siege-of-orgrimmar
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The Light and How to Swing It: Retribution after patch 5.4
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Seasoned ret paladin Dan Desmond is here to answer your questions and provide you with your biweekly dose of retribution medicine. Contact him at dand@wowinsider.com with any questions, concerns, or suggestions! Back in June (Wow, seriously? Tempus fugit, I suppose.) I shared my thoughts on some of the changes coming in patch 5.4. As is typical for me when it comes to change, I was a bit harsh in some of my pre-judgments and, now that we are well into the newest content Blizzard has to offer, I'd like to revisit a few of those points. Inquisition's longer duration Originally I was not very happy about this change. I felt that maintaining a relatively shorter duration buff was part of what distinguished a "good" ret paladin from a "bad" one, as if squeezing out a tiny amount of extra DPS would make a dramatic difference in performance, and that making it easier to maintain would make the spec utterly boring and unchallenging. Boy, was I wrong. It took some getting used to at first, for as Inquisition's duration doubled the WeakAura bar that I used to track it remained the same, resulting in far too many early refreshes than I care to admit. But after the honeymoon I had settled into our new relationship pretty well. It may only be an additional 30 seconds, but it did wonders for setting my mind at ease when I went to refresh it. I still wonder if this is where the devs will stop with it, or if they'll eventually make it passive or allow other abilities to extend its duration (essentially making it passive anyway). I would like to think that Blizzard has learned a great deal from how much tanks are enjoying active mitigation and realize that, on the whole, "active" is fun whereas "passive" is not.
Last wing of Siege of Orgrimmar now open in LFR
According to the official schedule, the fourth and final wing of the Siege of Orgrimmar, "Downfall," should be available as of today, October 22nd, to players via LFR. The fourth wing features three bosses: Siegecrafter Blackfuse, Paragons of the Klaxxi, and the big bad Garrosh Hellscream himself. As has always been the case, you much have the achievement of completion for the previous raid wings in order to access the new one, in addition to a minimum gear ilevel of 496. With this last stage of the raid unlocked, LFR groups should now be able to complete the entire Siege of Orgrimmar. If you've somehow managed to avoid all the spoilers as to the identity of the new Warchief, now's your chance to find out the old-fashioned way!
Totem Talk: The Curious Case of Chain Heal
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 content creation at InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. Back in the glory days of restoration shaman, say around The Burning Crusade, Chain Heal was the best things since Roasted Kodo Meat. It was the premier group heal, it was incredibly efficient in terms of mana cost, and you could heal for the same value as two healers. It was truly the greatest of times for those healing minded of us. Anyone who has been following me on Twitter has probably noted that over the last few weeks I've had a pretty love hate relationship with CH on various fights in Siege of Orgrimmar. It is a complicated matter, at least through my eyes, for a few reasons.
The disconcerting sensation of contentment
Spoilers for Patch 5.4 in this post Guys, I'm happy with patch 5.4. I know there's lots of people who don't like the Timeless Isle, but for me it's perfect - head on over, do a few quests, blow some coins gambling with a monkey person, head on out. I very much enjoy Siege of Orgrimmar. I feel like progression has been at a decent clip and I really, REALLY liked the after quests (and my wolfie mount who is now my favorite mount ever) including the bit in the Vale that I won't talk about before the jump for spoilers. I'm even happy with my class - protection is better (it still needs a ton of gear to be viable, but it always has), arms is much improved and is great for AoE, and fury is solid if unremarkable (and there's something beautiful about Storm Bolt for fury right now). In short, I really have to work to find something to complain about. I admit, I don't really know what to do with myself. I'm an infamous curmudgeon - to find myself logging on, enjoying myself, and then logging off is somewhat confusing for me. Now, I've always enjoyed playing World of Warcraft - if I didn't, I wouldn't still be doing it this many years later - but it's always been an enjoyment tempered by this or that thing that really bothered me. Right now, nothing in game does that. I still have my concerns, of course - I am never going to stop hating Dark Shaman, because no matter what I do, it's possible for two or three things to pop up at once and do 750,000 damage to everyone in melee in one second, and when that happens I almost always end up sniffing the dirt in the Valley of Strength. But that's a minor quibble.
Is your guild bank going dry?
I raid with an extremely generous 25-man raiding guild that is chugging along quite nicely through the Siege of Orgrimmar. They are kind enough to provide not only guild repairs, but potions, flasks, and feasts -- now noodle carts -- as well. The guild is pretty good about keeping everything managed, and raiders do a pretty good job about keeping the guild bank filled with materials for all the stuff that the guild supplies on a typical guild run. But we've had a problem recently that picked up in patch 5.4. Someone mentioned that the guild bank wasn't making quite as much gold as it used to, and player repairs are bleeding the guild bank of gold almost faster than it can be put in. This seemed odd to me at the time, but I re-doubled my efforts to continue sticking herbs, gems, and whatever other useful items I came across into the guild bank, figuring it would all balance itself out. It turns out, however, that we aren't alone with our weird little problem.
Know Your Lore: The fate of Garrosh Hellscream
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. In a recent edition of The Queue, one of our readers asked a question regarding the fate of Garrosh Hellscream in patch 5.4. It was a question that many players have actually been asking ever since Garrosh's fate was revealed. In the interests of avoiding spoilers, I won't mention that fate here, but be forewarned that this edition of Know Your Lore is chock full of spoilers for patch 5.4 that discuss the situation in full. Garrosh Hellscream's journey began as leader-in-training for a remote, tiny village in Outland. Clouded with shame over his father's misdeeds, Garrosh was listless, depressed, and convinced that he was destined to lead his people down the same dark path that his father had. In the years following his introduction, Garrosh has discovered his father's heroic sacrifice, strove to live up to his name, eagerly sought to strengthen the Horde, and then promptly fulfilled his own sad vision of the future, leading his "True Horde" down a path of darkness that eerily echoed the familiar refrain of the Old Horde from so long ago. Please note: There are spoilers for patch 5.4 immediately following the break. If you are avoiding spoiler content for the Siege of Orgrimmar, run away!
The Light and How to Swing It: Tips for tanking the first four bosses of Siege of Orgrimmar
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 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense. Siege of Orgrimmar has been open for a month now (how time flies!) and with what I've seen over the last month I'm still not sure how I feel about the raid as a whole. The first four bosses are utterly uninspiring to tank and it seems like the raid tries to make up for it with some crazy-hectic fights in the next quad. Dark Shaman alone gave me more grey hairs than I care to admit. I get ahead of myself, though. As they say, there's no better place to start than at the beginning, so in this post I've written up basic quick 'n dirty strats for each of the first four bosses along with glyphing and talenting recommendations to hopefully give you a far easier time toppling the Sha-corrupted forces that stand between you and the actual conflict going on across the sea in Durotar.
How do we define 'melee friendly'?
This week, we got a special treat - Blizzard released a video with Encounter Developer Ion Hazzikostas (who is seriously my secret crush over at Blizz - my trapper keeper is full of little hearts drawn around his name), Production Director J. Allen Brack and Game Director Tom Chilton (they're dreamy too, but Ion's my fave) and it's got a cornucopia of interesting information in it for you all. However, one line of the interview, summed up by our Adam Koebel, caught my eye immediately. They realize raids need to be more melee friendly in the future and they are working on it, but they feel that Siege of Orgrimmar is one of the most melee friendly raids in recent memory. When I first saw this line, I chuckled bitterly to myself. Siege is melee friendly? This got me to wondering how we define melee friendly. Is it just the ability for melee players to contribute solid DPS? Because by that standard, Siege has some good fights for melee - the Fallen Protectors, Sha of Pride, Galakras and even Spoils of Pandaria are certainly fights where melee DPS can contribute a good deal of positive damage to an encounter. Phase 1 Garrosh is a place where melee with good cleave potential absolutely shines. So by that standard, a case could absolutely be made that Siege is melee friendly. Now, in terms of melee staying alive without making the healers hate every single one of them that the raid brings to the party? Siege of Orgrimmar continues in a grand tradition of blowing up the melee. By that standard, SoO is absolutely not melee friendly.
Encrypted Text: Combat and Subtlety under Siege
Every week or two, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Scott Helfand (@sveltekumquat) will be your shadow on this treacherous journey; try not to keep your back turned for too long, and make sure your valuables are stashed somewhere safe. When we last left our devious, poison-festooned heroes, they were assassinating the heck out of every raid boss in sight, much as they have been this entire expansion. Assassination has been the spec of choice for raiders of all stripes in Mists -- but might Patch 5.4 change the balance? The answer may depend as much on you as on the gifts that WoW's designers wrapped up and handed us for the new patch. Combat and subtlety both are looking like perfectly good options in almost every situation. Unless you're with a group that is seriously trying to squeeze every last drop of damage out of its DPSers, and you're already playing your spec perfectly, your main criteria for which spec to use should rely on 1) whether you enjoy it and 2) whether you've got the right gear for it.
Know Your Lore: A brief summary of the Pandaria campaign
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. There will be spoilers for every patch of Mists of Pandaria, including 5.4 and the Siege of Orgrimmar raid, in this post Leaving aside blame for a moment, let's just look at the results of the past year or so in terms of what actually happened. To heavily summarize events: Horde and Alliance forces discovered Pandaria, landing in the Jade Forest. Both factions mobilized local allies (the Horde made pacts with the Hozen, the Alliance joined forces with the Pearlfin Jinyu) and waged a proxy battle through these cat's paws. The result was the desrtuction of the Jade Serpent's next incarnation and the release of the Sha of Doubt, leading to the Sha infestation of the Temple of the Jade Serpent. Both factions pushed onward into Kun-Lai Summit, where they fought the yaungol and set up base camps, converting local pandaren to their cause. They did not actually join in battle at this time. Scouts and agents of the Horde and Alliance penetrated deeper into the continent, in time exploring the Townlong Steppes and Dread Wastes. In time these advance forces even managed to convince the August Celestials to allow both the Horde and Alliance to set up bases within the sacred Vale of Eternal Blossoms. Both the Horde and Alliance made large-scale military bases in the Krasarang Wilds and began using these to wage resource war against one another, fighting over territory and raw materials as well as ancient mogu artifacts buried below the surface of the wilds. This period of hostilities led to a culmination wherein Warchief Garrosh Hellscream attempted to use a mogu artifact, the Divine Bell, to infuse his own soldiers with the power of the Sha. The fallout from this action caused the neutral Kirin Tor to eject the Sunreaver pro-Horde faction from Dalaran and declare themselves for the Alliance under their leader, Lady Jaina Proudmoore. Prince Anduin Wrynn nearly died in the attempt to destroy the Divine Bell, which succeeded. Garrosh Hellscream, however, was not balked from his goal of finding a new weapon. There's more, of course. Things had only begun to heat up at this point.
Totem Talk: Healing Deeper Under the Veil
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 content creation at InternetDragons.TV), shows you how. Between taking down bosses and pushing ever further into the Siege of Orgrimmar, I've been taking a tour of all the horde side places that I haven't been too in almost 10 years. This past week I went through and explored Undercity again. Man has that place changed since the first time I set foot there. That said, the familiar halls still feel almost the same, almost like a home coming. I mean, you never forget your first bat ride do you? That feeling really does translate well in the new raid tier. After all, to me at least, it is all about saving the once and glorious horde. Once you make the puddle clean again, and you're ready to start making your way deeper into the Siege, your next stop is going to see you facing down some old friends. It's an interesting story point, to emerge from the vault beneath the well only to be greeted by what were once among your most valued allies in the war against the Mogu. This is not a comprehensive boss guide, but is instead tips and tricks I have learned through my own personal experiences.
Know Your Lore: The curious case of the Timeless Isle
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. Its existence is an enigma that even the wisest of pandaren have yet to unravel. A place of great reverence for the pandaren, many warriors and aspiring leaders once traveled to this remote isle to test their mettle against the great Celestials themselves. Yet at some point, some moment in history, the Timeless Isle vanished. And as history continued to wind on in Pandaria, the Isle would reappear from time to time -- long enough to perhaps be noticed, but never quite long enough to allow more than a few unfortunate adventurers upon its shores before blinking out into history once more. Until now. The Timeless Isle represents a curiosity both to the pandaren, who are glad to see the Isle back again and stable -- for now -- and to the Bronze Dragonflight and their allies, the Timewalkers. To many players, the Timeless Isle simply represents a fun way to pass a few hours, killing rare spawns, picking up enticing Bind-on-Account item tokens for alts, and of course gathering tons of Timeless Coins to turn in for other rare rewards. But there's something ... different about the Timeless Isle. It's a puzzle, one that has yet to be fully solved. And of all the questions I have about this odd island in the middle of nowhere, the one that stands out at the front of my mind is quite simply -- why now?
Breakfast Topic: Does LFR impact raid design?
A few days ago, the player Camaranth started a thread on the tank forums examining the number of tank swap mechanics in raids. While the discussion is a good one, there's a reply written by Snuzzle not far down the thread with an interesting observation. "I think the reason we are seeing so many encounters designed with tank swaps in Mists," he/she writes, "is that fights are being designed with Raid Finder in mind ... They need both tanks to have a job to do. Tank swaps are the way to do that (because) most everyone can instantly understand (them)." LFR might not be the only reason for that, but I think Snuzzle has a point. Encounters have to be programmed with the knowledge that Raid Finder groups will always have two tanks, 6 healers, and 17 DPS, no guarantees on class composition, and the knowledge that coordination will realistically be minimal. I don't think it necessarily reflects on the skill of the players concerned so much as the inherent disorganization. Under the circumstances, it would be extremely difficult to program an encounter like, say, Kael'thas or Teron Gorefiend or High King Maulgar, and have it remain somewhat close to the normal and heroic versions. I don't know whether LFR actually does have a serious impact on raid design, but it's certainly an interesting question. In related news, the LFR version of Siege of Orgrimmar was nerfed recently for reasons I think all of us can guess.
Method talk about their world first race
Fresh from being the first guild to down Garrosh in 25-man heroic difficulty, several of Method's raiders were kind enough to take time out and answer some questions for WoW Insider. We touch on encounter mechanics, difficulty, scary moments, creative tactics, and whether they're all still friends! WoW Insider was joined for this interview by Treckie, who is the main tank and plays a paladin, Sparkuggz and Gabzz who both play Warlocks, Noxe who plays a rogue, Sonie, who's a restoration shaman, and Leeds who plays an elemental shaman. How did Garrosh compare to the other fights in the tier? Was he the most challenging boss? Sparkuggz: It was a long fight, but not hard per se. I feel like Siegecrafter, especially if people didn't exploit the belt and put people up twice in a row, would be rated as a harder fight. All last bosses of the expansion felt nice though, because you had the feeling that everytime you hit a new fight you hit a new wall. Gabzz: He wasn't the most challenging in term of fight mechanics, but progression on him was hard due to multiple phases and fight length. Treckie: Most challenging for sure, considering the other "hard" fights were done with a reset, less gear and still less tries than Garrosh. It proves he took a lot more to get down.
Scattered Shots: Pillaging Orgrimmar
Every Thursday, WoW Insider brings you Scattered Shots for beast mastery, marksmanship and survival hunters. This week, your host Adam Koebel, aka Bendak will be discussing all things that are shiny and purple. You knew it was coming. Every class needs their token loot article when a new tier is released. This tier, I'm actually really excited because the loot gods have been kind to hunters: five ranged weapons, fun trinkets, well-itemized tier gear, interesting set bonuses, and plenty of options on the Timeless Isle. Blizzard even gave us our own unique proc on the legendary cloak. The question is, where should you be spending your precious Warforged Seals and Burdens of Eternity? The short answer for bonus rolls is weapons, then trinkets, then tier pieces. The long answer concerns your chosen specialization and how far you have progressed in flexible, normal, or heroic. Set down your bow (or gun, dwarves) and pull up a chair. It's time to talk about hunter loot in patch 5.4.
Bosses in 5 seconds: Siege of Orgrimmar wing two
Guess who's back? Yep, it's bosses in five seconds again, returning with some advice for Siege of Orgrimmar LFR wing two. As ever, do remember that these are not in-depth strategies. They're not meant for your heroic raid team, and there are many guides out there which will suit you better if heroic raiding is your thing. This is meant, principally, for LFR, but will arm you decently if you step into a Flex PuG to take on these bosses. It's quick-and-dirty strategy guides for the second wing of LFR bosses. Let's get going! Galakras The Dungeon Journal is a bit daunting for Galakras, but it's actually a pretty simple fight. Clear trash. Keep Bonecrushers stunned and Tidal Shaman interrupted. Tank adds in fire pools, they take damage. Towers will open as Demolishers appear. Kill Demos first then... Send 1 tank, 1 healer and around 3-4 DPS to the towers. South, then North, avoid frontal cone so you don't get knocked off. Avoid shoot at all costs. It will two-shot you. Someone stay to man the turret. Ground team kill adds and Demolishers. When Galakras lands, stack up. Try to kite the fireball through other people.
A lack of triumph
There's no real way to discuss this without sounding critical, which isn't my intent, so let me try and front load this one: I believe that Mists of Pandaria may be the first expansion to end, not with a feeling of victory, so much as a feeling of exhaustion. And I believe this to have been a deliberate choice on Blizzard's part, and moreover, I believe it to be the correct choice, because it highlights the ultimate futility of the Horde/Alliance conflict as the main conflict of the World of Warcraft MMO. There can be no ultimate winner as long as the Warcraft setting continues to exist, only a series of temporary highs and lows as each trades blows. In The Burning Crusade, we ultimately defeated Illidan Stormrage (who, I admit, I was never really clear on the reasons why we were fighting him -- yes, he could have eventually been a threat, but he didn't actually seem all that interested in fighting us) and Kil'Jaeden, a much more real and present danger whose defeat saved all of Azeroth from a repeat of the Burning Legion invasion. In Wrath of the Lich King, we defeated the Lich King, slaying Arthas Menethil and halting the Scourge. In Cataclysm, we defeated Deathwing, balking his plans for annihilating the world entire. These felt like victories. Whether you were Horde or Alliance, you could feel pride in your efforts to hold back the shadow of destruction and save everything you knew from a grisly end. At the end of the Siege of Orgrimmar, yes, we've toppled a tyrant. But for Horde players, it comes at a monumental cost - the guilt of being complicit in Hellscream's actions, the trauma of having to have raised arms against one's own faction and storm your own city, deaths of those you've known and even liked on the other side of the civil war (Alas, poor Nazgrim, and flights of wolfriders bear thee to thy pyre) and having to see what depths a former hero of the Horde could sink to, throwing away his father's weapon and his father's final legacy in favor of the same naked grasping for power that damned the orcish people once before. And Alliance players? Well, we get to fix the Horde's mess. On the one hand, it is a victory, and a decisive one. Both factions made a statement with their role in the siege. Both can be proud of what they've done. But can it be called triumphant? I submit that it cannot, that it is no triumph, merely an end to madness.
Reminder: Siege of Orgrimmar wing The Underhold open for Flex Raiding
In case you're doing a decent amount of Flex Raiding (I have been, in addition to normal) then good news - this week, the Underhold, the third wing of the Siege of Orgrimmar, is now available via flex. Our friends at Wowhead have this roundup of the available loot options from new bosses Malkorok, Spoils of Pandaria and Thok the Bloodthirsty for you to look over and plan where to best use your Warforged Seals. My luck on weapon drops has been abysmal this tier, so I'm even considering that Britomart's Jagged Pike despite all that haste and mastery. So far I've really liked Flex - it's completely replaced LFR for me, and I admit it speaks to that place inside me which used to run ICC 10 every week to gear up for ICC 25. Perhaps that's wrong of me to have that inner voice, but I do, and so I'm happy with Flex. How about yourselves? Done with it, tired of waiting for new wings, or really loving it so far?
Lichborne: The Underhold 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. The Underhold is the third section of the Siege of Orgrimmar, and will be opening up for Flex raiders this week. With that in mind, today we'll look at the loot that drops for the 3 bosses contained within. As before, the same disclaimers from the last two weeks apply. While "Best in Slot" is all well and good, "Best in Slot" also assumes you are playing at the top of your game, using very specific rotations, talents, and glyphs, and using cooldowns at the proper times, and that the gear you're picking up is mostly heroic or heroic warforged gear. Also, upgrades are upgrades, so if you're wielding Raid Finder gear from Throne of Thunder, even non-optimal flex gear from Siege of Orgrimmar is probably going to be an upgrade. Keep that in mind when grabbing gear as well.
Asia first Garrosh Hellscream heroic kill goes to Tianqi
Congratulations to Chinese guild 天 啟 (Tianqi) for their Garrosh Hellscream kill in 10-man heroic mode! If you're wondering why this isn't visible on WoWProgress as a world first kill, it's because they have certain advantages over players in other regions. To start, there are separate weekly lockouts for 10-man and 25-man, allowing a guild in Asia to run both in the same week. Secondly, the loot in 25-man is 8 ilevels higher and the boss health and damage is also 8% higher. This allowed Tianqi to acquire higher ilevel loot in 25-man before going into 10-man to achieve their Garrosh kill. At least one of the players participating in the kill had a average ilevel of 575 along with a ilevel 588 weapon. These circumstances should in no way detract from their achievement, but the traditional world first race is still very much on for both 10-man and 25-man.
