Posts with tag ramparts

My main is a druid tank and healer, but on occasion, I've returned to two low-level warrior alts and braved leveling in the Dungeon Finder. Most leveling groups are a bit like the proverbial little girl with pigtails: When they're good, they're very, very good ... and when they're bad, they're horrid.

The following is a list of somewhat random observations I have collected after several expansions' worth of tanking for low-level groups.

1. Don't take shortcuts on trash packs. The time you save sneaking past one of them will be eliminated by the time you'll lose when someone blunders into them and dies.

2. Someone will almost always blunder into them and die.

3. Despite common complaints on the forums, the vast majority of players are actually really nice people who are perfectly willing to tolerate mistakes and the learning curve. The actual occurrence of true, unforgivable jackasses seems to be about one per five groups, although this depends on when you're queuing.

15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.

Last week, 15 Minutes of Fame visited with multiboxer Nixi of team Absolute Power-H of Archimonde to bring WoW Insider readers his 10-boxing strategy for Karazhan. This week, we'll step back for a look at Nixi's hardware setup, his top five tips for new multiboxers and a broader look at why he's a 'boxer.

Catch up with 10-boxing Karazhan Part 1, then join us after the break for an inside look at Nixi's 10-boxing team.

Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary.

Gorillas are nothing new; they've been around forever. What is changing in Wrath of the Lich King is that gorillas are going to become AoE-Tanks.

No no, don't /pshaw just yet.

There are two keys to the Ascent of the Gorilla in WotLK. First, Thunderstomp's cooldown has changed from one minutes to ten seconds. Take 3/3 points in Longevity, and Thunderstomp's cooldown can be reduced to seven seconds. /blink

Second, we're getting a hugely buffed Volley. It is totally losing its one minute cooldown, foshizzle, and we can Auto Shot while Volley is being channeled. Sweet? Sweet.

Take a Tenacity pet with an AoE attack, add a Volley unhindered by a cooldown, stir in the "Auto Shot keeps cooking" bonus, and we get a hunter-pet combo that mimics a Paladin.

Don't believe us? Watch the movie.

You are invited to download the YouTube version (53MB) of this movie here, and the full-sized version (218MB) here.

As always, a great big Thank You to the WoW Insider editors for allowing us to publish this movie both here and on our little blog at the same time!

Lately there's lots of people running old world instances solo, as well as some people attempting runs of Burning Crusade instances alone and ending up victorious. I even saw a Paladin tank solo Hellfire Ramparts once.

But in this video a Tauren Druid named (perhaps appropriately) Immortal, kills all 3 bosses of Ramparts, all 3 bosses of Blood Furnace, and the 2nd boss of Mana Tombs -- all on his own. Definitely worth a watch!

Previously on Moviewatch...

Most players by now that started rolling to 70 when the expansion hit are probably either just starting or in the middle of running their first few Heroic dungeons. I fall into that group-- my guild has had a few folks running Heroics for a while, but the majority of us are just now starting to pick up the Revered rep needed in the different factions to make running Heroics a regular possibility. So here's a few tips I've picked up just in the past few weeks or so about how to get started running the most challenging 5mans in the game. Please feel free to add your own below.

-Easiest Heroic: in general, you're going to want to start in the Slave Pens. I've heard good things about Underbog and Old Hillsbrad (Ramparts is comparably easy as well, especially if you've got your FR gear on), but really I've found that Slave Pens is a good indicator of whether your group is ready for Heroics or not, and it seems like Cenarion rep is pretty easy to come by, so you've got lots of keyed folks to choose from.

-Best place to get badges: Heroic Mechanar. Even the Gatekeeper minibosses, who don't give good loot in the normal instance, will drop Badges for you in Heroic, which means that if you skate through this place in under an hour, you're earning five badges in that time.

-In Heroics, it's not the bosses you have to worry about, it's the trash. Trash hits hard (really hard), so there's no room for error (read: letting the mobs go after clothies). If you don't have the standard CC you need (and you should-- heroic groups are best when every class type is well-represented), then fear is your friend, because in most heroics two hits are enough to cause a wipe.

After a short hiatus (due to a lack of endgaming on the part of most guilds), our much-loved and much-hated column Guildwatch is back in all its rumor-filled, grats-giving, petty guild drama glory! Here where, every Tuesday, you can see who's winning, who's inviting, and who's cheating.

And don't forget, if you've got a tip on a guild that has drama happening (anonymous tips welcomed), is downing the 25-man stuff already, or is recruiting for Karazhan, let us know at wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Click the link to read the return of GW!

Definitely my favorite part of BC so far has got to be the instances. We haven't seen new 5-man content in such a long time, and it's so much fun to be facing new pulls, new lore, and new bosses, most of them with brand new models, and even audio! Although, while I do like Magtheridon's voice, it seems like yes, those "puny magics" are actually holding him for a long, long time-- we get it.

Most of the new strats aren't too hard to get down with trial and error, but there are a few quirks to figure out. And for that reason, my guild's raidleader, Belacroix of Gothic Bunnies on Thundehorn-H, has punched together a few quickguides of the first few instances-- two wings of Hellfire Citadel, and The Slave Pens and the Underbog in Coifang Reservoir. They're not complete walkthroughs by any means, but if you want a little insight on how to take down certain bosses or what you'll find in there, Bela's guides are a good read.

WoW blogger Relmstein has also been running instances in Outland, and he's got even more complete walkthroughs for Hellfire Ramparts and the Blood Furnace (so far, the Furnace is my favorite). And I have to make a mention of WoW Wiki as well (and everyone that works on it)-- they've got strategy up for almost every boss seen in the instances so far, so if you've got a group stuck on something, they're the place to go.

Blizzard really went over the top with the loot in Outland-- just when you think the loot can't get any phatter, it does. But early on in one of the first instances there, a lot of players are chuckling about this Warrior belt.

Name: Tenacious Defender (Tenacious D for short)
Type: Rare Plate Belt
Armor: 491
Abilities:

• This is one of the first socketed items you'll come across, which means you can put jewels in it for extra abilities. This one takes two red jewels, and when they're both in, you get +3 Resilience.
• +15 Strength, +14 Agility, +19 Stamina
• Oh, and one more thing: in the tooltip for the item, we're told that "It has the power... to move you." Yes, this is a sly Blizzard reference to the band that wrote the Greatest Song in the World (which isn't actually anything like this song), Tenacious D. Jack Black and Kyle Gass' legendary music lives in Outland! A few players think it would be nice to eventually see a Pickaxe of Destiny, but I'd get more benefit from a Junior Western Bacon Chee. That's a JUNIOR western bacon chee-- I'm trying to watch my figure.

How to Get It: This is one of the drops from Omor the Unscarred, one of the two end bosses in the first Outland instance, Hellfire Citadel's Ramparts. Actually, most people I've run it with do Omor first and the dragon, Nazan, last-- Omor's the big Doomguard fella off by himself. Finish him, wait for this to drop (it's showing up at about 11%), and you too can be Wonderboy. You could kill a yak, maybe even from 200 yards away.

Getting Rid of It: It's BOP, and sells for a measly 2g 40s 92c to vendors. I'm not sure if socketing it raises its price (because I haven't socketed anything yet), though-- anyone have insight on that one?