by Messiah @ tentonhammer

Since the implementation of escalating badges in Heroic instances many players have found that running a huge number of heroics is a great way to get near end game raid quality gear.  This running of chain heroics grants huge quantities of badges that can be used to buy gear only one level removed from the current end game raid drops. For some players this is the best gear they will ever get since they don’t raid, for others it is a great way to gear up an alt so that they can get in on raids, and for others it is just for profit by selling off the gems they can purchase.

No matter your reason for running the instances there are several ways to make the most out of them. The most important thing when running chain heroics for badges is to make use of the random heroic tool.  Even if you have a preformed group you can still queue for a random heroic and therefore get two frost badges for the first heroic you run that day or two bonus triumph badges if it is the second or later heroic that you run that day.  This really adds up since most heroics grant you 3 or 4 triumph badges, so this gives you a little better than 50% extra badges over time.

Before you actually run any heroics though you should make sure you are geared for it.  Rather than provide gearscore recommendations since what is effective varies so much between classes here is a list of the basic stats you need based on class type.
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by Mem @ tentonhammer

Getting Started

Loremaster, is a meta-achievement that requires the player to complete a large amount of quests in every continent in the game. This achievement is probably one of, if not the most challenging achievements in the World of Warcraft. Those who attempt this achievement will find varying degrees of difficulty from player to player and will more likely than not want to quit due to frustration from time to time.

Once completed the player will receive the [Loremaster’s Colors] (a tabard) which will arrive in the mail attached to a letter from one of the leaders of your faction. Alliance will receive a letter from Tyrande Whisperwind entitled “Greetings From Darnassus“, while Horde players will receive a letter from Cairne Bloodhoof entitled “Greetings From Thunder Bluff”. Players will also gain the title Loremaster which will be displayed in this format:

Loremaster <name>

In Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms players will be asked to complete a total number of quests across both continents with no regards to the zone. Outland and Northrend are slightly easier as the player will be required to complete a set number of quests in each zone on the continent. The number of quests needed for Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, Outland, and Northrend vary from Horde to Alliance. Currently the numbers look like this:

Horde
Kalimdor – 685 Total

Eastern Kingdoms – 550 Total

Outland – 595 Total
Hellfire Peninsula – 90
Zangarmarsh – 54
Terokkar Forest – 68
Nagrand – 87
Blade’s Edge Mountains – 86
Netherstorm – 120

Northrend – 875 Total
Borean Tundra – 150
Howling Fjord – 105
Dragonblight – 130
Zul’Drak – 100
Grizzly Hills – 75
Sholazar Basin – 75
Storm Peaks – 100
Icecrown – 140

Grand Total – 2,705

Alliance
Kalimdor – 700 Total

Eastern Kingdoms – 700 Total

Outland – 568 Total
Hellfire Peninsula – 80
Zangarmarsh – 54
Terokkar Forest – 63
Nagrand – 75
Blade’s Edge Mountains – 86
Netherstorm – 120

Northrend – 875 Total
Borean Tundra – 130
Howling Fjord – 130
Dragonblight – 115
Zul’Drak – 100
Grizzly Hills – 85
Sholazar Basin – 75
Storm Peaks – 100
Icecrown – 140

Grand Total – 2,843

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by Messiah @ tentonhammer

The Dungeon Finder launched in patch 3.3 and has become an instant success.  It allows players from several servers to all queue together for instances making wait times for groups significantly shorter for many players.  It also allows players to earn additional badges that can be spent on items and a cool little Pug Puppy for those that collect pets.  It has some ups and downs though and requires a little bit of knowledge to get the most out of it.

What should you know and how can you get the best experience when using the Dungeon Finder is what this guide looks at.

Expect a wait, unless you’re a Tank

The first thing to know when you sign up for a group with the dungeon finder is to expect a wait.  How long the wait is really depends on a couple of things.  For example if you are looking for a random heroic I have experienced the following on my realm:

• Tank – Instant
• Healer – 1-2 minutes
• DPS – 10+ minutes

If you are looking for a lower level random or a specific instance at any level, expect longer waits.  I have seen waits up to 25 minutes for non-80 instances, but have also seen instant groups even when joining as DPS in a sub-80 group.  So while anything can happen, be prepared for a wait and have something to do in the mean time, be it crafting, farming, etc.  Expect longer waits on DPS and almost no wait when tanking.

Be Prepared and be Respectful

When you go into an instance, be prepared for your role and the instance itself.

If you sign up as a healer, make sure you have your healing gear with you and that you have mana potions and water.  If you are a class that requires reagents for buffs, make sure you have some.  No mater your class make sure you have some food / water with you so that you can replenish your own health and mana in between fights.  Know that not everyone is going to be prepared, so it may be worth while carrying an extra stack of each, even if you do not use water, to hand out as needed.  When you do though, explain to players that they now owe someone in a future group and should pass on the food / water and a reminder to bring their own in the future.

As for the instances themselves, make sure you have a basic understanding of the instance, or if you don’t be sure to ask what you need to know before you start.  Most importunately make sure you have time for an instance.  Do not sign up for a run if you only have 10 minutes, you are not going to get anything done. When you leave you will make it harder on the other players to finish.

Remember when you enter a group in any game you are committing not only your time but other players’ time as well.  Do your best to make sure you are ready and prepared to go and survive.  If you are not sure you can stick around for a whole instance, don’t join.  If you are not sure you are geared for an instance, ask around before joining.  If you get into a hard heroic or instance that you know you are not ready for, leave the group and allow someone else to join in.
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[via OutDPS]

This encounter is the glock-block encounter designed to test your guilds’ hunters’ kiting skills, as well as your healers and tanks and everything else. Doing this fight feels like rolling a boulder up a ski jump- that last 3% takes more work than the first 20%. Haven’t kited in a while? Read on for the complete hunter’s guide to the Deathbringer Saurfang encounter!

The Encounter

This fight has a soft enrage timer. Saurfang gains blood power as the fight goes on, and will eventually become unhealable. You’ll notice that he has an energy bar that stacks at the same rate as his blood power buff- when this bar hits 100, he casts a mark of the fallen champion on someone. This is kind of like the opposite of a holy paladin’s beacon; causing his melee attacks to hit the market target as well as the tank. If the marked person dies, they return 5% health to the boss.

Blood power is generated a variety of ways- the ones we need to deal with are through his blood nova and his summoning blood beasts. Blood nova has a 12 yard radius, and will generate blood power for every person in that radius. Blood beasts will generate points for Saurfang every time they hit someone. They can not be AOE’d effectively, and can get a buff called scent of blood when they spawn that slows people around them and makes them basically immune to shadow damage.

The Plan

This fight is about one thing: doing as much DPS on the boss as possible while causing as few stacks of blood power as possible. There are a variety of ways he gets these buffs that we can’t control, however we can control the ones generated by blood beasts and the blood nova.

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The following is a guide on holy paladins (holadins, healadins). I’ve noticed a couple guides out there that I felt lacked a little more info and instead of posting a reply why not make a guide and possibly get some rep for this noob account of mine lol. I know people like to flame but please keep the criticism constructive, I am always open to new ideas/specs/rotations etc.

1.0- A Holadins job in any raid or instance.
1.1- Stats and Gear.
1.2- Gems and Enchants.
1.3- Glyphs and Specs.
1.4- Helpful Addons.
1.5- Rotation, Tips, and Tricks.

1.0 A Holadins Job

First we should start off with a quick overview of your strengths and weaknesses as a Paladin. You are an over healing machine, and that is an understatement, as a paladin unless you are very skilled and experienced with fight encounters you can expect yourself to be on the top over heals for every fight. (Over heals are heals that do not benefit anyone, if someone youre healing is topped off at max hp that heal cast on them will be considered an over heal. On the addon Recount there are two tabs to show the difference between Healing Done and Overhealing Done.) The reason for so many over heals is that we have almost no hots or damage mitigation besides a SS(Sacred Shield) or JoL(Judgement of Light). On top of this our heas are off the charts I am the 5th geared holadin on my server running progression and I crit 7ks with my FoL’s(Flashes of Light) and 8-9k with my HK’s (Holy Shock). If you have other competant healers with you it is probable you will only need part of that 16k burst heal to top off your tank, meaning the rest is gonna go to over heals.

Second thing to look at as a Holy Paladin is the amount of mana we have, its outrageous. I have a 34k+ mana pool when in raids with full buffs. This means that we can get away with spam healing even if the target is topped off, if you do not know when the tank is going to start taking damage and you already have SS on him feel free to spam FoL’s for the small “downtime” so to speak.

You are a tank healer not a raid healer. Prioritize as follows- 1)yourself, 2)Tank, 3)other healers, 4)Dps. It is a Resto Shammy or Druids job to keep up the raid and such, also remember that just as dps you CANNOT I repeat CANNOT heal/dps when you are dead thus do not sit in the fire/green stuff/nova/whatever it may be, if one tank is lost in a raid do not freak out your OT(off tank) can pick things up with the right heals, but with no heals you are set for failure.

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Hallow’s End is here and there is money to be made. In the last 5 hours I have made over 1500 gold. It’s not a huge amount for some people but it has required nothing but a basic wow account.

Note having multiple WoW accounts does make this easier and faster but it is not required.

Stage 1.

Find a mage friend. Again this is not required but makes it a lot faster. Position the mage at a starting zone (we chose the human zone).

Stage 2.

Keep creating new characters, get the mage to invite them and portal them to the city (we chose stormwind). Then run them to the inn in the Trade District.

You could also do this the other way around with a warlock at the inn.

We used a level 80 with a 3 person mount who transported 2 characters at a time from the mage area in stormwind to the inn.

It doesn’t matter how you do it, just get them there.

Stage 3.

Do your trick and treat every hour with every character you got to the inn. You will get wands and you will find a large amount of people wanting to buy charges for anything from 10 – 30 gold a time. Some wands seem rarer but this may just be random luck.

Stage 4

Profit

In total we used 5 accounts and created 38 characters, we put them all in one raid and used a level 80 to do the selling, invited the interested person into the raid – logged the characters which had the wands they wanted and repeated.

I kept a list of which wands each character had (and which account they were on).

How long will it last

It is impossible to say whether this is a first day thing or whether this demand will keep up (and grow towards the end of the holiday) but right now we are having people contact us saying “I heard you have all the wands can I buy the set for 200 gold” etc and we have a waiting list for the next few hours.

In general I think this concept is fairly straight forward so there is no need for me to go into more detail but I hope it helps someone make a bit of cash

the rare ones on my server are Pirate (hardest to find) and then bat.

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Hallow’s End 2009

[Trick or Treat!]
Receive a [handful of candy] from one of the candy buckets located in an inn.

[Out With It]

Eat so many tricky treats that you get an upset tummy.

[Bring Me The Head of... Oh Wait]

Kill the Headless Horseman (in SM Graveyard).

[The Savior of Hallow's End]

Complete one of the quests to save a village from the Headless Horseman.

[1 Daily] “Let the Fires Come!”
[1 Daily] Stop the Fires!
[1 Daily] “Let the Fires Come!”
[1 Daily] Stop the Fires!

[The Mask Task]

Obtain a Flimsy Mask during Hallow’s End.

Female Masks
[Flimsy Female Blood Elf Mask]
[Flimsy Female Draenei Mask]
[Flimsy Female Dwarf Mask]
[Flimsy Female Gnome Mask]
[Flimsy Female Human Mask]

Female Masks
[Flimsy Female Nightelf Mask]
[Flimsy Female Orc Mask]
[Flimsy Female Tauren Mask]
[Flimsy Female Troll Mask]
[Flimsy Female Undead Mask]

Male Masks
[Flimsy Male Blood Elf Mask]
[Flimsy Male Draenei Mask]
[Flimsy Male Dwarf Mask]
[Flimsy Male Gnome Mask]
[Flimsy Male Human Mask]

Male Masks
[Flimsy Male Nightelf Mask]
[Flimsy Male Orc Mask]
[Flimsy Male Tauren Mask]
[Flimsy Male Troll Mask]
[Flimsy Male Undead Mask]



[A Mask for All Occasions]

Collect the 20 unique Flimsy Masks.

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by Matticus

Val’kyr Twins is one of the more interesting fights in the Coliseum especially for healers. The encounter consists of two Val’kyr who share a relatively large health pool (28 million+). This encounter requires relatively decent buff management along with snap DPS switching in order to get through it.

Setting up

Divide your raid equally in two groups. Split the tanks, DPS, and healers down the line. One group will be on the left, and the other group will be on the right. For the sake of healers, use groups 1 and 2 on the right, groups 3 and 4 on the left. Doesn’t matter which groups. Just have it set in such a way that group positions match group numbers.

How the essences are positioned

Right clicking on the color provides the appropriate essence buff. Your DPS will wish to pick up the buff that is opposite the twin they are engaging. Healers may wish to collect the same colored buff as the twin their DPS is attacking.

Example: The half of the raid that is attacking Fjola Lighbane will be picking up a dark buff. The healers on that side will wish to pick up the light buff.

Main abilities

Vortex

Each twin has a vortex that will do ~6000 damage per second every 5 seconds. It’s an 8 second cast. The best way to mitigate it is to gain the same colored buff that matches the twin who is casting the vortex.

Example: Eydis Darkbane is about to case Vortex. The players who are attacking Darkbane should immediately pick up the dark buff to mitigate incoming damage until her channel is finished.

When I did this encounter as DPS, I would stand next to the buff that was opposite the one that I currently had. This way, I could switch easily and DPS the opposite twin.

Twin’s Pact

One twin will cast a shield on themselves. It absorbs ~700000 damage. While their shield is up, they will cast Twin’s Pact. It takes 15 seconds for them to cast that and when it goes off, 20% of their health is restored. The idea  here is to have the entire raid switch to the twin who is casting Twin’s Pact and break their shield. A Rogue or a Shaman can then interrupt Twin’s Pact.

Example: Fjola Lightbane just cast Shield of Light and is channeling Twin’s Pact. The DPS attacking Edyis Darkbane will run behind her, pick up the darkness buff, and start opening up on Fjola. MacktheKnife, a Rogue, manages to kick and interrupt Lightbane from healing.

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Differences from level 60

Onyxia no longer drops threat and is no longer immune to fire effects and abilities. Deep Breath’s cast time has been increased. Onyxian Lair Guards now spawn in phase 2. Melee can no longer hit Onyxia in Phase 2.

Onyxia’s 10-man abilities

Onyxia has approximately 4,800,000 HP.

Phase One

Onyxia melees for about 12-15,000 on plate. Onyxia is tauntable.

• Flame Breath — Two second cast, 45 yard frontal cone. About 20,000 damage unresisted.
• Cleave — 100% Weapon damage cleave in her frontal arc. Cast often.
• Wing Buffet — ~15,000 physical damage in a 20 yard frontal cone. Ignores armour.
• Tail Sweep — ~5,000 physical damage to targets near her tail. Ignores armour. Large knockback, often into the whelp caves.

Phase Two

Deep Breath IS random!

Onyxia takes off at 65% and has no threat table.

• Fireball — Two second cast, random target in the raid. 10 yard AoE. About 5,000 damage unresisted.
• Breath — Onyxia emotes “Onyxia takes in a deep breath…” and about six seconds later all targets in a direct line in front of her will take repeated 4-5,000 Fire damage hits. The number of times hit depends on how close to the middle of the line the target is. Being in the middle of the breath is generally fatal.
• Spawn Onyxian Whelps – At the beginning of phase two and about every 90 seconds after Onyxia will spawn 40 Onyxian whelps with 60,000 HP who melee for 500 or so on plate. 20 will come from each side of the whelp cave.
• Spawn Onyxian Lair Guard – Every 30 seconds or so in phase 2 Onyxia will spawn an Onyxian Lair Guard with 190,000 HP. This will cast Ignite Weapon which adds 25,000 fire damage to its melee attacks and gives them a 5 yard AoE, and Blast Nova which does 25,000 fire damage to targets within 10 yards.

Phase Three

Onyxia lands at 40% HP. She retains all her phase one abilities and gains some additional abilities.

• Bellowing Roar — 1.5 second cast, 100 yard AoE fear. Three second duration.
• Eruption — During the duration of bellowing roar lava will erupt from the cracks in the floor. Being touched deals about 5,000 Fire damage.
• Spawn Onyxian Whelps – Small numbers of Whelps will continue to spawn in phase 3.

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