Elitist Jerks - View Single Post

• Leica · 01/17/08, 2:32 PM

We've gotten our fair share of practice at the the timed event, and have a fair share of War Bears. We've been running 2 ZA groups each cooldown,, and since December 20th both have been achieving the timer. Our first kill beat the timer with seconds remaining, by our third we had several minutes left, and our kills now typically have 6 to 8 minutes remaining. The main requirement to get a bear is that all your players are smart and focused, you can recover from small mistakes, so don't get discouraged and give up if you're a minute behind, but large mistakes can and will cost you.

We typically run our bear groups with Warrior and Feral Tanks, some weeks we'll run one with Warrior and Protection Paladin. We also typically run three healers. The remainder of the group is filled with DPS, typically we'll run one, sometimes two AoE. I'm certain we could stack our groups for faster clears, but we realized from the start that beating the timer requires no stacking, so long as you're playing smart and hard.

Our kill order is Eagle, Bear, Dragonhawk, Lynx. I believe this is the fastest kill order, even with the waterfall route from Eagle to Lynx. Obviously, the timer can be done with both paths, so choose the one you prefer.

Buff & Start:

Prior to speaking with Harrison Jones buff up, eat consumables, and run a final ready check. We run full consumables: They're cheap and they help improve our time buffer at the end in case of disconnects or mistakes.

Throughout the run, we're killing the warrior's mob first, followed by the feral druid's. From a threat perspective, it makes sense to kill the druid's first, but to maximize damage we prefer to be on the sundered mob as soon as possible. If you are close to the threat cap, simply switch to the druid's mob. Our current target is typically judged with wisdom if possible to keep hunter and caster mana up on trash.

We kill the batch that spawn at the door and drag the elite down the stairs towards the next roaming pack as we finish it off. If the roaming pack is near the bottom of the stairs we'll move onto that, if not, we head immediately for the eagle gauntlet.

Eagle:

For the eagle gauntlet we kill the caster from each pair and offtank the warrior mobs. We'll kill eagles as they spawn, and offtank the warrior spawns. When we reach the top we'll pull the tempest to stop spawns, and while our tank builds aggro on that we'll AE down the offtanked warrior mobs.

Finish tempest and move up to the eagle boss.

We simply tank the eagle boss in the middle, and spread out along the edge of the raised rectangle in the center of his platform. When his storm cooldown has 3-5 seconds on it we collapse beneath him and continue dps throughout the storm phase. After the storm phase when he spawns adds we continue to dps the boss, we'll typically seed the boss to kill off the adds, or just keep full dps on him. Either way he typically dies shortly after the second add phase.

When the eagle boss dies everyone loots badges, mounts up, and heads to bear boss. We kill the patrol at the bottom of the stairs now if we did not kill it before.

Bear:

Killing the bear boss trash is just a matter of moving up towards the boss, it essentially pulls itself. One pack of bears will come as you hug around the corner, so it's best to just pull that pack as you're finishing off the first set of trash. Bear Riders are tanked apart from each other to prevent stacking auras. We'll kill the caster mob first to eliminate totems, the axe throwers to eliminate their damage, then warriors or bear riders depending on the pack we're on.

The bear fight is very straightforward, it's a tank and spank, end it as fast as you can. Loot your badges, mount up, and head to dragonhawk trash.

Dragonhawk:

For the dragonhawk trash we have one person assigned to countdown on the scouts. We queue up long/damaging casts during the countdown and blow them up. They can be stunned, rooted, and slowed if needed. When bursting scouts it typically only takes 1-2 dps, but your healers shouldn't be afraid of tossing nukes they have to help out, no healing is necessary on scouts really.

We progress through the trash, flame casters are priority 1 followed by anything else. When we reach the final hut we check the status of the patrol. If it's far, we skip it, move up and kill the 4 pack by Mind Controlling the close flame caster then moving to the bottom of the boss' staircase to finish off the rest. If the patrol is on the stairs, we move up and kill it, then do the 4 pack.

For the dragonhawk boss we kill one hatcher, and let the other hatch his full set. Ranged DPS is helping with the dragonhawks as they're spawning, even if it's single target. Once the wave is fully hatched what hasn't been killed by single target is AE'd down. While we don't typically run a paladin tank a ret or holy paladin can help hold things in place and off your AE, frost traps and earthbind totems at the bridge's bottleneck is also helpful. We repeat the same process on the second round of hatchers. Once both sides are clear of eggs we burn the boss down. On our early mount runs we didn't kill entire sides at a time, choose what you're comfortable with, it's more important not to wipe. That doesn't mean you can kill 2-3 hatchlings at a time, but doing 15 of 20 eggs on each side, then dealing with the final 10 when you bring him to 35% works just as well and is a bit more conservative.

You can skip looting dragonhawk's badges, his corpse will still be up when you go back to do the chest event. Immediately head across to the Lynx's area, killing the patrol of 2 trolls as you pass them.

Lynx:

Pull and kill the static lynx pack. Single target down the elder lynx while the small adds are picked up, and swap to AE as soon as it's safe.

Move against the ruins to your right and hug the wall, if the patrol is in a safe spot, just skip him and move to and kill the Lynx/Trainer pack, if the patrol is in your way, you can kill it or wait, use your judgment to determine which will be faster. Around the corner you'll kill the pack with the trainers and lynxes, then mount up and head along the shore of the pond. Stay behind your tank, you'll want him to pick up the alligator pack, kill that pack and continue with the lynx trash. It's all pretty straightforward trash, one thing some people don't know is that the mind control can be removed with purge and arcane shot in addition to dispel.

When you reach the entrance to Halazzi's room, you'll want to see where the patrol is, if it's not in the right close corner of the room, you may as well pull a static pack. We mind control the flame caster for its dps, if the patrol was close and is near the doorway with your flame caster still MC's, you can use him on the patrol as well. Once that room is clear, it's time for the boss. He only takes 3-4 minutes or so to kill, so if your timer is above that, you're in good shape.

For this boss we never take DPS off Halazzi. The lynx may have slightly less HP, but all of your debuffs, and all of your tank's aggro, are already on the boss, and if you choose to dps the cat you have to rebuild that, only to rebuild it on the boss again when the cat dies. Chain lightning totems are killed as soon as they spawn, otherwise we simply offtank the cat and treat the boss like a tank and spank.

Bear Cavalry:

If you played smart, and did well, one of your players should now be a member of the Bear Cavalry.

01/17/08, 2:32 PM	#9 (permalink)
• Leica We finally saved the Dragon! Leica Night Elf Hunter <Vis Maior> Bonechewer	We've gotten our fair share of practice at the the timed event, and have a fair share of War Bears. We've been running 2 ZA groups each cooldown,, and since December 20th both have been achieving the timer. Our first kill beat the timer with seconds remaining, by our third we had several minutes left, and our kills now typically have 6 to 8 minutes remaining. The main requirement to get a bear is that all your players are smart and focused, you can recover from small mistakes, so don't get discouraged and give up if you're a minute behind, but large mistakes can and will cost you. We typically run our bear groups with Warrior and Feral Tanks, some weeks we'll run one with Warrior and Protection Paladin. We also typically run three healers. The remainder of the group is filled with DPS, typically we'll run one, sometimes two AoE. I'm certain we could stack our groups for faster clears, but we realized from the start that beating the timer requires no stacking, so long as you're playing smart and hard. Our kill order is Eagle, Bear, Dragonhawk, Lynx. I believe this is the fastest kill order, even with the waterfall route from Eagle to Lynx. Obviously, the timer can be done with both paths, so choose the one you prefer. Buff & Start: Prior to speaking with Harrison Jones buff up, eat consumables, and run a final ready check. We run full consumables: They're cheap and they help improve our time buffer at the end in case of disconnects or mistakes. Throughout the run, we're killing the warrior's mob first, followed by the feral druid's. From a threat perspective, it makes sense to kill the druid's first, but to maximize damage we prefer to be on the sundered mob as soon as possible. If you are close to the threat cap, simply switch to the druid's mob. Our current target is typically judged with wisdom if possible to keep hunter and caster mana up on trash. We kill the batch that spawn at the door and drag the elite down the stairs towards the next roaming pack as we finish it off. If the roaming pack is near the bottom of the stairs we'll move onto that, if not, we head immediately for the eagle gauntlet. Eagle: For the eagle gauntlet we kill the caster from each pair and offtank the warrior mobs. We'll kill eagles as they spawn, and offtank the warrior spawns. When we reach the top we'll pull the tempest to stop spawns, and while our tank builds aggro on that we'll AE down the offtanked warrior mobs. Finish tempest and move up to the eagle boss. We simply tank the eagle boss in the middle, and spread out along the edge of the raised rectangle in the center of his platform. When his storm cooldown has 3-5 seconds on it we collapse beneath him and continue dps throughout the storm phase. After the storm phase when he spawns adds we continue to dps the boss, we'll typically seed the boss to kill off the adds, or just keep full dps on him. Either way he typically dies shortly after the second add phase. When the eagle boss dies everyone loots badges, mounts up, and heads to bear boss. We kill the patrol at the bottom of the stairs now if we did not kill it before. Bear: Killing the bear boss trash is just a matter of moving up towards the boss, it essentially pulls itself. One pack of bears will come as you hug around the corner, so it's best to just pull that pack as you're finishing off the first set of trash. Bear Riders are tanked apart from each other to prevent stacking auras. We'll kill the caster mob first to eliminate totems, the axe throwers to eliminate their damage, then warriors or bear riders depending on the pack we're on. The bear fight is very straightforward, it's a tank and spank, end it as fast as you can. Loot your badges, mount up, and head to dragonhawk trash. Dragonhawk: For the dragonhawk trash we have one person assigned to countdown on the scouts. We queue up long/damaging casts during the countdown and blow them up. They can be stunned, rooted, and slowed if needed. When bursting scouts it typically only takes 1-2 dps, but your healers shouldn't be afraid of tossing nukes they have to help out, no healing is necessary on scouts really. We progress through the trash, flame casters are priority 1 followed by anything else. When we reach the final hut we check the status of the patrol. If it's far, we skip it, move up and kill the 4 pack by Mind Controlling the close flame caster then moving to the bottom of the boss' staircase to finish off the rest. If the patrol is on the stairs, we move up and kill it, then do the 4 pack. For the dragonhawk boss we kill one hatcher, and let the other hatch his full set. Ranged DPS is helping with the dragonhawks as they're spawning, even if it's single target. Once the wave is fully hatched what hasn't been killed by single target is AE'd down. While we don't typically run a paladin tank a ret or holy paladin can help hold things in place and off your AE, frost traps and earthbind totems at the bridge's bottleneck is also helpful. We repeat the same process on the second round of hatchers. Once both sides are clear of eggs we burn the boss down. On our early mount runs we didn't kill entire sides at a time, choose what you're comfortable with, it's more important not to wipe. That doesn't mean you can kill 2-3 hatchlings at a time, but doing 15 of 20 eggs on each side, then dealing with the final 10 when you bring him to 35% works just as well and is a bit more conservative. You can skip looting dragonhawk's badges, his corpse will still be up when you go back to do the chest event. Immediately head across to the Lynx's area, killing the patrol of 2 trolls as you pass them. Lynx: Pull and kill the static lynx pack. Single target down the elder lynx while the small adds are picked up, and swap to AE as soon as it's safe. Move against the ruins to your right and hug the wall, if the patrol is in a safe spot, just skip him and move to and kill the Lynx/Trainer pack, if the patrol is in your way, you can kill it or wait, use your judgment to determine which will be faster. Around the corner you'll kill the pack with the trainers and lynxes, then mount up and head along the shore of the pond. Stay behind your tank, you'll want him to pick up the alligator pack, kill that pack and continue with the lynx trash. It's all pretty straightforward trash, one thing some people don't know is that the mind control can be removed with purge and arcane shot in addition to dispel. When you reach the entrance to Halazzi's room, you'll want to see where the patrol is, if it's not in the right close corner of the room, you may as well pull a static pack. We mind control the flame caster for its dps, if the patrol was close and is near the doorway with your flame caster still MC's, you can use him on the patrol as well. Once that room is clear, it's time for the boss. He only takes 3-4 minutes or so to kill, so if your timer is above that, you're in good shape. For this boss we never take DPS off Halazzi. The lynx may have slightly less HP, but all of your debuffs, and all of your tank's aggro, are already on the boss, and if you choose to dps the cat you have to rebuild that, only to rebuild it on the boss again when the cat dies. Chain lightning totems are killed as soon as they spawn, otherwise we simply offtank the cat and treat the boss like a tank and spank. Bear Cavalry: If you played smart, and did well, one of your players should now be a member of the Bear Cavalry. Last edited by Leica : 01/17/08 at 2:37 PM.