Marrowgar, the Heavy Artillery Version

 This is a copy of the guide my husband (Prot Pally) stuck up on the Guild Website. It does not take account of the latest 'Marrowgar is no longer taunt-immune' hotfix, and in the main is a copy of the tactic available on WoWWiki. However this is not why it's here. The Graphics are. In my husband's world, he is a nine year old in a tank and I am a machine-gun wielding Gopher. Go figure... :D
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Here's a thing about Lord Marrowgar:
source

•Lord Marrowgar will now do significantly less melee damage in both the 10 player normal and 10 player heroic difficulty.

Woohoo.

So, anyway, tactics....

Lord Marrowgar is a two-phase repeating fight.

Phase One is the Bone Graveyard phase where the tanks stand on one side of Marrowgar and the DPS and healers stand on the other.
Phase Two is the Bone Storm phase and consists of the duration of Marrowgar's Bone Storm.

The transition from Phase Two back to Phase One is what will kill most raids. uh huh

Three healers are useful to handle tank healing when a healer gets hit with a spike.

Phase One

In the Bone Graveyard phase the raid wants to stay close to each other with the melee in the middle, the ranged on the sides, and the healers in-between the melee and the ranged. The healers need to be in range of the tanks, but farther from the boss than the melee. This setup specifically allows the melee to swap to any Bone Spikes that hit raid members near them allowing the spikes to be nuked inside 2 gcds. By doing this you minimise the damage taken by the spike target, maximise the raid's time on the boss, and minimise any interruption to the melees' rotations by target switching.

Here's P1 diagrammatically:

Regardless of how you handle the spikes, the raid needs to spread out as soon as the third spike is killed because the boss is about to transition to phase two.

Phase Two

In the Bone Storm phase of 10-normal, the raid wants to avoid the Cold Fire at all costs. The damage from the Bone Storm is negligible if you have competent raid healing and avoid standing directly under the boss when possible. The damage from Bone Storm is AoE, so abilities like a rogue's Feint will work to full effect.

In short, don't stand in fire.

Here's P2 diagrammatically. Maybe a bit spread out, but it's not that big a room. Try not to overstretch the healers. Don't stand in blue stuffs.

The transition from Phase Two back to Phase One is the difficult part, as he does a complete aggro wipe. To transition safely (for those of us who aren't farming heroic ToC) the raid, except for the tanks, need to stop DPS on the boss when he hits his fourth target's location. Once the fourth stationary spin is complete he'll wipe aggro and the tanks can pick him up.

Tanks will stand between the boss the the outside wall, wherever is convenient. Mark the tanks, watch where they're going, and re-form the T-shape of melee/healers/ranged behind the boss.

Here's the Second P1 diagrammatically:

Phase Two and Misdirects

The transition and Misdirect love each other. They really do. Tricks of the Trade on the other hand will get a rogue killed because before the boss aggroes your Tricks target, he'll one-shot you with a 30k Saber Lash.

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I'll let you know if it all works out later... :D

Yesterday...

We had our asses royally handed to us in Icecrown. No I'm not going to talk about it. Top men are on the case.

So, this LFG Thing.

It works, if you go in with the right attitude. If you go in randomly not expecting a great time, grasping the possibility that your fellow players may be complete idiots, and that certain people have a total inability to understand loot rules, you will be fine. If you go in without Guildies and use it simply as an exercise in Emblem farming, you will get what you want quickly. If you luck out Cross Server, you'll probably come out with Achievements too. However the system is only as good as the people who use it. Yes there will ne ninjas. Yes there will be ego-driven idiots. Yes, if you're a decent player, you will not avoid it. So if you want the gear, suck it up.

Weigh up the the pros and cons. Work out just how quickly it is taking to replace a large proportion of your gear. Decide whether the hassle is worth the result. If it is, just turn off your sensibilities and get to it. Maybe you'll get lucky and all the groups will be imba. Maybe they won't be. Either way, it's not the system's fault. It's the people using it, don't forget that.

In the end, it's just another way to get gear.

By far the most sensible way to use the Random Dungeon feature is to have five Guildies in your group and simply roll the dice. You still get the extra Two Triumph Emblems, but you do it with a bunch of people you chose to play with when you joined. If they screw up, you should have a Guild to dispense justice and action if needed. The best way to run Heroics is with your Guild.

Really, NOTHING HAS CHANGED.

Oh, and note to all those people desperate to get all the new 5 Mans on Farm: This just in, Icecrown will be around A LONG TIME. You may wish to pace yourselves...

The Last Days of Disco

... which would of course be a GREAT header if the patch heralded the end of Priest Shield Generators... but sadly not.

The last major content patch before Cataclysm hits tomorrow. The days preceding any patch are, as I believe I have observed before, often a bit mad. Last night in Trade I watched six different people all spam Crusader Craftable Patterns for sale, one after the other, in a surreal microcosm of what is now likely to play out across most servers AH's. Runed Orbs will get cheaper, Crusader Orbs will become affordable and everyone who wasn't already heading to Icecrown is on their way. I spent a happy two and a quarter hours there last night.

The Mage made it to 80 with a day to spare. She's the poorest geared of any of my clan hitting this point thus far, but she can scrape together a healthy 1200 dps unbuffed at the dummies, so with some potions from W and a bit of tender loving care I'm sure that won't be a permanent situation. After all, as of tomorrow I can get a full set of T9 for her if I run instances enough. Muahahahahaha! This is not the first time I've foregone traditional questing and simply ground my way to level cap, I remember a couple of my clan getting to 70 that way via the Ethereals at Bashir's Landing in TBC. The benefit of doing it this way are many fold: shed loads of cloth (my first job this morning will be making Frostweave Bags to upgrade my storage) a healthy number of greens to DE (see above for Imbued Frostweave), stacks of grey trash to sell and the cash, which means last night I netted close to 200g for the entire exercise. There is a certain satisfaction to be had grinding with a Pally: my husband can manage up to four of the six-packs of Converted Heroes in the Valley of Lost Souls, plus their Scourge Banner-Bearers. He rounds up 30 mobs, Consecrates, and I Blizzard the life out of them. Job done!

Today, I suspect, I will be mostly mining, gathering herbs for potions and restocking everyone's bags ready for the orgy of PuG-ging that is likely to break out once tomorrow finally stabilises. I am DETERMINED to get a Perky Pug on as many of my alts as possible, and yes I will be documenting the usefulness or not of this new system at length.

In Downtime Tomorrow: a Guide to Surviving PuG Madness!

All This and World War Three :: Spoilers for 3.3

I will admit this now. There was squeeing here. Actual Fangirl squees of joy as I made my way through this questline. The spoilers are ENORMOUS. You have, as always, been warned.

So I bought this from the Glyph Sellers in Dalaran, placed in game so the premade L80's can glyph once they are copied. We still don't know where it drops, and I assume because of the importance of this quest Blizzard aren't going to make that kill or location anything difficult to do. All of the steps in this are soloable until you hit the new 5 man content.

Once you have the hilt you need to pop down to the new guys at Quel'delar's Rest:

When you get there you'll notice the weather has gotten a LOT colder at the Tournament: a blizzard rages and thunder frequently rends the sky. It's a nice touch and gives a real sense that the winter is setting in and it's not just the bad guys you're fighting against. Caladis Brightspear suggests you may wish to talk to the Bronze Dragonflight about what the hilt's significance could be: after all, the Bronze Flight have been here a LONG time. On your arrival at Wyrmrest it becomes apparent that an ancient tome exists on what we discover are named the Prismatic Swords, of which your hilt is a part. Even more concerning is the fact that someone else has taken the book before you, a member of the Sunreavers. As you're pondering your next move, a totally unexpected guest arrives to question the Bronze's involvement in this entire affair:

Yes that's Kalecgos! You may remember him from such instances as Magister's Terrace and the Sunwell, where he tried to thwart Kil'jaeden's plans but was ultimately posessed by by the dreadlord Sathrovarr the Corruptor. Clearly he has some concerns about our suitability... well, considering I've only ever redeemed his ass once, post BC expansion, he may have a point :P

Anyway, we need to get the book back, so it's time fo a bit of running around in Dalaran, at the bidding of the New NPC in the Silver Covenant area:

Always something to do, always a ? to click...

You'll have a few tasks to do before the book is in safe hands again: you'll need to kill a courier in the Underbelly (be careful, watch for reprisal attacks, which is a nice touch by Blizzard) and then you'll need to find a disguse to enter the Sunreaver's area. Fortunately there's a Laundry service in Dalaran at the Threads of Fate (let's hope Mrs Meers is nothing to do with it) which will happily let you 'borrow' you a tabard to use, but only if you help with the laundry first!

If you are familiar with the Kungaloosh quest line, this is almost identical to the Still At It quest, substituting clothing for fruit. Don't worry if you're queuing for this either: once it's done the Laundry Bag is clickable by all! Once armed with your Tabard, and looking rather natty as a Blood Elf, you're off to the Sunreavers' area. I think they got the better deal in terms of pub decor...

The Horde also get dancing girls... why were we not informed of this???? Trying not to be distracted, we have our book, and so it's off back to the Tournament grounds, where it becomes apparent this sword is of some significance. It was forged at the same time as Quel'serrar, no less... and it's most recent owner is not best pleased we're trying to reforge it:

Say hello to Queen Lana'thel, who you'll be seeing again in Icecrown Citadel. She leads the San'layn, whom include Prince Keleseth in UK and Prince Valanar who you defeated back in the Tundra during the Last Rites quest. It transpires Lana'thel took the sword from Thalorien's dead hands and headed to Northrend in an attempt to avenge her compatriots' demise at the Sunwell, and was transformed by Arthas. The sword was broken... until now.

Here ends the first portion of solo questing! Coming up later, we go to the Pit of Saron and encounter new ?'s, buggy mobs and the continuation of this Epic Questline. Stay Tuned!

Who is Martin Victus? SPOILERS for 3.3 PTR

Yes, there be spoilers. BIG HONKING HUGE ONES. Continue at your peril.

No really, there are, stop reading NOW!

Why are you still here??? I'm gonna spoil you!!!!!



Right, now they're gone, let's take a look at the two new wings of the 5 Man Icecrown Citadel Instance: The Pit of Saron (so more of Martin later, coz we'll meet him there) but firstly, the Forge of Souls, which is where we start our journey... and where we meet the New, Improved Jaina Proudmoore.

As you can see she's had some extensive plastic surgery, been down to the Mall for some decent armour (where's the belly button piercing though?), and has the look of a woman who really wanted just to study but ended up having to drag hapless explorers around Icecrown on potential Suicide Missions. We meet her with the customary yellow ? in the Forge of Souls where she gives us the first of a sequence of quests, making this entire dungeon feel very similar to the Magister's Terrace experience. What has changed most noticably is what you'll recieve as a reward:

Still a lot to do here as you can see as that's the Old Jaina Image on the quest completion tab. In a very welcome development, quest rewards now give you a visual indicator of how much reputation you will be awarded for completing them. This is no doubt to work in tandem with the questing improvements we've discussed previously on the Map screen.

The hastily formed five man group of hapless explorers who I pulled together at nine am this morning completed the instance with no deaths on Normal difficulty and in less than 30 minutes. We experienced a variety of trash and two bosses: Bronjahm and the Devourer of Souls, which shares the same model as the Reliquary of Souls from Black Temple (which now explains some of the QQ-ing I've read about Blizzard recycling boss content.) However it's just a visual resemblance; both fights are non static, involve brains in place and could quite easily catch out the less experienced dungeoneer. I won't spoil details but the second fight especially is not easy, even on Normal, and both should provide a decent challenge in Heroic Mode. Once you've cleared these two... well, that's it. Instance is complete, you've done your quest and if everything was fully functional there'd be a portal to take you and Jaina directly to the Pit of Saron. For us, we have to run back to the start. It's not easy being a trailblazer you know...

 Bronjahm meets his end in the Forge of Souls

You enter the Pit of Saron straight into a fight, which doesn't end at all well if I'm honest. So then it's up to you to round up a new set of soldiers for the new challenge ahead, and to destroy Scourgelord Tyrannus, who sits atop a Frostwyrm who is strangely familiar... but more of that later. For now we have a new quest from Jaina: destoy the end boss and free 20 slaves along the way. The Pit is big with a large variety of trash, both static and otherwise, and some real care will be needed in Heroic not to come a cropper as you clear to the first boss: Forgemaster Garfrost. Once you have him down (watch the rocks, they're big and they hurt ^^) you'll find you've freed a large number of captive slaves as well... amongst whom is the mysterious Martin Victus. He quickly organises the fighters into a coherent group and readies them for the fight... but there's one more boss to remove first, the Leper Gnome Krick and his abomination sidekick Ick (did I really just type that?)

Mark 2 Jaina gives the orders in the Pit of Saron

And here is where we get a HUGE indication as to our goal in this 5 man: Krick reveals that Frostmourne, Arthas' sword, apparently resides unguarded in our ultimate destination: the Halls of Reflection. This is big news for anyone who knows just how important Frostmourne is to controlling Arthas himself, if you did your quests in Dragonblight and paid attention. This also ties in very well with the Quel'delar questline which we know will be running in Icecrown at the same time: perhaps Jaina will use this sword in battle against Frostmourne itself. What could be more likely however is that the 5 man dungeon will alter Frostmourne as a weapon, in a way similar to the way the Ashbringer was uncorrupted by Fordring. It's all speculation at the moment though because the last dungeon is not yet available.

Once we have the bosses in the lower quarry dead it's a rolling gauntlet up to the top tier and the last boss. If you hate the ice from the sky that is a part of the Hodir fight in Ulduar you won't like this run either: there's a cave to negotiate with the White Circles of Terror appearing with scary regularity. Once we're up, Martin appars with a load of freed slaves and keeps the Scourge at bay while we fight and dispatch Tyrannus. Now here things are a little unclear, and I'd need to run the dungeon again to check, but I'm 90% certain when we killed the Scourgelord we also freed his frostwyrm mount.... who just happens to by Syndragosa...

The Mysterious Martin Victus, with Sindragosa behind him

So currently I have more questions than answers concerning the Lore ramifications of what I've seen, but I'm left with a profound sense of building up to something REALLY special in the third wing of this dungeon. The design of these two wings so far is spot on in my opinion: linear progression, challenging fights and (I hope) rewards that justify the effort. There's also a tangible sense of major events just beyond our reach, which I like a great deal. Of course we had no loot and I think many of these fights may well get harder, but if this is what we have to look forward to on the 5 man front I do get the feeling that Icecrown itself is going to be VERY special indeed.

More PTR news as we get it :D