Heroic baby steps

Last night we took our first cracks at heroic ICC-10. Personally, I was not in the best condition for the venture, sporting a pounding headache and a fuse about three sizes too small. Despite my condition, everyone put up with my shenanigans and we made some good progress into the hard modes.

I’m going to spend this post talking about the four hard modes we did: Marrowgar, Gunship, Saurfang (though we didn’t down this), and Festergut and impart anything we learned.

Lord Marrowgar

What’s different?

• Bone Spikes happen during Bonestorm
• Coldflame hurts more, stays up longer
• Bonestorm will probably kill you if you are in his hitbox

The first time we tried this fight we lost six people on the first Bonestorm. It was then I realized we weren’t in Kansas anymore. I think it woke everyone else up, as well. This isn’t your father’s pug’s Marrowgar.

Mark the tanks up so people are *especially* careful not to stand on them over the course of the fight. I’m not certain (thanks to borking the combatlogs) but it looked like a Rogue ate a Saberlash at one point. So make sure no one gets too close.

When you pull try to keep him in the center of the room and have melee and ranged (minus hunters) stand inside Marrowgar’s hitbox. Coldflames start outside the hitbox and spread from there, so there’s a safety zone within. The only caveat is to watch the timers, because once you hit 5 seconds til the Bonestorm you want people to scatter so they don’t get taken out right off the bat.

Bonestorm can be painful, and will be the most dangerous part of the entire fight. You’ll have about five of them. Just make sure everyone stays generally in the same circular area, but spreads out. If two people are next to each other you might get a delicious RNG sandwich where one person gets Spiked and the person next to them is targeted for Bonestorm/a Coldflame drop. Basically, guaranteeing the Spiked person is a goner. For that reason don’t pile up on each other.

The fight is pretty straight forward but there is a serious RNG element. Everytime a healer gets Bone Spiked (especially during a Bone Storm) you’ll find yourself short for breath. Save Divine Sacrifice for those times when you only have two healers.

Basically hold it together through each Bonestorm and you should be fine.

The SS Lolship

What’s different?

• Rockets have a knockback
• Mages have more health
• Enemy ship has more health

There’s really not much to say about this fight. You might at the end find yourself questioning whether this was on Heroic or not. I suppose the only thing you need to watch out for is people on the side of the boat getting knocked off after eating a rocket.

Two words: Loot. Piñata.

Deathbringer Saurfang

What’s different?

• Blood Beasts will one-shot your kiters
• Blood Beasts will gain Scent of Blood, fun for the kiters
• Blood Power stacks faster
• Saurfang hits harder (thus, more damaged on the Marks)

On the bright side

• Still only two Blood Beasts

We only did three attempts on this, getting to 41% our last go. I wanted to keep going and see how far we could get in ICC-10 that night, but in hindsight we totally could have downed Saurfang if we spent the last hour of the raid on this guy, rather than moving on. The fight isn’t that rough for the tanks. It’s your healers that are going to be pulling their hair out by the end of this. You think they were white knuckle healing the Frenzy phase before?

We had a hunter kiting on one side, an Ele Shaman on another, with an Arcane Mage assisting both. When Beasts came up, a DK would Chains of Ice the one heading for the Hunter, giving Cendra extra time to pump damage into the Beast before it reached him. Then, when the Beast was closing in, I would taunt and before it could get to me Cendra would finish it off. On the other side the Ele Shaman/Mage pair didn’t have much trouble with theirs.

I found that playing taunt tag with the Blood Beasts to be crazy helpful in keeping them away from your kiters. If those creatures reach their target, you’re going to be down a kiter and they probably end up finishing off a healer in the ensuing chaos.

I’ll report more on this fight when we actually down it.

Festergut

What’s different?

• Oh god, three stacks, it hurts
• Malleable Goos away!
• Much tighter enrage timer

This fight is very easy once you get the hang of it. For one thing, don’t want your healers in melee anymore. If they get hit by Malleable Goo they suffer a 250% casting speed debuff, and that’s murder with so much AOE and tank damage, so keep them out with ranged.

When you pull Festergut, run him over to the left, far away from Putricide’s balcony. This will give you maximum viewing range to watch the Malleable Goos get tossed down and to predict who they’re heading for. Likewise, a small green puddle will appear on the floor to presage where the Goo is going to hit. Ranged and Heals can adjust accordingly, though melee has a somewhat harder job with it.

Because Festergut is so big it’s going to be hard for melee to see the puddle if they’re directly on top of the boss. Instead they should stand to the left or right of the boss (next to his leg) so they can see under themselves when a green puddle appears. If ones does appear, melee should immediately shuffle over to the other leg. This should put them out of the range of the Goo.

Being hit by the Goo will also give you a movement debuff. Watch for this to happen when Gas Spores are up, in case someone needs a Hand of Freedom to help get them over to the ranged Spore in time for the debuff.

The three-inhale period for Festergut is going to be a test for your tanks. He hits like a truck then (again, I wish I had logs) and you’ll want to use everything in your arsenal to mitigate the damage. Use bubblewall, pop an armor pot, pop trinkets. External cooldowns. Whatever you need to do! Moreover, don’t be afraid to put a Hand of Sacrifice on the other tank during their turn at a three-inhale phase.

Pop Divine Sacrifice during the Pungent Blight.

Like I said, the fight is generally pretty easy (in the sense it’s not hard to adapt to the mechanics). Don’t get hit by Malleable Goo, get your three spores, don’t die to anything stupid. Use your cooldowns to not get gibbed by Festergut during his soft enrages.

Tuesdays are for buggy raids

I think now that the Lich King is vulnerable he must be attempting to slow down raids with buggy boss encounters. How else can I explain the painful nonsense we kept running into last night?

First of all, thanks to Patch Day a swath of people were either late or having huge performance issues. Lag was also a major issue for some, though we were thankfully spared the dreaded Gunship lag. Nonetheless, all these little nibbling bites that were slowing people down were invariably cutting into raid performance.

And then there was the brand new buggified version of Saurfang we ran into last night. Usually we don’t see the first Mark until sub-50%, last night we had it at around 70% or so, and a second one going out before 60%. We assumed maybe someone was having issues kiting or people were standing too close together, but instead it just seemed like his Blood Power generation rate was off the charts.

We reset the fight by fleeing to the boat, but then the second time we had the same BP generation issues. We just decided to go with the flow and ended up killing Saurfang with something like six Marks up, no deaths. It wasn’t ultimately an issue for us, but this bug can probably prove to be a roadblock for others. Hopefully they’ll fix it soon.

After Saurfang we were already pushing against the clock and just went to cement our Blood Council kill last week with an equally clean kill. No luck on our part though, because in addition to melee dps assuming being told to scatter when Empowered Shock Vortex was being cast actually meant clump with other melee and get one shot, we had to deal the Kinetic Bombs deciding to randomly explode in midair.

We probably had a few wipes caused by bombs going off and killing too many people, especially ranged dps, which was tight last night and led to more Bombs hitting the ground and exploding. We kept getting ground up in the negative feedback loop.

Based on some cursory research I did it sounds like putting dots on the Bombs was making them explode as they were preparing to despawn. Does that make sense? Anyone have any insight into this?

Finally at around 15 minutes before raid end we dropped Blood Council after eeking out the kill with half the raid dead.

Overall not the best raid night, by far. Still, as long as attendance holds all week we can finally get some progress done on a wing boss. That’s all I ask, dammit.

A night of heartbreak and failure in ICC

Ah… just kidding, another one shot night. I’m just getting tired of doing a raid recap of “oh mang, we iz gud.”

We only had two marks on Saurfang last night (maybe a third at the last second). That’s pretty “gud” though, eh?

Anyhoo, during the course of our sub-two hour ICC-25 run I noticed a couple of things. For example, every week without fail someone just notices the Alliance mobs between Deathwhisper and Gunship don’t give rep. Whoever notices this will find this incredulous. But why would our reputations with the Ashen Verdict improve for killing non-undead folks?

Moreover, I hate when people snark about playing with game sounds on. Maybe if you’re dps you don’t need to pay attention to auditory cues, but as a tank I find it helpful to hear a mob sneaking up behind me. On the Deathwhisper fight it’s increased my chances of surviving a Deformed Fanatic to 100% because I hear the lichess shout out “I release you from THE CURSE OF FLESH” and my first instinct is to immediately back away from the Fanatics I’m tanking. I’m on my toes, not surprised. I don’t know why some people would take it as a point of pride to be potentially caught flat-footed in such a situation. No matter how sweet that iPod playlist you put together may be.

But I digress. I’m hoping for Putricide next week because the same four bosses has officially gotten tired, especially when we’re looking at a 1.5-2 hour clear. If that’s the case, then we’ll probably spend Tuesday next week on the same old, same old plus Rotface and Festergut. Then Wednesday we’ll do 10mans and get everybody familiar with the basics of the Putricide fight. Then Thursday, knowledge in hand we’ll hopefully kill him in under the 10 attempt limit. The less learning wipes we need the better. Plus, god help me, I need a Conqueror’s Mark of Sanctification, which for me is like the Titanguard of this patch cycle.

During the pre-Marrowgar trash I was doing around 9-10k dps with the heroic spec. In-effing-credible. I wish I could do that single target in my normal raid spec!

I wish last night was a bit more interesting (so there’d be something to write about!), but I suppose there’s nothing wrong with a smooth and uneventful run. Stuff will get more interesting in the coming weeks.

The one night raid week

Another raid reset day, another one night ICC clear. Thankfully we really could only swing one raid night this week, with the holiday and all, so it’s not like we’ll be spending the rest of the week sitting on our hands.

Because of Christmas, we were missing a few regulars. Especially three of our best healers, which was painful and cast a pall on the possible success of the raid.

Demo (the gm and other tank) and I have an interesting dynamic where we tend to always be on opposite sides of various things. For example, if a raid looks iffy he tends to go full out chicken little while I have to crap sunshine and vomit rainbows to keep the guy from throwing himself off Icecrown glacier.

If we agree on the viability of a raid, god help us all.

So last night I was playing the part of the eternal optimist and thankfully I was right. Sure there was that harrowing first wipe on Marrowgar where some dps was obviously ignoring spikes and the backup healers were getting the dynamic of the fight worked out. But after we reformed we easily dropped him; though I found myself screeching “stay away from the tanks!!” a little too often.

After Marrowgar we went over to Deathwhisper and soundly one shot her. Our first time pulling that off too. Dps did a fantastic job on adds, they really got the hang of the fight.

It’s amazing to think we went from spending a night of wipes to down the Lady the first time to one shotting. I’m proud of how quickly the raid translated our learning wipes into actionable knowledge.

So after Deathwhisper we plowed through the Ally trash to get to the gunship. I switched to my heroic, SoComm spec for tanking D. The spec worked awesomely, giving me some badly needed snap aggro for the mobs pouring out of the portal. I definitely recommend having SoComm in some capacity for tanking D, it makes a world of difference.

After we nuked the Ally ship (I have a sick fantasy that it crashes into the Crusader’s Coliseum) we gathered for the last boss of the wing, Saurfang.

This fight even I was a little worried about, on account of the three healers that had never done the fight before. We did wipe intially, and spectacularly at that, with three marks up before 50%. Eek.

After regrouping we then remembered a few things we always forget til after the first wipe: p:ws the Blood Boils, Amp Magic, yell a few times the phrase “13 yards, you bastards!!” Etc.

And then we killed him.

I rushed over to the chest, hoping to spy a Conqueror’s Mark of Sanctification, but my hopes were dashed.

After the 25man disbanded we put together an ICC-10 run, and ran back into the breach. Of course the run went exceptionally smoothly and we really didn’t have trouble with anything.

I whipped out the heroics spec in the pre-Marrowgar trash and pulled around 5k dps and second damage done overall. Not too shabby. Next week I’ll use it on that trash in the 25man.

Overall, great night and great raid! I’m happy to rest on our laurels this week but next week is going to be hard to burn through everything in one night and then bum around for the rest of the week.

I guess there’s always ToC… /shudder.

Amazing turnaround in ICC!

Last week, as you may recall, it took us three nights to “clear” ICC-25. The first night was the usual lag-fest filled with trash wipes, a three-shot of Marrowgar, and then some initial attempts on Deathwhisper. Night two was entirely spent in Deathwhisper’s room, to the point where we got trash respawns, finally offing the lichess on the last attempt. Night three was the Gunship and then hours of Saurfang, again killing the boss on the declared last attempt of the night.

Yeah, we cleared ICC last week, but it was uphill both ways. We had to claw and scratch our way to the top.

This week? Um, we cleared the place in two and a half hours last night.

The whole thing. So to speak.

We walked in and started generally on time (listen, if we don’t start 30 minutes late, it’s on time, dammit). Demo announced 5 dkp if we didn’t wipe on trash and 10 dkp if no one dies in a trash pull. And, by anyone, that generally means Falowin, the rogue who could find a way to freeze to death from Chill of the Throne.

We marched our way to Marrowgar, disarming the giant skeletons to save time. Marrowgar generally put up no resistance and we dropped him pretty hard.

Then on to Deathwhisper, who I was a bit worried about because of the complexity of her fight. We wiped once to–as Demo put it–shake the rust off. Then, we came back and easily smoked her.

Onto Gunship which as always is no contest. The ship even docked this time after we took out the Alliance boat, miracles of miracles. Inside the loot chest was the Corpse Tongue Coin which I got for a song. I’m pretty enamored with the trinket, especially for fights like Saurfang which is high physical damage. And considering Chill, any avoidance is good avoidance right now.

And speaking of Saurfang, we then rocketed up to his terrace and put in three attempts trying to work out some tweaks to the strategy. The fourth try we basically did it like we did last week (though, this time we let the first Mark die) and dropped him. It was pretty hard fought, however, with several marks dying at the end periodically and dealing with Saurfang constantly yo-yoing up and down in the 10% range. Our healers are pro, however, and once we hit that final 5% they kept all the Marks up and we had a white knuckle finish.

Great, great week all and all, though it’s kind of anti-climactic. Right now we’re stuck in the same situation we were with ToC where we’d bang out the current raid content in one night and sit on our hands for the rest of the week. After ICC last night we ducked into Ulduar and killed Ignis for the weekly quest. I guess tonight we’re going back to the Coliseum to farm off-spec pieces, fill some gear gaps, and give some alts some love.

I’m also pumped that I’m sitting at 56 emblems right now (thanks to doing the random heroic every day and basically anything else that could net me and Emblem of Frost), which means my first purchase is on Thursday.

I know initially I stated I’d be going for the Corroded Skeleton Key, but I’ve changed my mind. If ICC-25 has taught me anything it’s that, at the moment, I have enough stamina. At the moment. The next wing could change that, but for now, I’m comfortable with my time-to-live.

Damage intake is pretty steady and I’ve yet to be in a situation where I’ve felt “I don’t have the health bar for this!”

In any case, I’m going to swing around and shore up my avoidance (hence the Coin) and bee-line right for the 4pc bonus. The Key will have to be my fifth purchase, after I score the fourth piece of tier.

The uphill climb

If I’m going to take away something from last night, it’s that ICC is somewhat buggy right now. Invites went out at 7 server like usual and two people got in and ported up to the trash before the Gunship Battle. Not knowing any better, they pulled the Alliance trash and wiped, which then bugged that pull. Suddenly the Alliance was standing on top of the teleporter, fighting unkillable Horde mobs. Whenever someone used the teleporter they would get warped up into the middle of the Alliance pack and quickly killed.

It took us about 20 minutes of people running in, rebuffing, repairing, and then some dope would try to teleport and that would cause everyone, one by one, to auto-port up there and be killed. Once the bleeding in my ulcer subdued, we told everyone to wait just inside the entrance, don’t touch the teleporter, and we’d walk to the elevator in Deathwhisper’s room and take that up together.

So we all run over there, and just screwing around someone sits in the pit the elevator settles in. That puts everyone in combat and, again, ports everyone up one by one and kills them.

Finally, after I got some healthy tweaks in, instructions went out over raid warnings and vent: go inside, stand next to the elevator but don’t touch it. Wait for everyone to get there. So everyone gathers, we get on as a raid, and we all go up. So far so good. Elevator reaches the top, Demo and I run off and charge into the breach, some healers and dps follow and some folks hesitate and stay on the elevator. And, of course, the elevator descends, and suddenly the raid was cut in half.

Normally this would have been hilarious, but we just burned 35 minutes on this nonsense. Exasperated, I asked “you guys have used elevators before, right?!” Yeesh. Anyway, no wipes, the elevator came back up and the Alliance dogs were put to heel.

I’m on a boat

We fought our way over to the zeppelin and boarded. Groups were split up with all ranged on D with me, all melee save four on O with Demo, the four lowest dps melee were put on cannons, and three healers were send to O and two stayed on D. Everyone grabbed their rocket packs (which are AWESOME) and we started up the encounter.

We really didn’t know what to expect aside from what we’ve read from the ptr and elsewhere, but generally we stumbled around in the dark and go the Alliance boat to 40% the first time. Smelling blood in the water, we regathered and on the second attempt easily pushed it to the end.

Hilariously enough, O forgot to jump back right before the Alliance ship crashed, so they went down with it. Again, this would be funny if it didn’t cause a giant bug. Our Master Looter went down with the ship and we couldn’t get the purples in the chest. Not only that, but the zeppelin declined to dock at Saurfang’s balcony, so we all had to commit suicide and port up to the next boss. The loot was ticketed, so hopefully the winners will get their spoils soon.

Overall though the Gunship fight was amazing, such an awesome piece of work by Blizzard. Basically free loot and the Chess of ICC, but whatever, the break was nice.

Saurfang

This is how I spend a good chunk of last night: standing behind a recently summoned Saurfang and mashing the Q key to get that first shield slam in.

I made the mistake of using the “loot pinata” invective for Saurfang, and oh boy was I wrong. I don’t think it was ingrained properly to folks how important it was to keep the Blood Beasts away and forstall the applications of new Marks of the Fallen Champion. In our experiences last night, once you hit five Marks the fight is generally over very shortly, especially in the sub-35% range when Saurfang frenzies and starts attacking faster. We had many, many wipes where we’d get it down to 15% and the healers got overwhelmed.

We were, though, making serious progress on the fight, we just needed to get the best execution and get lucky with Marks. After about two hours of attempts it was 11 server and people were jonesing to finish this and go. An hour past our usual stop time, but people stuck around to put this fight to rest. On the last attempt it was again declared that this would be the last try, and sure enough, we dropped the sucker.

As the dkp leader in the Conqueror category of tier tokens I eagerly sprinted to the chest, but alas it was double Vanq. Not totally alas, any tier tokens in the raid is a good thing. I’m glad we managed to score a pair in the first week. Falowin also scored the Deathbringer’s Will trinket which looks to be BiS right now for ArP-using melee dps. Mega grats to him for that.

About the Blood Beasts

They suck. What we did was tell melee to stay on Saurfang and stick to single attacks (ie, no AOE or splash damage) until Beasts were spawned and safely far away. That way, no adds would aggro into melee when they first spawned. The hunters laid down various frost traps and shamans had earthbind totems down and thunderstorms shooting across the terrace constantly.

For myself, I stuck to ShoR, Judging, and Holy Wrath mostly until the Beasts were far enough away or there was enough time on the Beasts cooldown that I could sneak in a HotR. When I never consecrated except for that first 30 second window at the start of the fight before the first Beasts wave. Also, I’d occasionally toss an Avenger’s Shield at a random Beast that was chasing someone to do some damage and snare the little bastard. I like to think that helped.

For benchmarks, try to get through the first two waves without a single Mark of the Fallen Champion going out (though, obviously, the more waves before a Mark, the better). I think on the last attempt we go a Mark on the third wave, the second on the fifth wave, and then one on every wave after that. I believe we killed Saurfang just as the fifth Mark went up.

And that’s the week that was

What an amazing week though! I’m so pumped we managed to get 4/4 in ICC the first week and before the inevitable nerfs. Next week will only be easier, for sure, and then we have some steady farming to do before the next wing opens up.