A Retadin in ICC Part 2 - The Plagueworks

So the first of the new wings to be open is based around the Death Knight unholy tree. Here you'll find some horrendous abominations, a mad professor and a couple of unusual pets.

Precious

While not a true boss this is a named mob which you'll have to fight before you can get to the real bosses. If you cleared Naxx in either of it's incarnations you'll recognise the concept of a big patchwork dog with a Devastate effect. You'll again get waves of zombies but you don't have to worry about them healing Precious, but you will want to nuke them down before wander off and eat a healer. Holy Wrath is useful here as you should be able to stun them in any AoE your raid is producing. Any Art of War procs after Devastate should probably heal yourself to help out, and to keep you alive.

Stinky

The other named mob with a Devastate. This time there's no waves of zombies but there is an AoE nature damage pulse which means you'll definitely want to heal yourself where possible but otherwise this is the easier of the two doggies to nuke down.

Festergut

A giant abomination which acts as a DPS check so bring your A game. The major mechanic that stops this being Patchwerk II is the blight that floods the room soon after the fight starts. Initially this will do massive raid damage so helping out the healers with a few instant Flash of Lights on yourself will almost certainly be a benefit. Periodically the boss will inhale some of the blight, buffing himself and reducing the damage you take. Once he's inhaled it all and beaten up the tanks a bit, he'll let it all out doing a stupid amount of damage. Now you could Divine Protection out if it, but that's only going to help you once in the fight, and he's going to do it twice before going berserk.

Fortunately before this happens he'll release spores on two raid members at a time, which give you a debuff when they expire, providing you're stood close enough, which in turn inoculates you against a portion of the damage. This happens 3 times before the exhale, and the inoculation stacks 3 times giving you a 75% damage reduction. If you get the spores you'll either need to run and hug the tanks (best option as you can keep hitting the boss) or run out to hug the ranged (bad as you'll have to hope for an instant exorcism to carry on doing damage). Don't try and hold out though, if you need to run, run as losing a ranged dps and healers halfway through will guarantee the wipe.

Some extra utility you can provide will be to help the tanks, over time they'll get a debuff which increases their damage, once one tank has nine stacks he'll hand over to the other while suddenly having the ability to do extra damage. A timely hand of salvation will hopefully stop them pulling threat back and causing a wipe.

Pop wings after the 3rd inhale each time, and hopefully the second time will in time to start weaving in Hammer of Wrath for some extra damage as you aim to beat the timer.

Rotface

The second abomination you're forced to fight doesn't do as much raid wide damage but has a much more involved mechanic you'll need to get used to.

Most of the time you'll be stood on the boss hitting him for all your worth, and shifting when he turns to do a spray attack. At an increasing rate he'll infect members of the raid which will do damage and reduce healing done to the infected person. When the infection expires a small ooze will spawn which will instantly aggro the infected person. A single small ooze will need to be dealt with by the person who spawned it, however subsequent ones will need to be merged with an ooze that is already up to form a big ooze, or to increase the size of it.

This means it's vital that subsequent cleanses happen to spawn the little ooze almost on top of the existing one so they merge almost instantly. This means you'll need to keep your mitts off of Decursive unless someone calls out for a dispel. The big ooze will be kited by one of the tanks so when you're infected run to just in front of it, hit cleanse and then get the hell out of dodge back to the big bad. Once 5 little oozes have been absorbed then the big ooze will explode, meaning you have to move away from where everyone was standing to avoid the fallout.

Finally when running around, certain corners of the room will fill with green slime which unsurprisingly you'll want to keep out of.

This is more a coordination fight rather than a dps race, so stay alive and do what you need to do keep the oozes away from the bulk of the raid.

Professor Putricide

If you thought the Rotface fight was involved then prepare for another step up in what you need to do. Your off-tank is likely to be running around as an abomination so don't worry about seeing one running around. To start you be attacking the Professor while staying out of the green slime he'll throw on the ground. The main tank will also be kiting him from one side of the room to the other so gain space away from the adds that spawn.

Yes, this is another target switching, add killing fight so be prepared to find what needs to be killed and make it dead.

The first type of add that spawns is a green slime from the north part of the room. Once it's spawned you'll want to stay away until it's fixated on a player and moves towards them. At this point start to burn it down, and stick close as when it reaches the target player it will explode for damage shared between everyone close by and knock them back. Try and get knocked back into space so if it then fixated on you there's time to get healed up before it explodes again.

The second type is an orange slime which spawns from the south side. Again it will pick a player and chase after them. This time you'll have to kite it while a stacking debuff drops off. If you're attacking it then you'll need to run away just before it switches target because if it reaches the target with the debuff it will cause raid wide damage.

Once the Professor hits 80% he'll stun the whole raid and run off to drink a potion. If you know this is just about to happen make sure you're a long way away from any adds that are up as they choose a new target as soon as the stun wears off and this could easily kill you or the whole raid.

All the stuff you've been facing for the first 20% is still present, and now you'll have orange stuff on the ground to stay out of as well. This new way of fighting will continue until you get him to 35% at which point he'll stun the raid again and go drink another potion. Personally I call haxx as I can only drink one potion in combat, but anyway..

At this point you're in a straight dps race, the abomination is no longer around to drink slime pools so you need to kill him before you run out of places to stand.

Once he's dead sit back and congratulate yourself on being 33% of the way to facing the Lich King.

AoE tanking or tanking for AoE

There's been a recent thread where it's been suggested that paladin AoE tanking it too good which leads to the other tanking classes feeling unloved and clamouring for buffs.

While it's true that the tools available to a paladin tank are well suited for generating threat on a number of bad guys all at once, especially if they're undead. In this expansion all tanks were given a method of generating threat on a number of mobs all at once helping to the removal of crowd control from all but the toughest heroic instances.

I do have to wonder now though if the reason for the current upset about what can be done is the resurgence of running heroics for the daily brace of frost badges. Given that the base level of gear available is now well in excess of what was required when level 80 characters first started running those instances and every dps character has some kind of AoE spell. Is it more a case that all tanks can't necessarily stop a stray mob from running off to smack the aggro monkey when they do all out massive AoE damage when all they need to do it stop the bad guys running after the healer.

However if the DPS went point and shoot on individual mobs using an assist macro the tanks shouldn't have as many issues, and threat indicators such as Omen or Threat Plates will mean you've got a better idea of what to do.

Now is this the fault of the class designers, not really, it's more a 'creative use of game mechanics' for something that we generally now massively out-gear and see as more of a chore rather than the challenge of say the new raid zone.

Rather than trying to homogenise the tanks and the type of threat output they produce it would be nice to see the dps (of which I am at times) adjusting what they do to make it easier for the tank to do what they do.

DPS Positioning Flowchart

Following in the footsteps of some other bloggers I've decided to create a flow chart to aid the new melee dps fellows who are stepping into heroics to help gear up and gain experience. So without further ado my flow chart on where you should stand in boss fights.

So now you know, and if you end up in a heroic pug with me tanking, I don't expect to see you standing next to me ;)

Heading back to Tanking

One of the benefits of playing a hybrid class is the ability to switch to a different role by spending your talent points differently and getting a different gear set up together.

Well the dual talent feature means it's easy to switch how your talent points are spent and gear now is very easy to get with random dungeons and all the badges you can get from doing it.

So have geared up for running retribution I carried on running the heroics in order to get a protection set up together. That, a couple of crafted items and a few drops along the way meant I've put together a pretty good tanking set which has me crit immune for raid bosses, 30k unbuffed health and a bunch of other tasty tanking stats. I've gone for a threat based build given that I mainly plan to run heroics (for zero queue time) and the majority of that tanking in there is trash pulls.

I tend to do a lot of reading around game mechanics to get advice on things I haven't done before, and there are some great references out there which mean you don't have to go in blind trying to figure out what does what and how to go about things. However knowing is only half the battle, it's only once you've actually gone in there and tried things out do you know how well you can cope and whether you've got the situational analysis to cope with mobs running around the place especially if the dps or healer has pulled aggro.

Not wanting to risk completely stuffing up a run with a random group I run a couple of random dungeons with some willing guildies and while they weren't perfect they did at least show that I could get the required trash packs under control and not have the aggro monkeys peel them off me.

While it was good to get those under my belt and get back into the swing of things the plan for short queues and easy frost badges would only work if I could do the job with four random people pulled in by the tool. Putting on some bravery I signed up (admittedly with DPS ticked as well) as a tank. After a couple of failed attempts where the DPS had clearly fallen asleep while waiting for the queue to pop, five ticks appeared and I found myself in Violet Hold.

I decided not to warn the group given that I had tanked this instance before on a previous character, and the mobs spawn at regular intervals meaning that I didn't have to worry too much about the speed of pulls and I could be fairly certain about what I would be facing for each portal. The only concern was the random bosses, but fortunately we got the two tank and spank ones and soon the place was clear and I had some extra badges.

I'd still be nervous about hitting the new IceCrown instances but everything else should be doable and a few more items should have me in a raid ready set of gear should our guild find itself in need of an extra tank.

A Retadin in ICC Part 1

Having pugged my way into suitable gear for the Icecrown Citadel raid I got into one of our guilds raids which merrily cut a swathe through the enemy. So here are my impressions of the fights and if you're taking your retribution paladin in there what you should expect.

Trash

Yes, trash is back, and frankly I'm slightly pleased. There's nothing like a few short fights to dust off any cobwebs and allow a group to gel. Our guild doesn't have a standard raiding team so potential there will be different tanks, different healers and different buffs each run meaning a few kills to get used to everyone's threat generation should mean a lot fewer slip ups on the boss fights.

The mobs have a lot of health so Seal of Corruption/Vengeance is the order of the day, though if you have very high raid dps it may be worth switching to Corruption. The only caveat to this is the reintroduction of crowd control which means you need to add some extra care to where you're slinging that holy damage. Be sure you're clear before using Divine Storm or Consecrate though hopefully your tanks should be pulling their mobs clear allowing you to do what's required. If their not, then a polite word may be required.

Lord Marrowgar

A fairly straightforward tank and spank boss, with some of that annoying target switching. More than ever you'll want to stay away from the front of the boss as there is one attack which splits the damage between everyone in front of him. Normally this will be just the tanks but as plate wearing DPS you might be called upon to stand there as well.

Make sure you stand within his hit box as this will mean he can't target you with his Cold Flame ability, and hopefully the ranged will group up there as well which will make his next ability a bit easier to deal with. Bone graveyard will impale a random member and needs to be dps'd down to release them. If everyone switches then they should die quickly meaning you can get back on the boss before any of those tasty debuffs wear off.

Finally he does a whirlwind (yeah another whirlwind mob) which hits everyone in the raid for varying damage depending on how close you are to him. He'll also spawn 4 cold flames so during this phase you need to stay out of the fire and away from the boss. There's no point trying to damage him so use Flash of Light where possible to help out the healers and get ready to run back in when he's stopped. When running back remember not to get in front of him for fear of taking those nasty hits.

Rinse and repeat until he's dead and you're ready to move onto the next boss.

Lady Deathwhisper

A boss with adds, oh joy that means running about. So having cleared the trash you'll spot this Lichess who when attacked puts up a massive mana shield which absorbs all damage done but drains her mana when it absorbs damage.

During this time there will be regular add spawns from the alcoves on each side. On 10 man we only get one side at a time, but there will be three and these need to be taken down as quickly as possible. It's possible that the boss will buff one of them which will make them either 99% immune to physical or magical damage. If it's the physical one then you can run back and smack the mana shield a bit, if it's the magical one then make sure your raid leader knows you're not going to be bringing as much hurt given that seals, judgements etc. will be doing a tiny fraction of the normal damage. You'll also need to watch out for Death and Decay being put on the floor, get out of the nasty yellow stuff.

Once the mana shield goes down no more adds spawn and it turns into a fairly standard tank and spank fight. You'll still need to get out of the nasty stuff on the ground and there will be non-attackable ghosts which explode for damage you need to keep an eye on. If you find yourself below half health it will probably be worth helping your healers out with a potion or healing spell. Otherwise you might be hoping for a battle rez while you stare up from the floor at the rest of the raid.

Gunship Battle

The Chess event of this expansion, by which I mean a very straightforward event with some nice loot available at the end. As melee you're likely to be stopping on your own ship and using the cannons, however this doesn't mean you shouldn't grab one of the rocket shirts and have a jump about.

The cannons are another use of the vehicle mechanic but they also have a resource to be aware of. There are two types of shot, the first which does a set amount of damage and generates an amount of heat and the second which consumes all this heat in a flaming ball of death. You want to make sure that the amount of heat in your gun never reaches 100 otherwise you'll be unable to fire for a few seconds while it cools down. Your tactic here is to spam the '1' key still you get to 80-90 heat and then hit '2', rinse and repeat. You'll be aiming at the opposing cannons mostly but also keep a lookout for the rocketeers at the back and chuck a few shots that way.

Periodically the opposition will be boarding your ship through portals, so a tank will be round them up and a mage will appear on the opposition ship and freeze your cannon in a block of ice. While the boarding party take down the mage you can take down the invaders. Be aware of rocket strikes while doing so though, if you're stood in a target on the ground, don't be and you'll be fine.

Deathbringer Saurfang

Time to face off against the latest deathknight in the Scourge army. For melee this is very straightforward as all you have to do is stand there and hit him. However you do need to keep an eye on the other abilities he does. Throughout the fight he'll be gaining blood power based on the abilities he does, when it reaches 100 he'll cast a Mark on a random player which does damage and helps him gain blood power faster.

The biggest concern for the raid is the blood beasts that spawn. These should be nuked down by the ranged and kited/rooted away from you. Being hit by these is a big no no as this will cause an increase in blood power, so having them hitting you will cause problems. This means that you want to avoid dropping consecration 10 seconds before they spawn and not hit Divine Storm just beforehand. If you do accidentally pull aggro then run away and wait for the ranged guys to grab it off you.

Conclusion

That's the first four bosses done, and the second wing is now available with 3 new bosses to have a bosh at. So once I've had a go with the guild at them I'll add a part 2 with some impressions on those.

Dos and Don'ts of LFG

I've done enough random dungeons over the last few days to pick up 'the Patient' as a title, enough badges to get 4 pieces of T9 and enchanting mats to get them raid ready. So here's my list of dos and don'ts based on recent experiences.

DO: keep yourself stocked up with reagents, water and ammo where appropriate, you don't want to be there at the beginning or halfway through a boss fight missing something vital

DON'T: assume you having a hissy fit and dropping group will make a difference, every time this has happened we've found a replacement and had a fantastic run.

DO: take a few seconds to say hello at the beginning and goodbye at the end, it doesn't take much but just helps remember you're playing with other people.

DON'T: be afraid of the Occulus. Yes it's very different to all the other instances with the vehicle mechanics but even in completely random pugs we're able to complete 'Make it Count'

DO: be prepared to wait for a group if you're dps. This might have just been my experience but it can't take a while for the group to form, which means there's plenty of time to get dailies and quests done.

DON'T: be disheartened if there's a wipe. Playing the blame game doesn't help anyone and there is still room within the game for there to be a random happenstance which gets everyone killed.

If you haven't played around with with the random dungeon finder then at least give it a go once, especially as it should be a fairly painless way to get a couple of frost emblems.

Hitting the Heroics

I have made a decision in guild to switch my main from Crash to Acidlake my paladin who has been so much fun to play as ret both in solo play and in groups.

However given the guild is preparing to hit IceCrown Citadel and I'm still rocking heirloom items and quest rewards some severe gear upgrades will be required. Fortunately the recent change in badge drops and that tier 9 is wholly available from badges means that there is a clear and straightforward route to getting raid ready, heroic instances.

Normally this would have required trying to grab any groups that were forming in guild and possible get one or two done. But given we're now in the land of patch 3.3 and the new looking for group tool.

I'd only had one experience with the old LFG tool when we picked up a healer for heroic Ramparts back in TBC days. It didn't end completely well due to the complexity of heroic instances back then and since then the only random dungeons had done had been pugs organised either through whispers or adverts in /2.

Hoping that I wasn't too undergeared I signed up for a random dungeon looking forward to the possibility of new emblems and a chance to try out running as part of a group with people who don't know me from Adam.

Getting Azjol-Nerub was a bit of a blessing and having completed all the heroics before means I know the tactics well enough to know what to hit and when. We completed all the boss kills without a hitch, including the speed kill achievement on Anub'arak. Achievements appeared, extra boxes appeared to say the dungeon was completed and my collection of badges had increased.

From then on I've been hooked. The simple way of getting to the instance, not quite knowing which one it will be and the extra badges every time it completes mean I can just queue up at a time I'm able to play should I not be able to fit things in around what the rest of the guild is doing.

I'm probably 2 runs away from getting the 'the Patient' title which I shall proudly display in future pugs and have picked up a couple of very nice pieces of T9 ret gear.

The new instances also provide a great way of getting gear as well as containing a fantastic part of the storyline but those journeys can wait for another post.