After completing the 'easy' lower citadel, we decided to extend the lockout this week and take a look at the harder Upper Citadel bosses.
No Gorefiend for a week! Woohoo!
Iskar was our first port of call and it really is very similar to Heroic...
The main difference is an extra add in the add phase, Phantasmal Resonance!
This add has a cool mechanic which forces the raid to weave in a few extra throws of the Eye in between interrupts and dispels.
It casts a spell, Chains of Despair, which joins together 3 groups of 2 people with invisible chains.
The only way to remove these chains is for the two chained people to stack together but if you stack with the wrong person, you explode!
And, you guessed it, the only way to see who you are chained to is with the Eye.
It's a really simple mechanic but dealing with it while all the other stuff is going on and timing the extra throws of the Eye properly adds enough complexity to make it challenging.
It's also one of those mechanics that everyone needs to experience for themselves so they know what they are looking for and learn how to react.
We didn't bother.
We very quickly realised that we had the dps to burn down the new add before it could even cast the chains.
This basically made the fight the same as Heroic.
BORING!
OK, there are a couple of differences...
The debuff from holding the Eye is permanent so we need to spread the stacks around the raid a bit more.
And occasionally (just before each Phantasmal Winds, I think), Iskar knocks the Eye out of your hands to a random spot in the room.
Blink/ Heroic Leap etc. made sure this was not an issue.
After suffering through 117 wipes to kill Gorefiend, we needed just 11 to kill Shadow-Lord Iskar.
Yet again, gear has massively diminished a Mythic fight into barely a challenge at all.
Wednesday 23 March 2016
Tuesday 15 March 2016
Mythic Magery - Wipefiend!
OH.
MY.
GOD.
Where the hell did this guy come from??
You hear the stories, you read the QQ posts on MMO-C, you watch all the guides,
NOTHING prepares you for this!
We watched all the videos and read all the guides.
We discussed target priorities, sorted out positions and assigned roles.
What then followed can only be described as a disaster which slowly turned into a farce.
Sixty (60!!!) consecutive wipes at 91%, roughly 90 seconds into the fight!
We would pull, hit the boss for a bit, some mechanics would start happening then it would all fall apart... over and over and over again!
It was a nightmare!
All of the focus in the build-up was on the main change from Heroic.
When you go into the stomach, no longer can you run into the middle to go back to the normal realm. Instead, you leave behind a 'Soul' which must be killed to bring you back.
It changes EVERYTHING!
Or perhaps that is where we went wrong...
The focus shifted almost completely to making sure people were broken out of the stomach at the right time and it let us down in other areas.
People were dying to the Heroic mechanics that we have dealt with so many times.
The basics... Doomwells at the edge, stack on the rooted person, slow and kite the construct, etc.
And, once people start dying, the fight rapidly spirals out of control.
Each extra person inside the stomach can help stem the flow of constructs but they can do nothing about the ones already unleashed.
Those remaining outside the stomach now have to deal with all of the mechanics plus kill the extra souls.
More deaths very quickly follow until there are actually more people inside the stomach than outside!
The last few people die completely and the boss resets.
60 times in a row that happened.
In the beginning it honestly felt like we weren't making any progress, and couldn't even see where progress was actually going to come from.
The deaths and wipes would just keep coming, different people affected each time before the downwards spiral began.
We made some changes... Not to our tactics but to our attitude and approach.
Our two assigned people (DK and Warrior) for killing Souls were left to do the job completely on their own.
It was bound to cause even more wipes but we needed to know if they could handle it, and under what circumstances they needed a bit of help.
DPS on the boss was stopped completely! Opening burst was allowed but 10-15 seconds into the fight all dps stopped on the boss.
There was a deliberate break between stopping on the boss and the first adds spawning so all the DPS had itchy trigger fingers by the time they arrived and picked them off almost instantly.
What it really allowed us though, was the breathing space to think about the basics again. We had been caught up in the new mechanics too much but, with them taken away from us, survivability increased dramatically.
We had people alive, taking out the adds quickly and only the right people in the stomach.
The next step was to give our assigned DK/Warrior combo the help they needed to stay on top of the Souls.
It turns out, they rarely need help at all!
Only if they were targeted by something that took them out of range did they fall behind, so we had them call out for help as they ran to drop a Doomwell or stack for Shared Fate.
The progress now was almost tangible but there were still silly mistakes forcing the 91% wipes quite frequently.
The good attempts though, were pushing into the second Feast of Souls phase.
Handling the Feasts of Souls themselves was just a exercise in rotating healer cooldown. We are blessed with fantastic healers and they always seemed to be in control... although our best attempt (at the time) was cut short at 32% when our Resto Shaman missed his Healing Tide.
Healer issues are few and far between for us though, on this or any other fight.
And so it went until last night...
We were in confident mood as we cleared the trash.
Two or three quick wipes to blow away the cobwebs then we were in!
Our best attempt yet at 22%... Not even at the third Feast phase so we knew we definitely had the DPS if we could get there.
A couple more quick wipes... Don't worry, get back in there! We could sense it was close and didn't want to lose the momentum.
Feast 2 wipe
Feast 2 wipe
Feast 2 wipe
Consistency at last, we are definitely closing in!
A couple more silly wipes... Why is there always someone that releases??
Approaching Feast 2 and everyone is alive
Shaman goes down as we lose focus for a moment trying to reposition for the Feast. No Ankh, Res him up!
Smoothly through the Feast of Souls, Gorefiend at 20%
Stay calm, get through the normal phase.
Warlock dies to some fire on the ground, save the Res.
We're closing in though, 19 still alive.
Feast 3 starts...
Kill the Constructs!
Break everyone out!
Ignore the Big add!
Tanks on the Sparks, everyone else just hit the boss!
Execute power from our two Warriors pushing us towards glory until finally...
after 117 wipes...
Mythic Gorefiend dies!
MY.
GOD.
Where the hell did this guy come from??
You hear the stories, you read the QQ posts on MMO-C, you watch all the guides,
NOTHING prepares you for this!
We watched all the videos and read all the guides.
We discussed target priorities, sorted out positions and assigned roles.
What then followed can only be described as a disaster which slowly turned into a farce.
Sixty (60!!!) consecutive wipes at 91%, roughly 90 seconds into the fight!
We would pull, hit the boss for a bit, some mechanics would start happening then it would all fall apart... over and over and over again!
It was a nightmare!
All of the focus in the build-up was on the main change from Heroic.
When you go into the stomach, no longer can you run into the middle to go back to the normal realm. Instead, you leave behind a 'Soul' which must be killed to bring you back.
It changes EVERYTHING!
Or perhaps that is where we went wrong...
The focus shifted almost completely to making sure people were broken out of the stomach at the right time and it let us down in other areas.
People were dying to the Heroic mechanics that we have dealt with so many times.
The basics... Doomwells at the edge, stack on the rooted person, slow and kite the construct, etc.
And, once people start dying, the fight rapidly spirals out of control.
Each extra person inside the stomach can help stem the flow of constructs but they can do nothing about the ones already unleashed.
Those remaining outside the stomach now have to deal with all of the mechanics plus kill the extra souls.
More deaths very quickly follow until there are actually more people inside the stomach than outside!
The last few people die completely and the boss resets.
60 times in a row that happened.
In the beginning it honestly felt like we weren't making any progress, and couldn't even see where progress was actually going to come from.
The deaths and wipes would just keep coming, different people affected each time before the downwards spiral began.
We made some changes... Not to our tactics but to our attitude and approach.
Our two assigned people (DK and Warrior) for killing Souls were left to do the job completely on their own.
It was bound to cause even more wipes but we needed to know if they could handle it, and under what circumstances they needed a bit of help.
DPS on the boss was stopped completely! Opening burst was allowed but 10-15 seconds into the fight all dps stopped on the boss.
There was a deliberate break between stopping on the boss and the first adds spawning so all the DPS had itchy trigger fingers by the time they arrived and picked them off almost instantly.
What it really allowed us though, was the breathing space to think about the basics again. We had been caught up in the new mechanics too much but, with them taken away from us, survivability increased dramatically.
We had people alive, taking out the adds quickly and only the right people in the stomach.
The next step was to give our assigned DK/Warrior combo the help they needed to stay on top of the Souls.
It turns out, they rarely need help at all!
Only if they were targeted by something that took them out of range did they fall behind, so we had them call out for help as they ran to drop a Doomwell or stack for Shared Fate.
The progress now was almost tangible but there were still silly mistakes forcing the 91% wipes quite frequently.
The good attempts though, were pushing into the second Feast of Souls phase.
Handling the Feasts of Souls themselves was just a exercise in rotating healer cooldown. We are blessed with fantastic healers and they always seemed to be in control... although our best attempt (at the time) was cut short at 32% when our Resto Shaman missed his Healing Tide.
Healer issues are few and far between for us though, on this or any other fight.
And so it went until last night...
We were in confident mood as we cleared the trash.
Two or three quick wipes to blow away the cobwebs then we were in!
Our best attempt yet at 22%... Not even at the third Feast phase so we knew we definitely had the DPS if we could get there.
A couple more quick wipes... Don't worry, get back in there! We could sense it was close and didn't want to lose the momentum.
Feast 2 wipe
Feast 2 wipe
Feast 2 wipe
Consistency at last, we are definitely closing in!
A couple more silly wipes... Why is there always someone that releases??
Approaching Feast 2 and everyone is alive
Shaman goes down as we lose focus for a moment trying to reposition for the Feast. No Ankh, Res him up!
Smoothly through the Feast of Souls, Gorefiend at 20%
Stay calm, get through the normal phase.
Warlock dies to some fire on the ground, save the Res.
We're closing in though, 19 still alive.
Feast 3 starts...
Kill the Constructs!
Break everyone out!
Ignore the Big add!
Tanks on the Sparks, everyone else just hit the boss!
Execute power from our two Warriors pushing us towards glory until finally...
after 117 wipes...
Mythic Gorefiend dies!
Tuesday 8 March 2016
The Alt Plan: Jim Raynor??
Playing time has been quite limited lately so the Alts have not ventured out much.
The Hunter has ventured into a couple of normal mode HFC pugs but not killed much.
Whenever I go back to the Hunter after a short break from playing her, I'm always surprised all over again at how easy it is to play. I don't necessarily mean the rotation, I'm bound to be far from optimal on that, but the freedom of movement takes all of the stress out of playing.
The hunter just glides around the battlefield (completely ignoring her Sniper Training) picking off targets as they focus their attention on Deefer (Dog - still got her starting zone pet) without a care in the world.
She is actually the only character I play that I feel completely confident when soloing the Throne of Kil'Jaeden daily in Tanaan.
Actual raiding though, she has struggled to get into groups due to her low ilevel.
The last pug failed on Kil'rogg (Pugs generally fail at 2 points, Kil'rogg and Iskar) as they were trying to carry a couple of low-geared guildies, two Warlocks who struggled to reach 10k dps. It was a small group and I was the only other ranged, we couldn't kill the adds in time.
A couple of drops has now taken her up to 692ilvl though so that should make it slightly easier to get a group.
The Priest has also ventured out a couple of times recently and I've enjoyed it immensely!
It's mostly quite 'spammy' with PW:Shield, Solace and Penance but it's worth it for the rush you get when you press the Archangel button!
The wings and the glowing light both add to the almost heavenly feeling as you are transformed into an angel of the light with the power of life over death at your fingertips.
Who will you choose to bless with your massive crit shields? Not the Hunter that laughed at me being a male Pandaren (dressed all in white, he does look ridiculous to be fair), that's for sure!
A bit of luck has taken him to 705ilvl which sets him up nicely for future pugs.
The Rogue has been twiddling his thumbs in his garrison waiting for a new opportunity to stab something.
Having recently completed Val'anyr, Hammer of the Ancient Kings on my Shaman, I am thinking the Rogue's best hopes for adventure may come once per week in Black Temple.
The commitment, mainly time but also patience, needed for pugging has put me off lately and I have been trying a few other games which led me to...
Heroes of the Storm!
I had been watching Bay's adventures over at FinalBossTV and it looked like a lot of fun so I played through the opening tutorials and a couple of AI games.
Jim Raynor is the introductory Hero and he seems fairly easy to play, doesn't have a lot of buttons to worry about (although I still keep trying to move with WASD at the moment).
The quick queues and games are extremely appealing compared to LFR/Pugs in WoW so I want to take it further and see if I can learn to play properly.
And what an Altoholic's dream! All those Heroes!
Logically, my aversion to pugging should keep me well away from a 5v5 PvP game but it does look like a lot of fun... and who wouldn't want to play as Jim Raynor?
Or even Arthas!
My Paladin looks on forlornly from his garrison...
The Hunter has ventured into a couple of normal mode HFC pugs but not killed much.
Whenever I go back to the Hunter after a short break from playing her, I'm always surprised all over again at how easy it is to play. I don't necessarily mean the rotation, I'm bound to be far from optimal on that, but the freedom of movement takes all of the stress out of playing.
The hunter just glides around the battlefield (completely ignoring her Sniper Training) picking off targets as they focus their attention on Deefer (Dog - still got her starting zone pet) without a care in the world.
She is actually the only character I play that I feel completely confident when soloing the Throne of Kil'Jaeden daily in Tanaan.
Actual raiding though, she has struggled to get into groups due to her low ilevel.
The last pug failed on Kil'rogg (Pugs generally fail at 2 points, Kil'rogg and Iskar) as they were trying to carry a couple of low-geared guildies, two Warlocks who struggled to reach 10k dps. It was a small group and I was the only other ranged, we couldn't kill the adds in time.
A couple of drops has now taken her up to 692ilvl though so that should make it slightly easier to get a group.
The Priest has also ventured out a couple of times recently and I've enjoyed it immensely!
It's mostly quite 'spammy' with PW:Shield, Solace and Penance but it's worth it for the rush you get when you press the Archangel button!
The wings and the glowing light both add to the almost heavenly feeling as you are transformed into an angel of the light with the power of life over death at your fingertips.
Who will you choose to bless with your massive crit shields? Not the Hunter that laughed at me being a male Pandaren (dressed all in white, he does look ridiculous to be fair), that's for sure!
A bit of luck has taken him to 705ilvl which sets him up nicely for future pugs.
The Rogue has been twiddling his thumbs in his garrison waiting for a new opportunity to stab something.
Having recently completed Val'anyr, Hammer of the Ancient Kings on my Shaman, I am thinking the Rogue's best hopes for adventure may come once per week in Black Temple.
The commitment, mainly time but also patience, needed for pugging has put me off lately and I have been trying a few other games which led me to...
Heroes of the Storm!
I had been watching Bay's adventures over at FinalBossTV and it looked like a lot of fun so I played through the opening tutorials and a couple of AI games.
Jim Raynor is the introductory Hero and he seems fairly easy to play, doesn't have a lot of buttons to worry about (although I still keep trying to move with WASD at the moment).
The quick queues and games are extremely appealing compared to LFR/Pugs in WoW so I want to take it further and see if I can learn to play properly.
And what an Altoholic's dream! All those Heroes!
Logically, my aversion to pugging should keep me well away from a 5v5 PvP game but it does look like a lot of fun... and who wouldn't want to play as Jim Raynor?
Or even Arthas!
My Paladin looks on forlornly from his garrison...
Friday 4 March 2016
A Week of Garrison Gold-Making...
The overall aim was to build up a decent bank and hit gold-cap again using easily repeatable methods that aren't at the mercy of other players i.e. avoiding the AH as much as possible.
So... the results are in!
How much does the garrison bring in?
First, the setup took a long time to complete and I would argue that it's still not fully complete now.
Across my 11 max-level characters, I have 266 Epic level 100 followers.
Of those... 164 are at 675ilvl and 128 are Treasure Hunters.
Not all 675s are Treasure Hunters and not all Treasure Hunters are 675 but you get a rough idea of what I have available.
I tried to send the followers out every 12 hours, give or take, for a full week. I resisted the temptation to throw in an extra few missions during an extended play over the weekend and even missed 1 full cycle when I was away one evening.
I tried to avoid 12hr+ missions but kept forgetting so missed out on a few extra over the week but that should be negligible.
It took me roughly 15 minutes per cycle of completing missions and sending the followers out again, plus a bit extra at the end to go through all the Salvage and count everything.
So how much was it?
13 cycles over 7 days produced:
93,500 GOLD!
That was just the pure gold, direct from the missions. There were also a few side benefits...
1 Champion's Honor which sold on the AH for 11k gold
1 Medallion of the Legion which sold on the AH for 3k gold
552 Big Crates of Salvage which produced:
Various BoE items - vendored for a total of 8k
Ore - 272
Herbs - 951
Cloth - 193
Leather - 147
Dust - 136
Many Garrison Resources, Oil, Apexis Crystals and Primal Spirits... which I forgot to count.
Plus some actual usable gear for the lower alts.
I haven't worked out what to do with all of those mats yet, and there were many more that I gathered as I was building my setup.
I might try to craft some things that sell very quickly, or I may just dump them on the AH.
I have decided not to attach any value to them right now though.
Crafting with the mats is not the only way to squeeze more out of the Garrison...
The Garrison Resources are easily converted into fish to make the 125 stat food which still sells incredibly well.
Gold missions from the Shipyard can also bring in a nice amount so the oil doesn't need to go to waste.
The Barn is still very lucrative if you want to replace the Trading Post. It does need regular re-stocking though, which means leaving the garrison occaionally.
The Mine and Herb Garden massively boost your raw materials if you have the time and inclination to gather them every day.
Then there are the profession buildings...
JC shack seems to offer the best for gold-making.
With a follower in there, you can complete a simple daily quest for a reward of 200-300 gold.
I have so many JC chars at the moment I should probably be doing this anyway!
Enchanter's Hut goes well with the Salvage Crates. Disenchant the Draenor gear from the salvage and pass the mats to an enchanter if you are confident you can then sell the enchants at a profit.
Compared to previous expansions where virtually all gold-making relied on the AH, it is a massive change. Everyone has the ability to make gold on their own, never relying on beating the AH-campers to a sale or finding a niche product.
This explains why those sought-after mounts on the BMAH are quickly pushed up to 1 Million gold, demand has increased as more people are actually in a position to buy.
I'm going to dial it back a bit now, just aim for one cycle per day rather than two.
It should actually produce more than half of the gold as I will avoid some of the Account-wide diminishing returns that Blizzard put into place on gold missions.
Do you know ways to extract even more gold from the garrison?
Or simple ways to make decent gold from the mats?
I would love to hear them!
So... the results are in!
How much does the garrison bring in?
First, the setup took a long time to complete and I would argue that it's still not fully complete now.
Across my 11 max-level characters, I have 266 Epic level 100 followers.
Of those... 164 are at 675ilvl and 128 are Treasure Hunters.
Not all 675s are Treasure Hunters and not all Treasure Hunters are 675 but you get a rough idea of what I have available.
I tried to send the followers out every 12 hours, give or take, for a full week. I resisted the temptation to throw in an extra few missions during an extended play over the weekend and even missed 1 full cycle when I was away one evening.
I tried to avoid 12hr+ missions but kept forgetting so missed out on a few extra over the week but that should be negligible.
It took me roughly 15 minutes per cycle of completing missions and sending the followers out again, plus a bit extra at the end to go through all the Salvage and count everything.
So how much was it?
13 cycles over 7 days produced:
93,500 GOLD!
This is me :-)
1 Champion's Honor which sold on the AH for 11k gold
1 Medallion of the Legion which sold on the AH for 3k gold
552 Big Crates of Salvage which produced:
Various BoE items - vendored for a total of 8k
Ore - 272
Herbs - 951
Cloth - 193
Leather - 147
Dust - 136
Many Garrison Resources, Oil, Apexis Crystals and Primal Spirits... which I forgot to count.
Plus some actual usable gear for the lower alts.
I haven't worked out what to do with all of those mats yet, and there were many more that I gathered as I was building my setup.
I might try to craft some things that sell very quickly, or I may just dump them on the AH.
I have decided not to attach any value to them right now though.
Crafting with the mats is not the only way to squeeze more out of the Garrison...
The Garrison Resources are easily converted into fish to make the 125 stat food which still sells incredibly well.
Gold missions from the Shipyard can also bring in a nice amount so the oil doesn't need to go to waste.
The Barn is still very lucrative if you want to replace the Trading Post. It does need regular re-stocking though, which means leaving the garrison occaionally.
The Mine and Herb Garden massively boost your raw materials if you have the time and inclination to gather them every day.
Then there are the profession buildings...
JC shack seems to offer the best for gold-making.
With a follower in there, you can complete a simple daily quest for a reward of 200-300 gold.
I have so many JC chars at the moment I should probably be doing this anyway!
Enchanter's Hut goes well with the Salvage Crates. Disenchant the Draenor gear from the salvage and pass the mats to an enchanter if you are confident you can then sell the enchants at a profit.
Compared to previous expansions where virtually all gold-making relied on the AH, it is a massive change. Everyone has the ability to make gold on their own, never relying on beating the AH-campers to a sale or finding a niche product.
This explains why those sought-after mounts on the BMAH are quickly pushed up to 1 Million gold, demand has increased as more people are actually in a position to buy.
I'm going to dial it back a bit now, just aim for one cycle per day rather than two.
It should actually produce more than half of the gold as I will avoid some of the Account-wide diminishing returns that Blizzard put into place on gold missions.
Do you know ways to extract even more gold from the garrison?
Or simple ways to make decent gold from the mats?
I would love to hear them!
Tuesday 1 March 2016
Mythic Magery: Kil'rogg Deadeye
Continuing our adventures through the Halls of Blood we come to Kil'rogg Deadeye!
The corrupted Orc warlord has imprisoned Ariok, our friend from the Draenor opening sequence, and is now introducing more Orcs to the Fel.
I prefer the style of increasing difficulty via complexity rather than (just) numbers, it makes the fights different enough that I don't feel too much like I'm repeating the same content.
It's a fine line though and it must be difficult to build just the right amount of complexity on top of what already exists to keep the fight fresh and challenging, but without undoing all the learning done on Heroic.
Kil'rogg follows this principle and stays very close to the Heroic version with just a couple of tweaks to keep it interesting.
The biggest difference by far is how to handle the Hulking Terrors, who have had a hefty buff since Heroic.
Their big hits cause massive amounts of Fel Corruption to the tank so they have to be killed very quickly.
Unfortunately, they explode when they die so have to be moved out of melee range and finished off by the Ranged.
After the explosion, they leave behind a pool of Fel stuff which needs to be soaked by enough people to share the corruption it brings.
Don't soak and it coalesces into a Fel Blood which needs to be killed before it reaches Kil'rogg.
Oh yeah, and a missed interrupt is pretty much a wipe.
Our setup is pretty much a mirror of the Heroic fight, taking the boss all the way to the entrance and tanking him and the Hulking Terror there.
We split into two groups so the adds are covered on each side and just go from there.
The emphasis in the fight is on adds as usual but the real key seems to be getting into and out of the visions as quickly as possible.
As the Hulking Terror is putting so much corruption on to the tank, the Visions healer needs to cleanse them before they are mind-controlled.
So, despite the majority of the fight being single target or at best 2-target cleave, the people going into the visions need to set up for AoE.
My Shaman would have had no problems at all with this, CL/EQ ftw!
As an Arcane Mage though, I tried to cut a couple of corners and keep as much of my single target as possible for maximum use of the buff on the boss himself.
This turned out to be a mistake and I was only given a couple of attempts in the Vision before being replaced by a Warlock.
I didn't get the opportunity to find the right balance between AoE and single target, even the attempts I had in the Vision were cut short by our healer dying. He was still learning the fight too, after all.
Maybe I should have spoken up a bit more and asked for the opportunity to spec for more AoE but we were shuffling the pack regularly to give everyone a go at that point and I figured I would just do better next time it came round to me.
Two attempts later and Kil'rogg was dead :-)
Off the top of my head, I think it was 15 attempts in total.
Having 2 Hunters and 3 Mages outside is fantastic for making sure the adds are never an issue.
This is where I would have struggled on the Shaman, constantly switching to the next add and the Flame Shock dilemma...
If everyone is on the ball, the Flame Shock (and the GCD) is completely wasted.
If the adds lives a bit longer than expected though, and you haven't put FS on it, you harm your chances of actually killing it in time by having to cast underpowered LvB.
Either way, it ruins dps for the Shaman.
Arcane or Frost Mage... no problem!
No setup to worry about, full dps from the start and automatically slows the add too!
Easy-mode raiding :-)
So, with an AoE-specced Warlock plus a melee in Visions 1 and 2, followed by Boomkin plus melee in Visions 3 and 4, the Visions were no trouble.
2 Hunters and 3 Mages on the adds and they were no trouble.
All it took to get the kill from there was for us to learn how to properly handle the Hulking Terror, and for the healers to get used to the demands of healing in the Visions.
It didn't take our tanks long to work out when they needed to move the Hulking Terror away from the boss and we just had the melee move in to soak the Fel puddle left behind.
It was nice to see the melee doing some work for once to be honest :-)
The healers in the Visions just adjusted their positioning so that all of the adds had to run through the melee's AoE to get to them. The adds would be distracted (or destroyed) by a Bladestorm or whatever and the healer would be free to stand still and cast.
Overall, it's a step down in difficulty from Council but still an enjoyable fight.
Maybe Blizzard figured we needed some respite before the hell that is Gorefiend Mythic!
The corrupted Orc warlord has imprisoned Ariok, our friend from the Draenor opening sequence, and is now introducing more Orcs to the Fel.
I prefer the style of increasing difficulty via complexity rather than (just) numbers, it makes the fights different enough that I don't feel too much like I'm repeating the same content.
It's a fine line though and it must be difficult to build just the right amount of complexity on top of what already exists to keep the fight fresh and challenging, but without undoing all the learning done on Heroic.
Kil'rogg follows this principle and stays very close to the Heroic version with just a couple of tweaks to keep it interesting.
The biggest difference by far is how to handle the Hulking Terrors, who have had a hefty buff since Heroic.
Their big hits cause massive amounts of Fel Corruption to the tank so they have to be killed very quickly.
Unfortunately, they explode when they die so have to be moved out of melee range and finished off by the Ranged.
After the explosion, they leave behind a pool of Fel stuff which needs to be soaked by enough people to share the corruption it brings.
Don't soak and it coalesces into a Fel Blood which needs to be killed before it reaches Kil'rogg.
Oh yeah, and a missed interrupt is pretty much a wipe.
Our setup is pretty much a mirror of the Heroic fight, taking the boss all the way to the entrance and tanking him and the Hulking Terror there.
We split into two groups so the adds are covered on each side and just go from there.
The emphasis in the fight is on adds as usual but the real key seems to be getting into and out of the visions as quickly as possible.
As the Hulking Terror is putting so much corruption on to the tank, the Visions healer needs to cleanse them before they are mind-controlled.
So, despite the majority of the fight being single target or at best 2-target cleave, the people going into the visions need to set up for AoE.
My Shaman would have had no problems at all with this, CL/EQ ftw!
As an Arcane Mage though, I tried to cut a couple of corners and keep as much of my single target as possible for maximum use of the buff on the boss himself.
This turned out to be a mistake and I was only given a couple of attempts in the Vision before being replaced by a Warlock.
I didn't get the opportunity to find the right balance between AoE and single target, even the attempts I had in the Vision were cut short by our healer dying. He was still learning the fight too, after all.
Maybe I should have spoken up a bit more and asked for the opportunity to spec for more AoE but we were shuffling the pack regularly to give everyone a go at that point and I figured I would just do better next time it came round to me.
Two attempts later and Kil'rogg was dead :-)
Off the top of my head, I think it was 15 attempts in total.
Having 2 Hunters and 3 Mages outside is fantastic for making sure the adds are never an issue.
This is where I would have struggled on the Shaman, constantly switching to the next add and the Flame Shock dilemma...
If everyone is on the ball, the Flame Shock (and the GCD) is completely wasted.
If the adds lives a bit longer than expected though, and you haven't put FS on it, you harm your chances of actually killing it in time by having to cast underpowered LvB.
Either way, it ruins dps for the Shaman.
Arcane or Frost Mage... no problem!
No setup to worry about, full dps from the start and automatically slows the add too!
Easy-mode raiding :-)
So, with an AoE-specced Warlock plus a melee in Visions 1 and 2, followed by Boomkin plus melee in Visions 3 and 4, the Visions were no trouble.
2 Hunters and 3 Mages on the adds and they were no trouble.
All it took to get the kill from there was for us to learn how to properly handle the Hulking Terror, and for the healers to get used to the demands of healing in the Visions.
It didn't take our tanks long to work out when they needed to move the Hulking Terror away from the boss and we just had the melee move in to soak the Fel puddle left behind.
It was nice to see the melee doing some work for once to be honest :-)
The healers in the Visions just adjusted their positioning so that all of the adds had to run through the melee's AoE to get to them. The adds would be distracted (or destroyed) by a Bladestorm or whatever and the healer would be free to stand still and cast.
Overall, it's a step down in difficulty from Council but still an enjoyable fight.
Maybe Blizzard figured we needed some respite before the hell that is Gorefiend Mythic!
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