Icecrown Citadel: LADY DEATHWHISPER

This is a nice post from BossKillers. Re-posting it here for easy access/read.

This encounter is a two phase fight, during which your raid must not only kill Lady Deathwhisper, but also her plentiful and devoted followers. During the first phase of the fight, Lady Deathwhisper will shield herself from harm, and her followers will attack your raid in waves. Not even death will stop them from protecting their mistress, so be wary of the corpses around you: Lady Deathwhisper will revive them to fight again. Once your DPS has exhausted Lady Deathwhisper’s shield, she will cease calling followers, and instead start to melee attack. During this second phase, the main challenge will be to interrupt her attempts to cast a massive Frostbolt at your tank, while your DPS continues to bring her down. You’ll have 8 minutes to complete both phases and kill her, before she gets really angry.

Raid Preparation

An appropriately geared raid for this instance will have spent some time gathering equipment in Trial of the Crusader. You will want most of your raid members to have a majority of item level 245+ gear for the 25 man version, and 232+ for the 10 man version. In the same way that Lord Marrowgar is a “gear check” for your tanks and healers, Lady Deathwhisper is a “gear check” for your DPS. She has a ten minute hard enrage, and in this time your DPS must put out enough damage to burn through her significant mana shield, the life pools of 20+ adds, and her own life pool as well.

As always, your raiders should be prepared to utilize the usual assortment of consumables: flasks/elixirs, buff food, and potions, should all be used in order to have the best chance at success.

Raid Composition

25 Man
2 tanks – Both will need to pick up and control multiple adds in Phase 1, and both will need to take turns serving as the Main Tank (“MT”) for Lady Deathwhisper herself during Phase 2.

5-6 healers – You will want to assign 1-2 healers for each tank, and have another 2-3 healers assigned to keeping the raid healed up from the various randomly targeted damage effects.

17-18 DPS – It is very important that your raid have an even balance of physical and magical DPS, because there are adds which are immune to each type of damage.

Having a shaman for Heroism/Bloodlust is nearly mandatory because of the enrage timer. You will want several players with quick and reliable Crowd Control (“CC”), to neutralize the members of your raid who become mind controlled. It is also quite helpful to have at least one player who can decurse and another who can remove diseases. Having either Misdirect from a hunter or Tricks of the Trade from a rogue (or both) can be helpful to make sure that Lady Deathwhisper gets picked up smoothly by your tank when she transitions between phases.

10 Man
2 tanks – Both will need to pick up and control multiple adds in Phase 1, and both will need to take turns serving as MT for Lady Deathwhisper herself during Phase 2.

2 healers – You will need two healers that can cover the tanks and also the raid between them; it will be very difficult to put out the damage needed to keep up with the add spawns and still beat her enrage if you have 3 healers.

6 DPS – It is very important that your raid have an even balance of physical and ranged DPS, because there are adds which are immune to each type of damage.

Having a shaman for Heroism/Bloodlust is nearly mandatory because of the enrage timer. It is also quite helpful to have at least one player who can decurse and another who can remove diseases. Having either Misdirect from a hunter or Tricks of the Trade from a rogue (or both) can be helpful to make sure that Lady Deathwhisper gets picked up smoothly by your tank when she transitions between phases.

Mobs and Abilities

Lady Deathwhisper

She has 13.9 million mana and 13.4 million health in 25 man.

Mana Barrier – This is a bubble around Lady Deathwhisper, which will instantly heal any damage done to her for as long as she has mana to maintain it. It consumes her mana at a 1:1 ratio for each point of damage that would have otherwise been done to her health.
Details

Shadow Bolt (Phase 1) – This is a 2 second cast ability that is used on random players throughout Phase 1. It is a single hit of ~7-9k shadow damage that just needs to be healed up.
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Frostbolt (Phase 2) – This is a 2 second cast that must be interrupted. It is targeted on the acting MT throughout Phase 2. If she finishes the cast, the targeted person will take a 50k+ hit of unresistable frost damage. If the hit doesn’t kill them, their movement speed will be slowed by 50% for 4 seconds.
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Frostbolt Volley (Phase 2) – This is an instant cast ability that Lady Deatwhisper uses throughout Phase 2. It has an 8 second cool down time, but she doesn’t always use it immediately. It will hit all players in the room (it has a 200 yard radius, centered on the boss) for 10-13k frost damage, and slow the movement speed of everyone it hits by 50% for 4 seconds.
10man: Details 25man: Details

Death and Decay – This is basically identical to the death knight ability, except hers is bright green instead of red and hits a good bit harder. It is cast in random locations throughout the fight. Don’t stand in it.
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Dominate Mind – This is a 20 second mind control, periodically placed on a random player in the 25 man version of the encounter. While a player is mind controlled, their damage will be increased by 200%, and healing increased by 500%.
Details

Dark Empowerment – This is a buff that Lady Deathwhisper will periodically place on one of her adds. It affects each type’s behaviour differently, but makes all of them immune to interruption.
Details

Touch of Insignificance (Phase 2) – This is a stacking debuff that Lady Deathwhisper periodically places on her current target (the acting MT) that reduces the target’s threat generation with her by 20%. It stacks up to 5 times.
Details

Enrage – Lady Deathwhisper will enrage 10 minutes after combat with her begins, doing ~500% extra damage with all her attacks.

Summon Reanimated Adherent (Phase 1) – Lady Deathwhisper will revive one of the Cult Adherents’ bodies, as a Reanimated Adherent.

Summon Reanimated Fanatic (Phase 1) – Lady Deathwhisper will revive one of the Cult Fanatic’s bodies, as a Reanimated Fanatic.

Summon Spirit (Phase 2) – Lady Deathwhisper will summon a Vengeful Shade, which will rise from any dead body in the room, including those of dead players, and chase a random raid member.

Vengeful Shade – This summoned mob has a melee swing of around 200-300.
Vengeful Blast – if a Vengeful Shade gets within melee range of a player, it will explode for ~17-18k shadow damage, hitting everyone within 15 yards.
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Cult Adherent

Frost Fever – This is a disease cast on random players, which lasts for 15 seconds, doing frost damage and slowing the movement and casting speed of the afflicted player. Keep this cleansed off anyone it hits.
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Curse of Torpor – This curse is randomly cast on players as well, increasing the cooldowns on all of the player’s abilities by 15 seconds while it lasts. Keep this cleansed off anyone it hits.
Details

Deathchill Bolt – This is the Adherent’s main attack, hitting their current target for 6-8k specialized shadowfrost damage (meaning neither shadow resistance nor frost resistance has any effect on the amount of damage taken).
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Shroud of the Occult – This ability is only used if the Adherent receives Dark Empowerment from Lady Deathwhisper. When used, it shields the mob from, and reflects onto the caster, all magical damage. It also absorbs 50,000 damage before breaking.
Details

Deathchill Blast – This ability is only used if the Adherent receives Dark Empowerment from Lady Deathwhisper, after the Adherent has used Shroud of the Occult. It will be targeted on a random raid member, and hit that person and all other raid members within 10 yards of them for ~9-10k shadowfrost damage.
man: Details 25 man: Details

Dark Martyrdom – This is a 4 second cast ability, which is immune to interruption. When the cast finishes, the Adherent will explode and damage any players within 15 yards.
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Reanimated Adherent

The revived add will have all of the abilities it had before as a Cult Adherent, and will also have a buff called Adherent’s Determination.

Adherent’s Determination – This buff is always present on any Reanimated Adherents, and it makes them 99% immune to magical damage.
Details

Cult Fanatic/Reanimated Fanatic

Shadow Cleave – This is a basic melee cleave attack. It will hit any players in front of the mob in melee range for ~15-17k shadow damage.
man: Details 25 man: Details

Necrotic Strike – This is the Fanatic’s main attack, hitting their current target for 70% of weapon damage and leaving a debuff that negates the next 15,000 healing received by that player. It must constantly be healed through.
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Vampiric Might – This self-buff will only be used if the Fanatic receives Dark Empowerment from Lady Deathwhisper. It increases the mob’s damage by 25% and heals the mob for 300% of it’s damage dealt. It lasts 15 seconds, so the mob should be CC’d until it falls off.
Details

Dark Martyrdom – This is a 4 second cast ability. When the cast finishes, the Adherent will explode and damage any players within 15 yards. (Possibly interrupting this cast will prevent the add from being reanimated)
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Reanimated Fanatic

The revived add will have all of the abilities it had before as a Cult Fanatic, and will also have a buff called Fanatic’s Determination.

Fanatic’s Determination – This buff is always present on any Reanimated Fanatics, and it makes them 99% immune to physical damage.
Details

Strategy

Phase 1

click to enlarge

When your raid first engages Lady Deathwhisper, she will simply stand in place and yell a bit.

DPS can go full-force immediately, because she doesn’t follow any threat table for her attacks. Throughout the whole of Phase 1, Lady Deathwhisper will cast Shadow Bolts at random raid members, place Death and Decay areas randomly throughout the room, and heal herself with her Mana Barrier. In the 25 man version, she will also periodically mind control a random raid member who should be promptly crowd controlled. Phase 1 will continue until enough damage has been done to Lady Deathwhisper to completely exhaust mana pool through her using it to keep her shield up. Because her mana pool is roughly the same size as her health, Phase 1 will actually last longer than Phase 2. This is because your DPS will also have to deal with killing multiple adds during Phase 1.

The first set of adds will come ~15 seconds into the fight, and another set will come out every ~40 seconds after that until the phase ends. Cult Adherents and Cult Fanatics spawn from the alcoves along the side walls (see diagram A). In the 10 man version, one side or the other will spawn adds (1 from each alcove on that side). In the 25 man, both sides spawn each time, so there will be 6 adds coming from the alcoves. Additionally, a single add will come from the stairs where the raid entered Lady Deathwhisper’s room, bringing the wave totals to 4 for 10 man, and 7 for 25 man. In 10 man you can split the adds among the two tanks however seems convenient. In 25 man, each tank will need to take a side and pick up all 3 adds that spawn on their side, and one of them will need to watch for the lone 7th add and pick it up as well. The adds are CC-able, so use Shackle, stuns, etc. freely to control adds that aren’t being burnt down if it helps your raid to focus their damage more effectively. Shackle can be especially useful on the Cult Fanatics, as they only have melee-range attacks.

At this point, and continuing on until the end of the phase, DPS will need to move between killing the sets of adds, and doing damage to Lady Deathwhisper.

While there are adds alive, Lady Deathwhisper will occasionally pick a random add to cast Dark Empowerment on. Regardless of which type is chosen, it should be dealt with as quickly as possible, as it will become much more dangerous than any other adds alive. This is how to deal with them:

- A Cult Adherent who receives Dark Empowerment will use their Shroud of Occult and then start using Deathchill Blast. All raid members should quickly run away from the person targeted by the empowered add for the Deathchill Blast, while the Shroud of the Occult is burnt through by all DPS who deal physical damage, and then the add killed as quickly as possible by all DPS.

- A Cult Fanatic who receives the Dark Empowerment will at some point use Vampiric Might, quickly healing to full while hitting very hard. When it uses Vampiric Might, CC it until the buff wears off (15 seconds), then continue to burn it down. When the add doesn’t have Vampiric Might up, all DPS should kill this add as fast as possible. Your tanks should Taunt it off each other in order to kite it while it is killed, being careful to face the mob away from players in range of its Shadow Cleave.

If you are doing the 25 man version of the encounter, your raid must also deal with randomly mind controlled players once Lady Deathwhisper is engaged. These players should just be CC’d for the 20 seconds it takes the Dominate Mind to wear off.

Phase 2

Once Lady Deathwhisper runs out of mana and can’t keep up her shield anymore, she will begin to attack normally. It is critical that you have a tank free of adds to Taunt her at this time, and that all DPS stop hitting her until the tank has her firmly under control.

It isn’t important where she is tanked, just that she gets picked up before she can kill your DPS or healers. No more Cult Fanatics or Cult Adherents will spawn once Phase 2 begins, but if there are any currently alive they will still need to be killed off. Lady Deathwhisper will no longer reanimate their bodies once Phase 2 begins. As soon as all the adds are dead and all of your DPS players are focused on Lady Deathwhisper, use Bloodlust/Heroism and cooldowns to try to kill her as fast as possible.

Throughout Phase 2, Lady Deathwhisper will continue to cast Death and Decay, so players will need to continue to move out of it. She will also continue to mind control players if you are in the 25 man version of the fight, so they will still need to be CC’d. However, she will stop casting Shadow Bolts, and instead begin using her Frost Bolt ability on the acting MT. This Frost Bolt cast should be interrupted every time she tries to use it, or it may kill your tank. So, once Phase 2 starts, make sure that there are always good interrupters on the boss to prevent this from being successfully cast. She will also begin to use Touch of Insignificance on the acting MT; when this debuff has stacked to 2 or 3, your second tank should Taunt her, so that DPS aren’t forced to hold back out of fear of pulling agro. The tanks will need to continue to swap back and forth like this for the remainder of the encounter.

Lady Deathwhisper will also begin to periodically raise ghosts from random dead bodies in the room; these ghosts will simply target a random player and move slowly toward that person for about 10 seconds and then fade away. If they get within melee range of a player before fading away, they will explode for a significant amount of damage. So, everyone should watch for these ghosts and move out of their paths.

Ten minutes after she is first engaged, Lady Deathwhisper will enter a hard enrage. At this point, she will start killing players off in single hits, and you will have very little time to finish her off before everyone is dead. If your raid is consistently controlling and killing the adds, but not doing so fast enough to leave adequate time to complete Phase 2, you may need to simply spend a bit more time gearing up your DPS in the lower tiers of raid content so that they can kill everything a little bit faster.

FOR A GOOD STRAT VIDEO, CHECK THIS OUT.

Icecrown Citadel: LORD MARROWGAR

This is a nice post from BossKillers. Re-posting it here for easy access/reading.

Raid Preparation

An appropriately geared raid for this instance will have spent some time gathering equipment in Trial of the Crusader. You will want your raid members to have a majority of item level 245+ gear for the 25 man version, and 232+ for the 10 man version.

It is especially important that your tanks and tank healers be as geared up as possible, because this first encounter in Icecrown Citadel introduces players to the Chill of the Throne. This is an aura that debuffs all players in or around the Citadel, allowing mobs to ignore 20% of an affected player’s dodge when hitting them with melee attacks and abilities. Additionally, Lord Marrowgar is a “gear check” boss, in that, if your tanks are not geared enough, his Saber Lash will simply kill them outright. Your healers will need to be at similar levels to keep everyone alive, especially the tanks.

As always, your raiders should be prepared to utilize the usual assortment of consumables: flasks/elixirs, buff food, and potions, should all be used in order to have the best chance at success.

Raid Composition

25 Man
3 tanks – You will need one Main Tank (“MT”) to actually keep agro on the boss, and two tanks to stand next to the MT to help soak damage from Saber Lash.

5-7 healers – You will want 2-3 dedicated tank healers, and 2-3 healers assigned to heal the raid from accidental fire damage and to heal the players hit with Bone Spike Graveyard every time Lord Marrowgar uses it. All healers should always watch to cover for each other should one or more of them be Impaled, and all healers should help heal anyone in range during Bone Storm.

15-17 DPS – There are no specific DPS classes or specs required for this fight, but all of them must be adept at swapping targets quickly, and at moving out of the way of Coldflame. A good balance of physical and magical DPS will be best, but the specific composition is quite flexible. A hunter to Misdirect Lord Marrowgar back to the MT after each Bone Storm will be helpful, but isn’t required.

10 Man
2 tanks – You will need one Main Tank (“MT”) to actually keep agro on the boss, and one tank to stand next to the MT to help soak damage from Saber Lash.

2-3 healers – You will want 2 dedicated tank healers, and possibly a third assigned to heal the raid from accidental fire damage and to heal the players hit with Bone Spike Graveyard. All healers should always watch to cover for each other should one of them be Impaled, and all healers should heal anyone in range during Bone Storm.

5-6 DPS – There are no specific DPS classes or specs required for this fight, but all of them must be adept at swapping targets quickly, and at moving out of the way of Coldflame. A good balance of physical and magical DPS will be best, but the specific composition is quite flexible. A hunter to Misdirect Marrowgar back to the MT after each Bone Storm will be helpful, but isn’t required.

Mobs and Abilities

Lord Marrowgar

~5 million HP in 10 man; ~23.7 million HP in 25 man

Lord Marrowgar will melee swing for ~12-16k on a properly geared tank.

Saber Lash – This is a melee attack that splits 300% of normal melee damage (200% in 10 man) between Lord Marrowgar’s current target and its two nearest allies within 5 yards . If this hits anything but 3 well geared tanks, it can do enormous damage, enough to kill any single player in 1 hit. Lord Marrowgar will use this attack approximately every 15-20 seconds, though there is no set cool down on it. This attack also appears to give those it hits a hidden buff which prevents them from being valid targets for Bone Spike Graveyard for ~30 seconds.
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Coldflame – This ability is targeted on a random raid member’s location, and travels outward in a line from the edge of Lord Marrowgar’s hitbox to that spot, leaving a line of bright blue frost fire. The targeted player and all others in the way must move quickly. Any player who doesn’t get out of the way will be hit by the fire, which ticks each second for ~7k frost damage. Because some players will be near the boss, some hits are inevitable, but it’s easy to shift a step or two and get out of the fire. Tanks can be targeted by this, and must be careful to move as a group so as to stay stacked for soaking Saber Lash. A new Coldflame will go out every ~5 seconds or so.
10 man: Details 25 man: Details

Bone Spike Graveyard – This ability will be used on random players (3 at a time in 25 man, 1 at a time in 10 man) every 20 seconds or so throughout the fight. They will be stuck at the top of a big white spike coming out of the ground, and they will lose 10% of their max health per second for 5 minutes (or until the player or the bone spike is killed). The afflicted players must immediately be healed at the same time all DPS turns to kill the spike and free them. The spikes have ~10k HP in 10 man and ~38k HP in 25 man.
Details
(This tooltip can be a bit misleading. Reading it, you may get the impression that if no one was in the way, no one would get hit. But in reality, it can’t be avoided. 1 random player in 10 man and 3 random players in 25 man get hit by the ability every time regardless or range or position relative to the boss.)

Impale – This is the initial hit when a player is put on a Bone Spike, which hits for ~7,500 physical damage.

Impaled – This is the debuff that players receive once stuck on a Bone Spike. It ticks for 10% of the player’s HP each second, and lasts 6 minutes or until the Bone Spike or player dies.
Details

Bone Storm – Lord Marrowgar will yell “Bone Storm!” as he uses this ability, and there is also a raid warning that says “Marrowgar falls apart and his bones begin to spin!” Everyone in melee range needs to run out immediately when they see this warning or hear the boss yell. Lord Marrowgar will start to spin around (using the same basic animation as Whirlwind), and move through the room for 20 seconds, randomly targeting and moving toward raid member positions. During these 20 seconds, all players in the room will take damage every 2 seconds from the Bone Storm. The amount of damage per pulse is determined by a given player’s proximity to Lord Marrowgar; it hits for less the farther you are from the boss. Being right under him will result in death within a pulse or two, while those all the way across the room will be hit for a very small amount. When each Bone Storm is over, Lord Marrowgar’s threat list is wiped. The first Bone Storm happens ~45 seconds into the encounter, and then repeats throughout, with a minute between one Bone Storm ending and the next beginning.
Details
(This tooltp can be misleading. The boss spins for ~20 seconds, not 1 minute.)

Strategy

click to enlarge

This encounter is a single-phase fight, and positioning only changes with small shifts to accommodate the lines of Coldflame.

Have your tanks run in together, with the MT slightly ahead to gain agro on Lord Marrowgar. The tanks should move together while positioning the boss against the wall, with the rest of the raid following in behind them. The soaking tank(s) should be certain to stay positioned in front of Lord Marrowgar and very close to, if not on top of, the MT. All melee DPS should be careful to stay more than 5 yards from the MT and to stay behind the boss, so they cannot be hit with Saber Lash. The ranged DPS and healers should spread out behind Lord Marrowgar as well, so that the majority of the Coldflame lines run backwards, and the tanks only have to move for the rare Coldflame that is targeted on one of them. As soon as the MT has a solid threat lead, DPS can attack in full force.

Each time Coldflame is cast, those in the way should immediately adjust a few yards one way or another to get out of its path. It ticks for damage every second, so standing still for even a single cast will be very dangerous.

Each time Bone Spike Graveyard is cast, all DPS should swap to the nearest spike and kill it before returning to Lord Marrowgar, and the assigned healer(s) should make sure Impaled players don’t die if DPS is slow to free them. Be especially careful to quickly free those Impaled right before a Bone Storm; if they are stuck in place and Lord Marrowgar runs over them, they will almost certainly die. If your raid consistently loses players to this ability, it is a good indication that they either need more gear (to DPS and heal harder), faster reaction times, or both. Additionally, healers should be vigilant for the rare instance where a Coldflame takes a path under a player Impaled on a Bone Spike. The Coldflame will still hit that player even though he/she is stuck in the air, and the combined damage is substantial. It will require quick healing and possibly using cooldowns for that player to survive long enough for the Coldflame to travel away.

Each time Saber Lash is used, healers should top the tanks up as quickly as possible (while still paying attention to their surroundings). If your tanks are being hit hard enough that they die to the Saber Lash, or if they are getting hit so hard that they die to Lord Marrowgar’s next melee swing before they can be healed, they need to gear up a bit more. Having enough health to survive these large hits is necessary for your raid to have a chance at success.

When Bone Storm is used, everyone should run away as far as possible so that, if they are targeted by Lord Marrowgar, to minimize the damage they take from the room-wide Bone Storm damage pulses. Lord Marrowgar will target a random player, spin to their location, stop for a moment and release 4 Coldflames at 90 degree angles from each other, and then pick a new target and begin spinning toward them.

Everyone should constantly adjust for Lord Marrowgar’s new path and position, while taking care to stay out of the fires. Healing will need to be constant throughout so that no one dies. Once the Bone Storm has ended, everyone should resume normal positions, with the DPS waiting for positioning to settle and the MT to regain a threat lead before starting back in on the boss. If possible, having one of your tanks put down an area effect such as Concecrate or Death and Decay underneath Lord Marrowgar to generate threat as the Bone Storm comes to an end will help control this transition.

Although this fight is mechanically simple, the damage numbers involved and the reaction times needed make it still quite challenging to pull off. Gear up and concentrate hard to succeed.

NOTES:

• Our guild had our ranged/casters divided in two groups that stacked together in two sides: one at the right, one at the left.
• We had our healers and melee grouped together in the middle where our tanks tanked Marrowgar
• We had this set up so that melee can easily switch to the spikes when the healers are spiked. The spikes had to be taken out fast.
• My hubby’s druid and my priest joined the raid even we’re below the gear requirements. This is not to say that we were just carried through, we had to pull our weight. What I just wanted to say is that the gear levels stated at the start will make the raid easier for you but it doesn’t mean that if you’re not up to that level, you won’t be able to kill Marrowgar.

FOR A GOOD INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO WITH VOICE/TALK THROUGH, CHECK THIS OUT.

FOR A GUIDE ON HEALING LORD MARROWGAR, CHECK THIS OUT.

*I had a comment in one of my posts from Clockwerk asking if there are any strats for ICC, I had the chance to read and approve the comment just now but this post was formatted last not albeit unpublished yet, but to Clockwerk, here ya go Hope this helps

First Night in ICC 25

Last night, hubby (druid) and I (priest) joined our raid. As always, our latency is IMPOSSIBLE when we’re together in 25-mans but heck, we love to raid together and since our guild didn’t really have enough numbers on our raid time, we joined.

It’s the same feeling as when we entered The Black Temple… the feeling of excitement and all that… Clearing the adds on the way to the first boss took a long while. They’re easy pulls anyways. Due to the failure of the people in taking out “spikes” (if you don’t know what this is, best to check out the strat HERE), we had a lot of casulaties. Apart from that, we were under a time pressure in killing Marrowgar because there was a server restart last night.

Fortunately though, with about 30seconds left for the restart, we killed Marrowgar We had our ranged split into two groups, one going to the left side, and one going to the right side of the room. All healers (ranged) and melee stacked up with the tanks in the middle of the room. That set up allowed people to take out spikes faster, especially when the ones spiked are the healers. Other than that and moving away during the whirling storm of bones, it’s pretty much an easy fight. Well, of course, if everyone knows what to do

I was happy that the guild killed Marrowgar, especially that hubby and I were in the raid. However, I was not happy with my performance last night. I’m always not happy when I know I don’t perform well… more when it’s caused by a bad connection. For trash alone, my Circle of Healing would always land like five seconds late. That bad. I got disconnected on big pulls. I’m not really concerned with the numbers (unless when I’m on my warlock where the damage/dps report means something to me) but I know when my performance is crappy. And last night was crap

On a good performance night, here’s what I can come up with on my 2-piece T9 and everything-else-pre-Ulduar-and-some-Conquest-emblem-pieces (this is the most recent one I have apart from the raid that I joined last night which I’m going to show below as well):

Twin Valky'r

My Overheals - Twin Val

Yup, I am one of those healers who look at the overhealing meter because I am pro-efficiency (will re-post an article one of these days about overhealing, I just have to locate it somewhere… it’s a pretty good read but I can’t figure out where I read it…).  Topped the heal meters, and lowest of the overheals… well, the only point is to say that it was one of those good nights. Nobody died, did my heals well, not much heals got wasted (and not to forget, Circle of Healing is nuts!!! ).

And last night, this is me (/cry):

Marrowgar

My Overheals - Marrowgar

I was fourth in heals done and about 50% of my heals were wasted. How bad is that huh? It’s terriBad. They’re different fights though so there’s no direct parallelism for comparison but still, I know I could have pushed my healing performance a lot more had my latency been cooperative.

Now this latency issue is a problem that’s been going on for about 3 weeks now (ok I lost count, maybe more than a month). The only way I can fix it is by upgrading our broadband subscription which I can only do after the holidays.

So for now until then, hubby and I might be switching in raids or attend the raids together but we shall swallow our poor performance

P.S.

Will be posting some ICC strats I found so that you guys can be prepared Anyhow I’m thinking, is it just me or somebody else out there still thinks that Overhealing matters in WoTLK? Or everyone is convinced that overhealing can be ignored as long as you keep your targets alive?

Patch 3.3 Went Live… Frozen Halls Here I Come

Warlock Changes:

Affliction

• Improved Felhunter: This talent now also reduces the cooldown on the felhunter’s Shadow Bite ability by 2/4 seconds.

Demonology

• Decimation: Redesigned. When Shadowbolt, Incinerate or Soul Fire hit a target that is at or below 35% health, the cast time of Soul Fire is reduced by 30/60% for 8 seconds. Soul Fires cast under the effect of Decimation cost no shards.
• Demonic Pact: This talent now also increases the warlock’s spell damage by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Destruction

• Conflagrate: Redesigned. This talent now consumes an Immolate or Shadowflame effect on the enemy target to instantly deal damage equal to 9 seconds of Immolate or 8 seconds of Shadowflame, and causes additional damage over 3 seconds equal to 3 seconds of Immolate or 2 seconds of Shadowflame.

Pets

• Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pets take from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.
• Doomguard/Infernal: These pets now innately have Avoidance like all other warlock pets.
• Shadow Bite: This pet ability now provides 15% increased damage for each of the warlock’s damage-over-time effects on the target.
• Summon Imp: This ability is now available from the trainer for level 1 warlocks and no longer requires a quest to learn.

Glyphs

• Curse of the Elements: Rank 4 has been increased to 11%, up from 10%.
• Drain Soul: This spell now deals 4 times the normal damage for all ranks. Previously it was only ranks 6 and above.
• Suffering (Voidwalker): Ranks 5-8 had the incorrect taunt radius of 5 yards and have all been adjusted to a 10-yard radius

Priest Changes:

Shadow

• Mind Flay: The range of this ability has been increased to 30 yards, up from 20.

Pet

• Avoidance (passive): Now reduces the damage your pet takes from area-of-effect damage by 90%, but no longer applies to area-of-effect damage caused by other players.

Glyphs

• Inspiration: The tooltip now correctly indicates that it also functions with Prayer of Mending.
• Mind Flay: The rank 1 tooltip has been corrected to indicate the accurate damage and snare effect.

I was late among everyone else to test the new patch. While everyone was busy checking out the new instances in Frozen Halls (Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron, Halls of Reflection) , I was busy drinking and eating with friends Fortunately today, I had the chance to see it, the “normal” style (I just wanted to see how it goes before jumping into heroics). Everything was pretty easy. I got to pick up quests and had the new emblems as rewards. I brought my priest though.

I tried the new LFG system with hubby which now allows cross-realm LFG This is what I’m talking about:

Cross-Realm Dungeon Finder

The Dungeon Finder is now available, providing players with quick and easy access to five-player parties. This feature connects all realms within a battlegroup using an advanced matchmaking system, making it easier for players of all levels to find a dungeon group. In addition, players can reap additional rewards through the Dungeon Finder by choosing the Random option, which is available to both pick-up and pre-formed groups. Check out the User Interface section for more details.

I honestly don’t know if it’s cool or what but I have this inclination not to use it except for the Random dungeon option. Queuing in LFG now is  like queuing for a BG so the element of surprise there is the fact that you don’t know who’s going with you in the group. Not that I hate surprises but I don’t like “bad” surprises. Although they said that the “matchmaking” system for the new LFG has a minimum gear requirement for the more difficult dungeons.

I’m kinda liking some of the new system in place for LFG, I highlighted the ones that I like:

Dungeon Finder

This feature has replaced the Looking For Group tool and provides all-new dungeon party creation functionality.

Players can join as individuals, as a full group, or a partial group to look for additional party members.

Groups using this tool will be able to teleport directly to the selected instance. Upon leaving the instance, players will be returned to their original location. If any party member needs to temporarily leave the instance for reagents or repairs, they will have the option to teleport back to the instance.

Players can choose the Random Dungeon option.

• The Heroic Wrath of the Lich King Daily Random Dungeon option will award two Emblems of Frost no more than once a day.
• The normal Wrath of the Lich King Daily Random Dungeon option will award two Emblems of Triumph no more than once a day.
• Continuing to complete Wrath of the Lich King Heroic instances using the Daily Random Dungeon option will award players two additional Emblems of Triumph each time.
• Daily Heroic and normal dungeon quests have been removed. These quests have been replaced with weekly raid quests (see the “Quests” section for details).
• Level-appropriate rewards will be offered to players who choose the Random Dungeon option for pre-Wrath of the Lich King dungeons.
• Players can be placed in a group for a random dungeon no more than once every 15 minutes.
• Random Dungeon rewards will be placed in each player’s inventory automatically upon completion of the dungeon (final boss killed). A pop-up notification will display any rewards earned through the Dungeon Finder.
• Instead of choosing a random dungeon, players can also choose specific dungeons appropriate for their level range. Multiple instances can be selected at one time. The feature no longer limits the choice to look for only 3 dungeon groups at one time.

Pick Up Groups

Cross-realm instances are now available and use an improved matchmaking system to assist players in looking for additional party members. As with Battlegrounds, the realms in each Battlegroup are connected.

As part of the matchmaking system, some of the more difficult dungeons will have a minimum gear requirement. Players also need to meet the requirements for dungeons that require attunement, such as keys or quests. If a player does not meet the requirements for a particular dungeon, a lock icon will be displayed next to that dungeon. Hovering over this icon will display the requirements which have not been met.

Only conjured items and loot dropped in a dungeon for which other party members are eligible can be traded between players from different realms.

A Vote Kick feature will be available in the event a member of a party is not performing to the expectations of the other members.

Players who leave the group prematurely are subject to a Deserter debuff preventing them from using the Dungeon Finder for 15 minutes.

If an existing group loses a member, the leader will be asked if he or she wants to continue the dungeon. Choosing to continue will automatically place the group back into the Dungeon Finder queue.

A Player will not be placed in a group with people on his or her Ignore list.

Players who take part in groups who have one or more members who have been matched with them randomly from within the Dungeon Finder will receive extra rewards, up to and including the coveted Perky Pug non-combat pet. The more random players with whom one groups, the faster the pet can be obtained.

The Need Before Greed loot system will be the unalterable default looting system for pick-up groups in the Dungeon Finder and has been updated.

• Need Before Greed will now recognize gear appropriate for a class in three ways: the class must be able to equip the item, pure melee will be unable to roll on spell power items, and classes are limited to their dominant armor type (ex. paladins for plate). All items will still be available via Greed rolls as well as the new Disenchant option should no member be able to use the item.
• Players will be able to roll on items with a required minimum level higher than a player’s current level.

Looking for Raid

There is a new Looking For Raid option available to players that can be accessed via the Raid Information screen in the interface or by typing “/LFR.”

• Players will be able to browse the system manually for any other players looking for a raid dungeon group.
• While browsing LFR players may sort the list ascending or descending by left-clicking the following headers: Name, Level, Class, Tank Role, Healer Role, and Damage Role. The crown is the Leader Role (representing a raid group with 2 or more people). Players can left-click on this header to sort the list with groups at the top or at the bottom.
• Hovering over players listed in LFR will display their name, class, level, roles and comments. Hovering over a raid/group will display the leader’s name, the raid information (number of people in the raid), comments, if there are any bosses dead (and which ones), and if there are any friends from your Friends list or ignored players from your Ignore list in the raid group.

Here’s the part that excites me, weekly raid quests. It’s something I’ve been telling hubby about way before. And I am glad we got it in the new patch

Weekly raid quests are now available from Archmage Lan’dalock in Dalaran. Every Tuesday at 3 AM the Council of Six will choose a different strategic target that must die from either: The Obsidian Sanctum, Naxxramas, The Eye of Eternity, Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader, or Icecrown Citadel.

And, do you remember Haris Pilton? Yup, the bag seller!

Haris Pilton now sells a new 24-slot bag! She has stubbornly decided to remain in Shattrath City, so those interested should seek her out there.

Bah! The patch looks pretty exciting Can’t wait to try it out further later

My Honeybhee

He's now level 70!