I've decided to Singlebox WotLK, and just mainly do raids with my Deathknight.
I have taken up Eve Online, where i box 3 accounts for now. It's an interesting game with alot of potential. I needed something new, and Eve has provided me with that. This blog will no longer be updated frequently. It's been fun though, and well worth the time invested.
torsdag 11. desember 2008
onsdag 24. september 2008
Instances in WotLK Expansion: Drak'Tharon Keep
Drak'tharon Keep is a Troll stronghold between the Grizzly Hills and Zul'Drak zones. Recommended level is 74-76 or anywhere around there. For multiboxing it will be fairly easy I think. A couple of thrash mobs have a void zone ability that hurts alot, but these mobs can be nuked down pretty fast. Other than that you have some thrash towards the end that will constantly fear one character at a time. Final thrash pack is 2 of these mobs, and dealing with the constant fears could be tricky for non-shammy teams.
The instance has 4 bosses in normal. Trollgore is the first boss. A very simple tank & spank fight. Possibly retuned since I was last there. He will occationally call 2 adds to his side (I cant remember if we killed them, or the boss himself killed them) but they die rather fast and the boss will do a Corpse Explotion spell on them. When I grinded the instance this encounter was trivial and we never even got close to wiping.
Novos the Summoner AKA "Undead Aran" is the second boss. When you approach him you'll start an event and alot of adds will come swarming in. They are easily killed and only a few of them are elites. The boss has no aggro-list, but he was tauntable when I did the instance so I was able to absorb alot of his spells (Deathknights are great at absorbing magic damage). This could have made the encounter feel easier than it really was. Again, we were nowhere near wiping in any of our kills, so a simple nuke strategy is probably the answer. I would compare him to Omor the Unscarred, final boss of Hellfire Ramparts.
Edit: I hear they have changed this fight since I was in there, so I'll have to redo this boss to see whats different.
King Dred, the 3rd boss, is a T-Rex which to me felt alittle out of place in this instance. It's a simple tank & spank fight with aoe fears.
Final boss is interesting. A 2 phased fight. The Prophet Tharon'ja phase 1 is a tank & spank phase. When he's taken some damage (20% if I recall correct) he will change form and change all players into skeletons. In skeleton from you're basically a melee unit with some skills. Taunt, heal, shield, and you can rotate tanking him. Since all skills will be the same on all characters he should be easy for a boxer. You might wanna use the taunt skill individually on your characters.
Overall Multiboxing rating: Easy.
The instance has 4 bosses in normal. Trollgore is the first boss. A very simple tank & spank fight. Possibly retuned since I was last there. He will occationally call 2 adds to his side (I cant remember if we killed them, or the boss himself killed them) but they die rather fast and the boss will do a Corpse Explotion spell on them. When I grinded the instance this encounter was trivial and we never even got close to wiping.
Novos the Summoner AKA "Undead Aran" is the second boss. When you approach him you'll start an event and alot of adds will come swarming in. They are easily killed and only a few of them are elites. The boss has no aggro-list, but he was tauntable when I did the instance so I was able to absorb alot of his spells (Deathknights are great at absorbing magic damage). This could have made the encounter feel easier than it really was. Again, we were nowhere near wiping in any of our kills, so a simple nuke strategy is probably the answer. I would compare him to Omor the Unscarred, final boss of Hellfire Ramparts.
Edit: I hear they have changed this fight since I was in there, so I'll have to redo this boss to see whats different.
King Dred, the 3rd boss, is a T-Rex which to me felt alittle out of place in this instance. It's a simple tank & spank fight with aoe fears.
Final boss is interesting. A 2 phased fight. The Prophet Tharon'ja phase 1 is a tank & spank phase. When he's taken some damage (20% if I recall correct) he will change form and change all players into skeletons. In skeleton from you're basically a melee unit with some skills. Taunt, heal, shield, and you can rotate tanking him. Since all skills will be the same on all characters he should be easy for a boxer. You might wanna use the taunt skill individually on your characters.
Overall Multiboxing rating: Easy.
lørdag 20. september 2008
Instances in WotLK Expansion: Azjol Nerub
First a couple of words on the status of Deathknigts and tanking. In recent patchest DK's damage, and particularly aoe damage, has been severely nerfed. Overall aoe damage is down by 60-70%, and main skills (Blood strike, Scourge Strike, Obliterate etc) have been nerfed as well. It's a good change, but right now the DK feels alittle underpowered. Frost aura have been buffed though and you get a nice 10% hp bonus as well now. Right now my DK is level 79, and has 20.000 hp and just over 18.000 armor unbuffed. Gonna start checking out heroics alittle later, but I don't have much time to play beta at the moment.
Right. Azjol Nerub aka "The Spiderkingdom", home of the Nerubians. This is a huge underground complex, and the first instance is only part of the experience this world has to offer. None of the thrash mobs are anything to talk about, although some spiders will web one character, and you have to "kill" the web to free the trapped character. This first instance, which is suitable for characters of level 73-75, has 3 bosses. One of them our good-old friend from Warcraft 3: Anub'arak.
The first boss is called Krik'thir the Gatewatcher, and has 3 groups of guardians before him, which when aggroed, will come at the party one group at a time. No need to pull anything beyond the first pack you wish to kill, since this initiates an event, and the 2 remaining waves will come at you, one by one, after the first one is dead. One of the 3 thrash mobs in the packs have an annoying aoe-fear/horror spell, but most boxers should be well trained in dealing with fear effects. The boss itself is a straight forward tank & spank fight, with alot of small bugadds coming in waves. Consecrate, death and decay, or even holy nova will take care of those adds fast, and they're mainly designed to annoy your healer. An easy fight for most groups once you got the sequence of events sorted out.
The second boss is a huge spider called Hadronox. This boss also has an event to it. 3 packs of thrash needs to be killed, and each pack has 3 mobs. 2 weak spiders and 1 stronger unit. The large unit can knock the tank into the air, but it's nothing serious as long as you have disengaged follow on your tank (if you have one). You will have to deal with some more adds that continue to come at you, while killing these 3 packs, but they are easy. After they are dead the main boss will come up, while a number of smaller spiders will try to kill the boss (civil war inside Azjol-Nerub?). The boss will need to kill all the smaller spiders before you engage it, since it will heal itself whenever one of the smaller spiders die. If you pull the boss and get the adds as well, you're in for a long fight. First time I was there I just steamrolled down and aggroed everything (hey...DK's were supermen back then). We managed to hold out for about 10 minutes while the boss just kept healing itself when the smaller adds died, but then the healer was out of mana and we wiped. Lately they have reduced the amount of adds in the fight, so you can engage the boss much faster. Once again, a simple tank & spank fight.
Anub'arak is the 3rd and final boss of this instance. He is the hardest challenge, and the encounter will probably be tough for new and/or poorly geared boxers. This could be a very hard fight as well in heroic. The encounter is split in 2 phases. A tank & spank phase, with some movement, and an add-killing phase with Anub'arak burrowed underground. Throughout the encounter you will sometimes see the ground ripple, and then an impale type attack will come on that area, throwing any caught characters into the air and doing decent damage. Movement will be important, or the healers mana will be drained fast. When the boss burrows different types of adds will spawn, some ranged, some melee. This makes it hard to gather and tank all of them, while having to dodge impale attacks. The adds should just be nuked down as fast as possible, to prevent being overwhelmed when the boss resurfaces.
Overall multiboxing rating: Medium (Mainly because of Anub'arak).
Right. Azjol Nerub aka "The Spiderkingdom", home of the Nerubians. This is a huge underground complex, and the first instance is only part of the experience this world has to offer. None of the thrash mobs are anything to talk about, although some spiders will web one character, and you have to "kill" the web to free the trapped character. This first instance, which is suitable for characters of level 73-75, has 3 bosses. One of them our good-old friend from Warcraft 3: Anub'arak.
The first boss is called Krik'thir the Gatewatcher, and has 3 groups of guardians before him, which when aggroed, will come at the party one group at a time. No need to pull anything beyond the first pack you wish to kill, since this initiates an event, and the 2 remaining waves will come at you, one by one, after the first one is dead. One of the 3 thrash mobs in the packs have an annoying aoe-fear/horror spell, but most boxers should be well trained in dealing with fear effects. The boss itself is a straight forward tank & spank fight, with alot of small bugadds coming in waves. Consecrate, death and decay, or even holy nova will take care of those adds fast, and they're mainly designed to annoy your healer. An easy fight for most groups once you got the sequence of events sorted out.
The second boss is a huge spider called Hadronox. This boss also has an event to it. 3 packs of thrash needs to be killed, and each pack has 3 mobs. 2 weak spiders and 1 stronger unit. The large unit can knock the tank into the air, but it's nothing serious as long as you have disengaged follow on your tank (if you have one). You will have to deal with some more adds that continue to come at you, while killing these 3 packs, but they are easy. After they are dead the main boss will come up, while a number of smaller spiders will try to kill the boss (civil war inside Azjol-Nerub?). The boss will need to kill all the smaller spiders before you engage it, since it will heal itself whenever one of the smaller spiders die. If you pull the boss and get the adds as well, you're in for a long fight. First time I was there I just steamrolled down and aggroed everything (hey...DK's were supermen back then). We managed to hold out for about 10 minutes while the boss just kept healing itself when the smaller adds died, but then the healer was out of mana and we wiped. Lately they have reduced the amount of adds in the fight, so you can engage the boss much faster. Once again, a simple tank & spank fight.
Anub'arak is the 3rd and final boss of this instance. He is the hardest challenge, and the encounter will probably be tough for new and/or poorly geared boxers. This could be a very hard fight as well in heroic. The encounter is split in 2 phases. A tank & spank phase, with some movement, and an add-killing phase with Anub'arak burrowed underground. Throughout the encounter you will sometimes see the ground ripple, and then an impale type attack will come on that area, throwing any caught characters into the air and doing decent damage. Movement will be important, or the healers mana will be drained fast. When the boss burrows different types of adds will spawn, some ranged, some melee. This makes it hard to gather and tank all of them, while having to dodge impale attacks. The adds should just be nuked down as fast as possible, to prevent being overwhelmed when the boss resurfaces.
Overall multiboxing rating: Medium (Mainly because of Anub'arak).
fredag 5. september 2008
Instances in WotLK Expansion: The Nexus
The Nexus is a level 70-72 (recommended) instance located on the island of Coldarra in the Borean Tundra area of Northrend. The instance has 4 bosses, and the it's themed around Malygos and his Blue Dragonflight.
The fastest route is to take the left path from the start. None of the mobs feel especially hard, and there's little challenge beyond aoe-tank & spank style. It will probably be somewhat more difficult at retail when classes and instances are properly balanced.
The first boss on this route will be Grand Magus Telestra. This boss could prove quite tough for an inexperienced multiboxer, and will require alot of individual character control. The boss will occationally use physics against the group and bounce everybody around, similar to what Omor the Unscarred (final boss of Hellfire Ramparts) will do with the tank. Organizing your group after this spell will reduce dpstime on the boss somewhat. When the boss is at 50% health it will despawn and spawn 3 clones of itself. They are easily focus-dps'ed down (or you could go for option 2 and just aoe them down together) and grounding totems will probably be very valuable in this phase, since all are mage-types. When the adds are killed the boss respawns and it's the same as phase1.
Second boss is Anomalus. He is set in an area of primarily magical elementals and the boss itself is similar to Vexallus in The Magisters Terrace. The fight has 2 phases, when the boss is at 75%, 50% and 25% it will spawn an add you will have to kill, while the boss itself is invulnerable. The encounter is trivial in the beta on normal difficulty, and the boss feels very weak and is easily killed.
Third boss is Omorok the Tree-shaper. An ice/stone giant similar to the second boss in Mana Tomb. It's a tank & spank encounter. The boss hits fairly hard and enrages around 20%, your tank will need steady healing at that point. He has one ability to watch out for. Ice spikes will form on the ground and shoot up in the air. If your group doesn't move away from the shards, you will most likely wipe. Feels like a well balanced boss.
Keristrasza, the final boss of The Nexus, is a dragon who has been captured by Malygos to be his new consort. She is quite happy with your arrival, and even taunts you into "Finishing her" when she's close to death. This is by far the hardest encounter in the instance, and feels well balanced to me. First off the tank will take decent damage, so it will need quite alot of healing. The boss also enrages towards the end and does additional damage. The catch with this fight is that everyone have to keep moving. If you stand still you will get a debuff on you that stacks higher and higher until you die. You'll take damage from this debuff which is applied every second, and a stack beyond 5-6 will spell major problems for your healer. Jumping or moving in any direction will remove the debuff. A priest with circle of healing and hots on tank is the optimal healer, but it's quite doable with a paladin as well, if he knows the encounter. After a few wipes 2-3 days ago with a pug, I just spelled out to our paladin "Heal, heal, move. Heal, heal, move." and the next try was an instant success. The boss will randomly do an ice-breath type of ability with aoe damage in a cone in front of it, it can target random party members for this, so spreading out is advicable. You can spread out before the fight starts and just macro dps and heals while doing the occational jump to remove the debuff. An easy encounter if you know what you're doing, and have good enough healing to keep the tank up, with some gcd's lost due to jumping.
Overall multiboxing rating: Medium.
The fastest route is to take the left path from the start. None of the mobs feel especially hard, and there's little challenge beyond aoe-tank & spank style. It will probably be somewhat more difficult at retail when classes and instances are properly balanced.
The first boss on this route will be Grand Magus Telestra. This boss could prove quite tough for an inexperienced multiboxer, and will require alot of individual character control. The boss will occationally use physics against the group and bounce everybody around, similar to what Omor the Unscarred (final boss of Hellfire Ramparts) will do with the tank. Organizing your group after this spell will reduce dpstime on the boss somewhat. When the boss is at 50% health it will despawn and spawn 3 clones of itself. They are easily focus-dps'ed down (or you could go for option 2 and just aoe them down together) and grounding totems will probably be very valuable in this phase, since all are mage-types. When the adds are killed the boss respawns and it's the same as phase1.
Second boss is Anomalus. He is set in an area of primarily magical elementals and the boss itself is similar to Vexallus in The Magisters Terrace. The fight has 2 phases, when the boss is at 75%, 50% and 25% it will spawn an add you will have to kill, while the boss itself is invulnerable. The encounter is trivial in the beta on normal difficulty, and the boss feels very weak and is easily killed.
Third boss is Omorok the Tree-shaper. An ice/stone giant similar to the second boss in Mana Tomb. It's a tank & spank encounter. The boss hits fairly hard and enrages around 20%, your tank will need steady healing at that point. He has one ability to watch out for. Ice spikes will form on the ground and shoot up in the air. If your group doesn't move away from the shards, you will most likely wipe. Feels like a well balanced boss.
Keristrasza, the final boss of The Nexus, is a dragon who has been captured by Malygos to be his new consort. She is quite happy with your arrival, and even taunts you into "Finishing her" when she's close to death. This is by far the hardest encounter in the instance, and feels well balanced to me. First off the tank will take decent damage, so it will need quite alot of healing. The boss also enrages towards the end and does additional damage. The catch with this fight is that everyone have to keep moving. If you stand still you will get a debuff on you that stacks higher and higher until you die. You'll take damage from this debuff which is applied every second, and a stack beyond 5-6 will spell major problems for your healer. Jumping or moving in any direction will remove the debuff. A priest with circle of healing and hots on tank is the optimal healer, but it's quite doable with a paladin as well, if he knows the encounter. After a few wipes 2-3 days ago with a pug, I just spelled out to our paladin "Heal, heal, move. Heal, heal, move." and the next try was an instant success. The boss will randomly do an ice-breath type of ability with aoe damage in a cone in front of it, it can target random party members for this, so spreading out is advicable. You can spread out before the fight starts and just macro dps and heals while doing the occational jump to remove the debuff. An easy encounter if you know what you're doing, and have good enough healing to keep the tank up, with some gcd's lost due to jumping.
Overall multiboxing rating: Medium.
torsdag 28. august 2008
Instances in WotLK Expansion: Uthgarde Keep
I've only done a few of the instances in the Expansion, but I thought I should start writing about them with a multiboxing perspective.
Uthgarde Keep is the first instance you get to do in the expansion. Level 67 and up is advisable. This is a very easy instance, I would say alot easier than Hellfire Ramparts was as the intro-instance in The Burning Crusade. Location is Howling Fjort and the instance is set in one of the areas of the Viking-like race "The Vrykul". The instance consists of wide open halls, and there's not much of a gear check involved. I tanked it on multiple occations with a level 70 Death Knight in predominantly "uncommon" gear. As of writing this I have not tested any of the instances in Heroic mode, I'm not sure that its even possible at this point in the beta.
The instance has only 1 mob that can challenge the group beyond the tank'n spank level, and that mob is the Vrykul Runecaster. This unit is a melee-caster type which can cast a flameshield on itself with tremendous aoe damage. Sort of like the Astromancers in Mechanar. This is spellstealable, dispellable etc, but a multiboxer would probably just opt for nuking this mob down fast or crowdcontrol it.
There are 3 bosses in here, all should be pretty easy for multiboxers. When you kill the 4 mobs in the first boss' room, the boss aggros. He can cast an ice trap/tomb on any of the party members that is afaik not dispelable. The challenge here is to be able to take care of the boss and it's relatively weak but continuously selfressing skeleton adds, with one of the team (possibly even the tank or the healer) indisposed in Ice Tomb for 15 seconds at a time. 2nd boss is 2 npcs, one caster and one melee dps. You nuke one down, he respawns as an unkillable ghost, but when you nuke down the other one they both die. Doesn't matter which one you kill first, but a shaman team would probably just nuke down the melee guy while grounding totems absorbed all incoming damage from the caster. 3rd boss is a tank'n spank fight with one significant spell being a shadow aoespell which also silences for 3 seconds. With a 60 yard range, this spell is virtually inescapable, and needs to be planned for. Some incoming damage on the tank, but shouldn't be a problem unless you're really badly geared or underleveled.
Overall multiboxing rating: Easy.
Uthgarde Keep is the first instance you get to do in the expansion. Level 67 and up is advisable. This is a very easy instance, I would say alot easier than Hellfire Ramparts was as the intro-instance in The Burning Crusade. Location is Howling Fjort and the instance is set in one of the areas of the Viking-like race "The Vrykul". The instance consists of wide open halls, and there's not much of a gear check involved. I tanked it on multiple occations with a level 70 Death Knight in predominantly "uncommon" gear. As of writing this I have not tested any of the instances in Heroic mode, I'm not sure that its even possible at this point in the beta.
The instance has only 1 mob that can challenge the group beyond the tank'n spank level, and that mob is the Vrykul Runecaster. This unit is a melee-caster type which can cast a flameshield on itself with tremendous aoe damage. Sort of like the Astromancers in Mechanar. This is spellstealable, dispellable etc, but a multiboxer would probably just opt for nuking this mob down fast or crowdcontrol it.
There are 3 bosses in here, all should be pretty easy for multiboxers. When you kill the 4 mobs in the first boss' room, the boss aggros. He can cast an ice trap/tomb on any of the party members that is afaik not dispelable. The challenge here is to be able to take care of the boss and it's relatively weak but continuously selfressing skeleton adds, with one of the team (possibly even the tank or the healer) indisposed in Ice Tomb for 15 seconds at a time. 2nd boss is 2 npcs, one caster and one melee dps. You nuke one down, he respawns as an unkillable ghost, but when you nuke down the other one they both die. Doesn't matter which one you kill first, but a shaman team would probably just nuke down the melee guy while grounding totems absorbed all incoming damage from the caster. 3rd boss is a tank'n spank fight with one significant spell being a shadow aoespell which also silences for 3 seconds. With a 60 yard range, this spell is virtually inescapable, and needs to be planned for. Some incoming damage on the tank, but shouldn't be a problem unless you're really badly geared or underleveled.
Overall multiboxing rating: Easy.
mandag 25. august 2008
WotLK Beta.
Multiboxing is on hold for now. I'm doing 2 ZA runs pr week for gold (boxing 4 shammies and selling bearmounts). I've been betatesting Wrath of the Lich King for about 3 weeks now. Currently leveling a Death Knight (level 73 as we speak), and I've tested out some of the other classes, and the new talents and spells that are coming. There are certainly exiting times to come, and multiboxing will not be dead after the expansion, but I predict PVP is gonna be much harder than it is today, due to the implementation of physics in certain spells. Classes with new knockback spells and skills are going to be difficult to deal with.
In Wrath of the Lich King I will start out as a singleplayer. I will reroll from Warlock as a raiding character, and I'm not sure I will continue to multibox, time will tell. For now, or at least until all WotLK raid content has been cleared, I'm quite happy with singleboxing.
In Wrath of the Lich King I will start out as a singleplayer. I will reroll from Warlock as a raiding character, and I'm not sure I will continue to multibox, time will tell. For now, or at least until all WotLK raid content has been cleared, I'm quite happy with singleboxing.
onsdag 30. juli 2008
Summer almost over
I've been predominantly PVE specced lately. I'm running a ZA bearmount selling team with my shammies. Pretty decent money to be had. Still playing some arena matches, but since season 4 started there's pretty rough competition already in the 1600-1700 rating brackets. Top team on the battlegroup has just over 2000 rating. Plan is to keep playing for a few more weeks, then try to kick it up a notch and go for 1850 rating first, then 2000.
torsdag 22. mai 2008
Busy busy...
With anything but wow these days. Lot of work and overtime, and the little time I've had for gaming has been spent on the excellent Savage 2 (a crossbreed between warcraft 3 and counterstrike almost). I didn't get arena points on one of my clones 2 weeks ago, and I only discovered that yesterday, so one more week needed before I have helmet on all of them =/
I've taken on a paladin for the arena team, and we did pretty well last week. Lost only 4 matches, all 4 in a row vs the same team. Still in the 1700 rating bracket.
I've taken on a paladin for the arena team, and we did pretty well last week. Lost only 4 matches, all 4 in a row vs the same team. Still in the 1700 rating bracket.
søndag 11. mai 2008
Hyjal! Part 2
Some more raiding screenshots from Magtheridon and Mount Hyjal. Done all bosses in Hyjal now.
Magtheridon
Azgalor
Archimonde
Magtheridon
Azgalor
Archimonde
fredag 9. mai 2008
Hyjal!
Quick trip to Hyjal yesterday. Couldn't be bothered to respec PVE so I could have done alot better with stacked wrath totems and more mana sustainability. Still, good fun.
Rage Winterchill
Anetheron
Kaz'Rogal
Rage Winterchill
Anetheron
Kaz'Rogal
tirsdag 6. mai 2008
S4 on the doorstep
Pvp Season 4 will start soon. Probably sometime late may/early june. I've not decided whether or not I'm gonna get more S3 gear, or just save points for S4 stuff. The s3 helmet is probably still 2 weeks away, so I may just wait for the S4 version. Only played 20 matches this week (15-5), and we're at 1720 rating now, we have potential for 2000, but I just havent had time to play much. Coordinating a full 5man team must be a nightmare, since me and my healer have a hard time getting together for some playtime.
I got the Battlemasters Audacity trinket the other day, and in addition to the S3 pants I got this week, I'm pretty much dead on at 900 spelldamage now for arenas. Also dinged 10.000 hp unbuffed this week, 11.000 armor and 350 resilience. My team is no joke anymore, and I believe any arena team will have their work cut out to take me down.
I teamed up with Largepants/Bluepants this weekend for about 20 Eots games. We won all matches easily. My 5man shammy team and his 4man shammy team was pretty hard to counter. We had some healing backup as well, and even dedicated flag carriers some games. Good stuff.
I got the Battlemasters Audacity trinket the other day, and in addition to the S3 pants I got this week, I'm pretty much dead on at 900 spelldamage now for arenas. Also dinged 10.000 hp unbuffed this week, 11.000 armor and 350 resilience. My team is no joke anymore, and I believe any arena team will have their work cut out to take me down.
I teamed up with Largepants/Bluepants this weekend for about 20 Eots games. We won all matches easily. My 5man shammy team and his 4man shammy team was pretty hard to counter. We had some healing backup as well, and even dedicated flag carriers some games. Good stuff.
fredag 18. april 2008
Long time, no update and all that...
I'm not dead =)
Busy raiding The Sunwell with my main, so that's taken alot of my time. We're usually raiding 4 times a week, and are stuck at the Eredar Twins for the moment.
In Boxing news, I've taken on a healer for my arena team. A great druid from my guild. We've played 30 matches so far (not alot of time as I mentioned) and we've broken into 1600 rating territory fairly easily. I've gotten the Scryer Blade of Focus as a new main hand, so right now I'm around 800 spelldamage. Need 20 more badges for the new ring from the Shattered Sun Offensive vendor. Getting the S3 pants in a couple of weeks, and the helmet some time after that. These 2 items alone will boost my spelldamage with about 100.
I also cleared Magisters Terrace Heroic a while back, and have done it a few times since. Vexallus was a cockblock for a while, but I figured out a controlled way of taking him down, shocking his Pure Energies.
Busy raiding The Sunwell with my main, so that's taken alot of my time. We're usually raiding 4 times a week, and are stuck at the Eredar Twins for the moment.
In Boxing news, I've taken on a healer for my arena team. A great druid from my guild. We've played 30 matches so far (not alot of time as I mentioned) and we've broken into 1600 rating territory fairly easily. I've gotten the Scryer Blade of Focus as a new main hand, so right now I'm around 800 spelldamage. Need 20 more badges for the new ring from the Shattered Sun Offensive vendor. Getting the S3 pants in a couple of weeks, and the helmet some time after that. These 2 items alone will boost my spelldamage with about 100.
I also cleared Magisters Terrace Heroic a while back, and have done it a few times since. Vexallus was a cockblock for a while, but I figured out a controlled way of taking him down, shocking his Pure Energies.
lørdag 29. mars 2008
tirsdag 25. mars 2008
Heroic Update
Just wanted to take a moment and jot down the heroics I've cleared on the 5 x Shaman team.
The Slave Pens Heroic - Cleared
Sethekk Halls Heroic - Cleared
The Steamvault Heroic - Cleared
The Underbog Heroic - Cleared
The Botanica Heroic - Cleared
The Mechanar Heroic - Cleared
The Shadow Labs Heroic - Cleared
The Shattered Halls Heroic - Cleared
This week I've taken a small break from multiboxing to enjoy some raiding with one of my Shamans as enhancement spec. Really good fun.
fredag 21. mars 2008
I have decided to put arena on hold until 2.4. I'm playing all 5 of my guys, since I only have between 600 and 650 spelldamage. I'm struggling to maintain 1400 rating on Cyclone battlegroup. Most teams I meet are very well geared, despite the low rating, so dropping targets are pretty hard still. Got the S3 chest last week, the Icon trinket and the Vindicator's belt, so now I only need the new spelldamage trinket and the ring from Battlegrounds.
I've started running heroics again. I need 210 badges when the 2.4 patch arrives for one ring and the Scryer spelldamage dagger. With these 4 items I should be able to increase my spelldamage to well beyond 800. This would be a huge upgrade for arenas.
Some pvp statistics:
Alterac Valley: 75% win ratio.
Eye of the Storm: 70% win ratio.
Arathi Basin: 50% win ratio.
Warsong Gulch: 40% win ratio.
Losses in Av are pretty much against premades.
Eye of the Storm is good for boxers. No flags to cap, and so I can focus solely on the fighting. Teams with many bloodelfs (mages/rogues especially) will cause problems with their aoe silence.
Arathi Basin and WSG is all about how the other players react to my presence. If they understand whats going on, they will support the team by defending bases and capping flags, and leaving me to counter the main force of the opposition. In most games however, I will have 1-4 players following me around. They won't even dismount to cap a flag if their lives depend on it. In some ways I understand it, but it's still pretty frustrating.
I've started running heroics again. I need 210 badges when the 2.4 patch arrives for one ring and the Scryer spelldamage dagger. With these 4 items I should be able to increase my spelldamage to well beyond 800. This would be a huge upgrade for arenas.
Some pvp statistics:
Alterac Valley: 75% win ratio.
Eye of the Storm: 70% win ratio.
Arathi Basin: 50% win ratio.
Warsong Gulch: 40% win ratio.
Losses in Av are pretty much against premades.
Eye of the Storm is good for boxers. No flags to cap, and so I can focus solely on the fighting. Teams with many bloodelfs (mages/rogues especially) will cause problems with their aoe silence.
Arathi Basin and WSG is all about how the other players react to my presence. If they understand whats going on, they will support the team by defending bases and capping flags, and leaving me to counter the main force of the opposition. In most games however, I will have 1-4 players following me around. They won't even dismount to cap a flag if their lives depend on it. In some ways I understand it, but it's still pretty frustrating.
onsdag 12. mars 2008
Vindication
Gearing continues. I have gotten the Cloak of Subjugated Power, Vindicator's Bracers and Vindicator's boots. I have almost enough badges to get the Icon trinket, which will add some needed spelldamage. Will grind heroics 1-2 more days for the trinket. After that there is only a couple of items I need from battlegrounds, the ring and the belt, and then it will be arena full time. Will get the s3 chest next week. Looking forward to that.
mandag 25. februar 2008
The Slave Pens Heroic Video
I made a video of how I do The Slave Pens Heroic with 5 shamans. Weighs in at 100 megs, 15 minutes long, and is available at Filefront.
This is a 1-segment run, done in about 35 minutes. Alittle lucky a couple of places, but losing one or two toons here and there. My system is barely able to handle Frapsing, although I'm only running one client on this machine. So this performance is done with 10 frames per second, and imo it shows. Not as smooth a performance as I'd wish to show you. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.
This is a 1-segment run, done in about 35 minutes. Alittle lucky a couple of places, but losing one or two toons here and there. My system is barely able to handle Frapsing, although I'm only running one client on this machine. So this performance is done with 10 frames per second, and imo it shows. Not as smooth a performance as I'd wish to show you. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.
søndag 24. februar 2008
Arenas and 2.4
A note to self and others: Stay away from arena games in prime time, until the 2.4 patch anyway. I was doing some arenas yesterday and I was totally outgeared by rating boosting teams. I fired off 5 x Trinketed NS+Elemental Mastery Chain Lightning on a mage in one game, and barely got him below 50% hit points. I have pretty much dead on 500 spelldamage on my toons, so I reckon he had a ton of hp and resilience. I gave up after a 7 game losing streak, gotta play myself back up to around 1500 rating at some odd hours of the morning probably. Looking forward to 2.4 patch, when the person with the highest personal rating will decide which bracket the team will play in. Shouldn't meet that kind of geared opposition in the 1400 rating bracket.
While on the topic of the 2.4 patch, I want to touch on the changes to the Shaman class. A lot of people are crying nerf to the addition of a shared cooldown on Nature's Swiftness and Elemental Mastery, and to be honest it's a nerf. Blizzard have a dilemma here. On one hand the elemental shaman isn't a very strong pvp player in solo play, but when you box 4-5 of them the instant, guaranteed critical Lightning Bolt, Shock, or Chain Lightning especially, can be utterly devastating. I'm glad they did this. Lets be honest, boxing 4-5 shamans is riddiculously effective and overpowered in certain scenarios. This nerf isn't even going to change much, but I suspect Blizzard are using it as a statement of "But look, we ARE doing something about it".
They've changed Tremor Totem from a 4 second pulse to a 3 second pulse. This is a pretty decent boost for the soloing pvp shaman, for a boxer it's pretty huge. I like to use 3 global cooldowns for totems both in offense and defense, 4 if I need some aoe fire damage. This isn't very good when you need to press on hard and offensively. With the 3 second pulse, you can probably rely on just one totem (or multiple cast at the same time, if you're plagued by totem snipers), and fear will be removed before you have a chance to run out of range. For a fortified tactic I will only need to use 2 global cooldowns to be in "safe mode" with for example 2-3 staggered tremor totems, 4 grounding, 1 wrath of air, 1 stoneskin etc etc.
While on the topic of the 2.4 patch, I want to touch on the changes to the Shaman class. A lot of people are crying nerf to the addition of a shared cooldown on Nature's Swiftness and Elemental Mastery, and to be honest it's a nerf. Blizzard have a dilemma here. On one hand the elemental shaman isn't a very strong pvp player in solo play, but when you box 4-5 of them the instant, guaranteed critical Lightning Bolt, Shock, or Chain Lightning especially, can be utterly devastating. I'm glad they did this. Lets be honest, boxing 4-5 shamans is riddiculously effective and overpowered in certain scenarios. This nerf isn't even going to change much, but I suspect Blizzard are using it as a statement of "But look, we ARE doing something about it".
They've changed Tremor Totem from a 4 second pulse to a 3 second pulse. This is a pretty decent boost for the soloing pvp shaman, for a boxer it's pretty huge. I like to use 3 global cooldowns for totems both in offense and defense, 4 if I need some aoe fire damage. This isn't very good when you need to press on hard and offensively. With the 3 second pulse, you can probably rely on just one totem (or multiple cast at the same time, if you're plagued by totem snipers), and fear will be removed before you have a chance to run out of range. For a fortified tactic I will only need to use 2 global cooldowns to be in "safe mode" with for example 2-3 staggered tremor totems, 4 grounding, 1 wrath of air, 1 stoneskin etc etc.
fredag 22. februar 2008
More action
Been back a few days now, gotta work the weekend though, but that's no problem. It's WSG bonus weekend, and WSG is difficult to box with randoms. I got the Gavel of Unearthed Secrets, so my spelldamage is just above 500 these days. Spellsurge enchant on all 5 weapons cost around 2-3000g in materials, but I really think it has been worth it. I have much longer sustain in battlegrounds, and can go longer before needing to drink.
I've played some more arena, and I'm hovering around 1500 rating. Should be able to affort the season3 chest in a few weeks. Still doing alot of battlegrounds, just got the Medallion of the Alliance to dispel those fearbombs I suffer if I cannot get a few totems up. This doesn't happen very often, but when it does the trinket is absolutely golden.
Did the Karazhan prequest with the group. The Black Morass was surprisingly easy for 5 shammies. I popped 2 earth elementals and 3 fire elementals on the second boss, and purged his haste buff. And then just popped the remaining elementals on the final boss. I'm also clearing The Slave Pens heroic every day for the 3 badges. May do some more heroics to speed up the badge farming. The goal for the badges is the Cloak of Subjugated Power, which sells for 60 BoJ.
I've played some more arena, and I'm hovering around 1500 rating. Should be able to affort the season3 chest in a few weeks. Still doing alot of battlegrounds, just got the Medallion of the Alliance to dispel those fearbombs I suffer if I cannot get a few totems up. This doesn't happen very often, but when it does the trinket is absolutely golden.
Did the Karazhan prequest with the group. The Black Morass was surprisingly easy for 5 shammies. I popped 2 earth elementals and 3 fire elementals on the second boss, and purged his haste buff. And then just popped the remaining elementals on the final boss. I'm also clearing The Slave Pens heroic every day for the 3 badges. May do some more heroics to speed up the badge farming. The goal for the badges is the Cloak of Subjugated Power, which sells for 60 BoJ.
onsdag 13. februar 2008
Gearing some more...
Been doing some PVP and grinding for gear. It's a blast. So far I've gotten Gladiator's Mail Gauntlets, Gladiator's Mail Spaulders, Gladiator's Shield Wall and Totem of the Void on all the clones. I'm currently working on Lower City reputation to get the Gavel of Unearthed Secrets. It's a decent spelldamage weapon, and I'll probably have it until I get the arena weapon. I've been planning on putting spellsurge enchant on the weapon for some longer sustain in battlegrounds. If I put it on all my characters, it will generate about 50 mp/5. Going oom is pretty much the only thing that kills me in battlegrounds, so I'm gonna add some more mana enchants when I get decent items in those slots (chest, bracers...).
Sure enough the Spellsurge enchant recepy dropped for me as well, while grinding Sethekk Halls I believe. I'm 14000/21000 with Lower City, so in another day I should be exalted. I went ahead and leveled Enchanting before I started the rep grind, so now I got well over 60 Large Prismatic Shards waiting in the bank. Those will come in handy as the Spellsurge enchant alone will consume 60 Large Prismatic Shards, 50 Greater Planar Essences and 100 Arcane Dust.
Have to go away again on business soon, so next week will be pretty quiet.
Oh, and I also played my first 10 arena matches. Lost 8 of them, but it was pretty damn funny. I can see myself bringing a healer on board, because if I can't nuke down 1-2 targets early in the match, I'm pretty much fried. I want to have some more spelldamage before I do that however, since sacrificing 1/5 of my damage will mean alot at this stage.
Sure enough the Spellsurge enchant recepy dropped for me as well, while grinding Sethekk Halls I believe. I'm 14000/21000 with Lower City, so in another day I should be exalted. I went ahead and leveled Enchanting before I started the rep grind, so now I got well over 60 Large Prismatic Shards waiting in the bank. Those will come in handy as the Spellsurge enchant alone will consume 60 Large Prismatic Shards, 50 Greater Planar Essences and 100 Arcane Dust.
Have to go away again on business soon, so next week will be pretty quiet.
Oh, and I also played my first 10 arena matches. Lost 8 of them, but it was pretty damn funny. I can see myself bringing a healer on board, because if I can't nuke down 1-2 targets early in the match, I'm pretty much fried. I want to have some more spelldamage before I do that however, since sacrificing 1/5 of my damage will mean alot at this stage.
onsdag 6. februar 2008
The big Ding 2
Shammies are all level 70. /played time: 6 days, 8 hours. The time to level 60 was 3 days and 4 hours. There's alot more /afk time after 60 though, so 60-70 is alittle faster. I wasn't going for any records, but I'm kind of in "all business" mode when I play, so it's been pretty fast levling. Boosting up to level 40, questing from 40 to 60, and a mix of everything from level 60 and beyond.
Played my first Alterac Valley today, and although I met a horde premade team, and lost horribly, it was extremely funny. It took 3 attempts to get the shammies into the same battleground, so I wish we had shorter queues. Average today was 20 minutes, which isn't bad for a normal weekday. The gearing process ahead will probably be slow, but that doesn't matter at all. This is F.U.N!
Played my first Alterac Valley today, and although I met a horde premade team, and lost horribly, it was extremely funny. It took 3 attempts to get the shammies into the same battleground, so I wish we had shorter queues. Average today was 20 minutes, which isn't bad for a normal weekday. The gearing process ahead will probably be slow, but that doesn't matter at all. This is F.U.N!
mandag 4. februar 2008
Spirit shards
Halfway to level 68 now. Ran out of quests in Nagrand just before level 65. Did the quests in Blades Edge Mountains and some more here and there until I was 66. Voila, 5x Earth elemental. So I figured I could grind spirit shards until I had the helmet, the metagem and the ring, since they're all decent items. So yesterday I grinded 56 spirit shards in total and got the helmet and the metagem. Today I will grind 20 more shards and secure the ring, before continuing on to the 2 endgame zones for the last bit of questing to level 70.
I'm glad theres content at this stage, which actually yield decent rewards. Otherwise the grind to level 67 would have been unbearable. Level 70 will be achieved in a couple of days, and then it will be time for some asskicking in the battlegrounds. Can't wait.
I'm glad theres content at this stage, which actually yield decent rewards. Otherwise the grind to level 67 would have been unbearable. Level 70 will be achieved in a couple of days, and then it will be time for some asskicking in the battlegrounds. Can't wait.
torsdag 31. januar 2008
64
Level 64. Ready to start questing in Nagrand. Have had to grind Slave Pens and The Underbog pretty much since I dinged 63. Boring stuff...
onsdag 23. januar 2008
onsdag 9. januar 2008
Whatever...
Not alot happening. Alittle bored with wow again, so I've not been running instances like I should have. I have the potential to run heroics all day if I want, but I've just not had the motivation lately. Raiding 1-2 times a week with my main, and I've also started to build a Shaman team for pvp. They're currently resting at level 22 in Stormwind. Doing some Stockades runs when I have an hour to spare. When/If I get any motivation back I'll probably kick it up a notch and boost them to 70 to start some pvp.
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