Terenas Friday 4/14

[Xame]

For my build, which is arms, there is a different option that I'm not sure is faster or slower.  The basic idea is:
- someone with quick aggro build (hunter pet, shaman with earth shock, something like that) grabs ahold of the the first FF mob.
- 2H warrior charges and uses Sweeping strikes and WW and Cleave to hold the rest of the pull off the healers, damaging all of them in the meantime.
- after first FF target is down, either switch to AoE or FF the rest, probably FF.

I believe it is faster going shield and stick then pulling out the 2 hander. This gives the warrior time to build some aggro and the mage to drink. My frost bolts are more mana efficent and cause better damage then going all out aoe. Yes the AoE drops the mobs faster but in the long chain of pulls the FF works better for speed.

----------- drinking / eating ------------------
Usual habits are to only drink/eat when necessary, but I think on the 45 minute run a better strategy is to LOAD UP on the mage food and water and eat/drink in small bursts. 

This is the normal state of things. I normally start at 200 waters for myself and give everyone about 80 waters. I also keep a stack of bread for myself to help out the healers. But I always get a heal even when I'm down drinking and eating. We might shave a few seconds if everyone also takes some bread so we don't waste the mana for the flash heal.

Obviously the largest factor is practice.  There were several accidental steps into pulls that we shouldn't have pulled on Friday, we have to practice skipping pulls because they have to be skipped.  We have to get used to not being able to step places we can on a normal run.

I believe we need to make sure we make the pulls safe. Some of the time setting up a fancy pull would be better spent just killing some of the trash. In paticular, the three ghoul pull to the right, just when you start the timed area, (where we wiped on friday because of a mis-step) would be safer just to take them out. They are marked on the map as to be left alone but the would be quick and clean and would reduce the risk during the MC.

I believe if we think in terms of safe, clean pulls we should be able to make the 45 minutes. That is with each of us doing our job without having to resort to strange, non-standard tactics.

------------- Baron -----------------------
Shadow resist buff is incredibly nice.  I can't imagine making a serious attempt without having the resist buff.  We eventually did it with the shaman healing and no druid for even a minor amount of resist, but it was a real challenge.  With a shadow resist to cloak enchant I'll be sitting at 47, heroism belt will get me a set bonus with +8.  That should amount to 115 with shadow protection, which should be to a pretty significant damage reduction for the Baron, and I only had to sacrifice a few stats (mostly stamina from ring, bow and cloak, but a little strength and armor too)
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The trick to the barron is getting ready for the fight before the fight. That is, putting down the shadow resist and other buffs and getting back to full mana. If we have the time to prep, the fight should go smoothly.

As far as the mage standing in the aura, I've found that the fight goes better with the mage in the aura. The risk of a heal to the baron is unacceptable and the aoe splash damage on the baron is a good bit of extra dps in a 5 man. Also I would spend (and have spent) too much time running around in the aura to kill the healing skeletons and then back to the healer aggro skeletons. A good position in the aura just makes things run smoother with less running around. The down side is that the mage needs to watch his health with a health pot (and thus cannot use a mana pot). Also I am wearing mostly high int gear and not my normal +dmg set. This clothing change out will be a factor in the 45min run.

Oh; and shaman can heal the fight! Everyone just needs to play at the top of their game. But I would agree that the shadow protection buff puts the fight in easy mode :D . Don't be down on your healing Treesh, it was a great fight and I really enjoyed it and best of all, we drop him!!!

BTW. With the new AD trinket many of us have picked up since last Friday, some of the dps numbers should go up quite a bit. It, plus other gear that I won this week, give me a 20% boost in +dmg gear. Fear me now Barron......