Category: ramblings

I have done virtually nothing in WoW since last Thursday. A couple random dungeons on Madrana, a couple on my druid, but I haven’t even raided. Let me tell you — being too sick to even veg out and play WoW? Not fun.

Anyways, I thought I’d do my weekly combing through my web stats and pull out 10 search terms that sent people here, as I usually do.

For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to lump all the Toravon the Ice Watcher results into one:

1) minimum stats tanking toravon, how to do toravon, toravon taunt, toravon “emblems of frost”, frost resist toravon, can you 2 heal toravon, toravon 10 how many tanks needed

That ought to be sufficient.

For tanking stats, I presume that if you can tank Koralon, you can tank Toravon. I think there’s less damage taken in the Toravon encounter overall. Figure 35k+ health for 10-man and 40k+ health for 25-man. You will only need two tanks for Toravon, just like Koralon, Emalon and (back in the day, anyways) Archavon.

I recommend taunting Toravon every 3-4 stacks of Frostbite.

Yes, Toravon drops 2 Emblems of Frost on BOTH 10-man and 25-man, just like Koralon dropped 2 Emblems of Triumph on both 10/25.

You don’t need frost resist gear for Toravon. It’s advisable to have Frost Resistance Aura from a paladin or Frost Resist Totem from a shaman, however, just to mitigate the frost damage. But resist gear is, in no way, needed.

Yes, you can 2-heal 10-man Toravon. My (not well-geared) resto shammy successfully did so with a druid. I chained off the tanks and the druid hotted up the raid.

As to how to do Toravon, here’s a guide I wrote last week.

2) “body and soul” rotface

Totally. Awesome plan. If you have a holy priest specced for Body and Soul, have them toss the infected people a shield. Good call.

3) “invisibility potion” putricide

I think I see where you’re going with this. You think if you can go invisible (like mages can) in combat, before a phase change, you can get free DPS on Putricide, right? Not bad thinking, to be honest, but I’m pretty sure this doesn’t work. During my sneaking around Orgrimmar to get the BB King achievement (that video’s still forthcoming, btw!), I used the invisibility potion to no effect once I was actually IN combat. If, however, I was fading out of visibility when I engaged mobs, it worked fine. So, sorry. Only mages and rogues, to my knowledge, can use their abilities to get some free DPS on Putricide.

4) does divine sacrifice stack

That’d be a big ol’ “no”, sorry. If you activate Divine Sacrifice and another pally does so immediately after you do, your DS will fade on yourself and the raid, and the other paladin’s will become active. You CAN use them back to back, however. On heroic Twin Valkyrs on 25-man, for light vortex, the other holy pally pops his divine shield/divine sacrifice, then I pop mine after I see his emotes in raid chat. The theory here is that his DS will have already been consumed by the insane raid damage light vortex causes by the time I go through the globals to activate my bubble and then DS.

But no, it doesn’t stack.

5) do icc bosses drop emblems of frost

Yes. Each boss on 10 and 25-man versions drops 2 Emblems of Frost, even the Airship battle. (Although that one doesn’t give you any rep.)

For clarification, here’s how you can currently get Emblems of frost:

a) 2 per level 80 character per day for the successful COMPLETION of a random heroic dungeon

b) 5 per level 80 character per week for the successful completion of the weekly raid quest

c) 4 per level 80 character per week for downing Toravon on both difficulties (2 Emblems of Frost for each 10 and 25-man kill)

d) 2 Emblems of Frost per boss killed in Icecrown Citadel on 10 and 25-man difficulties

e) 5 Emblems of Frost per ICC weekly quest completed (up to two — one on 10 and one on 25-man)

If you can down the Lower Spire, the Plagueworks, The Crimson Halls and heal up Dreamwalker, for example, on both difficulties, plus you do your random daily every day, plus you kill Toravon twice, plus doing two ICC raid quests, plus the weekly quest, you would get:

8 from Lower Spire, 6 from Plagueworks, 4 from Crimson Halls, 2 from Dreamwalker (20 total) — times 2 for 10/25-man, so that’s 40 from boss kills in ICC. Random heroic done daily is another 14 badges. Toravon dead twice is another 4. Two ICC raid quests is another 10. Then the regular weekly raid quest is another 5. So that’s like, 73 badges in a week. Yowza. Makes me want to get my non-raiding toons into ICC. :P

6) mobs dying to ret aura not giving loot

Not sure if you mean that you were just sitting there, afk, with ret aura on, and something beat on you until it died, but if that’s the case, that makes sense. Your character has to deliberately attack the mob in order to get credit/loot for the kill. Hunters and warlocks have the same problem with pets. If I send my cat over to wail on something and he kills the mob without my having even shot at the mob once, then I don’t get loot.

If you mean that the killing blow was from ret aura and you didn’t get loot, open an in-game ticket.

7) two elixir or one flask?

Well, now. That’s an interesting question and generally depends on what stats you’re looking for. As a holy paladin, I use Flask of Distilled Wisdom. But because I’m an alchemist, my flasks last two hours. So I’ll generally finish up my raids with two elixirs instead — which are actually better than the flask. I use Guru’s Elixirs and Elixirs of Mighty Thoughts. Due to my being an alchemist, I get a slight boost to each of these elixirs and will end up with slightly more mana/intellect than if I use the flask, not to mention another 200-some health from the Guru’s. So technically, it’s better for me to use the two elixirs than to flask.

Your mileage may vary, however. On my hunter, I’d much rather use a Flask of Endless Rage because 180 attack power is more than I’d get from an Elixir of Mighty Agility or Wrath Elixir along with an Elixir of Mighty Thoughts. (Why an intellect elixir? Careful Aim.)

In most situations, a flask will do just fine, but definitely check out wowhead.com for consumables you might prefer to use.

8) razuvious be tanked in icecrown gear?

No. He casts Unbalancing Strike. Apart from the fact that wowhead.com says it hits for about 100,000 physical damage AFTER mitigation, it reduces your defense rating by 100, leaving you crittable. Note that it WAS possible to tank the level 60 Razuvious in Sunwell gear, but even then, you risked an unlucky hit that would instantly kill your tank. I do not believe this would now be possible or would even be possible once we’re in Cataclysm.

9) onyxia where should healer stand

Onyxia is, believe it or not, your standard dragon fight. That means two things off the bat: being at her head is bad and being at her tail is bad. All dragon fights in this game (well, boss-dragons), without exception (I believe) have some sort of damage at the head and some sort of damage or otherwise bad thing at the tail.

So, being a healer, you should go left or right and stand about 25 yards away from Ony at her midsection, so you can heal melee, ranged and the tank. I prefer to go left, but that’s leftover from 40-man Onyxia, where I was usually in Group 1 and we had groups 1, 3, 5 and 7 go left, 2, 4, 6 and 8 go right.

10) flash of light hot tick

You know what? I always put Sacred Shield up on my target (if I’m not sharing with the other holy pally) and ALWAYS put up (and try to keep up) my Flash of Light HoT. It’s not that it ticks for anything like Rejuvenation or Renew, but it’s a bit of extra healing which is never, ever a bad thing. Does it lower your overall healing per second? Yes, because the time you spent casting Flash of Light could have been used to cast Holy Light. But honestly? I care more about keeping my tank alive than my numbers.

Raid-buffed, my FoL HoT ticks for anywhere from 450/tick to 950/tick, depending on if I crit or not. Every second for 12 seconds. That’s really not too bad. I do miss my 4pc T9, though, which doubles that.

Okay, I wrote this throughout the day. Time to post and try to get some sleep.

Whew. I do not recommend leaving the weekly raid until the last possible day for, oh, three of your toons. While I did Madrana’s on Wednesday or something, Kurn, the shammy and the mage were all done in the last 24 hours. Stupid Patchwerk. Well, at least it wasn’t Flame Leviathan, right?

Anyways, on to the search terms that led people here and my responses to them!

1) “rotface mutated infection discipline shields”

Uh, definitely a good call, in my opinion. The mutated infection target gets a debuff that causes damage every second for 12 seconds. Ow. As the person who usually heals the infected people with a beacon on the tank, let me tell you, I APPRECIATE you shielding the infected people. :)

2) “anub togc heroic cleansing totems”

Useless, sorry. The debuffs on your add tank aren’t dispellable by regular abilities or by cleansing totems. Better to use Nature Resistance totem or Aspect of the Wild. Having said that, we got TOGC 25 Anub to 10% tonight. I tell you, I’ll be psyched to bury that bastard for good.

3) “how does a warrior tank heroic hor”

Hello, Mr. or Ms. Prot Warrior. Thanks for stopping by. It’s true, you have a more difficult job in Heroic Halls of Reflection than the other three tanking classes do. You also have Spell Reflection, which can also be glyphed and talented. So I’d recommend at least the glyph, if not the full 2/2 talent points in there.

You also have Vigilance. Use it on your healer.

Probably the best way for you to do HoR is out in the open. You’ll have room to maneuver, you’ll be able to Charge to Phantom Mages, you’ll be able to see what you’re doing so you can effectively use Thunderclap and Shockwave. For you guys, I HIGHLY recommend the following kill order, which I would then communicate to the group before the start of the event:

– Phantom Mage. Kill it. Kill it dead. The flamestrikes, the frostbolts, fireballs and chains of ice all suck a lot for you. So burn it, or keep it CCed via shackle/turn undead/freezing trap.

– Ghostly Priest. They heal. Kill them! Interrupt casts!

– Spectral Footman. You can actually leave these ’till last, but you MUST maintain aggro on these guys. They shield bash.

– Shadowy Mercenary. Their shadowstep sucks and their poisons are evil. Still, if you have Vigilance on your healer, you should be able to taunt back quickly. Be ready! They can also incapacitate a member of your party for a couple of seconds, so be ready to pop a CD if it’s the healer.

– Tortured Rifleman. Really not too bad, if a bit annoying. CC if possible, otherwise, just grab aggro on them now and again.

Cleave, Shockwave, Thunderclap, these will all be KEY for you to successfully do this. You’ll also want to be hyper-aware of what adds are up and where they’re positioned.

4) “devo or retri aura for 5 man heroics”

Depends on who’s in your group and what spec you are. I’m going to guess you’re a prot pally with 3/3 improved devotion aura. Basically, your extra +healing is a waste if your healer is a tree, but since it’s available in every aura (like ret’s Swift Retribution), that doesn’t really help the issue. Honestly, if you have a shammy with Stoneskin totem or a druid who’s buffed you with Mark of the Wild and you feel like you’re having aggro issues, Retribution is the way to go. If you have a crapton of armor anyways, go Retribution aura for extra threat. If you’re not getting hit hard enough to require enough healing for Spiritual Attunement to keep you topped off in terms of mana, go Retribution aura. Otherwise, stick with devo.

5) “dodge chance to tank 10m icc paladin”

Ugh, ugh, ugh. Thanks to Chill of the Throne, you lose 20% dodge. Which sucks. I’d say that, depending on your gear and such, probably 7%ish (after taking the debuff into consideration) would be a minimum. Just my guess, though.

6) “healing forge of souls shammy”

Hey, I actually know how to do this! Okay, so here’s the deal… Tremor totem on the first boss. Pop hero right off the bat on the second boss. Apart from that, it works like most any other instance — keep your tank up, hope there’s not 3 hunters spread out in 3 corners of any room so that chains don’t hit them and make use of Riptide/Healing Wave/Healing Wave if you have to. There’s nothing wrong with using your whole mana bar on one boss fight or half of it on one trash pull. The important thing is keeping people up.

For some reason, I almost always die on the last boss, thanks to idiots not knowing the following:

– stop DPS when mirror is cast on a player, because that damage gets cast on the targetted player!

– don’t stand in purple circles

– don’t stand there letting ghosts whack on you

– don’t stand in front of the boss when the purple beam is active.

If your group is dying due to any of those issues, not your fault, shammy. Not your fault.

7) “strength stamina gem vs agility stamina paladin”

Let’s be clear about this. Strength, without talents or anything, gives a paladin 2 attack power per point of strength. Agility gives paladins armor, dodge and crit. Strength should always win out over pure agility. Apart from anything else, Divine Strength gives you 15% extra strength, so if you have 100 strength, that bumps up to 115 strength via that talent and no kings or anything. Then kings comes into the mix and adds 10%. That’s another 11-12 strength. So instead of 100 strength, you now have 126 strength. That means you went from 200 AP to 252 AP. That’s pretty significant. And a lot better choice than, say, 100 agility.

8) “tank guide don’t let the healer die”

Mr. or Ms. Tank, I love you. Thank you. That said, sometimes your healer will die despite your best efforts. Sometimes it’ll even be their fault. But most of the time, it’s going to be yours.

In order to minimize that, here are some tips:

a) Be familiar with the fight. If there are adds that spawn, know that they will charge the healer as soon as they spawn, due to healing aggro. Be ready to pick them up.

b) Be aware of your current surroundings. Change your camera angle to watch the healer so you can taunt quickly if needed.

c) Don’t let that one mob go wail on the healer. Seriously. You’re tanking. Hold them. Don’t let five go running off as you tank one, don’t let one go running off as you tank five.

d) Interrupt spellcasts. Sometimes your healer can be targetted by spells that will result in them dying. So interrupt when you can. Also know what to interrupt. Interrupting heals takes priority over everything, with mind controls a close second. Offensive spells come last, but should still be interrupted.

Apart from doing what you can to prevent something from beating on your healer, there’s not a lot I can tell you. Some healers are just dumb, though, and will stand in fire/void zones/poisons regardless.

9) “why cant pugs do ony”

I laughed out loud at this one. Thing is, they can, but the organization and execution of most pug raids is, well, lacking. Or laughable, if it exists. Apparently, it’s super-hard to do basic healing/DPS/tanking assignments. :P If you find yourself in a fail Ony pug, try to organize your fellow whatever you are. If you’re a healer, help organize healing. Tank? Figure out who’s got Ony, who’s got whelps, who’s got the add. This kind of help really makes a difference.

10) “blood prince council exploit”

Sorry buddy, but:

a) I don’t know of any Blood Prince Council exploit

b) I don’t believe in exploits. I mean, obviously they exist, but I do whatever I can to not make use of them. CHEATING IS BAD, OKAY?

Besides, Blood Prince Council? NOT a hard fight. Just spread out, keep the orb thing in the air, heal your tanks, kill the active target. Bam.

Okay, that’s it for the Q&A for this week. Coming up later this week, ICC strats! Stay tuned.