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Normal/Heroic Hellfire High Council Raiding Guide

Hellfire High CouncilHey guys I’m Mezzy from WoW Weekly and today we’ll be taking a look at the Hellfire High Council in Heroic Hellfire Citadel. These tactics also apply to the normal version.

This encounter has 3 different bosses but their health is not linked together. When one reaches 30% it will gain a new ability and this will continue being cast even after they die.

First off is Blademaster Jubei’thos. He will use Fel Blade, with which he will throw his sword in the direction of the arrow that shows up when he casts it. Simply move out of that direction to avoid any damage from that ability.

His second ability is Felstorm, which is a simple AoE that you can do nothing about except heal back up.

His third ability is Windwalk. He will summon a lot of mirror images which will each do either one of the blademaster’s abilities. These images can and should be killed off. The damage you do to these images will also transfer to the blademaster himself.

At 30% health he will gain Wicked Strike. With this he will start dealing damage to half of the group. The damage of this will ramp up over time. Once the blademaster is dead he will keep using Wicked Strike.

The second boss is Gurtogg Bloodboil. His first ability is Bloodboil, with this he will deal damage to the 5 players furthest away from him. This means that if you are low on health you might want to move a bit closer to Bloodboil so that you don’t die.

The second ability he has is Acidic Wound, which is a stacking dot on the tank. This will also reduce their armor with 100 per stack. The debuff itself lasts 30 seconds. Due to the last boss you can’t really tankswap. So instead to get rid of this you’ll want to use the next ability to your advantage.

The next ability is Fel Rage. With this he will target a random player and increase that player’s defenses. He will then focus on that player for 25 seconds. That player should tank him, however every successful melee hit that Gurtogg does will increase his attack speed by 10%. This means that as you get to the later part of the 25 seconds you’ll want to use a defensive cooldown to survive. Hand of protection can serve particularly well. Because this fixate only lasts 25 seconds instead of 30, there will be 5 seconds left that you need to create so that Acidic Wound is removed from the tank. When Fel Rage is getting to the 18 second mark you will want the fixated player to move far away from the tanks, so that the after the fixate ends Gurtogg will have to move back to the tank. In that time the debuff should fade from the tank.

Gurtogg’s final ability is Demolishing Leap. With this he will jump around and the further you away you are from the point of impact, the less damage it will do to you.

At 30% health Gurtogg will start casting Tainted Blood. This will reduce the maximum health of everyone by 10% per stack. After Gurtogg dies, the debuff will remain.

The final boss is Dia Darkwhisper. She has an aura called Void Haze. This will make the other 2 bosses immune to damage if they are within 25 yards of Darkwhisper. This is why you’ll have one tank on Darkwhisper and one tank on both the Blademaster and Gurtogg.

Darkwhisper will mostly cast Void Bolt on the tank, dealing a chunk of shadow damage. She can also turn into a Visage of Nightmares. While she’s in this form, she will do a ton of damage to the tank and the tank will need to be focussed on when it comes to healing.

Darkwhisper’s threat to the raid is Mark of the Necromancer. This is a debuff that will ramp up in damage over time. When you dispel it, and you will, the debuff will spread to 2 new players. This process will repeat itself and you’ll want to prevent too many players getting the debuff. Darkwhisper will cast Reap, at which point a permanent void zone will spawn underneath each person with the debuff and the debuff will disappear. So when Reap is cast and you have the debuff on you, move to the sides of the room quickly.

Darkwhisper’s last ability is Wailing Horror. Shadow elementals will spawn around the room and deal shadow damage when they fly over you. You will want to try and dodge these, but the damage is healable.

At 30% Darkwhisper will put the Mark of the Necromancer on half of the raid and no longer cast Reap. This means your healers will be dispelling a lot to reset the debuff, as Darkwhisper will no longer remove it for you.

Because of the 30% mark changes being permanent for the rest of the encounter you’ll want to get all of the bosses around 40% health. At that point you will want to first kill Bloodboil, then the blademaster and finally Darkwhisper. When Bloodboil gets to 30% be sure to use heroism so that your maximum health doesn’t get any lower than it needs to go.

So in this encounter you’ll want to kill mirror images, stay away from arrows, deal with Acidic Wound, keep away from the places Bloodboil jumps to, focus heal the tank when Darkwhisper is a terror, move to the side of the room if you have the mark of the necromancer and reap is being cast and keep Darkwhisper away from the other 2 bosses.

If you liked this raiding guide please comment, subscribe and click on the like button to help us out. If you would like to keep up with when new videos come out, but you don’t have a youtube account, you can also follow us on twitter and facebook at twitter.com/bbmezzy or facebook.com/wowweekly. Also be sure to check out our written content on our website wowweekly.net. For now I’m Mezzy and I’ll see you again next time.

Normal/Heroic Kormrok Raiding Guide

KormrokHey guys I’m Mezzy from WoW Weekly and today we’ll be taking a look at Kormrog in Heroic Hellfire Citadel. These tactics also apply to the normal version.

The boss has only 4 abilities, but their effects will change depending on his empowerment. There are 3 pools in the room and he will use them to empower himself. Before we get to that however, let’s talk about the core abilities.

His first ability is Pound. This deals damage to every player in the raid for 5 seconds. You’ll want to use a healer cooldown for this and you need to spread out. This is because it works like Gruul’s petrify. While Pound is channeling, you will also deal damage to anyone within 4 yards of you.

His next ability is Fel Outpouring with which he will spawn purple waves of goo. You’ll need to dodge these. If you get hit you’ll take a good amount of shadow damage.

The next ability is Explosive Runes with which he will summon multiple explosive runes that will grow over time. If they have not been triggered they will detonate after 15 seconds dealing a huge amount of damage to the entire raid. However if someone walks over it, it deals less damage and just to that person. So you’ll want to have players run over these to prevent them from detonating. They still do a good chunk of damage so you’ll preferably want players with abilities like deterence and cloak of shadows to trigger these. It isn’t required to have the cooldown though. We assigned 5 players in our raid to trigger them so that the rest of the raid could focus on the boss.

His final ability is Grasping Hands which works just like the hands from Kromog, but they spawn on you instead. To deal with this stack up loosely and AoE the hands down quickly, because a Pound could follow and the hands themselves deal damage every second too. I say stack up loosely, because when the hands grab you, they will also deal damage to anyone within 4 yards of you.

During the encounter Kormrog will jump into the 3 different puddles: purple, green and orange. He will always jump to the closest pool that he hasn’t been in yet, until he’s been in all 3 puddles. When he does this he will empower one of his core abilities and gain a special ability to use on the tank. When he uses this ability the tank will also gain the Fel Touch debuff, increasing magic damage taken by 50%. This will require a tank swap.

So when he’s empowered by the purple puddle the Fel Outpouring ability will spawn waves of goo from all of the puddles. To deal with this you’ll want to stand to one of the sides so you’re not in the middle of every single wave. He will also gain Swat. This will deal a fair amount of shadow damage to the tank and knock them back until they reach a wall. This further promotes standing off to one of the sides with your back to the wall. You do not want to be thrown into one of the three pools because this could kill you.

When he’s empowered with the orange pool the Explosive Runes will keep respawning unless they explode near other runes or are the last one. When a rune explodes it will respawn in the direction that your character is facing. So when the original runes spawn you’ll want to face the middle of all the runes and push them towards the middle. That way they will come close to each other and stop spawning.

The tank ability that he gains is called Explosive Burst. He will root the tank and after 10 seconds they will explode dealing a large amount of fire damage to everyone within 40 yards. To deal with this your entire raid will have to move away from the tank. Abilities such as Transcendance Teleport from monks still work, but not all tanks have such abilities.

And then finally when he’s empowered by the green pool, the hands will pick up every raid member and attempt to throw them in the pools. Once again stack up loosely and dps them down before the hands succeed. Slows and stuns do not effect them. The tank ability he gains is Foul Crush, with which the tank will be stuck in a hand. The dps will of course have to get the tank out of it.

We found the easiest order of empowerment to be Orange, Purple and then finally Green.

At 30% Kormrog will enrage, increasing his haste and he will now keep the empowerments. Meaning this is a soft enrage mechanic and you’ll want to use heroism at this point.

So in short, stack loosely for the hands, spread for pound, dodge the waves of goo and use personal cooldowns if you can, to deal with the runes. When the runes are empowered look towards the middle of the runes before standing on it and when purple empowerment is up tank him with your back towards a wall. When a tank gets rooted by explosive burst be sure to move away from them.

If you liked this raiding guide please comment, subscribe and click on the like button to help us out. If you would like to keep up with when new videos come out, but you don’t have a youtube account, you can also follow us on twitter and facebook at twitter.com/bbmezzy or facebook.com/wowweekly. Also be sure to check out our written content on our website wowweekly.net. For now I’m Mezzy and I’ll see you again next time.

Normal/Heroic Iron Reaver Raiding Guide

Iron ReaverHey guys I’m Mezzy from WoW Weekly and today we’ll be taking a look at the Iron Reaver in Heroic Hellfire Citadel. These tactics also apply to the normal version.

This is a 2 phase encounter in which the phrase don’t stand in the fire couldn’t be more appropriate. In the ground phase you’ll be able to attack the Iron Reaver but in the air phase the Iron Reaver will take 95% reduced damage. So your time will be better spent dealing with the encounter’s mechanics.

In both phases you’ll have to deal with patches of fire, which will give you the stacking dot Immolation. So don’t stand in the fire.

In the ground phase the first ability you’ll deal with is Artillery. This is cast on the tank and will require a tank swap. The tank will be targeted by the Reaver and will be shot at. The further away the tank is from the rest of the group, the less damage the impact damage will do to the entire raid. So when you get targeted, tankswap and run away from the rest of the group.

Do note that you don’t have to run endlessly, because you will need to get back as soon as possible because the other tank will have already been targeted by Artillery so you will need to taunt as quickly as possible.

The next ability is Unstable Orb. The reaver will target a random player and shoot an orb at them. It will deal damage and leave a stacking dot to anyone within 8 yards. This means that you’ll need to keep spread out at least 8 yards. The spreading is needed anyway, so healers be aware.

You will also have to deal with the potentially lethal ability called Barrage. The boss will target a player, power up his gun. In his animation you’ll see his clear intent to use the gun, once he fires it it will hit anyone anyone in the way he’s facing. This damage is really high and potentially lethal. When I say the way he’s facing, I mean he will shoot the barrage of fire in the direction of where his elbow is facing, and not the gun that’s powering up.

You really need to pay attention to the animation, because there’s another ability that has an animation as well, which is Blitz. With this he will also target a player, face their direction and then charge at them. Anyone who gets hit by him will be dragged along by the Reaver and be brought back to his original location. The boss will cast Blitz twice in a row. The animation to watch for is he’ll put one leg and an elbow infront of the others. Naturally you’ll want to get out of the way before he charges towards you. This ability will also push the fire away when he charges through it.

His final ability is pounding. With which he’ll do AoE damage to everyone in the raid. This ability could be a pain to deal with because of your being spread for all of the other abilities. This will be used 3 times per ground phase, so be sure to use healing cooldowns for this. Pounding will also knock back the fire on the ground so it might just come flying your way if you’re positioned behind fire.

To deal with the fire in phase 1 we’ve gone through a couple of iterations on the positioning of the raid. And even as I describe it now, it’s slightly different than you see in the video. As you can see there are markers along the room on both sides of the boss.

The entire group starts on one side of the boss near one of the markers. You’ll of course need to spread out 8 yards. You will get a couple of barrages and once there is too much fire on that side move over to the next marker. In the video you’ll see that we move from one side of the boss to the other. In the end that felt too messy so what we will do next time is stay on the same side but move to the next clear marker on the right.

By moving as a group you’ll be able to have more control over the fire and thus the potential damage your raid will take.

After a set amount of time the Reaver will reach 100 energy and go into the air phase.

In the air phase the Reaver will target 3 players with the same Artillery ability as tanks have to deal with in the ground phase. Just like the tanks, the 3 players need to move away from the rest of the raid.

The Iron Reaver will throw fuel onto the battlefield which slows you by 40%. You will want to get away from the fuel as quickly as you can because it will be set on fire after a few seconds. After it’s been set on fire the Reaver will throw multiple Firebombs into the field. These need to be killed because if they’re not killed in time they will detonate dealing a large amount of damage to the raid.

With the positioning at the end of phase 1 you will all be in the same part of the room. Split your raid up into groups for phase 2 so that you can assign them to parts of the room and have the whole room covered to deal with bombs.

When the Reaver goes back into the Ground phase he will target a player and land on their location. He does that rather unceremoniously with Falling Slam. There will be a big circle around that player and everyone needs to get out of the circle. After 6 seconds anyone still standing in the slam will find themselves a dead pancake.

The main thing to keep in mind for this encounter are to stay spread, use healing cooldowns for pounding, get away from the directions he targets with both of his animations and get away from the raid when he targets you with Artillery. In phase 2 kill off the bombs and get out of the oil.

If you liked this raiding guide please comment, subscribe and click on the like button to help us out. If you would like to keep up with when new videos come out, but you don’t have a youtube account, you can also follow us on twitter and facebook at twitter.com/bbmezzy or facebook.com/wowweekly. Also be sure to check out our written content on our website wowweekly.net. For now I’m Mezzy and I’ll see you again next time.

Normal/Heroic Hellfire Assault Raiding Guide

AssaultHey guys I’m Mezzy from WoW Weekly and today we’ll be taking a look at Hellfire Assault in Heroic Hellfire Citadel. These tactics also apply to the normal version.

This encounter is pretty much a pure add encounter with a mini boss at the start. Once she drops to 50% she’ll leave the encounter leaving just the adds to deal with. The goal of this encounter is to use the two big Hellfire Cannons in the back of the room to blow down the door into the citadel.

The adds can be categorized into two sorts: The orcs and the siege weapons. The siege weapons will attack your Hellfire Canons and can destroy them. When you kill a siege weapon it will drop ammo you can pick up and bring to the Hellfire Canons to deal damage to the gate. The ammo will deal a small amount of damage to you every second, but will also increase your movement speed by 100% for 9 seconds. So you’ll be able to quickly move to and from the cannon.

While the siege weapons are important, not all of them are an immediate threat. There are a few orcs that are a lot more of a danger to you. So let’s go ahead and take a look at each of the orcs first.

First off there’s the mini-boss Siegemaster Mar’tak. Her first ability Howling Axe will target random players. When her axe hits them it will deal to anyone within 8 yards, requiring a slight spread. Her second ability is Shockwave. She will mark the ground with brown circles and send a shockwave that way dealing damage. Simply move away from the marked ground to deal with this. Her final ability is Inspiring Presence which is an aura increasing the damage done over time by adds near her. It’s because of this ability you’ll want to get rid of the Siegemaster as quickly as possible.

The next orc you’ll want to watch out for is the Gorebound Felcaster. The Felcaster casts both incinerate and Felfire Volley, and both can and should be interrupted. When he gets low on health the Felcaster will cast metamorphosis and become a Gorebound Terror. They constantly spam Felfire Volley which now does an increased amount of damage. You’ll want to focus these down and use healing cooldowns as needed.

The Hulking Berserkers will be the adds that will hurt your tanks. They cast Slam dealing physical damage and increasing damage taken by physical attacks by 30%, which stacks. When there are no terrors up, this should definitely be the priority of your dps. If there aren’t 2 berserkers up you can of course have the other tank taunt to reset the stacks on the tank. The berserkers also have Cower, which will decrease your movement speed and deal a small amount of physical damage to anyone standing near the berserker.

You will also encounter the Iron Dragoons which are just cannon fodder. Have your tank pick these up and just cleave these down as you’re dealing with the other adds.
The final non-siege adds you’ll have to deal with are the Contracted Engineers. These will work a lot like the engineers from the Blast Furnace encounter. First off they can repair the siege adds and should be interrupted when they do. Their second ability is Conducted Shock Pulse, which is basicly a chain lightning that stuns. While the stun can be dispelled, you’re better off having a slight spread to reduce the chance of this jumping to more players. Their final ability is Boom. With this they will throw out bombs. Simply move away from these.

There are 4 siege weapons: The Felfire Crusher, the Felfire Flamebelcher, the Felfire Artillery and the Felfire Demolisher. When the Crusher and Artillery spawn you need to get rid of them right away. They will both deal a lot of damage quickly to the Hellfire Canons. If they succeed in killing the Cannons it’ll be game over.

The Crusher will deal damage to anyone standing near it. If you’re infront of it you’ll quickly find death as it deals damage every half a second to anyone, as well as the Hellfire Canon, infront of it. If you get close to it from the sides it will breathe fire at you.

The Artillery will simply shoot at the Hellfire Canon, dealing a chunk of damage to anyone within 40 yards.

The Flamebelcher will shoot out fire in every direction. The fireballs that spawn will need to be dodged. Should you get hit you’ll take damage for about a third of your health bar.

The Demolisher will shoot mortars at an area and dealing a moderate amount of damage to anyone in that direction. After it shoots the mortars it will shoot a second mortar at the targeted area. This will deal a large amount of fire damage to anyone in that area. The damage to the entire raid will decrease, the further away you are from the point of impact.

As with all add fights there’s plenty to deal with. Prioritize the Felfire Crusher, Felfire Artillery, the Gorebound Brutes and Gorebound Terrors. Have a slight spread to deal with various abilities. Use healing cooldowns as needed for the Terrors and Brutes. Don’t forget to interrupt repair. And then finally don’t be afraid to bring the siege ammo to the cannon as you’ll be back in the fight quickly.

If you liked this raiding guide please comment, subscribe and click on the like button to help us out. If you would like to keep up with when new videos come out, but you don’t have a youtube account, you can also follow us on twitter and facebook at twitter.com/bbmezzy or facebook.com/wowweekly. Also be sure to check out our written content on our website wowweekly.net. For now I’m Mezzy and I’ll see you again next time.

Timewalking Highlight: Mana-Tombs, Release the Names! Character Name Reclamation Coming, The Road Ahead: Legendary Ring Questline

Timewalking Highlight: Mana-Tombs

Quote from: Blizzard
Timewalking Highlight: Mana-Tombs

Timewalking

In World of Warcraft Patch 6.2, we’re introducing a new series of seven different weekend Bonus Events, two of which will feature Timewalking Dungeons—one in Outland dungeons for characters level 71 and higher, and another in Northrend dungeons for level 81 and higher. When you Timewalk these dungeons, your character’s power and gear will be scaled down to a fraction of what they normally are, and as you may have never ventured into some (or any) of these dangerous places, it might be a good idea to prepare yourself now.

Outland: Mana-Tombs

The original exiles on Draenor found death to be an unsettling and unfortunate consequence of life, and so the draenei hid their dead away in the subterranean grave-city of Auchindoun, a labyrinthine marvel located beneath the forests of Terokkar.

It is said that long ago, a shadowy cult invaded Auchindoun. In its depths, the cult released an immensely powerful, malevolent being from arcane captivity, blasting the decrepit city apart. Any adventurers brave enough to enter the abandoned, bone-littered remains of Auchindoun would do well to remember the warning of the city’s original guardians, the Auchenai: those who do not respect the dead…

… may become entombed along with them.

Dungeon Map

  
Click to enlarge

Bosses


Pandemonius

This infamous Void Lord is also known as the Duke of Chaos, the Eater of Nations, and Worldslayer. Pandemonius was one of the commanders serving under Dimensius when the ethereal homeworld of K’aresh was destroyed. He was later bound by Nexus-Prince Shaffar and forced to continue sating his unending hunger in service to the ethereals.


Tavarok

Under the command of Kael’thas Sunstrider, Pathaleon the Calculator summoned a powerful colossus to gather the arcane energies flowing from beneath the Mana Tombs. Tavarok has unexpectedly been transformed by the unique emanations, losing the red-tinged corruption of Pathaleon’s influence. The white colossus has gained his own free will and uses it to greedily consume all who would stand in his way.


Nexus-Prince Shaffar

Convinced that vast riches lay within the depths of the Mana Tombs, Nexus-Prince Shaffar has spent untold amounts of his own considerable fortune to move an army into the shadowed halls of this crumbling ruin, and to keep competing ethereals out. The prince’s greed knows no bounds, and he has vowed to uncover the mysteries of the Mana Tombs or die trying.

Tips

  • Be wary of the Mana Leeches when they’re nearly dead. They explode.
  • This is a good dungeon in which to practice using your dispels and cleanses.
  • Pandemonius has a shield. Don’t hit his shield.
  • Keep an eye out for Tavarok’s Crystal Prison. It can knock a lot of life off of the player inside.
  • Don’t let the orbs that fight you alongside Nexus-Prince Shaffar accumulate. They’re deadly in numbers.

Achievements and Reputation

If you haven’t earned these achievements already, completing this dungeon will award Mana-Tombs and Heroic: Mana-Tombs, the latter of which is required for Outland Dungeon Hero.

Killing enemies in this dungeon increases your standing with the Consortium. For a full breakdown of what you can do with Consortium reputation, check out Wowhead and Wowpedia.

Get in there and Fight!

Timewalking dungeons are coming to WoW with the upcoming Patch 6.2. Keep an eye out for the weekend-only quest A Burning Path Through Time, which rewards a Seal of Inevitable Fate when you complete five Burning Crusade Timewalking dungeons.

You can also find our Mana-Tombs preview here.

Release the Names! Character Name Reclamation Coming

Quote from: Blizzard
Release the Names! Character Name Reclamation Coming

With the upcoming Warlords of Draenor patch (6.2), we will be releasing sidelined characters’ names back into the wild. Any characters that have not logged into the game since December 7, 2010 will have their names freed up, making them available to anyone creating a new character or using the paid Character Name Change service.

How Do I Preserve My Names?

You will need to log in to World of Warcraft and enter the game using each character whose name you wish to retain before patch 6.2 goes live. While it is possible no one will claim your recently released name and you might be able to snag it again, it is probably not worth the risk if you want to keep your names intact long-term.

Our goal with this great name liberation is to make sure new and returning players have a large and varied pool of names available to choose from—so log in now if you wish to preserve your unused characters’ names for your ongoing journey through Draenor.

The Name I wanted wasn’t freed!

Going forward, we expect to free inactive names around the release of new expansions.  Prior to the reclamation process, we’ll post more information on the timeframe this will occur to allow you the opportunity to preserve your name.

The Road Ahead: Legendary Ring Questline

Be warned, this last post contains spoilers!

Patch 6.2- Fury of Hellfire Arrives June 23

Quote from: Blizzard
Patch 6.2- Fury of Hellfire Arrives June 23

Patch 6.2: Fury of Hellfire is almost here! On Tuesday, June 23 players will be able to build their Garrison Shipyard and venture into Tanaan Jungle to face Gul’dan and the twisted remnants of the Iron Horde. Hellfire Citadel Normal and Heroic modes will also be available for those who are brave enough to confront the dangers within.

Check out the official trailer below:

Learn more about the patch in the 6.2 PTR Patch Notes and in our preview blogs:

6-2Wallpaper_WoW_JM_950.jpg

Hellfire Citadel Raid Schedule, Live Q&A Additional Answers, Timewalking Highlight: Black Morass

Hellfire Citadel Raid Schedule

Quote from: Blizzard
Hellfire Citadel Raid Schedule

The armies of Azeroth are set to charge into Tanaan Jungle and the new Raid found there. To help with the coordination of these fiery days to come, we’ve broken down the unlock schedule for Hellfire Citadel. Get ready!

If you’re among those patiently sharpening your sword until Raid Finder unlocks, please note that you’ll need a minimum item level of 650 to enter. Here’s the rundown:

Week 1 (with the release of Patch 6.2)

  • Hellfire Citadel Normal and Heroic difficulties open.

Week 2

  • Mythic difficulty becomes available.
  • Raid Finder Wing 1 (Hellfire Assault, Iron Reaver, Kormrok) unlocks.

Week 4

  • Raid Finder Wing 2 (Hellfire High Council, Kilrogg, Gorefiend) unlocks.

Week 6

  • Raid Finder Wing 3 (Shadow-Lord Iskar, Socrethar the Eternal, Tyrant Velhari) unlocks.

Week 8

  • Raid Finder Wing 4 (Fel Lord Zakuun, Xhul’horac, Mannoroth) unlocks.

Week 10

  • Raid Finder Wing 5 (Archimonde) unlocks.

Live Q&A Additional Answers

Quote from: Blizzard
I had a great time doing the Q&A this past weekend, and look forward to more opportunities to speak directly with the community and field your questions. I wanted to take some time to clarify a couple of my responses. I’d also like to address several questions that were in the queue, but which we weren’t able to reach before we ran out of time.

The infamous Demonology warlock response: We’ve heard from many players that they don’t enjoy the spec but feel pressured to play it because it has so clearly been the all-around best warlock spec in current raiding, and we’ve seen masses of warlocks who started out favoring Affliction or Destruction migrating steadily towards Demonology. We feel the spec has several elements that are awkward and unintuitive (it’s not just a matter of sheer “complexity” – it’s fine for some specs to be more challenging to play optimally, especially for pure DPS where players can choose to opt into that complexity while having alternatives available), and we have plans to rework (and hopefully improve) the spec, but those changes are beyond the scope of a patch. In the meantime, we want to make sure we’re alleviating the pressure to play Demonology over other specs, which means making sure that it isn’t the best warlock spec. The goal of our 6.2 changes is not to make Demonology terrible or unplayable, and I’d expect Demonology to still be quite competitive on some types of encounters, and viable everywhere. If it isn’t, we’ll make further adjustments to compensate. But we did intentionally make changes to ensure that it isn’t the single best warlock spec in patch 6.2, and I wanted to make it clear that this was our intent, rather than simply a mathematical error.

Healing priests: In the Q&A, I fielded a question about absorbs, and have seen feedback about a seeming contradiction between our stance on Demonology warlocks (“we don’t want all warlocks to feel obligated to play Demo, so we’re nerfing Demo”) and my comments about Disc (“you’re probably doing it wrong if you only have one priest in the raid and that priest isn’t Disc”). To be clear, we don’t think the current state of priest healer representation is a desirable one – I was describing the present reality, not stating our design goal. But the Discipline problem isn’t one that is solvable with simple numbers changes – we’d have to nerf Discipline to the point of complete uselessness in order to meaningfully affect their representation. The issue lies in their nature as an absorb-based healer, offering a unique benefit that neither Holy priest nor any other healer can provide, and often doing so at the expense of the fun of other healers (whose core gameplay lies in refilling health bars that now empty less, or not at all, due to absorbs). Absorbs are still interesting as a mechanic, and we’re not looking to prevent Disc from feeling unique, but the spec’s niche in multi-healer situations probably shouldn’t be mechanically blanketing allies with absorbs. In short: we acknowledge that there is a problem, but we don’t have a solution to discuss just yet.

Now, Lore gave me a list of questions that we didn’t get to on Saturday, and I’d like to take a stab at answering a few more. Some of these are things I could probably ramble on about for pages, but I’ll try to stay concise to keep the responses in line with the content of the rest of the Q&A.

Q: “How has itemisation in WoD worked out thus far? Are you happy with new stats? Bonus gear properties? Enchants?” – @MagdalenaDK
A: Overall, we’re happy with how most of the changes have played out. Bonus gear properties in particular keep “farm” content potentially rewarding and create some extra moments of excitement, as designed. Tertiary stats were too weak initially, but since the 6.1 changes they’re in a good place – I’ve seen people get more excited for a huge Speed or Avoidance bump on a primary gear slot than they would have been over a socket, which is pretty cool. As far as stats go, and this may surprise players somewhat, we’re pretty satisfied with how Versatility has turned out – it’s a simple baseline stat that’s easy to understand, and has some depth to it especially in PvP. It may not be the favorite stat of any damage-dealing raiders, but that’s okay – it’s a solid baseline. Multistrike is probably the weakest of our current stats from a design perspective. Mechanically it’s very similar to crit, except where we’ve added specific class mechanics to hook into it and bolster it as a stat. There may be a visceral feel at times to firing extra missiles, but when you’re firing a ton of projectiles all the time, that also comes at the expense of lessening the impact of each individual missile and cast.

Q: Any plans on another stat squish? This last one didn’t seem to do much. – @RippleTideWoW
A: Well, players are currently dealing damage roughly on par with what we saw at the end of Dragon Soul almost 4 years ago, which is fairly significant. If not for the squish, we’d be seeing DPS values in the millions, player health well into the millions, gear having 5-digit amounts of each stat, and so forth. So the squish did do quite a bit. Experience has shown, however, that if a full tier of gear doesn’t increase player stats by at least 10-15%, upgrades feel unrewarding. The compounding nature of that growth does mean that numbers will get unwieldy over time. We don’t see the need for another stat squish in the very near future, but we’ll likely end up doing one again eventually.

Q: Will the kick tool be improved to be less prone to abuse? – Evangelia
A: The vote-to-kick system in our Group Finder is definitely due for some improvements. The system was designed alongside the original introduction of the LFG tool years ago, in a world where the default loot method was Need/Greed and a major issue was people abusing the kick feature to eliminate competition for loot. Nowadays, there are far fewer selfish motivations for initiating a kick, and so it makes sense for us to reevaluate that design. In Raid Finder in particular, one person who is griefing is having a negative impact on the gameplay experience of up to 24 other players, and we should make sure we’re weighting the protections provided by the system accordingly. We are working on making some subtle adjustments to the logic involved that should address some of these issues: for example, just because you’re in combat doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to kick someone who deserves it – that restriction used to be in place to prevent loot abuse, but now loot is mailed to players who aren’t around to receive it. We’ll continue to keep an eye on the system and make additional tweaks aimed at reducing player frustration.

Q: When kill Ele/Enh Shamans get the rework we deserve? Totems are so outdated and irrelevant. – @STVN214
A: Totems could definitely use some love. I’m not sure the core rotations of either spec need an outright “rework,” though there are certainly some issues (Ele Ascendance being numerically underwhelming, Enhance having so many different sources of damage that few individual button presses feel rewarding). Totems historically provided irreplaceable benefits (e.g. Windfury providing extra attacks) that were balanced by the spatial constraint of being tied to a killable totem in a fixed location. Now that drawback often feels unwarranted. There isn’t much that’s cool about an ability like Searing Totem. Powerful area effects like Earthgrab, Windwalk, or Healing Tide fare better, but that isn’t a very long list. We agree that totems need to either be overhauled as a mechanic or that their importance to the shaman class needs to be reduced.

Q: What do Fire and Frost Mages, Ele Shamans… have mana bars for? Will mana matter again at some point? – @Crowvyn
A: For many hybrid casters, mana is little more than a constraint on ability to heal, allowing for hybrid offheals to be potent, but limiting their sustainability so that they clearly fall short of a dedicated healer. Beyond that, we agree, there isn’t much point to the resource for several specs. Mana works well as a healer resource, where mana management and efficiency are designed to be a core part of every healer’s gameplay (some specs’ current situation notwithstanding), but we moved away from having it as a meaningful constraint on DPS output because it generally served as a frustrating constraint in a world where many if not most other DPS specs were not similarly constrained. Arcane mages stand as the exception, but they have a toolkit specifically designed around controlling their mana pools. I don’t think we’re likely to return to a world where Elemental shamans can run themselves out of mana and end up unable to cast Lightning Bolt, but perhaps there are more interesting things that could be done with DPS resource bars in place of mana.

Q: Complex encounter design (positioning) is being trivialized by player-created tools (See: Kromog) Are there plans to curb this? – @jsutan
A: Clever players have been using add-ons to assist with raid coordination since the earliest days of WoW raiding. When these add-ons have crossed a line and approached automating player activity or decisionmaking entirely, we have stepped in to disable or limit the underlying functionality that made that possible. Beyond that, players’ ability to use mods to help keep track of non-random abilities isn’t particularly concerning – as a raider myself, I downloaded Thogar Assist as a reference, but found that by the time my guild defeated the encounter I had long since memorized the train schedule. It is something for us to keep in mind, however, and we do occasionally alter our designs when we realize that a mod would completely trivialize the intended gameplay. Kromog, for example, could have had another dozen or so hand spawn points, and randomly picked a subset of them each phase, preventing any sort of fixed 1-to-1 assignment.

Q: Legacy buff for MoP content, When? – Vert
A: Never. (Or at least not until next time we do a stat squish, technically.) The “legacy buff” that applies to enemies below level 90 once you exceed that level was designed specifically and solely to offset the 6.0 “stat squish,” which compressed the exponential scaling in the items available from level 61 to 90, into linear scaling. Pre-squish, a level 90 player with Pandaria raid gear was literally a dozen times more powerful than they had been at level 80 with Wrath gear. Post-squish that is no longer the case, so we have a special combat modifier in place to preserve the expected gameplay, so that soloing old content does not become harder. Gear higher than item level 463 wasn’t squished, so endgame Mists content designed to be tackled by players of that power level wasn’t affected and no combat scalar is needed. Mists content will increasingly become doable with fewer players than intended, as player power continues to rise, as has always been the case. People already are soloing large chunks of Mists content, and that goal will only become more and more attainable as time goes on and gear continues to improve.

Q: Will hunters and mages get a new raid utility in 6.2? – @Garfurion
A: No. At this point, while we may still be making numerical adjustments, I wouldn’t expect new abilities or class functionality in 6.2. We removed Aspect of the Fox from hunters because they simply did not need it to be unique, viable, and in fact highly desired. It also contributed to elevating ranged classes above melee in many cases, by offsetting one of most casters’ main weaknesses. One of the strengths of melee classes is that they can move along with their target and continue to deal full damage while on the move, while most casters’ throughput suffers if they can’t stand still. In encounter design, we create mechanics and phases with this constraint in mind, with the expectation that a ranged-heavy raid will have its throughput suffer during something like Hans’gar and Franzok’s Stamping Presses phase, or Blackhand’s Massive Demolitions. Each additional Aspect of the Fox eroded this natural melee advantage, and contributed to raid composition and balance issues.

Even without Fox, Hunters are unique in that they are the only ranged DPS that can do nearly everything while on the move, which naturally makes them well-suited to specialized roles on a number of encounters, aside from naturally thriving in high-movement environments. On top of that, Deterrence, Feign Death, Misdirection, and Disengage all allow them to assist with handling mechanics in ways that many other classes cannot. As for Mages, Amplify was not nearly as impactful, but neither was it necessary to justify the inclusion of a class that already brings a versatile toolset, burst damage, control, and useful immunities. A particularly odd feature of both Aspect of the Fox and Amplify Magic is that neither ability had any apparent use whatsoever when solo, which contributed to their awkwardness.

In short, we added those abilities in 6.0 because we were concerned that mages and hunters might not be well-represented without some new and unique raid cooldown, but having observed how they have played out in practice, those concerns were likely unfounded, leaving us with two new niche abilities at a time where we have otherwise been trying to streamline the contents of class spellbooks. Thus, we’re removing them in 6.2.

Timewalking Highlight: Black Morass

Quote from: Blizzard
Timewalking Highlight: Black Morass

Timewalking

In World of Warcraft Patch 6.2, we’re introducing a new series of seven different weekend events, and two of the seven weekends will make Timewalking Dungeons available to characters at level 71 and higher for Outland dungeons or 81 and higher for Northrend dungeons. When you Timewalk these dungeons, you’ll find that your character’s power and gear has been scaled down to a fraction of what they normally are, and you may have never ventured into some (or all) of them, so it’s a good idea to prepare yourself now.

Outland: Black Morass

Deep within the Caverns of Time, the brooding dragon Nozdormu has awakened. Since the world was young, the bronze dragonflight has safeguarded the winding labyrinth, monitoring the shifting timeways to ensure that the delicate balance of time is upheld.

But now the ancient Dragon Aspect has been roused by an elusive threat: dark, sinister agents have infiltrated the timeways, embarking on missions to alter the course of the past, present and future. As a result, the bronze dragonflight has begun enlisting heroes to prevent the sabotage of key historical events. The balance of time is in jeopardy, and if the past is not saved…there will be no future.

Dungeon Map

  
Click to enlarge

Bosses


Chrono Lord Deja

The Infinite Dragonflight tempted many drakonid with promises of power, but most found only servitude and despair. One of the few exceptions is Chrono Lord Deja, who gained influence within the flight through his raw power and cunning.


Temporus

Although relatively young, Temporus was instrumental in identifying many of the Infinite Dragonflight’s prime targets. As a reward, he was given the responsibility of destroying anyone who might attempt to interfere with the dragonflight’s plans.


Aeonus

Powerful and wild, Aeonus was tasked by the Master of the Infinite Dragonflight to personally oversee the disruption of key moments in the true timeway.

Tips

  • Before you approach Medivh, you should first take out any enemies you see around the area.
  • When you get close to him, Medivh will start an event that comes in waves. Three of those waves are boss fights.
  • To close each opening rift, kill the Rift Keeper who is keeping it open.
  • Kill the enemies who come through as quickly as possible to prevent them overwhelming Medivh.
  • If you’re efficient, you’ll be able to get out of combat between rifts (and recover).

Achievements and Reputation

If you’ve not gotten them before, completing this dungeon will award Opening of the Dark Portal and Heroic: Opening of the Dark Portal , the latter of which is required for Outland Dungeon Hero.

Killing enemies in this dungeon increases your standing with the Keepers of Time. For a full breakdown of what you can do with Keepers of Time reputation, check out Wowhead and Wowpedia.

Get in there and Fight!

Timewalking dungeons are coming to WoW with Patch 6.2: Fury of Hellfire. Keep an eye out for the weekend-only quest “A Burning Path Through Time”, which rewards a Seal of Inevitable Fate when you complete five Burning Crusade Timewalking dungeons.