How to tank Heroic Halls of Reflection

I’ve seen a deluge of folks on the WoW forums complaining about how hard Heroic Halls of Reflection is, how it needs to be nerfed, how it killed their father, etc. My buddy Palehoof apparently had three different tanks quit on him in one H HoR run yesterday. Eep. Personally–and I don’t mean this in a elitist jerkish sort of way–I didn’t find the place that difficult at all.

Honestly, the first gauntlet portion (which I suppose is the part most are having trouble with) is very easy to tank!

Park your party in Falric’s alcove (see image) around the corner in that tight spot. Mobs will instinctively aggro onto your healer and, because they can’t see her, run into the alcove. Then, just pick them up one by one. Keep consecrates down to nab everyone as they flood in. For those pesky casters use Avenger’s Shield to silence and force them to get closer.

The escape portion of the dungeon isn’t much more difficult, just use Holy Wrath liberally and consecrate once you’re got large packs settled in one spot. HotR like your life depends on it.

Anyone here having trouble with this place?

You are what you eat

While as easy as it may be to leech for the saps that bring Fish Feasts to the raid (just kidding–valuable raid service!), FF is the not the best option for any post-wipe munchies. Straight attack power and spell power are two of our weakest threat stats, and if you’re aiming to boost your tps, that’s not the way to go. Not to mention that stamina is not a factor thanks to all foods having the same amount. As such, you’re really eating buff food for that secondary stat, but which stat to go for?

First, let’s take a look at what you can use to sate that gnawing pre-attempt hunger:

Dragonfin Filet: Provides 40 strength, which works out to 20 Block Value (26 with Redoubt) and 80 attack power/28 white damage dps, along with 24 spell power.

Blackened Dragonfin: The 40 agility from this food imparts .67% dodge (before diminishing returns), .67% crit chance, and 80 armor. Great triple dip stat food.

Worg Tartare (or Snapper Extreme): Gives 1.22% chance to hit. Excellent choice for closing the gap on the melee hit cap.

Rhinolicious Wyrmsteak: The 40 expertise rating from this food translates to 4.9 expertise skill, or .82% reduced chance to have your attacks dodged or parried.

So, what is the best for threat?

Dragonfin Filet because strength triple dips as a threat stat. It gives you an increase to your dps directly, then more BV (increasing your Shield of Righteousness damage), and finally adds some spell power for icing on the cake. In fact, according to an analysis that Theck ran, Dragonfin Filet is worth 126 tps. That’s 30 tps more than its nearest competitor (Fish Feast).

And, what is the best for survivability?

Blackened Dragonfin for sure. You get avoidance and mitigation, all in one package. It’s the only real choice.

How to defeat heroic 10man Trial of the Crusader

Group makeup

• For the first four bosses you need two tanks, three healers, and five dps. More on this later, but for Anub having two healers and six dps makes the fight a lot easier.
• Blood lust is not required, but it makes encounters a lot smoother. Fights have major dps components to them and if you can’t generate the raid dps needed to surpass them, you won’t be able to kill the bosses.
• You only have ten folks, so try to spread out the classes to maximize buffs and utility.
• A Mortal Strike effect (Aimed Shot, Wound Poison, Mortal Strike, etc.) is necessary for Anub.
• Get a reliable purger/dispeller for Jaraxxus.

Here are the logs from the raid we did last night. I forgot to start recording until after Beasts, so unfortunately you can’t see what we did for that fight, but generally we did about 28k raid dps.

Do you have enough hp? I was at 50k hp buffed last night, and wasn’t particularly worried during any tight spots. I think I had more than enough health to cover every fight. Keep this number in mind when considering certain things, such as how many stacks to hold Gormok for, one-tanking Jaraxxus, etc.

Lastly, please note I’m writing this with the assumption you know the strategies and tactics of the normal-mode version of this dungeon.

Beasts of Northrend

Phase 1: Gormok

Gormok comes out of the gate and I pick him up first. I hold him to 4 stacks of the debuff, then call for a taunt and Divine Shield+Divine Sacrifice. This drops my stack and gives Demogar (the other tank) a faux Pain Suppression to ease his damage intake. By the time we do the first tank switch, Gormok is under 50% health. From this point on, we switch at 3 stacks.

Healers call out in vent if they have snobolds on them, and ranged pick them off.

At 10% health, dps switches too and kills any snobolds that are up, and then burn down the boss. When Gormok dies I cast Hand of Protection on Demogar to drop his stacks.

Phase 2: Not one, but two Jormungar

This is the phase where you can easily gain or lose a huge chunk of time on the Icehowl’s entrance depending on how you handle the worms. Dreadscale will come out of the gate first, and Demogar picks him up and tanks him along the wall by the gate. I grab Acidmaw, who is rooted, and tank him with my back to the wall. Melee and all dps burn down Acidmaw first.

Acidmaw will do a paralyzing poison spray on all the melee, though Demo is very close by with Dreadscale so we can just run 10-20 yards over to remove out debuffs. We all keep the wall to our backs so the Sweep that the rooted worm does doesn’t knock us far away from Demo.

Eventually both worms will submerge. Acidmaw will pop up above ground near the entrance to the Coliseum, while Dreadscale will pop up rooted near the middle of the room. I Hand of Reckoning Dreadscale to grab his attention and run through the rotation a little to build a decent threat lead. Then I run over with the melee and other dps and help them burn down Acidmaw. We use Bloodlust to kill Acidmaw before he can burrow again.

When Acidmaw dies, Dreadscale soft enrages. While this sounds deadly, it’s really not. I run back over with everyone and put some dps into Dreadscale before he submerges. He’ll pop up again above ground, and Demogar grabs him. We all finish him off, taking care not to cross in front of his hit box. Dreadscale does a very painful cone attack that will kill any non-tank standing in front of him. Once Dreadscale drops, Demo runs over to the gate to pick up Icehowl.

Phase 3: Icehowl

Please note: There is NO RUN SPEED BONUS after a Massive Crash. Reiterate this fact a thousand times to your raiders if need be, because one dope not getting out of the way fast enough will probably spell a wipe. Said dope will get one shot, and then Icehowl will enrage and probably kill a tank–maybe more.

Otherwise this phase is very easy. Healers need to spread out equally around Icehowl so all three don’t get frozen at a time. Tanks should try to be on opposite sides of Icehowl as well.

If you’re off tanking like I usually do for this part of the fight, be sure to make use of abilities with Divine Sacrifice and Hand of Sacrifice to ease out any rough patches (like two healers frozen).

Just avoid the crashes and assuming you didn’t spend too much time on worms you should have no issue beating the enrage.

Jaraxxus

Pain points

• He’ll cast Legion Flames on a random person, who will then drop fires under where they stand for a few seconds. If a melee gets this they need to immediately run away from the boss so they don’t kill the other melee dps.
• Portals and Volcanoes need to be dpsed to close them. If you get more than one Mistress of Pain or more than three Infernals your dps is slacking and you will probably be overrun.
• When Jaraxxus gets a 5 stack of his Nether Power he will eventually zap and likely one-shot a random person if that buff if not purged/dispelled/stolen. It’s a huge dps boost for Mages though, if you have one to steal it.
• Non-tanks will not last long standing next to a rooted, hell-firing Infernal. They need to be fast on their feet in moving if they have one roll right next to them. Likewise, you need to be prepared to high tail it if an Infernal rolls into melee.

One tank! Demo switches to arms spec and I tank Jaraxxus and adds that come up. The only difficult part is picking up all the Infernals, though the easiest way to manage it is Hand of Reck the first one, shield toss the second, then Hand of Reck the third. The extra dps Demo brings is very helpful for getting portals and volcanoes down.

This fight is all about staying on your toes. When portals or volcanoes appear, dps needs to be ready to immediately get over there and burst them down, asap. The raid also needs to be ready to move away if they are standing in, or dropping, something dangerous.

This fight is easily one-shottable as long as everyone is paying attention.

Faction Champs

The healers are easily controllable (park rogues or prot warriors on them), so burn down the dps as soon as possible.

In terms of kill priority, based on deadliness (especially to clothies), I would recommend the following:

1. Baelnor Lightbearer (Ret Pally)
2. Shocuul (Warrior)
3. Shaabad (Enh. Shaman)
4. Tyrius Duskblade (DK)
5. Irieth Shadowstep (Rogue)
6. Alyssia Moonstalker (Hunter)
7. Serissa Grimdabbler (Warlock)
8. Noozle Whizzlestick (Mage)
9. Kavina Grovesong (Boomkin)
10. Brienna Nightfell (Spriest)
11. Anthar Forgemender (Holy Priest)
12. Shaamul (Resto Shaman)
13. Melador Valestrider (Resto Druid)
14. Velanaa (Holy Pally)

Stay tank! You can’t taunt the champions, but that doesn’t invalidate going tank spec. You have several tools at your disposal that can be invaluable, such as Avenger’s Shield, 40 second HoJ, Hand of Sacrifice, Divine Sacrifice, etc. Be careful not to use Divine Shield+Divine Sacrifice until all the priests and warriors or dead, or else your bubble will likely get shattered/dispelled and you’ll take damage from the DivSac.

Also, cleansing is very important in this fight. Take some of the burden off the healers so they don’t have to expend GCDs on that.

Use Seal of Justice for some free, occasional stuns. HotR is awesome for this, as it will spread the seal to two other people in a nice cleave.

Also, don’t let the shaman totems stay up. The Windfury can be deadly if the melee champs are still running around, and a Healing Stream Totem makes it nearly impossible to kill anything.

Twin’Valkyrs

Positioning is everything! Tank the Twins in between the back Light/Dark wells in by the gate (where the red X is). Keep them right next to each other so splash damage from one group’s target hits the other.

During a Vortex, obviously, people need to switch to the proper color, or they will die. During a Twin’s Pact do not have your dps change essences, just have them switch target. The time saved not running to a well will more than make up for the damage loss of not switching colors.

Flying orbs can kill people, so your dps and healers need to pay attention to their surroundings. Encourage folks to grab any nearby orbs that will eventually give them the Empowered Light/Dark buff.

This fight is all about awareness of raid damage and dpsing the correct target.

Anub’arak

The big enchilada, Anub will provide the biggest challenge to you in here, and rightfully so. It took us three nights of solid attempts before we hammered out a winning strategy. Here’s what we discovered works for us:

First and foremost, use two healers and six dps for this fight. It makes a world of difference. The fight is infinitely easier when restricted to only one burrow phase, which having six dps will allow.

When the fight starts, Demo pulls Anub to the blue circle with the “!!”. A permafrost is brought down there, and when the first pair of Burrowers emerges (I’ve written about tanking these, and especially how to deal with Shadow Strikes, in this post) I grab them–Reck one, shield toss the other–and drag them to that spot. An add is marked, dps burns it down, then the other one. Demo then moves Anub off the ice and towards the back middle of the room (red arrow).

The second set of Burrowers eventually appears; I grab both and take them to the “!!” ice patch. I hold them and dps does not assist, they focus on Anub.

When Anub burrows we typically have him at 50% or so, but your mileage may vary. Everyone except me runs south as soon as Anub burrows, in case he targets one of them. I find that as long a I hold aggro on a Burrower, I am not targeted for spikes.

Whoever is targeted follows the path of the green arrow and kites the spikes to that ice patch, breaking it. Everyone aside from me should be in the bottom half of the room at this point. A new person is targeted and then run north as the yellow arrow indicates.

After that point Anub will be close to reemerging. The third-targeted person runs kites the spikes to the southwest permafrost patch.

Keep in mind that whoever is being chased SHOULD NOT use any aggro dropping moves (Vanish, Divine Shield, Iceblock, Fade, etc.) as that will make the spikes change targets and shoot across the room to kill someone.

Hand of Protection is great, however, for buying someone some extra time to get to a permafrost. They won’t take any spike damage while BoP’d, and they’ll hold aggro to boot.

When Anub emerges, so two will two Burrowers. Same deal as before, pick up both and drag them to a permafrost patch that will be dropped near Anub. DPS burns down the marked add, then the other, and switches back to Anub. At this point the dps goes hog-wild to get Anub to 30% health and start phase 3.

At this point you need to decide (based on the speed of your dps) if you’re going to kill the next set of adds that come up. Unless you are supertank, you can’t hold four Burrowers at once (especially with two healers) so preventing a second group of Burrowers is key. If you’re lucky, they will emerge just as Anub hits 30%, giving you enough time to kill him before the next set appears. If you’re not confident that you can kill Anub before you have four adds, burn down the two you have then push Anub over to p3.

When in phase 3, tank adds off of a permafrost and allow them to submerge. Also, it gets hectic, so pay extra-close attention to Shadow Strikes!

Bloodlust if you have it, make sure an MS effect is up, and go crazy. This part of the fight goes incredibly fast (especially once you hit execute range) so just try not to get caught unawares by anything nasty.

Once Anub goes down, be sure to thank your healers, who are probably stressed out of their minds at this point.

Ultimately, the five fights of H ToC are great tests of awareness, coordination, skill, and gear. As long as you have a well-rounded, intelligent group of folks you should have no problem. I hope this guide helped a little, and please let me know if you have anything to add or correct in the comments.

5 ways to boost your threat

While threat should be the last worry on a tankadin’s mind, there are still some who struggle with it because they are either undergeared/underperforming or are dealing with hyper-performing dps who are then chafing under a threat cap. Because we as Paladins have the ability to give one of (if not the highest) threat caps, it is our responsibility to be prepared to dish out as much tps as possible.

Here are five tips on how to bring the pain:

1. Use a proper rotation

969 is the best way to optimize threat while maximizing uptime of Judgements of the Just and other debuffs we provide. To summarize briefly, we have three main “9″ attacks, Holy Shield, Judgement, and Consecration; and two main “6″ attacks, Hammer of the Righteous, and Shield of Righteousness. Weave your 6s with your 9s, such as:

0.0 Holy Shield
1.5 ShoR
3.0 Consecration
4.5 HotR
6.0 Judgement
7.5 ShoR
9.0 Holy Shield
10.5 HotR
12.0 Consecration
13.5 ShoR
15.0 Judgement

Et cetera, et cetera.You can weave in Avenger’s Shield or Hammer of Wrath for any 9 as cooldowns allow.

Sidenote: while off-tanking, never use exorcism (aside from an initial pull). The threat you’d gain from the burst (even on an undead target) is less than the threat of the melee swings and SoV proc if you just stuck to auto-attacking.

2. Change your glyphs

According to Theck’s analysis of threat contributions from glyphs, the best threat glyph is Avenger’s Shield. Although, it really isn’t. Against a single target, sure, but you’re sacrificing 100% tps on two other targets for 200% on only one. Ignore this one.

Realistically, the best threat glyph is Seal of Vengeance by a wide margin. Even over the expertise soft cap, you’ll get more threat from Glyph of Vengeance than from Glyph of Judgement. Once over the expertise hard cap, you can drop it though. Moreover, Judgement is, of course, the second-best threat glyph. Glyph of HotR is nice, but it’s far too situational–and in a raid like ToC where the only time you’ll get any use out of it is Faction Champions, it’s a waste of a glyph slot.

Glyphs still not worth your time are Consecration (its only use is mana-conservation, which isn’t an issue), Exorcism (see above), and Holy Wrath.

TLDR: One of your glyph slots is going to be Divine Plea; make the other two SoV and Judgement.

3. Spec into (the right) Ret tree talents

There is some confusion right now by folks who were overly excited by the change to SoV which made Seals of the Pure viable (ahem). As such, there’s an awful lot of folks running around with a 5/x/x build right now. That’s all well and good if you’re still plugging away at Ulduar, but if you’re spending any time in ToC, you should be specced into Crusade.

According to the inimitable Theck, the absolute best, possible combinations of threat talents in the game right now include 3/3 Crusade. You’re shooting yourself in the foot if you ignore this gem of a talent.

4. Get hit-capped

For Paladin tanks, hit is simply one of our best threat stats. Thanks to the new BV-ShoR cap, there are steep diminishing returns (followed by a cliff-face cuttoff) to the threat value of BV once you hit a certain value. This also makes Strength take a nasty hit as well, because of the contributions it gives to BV.

(Obligatory relevant Theck link.)

Specifically, before you hit 2400 BV, the ranking of threat stats is Strength, Block Value, and then Hit. Once you pass that, Hit becomes our #2, and once you have about 3000 BV, Hit becomes #1. Of course, Hit itself has a cap (263 rating) and is basically crap after that point, so be wary of that. When evaluating your gear for threat, do it in terms of how much BV you currently have.

Hit is certainly worth capping if possible, as there is great value in the consistent flow of tps such that Hit provides. It’s not hard to do either; with just my T9 legs, the T2.232 helm, the Saronite Swordbreakers, and two other excellent pieces I have 233 hit rating. And my survivability has not suffered a lick.

That said, never gem or enchant for Hit (or threat in general), but do mix and match pieces so you get the most worth out of each stat.

5. Wear threat trinks and gear

Twist! There are some fights (specifically on farm content) where you’re not going to be as concerned with stacking EH. In this case it is perfectly acceptable to swap in some BV pieces or Strength/threat trinks to push the upper limits of your tps potential.

When we’re doing farm content, I tend to swap in a iLevel 226 BV neck and belt, the heroic Sunreaver Defender’s Pauldrons, and equip Darkmoon Card: Greatness (STR) and Lavanthor’s Talisman. That pushes my threat capabilities up a lot, to the point where I can do not just amazing tps, but also the dps of a (bad) fresh 80. Not too shabby.

Please share in the comments any tips you have for boosting your tps, especially in progression content where you don’t have the luxury of using a blue trinket. Let me know if I missed anything obvious.

How to tank Nerubian Burrowers like a pro

Now, my guild hasn’t downed Anub10 heroic yet, unfortunately, but if all the blood, wipes, and tears have imparted anything to me, it’s how to tank the Burrowers like an effin’ pro.

The little (ok, not so little) buggers have a pretty set pattern. Twice per above-ground phase they come up in pairs and b-line for the raid member with the highest global aggro. As the OT in this fight your job is manifold: one, to pick up the Burrowers, two is to position them on ice where dps can kill them, and three is to not die to their various tricks.

Now on top of that delicious sundae of pain may I offer this cherry: you can handle interrupts on both of them as well. No seriously, you can.

Let me back up. On the first point you need to grab the attention of the Burrowers before they dig a hole in the face of some unlucky Resto Druid. To do this make use of our two best ranged attacks–Hand of Reckoning one and Avenger’s Shield the other. This’ll drop enough threat on both that they’ll follow you back to the ice patch that Anub should be tanked by.

Once you have both adds wailing away at you you want to get them dead center on the ice (well, maybe no dead center, but their hitbox needs to be sitting completely on top of the permafrost). Then open up on both until dead.

At this point your guild’s strategy may differ. The way mine does it is I hand of freedom myself and run off to pick up the next two adds and bring them back to the same permafrost patch while the MT and dps wrangle Anub towards the back of the room and off the ice. Now that I have the Burrowers all to my self, the responsibility for dealing with the Shadowy Strikes falls on my spiky, crimson shoulders.

How does one person not only watch but interrupt two Burrowers? Simple! First, glyph Holy Wrath to have a 15 second cooldown. Use that when they start to cast and you’ll easily interrupt them both. How can you tell when either is casting if you’re not currently targeting it? Also simple! Face them away from the raid, and if a Burrower is looking to gank one of your raiders, he’ll turn and look at them. Also they’ll start glowing all shadowy, but either way, it’s a huge warning sign.

I’ve yet to see them attempt a Shadow Strike more than once every 15 seconds, I always had my Holy Wrath up when needed (although Arcane Torrent made a fine off-GCD back up, and yes it does interrupt). Moreover, I’ve never seen a Burrower cast Shadow Strike when Anub was underground.

As for the third responsibility above (that is, staying alive) you have a powerful tool at your disposal: Block. The way the mechanics of the Burrower’s fearsome Expose Weakness attack is currently programmed, they’re debuff’s additional damage is applied to the unblocked remnant. Thus, if you’re block capped and shave say 3000 off of a 4000hp hit, the remaining 1000 damage is multiplied by 225% assuming you have a full nine-stack and you “only” take 2250 damage. This is definitely a fight you want to stack block value in!

Now, if only the rest of the fight was this easy.

How to gem, via a flowchart

This is a rehash of a spectacularly crappy (but very popular) flowchart I did back when Solid Sky Sapphires were the gem di tutti gems. Now +30 stamina may be the order of the day, but our priorities are basically the same: cram as much stamina in your gear as humanly possible. This gem will show you have to do that intelligently, while taking little stam hits for worthwhile avoidance trades.

Like I indicated last time around, there are two caveats:

• This is hyper-simplified and assumes that you’re not heavily depending on gems or socket bonuses (despite the jokey line) for being uncrit.
• I couldn’t find a good way to express this, but if you have two gems slots (or, hell, three) and one of them isn’t blue, unless the socket is +12 stamina, put Solids in both/all.

Four characteristics of a great tank, part 1: A sense of ownership

With the addition of dual specs in 3.1 and the influx of easy purples in 3.2, there’s been a wave of new folks strapping on the defense plate and stepping to the front of the group as a meat shield. And sure, these people can do the job of tank–they can hold threat and not die. But as a tank they don’t excel. It takes more than 540 defense rating to make you a great tank, it’s also philosophy and attitude.

I originally conceived of this series as just one long article, but then I decided I was in sore need of blog fodder and it’d be best to stretch this out interminably. Or at least until I do all four parts.

To get to the meat of this post, the first characteristic I wanted to discuss was a sense of ownership. By ownership I don’t mean bossing around your party or raid members, or being in charge of direction and strategy. No, I mean something more existential. As a tank you are charged with the defense and well-being of your friends. As the adage goes:

My comrades are my weapons and I am their shield.
While I draw breath, they shall not perish.

That is, in a nutshell, what I mean by a sense of ownership. These folks in your group are depending on you to keep them alive in a way that is divergent and yet fundamentally more critical than what the healer does. If a healer dies, the tank and dps can get by for a short period of time through the use of cooldowns. If a tank dies, the boss is going to run around and begin one-shotting the dps and healer.

That’s not to say you should be some giant ego monster because you are well nigh indispensible. Far from it. You have a responsibility to the group, one you must rise to.

Now, how to integrate this philosophy into your playstyle?

For one, I recommend organizing your unitframes so your focus frame is sitting somewhere convenient and within your normal line of vision, so it never is out of view. Then set the healer as your focus. If this is a five man, there’s only one to choose from but in a raid the choice is a little more sticky. If a healer is specifically assigned to you, focus them; if there’s one that tends to be a little squishy, that’s your focus.

Now that you have that little focus frame sitting where you can see it at all times, keep an eye on it. If the healer’s health begins to falter, confirm if it’s an add, and then quickly slap a taunt to strip the offending mob off. Of if there’s a period of raid damage (such as a Tympanic Tantrum) consider BOPing them. Perhaps a Hand of Sacrifice. Maybe toss them a Lay on Hands if things look really bad.

Mainly, the key point here is to keep an eye on them.

One of my buddies once remarked about a particular fail tank in our guild that the key flaw in his method was he “didn’t care about healthbars.” This particular tank was perfectly fine with raid members dying, because he assumed that they had done something wrong and deserved it. He was, in short, a subscriber to the old phrase that the tank was only responsible for the healer and if a dps died “it was their own damn fault.”

He is wrong. A tank must be concerned with the wellbeing of all your party members. Each person is key to the success of the endeavor. No matter how stupid or aggro happy they are. Even if they rip a boss off you, vindictiveness does not supercede your responsibilities.

Remember, as a tank the survival of the party ultimately lies with you. You need to keep the dps from pulling aggro and getting pounded, or the healer from being instagibbed by an add that came unseen barreling down a hall. Consider your comrades your responsibility, act as their shield, and always care about the healthbars.

3.2 Coliseum best-in-slot list

I’m consolidating the 10 and 25man lists for this go-around because, thanks to the way emblems of triumph drop, the two groups kind of blend into one another. Also, I’m only linking the Horde versions of all the listed items (lok’tar ogar) because the stats are the same so it’d be silly to link both. As always I tend to judge an item more favorably based on Effective Health. Gem slots are basically equated to 30 stam, because it’s assumed you’re going to slap a Solid MZ in there.

The gear this patch is pretty formulaic. Typically it goes Col25 Heroic > Col10 Heroic > Col25 > Col10, with crafted items really good and emblem-purchasable items equal to normal Col25 items.

I’m sorry, I know there’s a lot of heroic mode gear on this list that might be out of the reach of many (myself included probably). In the near future I’ll expand the list down to the easiest to reach item for someone who does normal-mode 10man raids.

Head

1. Liadrin’s Faceguard of Triumph (H) (T9.58 token)
2. Liadrin’s Faceguard of Triumph (75 Emblems, 1 Trophy)
3. Headplate of the Honorbound (75 Emblems)

Neck

1. Legionnaire’s Gorget (H) (H Jaraxxus25)
2. Fortitude of the Infernal (H) (H Jaraxxus10)
3. Legionnaire’s Gorget (N Jaraxxus25)

Shoulders

1. Liadrin’s Shoulderguards of Triumph (H) (T9.58 token)
2. Sunreaver Defender’s Pauldrons (H) (H Faction Champs10)
3. Liadrin’s Shoulderguards of Triumph (45 Emblems, 1 Trophy)
4. Shoulderguards of the Enduring Order (45 Emblems of Triumph)

Chest

1. Hauberk of the Towering Monstrosity (H) (H Northrend Beasts25)
2. Breastplate of the White Knight (Crafted)
3. Liadrin’s Breastplate of Triumph (H) (T9.58 token)
4. Liadrin’s Breastplate of Triumph (75 Emblems, 1 Trophy)

Wrist

1. Saronite Swordbreakers (Crafted)
2. Armguards of the Shieldmaiden (H) (H Twin Val’kyrs25)
3. Dreadscale Bracers (H) (H Beasts10)

Hands

1. Liadrin’s Handguards of Triumph (H) (T9.58 token)
2. Liadrin’s Handguards of Triumph (45 Emblems, 1 Trophy)
3. Handguards of Revitalization (Freya25 Hard Mode)

Waist

1. Belt of Bloodied Scars (H) (H Faction Champs25)
2. Belt of the Nether Champion (H) (H Jaraxxus10)
3. Belt of Bloodied Scars (N Faction Champs25)

Legs

1. Legplates of Feverish Dedication (H) (H Jaraxxus25)
2. Liadrin’s Legguards of Triumph (H) (T9.58 token)
3. Liadrin’s Legguards of Triumph (75 Emblems, 1 Trophy)

Boots

1. Dawnbreaker Sabatons (H) (H Jaraxxus25)
2. Greaves of the Lingering Vortex (H) (H Twin Val’kyrs10)
3. Dawnbreaker Sabatons (N Jaraxxus25)

Cloak

1. Cairne’s Endurance (H Tribute Chest25)
2. Cloak of the Unflinching Guardian (H) (H Tribute Chest10)
3. Pride of the Demon Lord (H) (H Jaraxxus25)

Rings

1. Band of the Traitor King (H) (H Anub25)
2. Band of the Twin Val’kyr (H) (H Twin Val’kyr10)
3. Band of the Traitor King (N Anub25)
4. Clutch of Fortification (35 Emblems of Triumph)

Trinkets

1. Juggernaut’s Vitality (H) (H Faction Champs25)
2. Juggernaut’s Vitality (N Faction Champs25)
3. Heart of Iron (Ignis25)
4. Royal Seal of King Llane (Yogg10)
5. The Black Heart (The Black Knight, Trial of the Champion)

Weapon

1. Ogrim’s Deflector (H Tribute Chest25)
2. Blood and Glory (H Tribute Chest10)
3. Ardent Guard (H) (H Anub’arak10)
4. Sorthalis, Hammer of the Watchers (XT-002 25 Hard Mode)
5. Shiver (Hodir10 Hard Mode)
6. Titanguard (Flame Leviathan25)
7. Ardent Guard (N Anub’arak10)

Shield

1. Forlorn Barrier (H) (H Northrend Beasts25)
2. The Boreal Guard (Hodir10 Hard Mode)
3. Aegis of the Coliseum (H) (H Anub’arak10)
4. Aegis of the Coliseum (N Anub’arak10)

Libram

1. Libram of Defiance (25 Emblems of Triumph)
2. Libram of Obstruction (15 Emblems of Heroism)
3. Libram of the Sacred Shield (19 Emblems of Conquest)
4. Libram of Valiance [only worth like ~140 BV] (25 Emblems of Triumph)

Please let me know if you think I missed a piece or have one in the wrong place.

My guild’s DKP system

Credit for this whole set up goes to Demo, who not only found the addons but also figured out how to make them work and through his constant, unceasing, incessant nagging forced the guild to adopt them. … And I mean that in a good way.

Here are the addons that every raiding guild member is required to have (you won’t get the bidding window without them):

• Bidder
• Bidder_BossAuction

And these are the addons the DKP admins need to run the system:

• DKPmon
• DKPmon_CSV
• DKPmon_BossAuction
• CT_RaidTracker

All addons can be found on this page.

Yes, it seems like a lot, but honestly it all runs very smoothly. The way it works for the rank and file is when a boss is downed the master looter gets a loot window from DKPmon that gives him the option to “Open for Bidding”. Doing so activates the window in my screenshot where raiders can click on an item and enter their bid. No one knows how much the others bid on an item, it’s totally silent.

When bidding is closed, DKPmon is used to announce the winners and how much each person paid for an item, and then the master loot uses the “Distribute” option to give out the loot to the winners and deduct points as spent.

And at the end of the night the DKP admin exports the raid and uploads it to the ES guildlaunch site giving you a page like this.

The whole system is very painless to use once you get the hang of it. I very much recommend it!

Ulduar 10man BiS+2 list

Per request here is a list of BiS gear found in 10man Ulduar. Some items on this list drop in Ulduar25 (or are crafted by patterns that drop therein), but can be purchased with enough do-re-me. I also included two Naxx25 items that can be purchased with Emblems of Valor, now that those emblems drop in Ulduar10.

Like my 25man list, avoidance has more weight than block, and gem slots have more weight than not. Lastly, as always, comments sought and encouraged!

Head

1. Valorous Aegis Faceguard (N Mimiron)
2. Ironbark Faceguard (N Freya)
3. Thane’s Tainted Greathelm (N 4HM)

Neck

1. Mark of the Unyielding (N Kologarn)
2. Drakescale Collar (Reward: Judgement at the Eye of Eternity)
3. Chained Military Gorget (25 Emblems of Heroism)

Shoulders

1. Valorous Redemption Shoulderguards (60 Emblems of Valor)
2. Valorous Aegis Shoulderguards (N Thorim)
3. Shoulderguards of the Solemn Watch (N Kologarn)

Cloak

1. Platinum Mesh Cloak (25 Emblems of Valor)
2. Saronite Animus Cloak (N General Vezax)
3. Cloak of the Iron Council (N Iron Council)

Chest (of which there is a serious lack in Uld10)

1. Valorous Aegis Breastplate (N Yogg Saron)
2. Heroes’ Redemption Breastplate (N 4HM or 80 Emblems of Heroism)
3. Massive Skeletal Ribcage (N Sapphiron)

Wrist

1. Flamewatch Armguards (N Flame Leviathan)
2. Bracers of Dalaran’s Parapets (60 Emblems of Valor)
3. Minion Bracers (N Naxxramas Trash)

Hands

1. Valorous Aegis Handguards (N Freya)
2. Adamant Handguards (N Ulduar Trash)
3. Gauntlets of the Iron Furnace (N Ignis) [blech]

Waist

1. Indestructible Plate Girdle (Crafted)
2. Stormtempered Girdle (N Razorscale)
3. Waistguard of Living Iron (40 Emblems of Heroism)

Legs

1. Valorous Aegis Legguards (N Hodir)
2. Gilded Steel Legplates (N Flame Leviathan, Hard Mode)
3. Valorous Redemption Legguards (75 Emblems of Valor)

Feet

1. Spiked Deathdealers (Crafted)
2. Greaves of the Iron Army (N Mimiron, Hard Mode)
3. Kyzoc’s Ground Stompers (40 Emblems of Valor)

Weapon

1. Shiver (N Hodir, Hard Mode)
2. Stoneguard (N Kologarn)
3. Legacy of Thunder (N Thorim)

Shield

1. The Boreal Guard (N Hodir, Hard Mode)
2. Shieldwall of the Breaker (N Auriaya)
3. Barricade of Eternity (N Malygos)

Relic

1. Libram of Obstruction (15 Emblems of Heroism)

Rings

1. Signet of the Earthshaker (H Xt-002) [BoE]
2. Signet of Winter (N Hodir)
3. Signet of the Impenetrable Fortress (25 Emblems of Valor)
4. Titanium Earthguard Ring (Crafted)

Trinkets

1. Royal Seal of King Llane (N Yogg Saron)
2. Furnace Stone (N Ignis)
3. Repelling Charge (N Thaddius)
4. Essence of Gossamer (H Hadronox/Azjol-Nerub)