sha-of-pride
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Breakfast Topic: Raid wipes and eternity
The Greek myth of Sisyphus tells the story of a self-serving king who repeatedly tricked and cheated the gods during his life. When he finally died, King Sisyphus was punished for his pride and insolence by being made to eternally push a boulder up a hill. Just endlessly toiling away in the Underworld wasn't enough of a sentence for him, though. To punish him further the gods enchanted the boulder so that whenever it neared the top of the hill it would slip from Sisyphus' grasp and tumble back to the bottom of the hill. Sisyphus' hell is one that encapsulates futility, hopelessness, and frustration. This story came to my mind a week ago when my guild repeatedly wiped to heroic Sha of Pride in the Siege of Orgrimmar ... A boss which we technically have on farm. After the fourth or fifth attempt in which we died to the enrage timer, I leaned back in my chair and thought, "This is it. This would be my punishment in hell." After thinking on it further I decided that while heroic Sha of Pride farm wipes are bad, there is likely another boss that I would find even more unbearable to repeatedly wipe to. Some of the long fights like Garrosh or Ragnaros 2.0 would be contenders. Then there's the fights with annoying mechanics like Razorscale or Faction champs. Then there are those two encounters at the end of the raid-instance-which-must-not-be-named ... Anyway, I still haven't decided what the ultimate punishment for myself would be, so I thought I'd ask you all for your own. Let us know which boss and why!
Totem Talk: Resto Faces Another Sha, and Ganks a Dragon
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem talk for the shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. You've made it this far, and you're almost through the opening act in the Siege of Orgirmmar. You are getting ever so much closer to facing down Garrosh. The next two bosses that stand in your way are both pretty straight forward, but also have the potential to be infinitely annoying. The good news, at least for Restoration shaman, is that both of these upcoming fights have amazing opportunity to make use all of our group healing spells and abilities. The mechanics aren't too terribly hard, but they are certainly worth going over so you can know what to expect. This is not a comprehensive boss guide, but is instead tips and tricks I have learned through my own personal experiences.
Know Your Lore: This Was All Necessary
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. You pandaren tried to bury your hate and your anger, but such power cannot be contained. It must be unleashed! - Garrosh Hellscream to Taran Zhu The more I think about it, the more I believe it. This was all going to happen, with or without the presence of the Horde or Alliance. In fact, the presence of those two warring forces may have ultimately saved Pandaria from complete destruction. When Garrosh Hellscream defeated Taran Zhu and hurled the Heart of Y'Shaarj into the waters of the vale, he mocked the Shado-Pan's leader first about the pandaren and their tendency to suppress violent emotion. It's an understandable tendency in a land where emotions like doubt, anger, fear, and hatred can give rise to the Sha, but it was a tendency mired in one crucial error - there was always one Sha who wasn't imprisoned when Emperor Shaohao freed himself of the burdens of the others. For over ten thousand years, Pandaria dwelled in isolation, believing itself special among all the places in the world, believing that it had nothing to gain and nothing to learn from the outside. And in its special exceptionalism, its beautiful but stagnant isolation, the people of Pandaria settled into an eternal and endless cycle that allowed nothing to change it. But a thing that does not change is not alive. It's painful to look upon the Vale of Eternal Blossoms after Garrosh's actions, to see the blasted, corrupted land where waters flowed freely, to see the destroyed and defiled beauty. Taran Zhu blamed all those who came from outside Pandaria, and he's not wrong - it is because, at long last the mists have parted and new peoples have entered Pandaria that the Vale was destroyed, just as it was because of the same outsiders and their foreign war that the Sha of Doubt erupted and the serpent pillar fell. Destruction had indeed followed in our wake.
Bosses in 5 Seconds: Siege of Orgrimmar LFR wing one
Here we are again, people, with the first wing of LFR open for almost a week, more and more people are braving the queue and the eternal tank shortage, and stepping into the Vale of Eternal Sorrows to cleanse some corruption. But what are we all doing in here? Why the heck does this watery dude keep going back to full health? Why am I in this twilight zone? And, more importantly, why am I dead? Please do note that these aren't in-depth strategies that elucidate every nuance of the fights. They're quick'n'dirty rundowns that will arm you with just enough knowledge to get your head around the key mechanics and hopefully make it through the fight alive. And they'll let you seem all clever in raid chat at the start. I'm aiming, simply, to tell you how to make it through. No clever business, nothing fancy. Immerseus Spread out around the boss Carpet your area with sha puddles Run from Swirl Tanks shouldn't stack, and should swap on Corrosive blast. Don't stand on tanks. In phase 2, which starts at 0% health, damage dark blobs and heal pale ones. Stand nearby when they explode for buffs. He dies when his corruption bar reaches 0. You'll pull him down to 0% health several times.
Lichborne: Vale of Eternal Sorrows raid loot for death knights
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done. With normal and flex modes in full swing, and Raid Finder due in the coming days, it felt like a good time to start looking at what gear we can pull out of patch 5.4's new raid, the Siege of Orgrimmar. Today, we'll look at the first wing, the Vale of Eternal Sorrows. When gearing up, there are a few things to remember. Note that the item weights described in most guides assume best in slot gear with maximum level play. For example, haste has dropped to the bottom of the 3 major stats for all 3 death knight DPS specs. While some of this is due to bug fixes and changes in itemization, some of it is also a result of gameplay. These sims that returned haste as a low level stat also assumed their user was dressed in heroic warforged gear and using Plague Leech to get 2 death runes every 25-30 seconds and Anti-Magic Shell to gain extra runic power every 45 seconds without fail. If you aren't really in those categories, don't assume a piece of gear is trash for you without the sims to back it up. In a similar vein, that new item level 540 flexible drop is probably going to replace your item level 502 raid finder drop even if it's not optimally itemized for your spec. Also, while the "haste for tanks" craze is still going on in some quarters, I still am not a huge fan of it, especially now that Riposte lets you get at least some threat off of avoidance. I will link normal gear choices, but most of these choices will drop in all 4 difficulties, with the possibility of warforged drops in normal and heroic difficulties.
Patch 5.4 PTR: Siege of Orgrimmar raid testing Tuesday and Wednesday
There's more raid testing on the PTR for the Siege of Orgrimmar as the release date for patch 5.4 creeps steadily closer. Coming up this week is Heroic, 25-man testing for Galakras, Malkorok, Paragons of the Klaxxi, Sha of Pride, Spoils of Pandaria, and Thok the Bloodthirsty. So if checking out new raid encounters is your idea of good fun, there's plenty coming up in the next couple of days. Here's the current schedule: Tuesday Galakras: 10:30 PDT (13:30 EDT, 19:30 CEST) Malkorok: 13:30 PDT (16:30 EDT, 22:30 CEST) Paragons of the Klaxxi: 16:00 PDT (19:00 EDT, 01:00 CEST) Wednesday Sha of Pride: 10:30 PDT (13:30 EDT, 19:30 CEST) Spoils of Pandaria: 13:30 PDT (16:30 EDT, 22:30 CEST) Thok the Bloodthirsty: 16:00 PDT (19:00 EDT, 01:00 CEST) But the schedule is subject to change. According to Watcher: Watcher As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a beta environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session, change the boss being tested, or cancel a test entirely, due to bugs, server hardware issues, etc. source For more details, head to the PTR forums. Happy testing!
Patch 5.4 PTR: Raid testing for Wednesday, August 28
Heroic 25-man raid testing continues tomorrow on the patch 5.4 PTR servers. For players interested in testing heroic Siege of Orgrimmar content, both the Sha of Pride and Malkorok encounters will be available over the course of tomorrow for the purposes of testing. As with all PTR raid encounters, players should leave feedback on the encounters in the appropriate threads on the official PTR forums. If you have yet to explore the patch 5.4 PTR, you can copy a character by logging into your Battle.net account on the official website, or you can simply create a pre-made level 90 character if that sounds like a better option to you. Gear will be scaled to match the difficulty of the encounters, so don't worry about being under-geared for the content, either. Read on for more details, including the full schedule of times for individual raid bosses.
Patch 5.4 PTR: Raid testing for Tuesday, August 27
If you've been wanting to test out heroic modes in the Siege of Orgrimmar before patch 5.4 hits live servers on September 10, now's your chance. Tomorrow the PTR will be featuring 25-man heroic difficulty testing of three of the fights in the new raid. Fallen Protectors, Kor'kron Dark Shaman and General Nazgrim will all be available for testing over the course of the day tomorrow. Keep in mind that this is heroic difficulty, so expect the fights to look a little different than their normal or flex mode counterparts. Remember that these PTR bosses are open for testing purposes -- don't forget to leave your feedback for the encounters in the appropriate threads on the official PTR forums. Don't worry about bringing your own raid group -- although it is helpful, it's not required. If you need one, just hang around the raid entrance in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, as it's likely there will be more than a few raid groups looking for people to fill spots. And if you're worried about gear, don't be -- all gear will be scaled to the appropriate ilvl for the encounter. Read on for more details, including the full schedule of times for individual raid bosses.
Patch 5.4 PTR: Raid testing for Friday, August 16
Patch 5.4 may be up on the background downloader, but that doesn't mean there isn't more raid testing to do! Testing for the Siege of Orgrimmar bosses Sha of Pride, Kor'kron Dark Shaman, General Nazgrim and Malkorok takes place tomorrow throughout the day, this time on 25-man Normal difficulty. Not in a 25-man raid guild? Not a problem -- just log onto the PTR at the appropriate times, hang out in the Vale and you're likely to see plenty of people looking for folks to test the raid content. Keep in mind that these are PTR bosses open for testing purposes, and leave your feedback for these encounters in the appropriate threads on the official PTR forums. Gear, as always, will be scaled inside the raid for the purposes of testing content. If you'd like to participate, you can copy one of your existing characters to the PTR via your Battle.net account, or simply create a level 90 premade character to test with. Read on for more details, including the full schedule of times for individual raid bosses.
The destruction of the Vale
The latest WoW blog post by Community Manager Nethaera might be just a tad overshadowed by the release of the (very engaging!) patch 5.4 trailer, but there are some tidbits in it that you don't want to miss! If you haven't been keeping up with the lore, the post provides a good overview of the Vale of Eternal Blossom's story and significance to the expansion. There are also some big changes coming its way--not just lore wise, but gameplay-side, as well. The Vale's intro quests through Kun-Lai Summit are going to be modified to reflect the state of devastation that new adventurers will find; in other words, the new Vale will not be phased. All the pools will be drained, but never fear, fisherfolk of WoW, the Jewel Danio fish will be relocated to the Timeless Isle so you'll still be able to get your hands on them. New enemies, reflections of the never-defeated Sha of Pride, will be found roaming the once-golden hills of the Vale. As a result of all this destruction, the Golden Lotus have been forced to retreat from their grand pagoda. Though characters can continue to earn Golden Lotus reputation by killing enemies in the Vale, their quests will no longer be available, and the achievement "Eternally in the Vale" will be removed from the game. Now's the time to get it if you want it. The permanence of of the changes in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms reflects the looming changes to World of Warcraft itself. What is the future of the Alliance and Horde? What will be the fallout of the Siege of Orgrimmar? Only the release of patch 5.4 will tell...
Siege of Orgrimmar Preview: Sha of Pride
The Sha of Pride is the fourth boss in patch 5.4's Siege of Orgrimmar raid instance. You'll find him in the chamber right after defeating Norushen. It's the last Sha in existence and allegedly the one that has influenced Garrosh in his actions throughout the expansion. Read on to get an overview of his abilities.
Patch 5.4 PTR: First Raid Finder wing of Siege of Orgrimmar Available
Patch 5.4's Siege of Orgrimmar is available for testing on the PTR raid finder for the weekend of July 19 - 22. If you're looking for something to do this weekend, why not head over to the PTR and check it out? The first part of Siege of Orgrimmar involves the first four bosses. This is another big indicator of how close we're getting to a patch 5.4 drop on live servers. Perhaps another month and a half or two? Vale of Eternal Sorrows (Part 1) Immerseus The Fallen Protectors Norushen Sha of Pride Weekend LFR Testing - July 19-22 The first LFR wing of the Siege of Orgrimmar raid is currently open for testing, and will likely remain so throughout the weekend. Please feel free to check it out and share your feedback. source
Know Your Lore: Patch 5.4 and the legacy of Y'Shaarj
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. So I was going to write about Med'an again this week, but with patch 5.4 on the horizon it felt like now was the time to talk about Y'Shaarj, the single most active dead god we've ever seen. In case it needs to be said, yes, there's going to be spoilers and lots of spoilers too. We will be talking about the patch 5.4 storyline, and pretty much everything other patch since Mists of Pandaria debuted. It has been a presence in Pandaria since before it was Pandaria. The mantid served it - indeed, they still revere its memory. The Sha are a result of it. The Titans destroyed it, yet it will not be destroyed. Ancient and terrible, its seven heads proved immortal, its dread essence exhaled out across the very land, bringing the darkest emotions of the mortal heart into stark existence. It is Y'Shaarj. It is dead. And being dead has proved no hindrance. One of the Old Gods, Y'Shaarj has shaped the land in death, and even now, it threatens to return to life.
Patch 5.4 PTR: Dungeon Journal for Siege of Orgrimmar
I don't think this even needs to be said, but huge huge spoilers ahoy. With patch 5.4 going on the PTR with the quickness, we're starting to see just who, exactly, we're going to be fighting in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid, and it's definitely not as straightforward as we might have thought. With the folks at Wowhead having the zone page and Dungeon Journal information up, we can take a look at what's to come. Be warned, there are spoilers for the upcoming raid in plenty past this link. If you don't want to know what the bosses will be in this raid, then do not read past this point. Okay, now that they're gone, let's gorge on what we can discover.
Patch 5.4 PTR: Datamined NPC, mount, and pet models
Along with the recently released patch 5.4 patch notes, our friends at MMO-Champion have data-mined some new models including armor for tier 16 and season 14 gear. Garrosh Hellscream gets a new look and we get a sneak peek at the latest sha! Everything behind the cut contains spoilers for the upcoming patch 5.4. Click through and view at your own risk! Please note: This post contains spoilers for patch 5.4.
