Onyxia is back on live!

Well boys and girls, Onyxia is back and she is giving away nice lvl 80 245 loot!

You will find her in her old home in Onyxia's Lair, Dustwallow Marsh. There have been no real major changes to her on the test server and it looks like it went live the way she was on the test server.

The only difference from the level 60 Onyixa is that she 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 and Melee can no longer hit Onyxia in Phase 2.

With that said, let's go over the strategy.

Onyxia is still a very easy fight that you can do in about 20 min.

Phase 1: The tank should back her up to the back wall. Healers obviously heal the tank and DPS should stay away from the tail. Phase 2 starts when she gets down to 65% health.

Phase 2: Raiders should group up, get a tank to gather up the whelps and then AoE them down. Once the whelps are down, DPS should get back on to Onyxia who will be moving around the room. Whenever Onyxia spawns a Lair Guard it is advisable to have ranged DPS kill it immediately. The Lair Guards are squishy but they hit melee hard!

When Onyxia emotes for Deep Breath, move away from the front of her to ensure that you are not hit. Often, simply running for the sides of the room will save you! Her flame breath is a cone effect from her mouth.

If you get another wave of whelps, gather and AoE as before. When Onyxia hits 40% she will land for good. She will cast Bellowing Roar immediately upon landing. Finish off whatever adds remain while the tank positions Onyxia (who has wiped threat from phase 1. It's advisable to have a fear ward or a fear break on the tank initially).

Phase 3 is not much different from phase 1 aside from fears, some raid damage from eruption and occasional whelp spawns, which are not too dangerous. She does nothing else special and will die upon reaching 0% HP.

At this time if Reinforced Shadowstrike drops give it to a player that wants Reinforced Thunderstrike as you get a 1 use to summon Reinforced Thunderstrike the Reinforced Thunderstrike that spawns cannot be traded. The the Reinforced Shadowstrike can be traded to a guild member that wants it so you get 2 for 1!

OMG armor penetration for the win ... or is it!?

I've been doing a bit of playing around with spreadsheets and DPS calculators in an attempt to optimize not only my personal raid performance but also the benefits I bring to a raid. These benefits will change from fight to fight and as your gear increases or changes you will find different stats may provide very different results than you expect.

Last night in TOC ten man we had Fordragon Blades drop off Anub'arak. It’s a nice two-hand pole arm but I have Stormrune Edge already, so at first I said, pass, as they're both level 232 items. No one wanted it and it was going to go to an off spec or vender loot. The others players in the raid were telling me that I should take it. They argued that it has more haste and armor penetration and that it was better than Stormrune Edge. Looking at the stats I could see how it might just be better and the hast for Marksman might help too.

After the raid I visited a great online tool for hunters over at FemaleDwarf.com. It's a Hunter online DPS Analyzer and using the analyzer I found out that with my Beast Master spec, Fordragon Blades takes my DPS to 5642.96 and Stormrune Edge takes my DPS to 5662.86. And with Marksman spec, Fordragon Blades takes my DPS to 5812.23 and Stormrune Edge takes my DPS to 5865.30.

Fordragon Blades gave me a 19.9 DPS loss in BM and a 53.07 DPS loss in MM. 53 DPS is a massive loss for a single item!

The Heroic Fordragon Blades (lvl 245) will take my MM DPS to 5866.30, a bonus of 1 dps DPS. Hmm ... not a lot for an upgrade but it looks cool, right?!

As your gear changes so do your requirements. For my hunter, the extra crit on the Stormrune Edge helped my dps a lot more than the haste or armor penetration. When you get in to high end gear you've got to pay attention to diminishing returns and also set bonuses, and what your trinkets proc on. If you use trinkets that have a chance to proc on crit, higher crit may increase the amount of times it procs during the fight. If your 2 set armor bonus lets a special ability crit then that also will get a boost from extra crit. Things are always changing in the game but the devs always seem to want you to balance your stats.

For BM hunters, attack power is the stat of choice up to a certain level. I seem to have hit the cap where attack power gives me more DPS and I’m now adding AGI. Just because someone in the forums says ... "OMG I do 8kDPS when I stack armor penetration, it owns all!" ... does not mean it will work for everyone. Do not be shy to do some testing for yourself and if you can find a spreadsheet or online tool like FemaleDwarf.com then use it. It will help you understand your class and mechanics of the stats you need!

Week 5 in TOC: Anub'arak

Although the Twin Val'kyrs fight was the last official fight in Trial of the Crusader, there is one unofficial fight to go, Anub'arak. After defeating the Lich King's minions, the Twin Val'kyrs, the King himself gets a little upset and makes an appearance. He's so angry that he smashes the floor with Frostmourne and all the raiders drop into the Scarab's lair.

With Anub'arak, like all other fights he will not aggro until your tanks engage him or some idiot gets too close.

Although I've briefly experienced this fight on the PTR weeks ago, please note that some of the strategies mentioned here may not be correct. The fight may have changed since the PTR. I'm taking on Anub'arak tomorrow night and I'll post again with my final recomdations after he's defeated. This is my plan on leading the riad.

To start the fight tanks and melee will run in and engage the boss. Ranged and heals will group in the center of the room. Tanks point the boss away from the raid as he has an AOE cone attack and he hits HARD! A good tank will take hits of up to 22k, so healers need to be ready!

Ranged should shoot down the frost spheres from the roof. By doing that, they fall and you get frost on the ground. The frost will slow players and enemy mobs by 80% but it will also protect players from burrowing mobs and spikes. It will also protect players from Impale but if Impale is cast at a player the frost will de-spawn and the player will have to move. if you get enough for the ground cover with the frost it will actually prevent Anub'arak from burrowing into the ground, completely preventing stage two of the fight.

Any off tanks should stay out of the frost or stay right on the edge because they'll need to pick up Anub'arak's adds. This is the same as in Nax. When Anub'arak burrowes into the ground all DPS kill the adds that spawn during this phase (phase two). The adds have a stacking debuff you need to keep an eye on. Another way to get rid of the adds is to have the off tanks move the adds to Anub'arak's location and range can AOE both the adds and the boss at the same time.

This fight was not hard on the PTR but all players were in T8.5+. Tanks need to pick up the adds fast or you will lose your healers!

When the boss reaches 30% he'll caste Leaching Swarm. See that all adds are dead before he gets to 30% because if the adds get loose at this time in the fight they will kill all your healers.

Anub'arak will leach 10% of the current health off EVERY raid member. The way in which the leach works is that it takes 10% of the player's current health, not their total health pool and transfers it to the boss. The more health players' heave, the more health he will generate. This is where your healers will be tested! Healers keep all DPS at 50% to minimise the health Anub'arak gets from them. At this stage in the fight you need to pop hero, Trinkets EVERY thing you have and burn him so save all your cool-downs for 30%.

MMO-Champion Loot table

This is a video taken from the healer's perspective on the PTR:


This video is taken from the off Tank's view, with really annoying Benny Hill music. I did warn you!


Week 4 in TOC: Twin Val'kyrs
Week 3 in TOC Faction Champions
Crusaders' Coliseum week two: Lord Jaraxxus

Northrend Beast loot table on MMO Champion:
Norththrend Beast video By wow.gamingfaces.net:

Week 4 in TOC: Twin Val'kyrs

This week in the Trial of the Crusader we will get access to twin bosses, the Twin Val'kyrs. My guild will be tackling them tonight and I've been preparing for it.

"Only by working together will you defeat the final challenge. From the depths of Icecrown come two of the Scourge's most powerful lieutenants -- fierce val'kyr, winged harbingers of the Lich King!" —Tirion Fordring

I've spent quite a bit of time researching the strategy on this fight and at first look, it does look extremely complicated. It's another one of those fights where you need to split your raid into two groups and proper raid deployment is crucial. First of all, let's have a look at each of the two boss's unique abilities.

Edyis Darkbane: Abilities
Empowered Darkness — Increases damage dealt to Light targets by 100% for 20 sec.
Shield of Darkness — A Shield of Darkness that protects the sister from harm absorbing 250000 damage and prevents spell interruption for 15 sec.
Twin's Pact — The Twin's Pact heals for 20% of their total HP. 15 sec. cast. Begins cast after Shield of Darkness has been cast.
Dark Vortex — Eydis Darkbane beings to cast a powerful vortex of Dark. Channels for 5 seconds inflicting 5850 to 6150 damage every 1 sec for 5 sec. 8 second cast
Surge of Darkness — Pulsing a Surge of Darkness Inflicting 1500 damage every 2 sec to Light enemies.
Touch of Darkness — The Val'kyr's Dark touch has affected you, inflicting 7313 to 7687 Dark damage to players under the effect of Light Essence every 1 sec. The Touch of Darkness will not harm targets with the same attributes as it.
Unleashed Dark — The Concentrated Darkness releases its energies inflicting 12188 to 12812 Dark damage to enemies within 8 yards.
Twin Spike — The Twin Spike inflicts 100% weapon damage and increases damage taken by 20% for 15 sec or for 10 charges.

Fjola Lightbane: Abilities
Empowered Light — Increases damage dealt to Dark targets by 100% for 20 sec.
Shield of Lights — A shield of light that protects the sister from harm absorbing 250000 damage and prevents spell interruption for 15 sec.
Twin's Pact — The Twin's Pact heals for 20% of their total HP. 15 sec. cast. Begins cast after Shield of Lights has been cast.
Light Vortex — Eydis Darkbane beings to cast a powerful vortex of Light. Channels for 5 seconds inflicting 5850 to 6150 damage every 1 sec for 5 sec. 8 second cast
Surge of Light — Pulsing a Surge of Light Inflicting 1500 damage every 2 sec to Dark enemies.
Touch of Light — The Val'kyr's Light touch has affected you, inflicting 4388 to 4612 Light damage to players under the effect of Dark Essence every 1 sec. The Touch of Light will not harm targets with the same attributes as it.
Unleashed Light — The Light Ball releases its energies inflicting 12188 to 12812 Light damage to enemies within 8 yards.
Twin Spike — The Twin Spike inflicts 100% weapon damage and increases damage taken by 20% for 15 sec or for 10 charges.

I've read strategy guides and watched videos from the PTR and this is my advice to tackling the Twin Val'kyrs.

Raid setup

At the start of this fight light and dark portals will appear. Each player needs to pick either light or dark by clicking on one of the portals. If you pick dark then you can fight Fjola Lightbane and if you pick light then you fight Edyis Darkbane. So before you start, before you even see those portals, have your raid group split into two even groups with everyone knowing what color portal they're going to click on. Dark players do double damage to light enemies and light players do double damage to dark enemies. Players can tell what portal they are aligned with because there is a dark purple sort of aura at the feet of dark players or a white aura around the feet of light players. At almost any stage during the raid, players can and will need to switch colors by clicking on one of the portals of the color they need to change to.

The tanks' roles

There are four portals in the area. There's a dark and light on the left hand side and a dark and light on the right hand side. The light-tank's job is to pull Edyis Darkbane in between the two portals on the left. The dark-tank's job is to do the same for Fjola Lightbane, but between the two portals on the right.

Gas orbs
Through the fight, light and dark gas cloud looking orbs will spawn from the light and dark portals. If you're dark you can and need to intercept the dark gas orbs. The dark orbs won't damage you. When you have intercepted enough dark gas orbs you can unleash a special attack of homing missiles. But if you get too close to a light gas orb you will take damage and a de buff.
The same goes for light players; light players need to intercept the light gas orbs which will do no damage and when you have intercepted enough light gas orbs you can unleash a special attack of homing missiles. But, again, if a light player gets too close to a dark gas orb they will take damage and a de buff.

Twin's Pact
Every now and then one of the Val'kyrs begins a 15 sec Twin's Pact cast and shields himself or the other twin. I am not 100% clear on this yet. From what I can tell, if the light Val'kyr is the one casts the shield then all the dark players need to attack the shield and vice versa.

Vortex
If one of the Val'kyr begins to channel their Vortex, everyone in the raid has to immediately change to the color of the Val'kyr so that they absorb the Vortex damage. After the Vortex has finished channelling, you can switch back.

Here's more info from www.wowwiki.com info but frankly, i found it as confusing as hell!

"Inspiration and strategy

It should be noted that battle mechanic of this boss fight is inspired from arcade game Ikaruga. In that game the player ship and enemies has either white or black polarity (and unlike this boss fight, player can change polarity at will). Only bullets of an opposite polarity can kill the player and the player will absorb enemies' bullets of the same color.
Player's attack deals double damage to enemies with different polarity and when enough bullets of same polarity are absorbed the player can unleash a special attack of homing missiles.
In this fight, Edyis Darkbane is considered black and Fjola Lightbane is considered white and their attacks are respectively white or black. By right-clicking on one of the four portals in the room, you get the respective color of the portal, white or black. You absorb damage of the same color and deals double damage against the boss with the other color. If you are white, you absorb white damage and do double damage to Edyis Darkbane, if you are black then you absorb black damage and do double damage to Fjola Lightbane.
Before the pull everyone gets himself a color. The black-tank pulls Edyis Darkbane between the two left portals, the white-tank does the same for Fjola Lightbane between the two right portals.
Every now and then one of the Val'kyrs begins a 15 sec Twin's Pact cast and shields himself. Every damage dealer has to immediately pick up the casting ones opposite color and burn the shield making the heal interruptable.
If one of the val'kyr begins to channel her Vortex, everyone in the raid has immediately to get that ones color in order to absorb the Vortex damage. After the channel, you can switch back.
During the whole fight its also bullet hell time (the genre of Ikaruga): dodge the other-color balls flying around and catch your colors balls. If your shield absorbs enough damage, you get the Empowered Darkness or Empowered Light buff, giving you a 100% damage-boost against the other color for 20 sec.
With the Twin Val'kyr defeated, everyone is ready to celebrate... when the floor of the coliseum collapses and drops players into the Icy Depths of Azjol-Nerub."

If you want to know what loot drops from these booses, here is a complete loot table: MMO-Champion Loot table

Gaming faces 10 and 25 man Twin Val'krys Video Raid guide

Blizzcon 2009 wrap-up

As I sit listening to Ozzie go nuts at Blizzcon, I thought I would wrap up what we have had a look at over this weekend.

The big news for us WoW gamers was Cataclysm. It was a bitter sweet announcement for me as very detailed information was leaked onto the net over a week ago. It was like someone told me what all my Christmas presents were in November. I like surprises and the sites that posted the detailed info before the actual announcement, spoiled it for me (that’s why I didn’t link it when it was posted). There’s nothing wrong with leaks but you can leak information without going into as much detail as they did.

Lots of things said at Blizzcon point to an end of year launch for Cataclysm. First, Mike Morhaime (President/CEO Blizzard) said “You will be sick of Goblin rogues by next Blizzcon”, then Ghost crawler said in an interview with direct TV “We will see the new cross server 5 man pugs in the 3.3 patch before Cataclysm.” He then went on to talk about patch 4.1 and 4.2.

So by the sounds of it we will have 1-2 patches max before Cataclysm hits. That would make up 5 to 6 months if we go by the timelines of other patches. My guess is that we will have 3.3 to take us to ice crown, then 3.4 will introduce class changes a month before we get our x-pac, but only time will tell. I just hope Blizzard can live up to their 1 expansion a year they talked about last year.

The changes to guilds and guild tools have stirred a lot of excitement in my guild. I’m the GM of a 60+ account guild with over 100 lvl 80s in it. We pay for all guild repairs and supply very cheap flasks etc. As one of the oldest guilds on our server we have seen a lot of members come and go over the years and the new tools will helps stop or massively reduce the guild hoppers. I have a great group of officers and it’s great to know we are going to be able to reward guild loyalty with tools for levelling, crafting and raiding alike.

As I level new alts, it’s been kinda sad to see once bustling zones turned into ghost towns. For a MMO it just does not have the same feel questing in an empty zone. The move to restructure and then rebuild Azaroth sounds like the prefect move by Blizzard. It will not only ad new content for old players but at the same time provide new and exciting content for new players or even new alts!

A new type of level cap

With this xpac we only get to level to 85 and there has been a lot of “WTF? Only 85?” comments going around the net. The way you need to look at it is that you have level 85+ Path of the Titans skills. It’s just a new spin on the end levels. It’s a way to keep you interested and progressing end game.

I cannot wait to get my hands on Cataclysm and we still haven’t finished WotLK. Driving content at this speed makes it easy to stay interested and excited about a game that is 5 years old, something other MMOs miss the boat on all the time.

We have covered a lot here on Gaming Faces but if you’re looking for more detailed information on a particular class, don’t forget to check out our class news feeds at the top of the site for class specific blogs and news.

Mastery and Path of the Titans

This info comes straight from Blizzard:

"Mastery

This segment of the panel discussed a new and exciting feature called Mastery. With this feature, we want to make class talent trees simple throughout, but we also want to make them a lot more fun. We feel that while talent trees are pretty cool, they’re becoming larger and more complicated. We see this by the talents available, as many talents try to perform three different things and passive bonuses compete against fun or utility talents.

So while we will add some new talents for Cataclysm, we also want to prune passive and mandatory talents so that you have more points available for fun or utility talents. Our goal is to have talent trees that are simpler, less cookie-cutter and more fun. Under the new plan, you’ll get passive bonuses just for spending points in the appropriate tree. Passive bonuses are things that increase stats such as damage, healing, and tanking, as well as stat-like attributes such as haste or crit. We really want to give something unique for your spec -- and the Mastery stat incorporates this.

An example of a passive bonus for Assassination rogues would be increased poison damage the more points they spend in Assassination. Likewise, a rogue specialized in Subtlety will receive an energy cost bonus, Beastmaster hunters would receive bonuses to their pet’s damage output, and Marksmanship hunters would receive focus regeneration bonuses, as well. These are just some examples of how passive bonuses bolster each spec of every class.

Path of the Titans

Path of the Titans is another great new feature we covered that encompasses rewarding progression at max level. This new feature implements a third new type of glyph called “Ancient Glyph,” and as you can see, it is themed after the titans. These special glyphs are not associated with the Inscription tradeskill, and are also not specific to any class. You’re able to unlock a path and progress within that path as you continuously engage in different aspects of the game. As you advance, you will be able to unlock special glyph sockets for your character. You can also respec your path at any time, in case you decide to change your path.
You earn these ancient glyphs by using the new Archaeology secondary profession to recover and trade in titan artifacts. Each path will have 2-3 choices per rank, and again, you can respec if you decide to go down another path.

• Path of Aman’Thul, the High Father
• Path of Eonar, the Lifebinder
• Path of Norgannon, the Dreamweaver
• Path of Khaz’Goroth, the Shaper
• Path of Aggramar, the Avenger
• Path of Golganneth, the Thunderer


You can earn progress down any of these paths by doing things such as questing, raiding, PvP, trade skills, etc., with a possible weekly cap for maximum progress. Over time, you’ll be able to unlock new ancient glyphs that will greatly benefit your character.
This new system will be accessible to all players at max level. Players will eventually be able to reach new ranks for ancient glyphs, encouraging them to further develop their characters. There is also a possibility that we will introduce whole new paths in future content patches."

Guild Advancements and Professions

This info is straight from Blizzard:

"We continued with the presentation discussing exciting new features that will provide guilds with avenues to further advance, both on an individual basis and as a whole that culminates into a more immersive level of guild development. With these upcoming guild advancement features, guilds will be able to acquire talents and provide guild members with leveling benefits, as well as acquire guild achievements, guild professions, and other cool features.

Guild Leveling and Talents

We’ve introduced a new guild feature that will provide options for players to earn guild experience in a variety of ways. Players can earn guild experience through leveling, reputation ranks, boss kills, Battleground and Arena wins, and profession ranks. The top twenty earners from the guild per day will contribute to the guild experience total. With every acquired level, guilds will receive talent points that they can then spend towards their guild talent tree, which affects all guild members in the guild. Additionally, guild experience is converted into guild currency that can be used to purchase a wide variety of rewards, such as guild profession plans and reagents, vanity items, and talent respecs.




Guild Professions

Guilds that use guild currency to purchase profession plans will be able to share any purchased plan with the rest of the guild via a vendor and skill trainer. Guilds are also able to create guild heirlooms; these items bind to the guild so that anyone in the guild will be able to acquire them. Just like the normal heirloom items, guild heirloom items will also scale with level and will support all armor and weapons.




Guild members will also be able to take advantage of being able to create guild-specific versions of items that require fewer or different reagents. The new reagents are purchased from guild vendors via guild currency, and there will be support for all professions.

Looking for Guild

With the Looking for Guild feature, we’re making it easier for players to find a guild. We’re also looking to provide guild leaders more options to make it easier to recruit new members. The new tool will provide filters based on various requirements and will have a simple and easy-to-use interface.

Guild Achievements

Players can earn achievements as a guild, with each requiring a minimum ratio of guild members to complete. We’ve also introduced new achievements that guilds can partake in. One example is becoming Grand Master in all professions.



Features

Guilds will receive a special guild news-feed that will show them updates on happenings within the guild such as achievements, boss kills, etc. Guilds will also have access to profession info for their members and more. In addition to these features, guilds will also be able to acquire a percentage of gold looted on boss kills that will go directly to the guild bank. Additionally, guilds will be able to invite other guilds to events."

Rated Battlegrounds

Straight from Blizzard:

"This section discussed changes being made to Battlegrounds. We realize that players want a bit more out of the Battlegrounds, or don’t necessarily want to actively participate in Arenas to acquire some of the best gear in the game. We’re changing this by providing an alternate method to acquiring Arena rating. We’ve introduced rated Battlegrounds, which will allow players to acquire rating for very powerful gear without setting foot into an Arena, so each player can enjoy whichever PvP activity he or she prefers.

We plan to include featured weekly Battlegrounds for players to enjoy; coupled with the changes made, this will help keeps the gameplay changing from week to week. The way the new rated Battlegrounds work is pretty straightforward. The more games you win, the higher the rating you acquire; however, we do not plan to punish players for losing. We’re looking at setting a cap of six or more battles per week. We want players to enjoy the ability to acquire rating through Battlegrounds, but it shouldn’t become the main source of rating gains.

In order to participate in rated Battlegrounds, players will be required to join battles as full groups. However these groups do not need to be committed teams as in the Arena system; rather, the group simply needs to have the required amount of players for whichever Battleground they’re entering. As an example, one would need to join the queue as a group for Warsong Gulch with any nine additional players to qualify for a rating.




Tol Barad

We're also adding a new zone that combines elements of Wintergrasp with the Isle of Quel'danas. During PvP battles, players will fight to take control points across the island. In between PvP battles, the zone serves as a daily quest hub for both factions, while the winning faction will have access to a raid area."

Hunters Get Focus

That's right Hunters, gone are our mana days!

"Hunters
Also receiving a massive overall are hunters.The hunter’s need to rely upon mana is completely gone, and instead they will use focus. This means hunters will no longer care at all about Intellect, mana regen or Aspect of the Viper.

Focus will regenerate continually, similar to how rogues or feral druids regenerate energy. For comparison, rogues regenerate approximately 10 energy per second, whereas hunters will regenerate 6 focus per second.However, Steady Shot can also be used to improve focus regen, and bring the rate at which hunters regenerate focus to 12 per second.

The hunter will have a maximum of 100 focus, and shots might cost 30 or 60 focus, with fewer cooldowns on abilities. Another exciting and long-awaited change regards the ammunition system. Ammunition will become an equipable item, and will no longer be consumable.

More details on that later!"

New Race Class Combos