Ret Pallys in Ulduar - XT-002 Deconstructor

Ret 10man Loot
Chestplate of Vicious Potency
Power Enhancing Loop
Hard
Aesir's Edge

Ret 25man Loot
Clockwork Legplates
Crazed Construct Ring

My mission to keep throwing useful information up on this site continues with a look at XT-002, the boss with a hilarious voice... for the 1st pull... after which you'll want to try playing with your elbows, as your fingers will be firmly lodged in your ears :P

Positioning yourself is a key element to this fight, both for survivability and to maximise your DPS.

The 1st phase lasts for 25% of the boss' HP and will have you around the back dpsing as normal, whilst looking out for taking the Searing Light or Gravity Bomb debuff. When you get either of these immediately head for the spot your raid defined for you, typically meaning you'll be moving away on a diagonal from the boss. This should mean you're in range of your healing group but a safe distance from both those and the tanks/melee. The range of the debuffs is 10/12 yards respectively but it's best to be 1 yard over and not under so give it a little room (as anyone who's cut it too fine and yanked the tank away from the boss will testify to ;) ) You can still exorcise the boss from this range but that's about it. Pot, Healthstone or heal yourself if needed but this should be taken care of by your healers and you can prepare to get back into range and damaging as soon as the debuff wears off.

During this phase you might see a tantrum, keep half an eye on your HP during this, especially if you've just been on the receiving end of one of the debuffs. Again - do what's necessary to stay alive.

Phase 2 occurs as every 25% of the bosses HP ticks away, he'll emote and his heart will pop out, this is the burn phase of the fight and the time to pop those wings and any trinkets you might have. The heart takes double damage so expect to see some big numbers here BUT be in control, you should know if you're going for the hard mode or not. If you are - go nuts, if not - be prepared to stop dps and back away. Depending on your raid dps this might be at 20% HP to make sure DoTs won't finish off the heart or it could mean dpsing all the way to the end of the phase, just be aware.

During this phase adds will be spawning from the 4 piles of junk at the corners of the arena, typically ranged will begin to pick these off and specifically the bombs, which as bombs have a tendency to do - explode. Great for clearing adds, not so great if you're nearby, so be careful. Once you've finished with the heart, killing it or not, you should help out with these adds, so again be aware before the burn is over (heartburn xD lol just realised that!) and know where the concentration of scrapbots are that need your extra dps.

Then it's a return to phase 1 for and other 25% and so on, alternating between the 2. There'll probably be a Pummler or 2 up at this stage, your tanks should be able to drag them into melee range so your incidental AoE will help take them down, but stay focussed on the boss. Depending again on how high your raid dps is (and if any scrapbots healed the boss) you might not have wings off CD for the 2nd heart phase, but you should get atleast the 1st and 3rd.

Another boss ticked off and the Siege of Ulduar complete, grats! Now into the Antechamber.

Ret Pally Guides - An Explanation

Having already posted my first few guides to the starting bosses in Ulduar it occured to me that perhaps i should explain what exactly they're supposed to cover.

They're not whole raid strategies, just some insights that occured to me while i was learning the fights, that i thought might prove useful and ease the learning curve of other Rets coming to those encounters afresh.

I'll link the loot from those bosses that Rets specifically might be interested in, they're NOT all BiS gear or all Ret-only loot, but merely items that may well be of interest to pallys working their way through Ulduar. Obviously the gear you emerged from Naxx/Sarth/Maly will affect whether they're upgrades, sidegrades or downgrades for you specifically, that's for you to decide :) I'm also only listing plate drops, not leather or mail, that's a personal preference. While a handful of items may prove BiS for Rets, it's always been my opinion that Pallys should wear plate and other drops should go 1st to classes that only have that armour proficiency.

Hunter vs 2 Rogues.... damn pets

Bit left of field this i know, but while i was finding the 'pointed stick' clip i watched this and had a flashback to when i did arena's on my rogue :P

Well, made me laugh, anyway, I should be in bed - gn all

Ret Pallys in Ulduar - Ignis

10man Ret Loot
Drape of Fuming Anger
Relentless Edge

25man Ret Loot
Cindershard Ring
Worldcarver


POETS day is here already (Piss Off Early Tomorrow's Saturday) but instead of scarpering just yet I'll get on with another guide.

A relatively simple fight from our point of view, but there are a handful of things worth mentioning to help smooth the path to lootsville.

First of all - On the pull remember that because of the size of the arena your tank is gonna have to move Ignis a loooong way, which will take a few seconds. That means he's not chucking out the same level of threat that he normally would, so just be a little careful when opening up. Generally, i find that after he's cast the 1st Scorch and been repositioned you can unleash fully.

Periodically throughout the fight Ignis will cast Flame Jets which will boot you up in the air and, if you're not very close in, out of melee range for a moment (but not out of judgement or exorcism range). You'll often here a call to 'stop casting' at this point, but with regards to all your offensive abilities you can ignore it, as they are instants. The only circumstance when you could get silenced would be if you were casting a non-AoW heal for some reason, in which case - stop.

You'll also occasionally see the boss charging into the raid to scoop someone into the slag pot strapped around the boss' waist. If it's you in the soup, remember that you can heal, pot and use healthstones whilst in there. Your raid healing SHOULD cover you, but just in case you should be ready to keep yourself up.

The constructs around the edge of the arena are called into the fight by Ignis and should be picked up by your tanks. If they're a little slow though, your combination of Consecration and DS can make you a favourite target of theirs along with the healers. You can take a shot or 2 from them, but not too many, so if you're taking a beating (or see that the healers are) a swift HoJ can be just the trick to give the tanks time to react. This is especially useful on the rare occasions that an OT is in the pot.

There's just the single phase and no 'burn' period so once you're away use cooldowns as and when you can to cram as many into the fight duration as possible. Timing of consecrations can be tricky here to get the most ticks out of them as the boss is moving so frequently (a little reminiscent of Grobbulus). If possible try to drop them when you know he's not casting scorch for a while and will be stationary, this might affect your priority a little.

That's it, 3 bosses down and one hell of an annoying robot to come next.

Worldcarver :D

Picked up one of these little beauties last raid, look at it... mmmmmmmmmmmm... that's one pointy stick!

Worldcarver

Ofc the abundance of expertise threw me way over the cap, but a little time spent with a spreadsheet and swapping around some of my banked gear has put me back on track and with a tidy increase in DPS. Back to 2pc T7.5 again though... damn! i thought I'd got rid those yellow monstrosities, need some luck with the T8 tokens again.

Real Life Tips - 1st Edition

When you take off a piece of clothing and think

"hmm does this need to go in the wash yet?"

If one of your next thoughts is

"I remember picking at that stain on Wednesday..."

It needs washing

Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!!

Okay, so the very moment i finish reinstalling Windows 7 i get an email from those same clever bods at Microsoft -

"Because you signed up to test the Windows 7 Beta, we recently sent you mail about the expiration dates for the Beta and Release Candidate. Unfortunately, we made a mistake.

We said the Beta would start shutting down every two hours on June 1, 2009. The correct date is July 1, 2009."

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!

I spose i'm all upto date in good time, but still, grrrrrrrrrr

Apparently they put the guys incharge of making Vista (/spit) incharge of communcations about Windows 7 Beta or something...

Goodbye Windows 7, Hello Windows 7!

Got an email through from the bods at Microsoft earlier this week telling me that my Beta version of Windows 7 will begin shutting itself down every 2 hours from June 1st.

How charming

Not too upset however, as i've already downloaded the Release Candidate and even popped it on a shiny new iMac (Sacrilege!) at work to test it. So it's just the hassle of copying my files across and reinstalling. Atleast i have WoW on a seperate drive so no irritating reinstalling or repatching there - TFFT

Ret Pallys in Ulduar - Razorscale

10man Ret Loot
Dragonsteel Faceplate

25man Ret Loot
Drape of the Drakerider
Libram of Dischord

After FL you head deeper into Ulduar and hook a right down to Razorscale's platform, there's no trash as such but you'll fight waves and waves before getting onto the boss proper. Plenty of multi target action makes this a good fight for us damage-wise so be prepared to shine ;)

As the mole machines pop up, hang around your tank and let them grab aggro then unload with all you've got, your single target focus should be the watchers - to get rid of their irritating chain lightning. One you've nuked your last guardian keep an eye open to lend a hand with neighboring groups not faring so well, there's often time to dash across and drop a Consecration or DS, or atleast throw a exorcism if the next moles are incoming. The sentinels are a bit more tricky - the whirlwind HURTS, certainly on 25man, tho not quite so bad on 10, ideally he should be your ranged dpsers primary target though so you can focus on the smaller adds.

Save your Avenging Wrath for when Razorscale herself lands and go nuts, she's stunned so don't worry about aggro just yet, tho when she's permanently down (hopefully the 2nd or at worst 3rd landing) it might be worth a Hand of Salvation on yourself to help the tanks pickup and let you get cracking with the knacking. The timing of the fight means you'll have AW back off cooldown ready for the next landing. When she's about to take off again, or become grounded permanently, you'll take a knockback. Personally I'll DPS right upto this to maximise my time on the boss, and can often throw a final judgment or exorcism as you're being blown away - the fall damage isn't significant and can be put right with a quick FoL on yourself before you rejoin your group and get back to the adds.

Once she's down for good the normal melee rules apply - stick behind, don't over aggro, don't stand in fire and just keep churning out the damage.

Ret Pallys in Ulduar - Flame Leviathan

10man Ret Loot
Ironsoul
Might of the Leviathan
Pyrite Infuser

25man Ret Loot
Iron Riveted War Helm
Strength of the Automatron
Hard
Plated Leggings of Ruination


I've got a fantastically dull and monotonous task running in the background here at work so i guess that makes time for another post on here. I'll kick off with something current - some tips from my experience in Ulduar so far. With this being THE current raid it seems most useful to make my first real guide about Uldy, but i may well fill in the pre-3.1 raids at a later date.

Well.......... erm, nothing much Ret-specific elements to the fight here unfortunately! Let's see what help i can give...

You're a pretty poor choice to be thrown onto the back of FL as a melee class, so expect to be in control of one of the vehicles. I'll skim over the basics but the info here should be the same as available on countless sites and guides across the web.

Firstly before you board your weapon of choice, stick every piece of high iLevel gear on that you can, it doesn't matter about it's stats and merits outside of the vehicles, whether it's from your tank or healing set, or if you have to mix them up - the vehicle gains stats according to the total iLevel of your gear.

In the Destroyer your key role is to look out for the emote from your passenger loading themselves into the catapult and get them on the back ASAP. Otherwise nuke with your main attack, keep an eye out for unlit tar and hit that. Save your pyrite for Overloads. At this point you should also be looking out for the guys parachuting down from the back of FL and be ready to pick them up and fire them back if needed.

On the Hog your main job is dumping tar ahead of FL to slow him down and keep him from catching the tanks, be sure to leave a gap ahead of FL so it can be lit before he passes over it and make good use of your speed boost to minimise your time exposed to danger. Aside from that add a little extra damage with your horn and at Overloads speed in, grab the the guys parachuting down and rush them to a nearby destroyer.

Siege engines should be kiting the boss, again making use of the boost to keep your distance, those Rams sure hurt. When you're not kiting add a little damage and ALWAYS be ready to hammer your interrupt on every Flame Vent cast.

That should more than cover that, if you're having trouble here, fear what's to come! :P

That's it for now, back to the treadmill for me - more coming soon


Chalke out

What's it all about then?

Well, mainly this here blog will be about Retribution paladins in World of Warcraft (it's a fun little game, you may have heard of it) It's gonna be a mix of general opinion on the class, how updates will affect us, theorycrafting, self indulgent rants.... y'know the usual thing, hopefully with a little humour and randomness thrown in along the way too


So who the hell are you?

I've been playing WoW for just over three years as it stands, my pally was my first and still my favourite character, although i raided as a rogue during TBC. I'm not in one of the top guilds in the World, or even in Europe, but we make steady progress and i still find myself reading various forums and see there's still a whole range of old and new pallies who ... well .... haven't got a bloody clue to be frank! So I thought I'd share some of my thoughts and ideas on here incase others find it useful... plus it's always nice to vent :P


What was with the rogue then?

Well, my pally was my first lvl60, and 70 and 80 too, but at 70 i found myself somewhat stuck - while levelling i could cope just fine but when in groups it became obvious that i couldn't keep up. I tried my hand at tanking and healing, and though i made a decent fist of it... it didn't satisfy my passion for hitting things with sticks. Sometimes the sticks are big and sticky, somtimes with a lump at the end, othertimes a pointy bit, but the important factor is that i'm hitting some random beastie over the head with it alot, and if i couldn't do it with my pally then i had to choose another class to do it with. I happened to have a rogue at lvl58 - so up he went.



I had some good times with the rogue ofc, having just grazed raiding at 60 (LBRS, UBRS, ZG + AQ20) i got really stuck into the game and taking raids more seriously and by the time WotLK hit us last year the guild had made our way through Kara, Gruul, Maggy, SSC, TK, Hyjal, BT and toppled a couple of bosses in Sunwell post-nerf. Along the way i went from grabbing random weapons and gear to doing the whole optomising and spreadsheets deal and came away packing a swathe of decent gear including 5pcs of T6 (no glaives tho :( ) but more importantly a good deal of knowledge about the game and how to play it.


But now you're all pally again right?

Towards the end of TBC i dusted off my pally, dabbled with some PvP and picked up some nice looking gear from seasons 3 and 4 of arena, i still insisted on playing as Ret ofc but was playing with him as a release from raiding, so ultimate ratings weren't my goal. When Patch 3.0 came and suddenly Pallys were viable as ret I put arena on the backburner and prepared myself for levelling once more.

Some conveniently timed leave from work meant i blasted to 80 after 6 days and haven't looked back since


Wow, you sure can talk

Thanks -.-

Point taken tho, i've rambled on for long enough there i think and it makes a decent introduction, till next time!


Chalke out

First!

Woo my first post on my brand-spanking new blog

Yay for me