5/9 Tuesday....

[telva]

Well last night was supposed to be a relaxing night of nothingness, but that didn't happen. I did at least get caught up with the Sopranos before I got sucked into AQ20. This season is a little A.D.D. because nothing is really flowing, but then again Chase always keeps you on your toes. Only 11 episodes left to finish off this great series.

Anyway, back to what everyone wants to read about, AQ20. It actually went really well considering how much trouble Dark had forming the group. I say that because he started forming at 7pm and when I logged back on at ~8:15 they hadn't killed the first boss yet. I joined up and we got rolling hard. 4 bosses went down before I had to leave, with zero wipes. The most impressive kill of the night was the Moam kill which was the easiest I have experienced to date, and we only had 2 locks, so I had to MT then tank an add (not as hard as I would like to make it sound).

The biggest disappointment of the night was that we were unable to keep Andorov alive. I have never been in a group where he has lived. Is it feasible to use a healer to solely heal him and his lackies? I need him alive for 2 reasons, a) he gives a huge rep bonus and b) he has recipes to sell. Of course the recipe (shield) I need to get I have to get to revered but hey I am working on that. Only 11000 more rep points to go and I only really started farming texts last night. I think I am going to only take the rogue to MC and farm herbs with her in the mornings, and concentrate on rep grinding to revered. Not sure if I am going to go all the way to the exaulted or not, I would love the axe but not sure I want to put in the time.

So my DVD player of 7 years went caput the other day. I started looking for new ones and was willing to spend large (>$300) on a good one. I didn't want to go get some cheapo thing from Best Buy, I wanted quality. Turns out Best Buy sells a quality one (from what I have read) the Sony DVP NS75, and it is only like $130 (which I consider cheap). Anyone out there know alot about such things? I am actually considering buying 2 because they are so well thought of and inexpensive.

[Muin]

I've always found that the healers should ONLY be focused on Andorov. Nobody else. The buff he gives you should be sufficient enough to keep you alive on the General. Maybe some HoT's, but alot of bandaging and pots...just to ensure he stays up. We still have trouble with this encounter...and I don't know why.

[blacksoul]

I know its a rude thing to say, but your healers are only 50% of the work of keeping General Andorov alive. Your offtanks should be following him and taunting whatever mob he is on off him, and they should be waiting in zerker stance to intercept and taunt aggro from Rajaxx whenever there is a knockback. I can hold aggro for ~10 seconds if i throw every skill at him in that taunt period. Heroic strike, Sunder, Shield bash, shield block and revenge. Andorov will steal it back, but thats fine. He's easily healable through the generic damage. Its only the knockback and following direct damage from Rajaxx that the healers can't protect against. Of the last 15 or so attempts, he hasn't died a single time. We keep 2 healers dedicated healers to him, and all the healers switch to him and the 2 main off-tanks after the 7 waves.

[Hatchetface]

So, Nathanos was spared, then?

[Silencio of Dalaran]

Anyway, back to what everyone wants to read about, AQ20. It actually went really well considering how much trouble Dark had forming the group. I say that because he started forming at 7pm and when I logged back on at ~8:15 they hadn't killed the first boss yet. I joined up and we got rolling hard. 4 bosses went down before I had to leave, with zero wipes. The most impressive kill of the night was the Moam kill which was the easiest I have experienced to date, and we only had 2 locks, so I had to MT then tank an add (not as hard as I would like to make it sound).

considering it was a "rescued" raid from someone else forming then backing out, I have to say it exceeded i think everyone's expectations.

i was worried that we had too many rogues, and until chu showed up was thinking of offering to ditch my rogue and bring the hunter.

as it turned out, the combination of sharp tanking and shedloads of dps made the fights we'd thought would be hardest actually almost trivial.

Everyone was shocked, I think, at what a patsy Moam was with that much dps.

[MVB]

Yeah ....

Finnion/Catbread and I managed to keep the mana down way better than I expected ... props to them for being rockin'.

It didn't matter so much though ... Moam was at 16 or 17% before the arcane elementals even spawned.

[MVB]

Double props to Imras for providing so many arcane prot pots for the critical aspects of the raid.

[Shifta]

PRG cleared to Ossiran on Sunday so some of us picked up where they'd left off.

Ossiran is really hard.

[telva]

Yes Nathanos was spared. Allia's work schedule is really really wack so unless they did it without me, he lived. I have a feeling Ima just have to PuG it if I ever want to get it done, but I doubt that is gonna happen. Much like the Battle of Darrowshire which I have 2 toons that need it, it will just rot in my quest log.

I also turned in the ZG heads yesterday. I have had the heads in my bank since the first HotC run I ever went on, way back when. I threw the cord away one day because I thought it was a bandage when I was clearing some bag space. I dropped the quest and picked it back up in order to get a new cord (which I did) but couldn't find it because I didn't know what I was looking for. Saturday I stumbled upon it again, and now I have a worthless belt. Well I had a worthless belt, but it got sold.

Btw, on Moam I was surprised how little arcane damage I took while tanking the add. I didn't have a pot, but I think that the locks did a damn fine job of banishing the adds, which helped reduce the amount of damage.

Also, Black, Andorov was dead long before the Rajaxx fight. I think he died in wave 5 before Cura showed up to help with the healing. I would love to do this fight over and over until we get it right.

[MVB]

We've gotten it right several times before, at least on runs I've been on.

The key is both high levels of DPS and stellar tanking ... tanks have to use all their taunt abilities to keep Rajaxx off Andorov, or you simply can't heal him. At one point Winsome and I both focused on Andorov and nobody else and b/c the tanks weren't taunting very much, or we didn't have many ( I can't remember which, this was a while ago), we couldn't keep him up.

The knockback is - as Blacksoul points out - the key ... unless the tanks cleverly int/taunt him back you can't keep him healed through it as the priests are blasted out of their casting channels as well.

[Muin]

You are tanking him in the doorway right? May sound like a dumb question

[Hatchetface]

Yes Nathanos was spared. Allia's work schedule is really really wack so unless they did it without me, he lived. I have a feeling Ima just have to PuG it if I ever want to get it done, but I doubt that is gonna happen. Much like the Battle of Darrowshire which I have 2 toons that need it, it will just rot in my quest log.

I have the Battle of Darrowshire, too! Maybe we can do a Horde/Alliance co-op thing and take turns dropping the bag in the square (I've helped Allies killl Araj the Summoner and vice-versa) and git'r done!

However, I can't promise to cooperate and help you kill the Champion of the Banshee Queen.

[MVB]

You are tanking him in the doorway right? May sound like a dumb question


There are a variety of places you can easily tank him in my experience. It's best in the smaller alcove, just for keeping people close and tanks close from the blastwave. Similarly smart tanks can just tank him up against a wall of any kind.

He's not an overly difficult fight in any regard IMO, but keeping andorov alive can be difficult for a group with a lot of newer-faces-to-the-fight, like last night's apparently was (I didn't arrive on the scene until Rajaxx was merely a corpse).

[Winsome]

I have about a 50% success rate at keeping Andorov alive.

It is a total PITA because he seems to be either at full health or dead. PUT ON A SHIRT, LOSER! Last time, I was trying to keep all 5 npcs alive, got too close to the mobs and got stunlocked by AoE stuns while I watched Andorov die. Next time, I'm going to worry less about his buddies and just focus on Andorov, especially during the early moments of the wave, where they are being mobbed.

Blacksoul is right - taunts are key during Rajaxx. But the embarassing thing is losing him before wave 8 - which I have done a couple of times and which really annoys me on a deeply personal level. And yeah, the knockback isn't a big deal wherever he is tanked, as long as the healers are smart and keep their backs to a wall. I screwed that up the first time we ever fought him and learned that lesson the hard way. In that way, it is like Thekal - you need a little bit of positioning in your head during the fight.

Eager to go back Saturday with Ralex.

[telva]

Yes I am eager for Saturday too, assuming I can keep myself awake that long. The good news is we downed 4 bosses in 2.5 hours last night, with a fairly new crew. Hopefully Saturday we can get it down faster. At least now I am familiar enough with the trash to the first 4 guys that I don't have to stop and ask about it.

[Muin]

OOoh! I bought "Battlefield 2: Modern Combat" for my xbox 360 this weekend. I must say it is possibly the most realistic, most immersive shooter I've played in my life. For the first time I actually felt like I was part of this big war. It was realy quite neat.

First I was all commando style with my movements while assaulting with my Machinegun and whatnot.

But when I finally became a Sniper the fun really started. I started picking people off left and right, Some 250-300meters away on buildings 10stories high and whatnot. After a match would be over they'd reorganize the teams and All I'd hear at the beginning was "Oh thank god your on our team this time. I don't like getting sniped by ya" was really cool.

Ranking system is fairly simple and all I can say is great things about it. Finding games is automated and amazingly fast. I can't wait to play it at lunchtime.

[Allia]

yes Telva, my work scheldue is really really shitty, not much i can do about it and i need the money right now... :( I didn't do the blightcaller quest last night, i did do some pre-battle of darrowshire Q's and am on 'the heroes of darrowshire' atm, i cant remember how many more Q's there are before the actual battle of darrowshire Quest. If all goes well I can continue the questline and this weekend we can do both Blightcaller and Battle of Darrowshire on like Saturday or Sunday some time :)

oh and DING 60!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was very exciting to hit 60, seems like I had kathilla forever. I never really played her much until this past month and i've really really enjoyed it. Sometimes when i switch to allia i'm still in healer mode and i wanna spam PoH or Flash Heal someone, lol. Its still kinda strange having her level 60, but i love it! :) Last night I did a late-night UBRS with Dpaul and Friends, I wont the Dragonstrider boots (yay FR!!), the Tooth of Gnarr (sp?) and the Devout Robe. I look very strange in the devout robe, i'm so used to my Robes of Insight, i've had those equipped for at least 6 months, lol. I need new pants badly, something with +heal/dmg stats, also a +heal/dmg rbe would not go astray. I plan on upgrading the devout set, but not having much luck with finding gloves anywhere, booo for being 300g in AH :(

[Muin]

I think I ended up buying out my Shadowcraft gloves for 375g the other day. I had run 10+ LBRS stealth runs to get the gloves and they never dropped :(

Now I need a 45min Baron run. I don't have the SC boots or Shoulders either :( I just want to upgrade my leggings and chest since I still wear them...I should get the boots it'd be a decent upgrade from my Blooddrenched footpads.

[Hatchetface]

/tar Dantein
/cast blessing of wisdom
/tar barrath
/pat

/tar blackravyn
/fart

[Leridyn]

/tar hatchetface
/hug
/kiss
/dance

You're my hero! heh...