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Getting your first bear: The final analysis
Congratulations, you should now be the proud owners of your first bear! Lessons from our bearsWe learnt a few things from doing the bear runs, both individually and as a raid group -- it's a lot of fun to see how far you can be pushed. Setups that look "okay" on paper don't cut it. The run's all about the group. You can bring one or two slightly dim-witted members along but it makes life harder for everyone else. You need to have people who're fully awake for the whole run -- if your paladins suck at refreshing 10 minute blessings, if your melee love aggro, if your healer's prone to 5 minute afks, replace them. Once the first set of bears are in their new homes, we found interest and quality of the runs dropped. Other groups have reported different things, so your mileage may vary, but all it needs is one enthusiastic person to put the next set of runs together. The melee ring never drops from the third chest. Never. Further readingEspecially if you're interested in group setup and the best speed runs out there, this Elitist Jerks forum thread is a goldmine of information and opinions. Gurgthock's video is also worth a watch. If you're not quite making the timer, looking at WWS reports can be a great help -- here's our second run, videoed above, to give you some idea (I'm Fog). Finally, we'll leave you with these timeless words: Practice is perfect. There are plenty of stories of raid groups narrowly missing a bear, then coming back the next reset and having plenty of time left on the clock. Don't give up and you'll get there in the end!
Getting your first bear: The boss fights
Akil'zon (Eagle) If the patrol at the bottom of the steps is in your way, kill it; you'll have to kill it on the way to Nalorakk otherwise. On the gauntlet, AoE the eagles as soon as possible, then pull the Amani'shi Tempest as early as you can to stop the flow of birds. On the boss: the offtank DPSes, have the raid move in towards the boss before he casts Electrical Storm to save running time. As with all bosses, blow your cooldowns, chain-chug pots and do everything you can to perform your best. Nalorakk (Bear) You can use Soothe Animal to bypass a bear pack; hug the left wall. Run forward as soon as possible. The pull before the boss is a tough one, so don't rush it. On the boss: go all out (respecting threat): the troll form tank can DPS during bear phase. Jan'Alai (Dragonhawk) Don't let scouts summon reinforcements! This is the single biggest timesink we find on our runs. Stun, charge, root and kill them ASAP, yell on Vent if you see one, and learn their routes. Spellsteal the Flame Casters (we sheep them if possible, due to the huge raid damage). The patrols of hawks and Amani'shi Trainers to the right can be avoided if your timing is right; have the entire raid hug and run up the stairs at once, and fight the pack at the base of the stairs in place. On the boss: let your hatchers hatch one side at a time, it's hectic for the offtank but saves a lot of time. A paladin tank can help keep adds under control, but it's doable without. We found fire resistance gear on the offtank helped a little. Halazzi (Lynx) The second Lynx trash pull, a patrol, can be skipped -- as can the hut. AoEing the lynx packs usually gets AoErs killed so your healers have to be on the ball; the stealthed packs can run straight for healers, so your tanks need to be ready to deal with it. Pull the patrols as soon as possible, including the one in Halazzi's room. If time is getting tight, you can pull the boss as the last trash mob dies. On the boss: during spirit phase, DPS stays on the boss, as it's debuffed; the offtank can DPS the boss once aggro is solid on the spirit. Rinse and repeat until boss is dead. Read on for final tips and futher reading ==>>
Getting your first bear: Optimizing for speed
Optimizing for speed You've run the instance before and maybe downed three bosses within the time limit without really trying. However, adding a fourth into that time is tough. There are various things you can do to speed up the run, both as a raid and individually: Consumables. Using buff potions/flasks (including sharpening stones, scrolls, food, etc) should go without saying, as well as health/mana pots; drums also make a difference. Be smart with downtime. Drink a little between pulls. Innervate the shadow priest as you approach a boss, and don't be afraid to pull without full mana or health. Know the instance and don't be stupid. Getting reinforcements on the way to Jan'alai is simply a waste of time, as is running into patrols, over-aggroing, etc. Don't linger over loot. Using group loot with need/pass (a designated disenchanter Greeds) speeds up loot considerably; have one assigned DPSer speak to the freed captive while the group moves on. Communicate. Voice chat is great, and well-timed communication can turn around a wipe. It really helps to get everyone into the right mindset before you begin, so go over these ground rules first. Make sure people know to bring consumables, and know the route you're taking. Encourage people to read up on the timed run, to watch videos and actually think about what they're going to be doing. Okay, okay. Can we kill now?The most logical kill order is Eagle, Bear, Dragonhawk, Lynx. You'll spend most of your time killing trash, so make sure your tanks' threat is top-notch, chainpull like mad and bypass as much as possible. Our second run was videoed by one of our healers, and it's available here -- the download's large because of the length of the run. Screenshots from the video accompany the walkthrough below. Read walkthroughs for each boss ==>>
Gamers on the Street: Ready for the Sunwell
Gamers on the Street logs onto U.S. servers to get the word from the front on what's going on in and around the World of Warcraft. Lisa is absent this week, so instead Mike Schramm went to Cenarius to talk directly to ingame players.When I headed into the game this week to do this column, both Krystalle and Lisa (who usually does GotS) warned me that it was rough out there, and that players weren't really into chatting with random people about what they thought about the past week in Warcraft. But I have to say -- the denizens of Cenarius treated me as well as can be expected. I logged in on my level 30 mage Erban, sent out a tell in /Trade (sorry for spamming, Cenarius-ians), and pretty soon I got two nice players to chat with me. We talked mostly about what they'd been up to in game, what they're looking ahead to with patch 2.4, whether Noblegarden sucks (spoiler: it does), and just how much they'd pay (or their guild would charge) for that Zul'aman bear mount.Read on to see our conversations.
Player buys bear mount from guild for 20,000 gold
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/WoW_player_buys_bear_mount_from_guild_for_20_000_gold'; How much would you pay to be guaranteed a Zul'Aman bear mount? Five thousand gold? Ten thousand? If you're Kharmen from the European realm of Talnivarr, you reportedly paid twice that -- according to the forum thread, Kharmen paid 20,000 gold to the guild Torment to take her into Zul'Aman and get her a bear mount from the timed event rewards.As some players in the thread are saying, the mount isn't actually that hard to get, and in fact, many guilds who can raid fast enough to get it will sell it off for much less. But the more interesting story here is just the sheer amount of money involved. Kharmen says that she farmed the money herself, which may be true, but it seems surprising that players can pass that much money around without raising some eyebrows at Blizzard. Just what does it take to become a suspected gold farmer?At any rate, Kharmen is thrilled that she got her mount, and supposedly Torment is thrilled that they're funded at least until the expansion (unless I'm completely miscalculating the amount it takes to keep a guild raiding -- just how much money do you need for elixirs and buffs these days?). Spending 20,000 on a mount doesn't sound like anything I'll be doing anytime soon, but then raising all of that money doesn't sound that appetizing either.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Stress test live blog
We've been preparing for the stress test, are mostly gemmed and enchanted up, and are looking to fight! I'll be updating this post as things happen, hopefully with riveting tales of victory and triumph over Alliance Care Bears. (Kidding of course, my main is an Human warrior.)Read on after the break for the updates! We'll keep this front page only for things that are affecting everyone.Updated 5:23 p.m. PST: Live blogging wrapped up for the day. Many many thanks to all the fans and GMs out there! It was a great day with lots of cool stuff happening. More analysis over the next couple days!%Gallery-18020%
Around Azeroth: Big bear mount
What does it take to get a super-sized bear mount? According to the anonymous sender of this screenshot: "2 growths, a size increasing battle elixir, and had kissed mojo." Sounds like a winning combination to create an XL ride for that special Tauren in your guild.Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? Because we'd love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next! Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. We prefer full screen shots without the UI showing. And please, no more sunsets. No, really. Ok, only if it's a sunrise in new Patch 2.4 lands. We'll take those anytime.%Gallery-1816%
Breakfast Topic: Thanksgiving WoW Plans
With Thanksgiving holiday approaching quickly for American players, it means either 4 days of non-stop WoW playing or 4 days snowed in with talkative relatives and no Internet connection.For those of you planning to play WoW over the four day Thanksgiving weekend, what do you plan do accomplish with all that time? Rack up Honor Points? Level that new alt? Farm Zul'Aman for a bear mount? Grind towards one of the new flying mounts? You can vote in the poll or leave a comment below!%Poll-5957%
2.3 PTR screenshots rolling in
2.3 is up on the PTR, and both MMO Champion and World of Raids have broken out the Model Viewer and are ripping the new patch to pieces. Man, that bear mount looks awesome. And the engineering mount! And Zul'jin!Spoilers ahead, as well-- these guys are pulling out all the weapons from Zul'Aman, so if you don't want to see what all the new drops look like yet, don't look now. If you want to know what I think, I'd rather see this stuff in-game rather than diving in with the Model Viewer-- it's like reading the last page of a brand new novel, in that you might not know exactly how you get there, but you'll already know just what it looks like. The bear mount above isn't that big of a spoiler-- we already know it drops from. But the weapons and armor-- a big part of me wants to wait and see them in Zul'Aman itself.Still, if seeing the patch laid out in screenshots is your thing, both MMO Champion and World of Raids are going at it, and I'm told we'll be diving in later this evening. 2.3 ahoy! Go test those bugs on the PTR so those of us on the live realms can get it quick!Thanks, Atryd!
