First steps in Ulduar

On Wednesday we took our first steps in Ulduar. Since noone in the group had been there before the spirit was one of trial and error, trying to learn how to best manouvre the different veichles in the first part. Soon we headed down to the area with the storm beacons and the towers of frost, nature, flames and storm. It was great fun bashing away and firing at the towers and the mobs. At first we didn't realise that the green cicular spots were repair stations. After we discovered their funtion it was easier to manage.

When it came to Flame Leviathan we had two really good tries at him (we actually had five tries at him but two was started accidantally and on one try one of the chopper drivers got disconnected). When I have read strategies for the fight it says that Flame Leviathan should target one of the slavaged engines at the time but to us it seemed more like it targeted anyone at random. Maybe we were positioned wrong so the demolishers were too close to the boss?

All in all the night was great fun and I'm sure we will down that mechanical next time we see it!

Continued Naxx run

Yesterday we continued our Naxx10 run from Wednesday. First we went for a renewed attempt on Grobbulus but we were too uncoordinated so it didn't go too well. To keep the spirit up I thought it better to head back to plague quarter and do some of the bosses we know we can handle before trying Grobbulus again.

Noth the Plaguebringer is a boss that we now expect to down at first attempt. Yesterday we had two members in group that had never been to Naxx before but even so we had no problems with Noth. He dropped Dark shroud of the scourge for the third week in a row. Why not drop Noth's curse for a change I wonder.

On Heigan the Unclean it was clear our dancing lessons have paid off. We killed him at first try and seven of us stayed alive during whole fight.

The it was time for going through the maggot/eye stalk room. This week the succesful tactic was to move slowly one bit at the time and aoe down the maggots and kill the stalks when they popped up. I don't know why one week running through works like a charm but other weeks it seems impossible to do it.

Two weeks we have made unsuccesful attempts att Loetheb. Our problem has been us being too slow in dps so eventually we have died due to the frequent dooms he casts that we can't heal through. On the healing side I also think we could have optimized the healing to make the most of the 3 seconds window that you can heal. This time we were better at using the buff from the fungal spores and so we managed to kill the fungus giant. Personally I felt I timed my healings better this week too.

We headed back to Grobbulus where we started the evening and this time things went better. I think trying a few times on a boss and if it doesn't work have a break and go try another one in between and then come back actually can be agood thing to do.

We did one attempt on Gluth but we weren't even close to killing him. Our failure was partly my fault since when the main tank died I managed to resurrect the wrong player. Rogues are very useful but good tanks they are not.

Well, 8 bosses down this week. That is not too bad I think.

Found him

I found Thorim. He was not at Temple of Storms as I thought but south of Terrace of the Makers at (56,51). I handed in Loken's lackeys and The Earthen Oath quests, watched Thorim fail to fight Loken and now I my quest is to go to Halls of Lightning and get Loken's tounge for King Jokkum.

Laidback night (at least at first)

Yesterday was level 60 raid night to Zul Gurub. I didn't go. To be honest feel a bit raided out since this week I lead both Naxx run and the OS and VoA runs . Even though I begin to feel more secure in my role being raid leader still requires more attention and work than just tagging along somewhere knowing decently well who to heal and how.

I have now completed 100 quests in Storm Peaks and earned the achievement The Summit of Storm Peaks. I would have got it the other day if I could just find Thorim! Two times I have gone to his place in Temple of Storms where I think I got the quest (I have had them in my quest log a long time) but he wasn't to be found sitting on his throne as I expected him to. Where is he?

Later in the evening I went to The Occulus. It is one of the instances I hadn't tried on heroic and sadly we didn't have time to complete it before some of us needed to go to bed.

For raiders with short memory

To those players (more than a few) who can't remember if they have done a raid this week: don't you know that you can check your in game calendar to see when an instance lockout expires? So check next Wednesday to get to know what raids you have done. Not too hard is it?

Not very much done

Yesterday playing became quite sporadic since our baby didn't sleep very well. I think she is getting another tooth, although why that makes babies get a fever I can't really explain.

I managed to get the weekly OS25 done at least. The Mantle of the Eternal Sentinel dropped but with a roll of 24 I obviously didn't win it. Obsidian Sanctum very often causes me to have lag problems at Sartharion. That definately make the fire waves more of a challenge.

Running with the maggots

You can found aguide for every boss encounter but sometimes you would like to have some tips on the places inbetween bosses too. Like going through the maggot/eye stalk room leding up to Loatheb in Naxxramas.

For us, the by far most successful way has been to hug the wall at the same side as the entrance, let the tanks run first with rest of group close behind and not fight anything until we're on the other side. It's important that the tanks run first so they get most of the aggro and that others stick together behind.

If you have a warlock in group and access to some invisibility potions, the warlock and two other players can run unnoticed to the other side and summon the rest of the party.

It is also worth noting that it is possible to stealth through the room.

Yesterday's Naxx raid

I think our guild's progress in Naxx10 is coming along quite nicely. You can say we were late starters to get level 80 raiding going but we're not a raiding guild so I think it's fine. Yesterday we cleared Archanid quarter and instead of going on to Plague quarter as we have done the two previous weeks we went to Patchwerk. The plan was to have a go at him and then move back to familiar territory and Noth the Plagubringer. To our joy Patchwerk went down on first try. Almost before I had time to say "Gj all" half of the raid had crissed crossed between the green oozes to go further into Construct quarter. And why not? Mutating injections from Grobbulus might be a welcome change from dancing with Heigan the Unclean. As it was we got Grobbulus down to about 20% two times and then we had to quit for the night. Next time though I'm sure we will kill him.

I know...

...this blog has the most boring design but I don't have the time to change it now.

Ulduar run Wednesday 13 May

Next Wednesday we will try Ulduar for the first time. It will be more of a go-see-how-it-is run than anything else. When reading about the bosses most boss encounters seem to require quite a bit of coordination and think it might take some time to get that right, so we shouldn't be disappointed if we don't succed at our first run. That said I still think we should aim for getting at least Flame Leviathan down.

Below are a list of guides for the first bosses of Ulduar. It seems there are few guides written specifically for the normal versions so I assume that 10 man and 25 man encounters are pretty similar from a strategic point of view:

Flame Leviatan guide at ZugGaming
Flame Leviathan guide att World of Matticus
Matticus guides are from a healer perspective but also gives detailed descriptions of the encounters as a whole.
Flame Leviathan at Bosskilers.com
On this site there are also links to movies showing the Flame Leviathan fight.

Razorscale guide at World of Matticus
Razorscale guide at ZugGaming
Razorscale guide at Bosskillers.com

Ignis the Furnace Master guide at ZugGaming
Ignis the Furnace Master guide at Bosskillers.com
Ignis the Furnace Master guide at World of Matticus
This guide shows in detail a way to position the raid for the fight. Maybe not what we will try first but worth to have in mind.

Why Emalon, why?

A couple of days ago was the first time I participated in downing Emalon the Stone Watcher in normal VoA. What did he drop? Two (2) rogue items.

And of course there was not a single rogue in group.