mists-of-pandaria-raiding
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Ra-den encounter features a return of limited attempts
The Throne of Thunder has been compared to Ulduar in more ways than one -- the size and scope of the dungeon, the multitude of boss encounters, and even the thematic elements of the dungeon itself. But it looks like there is one more comparison to add to the pile. Ra-den, the bonus boss unlocked only upon defeating Lei-Shen on heroic mode, has a mechanic to limit the number of times he can be engaged in any given week. Those that remember Algalon remember the one hour limit on attempting the boss. One careless pull, one wipe, one disconnect could potentially ruin a guild's chances for downing the boss in a lockout period. But Ra-den isn't limited by a time clock; instead, he's simply limited by the number of attempts a guild can make. Screenshots have shown that number to be 30, however keep in mind that the number of attempts, and even the limited nature of the encounter, can be changed at any time. Patch 5.2 is still on the PTR, after all. Blue poster and Game Designer Watcher had some words of wisdom to share following the unplanned discovery of Ra-den's limited attempts on the PTR.
Should valor upgrades be removed permanently?
I'm a raider at heart. Sure, I took a break back in Burning Crusade, but when I returned to raiding it was with a vengeance, albeit in a slightly less hardcore fashion. Mists of Pandaria started out with several different raids that are continuing to keep my guild occupied and will likely keep us occupied right up to patch 5.2's release -- and that's an excellent thing. Dragon Soul, no matter how interesting a few of those fights were, was simply not enough to keep my guild occupied right up until the end of Cataclysm. In fact, Mists of Pandaria started out with a whole flurry of activity to keep everyone well and truly busy for the first couple of months. Daily quests were something that I threw myself into without flinching -- partially out of interest for the stories and quests, but also, yes, because I wanted to make sure I upgraded my gear as quickly as possible. Doing this flurry of dailies meant that I was capping valor incredibly early in the week, and spending it as fast as I obtained it. But there's kind of a problem with that now, and it's being addressed to some small degree in patch 5.2. See, part of that whole raiding process is making sure you're in the gear you need. Now, it also includes upgrading your gear as quickly as you can, putting even more emphasis on capping valor just as quickly as possible. Is all that pressure a good thing?
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Tanking in Mists of Pandaria
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Care and Feeding of Warriors, the column dedicated to arms, fury and protection warriors. Despite repeated blows to the head from dragons, demons, Old Gods and whatever that thing over there was, Matthew Rossi will be your host. I tank a lot. I moved back into tanking around March or so of this year, because a tank was needed, and I know how to tank. I've stayed a tank in Mists of Pandaria so far because the last thing anyone needs is another melee DPS, because I generally like tanking, and because the new tanking system has actually given me something to learn. What have I learned tanking so far? Well, lots of things, actually. Here's a few highlights. People will always want to be told what stat to stack. Saying "You should try and balance your mastery, dodge and parry, while keeping hit and expertise reasonable" is possibly the least popular thing you can tell people outside of telling them who to vote for. Shield Barrier is a lot easier to use than Shield Block, and especially in five man dungeons where you may not have a lot of rage to throw around on a pull. In a raid, you can usually time your rage acquisition to use Shield Block followed by Shield Barrier to smooth out incoming damage, but in a five man you're often tabbing around, gathering up adds, and in general using Revenge as your main rage acquisition move so you'll end up hitting Barrier for a cheap and easy damage absorb over Block. When I find myself with enough rage to hit Block, I do, but even then I usually follow it with a Barrier as soon as possible. I like the Glyph of Unending Rage a lot more than I expected to. Sure, it's a major glyph, but that extra 20 rage can actually come in handy. I like having the ability to bank rage in situations like Feng the Accursed and using it to blunt big damage spikes with a full rage bar Shield Block/Barrier combo. One of the biggest changes to tanking has nothing to do with the tank classes at all. The change to healer mana pools fixing them so that healers can't stack up a bigger mana pool means that we have to be more reactive than ever to incoming damage. The active mitigation system cannot be ignored: the more difficult the encounter the more you need to be on the ball with your Block and Barrier use and paying attention to cooldowns and mini-cooldowns like Demoralizing Shout and Demoralizing Banner. So let's talk about tanking in Mists of Pandaria.
Paragon switching to 10 man raiding in Mists of Pandaria
Even the mightiest among us are not immune to the decline of 25 man raiding. Paragon, who you may remember as one of the world's leading 25 man raiding guilds, is switching to a 10 man raid with the release of Mists of Pandaria. Reasons given include raider burnout during Dragon Soul, difficulty of recruiting players to fill those gaps (and I can attest to that one in a general sense, even far less progression oriented 25 mans are struggling to recruit right now) and player schedules changing. It should be interesting to see how Paragon does as a 10 man in Mists of Pandaria. Some guilds thrive after the switch, others rebuild and re-enter 25 mans. I personally can't help but think this is a symptom of the gradual erosion of 25 man raiding, myself, but we'll see. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
More Mists of Pandaria Beta raid testing scheduled
Hot on the heels of Friday's raid testing, we have another round of raid tests for Monday, June 25. If you're one of those people who loves to suss out new fight mechanics, you could be of use in testing out two fights, Gara'jal the Spiritbinder and The Spirit Kings. Daelo - Raid Testing Schedule - June 25 For Monday, June 25 we'll be testing two encounters. The encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below for all Beta Test Realms, regardless of suggested geographical region. Gara'jal the Spiritbinder - 10 Player Normal 10:30 PDT (13:30 EDT, 19:30 CEST) The Spirit Kings 16:00 PDT (19:00 EDT, 01:00 CEST) As always, this testing schedule is very fluid. We might have to change the time of a testing session due to various issues with bugs, builds, server hardware issues, designers being sick, class issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information. source Remember to keep in mind what Daelo said last time: You can test these encounters with whatever Mists of Pandaria gear your beta characters happen to have as long as you're at level 90, thanks to their ability to raise or lower your ilevel in order to match the raid difficulty. So get in there and test some raids. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Raid testing to begin Friday, June 22
If you're itchin' to get your hands on some new beta raids -- and we're sure that applies to none of you, because everyone in the world is totally content just running Dragon Soul again -- there's good news: MoP raid testing begins this Friday, June 22. Testing begins with the 10-player normal version of -- aw heck, I'll just let Blizzard Game Designer Daelo tell you: Raid Testing - Starting Soon We plan to start Mists of Pandaria Beta raid testing this Friday, June 22. We'll begin testing with the 10 player Normal difficulty version of the Stone Guard in Mogu'shan Palace. Available testing times for testing will be posted soon. 25 player Normal difficulty testing should begin next week, with Raid Finder and Heroic difficulty testing to follow in the weeks ahead. You must be level 90 to participate in the raid test, and level 90 character templates will not initially be available. We do have some new technology that automatically raises or lowers your items to the appropriate level for testing. So as long as you have a Mists of Pandaria quest or dungeon item in every slot, you'll be fine. Note that player interface add-ons are disabled on the beta at this time while we work through some technical issues. They'll be available once again at some point in the future. As always with raid testing on beta or public test realms, the schedule is subject to change or cancellation with very little warning. Server issues, build issues, newly discovered encounter, combat, or class bugs, and many other reasons could prevent testing. While I will endeavor to provide warning about future tests, this will also not always be possible. Whatever I do know, I'll post here in the Beta Dungeons forum as soon as possible. source Well, you heard the blue! If you want to get in on the action, you'd better start grinding out that MoP gear now. And if you're looking for raid partners, there are guilds actively recruiting for raiding on the beta -- just keep your eyes on trade chat for details. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
