Heroic Instances, progression.

[Kulzor]

You know, it's kind of interesting seeing the slow, but sure mindset change that occurs as you move from one "level" of content to the next.

Case in point, not so long ago our little guild on Horde Windrunner was doing pretty regular instances, not so many of the 70 instances though. I went from two accounts to five this summer as I found that the more accounts I had, the more rep grinding I could do. Once I hit four accounts, I was able to actually clear a non-heroic boss myself! Woot!

Then five accounts called to me from the nether, and heeding that call, I found I could progress through several more bosses in most instances, even some of the level 70's. That rocked! Rep flowed in from running some of them over and over (and over and over...).

But mine eyes are ever drawn upward, and I started thinking about heroics (and lusting after the badges!). Oh, wouldn't that be nice to have some way to get some Badges of Justice and actually get a few really good pieces of gear!

Ignoring the few heroics I'd gone on with just a single toon (and four live players - which always had a ton of deaths, plus some wipes, etc.).

I recall going into my first Slave Pens run with my own five toons. I wiped over and over on the very first pull! Ouch, that was a depressing day. But I'm stubborn, and I intended to WIN. I did more research, changed in-game macros, tried traps, and was able to make progress in h-SP. We actually took down our first boss. That rocked. I finally thought - hey, my toons have ONE boss I can farm for a badge each day!

Soon my five-pack were able to hit the second boss in there as well. Sure, there were places that pretty much always wiped my team out (four packs of bogstrok...), but hey, badges started coming in. Then we started on Mechanar. That seemed like a real pain as well (still is in a few parts, with the Crushers/Wreckers), but with some changes in strategy and learning how to best brute-force my way through the areas (my team uses NO CC, apart from the paladin's 7-second stun and an occasional 2-second stun from the hunter's pet).

It didn't take me long to trudge through the many wipes needed to do a full clear of h-SP. Man, that rocked! Actually getting epic drops, plus nethers! Not to mention just the pride of doing a full boss clear!

Fast forward to yesterday, many badges later, and 3.0.2 of course (though that didn't change a huge amount of what my team does). So yesterday my team does a full boss clear of heroic Slave Pens (twice), Botanica (twice), and Ramparts. (With one guildie substituting for one of my toons for two of the runs.) 25 Badges in one day!

I recall actually thinking during the second heroic Slave Pens run that it was just a relaxing romp through the instance. Wow, when did a heroic become "relaxing?"

I knew it some time ago, but now I'm actually at the viewpoint of some of the heroics being "easy" to me. I never thought I'd see that day. People would talk about 15 minutes per badge being a good heroic to be worth doing. I'm closer to 20 minutes per badge, but I have extra setup with multiboxing on each fight.

It's an interesting mind shift, and I'm glad I'm at least cognizant of it happening. That and I'm all too aware that it ISN'T that easy to everyone - and it is even easier to those in Tier 5/6 gear.

I've actually cleared heroic Slave Pens, Mechanar, Underbog, Botanica, Blood Furnace, and Ramparts now.

Got any suggestions on the next one to take on? One that doesn't require a ton of running around on fights (no Shadow Labs, BF last boss I won't try again, not sure about that last boss in Sethekk Halls and his explosions).

Thanks for listening, gotta say I'm having more fun these days than ever before in WoW.

[Aradar]

How did you run a heroic twice in one day? I can only guess you mean a 24 hour time period that happened to overlap the heroic reset?

Anyhow, I would take the last boss of Sethakk Halls over Blood Furnace any day. I farmed him for a while for some plate shoulders for my tank but have wiped on the last BF boss tons. I only tried him one night but I'm guessing I went through 10-15 deaths before I gave up. As for Mech, first two badges are easy, I've never tried the 3rd since she is hard enough on reg and I've wiped a couple times on the last guy. Now that I think about it, can't remember if I ever got him or not.

I think the only ones I've cleared on heroic other than you are Mana Tombs, Old Hillsbrad and Black Morass but those two Caverns of Time dungeons are nothing but running around.

[Kulzor]

On my server, at least, the reset time of all heroic instances is 11:00 AM CST (it is a PST server, so I'm two hours behind it). That gave me time to run two of them prior to 11am, then the other two after that.

Now that tankadins don't run out of mana every 1-2 fights, OHB and BM sound more reasonable to me on heroic mode. Never tried either in heroic though. Mana Tombs I've held off on due to the claim that you need something like 200 shadow resist for Pandemonius (though the tankadin would give 70).

[Aradar]

Awesome, my server resets at like 4 in the morning.

Yeah, I could do OHB before the patch but now its retarded easy with stacking mana totems and the new blessing of sanctuary.

Last night was my first completion of BM and its still tough, I had to restart 3 times resulting in no loot from the 1st and 2nd boss on the 2nd and 3rd attempt, but its definately easier with the reduction in down time.

Pandemonius I've done with only 70 resist which is tough but I also have 4 grounding totems at my disposal so its a little differant for me. Now when I do him I think I have a little over 100 resist thanks to The Fel Barrier ('http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32082') which unfortunately comes off the last boss in MT and some resist ring I have.

[Sembiance]

Kulzor! Your story really inspired me!

I am a newbie, where you were a long time ago.
Still raising a team, but the idea that some day I will be able to get epics ON MY OWN without having to put up with PUGs is what I'm going for.

Just wanted to let you know, I loved your post :)

[Kissell13]

Whats everyones secret. I 4 boxed part of kara tonight with no probs...and so i thought i give a shot at a heroic....Tried 3 diff one and get 3 shotted by the first 2 mobs
Any tips

[Quix]

No secrets, just practice. Imo here are a couple of tips that made my Life easier (From the perspective of 1pally/4 ele sham)

1 Start with Slave pens or Ramparts, they are the 2 easiest in my opinion.

2. Use TOTEMS!! On all but the easiest trash, Keep Tremor, Grounding, & mana spring totems down at a minimum to make it easier. Stoneclaw & earthbind totems are also More usefull than they seem.

3. Have a button that is Heal char X by name i.e. Target & cast, (I have 5 Different Lesser healing wave Buttons) This is faster than selecting who to heal waiting .25 sec for the server to catch up, & then pressing heal.
(Alternatively you could make One shammy resto & have him heal the Target's target of your main,, IE, whatever Mob your main is attacking's target. I don't do this, but lots of ppl have had sucess with it).

Practice Practice practice.

[Kulzor]

Sembiance, I'm glad to hear that - it's a reason why I posted it. So often I hear people talk about how easy heroics are, Kara, etc., and my thought is always - "What gear are you in?"

Since last Friday night (to Tuesday night), I bought five mid-high end badge gear items. I'm finding my heroic runs taking less and less time, and many parts feeling very easy as my team's dps continues upward (as does the healing), and the tank is gaining armor and health, making her take less damage. It's a snowball effect that I'm seeing.

Some things I still highly dislike though. I won't do heroic Arcatraz again. Too many gimmicks on the mobs. (Running back from the dead robots that cast chain lightning, fear, MC, immunity to elements, having to move around more on fights after voidwalkers drop their circle of death/healing.)

Kissell13 - here's how I start almost every fight:

1. Stop the dpsers in back (bunched up like they were on /follow). Drop totems.
2. Cast Hunter's Mark at first mob.
3. Launch Avenger's Shield and cast Misdirection on the tank.
4. Cast Holy Shield, cast LIfebloom on tank.
5. Cast Consecration, stack Lifebloom on tank.
6. Multishot to spread out more aggro.
7. About then the mobs get to the tank, or I wait a second or two.
8. Hit Hammer of Justice on the first mob to actually reach the tank. If the group has an MCer or Fear caster, that is the primary target, and I wait for that mob instead to reach the tank to cast HoJ. Mob must be in melee or it screws up Hammer of Wrath attacks.
9. Push "start on a mob macro." This kicks off 2-3 minute specials like Bestial Wrath and Arcane Power. On the tank it casts Seal of Righteousness. On the dpsers it starts blasting, but the macro on that button won't cast an instant spell.
10. Start mashing my primary attack macro, which kicks off trinkets, pet abilities, and spell rotations for each toon.
11. When a mob has about 4k health left, I tab to the next one and start mashing the primary attack macro again. Since the shaman and the mage are usually still casting, it lets them not waste a spell, and I end up doing more dps as a team.

Note: If a second mob is an MCer, casts Fear, or Polymorph, then I use the hunter's Intimidation to stun them for two seconds as soon as I tab to that second mob on my list. (I don't interrupt killing the first mob to tab around, but will stun them when I get the first mob down.)

Stuns are key (for me).

Kissel13 - post your toon's name and realm, or put a link here to wowarmory so we can see the tank. Comparing that to where I've been might tell me how easy/hard it should be for you in h-SP.

[Sarduci]

I'll second that snowball effect.

The one piece of gear I always forget to look at is the back slot. I was still using a green on everything as of 3 days ago. Hit my first 25 badges, replaced them all with +20 spell power and some pulls are much easier. Since then instead of falling just short of killing a mob, I'm just a bit over what I need now. Now volley #4 hits a fresh mob instead of hitting one that had 200hp. Some pulls in steam vaults are much smoother now and taking down Quag in SP happens before I lose anyone instead of it coming down to a lone tank and a OOM healer that trying to shoot off that last lightning bolt.

I won't be able to collect all of the high end badge gear before the expansion hits but I'm looking forward to having that opportunity at 80.