A second look at Shannox

OK, so most people have downed Shanny already. Good for you, awesome job! For those of you who haven't, and you know who you are, I offer some simple tips.

Most everyone knows the "pro" raid strat of checking the dungeon journal, and then watching the tanks spot video on the boss, and repeating EVERY SINGLE THING that they say/do in the video. Tankspot is a great resource, but there guides tend to focus on 25-man raids, and we all know 10 mans can be different.

YOU CRY LIKE LITTLE BABY!

What we've all been told about shanny is to take down his doggys simultaneously, that way you don't get stuck with shanny zerking on your tank. But you see, rage face is a bastard, and if your dps and heals aren't on top of him, some one will die. We were having this issue, with rage face just devouring us in the chaos of traps and spears. So we tried a different approach, Burn his ass. by burning rageface you control the damage he would be spreading around your group by having your shannox tank take 30% more damage. Yea, that sounds like a lot, but is easy without Rageface running around.

After RF goes down, get shannox settled around 35% health before killing riplimb, so his uber zerk only last a few seconds while your dps switch targets. We have had great repeated success with this strategy, and i'm confident it can work in your ten man raid group.

PvP season 10 ohh-yea

They gave us fucking horns!

We knew it was coming, and for a few weeks now the battle has raged across all of Azeroth. Now i'll admit that this is the first season i am taking seriously. Most pvp i did was av and such, but for the last few weeks things have changed.

Being a resto druid in 2v2 arenas can be intense, but very rewarding. First off, forget everything you know about raid healing. Your still using the same heals, but in very different ways. The pvp gear leaves your usual stats very low, the idea being to gain Resilience instead. The debate can rage forever, but i like to have 3k at a minimum to have a chance in arenas. Do know you'll be getting focused on ALL THE TIME if your opponents have a clue as to what they are doing, and the resil saves your furry ass more than anything else. Oh yea, your spec, going to have to change it, and pick up ability's you have sworn off. Pick your spec for what you think you'll use, but know the first time you miss a cyclone and get murdered because of it, your going to want to respec.

I've learned alot quick, and the info can be very overwhelming, so i'll just leave some quick pointers everyone should know.

This Spec Will make any raid healer cry, and rightfully so

• Swiftmend/cyclone can stop more damage then sw/healing touch will give, use it or fail.
• Never forget nature's grasp, it can piss many a melee dps off, and is one of our few ccs
• using entangling roots and then line-of-sight'ing casters is very effective.
• use Skull bash when a healing is hardcasting. this stops the cast and any heals for 4 seconds.
• "Wait, i need to use feral abilities"  Yessir, open with pounce, keep bash and skull bash handy if you want to truly dominate. using all of your utility's is the only way to prevail.
• Cyclone can be cast 3 times on one target before they become immune, use it to shut down/interrupt healers, kinda all we got.
• Immunity only lasts a minute or so, so keep using cyclone all through the fight
• Don't get your four-piece bonus, get the 2 piece bonus from the boomkin gear for free resilience.
• ^That

Big sexy heals

More to come as i learn more, the last 2 weeks have been crazy busy raiding and working and having a social life. I'll get back on updates for everyone.

Firelands Druid Raid BIS

Hope everyone is getting some quality time out in the firelands. New gear is awesome, but i must say i'm a little disappointed with what i've experianced so far. The open arena feel is kinda meh, and there aren't any signifigant new fight mechanics i've come across, but i didn't get to steer fatty around yet.

 Any who, i present to you a list of BiS for us resto druids in firelands. this is gear from new bosses, new LW designs, or Valor gear. Do know this is a general bis, depending on what pieces your able to acquire you might sub different items to make haste break points. 1602 should be your minimum if you don't have anyone to give you haste buff, assuming your in a ten man like me this is a reality. if your blessed with the 5% haste buff from someone AND Dark intent from a warlock,you only need 1573 or so. 2005 is what you would like to be at in a ideal world, but until you get fully decked out in good gear it might be rough to hit this point.

Most of these are haste/spirit heavy to reflect my situation, every ones is different, restat accordingly. Don't be afraid to reforge spirit away if your comfortable with how much you have already.

It'll take a few weeks to be able to afford all the good Valor gear, just get gear to sub until then.




Head-Cowl of the Clicking Menace- dropped off Beth'tilac, haste, spirit, and a +30 int socket bonus makes this a great sub before you can nab a token off rag.

Shoulders- Flickering Shoulderpads- Drops of Shannox, hopefully you nab "of the undertow"  which carry spirit and haste. other then that your going with less then ideal stats, but still your only option before tier.

Cape- Flowing Flamewrath Cape- This is easily obtained by reaching friendly with avengers of hyjal, at 250 gold it's worth grabbing,

Neck-Firemend pendant, Heartstone of Rhyolith Both of these are near identical, firemend will be easier to obtain as you can get it from the valor vendor.

Trinket- Jaws of Defeat*-Majordomo Staghelm, Eye of Blazing Power-AlysrazorFiery Quintessence-Valor Heroic Shard of Woe*-Sinestra
Ok lot of Trinkets to choose from these days. You want int. Period. SoW is still epic for it's mana reduction, snag it if you can.

Ring- Soothing Brimstone Circle-Valor Crystal Prison Band-Shannox Both these rings are good, don't be afraid to pick up stats your slacking with your rings.

Wrist- Glowing Wing Bracers-Baleroc Spirit/Haste kinda only have one choice, least it doesn't have crit?

Moo

Gloves -Cindersilk Gloves-Beth'tila Heavenly gloves of the moon-LW Tier Gloves-valor. From a Stat perspective, the boe's offer haste/spirit and a red slot, and would give you more int. But The Tier gloves provide you with some nice bonuses.

Feet- Ethereal Footfalls-LW Phoenix-Down Treads-Alysrazor depending on what your haste, the choice should be easy for you. if your luck is thin though, farming the AH is better then betting on the rng. Personally, i wouldn't pass up the phoenix-down treads just cause of the name.

Chest- Incendic Chestguard-Rhyolith Obsidian Arborweave Robes*-Valor Both of these offer damn near identical stats, and the tier piece should be a easy choice

Belt-Firescar Sash- only 378 for us so far, solid upgrade just less then ideal stats.

Legs- Tier pantys Clearly the best, if you happen upon the fire kitty ones before you have enough valor take em, but expect to buy the tier when you can.

Main Hand-

Kogun, Hammer of the Firelord*-Rag
Chelley's Sterilized Scapel-BoE
So drool over Kogun until your guild can take down rag. Until then Chelley's offers crit and mastery, so less then ideal but still a good upgrade. Running a Main hand/Off Hand will net you more int and stats overall then a staff. It is fairly harder to find a weapon for each hand, but it has it's rewards


2Hand- Smoldering Censer of Purity-Shannox So yea, staffs, a huge upgrade from any 359 setup, but not as good as a 378 mh/oh set up. Take it if you can get it

Offhand-Goblet of Anger-Shannox only choice thats 378 at the moment, hope you got shannox on farm.




I've recently started working again, so it'll be harder to find time to update, raid and work. I plan on doing a pre raid best in slot list highlighting gear you can get from the new dailys, but it might take a few