Gronnd! Gronnd! Gronnd! Gronnd! So, after little more than a week of relatively casual play, Gronnd, my warrior, has a WoW-Heroes gearscore of 2443 and has tanked all of the heroics except for Heroic Halls of Reflection.

To further prove my point how easy it is to gear up these days:

There are still a few more pieces he can pick up with badges, as well as a back piece and shield from regular HoR. And of course he needs to snag one of the better weapons to replace the globe on a stick. He’s got 552 562 defense rating and has been buffed up to 40K in a heroic. The point of all of this? It’s not frakking hard to gear up a tank, even a warrior tank.

Once I get those last pieces I’ll see if I can get him into a few raids to see if my tanking is worth a damn. I also need to work on an arms DPS set. Right not it is pretty awful and I’d like to see what kind of DPS he can do.

Now, which one next: Shaman, priest or rogue?

Categories: alts, heroics
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Last year I wrote a post about not being special when it comes to joining a guild. While there were some minor flaws in my thinking, I think the logic still stands. After running tons of random heroics using the LFG tool on multiple toons, this notion now extends to those runs as well.

You ever notice when, even after you spend a few minutes telling a group what to do and what not to do on a fight, they do it anyway or ignore your instructions. I’ve run into this a lot when using the LFG tool and it is usually a DPS’er or two that are guilty of the transgression. You tell the DPS to do X, and there’s always that one person that seemingly assumes you are talking to everyone else and not them and the they proceed to do ‘X.’ It happens in the same fights in the same instances every time.

So, I present a laundry list of as many oft-ignored “do/do not do X” moments that bug the holy crap out of me:

• “…don’t stand in the fires/void zones/poison/soul wells/ice patches/lightning.” (pretty standard)

• “…kill the casters first.”
• “…get behind the boss, don’t get cleaved.”
• “…kill the charming totems.”
• “…make sure the same person that loots the staff loots the headpiece.”
• “…wait here while the tank pulls the mobs around the corner.”
• “…free the people trapped in ice, especially the healer.”
• “…kill Skarvold first, then Dalronn.”
• “…move if you are getting hit in the face by the giant, spinning axe.”
• “…melee move out when the boss whirlwinds.”
• “…kill chaos rifts first.”
• “…don’t get hit by the ice spikes.”
• “…don’t forget to jump and remove your debuff.”
• “…kill the Skirmishers/Shadowcasters first.”
• “…wait for the boss to kill the adds before pull–shit…”
• “…stay behind the boss, don’t get hit by pound.”
• “…kill the Guardians when they show up then get back on the boss.”
• “…switch DPS to the add before it reaches the boss.”
• “…don’t get hit by the slow-moving purple shadow crash things.”
• “…stay at the top of the stairs, but don’t LoS from the healer.”
• “…kill the raptors when they come out then kill King Dred.”
• “…no one but the tank use your skeleton’s taunt ability.”
• “…get out of the poison.”
• “…kill Erekem first, then the adds.”
• “…one person use the crystals to kill the water adds.”
• “…if you have the void shift debuff, kill the adds.”
• “…spread out because of shatter, it’s like Gruul’s Lair.”
• “…kill the adds to free the person during Ritual of the Sword.”
• “…move to the side that the frost breath isn’t on.”
• “…one person get spears.”
• “…run away during Disperse.”
• “…get out of the Runeshapers’ whirlwind/kill them first.”
• “…move away during corrupt soul/kill the soul fragment.”
• “…get close to Bronjahm during phase two. YES, even you hunter.”
• “…stop DPS during Mirrored Soul.”
• “…move out of the big, frickin’ laser beam.”
• “…get behind the boulder and clear your debuff when the stacks get too high.”
• “…move out of poison puddles/poison nova.”
• “…run from boss if he is chasing you.”
• “…move out of the Explosive Barrage.”
• “…stop DPS if you have Overlord’s Bane.”
• “…if you are marked to get hit by Rimefang, get away from other players.”
• “…get out of the rogue’s poison.”
• “…kill the priests first.”
• “…turn away from boss when he casts Radiance.”
• “… don’t get hit by exploding ghouls.”

Oh I’m sure there are oodles more, but those are the first that come to mind and ones that I notice people ignoring the most. There’s one for almost every instance out there. Add to list in the comments if one pops to mind.

Happy hunting.

Categories: PvE, heroics
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Utgarde Keep, near the starting zone in Howling Fjord, is most likely one of the first Northrend instances you will go to. It’s a fairly straightforward dungeon, being the first on the continent, but there are a few things to point out with each boss and the trash.

Trash Mobs
The first couple of trash pulls in here are easy, though if this is a group’s first foray into a heroic and are still gearing up, be wary of the patrols. The come up and down the path directly in front of you. Try and fight the two on the left and right in the first room as separate pulls, then pick up the patrols.

Past the first circular room of three pulls (you can skip the third by hugging the wall if you don’t need rep or XP), is an area with Enslaved Proto-Drakes and their handlers. In fact there is one immediately on the left of the room, so make sure no one runs in willy nilly or they will get their face chomped on.

When fighting these mobs, my groups always burn down the drakes first and then the handlers. For pet survivability, wait for your tank to grab them and turn them away from the party. Then send the pet in to attack at the drakes rear or side. They let out a flame attack in a cone in front of them that can easily kill your pet (especially our new, squishier SV version).

The other thing to look out for is that many of the humanoid mobs throw little time bombs out, either during the fight or right as they die. They can kill your pet pretty quick too, so if you see one yank the leash and bring him back quick. Also, after each mob kill, stay put and wait a second to make sure all bombs have detonated. More than once Hesston ran in to skin and got blasted in the face by a bomb. Rez please!

The rest of the trash is the typical affair. Casters first, everyone else second. There will be worgs with some of the pulls. If there are two, I usually take it upon myself to put scare beast on one (none of the pulls are close enough to where it would fear them into another pull) and burn down the other. They don’t have a lot of HP, and if you pop growl on your pet he should be able to tank it enough for you to kill them without any other assistance, before helping the group out with skull. Don’t forget to turn growl off/cower on before jumping back into the fray.

Boss fights below the jump.

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Tags: heroics,hunters
Categories: dungeons, heroics, hunters, hunters scope, strategy
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This is another regular feature Hesston is going to give a whirl, as I’m sure the endless loot and achievement lists are growing quite tiresome. So, once a week or so, whenever Hesston gets a break from killing things and farming leather, I’ll walk through one of the heroic dungeons of Northrend from the perspective of our most noble class. I’ll try and cover what to look out for, what to do with your pet and what good hunter loot is in each place.

Now I don’t claim to be THE authority on any of these dungeons, nor on hunters even (like many others do), but these are simply my observations as a beast-mastery hunter that has been through all of the heroics several times over. I welcome all to rebut, challenge or call me out on a wrong tactic or suggestion.

The other thing is, I don’t plan on covering every trash pull. I’ll do a brief overview to point out some particulars if necessary. I figure that if you’re running dungeons and heroics, you’re probably already fairly accomplished on trash. Unless there is a unique trash encounter and something specific that a hunter should and should not do, I assume you’ve got it handled.

The basics

Just in case, we’ll cover some of the basics first. Now this stuff goes for damn near any dungeon or raid instance, but the Northrend ones are most familiar to me so my focus will be in that direction.

• The First Rule of Hunter Club: Do not talk about….just kidding, I couldn’t resist. Seriously though, the first thing, numero uno rule of hunters going into dungeons be they heroic or non…turn that growl OFF. Nothing is worse than having your pet pull aggro from the tank and die, there goes your DPS. In fact, turning cower ON is a good idea. The auto-cast on those is still borked so put them on your pet bar to make sure. This also allows you to turn them on/off in an emergency. This has saved me from a wipe more than once when the tank goes down. Just pop on growl, let your pet tank and hope the healer is paying attention to the tempo changes. If you still are having trouble controlling your pet, put it on passive and make a /pet attack macro.
• Second Rule of Hunter Club: If you have a ferocity pet (which you damn well should going into dungeons or heroics), turn that charge off unless you really need it. Why? Because as soon as your pet charges in, if it stuns the mob being pulled, that mob stops. This upsets the tanks rhythm and position, and can cause potential problems. Charge isn’t necessary for heroics, the tank will handle the mob. Unless, of course, that is part of the plan. There are times where you might want to use your pet to off-tank something so, in that case, you can pop it back on.
• Third Rule of Hunter Club: Misdirect is your best friend. Set your focus on your tank and use misdirects to help them generate threat, even if they don’t need it. Nothing sucks worse after getting that mouth-watering, juicy crit than it pulling aggro and the mob coming to chew on your face. If your group is still gearing and the tank needs help, this will not only make them happy but keep you alive longer as well.
• The Fourth Rule of … oh you get the idea: Only use CC and traps if the tank (or group leader) asks. Crowd control, especially hunter crowd control, has become a little less necessary in Wrath. Oh it’s a blast for us hunters, but wholly unnecessary in most cases. Very rarely do you even see a sheep these days, but with hexes and shackles and all the other stuff, we hunters can just focus on the ranged DPS. Plus, if you plop down a trap when you don’t need it, then suddenly need it and it’s on cooldown, you’d better make quick with the running buddy.
• Fifth Rule: This is more of a rule of etiquette than a strategy issue, but don’t ask for a DPS meter, or post one, after ever pull or boss fight. Unless it is established that you’re having a DPS competition or you’re in a group that you know is cool with it, whisper the report to yourself. No one likes a braggart and everyone knows hunters can do well in DPS with even the slightest modicum of skill. Plus, often reports are inaccurate due to proximity to the reporter, downtime, etc. The only one I truly trust is a WoW combat log uploaded to WoWWebStats.
• Sixth Rule: Know your loot. This goes for darn near every class, but hunters have an advantage of being able to roll on a wide variety of loot. We can use daggers, axes, swords and fist weapons for dual-wielding, 2-handed swords, axes and polearms for the heavy hitters, and even rogue or feral druid leather if the stats outweigh the intellect loss; basically, we’ve got a lot of options. However, this doesn’t mean you should roll on everything you could possibly use. If it is something better served by someone in the party, let them take it. You’ll not only make good loot karma for yourself, and if it’s a guild mate they will be able to pay you back in the future (or pay it forward, as I tell people to). However, if you’re in say Naxxramas, and the Spaulders of Resumed Battle drop and there’s no rogues or feral kitties in the party, gobble those things up (as I did). The hit rating and AP bump are superb.

That’s really all the basics I can think of off hand. I may edit this if something comes to mind, or please add, subtract or correct anything in the comments (all two of your readers).

Next time, we venture to…Utgarde Keep (*cue ominous music*).

Categories: dungeons, heroics, hunters, hunters scope, strategy
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Boy oh boy, where do I begin? Old Hesston had a heck of a Winter Veil, running with new guildies, getting gifts from Great Father Winter and getting all sorts of good loots.

A few days ago I ran my first serious run with some guildies, hitting several heroic dungeons in a row. I was able to round out my hunter trinket collection with an incisor fragment from King Dred and the Meteorite Whetstone from King Ymiron. Both are very useful for different situations and compliment the Mirror of Truth quite well.

The next day, Winter Veil Day actually, we got another group together for some more heroic outings. Went to and finished Ahn’Kahet for the first time, though I can’t seem to survive through Herald Volazj’s insanity affect. My teammates always manage to kill me. Even so, we made it.

After the run, I had enough emblems of heroism to get a piece of badge gear, the Heroes’ Cryptstalker Tunic. Like a fool, I’d spent my first series of badges on the mirror and a belt, that was a mistake. Now I am saving up for the gloves too, which will make me more than ready for guild Naxx runs.

Took a large break, then got with a group for an evening run, which held in store the most epic battle of the night.

After going through Ahn’Kahet again and the Caverns of Time: Culling of Stratholme (where one of our lucky party members picked up a new mount), we ventured into Azjol-Nerub, a place I’d heard was quite possibly one of the hardest in the land. That may be true, but apparently we had a bit of an elite squad going in. We downed the first two bosses with little issue, much to my surprise.

Then it came time to battle the Cryptlord Anub’arak, one of Arthas’ chief enforcers. And man, what a fight it was.

Things started off OK, with me and the Boomkin laying down the ranged damage and our elite warrior and paladin tank (and KIT of course) taking it to him up close. After a few moments, Anub’arak released swarms of locusts and scarab beetles upon us. We muscled through, but he soon burrowed under the ground at our feet.

The coast wasn’t clear for long however, smaller nerubian fighters descended upon us. We fought them off just as Arub came bursting through the ground to attack us again. We all engaged the vile Cryptlord, loosing our fury upon his chitinous hide.

Suddenly, he reared up and pounded our tank and our warrior into the ground, killing our warrior almost instantly. Worse yet, our healer caught some of the attack as well, and soon he was down. One would think that all would be lost, with just an old man with a gun, a moonkin and a paladin with a steel reserve facing incredible odds.

Not for this elite group of dungeon runners.

Our tank, using his paladin skills, managed to keep himself alive through Anub’s assault. Our resourceful druid, taking quick stock of the situation, switched forms and revived our healer. He came back weak, but managed to get back into the fray almost immediately. Throwing healing back onto our tank so that we could continue our battle.

We were still a man down, and a good one at that, but we didn’t give up. Our druid switched back to his boomkin form and unleashed nature’s wrath upon Anub while I continued to pump him full of bullets. Our healer was fully back in action now, keeping our tank alive as he took the brunt of Anub’s punishment. It wasn’t yet enough, however, to take down the monster, so Anub was able to escape once again beneath the surface.

We prepared ourselves for more nerubians, I even let KIT completely off the leash. We were attacked again, KIT became a whirling dervish of teeth and claws, taking down as many enemies as he could. We managed the second wave of additional forces and Anub burst through the ground again.

This time, we were ready for the devastating pound attack. The tank used his battle prowess to mitigate the damage and I called KIT to my side to prevent him from being crushed. We survived and continued to fight on.

After another escape into the ground, and another wave of nerubians, our energies were running low. We needed to take down Anub when he showed himself again. He reared up and pounded the ground again. When he finished, we unleashed everything we had upon him. I think I even kicked a few stones at him too.

Bam, strike, volley, zap….we pounded away with righteous fury until….

BOOM!! (Note: Look at the mana reserves *gulp*)

That’s right, we came, we saw, we kicked his ass! Many congrats were had all around and we took a moment to get our breath. Not being the type to sit on our duffs though, we dusted ourselves off, brought our warrior and leader back to life, and headed off to the Halls of Stone.

I won’t bore you with another bang-bang story, but we conquered that place too. The dungeon finally earned me the Northrend Dungeon Hero achievement, which you can see above. Pretty proud of that really. All in all, not a bad two days of adventuring.

To make a long story short (people always say that at the end of a long story), I love my new guild. They rule! I took down some numbers about how I did, which you can see here. I’m pretty pleased with that, for an old man.

Other minor achievements:

Categories: achievements, guild, heroics, loot
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So this week and this weekend was, again, full of activity for old Hesston. Almost too much to get into and go through. I won’t bore you with another droll list of gear, I imagine that wears thin after a while. After all, if you’re interested you can always read Hesston’s armory page.

The guild and I took another stab at Naxxramas, though we had to resort to some PuG members. We downed the Arachnid Quarter again, but Hesston sort of got an item dropped from Maexxna ganked from him by one of the tanks (non guild member) who claimed he needed it for a re-spec. To make a long story short, it was bad judgment and management from our guild leader. I am at fault too, for not just stepping up and letting him know he was not eligible for it. I was leaving it up to our GM though, and that was disappointing.

Although we managed to down Noth the Plaugebringer in the Plauge Quarter last night, not being able to get it together for Heigan the Unclean made me about lose it. I mean come on kids, how hard is it to run from giant walls of poison lava-type stuff blasting up from the floor? Tonight was a similar disaster, so Hesston decided to leave the group (not the guild, yet) and seek adventure elsewhere.

So with that, Hesston is looking for a new band of hardy raiders and dungeon runners, in the hopes that he might get to face the mighty Malygos and perhaps even one day Arthas, the Lich King himself. As luck would have it, I jumped into a pick-up group going into Heroic: Gundrak, that foul dungeon on the edge of Zul’Drak. The first battle was cake, thanks to Hesston’s insistence that we pull Slad’ran into the room with the water and up the stairs a bit. A mage, the healer and I stayed a bit above and blasted that serpent back to whence he came.

Second boss, not so easy. After some errors, and some party reorganization, we were able to take down the colossus. As luck would have it, I happened to be running with the guild master of Satyricon, one of the better guilds on the realm. I inquired about joining, he gave me a wealth of information and I’m considering. However, back to Gundrak.

The rest of the dungeon went as normal. However, the final battle with Gul’darah, the High Prophet of Akali, was epic.

So there I am, firing the old Nesingwary 4000 at the foul troll while KIT rakes and claws at him and the rest of the party lets loose with all their might. Suddenly, the tricky bastard transformed into a giant rhino, the biggest one these eyes have ever seen. He lunged at our mage, spearing him on his horn and killing him almost instantly. The transformed Gul’darah went back to attacking our tank and I blasted away.

Then, next thing you know he’s charging at me and slams into me like a keg of Ogre mead. I’m hit hard and hanging on the beast’s horn for dear life, my healer desperately trying to keep me alive. She does and Gul’darah tosses me aside like toy.

Down but not out, I sprang into action, pulling my target back into my cross hairs and firing away again. Gul’darah had transformed back to his humanoid form and we kept up the beating. We could tell we had him on the ropes, but there was a last burst of fight left in him. He transformed again, back into rhino form!

KIT and I flew into a beastial fury, giving it everything we had. But, just as the beast was nearing the end, our tank fell. KIT continued to rake and claw, but it wasn’t enough and our other mage just didn’t have the oomph. With the tank gone, rhino Gul’darah trained its eyes on the next person in line for a beating. That’s right, Hesston.

He charged hard but I dashed to the side. I tried to shoot but he was right on top of me. The look in the beast’s eyes told me this was it, it was either him or me. So I spun on my heels as fast I could, disengaged from the enemy and popped off an arcane shot as a flew back away from my target.

BOOM!

To say I let out a /roar of triumph is to put it mildly. It may not have been the most profitable battle of the weekend, but it was certainly the most satisfying. Put another heroic notch on Hesston’s belt.

Other achievements (both big and small):

P.S. Try not to get caught up in all of the first-person, third-person switches. Hesston just likes to do that to keep you on your toes. /wink

Tags: bosses,dungeons,screenshots
Categories: heroics, raids, screenshots, weekends
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Welcome to “Out of Character”, or OOC for short. This will be a regular feature where I, the puppet master that controls the mighty Hesston, will step from behind the curtain and talk about game aspects; be they dungeons, raiding, game mechanics or whatever. Basically, it’s my stage to bitch and rant. I promise they will be few and far between.

Today I’m going to talk about communication, or rather, lack thereof.

I was pretty much a WoW greenhorn all the way up to, and including, Outland. Didn’t run instances much and rarely grouped for quests unless absolutely necessary. My time constraint lent itself to solo play, as I couldn’t commit to a guild. Save for the company of my pet, I was always solo (no jokes please).

However, on the off chance I was allowed to or somehow squeezed into a dungeon or raiding group, I let it be known that I was unfamiliar with dungeon/raid X and that instructions, orders or whatever would be necessary and welcomed. Some would gladly offer and let me know to “trap square, kill skull, don’t stand in the gout of flame shooting from the floor ,” while others would give me a swift /kick and a “…get lost nub.” To those that were willing to teach and offer instruction though, I listened intently and was able to become a competent dungeon runner toward the end of my TBC days and just a few instances into Northrend.

Now I would be a liar if I said I was an experienced raider/dungeon master. I still have not gone through many of the tougher instances (for their level) that many seasoned players cut their teeth on in both vanilla and TBC days. However, I would call myself an experienced Northrend dungeon runner/raider. Since the release of Wrath I’ve leveled to 80, been to (but not through) Naxx, ran most of the heroics several times over, helped topple Archavon the Stone Watcher and have managed to gear myself quite well. I use macros and key bindings and know, for the most part, where I should stand to lay down my MQSRDPS*. I’m proud to say that I’ve got at least some chops.

Now, I’m finding myself in the position, which I don’t mind at all, of being the one giving the instructions at times. Several times in last two weeks I’ll ask the obvious question before a dungeon: “Who’s hasn’t been here before?”

I never assume, and never hold it against someone if they haven’t been to a dungeon. After all, I was that person not too long ago asking questions. What I’m noticing however, is that even when folks say, “what do we do?”, they rarely listen (or read) what you say. They ask, you tell and then the wheels fall off the wagon and the encounter goes belly up.

A recent example would be an attempt at the Oculus, an instance I am familiar with both by running it sucessfully and watching the guys from Project Lore run through it on beta. The final encounter with Ley-Guardian Eregos is a tricky one. There are several ways to play the encounter, but when asked, I ran through a scenario that I’ve had success with.

I explained timing the time stops (I choose during his enrage), decided on a rotation for them, explained his planar shift ability (heroic only), what to do with the adds and the temporal shift/rift thingie that I would be spamming on the back of the amber drake to increase damage to Eregos.

Ready check?

“KK”

“OK”

“KK”

Seems like we are a go. First attempt, time stop goes off as soon as the tank pulls, we come out of it, adds show up, enrage…wipe. Second try was very similar. Then third, then fourth.

Right before the fifth attempt, someone finally pipes up.

“Maybe we should time stop only during the enrage and kill the adds.”

Brilliant, I say. Why didn’t I think of that? I ask them what they were doing when I explained the whole deal, right after they asked.

“Bio”

“Drink”

“pewpewlolznub dragons FTW!!! ZOMG!!”

/facepalm

Right-click –> Leave party

Like I said, I don’t mind helping/tutoring/walking people through how to become a better player. I myself still ask that of the elite folks on my server when I see them, because I’m still learning. Again, some are cool about it and some are not. The ones that do talk I listen to their sagely advice and apply it to my own adventuring. Because of that, I’ve become a phenomenally better player than I was just a few short months ago.

Blizzard put the communications tools in WoW for a reason people, use them. If you ask a question about a dungeon, quest or raid, pay attention to the answer. It only serves to benefit you. There’s no reason not to and the answer is most likely forthcoming in that little scroll of text in the lower-left portion of the screen, right under the LFW notices and “guys, there are horde in Stormwind!!!1!1!”

Not listening, or being known as someone that ignores instructions and communications, is an easy way to get yourself uninvited to groups and raids. And unless you plan on doing most of the game solo (which is fine), it’s going to be very difficult to see all the great content and get the good loot.

*Massive Quantities of Sustained Ranged Damage Per Second (H/T BigRedKitty)

Tags: chat,ooc
Categories: heroics, ooc
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So old Hesston here started this week off the right way it seems. Last night I figured I’d take it easy after the busy weekend and just farm some leather and sling some items in the Auction House. Maybe even pay Greatfather Winter a visit and tell him to bring me a Spirit Beast damn it.

However, some randoms invited me along for some heroic runs and I said “Hey what the hell, why not?” After all, I was still trying to impress the Argent Crusade into selling me some of their better merchandise.

Boy did that turn out to be a good decision.

First we hit Violet Hold, a place that has become very familiar to me. We mowed that place down and I was able to pick up my second frozen orb, which will come in handy when I start crafting some epics via my leatherworking.

Next we we traveled to the Caverns of Time to help Arthas kill a bunch of people in old Stratholme. I still don’t understand why those Keepers of Time want us to keep doing this, they need to get out more. However, I was able to pick up a Mobius Band, a ring I’d accidentally passed on twice before.

When we were done, the Argent Crusade really thought I was a swell guy, having helped them tons already. Still, they wouldn’t give up the goods. So, pick-up team stayed together and we hit Utgarde Keep, a relatively easy place to get through as long as everyone knows what they’re doing. And wouldn’t you know, that damned Ingvar dropped something I’d been wanting up until I got my Nesingwary 4000. That’s right, I snagged a Drake-Mounted Crossbow from the bum.

Yes, it’s not better than the gun but it’s a good secondary weapon in case I ever want to mix things up.

To top it all off, at the end of the run the Argent Crusade thought I was really great, I think the word they used was exalted, and were willing to give up the goods. I was finally able to grab a Polished Regimental Hauberk, yay! I haven’t slapped a gem in it yet but plan on doing so ASAP.

All work and no loot make Hesston a sad hunter…but lots of great loot makes him incredibly thrilled!

This should help out rolling into Naxxramas this weekend. It also means that since I geared up early this week, it leaves more time for skinning beasties and looking for Mr. Spirit Beast.

Come out, come out, Loque’nahak, wherever you are.

Tags: heroics,loot
Categories: heroics, loot
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