You Lost Me At It Costs Emblems

In episode 22 of the Hunting Party Podcast we answered an e-mail from a listener asking  if they should save their emblems to buy four pieces of T10 or get the Herkuml War Token. The answer we gave was to acquire the four pieces of T10, and every other badge piece first.

Prior to patch 3.3's release we took a good hard look at all of the gear that was coming out, and what would reasonably be available to us based on the content we'd be running.

We gave the Herkuml War Token a lot of consideration and even took one out for a test drive recently (you can buy one and return it).

The gating issue for us was not its performance, but that we were running ICC (10) and ICC (25) and likely to get Whispering Fanged Skull and Deathbringer's Will (both superior items). The trinket also costs emblems, and the list of badge gear that we prioritized above this trinket was quite extensive. Let's take a look,

1. Ahn'Kahar Blood Hunter's Spaulders (purchased)
2. Ahn'Kahar Blood Hunter's Tunic (purchased)
3. Recovered Scarlet Onslaught Cape (purchased)
4. Logsplitters (purchased)
5. Primordial Saronite for a pair of Rock-Steady Treads (we bought three with badges and a couple from the AH).
6. Ahn'Kahar Blood Hunter's Headpiece (purchased)
7. Ahn'Kahar Blood Hunter's Handguards (not purchased and will only buy if Toravon refuses to cooperate).
8. Band of the Night Raven (not purchased, and may not get).
9. Herkuml War Token (not purchased and no longer needed).

The first three items and the boots are ones that we may very well be taking into Cataclysm. The Logsplitters and Band of the Night Raven will be replaced once we have four pieces of 264 T10, and that may take a while.

Now in the course of gathering our badges we killed Lady Deathwhisper ten times and she dropped Whispering Fanged Skull twice. We killed Deathbringer Saurfang nine times he dropped Deathbringer's Will five times.

Had we purchased a Herkuml War Token it would now be replaced and we'd be sixty badges behind where we want to be. So while the math may show that the Herkuml War Token is surprisingly good, for us, as a gear choice, it was surprisingly bad.

If you're running ICC 10/25 then we recommend patience as these trinkets do drop. If you're not running ICC, that probably means you're running heroics in which case the fights are too short, and badges are in such short supply that it doesn't justify getting it either.

Bottom line, think long and hard about this trinket, and try before you buy.

Lady Deathwhisper Must Die!

This is the second boss in Icecrown Citadel and the first one that has that we're not in Kansas anymore feel to it.  Stuff you can't stand in, adds, mind control, crowd control, focused fire; this fight has it all.

I won't go so far as to say you've hit a wall with this one (I'll save that for Deathbringer Saurfang), but it will serve as your first real test in Icecrown Citadel (even with the recent nerf).

Our strategy for 10 and 25-man are vastly different.  In 10-man the entire raid gets up on stage behind the boss.  All of phase one is conducted in this area.  When the adds spawn we start to dps them down as they make their way to the stage.  We just found that it was easier to contain things and keep everyone in range doing it this way.

For the 25-man encounter we like to split up our raid into groups.  We have a group handling the adds on the left, a group handling adds on the right.  We assign a tank to the add in the back and rotate in a dps to handle the back add based on the type of add that spawns.  We also have two dedicated dps on the boss for all of phase one.  Sadly, I'm not one of them.

Instead of that cushy job, I am given the following assignments,

1. DPS the mana shield when there are no adds up.
2. DPS the adds that spawn to the right-side of the boss.  The right side always has two adherents and one fanatic.
3. DPS any remaining adds after our group's add are dead.
4. Backup CC on the mind control.  Mages and Shamans are primary on this for our group.
5. Watch my darn threat in phase two.
6. Don't stand in the Death and Decay.
7. Avoid the ghosts that are spawned in phase two.

Phase I - Handling the Adds

In phase one the goal of the raid is to DPS down Lady D's mana shield.  Once the shield is down you can engage Lady D directly and burn her down.  For Lady D in phase one you should,

• Put your pet on the boss.
• Use Serpent Sting unless you need mana and then use Viper Sting (a couple of these can really keep you out of viper for the whole fight).

There are two types of adds that spawn, fanatics and adherents.  The left side will always spawn two fanatics and one adherent, and the right side will always spawn two adherents and one fanatic.

My raid puts me in a group to handle adds on the right side.  We like to burn down the adherents first and I always MD adds to the tank.  Normal versions of the fanatics and adherents can be killed by anyone.  Lady D, however, likes to empower, reanimate them and more.  You need to pay special attention to when this happens as the adds will become immune to certain types of damage.  If you're not careful you can find yourself wasting precious mana and cool downs on the wrong type of mob.

The recommended kill priority for adds is,

1. Deformed Fanatic - They can't be tanked, must be kited, and must burned down pronto!  They are the most dangerous.
2. Empowered Adherents - Cast AoE spells and cannot be interrupted.
3. Reanimated Adherents - Immune to magical damage, should be handled by physical DPS classes.
4. Cult Adherents - Although these are just the normal mobs they cast Curse of Torpor which increases the cool down on abilities by 15 seconds.  It can and must be decursed; it's best not to keep these guys around.
5. Reanimated Fanatics - Immune to physical damage and should be handled by magic classes.
6. Cult Fanatics - They do a bunch of melee stuff.

Phase II - The Money Phase

For hunters we don't need to do a whole lot. Keep Misdirects up on the tanks as Lady D will cast Touch of Insignificance which reduces the target's threat. If you're not careful you can draw aggro very fast here.  Also, she will spawn ghosts that just need to be avoided.  They can't be killed and will eventually explode for a lot of damage.  If you're being chased by one, please don't run towards people.

Mind Control

Throughout the entire fight Lady D will occasionally mind control a player.  Standard MC rules apply here.  Crowd Control them, and don't kill them.  I repeat, no matter how much you hate the person, don't kill them.  We usually have a mage and shaman ready to take care of this, but as you know, Hunters can fill this role too.  Keep that Freezing Arrow at the ready.

Thing a Hunter Might Want

This is some of the better hunter loot available to us.  The trinket is great, the legs are better than our T10, and the Zod's bow is as good as it gets for now (in fact I've seen it drop twice now and still don't have it :( ).

Item	iLevel	Item Type	Slot	Source
Njordnar Bone Bow	251	Bow	Ranged	10-man
Whispering Fanged Skull	251	Trinket	Trinket	10-man
Zod's Repeating Longbow	264	Bow	Ranged	25-man
Leggings of Northern Lights	264	Mail	Legs	25-man

Don't Take My Word for It - Resources and Other Guides

• Tank Spot - Lady Deathwhisper
• Warcraft Hunters Union - Lady Deathwhisper Hunter Strats in ICC
• OutDPS - Hunting Lady Deathwhisper
• Stabilized Effort Scope - Icecrown Citadel: Dear Deathwhisper, damage immunities suck

MMQB: Deck the Halls

It's Monday and the first raid reset of patch 3.3 is about to come to close.  This week I want to share my thoughts on the new dungeon tool, Icecrown Citadel, and more.

Dungeon Finder

First off, I love the new dungeon finder.  I've had great luck with random pugs and random dungeons.  It appears that the dungeon finder is filled with the holiday spirit and is decking the halls left and right. It selected Halls of Stone, Halls of lightning and Halls of Reflection more than any other dungeon for me.  The luck of the draw buff is a great bonus as well.

Regarding moving onto another guild, I'm beginning to think that the grass may not be greener on the other side.  From a 10-man raiding perspective my current guild is quite good.

Icecrown Citadel

I love it!  I was very surprised to see our ten man group go in and clear all four bosses the first week.  We needed about six attempts for Marrowgar, we one shot Lady Deathwhisper, and we needed a bunch of attempts for the Gunship and Saurfang.  Saurfang was by far the toughest encounter, and I had to spend a fair bit of time kiting adds (not my favorite thing to do).

The thing about Saurfang is this fight gets tougher as you get closer to the end.  Contrast that with Lady D, where once you get to phase 2 you've pretty much won.  We managed to get the I've Gone and Made a Mess achievement.  Quite frankly I can't imagine downing him without getting it.

Our 25-man team was not nearly as productive.  We didnt' have our regular compliment of raiders (especially healers) so that made our task all the more difficult.  We did four attempts on Marrowgar before calling it.  I was not happy about this.  Wiping isn't fun, but it's essential to progression.  The only way you learn the fights is to keep trying.  I know that I was getting better with each attempts and really would have liked some looks.  Hopefully we'll have our A-team this week and give it a serious try.

Still, it was only the first week, and we have some solid raiders as evidenced by our two 10-man groups.  I can't imagine that we won't be DE'in all the Marrowgar gear or extending lockouts sooner than later.

Gear Watch

I'm off to good start with gear.  It's funny, I really went on a dry streak regarding range weapons, and now they seem to be raining from the sky.  Hopefully bodes well for Zod's.  Here are a few things I picked up this past week.

• Njordnar Bone Bow
• Runed Band of the Kirin Tor
• Crusader's Dragonscale Bracers (yeah I waited until badges were easy to get, and orb prices dropped before I had these made).

Ten Things I'm Thinking About

1. No more "Don't forget the quest item" when running heroics.  I like this.
2. There is a decided lack of range weapons in ICC (25).  "Kneel before him" is right since Zod's will be the hunter weapon of choice for a while.
3. My heroic runs with random groups have been better than my heroic runs with mostly guildies.
4. I got the Don't Look Up achievement in a completely random pug.  Talk about pure luck.
5. I got the I've Gone and Made a Mess achievement in ICC (10).  This is one where I can't imagine being able to defeat the boss without getting it.
6. That fact that I chose Gnomish Engineering back in Vanilla, seems like the lucky choice (at least until I get a gun).
7. Blizzard is going proc. crazy with items in the this patch.  Even the exalted ring from the Ashen Verdict has one.
8. It was very refreshing to see new raid content.  Of course I said the same thing the first time I entered TotC. /cautionary tale off.
9. Jaina, Fordring, and Muradin are some of the chattiest npcs I've ever seen.
10. This week is a four day week, followed by another four day week, followed by three day week.  It's the most wonderful time of the year...

ICC Preview: Lady Deathwhisper

This is real simple, if you don’t want to know squadoosh about the Icecrown Citadel raid then don’t bother reading this article.  My definition of a spoiler, however, is going into a raid encounter not knowing what to do, so I’ve been doing a little homework on the first four bosses that will be available when patch 3.3 is released.

Today’s article is about Lady Deathwhisper, the second boss you’ll face.

Please note that this is just one of three videos that folks over at Tank Spot recommended for viewing.

Unlike Marrowgar this fight is going to be a real test.  It's all about getting to Phase II.  Phase I looks like a real cluster with lots of adds running around.

Crowd control will be useful (especially priest's Shackle ability).  Also focused targeting of certain adds will be important.  Players will get mind controlled and will need to be CC'd when that happens.  All of these things are part of Phase I.  If you make it to phase two the fight becomes more or less a tank and spank.

Resources

• Tank Spot Pre-Guide

My Thoughts for Hunters

• Phase I requires a ranged tank, but I do not think Hunters will be used to fill this role.
• We'll be trying to burn down her mana shield.
• We'll be DPSing adds
• We may have to help with CC on both adds and MC targets.
• Oh and stay out of the green stuff.

Loot

[EDIT: Since I published this article MMO-Champion updated their database with items from this boss]

Item	iLevel	Item Type	Slot	Source
Handgrips of Frost and Sleet	251	Mail	Hands	10-man
Njordnar Bone Bow	251	Bow	Ranged	10-man
Leggings of Northern Lights	264	Mail	Legs	25-man