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Firelands raid changes incoming
With the upcoming release of patch 4.3 and the final fight with Deathwing, Blizzard is reevaluating encounter difficulty in all Firelands normal and heroic mode encounters. Over the next few weeks, Blizzard will be toning down the encounters in Ragnaros' home turf to allow more groups to clear and complete the content before the final raid. It appears that the cuts will be coming to both regular and heroic modes, with about the same effect as the 4.2 changes to the first tier of Cataclysm raiding. The difficulty of Firelands will begin to be hotfixed the week of Sept. 19. I think that the Icecrown Citadel approach, nerfing raiding content as the tier progresses, is an excellent move by Blizzard to keep raiders playing and trying encounters they may have fallen just short on progression. World firsts have already happened, and that race is long over. Now, groups that weren't working on the content as intensely now have their shot at checking out some of the great encounters in Firelands.
The Light and How to Swing It: Retribution in the Firelands, part 1
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. Firelands has been out for a couple of months now. Many have gotten their hands dirty fighting against the minions of Ragnaros; a few have even beaten the elemental lord himself. But many more are just rolling up their sleeves, waiting for their friends and guildmates to get bored of playing in the sun (seriously, it's going to be there for another 5 billion years -- I think you can play a little Warcraft here and there and it won't mind). Well then, what better place to start than at the beginning?
Lichborne: Patch 4.2 raid gear for the DPS death knight
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. We've covered pre-raid gear and tank gear in patch 4.2, so there's only one real direction left to go. DPSers get their day in the sun this week. Unfortunately, strength DPS itemization is sort of crappy in a few areas this tier (more on that later), but there's still some pretty decent stuff you can pull out. Let's take a look.
The Light and How to Swing It: Tips for tanking Majordomo Staghelm
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. Here we are at Majordomo Staghelm, the last boss before Ragnaros himself. The final obstacle. As a member of the Horde, I don't really know much of Fandral Staghelm and can't enjoy the animosity he inspires in our leonine rivals. However, I imagine they're feeling the same satisfaction with this kill that I'll likely be feeling in the imminent future when Garrosh finally "goes crazy" and becomes a raid boss. That said, Majordomo Staghelm is not a particularly difficult fight to tank. At certain points, the damage is going to be coming hard and fast for the entire raid, and your healers are going to need any breathing room you can offer them. Like previous fights in the Firelands, the key is to break out your toolbox, dump all those cooldowns on the table, and toss them out at the proper times. You'll also be able to engage in some gratuitous strutting, thanks to the raid cooldown you bring to the table.
Encrypted Text: Rogue tips and tricks for Firelands, part 5
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 with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. The first time I faced Ragnaros, I was invited to soak up gear in a Molten Core run. The only reserved item was Perdition's Blade, as one of the guild's veteran rogues had been waiting for it for weeks. Of course, as soon as we Ragnaros packing, that infamous dagger was left behind. The master looter tried assigning it to the experienced rogue, but his name didn't show up in the looting console. He had fallen asleep during the Majordomo encounter, and because he didn't participate in the Ragnaros kill, he was ineligible for the weapon. As the only other rogue present, I was given Perdition's Blade by default. Drunk with power, I killed hundreds of priests and warlocks over the next few days, just because I could. When I heard that we'd be facing Ragnaros again, I immediately started salivating at the thought of scoring a Perdition's Blade 2.0 from his fiery corpse. When I found out that Rag still drops a Sulfuras for the warriors but doesn't have a single dagger on his loot table, I was pretty upset. He's had like six years to forge a new Perdition's Blade for me, but apparently he spent all of his time building an army instead. Forgetting to make a new dagger will be Ragnaros' biggest mistake, as I will have my revenge by sharing all of my tips for killing him with you.
Raid Rx: Healing Majordomo Staghelm
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah 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, the Matticast. Anyone else excited about transmogrification? I'll be shooting for tier 2, tier 5 and tier 6 looks. I'd rank those three as the greatest-looking priest sets of all time. But we're not here to talk about things like cosmetic looks, because no one cares about that stuff, right?! This week, we duck back into Firelands and take a look at Majordomo Staghelm. Among encounters that emphasize the use of cooldowns, the heroic phase of Halfus would be the Superbowl of all healing cooldown encounters. But the 25-man version of Majordomo, I would classify as the Olympics. There is a ton of preparation that needs to happen before throwing the entire raid in there. Before we devise a strategy that's going to work for you, there are a few questions you'll want to ask. How many healers do you want to take in? How many overall defensive raid cooldowns are available? Is your DPS amazingly high?
The Light and How to Swing It: Guide to tanking Alysrazor for protection paladins
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. Just kidding. We're actually going to kill it. As tragic as the idea is of murdering a newborn creature that has Imprinted itself on to you -- it thinks you're its mother; chew on that! -- you'll need to do the dirty deed to eventually pluck the real from the skies. Alysrazor is one of those rare fights that is a blast to tank. Maybe it's just me, but the most fun I've had in Firelands thus far has been pushing myself to the upper limits of my damage dealing potential while not making myself any harder to heal. It's a crazy balancing act, one that requires an acrobat's precision and a daredevil's bravery -- but it can be done. And it is so rewarding!
Ready Check: WoW Insider's guide to Ragnaros
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. This is it, folks, the end of the the line. We have already faced down the rest of his minions: Shannox, Beth'tilac, Lord Rhyolith, Alysrazor, Baleroc the Gatekeeper, and Majordomo Staghelm. All that remains is to challenge Ragnaros himself. The battle to reach the Sulfuron Keep has been long. Each encounter offers a new challenge for players to overcome, but none of those fights holds a candle to what remains. Ragnaros is no pushover; any player seeking to bring down the Lord of Fire should be amply prepared. One thing worth mentioning about the Ragnaros encounter is that very little of it is gear-dependent. If you are capable of reaching him, then you are more than capable of taking him down. More of the fight relies upon flawless execution of the mechanics than it does the raw output of your raid group. Should your group struggle to down him, don't fret. This is an encounter that takes time -- time to learn the ins and outs, how to move, what to do, and how to deal. Keep at it; things will click eventually, and suddenly he becomes cake.
Spiritual Guidance: Besting Baleroc (and other shadow priest alliteration)
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. On Wednesdays, shadow priesting expert Fox Van Allen's soaks all Baleroc's Torment, while inflicting Torment of his own onto the heads of certain boomkin bloggers. If you ask me, variety is what makes a good raid. You have different, unique bosses, with different, unique mechanics. Some have adds; some don't. Some send you soaring through the skies. Some have weird vehicle mechanics. And some encounters, bless their hearts, are Patchwerk-style simple. That's sort of the niche Baleroc the Gatekeeper fills. There are some mechanics you need to know, of course -- it's not a mindless stand-and-DPS fight. There is one phase and there is one key DPS mechanic. And as far as that mechanic goes, we shadow priests are stars of the show.
Encrypted Text: Rogue tips and tricks for Firelands, part 4
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 with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. In order to challenge Ragnaros in the Sulfuron Keep, we have to defeat his fire-loving cadre that blocks our way. Baleroc acts as the Spire's gatekeeper, preventing us from crossing the chasm between us and Ragnaros. After dispatching the first fours bosses in Firelands, we knock out Baleroc to make our way across a fiery bridge to dethrone Ragnaros himself. Unfortunately for us, Rag's newest Majordomo, the former archdruid Fandral Staghelm, is guardian the entrance to the Spire. Luckily for us, we just picked up a Gatecrasher from Baleroc's smoldering corpse, and we're ready to cleave our way through whatever Staghelm throws our way. The Staghelm fight is fairly simple for rogues. We're focusing on nuking the boss for nearly the entire fight, and that's exactly the type of encounter we shine in. Staghelm does have a few adds he spawns, though, and they need to be taken down quickly. Combat rogues are uniquely suited for burning these unwelcome guests down, due to Blade Flurry. Blade Flurry can boost your DPS on this encounter by nearly 20%, and combat's extra expertise helps us attack Majordomo from the front.
Lichborne: What to do with your new level 85 death knight in patch 4.2
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. So you've dinged level 85 on your death knight. Now what? Patch 4.2 bought a lot of new things for level 85s of almost any PVE playstyle to do, so you have options to choose from. This week, we'll take a look at some of the best things you can do to get yourself geared up and ready to hit the next level of PVE play once you hit level 85.
World-first Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest completed by Premonition
Big congratulations are in store for Siiz, gnome mage extraordinaire from Premonition, who is the world-first wielder of the newest legendary item, Dragonwrath. Along with completing the legendary staff, Siiz opened up the Lil'Tarecgosa companion pet for his entire guild, as well as the ability to use the staff as a mount to transform into Tarecgosa herself. The unique Tarecgosa model is used as the mount, much like how players transform into a drake using the Vial of the Sands. Tarecgosa cannot carry another player as a passenger, however. From the screenshots, the mount version looks bigger than most drakes, noting its legendary status. Very, very cool. I like the fact that Blizzard has added in something that will let the legendary staff live on beyond its usefulness, as opposed to just looking nice when you equip it. Again, big congratulations to Siiz and Premonition. Even though Siiz is a gnome, we won't hold it against him.
Spiritual Guidance: A shadow priest's guide to Alysrazor
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. On Wednesdays, shadow priesting expert Fox Van Allen's steals all your feathers to become a soaring blur of purple. Fox encourages all potential prey to follow him on Twitter. Last week, I talked about the gimmickry involved in the Lord Rhyolith fight. It's interesting and unique, but for us shadow priests, largely irrelevant. If only there were a fight with a super-cool gimmick that puts shadow priests on center stage and ... ... oh, wait, there totally is a fight like that: Alysrazor! The fight against Alysrazor is absolutely hectic, but in a fun way. Shadow priests get a stacking haste buff that will have you frantically mashing keys to maximize your DPS. We get a crit buff that guarantees near 100% Shadowfiend uptime. And, oh yeah -- we friggin' fly through the air. That's right, Alysrazor is all about the z-axis. It's time to go grab your Super Nintendo out of the attic, shadow priests, because it's about to get all Pilotwings up in here.
Encrypted Text: Rogue tips and tricks for Firelands, part 3
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 with any questions or topics you'd like to see covered. Alysrazor is not an ideal fight for rogues. We waste a lot of time running around, and we spend hundreds of energy points on Kicks. We swap targets often, never spending more than a minute on any single enemy. We're often too far away from the rest of the raid to receive their buffs, and our targets are rarely fully debuffed. Due to encounter mechanics, even the tanks are dealing more damage than us. While it might seem like the odds are stacked against us on Alysrazor, the good news is that our damage here isn't nearly as important as our utility. Alysrazor is the official Interrupt Boss for Firelands. There's always an Interrupt Boss in each raid tier. Tier 11 saw us Kicking all of Maloriak's casts, while Lady Deathwhisper and Valithria Dreamwalker had us interrupting Scourge casters all night. It was almost impossible to defeat the Faction Champions without solid interrupts, and General Vezax's Searing Flames was deadly if not Kicked. Rogues have been the go-to interrupters for years, and the Alyzrazor encounter again challenges us to put our boots in some caster faces.
The Light and How to Swing It: Healing against Alysrazor
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. My 10-man raid team has three healers, but none of us has an off-spec. Once we mastered the fight, Alysrazor feels like an encounter that only really requires two healers. We loved having three healers while learning, but now that it's on farm, I decided to try out a shockadin hybrid build for this encounter. I actually spent the majority of my time spamming Exorcism on the adds and Rebuking their casts. The reason that I'm able to be in melee range of the casters is Beacon of Light's massive 60-yard range, which allows me to heal a tank even when I'm way past any other healer's effective range. When you first engage Alysrazor, your entire raid is knocked back and blasted with fire damage. I immediately assumed that the encounter was going to revolve around heavy AOE damage, and I readied myself to use Holy Radiance on cooldown while bracing myself for a good crying session once it was over. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Alysrazor actually doesn't require that much AOE healing outside of her final phase. For the majority of this fight, holy paladins get to focus on what we do best: single-target healing. I like to use a Divine Favored Holy Radiance to counter the opening AOE blast, as Divine Favor will be up again for the AOE phase later 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.
WoW Moviewatch: Alliance vs. Horde: Firelands
The team over at TheWarpZone has put together a new WoW-themed video. Alliance vs. Horde: Firelands revisits the old Mac vs. PC format, although I really think of the Alliance vs. Horde series as its own creature; it's working within its own mythology at this point and developing its own character. I'll admit the Horde had me going with its complaints about Ragnaros. Those sort of nitpicks and opinions are exactly the kind of thing we see in the official forums all the time, so I thought it was reasonable that might be the Horde's editorial stance. The Alliance vs. Horde series is a lot of fun. I'm always interested in the head-to-head style and the lighthearted, amusing opinions each character espouses. By the way, if you don't follow TheWarpZone normally, jump back and check out this X-Men Born This Way parody. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
The Light and How to Swing It: Tanking Baleroc (and somehow surviving to the end)
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. Perhaps it's just me, but I find Baleroc to be one of the most intense fights to tank that I've thus far encountered in Firelands. You have three phases featuring varying degrees of speed at which you'll be mashed into a fine gruel, all performed by a dual-wielding boss with a swing speed that barely lets you catch you breath from the one-punch before the subsequent two-punch comes screaming in across your sweat-drenched brow and knocks whatever remaining molars you've managed to hold onto right out of your bloody maw and into the general direction of the profanity-uttering feral druid beside you. Or at least, that's how my active imagination likes to picture it while I'm laying on the ground waiting for my battle rez. It doesn't have to be that way, though. Despite his bag of tricks, Baleroc still comes up short in comparison to the raiding paladin, if only because our bag of tricks is actually a massive steel tool cabinet, and each drawer is packed with amazing tools that can cut right through whatever the boss might throw at us. We're like the iPhones of tanking -- there's a cooldown for that. Continue on, and I'll detail how to use each of your abilities to their optimum effect and thus achieve that hallowed nirvana of the boss fight: not having to get rezzed at the end.
Paragon releases heroic Ragnaros 25-man kill video
Earlier this month, Paragon earned the high honor of world-first heroic Ragnaros kill, downing the Firelord after over 400 attempts on his fight. Heroic mode encounters add something new and difficult to the mix, but it is rare that we see an entirely new phase to an encounter. Paragon's heroic Ragnaros kill video shows the final stage of the heroic fight, in which Ragnaros submerges in his lava pool and emerges at full strength on new legs allowing him movement all over the encounter room. The final stage of the fight involves Archdruid Hamuul Runetotem, Malfurion Stormrage, and Cenarius assisting players in dealing with the entirely new mechanics this new heroic mode phase presents. If you've been trying Ragnaros or have killed him, you already have experienced the hilarious Living Meteor ability. In that new phase, meteors must be kited over patches of ice on the ground to freeze them, and then players must DPS down meteors to control the number up at any time. At that point, players are also frantically running around extinguishing ground fires and trapping Ragnaros in roots on the ground. All in all, it looks incredibly fun and challenging, and it's very nice to see Ragnaros putting his new legs to good use kicking the crap out of guilds across the world. My favorite part of the video has to be the end, with the custom death animation for Ragnaros. Watch until the very end -- it's worth it. Congratulations again to DREAM Paragon for their heroic first kill and for this awesome video of the accomplshment.
Encrypted Text: Rogue tips and tricks for Firelands, part 1
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 with your favorite ganking stories or dictionary definitions of the word "griefing." The best part of playing a subtlety rogue has always been Shadowstep. Warriors have been blessed with Intercept since day one, and feral druids have Kitty Leap built into their default specs. Rogues, on the other hand, are forced into subtlety to match the mobility of our leather-wearing brethren. Shadowstep could be such a powerful tool for maintaining our uptime in raid situations, if only every rogue had access to it. Subtlety rogues don't want Shadowstep to become baseline, because then subtlety loses half of its attractiveness. Even without Shadowstep, rogues have plenty of buttons to push in Firelands. There are plenty of adds to test our AOE potency, utility encounters that stress precision instead of damage, and plenty of nasty spells to interrupt. While we're not fighting against Lucifron and Golemagg again, we can use our experience against Ragnaros' former entourage to help us combat the new crew hanging out around his castle. Just remember to have your Volcanic Armor and Helm of Fire equipped; I hear Rag likes to keep his thermostat set to "crispy."
