Elkagorasa the Casual

Playing a tank, gives one a different feels for raiding. As DPS, I could simply jump into the raid with little research and do fairly good. Sure I might die due to a stupid mechanic, but seldom would I die twice. As a tank, I feel I have the responsibility of knowing the fight a little better than simply responding to DBM's alerts. So I feel I need to do some research. I've finally gotten a moment to pull together a few resources and feel almost ready.. Here's what I've been reviewing:  Update: FatBoss+WoWhead - Raid Role Responsibilities: If you just need a quick refresher before jumping into a fight, these quick role breakdowns are great. Garothi Worldbreaker Felhounds  of Sargeras Antoran High Command Portal Keeper Hasabel Essence of Eonar Imonar the Soulhunter Kin'garoth Varimathras Coven of Shivarra Aggramar Argus the Unmaker HazelnuttyGames  has put together a collection of videos that cover each of the bosses. Her videos are roughly 5 m...

El Plato  ElPlato@Kul Tiras-US Alliance Kul Tiras-US Protection Paladin  Artifact weapon level 71 (atm, and still improving).  Ashbringer is in 60's.   ~933 average iLevel, with AskMrRobot approved gear set. Will have at least 1 legendary item upgraded by end of week. #19 Protection Paladin on Kul Tiras-US, per WowProgress Currently running Mythic+8/9 with 2 guild members. We think we could push 12-15 if we had last 2 dps slots filled.  Objective:  Complete Antorus raid on normal or better with dedicated group of players. Looking for a team who raid between 10PM and midnight PST . Positive Traits: Good humored, easy going player. Often the quiet on vent because youngest is sleeping immediately upstairs from me.  Will learn fights, picks up quickly and won't stand in fire, unless it's part of mechanic (KJ). Blogger, so I am constantly researching tactics for boss fights.  Not afraid of addons, including a  Patreo...

This is for the third wing of Tomb of Sargeras. For the other two wings: Wing 1 - Gates of Hell Wing 2 - Wailing Halls As today, Monday, I haven't done this raid yet, so I don't know how complete DBM is. Maiden of Vigilance (aka Guitar Maiden) ( wowhead ) Split raid into two sides of boss. (light or yellow and fel or green) When infused with light or fel run to that color (yellow vs green) [place down raid marker] Unstable soul - is because on wrong color with infusion. Doesn't do raid wide damage in lfr, stay on platform.  Tanks should take hammer based on their infusion. Creation = light, obliteration = fel. Fel tank taunt immediately after hammer of creation.  Phase 2 - boss teleports to other side. Run to her and take down her bulwark ( ie Karazhan's Maiden of Virtue). Can run down center line to avoid all orbs.  Soak matching color orbs to match your infusion. Gives buff +10% damage +5% healing buff per stack up to 10 stacks. Players can stack...

I went into this wing with no preview of the fights and survived. Luckily I had an experienced co-tank and DBM yelling at me at important moments, so we never wiped, but hmm. I was completely confused by the Sister's fight (#2 in this wing) until reading the wowhead description (linked by each boss). I'll keep updating the notes below as I learn more about each fight and clean-up comments that didn't make sense. Wing 1 - Gates of Hell  videos, icy veins links and prot paladin POV. Wing 3 - Chamber of the Avatar Demonic Inquisition   Relatively easy fight. Little movement necessary. I picked up Artigan and pretty much stuck with him the entire encounter. We did little to 'coordinate stacks', but we did manage to avoid overlapping the confess.   ( icy veins ) ( wowhead ) keep Artigan faced away away from raid to avoid aoe damage. keep bosses separated. kite Artigan during bone saw to avoid additional stacks of torment attempt to coordinate stacks of ...

Last night, I ran the first wing of the Tomb of Sargeras raid on my Protection Paladin. We managed to one-shot all of the bosses. Thank you DBM for making me look like I knew what I was doing.. :) The only really questionable fight was Harjatan as fellow tank and I didn't use the damage soak on his 'unchecked rage' mechanic. oops! Today, I found Krazitrain has posted short videos for the first three bosses.. Nice concise 1-2 minute long summaries each fight from a ranged DPS perspective. I've added my perspective as a prot paladin below. Wing 2 - Wailing Halls Wing 3 - Chamber of the Avatar Goroth  ( icy-veins guide ) DBM prompts you to do everything you need here.  Taunt when other tank is inflicted with Burning Armor. Run out of range if it's cast on you. Hide behind spikes when he cast Infernal Burn. Don't stand in bad stuff. Harjatan  ( icy-veins guide ) (My DBM was a little out of date, so this may have been fixed alre...

The Legion invasions have shown us that Timewalking is about to go mainstream.  Blizzard has mentioned that there will be no questing from zone a to zone b path, instead you'll be able to go in any order you wish.  What I think they've failed to explain is that it doesn't necessarily mean at level 100+. I forsee content having no borders.  You approach a bad guy, he will automatically match your level.  This means you could theoretically raid, quest and run heroic dungeons if your gear is appropriate. Or would you need to complete the pre-quests? Of course, some content will still be gated. You can't have people flying around before level forty, can you?? Oh! Disregard my chauffeur please, and this pair of wings,  and the feather from Draenor. So my question is, why am i bothering to level my bank toon? Next week,  she'll be running Siege LFR!! Leveling via all possible dungeons! And maybe even questing in Panda land even though she's not even level...

Late Saturday night, I logged on to run Ulduar with my druid (level 100). I thought her combination of healing, and tank would make her a cinch for completing getting Glory to the Ulduar raider . Upon entering the raid zone, a guildie pinged me and asked if they (husband and wife) could help out. They both had the achievement and would be able to help. Sure! Liked music on this video. (Start - Zone in, check raid, 10-man, zone out, change raid to 25-man, zone in, talk to Brann, realized need to talk to Norgannon before!?!, zone out, reset raid, try again) While they got ready, I started the tank fight . On my warlock, this was easy. I was able to DPS down the tank and move on quickly. Some reason, in bear and cat, I could not do take down Leviathan for orbit-uary. I ended up having to bring in 3 of the tanks and quickly hop between them. I ran out of ammo on the second, but the DOT took him down before I could jump to the third. Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare OK, we had 3 peopl...

Last night, I ran with a friend's guild on normal Mannoroth. I started with them playing with them as Elkagorasa doing dps, but he was ranking 9:11, even below both tanks.. (/sigh). Blame it on my average gear score being 10-15 points lower than everyone else.  Half way through the night, I swapped to Eride and healed the fight a few times. We still never won the fight, best was 9% down before wipe. To help me out, I have collected a few videos that give some strategies.  Curse of doom, take damage and the curse will disappear. Run to pool in center. DPS/Healer - Don't stand in front of boss. Phase 4 - # of people in ' circle ' [soaking damage during gaze] determine how big the pond will be.  Save lust cooldowns at 35% FatBoss changes the strategy where the raid group stands at the pillar and tanks are in middle. This way you don't need to manage the 'gaze'. People are already grouped together and simply grouped together. ...

Last night, after I finished my dailies for the Netherwing, I decided to go run Ulduar for both the achievement mount and hopefully, Mimiron's head. 30 minutes of emptying bags, and turning in quest items, I finally show up at the entrance of Ulduar. I then spent the next 3 hours gathering achievements, until I had to give up for the day (2am local) and go get some sleep. Let's start here.This quick 6 minute long video is based on running with a level 100 toon. This is extremely helpful in seeing the fights from that perspective before hand.. Orbit-uary - This was easier than mention in the video. When your DPS is doing 1 million damage using the main (button 1) cannon, why use anything else.  Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare - I am at 8:25 dwarfs at the moment. It appears that the main technique is you have to do damage to the dwarf after the boss is pulled down. As a destro warlock, my technique was to splash a rain of fire over their mole machine. This would aggro them fo...

With Time Walking dungeons coming to WoW in 6.2, there are a number of people calling for tw raids! I'd like to propose a slight variation. Ok, so as I recently posted that I am working on mount gathering, both from reputation rewards like Netherwing, but also legacy raids, like ICC and Ulduar. Running these raids at 100 is menial. In fact, with these raids, it's detrimental to run many with a minion as they will often kill the adds and boss too fast. I may have to attempt a few achievements naked or with a different, lower level toon in order to kill them slow enough. So, I'd like to propose variable dungeons and raids. Let's call them Normal and heroic. Normal would be tuned a so that your group is at, or even little op. You could potentially solo the content, but not easily. 3-man group would be ideal. Whereas Heroic level would be tuned 3 tw levels lower. You'd do about 5-10% less. It would be similar to running a heroic version of the content. (I suppos...

BlizzardWatch , fka WoW Insider, has a wonderful segment hosted by Adam Koebel, Bosses in 5-Seconds . This is similar to what, like Salts does for his tanking guides, in that it provides a quick summary on the boss mechanics, focused for LFR. Last week Adam posted a short write-up of the 3 newest bosses released Hans & Franz, Flamebender Ka'graz and Kromog. This is definitely something I want to keep on-hand. Always great to have something short and sweet to quote if all is going terribly bad..

A month ago, I decided for glory and heck , just to try my luck, I solo'd ICC in attempts to get the mount. I decided to run this with my druid because it seemed to provide me the best dps and heals combination. As you can imagine, there was not a single issue soloing this content. In fact, on a couple bosses, I killed them too fast and didn't get the achievement the first time through (full house). That is OK, because Once Bitten requires at least two attempts at the boss to complete the achievement. Plus, if like me (i.e. boosted druid), you need to clear the raid once on Normal, and a second time on Heroic. UPDATED: As of last night, I have completed this and acquired my drake. Using the add-on ' RaidAchievement ' helped with the Lich King achievement, and I would highly suggest it, just need to make sure you download the ' legacy ' modules. Here's been my strategy for each of these achievements so far: Lord Marrowgar - Boned - burn him down quickl...

Highmaul Both Elkagorasa and Esha have gone through Highmaul as DPS a couple times now. Esha is at that point where it's probably time to watch a 'tanking' Highmaul LFR. Vol'gar - tank everything. Kargath Tank swap on impale If in stands from chain hurl, (on heroic), face 'crowd away from raiders. Elkagorasa  had the two-handed staff  drop this week of Mar'gok , so he's now checking the 'LFG' tab and to throw his hat in for a normal raid DPS slot. Mount Hunting Last Friday, I ran once through ICC and got 9 (out of 12) boss achievements done without any issue. There was never any issue with any of the bosses (troll racial healing + very low dps from level 72 bosses). In fact to get the remaining achievements, I think I am going to have to walk away from the keyboard and do nothing for awhile. Full House  requires you to have 5 different mobs alive when you kill the boss. I waited around until I had around 7 adds in my fight. ...

As I've stated before, I have guildies who are running legacy content for achievements, titles and mounts. Last August, I helped a guildie get her Sarth+3 drake mount. 2 days ago, she called in guild for a healer! *PLEASE* and I tried to bring in my disc priest. Sadly, she's never ran ICC 25-man, so she couldn't get into the raid for 25-heroic. Doing some research, I found that it's absolutely soloable. Sure Disc has really low DPS, but it is  possible to complete. Here's the first few bosses done by a level 90 shadow/disc priest. Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 This got me thinking... why my priest? That drake boss... Ok, so how do I heal the boss to full health in order to move on. Warlocks have 0 healing abilities, maybe I could pack along a big bag of bandages and 'heal' it up that way..  I could call in a healer, like Taur did.. On the other hand, my druid can heal and dps like a champ. Heck, maybe even heal enough in feral spec!? While I am at it...

Last night I decided that it was time to head back to the Black Temple and finally attempt to pickup Illidan's headpiece . It was extremely easy 30 levels over all the bosses and they only progressed to phase 2 where it was required by the boss. Since I'd never ran Black Temple at level, I found this quick video by Nobble extremely helpful. He points out an easy order for killing the bosses so that you can get into see Illidan. (counter clock wise). It was more helpful for me to simply find the best path between bosses. As I've stated before, it's SO EASY to get lost in these places!?! :) It's funny running through this as a raid, after seeing it as the warlock scenario to get green fire. Many of the same bosses are here, except the warlock scenario starts at the front door and Akama takes us straight for the Essence of Anguish. To get there, I took the portal.. Yep. Back to Panderia, taxi'd to Temple, then portal to Shatratth. I've now set my ...

One more to 100... The other night, I got my guardian druid, Esha, up to 100. Happily was in the middle of the Nagrand quest chain, dropping traps and gathering leathery animals. As with Elk, I ran the proving grounds and got my 610 staff. I was able to one-shot it, because of a mechanics difference. As a tank, if you don't finish the last mob before the timer, it lets you slide... As long as your healer doesn't die, you're good. I haven't tried running Silver yet as I still don't have the 610 to get into Heroics, so no hurry. Looking at Arielle's video, it looks more than do-able.  I managed to get into a random Everbloom. What a mess. Problem number one, IMO, the DPS didn't know the fights. Sure, it was my first run as tank, but still. On spider boss, DPS was leaving the Pale One alone, he'd inhale the goo, enrage and then start attacking. Spider boss gets a big tasty snack! Mages we pulled while healer was OOM. On Yalnu, we had tons of flo...

Maximum Molten Core One of WoW’s classic 40-player dungeons, Molten Core, will be available in Raid Finder during the anniversary period for level 100 players. Making it through the underground gauntlet and defeating Ragnaros will reward players with a Core Hound mount and a Warlords of Draenor Raid Finder–quality helm (100% guaranteed!). For a walkthrough of the dungeon as it stands today, check out our  Revisiting Heroism’s Past – Molten Core  guide. I hadn't really thought about it before, but I may not be able to even do this. This will require me to reach 100; 10 levels between release 11/13 and before the end of the anniversary party on 1/6/2015. 54 days. The last week, I've only been able to log about 45 minutes leveling up my druid. I am not sure I'll be able to level up my warlock in 7 weeeks!! I'll work on it as a core-hound mount sounds CRAZY! 

In the 8 something years playing Warcraft, this is my first Legendary . The single reason why this was possible is the LFR. Without the LFR, I wouldn't been able to get into enough raids to gather the stones, secrets and runestones to complete the quest chain. Last weekend , I had 11 of the 12 necessary Titan Runestones. With this, I only queued up for Halls of Flesh-Shaping  and luckily I got my last stone from the first boss (Durumu). Lei Shen was easy as usual. Quick three bosses and back to talk to Wrathion. Purple i600 cape is now on my back. Challenge of the Celestials. Ugh. Not easy, but not the green fire PITA. I was able to finally win the fight after about 7 tries. In this you have to fight Wrathion. Void walker as my tank, all buffed up, ring the gong (like in proving grounds) and get yourself ready. He has some attack that the VW soaked up for me. The one item that I had to avoid was the lava pools that he'd spawn. If I pulled them off my VW, the pools would ch...

This week has been rather fruitful for my druid. Got another Burden of Eternity, so I converted a head  token. Of course, then ...  Tanked phase 1 of Siege of Orgrimmar successfully, picking up 3 items, head , neck and trinket 2 . No wipes and very few deaths and now only one item still left post-boost set (main hand). Sort of liking the look of the head piece, so not sure if I'll transmog it back to Rayne piece or keep it. Realized as a Blacksmith, I can make my own belt buckle . (doh!) No excuse now for not having one equipped. They're still selling for 500+ gold on my server, whereas the living steel sells for around 250-400 gold. Took about 4 hours, going through Klaxxi quest chain to reach Honored and pickup recipe . Having two alchemist (only one with recipe), I made the living steel as well. 60 Ghost Iron bars = 1 living steel bar. A stack of 20 ghost iron are selling for about 80g. So for about 250g I made myself a buckle.  In the process of running ...

For the last 2 weeks, I've been having a lot of fun with the addon  oQueue . If you haven't used this add-on before, it's something the helps breathe new life into the game. What does it do? oQueue allows users from cross-domains find each other. Players can setup a request for other players, post it out there. Then players see that request popup, and request to be put on the wait list. If the event organizer loves you, they can send you a meeting invite and off you go! This is the addon that Blizzard hopes their new Group Finder will replace. BUT will they go far enough? Another central innovation in Warlords is our Group Finder feature, which will allow players to easily form and search for raid groups (among other activities) with players from their entire region. [...] For players who want to take the next step beyond Raid Finder, or who want to find a weekend run for their alt, or who just need a last-minute tenth member for their raid, Group Finder will make th...