Shannox has fallen to the onslaught of the mighty War Machine! Last night we ran an impromptu 10 man with the intent of getting to Shannox as fast as possible and dropping him, and it certainly worked. Well done to all involved. Here’s the video – excuse the language at the end, Bannox was very enthusiastic.
Oh, and ignore me dying, and getting trapped. That didn’t actually happen, honest.
Well done all on the guild-first kill of Al’akir last night! Here’s footage of the event (with a bonus achievement!)
And to top of it off, we went and cleared Bastion of Twilight right after and got a video of our Cho’gall kill:
Hopefully I’ll have a Nefarian kill video to add to the list later tonight!
Only a few days now until the latest content patch is upon us – Patch 4.2: Rage of the Firelands. Quite a bit of stuff is included in the patch, from class changes across the board to brand new quests, zones, interface changes, a caster DPS legendary staff and a raid instance (and of course all the shiny new gear that comes with that!) The patch is scheduled to go live on the 28th of this month, so in order to be ready to go as soon as the servers come up (because I know some of you will be ready and waiting) there’s a few things you might want to do beforehand.
4.2 introduces two new daily quest hubs – the first at the Sanctuary of Malorne in Mount Hyjal (also known as The Regrowth) and the second being the Molten Front in the new Firelands zone. The quests at the Regrowth lead to unlocking the path to the Molten Front so you’ll need to start there. However, to get access to the Regrowth dailies you must have completed at least part of Hyjal’s standard quest chain. Specifically, you want to have completed the quest Aessina’s Miracle, which results in the area known as The Flamewake in Hyjal getting an infusion of life and becoming the Regrowth. This quest is about halfway through Hyjal’s chain and is pretty quick to get to and through.
Once you have completed Aessina’s Miracle, a new quest will be available at the Sanctuary of Malorne. This begins the chain that will eventually lead you to the Firelands.
But what about the raid? Good news for those of you that hate questing – you don’t need to do the dailies to get into the Firelands raid. The raid entrance portal is located in Mount Hyjal at Sulfuron Spire. You can see the portal in-game now, it’s just behind a gate.
Caster DPS will be salivating at the thought of finally being able to get their hands on a legendary weapon, and it’s definitely a shiny one. Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest will be available in 4.2, though it won’t be easy to get. Blizzard estimates it will take around four months for a guild to complete their first staff, and that’s with the focus being on just one person in the guild getting it. We will indeed be giving the first staff to a specific person, though that person has yet to be determined. For those of you that are keen to get the chain started (and I suggest you do if you are at all interested in getting the staff), there are requirements:
In order to begin the process of assembling the staff, players must first kill a Molten Lord in the Firelands, or have completed any of the achievements Bastion of Twilight, Blackwing Descent, or Throne of the Four Winds. Once any of these achievements have been unlocked, players can accept the quest A Legendary Engagement from Ziradormi in Grommash Hold in Orgrimmar, or Coridormi atop the Wizard’s Sanctum in Stormwind (players who have already completed any of these achievements are immediately eligible for this quest).
Source: 4.2 Patch Notes
Some of you will already be eligible from downing Cho’gall, others may still have a bit of work to do. We will still be running the older raids, and with the considerable nerfs being applied to them (20% reductions in damage and health for the most part) it should be easier to get us through them.
Since there’s a new tier of gear coming with 4.2, there’s going to be a lot of changes coming for the current gear. The major change is seeing all current items purchasable with Valor points being instead available for Justice points. This should make acquiring the gear considerably easier in preparation for Firelands (and for finishing off the BoT, BWD and TotFW). To go with this change, all your current Valor points will be downgraded to Justice points, up to a limit of 4000 JP. Anything over 4000 JP will be converted to gold (at a rate of 47 silver per point). What this means is if, for example, you currently have 2500 Justice Points and 2000 Valor Points, when 4.2 hits you would have 0 Valor Points and 4000 Justice Points, and receive 235 gold in exchange for the 500 excess points. If gold isn’t an issue for you, your best bet is to make sure you have no more than 4000 points between your VP and JP when the patch hits. I would strongly advise against spending Valor Points in order to even your points out, as anything currently available for Valor will be available for Justice after the patch, and JP are much easier to come by.
For those of you that PVP, the same thing is happening with Conquest Points and Honor Points, but at a rate of 35 silver per excess point.
For lore junkies (like me!) there’s a fantastic new quest chain being added with 4.2 that focuses around Thrall. An NPC at the Eastern Earthshrine in Stormwind (aka portal island) starts you on the chain, sending you to meet with Thrall in Hyjal. I’m not going to spoil the quest for you, but there’s some quite dramatic occurrences and is a lot of fun. And you end up with an ilevel 365 epic at the end of it.
There’s a bunch of other changes coming in the patch including as I mentioned many class changes, as well as the new Dungeon Journal UI feature, but I’ve outlined the big ones that require a bit of preparation beforehand above. For more on the patch check out Blizzard’s guide to Patch 4.2 as well as the patch notes. But beware of spoilers!
Congrats everyone! We got there in the end, and on the last attempt of the night at that!
With Cho’gall’s defeat, War Machine are now officially 10 of 12 for the current content, which is a pretty awesome feat for a casual guild. A special thanks to those that stepped outside of normal roles and even characters to help us get him down, to the two healers that consented to two-healing the fight (!), and of course to all those that put in the effort through numerous wipes over the weeks leading up to last night’s victory.
In other news, the first version of our Book of Knowledge is now live on the site – you can reach it from the menu at the top of the page. Bannox has been hard at work for the last couple of months putting the current document together which outlines what our expectations are for raiding. More topics will be covered over time – we intend for the Book to be a one stop reference to War Machine policy. If you have anything you’d like to see added to the Book, let one of the officers know.
With 4.2 approaching (rumour has it at two or three weeks away, but no firm dates yet) and the new raid content coming with it, there’ll be a lot of interesting changes. Valor points will be converted to Justice points with all current Valor items purchasable with them, and brand new Valor items will make their appearance. A new raiding tier begins with 4.2 which means shiny new purples, and for caster DPS, a brand new legendary staff. And the current tier raids are all getting substantial nerfs (which makes our Cho’gall victory that much sweeter – we did it when it was still endgame content!) We’ll be talking about exactly what War Machine’s plans are for the next tier over the next few weeks, so listen out if you’re keen on being involved.
Just a few minutes ago, War Machine hit guild level 25! Congrats and well done to everyone for getting us there pretty damn quickly for a casual guild. To celebrate, I bought a mount:
We’re also officially 8 of 12 in raid progression as of last weekend, and we almost hit 9 of 12 tonight. Fingers crossed we’ll get there tomorrow as we go back in for some more attempts on Ascendant Council in The Bastion of Twilight.
By popular demand, here’s the video from Thursday night’s Halfus kill:
Congrats to all involved!
War Machine have now officially downed 3 of the 12 “progression” raid bosses in Cataclysm so far (4 if you count Baradin Hold). Congrats all on getting through them – they’re a much harder breed of boss than we’re used to from Wrath of the Lich King!
Unfortunately I don’t have a screenshot from our Halfus kills so if you do, please let me know and I’ll post it.
Congratulations to all involved in the guild first kill of Conclave of Wind last night! Here’s the video of the successful kill:
This just leaves Al’akir to go in Throne of the Four Winds, and after a quick few attempts at him after the kill last night he looks to be a little easier than Conclave was.
A proper writeup is coming soon, but in the meantime here’s a couple of videos of the fight. The first one has strong language, so be warned.
This second video is Tankspot’s explanation, for those that prefer them:
Here’s Wowpedia’s take on Magmaw, and here’s a bit more detail from Tankspot on the fight. Good luck!
The first official War Machine raid for Cataclysm has been scheduled, and it’s Throne of the Four Winds and will be happening on Saturday 22nd of January at 8:30pm server time. Some of us have already had a couple of attempts at the first encounter, the Conclave of Wind, but in case you haven’t or need a refresher, here’s the Tankspot guide to the encounter.
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The Conclave of Wind is the first of only two encounters in Throne of the Four Winds, making the raid similar to the Obsidian and Ruby Sanctum raids of WotLK in length. The instance is made up of 5 platforms suspended in the air and connected by streams of wind – four smaller platforms positioned around a larger central platform. One platform is empty and is where the group will enter the instance. The other three outer platforms each contain one of the minibosses of the Conclave of Wind encounter, and the central platform houses the final boss of the instance, Al’Akir. Unlike the two sanctum raids however, we will be taking on the first 3 minibosses at the same time. Think of it like Four Horsemen from Naxxramas, but with one less horseman. The proximity mechanics of Four Horsemen apply to the Conclave of Wind as well (at least one person must be on each of the 3 boss platforms at all times), but the caveat here however is all 3 minibosses must die within one minute of each other.
Continue reading Raid Guide: Throne of the Four Winds – Conclave of Wind