Gates of Dawn: Now With 34% More Fail...

Pretty much all I've been doing lately is attempting to get slightly better gear to make raiding slightly easier. I haven't had much interest in doing anything else in the game, I may need a break...

Today we took on all new bosses for the guild and failed miserably. All we got for our troubles was repair bill after repair bill. We attempted Beasts of Northrend and only got to the worms, who proceeded to kick our asses. After we realized that ToC10 was a bust, we moved on to attempt the new Onyxia, which was also a fail. I did Onyxia once on Lade at a low level, and even then I lagged out when all the whelps were released and by the time I got back in Onyxia was dead. Wipes are frustrating enough as it is, it also doesn't help when our more experienced players say who failed at what every time we wipe. Every new boss is a learning experience and most of the time all we actually need is practice, especially practice in dealing with the random things that could kill you if you don't act quickly enough (like fire on the floor or whelp eggs--I'm guilty of both).

The only thing I'm really doing besides raiding (and Brewfest, which I'm almost done with anyway) is leveling a druid and her professions. I love the warrior, but it's really tough to level her without a healer. The druid fights in a similar way to the warrior but she can pop out of bear form and heal herself, which is really nice. I get the dps cat form in another level, very excited about that. :)

Girls of Gates - Slumber Party Edition!

So, Nayana, Alindras, and I have been trying to have a slumber party for a couple of weeks now. Tonight, we're having it. I'm currently slightly intoxicated, just barely buzzing, but I'll write more as I get progressively worse (I hope). We started watching Tropic Thunder, but got to the point where we were talking over the movie more than watching it. Next we did the nose strip things, which I have never done before, so that was interesting, I've attached a video of me taking mine off below.

*video goes here*

We've paused the movie now and are listening to music on YouTube, apple bottom jeans with the furrrrr...Nayana is braiding Alindras' hair.

We're fairly intoxicated now, Alindras is describing a music video she wants to do, but it's highly inappropriate. We had been chatting with Darwe via google messanger, but he's wussed out and gone to bed (it's only 12:30am).

Me: "The Amish don't appreciate nudity."
Alindras: "Well, Pittsburgh does!"


It's morning, about 10am now, Nayana and I were up at 7, blech. We've been sitting and talking in the living room (also enjoying "Best of Craigslist" ads). Alindras came down and made us bacon and toast for breakfast, yummy!

It's also Pirate Day and I'm off to get some achievements :)

Lotheb Pwn-age

So I meant to write a post about this forever ago when I did it, but I got distracted by WoW (and facebook), as often happens...

I joined a group for Naxx pretty much just for the emblems (also for healing practice, but mostly for emblems) and Darwe was bored that day so he decided to go too. The plan was to hit Naxx and finish it in one go. The problem was that it was a pug group. As far as pugs go, it wasn't the worst I've had, but it wasn't the best either. The whole point of the run was to gear the leader's newly 80 DK (who didn't even have all blues...).

By the time that we got to Lotheb, I was the only healer left, the others had to bail for various reasons, as did much of the original DPS. Healers being hard to come by on our server, we spent several minutes outside Lotheb's room trying to decide what to do. I maintained from the beginning of the discussion that I was l33t enough to solo heal it, so we struck a bargain: give it one try with solo heals and if we beat him awesome, we'll grab heals afterwards, but if we wipe, grab more heals before trying it again. Darwe whispered me before the pull and didn't say specifically that I couldn't do it, but I think he was prepared to wipe. I had confidence as a Holy Priest with sevearl AOE heals, we are definitely the #1 healers of the game, in my opinion, especially in raids.

In we went. My only worry was my mana. I'm definitely not the most mana-efficient healer in the world, Garaba totally kicks my ass in that department (I don't know how he does it, probably witchcraft), so I knew that I would have to be careful with nobody to back me up in heals. As it turns out, it never became an issue, Necrotic Aura was slightly helpful there.

Necrotic Aura is Lotheb's "thing", it's what he does best to annoy raiders, especially healers. If you aren't aware (or didn't follow that link I posted above), Necrotic Aura blocks all healing (so don't waste your potions or bandages) for 17 seconds. It's an instant cast and there's only a short time after it fades before Lotheb throws it back up, so you have to get your raid-wide heals out fast. Having a version of Deadly Boss Mods (DBM from here on out) that works properly is crucial to healing this fight effectively. It will give you a timer showing you how much longer the aura will be active. (As a priest) When less than 3 seconds are remaining on the aura, begin casting Prayer of Healing (PoH). I say "less than 3 seconds" because normal cast time is 3 seconds but mine is slightly less than that because of my gear. If you time it right, the aura will be lifted only miliseconds before you cast your big heal. After that, you have time for a Circle of Healing (CoH or just "Circle") and maybe a few ticks of Renew on the tank if you're fast enough. While the aura is up, all you can really do is bubble the people taking the most damage (in an ideal world, this should be just the tank--but be smart, don't bubble the tank if it's going to interfere with gaining rage or something). That was why I didn't have any mana issues, I spent so much time standing around and not casting heals that it would regen almost completely while I waited.

I think Lotheb is the only Naxx boss that I can solo heal, I wouldn't want to try any others, lol. He does do an AOE, which is the reason for the need for AOE heals, but it really doesn't hit for very hard. If you get the timing right as a priest (decked out in a mish-mosh of Ulduar and Naxx gear), you shouldn't have any trouble healing this fight, solo or otherwise. There was only one time where I thought we might wipe, it was the only time that the raid was at half health or lower. I didn't get the timing quite right with the fade of the Necrotic Aura and my cast of PoH and I don't think anyone got healed that round. What I didn't know was that Lotheb was almost dead at that point, and before the aura faded again he was down for good. The best part? Lotheb's was the only death XD

Not a single raid member died during the fight, whether those who could heal themselves did while the aura was down, I don't know, it's possible, but I do know that everyone (including Darwe) was impressed with my l33t heals. I was quite happy with myself :)

Gates of Dawn, Episode 1: Obsidian Sanctum

Here's our first web comic, enjoy! :)


We'll officially introduce characters in later episodes, but here's a quick reference:
-First Panel: Calinette (human warlock), Drenath (draenei paladin), Mordecai (Nayana's worg pet from Ramps), Nayana (draenei hunter), and Rawne (gnome death knight)
-Second Panel: Drenath, Ladelyia (me, night elf hunter), Bagheera (my nightsaber pet), Garaba (human priest), and Alendia (human paladin)

Not pictured yet is Supersamerai and Alindras, and just about all of us are wearing our guild tabards (the blue and white things). Calinette is not wearing one because that toon runs with our "sister" guild, Broken Kingdom, and doesn't usually wear tabards anyway. Anyway, hope you liked it, we've got plenty more in the works! XD