First Raid Of Catacylsm

Last night Kingdom of Rust finally entered our first proper raid in Cataclysm. After a lay off over Christmas and giving people time to gear up we sallied forth into Blackwing Descent to see what the new content was like.

After a bit of a chat we decided to take on Magmaw as our first try. Everyone had read up on the tactics so we did the recommended one camp of ranged moving between two points when the lava parasites spawn with one of our melee and a hunter smacking the boss up side the head to force him onto the spike.
Three hours later on the last try of the night we finally got the git down! This was after one 2% wipe when we hit the enrage timer which was a real pain.







The healing team consisted on myself (yep I'm back healing I appear to be mediocre at dps), our Holy priest Kai and our Holy Pally Faster. Basically it was I and Kai on the raid and Faster looking after the tanks.

From a resto druid point of view on 10 mans this was a real test of manna use and popping cool downs such as TOL/ Tranquillity. We lost quite a few tries due to DPS being low on heath after a lava AOE spray and then being one shotted by a lava bolt so you cant afford to have DPS on low heath for too long after lava spray or they could be the unlucky one on the receiving end of a lava bolt which will kill them as it hits for about 50K damage.
I can see this fight becoming a lot easier for resto druids when the new patch hits and Rejuvenation becomes a viable raid healing tool again with the manna cost being halved. I found that overuse of Rejuvenation during the fight at the present cost basically just ran me dry of manna which was a shame as it will be a good tool to use on the run between lava parasite spawns.
Nourish isn’t great on this fight due to the cast time and its requirement to have a HOT on the target to make it a good heal, Healing Touch also suffers from cast time issues and I was mainly using Effervescence as the raid was tightly grouped coupled with Wild Growth/ Lifebloom where possible to top people off.
Of course dependent on healing group composition I could have healed the tanks but we felt that Faster would probably do better on this due to bacon and generally Pally tank healing power.

A good fun raid boss overall but it was a real step up in terms of manna use from heroics.


Zetter

Damn you Blizz show me the leather!

I am having great fun in Cata leveling, Harrison Jones in Uldum is just awesome and very very well put together.
One thing that does bug me a bit though is the total lack of decent caster druid leathers you get from big quest rewards or dungeons. In the past this wasn't an issue as you could just collect whatever cloth bits came along and round out with leather when you found it.
But with the Leather Specialisation skill if you pick up cloth and do not go all leather you take a fairly hefty hit on intellect to do it. While leveling it isn't so much of an issue but I can see this being a bit of a pain when I am gearing up to raid in Heroics.

Zetter

Leveling Too Fast?

From my last post you know I have rolled a baby gnome lock and am slowly questing my way through to (eventually) level 85. I have no desire to really raid on this toon he is mainly a vehicle to experience the new worlds quests and to try something different.
However you just seem to zoom through levels and out level zones too fast now. For example I am now leveling in the Loch Mordan area which has seen a lot of changes due to the Stonewrought Dam being nuked by Deathwing. Some of the quests here are now awesome and have taken it from what I remember being a disjointed leveling experience (with trips to places like Westfall being needed to bolster experience) to a smooth and exiting area with lots of quests being seamlessly woven together.

The problem is with enhanced experience gain you now just blitz through the area and if I had moved on to Wetlands when I was supposed to I would have missed 50% of the quests in the area (including a great one with Bingles the Gnome). This is with me deliberately taking off my heirloom gear that provides experience boost to a least try and put a brake on my leveling. There is I suppose the option to pay to freeze my level for a bit as I do zones but this is a bit of a pain to switch it on and off all the time.

I know the reason experience gain was enhanced was to allow people to get to top level in a reasonable amount of time especially considering the big level climb required. But I do think that for the sake of expediency the experience of leveling and all the stories that have been crafted to go along with it are getting missed in the stampede to level 85.
For new players to the game it does seem a bit of a shame that they will miss a lot of the effort that has been put in to making questing more in depth and quests more than "kill 5 bears" type.

Has anyone else who has started a new alt found this?



Zetter

Having a Homer Moment or D'oh

Well the shattering has hit Azeroth and zone have been nuked badly so like I most of the blogging community I rolled an alt and set forth to experience the new quest content.
Podling the Gnome Warlock was born (cliched I know)

I had fun in the gnome starting zone which is sooo much better than the old zone and is nicely worked in with the retaking of Gnomer.

While questing though I suddenly remembered it was the last day of the Thanksgiving event and a brilliant chance to level my cooking rapidly on my little Gnome rather than doing it the hard way. So I pottered between Ironforge and Stormwind merrily cooking the festival fair until it came time to head to Darnassus for potatoes.

(Now at this point remember I have not leveled an alt from new for over three years and spent all of Wrath doing high level stuff like raiding)

So I thought "Darnassus eh have to run it". Off little Podling set full of hope, after all his guide had done this before on a hunter and a druid at similar level back in BC days.
Boy things have changed a bit!

I got to Kalimdor ok via the usual route of the Wetlands and then onto Dustwallow Marsh which was a bit nastier than I remembered, however Jaina and all the crew at Theramore helped a bit by putting a bloody great road through the middle of the marsh. I had a few crocodile related deaths but made it through eventually and thought the worst was behind me.

Then I hit southern barrens and the wheels came off badly. Creature levels appear to have changed a bit so my aggro radius was huge, also blizz appear to have increased mob speed a lot so you cant out run them. I got eaten quite a bit.

But still I persevered and made it to the great rift. However the Alliance and Horde are now going at it big style in this area and this proved to be too much. There are really high level Horde (well compared to my level 5 Gnome) like fleas on a dog and I could go no further. Tail between legs I ported back to Ironforge and decided I would have to get a portal if one of the Guild Mages was on as I could not think of any other way to reach Darnassus.

I relayed my tale of woe on Guild Chat (bearing in mind I had been mucking about at this for 2 hours) and wondered if one of the Mages would be on in time when our DK tank Nightmare piped up with "lol mate why don't you just take a boat from Stormwind". "Boat from Stormwind when did that make it in the game?" I asked. "Only about two years mate" was the response.

As Homer would say D'oh!

Zetter

Saying goodbye to The Lich King

So its the end of the expansion and raiding has finished in the Kingdom Of Rust, we are all on a nice break until Cataclysm where the prospect of fighting for spawns awaits until raiding gets into full swing again.

I am looking forward to the expansion a lot but from a lore point of view I think I will be sorry to say goodbye to Arthas and his undead minions. I don't know why but I have always been fascinated and horrified by the whole Zombie/ getting taken over as undead thing.
I remember watching the Dawn of the Dead remake round a friends a couple of years ago and being quite disturbed by the whole zombie infestation thing. Especially at the start when the main protagonists daughter is infected and then kills her husband who also rises as one of the undead. I think its probably the whole idea of losing yourself so to speak but still being there that I find disturbing.
Personally I think I prefer the approach taken by Lt Gorman in Aliens (don't know if you have seen this) when he and Vasquez are cornered and about to be turned into basically lunch or alien breeders. He pulls out a grenade and takes a load of them with him rather than being torn to bits or eeeew impregnated. I think if I was in the same situation I would prefer to go out with a bang!

Anyway rambling a bit, but this is what I think makes Arthas and the Scourge such a great enemy, not only are people you are fighting beside killed by them but your friends suddenly get up and start trying to kill you! Take this section from the story of Kel'Thuzad's fall to the dark side

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/1p11/naxxramas/roadtodamnation2.html

damn disturbing or what.

From my point of view especially playing someone tied to the natural world like a druid it felt that you were really fighting for all you held dear as the alternative wasn't just death it was worse.


For cataclysm I don't think Deathwing has the same impact for me as an enemy. Yep hes a dragon and a damn big one at that but really he doesn't seem to have quote the air of evil about him as the scourge. Sure he can incinerate you and blast towns etc but the scourge not only killed you and obliterated your town but you got up the next day and munched down on the survivors. Also from reading the linked extract you probably were horribly aware of it.

So roll on Cataclysm but I don't think I will be as afraid of Deathwing as I was of Arthas and his Scourge horde.


Zetter

Boomkin!

Well what a week of changes 4.0 hit and after about 2 hours of downloads, extra patches,add ons not working and my video driver deciding they were too old to display the new water I finally got on line.

The guild decided that rather than raiding on Wednesday (which seemed a bit pointless with half the guild not being able to get on till 10pm) we would hold a guild meeting to discuss who is doing what in Cataclysm. A few people as I mentioned previously have definitely decided to switch roles already and it was a good time to see if we had all the spots filled for a raid team.

Well after a bit of discussion we got most people sorted out for the roles they wanted to do.

Which left me and my resto shammy mate as people who could go any way. I was happy to fill any role but one thing I didn't want to do was be a tank/ healer again as I found that trying to keep up with both roles in terms of addons and gear was too much hard work. So after we had filled the tanks spots and the healer spots I find myself in the unlikely role of Boomer Main spec with a healing offspec.

This should be an interesting challenge as I have never played DPS in my whole WOW playing experience. I have always been a healer or a tank so I am looking forward to the challenge of chasing big numbers for a change rather than playing whack a mole with grid (disclaimer I am still healing offspec so we can cover real life issues in our raid, I am not abandoning the trees completely).

After setting myself up with a few addons to help me out such as power auras and some dot timers I realise that I still have a lot to learn about Moonkin DPS so if anyone can give me some pointers it would be much appreciated.

Zetter

All Change?

Well patch 4.0 is just round the corner and with it loads of changes to Talents, stats etc etc. In the guild everyone is starting to thing thing what they will play in Cataclysm.

Being a 10 man guild now the real working out starts on how many tanks, dps and healers we are going to end up with and if we need to recruit to fill the roster on certain roles. Blizz had made this a bit easier with the proposed homogenisation of healer talents so for example not having a pally or druid will not be as crippling hopefully as it once was.

However for us the changes have already started our raid leader (who is one of the tanks) has already said that he wanted to take his pally holy for the expansion with all the spiffy spells pallys are getting to move them away from the 2 they currently rely on a lot. Also it looks like we will lose a couple of DPS to globe trotting adventures and maybe a healer dropping from the raiding scene for a bit.

Now for me this could be an interesting opportunity for Cataclysm. One thing I have decided is I am not going to switch mains I have invested too much time on my druid (and though I am ashamed to admit it I am a bit of an achievement lover at heart).

But as far as his role goes the call of tanking is tempting, I did start out BC on my pally as a tank but got sidelined into healing during Kara and found that I enjoyed it so stuck with it. One thing that I do have some reservations on though is if I can hack it as a tank. Our tanks during Wrath were impressive they steered fights got us past Mimeron (when he was nasty) etc etc. They seemed to have a great awareness of fights and tactics. I just wonder if I can match up to it going forward. I think it will be an interesting change of pace though and a real change from healing so if things pan out the way they are looking to it may be a view from the bear going forward rather than the tree.

One thing I have definitely decided though is that I am either as healer or tank going to take DPS as my offspec. Running healer and tank is too confusing for my brain, at least the dps specs of druid have some synergy with their respective healing/ tanking specs. I find the jump from healer to tank is a real jolt for me and I have to totally change my way of thinking about my toon.

So anyone else out there planning to change roles radically for Cataclysm or are you going to stick with the role you know for your main?

Zetter

I really should stop reading stuff sometimes

I have (basically because I haven't been able to help myself) been reading a bit on the blogsphere about the upcoming changes to resto druids in Cata.
Am I the only one who is getting a bit worried about them at the moment? I know I know its beta and nothing is set in stone (TM) but at the moment from reading up druids seem to be horribly behind other healers with regards to their usefulness with the current mastery's in raids.
Matticus has a good initial rundown on healing classes and how they are shaping up in Cata here

http://www.worldofmatticus.com/2010/09/13/your-beta-and-healing-questions-answered/

Some of the comments from him and also in the great breakdown of mastery for resto druids by Lissanna over at Restokin
http://www.restokin.com/2010/09/cata-resto-druids-need-a-new-mastery-bonus/


make me a bit nervous about the possible state of druid healing going into Cataclysm.

When we went into Wrath from my point of view no healing class really was at the bottom of the heap by a long way when it came to healing. We all had our niches in raids which allowed all classes to be wanted.
It does appear with the current state of druid healing at 85+ level that we are really suffering from Blizzards attempts to homogenise to an extent all healers so each class can capably do a bit of everything. While this is a laudable goal to prevent issues in 10 man raids due to guild make ups. I hope that all the feedback from those in the beta on druids make us viable healers for raids straight off the bat in Cataclysm as I really don't want to switch mains if I end up healing in Cataclysm to be effective till Blizzard gets it sorted out.

I know I am worrying probably over nothing but there is the smell in the air of release dates being put forward and there is activity on the test realms.


Zetter

No disparity in Raiding anymore

So Blizzard have done what to be honest I thought they would never do and put 10 man and 25 man raiding on an equal par for Cataclysm.

I never saw this coming as all through Wrath Blizz have put 25 mans on a higher pedestal i.e. you want Shadowmourn get in there and do 25s or you can whistle. The only thing I would have thought Blizz may have done was share the raid lockouts so you cant do 25 man then do 10 man on off days. This would give strict 10 man guilds a chance on server firsts as the 25 mans guilds would be unlikely to burn early raid time lockouts doing 10 mans.

However it looks like they have gone the whole hog with 10s and 25 mans sharing loot table and lockouts. The only advantage in 25 mans now is better droprate on stuff and the chance if you have a bigger guild to all raid together rather than in separate teams.

I checked out a lot of the blogs I read Such as Pink Pigtail Inn, Big Bear Butt and a few others who tend to be good barometers of the community.
Opinion seems to be split as you would expect. Some people being worried that 25 mans wont be worth the hassle now especially with the logistical difficulties of getting 25 people together at a time. While others see this as a chance for 10 man content to be taken seriously and 10 man only guilds to have a shot if they want it at server firsts and cutting edge progressions which has previously been the domain of the high end 25 man guilds on the servers who can come in with better gear straight away.
I have not really had time today to check out the official boards but my guess is there is so much QQ going on as there is for most changes that Noah better build another Ark.



My personal view is that I am all for this! As I have stated before the thing I didn't like about 25 man raiding when I was organising it was the huge amount of pissing about I had to do just to get the signup sorted and people in the right groups etc etc etc. Yes this was in BC where you had to worry about shammy buffs only being group wide etc but most of the difficulty wasn't in the actual raid it was in making sure everyone knew what they were doing before we started.

Compare this with Wrath and my strict 10 man guild and we are busting some moves in heroic ICC already and are making great progress at only two nights a week we have a tight team who plays together all the time and are moving in the same direction i.e. there is no dross who you have to take to make up the numbers. Also as a druid healer I don't just get to cast rejuvenation and wild growth all day on the raid I can find myself tank healing on Blood Prince Council or a bit of both on Lady Deathwisper.

How will this change the landscape of 25 mans I don't know. But I suspect there will be a lot more 10 man guilds in Cataclysm or guilds that run two 10 man teams. I think it will have a big impact as a lot of people do raid for gear and to "keep up with the Joneses" so if the incentive of gear is gone some guilds will fall or "downsize". One thing I will say for Blizz is they have no fear of throwing a Nuclear hand grenade into the game now and again.

Zetter

Will there be a reckoning in Cataclysm?

I had the day off today (well sort of damn Backberry was still going) so I decided to do the daily heroic does on my druid and pally to get the free frost badges.

As I was wandering through Nexus on my druid basically keeping the raid up with the odd rejuve and not concentrating at all the thought struck me what if blizz decide to ramp up heroics in Cataclysm a bit to make them more well heroic. Will the playing community have got into really bad habits with all this easy heroic running so new heroics in Cataclysm like a .308 round to the head?

I ran a lot of heroics back in BC and there were still some that worried me even in guild groups when I was in t5 gear. Places like Shadow Labs, Arcatraz and Shattered Halls could still mince groups as well as any raid if people screwed up CC or mispulled. I don't think I ever really overgeared any BC heroic as much as I overgear WOTLK heroics.
Will Blizz reset the balance a bit and not make them facerollingly easy? If they do this will a lot of people be shocked after the ease of runs we have had during WOTLK are we getting more and more unprepared by being spoonfed easy gear from heroics that are easier than old BC normal instances?
Are we prepared!


Zetter