So the other night the guild needed to fill one of their raid spots on 25-man Yogg. I’m no longer raider status since I can’t commit the time, but can jump in from time to time. They’d been practicing on Yogg a lot and have a pretty good strategy down, but he still did not fall. Regardless of how many guilds have downed him, Yoggy is a bitch. However, I had a blast doing it because I haven’t gotten to raid with this bunch in a long time and it was loads of fun. Some roles have changed, for the better I think, and it will be fun to jump in when I can. Barring any serious fallouts or unforeseen circumstances, I’ll probably stick with Summit well through 3.3 and Cataclysm.

Last night they needed a similar fill-in spot for Trial of the Crusader, something I haven’t got to do yet. We downed Lord Jaraxxus, the Faction Champions and the Twin Val’kyrs. I must say that the Faction Champs fight is really fun for some reason, it’s like doing PvP without actually doing PvP. Sadly, two juicy pieces of hunter loot dropped, the Lupine Longstaff and Sabatons of Ruthless Judgement, but huge upgrades for little old Hesston. However, I wasn’t eligible because I haven’t been raiding. The sad part is that our other hunter passed and both went to offspecs. I understand it still helps the raid overall, but come on, throw a dwarf who will rarely get to raid a bone.

I did however snag the sweet helm from Onyxia over the weekend, though it clashes a bit. And through badges I got the ilevel 232 T9 gloves, giving me a two-piece bonus. Serpent sting crits is so badass, especially as an MM hunter because SS is always up.

OK, I promised myself that if I started blogging here again it would be less about simply gear, raids, WoW news, etc. People can get that anywhere. I’d like to try and write a little more about why we WoW and what it means to people. I mean, in reality it’s all just a repetition of the same thing. So why? I point this question at myself as well, but that’s a conversation for another post.

Toodles.

Categories: guild, raids
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AKA, Ignis 2: Electric Boogaloo

Seriously Blizz, now that’s just lazy. At least try and make a new model.

Categories: patches, raids
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Yeah, kinda late considering he’s on farm. But, I figured I’d been missing our XT fights since I started recording (we usually kill him second). Plus, this is also a good example of managing light/gravity bombs and adds. My group was getting tons of both, so it was kinda hilarious.

Last night was also the first raid I’ve run with the 3.1.3 hunter changes, as well as a slightly altered Marksman spec. No Silencing Shot (I hardly ever use it since we have other, faster interrupts), and no points in improved barrage (my raid crit is 50%+ as it is). Instead, I specced down into Aspect Mastery using endurance training as the filler because more HP is always a plus. Definitely a DPS increase, but mostly due to less time in AotV and more time pew pewing. However MM is still a mana-hungry spec and needs more work, unless that is the intention by Blizzazrd. I enjoy the playstyle of it a lot more than Survival right now so I’m sticking with it.

We also did Mimiron for the first time since his changes. Waaaay fricking easier; we one-shot the poor bastard. If you haven’t downed him yet, but we were always close, you can definitely get him now.

Hopefully I’ll get home in time for Freya tonight and a chance at my T8.5 legs, like some people.

Categories: hunters, raids, videos
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Just being goofy with some clips of our first serious attempt at Yogg-Saron on 10-man. Sure, some guilds have him on farm already but I have no shame in saying he (she? it?) is a tough fight. Phase two is, of course, the big pain in the ass. We’ll get it eventually, of that I have no doubt.

Categories: raids, videos
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This is just a quick video of one of our 10-man Thorim kills, from the perspective of going down the hall. We were sort of goofin’ so don’t mind the random ready check and several misplaced traps. Oh, and the song is a bit cliché too, but it’s the most appropriate.

Categories: raids, videos
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Aka, Mimiron downed. Seriously, probably one of the most satisfying kills in a long time. It takes a lot of tenacity, concentration and, at times, a fair amount of luck. I’m gonna miss being there for every big kill and achievement hereafter, but I’m glad I was present for this one.

Summit, Silvermoon-US vs. Mimiron from Hesston on Vimeo.

Slightly lower quality because of all the madness going on in Mimiron’s encounter.

Categories: achievements, guild, raids
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Now while I don’t feel like Ignis is so mighty that he warrants his own post, but I realized that when I wrote my previous post on the Siege bosses, I left out the big lug because we hadn’t downed him at the time.

Then Blizzard took down his difficulty and notch and he was put on farm like the rest of the Siege and Antechamber bosses. Yay! So, in the spirit of completeness, a few words on Iggy.

The easiest method is for your tank to move Ignis in a four-point scorch path near the center of the room. Your tank should start at one of the points furthest away and you (and another hunter if you have one) can Misdirect for the pull. All DPS and healers should stay relatively in the center of the room, surrounded by the scorch areas. To be honest, that is basically it. Just pew pew, stay out of the fire and hope your healers keep you alive if you get slag potted. No need to worry about the flame jets, they only affect casters.

Unless of course, you want to play a different role.

Iron Constructs
During the fight, the Iron Constructs around the room come to life and punch people in the face. An OT needs to pick them up drag them into the scorch area until they are molten. Once they are molten they must be dragged into the water where they become brittle, then a 5K hit will shatter them. Ranged DPS must do this, as they do a good amount of AoE damage when they shatter (though it’s more of a *poof* than a shatter, but I digress). Most likely your RL will assign someone that can both root the constructs and deal the killing blow, a doomturkey is the best choice.

However, if your OT has enough HP and your healers are good, there is no need to root. The OT can just hang out in the fire with the construct until it is molten. The fire damage on a Naxx-geared tank is not all that significant.

This is where the burst damage of an MM spec shines. Your crit should be high enough when you are raid-buffed that a Serpent Sting –> Chimera Shot should shatter a construct. Hunter’s have an advantage here because both shots are instant cast, I think a doomturkey has some cast time on their lasers. It should be noted that SV hunters have a very difficult time doing this since their damage is done of three tics with Explosive Shot, and it is doubtful that one of those tics would be for 5K. If you are assigned to do this, just make sure your Chimera Shot is off cooldown or close to it when you see the OT dancing with a construct toward the water. You can still DPS Ignis, just be mindful of what’s going on with the adds.

That’s it really. Point out something I missed, movie below (already posted it, but figured I’d show it again.)

Categories: hunters, hunters scope, raids
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The tales of my ability are highly exaggerated. Seriously, I die not once, but twice in this video. I went ahead and produced it up because it is funny. The first death is unavoidable, but the second, I was trying to be a hero.

New version incoming, where I don’t look like such a noob.

Categories: raids, videos
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It should be noted that these videos are not meant, in any way, to be strategy videos. Nor are they first kills or even examples of best kills. They are just for fun and a way for me to justify spending money on both FRAPS and a Vimeo+ account.

Categories: raids, videos
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It’s certainly not the best kill, yours truly gets frozen once and hit by an icicle (hey, I was rooted!), but it was our first 25-man kill.

We also downed 25-man Freya on the second try right after, but that room makes my framerate cry for some reason, so I was unable to record it. I will next kill, after some adjustments.

Now on to heroic Mimiron …. /cast antacid.

Categories: raids, videos
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