 25, Ignis (Crit)

Lathere and I came somewhat late to the raiding game in Burning Crusade, dipping our toes into Karazhan several months later than the serious raiding guilds on Barthilas. We were pretty noob. We wiped, oh man, we wiped. But, in our casual two-nights-a-week way, we understood we would be forever playing catch-up, and we didn’t mind. We kept raiding and trying to kill bosses at our level.

Greater rewards for more difficult challenges? Nah.

At the near end of the Burning Crusade, Blizzard created a ton of purchasable items for players using Badges of Justice, the precursor to Emblems, in order to bring newcomers and recently turned level 70s up to Tier 6 item stats (the items were equivalent in stat level – not actual Tier armor pieces) and therefore have a chance to participate in Mount Hyjal and Black Temple raiding. They also removed the attunements so you didn’t have to complete the Tier 5 raids – a significant challenge on its own.

Well at the time I can tell you that I was absolutely a “casual” player. And I ran Karazhan over and over again for Badges in order to upgrade my gear. Did it push us to do Tier 6 raiding as a guild? Not really. All we did was spend more and more time collecting badges.

Sunwell Plateau, the final raid instance of the expansion, was released at the same time as all this new Badge gear. I knew that I would never be skilled, geared and committed enough to enter Sunwell Plateau. Guilds who cleared Black Temple each week impressed the heck out of me. But I thought, if we could just get a bit better and wipe less, maybe one day we’d be good enough a group to gain entry into those raid zones.

Let me repeat, when the rest of us were clawing our way to Tier 6 equivalent items, the leading guilds were given a shiny new raid zone with depth to experience. We’re not talking just one or two bosses here completed in a hour or two.

When Wrath of the Lich King was released it only included one Tier level, Tier 7, implemented in the game. Naxxramas, whilst having a ton of bosses, was simply too easy/quick to complete. Obsidian Sanctum and Eye of Eternity are both really really short – 1 boss. You could do the three combined within a few raid nights per week.

Ulduar has satisfied me as a raider (and as a semi-serious raider at that). The early fights are easier than the last bosses. There are unusual challenges along the way. The instance itself is a good length to clear in the space of a lockout week once you’ve downed each boss. Friends who have beaten some of the tricky hardmodes earn my respect.

We’ve been in Ulduar for about 4 months. In that time our casual friends from Burning Crusade have talked about doing 10 Ulduar on and off but it never seems to happen. Doesn’t really surprise me, because they tend to organise events on the spur of the moment based on who’s online. You could have 8 people ready to go and then one person will change their mind and say they’re going to log off to watch some TV.

In comes Patch 3.2. Theoretically I knew that Emblems of Conquest were going to be made freely available, instead of limited to Ulduar bosses, but the reality is much more disturbing than I thought. Two points of view:

Option A – Miss Dedicated

• “Experience” Ulduar as soon as it is released
• Attend as many of your guild raids as possible and be patient when you wipe. Make time to do 10 mans as well because Emblems of Conquest drop there too and it takes weeks to get enough Emblems for a Tier armor token.
• Consider splashing out gold to get Runed Orbs to upgrade your belt and boots… nah too expensive
• After 4 months be content with your gear – it’s not the hardmode stuff, but it’s good, and sprinkled with Naxx 25 items anyway

Option B – Mr Patient

• Know that eventually you and some mates will go check out Ulduar when you’re ready
• Run raids when you feel like it, DC when you’ve had enough
• Consider splashing out gold to get Runed Orbs to upgrade your belt and boots… nah too expensive
• Hope you’ll get lucky and get the BiS Naxx stuff – Torch of Holy Fire ftw!

After four months. If only WoW were a fashion parade...

Now, 4 months later, all Mr Patient has to do is run alot of heroic instances (something he finds pretty darn easy) and he too can get Ulduar equivalent gear and three pieces of Tier 8.5 armor. If he got those BiS Naxx/OS/EoE stuff, well his gear models might not match as prettily as someone wearing 5/5 Conquerors, but the stats will be as good.

I’m not being stereotypical here. Mr Patient is my brother. I live with him. When I’m up 4 nights a week to dutifully complete my raids and not leave before raid’s over, he’s watching TV. On the weekends he’ll make an effort and PuG Naxx, but after a couple wings he’ll DC and take a break. In the last few days he has earnt more Emblems of Triumph than I, does daily dungeons while I raid, and has already gotten his Tier 8.5 helm.

He has been running the new dungeon – the 5 man Trial of the Champion – on normal and heroic and has picked up several great epics including the tanking one that my guild’s main tank – in full Ulduar gear – is desperate for. Even I swapped out Cosmic Lights for a new neckpiece from the heroic for my healing set. And the heroic wasn’t hard.

It’s as simple as this. You can’t compare the difficulty of Ulduar and Heroics and give out the same rewards.

This is a complete turn around from Blizzard’s stance at the launch of Wrath of the Lich King. When it was announced that each raid instance would be tuned for 10 man group (normal) and 25 man groups (heroic) they made it clear that the item level of dropped loot would be different, just as the Emblems would be different. And the rewards would be commensurate.

People are not jumping from Tier 4 to Tier 6 here. They’re going from the easiest, entry level raid (Naxx – Tier 7) to the next tier of gear (Ulduar – Tier 8). Is this the way of the future? Wiping the slate clean with each new patch?

Has nothing been learned from the Badges of Justice days?

So my brother, Mr Patient, can close the gear gap now. That’s true. Is it going to open up “doors” for him and allow him to experience Ulduar and other end-game raids? Nope. He’ll just keep running heroics and Naxx 10. Why not?

I wouldn’t be so disappointed by this if it weren’t for the new raid instance: Trial of the Crusader. We’re being given 1 new boss per week. And if that doesn’t satisfy you, you can’t try it on Heroic mode until you’ve cleared the whole place on Normal. The Northrend Beasts encounter was fun. But it took up 1 hour of our time. Then we headed back to Ulduar, uncertain if it was worth pursuing Ulduar hardmodes at all. Trial of the Crusader is where our next Tier upgrades are after all.

So, other than Algalon, I’m pretty confident that I’ve experienced all the end game bosses available in Wrath. Yet I have nothing left to strive for. Blizzard can dream up a new boss and drip-feed it to us each week in the Trial of the Crusader and until they believe it’s gone on long enough. And then they can open up Heroic mode.

In the days of Burning Crusade I knew it was my skill that held me back. Now there is no boss/raid to anticipate and strive towards implemented in the game, Blizzard will give it to us when they’re ready, not when we are.

You disperse into pure Shadow energy...

Since it’s implementation on the PTR (Public Test Realm) Shadow Priests have had mixed feelings about our 51 point talent, Dispersion. This post is intended to examine Dispersion and to describe the best and worst situations to use it.

Of course, all this advice comes from my own personal playing experiences – raiding, completing achievements, running dungeons and engaging in (*cough* getting ganked) in world PVP. I don’t do arenas and if I join a battleground, it’s as Discipline.

What does Dispersion do? Currently it reduces incoming damage by 90%, regenerates mana (I get back about 1/3 of my mana bar from it), and removes snares. You cannot cast during Dispersion. But you can move. It is often compared to a Mage’s Evocation.

Dispersion is a mana regen and/or survival 2-in-1 spell.

In the Priest Q&A Dispersion is described as:

a very valuable spell — nearly all Shadow priests take it

Not a compelling argument since many Holy Priest take Lightwell because it’s in a good place on the talent tree. Might as well, ya know? I think in my talent build if I were to drop Dispersion I would be trading it for Inner Focus.

A Brief History

• In it’s earliest incarnations on the PTR Dispersion regenerated health and mana.
• In it’s earliest incarnations on the PTR Dispersion boosted your spell power for a short time.
• Before Dispersion left the PTR the spell power boost was reduced significantly.
• By the time Dispersion came to the Live servers Dispersion had no spell power boost attached.
• In the week following the release of Ulduar, Dispersion worked in Ignis’s Slag Pot. Unfortunately Ignis was terribly bugged and when he came back fixed, Dispersion didn’t protect you from this damage anymore.

Other players have described other raid encounters where incoming damage is not reduced using Dispersion, but the Slag Pot is the one that springs to mind. When Priests talk about how the Dispersion tooltip lies, they’re talking about the you-can’t-depend-on-it-to-work-at-all incoming damage reduction.

Dispersion DON’Ts

During Boss Encounters When the Boss is Enraged (for Mana)

The type of fight I’m talking about is those ones where you can DPS down the boss until he’s at x% and suddenly he hits harder until he’s dead. You can’t DPS during Dispersion, and DPSing hard is critical to getting through enrage phases, so use a Runic Mana Pot or, even better, your Shadowfiend. If you must use Dispersion make sure that it has finished before the onset of the enrage.

During Boss Encounters to Prevent *insert boss ability* (for Survival)

Dispersion will allow you to avoid some melee hits should your tank die, or be slow to taunt or something. Don’t expect Dispersion to save you from things like General Vezax’s saronite green pool debuff damage. Of course there’s a small chance that you might discover one of the rare boss abilities that Dispersion will protect you from so you might as well give it a go.

During Boss Encounters (for Mana)

Try not to use Dispersion during boss encounters because you’re wasting DPS time. Think of it as your last resort. You should be able to get Shadowfiend out twice in most fights and survive on that mana in short, 1 or 2 target type boss encounters.

Always double check your Shadowfiend cooldown before using Dispersion to regen mana. If Shadowfiend is available find a target with some health and throw your Shadowfiend at it. Or use a Runic Mana Potion. Keep casting.

Note: Having raided a couple nights post patch 3.2, with reduced returns from Replenishment, I found I struggled significantly more with my mana pool than I have previously in Wrath and needed to use Dispersion more often.

When your Shadow Weaving stack is about to Wear Off (for Mana)

Cast something (preferably refreshing your Shadow Word: Pain with Mind Flay) first and then immediately Disperse. As soon as you’re out, Mind Flay again and you should have kept both 5/5 Shadow Weaving and Shadow Word: Pain active during Dispersion.

Dispersion DOs

When Hoping for Divine Intervention (for Survival)

One of my personal favourites is to Disperse during wipes after the tank has gone down and run in range of your fleeing Paladins hoping for a Divine Intervention.

To Tank the Boss at 1% (for Survival)

If you’ve crawled quite high on the threat meters and your tank dies you can take over tanking for a few seconds when the boss comes to you. Chances are by the time he goes after you your mages and warlocks will be dead grey squares in amongst your raid frames but you might buy some time for another tank to taunt or a druid to battle rez.

Great for tanking 1% wipes while you hope your DoTs tick over and finish the boss off.

Dispersion works nicely when you're waiting for quest mobs to die

Multi-dotting during Dailies/Questing (for Survival and Mana)

If you have a quest or a daily that requires you to kill a bunch of mobs, find a good spawn location and DoT up maybe 4 or 5 mobs with a couple DoTs and use Dispersion while you wait for them to die. You shouldn’t lose much health at all. Unfortunately you can’t do this more than once every couple minutes, so I tend to just use Vampiric Embrace on each mob instead while I wait for them to die.

Soloing Level 60 Dungeons (Survival and Mana)

Same method as above for multi-dotting stuff while questing. Holy Nova does a good job too since so many mobs interupt/silence you in lvl 60 dungeons.

While Looting or Chain Pulling (for Mana)

Dispersion is great to use while looting trash in between trash pulls. It’s even better when your raid is moving at a fast pace because you can keep running while regenning your mana. Laugh at the casters who have to sit down to drink.

When you can’t DPS anyway (for Mana)

Good times to use Dispersion are obvious breaks in boss fights where you’re moving into position but have no targets to DPS. This is also a good time to consider using Hymn of Hope too if your healers are struggling. Examples from Ulduar:

• Mimiron’s phase transitions
• Yogg Saron’s phase 1->2 transition
• When you have to visit/stand in a Sanity Well during the Yogg Saron fight
• Razorscale if your raid is waiting for more adds to spawn
• Ignis’s slag pot since you can’t cast there anyway

“Escaping” from the opposite faction in world PVP (for Survival)

Unfortunately Dispersion only works here if you have a friend to run to (since your chances of actually killing the other player are incredibly low). Can be used to buy a few seconds thinking time after the initial attack. Usually it will just prolong the whole miserable experience. It also tells your enemy that you’re Shadow spec if you are pretending to be Discipline and “hiding” out of Shadowform (a tactic I recommend).

Love/Hate

Blizzard love Dispersion. They want us to love it too. But it’s lacking somehow. I believe that’s because it exists to serve two purposes and doesn’t excel at either.

The mana regeneration component is a fall back, and yes it’s handy on fights where you can be mana drained or pour out a lot of DoTs but Shadow Priests already have two other mana regeneration abilities, Shadowfiend and Replenishment. Two signature class (well Replenishment used to be) abilities that we have been attached to for quite some time now. Dispersion is the new kid on the block.

Getting the most out of Shadowfiend actually requires some thought and I consider that to be as much a situation-dependent decision as using Dispersion. So, in my mind, Dispersion certainly doesn’t make Shadow Priests more interesting to play.

I would much prefer to see the Shadow Priest gain double returns from Replenishment, similar to how Vampiric Embrace heals the Priest more than their party, because I think this would make soloing as a Shadow Priest more enjoyable. I, for one, struggle with mana when solo or questing at level 80 and I have to stop and resort to drinking for mana much more frequently than Lath as Moonkin.

The “survival” aspect is even more unreliable. As mentioned early in the piece Dispersion doesn’t do anything to reduce damage from a lot of stuff during raids. I see the Mages in Hodir hardmode completely ignore Flash Freeze using Ice Block and I look at Dispersion with disappointment.

It also doesn’t deter enemies in PVP who tend to stick around and just wait it out. I see players give up and run away when a Paladin bubbles, sometimes from me when I PVP with Pain Supression, and I think of Dispersion and am disappointed. Perhaps there ought to be a Glyph of Dispersion that extends the duration of the effect out to twice as long whilst restoring no additional mana?

The only time I use Dispersion and really really love it? When I’m running past all the other casters while they have to sit down and drink. Plebs!

I would miss Dispersion if Blizzard removed it altogether. However, I know several Priests at shadowpriest.com who advocate dropping the talent altogether and they don’t appear to miss it at all.

• 2 Restoration Druids
• 2 Holy Priests
• 2 Restoration Shamans

In a perfect world I would have preferred to have 1 Shaman & 1 Holy Paladin, but unfortunately Bunkiie, our main holy pally, is on holidays so we missed out on his great tank healing.

The difference between XT Hard Mode and the normal encounter is when the Heart is open and exposed to the raid, you smash it to pieces the first time it appears. This is a DPS breakthrough for a guild. If you don’t have the DPS to kill his heart, you aren’t really prepared to try any further hard modes in Ulduar. Light Bombs & Gravity Bombs also change and it becomes important for your raid to have a good strategy with how to handle these. Our raid had people run to the left if you had a Gravity Bomb, and run to a smoke flare placed to the right if you had Light Bomb. The DPS team we had on Thursday was so good, we had both a Moonkin & Elemental Shaman which made the casters happy, I didn’t even bother getting out of tree form during the heart phase and instead used this time to recoup my mana bar back up to full.

After your guild has successfully killed his heart, XT does his major raid damage move Tympanic Tantrum every minute, and Light Bombs now spawn a Life Spark which causes 2000 damage every 3 seconds to the entire raid. These 2 moves means your healing team needs to have strong AOE healers, bring at least 4!

Our Healing Strategy

Main Tank Healing
Both Shamans were on MT duty for the entirety of this fight. We also had the 2 resto druids use Rejuvenation constantly and also used Wild Growth off the tank to help out with the spike damage. The MT was also in the same group as one of our Holy Priests so during Tympanic Tantrum they benefit from Prayer of Healing as the Priest kept their group up.

Gravity Bomb/Light Bomb Healing
Unless a player was bombed during Tympanic Tantrum this was fairly easy healing. I was in charge of placing a Rejuvenation & 1 Lifebloom on each player who was targeted. If Tantrum occurred, all raid healers focused on keeping the targeted player alive as the damage caused when you have both will bring a clothie down in a matter of seconds.

Tympanic Tantrum
We set up our raid groups to best cater for Tantrum Damage

Group 1: Melee + Off Tank (DK DPS in Tanking Gear)
Group 2: Melee
Group 3: Ranged + 1 Holy Priest
Group 4: Ranged, Main Tank + 1 Holy Priest
Group 5: Healers + 1 Ranged

During Tantrum the 2 Resto Druids focused predominantly on Groups 1, 2 & 5 and let the Priests handle the damage to Groups 3 & 4 with Prayer of Healing. The priests also used Circle of Healing whenever it was off cool down which also helped with general raid healing of Groups 1, 2 & 5.

If you have a Retribution Paladin and some Shadow Priests make sure you take advantage of their passive healing abilities. Every little bit of raid healing helps.

Mana

This is a long fight and it will push your healers mana to the limits. My advice:

• Be conservative when healing prior to his heart dying. Raid damage really only steps up after the heart death, so don’t OOM yourself in the easy part.
• If your DPS is good, don’t help kill the heart. He does a Tympanic Tantrum straight after the heart goes down, so if possible sit there doing nothing until your mana bar is back at full, and then start placing Rejuvenation on the raid in preparation of his tantrum.
• Use innervate as soon as your mana bar is at 1/4 full. If you use it early enough you may be lucky and have it off cool down before the fight ends.
• Have mana pots ready. While mana even with the nerfs still hasn’t caused most Resto Druids problems, you will still need it during this fight! Its worthwhile having it there just in case as far as I’m concerned.

Even with innervate and a mana potion, I still started worrying I was going to OOM right at the end and we weren’t going to make it. This fight affects all healers with mana – one of our Shamans used both the Feral Kitty and Boomkin’s innervates in the 1 fight! I don’t know if he just wasn’t conservative or if he was doing something wrong however, the other shaman managed without a single innervate ok.

Further Reading

For a really good strategy I recommend reading the Ensidia Guide

For healing advice check out this Plus Heal Thread

Laths Musings

This fight is great for trees. On Wednesday night we tried this same fight with a different healing group, I was the only tree, and we simply couldn’t keep the raid alive through Tympanic Tantrum. We had other issues with our healing composition, however bringing a second resto druid the second night was the most major change. The resto druid 4 piece bonus makes us even stronger for this fight and trees will most likely come out on top of the healing meters for those who are into that type of thing!

Overall the strategy for this fight is fairly simple, its just important that your raiders know where to move when they’re targeted with a bomb. To me this is a ready check to make sure your raid is geared enough to keep trying other Ulduar hard modes.

Bring on Heroic: I Could Say That This Cache Was Rare!