Too Many Annas

Introducing – The Twisting Nether!

Comments Off Written by Anna on May 27, 2008 – 1:38 pm

Twisting Nether is a new podcast by wowbloggers Fimlys (of Asleep at the WoW) and Breana (of Gun Lovin’ Dwarf Chick).

Their premiere episode goes live today, and while it’s not yet available on iTunes – it’s that new – they have an RSS feed and a website with streaming audio.

Fun stuff!  And you can listen to Aurik sing Too Sexy For My Aggro there at the end as well!

FYI – Commentators

2 Written by Anna on May 27, 2008 – 12:07 pm

If you’ve left me a comment recently, and it hasn’t shown up, please use the contact me form and let me know.  Akismet (my spam filter) has been returning some false positives, and sometimes I miss the real comments in the 100+ spam comments I get here daily.

Thanks!  You guys rock!

Resto Shaman vs. Void Reaver – A Healing Guide

3 Written by Anna on May 27, 2008 – 8:47 am

This is one in a series of posts covering resto-shaman-specific information for tier4 and tier5 boss fights. It will NOT be a boss kill strategy, rather a list of tips and tricks for your friendly neighborhood shaman to make these fights run a little more smoothly.

You can see other Tuesday Guides (including Gruul’s Lair and all of Serpentshrine Cavern) here.

So, you’re on your way to Tempest Keep! Woohoo! Even though Void Reaver is not technically the first boss you’ll find in TK, he’s likely the first one you’ll be killing. Al’ar, while gorgeous, is rather a pain in the arse, and you can run right past without it noticing. The Void Reaver fight is something of a gimmick fight – once you learn how he works, the raid needs only to keep up a consistent level of DPS.

Void Reaver Basics:

• This fight is exactly the same from 100% to 0. He has no phases.
• Void Reaver is mad. And when he’s mad, much like a small child, he stomps his feet and pounds his hands on the ground. This pounding is an 18 yard AOE for 3 seconds that causes 1.5-2K damage per second. It’s on a 12 second cooldown.
• Arcane Orb: The crux of this fight is avoiding orbs. Void Reaver fires an orb at any raid member who is 18 yards away or more. It takes 2-3 seconds to get to *the place where that person was standing when it launched*, at which point it does around 7K damage in a small AOE, with a 6 second silence.
  • For this reason, all ranged (including healers) *MUST* be aware of orbs at all times, not stand too close to other players, and be prepared to run away. If you’re not where you were standing when the orb was fired, it will not follow you, but will blow up harmlessly.
  • If you get an orb cast at you, run to the wall. Do not run side to side, or you risk running into an orb explosion from someone else.
  • Void Reaver does not care if you are 18 or 30 yards away… but your melee does. If you’re in the ranged groups, do not stand close to him – if you get orbed, you could orb the melee or the tank, and cause a wipe!
• Knock Back: Single target knockback against the highest aggro target, reduces aggro. This can be missed, dodged, or parried to avoid the threat reduction. There will be a tank rotation to deal with this.
• 10 minute Enrage timer

Group Considerations: If you don’t have a shaman to give your melee, this is a fantastic fight for windfury. Otherwise, I’d generally suggest being in the tank group, to dish out extra avoidance and threat.

totems, Totems, TOTEMS! Nothing particular for this one, actually – drop what seems best for the rest of your group, and make absolutely sure that you have mana stream or mana tide down at all times.

Earthshield: The tank. Be aware that “the tank” will be an assortment of different people during this fight.

Heroism/Bloodlust?: Wait until it’s called for, or around 25%.

Don’t stand in the: Arcane Orbs.

Shaman Friendly or Unfriendly: Friendly. Because as a resto shaman, you are a walking gimmick for this fight! Here’s how this works.

• Be in the melee or tank groups so your totems are in range of other people. Make sure you have every mp/5 food/buff/oil/pot/flask you possibly can. When the tank runs in – YOU FOLLOW HIM.
• Go stand in the melee. You’ll get hit by the poundings, but you have chain heal. Make sure you’ve got your mana tide totem and your watershield active, and spam chain heal. SPAM IT! Don’t forget to heal yourself.
• You’ll take approximately 6K damage every 12 seconds, as will all the other melee who don’t resist the poundings. It’s your job to keep them alive, so chug pots early and often – you won’t get a break on this fight.
• Make sure the other healers know to keep an eye on you, in case your health gets a little low – even a renew from time to time will help. If things get a little out of hand, a circle of healing will also give you a little bit of breathing room. (in a raid without shamans, a CoH priest can fulfill the role of the resto shaman… but this is a resto shaman guide )

Other Stuff:

• If you’re in the melee, be in the melee. If you’re ranged, be ranged. Do not skirt the 18 yard line, or your orbs will hit melee, and make them very angry. Also possibly very dead.
• TRI had the policy of not calling him Loot Reaver until we actually got loot from him. I like this idea, but YMMV.
• Watch Void Reaver’s idling animation. VROOM VROOM!

Void Reaver is mad
You stole his motorcycle!
Many poundings, VROOM!

Lasting Impressions

7 Written by Anna on May 26, 2008 – 8:08 am

Most of the time, while out questing, I run across lots of people of various races and classes, Alliance and Horde alike. Most of these people don’t make any impression on me at all, aside from a passing glance or thank you if I get a buff, and I go on my merry way.

Aelflaed, just before turning over level 60 last night

Occasionally, however, someone will make a very good – or very bad – mark in my mind.

The Tauren who helped me out in Dustwallow on the quest to fight the fire dragons that comes from Mudsprocket left a fantastic impression. He and I “traded” pulls back and forth so we’d both get the XP as we went in search of a banner, and we’d help each other with the fights as we went along. Even though we couldn’t speak, there was an understanding that we were both slightly too low level to be there, and that if we worked together, we’d get it done and could move on. At several points we both nearly died, but we managed to wait for each other to eat and drink so that we’d be successful.

Sadly, I don’t remember his name, as this happened a few months back – but he made such an impression that the entire encounter remains in my mind as an example of “good people”.

Last night, I had an opposite encounter.

As a Paladin, the Western Plaguelands are ripe with things to kill and are generally a pleasure to quest in. I had been doing the quests around Andorhal, lighting up the watchtowers and collecting temporal parasites and such, and had reached the point where I needed to go into the old library/schoolhouse and collect the Annals of Darrowshire. As I walked into the building I was immediately pulled into combat by the level 53 mage and 57 hunter… and their 8 or so ghoulish “friends”. I noticed that they both were nearly dead, so I popped righteous fury, judged one with crusader, ran into the middle of things, and hit consecrate – since I was in combat anyway, I might as well help them live. I’d end up fighting the stuff regardless.

Unfortunately they both died, and the fight wiped out all of my mana and most of my health as well. I sat down, ate and drank, cleansed the 12 different debuffs off of me, and rezzed the Mage (the hunter had run back by then). I healed them both to full and buffed the mage.

At which point the hunter /slapped and /spit on me.

I mentioned in /say that I was sorry they had died, and that I’d tried to pull the mobs off of them, but I got no response. The mage got her book immediately after and they left.

In reality, this is a small incident. I’ve no real scars to show for it, and I went happily on my way, killing book-ghouls until I got my own copy of the Annals of Darrowshire. I don’t know either of them, have never seen them before now, and likely will never see them again. I don’t know their guild or anyone else in their guild. But the impression they made was enough to color me away from that guild from now on.

Could this have been some kind of misunderstanding? Possibly. I’m not sure what they thought I would gain (the book ghouls do not award experience or loot). But their rudeness in the face of my attempts at getting them out of a tight spot was a pretty rough awakening, and I’ll keep my distance from now on.

Remarkably, not 20 minutes later, as I was working on one of the plague fields, looking for a cauldron key, I came across another (totally unrelated) Paladin. We traded buffs, /salutes, and he mentioned in a whisper that he’d just killed the cauldron lord, so not to worry, he’d respawn in a minute.

I guess you win some and you lose some, but if I see that Paladin in trouble sometime, I’ll not think twice about doing what I can to help out.