The Siege of the Antechamber....

So this past week saw my 10 man group take down the first 4 bosses on Thursday night and then we took down Iron Council, Kologarn and Auriaya yesterday.

Can I just say wow, they nerfed the crap out of the first 4 bosses.  We one shot Ignis and XT and didn't really have much issue with people going down.  I was cat the whole night since my buddy Gurggy the Mighty Warrior was there to tank.  We downed the first 4 bosses in less than 2 hours and called it a night.  It was a lot of fun!  And I am still running top on damage and still helping with innervates and rezzes.  But Sunday I get to tank again!!

Now on Iron Council, at first we had me on the middle and small guys but I just couldn't get the little guy to move so we switched it up.  We had the DK tank (Eximius) on those two while I took Steelbreaker.  He was a lot of fun to tank.  Just remember to call out those Fusion Punches and keep an eye on the ground below him.  I will also mention that if you position your camera correctly, you can see is animation for the Fusion Punch and it is easier to call out so you aren't just watching his cast bar.  Steelbreaker will raise his arm above his head and it gets this bright white glowing spark and that is when he is casting the Fusion Punch.  

Once he was down, I grabbed Molgeim and tanked him.  Make sure someone is dispelling his Shield of Runes and that you move him forward just enough to get him out of the Rune of Power he puts on the ground but stay close enough your melee can stand in it.  Also, when you see the Rune of Death, run!  Don't pass go, don't collect 200 dollars, just get out of there!!  Those hurt if they somehow get combined with him standing on his Rune of Power and hitting you!!  I was made into a bear rug.  /shiver

Then we moved on and wiped out Brundir, and he is pretty easy as long as you run from his Overload and when he hovers in the air, stay away from him while he wanders around the room.  He was really easy to kill if you watched those things!

After this we went to fight Kologarn.  Now, let me pass on something we didn't know ahead of time.  YOU CAN RUN OFF THE EDGE OF THE PLATFORM.  So if you are tanking him, don't run too close and fall off!  ;)  I'm not the one who discovered this but I was laughing way too hard when he said it in vent.   Other than that this guy is a pansy.  His adds he calls are a joke and easy to take down all by my bear self.  Just keep an eye out for his evil eye (laser beams!)

Now we moved on to Auriaya, who really wasn't bad either.  We cleared some trash and got her set up and Eximius pulled for me and I tanked her.  We just kept moving her around the corners so that when her Sentry respawned Eximius could take care of it quickly.  It went quite smoothly.

We then moved onto Hodir but we really didn't have time to try more than like 3 times since some folks needed to get going.  But I think that was a pretty good week!

Four down... 9 More to go.

So my 19 man downed the first 4 bosses in Ulduar last weekend.  It was a lot of fun!  And we got two of the three bosses down for the Iron Council so I know we will get it down this weekend.

We got Flame Leviathan, Razorscale and XT down on Thursday.  Then Sunday we came back and got Ignis and worked on the Iron Council.  

One little hint that may be helpful for Razor is that there are two types of balls of fire that fall from the sky.  Blue balls and Orange/Blue balls.  Now, we all know there are certain things in life you don't want, and this continues to be true.  IF YOU SEE THE BLUE BALLS COMING YOUR WAY, MOVE!  The Blue balls put the blue flame on the ground and kill you if you stand in it.  The Orange/Blue Balls are the fireballs and while they deal damage, they aren't as big a deal.  So, please notice Blue balls = bad, not that you probably didn't already know that!  ;)

What I did learn on XT was that every little bit helps.  I used my Tranquility during the second Tympanic Tantrum and that really helped with the healing for my group.  And I was still top DPS with 5100 so I was happy I could help heal the group and put out the dps.  Also, if you don't know, there is now trash in XT's room that you can pull before you engage XT.  This helps a lot! 

And on Ignis, when you are in the pot, use your healthstones, potions, and lifeblood if you have them.  This will make things much easier on your healers.

Currently I am full cat spec and running with Glyph of Rip, Glyph of Shred and Glyph of Savage Roar.   I am really enjoying cat right now but I also enjoy tanking.  I'm not so fond of healing, but I know that my guild runs short of healers occassionally so I can't just make my two specs bear/cat but I think it would be lots of fun. 

Ulduar

So my guild normally runs 25 man raids, but before we do that, most of us like to run the 10 man versions to get an idea of how things work.  We do this because we are a casual guild and we don't just invite the best of the best for raids.  That being said, we have composed 2 10 man raids and are giving it one heck of a go.  

My groups name is Short Bus All-Stars (SBAS) and we have been running 10 man Naxx together for months now.  The other group is He-Man Woman Haters (HMWH).  Yes, we are odd with our names.

Last Thursday, SBAS went into Ulduar for the first time missing a few of our regulars so we picked up a couple of other folks.  Well, Flame Leviathan is a lot of fun and we downed him pretty quickly.  We then moved on to the trash outside Ignis and I got 1 shot.  Needless to say, I was a bit shocked but we tried a couple of times, but we just didn't have the dps.  So we decided to give Razorscale a go.  That fight is pretty simple and fun also but again, we didn't have the dps for it and a couple of people had to go so we called it a night.

We went back in on Sunday and started with Razorscale.  That was a lot of fun and we were able to get it pretty quickly and he went down!  Yeah!  Then we cleared all the trash in front of Ignis and gave him a go several times, but we had trouble coordinating the iron constructs, we would get them molten and I would take them into the water, but then couldn't get the damage needed to for them to explode.  So the trash ended up respawning before we got him so we moved on to XT.  Now this was an interesting fight since we only had 1 ranged dps.  So to compensate, Steaky respecced to Boomkin and our Pally started healing.  Still, I think this fight would have gone much better had we had more ranged dps to get the adds down quickly.  That was our biggest problem.  On one of our attempts we got him down to 40% with 3 minutes and 40 seconds left, but then the adds just got too much.  Hopefully our ranged dps folks can make it this week.

Overall, some things I learned were:

1.  On Razorscale, keep moving, don't stop.  I seemed to die every time I stopped moving for some reason and it wasn't just the blue flames on the ground.

2.  On the trash outside Ignis, the flame tornado mobs need to be tanked on either side of the wall and be prepared to move away from the tornados they spawn.

3.  Scorch hurts. Don't stand in it longer than you have to.  

4.  Kitty dps on the heart of XT rocks, but keep a lookout for pummelers.

and most of all,

5.  Get a motorcycle for FL, that is way too much fun!!!

P.S.  Got my Glyph of Savage Roar.  Ouch!  But my priest finally got a Book of Glyph Mastery and learned Glyph of Penance.  Now if only she was 80.

Am I ready?

So I have been reading stuff on Ulduar as I'm sure most folks have at this point.  And I'm beginning to wonder if I'm all that ready or not.  Currently I usually have about 43K health with 34K - 36K armor and almost 50% dodge buffed.  Now, I know that I could have way more HP if I gemmed for stamina, and while a large health pool is nice, I still prefer to dodge when I can.  

So with the changes that they are making to bears, my armor and health will go down considerably, but I will have Savage Defense.  Well, normally my AP is close to 6K and I have almost 50% crit so it should be up quite a bit.  

I have most of the gear I could want for bear other than a drop or two from Sarth 2D but that is because of all the guild changes lately that we just haven't gotten everyone back up to that same skill level we had in January.  

And I'm actually considering stocking materials to make Flask of Stoneblood after the patch hits. Especially since it has now been buffed and my HP will be taking a hit.  I think this may be more useful than the Flask of Endless Rage since it would only add 45 to my shield.  

I also have about 25 Fish Feast to share and I have mats to make another 20.  I also have 18 Blackened Dragonfin and I'm going to go fishing to get the mats for more.  So I'm hoping to be ready to hit Ulduar when the patch hits.

I am going to make a bunch of the other foods too and put them in the guild bank.  Plus I regularly put all sorts of elixirs in there.  Since raiding is definately not a one person thing, I try to do what I can so my guildies can be ready also.

Overall, I think I have a few more things to get before Ulduar, but I think I'm close to ready.

Are You?