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The 5 best raid encounters in Cataclysm
Remember this guy? As we prepare for Mists of Pandaria, it's beneficial to look back and capture the good memories of raids past. After some hard thinking, I've compiled a list of the five Cataclysm raid encounters that were, in my opinion, the best and most memorable of the expansion. While it's difficult to get the same experience today, due to gear scaling and difficulty nerfs, these encounters represent examples of things that Blizzard got right and we'd like to see more of. 5. Halfus Wyrmbreaker, Bastion of Twilight OK, so the trash clear wasn't the most entertaining experience ever, but this opening boss in Bastion of Twilight hit all the right notes. His companions rotated on a weekly basis, forcing your raid to adapt just a little bit every time, but not so much to significantly alter the encounter. The intense healing requirement at the beginning of the fight provided a good challenge for healers, the add swaps kept the tanks busy, and the enrage timer was well-tuned for DPS. Most importantly, though, all of that stuff happened at an unusual time in the fight -- the beginning. Most typical raid encounters increase in difficulty late in the fight, leading to a tedious learning process where bored raiders sleepwalk through the learned early minutes before reaching a point where they can challenge themselves and learn. Not this encounter; the majority of the time, you were heading for a win or a wipe within the first minute.
The Light and How to Swing It: Retribution in the Firelands, part 2
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. This week, Dan Desmond walks you through the Firelands. Before we delve into some strategies for dealing with another two bosses within the Firelord's domain, let's have some quick words about the most recent Censure hotfix. Yes, it's a marginal DPS increase, made even more marginal if you need to switch targets often and drop your stacks -- but the important thing is that Blizzard's working on it. Trust me, more buffs are coming. Last time, we covered some tips for dealing with Shannox and Lord Rhyolith. This week, we continue the two-for-one deal and bring you two very add-centric fights, Beth'tilac and Alysrazor.
Spiritual Guidance: A priest's notes for healing The Firelands, part 1
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers the healing side of things for discipline and holy priests. She also writes for LearnToRaid.com and produces the Circle of Healing Podcast. Well, class, I'm back. Mr. Matticus said you all were very well-behaved in my absence, and from what I understand, you got through all the work I left with him. Unfortunately, we've still strayed away from the curriculum, and there's quite a lot of catching up to do if you're to do well on your heroic assessment tests. Now, I've put together this study guide for healing through the first four encounters in the Firelands. Does anyone know what those are? That's right: Shannox, Lord Rhyolith, Alysrazor, and Beth'tilac. We'll be having a practice test at the end of the week so I can see what sections we need to work on.
The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking Beth'tilac and Rhyolith
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a blood elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense. In previous columns, I've talked about how to tank Shannox and Baleroc, two of the early bosses of Firelands. Three bosses remain before you can cross the bridge to the Sulfuron Keep: Beth'tilac, Rhyolith, and Alysrazor. That latter of the three demands a column of her own, considering the nuances of that fight and the special requirements and responsibilities one assumes when tanking it. But the first two -- a walk in the park, comparatively speaking. Despite the general breeziness when tanking them, they still have their own slate of nuances. Allow me to offer a raft of tips to make your tanking duties as breezy as they should be.
Encrypted Text: Rogue tips and tricks for Firelands, part 2
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me any questions or article suggestions you have. If there's one trend that I am enjoying in Firelands, it's that the encounters are much more rogue-friendly than those of the previous tier. We're not swapping targets as often, and there are several fights where combat rogues get to shine via Blade Flurry. There are also role-based encounters like Rhyolith, where our DPS is less important than our reaction time and planning. Beth'tilac and Baleroc start very differently, but they both finish with a race to beat the ever-increasing damage being dealt to the tank. Rogues are particularly effective against both bosses, especially since both are simple fights that let us establish our rotations. Rogues prefer to focus on single targets, as opposed to specs like boomkins and shadow priests that prefer tossing their DOTs around.
Spiritual Guidance: Beth'tilac and proper shadow priest AOE
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. On Wednesdays, shadow priesting expert Fox Van Allen comes out to trap and inject his prey with sweet, warm, shadowy poison. Fox encourages all potential prey to follow him on Twitter. When I was just a little Fox kit, my parents bought me a pretty bitchin' Fisher-Price castle playset at a garage sale. It had a little drawbridge, a prison, and even a trap door. It also had a dungeon to put a dragon in. It was the most awesome thing ever. I used to play with it all the time down in our basement. One day, I had just reached my hand into the castle to grab one of the misshapen figurines when I felt a weird, hair-raising tingle. My hand had just collided with a spider web teeming with newly hatched spiderlings. I freaked the hell out and spent the next 10 minutes scrubbing my hand with soap. Twenty years later, it's time for revenge. The second boss of the Firelands raid, Beth'tilac, is an ugly spider that spawns massive amounts of Spiderlings. This time, though, I've got a solid AOE strategy. I'm ready for them -- and you can be, too.
Shifting Perspectives: Feral cat strats for the Firelands, part 1
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids. Welcome to our feral cat edition, brought to you by Chase Hasbrouck, aka Alaron of The Fluid Druid blog. Let the face clawing begin! All of us want fire kitty staff, but there are a few obstacles in the way ... mounds of trash and five or so bosses. For my next few columns, I'll take a look at feral DPS strategies that will get you through mostly unscorched. The first thing you'll have to deal with is trash. There's a nice Firelands trash guide right here on WoW Insider, but let's start this week's study with a brief overview.
The Light and How to Swing It: Healing against Shannox and Beth'tilac
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Every Sunday, Chase Christian invites you to discuss the finer side of the paladin class: the holy specialization. Feel free to email me with any questions you want answered, like why paladins are so awesome. With only seven bosses to claim, Firelands is one of the smallest raid tiers we've seen over the past couple of years. I've found that the raid can seem much larger than it actually is due to the massive size of the zone. We're able to explore the terrain and advance in any direction that we please. The first five bosses can be killed in any order, and we fight each on unique terrain. There's also a plethora of interesting trash mobs and mini-events along the way. Two of the easiest bosses in Firelands are Shannox and Beth'tilac. If you're just starting in Firelands, it's highly likely that you raid will be facing one of these two bosses first. The encounters are very different for healers, at least until their final phases. You'll want to spend most of your time conserving as much mana as possible, as healing against these bosses gets more difficult as the fights progress. Your ability to keep the raid alive will buy your DPS the time they need to finish the job.
Ready Check: WoW Insider's guide to Beth'tilac
Ready Check helps you prepare yourself and your raid for the bosses that simply require killing. Check back with Ready Check each week for the latest pointers on killing adds, not standing in fire, and hoping for loot that won't drop. Thus far in our adventures, we have tackled the Firelord's finest hunter Shannox and toppled another member of the "royal" family, Lord Rhyolith. This week, we zip clear across to the other side of the map in order to fling ourselves against the mother of all Lava Spiders. As the matriarch or the Cinderweb Brood, Beth'tilac has created and cares for a massive web network that spans a large portion of the west sector of the Firelands. Here, she and her children capture and feed off of other fire elementals. Seemingly, this is a bad thing, but despite being lavavores, the Cinderweb Brood seems to have at least a partial relationship with Ragnaros, often joining his forces in the field of battle. Perhaps the newly christened fire druids have something to do with this? Regardless, she's got loot, and we're here to take it from her! Let's get started.
The Queue: The one with goombas
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Today is a very special treat. We have your standard-length Queue, plus I answer a very exciting bonus trivia question that has nothing at all to do with World of Warcraft! But you will love it, my gamer pals. You will. Camero asked: In the past week, I've recieved four emails from "Blizzard" all asking me to do something in order to get a Winged Guardian License. I just wanted to confirm that's not true.
Totem Talk: Restoration shaman tips on healing Lord Rhyolith and Beth'tilac
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration 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 co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how. Last week, we had a lovely little chat about tracking your cooldowns and how they have become much more important than in the previous tiers of content. Some great addon suggestions were made in the comments, and as a result, I'm even giving TellMeWhen a try this week in raiding. This week, I thought we would talk about something involving a considerable amount of fire. If you're a raiding restoration shaman, chances are good that this past week you got to set foot in the land of fire and giants that are set on fire. I'm talking, of course, about the Firelands raid. Healing in the new instance has been both fun and hectic all at the same time, and I've personally been having quite a bit of fun learning the encounters. Besides, what better way to fight fire than with the element of water! This week's image is supplied by the wonderful MagicalMelonBall, inspired by my love of Indiana Jones and hatred of spiders.
Totem Talk: Enhancement shaman vs. Beth'tilac and Lord Rhyolith
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement, and restoration shaman. On Saturdays, Josh Myers tackles the hard questions about enhancement. Can we tank? Can we DPS with a two-hander? How does one shot web? The answer to the first two is "no," and roll a hunter for the third! If you're an enhancement shaman in a regular raiding guild, congratulations! You've weathered the worst of the storm. Our last-minute Stormstrike buff coupled with the nerfs to 4.1's prominent DPS has put us in a nice place for entering Firelands raiding. Our single-target DPS is solid now. Even better, Firelands has practically no fights with silly AOE phases that we have to participate in! If that sentence alone doesn't get you pumped for 4.2 raiding, I don't know what will. That doesn't mean there aren't fights with AOE phases. On the contrary, both fights I'll be talking about today require good AOE. Thankfully, that busy work is best left to your casters. They can cry about it all the way to their legendary. Fortunately for us, Lord Rhyolith and Beth'tilac are the two encounters in Firelands you'll most likely encounter first, and both have unique mechanics that are well handled by the apt hands of a masterful enhancement shaman.
Raid Rx: Lord Rhyolith and Beth'tilac healing impressions
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading on the Matticast. Firelands is here! Yay! The other night, my raid took down entry bosses Beth'tilac and Lord Rhyolith. Both have their share of intensive healing phases. This week, I'll walk you through a little bit of the threats involved and approach the two encounters from the mindset of both a healing leader and a healer. I'll let you know when to save and when to use your cooldowns. How much have the encounters changed since the last time I faced them on the PTR? I have to say not much, since the mechanics and damage are about the same. To be fair, when I tried them out on the PTR, it was done with a 10-player group. I found the live version 25-man to be much more forgiving at times, despite the high output of damage.
Patch 4.2 PTR raid testing continues tonight
The testing for patch 4.2's Firelands raid content has been moving along at a steady clip, save for Friday's testing period, which got derailed due to server issues. But never fear! The 25-player modes for flamewaker hunter Shannox, spider queen Beth'tilac, and cranky (almost Rossi-like) elemental Lord Rhyolith are up for testing tonight to make up for Friday's lost time. Make sure to check out our impressions of three of the new bosses: Alysrazor, Lord Rhyolith, and Beth'tilac. We're going to retry Friday's schedule, today! Monday, June 6 2:30 PM PDT – Shannox (25 Player) 4:00 PM PDT – Beth'tilac (25 Player) 5:30 PM PDT – Lord Rhyolith (25 Player) As always, the schedule can change at a moment's notice due to issues with the build, server, encounter, or the mercurial nature of designers. The encounters are all a work in progress; there will be bugs and tuning is not final. source The news is rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!
Patch 4.2 PTR Firelands Impressions: Beth'tilac
When I was younger, I absolutely loved the Donkey Kong Country franchise. So when I got wind that one of the new bosses in Firelands was a flaming spider, the first thought that leaped into mind was "Oh my god, I get to fight Squitter!" He first appeared in Donkey Kong Country 2 as an animal companion for players. He had a goofy grin and had 8 sneakers. By the way, that game came out in 1995 on the SNES. Now that I've managed to remind some us how old we are, I'm going to move on and describe my first impressions with the Bethi'lac encounter after the jump. Spoiler warning -- don't say I didn't warn you!
