The Tree is Back

I is back!

I know, I know. I haven't posted in forever. But I has good reason: I have stuck out on my own.

After a terrible night in ICC beating our heads against the MINIBOSSES of all things, I got into a small skiffy with the GM who I have never met, nor have I ever seen in a raid (And good thing too, because she is fucking terrible). I left the raid because I was not going to be treated like a door mat. And although we were a "family guild" which didn't focus on progression or raiding, which we had JUST discussed in our guild meeting, I was promptly booted from the guild. Needless to say, within minutes, the other two seasoned players left the guild, leaving them with no one who had any real clue as to what raid leading was.

I reached out to them and we formed our own guild. We started with four people, then we took 4 people from the old guild's progression raid team. We proceeded to pug our way into ICC10, clearing the entire first wing with pugs. Most of whom were so good they became regulars and we snatched them for our own guild.

I became a tank and a healer to satisfy our flexibility. Turns out I'm a pretty good tank. Surprise there.

We went from being a no name guild to 10/12 ICC within a few weeks. We only raid ICC 2 times a week for 4 hours. We also spend a day clearing out old content and achievements. We are now on Anub in ToGC 10 (haven't even attempted him in awhile), full cleared on Uld10, Full cleared all the watchers on hard, pulled most of the achievements, and are working on Algalon and Alone in the dark. Once we finally get the hang of p3 sindragosa, we'll work on arthas. Once we get into hardmodes, we'll sweep through the first three wings with little resistance.

Strictly speaking of we are the furthest progressed non-25 man raiding guild on the server.

We have no loot system to speak of. We just limit the first roles to mainspec who have won nothing, 2nd roll is for MS that HAVE won something, 3rd is offspec, 4th is de. Somehow we managed to find excellent players on a terrible server and if we bothered with 25s we'd prolly be a top guild. We're setting up our videos on a private server atm. My PC isn't good enough to fraps on, but I have the editing software and knowhow, so we have to share our files. Slow but whatcha gon' do?

Below are some screenies:
UI Screencap coming soon!

Mah UI and progess from ICC

Alright, so i am no longer in an endgame guild. i miss it, i really do. But where i am at with work and such has inhibited raiding times which most hxc guilds have. Poopie.

But I can still do ICC. Unfortunately, in a casual guild there are things that can get on my nerves. Things like, people not flasking, or people not using Min/Max on their gear, random afks, extensive boss explanations which take longer than the boss kill, leaving after only 3 hours, etc.

Also there tend to be players that are brought in or are dualspecced into a role that they clearly aren't geared in or comfortable with. DeathKinghts wearing caster cloaks, people doing under 3k dps, etc. These things are fine in the entry level raids such as naxx, but once you get into ulduar these trends need to have stopped. Thankfully the regular progression team is at least mostly in line with how to play the game and has yielded some successful raids.

Here, we downed Marrowgar after the first attempt. I died relatively early on making sure an important raid memeber got a brez and moved one second too late. Stupid tree >.<

Here, we have Lady Deathwhisper. This actually took many attempts explaining to the tanks HOW to tank the adds and stop letting the casters focus the poor tree constantly. Then we got to focus on cleaning it up. THEN we focused on going fast enough to beat the enrage timer. Very frustrating, yet satisfying kill.

I believe I died on this one too. I'm sensing a trend...

 

And yes, that's me and my overhealing at the top. And yes, that's a lightwell in the middle. I lol'd at first but then I found I could finish my casts when I was in DnD and click it and make a clean get away! /kermit yell yaaayayayayayaaay!!!!!

We're on Deathbringer and it was going terrible the first night. The second night went better, as we got all the dps on the same side of the room so the adds weren't going different directions. No Boomkin, so I have to heal in caster form and apply root spam on the targets to slow them down. We're getting better at them but the dps isn't strong enough to nuke through the adds and get on the boss quick enough. 

I've decided I'm going to start leading my own runs for Naxx and lesser content to condition the guild to be faster and more focused on raiding. its a casual guild but the two main healers and our top dps are all hxc players. We're just trying to bring the rest of the guild up to where we play.

Day 2254, Ran out of Food. Hunter has been eying my Bear Form :(

Merry Christmas! Yay for pagan holidays!

Update time. The new guild goes great. Feels like a better fit overall. They aren't as progressed as the previous, which in turn wasn't as progressed as the ... erm, preprevious? w/e

We went in and 2 shot Marrowgar though, so that was a nice change of pace. Plus there are a larger amount of people that lead raids in this guild, so no more of that, if soandso isn't on then we all just go kick rocks for the night.

Been diggin the new LFG, got my perky lil pug and my title and today, combined with our ICC and Weekly and Dailies I picked up my first new cloak! Which is a big deal since my luck on cloaks is matched only by my luck with bracers, which I DID eventually upgrade in FoS or PoS, I can't be bothered to remember. Good thing to, because those bands of the great tree were getting a little chaffy.

Anyone else a little miffed that Blizz is just dumping a million pets on us? I mean, I get making raiding easier, but jesus, now there's no real reason to be a pet collector. My BANK ALT has a half dozen already. Kinda irks me a bit.

But here's my big story of the day: Newbies.

Its great i can deck my tank spec in full t9. Its great my alts can be as geared as my main in a week. What isn't great is the people who don't know their class yet. Jumping in a HoR group is hit or miss. There are tons of players popping up now that have the gear, but have no skill to match it. It is like an influx of bad players. As the weeks continue, you will see this trend get worse, I'm sure. And Heaven help us if they implement the LFR feature.

Can you just imagine?

"Hey t9 mage, sheep X"

"Whats a sheep?"

"Hey, T9 Paladin, DI the healer"

"DUI? What are you asking me to do? I AIN'T BREAKIN THE LAW!"

"Brez the Healer!"

"Huh?"

"You know how to hold aggro right?"

"Sure, my main spec is unholy!"

*Wipe*

I know, I know, I'm a pessimist. But at least I set my expectations low. The WoW community in general has yet to let me down, only surprise me on occasion.I just don't have a high bar for people who can't spell "A Lot" properly.

I wanna hear your LFG stories! Good AND bad!

Blizzard goes elitist and Tanks get slapped

Here's a nifty note a lot of people miss:

ICC has bosses that do Gear Checks. WTF is a gear check? In Blizzard terms, a GC is something that a boss does from time to time to make sure you have the appropriate level gear for the instance and if you do not, it kills you. This check is random and completely sucks.

In normal terms: GEAR = SKILL LOLOLOLOL

I hate you blizzard. That's the biggest slap in the face, most elitest and hypocritical thing you have done to date.

Because of this ridiculous addition to the game, I had to deal with our Backup tank unknowingly wipe the raid 15 times. Yeah that was fun. More fun was when our OT, who was MT because our MT decided her head hurt.. again... decided that the wipes were a healing issue. Enter Angry Tree.

I wasn't mad because I got called out. I'm a big tree, I can handle it. I has liquor.

No, what pissed me off was that we had three healers, all who were running heals on her constantly, who she straight told sucked. Her exact words were, I went down because I had no heals.

No heals huh? You mean to tell me that all these heals and absorbs in my healing log are all made up? That this whole time we were bouncing around the room healing each other and forgot that there were tanks to heal? STFU, you selfcentered bitch. My healers are sending me tells complaining that no matter how hard they heal you, you still die. We even made the dps sit back and had the healers only heal the tanks. No dps, no crazy switching. Just tanking and healing. With THREE healers ONLY healing TWO tanks, somehow our tanks went SPLAT!

I can accept a mistake, but telling a healer who is healing you undeserved ass, that they aren't actually healing? Oooooooooooo. You just made my permanent shit list, bitch. Even if I wasn't the assigned healer, I KNOW your ass got healed. This from the same girl who quits raiding early because, I can't focus.

ITS BEEN 2 HOURS! WTF DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T FOCUS?!?!?!

/scream

I'm picking up tank gear now because I can't stand her attitude. I'LL tank in her place. I have two priests who want to heal and a pally who is awesome. I don't need your holier than thou attitude muckin up my raids.

Point of the story? DON'T PISS OFF YOUR HEALERS, YOUR ASS WILL GET BENCHED.

How To Win Frozen Halls

So some info on the new 5 mans.

Forge of Souls:

First boss, Bronjahm, targets a person who should then run to the edge of the room so that the little ball can either be killed before it heals him or so that the tank has more time to try and kite him away if you want to get the achievement.

Run in when he does his vortex and try not to get eaten by the fear into a vortex.

Strategy is simple:
Since you cannot stop the funk, you'll just have to get on up, get on the scene and kill him like a sex machine.

Turning on game sounds is a moral imperative.

2nd boss, Devourer of Souls. Casts TONS of Phantom Blasts on the tank, interrupt all of them for the achievement. Also they hurt tanks. When he jumps from person to person he drops a Well of Souls on the ground. Don't Stand In It. Lasts for 15 seconds, easier than anything to avoid.

MIRRORED SOUL. STOP DPS. COMPLETELY. All dmg done to him will be done to the target as well. As soon as it ends (There's a beam from him to his target) continue nuking.

Unleash Souls is just dumb. He makes a bunch of nontargetable mobs that you can ignore or kite if they hit you too hard. We just ignore them.

Wailing Souls. Think Mimi. Stay out of the blast and move around him.

Remember the Blast and the Mirrored Soul and he's a joke.


Pit of Saron:

First boss, Forge Master Garfrost, is easy. He melees and throws giant rocks. Don't stand under them, but hide behind them to keep permafrost below 8 stacks for the achievement. For the tank to drop it you'll need to burn him to 66% and then to 33% and hide behind a rock BEFORE you get 8 stacks.

He also checks his giant underpants to make sure they are clean.

Second Boss,  Ick. Pull the guys separately as they can be confusing when brought together. Basic Melee and Dodge Giant Blobs of Poison fight. He wil sometimes choose a player to attack and then chase after them, just run away.

He will cast a poison nova that must be avoided. Only an 18yrd range so just move back. 5 second cast.

Explosive Barrage is easy to fight through. He tosses exploding missiles on the ground where you stand, simply move away, wait for the next one to target you, run back and dps the boss, move away from the new ones, move back rinse and repeat.

Now before I mention the 3rd boss, I'd like to discuss the next 2 packs of mobs.

The first pack consists of 4 casters and a crazy witch lady. They suck for melee since the hellfire and when they all hellfire together they will kill you. It isn't too bad if your healer is good to have everyone grab their own target so they aren't together. When one hellfires, you just move to another until he is done or the other begins. Mostly it is a chaotic mess that ranged makes simpler.

The second set of mobs consist of 4 melee and 2 casters. The melee are whatever, but the casters do that annoying naga spell where they cast the ice on the ground and if you get caught in it you die.

Manage them and its cake.

Next is the tunnel TO the final boss. To get the achievement do as follows:

Gather up at the door, prehot/bubble/etc. RUN to the circle on the ground halfway through the tunnel while dodging the Hodir Styled Snowfalls, DON'T GET HIT, stand on the gaint circle under the menacing elemental that isn't there on regular so it scares the bejeezus out of your tank, and aoe them all down. The snow doesn't fall in this circle. Once you are done, heal back up, mobs will continue to spawn in front but not behind. When you are ready, rush the tunnel again and go all the way through it and stand just inside the bosses room, aoe them down. Accept Achievement.(You MUST kill all of them to get the achievement).

3rd boss, Tyrannus, is attackable by ranged during his blahblahblah scene, so have at him. The frost wyrm will spit frost on the ground which will hurt you if it hits you on the way down, so avoid those. Rimefang will target a player for an Icy Attack. Move away from other players as it will ice spike them as well.

Tyrannus will Empower, usually after Forceful Smash, Kite him. Think Anub. Run across the ice patch to slow him down and allow him to be kited.

Overlord's Brand. Any DPS who gets this must STOP DPS or you will kill your tank. Any Healer who gets this STOP HEALING or you will heal the boss. Kill, loot, get saved by your mistress of choice.

Halls of Reflection:

First Boss: Disconnect boss. To defeat this boss you must repeatedly throw yourself at the portal and pray you make it through.

Second Boss: Freeze Frame. This boss will randomly freeze the dungeon for 15 minutes. Immune to all spells and abilities.

Third Boss: RP Boss. To defeat this boss you must fight off Boredom which is cast on the raid. Once you defeat this boss you may face Falric.

Falric: This boss is wave 5 of 10. The first 4 waves are made up of different mobs. Kill the ranged with ranged, the mage will make a copy of itself, just move to the mage to kill both. Kill the priest, derr. Ranged can take out the riflemen. Standing in the hallway allows the tank to get all the aggro.Scourge Imprisonment is handy here.

When Falric become active he will attack. Counteract the fear as much s possible, Hopelessness will eventually reduce healing by 75% and dps by 60% as he loses health.

Repeat the gauntlet.

Marwyn: Don't dispel Shared Suffering unless you can handle the splash dmg, stay out of wells of corruption and extra heals on tank for obliterate.

Lich King:

Stay out of 10 yards from him. In order to get past the walls, you must defeat the waves of undead. Grab them and aoe or single target as you see fit. Keep them off the lady helping you and burn fast. You have 6 minutes to get the achievement. Make it to the end and you get the last boss.

Disconnet Boss Redux: Attempt to run up and collect your reward before the boss DC's you and freezes all the instance servers on your realm.

TIP: Levitate allows you to access the ship.

Hunters can haels lawlz

So I hate hunters now.

Last night we were bored after toc so we did sarth and naxx for some other guildies' achievements. Somehow one of our hunters decided he was going to give me a run for my money.

I was topping the healing meters in both healing and overhealing cause that's what I do. Both our priests were disc. One only HAS disc and the other refused to go holy for reasons only she knows and because she's RL friends with most of the guild so she does w/e the hell she wants. Of course this means I was doing 60% of the healing myself. Nothing more annoying than 2 disc in a 10 man imo. So anywho. I'm making the meters call me daddy when the hunter decideds to chain mend pet.

We ended sarth like this:

Hoshiko (That's me): 1.05 Million Healing 5.03 Million Overhealing
hunter in question: 1.05 Million Healing 5.01 Million Overhealing
Pure Disc Priest: 750 Thousand Healing 640 Thousand Absorbed
Stubborn Disc Priest: 700 Thousand Healing 660 Thousand Abosrbed

As you can see while both priests were doing roughly similar healing Myself and the HUNTER did 33.1% of the healing between us. THE HUNTER! Of course it reflected in his DPS because he forgot to turn Viper off so he could keep mana, sneaky bugger, and he fell to 2 dps and 3rd in overall damage.

Mend Pet is OP.






stupid hunters >.<

Surveys ahoy!

Restokin has put a survey for druids on the forums: here.

In case you've ever wondered how Keeva and Kae heal, they're both on page 4.

(^_^)



1. The type of content you expect to heal after patch 3.3 hits: __B__
A) Mostly 5-mans (little to no raiding)
B) Mostly 10-man raids, little to no 25-mans.
C) 25-man raids only.
D) Both 25 & 10-man raids.

2. If you plan to raid 10 and/or 25-man raids after patch 3.3, which raid dungeon do you expect to raid most often: __D,C,B__
A) Naxxramas
B) Ulduar
C) Trial of the Crusader
D) Icecrown Citadel

This question is tricky. ToC doesn't take much time to run as it is, and only the first wing of ICC will be available, so in all honesty, I think it will be a fair amount of equal raiding.

3. When healing in a raid, do you usually: __C___
A) Heal tanks
B) Heal raid members, but not tanks
C) Put HOTs on the tank and then focus on healing the raid members.
D) Only run 5-mans & don't run 10 or 25-man raids.
E) Other (describe what you do).

4. What heal do you use the most? (if you use healing meters, this would be the heal that makes up the greatest % of your healing done - can choose more than 1). _A,C,D__
A) Rejuvenation
B) Lifebloom
C) Wild growth
D) Nourish
E) Healing Touch
F) Regrowth

5. What heal do you use the least? (this would be the heal that makes up the lowest % of your healing done - can choose more than 1). ___E____
A) Rejuvenation
B) Lifebloom
C) Wild growth
D) Nourish
E) Healing Touch
F) Regrowth

6. Do you plan on using the glyph of rapid rejuvenation in 3.3? ___D____
A) Yes
B) No
C) Not sure
D) Sometimes, will swap in & out with another glyph depending on encounter.
E) Don't know what that glyph is or what it does

7. Do you plan on putting talent points in Celestial focus (from the balance tree) to increase your haste in patch 3.3? NOTE: the new haste soft-cap without CF is ~850. ___A____
A) Yes
B) No
C) Not sure

As my gear gains more haste, I'll start pulling points out of CF.

8. What gear set(s) do you hope you will acquire after patch 3.3 comes out? (you can select more than one answer) ___D____
A) At least 2 pieces of tier 7
B) At least 2 pieces of Tier 8
C) At least 2 pieces of tier 9
D) At least 2 pieces of tier 10
E) Not sure

9. Do you expect your healing style to change in patch 3.3? ___B___
A) Yes
B) No
C) not sure.

BONUS QUESTIONS:
What is your current healing style? (Describe) Full HoTs on the MT, All HoTs except LB on the OT, Rejuv likely targets for dmg, ALWAYS rejuv the melee, WG Melee on CD so they always have a HoT and to make the most benefit from Revitalize, except to accommodate raid dmg where needed, WG+Nourish the raid burst dmg, LB+Nourish on WG CD to get that extra HoT on them while WG is not usable and get an extra bloom in case Nourish doesn't get them topped, HT Bomb surprise nukes, SM on CD, where applicable, Innervate myself because the disc priest and Holy Pally never go oom. When the tanks are pulling taunt swap rotations, I'll Fully HoT whoever has the boss, and pre HoT the OT, when the taunt is about to occur I will roll LB on the next tank and let the bloom take care of that pesky "final dmg" swing the boss seems to always slip in. Regrowth + Rejuv through Incinerate Flesh. Rejuv on Snobold Targets. WG through Fires in VoA. On Ony, I'll put full HoTs on the tank and Rejuv the melee so I always have my proc and the melee can benefit from Revitalize. HT Bomb/SM to snipe heals and make my other healers cuss on vent :D

If you chose Yes for #9, how do you think your healing style will change (describe)? Unless I'm glyphed for RR it won't change, however, when I AM glyphed RR, I will drop Regrowth from my rotation in favor of RR + Nourish. In times where I glyph Regrowth, I will drop Rejuv in favor of Regrowth refreshes and Nourish. In cases where I glyph HT, I will drop WG in favor of HT+HoTs+Nourish spam on tanks.