Blackrock Foundry Ready! Gruul & Oregorger rundowns.

So ready. Tonight we raid BRF. I think these are the two first bosses we will tackle first.

Gruul & Oregorger.

Gruul seems fairly simple & straight forward, like always a dps and raid awareness check. But I foresee Oregorger will be a big challenge for healers, especially shamans since the encounter is big on movement and lots of abilities needing interrupts. Not to mention a lot of possible LOS issues. I hope everyone's ready for that! If SOO-Garrosh Adds are any indication of this one, we are definitely going to struggle. There were a lot of issues with those interrupts during that tier.

Gruul Boss/ Picture Cred: Method H. Gruul Video Guide

As per Icy Veins:  Here is a rundown to Gruul: - LUST @ Start.

Phase I - 70 seconds

The boss is tanked. 

He uses inferno slice: per every 10 seconds. 

• Indicated by rage bar.
• When rage bar is maxed inferno slice takes place - HIGH amt of fire dmg output to Tank & Players in its cone area. This ability splits dmg between players.
• Rage bar then resets. 
• Debuff increases dmg by 20% for 30 seconds (these are players who stand in cone area).

Overwhelming blows: placed on Tanks.

• Causes high amt of dmg to tank and players within 10yds & 60 sec debuff stacked.
• Overwhelming blows cause 10% dmg increase per stack. - Tanks must switch!

Petrifying slam: player knock back ability that petrifies them slowly after the knockback. 

• Lasts 5secs.
• Debuff slowly petrifies raid members.
• Causes dmg (small), 
• When fully petrified, Gruul casts "Shatter"
• Shatter causes nature dmg.
• Have 8yd range between players. So players need to spread at this range.
• Shatter removes Petrification.

Overhead smash: During Phase I only. 

• Long line on the floor in front of him.
• after this is cast HIGH nature dmg takes place to those standing on it.

Raid  team must successfully know how to handle these abilities. Raid group should be split in two to split dmg, with two tanks tanking Gruul opposite side to one another.

Phase II - 30 seconds

This phase is not Tankable.

Gruul goes to center of room and causes a "Cave In"

• Rocks fall from roof. These are indicated on ground. So, move out.
• The rocks stun and cause HIGH amt of dmg.
• Rocks fall from the roof.

After cave in ability, Destructive Rampage takes place.

• Nature dmg per every 5 secs for 25 secs.
• Overhead smash will happen in random directions - be ready to move out.

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Oregorger Boss/ Picture Cred: Icy Veins H. Oregorger WoD Beta Preview Video Guide on YouTube

Here is the run down on Oregorger- LUST @ Start.

This is a big room, shaped like a maze.  There are a lot of rocks all over the place & a lot of movement is needed. During phase I, the room layout is irrelevant, but during phase II it is imperative to take into account because there will be a lot of movement and things to avoid.

Phase I - Until boss runs out of Mana.

We have to worry about abilities liek Acid Maw and Acid Torrent. 

• Acid Maw needs to be handled through tank switches.
• Acid Torrent targets the player closest to the boss. Tank will take the damage - High amout of dmg.
• Raid takes a lot of dmg after this.
• However, during this ability all dmg mitigation cd's need to be placed on the tank taking the ability.
• Tanks should switch after this ability so they alternate debuffs.
• Range will need to stack together at a distance.
• Retched blackrock: void zones.
• void zones need to be placed close to one another/overlap so that it doesnt take too much space.
• Melee needs to be loosely spread out around the boss.
• Explosive shard: shards are dropped on melee.
• Players need to run away from these shards. They explode after 3 secs of landing.
• Cannot be close to boss/tank, if so, they will be affected by Acid Torrent.
• Blackrock Barrage: needs to be interrupted.
• There may be times where they cannot be interrupted, this will cause raid wide dmg and will also reduce the boss' phase I stage. 
• We want Oregorger to be in phase I for as long as possible since phase II is very hectic.

1. Healers need to be ready and alert on their Tank's status when taking Acid Maw and Acid Torrent. 
2. Cool downs will need to be popped. 
3. They also need to deal with raid wide damage from Retched Blackrock and Explosive Shards, but these should not be too intense.

Phase II - Begins as soon as boss runs out of Mana

The boss is no longer tankable during this phase.

He rolls around throughout the room at a high speed rate.

He collects ore to refill his mana, at which point phase II ends.

1. DPS will need to destroy the Ore Crates as fast as possible - STAT.
2. Raid needs to aovid Oregorger as he rolls around - he will never roll back the way he came
3. It is very easy to LOS healers, be aware of this at all times.
4. Healers need to be spread out so they can reach all players easily.

• Regular dmg will come from Earthshaking collision - raid wide dmg each time boss stops rolling.
• Stacks of Hunger drive is a stacking debuff that increases dmg done by Earthshaking collision by 5% each stack.
• It is IMPERATIVE that Phase II ends as fast as possible!
• Which is why DPS will need to destroy the Ore Crates as fast as possible - STAT.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

***Setting up interrupt rotation in Phase I will be efficient and VERY important!

***Crates being destroyed during Phase II as fast as possible will determine the success of your raid team. The faster the crates are destroyed, the faster the phase ends, the less dmg the raid takes.

*******Be aware of positioning, movement, and always be mindful of your healers and not to be LOS from them.

V-Day on WoW, BRF & Patch 6.1

New achievements for Love is in the air event in WoW, as well as loot from the Crown Chemical Co. Dungeon.

So excited to do them all!

Also, a lot of people have been confusing the inauguration of Blackrock Foundry being tied to Patch 6.1 release. They aren't together. BRF comes out today, after realm resets/rolling restarts. There is no release date for Patch 6.1. This will be released when Blizzard is ready, and all changes will take place with the Patch, not BRF release.

1st Mythic Mission!!

Ok, I know I am a little slow at this. But I just got around to Garrison-ing. Finally got some followers up there to warrant some hefty missions. After setting up the War Mill to lvl 3 and grueling days of upgrades....I finally got my 1st Mythic Mission!!!                                                      


Now, let me go squeal with happiness and giddiness while I anxiously await the outcome.

 /fingerscrossed

Shhhhhhhhh...Mythic mission in progress.

Last Week of Highmaul was a TOTAL Disaster

So here we are, at the culmination of Highmaul and the eve of Blackrock foundry. The iron horde is at it causing mischief and terrorizing the world trying to acquire power. They must be stopped!

Well, hold up. All this content is coming out a little too fast no? Am I the only one who thinks this? Blizzard, please....slowwwwwwww dowwwwwwn!

I know many people who go hardcore have already beaten Imperator on Mythic difficulty and can't wait for new content b/c they are bored, but my guild is just getting a leg into mythic.

Just last week we downed Mythic Twins after 3 or 4 weeks of progression. Most our players are casual and we only raid about 2 days a week for about 3 hours...which should be enough, but in reality it is not. I find myself wanting to keep raiding & I don't know what to do. I want to beat this content...but it doesn't look like I will.

This week has been kind of chaotic. There doesn't seem to be much consistency or progression. So we wipe an entire night on one boss, to continue wiping on new bosses the following nights. So there goes my hope for at least 3/7 Mythic before BRF /sadface /pout

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BUTCHER (Mythic)

We tried the pool strategy. Tanking Butcher on the water area where adds are cleared right after Kargath.

Where we tanked The Butcher

I found myself chain healing like a mad woman, trying to keep HST down on cd  even with call of the elements. Putting riptide on mainly tanks and others who were running low, unleash life on tanks, elemental blast on cd, and healing rain. The encounters did not last long due to people messing up on stacks, lack of dps, and just people dying to these things. Here are the logs.

Warcraft Logs

I'm wondering if I should be chain healing as much as I did. I definitely did better than I was doing a couple weeks ago.

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BLACKROCK FOUNDRY (New Raid)

As per Blizzard, the PTR has been up for a bit where people can go preview and test out the content while it is being developed. Here is a preview of what we can expect in terms of content.

Blackrock Foundry Preview

The raid seems legit. Very to the content and feel of the expansion. Iron Horde, Ogres, Fire, Giants, Orcs, and a very dwarven/mining/underground feel to it,,,which is to be expected since that's pretty much what it is.

The raid is to go live coming week, February 3rd, 2015, and also a new world boss will be debuting the zone of Spires of Arak - Ruhkmar, a blazing fire phoenix soaring the skies. Ruhkmar is a burning ball of fire considered to be a god to the Arrakoa.

Here is the schedule for BRF

Blackrock Foundry Raid Schedule

Raid opens with Normal and Heroic difficulties available right away. Then a week later debuting  Mythic. Raid finder will not be available for players until Feb 17th, 2 weeks after BRF debut.


Are you guys ready? I'm not....but I've got one thing to say---BRING IT!

World of Draenor (WoD) - The Restoration Shaman, 6.0

This information is pertinent only for Restoration Shamans. I have made this due to my experience and compilation of information from other websites and forums such as Icy-Veins/MMO-Champion/Vixsin's Blog-Life in Group 5 and consulting with friends (DUSKY-Kil'Jaeden!!!!)

Talents

Astral Shift – I use this CD during high amounts of dmg. You take 40% less dmg for about 6 sec.

Windwalk Totem – Causes immunity to movement impairing effects  for about 6 secs. I particularly find this useful, especially for Ko’Ragh during his Expel Magic: Frost ability which slows people down as soon as the boss casts it.

Call of the Elements – This is very useful, especially for HST. It resets the cd of all totems with a gcd of less than 3 min. (HTT/SLT not affected by this!). These totems are the totems affected by CotE.

• o    Grounding Totem: 25-second cooldown;
• o     Earthbind Totem: 30-second cooldown; - I use this when I need to slow down mobs/things get crazy with mobs running around.
• o     Earthgrab Totem: Tier 2 talent with a 30-second cooldown;
• o     Healing Stream Totem: 30-second cooldown;
• o     Capacitor Totem: 45-second cooldown; - I use this when there are a lot of mobs , a friendly shammy stun never hurt anyone. It is always appreciated, especially on big pulls.
• o     Stone Bulwark Totem: Tier 1 talent with a 1-minute cooldown;
• o     Tremor Totem: 1-minute cooldown;
• o     Windwalk Totem: Tier 2 talent with a 1-minute cooldown. - I use this on Ko'Ragh when he casts his Expel Magic: Frost ability. Quickly liberates people from being slowed down.

Ancestral Swiftness – This talent gives your next nature spell an instant cast. It has a 90-second cd. Ancestral Swiftness also passively increases your haste and attack speed by 5%. This is perfect to cast on CD, o make sure to make a Weak Aura on it - I personally don't know how to create them so I use Stoove's Auras (Stoove's UNconstant Blog Link to Auras ). I like to use this spell with Healing Rain or Chain Heal after I cast Elemental Blast so that it can be a powerful instant cast when I'm in a tough spot or raid is taking heavy damage.

Rushing Streams – This is, in my opinion from what I have learned, the most powerful talent on this tier. It causes your  HST to heal two targets at once for 15% additional healing. This is why it is super important to use HST on cd, coupled with CotE on situations where healing is intensive.

Elemental Blast – If you struggle with mana, like I have with low ilvls, then you can take  Elemental Blast, especially on short fights with high damage. It increases spirit by +1000 for 8 sec, increasing also your mastery, haste, crit, and multistrike by +500 for 8 sec. SUPER AMAZING. Make this a weak aura, for sure!

High Tide – A passive ability that is very efficient. It empowers  Chain Heal to jump to 2 additional  Riptide-affected targets and to no longer lose power after each jump. Excellent in any situation where you make extensive use of Chain Heal, so when you have intense raid damage that comes in the form of spikes or short phases. Currently better than Cloud Burst Totem, and essentially more efficient due to the complexity of having to juggle HST and CBT CDs/usage. Just better overall...b/c in reality every encounter so far has found use for chain healing and riptide should be used pretty much all the time. So every chain heal will be powerful, especialllllllly when used with ascendance which causes restorative mists - all healing done is duplicated and distributed evenly between nearby friendlies.

Glyphs

MAJOR:

Healing Wave – I have this as default.

Healing Stream Totem - I have this as default.

Totemic Recall/Spirit Walkers Grace/Purify Spirit – I switch between these three depending on the encounter and what will be needed, but usually just have totemic recall on.

MINOR:

These are all aesthetic and not really required. You can choose whichever you want.

I have :

Spectral Wolf – changes the appearance of your Ghost Wolf form to a spectral wolf form.

Deluge- Changes the appearance of your chain heal spells from green to a blueish/watery form.

Elemental Familiars- This is a spell that lets you summon a random familiar of the fire, water, and earth elements.

Stat Priorities

Current stat priority for resto shamans is as follows:

Int > Spirit > Mastery > Haste > Multistrike=Crit Strike > Versatility.

These stat priorities are recommended, basically on every website detailing resto shaman guides.

Enchants

In WoD there are only 4 pieces of gear that can be enchanted.

Neck: Gift of Mastery gives  +75 to Mastery [breath of mastery is cheaper +40]

Cloak: Gift of Mastery gives  +100 to Mastery and 10% speed increase [breath of mastery is cheaper +100/ no speed increase]

Ring x 2: Gift of Mastery gives +50 to Mastery [breath of mastery is cheaper +30]

Weapon:  Mark of Shadowmoon that gives +500 to Spirit for 15 sec / or Mark of Bleeding Hollow that gives +500 to Mastery for 12 sec

Personally, I use ALL mastery, including my weapon enchant. Mastery, Mastery, Mastery!

Gems

For Resto Shamans, Mastery is the choice.

We should be using  Greater Mastery Taladite (+50) which is the better choice but more expensive these days. In case you can't afford it, use Mastery Taladite (+35)  which is the cheaper version. But have your sockets gemmed even if its the cheaper version. It is a gain either way.

Consumables

Draenic Intellect Flask (cheapest) or a Greater Draenic Intellect Flask(better).

Draenic Mana Potion, which instantly restores you Mana, or Draenic Channeled Mana Potion, which restores your man over 10 seconds.

I personally use the Channeled Mana Potion while letting my healing team know I won’t be casting for about 10 seconds.

Also try to time it so that when you cast it you don’t get interrupted or there isn’t a lot of dmg output going on.

Check me out on Armory @ Mojofosho

Sites where I based my info from:
Icy-Veins: Resto Shaman
MMO-Champion, Shaman Forums
Life in Group 5 - Vixsin's Blog

PTR 6.1 - Patch Notes & Stuff

Here are the new notes for the next patch coming up.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/17561381/61-ptr-patch-notes-1-23-2015

Major changes for Resto Shamans is the complete redesign of Echo of the Elements (EotE)

Talents Echo of the Elements has been redesigned.  Echo of the Elements now causes  Earthquake,  Fire Nova,  Lava Burst,  Lava Lash,  Riptide,  Spirit Link Totem,  Stormstrike, and Unleash Life to have 2 charges. Other abilities that reset the cooldown of these abilities will instead grant 1 charge.

EotE will be super important for restoration abilities since it will be putting Riptide, Spirit Link Totem, and Unleash Life to have 2 charges. Other abilities that reset the cooldown of these abilities will instead grant 1 charge. (Imagine the "Glyph of Purify Spirit" and its 2 charge effect on Purify dispels, it is how it will work).

Now, this seems to mean that EotE will be the default L60 tier of choice. No clue on how it will fare out for Elemental Blast (EB) and Anscestral Swiftness (AS) since clearly this new change is going to be far superior.

This is pretty good, in my opinion. All this may also mean that BRF will also be pretty intense if the CDs are being managed to have extra charges, especially a major CD like SLT. 


Also,

 Ancestral Guidance now triggers from all damage or healing dealt, including Multistrikes, instead of only direct damage or healing.

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In terms of the Tier 17 Armor Bonuses are subject to change - I want to find out how EotE will affect armor bonuses, if at all? 

(Wowhead)

 Item - Shaman T17 Restoration 2P Bonus: You have a chance when you cast Chain Heal to cast a second Chain Heal at one of the targets healed.

 Item - Shaman T17 Restoration 4P Bonus: When you gain Tidal Waves, you have a 8% chance to reduce the mana cost of Chain Heal by 75 for 10 sec.

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Glyphs

•  Telluric Currents (Restoration) causes  Flame Shock,  Lava Burst, and Lightning Bolt to cost no mana and deal 100% more damage.
• 
  

Will this mean that Telluric currents will be viable once more?

Hello! Is this thing on?...

Hi All! ^_^

First of all, I want to apologize for not having the time to create part 2 of my part 1 "How to shamy" video guide. I started the guide way too late in the expansion and then things got crazy with final exams, work, and raiding team changes.

Towards the end of Siege, the team sort of disbanded and then once WoD began things did not work out. So, now I am raiding with a new team and things could not be better. Like always, this expansion is amazing! Blizzard always knows how to meet and surpass expectations while also crushing dreams lol. There are many things I love about Draenor and also many changes I was not happy with...but like always, we must learn to adapt and carry on! That is the beauty of gaming and what makes us better in the long run...our ability to adapt and conquer!

Speaking of conquering....Highmaul. Oh, Highmaul! I am totally digging the encounters. And while resto shamans are not as powerful as they were back in MoP, we still can hold our own and shine!

On my next post I will be trying to document talents, glyphs, stat priorities, enchants, gems, and healing strategies to Mythic encounters as I experience them.

Currently, my team's progression is 2/7 Mythic difficulty in Highmaul. Not as advanced as other players, but we are getting there. Hopefully we get to complete Mythic Highmaul before Black Rock Foundry is out. /fingerscrossed.

Mojofosho, Currently @ 669 ilvl 1/7 mythic progression. One of my best xmog's yet.

So, what do you all think so far of Tier 17 sets? tier bonuses?

Tier 17 Sets

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)

• Item - Shaman T17 Restoration 2P Bonus - You have a chance when you cast Chain Heal to cast a second Chain Heal at one of the targets healed.
• Item - Shaman T17 Restoration 4P Bonus - When you gain Tidal Waves, you have a 8% chance to reduce the mana cost of Chain Heal by 75% for 10 sec.

To be honest, I was expecting the Tier 4P bonus to be a bit better, or a longer period of time than 10 secs...but I guess this works...anything that reduces mana costs is welcome :)

In regards to the sets themselves...They are not bad. I am just not a fan of the smokey shoulders.

~*~*~*~

I am experiencing the toughness of the Mythic experience vs. other healing classes and the dreaded ilvl gearing difficulties. So, I have set myself out to seek advise from the great wow players out there in the forums. I have made various postings in MMO-Champion, Icy-Veins, and e-mailed some people in regards to Warcraft Logs and how I can better improve these heals. Stay tuned...