Heroics w/ Melee team

[kate]

With Hydronox I am moving out of the poisons and cleansing, but what seems to happen is that my team winds up getting scattered (like, at least 2 members will, for some reason despite my not telling them to IWT, run off to some far corner of the room and sit in a corner) or the placement of the poison graphic on the ground will make it look like we aren't in it, but we are. I'm sure I'll get it at some point.

Yesterday I did the following heroics:

Heroic Nexus - the *entire* thing was trivial (I was assuming the mage would wreck me, but we ripped her to shreds FAST), cleared it in like, 20 minutes, no deaths.

DTK - Dred was the only one who posed any challenge, but tanking him at the middle of the stairs made the fears a non-issue. No deaths.

UK - 99% of the time this is now pretty easy assuming I don't fumble-finger during Ingvar.

OK - Totally easy, 20-25 minutes, tops.

HoL - I can get past the first 2 bosses easily, but there's no way I'm going to handle the lightning boss, so I didn't even try. Maybe once I figure out movement better I'll try - I know I could kick Loken's butt if I could get to him, so that's no worry.

HoS - I keep fumble fingering during the event; it's the stupid stuff on the ground that I wind up getting stuck in for just a tick or 2 before I can get out that winds up taking me out. So I can't even take 1 boss here, alas.

I'll try CoS today to see if I can handle it now - it was ripping me up a while ago, but that was pre-IS and pre-getting my tank geared.

What I'm doing now is just running random heroics with my team and if it's a dungeon I can handle, I clear it of course, but if I can't I just do the parts I can, by which time I can just teleport out and try to run another. If it's one I'll just repeatedly die in without taking out a single boss, I teleport out and raise some professions til the timer resets. As my gear gets better hopefully I'll clear more and teleport out less I did get about 35 badges on each team member yesterday, so I figure the gear will be improving quickly!

I think mostly I just need to figure out a better way to move out of stuff like fire, poison, etc. Is there any kind of add on that will say "HEY! Idiot! There is about to be stuff on the ground so move!" either while the thing is being cast or right when it gets cast? Between the consecrate and divine storm spam, it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between my stuff and patches of fire/void/etc. If anyone has ideas on better ways to handle lots of movement (I have keys set up to help my followers strafe while I sit in place, ones to make us all strafe, etc.) I'm all ears.

Right now, yes, doing the distributed healing with the rets spamming FoL as needed, and it works very well. There's never really been a time where I've died due to a lack of healing - it's always been a mechanic/movement kind of thing. What's making a dedicated healer setup seem more necessary for Cata? Though, I have been collecting a healing offset for one of my team - might as well, to get some experience with it, and maybe it'll help in some of the fights I'm finding tricky.

[uffela]

HoS - I keep fumble fingering during the event; it's the stupid stuff on the ground that I wind up getting stuck in for just a tick or 2 before I can get out that winds up taking me out. So I can't even take 1 boss here, alas.

Last and also first time in Heroic HoS, I found a couple of ways that worked with Krystallus and Maiden of Grief. When Krystallus petrifies and are about to shatter, hit Divine Shield on all and keep dpsing. He's dead just as the bubble wears off. That makes this fight trivial. Think I found that trick here somewhere and it made a huge difference.
With Maiden I wiped continuously, changed tactics and just backpedaled while tanking and let my rets whip her big, beautiful behind. She stopped for far fewer shadow pools, and died with only two rets killed. It was ugly and simple, but we danced on her corpse in the end.

Inspiring to read about your progression - I need to step up and follow through on more heroics. Keep up the good work!

[kate]

Last and also first time in Heroic HoS, I found a couple of ways that worked with Krystallus and Maiden of Grief. When Krystallus petrifies and are about to shatter, hit Divine Shield on all and keep dpsing. He's dead just as the bubble wears off. That makes this fight trivial. Think I found that trick here somewhere and it made a huge difference.
With Maiden I wiped continuously, changed tactics and just backpedaled while tanking and let my rets whip her big, beautiful behind. She stopped for far fewer shadow pools, and died with only two rets killed. It was ugly and simple, but we danced on her corpse in the end.

Inspiring to read about your progression - I need to step up and follow through on more heroics. Keep up the good work!

I'll give those bosses a try next time - I just wanted to do the Tribunal event first so I could at least see if I could take the boss. Unfortunately I suck at moving out of fire, half the time. Thanks for the tip on Krystallus! With Maiden, I'm thinking more movement is going to be painful - but if I can turn her into a badge, that's not a bad thing

[OzPhoenix]

With Hydronox I am moving out of the poisons and cleansing, but what seems to happen is that my team winds up getting scattered (like, at least 2 members will, for some reason despite my not telling them to IWT, run off to some far corner of the room and sit in a corner) or the placement of the poison graphic on the ground will make it look like we aren't in it, but we are. I'm sure I'll get it at some point.

Let you in on a secret, I rarely use IWT during combat. I've found it's just too flaky. I use it for taggin vendors and the like but that's about it. I accept a minor hit in DPS, to avoid the very often documented cases of followers going running off in all four directions after an IWT selected target dies.

The hit, of course, is that the Rets won't start DPS'ing on the prots new target until they receive a keystroke translating to some attacking ability. Still, even after chatting with Lax about it over on ISBoxer.com forums, for me personally, I keep my finger off the IWT unless I really really need it (or can afford to have funny things happening).

Yesterday I did the following heroics:

Heroic Nexus - the *entire* thing was trivial (I was assuming the mage would wreck me, but we ripped her to shreds FAST), cleared it in like, 20 minutes, no deaths.

Well done on Nexus. I actually ran into problems on that with my team in getting past the frozen Alliance boss (Stoutbeard) and his nasty whirlwind. Once I held DS in reserve for that it got onto a farm status. Also, you probably know this already, but just in case, when facing up to Ormorok if you get the whole team cheek to cheek with him, you'll miss all the spikes and can treat it like a static tank 'n spank fight.

DTK - Dred was the only one who posed any challenge, but tanking him at the middle of the stairs made the fears a non-issue. No deaths.

Yeah, Dred's the hardest one in there I think (though Novos can run Rets mana out if DPS is low). I actually tank him inside that enclosure, both to reduce the sprint on the fear, and to nab the achievement as well. He's also got that nasty teeth-bearing stomp thing going on but his mostly cuddly 'n fun.

UK - 99% of the time this is now pretty easy assuming I don't fumble-finger during Ingvar.

OK - Totally easy, 20-25 minutes, tops.

I use my Ret-only movement keys for that one. I just keep an eye on where Ingvar is about to throw that AoE stomp and strafe 'em around the side. I hear the column works well for that too.

HoL - I can get past the first 2 bosses easily, but there's no way I'm going to handle the lightning boss, so I didn't even try. Maybe once I figure out movement better I'll try - I know I could kick Loken's butt if I could get to him, so that's no worry.

This was one of the last dungeons I put onto farm, and I assume you're having issues with Ionar too. The mobs just past Volkhan are a pain in the ass too with their fear which requires a target-reset to restore as well.

For Ionar, I heal through his electricity debuff he attaches to one player, then do the runner when he changes into his lightning spider things. DS is also handy for that player-debuff if it comes down to it.

HoS - I keep fumble fingering during the event; it's the stupid stuff on the ground that I wind up getting stuck in for just a tick or 2 before I can get out that winds up taking me out. So I can't even take 1 boss here, alas.

Phase 2 and 3 is where you need to be on the move a little. The laser in particular is very slow to react, so if you campe somewhere on the stairs for a few seconds, then shift positions the laser hits where you were, not where you've moved to. Consecrate is a real bonus here for picking up the mobs too.

I'll try CoS today to see if I can handle it now - it was ripping me up a while ago, but that was pre-IS and pre-getting my tank geared.

Glad to hear in a subsequent post you slaughtered H CoS. Once the team all has their Drakes, go for the Zombiefest achievement - it's a lotta fun... hehe.

What I'm doing now is just running random heroics with my team and if it's a dungeon I can handle, I clear it of course, but if I can't I just do the parts I can, by which time I can just teleport out and try to run another. If it's one I'll just repeatedly die in without taking out a single boss, I teleport out and raise some professions til the timer resets. As my gear gets better hopefully I'll clear more and teleport out less I did get about 35 badges on each team member yesterday, so I figure the gear will be improving quickly!

Sounds like you're getting over that curve. I did the same thing, at the start I could only count on about 12 badges a day, but it kept expanding, and now the team can do 'em all. Have you got the i219 weapons out of normal ICC 5mans yet?

I think mostly I just need to figure out a better way to move out of stuff like fire, poison, etc. Is there any kind of add on that will say "HEY! Idiot! There is about to be stuff on the ground so move!" either while the thing is being cast or right when it gets cast? Between the consecrate and divine storm spam, it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between my stuff and patches of fire/void/etc. If anyone has ideas on better ways to handle lots of movement (I have keys set up to help my followers strafe while I sit in place, ones to make us all strafe, etc.) I'm all ears.

DBM will do it nicely, though I reckon just knowing the fights will be better than DBM, which is reactive only. Frick and Ick in PoS is like that - DBM will tell you your standing in goo, but by the time it does, the rets are turning green and sticking one foot in the grave already.

Right now, yes, doing the distributed healing with the rets spamming FoL as needed, and it works very well. There's never really been a time where I've died due to a lack of healing - it's always been a mechanic/movement kind of thing. What's making a dedicated healer setup seem more necessary for Cata? Though, I have been collecting a healing offset for one of my team - might as well, to get some experience with it, and maybe it'll help in some of the fights I'm finding tricky.

Well for Raiding, the dedicated healer is, I think, a must. To be honest, I'm going off ICC and VOA only - Naxx seems ok (proabably because I'd outgeared it by then and was running with another 5-boxer who had a dedicated healer).

The problem with 4xRet-healing in a raid setting is that the tank is taking so much damage that the Rets spend almost as much time healing as DPS'ing (particularly if they have to heal without an instant FoL proc). Not only does that dampen down their DPS a lot, but their Heals are very mana-inefficient when compared to what Holy's can put out, especially on single-target (that is, tank) healing. In the raids I've been in, even just ICC trash killing for Rep, the Prot's always bouncing around 100% mana, and the Rets are often as not gulping down another drink after every second fight.

Worse, if the Rets run dry during combat, then no mana means no healing, and everyone gets a free trip to a glowing white angel.

What I'm planning for my team (just one piece of gear to go before converting Pally #5 to Holy), is to use the Holy for tank-only healing and emergency Ret healing, and use the Rets healing to top themselves up when taking occasional damage from melee-aoe's and the like, using all those lovely free, instance FoL's they proc so often (and which Jamba helpfully displays for me).

As to Cata, I'm making an assumption there. I figure with a focus on bringing CC back into the regular dungeon running picture, I susepct they'll try and re-inforce the traditional 1 x Tank, 3 x DPS, 1 x Healer set up for 5mans as well.

Oh, and PS: Yeah, get those Drums. +54 Nature Resist (for which we have no Aura to duplicate), and Stamina and they're dirt cheap to make (unlike the much more expensive Fortitude Scrolls).