Posts with tag mt

Sometimes, you come across something really special. I definitely think I'm MT Act I by Gforce resoundingly qualifies. The author apologizes on his WarcraftMovies.com page for a poor translation, but I had absolutely no problem with it at all. The subtitles sometimes were a little tough to read, but I'm not sure how much I needed the them in the first place.

The video's about ten minutes long, and I don't feel like any of the time was wasted. The characterizations of the Horde races were brilliantly executed, and each class is distinct and well-represented in the eyes of a knowledgeable WoW player. (This actually leads to the only translation error I really noticed, since the subtitles call the Shaman a Druid.)

The action is clean and simple. And, while I know I lose Man Points for saying this, it was absolutely adorable. The whole darn thing made me smile, and I was totally thrilled to see another take on World of Warcraft animation. Check it out and enjoy. I'm definitely curious to know your thoughts.

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Ghostcrawler has appeared in two different threads talking about healing today, and the gist of it is that he's happy. He's happy with healing and the way it works in Ulduar: there's a good variety between boss fights and phases, there are intense moments and pauses in the action, and he says they've got things to a point where they like them. Later, he says that while in Naxx, you don't really have to warn the healer too much (you can basically tell them to heal the MT and leave it at that), Ulduar requires healers to get into the rhythm -- sometimes go all out, and sometimes hold back. He does say that too much mana is still an issue for them, and if anything gets nerfed in that department, Replenishment will. But he doesn't expect too many nerfs for a while.

That doesn't mean, of course, that the big healing update is out the window -- GC still hints that there are more changes in store for healing, and we'd bet coppers to gold that there are both mechanic changes and possibly even a hero class due for healers soon. But for now, healing is where they want it in the current content, and it sounds like most players agree.

Now, there's just PvP...

"Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but she did it backwards and in high heels."
- Faith Whittlesey

Kazug of EU-Defias Brotherhood is afraid that he will never be able to take on the role of main taink against Heroic Malygos. He pointed out that although tanks are relatively scarce in five man instances, there is fierce competetion for tanking slots in 25 mans. One out of five players must be a tank in five mans, whereas only one in twenty-five can be main tank in a raid. He feels that only the best of the best, the ones with the most time as he defines it, are able to take on the role of main tank.

Other tanks are left taking out the trash on single-tank fights. Several posters echoed Kazug's sentiment. Despite a dedication to tanking, they're relegated to the roll of picking up adds in most fights. Others indicated that their guilds rotate MTs or even have tanks roll off for main tanking responsibilities. For some guilds the MT is the MT and that's all there is to it.

I'm sure at some point in time we've all seen epic looting nightmares. More than once I've been hoping for a drop in an instance only to have another party member beat me on a need roll. Usually, though it's something they actually do need, at least as much as I do. Sometimes ninja looting is even an accident, but other times it is not.

Avirisa of Mannoroth is a might miffed that she was outrolled for a Commendation of Kael'Thas ... to a Hunter... for PvP. As a tank, she said he was running the instance to acquire that drop. Most responded that this behavior is part of what gives Hunters a bad name in the game (Huntard). Some blamed the original poster for inviting not only a Hunter, but a Night Elf Hunter to the group.

I'm a rather avid raider, putting in a solid 20 hours a week on my Warrior. One of the major things about the time spent raiding is that it can be very precious. There is only so much time that 24 other people, plus appropriate class substitutions, can be available each week. It's critical that the time spent raiding is used well.

Unfortunately, using raiding time well is about as much of a challenge as is downing Illidan. In preparation for this article, I've spent the past three weeks keeping track of the down time in raids. We raid Sunday through Thursday nights, from 7:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. We experience a downtime of about 51 minutes for each raid, which is about 20% of the time. Down time is defined as the time that my character is standing still, not attacking, not moving, and not being MDed to.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I'm not really sure.

Tip #1: Chain pulling

Personally, I do my best at the main tank to chain pull and push the trash through as fast as possible. This works out 99% of the time, however the 1% of the time it doesn't work out can grind the raid to a halt. Case and point: The trash to Supremus isn't too bad, and is a lot of packs where the MT, OT, and Pally tank each have some mobs to tank. There are also some ranged dragons that the Warlocks tank. These pulls can go very fast, and are very predictable. Pulling slowly we can do this in about 40 minutes, while chain pulling each group, we can push through in 15.

Tip #2: Fully self buffed, all the time

It doesn't take much to buff yourself. Every class has some buff they can apply to themselves, be it food buffs, spell buffs, or shouts. The key here is that you can find a minute or two to always buff at least yourself, if not others. Although, it might not always be possible to buff others as you're going along - and that's okay with most raid leaders for trash pulls.

I, like many other players, spent the better part of the morning running the new 5man Magisters' Terrace instance (and yes -- it is "Magisters'," so there is actually more than one Magister in it), and while not everyone is thrilled with it (I know some are saying that it's too hard), I love it. I pretty much agree with AA -- it's not that hard when you actually figure out what to do with CC, and get a handle on the fact that even on normal difficulty, this is a dungeon that doesn't let up.

But my favorite part of the dungeon is just the fact that Blizzard put their money where their mouth is on this one -- for a while, they've been saying that they wanted a five man to be like Deadmines, in that it felt like the end of a long storyline. And MT (which is what I think it will eventually be called by most players, since who really runs Mana Tombs anymore?) is definitely that -- I won't ruin the lore too much, but it works perfectly as both a cap on what happened in Outland, and as a sweet preview to Sunwell Plateau. I never thought we'd meet some of those names in a five man instance, but I loved it, and we'll see more of that in Wrath for sure.

Plus, the encounters are fun. Unfortunately, there's nothing super new -- Blizzard cribbed directly from Warlord Kalithresh for the first boss and Curator for the second (boy, AoEing the little guys before that is exciting, isn't it?), but the miniboss battle near the end really does play like a little PvP-ish PvE (similar to the .5 upgrade event in BRD). All in all, I think it's a great instance, and a fun way to cap off five mans at level 70.

If you're like me, you'll be running the brand-new 5-man dungeon of 2.4, Magister's Terrace, as soon as you can. How can you not love a 5-man with four bosses borrowing elements from 25-man raids, a cutscene, and a guaranteed epic even on normal? If you're looking for more information on what to expect, here's a round-up of WoW Insider's coverage to date and our Magister's Terrace gallery.

Follow the cut for a host of helpful articles on bosses, drops, videos, and scenery!

I'm so excited about this pet that it's getting silly. Last time on "Tiny Phoenix Obsession," we discovered that it's acquired as a drop from Kael'Thas, in his incarnation as the final boss of patch 2.4's 5-man Magister's Terrace, and speculated that it's probably a pretty rare drop. WOWDB has it at a 1% drop rate, apparently in both normal and heroic mode, although it doesn't say how many kills that's based on.

Now we have in-game video! It's just as appealing as its picture, and I really like the fiery aura that surrounds it. And that calm, confident hovering...I must have it! Look out, Kael'Thas, the day 2.4 goes live I'm coming after you, and I'm taking your cute little fiery bird. Are you prepared?

[via Blizzplanet]

In addition to the big change of Nethers not being BoP anymore, some other changes were pushed to the PTR tonight:

• Commendation of Kael'thas has had its dodge rating bonus reduced from 380 to 152
• Five epic trinket jewelcrafting recipes have been added, all with passive benefits and on use effects. See this MMO-Champion screenshot for materials.
  
• Crimson Serpent: +33 Int, + 49 Stam, use: +150 damage/healing for 20 sec (2 min cooldown)
  
• Empyrean Tortoise: +42 def rating, use: +165 dodge rating for 20 sec (2 min cooldown)
  
• Shadowsong Panther: effective stealth level increased by one, +80 attack power, use: +320 attack power for 15 sec (2 min cooldown)
  
• Khorium Boar: +84 attack power, use: summon the Khorium Boar to fight for you for 30 sec (5 min cooldown)
• Seaspray Albatross: +18 mp5, use: restores 900 mana over 12 sec (3 min cooldown)
• New gem cut: Regal Nightseye, +4 dodge rating, +6 stam, matches red or blue
• Warlocks' Drain Mana buffed by 50%; top rank now drains 300 mana per second (was 200). But remember that resilience now affects mana drain, to the tune of -20% at 400 resil.
  
• Paladins' Holy Shock damage buffed by about 35%, healing buffed by about 75%. Top rank now deals 721-779 damage or heals for 931-987 (was 530-574 damage or 530-574 healing).

That's a lot of changes. And now that I look at those numbers, those are big shifts for Drain Mana and Holy Shock. Is anyone now reconsidering those spells? Do you think those buffs will last through testing?

[via MMO-Champion]

Thanks to tipster Panagiotis of <Horde Hit Squad> (EU-Mazrigos-A), and to valiant PTR testers, we now know where patch 2.4's new non-combat Phoenix Hatchling pet can be found: it drops from Kael'thas, in Magister's Terrace. This is kind of cute if you think about it, since the version of Kael'thas in the Eye drops the Ashes of Al'ar. Big Kael'thas, big phoenix; little Kael'thas, little phoenix. According to MMO-Champion, it drops it normal mode, but not in Heroic. If you need any help with your normal-mode Kael'thas strategy, check out this video. Still unknown is what the drop rate is. I'd guess pretty low, as these "frill" items tend to be that way (Baron's mount, anyone?).

Spoiler alert: this video shows a successful kill of Kael'thas, the final boss of the new 5-man Magister's Terrace in patch 2.4.

MT = Mana Tombs.

MT = Main Tank.

MT = Mistell.

MT = Montana (well it does).

And now, we've got a new instance coming to the game called Magister's Terrace. And people are wondering the exact same thing I first thought when I heard that yesterday: what do we call it? Terrace? "5man Sunwell"? MagTer? MrT?

Sure it's not the most important issue in the game today. But someone's got to think of this stuff, or else we'll end up with:

[2. Trade]: Mohawk: LF1M need MT for MT. Whoops, MT, wrong channel.

"Hey guys, anyone want to run SL?"

"Sorry, can't, about to log."

"Sure, what classes you have?"

"Just me and the tank right now."

"I'll go, invite me."

"And that's when I had to whip it out, right in front of everyone."

"... what?"

"WTF?"

"Whoops MT sorry."

"wow."

What's the craziest mistell you've ever heard?

While trying to explain the difference between MT, OT, DPS and healer to a new player, I found this well-written guide to party roles in WoW. If you're unsure quite what the difference between a main and offtank is, or which classes are considered "DPS", it's a great read.

As a druid, I love the fact that my class appears under all headings, but as a recent instance run taught me, it's best to ensure you know which you are before you begin. Hybrid classes can cause no end of arguments when they fail to remain hybrid, too, so don't be afraid to switch roles if necessary -- a healing class that refuses to heal when the only other healer is out of mana is a great party annoyance.