Champion of the Frozen Wastes (or whatever its called)

[Greythan]

As you can see from my sig, I've only five boxed 3 dungeons to completion.

I'm wondering how many users here have made "doing them all" a goal and seen it through?

To be honest, my primary goal is spending my time efficiently on upgrading gear. Often, I have time for one dungeon and Gundrak is so easy for me I just grind it. (5 emblems in 45 mins.) If I want to do another, I do UK only because I know it well. Its much less efficient as there seems to be a ton of trash to clear for the 3 emblems.

That said, I'm thinking of starting back up to get a few more and see if I find others better than UK and possibly even Gundrak.

Thoughts?

[Greythan]

I simply can't imagine the time necessary to get an Occulus tactic down pat.

I did it for the first time SOLO last week with a pug (yeah, I know) and had to repair up from 0% once and finally cleared it with my armor at 40%. (Of course, I was the tank so repairs we're around 80g?)

I guess I need to do it. I'm pretty overgeared (at least compared to the pioneers doing this months ago).

[Taliesin]

I'll add my two cents, since we know that we run the same group makeup. First off, "doing them all" hasn't really been my goal... more like "doing what's fun". I just barely got my heroic HoS on my tank/healer as it was the daily a few days ago and I'm doing daily runs with guildies for the emblems. The rest of my toons don't have the heroic achievement (never bothered trying). HoS and OK were the only ones I slacked on, since I really didn't need anything from them.

I found HoL fairly easy with the pal/sham/mage/lock/priest team early on, and started doing that frequently about the time I started Gundrak. The priest is what made this pretty simple (group heals for Ionar/Loken). Quite a bit of trash to go through, though. Will still take about 45 mins for you to complete like Gundrak (I've got it about 30 mins now), but is 4 emblems instead of 5.

For another pretty quick instance, you may want to check out Azjol-Nerub, which has very little trash, though the boss fights themselves are a little slower than most. Most of the trash is dealt with during the boss encounters. Only 3 emblems, though, so I never really did it much even if it wasn't that difficult.

DTK and Nexus would be next up my list, though a couple of the fights get trickier here and require a little more practice to get right. Nexus is 5 emblems too, which is a bonus time saver once you master the fights. CoS is also 5, but will usually just be 4 until you really learn that instance very well to get the timed run under control (bonus drake mount once you do).

Edit: Ignore my sig. Boomkin is going to wind up my Team 2 healer when I get time after this group to work on them.

[Homer]

Champion of the Frozen Waste's includes raid achievements. Your after Northrend Dungeon Hero

BTW: Did we all loose our accounts on the new website?

[Greythan]

Thanks Tal. Always informative posts with you name next to them. :)

Homer, thanks for the clarification. I am actually going for the Champion title as I can get the 10 man raid achievements solo or partially boxed.

On that note, I took my three DPS on an OS10 last week and it went very smoothly. My mage topped the damage meter as well. :)

[kadaan]

When I first hit 80 I was able to do all the heroics in quested blues except HoS, Old Kingdom, and Occulus. After 3.2 came out and those three showed up as dailies I managed to 1-shot HoS and Old Kingdom. Occulus took me ~7 wipes on Eregos (1-shot everything else) to figure out timing and rotation with 5x Amber Drakes. Occulus popped up as the daily again this week and I 1-shot him. Out of every heroic in the game right now, the Brann Event in HoS and The Black Knight are tied for the hardest bosses for me.

I 5-boxed in a 10-man naxx so I have KT, but am still missing Malygos and Sartharion on some of my alts for the title.

edit: as far as easy goes, I would rate them:
Easy: Gundrak, Drak'tharon, Halls of Lightning (if you have >16k hp buffed), Utgarde Keep, Culling of Stratholme, Nexus
Medium: Utgarde Pinnacle (Skadi took a while to learn), Old Kingdom (last boss), Occulus (last boss has a big learning curve, but easy after that), Azjol'nerub, Violet Hold (depends on which bosses you get)
Hard: Halls of Stone (mostly the Brann event), Trial of the Crusader

[heyaz]

I currently farm Gundrak, CoS, DTK, UK, AN, and ToC. Last being the hardest by far, but the gear is worth 10 wipes on black knight.

If you are lacking in gear, or just don't have a ton of time, I recommend Gundrak, CoS (untimed), and DTK. Quick and don't take much gear. The rest, I don't really know what kind of milestones you need to do them efficiently (I mostly quit heroics after I got my shields, then came back in 3.2 with 2300 sp on the shaman and 28k on the tank). I do know at my current gear level they are all possible with strategy.

If I've learned anything it's to gear up your tank first. Nothing kills dps and mana more than having to heal your tank.. just since 3.2 having gone from a 28k capped tank with low avoidance, to a 33k tank with high avoidance, many bosses I can kill without having to heal the tank at all, and the harder ones like dark knight are possible. My shaman do 3.5-4k dps easy in raids and heroics solo, but when my tank was in bad gear they do like 2k dps max, it's that big of a difference.

Edit: Noticed you have a mixed group with a holy priest - this might not all apply to you. However it's still important to gear up that tank first, your priest could even dps. Heroic bosses don't hit hard at all, other than dark knight maybe and maybe king dred (but now I just pop divine protection and it's no problem).

[kadaan]

Definitely agree that gearing up your tank is the way to go. GHeal+PoM accounts for 95%+ of my healing when doing heroics. PoM is enough group healing for most fights other than mass AE damage fights like Loken, Black Knight, and the mojo guy in Gundrak. Being able to spam either GHeal or PoH as needed makes haste/crit/sp not a huge deal, as long as you don't go oom :).

[Greythan]

Yeah, my priest is something like 21k mana and 2200sp buffed.

Paladin now hits about 32k HP buffed.

I think I was just curiuos to see how many folks have taken the time to actually try to finish all the five man content. Good stuff in this thread. Thanks.

[Pallarfo]

I'm farming DTK, CoS (untimed), and UK. Completed Nexus, but won't go there if it's not required.
Other instances are a pain at some bosses, seem to lack tactics :(
Team make up is: Pala (31k buffed), Holy priest, Hunter, 2x mage.

[Niley]

I simply can't imagine the time necessary to get an Occulus tactic down pat.

Occulus is all about setting your macros, which took me 45 mins, and then killing the boss, took me 2 tries, since i failed to understand that when green drake heals it does so with its own life...so i pretty much killed my drakes \o/
Once you have macros figured out occulus can become easy grinding dungeon, specially now with gear affecting drakes(i know some boxers that had more practice with it do it in less than 20 minutes).

[Clone]

I want to do another, I do UK only because I know it well. Its much less efficient as there seems to be a ton of trash to clear for the 3 emblems.


This may be common knowledge but I wouldnt know as Ive only ever 5 boxed wotlk content. A lot of the trash in UK can be skipped. I got my runs down to about 25 mins. While still not as efficient as CoT or Gundrak its still not far off :)

[Starbuck_Jones]

Other than a few of the drakes in the drake room before the first boss. What other mobs are you skipping?

[Toned]

I've done all of the heroics and most of their achievements. I am 2 achievements away from Glory of the hero. Should have that done this week. I've been putting occulus off just because the idea of the zone and mechanics seemed a pain in the ass to box. First time clearing it on heroic I got Ruby/Emerald void. I did Amber void last night, and am looking to get experienced drake rider tonight(easy one). The only thing that I will need after that is make it count(20min occulus).

Anyone who is newly 80 or having troubles with any heroics I suggest running normal TOC over and over 1) the ammount of upgrades vrs time spent = well worth it. 2) $$$$$ with all the shards.

For farming badges I suggest: Gundrak,HOL,AN,Drak'Tharon Keep,VH,UP,TOC

I completely outgear these instances (TOC helps a lot for newer characters coming up in the world). I stopped multi-boxing right around the time Ulduar released untill about 2 weeks ago. Pretty much every instance is doable with a trinity setup, or a tank + 3-4hybrid dps/heals. When I'm running heroics I'm doing Prot Pal + 4 ele shams, or Prot Pal + 3 ele shams + 1 Fire Mage.

Tank: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Velen&n=Lawltankadin
Main Shaman: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Velen&n=Lawlshawk

Alt Shaman1: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Velen&n=Lolshawk - Was resto untill I realized how it was a waste to dedicate a healer with multiple hybrids.
Alt Shaman2: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Velen&n=Lollshawk

Alt Shaman3: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Velen&n=Lawllshawk (been inactive lately)
Alt Shaman 3's replacement: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Velen&n=Meteora