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Written by Unfair
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Wednesday, 08 July 2009 19:32 |
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 On only the second attempt, Cult of Reason has downed General Vezax. The twelfth and penultimate boss of Ulduar 25, the General Vezax fight is unique. Mana regenerations simply does not work during the fight.
Shamans, paladins, and hunters found that the only mana regeneration talents that had any effect were Shamanistic Rage, Judgements of the Wise and Aspect of the Viper--but no other talent, potion, or ability allowed for mana regeneration. As resto druid Hurrndan put it "My Innervate does... nothing?" Sorry Hurrn, nothing.
Periodically, General Vezax released a gas cloud into the raid. Healers and other mana users were delighted to find that the limited number of clouds that appeared could be attacked to release a puddle of mana, providing the only mana source during the fight. Rogues, standing immediately behind the General, were less fond of these periodic gas emmisions.
Healing lead Aireous made the crucial discovery that the mana puddles lasted long enough for each healer to get two charges of mana from them--provided the healer jumped in and out immediately, and in again right before it despawned.
In addition to melee attacks that registerd as high as 20k on plate, the General periodically cast Shadow Crush and Searing Flames. Shadow Crush is a 6k shadow damage missile that erupted into a 20 second area of effect debuff on landing. The shadow crush debuff increased magical damage dealt by 100%, casting speed by 100%, reducing healing done by 75%, and reducing mana costs by 75%.
More devastating, the Searing Flames effect dealt 16k fire damage and applied a 10 second debuff that reduced armor by 75% to everyone within 100 yards of the general. Even one Searing Flames effect could cripple a tank and wipe the raid. To keep the Searing Flames effect in check, combat rogue Xenoseer organized a cadre of rogues and death knights with rotating interupts.
A nail biting fight, when it ended the General dropped Lotrafen, Spear of the Damned (looted by death knight Oronra) and what is currently the best in slot feral druid idol: Idol of the Corruptor. Wrratth, who bear tanked the fight, was able to pick up the idol for a 10 point bid.
When asked how the guild was able to down the General in only two attempts, raid members had different comments. Raid leader Ergalendon attributed part of the success to effective management of Vezax's vapor clouds, noting that only eight could be spawned during the fight. Interupting Searing Flames was also a crucial element. As combat rogue Xenoseer observed, "We just kicked his butt."
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Last Updated on Friday, 10 July 2009 19:39 |
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New Faces, Fresh Underwear |
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Written by Unfair
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Wednesday, 24 June 2009 19:57 |
 Cult of Reason has Underwear again. Yes, we're all thrilled that holy priest Underwear has returned to our raiding program, fresh and ready to raid. With many core raiders enjoying summer holidays, we're seeing a lot of new faces. This week especially was an opportunity for our casual raiders, some new recruits, and even some raiders from Black Temple days to come and explore Ulduar.
Veteran raiders including afflication/destro lock Damah and survival Hunter Bowflex joined this weeks raid. New to the crew were resto druid Guiche (pronounced like quiche, not gucci) and affliction lock Peff. A few raiding spots are still open in our Ulduar program, and ongoing recruitment continues.
Most bosses went down in one shot, with the one exception being the crazy cat woman Auriaya. With so many new raiders, this one gave us trouble. Eventually we put the cat to sleep and the guild cleared the bulk of Ulduar. Very little loot needed to be sharded this week and our new recruits got a huge jump on gearing for Ulduar.
Next week, with our most powerful raiders returning, the target will be General Vezax and Yogg-Saron. |
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Last Updated on Thursday, 09 July 2009 19:58 |
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Keepers of Ulduar Completed |
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Written by Unfair
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Thursday, 11 June 2009 18:21 |
We killed a gnome today. Rarely has that statement been made with more pride than when Cult of Reason downed Mimiron--the fourth and final Keeper of Ulduar. The Mimiron 25 man fight involves four stages, each stage with the wiley gnome Mimiron piloting a different mechanical monster.
 The first stage involved fighting an improved version of the flame leviathan. The Leviathan MKII was a straight up tank and spank (literally) with one twist. The tank (the gnomes tank, not ours) would periodically drop a circle of mines around itself and then initiate a shock blast--a 5 sec cast that does 100,000 nature damage to anyone within 15 yards of the tank. More melee died to the mines than the blast, but after a few attempts we learned to spot openings in the mine field as it went down and phase one became routine for the guild. Unfortunately, very routine as we had to repeat phase two many times.
In phase two, an elevator lifts Mimirons second creation to the arena floor. The VX-001 mechanical is a combination rocket launcher, assault cannon and gattling gun mounted on a spinner. Although it put a lot of pressure on our healers, we were able to deal with most of it's attacks. Periodically, the VX-001 would open up with a Rapid Burst attack that would arc across the room. Raiders who didn't stay ahead of the burst were cut down in seconds.
 Stage three of the fight introduced Mimiron's helicopter. The Aerial Command Unit would would launch 15k Plasma Balls at the target with highest threat while waves of Assault Bot, Trash Bot, and Bomb Bot mechanicals assualted the raid. The Assault Bots would drop a magentic core that raid members could loot and use to pull down Mimiron's Aerial Command Unit. Once grounded, melee made short work of the gnomes copter.
The it all started at once. For wave four, all three mechanical monsters re-emerged and combined into a Voltron like monster. With the MKII at the base, the VX-001 mounted on it, and the Aerial Command unit attached to the to of the Assault Cannon the three mechanicals attacked the raid in concert. Each mechanical retained separate health points and the three had to be killed within 10 seconds of each other or they would respawn. Melee focussed on the tank and assault cannon, while ranged dps was required to reach the command module. It took a lot of attempts, but today Cult of Reason conquered the 2' 4" terror of Ulduar and cleared the penultimate Ulduar zone. Next week we venture into the final zone of Ulduar to take on General Vezax and Yogg-Saron. |
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Last Updated on Thursday, 09 July 2009 18:25 |
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Written by Unfair
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Thursday, 28 May 2009 23:24 |
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 Mimiron's domain was guarded by an army of mechanicals. Especially daunting were spider-like machines that tore into our melee. In the course of one fight assassination rogue Oknark was able to slip into one of the spider machines and take control of it. Oknark was able to pilot the machine into a group of mechanical guards with devastating success. "Oh, I gotta get me one of those," commented guild leader Avarrice.
After cutting through Mimiron's defenses, the raid discovered that Mimiron's strong hold was accessed by an automated transport that the guild has nicknamed "the subway." The roller coaster like ride through the tunnels of Ulduar to the remote Spark of Imagination workshop may have been the high point of the night. After disembarking the transport, watching the transort land, and debating whether we should take another ride the guild moved on to Mimiron.
 Having defeated the towering, brutal titans Hodir, Thorim, and Freya--we found that the last Keeper of Ulduar was a 2' 4" tall mechanical ... gnome. Yes: the most fearsome creature in the third zone of Ulduar is ... a gnome. Seriously.
The engineer Mimiron appears to be the source of the various mechanical bosses in Ulduar and was found building a new version of the Flame Leviathan we had defeated when first entering Ulduar. There was also a familiar red button with a warning note saying "Do Not Press." After some examination, it was confirmed that the note didn't specifically mention guild leader Avarrice (as was initially suspected).
Our first night on Mimiron the raid made only a few attempts but we did discover that this fight involves four phases--defeating three separate mechanicals and then a Voltron like final creation that comes from combining each of the first three mini bosses. Having tested the Mimiron fight CoR is looking forward to taking on Mimiron in next weeks raiding. As the raid disbanded for the night, ending a week of Ulduar raiding, paladin tank Samejima proposed "Wait--one more ride on the subway!" |
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 03 June 2009 18:21 |
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Written by Unfair
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Thursday, 28 May 2009 22:14 |
We found Freya in the Convervatory of Life. A steamy jungle in the midst of Ulduar, the Convervatory was teaming with mobs. After clearing packs of mobs lead by three elder mini bosses, Cult of Reason took Freya's measure.
Freya is unkillable at the start of the fight. She enchants herself with heal over time spells that renew health faster even a full raid can take it away. So the fight had to focus on six wavs of adds she summoned every 60 seconds. Each time a wave of these adds was defeated, Freya lost some of her heal over time enchantments making her more vulnerable at the end of the fight.
The waves fell into one of three types. The ancinet covervator wave, involved a giant tree creature with brutal debuffs. The raid had to fight him from under sprouting mushrooms to protent themselves from the debuffs. Another wave invovled fragile Detonating Lasher's. Killing them was easy, but each time one died it exloded for 8k damage. These had to be single target DPS'd, as AOE attacks that brought down many of them at once would wipe the raid with the resulting explosion. The hardest wave though involved a trio of mini bosses that would resurrect each other 12 seconds after one died. Careful timing in killing all three at once was required to clear the wave.
 Throughout the whole encounter a thin, glowing tree called Eonar's Gift would grow somewhere near to Freya. The tree had 65k HP and would appear every 45 seconds. After 10 seconds the tree would heal Freya and all her summoned adds for 60% of their total health. Killing Eonar's Gift was a priority for all DPS.
With timing, coordination--and repeated reminders that AOE was not allowed--CoR cleared the six waves and removed all the heal over time buffs from Freya. Freya herself came down shortly after, leaving just enough raid time to make some initial attempts on the final Keeper of Ulduar: Mimiron. |
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 02 June 2009 22:15 |
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