Karazhan At Last!

April 7, 2008 at 1:13 am (Groups)
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A couple of weeks ago, I went out and did my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th key frag, so I finally got my Master’s Key. Lo and behold, my guild needed another healer that very night for Karazhan, and so I got my first look inside. We’re just progressing to Gruul’s Lair with an ally guild, and we’re running 2 Kara teams, so there’s an increasing number of slots coming up (I desperately hope to get my usual pally tank, Amathyst, in soon as well.)

There were a few things I was prepared for that people might not be, and I knew about them mainly because I read blogs like mine, so I guess this blog, being a blog like mine, better have tips like these (hopefully that wasn’t too circular.) I’m not talking about tips for INSIDE Karazhan. I’ll save that for another time. I’m talking about tips for BEFORE the invites even go out. Read the rest of this entry »

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Easy-mode Shadow Labs

March 13, 2008 at 3:50 am (Groups)
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As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I Hate Shadow Labs. But, to get to hate it quite so much, I’ve had to run it quite a few times. And there’s only so many times you can run an instance before you start to learn a few tips. So, in line with my last post on “Easy-mode” instancing, I thought I’d start to put together a few tips on “easy-moding” particular instances. Read the rest of this entry »

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Easy-mode Instances

March 12, 2008 at 1:24 am (Groups)
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Everyone knows about normal instances, and most people have heard of Heroic-mode. What most people don’t know about is Easy-mode.

Normal mode is open to everyone who can walk through the instance entrance. Some instances need attunement, but even that can often be skipped by most players (when it’s key-based, only one person in the group needs the key).

Heroic mode is a bit tougher. You need to grind out some rep and buy the heroic-mode key (usually for some insignificant amount of gold). Since Blizzard dropped the rep requirement down to honored, most players probably don’t even notice the “rep grind”.

Easy mode requires something much tougher than attunement or rep grinding. It requires finding five people with common sense, awareness of their class role, suitable gear, and an understanding of how groups work. It also requires a leader who is familiar with the instance, and the correct class balance for the instance being run. Fortunately, the drops and quest rewards are the same whether you’re on easy-mode or not, and heroics also have easy-mode versions. Read the rest of this entry »

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LF1M: Resto Druid?

February 26, 2008 at 11:50 pm (Gear, Groups)
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“LF1M mage”
“LF1M lock”
“LF1M pally tank”

Some classes seem to get all sorts of LF1M love, and some seem to get none at all. Druids, I suspect, are somewhere near the bottom: I have been head-hunted for groups (and raids) before, to deal with something situational like needing HoTs to tick during CC, but we’re not quite as “must-have” for most instances as, say, a mage. Because we seem to be seen as one of those “situational” classes, I thought I might go through some of the situations you need us for (I’m focusing on resto-spec here, but most of this applies to every spec to some degree.) Read the rest of this entry »

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On Tanks and Aggro, and why your Healer cares

February 14, 2008 at 4:10 am (Groups)
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I had a bad experience with a PuG last night. I know, I know, duh. But the difference was, this particular PuG could have been oh-so-good. We were running Shadow Labs for the first Kara key frag, and our little group was as follows:

Healer: Yours truly. I’m decked out in mostly blues and some epics, and am more than up to healing SLabs.
Tank: Amathyst. My pet tankadin, mix of 70-only blues and greens. Easy to heal, a little short on threat generation still.
CC/DPS: Hunter, dinged 70 yesterday, pre-70 blues and (mostly) greens.
CC/DPS: Rogue, dinged 70 yesterday, pre-70 blues and (mostly) greens.
CC/DPS: Mage, decked out in S2/S3 Arena Epics.

Perhaps some of you see what’s coming. Perhaps I should have too. Read the rest of this entry »

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