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Feast of Winter Veil 2010 Guide

Thursday, December 16, 2010, posted by WoW Fan at 4:04 PM

The Feast of Winter Veil is the typical year end winter seasonal holiday with snow, gnomes in holiday gear, presents, cookies, and other seasonal themes in the wonderful world of warcraft. Unlike other holidays, there isn’t a huge focus on loot or character advancement. Instead the focus is on merriment, fun and just having a good time with your friends and guildies.

The following are the activities available during the holiday:

Type: Holiday Event

Date: December 15th – January 2nd

Location: Most Major Cities

Greatfather Winter

Greatfather Winter is visiting the great cities of Ironforge and Orgrimmar – courtesy of the fine folks of Smokywood Pastures and he’s spreading cheer in celebration for the Feast of Winter Veil. But, all the cheer-spreading is making Greatfather Winter hungry, and he’s looking for adventurers to get him his daily fix of milk and cookies.

Revelers

During the Feast of Winter Veil, the innkeepers bring out holiday decorations to provide a festive atmosphere for their patrons. Who knows what might happen if you /kiss a reveler standing near a sprig of mistletoe….

Smokeywood Pastures’ Missing Shipment

Smokeywood Pastures needs a few brave adventurers to investigate the disappearance of a shipment of holiday goods. Rumors are the shipment is in the possession of the Abominable Greench, found somewhere in the snowy regions of the Alterac Mountains.

Metzen the Reindeer

Disaster has struck! Metzen the Reindeer has been kidnapped! Metzen is one of Greatfather Winter’s eight reindeer – and property of Smokywood Pastures. The Jinglepocket Goblins have received two ransom letters from groups claiming to have Metzen. Concerned adventurers should visit Ironforge or Orgrimmar for more information.

Jinglepocket Goblins’ Fare Shops

The Jinglepocket Goblins have set up their seasonal fare shops in major cities. Adventurers can purchase many holiday favorites – including Greatfather’s Winter ale, candy canes, gingerbread cookie recipes, and mistletoes.

Snowballs

Whether you pick them up from your local vendor or ask a friendly engineer to craft them for you, no feast of Winter Veil is complete without some frozen projectile-weapons. Get your mitts on some snowballs and say, “Merry Feast of Winter Veil” the old-fashioned way!

Snowmen

Accompanying Greatfather Winter in his journeys across Azeroth are his loyal troops of snowmen. They can be found wandering around Ironforge and Orgrimmar, bringing with them the chill breath of winter into even the warmest climes.

Winter Veil Bosses

The denizens of the dungeons of Northrend are also getting into the holiday spirit, and some dungeon bosses even wear festive Winter Hats just like Greatfather Winter’s. Defeat a Winter Veil boss, and the boss’ hat is yours!

Winter Veil bosses of Northrend:

Grand Magus Telestra (The Nexus) – Red Winter Hat

Jedoga Shadowseeker (Ahn’Kahet: The Old Kingdom) – Red Winter Hat

Mage-Lord Urom (The Oculus) – Green Winter Hat

Cataclysm Winter Veil bosses

Deadmines (Heroic) – Admiral Ripsnarl

The Stone Core (Normal + Heroic) – High Priestess Azil

Blackrock Caverns (Normal + Heroic) – Corla, Herald of Twilight

Shadowfang Keep (Heroic) – Lord Godfrey

Grim Batol (Normal + Heroic) – Drahga Shadowburner

From December 25th to January 2nd only

Gift-Giving

In the quiet, early hours of the 25th of December, the industrious goblins of Smokywood Pastures are already awake. As a much-deserved reward for the noble adventurers throughout Azeroth, these generous harbingers of the holidays deposit gifts underneath the decorated trees in Orgrimmar and Ironforge. Keep a keen eye out for these presents, as they’re there for the taking!

Event History

The later seasons of Azeroth are marked as a time of change in many cultures. The Dwarves and the Tauren especially look to a legend of the coming Winter Veil – the blanketing of the land in snow, thus heralding a time of renewal – as a time for celebration.

The term “Winter Veil” is said to stem from a supernatural being referred in many cultures to as Greatfather Winter. As he would walk the land late in the seasons, winter itself would be his billowing cloak. In his wake was the blanketing of the land in snow, and thus it is said that Greatfather Winter would cast his wintry veil over the land. Though parts of Azeroth may lie in snow, it gives the land time for rebirth and renewal.

The idea of feasting during this time of year is one that traces its origins to the legend itself. As Greatfather Winter walked Azeroth, it is said he would provide a bounty for those who welcomed his presence. As such, the idea of feasting during the winter veil would bring together communities as they shared whatever they had. Typically, a single day of merriment and feasting welcomed the change, all in anticipation of the land’s renewal.

Other cultures have begun to recognize the Feast of Winter Veil as a time of great celebration, though not in the same traditions as the legend bases it in. Customs, often unrelated to anything other than a chance for celebration and gift exchange, have made their way into modern observation of the season. Even the image of Greatfather Winter is sometimes used, but more as a harbringer of commercial exploit rather than as a supernatural titan.

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Grim Batol Instance Guide

Friday, December 10, 2010, posted by WoW Fan at 5:18 PM

Grim Batol is a mountain fortress located in the eastern Wetlands. It has great walls and spires that reach toward a steel-gray sky, but the stronghold’s bulk is underground. Founded by Wildhammer dwarves and later captured by orcs, a flight of red dragons now command Grim Batol. The dragons guard a secret power within the fortress and let no one near.

ENTRANCE LOCATION

Notable Trash
After clearing two or three trash groups, you will notice a number of dragons that are tied down. Free them for the next stage.

It is now possible to ride these drakes. When you mount them, your action bar will change, like any other vehicle. You will only have one attack, the dragon’s breath.

Press 1 on your keyboard then click on the ground to shoot your flame breath. As you fly over the instance, use the breath to damage all of the trash between there and the final boss. It is possible, if planned perfectly, to kill all of the trash in the instance except those directly by the forge, and the last boss. Usually however, you’ll damage most groups to about half HP, possibly killing one or two. Either way, the more effectively you use the dragons, the faster the rest of the instance will be.

BOSS GUIDE

General Umbriss

Abilities:

Bleeding Wound – Deals weapon damage as well as an additional ~10,000 Physical damage every 2 seconds for 10 seconds or until the target is healed to at least 90% health.
Blitz – General Umbriss charges an enemy location, dealing physical damage and knocking them up if impacted!
Frenzy – General Umbriss goes into a frenzy, increasing his attack speed by 50% and his Physical damage by 50%.
Ground Siege – Inflicts 60,000 Physical damage to all players and stuns them for 4 seconds.

Notes:

1. Heal the Bleeding Wound targets quickly.
2. Spread out to avoid multiple players getting hit by Blitz.
3. One of the adds spawned will be larger than the others, and purple in colour. This add must be killed away from the boss, or it will cause him to frenzy. Do this by either having a DPS taunt it, stun it away from the boss, death grip, Distracting shot, whatever works to get that add away from the boss.
4. This is the key component of the fight, as when he frenzies, a blitz will one shot even a Tank.

Forgemaster Throngus

Abilities:

Disorienting Roar – The Disorienting Shout decreases cast and attack speed by 50% per charge, depleting a charge every time an ability is cast. Starts with 3 charges.
Impaling Slam – Charges an enemy, impaling it and inflicting 19500 to 20500 Fire damage every 1 sec for 5 sec.
Mighty Stomp – The Mighty Stomp creates a Cave In.
Pick Weapon – The Forgemaster ponders which weapon he wants to use to bludgeon his enemies.
- Mace - Throngus gains Encumbered, reducing his movement speed by 70%, but increasing his physical damage by 300%.
- Shield - Throngus gains Personal Phalanx, decreasing damage taken from the front by 99%. Also summons Twilight Archers that cannot be targeted, but attack with Flaming Arrows.
- Swords – Throngus gains Dual Blades, increasing his chance to hit by 20%, and giving each of his attack chance to gain 2 extra attacks.

Notes:

1. For Mace, have a hunter taunt, or simply kite the boss until the buff expires, dps will have to watch threat as the tank will get pounded trying to TPS.
2. For Shield, the boss will also breathe fire directed at a random party member, which will continue either until the shield buff expires, or no party members are standing in the flame. Constantly move from this ability as it hurts, a lot. Healer should switch to AoE heals as tank damage is minimal.
3. For swords, simply use a Tank or Healer cooldown to get through it. Tank and spank here.
4. Avoid the created cave ins, shown by the shower of rocks, much like the earth adds in VoA.
5. There are a pair of lone NPCs which patrol between certain mob groups. Pull them mid patrol, so they’re not next to any of the other groups. When agroed, they will summon a Twilight Drake to assist them, DPS it as per normal. Only thing to note here is the dragon spawns fire on the ground. Move out of it.

Drahga Shadowburner

Abilities:

Phase 1: 100% – 20%

Burning Shadowbolt – Inflicts 14625 to 15375 Shadowflame damage.
Invocation of Flame – Summons a Invoked Flaming Spirit that fixates on a target. When the Spirit reaches its target it causes a Supernova, inflicting 48750 to 51250 Fire damage in a 0 yard radius around the Spirit.
Twilight Protection – Protected by the aura of the Twilight, Drahga takes 90% less damage!

Phase 2: 20%

Devouring Flames – Devouring Flames inflicts 50000 Shadow damage every 1 sec, the damage is lower the further the target is from the origin of the Devouring Flames.
Shredding Swipe – The brutal Shredding Swipe inflicts 100% weapon damage and tears a rift to the Twilight Realm.
Twilight Shift – Valiona shifts into the twilight, allowing her to escape without harm!

Notes:

1. This is a two boss, two phase fight. The first boss is an NPC with less than a mil HP, he will die relatively quickly. Get him to 20% and he will spawn the 2nd boss with the usual expected HP. When this second boss is brought to 10%, it will fly away, and the first boss will return. The fight ends when his HP drops from the original 20%, to 0.
2. Throughout the entire fight, the highest priority of DPS will always be the adds. Large fire elementals will spawn randomly throughout the room, and after a moment, target a random play and move towards them, much like the PP gases in ICC. Like the gases, run away from the adds until they pick their target (shown by a beam of orange flame) then burn them as fast as possible.
3. These adds have no agro table, and are susceptible to every trick in the book. Stuns, slows, knock backs, the works. Use anything available to stop the add reaching its target, as if it makes contact, it will deal upwards of 120k damage; an almost guaranteed 1 shot. This damage is AoE.

In phase 2:

4. Fire will spawn randomly throughout the room, and simply must be avoided, not a huge issue.
5. For the Tank, the boss will spawn a large pool of magma beneath the tank’s feet, and they must move out of this quickly. Be careful when moving, as you don’t want to move towards an add that has you targeted.
6. Devouring Flames is a mana drain on the healer more-so than a raid wiper. The group members have two options here. If you’re near the boss’ pivot point in the room, simply move behind it when it turns to cast devouring flames, however if you cannot make it within a few steps, move as far away from the boss as you can, as it does less damage the further away you are. The Tank should never be hit by this ability.

Erudax

Abilities:

Binding Shadows – The Bindings Shadows drains 0 life every 5 sec and root players within 0 yards of the target for until cancelled.
Enfeebling Blow – The Enfeebling Blow inflicts 75% weapon damage as Shadow damage, knocking the target back and causing their mind to become feeble.
Shadow Gale – Channels a Gale of Shadows inflicting increasing Shadow damage over time to enemies that are not in the eye of the Shadow Gale.
Summon Faceless Corruptor – Summons 2 Faceless Corruptors at the entrance of the room. The Faceless will try to run to any egg an use Twilight Corruption on it. On successful cast, the egg will spawn two Twilight Hatchlings. The Corruptors will also try to use Umbral Mending on Erudax. And finally, they will cast Siphon Essence

Notes:

1. Enfeebling blow, when used on the tank, should be used as a period to kite the boss until the debuff expires.
2. The Faceless Corruptors’ healing spell that is cast on the boss can be interrupted.

These adds will only cast their spells when they reach their designated positions in the room and they have no agro table. They are immune to stuns, but slows are still effective. They should be burned quickly to avoid consequences, as the dps do not need to worry about pulling agro.

3. The eye of Shadow Gale is not definitively outlined; stand as close to the centre as you can to avoid excess ticks.
4. It is possible to DPS the boss while inside the gale, however threat may be an issue as the Tank may be unable to TPS the boss due to range issues.
5. Binding Shadows will root players with a magical debuff and drain their health. This lasts until the target is dispelled, or freed from the movement restriction by Hand of Freedom or equivalent. It is possible to avoid the transparent rotating cloud if you react fast enough.
6. The issue here will be two things, Healer mana, and boss HP. If the adds get their heals off, unless your DPS is insane, it’s almost a guaranteed wipe.

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Blackrock Caverns Instance Guide

, posted by WoW Fan at 5:05 PM

Blackrock Caverns is the first of two new wings in Blackrock Spire introduced in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. It is designed as a 5-man instance for players level 80 to 81. It is a series of tunnels created by Deathwing from the Twilight Highlands to Blackrock Mountain. Here the twisted Twilight's Hammer clan is transporting their supplies back and forth from the highlands and practicing the mysterious dark arts that transform the zealots into dragonspawn. The forces here are led by the Ascendant Lord Obsidius.

Players will need to be level 80 and find the entrance to Blackrock Caverns in order to use the Dungeon Finder for the instance. The entrance is just off of the main ring in Blackrock Mountain on the non-jumping path to Blackrock Spire. Head to the eastern side of the ring to see the summoning stone for Blackrock Spire and follow the path. As it turns north there is a blockade blocking the way. Look right to see the instance line.

ENTRANCE LOCATION

BOSS GUIDE

Rom’ogg Bonecrusher

Abilities:

Call for Help - Rom’ogg calls for nearby minions to assist him.
Quake – Inflicts 3,000 Physical damage every second to all players within 40 yards of Rom’ogg. Lasts 3 seconds.
Wounding Strike – Inflicts 125% weapon damage to the current target and reduces healing done by 25% for 10 seconds.
Chains of Woe - Summons Chains of Woe around all players, rendering them unable to move for 20 seconds or until the Chains are destroyed. Starts casting The Skullcracker immediately after.
The Skullcracker – Inflicts ~100,000 Shadow damage to all players within 10-15 yards of Rom’ogg. Begins casting immediately after Chains of Woe. Has 8 seconds cast time.

Notes:

1. It is recommended you clear all of the adds near Rom’ogg before you engage him, this should avoid unnecessary deaths to adds.

2. Number One DPS priority in this fight is the Chains of Woe. The Boss will pull the entire group in next to him, and shackle them with Chains of Woe. Like bosses such as Blood princes, the chains have a shared health pool, so DPS whichever is closest (or furthest, Hunters).

3. As soon as Chains of Woe is cast, the boss will begin to cast The Skullcracker, which at lower tiers of gear, and even at higher ones, is a guaranteed, immediate, group wipe.

4. Kill the Chains, and then move at least 20 yards from the boss. This includes the Tank. The boss will not move while casting The Skullcracker, so make use of your boot enchants or talents, and get a running.

5. The boss will periodically summon a number of adds, these should be picked up by the Tank, and DPSed down. Lower kill order priority than Chains of Woe. DPS, watch your cleaves, the Tank’s job is hard enough as is.

6. Note, it is also possible to kill the adds using the boss’ Skullcracker. Doing so will require a well timed Frost Nova or other such effect, or some skilled positioning from the Tank.
7. A Cooldown, either from the healer or the Tank, is recommended, for Wounding Strike, as when combined with adds, this can and will cause issues.
8. Unless you have some extreme range, you’re going to be hit by Quake. Defensive cooldowns from the DPS are never a bad thing, especially in lower levels of gear. Save a wipe, save Healer mana.
9. The really really big mobs here have an attack which -must- be interrupted.
10. They are patrols to careful not to aggro one when dealing with another pack.

Corla, Herald of Twilight

Abilities:

Aura of Acceleration – Increases the movement speed by 50% and attack speed by 100% of all Twilight Cultists within 50 yards of Corla.

Dark Command - Inflicts 7,500 Shadow damage every second to a random player, and causes them to flee in terror. Lasts 4 seconds.

Death Grip – Draws a random player to Corla.

Drain Essence – Corla channels nether energies in a beam from the nether dragon’s corpse by the ceiling to the three Twilight Zealots. The beams stack Evolution on their target every second.

Evolution - The target of the nether beams gains a stack of Evolution every second they stay in the beam. When Evolution reaches 100 stacks, players are affected by Twilight Evolution, and Zealots become Evolved Twilight Zealots.

Twilight Evolution – Brings a player under Corla’s control, increasing their health by 600%. Lasts 5 minutes.

Evolved Twilight Zealot – Twilight Zealots with 100 stacks of Evolution become Evolved. Evolved Zealots have Force Blast, Gravity Strike, Grievous Whirl, and Shadow Strike.

Notes:

1. The first thing you may notice is the Boss, accompanied by a trio of kneeling Zealots.

2. The aim with this fight is relatively simplistic, kill the boss and don’t let any of the adds evolve.

3. The Zealots are passive until they are evolved, and do not need to be Tanked.

4. It is recommended you eliminate the patrol that moves in front of the boss, down on the floor from the ramp before pulling the boss. If a fear gets off, you don’t want more mobs pulled.
5. For this fight you will need 3 volunteers, one for each Zealot.
6. What each person must do, is position themselves between the Zealots and the incoming purple beams. The beams will stack Evolution on the target closest to the origin. The aim here is to stop Evolution from reaching 100 stacks, on either the Zealots or players. Do this by moving in and out of the beam, resetting your stacks in between. The recommended number of stacks to look for is 75. Get to 75, and move out of the beam, let the Zealot take the stacks until yours reset, then re-enter the beam. Continue this until the boss is dead.
7. You will need to assign at least one person to watch for Dark Command. A 2 second cast, if this is not interrupted, it can spell almost instant disaster. Don’t let her complete the cast.
8. The Tank should attempt to hold the boss in front of the central Zealot, as this will allow any melee DPS who are controlling Evolution stacks, to also DPS the boss.

It is possible for a Healer to control stacks on a Zealot, and is recommended in situations where your group is heavy on Melee. It is also possible for the Tank to control the stacks on a Zealot; however this will take a lot of awareness and coordination and is only recommended as a last resort.

9. As a come all, end all; Iceblock and equivalents can be used to clear any Evolution stacks.
10. If an add transforms, or worse a team mate, it is almost a guaranteed wipe. Gravity Strike deals 60% of the target’s current HP as damage. It will never outright kill you, as with 1k HP it would do 600 damage, but combined with Shadow Strike, which deals 70,000 Shadow damage *from behind* the target… I think you get the picture.
11. If you get Death Gripped out of a beam you were interrupting, use this as a chance to reset your stacks. Do not immediately return to the add, as the timers on the Evolution stacks will differ, and you or the Zealot may well end up transforming.
12. You will notice here, a pair of roaming fire elementals and a vast number of silver ‘blobs’ all around the room.The two elementals must be killed, they are the ‘trash’. The blobs are Quicksilver.When an elemental is near a Quicksilver, the quicksilver will heat up, and form an NPC which acts as any other mobs and must be tanked.Pull the elementals back into the doorway, away from the majority of the Quicksilver. The the NPC, ignore the Quicksilver, as after a few seconds of the elemental being killed, the Quicksilver will re-harden back into a ‘blob’.

Karsh Steelbender

Abilities:

Quicksilver Armor – Reduces all damage taken by 99%.
Superheated Quicksilver Armor - Increases damage taken by 5% per stack. Melee attacks inflict 2,000 Fire damage per stack to everyone in the room. Lasts 12 seconds, refreshed with new applications. Stacks every second Karsh remains in the central pillar of molten metal.
Cleave - Inflicts 110% weapon damage to players in front of Karsh.

Notes:

1. When looking at the boss before the pull, he will have Quicksilver Armor activated at all times.

2. Begin the pull with the boss on the far side of the room from the group, as this will cause him to run through the central pillar of Lava to reach the group, and spend very little time in the beam itself.
3. The boss needs to be pulled through the lava beam in order for the Quicksilver Armor to become Superheated, and allow DPS to commence.
4. Once heated, the boss’ armour remains heated for 12 seconds, before he will need to be re-dunked in fire.
5. The longer the boss is kept in the Lava, the more damage he will deal and receive.

It is best to aim for something about 5 stacks. Too high and it becomes unhealable.

6. The boss cleaves. This is a responsibility of the DPS just as much as the Tank to make sure they’re not taking damage. Work with your Tank, not against them.
7. Whenever Superheated Quicksilver Armor drops off the boss, a wall of flame will erupt around the central circle of the encounter area. Be sure you’re not standing in it.
8. Pools of Lava will spawn beneath the feet of players. Much like Firefighter in Ulduar, simply stack the group up on one spot, and move in one direction whenever the lava spawns. This will stop it getting out of control.

The Pools of Lava also have the same effect as the Lava Pillar in the centre of the room. The longer the boss stands in one, the more damage he takes and gives. This can either be a blessing or a curse, either way; don’t let him stand in a puddle or a pillar too long.

9. During the fight, a number of Flame adds will spawn, Unless you’re a Hunter or a Rogue, I’d recommend leaving these be until the Tank has them under control, then burn them.
10. Directly after the previous boss, there are a pair of trash groups on either side of the path onwards into the instance. It is recommended you pull these back into the area where you fought the previous boss, as a pair of fire elementals patrol next to the trash groups, and will agro on sight.
11. These groups contain casters, so either have a Hunter MD with the Tank standing a good distance back, or simply silence, Death Grip, etc to get them all within a workable area.

Beauty

Abilities:

Berserker Charge – Charges a random player, inflicting ~17,000 Physical damage and knocking them back.
Flamebreak – Inflicts ~12,000 Fire damage to all players within 10 yards, knocking them back.
Magma Spit - Inflicts ~4,000 Fire damage to a random target, as well as another 4,000 every 3 seconds for 9 seconds. Explodes when removed.
Terrifying Roar – Causes all players to flee in fear for 5 sec.

Notes:

1. Boss + 3 ‘Puppies’

2. CC Puppy on the left, and Puppy on the right. Preferably by first pulling them to near the entrance to Beauty’s chamber so they’re out of the way.
3. Kill the central Pup’. Then Kill the boss, remembering to reapply CC to the other Puppies.
4. Spread out to avoid Magma Spit hitting multiple targets.
5. You may wish to Tank the boss against a wall, so Flamebreak will not cause unnecessary boss movement.
6. Pretty basic “Tank ‘n’ Spank” with some CC thrown in to boot.

Ascendant Lord Obsidius

Abilities:

Stone Blow – Inflicts 150% melee damage and knocks the target down.
Thunderclap – Inflicts ~12,000 Physical damage to all players around Obsidius. Also reduces movement speed of the affected targets by 50% for 8 seconds.
Twilight Corruption – Inflicts 8,000 Shadow damage every 2 seconds for 12 seconds.

Notes:

1. The Boss comes with bonus adds that are required to be kited.

2. There are 3 adds in total, which, when in melee range of their target, reduce the healing received by that target.
3. These adds are unusual, as they posses a buff labelled only as ‘Twitchy’. In short, rather than attack the target with the highest threat, like most other NPCs, they will attack the *latest* target to generate threat.
4. A DoT is highly recommended here, or a multi target ability like Multi-Shot. The Adds can be Slowed, Rooted, Stunned, etc. Use this to your advantage.

5. Periodically the boss will switch places and posses one of the adds being kited. The Tank must immediately retrieve the boss, while simultaneously avoid adding threat to the ex-boss, turned add, that must be pulled away from the group and kited.

6. Be careful when kiting too close to the boss, Thunderclap will land you in trouble very quickly. Have a Hand of Freedom or equivalent ready just in case.
7. Twilight Corruption can be dispelled, and it is recommended to do so.

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