Kailand's 10 Man

[Orcala]

I'm out again tonight to finish up car crap, have fun! hahaha

[Kailand]

Great work tonight guys, Nefarion, and one shot Al'Akir. Thursday we will clear Bastion of twilight. With the patch potentially coming next week, we will go to firelands right away, gear up a bit and come back and to the hard modes/other achievements. Also, Draegloth, the legendary staff will go to you first, so make sure you are ready with the quest line, etc. if we can get a second one it will go to Zuworty.

[Draegloth]

SUPER GROOVY!! I've read up on the entire quest line for the staff. Looks pretty tasty and I do like to eat *grin*

First stage is 3 sands of time (vendor purchase @ 3k each) and 25 eternal embers (chaos orbs of the firelands). If it ends up that eternal embers are BoE, I shall snatch them up as fast as they hit the market. They also drop from Fireland's bosses. Then 25 seething cinders (the orange BoP goodies looted from Fireland's Bosses as well but not avail until after the 25 eternal ember stage from what i read pre-4.2). Last the heart of Ragnaros. Lots of little quests in between, but these are the guts of quest line.

Sounds like a blast!

[Draegloth]

SUPER GROOVY!! I've read up on the entire quest line for the staff. Looks pretty tasty and I do like to eat *grin*

First stage is 3 sands of time (vendor purchase @ 3k each) and 25 living embers (chaos orbs of the firelands). If it ends up that eternal embers are BoE, I shall snatch them up as fast as they hit the market. They also drop from Fireland's bosses. Then 25 seething cinders (the orange BoP goodies looted from Fireland's Bosses as well but not avail until after the 25 eternal ember stage from what i read pre-4.2). Last the heart of Ragnaros. Lots of little quests in between, but these are the guts of quest line.

Sounds like a blast!

[Draegloth]

Apparently I am not proficient in posting from my iPhone. I was trying to edit and change freaking eternal embers to living embers. Instead I just duplicated the post :-(

[Ascoli]

After heroic Halfus, the most killed (so easiest?) heroic bosses are Atramedes followed by Chimaeron.

The mechanics for Atramedes remain mostly unchanged, it seems the one big difference is during ground phases there is an add (with 155k health) that fixates on someone and needs to be interrupted/nuked down. He also destroys a gong during the ground phase so we won't have the luxury of 2 gongs per air phase.

For Chimaeron, for mechanics the only differences are he will keep hitting the tanks during the stacking and there is a debuff that afflicts everyone during the nuke phase. Most guides I read suggest using a dps as a 3rd "tank" who takes the job of the MT eats all the breaks (Sard or Orcala I guess, can't be in tank spec as the extra DPS will be important). The OT (Ascoli) does the same as always and eats the double attacks and then during the stacking phase, Holy would have to take over tanking due to increased damage and to let the breaks drop off the DPS otherwise they will eventually go splat. When we spread out, the dps should have lost his stack of breaks and be able to tank again. The most challenging thing will be the transition as you want everyone to be pretty much topped off when it happens.

Here are some links with decent detailed strats and descriptions of the fights:

Atramedes

Chimaeron

Here are the tankspot guides (25-man, but should be good enough):

Atramedes

Chimaeron

[Ascoli]

As predicted:

- There are now fewer Hell Hounds before Beth’tilac, making the engagement a little less… hellish.

- Creatures linked to Shannox will now respawn every 4 hours until he is killed, up from 2 hours.

Looks like Holyssa and Orcala declined for tomorrow so the raid is most likely off (unless they change their minds). I'll probably try to get a group or two running some Zandalari randoms to get a few valor points for the week if people are interested.

[Martok]

Sorry folks...I'm gonna be traveling this evening. I put out as tentative for Thursday as well...I don't know if I am coming home on Thursday or Friday yet.

[Martok]

Ok, looks like I'll be able to be there Thursday night. I'll be cutting it close!

[Kailand]

Ok, looks like I'll be able to be there Thursday night. I'll be cutting it close!

Yay *happy dance*

We will be trying shannox, although they are making that stone bus (Rhyolith) easier to control, as well as making him favor volcanoes infront of him.

Also I'd like Orcala And Sarduakkar to put together an assist macro for next time we do Rhyolith so that they are always attacking Ascoli's target without the need for calling out stuff. You can use the example below, and replace ***ability*** with the ability that you use very frequently... probably Mortal Strike for Sarduakkar, and Shred for Orcala, and just set Ascoli as your focus target, and make sure you use this macro instead of that ability for Rhyolith, or any fight where focus fire target switching is required.

#showtooltip ***ability***

/target [target=focustarget, harm, nodead]

/cast ***ability***

[Kailand]

Good night guys, we got shannox down the first time we saw him with only 5 attempts (would have been 4 but orcala prematurely pulled on the first attempt), got some BoE drops from the trash, and we worked out some stuff with Lord Rhyolith.

I've done some additional reading on lord Rhyolith, and it looks like we have the basics down fairly good. All the videos I've seen have the ranged group/healers closer to the middle, and some movement when required to less volcano infested areas. I'm wondering if it could be the dots as the reason for the slower turning, but for the most part is looks like the overall driving is doing well.

As for tuesday, we will kill the loot pinata's (Occu and Shanny) first, and then go try beth again... I'm sure we are all sick of Rhyolith for a bit. The way that I think we are going to try it, is have the upstair group (Kadiana, Holyssa, Sarduakkar, and Orcala) pull down their 4 spiders, and have kadi/holyssa go up, while orcala and sard help us kill the 4, and then go up after they are dead, since the bottom group will be fairly busy during the transitions dealing with drone and small fry.

The 3D fight looks like it may be fairly doable for us too, we will give that a go on thursday I think... only a few need to be in the air, and preferable ranged. so read up on Alysrazor.

[Martok]

AHHHHH

Catching a last min flight down to Florida and back on Thursday into Friday. Work calls! Sorry folks!

[Ascoli]

Looks like Orcala is also missing tonight so going to Alysrazor is a waste if time if you ask me (it's a fairly complex fight and since everyone has to do their part having people missing will only mess with the learning curve). Better off working on Ryo and/or Beth again.

Lord Ryolith is just an annoying rng fight, I think we have the strat down and we just need practice.

For Beth'tilac I think we should focus on trying to get to p2:

* Only send Holy + healer up

* Ascoli tanks drones + Drae killing them

* Kailand + Sky killing spiderlings

* melee dps bringing down and killing spinners (don't go taunt crazy, kill the ones you brought down before you taunt again)

If we end up dying to the frenzy we can adjust later and send some dps up...

[Kailand]

Great work tonight guys. We saw P2 of both beth and Rhyolith. Now that we know we can get to the burn phases, now to do it more cleanly so we can knock these guys down.

[Ascoli]

I should be unlocking the ilvl 365 blacksmithing weapon patterns from the molten front some time this week (possibly Tuesday). I should have enough chaos orbs to make 2-3 weapons after I make mine so if you don't expect to get a 378 soon you might consider getting one of these crafted in the meantime.

[Ascoli]

Baleroc!

Here's some info on Baleroc, the next fight (might even attempt it tonight!)

Basic abilities:

* Baleroc leaves a debuff on the tank which increases their health and physical damage taken by 20%.

* Baleroc does 2 types of attacks, one with takes 90% of the tank's health (for a min of 250k) and the other which just does a ton of fire damage.

* Every 35? seconds a crystal appears which does shadow damage on closest player (raid wipe if no one is within 15yds) and leaves a debuff which increases shadows damage and reduces healing done. When people with this debuff get healed the healer which healed them gains stacks of vital spark.

* When healers heal a tank their vital sparks become vital flames and they do 5% more healing (to the tanks) per vital spark for 15 seconds.

Strat:

* OT starts the fight, gets 2-3 stack and from then on his only job is to soak the decimation blade (the attack which takes 90% of the tank's health). When decimation blade is up (lasts 15 seconds) the boss' time between attack is increased by 100% (but not sure how slow that is) so OT needs to be back up to 250k in between those hits.

* Otherwise MT tanks the boss and gains millions of health.

* DPS set up a rotation to soak up the crystal debuff (I believe 2-3 players per shard is enough). (DPS and tanks must stay away!)

* Healers set up a rotation so there is always a healer with vital flame healing the tank. Meanwhile, the other two are building stacks of vital sparks by healing the DPS eating the crystal debuff.

Detailed strat: Icy Veins.

Vids (both 25-man):

TankSpot

Edited July 21, 2011 by Ascoli

[Elrikk]

Sorry for the late notice, but I won't be around tonight. Meeting up with an old friend that might have some good job opportunities for me in the near future.

I'll let you know if things change.

[Kailand]

WEll, we made good progress tonight, we will have baleroc down once orcala and sard learn the fight *hint read up*.

[Ascoli]

I went through the logs to look at decimation strike, it seems absorb effects are the only ones that work at reducing the damage. I had trouble figuring out which effect was doing the absorption but I assume all types of bubbles work (I guess I'll have to remember to heal myself before the hit instead of after). I can also confirm hand of sacrifice does work.

[Calendar]

Hey guys,

I got back earlier from vacation and will be available for raiding tonight!

Yay!

[Holyssa]

Great job killing super chicken last night, but I think these hotfixes may explain why the raid felt a little...simpler than usual:

Classes

Threat

Threat generation for all tanks has been increased to 500%, up from 300%. This applies to warriors in Defensive Stance, death knights in Blood Presence, druids in Bear Form, and paladins with Righteous Fury.

Vengeance should no longer be generated when damage is fully absorbed by damage shields. When the shield breaks from damage or damage is partially absorbed, the amount of Vengeance generated is equal to the full amount of damage taken (including the damage absorbed.)

More information can be found in our latest Dev Watercooler.

Dungeons & Raids

Baradin Hold

Occu’thar has come into a larger supply of PvE gear than he previously possessed.

Firelands

Hell Hounds should now be nigh impossible for a single player to kill.

The Grab Bag dropped by all Firelands bosses should now occasionally contain Crystallized Firestones in Heroic difficulty.

Baleroc

Baleroc should now always choose Inferno Blade the first time he casts Blades of Baleroc.

Beth’tilac

Beth'tilac now does slightly less damage on normal difficulty.

Lord Rhyolith

The explosion damage radius of each Magma Meteor just before Lord Rhyolith should now more closely match their spell effect visuals.

Volcanoes should no longer emit plumes of smoke while they are dormant.

Concussive Stomp should no longer knock nearby players back.

Magma Flow lines are now 30 yards long, down from 40 yards.

Rhyolith now activates volcanoes less often on normal difficulty.

Stepping on an active volcano now removes 16 stacks of armor, up from 10.

Majordomo Fandral Staghelm

All threat generated in this encounter has been reduced in Heroic difficulty.

Ragnaros

Ragnaros’s Sons of Flame should now be immune to silence effects.

Shannox

Shannox, Riplimb and Rageface have all had their damage reduced slightly on normal difficulty.

Quests

Players should now be able to keep the Quest Giver buff from the quest Welcome to the Machine in Hillsbrad Foothills.

[Ascoli]

Great job killing super chicken last night, but I think these hotfixes may explain why the raid felt a little...simpler than usual:

I'm not convinced these hotfixes were (all) active last night since threat didn't seem any higher and Ryolith should have died faster (due to armor dropping faster), but in any case, onto the next boss! Majordomo Staghelm.

Here are some videos (both 25-man but should give the idea) and the detailed info:

Tankspot video

Icy Veins detailed info

Basic strat:

* Staghelm can take 3 different forms: scorpion, cat and night elf. The raid configuration decides if he will be in cat of scorpion form. Every 3rd transformation he changes to a night elf.

* To initiate and throughout the scorpion form at least 7 people must stack. Not much going on here, stay stacked to split the damage.

* To initiate the cat form, people need to spread out, stay spread out since he leaps on people and leaves a fire puddle.

* When he transitions to human form he uses one of two different abilities depending on which form he was before the switch. From scorpion he casts burning orbs and from cat he casts searing seeds.

* On burning orbs he summons 2 orbs and the closest people take a stacking debuff and you need to swap so the people don't die.

* On searing seed, a bunch of people get a debuff which causes an explosion when it expires, run out of the group when it's got about 6 seconds left.

That's basically it, the damage increases as he uses his abilities and shifts. Try and minimize the number of transformations while keeping the damage at a reasonable level...

Edited August 17, 2011 by Ascoli

[Martok]

Most likely going to be late tonight. Will let you know! Up to 30 mins

[Draegloth]

Hello Folks. I went ahead and picked up a FL run last night to get my 1 remaining eternal ember. I managed to snag one and also see heroic Shannox and Ryo. I think we can do those bad boys =) Any who, The next stage in the quest line requires a fresh ID and a new boss, Volcanus. Here is the scoop:

While fighting Lord Rhyolith you loot the Rhyolite Fragments from Rhyolite Fragments which randomly spawn around the edge of the area (note: possible link to the volcano spawns, but those are random as well). Gather three of these and create a Dull Rhyolite Focus, which is then used just before he uses concussive stomp. He has to stand on it almost directly so make sure you're pretty close before using it. Loot the Charged Rhyolite Focus afterwards.

While fighting Beth'tilac you loot the Obsidian-Flecked Chitin Fragments from Obsidian-Flecked Chitin, three of which spawn when a drone is killed. Gather them and create a Dull Chitinous Focus, which is then used on top of the web just before she uses smoldering devastation. Go back up once it's safe and loot your Charged Chitinous Focus.

While fighting Shannox you loot the Emberstone Fragments from Emberstone Fragments, one of which spawns when a crystal trap is destroyed. Gather three of them and create a Dull Emberstone Focus, which is then used just before he throws his spear. The spear has to hit the focus so make sure you're close. Once the fire has died down loot the Charged Emberstone Focus.

While fighting Alysrazor you loot the Pyreshell Fragments from Pyreshell Fragments, one of which spawns when an egg hatches. Gather three of these and create a Dull Pyreshell Focus, which is then used just before she reaches full power (100 energy). It doesn't matter how close you are so just drop it where you're standing at around 90 energy and then loot your Charged Pyreshell Focus. Note that only two of the fragments spawn at a time, and that if you are usually flying around you will have to switch roles (or just have no-one flying at the start) to do this.

A very important note if you want to get Dragonwrath as soon as possible: do NOT kill any of these bosses. You can loot your charged focus then just wipe and move on to the next boss. Also note that if your raid is willing to let you do this, it only takes a few minutes to do the quests in between this one and Time Grows Short as there is no fighting or anything involved, it's just travelling and cutsecenes. To make this as quick as possible I'd advise setting your hearthstone to somewhere near Amber Ledge, like Williamson for Horde or "Charlie" Northtop for Alliance.

Once you have all four of the charged foci go to the portal near Beth'tilac and use them. After entering the portal you begin the encounter with Volcanus, which is a three phase fight.

Phase 1 - just interrupt and kill all of the Harbinger of Flame. You can burn mana and cooldowns to make this easier as phase two starts only when the player on the quest tries to loot the branch.

Phase 2 - Tormented Protector will need to be tanked at the entrance portal. He casts entangling roots which does damage, but only dispel them AFTER he does his stomp. If you dispel them beforehand you will get knocked back an enormous distance and die. Once he does his stomp dispel them as soon as possible. Small treants will spawn periodically and act identically do the transition phase adds on Ragnaros: they must be killed before they reach the treant. Ranged should deal with them. At the end of this phase he becomes friendly and casts Blessed Defender of Nordrassil on the player on the quest.

Phase 3 - Volcanus will fixate on the player on the quest (who is transformed into a huge tree of life) so tanking will not be an issue. Use ALL DPS cooldowns and burn him down quickly. There are a few spells to avoid, so as always do NOT stand in the fire. Healers have to compete with constant raid damage.

See you groovy cats on Tuesday. I hope we can rock this out. Have a great labor day all.

[Skywatcher]

Wow. The first bit is kind of like the Onyxia part of the old Quel'Serrar quest, only 4 times over.