WoWGrrl's World » koralon

The Part Of Raiding About Self-Defense

Valdesta — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:41:34 +0000

Raiding is a fun and interesting part of World of Warcraft.

Not only is it more chaotically challenging than regular leveling content or 5-player dungeon content, but it more solidly introduces the concept of teamwork within the game setting.

Self-Defense In Raiding, Defined

When I first think about self-defense in a raiding context, "staying alive" is what comes to mind.

Raiders Gather for their ToTC Raids

You know, simple things like not standing in the fire, or in the roof cave in, or in the big circle that Hodir's about to drop a big ice shard onto.

Those are dynamics that are also in play in Regular and Heroic 5-player dungeons as well, so there's a lot of practice available for any given raider in terms of that type of self defense.

Second up, I think of self-defense in a "something is on you, and you're not a tank" kind of way.

If that something doesn't one-shot you, or you have a chance to react to their making a bee-line towards you, self-defense tactics are the ones you use to keep yourself alive long enough for that mob to be downed or taken back by a tank (or by another less squishy raid member).

But ultimately, neither of these types of self-defense are what inspired this entry.

The one that inspired it is a third type of self-defense - that of defending yourself against your own raid members' and their (sometimes warped) senses of humor.

Someone Always Thinks It's Funny

Unless you're in a raid team with zero roster movement, you're always bringing in new blood to your guild raids, and if you PUG raid at all, generally over 50% of the raid tends to be "new blood", at least when it comes to your familiarity with them.

And when there's new blood, there's always someone who gets a kick out of using a skill or object that negatively impacts others.

For example, for the first time since January someone put down a Toy Train Set in our official raid last week. Of course it was destroyed immediately, and it was put down by someone brand new to the guild (not a veteran by any stretch), but part of me was deeply saddened.

Thankfully, our guild isn't filled with people whose humor is triggered at the expense of others, and has officership that is respected enough that when they say stop, folks stop.

Slow Falling To The Anub'arak Fight

Mages, Priests in ToTC: Slowfall/Levitate Your Friends FTW

In closing I'd like to say that the one thing I've learned about this phase of WoTLK raiding, especially in PUG groups with a bunch of strangers, is the one place I can defend my friends and stymy the guy who is trying to find laughter by laughing at them.

Slowfall and Levitate are your friends, Mages and Priests (just happen to be my two raiding toons). Cast them on your friends just before the fall to take on Anub'arak, and cast them on yourself.

Let someone else die if there's an annoying DK in the group, but above all else, defend yourself and your friends with just a few clicks.

That's my 2c on the topic anyway!

How To Destroy Koralon The Flame Watcher

Valdesta — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:14:43 +0000

Discipline Priest and Koralon

I'm so lucky to be in a great guild, with talented guildmates and an Officer team that is lead with passion and enthusiasm for the game in all of its aspects.

While Tuesday's raid night was a bust - with realm downtime that lasted an hour and a half into our Official Scheduled Raid Time - Wednesday's raid was a lot of fun and very productive as we got to see and take down Koralon the Flame Watcher for the first time, and then later Anub'arak in the Crusaders Coliseum.

The raid was actually so eager to get going on Wednesday that we started to pull trash four minutes AHEAD of scheduled start time. How often can you say YOUR guild starts its scheduled raids on time and with a full group??!

Koralon the Flame Watcher Downed in 2 min, 21 seconds

While we do tend to have a strong 10-player progression and achievements team, our raid team is officially 25-player based, which leaves guildmates free to use their 10-player IDs for all instances however we wish.

Koralon the Flame Watcher in the Chamber of Aspects/Vault of Archavon was the first boss we took down on Wednesday's raid night and I'm glad to say that it was a one-shot - unlike the 10-player PUGs I had gotten into earlier in the day that were Die In A Fire wipefests.

Downed in 2 minutes, 21 seconds!

Koralon Strategy

Different groups will prefer different methods, and some of the methods depend on a number of factors like raider gearing and the ability of any given raider to recognize that standing in fire is detrimental to one's health.

The PUG strategy told all of the ranged DPS and healers to stack up together so when a Flaming Cinder was launched at one of us, the whole group would share the damage of the hit, and then shift to a new spot away from the fire spot left on the floor. One of the ranged players had a mark over their head so the rest of us knew where to stack.

The Guild strategy mentioned no such thing of the raid stacking up, with the exception of the Main Tank and the Off Tank/Damage Absorber. As a result, we did our standard raid habit which is to spread out, and Get Out Of The Damned Fire whenever it was launched at us or appeared under our feet.

Video Footage Of The Fight

I shut down all my extraneous apps, rebooted my computer so it was all fresh and clean, and then took video footage of the entire raid night on Wednesday night.

I'm still working on editting the footage I took in the Crusaders' Coliseum, including our 4-5 attempts it took us to coordinate our team strategy for downing Anub'arak, but I did get the Koralon the Flame Watcher footage editted and up for public consumption. Check it out on YouTube today, complete with narration by yours truly for what is going on in the fight:

Subscribe To My YouTube Channel

If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to my channel on YouTube as that is where I'll be posting all of my video footage from the raids that we do these days.

Getting Ready For Anub'arak In The Crusaders' Coliseum

Valdesta — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:39:19 +0000

Crusaders' Coliseum Jouster!

Where Oh Where Has My Zul'jin Gone?

It's 15 minutes past our normal Official Raid Start Time and I'm sitting here waiting for Zul'jin to come up.

I've logged into the raid vent server and have marked myself "here, but not here", which is a habit I've gotten into lately since I'm not the pre-raid chatty type - too much work to do in other windows!

The Officer Team hasn't logged into the Raid Vent yet - I assume they're on whatever social vent server they hang out on prior to raids. Most everyone has a social vent or two they hang out on when not raiding - our Raid Vent server is pretty barren on off-raid hours.

I'm thinking if there weren't new bosses being released to the game, we'd be finding out that the raid night has been called entirely and that we should stop waiting, and go about our business in other ways and come back for a good raid tomorrow. [edit - and in fact, the raid was called rather close to Official Start Time, on the forums, but I finished this entry before looking there]

But, there's new stuff to tackle! Koralon the Flame Watcher in the Vault of Archavon, and Anub'arak from Azjol-Nerub in Dragonblight makes a special appearance as well!

Introducing The New, Improved Anub'arak

When I first heard that Anub'arak was in the Crusader's Coliseum, I thought "OH great! Another 'Anub' to remember and keep straight in my mind! As if the guy in Azjol-Nerub and the guy in Naxxramas weren't already hard enough to keep straight!".

You see, I have problems remembering completely arbitrary things: What Ulduar portal is associated with what boss (aside from Freya and after Kologarn which both make rational sense) is one of them, and remembering these weird-ass names that are hard to pronounce is another.

Thankfully, I've since found that Anub'arak is actually the SAME Anub'arak dude as in the Northrend Dragonblight instance of Azjol Nerub, and therefore I don't have to remember a new Anub.

Why Is Anub'arak Coming Back Now??

Anub'arak in Azjol-Nerub

I guess his stomp hasn't killed enough melee who are too silly to learn to melee from behind, and tanks who are too silly to move out of the way?

Seriously tho, I'm not much of a lore buff, so I have no idea why Anub'arak is making himself known here, now. If someone wants to leave a comment about that, I can take your comment and turn it into a full post later on!

The Battle Against Anub'arak

From the description I'm reading on WoWWiki, the battle against Anub'arak in the Crusaders' Coliseum shares some similar elements with both the Anub'arak and Anub'rekhan fights. The burrowing, the swarms, the adds...

The main difference is that in the raid version of the fight against Anub'arak, success will depend upon the raid's ability to keep the ground "permafrosted" below the boss, and the Tank's ability to keep the boss situated on a permafrosted area so when Anub'arak goes to burrow under the ground he finds he cannot.

Or, when he DOES burrow, the permafrosted ground serves as protection to the raid group from the attacks Anub'arak launches from under the earth.

Frost damage is going to be big here, but I'm not sure if there's any useful resist gear or enchants that can help you make the fight easier without severely gimping your stats.

Does anyone have any suggestions on that?

Raiding Achievements With The Demise Of Anub'arak

If you've been lucky enough to get into successful raids that have taken on the bosses up to this point, you're ready and raring for Anub'arak to be released, because you've been told he's the final boss of the Coliseum and therefore, there'll be an achievement associated.

Here's the Achievement that everyone in our raid group will get once we take Anub down:

Call of the Crusader (25 player) (corrected from Grand Crusader I had listed before)

It will be good for our server and world rankings yet again... except for the fact that our realm is down and other realms are getting a head start on their raids! No wonder we can't get world firsts! ;) ;) ;)

Taking on Gortok The Impaler

Anub'arak Loot

Loot from this boss is amongst the best in the game, depending on what mode you end up taking him on in.

Our guild will be taking him on in Heroic 25-player mode since that is what we do with our three-day Official Raids schedule, and in this mode there's some damned pretty upgrades for our Ulduar25 Hard Mode-geared teammates.

Gear that I'm hoping will drop so I get a chance to roll on it (or a guildmate gets it and I have less competition when it drops next time) includes:

[Suffering's End]
[Handwraps of the Lifeless Touch]
[Lurid Manifestation]

Damn, look at the spell damage on that one-handed Mace!

Looks like I'm going back to the Main Hand/Offhand thing, when for so long I've been toting a staff from Ulduar25 - [Rapture] if I am not mistaken.

I'll miss how great it was to NOT have to chase down my offhand in my mess of bags when I re-equip my weapon after fishing!

Ah well, life is hard...

Taking On Koralon the Flame Watcher In VoA

Valdesta — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:16:43 +0000

Tuesday Night Is A Raid Night Of Many Purples

Tonight's our guild's first official raid night of the week, just like many raiders.

During Tuesday's maintenance, Raid ID locks are reset. As a result, it's also a day of many raid-related sales in the Auction House during the day, and then continued sales for the next few days as players gem and enchant gear upgrades they got from the first day or two of the week's raiding.

But today's Raid ID reset day is a SPECIAL day, like have been a bunch of the weekly resets over the last while:

New Raid Bosses Are Coming Out

Yippee! New fights that none of us have tried before! New things to die to! New things to test our skill and our mettle!

Running Back To Emalon

Introducing Koralon the Flame Watcher

Koralon the Flame Watcher is one of the new bosses being introduced this week to the End Game raiding public.

He's the third boss in Vault of Archavon in the PvP zone of Wintergrasp, and therefore he's only a boss any guild can tackle when their own faction is controlling Wintergrasp itself after one of its regular battles.

This reason alone is the biggest reason why we might not see him tonight, even thought we'd really like to get in there and feel the brunt of his fire and kick his Flame Watching ass on 25 man.

Koralon Loots

So, what's this guy drop anyway? Aside from being a cool boss fight, which they all are (right? maybe not Oculus, I'll give you that)...

He drops PvP gear, of course, and also drops bits of Tier 9 PvE raiding gear. Just like his predecessors Emalon and Archavon dropped PvP gear and T8 and T7 respectively.

The Impact Of Koralon On VoA PUGs

Fortunately, I'm in a raiding guild that likes to take on new stuff and run it over and over on a weekly basis until loot is getting sharded more often than it's getting used, so my Discipline Priest will have guild runs taking me in to see and defeat Koralon.

But the rest of my characters will have to PUG the experience if they hope to get in... and my Mage just got to the point of being comfortable joining PUGs for Emalon!

I expect that the impact will be very similar to what it was whem Emalon was released into Vault of Archavon... all of a sudden, the raid that used to be a quick run that almost any 80 could do with minimal raiding gear, changed.

Running Back To Emalon

All of a sudden, there were DPS requirements for getting in, and the bar was set pretty high: On our realm, a minimum of 2.5k DPS on trash would let you stay in the party, but anything much below that got you a kick and replacement from the raid.

Why The Strict Requirements?

The reason why, of course, was because there were mobs that had to be downed in a "DPS race" type of fashion: If not downed quickly enough, these mobs would explode and decimate the entire raid in one shot. This dynamic is tested out first on Emalon's trash mobs, and then expanded in the Emalon battle itself.

Also, while a raider undergeared for Emalon might hope to still get a chance to battle against Archavon for some of the lower-tier loot that is still a big upgrade for them, the simple truth is this:

PUG Raiders don't want to be saved to a half-finished RaidID. Taking down Archavon but leaving up Emalon doesn't sound appealing because of the amount of potential loot left behind.

PUG Raiders hold the intention of completing a short instance like Vault of Archavon, not leaving it half undone.

So the short and long thing for undergeared DPS who'd like to get into VoA is this: Either go in with friends or with your guild, or gear up in other ways before you try to get into PUGs, because it's harsh these days.

Koralon's Impact On DPS Requirements

From the looks of the fight and by reading its description, I'm pretty confident that the DPS requirements for the fight will be increased, definitely, but not to the extreme that Emalon's addition to Vault of Archavon required.

But be warned, those with DPS below 3k in raid battles: The fight does STILL seem to still be a DPS race of sorts due to the dynamics of the Burning Fury debuff (which increases damage taken by the entire raid by 5% and stacks another stack every 20 seconds, serving as a "soft enrage" since Koralon does not have a "hard enrage") - he's got to be killed before the healers simply cannot keep the tank and rest of the raid team up any longer due to excessive healing requirements.

Good luck in the new WoTLK raid content, folks!