SSC and TK raid info

[Zebgora]

Look at the first post of this thread =)

There are 2 links

Thanks found it and went through and looked over the list and saw only a couple of things but i havent submitted it yet because I do not know approximatly how many badges I need. And I can't for the life of me find any where that any new badge vendor loot is listed or how many badges anything takes.

Should I just leave it blank for now? And the things I did see would be for my main spec..not that mages have an offspecc though I guess^^

[Kailand]

Look at the first post of this thread =)

There are 2 links

Thanks found it and went through and looked over the list and saw only a couple of things but i havent submitted it yet because I do not know approximatly how many badges I need. And I can't for the life of me find any where that any new badge vendor loot is listed or how many badges anything takes.

Should I just leave it blank for now? And the things I did see would be for my main spec..not that mages have an offspecc though I guess^^

New badge loot is here: http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=25046#sells:0+10+1

Also note it won't be available until probably around the end april.

[Baracko]

For those of you who refuse to use mods, here is some food for thought:

Quote from: Drysc

"No, I think we assume that those who are working on the extreme endgame PvE content are going to be doing anything they can in order to help increase their chances for success. By both embracing the UI mod community and their addons, as well as assuming that players are going to be using them to great effect versus our encounters, we have to design encounters that assume their use or the encounter is trivialized by those on vent, those with a countdown, those with a threat meter, etc. Once a lot of the guess work is removed with mods we have to raise the complexity beyond what a mod can purely assist with. I think at this point we're forced to assume everyone is using mods to great effect versus our design complexity, which in turn forces everyone to use those mods. It's probably somewhat debatable what mods are required and where, but it's certain that we have to take them into account, lest the game be trivialized.

UI Mods have become an integral part of the game for many players, and we've been extremely pleased with the amount of customization and information they're able to provide. We're continually working to assess and implement new UI features, many of which have come straight from the community, to help ensure that the default UI is as full featured as possible while remaining uncluttered, clean, attractive, and easily approached."

--------

I think I can speak very surely when I say that Vashj is one of the more difficult encounters in the game, necessitating the use of mods. Heck... Morogrim, Lurker, Leo... all of them would be much much harder without them, and would test even more that patience of casuals with limited raid time.

Edited April 1, 2008 by Baracko

[Calendar]

Hey guys,

In order to remove some of the confusion with the positioning of players during Phase 2 of the Vashj fight, I did a small diagram. Note that at this point such visuals shouldn't be necessary, but I still get the feeling that people aren't quite sure where they should be.

We are sometimes getting too many Elementals on top with way too much health. While Tainted Elementals should be a priority, it shouldn't be a sole person's responsibility to take them down. Healers and DPSers should be near the top of the stairs and keep an eye out for Striders. As Striders get closer to the group, players should carefully take a few steps down the stairs to avoid getting feared or cleaved.

Anyone that isn't in a side group or kiting an Elemental, should find themselves at the center of the top platform. They should be mindful of the Striders and Nagas, they both cleave and will 1 shot anyone but a tank.

Red = Melee DPS

Blue = Healer

Green = Range DPS

Note: I haven't bother putting down actual player names, I'm assuming most of you know where you fall in this picture. Besides we may be doing a few more tweaks in the near future.

Hope this helps a bit,

Cal

[Waldonnis]

Some tips, based on our last batch of attempts:

1. Know where you are directionally. If you're north, know you're north without having to look around. This makes it much easier to get in position for tainted core relays, picking up the topside baddies, or grabbing runaway elementals.
   
2. Call naga and striders as soon as you see them spawn, along with the direction ("strider north"). Too often, I've seen a strider already nearing Vashj before anyone mentions it. Kiters/naga tanks have to start moving quickly to keep these things from 1-shotting people, and the early warning is extremely helpful for this.
   
3. DO NOT GO NEAR THE KITING PATH. I can't stress this enough. The reason so many people die around a netted strider is because they're often in the kiting path. The striders are the largest things in the encounter, so zoom out a bit and make sure to stay VERY clear of them.
   
4. Monitor your debuffs. Please don't wait until Cal mentions that you have static charge on TS before you start moving. TS has a 1-3sec delay at times and by then, you may have killed a clothy (and made the healers grumpy). Various boss mods help with this and will let you see who has the debuff as well and/or announce it somewhere more visible on your screen.
   
5. Stay alive. Bring health potions, nightmare seeds, etc if you need to and use them. Healers, don't forget to heal yourself sometimes too
   
6. Green poo is bad, mmkay? This is really a phase 3 thing, but since we haven't seen phase 3 much, I wanted to remind people about the evils of standing in stuff. "Don't stand in stuff" is the unofficial motto of boss fight designers, apparently, and we've seen this plenty of times in the past...so, basically, don't stand in stuff.
   
7. Lastly, don't stand in front of the naga unless you're tanking them. I've eaten one of those cleaves and they hurt badly. Don't be me, avoid the cleave. Besides, have you smelled a naga's breath?
   

Only other thing that I can't stress enough: we CAN do this. We're geared for it, we've seen it, we just need to DO it.

[Kailand]

[*]Lastly, don't stand in front of the naga unless you're tanking them. I've eaten one of those cleaves and they hurt badly. Don't be me, avoid the cleave. Besides, have you smelled a naga's breath?

That might be the reason for the cleave: to wave away thier bad breath. I really feel sorry for Calandor and Holyssa, may they bring tic tacs to use against the nagas.

All wackiness aside, Waldonnis is right - situational awareness and personal responsibility is key. We need to stop making excuses and do our jobs. We have managed to finally get the top under control, so now other hidden issues in regards to situational awareness are appearing. The key thing is to look around, and take all the information in: striders are the biggest thing around - if you can't move out of thier way in time then you aren't paying attention. if you notice that you are always in the way between the strider and the center then you need to reposition yourself (same thing applies to nagas). Also (i'm not sure on this) the elementals may spawn from specific points along the sides, so take note of them and position your self to optimally DPS them down from thier spawning points. If for some reason you aren't doing your assigned job properly, and someone else in the raid has to compensate, then you are taking them away from thier assigned task.

As for standing in the poop: we've all done it on occassion, but the key thing is notice that you are in it ASAP, and move - do not stop to finish casting or to get in one more hit, but MOVE!. This applies to bomb type debuffs (another mechanic blizzard seems to like) such as the one for solarion and vashj: your extra 1 second worth of casting/dpsing isn't going to make a difference except you will kill off fellow raid members and waste healer mana.

I'm willing to put up with the occasional mistakes that causes a wipe as long as that person learns from it, and the rest of us learn from it too, but if you aren't correcting it, then you are a liability. and to reiterate Waldonnis' point we are probably overgeared compared to most groups for this encounter (it's been done with T3 geared groups, and groups with most of the people still in kara/level 70 instance blues.)

[Waldonnis]

One more thing worth mentioning...

I know that we all use Omen (or should), but it's accuracy is in heavy question lately with all of the combat log changes as well as some changes to threat mechanics that aren't exactly bug-free. So PLEASE treat Omen as just an additional source of info and NOT as if it were a solid fact. You may be 8th on the threat list on Omen, but if you pulled aggro, it's not Omen's fault. We all should know our own threat generation roughly by now and can "feel" it out. For me, if I crit 2-3 times in a row, I know I should probably ease up a second or two if it's early in the fight or right after a threat-wiping transition. This is less of a concern on Vashj, but I wanted to reiterate it since we seemed to have some aggro problems on the farm content. In time, Omen and Threat-2.0 will improve, but for now, it's just not quite there. In short, push the line, but always be mindful that what Omen says may not be accurate.

[Zebgora]

BTW on just checking to watch again just for giggles, I noticed that thevideos of the Vashj and Kael fights are not found or something. The links work and take you to a page where you can't see them for free it seems.

[Martok]

Healer Report from Thursday attempt:

As I told all the healers and Cal: Great job! We are definately improving. Markenhoof: Great job on "swinging" from side duty to top duty when there was no strider.

I would suggest all the healers look at the WWS report to see where they might be able to "tweak" their performance.

VERY good job on the de-poisoning. This was the best week for this. I didn't notice any death due to poison.

On future attempts: Please remember to bring full consumables. Bring a flask and some elixirs. If you can't make your own flask, bring the MATS and Mother Kalea can make em for ya! Mana oil is also a must! 14mp5 really helps! I try to always bring extra, but if you need some made, seek out Waldonnis.

Stam food or +healing is needed as well!

[Waldonnis]

Strider group did awesome on the last few attempts and we look to be tightening up and knocking them down with time to spare early on. Latter striders seem to go down progressively slower, but I think we can solve that by getting and staying ahead of the strider spawns better to allow Rahgesh some time to get into position.

Notes for the strider group:

• Watch positioning. I saw some folks get a bit too close to the striders, especially by the fallen pillar area. Even if you don't get clipped by the fear, it's just easier to stay a tad closer to the centre. If you position yourself well, you shouldn't need to move much to stay in range throughout the kite circle (shadowpriest range is an issue, however).
  
• Snares, stuns, roots...INVALUABLE. The more time we can give Rahgesh to cast things aside from frost shock, the more threat he can sustain, so whatever you can safely do, go for it. We're already using nets, but other ideas are frost nova, mind flay, concussion shot, frost trap, hammer of justice, and quite a few others.
  
• Steady damage and moderate threat is what we really need to see. On the earlier attempts, I watched us burn 50% of the striders' health in the last 20secs, but the first 40secs were slow and spiky damage- and threat-wise. If we can keep the damage output high and steady, as we did in the final few attempts, the striders go down comparatively faster and with less threat issues.
  

Side groups, I was pretty busy up top but tried to keep an eyeball on what was going on. Things looked good from my perspective, but noticed some bad luck and coincidences that we need to work through. I know it sucks when naga and striders spawn at the same time and place as a tainted, but we'll probably just have to deal with that somehow (they do have to spawn somewhere...usually in the worst possible spot). Best advice I can give is keeping an eyeball on the spawn timers and save any AoE-ish abilities if at all possible until they're out of the way.

In all, I'm quite pleased at the progress. We may not have hit phase 3, but we are showing definite signs of improvement in organisation and execution.

[Houli]

I wana tip my hat to Helreath, he was not feeling well yet managed to dps the striders uptop with you folks and yet kept enough dps on the side for me to take care of the elementals i was responsible for (south side). His ability to dodge striders, and dps multiple areas when applicable (being a dot lock helps Happy Birthday! ) is the kind of multi'tasking / situational awarness we all need to pwn' this ######.

Also! kalea and i chatted about her ability to heal topside folk when prudent, on top of her specific group!

keep up the good work folks, I think we all felt good after thurs' given the fact taht we felt like we were get'n in a groove.

Vashj has gone from a possible kill to an INEVITABLE kill!

-Harne

[Holyssa]

Congrats to everyone tonight: Vashj is finally dead!

[Holyssa]

Sorry about the double-post, but since Orcala can't register (board owners: fix yer sh!t!), she says:

"Grats to everyone and especially Perforated and Taiden for great teamwork on West side! (oh and thanks Borealis for healing me when I got the static charge, I probably would have died a few times for moving too far from the healers if you weren't there) See you all next week... when I'm old and grey waaaaah"

[Eigun]

Grats again to everyone for last night - definitely one of the highlights of my gaming experience!

On another note, I won't be around on the 22nd and 24th - I'll be out of town on a business trip. Hopefully my replacement will be able to handle the excitement!

[Holyssa]

If you're having trouble viewing the Kael'thas tutorial at Warcraftmovies.com, here's a stream from Curse. It's loading 3x faster for me, at least. Easier on the eyes too.

http://videos.curse.com/details/632/

For those of you who have experienced Heroic MrT Kael'thas, he's very similar as a standalone mob, but there's twice as much room for what I like to call the RBS (Random BullSh!t) factor, and he has 4 very big pals.

If anything, your encounter with the 5-man version is but a demo: interrupting spellcasts, dealing with adds, getting by the damn barrier, and learning to swim during Gravity Lapse.

Study the video, and let's make our experience with this maggot short yet victorious.

Edited April 11, 2008 by Holyssa

[Zebgora]

Great instructional video. This Tamzin seems to put those together very well. And hey did anyone else see they ended the video in CoT? Maybe the next thing we'll see from them is a Hyjal boss! We'll probably need it anyway

[Waldonnis]

I've watched a number of Kael'thas videos from various perspectives at this point and as an overall tactical/encounter familiarity video, Tamzin's is by far the best...I highly recommend watching it a few times since there's so much info to process. If you'd like to see videos from various perspectives (tanking, casters, healing, etc), there are numerous videos out there that are quite well done and show things like healthbars and incoming damage. Personally, I like to watch the ones that will help me understand what special info may be needed from a warlock perspective (such as "nether protection for the warlock tank is bad" ).

That being said, I cannot stress enough just how important it is to know about this fight in advance. Vashj is a tough fight to plan for and obviously was a pain to execute...as is this one, but probably the hardest thing about Kael'thas is explaining it to people before a pull (which also takes entirely too much time if they're completely unfamiliar). Do yourself and the rest of us a favour and don't walk in without knowing what's coming and what you might have to do role-wise.

One other thing...we have a fairly short window to loot the legendary weapons during the fight, so PLEASE don't park your character on top of one of them when that time comes. Macros help for targetting and looting, but trying to get in range to loot can be problematic when there's a big fat Tauren on top of the weapon you're going to need. Get in, loot your weapon, and get to your positions immediately afterwards. Oh, and some of those weapons have a "Use" ability...read up on the weapon you'll likely have and what situations its ability will be useful for.

After watching our execution on Vashj, I have a ton of confidence that we can perform as well against Kael'thas

[Calendar]

Hey guys,

I'd just like ask everyone to maybe take a moment and review their DKP standings off the website (see the first post for links). I've recently been having issues with the mod & application used to accumulate the DKP and store it on the web page. It would seem the mod goes a little berserk while in-game and often wrongfully charges DKP. I've been doing my best to re-adjust and correct these mistakes out of game but I would certainly appreciate you guys taking a glimpse at what was awarded and charged under your name.

If you find any irregularities please let me know and I'll fix them ASAP.

Thanks,

Cal

[Baracko]

WATCH THE DAMN VIDEO! KNOW YOUR DAMN ROLE!

*cracks the whip*

Goal for Thursday: At least get the weapons grouped properly in phase 2.

Goal that will make Bar crap his pants: Getting through phase 3.

See ya bums Thursday!

[Holyssa]

With regards to the "changed" Void Reaver, he's still relatively easy to kill as long as you keep in mind a few things:

~He will not target his Arcane Orb victim.

~Combat Logs will not report him launching the Orbs. Boss mods can't save you here!

With that in mind...

~Do NOT rely on Omen. Deadly BossMods or BigWigs

~Watch the sky if you're a ranged class, and keep moving.

~Orbs have been known to hit melee DPS as well. Like ranged DPS, healers must keep moving & pay extra attention.

~If you're melee, bring a bit of Arcane Resist for this, but don't gimp yourself.

~Stock up on those TK-exclusive Vapor potions.

~Did I mention you should keep moving?

[Maube]

definitely keep moving - some of the orbs you dont ever se e- you just get hit with them =p

[Holyssa]

Good job on enduring the bug-happy Void Reaver, and an even better job at Kael progress!

I know Cal has given you guys specific instructions to watch Tamzin's film, but here's a list of the boss abilities in detail so you know what to expect next week (my comments in bold):

Thaladred the Darkener (getting used to the Gaze switch is tricky, but it will need much work in order to survive Phase 3).

* ~360k HP

* Melee – 3-4k on plate plus 2.5k every tick for 12 seconds

* Gaze – Fixes aggro to a random person in raid; 9 second cooldown

* Psychic Blow – 4-5k damage plus knockback to his current target, 30 yard range

* Silence – Silences anyone within 8 yards

Lord Sanguinar (no problem here, but Fear Ward needs to be on-the-ball)

* ~350k HP

* Melee – 3-4k on plate

* Bellowing Roar – 35 yard AoE fear centered on himself, 1.5 second cast, no agro reset

Grand Astromancer Capernian (I noticed some people other than myself soak up Conflag on almost every attempt. READ THE UNDERLINED PART!!)

* ~210k HP

* Fireball – 6-7k single-target fire damage

* Conflagration – Randomly targets players within 30 yards; causes disorient effect with 600-900 damage per second plus 300 damage per second to all players within 8 yards of the debuffed player. Capernian will not attack players afflicted by conflagration.

* Arcane Explosion – 4.5k Arcane damage plus knockback and slow debuff; only used if players are in melee range

(For Cappy, I will stand just shy of the 30 yard mark & spot heal the warlock tank. Someone with a fat HP pool will have to fill this role in Phase 3 though)

Master Engineer Telonicus (No issue here, but I must remind people: gimme time to lay on some burst threat & run back from playing human matchstick with Cappy)

* ~360k HP

* Bomb – 7-9k fire in a small AoE centered on current target's location, 1.5 second cast

* Remote Toy – 60 sec debuff placed on a random player, periodically stuns the affected player for 4 seconds

For a list of the Legendary weapons used in this fight, click this Wowhead filter & study their uses.

[Calendar]

Hey guys,

Great job last night! I thought our progress on Kael'Thas was awesome, keep up the good work!

A few notes however:

For Phase 1:

- Holyssa is right about Capernian, we often see people INSIDE the 30 yard range. I don't think all of you quite understand just how far 30 yards is! Both Baracko and I were getting pretty sick having to repeat for people to back up. Please pay more attention next time, take a look at your skills and try to figure what your options are OUTSIDE of the 30 yard range. If there's nothing you can do, then you MUST sit the fight out (it's not a DPS race). Also, DO NOT DPS CAPERNIAN UNTIL SHE IS IN PLACE!

For Phase 2:

- Great job with the weapons, but we need to figure out a good plan to get them down faster!

- Here's the proposed DPS schedule for phase 2:

- Casters DPS the bow while melee DPS staff (both should go down at the same time)

- AoE casters DPS all weapons while single target casters and melee DPS target the mace.

- Single target casters & melee move on to shield (all weapons with the exception of maybe the axe should go down at the same time)

- Everyone who doesn't have a specific role in Phase 3 finishes off the Axe

If anyone has any suggestions please let us know!

Cal

Edited April 18, 2008 by Calendar

[Markenhoof]

We talked yesterday about PvP'ing for a trinket for the Rage Winterchill fight. My question is what one? the Insignia of the Horde or the Medallion of the Horde?

Insignia of the Horde - removes movement imparing effects (5 min cooldown) 2,805 honor

Medallion of the Horde - removes movement imparing effects and 20 resilience. (2 min cooldown.) 16,983 honor

[Holyssa]

I personally recommend the Medallion, despite its (sort of) intimidating price. The shorter cooldown & tiny resilience boost will make the difference between life & death, especially from a healer's standpoint.

16k honor isn't too difficult to acquire either. Do your PvP dailies!