A Question for Trees: Mitigation in Ulduar

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Occasionally, I'll be featuring some guest posts on my blog. Today, our resident rawr-tank, Aeman, brings up an interesting point about our role (or lack thereof) as damage mitigators.


Hi trees!

I was going to write a post for Averna about tanking in Ulduar. Specifically, I was going to write about adjustments I made to my tanking spec because of the heavy hitting bosses in the instance (compared to the pantywaists in Naxxramas). I was specced for threat to keep ahead of our extremely... zealous hunters in Naxx, but in Ulduar I've scrambled for every scrap of survivability I can find. When a trash mob can 2-shot you, you know you've got problems.

My Exhibit A, my golden child, was of course Steelbreaker. You stand him on a Rune of Power and try and eat one of his Fusion Punches, and you'll quickly discover a new meaning of the word "floor". Hodir's Frozen Blows, hitting the tank for 40k while the rest of the raid is sucking down 2000dps AOE damage? Ow.

As I was writing this, I realized that you trees probably don't care too much about what *I'm* doing to survive Ulduar's bosses. The important part is that I put my pants back on, get out of Aquatic Form, and hit my Mangle button, right? So I figured I'd try and offer you some tips to work *with* me/your tank so we ALL survive and get shiny epix. Back to Steelbreaker I went. The first Punch, I always throw up my Barkskin to reduce the incoming damage. But Punches come too frequently for me to mitigate every one, so I depend on my healers to throw me one of their awesome preventative/mitigating abilities.

...And I realized that druids don't have a single ability to help their tank prevent, mitigate, or avoid incoming damage. Not one. Tons of HOTs, a big heal, even a reactive heal in Living Seed... but no shield. And that's kind of a glaring omission in my mind. There are attacks in this game that WILL one-shot a tank who doesn't have a mitigation ability active, and resto druids just can't care about it. What's the point? You don't have any ability that could make a difference against that attack, no matter how awesome a healer you are.

So I got you guys this:




Yeah, I know you already have a talent with that name, but that's not the point. What do you think? Do you wish you had a preventative ability? Does not having one make your job harder? Do you think (or have you found) that it affects your perceived viability in high-end content?

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Soloing Anzu the Raven God

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Occasionally, I'll be featuring some guest posts on my blog. Today, once again we have the rawr-tastic Aeman, who shows us that soloing old content isn't just for the birds. ^^

Who's that sneaking past Darkweaver Syth? It's Guestcat!

My last post actually got replies, so the rest of you have those big-hearted commenters to thank for my continued persistance (I know, I know - it's a resto blog. A cat can dream). Trismegistus asked my secret for soloing Anzu, the Raven God, and I'm back to share.

Before you walk in the door, I'd recommend the following:

• Heroic-quality bear-oriented gear. I was probably 50% Naxx25-geared when I first started on Anzu, and I wouldn't recommend too much worse than that.
  
• A talent spec that includes the major bear-oriented talents - particularly Feral Instinct (for both Prowling and Swiping) and Improved Leader of the Pack. This is the spec I use.
  
• A PvP trinket.
  
• A half-stack of Heavy Frostweave Bandages, and the following macro:
  
  /cancelform [nomod,stance:1]
  /use Heavy Frostweave Bandage
  

After you walk in the door, I'd recommend stealthing. (; With 3/3 Feral Instinct you can easily walk past every mob in the instance, with two exceptions. Darkweaver Syth, the first boss, can see through stealth - you can kill him if you want, but as long as you keep to the outside of his room you can still walk right by him. Secondly, there is a flock of birds in the first hallway upstairs. Sneak by them on the right side, but watch out for one who will fly right up to the edge of the corridor.

Now, in gear good enough to kill Anzu you can take any pull in the instance with very little personal danger. It's not really worth the time, though. If you do choose to, just be careful of the dual-wield guys guarding three doorways after Darkweaver Syth. They're quite mean, and enrage after you kill one. Watch out for the knockback from the Wind Serpents, too.

So, you've stealthed to Anzu's room! Problem is, it's full of mobs. You can sneak in to the near left corner of the room, behind the tomb there, and unstealth if you need to buff. Use Thorns; every little bit helps. Equip your PvP trinket and start pulling! Be sure to CC one or two mobs per pull to decrease the incoming damage - your only healing is going to be from Imp. LOTP, which has a 6 second cooldown. There are a variety of mobs to worry about, but here's a general guideline for each type:

• Prophets: Either Root these or kill them first. They fear, which you can either outrange (if rooted) or break with your PvP trinket (but save it for dire need... being feared isn't bad, but being feared into another pack is). When they die they turn into a spirit which can actually do some damage to you, since it's spell damage that goes right past your armor.
  
• Birds: Sleep them - they're not dangerous, but if there's a bird in the pull that's one more CC you can use to minimize incoming damage.
  
• Shadowcasters: not dangerous.
  
• Shamans: not dangerous (summon a small add).
  
• Talon Lords: Root them if you're not rooting a Prophet. They've got an annoying stun.
  
• The Wind Serpent: just make sure you don't pull it along with another group.
  

In dealing with each pack, all I do is throw up Demo Roar, Swipe when Mangle's on cooldown, and Maul when I have plenty of rage (most of the time). Between Imp. Mangle, Feral Instincts-buffed Swipe, and Glyph of Maul, you can dish a pretty pile of AOE damage. If you feel like it, throw a Lacerate on a mob or three for the Rend & Tear bonus to Maul. Nature's Grasp can be handy if you want to take some pressure off.

Once the room is clear, it's Anzu time. I didn't bother with the bird spirits - since it's only you, any spell you cast is going to trigger Spell Bomb. Just tank and spank him in bear form, but stop before you hit 66% and wait for a Paralyzing Screech. Once he Screeches, burn him down to 66% to banish him. If you're low on health (or even if you're not), hit your Bandage macro. The benefit to leaving bear form is that the bandage will heal a greater percentage of your health in caster form than it will in bear. Since you waited for the Screech, you won't be interrupted mid-bandage by a stun... and since it's not a spell, it won't trigger Spell Bomb! SNEAKY.

Bandaged up, drop back into Bear Form and get ready to take out the birds. You'll probably have to maneuver them a little to get them in front of you, but just Demo Roar, and Mangle/Swipe them down. If Anzu comes back while there are still some up, just keep plugging away. I consider the birds my "regen phase" - I crit enough on them to get some nice healthy Imp. LOTP procs.

*A note regarding 3.1: Next patch, Swipe will be targetless and 360 degrees, but remember that you can't dodge something that attacks you from behind! You still want to keep the birds in front of you as best you can.

That's all there is to it! Repeat at 33% (remember to wait for Paralyzing Screech), rebandage if you need to, and then burn him the rest of the way down. For cooldowns, I would suggest saving them for:

• Barkskin: the banish phase. More mobs = more incoming damage mitigated.
  
• Berserk: cleanup after a banish phase, if you still have a lot of birds up.
  
• +Dodge trinkets: Anzu. More damage per dodge mitigated, and you may have birds behind you during the banish phase that you can't dodge.
  
• Health Potion: any time, if you don't think you'll make it till you can bandage again.
  
• Survival Instincts: the home stretch. You don't want it to wear off while you're still in combat.
  

Bonus Plan B Strategy
I don't personally bother with either of these, but there are two additional things you can do.
1) Use Regrowth or Rejuv on one or more of the bird spirits. I used Regrowth back at L70 since it ticks for 21 seconds. The Hawk spirit will mitigate incoming damage to you, while the Eagle spirit will damage all enemies in the room. Because of Spell Bomb, you'll want to combine this with:
2) You can pull Anzu into the near left or far left corner, behind the tomb. When he banishes, run around to the opposite side of the tomb and you will be able to cast spells (e.g. heals) without fear of Spell Bomb because Anzu is out of line of sight.

So why go through all this trouble of killing Anzu? Well, there's a chance at this fancy little drop: The Reins of the Raven Lord - one of the coolest mounts in the game.

Hope that works for you, and I hope your luck with the mount is better than mine. (: Oh, and a final note for Night Elves: if everything goes pear-shaped on trash or on Anzu, just remember the last line of defense: run to the corner and Shadowmeld. Sorry Taurens... if it's any consolation, your dance doesn't suck and your Swift Flight Form is cooler than ours.

Well, back to Sethekk Halls I go... Guestcat out!

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Heeding the Call: Druid class quests

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Occasionally, I'll be featuring some guest posts on my blog. Today, once again we have the rawr-tastic Aeman, who talks about epic druid class quests, and what they mean to us today.

Guestcat sneak attack! Vortexx waxed nostalgic over the L60 epic hunter quest line that starts from the Ancient Petrified Leaf in Molten Core. And rightly so, in my opinion - that was an amazing quest that baptised by fire anyone who attempted it. Anything but flawless execution generally resulted in your swift and unpleasant death, and the reward was worth it. And, of course, The Burning Crusade rendered it totally obsolete, surpassed by a blue out of a L61 dungeon. To put a few more nails in the coffin of old-world questing in general, Blizzard reduced the experience required per level from 20-60 (and with Lich King, from 60-70). Add in the triple experience boost from Recruit-a-Friend, and something like the Sunken Temple class quests became a relic of times long past.

So what about druiding? Well, we don't have many. We don't have hunter/warlock pet quests, we were one of the last classes to get a Sunken Temple quest, and we never had an epic weapon like Rhok'delar or Benediction. Naxx40 had Atiesh, but let's be honest: a feral like me was never going to see that pretty thing. I took my Mace of Unending Life and was happy with it (we never got near to getting an Atiesh, anyway). We didn't get much, but we got a few... and some were pretty neat.

1) Heeding the Call: the quest for Bear Form. Honestly, to this day this is a great little quest, with the one exception that Lunaclaw is a pretty nasty critter, L13 on a L10 quest. I had a much easier time as a Tauren thanks to Entangling Roots (the Night Elf version spawns in a cave, and you couldn't root indoors when I did the quest), but all in all - quick, fun, interesting (Thanks Great Bear Spirit!) quest. Also, MacHall made a fantastic comic about it. (:

2) Lessons Anew: the quest for Cure Poison. Unfortunately, PvP-oriented changes made Cure Poison obsolete as compared to Abolish Poison. Combine that with the need for five Earthroot to complete the chain, and I'll admit I skipped this quest without an afterthought when I leveled my Moonkin. Ah well.

3) A Lesson to Learn: the quest for Aquatic Form. Ok, I loved this quest - the original incarnation of this quest, before they nerfed it six ways to Sunday. For those who never knew the original, they made one big change: one of the two pendant pieces currently can be found in a chest near an air fissure (off the coast of Silverpine/Westfall). That piece *used* to be about 15seconds out into Fatigue territory - far enough that after getting to the box and opening it, your only options were Hearth or Teleport:Moonglade because you didn't have TIME to swim back. Night Elves: it was on the far side of the sunken ship. Yeah, all the way out there. One of earliest and most enduring memories was spending a half hour with two other baby druids, swimming around bare-ass naked, trying to find this token without drowning. Frankly, it was awesome. Fast forward to today: Aquatic Form is actually trainable, which I think is just a damn shame. But I suppose the nerfed quest wasn't really worth doing anymore, anyway.

4) Torwa Pathfinder: the Sunken Temple quest. I never did it; the reward was a 50s-level blue item, and I'd been 60 for months when the quest finally went in. My Moonkin got boosted from 30-60 and so never even set foot in Sunken Temple, but in general this is just a quest line like any other, and isn't really worth the effort these days.

5) Morthis Whisperwing: the quest for Swift Flight Form! I've played one character to 80, two to 74, three more to 60, and a whole pile to at least 30 or so, and I think this is simply the best quest line in the game. The integration of all aspects of druiding in the different subquests is brilliant - hell, I'd do the whole thing just for the Aquatic Form quest. ^.^ And hey, the final step gets you access to the Raven God in Sethekk Halls, who happens to drop the coolest mount in the entire game.

I was pretty unhappy when I heard that Swift Flight Form would be trainable at level 71, but I can understand the rationale: expecting players to grind rep for an Auchenai Key after the 60-70 experience reduction isn't really practical. That said, I fully plan to do this quest line with my Moonkin once she hits 77 (and I can afford epic riding for her); it's that good. I'm also still visiting Anzu every other day or so - now that I can solo him - in the hopes that he'll finally drop that mount for me. (:

Last but not least, an honorable mention. If you ever go exploring in Moonglade, in the southeast you may find the Great Cat Spirit padding among the trees. Stop and say hi. Give him a hug. Maybe once upon a time Blizzard had plans for a Cat Form quest line, but they were never realized - Cat, Travel Form, Dire Bear, and Flight Form are all just a quick purchase from the trainer. It's a shame, I suppose... but we'll always have Sethekk Halls and Lunaclaw. Oh, and speaking of shapeshift form quests... hey Blizzard, how are those new feral models coming? Hmm?

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Moonlighting: Leveling a Boomkin

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Occasionally, I'll be featuring some guest posts on my blog. Today, once again we have the rawr-tastic Aeman, who will go into detail about leveling a different-spec druid - particularly, a feathery, antlered, small-headed wrath-throwing moonkin.

Guestcat returns! I've had my druid since Day 1 of classic WoW, and he's always been Feral - even in 40-man raiding, in spite of my raid leader's preconceptions. Ok, "always" is not entirely accurate: I did spec resto when our guild lacked healers in T4/5 content (lasted about a month - sorry Averna!). I also spent a few months as a Moonkin and found I quite enjoyed the playstyle. Though I returned to tanking eventually, a seed had been planted.

Fast-forward to a few months before Lich King's arrival, when my girlfriend and I each leveled a pair of alts to 60 with Recruit-A-Friend. To take advantage of the level-granting aspect, we also powerleveled a druid each to 31.95 and boosted them all the way to 60.95. And amusingly, those druids are approaching level 74 while the paladin, warlock, mage, and shaman we leveled are still sitting at 60. More to the point of this post, we leveled them from 60-73 as Moonkins.

Playing a Moonkin after four years with a (still active) feral main character has been an interesting experience. In a way, most of my reflexes are still feral-oriented... if I'm jumped, I'm as likely to go Bear Form and Bash as I am to go Moonkin and Typhoon. But on the up side, I'm also much more ready to use feral abilities if I need to. Both of my characters use the same skill macros (excepting talents of course), so I'm quick to hop into cat form and stealth if I have to, for instance. I've known some Balance or Resto druids who never even consider their feral forms, and it makes me happy that I can use Pounce or Bash offensively and then easily shift into spellcasting. In fact, I've been considering macros to make that kind of form-shifting even easier... perhaps a /cancelform on my feral bars.

Leveling the moonkin has also made me better aware of my non-feral abilities while I'm on my main. I use Barkskin and Nature's Grasp significantly more than I used to, and I'm more aware of Roots and Cyclone, too. PvPing as a Moonkin was an eye-opening experience. As a feral I do long for Typhoon, though. ^.^

So no amazing truths or hidden wisdoms to reveal, except for this: especially if you play a hybrid class, check out the way the other specs live. No reason to go leveling a second character of the same class (unless you happen to play the best farming class in the game - woot @ herbing in flight form!), but try a respec. It'll help you understand the other specs of your class, and might even teach you a bit about your own in the process.




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