First Heroics Foray
Thanks to everyone who suggested the Ghost Iron Dragonling. I had one of our engineers make me one.
The plan was to spend the evening banging away on normal modes and Klaxxi rep, but between the trinket and some quest reward 437 boots, I noticed I was just 2 points shy of what I needed to start running heroics. We had a group forming in guild chat with 3 DPS: a Warlock, a Hunter, and a Feral Druid.
My Warlock friend suggested I buy some PvP gear to get over the hump so I could tank for them. I only needed to have the gear in my bags, I didn't even need to equip it. I usually hate ‘gaming’ the system in this way. I feel like I should only go if I legitimately have the gear needed. I don’t want to be selfish and risk everyone else’s time and repair bills just because I want to run Heroics before I’m ready.
All three of my guildmates assured me that Heroics were pretty easy and they were willing to risk it. I bought the chest which put me over the hump. I figured that if I just blew up on the first couple of pulls, I would apologize to the healer and bow out. We also had the Hunter’s turtle and the Warlock’s Voidwalker to take a couple of hits if things got dicey. The Feral could go bear.
We got the Gate of the Setting Sun. I had never been there before, but it was bugs, lots and lots of bugs.
I took a deep breath, powered up my Avenger’s shield and let forth with my battle cry.
IT’S HAMMER TIME!
The first pull went fine. The healer had no problem keeping me alive. We ran all the way up to the first boss. There was more fire on the ground than I’ve seen since we did Firefighter in Ulduar, but I lived.
We continued on through the rest of place. The bosses were fun, but it was a lot of picking up adds. I once again mourned for the loss of my beloved Righteous Defense. Have the devs ever said why they took it away?
Finishing the dungeon was my first disappointment of the night. I’m barely geared for Heroics, scratch that, I’m wasn’t even fully geared for Heroics, yet we blew this dungeon with ease. If we are AoEing and mowing through ‘Heroics’ in blues and greens what are these places going to look like in full epics? How about in the next tier or the one after that. Are ‘Heroics’ really supposed to be ‘press button, get gear’?
It made sense why the guild mates were insistent we should go ahead and run them.
I was the boat anchor, a position I don't enjoy. I was the only one in our group who isn't ready for raiding. It was time to start chain running these things for gear.
The next one we got was Siege of Niuzao Temple. We had a little more trouble this time out.
My favorite fight of the whole night was also the most difficult. The boss is Commander Vo’jack. The DPS throw bombs on the adds that come up the steps. The dialog from Pa’valak is pretty funny. I wasn’t sure if just the Feral Druid needed to move out of whirlwind or if I needed to as well. After tanking the floor, I decided that I should run out, too. The Warlock resurrected me. That still sounds weird. I taunted and died again after a few moments, but we got him down, and I got an achievement called “Where’s my Air Support?”
The last fight was really odd. The boss creates this wind barrier. You have to silence him or interrupt him somehow. Avenger’s Shield works, thank goodness.
It was getting late, but we ended up doing one more. We got Temple of the Jade Serpent. I've run this a couple of times on Normal so I knew the fights, and there wasn't anything too surprising in the Heroic version.
Once we were done, I had my second disappointment of the night. Despite running three heroics, not a single piece of plate dropped. Talk about your dry spell. I did bank some Justice Points and some Valor Points.
I flew out to Townlong and found the Justice vendor. To my surprise he had the chest, which I thought was a reputation reward from the Klaxxi, but instead it was on this vendor for 2200 Justice Points. So despite not getting any drops, I still managed to snag an upgrade.
The plan was to spend the evening banging away on normal modes and Klaxxi rep, but between the trinket and some quest reward 437 boots, I noticed I was just 2 points shy of what I needed to start running heroics. We had a group forming in guild chat with 3 DPS: a Warlock, a Hunter, and a Feral Druid.
My Warlock friend suggested I buy some PvP gear to get over the hump so I could tank for them. I only needed to have the gear in my bags, I didn't even need to equip it. I usually hate ‘gaming’ the system in this way. I feel like I should only go if I legitimately have the gear needed. I don’t want to be selfish and risk everyone else’s time and repair bills just because I want to run Heroics before I’m ready.
All three of my guildmates assured me that Heroics were pretty easy and they were willing to risk it. I bought the chest which put me over the hump. I figured that if I just blew up on the first couple of pulls, I would apologize to the healer and bow out. We also had the Hunter’s turtle and the Warlock’s Voidwalker to take a couple of hits if things got dicey. The Feral could go bear.
We got the Gate of the Setting Sun. I had never been there before, but it was bugs, lots and lots of bugs.
I took a deep breath, powered up my Avenger’s shield and let forth with my battle cry.
IT’S HAMMER TIME!
The first pull went fine. The healer had no problem keeping me alive. We ran all the way up to the first boss. There was more fire on the ground than I’ve seen since we did Firefighter in Ulduar, but I lived.
We continued on through the rest of place. The bosses were fun, but it was a lot of picking up adds. I once again mourned for the loss of my beloved Righteous Defense. Have the devs ever said why they took it away?
Finishing the dungeon was my first disappointment of the night. I’m barely geared for Heroics, scratch that, I’m wasn’t even fully geared for Heroics, yet we blew this dungeon with ease. If we are AoEing and mowing through ‘Heroics’ in blues and greens what are these places going to look like in full epics? How about in the next tier or the one after that. Are ‘Heroics’ really supposed to be ‘press button, get gear’?
It made sense why the guild mates were insistent we should go ahead and run them.
I was the boat anchor, a position I don't enjoy. I was the only one in our group who isn't ready for raiding. It was time to start chain running these things for gear.
The next one we got was Siege of Niuzao Temple. We had a little more trouble this time out.
My favorite fight of the whole night was also the most difficult. The boss is Commander Vo’jack. The DPS throw bombs on the adds that come up the steps. The dialog from Pa’valak is pretty funny. I wasn’t sure if just the Feral Druid needed to move out of whirlwind or if I needed to as well. After tanking the floor, I decided that I should run out, too. The Warlock resurrected me. That still sounds weird. I taunted and died again after a few moments, but we got him down, and I got an achievement called “Where’s my Air Support?”
The last fight was really odd. The boss creates this wind barrier. You have to silence him or interrupt him somehow. Avenger’s Shield works, thank goodness.
It was getting late, but we ended up doing one more. We got Temple of the Jade Serpent. I've run this a couple of times on Normal so I knew the fights, and there wasn't anything too surprising in the Heroic version.
Once we were done, I had my second disappointment of the night. Despite running three heroics, not a single piece of plate dropped. Talk about your dry spell. I did bank some Justice Points and some Valor Points.
I flew out to Townlong and found the Justice vendor. To my surprise he had the chest, which I thought was a reputation reward from the Klaxxi, but instead it was on this vendor for 2200 Justice Points. So despite not getting any drops, I still managed to snag an upgrade.
Comments
Challenge modes, on the other hand...
As my gear level goes up, I feel my survivability gets alot better. I hated Stormstout on heroic, now I don't mind.
Haven't bought a single item off the AH as yet. Yet also not in a hurry to do anything for Heroics as yet. After a month of MoP which took me about 2 weeks to get to 90 after all that time i'm still the only person in my guild thats even at lvl 90. Needless to say there is no hurry at all to care about doing Heroics at the moment or do much for dungeons.
I would suggest getting the BS ilvl 463 shield off the AH. They're usually pretty cheap, and they'll last you in to MSV. That way you can bump your ilvl up a bit more and not really be gaming the LFG.
And I agree that Heroics are very easy, but I think thats because they intend for the challenge modes to be the new "heroics".
Blizzard removed Righteous Defense because they thought with rage being a none issue these days tanks didn't need a multi taunt button. Everything should be manageable with a single taunt on a 8 second cooldown. If you are having taunt issues it normally can be tracked back to DPS doing it wrong (which never happens lol). Personally I hate that they removed it too. Sometimes things don't go as planned and Righteous Defense was a great tool to herd the cats.
Secondly Heroics were made easy so they would be fast and forgiving. Similar to Wrath dungeons at the end of the expansion. Challenge Modes were developed for the players who wanted a difficulty level that was like the heroics of Cataclysm in the beginning of the expansion. That way they could cater to two different player segments with out having to nerf any content like they did in Cataclysm.