WoWGrrl's World » tempest keep

The Last Few Weeks of BC Raiding

Valdesta — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 14:07:39 +0000

So here we are, one month before the expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, is upon us.

As usual, if you talk to people about the state of the game, if you talked to 10 different people, you'd get 10 different opinions: Some say there's no use in playing at all, some say it's the best time to play, some would look at you and say "huh?" and then go back to playing, because WoTLK won't affect them very much (or so they think).

Personally, I've left my lowbies to sleep while I enjoy the high time of no-commitment-required PUG raids that we're in right now.

Want To Raid? PUGs, PUGs, Everywhere!

There are Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep PUGs happening on my realm on the weekends left and right (both 25 man). Mount Hyjal PUGs, Sunwell Trash Runs, guilds in all levels of progression still looking for new members and actively trying to raid.

While my Healer sits unguilded, in conversations with what I believe to be a quality guild worth waiting for, I look around and make friends and offer my raid healing services where it fits my schedule, and continue to improve my gear to the standards of the new guild.

My Recent PUG Raids

Before the weekend's raids, I ran Karazhan with an AWESOME group on Tuesday and did a full badge run, which was great. Then, I ran a couple of heroics a day during the week.

On Friday I got into an unadvertised Mount Hyjal PUG (25 man) on my Priest for the first time (thanks to some social contacts!!), and had a great time downing the first four bosses in the place, and while my overheal % needs work, I did well in general for overall heals and feel as if I contributed well to the group.

On Saturday after doing a few heroics and upgrading/re-gemming/re-enchanting my helm, I tried to get into a Black Temple PUG (25 man, same progression as Hyjal above) but I didn't have any social "ins" to the group so while I made the +heals requirement by the skin of my teeth, I didn't make the health point requirement that was in place for one of the nastier bosses in the place, and was removed in the pre-raid gear check.

Sooooo.... I vowed to improve my gear for that PUG next week, and put myself into LFG, and then got invited to a guild run going into Zul'Aman. While this wasn't a Bear Run by any stretch of the imagination, it was another round of healing experience that I didn't have, and can now update my "toon resume" with.

Experiences So Far

I'm really enjoying all of this varied healing experience on my Priest, but doing this wide number of raids I'm not directly familiar with means I've been doing a lot of reading and researching with my time, too. My AFK time on game while waiting for the raid to be fully assembled, etc, is spent on WoWWiki reading up on the fights about to come up.

In general the runs I've been a part of recently have been successful - well-run, or in the case of Karazhan, full of well-geared players ready to tear it up. The requirements for the 25-man PUGs I've been trying to get into are pretty stringent, but that's good for the entire group.

The Zul'Aman guild run was the least successful of all the runs - but with 2 of 3 healers being geared only for Karazhan, it can't be a big surprise that we only got Nalorakk the Bear boss down before wiping repeatedly on Akil'zon the Eagle Avatar.

Any Gear Upgrades?

Yes! Got some of those. Those aren't my focus in raiding, however, so I mention them last.

From Hyjal, I got a couple of new pieces: [Boots of the Divine Light] and [Angelista's Sash], but from the rest I've been picking up Heroics badges and the occasional off-spec piece for a Shadow set I'm putting together.

But for now it's time to go update my Priest's "toon resume", before this Sunwell Trash Run I'm in starts up. Forgive me if I add it to my resume before I've actually completed the experience...

High Astromancer Solarian, Tempest Keep – video and tips

Valdesta — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:32:49 +0000

Solarian is an early boss in the 25-man raid instance of Tempest Keep in Netherstorm of the Burning Crusade expansion pack.

A boss with Shadow on her mind, the fight is a lot of chaos but a lot of fun.

If you are the bomb, get away from the raid!

Taken from a Mage's perspective, and with great thanks to the Zul'jin Horde guild "Afternoon Delight" for allowing me to fill a spot in their raid!

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Al'ar the Phoenix God Tips and Tricks – Tempest Keep video

Valdesta — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:42:25 +0000

My Frost Mage got into a great PUG the other day, and we took down all but one boss in TK and then took down two World Bosses (Kazzak and Doomwalker) before departing.

Here's the Al'ar fight!

Watch more Blue's videos

Al’ar the Phoenix God Tips and Tricks – Tempest Keep video

Valdesta — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:42:25 +0000

My Frost Mage got into a great PUG the other day, and we took down all but one boss in TK and then took down two World Bosses (Kazzak and Doomwalker) before departing.

Here's the Al'ar fight!

Watch more Blue's videos

There's Epic, and then there's EPIC (Joining a TK run)

Valdesta — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:04:57 +0000

Now that folks have been in level 70 End Game for so long, and a billion guilds are doing Kara and beyond, and many people have more than one toon epic'd out... I'm noticing there's this big gap between "epic" and "EPIC".

I've gone into Kara and SSC PUGs (SSC was a guild who picked up a few PUGgers to fill out numbers for the night, so not a true "PUG" by my standards) with my mage where very few people topped 800-900 DPS, despite being geared predominantly in purples (1-3 blues left, no greens). In those PUGs I sit on top of the damage and DPS meters, being able to maintain 900-1200 DPS over the course of a raid, depending on how many AOE fights there are.

Then yesterday afternoon, a well-known raiding guild on my server headed into Tempest Keep - The Eye, and I just happened to be in the city when the Guildmaster and Raid Leader did a call-out for 2 DPS to fill their raid. I had a few hours I could burn, so I whispered in response, and got an invite.

Going To TK As A Guild Outsider

The raid was mostly formed, and when I joined their Vent server (which worked with my Mac, oh joy), most people were already in vent.

I hearthed to Netherstorm and made my way to the stone, and then announced to the raid chat that I was going to disconnect for a moment to check addons.

While I was reloading the game, I offered my Magely services on the vent line - saying that even though there were 3 other Mages in the raid, if they wanted to give me a buffing or sheeping assignment I was all for it, just let me know.

Just as I finished checking over my Addons and was about to re-login, someone asked on Vent whether anyone had an offline timer on my character. I spoke up to let them know I was still there (as did the raid leader), but it did make me smile to know that they pay attention and take action on people who d/c from a raid. It's a pain in the ass to everyone else to have teammates missing, so I appreciate the sentiment even though it was aimed at me.

When I got back online, about half of the raid was already in TK. Nobody was yelling out for summons (another plus), and only one had to be summoned once we were in the instance, save for a few toon swap-outs for the different boss fights we faced. Swap-outs were done efficiently and quickly.

Vent was mostly quiet, and the voices that spoke on it were calm and relaxed.

And It Begins...

Marks went up, assignments went out. Four Mages, so I was the only one not assigned a Polymorph marker. Fine with me since it's been a while since I was in TK, and the guild I was in with before only downed Loot Reaver (before it was broken and then fixed) and Solarian a couple of times when I was there. (I'm sure they've progressed now, but I left back in May).

And as it turns out, I needed all the time to concentrate on DPSing that I had available, just in order to try to keep up a LITTLE bit and not look like some "noob" off the street they picked up and dusted off!

With my 900-1200 DPS output in various fights, I was generally hovering around 7-9 position on the charts. (to note, I was in position 2-3 of the 4 Mages) Seventh to Ninth position!! There were all sorts of people cranking out more damage than I was in that raid, and I was really impressed and inspired by the whole thing.

By The End...

By the end of the raid, we had downed Al'ar, Void Reaver, and Solarian, but didn't go after Kael because the tanks didn't have the proper resist sets, and we didn't have a proper fire-spec'd Warlock. (this is where I nod my head and say "okay", because I don't know the fight specs at all)

But the raid had gone so well and nobody had to leave halfway through, nobody AFK'd during it, and everyone was still there, so we went and downed Doom Lord Kazzak in Hellfire Peninsula, and Doomwalker in Shadowmoon Valley!!

Both went down with very little problems, and it's neat to note that you get 2 heroics badges from each of those world bosses (plus a few gear drops).

Wow, that was a lot of fun (to do once in a while)! Maybe I'll watch again another afternoon to see if they need DPS or a healer to fill out raid ranks. But in the mean time, I've got some more gems to upgrade! :)

There’s Epic, and then there’s EPIC (Joining a TK run)

Valdesta — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:04:57 +0000

Going To TK As A Guild Outsider

The raid was mostly formed, and when I joined their Vent server (which worked with my Mac, oh joy), most people were already in vent.

I hearthed to Netherstorm and made my way to the stone, and then announced to the raid chat that I was going to disconnect for a moment to check addons.

Vent was mostly quiet, and the voices that spoke on it were calm and relaxed.

And It Begins...

By The End...

Both went down with very little problems, and it's neat to note that you get 2 heroics badges from each of those world bosses (plus a few gear drops).

Weird Terrain Glitch in Tempest Keep Raid

Valdesta — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 18:44:41 +0000

Life's busy these days but whenever I have a free evening that coincides with a raid night within my guild, I sign up and bring along my extensive collection of consumables and a great attitude about doing my best no matter how many times we die or whether there's a chance of a gear upgrade on my part. My joy is not in progression, exactly, but in being able to do something cool when I actually have the time to go.

In my guild that regularly fields 25-man raids in an evening, or breaks down into occasional multiple 10-man raids for badge runs on less-populated nights, we're currently working on the boss "Al'ar" when it comes to Tempest Keep. Of course, we've already downed Void Reaver multiple times as well, but recent raids had us putting up attempts on Al'ar and learning new strategies to beat her.

In heading through the hallway which leads to Al'ar, there are some difficult pulls with Tempest Falconer humanoids and their swarms of Phoenix-Hawk Hatchling flying beasts... the beasts interrupt spells with a strong knock-back effect and are a major pain in the butt for a Mage who is trying to cast a channeled AOE spell to burn (or freeze, in my case) the flying beasties down.

I don't recall if this happened before, but this recent run I noticed that the knock-back effect was blasting me up onto the walls, and I believe after I got blasted up high enough, I was out of the range of the AOE knock-back effect and could Blizzard away quite freely.

Unfortunately, between pulls I was to exit the hallway to let the tanks get aggro on the swarms before I joined in, and therefore I didn't stay up on the wall to test my theory about being out of range of the knock-backs.

Does anyone know?

And hey, I finally figured out how to highlight a certain portion of my pictures in a useful way - go me who isn't used to Photoshop at all... ;)

Struggling With Desires: Raiding vs Writing

Valdesta — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 02:47:04 +0000

I like this game, I really do.

I like how powerful my Mage is getting - he's at +706 frost damage unbuffed. I was second on the damage meters for an overgeared-team 3-boss Karazhan run that was put together after a Gruul's run where we brought him down with only one wipe...

But now any progression with him is FUN, but feels like it's "too much progression", and I'm thinking it's time to start spending some more serious time on the other toons I have, levelling and gearing them up.

I'm really not a raider, having played this game for 2.5 years and not having gotten into it yet. I have, however, enjoyed attending a few raids recently and like that I've seen the inner workings of at least one raiding guild that seems to have a low-stress, high morale environment in their progression team - and that would be a team that I'd love to join if I wanted to raid.

But, see, I have other aspirations with my Warcraft Gaming Time[TM]!

I like writing on the casual play topics, and the topics that are helpful to someone still seeking that great raiding guild to join (maybe just a "casual guild that raids" that would accept all of your friends and family members, no matter what level, while you raid with the 70s).

I believe there are many more players in this Casual category than there are in the category of folks who want to and are high enough level and gearing to get into a guild that has 10-man Karazhan on farm with multiple groups and is close to having 25-man Gruul's on farm as well.

So, What's The Struggle?

Seems like I have it all figured out, doesn't it?

Too bad there's other people in this story - other people who would like other outcomes. Other people who almost EXPECT other outcomes, because, well, most people who are geared up like my Mage is... want to raid. In fact, people who are way LESS geared than me want to raid, since a Raider's Heart, I believe, is beating quite fiercely by the time a player reaches level 40 already, and hits overdrive when that player hits the level cap.

But me? I just wanna prove that gearing up to raid in 10 and 25 person dungeons while playing in a social/casual guild that does NOT raid, is an actual possibility for players. To prove that you don't HAVE to leave your casual/social guild in order to dip your toes into raiding, and that maybe - like getting married or finding a company you stick with for years - it's best to "try out" a few raid guild scenarios before making the tag-change leap.

It's tough to do, however, because early commitment to a group or a cause seems to be the norm in today's society, and carefully reviewing from afar is held in suspicion.

Personally, I find that odd when I really think about it - am I alone in thinking that the ones who would instantly jump into your guild with very little review would also be the ones jumping out with little more review?

*ponders more*

I guess there's a line, however, as with everything... the line of "enough review has been done, you should be able to make up your mind by now" that either side may face.

Clarifying Goals/Availability/Intent With Raid Leaders

And that's why I talked to the GM/MT/RL of the guild I've gone into Gruul's twice with and Karazhan twice with in the last couple of weeks, and with whom I'm scheduled to go into Tempest Keep over the weekend unless a guildie can fit the spot better. I told him that while I'm very impressed with his guild progression team and his own leadership style in the guild, I just can't get "into" raiding more than once in a while because of my own personal goals writing eBooks about the pre-raiding scene.

He probably thinks I'm full of myself, but (aren't we all?) I will continue to do as I have said I would - gear myself up, bring proper consumables, sign up for and show up on time/early for the progression raids I can make it to, and have a great attitude no matter how many times we wipe. I will be happy for them on the day that they find a Mage that can start to take over my spot in the raid, and will continue to check in with them and cheer them on when they no longer need me because their progression team vastly outgears me (instead of merely outgearing as may be the case right now ;) ).

And in the mean while, I'm going to start to do some instance runs with my 70 Hunter to gear her up better, while I continue to level up my pre-60 Rogue and Priest toons, running with friends/guildmates whenever possible but still PUGging it up for skill building and Friends list amplification ;)