Ruby Sanctum is out, and at least in normal is pretty easy to do, especially in today's gear with a decent raid comp.
There are lots of strats that say things like kite the dragon in a circle, make sure people run away, etc...
Don't count on pugs to do this, and quite honestly, for most of the mechanics don't worry about it for normal mode.
Let me break this down for you.
All phases: it is a dragon, so it has the usual dragon things...tail swipe (stun, didn't even seem to hit for damage...just don't be a healer getting stunned, or stunned at a horrible time in twilight), cleave, breath
P1: physical realm
This is a tank and spank for the tanks and dps, simply avoid anything on the ground and you win. Heals, and/or casters, get to make use of dispells/decurses (anything except remove poison effects will cleans/dispell the effect). This will drop a circle on the ground that will also knock everybody in it away, the longer the dispell takes, the larger the circle. In normal mode, this doesn't need to be worried about, just drop it where you are as quickly as you can, even if you're melee on the boss. There will only ever be 2 of these drops out at a time, as the oldest fades just as a new one comes out, and it is easy to shift to another place to keep dps'ing. While all this is happening, a spot will be chosen for him to drop a meteor on (easily seen by the fire ground effects for several seconds prior), which will then land and spread fire from it. In 10m normal mode, this fire does almost no damage, so just make sure to move out of it quickly and not get hit by the meteor itself.
P2: twilight realm
This is the same as P1 as far as the dragon is concerned, but the mechanics of the area change. The main 2 differences are as follows. Instead of doing a knockback when dispelled, it is now a pull of those surrounding to the person dispelled. Instead of a meteor dropping, there are orbs that circle around the room (2 in 10 man, 4 in 25), and will charge up periodically. When they charge up, they form a beam between them that cuts the room in half. Simply don't get hit by the beam (it will 1 shot and then teleport you into the physical realm in the process).
P3: both realms
There is nothing special or different in p3, except that now you split up your group and the 2nd tank stops being bored. One tank, and half the dps (generally melee due to the constant movement required) will stay in the twilight realm while the other tank will go back to the physical realm with the other half of the dps. Generally the physical realm takes no damage except for the tank, but the twilight realm does, so if you're using 3 heals in a 10 man, you should leave the 3rd healer in the twilight realm. DPS should be fairly evenly split up here, but if it is not, you can adjust on the fly by sending somebody from one to the other (the portals stay up). This is so that the boss will continue to stay in both realms. Note: if one of the realms wipes, it doesn't wipe the other realm, but halion will start healing in about 10 seconds after nobody is attacking her in a realm much faster than you'll be able to damage her. If you're at 1% or 2%, send a sacrificial dps down to go hit halion a few times to prevent the heal from happening and still burn her down.
Collect loot.
This will take a few wipes for most pugs to understand each phase, but after that should quickly become a joke as all mechanics are simple, straight forward, and with the exception of standing in a meteor landing or the orb link, nothing is all that lethal. The 2 things that will often cause you to wipe are if the tank, or the tank healer, get killed by a beam in the twilight realm.
I found it to be a fun raid encounter, but at least in normal mode it isn't very challenging. This should let a lot of people gear up fairly easily. I'll be doing 25m (hopefully with some heroic attempts) tonight with my guild, so expect some more info then.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
Raid Awareness
It is a topic often screamed about over vent, especially after many wipes.
"Pay attention!" "Get out of the fire!" "Why the heck did you get cleaved?"
After a few of these, especially in pugs, you will often hear "Get out of my raid!" along with a raid removal.
So, how do we actually be more raid aware? How do you NOT be that n00b that is oblivious?
There are a few things to do, some easy, some simple, and some that come with observation (counterproductive if you aren't).
1) SEE THE FIGHT!
This sounds obvious, but for so many people, it isn't. You can't be aware of what happens around you when you can't see it!
So here's how:
a) Make your raid frames small, get them out of the way. If you're a healer, keep them semi out of the way, but not burried. You need to see, but if you're only paying attention to a small corner of the screen, you still won't.
b) Put away your meters. Seriously...if you do better dps when you see somebody is ahead of you...stop slacking and do better all the time. Meters will not help you do anything other than hide the fight.
c) Hide addons for buffing and other random displays...you don't need them during a fight, they just cover up what is happening around you.
2) KNOW THE FIGHT!
Yes, we all know the basics of a fight once we've seen it. Hit boss, stay out of fire, run to/away from this person when this happens. But what does it mean to really KNOW a fight?
a) Understand the abilities and how they work. This is simple, go read them on wowwiki. Knowing how slime spray works, or how defile works...will let you react to it in a more intelligent way, such as using nature resist aspects or rocket boots.
b) Use something like DBM (Deadly Boss Mods) to tell you when those abilities are happening. They don't just tell you the raid warning of "Defile on X" when you see a black puddle, they tell you exactly when this is going to happen. You can move the size and style of all those warnings so that they catch your attention at just the right time, but aren't in the way the rest.
3) FOCUS THE BOSS!
Target the boss and type /focus . I don't care if you are healing, dps, or a tank, this can save you lots of headaches. You will be able to see their casts...and if you're smart and have target of target turned on, you'll even see who the defile is being cast on before it happens. If it is you, you can know to run away from the raid even more than your typical spread. If it isn't, you can start to run back in to stay away from the person with the defile. If you're even smarter, you can set up macros that target your focus (or your focus' target) with abilities when a modifier key is held down. This is great when you need to dps one thing and cc another, or do fast target switching but still know if you can pop that aoe ability (like starfall) or if that will just push the boss into the next phase at a bad time.
4) REST!
Seriously. Get some sleep...the extra Red Bull and coffee you just had really don't help, and will be worse later. If you are rested you will be more alert, more reactive, have more stamina to focus, quicker reflexes, and a much higher mental capacity and state of thought.
5) DON'T BE EMOTIONAL!
This is a game. Yes, it is serious and people have more fun when things go down, and you don't want to be the one keeping it from happening. But in the end, it is just a game, so if you screwed up, don't worry about it...just keep performing as you know how. The time to get lost in thought and reflect on how to do better is not in the middle of the fight when malleable is coming at your face...that's the time to move. Reflect on how to do it better while you're collecting loot or doing the corpse run.
6) DON'T BE ON SOMETHING!
a) If you get off on your e-peen...don't be on it. How good you say you are doesn't matter, and it'll just piss people off. Besides, if you have to talk about it instead of it just being noticed, it isn't that big anyway.
b) Don't be getting high. Seriously...if you're high, just walk out and let somebody who doesn't know a thing and has blue gear take your place. They'll do better. This includes getting drunk, among other things.
7) LISTEN AND READ!
Your raid leader will be telling you things...either in raid chat/warnings or in vent. The boss and encounter will also tell you things in emotes and sounds. If you can't hear any of them over your music or see it through the spam on your screen...turn it down instead of rocking out and make a new chat frame with only the raid in it. Great music is great, especially when it puts you in just the right groove...but not at the expense of knowing that you got battle rez'd 2 minutes ago while you were looking at youtube, and you would've let the raid beat the enrage timer they just missed by 5 seconds.
Most fights have gimmicks in them. Most of those gimmicks are easy to avoid if you know their trick. If you have a clear screen they are easy to see. Most of those are easy to spot when you know what is going on. If you can't do any of that, mods, the game, and your raid lead will fill you in...though it'll be delayed. But you'll never be able to do any of that if you aren't rested enough to be alert and are of a clear mind.
The short version...DON'T BE A N00B!
Oh, and BTW...everything up there will also help your tanking or dps/healing output.
"Pay attention!" "Get out of the fire!" "Why the heck did you get cleaved?"
After a few of these, especially in pugs, you will often hear "Get out of my raid!" along with a raid removal.
So, how do we actually be more raid aware? How do you NOT be that n00b that is oblivious?
There are a few things to do, some easy, some simple, and some that come with observation (counterproductive if you aren't).
1) SEE THE FIGHT!
This sounds obvious, but for so many people, it isn't. You can't be aware of what happens around you when you can't see it!
So here's how:
a) Make your raid frames small, get them out of the way. If you're a healer, keep them semi out of the way, but not burried. You need to see, but if you're only paying attention to a small corner of the screen, you still won't.
b) Put away your meters. Seriously...if you do better dps when you see somebody is ahead of you...stop slacking and do better all the time. Meters will not help you do anything other than hide the fight.
c) Hide addons for buffing and other random displays...you don't need them during a fight, they just cover up what is happening around you.
2) KNOW THE FIGHT!
Yes, we all know the basics of a fight once we've seen it. Hit boss, stay out of fire, run to/away from this person when this happens. But what does it mean to really KNOW a fight?
a) Understand the abilities and how they work. This is simple, go read them on wowwiki. Knowing how slime spray works, or how defile works...will let you react to it in a more intelligent way, such as using nature resist aspects or rocket boots.
b) Use something like DBM (Deadly Boss Mods) to tell you when those abilities are happening. They don't just tell you the raid warning of "Defile on X" when you see a black puddle, they tell you exactly when this is going to happen. You can move the size and style of all those warnings so that they catch your attention at just the right time, but aren't in the way the rest.
3) FOCUS THE BOSS!
Target the boss and type /focus . I don't care if you are healing, dps, or a tank, this can save you lots of headaches. You will be able to see their casts...and if you're smart and have target of target turned on, you'll even see who the defile is being cast on before it happens. If it is you, you can know to run away from the raid even more than your typical spread. If it isn't, you can start to run back in to stay away from the person with the defile. If you're even smarter, you can set up macros that target your focus (or your focus' target) with abilities when a modifier key is held down. This is great when you need to dps one thing and cc another, or do fast target switching but still know if you can pop that aoe ability (like starfall) or if that will just push the boss into the next phase at a bad time.
4) REST!
Seriously. Get some sleep...the extra Red Bull and coffee you just had really don't help, and will be worse later. If you are rested you will be more alert, more reactive, have more stamina to focus, quicker reflexes, and a much higher mental capacity and state of thought.
5) DON'T BE EMOTIONAL!
This is a game. Yes, it is serious and people have more fun when things go down, and you don't want to be the one keeping it from happening. But in the end, it is just a game, so if you screwed up, don't worry about it...just keep performing as you know how. The time to get lost in thought and reflect on how to do better is not in the middle of the fight when malleable is coming at your face...that's the time to move. Reflect on how to do it better while you're collecting loot or doing the corpse run.
6) DON'T BE ON SOMETHING!
a) If you get off on your e-peen...don't be on it. How good you say you are doesn't matter, and it'll just piss people off. Besides, if you have to talk about it instead of it just being noticed, it isn't that big anyway.
b) Don't be getting high. Seriously...if you're high, just walk out and let somebody who doesn't know a thing and has blue gear take your place. They'll do better. This includes getting drunk, among other things.
7) LISTEN AND READ!
Your raid leader will be telling you things...either in raid chat/warnings or in vent. The boss and encounter will also tell you things in emotes and sounds. If you can't hear any of them over your music or see it through the spam on your screen...turn it down instead of rocking out and make a new chat frame with only the raid in it. Great music is great, especially when it puts you in just the right groove...but not at the expense of knowing that you got battle rez'd 2 minutes ago while you were looking at youtube, and you would've let the raid beat the enrage timer they just missed by 5 seconds.
Most fights have gimmicks in them. Most of those gimmicks are easy to avoid if you know their trick. If you have a clear screen they are easy to see. Most of those are easy to spot when you know what is going on. If you can't do any of that, mods, the game, and your raid lead will fill you in...though it'll be delayed. But you'll never be able to do any of that if you aren't rested enough to be alert and are of a clear mind.
The short version...DON'T BE A N00B!
Oh, and BTW...everything up there will also help your tanking or dps/healing output.
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