5 Shammy Heroics

[Zappy]

After getting the 1800 weapons, my shammys are all just below 2900 SP before ToW and 150 hit before talents, so I decided to try a few new heroics to see how my new PVP gear would fair.

I must say, I was totally shocked, as I was one of the guys saying that WOTLK heroics would not be possible with 5 shammys back in the day. Well, I can say with gear, it's not only doable, but also extremely easy.

The first one I tried was the Culling of Stratholme as it was the heroic daily. I remember in fresh 80 gear with a geared tank, I could barely clear it, and would get annihilated as 5 shammys. Anyhow, this is the first time I've been back here since the start of the year. The first boss kicked my ass due to him silencing different members of the team constantly. I ank'd all 5 so that I would still have a shot at the drake, but drew aggro before I could get much mana/health back, so I ran back from the GY. This time, I decided to unload 5 fire elementals to keep up the DPS along with bloodlust for that fight, and this time he dropped rather quickly. The second boss was a total joke. Keep grounding totems down and you won't take any damage. To my surprise, the rest of the instance was a joke now. Enough of a joke to after wiping twice on the first boss and running back from the GY that I was still able to complete the timed run with 2 minutes to spare and got my first bronze drake. I'm guessing the entire run could be completed in close to 15 minutes:





The next night the daily heroic was Halls of Stone. I figured I'll give it a shot, and didn't have high expectations. I lost two of my guys during the prospector event. The next attempt, it was very easy:



All in all, I was very shocked and surprised how easy these heroics are now. I used to use focus hexes to make the pulls easier, whereas now, almost everything with 63k HP dies in 2 lightning bolt volleys, so I would typically open up with 2 volleys on the first mob, switch the 2nd and FS/LB, then the back to the 3rd with more lightning bolts. If there were more 3 mobs, then I would round robin thunderstorms to keep them off me.

I've been running ToC normal a few times a day to farm abyss crystals, and now I'm really tempted to attempt it in heroic.

[Maxion]

Hehe indeed, my shamans cleared heroics already in quest blues, so i bet its easy in that high pvp gear, lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVYaF-464-o
Nice work anyway, see if you can make some videos so that i'm not the only one in the world with 5 shammy northrend heroic clear videos anymore

[Zappy]

Drak'tharon was the first one I cleared in mostly blues, then gun'drak, followed by UT Keep. I remember trying a few others and just thinking there is no way. After knocking down halls of stone, I'm confident I can do just about all of them except for that one boss that phases everybody.

[daviddoran]

Not only is doing it without a tank/healer an accomplishment, but doing the timed run with time to spare AFTER a wipe (and a half with the Ankhs) is a very nice accomplishment. I'm still sportin deadly/furious on my 5 shammys, but maybe ill give it a shot? I've soloed the bosses in AV with just the 5 of me, so I'm guessing it wouldnt be so bad for me....

[Multibocks]

Drak'tharon was the first one I cleared in mostly blues, then gun'drak, followed by UT Keep. I remember trying a few others and just thinking there is no way. After knocking down halls of stone, I'm confident I can do just about all of them except for that one boss that phases everybody.

Actually you should go try him, my current tactic when he is daily is to hero with 3 fire pets up and 1 wrath totem. I dont even bother healing tank and just go full tilt dps and he usually dies as soon as second insanity finishes casting and my shaman dont have 2900 sp

[Zappy]

UPDATE. I tried Halls of Lightning tonight. Not even a single death in there.

First, here was my 2nd drake run: (6 minutes left)


Bjarngrim with buff for achievement:


Volkhan with achievement:


Ionar: (this was the one boss I was really worried about) The sparks were extremely easy to heal through, so I won't need any elementals next time:


And the final boss. (I popped bloodlust before pulling him and took a few seconds to hit screenshot as you can see the achievements fading away), which means he was dead in about 30 seconds.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

lol...your shammies have more HP than my damn prot pally tank does.

[Zappy]

Adding Violet Hold to the list: (Yes I'm bored tonight)

[Zappy]

A few more:

A very sloppy watch him die, but got the job done:


AzjolNerub:


Nexus (My other 4 already did this fight with a tank a long time ago):


And per multiblocks, I decided to try Ahkhaket. Interesting enough, just pop bloodlust and go to town. I didn't even use the fire elementals, and he died in about 30 seconds. He never got a chance to put insanity on my group:


I didn't even know this mushroom boss existed in heroic mode, so I had to go find him:


Looks like now, I need to do Occulus and UT Pinnacle for the hero achievement.

[Multibocks]

grats man looks like you are tearing it up. Side note: Anyone notice that this is about the same timeline in BC that shaman could solo heroics well? (Right before last patch before WoTLK came out.) Obviously it's tied to all the gear being released, but it's interesting that its about the same point.

edit: So then its safe to say 5 shaman wont work in Cataclysm until the 3rd patch.