WoW Weekly: Ashes of Al'ar, Mount Parade, and facing Garrosh

WoW Weekly is a biweekly-ish, self-absorbed look into the things I've been doing -- or not doing -- in the game. From auctioneering and pet battling to mount farming and raiding.

It finally dropped.

Late in the week, I headed into Tempest Keep with the last eligible toon I had in my stable of alts before lockout reset: a sorry, undergeared paladin tank, whose item level disadvantage ensures the fight requires an actual strategy and not a simple zerg. After several minutes of the final phase of the fight, Kael'thas fell, and on the second page of loot I noticed an icon I'd not yet seen before. There it was.

I right-clicked the item, causing the achievement to flash on my screen and broadcast into guild chat. "Ha!" was one whispered response, with others chiming in once they realized what had happened. "Now," I said, "now, to see how many kills it actually took." I brought up the achievement pane, clicked the statistics tab and checked to see how many times Kael'thas had fallen at the hands of my paladin. Nine times, which likely meant it was the ninth week in a row I'd run with him. Methodically, I logged in to the other six characters I've been running with and noted the same statistic, tallied them up and couldn't help but chuckle at the figure.

200. On the head.

Nearly a year and three month's worth of heading in each week. "That's insane," remarked my guild leader. Not sure if she was referring to the kill number or the length of time it took---or if that is an apt description of my "dedication." For roughly the first six months, it was just my main, a shaman, going in each week. Then, almost like clockwork, every two months saw another toon leveled and geared enough to solo the fight themselves, until I had a total of six. Then there was my paladin, sitting at 89. Two weeks after I added the sixth character, and thanks to the Timeless Isle, the paladin was in decent enough shape to give it a go. And did that ever turn out to be a good move.

Mount Parade

I knew I was near the 200-mount goal, near enough to where purchasing or crafting the three jewelcrafting panthers I didn't yet have was all I needed; however, I was hesitant to spend another 60,000g+ on my banker's server, given how much I spent there recently. On my main server, I've set my eye on a rare mount that will require some saving, so I wasn't keen on snatching a panther there, either. In the end, I grabbed two reasonably priced panthers from the old server's auction house. Then, I brought up the achievement tab once more to see if there were any easy ways to reach mount number 200. 

Glory of the Ulduar Raider (10-player)

Some might think it sad I still had this one hanging out there, but I only started raiding seriously near the tail end of Ulduar. With I Love the Smell of Saronite in the Morning and Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare being the last two I needed to satisfy this achievement, I gathered it was something I could likely solo.Earning the latter achievement proved to be annoying, if only a little challenging because I had to tweak my strat to ensure I didn't kill the Guardians too early. The solution on my shaman was to switch to my resto spec, equip an agility weapon in my main hand and do my best to gather up the Guardians. Bringing them down to an acceptably low health level for Razorscale's breaths with just white hits was easy then. I started the encounter at 2/25, and once I found a rhythm, I was toasting 3-5 Guardians per breath.

Sapere Aude see Garrosh on normal

Two weeks ago on Thursday, the Zealots in the guild (our earned raid rank) headed into Normal Siege of Orgrimmar for the first time after having cleared the Flex version on just our 13th visit while on a 1-night, 3-hour-per-week schedule. I silently set a modest goal for the raid of 8 boss kills for our initial venture; I felt it a challenging, yet realistic goal. It turned out to be a bit too realistic: before our mid-raid break, we had cleared up to Nazgrim, one-shotting everything. As you might imagine, we were all pretty high at that point. We ended up wiping once on Nazgrim because of an unfortunate, mistimed cooldown, but then easily cut through Malkorok and Spoils of Pandaria. 

When we got to Thok, things got a bit more chaotic. We found that fight quite a bit less forgiving than its Flex counterpart. We'd wiped a few times on Thok, and it was starting to feel like actual progression. One-shotting all but one boss up to that point was nice, but the worth of the prize grows when you know you just can't breeze through it. True to our form, we killed Thok on the infamous "last pull" of the night, leaving 11 of 14 Siege of Orgimmar bosses dead in our wake. 

Then, last Friday I found myself bringing a tank into a group formed via public channels, and let's say things didn't go so well. The leaders knew what they were doing and thus eschewed the need for voice communication, despite half the raid asking for it. After four failed attempts at pushing Immerseus to even one split phase, the group fell apart. Given that a couple of the players who had been in vent were pretty cool, I offered to put together a group made up of mostly guildies. This turned out to be a pretty awesome partnership: two from the failed raid (both in Heroic progression guilds, one of them being the Realm First: Garrosh guild), a hunter from Trade who subsequently brought a toon into Sapere, and seven of our Zealots.

Though the raid went much longer than we normally run, we were able to clear Paragons (with ease, I might add). Thus, on Sunday we assembled a group of whomever was on, and with the kind help of one of the tanks that joined us late on Friday's run (we had several leave throughout due to time), we were able to take some cracks at Garrosh, almost pushing him to phase three and gaining invaluable experience for our next adventure into Normal.

Not a bad week.

                                                                                                
Looking for an awesome, friendly, active group of adult players who also raid on a 1-night schedule? We're looking to continue building in preparation for WoD. We're additionally looking to build up PvP and RP activities, as we have several players seasoned in both. Check out our guild recruitment post on the Emerald Dream forums.

Army of One: Deathcharger's Reins are not a lie

I really was in the midst of putting together a quick video guide when the Deathcharger's Reins dropped for me last week. You, too, can have this ultra-rare mount in your possession if you're willing to embark on a relentless pursuit (or if you're just plain lucky). I don't know how many hundred times I've cleared this place in the last six years. Several hundred, for sure.

This four-and-a-half minute video offers a quick run-through of the dungeon along with some tips and tricks.

In summary:

1. Enter through the Eastwall Gate in the Eastern Plaguelands.

2. You should be able to avoid aggroing all of the trash in here. If you aggro a mob, deal with it in place to avoid pulling additional trash.

3. You must kill the first three bosses and the acolytes inside the ziggurats behind the bosses in order to reach the Slaughterhouse where the final boss who drops the mount, Aurius Rivendare, is located.

4. BoEs in here have translated into thousands of gold worth of transmoggables for me since MoP---you may want to hold onto what drops and try selling it on the auction house.

5. Each run should take you 3-4 minutes once you get the hang of it; of course, you'll quickly hit your instance limit this way. However, the instance limit is per account, per realm. If you're up for a serious farming sesh with multiple characters, run it once with character 1, then immediately log off and onto character 2. Once character 2 runs it once, log off and back onto character 1. Character 1 will now be just inside the start of the instance, not in the final boss room where you left him/her. Take a few steps to port out, reset all instances, and port back in. Rinse and repeat.

Good luck, and thanks for reading/watching!

Looking for more soloing action? Check out my guides on Malygos (Azure & Blue Drakes) and Onyxia (Reins of Onyxia).

Army of One: Malygos and Bypassing 1-1-2-3

Note: Malygos' health at .01%---before transitioning to Phase 2.

Army of One is a series featuring tips on soloing fights for chances at vanity items, mounts and pets. I've successfully completed the fights with a melee (enh shaman) and ranged (shadow priest) character, though some classes will experience greater difficulty. I include class-specific advice at the end of the post when requested/needed.

Malygos is no pushover like Onyxia, even for a level 90. Nope. This fight requires certain strategies---ignoring them will certainly result in death. What's more, perfect execution of the first part of the strategy means you can ignore the second part of the strategy: the famous 1-1-2-3 sequence. Wait, why are we killing Malygos again? Oh yeah, the Azure and Blue Drakes.

Location: Eye of Eternity in Borean Tundra
Fight Notes: 3 phases: Phase 1 to 50%, Phase 2 until all adds are dead, Phase Three riding the drake until Malygos dies,
Concerns: Boss positioning and survivability in Phase 1, timing the deployment of critical burst damage, winning at pressing buttons in sequence during Phase3

To start the fight, click the orb-thingy in the middle of the room (oh yes, that's right, it's called the Focusing Iris). This upsets Malygos, thus begins his quest to kill you. Little does HE know...so! Just start beating on him for a little while, but save any damage cooldowns that are greater than 90 seconds. You're going to need these in just a bit. Keep an eye on your health here, though I have no issues with my enhancement shaman or shadow priest. Our goal is to bring Malygos down to between 55-60% health, and hit our damage cooldowns when the time is right.*

*We are about to discuss when the time is right.

We'll be dealing with a couple of mechanics, Power Sparks and Malygos' Vortex. As you're killing Malygos, you'll see a message stating "a Power Spark has spawned from a nearby rift." I recommend you immediately "/tar Power" followed by "/focus" (or create a macro to do this) because Malygos will soon use Vortex, which picks you up in the air and whirls your character around in a circle. When it drops you, it can be rather disorienting. It's extremely important to know where that first spark is. If you get lucky, the second spark spawns from the same rift. If not, you're going to have to work to ensure both sparks die at the same location.

Boss positioning can be key, especially for melee; I've found stacking him in the middle works best. When you kill a Power Spark, it leaves an electrified ring on the ground. Standing in this ring causes you to take increased damage, but also causes you to do increased damage.

TL;DR: You want to kill the first spark before it reaches Malygos, and you want to kill the second spark that follows in the same place where you kill the first one while ensuring that Malygos is between 55-60%. Once you've done this, pop everything and blow up Malygos until he flies away.
Players should have saved their CDs for this moment to push out as much DPS here as possible -- this is where we do most of our damage, so some melee classes may struggle more than others.

Once you're comfortable with this encounter, it should go something like this:

1. Click orb in middle and beat on Malygos
2. Power Spark 1 spawns when Malygos is around 75%
3. Vortex whirls you for a bit, ceases
4. Find and kill Power Spark 1 near the middle of the platform
5. Malygos should be around 60% and the 2nd spark is coming**
6. Stop attacking Malygos---he mustn't drop below 50% before the two sparks are down---and kill the 2nd spark on top of where you killed the first spark
7. Stand in the pool the sparks have left behind and pop everything you have and burn Malygos.

**It took some practice on my shadow priest to get this right, since his burst isn't as great as the shaman. However, once I became comfortable, I can easily burn him to 1HP with both toons.

When done right, most decently geared 90s should be able to send him into Phase Three packing 1 HP. Yes, you read that right---one hit point. See, it's impossible to kill Malygos prior to phase three, but it is possible to rob him of all but one sliver of health before Phase Two begins.

There you have it! Below is a video of my enhancement shaman pushing Malygos to 1 HP before Phase Two (sped up for time's sake).


_____________________
For those transitioning into Phase 3 with more than 1 HP:

This might be tough til you get the hang of it. I can't stress this enough: mastering your burst will eliminate the need to do much of anything in Phase 3, so focus on that. But, if, like me when playing my shadow priest, you find yourself in Phase Three with a chunk of health to get through, this is what you're going to have to do.

Immediately spam your 3 button (the HoT) until you have five stacks on you. You must keep this HoT on yourself for the duration of the fight, something that will happen by default if you don't mess up the button-pressing sequence. Malygos will be slightly above you at this point, so you may want to hover up---just a tad so you don't over shoot him---and wait for him to become targetable; again, I spam '3' until Malygos is targetable.

Note: I've killed him when he had more than 30% health remaining going into this phase, like in the video of my shadow priest below. It is tedious. One mistake will likely result in your death. So long as you focus on hitting the ability sequence---1, 1, 2, 3---and strafe away from the balls of lightning he'll occasionally place at your location, you're golden.

So, once you get dropped onto a drake, the fight should go as follows:

1. Spam 3 (HoT) until Malygos can be targeted.
2. Hit 1, 1, 2, 3 and repeat the sequence---that exact sequence.
3. Strafe clockwise or counterclockwise away from the balls of lightning.

After your first two ability sequences, you WILL have to wait a bit (for the drake's energy bar to reach 50) before you can hit 2, so what that looks like is: Press 1, Press 1, wait for 4-5 seconds, Press 2, Press 3, then repeat. The key is to have patience, avoid panicking, and stay out of the ball sparks. You'll have it in no time!

Let me know if you have any questions, or if you can offer any-class specific advice some might find helpful. 

Army of One: Soloing Onyxia for Reins of the Onyxian Drake

Army of One is a series featuring tips on soloing fights for chances at vanity items, mounts and pets. I've successfully completed the fights with a melee (enh shaman) and ranged (shadow priest) character, though some classes will experience greater difficulty. I include class-specific advice at the end of the post when requested/needed.

Onyxia. She drops that sexy-looking drake. And the 10-man version of the fight can be soloed by any max-level class at this point. I realize that's a bold statement to make having not actually played through the fight with every single class, but my own experience paired with general interwebz sleuthing leaves me feeling comfortable making that claim. If you experience great difficulty with this fight, please leave a comment! I'd be happy to help you personally and perhaps suggest some alternative tactics.

Naturally, this fight is most easily accomplished at level 90, but some classes should be able to kill her at lower levels. Results may vary. 

Location: Onyxia's Lair in Dustwallow Marsh
Fight Notes: 3 phases (ground phase to 60%, air phase to 40%, then ground phase until death)
Melee concerns: DPS up-time to push through Phase Two, survivability during Phase Three
Ranged concerns: Survivability during Phase Three, burst DPS (some classes)

Ony sports 4.8 million HP, so it won't take too long for most decently-geared level 90 players to cut her down. The key to easily beating this fight is burst DPS. Pushing her through the phases quickly means the player will take a minimal amount of damage. Note: classes packing heavy burst my be able to push Onyxia to Phase 3 without even having to deal with the Phase 2.

Phase One
Pre-pot, or consume an on-use stat potion for your class just prior to pulling Onyxia. Since you've consumed it before entering combat, you'll be able to use a second potion later on in the fight once it comes off cooldown. I usually use one or two damage cooldowns each phase to make it go smoothly. Other classes' experience may vary depending on the number of cooldowns at their disposal.

Beat on Onyxia. Tip: before she takes flight, which signals the start of Phase Two, she will lumber over to the entrance of the room (where you first engaged her from). To increase maximum DPS up-time for Phase One and reduce the amount of HP to cut through in Phase Two, fight Onyxia all the way on the opposite side of the room from where you entered. The few extra seconds of DPS while she's running back across the room at the transition into Phase Two can mean a few extra hundred-thousand hit points shaved off, which can be very helpful to melee, since they'll have a more difficult time damaging her once she's in the air.

Phase Two
She's now in the air and whelps will hatch and beeline for your location. She also summons an additional, stronger add every 30 seconds. The key here is staying alive while pushing her to Phase 3 as quickly as possible. I use damage reduction or healing cooldowns if needed, and usually pop another damage cooldown. You're doing it quite well if you push her to Phase 3 before she summons a guard. Melee with limited ranged abilities should focus on staying alive and burning through adds, saving any ranged abilities for damaging Onyxia.

Once again, DBM will indicate an impending transition to Phase Three. Onyxia will begin to fly to the side of the room opposite the entrance (if she's not already there). This is where she will land for Phase 3.

Phase Three
Use another potion if off cooldown. Otherwise, your main objective here is to kill Ony before she and her posse kills you. She'll fear you every so often, so if you have an ability to counter that, use it. Otherwise, it's only a matter of time before the whelps will overwhelm and you will die. Use passive AoE to knock out some or all of the whelps if you have low survivability; they will die easily. If you're not concerned about your health, you can safely ignore them. Pop any remaining damage cooldowns and Ony should die without giving you too much to worry about.

Good luck on the drop!