Thursday, June 30, 2011

It's a Trap!!

H. Magmaw and H. Omnitron still on their way. I've been a wee bit distracted by 4.2 - my guild chose to start with 25m Shannox. All I can say is, if/when DBM updates to announces traps, please oh please let them use Admiral Ackbar's famous line. Oh please.

Monday, June 20, 2011

H. Chimaeron

While looking up reference pictures for the intro bit, I learned that Chimaeron has 3 arms and may in fact be the ugliest boss in BWD. Maloriak included. Of course I had never noticed this before because I spend 90% of my time tucked right between his tail and his leg. Best. Spot. Ever.

Heroic Chimmy is a lot like normal Chimmy. If you're an enhancement shaman anyway. Tanks and heals will be busy freaking out, your job is to whack away like you normally do. All the regular tips apply: don't throw your totems down till a few seconds in or Searing Totem might take a break and screw up the break-tank's timer. Do stack in for feud, do pop shamanistic rage during feuds when it is off cool-down, do throw out an extra chain heal or healing rain if you think your healers need the help or you see someone around you not going to make the massacre 10k cut off. Do drop your earth elemental during Phase 2, that extra 3 seconds he gives you before dying might be important.

The only thing you really need to watch out for is that your raid leader may call for everyone to switch to white hits only (where you just hit the boss, don't use any abilities) or to stop attacking completely. This is because you want to enter Phase 2 right after a feud phase, that way everyone is topped off and you have as much health/time as possible to bring Chimaeron down. This means bring up searing totem. You don't want to push the phase before the raid is ready and searing totem can accidentally do just that. Sure you can trying to blame it on the mages "searing flame is totally a mage attack, what are you talking about?" but I don't think your raid leaders will buy it for long. The reason being topped off is so important is that Neferaian joins the party and casts Mocking Shadows that inflicts a shadow DoT on everyone in the raid. You've got to get Chimmy down before the DoT brings the raid down. Do try to save ankh for Phase 2 - though with the shadow damage coming down you might die too quickly to be any help reincarnating - unless shamanistic rage is back up. Then you can pop it and live long enough to get a few good hits off.

That's all there is to this fight. We're rewarded with Chimaeron Armguards , our only wrist option. Hopefully you'll be luckier than I am and not have a hunter in front of you in the loot pool. Curse you hunters. Curse youuuuu!

Happy Raiding!

P.S. don't be that person who clicks the boss and starts the fight early. "But I was alt tabbing, it's not my fault -" no. Just no. Don't click the boss. End of story.

P.P.S. Does anyone else get possessive of their designated Chimaeron spot? I'm fairly attached to my spot right behind his leg, but I'll move if I have to. However, we've got a healer in the raid that refuses to start unless he is in His Spot.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Rebellious Elementals

Here's a quick question: if Deathwing tore Azeroth asunder and sent all the elemental planes into disarray/turned them against us players...why don't shamans have to deal with the backlash of it in their personal usage of the elements?

I know there are a few quests that have the player in general calm the elements or put unruly ones down, but I kind of wish there was something specific for shaman's that said "oh crap! Your fire elemental has gone rogue, you must get him back, prove to him he should be fighting for not against you!" (Of course, considering the amount of times my fire elemental has gone to stand in the corner instead of fighting mobs like he was supposed to, I might welcome his abandonment.)

What I'm suggesting kind of sounds like the return of class-specific quests, and it seems more like Cataclysm has moved away from those. Maybe that's a shame...I really think with how much the elements are going cuckoo in this expac we shammy players should feel some of the repercussions of relying on the elements. Even if it's just in a quick quest.

Heroic Chimaeron up next. Probably H.Magmaw in the same post since Chimaeron changes so little from the normal fight.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Heroic Halfus

Ah good old Halfus Wyrmbreaker. This fight is very, very simple on enhance shammy for one reason: Shadow Nova. Thanks to our wind shear we can kick Every.Single.One. And we should! That's it, there's the fight! 

Ok, ok, there is a bit more you can do. 
  1. Unless Storm Rider comes out super-duper-immediately the first Shadow Nova will still be a fast cast. We have all our melee count to 4 or 5 and then start kicking and it catches the cast about 90% of the time. In the beginning I didn't go for this first kick in fear of screwing up my wind shear cool down, but once you've done the fight a few times you get a sense for the timing of the first cast and you can kick as well. 
    • It's important that the first kick does land, especially if your guild is new to heorics as the tanks may not be able to survive a nova + damage from the drakes/whelps.
  2. We pop heroism at the beginning to ensure extra-quick-whelp-death. Usually it's a mage pretending they're as cool as us shaman's and popping timewarp, but if you happen to be mage deficient in your raid then it falls on you to use bloodlust.
  3. I assume whelps are being aoe'd down. I like to drop my magma totem for this part just to throw a little extra damage their way since dps on Halfus isn't really important at this stage. Just make sure you throw searing totem back on when you're done.
  4. In the beginning everyone will be crowded in the middle, and even if they're not, their aoe's are (especially if your graphic settings making everything the warlock does look exactly the same!), so trying to dodge the fireballs is a bit hard to do. This makes it a good time to pop shamanistic rage so that if you happen to eat a fireball your healers won't hate you as much (but don't worry, they'll still hate you a little). 
  5. Once whelps/storm rider are down it gets a little less crowded and you should be dodging fireballs like you're a rouge with evasion on. 
  6. As for feral spirit, I pop it once in the beginning and then it's up again in time for any of Furious Roar/push to the end.
  7. Furious Roar is definitely a good time for shamanistic rage. Make sure you're aiming and jumping even as you're knocked back so you don't get stuck in a fireball.
If you want to be super pro, there is the option of setting Halfus on focus and dpsing Storm Rider along with the rest of the melee, using a macro to interrupt your focus. However, between lag and the off chance that the tank has moved Halfus and you're suddenly facing away from him, I'd say it's far better to just stick on Halfus.

As long as you are getting Every.Single.Kick. and pushing your dps as much as possible around it, this fight should go quickly. Make sure you've got Deadly Boss Mod warnings for Shadow Nova turned on - but don't rely on the sound alone as it can sometimes lag behind.

Hello

As a recent college grad (yet to be gainfully employed), I find myself with some spare time. Since I often find myself thinking about shaman related things in my head, I figured why not start a blog about shaman related things? At least this way I can pretend I'm talking to an audience instead of just myself. Keyword: pretend.
But wait! Do I actually know anything about the wonderful class that is enhancement shaman? Sort of. I raid every week with a progression guild. Sure we're only 6/13, but I think that's doing rather well all things considered. I keep up with Elitist Jerks postings, am an avid WoW Insider reader, but - more importantly - I really really love playing my shaman. She is my main and I intend for her to always be my main. I have stood by her through nerfs and buffs, and even though enhancement shaman may be at a weird place for a patch or two, I'll keep on swinging with her.

So - what will this blog be? I intend for it to be sort of a "lazy raider's" guide to enhancement shaman. There are already good guides out there for raiding tier 11 normals as an enhance shammy (thinking WoW Insider in particular), so I plan to start with little shaman-orientated strats for heroic raids. These guides are based on my personal experience, and may not be the best way to do things, but they're a way that's worked for me and I'd like to share them with others. They come with a bit of fun too, I think. We'll see...

Heroic Halfus up later tonight.

Cheers!