I had great fun heading into the ICC Lower Spire with Wyrmfoe over the weekend, even if we did lose our only feral druid and the massive hunter buffs that are their reason for existing. We went in with a chunk of people who were still gearing up. People who, in fact, just the weekend before were getting upgrades from Naxx. But we figured what the hell, let’s go where we can get some real loot!
It was fun to get into it and start raiding with these people, many of whom had never set foot in ICC. It was even kind of fun (well, fun for me, I’ve no doubt most people hated us for it) to do our training runs on Marrowgar. We had some wipes on him and decided to focus on the basics — thus no one was allowed to dps Marrowgar at all. All we did was focus on the bone spikes and getting used to coldflame movement. The healers had a chance to get used to the target swapping from bone spike without crazy raid damage all over the place. It’s kinda stunning to look at the raid parse before and after the training runs — damage done spiked up like crazy, while damage taken was much, much more moderate. And then we got to pose for our first every Wyrmfoe kill shot.
We took down Lady Deathwhisper in just four attempts, which I think is good for any raid group new to the instance, let alone one with some people in Naxx and Ulduar level gear 
We then got to see the Gunship Battle, and though we only had 21 people for that fight, we one-shot it.
The big challenge of Lower Spire, Saurfang, I think will need to wait a couple more weeks for us to finish gearing up our people — but they’re all running heroics non-stop and we hit up TotC 25 as well for some extra loot. We’ll get to start learning Saurfang soon enough at this pace.
It was just really, really nice to run progression with all the new guildies and old friends, everyone working together with the same goal, following directions like pros, and united in our fear of the wrath of Hrist. Suddenly it didn’t feel like I’ve been there two ro three times a week since it opened — suddenly it was all new again. And so much fun.
Thats great to hear Frost! I recently took my guild into ICC 10 for the first time as a full guild run. We downed Marrowgar in about 5 attempts I believe it was, Lady Deathwhisper in 2 attempts, Gunship in 2 attempts, and never got passed Saurfang. But all in all I thought we did really well. We had new guildies learning how to work with us in a raid with old guildies who knew how I operated. Surprisingly enough we didn’t get frustated on the wipes, well till Saurfang. But our last attempt at him we got him down to 20% before he started just knocking us sillly. Still, I thought it was fun. I’m glad that you and your newly formed guild are working out well and getting the freshness and new Instance smell again LOL.
“And then we got to pose for our first every Wyrmfoe kill shot.”
Pics or it didn’t happen.
Sounds great
I wish my experience had been the same.
Our guild is too small for 25 mans so we hooked up with another guild to have a go at Marrowgar. They had 3 hunters. I was amazed when their top geared hunter whispered after a wipe “is there some sort of order I should be doing my shots ?” she had no clue about shot priorities ! Yet her gear was pretty much the same as mine. I had to explain about MD’ing to the tanks after the bonestorm. After a bunch of wipes we got him down. Yet this guild has progressed farther than us …..I am amazed.
They did have a couple of super tanks and they had a couple of tree druids who were insanely good as well…..it just seemed that all their dps (both ranged and melee were twits)
A tip for deathbringer in 25 man, and you probably know this, is to let the first person die everytime no matter who it is. If your guild are not putting out enough dps when you let the first person die let the second also. You dont want to be going into the last 30% with more than 2 marks up or its instant wipe. My guild realized this after we tried to keep some of our top dps up as they got marked first. It doesnt matter where you are on that meter you have to die! (this tac only works if they are gnomes though!)
i hope this turns out:D
[IMG]http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj169/caroandy/MarrowgarWYRMFOEwin.jpg[/IMG]
nope.. couldn’t figure out how to post the SS of Wyrmfoe’s Win Shot…:( /sigh
Awesome work on the Lower Spire Frostheim! This just proves once more that tactics are more important than gear and achies. My first (and only:S) down on Saurfang was with a 10 man pug, most of them with no achi and a gearscore below 5K. But the incredible teamwork and tactics made it a smooth takedown:).
On a side note, apart from our tanks, we had ranged dps ONLY. Suprisingly it worked really well for all bosses. Imagine, 6 hunters raining down epic death:)
A Little Different Feeling:
I’m glad to hear your guild doing well Frost
. My feelings on the Lower Spire are more along the lines of starting to feel like ToC in the sense that its on farm with my 10 mans and, givin proper group makeup on the givin night, 25 never seems to be more than a few wipes on deathbring and possibly Lady D.
P.S. – Need more podcasts to listen to while I mount farm!
Well the alternate mechanic of making the persons with the mark to run upto the cannons still works. Basic point is tht fight gets progressively harder as u prolongate it with marks cming much sooner later on so all cooldowns need to be blown in before the first mark hits the raid.
I am surprised to read that your guildies are still in NAXX gear/Ulduar gear. Is it a Realm thing or ppl(non-WoW players or returning players) farmed a 80 just to expereince the Frostheim effect!
Keep in mind that most of these characters were alts that transferred server and/or faction to join Wyrmfoe. Thus the gearing up needed.
Ridje:
CD’s In general should be saved for the frenzy at 30%, if they will be off CD by that time then feel free to use them throughout the fight but should ALWAYS be up for 30%
Great tactic for learning the Marrowgar fight – if you have any ideas on how you are going to train your raid to do Rotface – pls pls pls could you post them?
We’ve been bashing our heads on him on both 10 and 25 and I cannot quite figure out whether it is the heal team not being on the ball or people failing on movement. Probably both knowing my luck!
Best of luck on Saurfang. I felt completely lost when we did it the other evening as previously I’ve always had a hunter buddy on the Blood Beasts that would slow and kite one for me to kill – we were a little mini-team, worked great. I can’t play a hunter to save my life (I’ve tried), but they are ever so useful to have around.
Another option on Saurfang is to DI the first one or two people that get marked. End result is the same, to get them out of action as soon as possible, but does not give the boss any health refund.
Do be aware that once they are dead, DO NOT rezz them. They will pop back up with the mark still on, and probably keel over almost immediately, giving Saurfang another 5% HP
In a fun aside, the first week ICC hit, there was a bug on the Boat fight, and we didn’t have one to close the back of the encounter. Taking advantage of this, we tanked the boss back by where the boat was supposed to be, and used various spells to just blow the Blood Beasts off the tower. Worked like a charm, for a week.
Gratz on the progress, Frost. You guys are doing well, and I look forward to hearing more.