Priest - What Makes a Priest The Best Healer?

The Priest is a caster class and is considered by most to be the best all-round healer in WoW. His spells are Holy and Shadow based. A Priest can also do quite a bit of damage but is mainly known for his great healing capabilities in both PvE and PvP.

One of the downsides of playing a Priest is the leveling. Even though the Shadow talent tree is available, which greatly increases a Priest’s damage done, it can still be time taking because the spells cost a lot of Mana. Once you get to the higher levels though, you can always count on a spot in any kind of party or raid wherever they are going because a Priest is just great and everybody knows it.

All the Priests are able to cast a Stamina buff on themselves and party and raid members. If a few points in the Discipline tree are spent another buff called Divine Spirit becomes available. This buff boosts the Spirit of players. A Priest’s healing spells are based on Holy power and one has a variety of instant, small, big, HoT and AoE heals to choose from which make the priest the best overall healer. If a Priest prefers to do damage he is pretty much stuck on the Shadow spells if he wants to get the best out of his Priest.

You can choose from quite a few races if you want to play a Priest. The Human Spirit and Blood Elf’s Arcane Spirit racials make them nice choices. Other races you can choose from are Dwarves, Night Elves, Draenei, Trolls, and Undead.

A Priest can choose to go for a full Discipline build if he likes to heal and likes to play PvP. There are some great talents in the tree that make the Priest tougher, his heals more effective and the Priest will also gain some new abilities like Pain Suppression and Power Infusion. The Discipline Priests are great single target healers. This, together with abilities like the ones mentioned above make the Discipline Priests great for PvP as well.

The Holy tree is also great for healing. It’s probably a bit better when it comes to raw healing then the Discipline tree. Some other healing spells like Circle of Healing are learned which make the Priest even a better healer. The Holy build gives more bonus healing and is normally considered to be better for PvE purposes when it comes to healing.

Finally, the Shadow build. Priests make great healers but they sure can do good damage as well. His damage is based on Damage over Time (DoT), and fast spells like Mind Blast and Mind Flay. The great thing about a Shadow Priest is that he can also support his group by placing some debuffs on a target like Vampiric Embrace and Vampiric Touch which will convert some damage done to mana and hitpoints for both the Priest and his group members.

Vashj'ir: Surviving the Depths – World of Warcraft

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

Once a great Highborne city housing some of the most revered night elves of Kalimdor, Vashj'ir was swallowed by the Great Sea in the Sundering and thought to be lost forever. Queen Azshara, formerly a beloved leader of the Highborne, escaped death in the depths of the sea when the Well of Eternity imploded. Such salvation came at a great cost, as the queen and many of her fellow Highborne were forever transformed into the monstrous naga, doomed to wander the seas for thousands of years. Their existence mostly remains a mystery to the peoples of modern Azeroth, though the Earthen Ring has learned of Azshara's naga seizing Vashj'ir for an unknown purpose as the cries of the elements echo across Azeroth from the Abyss.

The Sunken City
Vashj'ir is a level 78-82 zone in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm where players will be called to explore the depths of the Great Sea and stop the naga from seizing immeasurable power from the realm of Neptulon the Tidehunter. This expansive underwater zone will feature an unprecedented fight for survival against the naga overwhelming the area, several new quest hubs -- including Alliance and Horde naval ships and submarines -- all-new underwater travel and combat mechanics, several pocketed undersea caves free from water's grip, two new five-player dungeons (Throne of the Tides and Abyssal Maw), and the first-ever opportunity to explore the remains of the once-majestic city of Vashj'ir!

Bottled Distress Message Found Adrift at Sea
Need your help. Time is short. I'm held captive in what I hope to be a nightmare.

Enjoying the ocean air just days ago. We were determined to control key trade routes through victory at sea over the Horde. Their fleet came into our scopes. Our world became the deafening sound of battle, the smell of gunpowder, and the feeling of fear. Looking back now, though, that wasn't real fear.

We weren't alone in those waters. Our naval warfare attracted attention and rendered us prey. With our vessel already torn apart and taking on water, we saw a tremendous creature rise from the depths and shatter the hull, sucking us down to the sea floor. It all happened so fast. I was quick to tread the waters, hoping to regroup with any survivors I could find through a dense garden of kelp, constantly gasping for a chance breath. That's when the onslaught began. From all directions swarms of brutal naga swept through and captured a great many of us. Beaten near to death, I awoke in agony, bound in chains.

And here I still sit. I can only describe our prison as very big and somehow very much alive. We're in the hands of the naga now. Surviving crewmates in better condition than me are driven into slave labor.

One escaped. Thomas. He didn't make it far before I saw him dragged back. Before being forced into labor, he spoke in a panic about some large shell protecting this living prison, expansive night elf ruins in the distance, strange naga rituals underway, and sea vrykul battling our captors. He made little sense. Could be mad. Or I could be mad to hope vrykul are fighting to free us.

Prison patrols out again. Send word to Stormwind. Sunken city far from extinct. Naga plotting something horrific. Please help.

Mount Hyjal: In defense of Nordrassil

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

For years, Mount Hyjal and the wounded World Tree, Nordrassil, have remained cut off from the rest of Azeroth. Sealed away within a protective field of dense foliage by Malfurion Stormrage, Nordrassil has been slowly recovering from the devastation of the Third War, when Malfurion called upon the tree's power to destroy the archdemon Archimonde and repel the forces of the Burning Legion and Scourge. Now, with the impending cataclysm, the World Tree's well-being is threatened once more. From the Firelands within the Elemental Plane, Ragnaros and his minions prepare to burst into Hyjal and set Nordrassil ablaze -- and the conflagration would endanger all life on Azeroth.

In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, players will have the opportunity to explore the newly reopened Mount Hyjal as Azeroth's heroes, with the help of Ysera, Malfurion Stormrage and Hamuul Runetotem, are called upon to push back the armies of the Firelord, banish Ragnaros to the Elemental Plane and lay waste to the twilight dragon stronghold in nearby Darkwhisper Gorge. This all-new level 78-82 zone will feature multiple quest hubs, phased terrain and quest lines, portals to micro-zones within the Firelands, an all-new raid dungeon, and much more.

The World Tree
Players will be able to enter Hyjal by way of Moonglade, to take on a series of high-stakes quests in a historic location alongside some of Azeroth's most renowned heroes. With a longstanding rivalry among the night elf leadership threatening to undermine the campaign against Deathwing, players will quickly discover the task of defending Nordrassil is more daunting than they had anticipated. In order to succeed, they must seek out the help of extremely powerful allies: the Ancients.

The Ancients
To protect Nordrassil and heal the devastation the invading fire elementals are causing across Mount Hyjal, players must first recapture the shrine of the wolf god Goldrinn. The ogres surrounding the shrine will not leave peacefully, but seizing the shrine will allow players their first opportunity to infiltrate the Firelands and shut down a key Twilight portal, slowing the advance of the nearby Twilight's Hammer in Hyjal.

With the first portal dismantled, players will soon be sought by the wilderness spirit Aessina to assist in cleansing and healing the nearby forest, ultimately returning the land to its former splendor. This small victory, however, isn't enough to deter the Twilight Remnants from attempting to scorch the forest once more. As you struggle to keep these foes at bay, you'll also need to help the Guardians of Hyjal -- a new neutral faction of druids and worshippers of the Ancients -- repopulate the forest with animal life. It's even rumored that Malorne has been spotted in the wilderness. Perhaps further investigation is necessary....

Amid the chaos, the Druids of the Talon will need players' assistance to resurrect the goddess of winged creatures. Players begin the process by helping to slay a group of black dragons and closing a second Firelands portal from within. Just when you think things might be heating up, you'll need to fight through a burning night elf town to shut down the third and final portal with the assistance of the turtle god Tortollus.

Darkwhisper Gorge
Your successes in Hyjal will ultimately lead you to the assembly of the Ancients, who have set a plan in motion to bring a powerful ally and demigod back into this realm. Before that can happen, however, you will need to infiltrate Darkwhisper Gorge disguised as a follower of the Twilight's Hammer, acting quickly to sow discord within the entrenched faction, weakening it for the coming struggle. Only time will tell if the Ancients' plan is a success -- but you'll need to do your part if there's any hope of saving Mount Hyjal from the twilight dragons, Ragnaros, and his minions of the Elemental Plane.

Firelands
More information on this all-new level-85 raid dungeon is coming soon.

Bluepost: Blizzard Introducing the Story Forum

Quote from: Nethaera (Source)

We are pleased to introduce the Warcraft Story Forum where players can discuss the storylines of the Warcraft universe, as told in-game and through the novels, manga, comics, and short stories that Blizzard publishes. Be sure to visit the new forum here- http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=26354482&sid=1

What is Creative Development?
Creative Development (CDev) is a "hub" within Blizzard, facilitating the development of ancillary products and services that tie into Blizzard's game universes. While there are several different divisions of CDev, this Warcraft Story forum focuses on the efforts of the Publishing division.

What does Creative Development's Publishing division have to do with Warcraft's stories and lore?
The Publishing division within Creative Development is the driving force behind every published story you've seen outside of the game: short stories, novels, comics, and manga.

Who comprises the Publishing division of Creative Development?
Publishing is made of two groups:

• Story Development: this group focuses on story idea creation, story outlining, and story development for licensed fiction, as well as for internally-written stories
• Historians: this group is the repository for all Blizzard lore, providing counsel for the game development teams and the CDev Story Development group

What is the Publishing division's usual process for developing a story?

• Idea Generation & Outline Creation: Working with Chris Metzen and the designers on the respective game's development team, the Story Development team generates an idea and an outline for a story. The writer on the project is typically invited to our offices at this point in the project, so that they can be in on the ground floor of the story's creation.
• Story Development & Lore Checking: Over the course of the project, the Story Development team talks constantly with the writer, as well as with Chris Metzen and the game developers, in order to help hone the story into a Blizzard-quality tale. At the same time, our Historian team combs through the iterations of the story in order ensure that the story adheres to the universe's established canon.

What does the Publishing division hope to accomplish with this Warcraft Story forum?
We'd like to give the community a chance to influence the development of our upcoming stories, so we're trying something new; this forum will serve as a direct line to our story developers. Please note that we're not looking for fully-formed stories - save those for the Global Writing Contest (which we operate and judge) - but rather we're looking for specific examples of what people like, don't like, and what they would like to see (story-wise) from us in the future.

World of Warcraft: Blood Elf Cosplay/Costume

Yesterday I came across a small gallery of 8 Bloodelf Cosplay pictures from Blizzards World of Warcraft. They show a pretty cute girl in an Bloodelf costume.

Check it out yourself!

Enjoy!

Aion Classes: The Mage

The Mage is one of the four base archetypes in NCSoft’s Aion.  Beginning at Level 10, the mage can choose between Sorcerer or Spiritmaster career. The mage is the main damage class in Aion, similar to their role in other online role playing games (Online RPGs). On the backside, they are also extremely vulnerable. And when I say extreme vulnerable, i mean REALLY extreme! The Mages can control the elements and require high evasion skills to survive their enemies who may attack them. Typically, mages only wear cloth armor such as robes and have a great arsenal of spells.

The major advantages of playing a mage is their extreme high damage output. A Mage can win battles in seconds, or lose them in seconds if engaged in Melee. On the other side, if the fight lasts for longer they changes to survive are likely next to zero. But they have a handful of stun or bind abilities to help the Mage to survive/escape. Unlike other classes, the mages don’t depend to much on armor – most of your damage comes from spells anyways. Their mana regeneration is quite slow and you have often to make some breaks in the beginning of the game. Their auto attack is quite slow, so you’ll be in trouble if the mages mana runs low.

The first 10 levels

Up to level 10, a Mage gets all their spells from a trainer. Some of these spells include Fire Bolt, Ice Bolt and Restrain. Restrain will stop an enemy from attacking or following players for 20 seconds, which gives the Mage some time to run away if the battle isn't in their favor. In the first 5 Levels, Mages will have very few number of spells, but this changes quickly in the levels beyond Level 5. The mage will also receive the Concentrate passive ability at 5th Level, which will make a major difference in his ability to cast spells while being attacked.

 

 

Conclusion

The mages in Aion are an extremely powerful class, in the hands of a capable and intelligent player, otherwise you’ll see them die pretty often. Mastering the Class and all it’s abilities is very important. Mastering that, it’s definitely an interesting class and there are some interesting twists to the traditional caster class once a character ascends and can pick one of the two subclasses.

Ulduar: Freya Boss Strategy Guide

Freya is the 9th boss encounter of Ulduar. She’s located in the center of the valley in Ulduar.

Freya Boss Abilities

• Health Points: 4,200,000 (heroic), 1,400,000 (normal)
• Sunbeam: Deals 10,638-12,362 nature damage to all enemies within an 8 yard radius of the target. 1.5 second cast time.
• Nature’s Fury: Applied to an enemy target for 10 seconds. Deals 4,625-5,375 nature damage to all nearby players everyone 1 second.
• Touch of Eonar: Heals Freya 24,000 health every 1 second
• Attuned to Nature: Fight starts with 150 stacks of this buff. Each stack increases healing on Freya by 4%.

Freya Boss Strategy

Upon engaging Freya she will begin spawning adds. These adds heal Freya through a self buff system. At the beginning of the fight Freya will have 150 stacks of a buff, each stack increases healing done on her by 4% (600% total). Each time you kill an add one of these buffs is removed.

Phase 1

Adds spawn every minute.

• Wave Type 1
  • Storm Lasher: Casts area effect lightning damage in a 15 yard radius. Also casts chain lightning that hits up to 4 targets.
  • Snaplasher: Stacking debuff upon dealing damage, increases damage by 1% and reduces speed by 1%, stacks up to 99 times. As this reaches a critical mass stack you’ll need to kite these.
  • Ancient Water Elemental: Frontal cone tidal burst, deals 8,000 damage. Face these away from the main raid body.
• Wave Type 2
  • Detonating Lasher: Spawn around Freya in a circle in packs of 12. Reduces Freya’s healing buff by 2 stacks per mob.
• Wave Type 3
  • Ancient Protector: 1,900,000 health points, removes 25 stacks of Freya’s buff.  Also cast conservator’s grip, which prevents attacking and casting spells.
  • Stand under the healthy mushrooms to remove conservator’s grip.

Phase 2

During phase 2 no more adds will spawn. At this point it’s essentially just a tank and spank fight. Freya has the same abilities as in phase one. In addition, she also had lifebinder’s gift…trees spawn around Freya every 30 seconds, kill all of these within 15 second duration or they will heal Freya for 15%.

Freya Hard Mode Strategy

To complete Freya on hard mode you must leave the Elders up. Each elder provides an additional buff, similar to the way Sartharion’s drakes worked.

• Elder Brightleaf: increases magic damage dealt by Freya and her adds by 50%
• Elder Stonebark: increases physical damage dealt by Freya by 50%
• Elder Ironbranch: increases physical damage dealt by Freya’s adds by 50%

Phase 1

Phase 1 is basically the same in Hard mode as it’s in easy mode. With the difference that the Snaplasher has to be kited (it’s next to impossible to tank without tank getting 1-shot).

Phase 2

Phase two is similar. In Phase 2 the Freya needs to be kited too every time she drops heir seeds on the ground to avoid AoE damage. Besides that, it’s tank & spank against the enrage timer.

Freya 10 man Video

Freya 10 man Video (Hard Mode)

Freya 25 man Video

Freya 25 man Video (Hard mode)

Ulduar: Kologarn Boss Strategy Guide - World of Warcraft

General Information

Sixth Boss in World of Warcraft’s latest raid instance Ulduar. The main difference to all normal bosses is, Kologarn has 3 attackable parts. Kologarn himself and his left/right arms. Kologarn has 15.000.000 Health Points on heroic and his arms have 5.000.000 Health Points each for a total of 25.000.000 Health Points.

Abilities

• Focused Eyebeam: Inflicts 4163 to 4837 Nature damage to enemies within 3 yards.
• Shockwave: The shockwave from the massive arm sweep inflicts 13875 to 16125 Nature damage.
• Petrifying Breath: Inflicts 18750 to 21250 Nature damage every 1 sec and increases damage taken by 20% for 8 sec. (Brittle Skin - Increases damage taken by 20% for 8 sec.)
• Stone Grip: Squeezes the life out of the target, stunning it and inflicting 5363 to 5637 Physical damage every 1 sec until Kologarn's Arm sustains 480,000 damage.
• Overhead Smash: The not so massive attack Inflicts Physical damage and decreases armor by 25% for 45 sec. 5 yd range, Next melee
• Overhead Smash Tremor: The massive Overhead Smash causes a tremor which Inflicts 6338 to 6662 Physical damage and interrupts casting for 8 sec.
• Arm Sweep: A massive arm sweep that causes a shockwave that inflicts 8788 to 10212 damage to anyone in it's path. 10 sec cooldown

Achievements

Heroic

• Heroic: With Open Arms - Defeat Kologarn without destroying either of his arms on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Disarmed - Destroy both of Kologarn's arms within 10 seconds and then defeat Kologarn on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: If Looks Could Kill - Defeat Kologarn without any raid member being hit by Focused Eyebeams on Heroic Difficulty.
• Heroic: Rubble and Roll - Defeat Kologarn with 25 Rubble creatures alive on Heroic Difficulty.

Normal

• With Open Arms - Defeat Kologarn without destroying either of his arms on Normal Difficulty.
• Disarmed - Destroy both of Kologarn's arms within 12 seconds and then defeat Kologarn on Normal Difficulty.
• If Looks Could Kill - Defeat Kologarn without any raid member being hit by Focused Eyebeams on Normal Difficulty.
• Rubble and Roll - Defeat Kologarn with 25 Rubble creatures alive on Normal Difficulty.

The Encounter

Kologarn is a so-called stationary boss. He can’t be moved, positioned or turned around. Similar to Rangaros, when there are no melee attackers in his range, he will cast Petrifying Breath into the raid.

As mentioned above, he also has two arms, which are “mini-bosses” on their own and they do damage to the raid. The left arm will hit the whole raid for 12.000 periodically and the right arm will periodically take a random player and do damage to them until the raid does 450.000 damage to this arm.

Tactic and Setup

You will need 3 good equipped tanks for this encounter. Once a tank gets 2 stacks of Overhead Smash, one of the other two tanks should taunt the boss. So basically you have to do a tank rotation until the first tanks lose his debuffs.

It’s crucial for the success that all three tanks survive and none of them dies! During the fight, his both arms will do some serious damage to the raid. Make sure, that you have enough group healers within your ranks to heal up (left arm does 12.000 damage to the whole raid). If one player is picked up by Kologarn’s right hand, it’s important to focus heal on this player.

The raid should redirect all their damage to the right arm, so the player in Kologarn’s right arm will be freed again.

When one of the arms is killed/destroyed, a few elementals will spawn. They need to be killed quickly. However, the arms are not gone forever. They will respawn 60 seconds after they have been destroyed. The good news: The Health of the Arms is taken from the Kologarn’s Health Point pool. So killing an arm can hurt him too, when the arm respawns again. 

Update: It’s a good strategy if you only focus and kill the right arm. The damage of the left arm is healable and not as dangerous as a raid member dying if you don’t free him out of the right arm. So simply focus the right arm at beginning of the fight. If he pick up someone, there is no DPS loss on switching targets and as all the DoTs and debuffs are up, he will lose the 500k HP very quickly.

Once the Arm is destroyed, focus the boss for a few seconds until Tanks got enough agro on the elementals and bomb them away. Continue to dps the Boss himself until his right arm respawns. When the right arm respawns, focus it again until it’s dead and repeat until the boss dies.

Hard Mode

Coming soon…

Achievement: Noble Garden Event – World of Warcraft

Introduction

With the latest World of Warcraft 3.1 Content Patch, the Noble Garden was revamped. It’s not part of the World Events Meta-Achievement and new events/things to do where introduced for this reason.

During the event, magical eggs appear around the starter towns, like Stormwind, Ironforge, Silvermoon etc. There will be a Quest – Spring Gatherers/The Great Egg Hunt - where you will get a basket for 10 chocolates and another NPC who offers a quest to collect 20 egg shells.

As the Noblegarden Event hasn't started yet on the live realms, all of this is based on the event duing it was active on PTR Servers! As with all PTR stuff, the event could be object to change. Will try updating if something big changed!

How it works

Brightly Colored Eggs will spawn all over the starter zones and capital cities. Most of them will be well hidden (i.e. underneath carts, next to buildings or inside some bushes [no, not the “Double U” :P). Simply right click/use them and you can loot the Brightly Colored Eggs. Open it to obtain the “Loot”, some chocolates and one egg shell.

From PTR testing the chances seems to be roughly 2-3% for Spring Robes and Spring Flower. Also you have a chance to randomly get polymorphed into an rabbit! It can easily be removed by right clicking on the buff. It’s important to mention this, as you can’t cast, use mounts or taxi while polymorphed.

After completing the first Quest, you will get your own Noble Garden Egg Basket. It has an on use ability which will increase your walking speed by 60% for 10 seconds and an 10 second cooldown (Yes you read right: 10 seconds).

You can only find eggs inside towns and the starter zones (the ones with green zone name and disabled PvP). It should also be noted that the Noble Garden Egg Basket (the buyable version: Egg Basket) only works inside that zones.

Update: Found a very nice area in Azure Watch - Draenei Beginner Town (click to resize)

Update 2: There is also a Horde location with good spawn points. It’s located at Falconwing Square in the Ruins of Silvermoon. At (35.5, 74.0) you can find a cart there (see picture below)

Rewards

Beside the Meta-Achievement and the Title, there are some other nice rewards you can get from this event. While Elegant Dress and the Tuxedo as well as Spring Flowers and Spring Robes can be looted from eggs, some of it can’t. Most noticeable being Spring Rabbit’s Foot. If you haven’t done the Lil’ Game Hunter yet, this is a good way to get one more Vanity Pet.

Update: Confirmed that you can get all the rewards from the Vendor randomly from eggs too. It's best to keep the eggs until you have almost everything and buy the missing things from it (however, you have to find the 2 Tuxedo Parts and the Dress out of the Eggs to get the Achievement. It won't be counted if you buy it . So wait with buying until you have ~200 Eggs/chocolate + 2 Tuxedo Parts and Dress before start buying)

Additionally, if you're a Mage, you can buy an Tome of Polymorph: Rabbit book for 100 chocolate. Worthy and cool gimick for every mage!

Achievements

Required for Meta-Achievement Noble Gardener (Horde)

• I Found One!: Simple one. Just find and loot one of the Brightly Colored Eggs.
• Desert Rose: First get an Spring Robes for 50 chocolates (or be lucky to find one inside eggs). This will allow you to plant a flower in the deserts of The Badlands, Silithus, Thousand Needles, Desolace and Tanaris. With a 1 min cooldown, it’s pretty much doable without much waiting time and just a little bit traveling.
• Hard Boiled: There are two ways to do this. Either loot eggs until you’re polymorphed into an rabbit and walk to Un’goro and wait at the Golakka Hotsprings (in the middle of Un’goro) until you lay an egg. This is good for people soloing or who don’t have any friends.
  The second way is to get a friend who bought Blossoming Branch for 10 chocolates and can cast it on you. Notice: This only works with Party Members, you and the others have to be in the same party!
  
• Noble Garden (Horde): Buy an Brightly Colored Eggs for 5 chocolates and hide it somewhere in Stormwind/Silvermoon City.
• Chocoholic: Eat 100 chocolates. Easy enough too. 
• Blushing Bride: For this you need an event Tuxedo Set (White Tuxedo Shirt and Black Tuxedo Pants, the tailored ones don’t work!) and /kiss someone wearing an Elegant Elegant Dress.
• Spring Fling (Horde): First buy the Rabbit Vanity Pet (Spring Rabbit’s Foot) for 100 chocolates and then go to the 4 towns requested in the Achievement and find another person with a rabbit too in this towns.
• Shake Your Bunny-Maker: Use the Spring Flower to place bunny ears on all females (race doesn’t matter, works on any). Only requirement is that the female is above level 18 (which is the where a person gets mature in most of the countries *wave at the reference to the playboy*)

Optional Achievements

• Dressed for the Occasion: Find an Elegant Dress by opening an Brightly Colored Eggs during the Event. Warning: Buying the dress from the Vendor doesn’t count!!
• Sunday's Finest: Find White Tuxedo Shirt and Black Tuxedo Pants by opening Brightly Colored Eggs during the event. Warning: Buying the shirt and pants from the Vendor doesn’t count!!

Have fun hunting the magical eggs!

World of Warcraft: Thorim Strategy Guide (Updated)

Thorim is one of the boss encounters in Ulduar. In order to defeat Thorim, players must go through a gauntlet starting off with a Combat Jormungar Behemoth and a rush of iron dwarves.

General Statistics:

• Race: Titan (Giant)
• Health Points: 11,300,000 (Heroic Mode)
• Level: ?? (boss)
• Melee Damage: Approximately 8,000 (Heroic Mode), on a plate wearing tank in full Heroic Naxxramas gear (need more data to get more accurate numbers).
• Swing Timer: Need information on this.
• Enrage: Refer abilities Lighting Charge and Berserk.

Abilities:

• Stormhammer: Throws a stormhammer, dealing 2451 to 2551 damage to an enemy, knocking down and stunning the target for 2 sec, and causing a deafening thunderclap to all enemies nearby the target.
  • Deafening Thunder: Inflicts 4625 to 5375 Nature damage to enemies standing in close proximity to a Stormhammer strike, preventing spell casting for 6 sec.
• Berserk: Empowers allies with the full might of Thorim. Damage done increased by 500%. Attack and cast speed increased by 200%. Health increased by 300%.
  • He will use this within 5 minutes of the raid killing the Jormungar Behemoth (need more info to confirm the exact point when this timer begins).
• Unbalancing Strike: Inflicts 250% weapon damage and leaves the target unbalanced, reducing their defense skill by 200 for 15 sec.
• Lightning Charge: Absorbs a torrent of electrical energy, inflicting Nature damage to enemies in a cone between the caster and the power source, and increasing the caster’s melee damage and attack speed by 20%.

Gauntlet NPCs

• Jormungar Behemoth:
  • Average Melee Hit: 12,400 (Heroic Mode)
  • Acid Breath: Spews acidic bile at a target and nearby enemies, inflicting 12000 Nature damage and 1500 additional damage every 2 sec. for 18 sec.
  • Sweep: Sweeps at the legs of an enemy, dealing 6000 damage and causing knockdown for 3 sec.
• Captured Horde/Alliance Soldier:
  • Average Melee Hit: 2,600 (Heroic Mode)
  • Average Ranged Hit: 2,400 (Heroic Mode)
  • Barbed Shot: Fires an arrow that pierces an enemy’s flesh, inflicting 4,513 to 4,987 Physical damage and causing 500 damage per 3 sec. for 12 sec.
• Captured Horde/Alliance Soldier:
  • Average Melee Hit: 9,100 (Heroic Mode)
  • Heroic Strike: A strong attack that increases melee damage by 5,088 to 5,912 and causes a high amount of threat.
    • Based on WWS reports, the average hit seems to be around 12,500 (Heroic Mode).
  • Devastate: Sunders the target’s armor causing the Sunder Armor effect. In addition, causes 50% of weapon damage plus 90 for each application of Sunder Armor on the target. The Sunder Armor effect can stack up to 5 times.
    • Based on WWS reports, the average hit seems to be around 4,800 (Heroic Mode).
• Captured Horde/Alliance Healer (need confirmation of the actual NPC name):
  • Some form of AoE heal (need more info on this)
• Dark Rune Acolyte:
  • Holy Smite: Smites an enemy inflicting holy damage.
    • Based on WWS reports, the average hit seems to be around 7,500 (Heroic Mode).
  • Greater Heal: Call upon holy magic to heal an ally.
    • Based on WWS reports, the average amount healed seems to be around 86,500 (Heroic Mode), although there seems to be as high hits as 300,000 (more information is needed on this).
  • Renew: Heals a friendly target for 13650 to 14350 (Heroic Mode), 9,263 to 9,737 (Normal Mode) per 3 sec. for 15 sec.
• Dark Rune Champion:
  • Average Melee Hit: 8,000 (Heroic Mode)
  • Whirlwind: Attacks nearby enemies in a whirlwind of steel that inflicts normal damage plus 100.
  • Mortal Strike: Inflicts 250% weapon damage and leaves the target wounded, reducing the effectiveness of any healing by 50% for 5 sec.
    • Based on WWS reports, the average hit seems to be around 12,300 (Heroic Mode).
  • Charge: Charges an enemy, inflicting normal damage plus 120 knocking the enemy back.
• Dark Rune Evoker:
  • Runic Lightning: Strikes an enemy with a blast of runic lightning, inflicting 7,875 to 10,125 (Heroic Mode), 6,563 to 8,437 (Normal Mode), Nature damage.
  • Runic Mending: Heals an ally for 18,500 to 21,500 (Heroic Mode), 11,563 to 13,437 (Normal Mode) , then heals for an additional 6,000 (Heroic Mode), 4,000 (Normal Mode), every 1 sec. for 15 sec.
• Dark Rune Commoner:
  • Low Blow: Lands a cheap shot on an enemy, inflicting Physical damage and reducing the target’s damage dealt by 3% for 20 sec.
  • Pummel: Pummels an enemy and interrupts the spell being cast for 5 sec.
• Dark Rune Warbringer:
  • Average Melee Hit: 5,000 (Heroic Mode)
  • Runic Strike: Strikes at an enemy with an electrified weapon, inflicting Nature damage equal to weapon damage plus 1000.
• Iron Honor Guard:
  • Average Melee Hit: 2,700 (Heroic Mode) Shield Smash: Inflicts 5088 to 5912 Physical damage to an enemy, stunning it for 3 sec.
  • Cleave: Inflicts 150% of normal melee damage to an enemy and its nearest ally.
  • Hamstring: Inflicts 50% of normal melee damage to an enemy, reducing it’s movement speed by 50% for 6 sec.
• Iron Ring Guard:
  • Average Melee Hit: 3,300 (Heroic Mode)
  • Whirling Trip: Knocks down nearby enemies, stunning them for 2 sec. and inflicting increased weapon damage.
  • Impale: Deals a vicious attack that causes the target to bleed profusely until healed past 90% of its maximum health. Deals 1750 (Heroic Mode), 1125 (Normal Mode), damage every 2 sec. for 1 min or until removed via healing.
• Ancient Rune Giant:
  • Average Melee Hit: 4,700 (Heroic Mode)
  • Stomp: Stomps the ground, inflicting normal damage to nearby enemies and knocking them down for 2 sec.
• Runic Colossus:
  • Average Melee Hit: 5,200 (Heroic Mode)
  • Smash: Smashes the target, inflicting 13875 to 16125 (Heroic Mode) damage and knocking them up.
  • Charge: Charges an enemy, inflicting normal damage plus 120 knocking the enemy back.
  • Runic Barrier: A shield of runic power surrounds the caster, reducing Physical damage taken by 50% and inflicting 2000 Arcane damage to attackers.

Suggested Raid Composition:

• Normal Mode:
  • 2 tanks - Ideally one of your tanks should be one which isn’t affected greatly by silence effects.
  • 2-3 healers - Depending on the strength of your healers you should be ok with only 2 although if you feel that healing is too much for one of the two fight sections you may wise to bring a third.
  • 6-7 dps - In the colosseum section of the encounter non-caster dps classes have a clear advantage due to the silence so you will want a balanced group of casters and melee/hunters.
• Heroic Mode:
  • 4 tanks - Like in Normal Mode you will ideally want to have two tanks which are not greatly affected by silence effects.
  • 6-7 healers - With 6 healers you should have no difficulty with this encounter, but you can always bring one more if you feel that healing is too much for one of the two fight sections.
  • 14-15 dps - Like in Normal Mode, in the colosseum section of the encounter non-caster dps classes have a clear advantage due to the silence so you will want a balanced group of casters and melee/hunters.

Strategy:

The encounter begins with your raid engaging a 5 man group of the opposing faction fighting a Jormunger Behemoth. Killing them is fairly straight forward, simply tank the Behemoth turned away from the raid and kill the opposing faction healer while the rest of the adds are tanked.

Once that is over your raid will need to split in two. One group will be staying in the colosseum and dealing with the various Dark Rune adds, while the other fights their way up the gauntlet to Thorim past the Iron Guards, Anicent Rune Giants, and the Runic Collossi. You will ideally want to organize the groups before the pull, and they will need to consist of two balanced raid groups with 2 tanks in each and 3 healers in each. On top of that you will want all your caster dps to go into the gauntlet and your melee/Hunters to stay in the arena as they won’t be affected by the silence.

The group that stays in the arena will simply need to survive while the other group fights to Thorim. The healers for the colosseum group will need to spread out so that only one healer can be silenced at a time as a silence on all the healers will easily cause a wipe.

The gauntlet group will be going to the left of the entrance down the gauntlet where they will be fighting there way to Thorim. The gate to the gauntlet seems to stay open for only a short duration so the whole group should stand at the very edge and be ready for someone to open it then run in as it is better if everyone gets inside at the same time and they begin pulling right away. While going up this gauntlet they will come across Runic Collossi which have a considerable amount of health and serve as mini-bosses that will need to be killed. Once you reach Thorim you will be paralyzed twice, by large magical bubbles, while walking to him, and during the second time he will jump down into the raid and begin to engage the group in the Colosseum. The gauntlet group them simply follows him and jumps down and then the whole raid will face him.

Now the fight turns into a fairly straightforward dps race against the Lightning Charge which will allow Thorim to one shot the tanks if he isn’t killed fast enough. In addition to this, Thorim does Unbalancing Strike which will require tanks to switch off on him for the duration of the debuff. In the later stages of the fight the healers will really need to spam heal the tanks once the charges begin to stack very high.

In the last stage of the fight it really is up to dps to kill him quickly and the healers to keep the tanks alive, although if you are able to get to Thorim then the encounter with him isn’t very complicated.

Hard Mode / Additional Loot:

According to a GM, the encounter normal mode is meant to have the whole raid follow into the gauntlet unlike the above strategy, and the above strategy would then be the hardmode version of the fight.

“For normal mode, you want to enter the gate to the left by using a lever. Once you enter the mobs will despawn and a massive orb of lightning will fly towards you. Now you need to stick to the side and avoid it completely, then proceed to the gate.”

Although that may be true, the original testing and kills were doing the so called “Hard Mode” so we will see the exact meaning of the Hard vs Normal Mode of this encounter once some more testing is done or when Ulduar goes live.

World of Warcraft: Yogg-Saron - Brain's Room (Spoilers!!)

If you listened to the sound files included in the last PTR patch, you probably noticed that most of the sounds used during the fight against Yogg-Saron are here.

Some of these files are named "YSVisOne" "YSVisTwo" "YSVisThree" and seems to be related to something I didn't news yet, the Yogg-Saron Brain's room. You will most likely be teleported to this room during the fight and will witness past events of the Warcraft lore ... Needless to say that you shouldn't check the video or read the text below if you're scared of spoilers.

Vision One

Garona

• UR_Garona_YSVisOne01.wav - Bad news, sire
• UR_Garona_YSVisOne02.wav - The clans are united under Blackhand in this assault. They will stand together until Stormwind has fallen
• UR_Garona_YSVisOne03.wav - Gul'dan is bringing up his warlocks by nightfall. Until then, the Blackrock Clan will be trying to take the eastern wall
• UR_Garona_YSVisOne04.wav - The orc leaders agree with your assessment.

King Llane

• UR_Llane_YSVisOne01.wav - And we will hold until the reinforcements come. As long as men with stout hearts are manning the walls and the throne, Stormwind will hold

Yogg-Saron

• UR_YoggSaron_YSVisOne01.wav - A thousand deaths ...
  UR_YoggSaron_YSVisOne02.wav - Or one murder ...
  UR_YoggSaron_YSVisOne03.wav - Your petty quarrels only make me stronger.

Vision Two

Neltharion

• UR_NeltharionYS_YSVisTwo01.wav - It is done. All have given that which must be given. I now seal the Dragon Soul (WoWWiki) forever.
• UR_NeltharionYS_YSVisTwo02.wav - For it to be as it must, yes.

Malygos

• UR_Malygos_YSVisTwo01.wav - It is a weapon like no other. It must be like no other.

Ysera

• UR_Ysera_YSVisTwo01.wav - That terrible gloom ... Should that be?

Yogg-Saron

• UR_YoggSaron_YSVisTwo03.wav - His brood learned their lesson before too long. You will soon learn yours!

Vision Three

Arthas (Prisoner)

• UR_ArthasPrisoner_YSVisThree01.wav - AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
• UR_ArthasPrisoner_YSVisThree02.wav - *Choking* I ... AM NOT AFRAID OF YOU!

Lich King

• UR_Lich King_YSVisThree01.wav - Your resilience ... is admirable ...
• UR_Lich King_YSVisThree02.wav - I will break you as I broke him.

Yogg-Saron

• UR_YoggSaron_YSVisThree01.wav - *Foreign language*
• UR_YoggSaron_YSVisThree02.wav - You will learn, no king rules forever! Only death is eternal!

Others

(Bosses freed from the influence of Yogg-Saron helping you throughout the fight)

• UR_Thorim_YSHelp01.wav - Golganoth, lend me your strength. Grant my mortal allies the power of thunder!
• UR_Mimiron_YSHelp01.wav - Combat matrix enhanced! Behold wonderous rapidity!
• UR_Freya_YSHelp01.wav - Eonar, your servant calls for your blessing
• UR_Hodir_YSHelp01.wav - The veil of winter will protect you, champions!

World of Warcraft: Alagon hard-more speculations confirmed

Looks like the speculations about Algalon hard more were right.

The sound files from the MPQs in the last PTR build confirms all of the guesses about the hard modes and the Algalon encounter. Check them out for yourselves as many of them are funny to listen to.

The summary:

• Algalon does in fact require the 4 Watcher sigils to access.
  Freya’s hard mode involves keeping the 3 Elders up
• Hodir’s hard mode is to kill him before breaking the first cache. The design of the fight is to utilize the NPC adds for this goal
• Thorim’s hard mode is to get to him fast enough (while controlling the adds in both the “pit” and the tunnel) that ‘Sif’ (a false image of his dead wife) does not despawn before you reach him. So, timed event here too
• Mimiron’s hard mode is to kill him before the Corridors of Ingenuity explode in 10 minutes

World of Warcraft: Val’anyr, Gave of the Ancient Kings – The next legendary Item in Wrath of the Lich King

Val'anyr, Gavel of Ancient Kings

If you've been reading this site for more than 3 days, you probably know that a new Legendary Mace will be added to the game with Patch 3.1. Just like with Atiesh in Naxxramas, you will have to drop multiple Fragments of Val'anyr to be able to start the quest chain to rebuild the mace. The Shattered Fragments of Val'anyr will most likely drop from bosses in Ulduar, you need 40 of them to rebuild the mace.

When all fragments are in your possession, you will be able to start the following quest :

Ancient History

The pieces fit together to form an elegant hammer. Its construction appears to be at least partially Titan in nature. The console inside the Archivum might have some information regarding this artifact.

• Bring the Shattered Fragments of Val'anyr to the Archivum Console in the Archivum in Ulduar.

The Archivum is the small room behind The Assembly of Iron (where the Iron Council is). After a small event the follow-up will require you to kill ... The old god Yogg-Saron in his prison!

 

Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings

The Archivum console has hinted at a possible way to rebind the fragments of Val'anyr: you must get the fragments inside the physical form of the being known as Yogg-Saron. It sounds like a long shot, but for an artifact of such power you think the risk might just be worth it.

• Throw the Shattered Pieces of Val'anyr inside Yogg-Saron's exposed brain and defeat Yogg-Saron to recover the Reforged Hammer of Ancient Kings.

I couldn't find anything in the game files below this point, but I'll assume it doesn't take much after that to end up with the mace in your hands ... below is the (still unconfirmed) model.

World of Warcraft: Yogg-Saron and the story behind him

Yogg-Saron is an Old God imprisoned beneath Northrend by the Titans. He is responsible for much of the corruption in Grizzly Hills, including that of Ursoc. He has managed to sway Loken under his influence, using him to wage war with the rest of the Pantheon.

History

Yogg-Saron, along with the other Old Gods, created the Curse of Flesh to infect and assimilate the Titans’ creations, such as the Earthen. The Titans discovered that if the Old Gods were destroyed, any infected creations would also be destroyed. Alternatively, the Titans kept the Old Gods alive and imprisoned them beneath Azeroth.

Grizzly Hills

Yogg-Saron corrupted the world tree Vordrassil when its roots penetrated his lair. Druids destroyed the tree upon discovering its taint, but corruption continued to spread to the Grizzlemaw furbolgs which later inhabited the tree’s stump and attempted to regrow the world tree. The furbolgs used the corrupted magic of the tree to resurrect the bear god Ursoc, who in turn also became corrupted.

Saronite

Saronite ore derives its name from Yogg-Saron. Tuskarr refer to it as “black blood of Yogg-Saron,” suggesting it may be a physical byproduct of the Old God. It is used by the Scourge as fuel, armament, weapons, and in constructing their buildings. The Scourge utter “Yogg-Saron” with contempt. Faceless ones also refer to Yogg-Saron in an unknown context.

Ulduar

There is an Old God within Ulduar, suggesting that Yogg-Saron may be an encounter. An area of Ulduar is titled “The Prison of Yogg-Saron,” but he is not found there currently due to only bosses that are being tested being spawned. It is also likely that he will end up coming out of the Saronite pool in his prison rather than be in plain site.
Influence

While traveling through Azjol-Nerub on his way to Icecrown, Arthas encountered and defeated a “forgotten one” which bears physical similarities to C’Thun (another Old God), and was defended by faceless ones. This may have been Yogg-Saron, which would mean that the faceless ones are allied with him. Furthermore, a faceless one is present in the Ymirheim Saronite Mines, where Yogg-Saron’s (presumably) whisper can be heard.

The nerubians were known to worship the Old Gods, those that have not been assimilated into the Scourge may still worship them.

The manner and contempt with which the Scourge proclaim “Yogg-Saron” suggests they may be at odds with him. On the other hand, they are reliant upon saronite which he produces.

Whispers of Old Gods

The whispers heard in Whisper Gulch from “unknown voice” may be produced by Yogg-Saron. They sound similar to the whispers of C’Thun, another Old God:

• They are coming for you…
• Give in to your fear…
• Kill them all… before they kill you…
• They have turned against you… now, take your revenge…
• Tell yourself again that these are not truly your friends…
• There is no escape… not in this life… not in the next…
• You are a pawn of forces unseen…
• It was your fault…

Other whispers:

• You will be alone in the end…
• Trust…is your weakness…
• Hope..is an illusion…
• All you know…will fade…

The voices can also be heard in the Ymirheim Saronite Mines and Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom.

Inspiration

• Yogg-Saron’s name derived from Yog-Sothoth of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos
• “Yogg” might also be an intentional misspelling of “Ygg”, referring to Yggdrasil, the World Tree of Norse mythology, tying in with Yogg-Saron’s corruption of Vordrassil