February 11th – February 14th Broadcast Schedule

 

Broadcast Schedule For Chronicles of Keona
All times are Central US Time

Friday, February 11th, 2011
7pm – 8:30pm: Minecraft – Private Server: New World
9pm – 12:30am: World of Warcraft – 10 Man Raiding with NothinPrsnl

Saturday, February 12th, 2011
Random Times Between 12pm and 2am: Minecraft – Private Server

Sunday, February 13th, 2011
Random Times Between 12pm and 8:30pm: Minecraft – Private Server
9pm – 12:30am: World of Warcraft – 10 Man Raiding with NothinPrsnl

Monday, February 14th, 2011
5pm – 8:30pm: Minecraft – Private Server
9pm – 12:30am: World of Warcraft – 10 Man Raiding with NothinPrsnl

 

I’ll probably get some more game time in and possibly other games.  So I suggest just following me on Justin.tv if you want to keep up to date when I’m broadcasting.

World of Warcraft Cataclysm: Magmaw - 10 Man Raid Strategy

Our raid composition is made up of two tanks, three healers, two melee, and three ranged.  Make note that it is possible to succeed at this encounter with one tank, but we feel more comfortable with two.  The choice is yours.

To begin the fight our first tank pulls and stands against Magmaw on his right side while the rest of the raid, except one ranged, stands against him on his left side.  This is for his “Pillar of Flame” mechanic.

Every 30 seconds Pillar of Flame will choose a raid member at least 15 yards away from Magmaw to erupt under.  If nobody is 15 yards away, it’ll erupt under your raid.  This will not be a good thing.  When it erupts, anyone directly on top of the area will be shot into the air then shortly after 8 – 10 lava parasites will spawn from the eruption.  Our hunter avoids the eruption and then kites the lava parasites while our other two ranged DPS AoE’s them down.  If a lava parasite touches a raid member, it will infect them with Parasitic Infection which causes 12,000 – 14,000 damage, every two seconds for 10 seconds, then finishes as Infectious Vomit.  All players within 8 yards of the infected member will receive a lot of damage and more parasites will spawn.  This could cause a lot of problems, so it’s best to stay away and kill them at range quickly.

During this time Magmaw is also inflicting damage to random raid members with Magma Spit so healers will not get a break during the first phase.

About a minute and a half into the first phase, Magmaw will Mangle your current tank.  Yes, he will eat your tank.  The tank will need significant heals at this point.  Shortly after the mangle begins, “Magmaw slumps forward, exposing his pincers.” There will be steam coming out of the ground on the side of the room he will be falling on.  It’s important to move over to the other side or you could end up like our mage on previous attempts … crushed.   In 10 player, 2 raid members, preferably melee, will jump on top of Magmaw at this point.  They have 2 goals: they must pin Magmaw down before the next Pillar of Flame and they must pin Magmaw down before the tank gets mangled to death … literally.  To do this, they will hit 1 on their ability bar and then click on the spike in front of Magmaw.  Once "Magmaw becomes impaled on the spike, exposing his head!", phase 2 begins.

Don’t worry, no Pillar of Flame, Lava Parasites, or Magma Spit this phase.  All DPS will target the Exposed Head of Magmaw and pop all their DPS cooldowns this first time down.  This is when we call for Heroism or Time Warp.  Magmaw takes increased damage while he is down so it is important to take advantage of it.  Healers get a break to top off the raid and regen mana this phase.  I chose to melee the boss. 

As soon as this phase ends and he returns to his position, your other tank will taunt.  This is due to an armor debuff the first tank received while being Mangled.  After the tank switch, it is just rinse and repeat until he is dead.  If you chose to use just one tank instead, your tank will need some extra heals while the armor debuff is active.

It’s pretty simple mechanics and I would say, the easiest raid encounter in Cataclysm at this point. 

Just a thought or two,

- Keona

Happy New Year!

Hello again.  Many apologies for the two weeks off, but the holidays are crazy around my house.  It happens when you have kids and your family lives halfway across the country.  Anywho, to bring in the new year, I will be updating today with the first of my cataclysm leveling sped up videos; as well as a post about archaeology.  As soon as I clear out my tiny hard drive of raw video footage, I'll be able to do some more end game videos.  Possibly some random videos of professions and try my hand at commentating.  I plan on pushing out a lot of content posts and maybe even a protection paladin guide for those that haven't made it to heroics yet.

Enjoy the new year and Happy Gaming!

Just a thought or two,

- Keona

Cataclysm: Live and Overcrowded

World of Warcraft Cataclysm became live a week ago with at least 100 bored players (probably more) sitting on top of the Flying Trainers in Orgrimmar and Stormwind, just to discover you must relog upon release to buy your Azeroth Flying. I chose to buy mine in Borean Tundra to avoid the crowd until questing in Hyjal.  Unfortunately, I was one of the many stuck at connecting for a good half hour after launch.  When I finally got in, I wanna to kill a boomkin who kept tapping my mobs in Hyjal.  Grrr.

As I continued further through the content, I left the crowd in Hyjal behind and stepped into Deepholm.  It was still a bit crowded, but everyone seemed to be stuck on the clues quest because as soon as I finished that, nobody was around.  It was just me and my leveling partner.  It was great content though, even with the wiping and being overrun by mobs.  I was surely enjoying myself until it was announced.

"Realm first 85.  Realm first 85 mage."

Here I was, 80% through level 83, not even a level and a half to go.  I typed out "/who 84 paladin" and there was two.  My leveling partner, Enou, told me not to freak on vent.  He was sure they were barely 84.  So I continued with questing trying not to think about it.

As we entered Uldum, it was announced "Realm first 85 paladin."  My heart just sunk into my chest.  I queued up on vent "Well, it's 7pm and I missed server first, let's call it until tomorrow."  We both relaxed on our leveling and hit 85 on Thursday.

Now it was time to explore the heroic content, or so I thought.  I got my average item level to 329 and queued up for my first heroic.  It was not a pretty sight.

Heroic attempt one.  Grim Batol.  I had not been here on normal, but we went through the trash nicely.  The rogue explained the boss fight and we were all ready.  Wipe, the healer didn't move for blitz.  Wipe, the healer didn't move from blitz.  Wipe, the shaman dps didn't move from blitz and then the healer didn't move from blitz.  Disband.

Heroic attempt two.  Halls of the Origination.  First trash pull, the druid dps is marking the mobs.  "Okay, repent the triangle."  We didn't have a retribution paladin, but I didn't assume he was talking to me, a protection paladin.  Wipe.  The druid dps, "don't you have repent?"  My response "Who?"  Disband.  Apparently, I'm supposed to go 21 points into retribution, which is impossible as a protection paladin.

Heroic attempt three.  Halls of the Origination.  Disconnect on loading screen, relog to hearth on cooldown and in Stormwind.

So at this point, I just said whatever and figured I would try again on Friday.

Heroic attempt four.  The Stonecore.  I join a group halfway done with the instance.  They had lost 5 tanks and a healer thus far or was it 5 healers and a tank, I don't remember exactly.  Ozruk, the tank and spank on normal boss.  I thought to myself, "this is going to be easy", but I was wrong.  I told the group this is my first heroic attempt and they explained the differences in detail.  Okay, I got this, right?  Nope.  It took 9 wipes and one close call to get him down.  I was afraid of the final boss now.  She was such a pain on normal that I had never one shot her before.  We go in and it was easy as pie.  I was disappointed of course, but got a nice sword from all of the hard work on Ozruk.

I have since not been to another heroic.  I am sick right now and fear that with the movement required for normal and that one heroic I did do, I am unable to keep up with that much on my laptop.  Keyboard turning is not an option.

Let's move to my opinion of Cataclysm thus far.  Kudos to Blizzard.  Normal 5 mans, with the exception of Halls of the Origination trash, are a lot easier than I expected.  I understand, it's a leveling thing.  Keep it that way Blizzard.  Heroic 5 mans, from my short experience and from watching my husband heal them, they are great.  It doesn't separate the casuals from the hardcores.  It separates those with a brain from the clueless.  Keep it up.  Questing is just awesome this expansion.  It's entertaining enough that I don't dread getting my other 80s to 85 or my lower guys up at all.

I would give my entire experience a 9 out of 10 ... some bugs should be fixed, but all in all, it was great.

For those wondering about my leveling video, I ran out of hard drive space as I had feared.  I am working on getting the content I did record edited into a small highlights video.  When I get my new 1.5TB hard drive, I'll be able to record more videos with less issues.

That's me for this week, I'll have more for you next time!

Just a thought or two,

- Keona

World of Warcraft Cataclysm, Only Moments Away

Okay, it's hours away technically. Many people across the world are preparing for the launch of Cataclysm on December 7th in many different ways. I am just trying to catch up on my sleep as much as possible.

Upon release, I will be one of the many people racing for a server first. Sadly, this means I cannot take the time to enjoy the content with my main character right away, but I will be able to after Wednesday afternoon. I have given myself 36 hours to reach 85 and I will be filling my secondary hard drive with footage of the speed leveling. So expect in the future a few videos of footage of leveling through the new content. I'll try to split it between 5 videos, one for each level so it may be sped up, but not extremely so.

There's not much to discuss today. I am not one to go on about a leaked document or boring post beta pre release news at this point. With the expansion about 37 hours away for me, there is just waiting. I'll get a decent article in about my opinion of the new expansion later in the week. Then you can find out if I really made it to 85 within 36 hours.

Take care and see you in a few days after release and a much needed nap.

Just a thought or two,

- Keona

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm; Post Shattering, Pre Release

Happy Saturday! Today, I'll be talking about waiting on WoW's newest expansion, which will be releasing on December 7, 2010 at 2:00AM CST. I am really excited for the new expansion actually. I have planned a way to shoot for server first 85 without neglecting my kids at the same time. Let's just say, no sleep + help from hubby = at least 36 hours of straight game play. Michael's physical therapist comes for her weekly visit at 2:45pm CST on the 8th; so if I don't hit 85 after 36 hours, I won't be server first 85 paladin. So yeah, I won't be leaning back and enjoying leveling content until I start leveling my warlock, Kelandra, a week or so after I get Keona to 85.

Right now I am simply waiting. Well, not really. I am fighting with my client telling me that 4 gigs of ram is not enough for WoW and my 72 addons. It keeps crashing when I switch characters or log out due to inactivity. Trust me, I am annoyed. When it does work, I am running around on Kel enjoying the new scenery and shooting for Loremaster finally. Kel is my achievement toon, so she gets all the nonraiding achievements first.

I find it a waste of time to do the Pilgrim achievements though. I want to see so much of the new old world before Cataclysm releases in a week and a half and before I'm zerging through the new zones trying to grasp my server first. I can't be bothered to shoot for an achievement I can get next year. It turns out several people agree with me, which is odd. Nobody ever agrees with me.

I'm also trying to recruit for Shattered Souls like CRAZY. The new guild advancement feature has been the feature of Cataclysm I have been anticipating the most since Blizzcon 2009. I know new content out weighs something like this to a lot of people; but to me, it is long overdue. It just makes me wish I had some recruitment skills. I'll keep trying though. It's hard to promote a serious 10 man social guild. Most people either want a social aspect or a raiding aspect and I want it all. I want a nice community inside the guild as well as the progression of a guild focused on current progression.

I wanted to hurt people when it took my former raid group until I was in the hospital in June to finally get to the Lich King on normal 10 man. In fact, I'm still 11/12 ICC 10 normal and 6/12 ICC 25 normal! I have heroic lootship 25 and 10 and heroic Marrowgar on 10 man, but it's just not enough for me. I really wish I didn't take time off after my son was born; even if it was needed. My husband and I have been trying all week to get our 10 man LK kill. Sadly, we are stuck on the 2nd phase. Pugging this close to an expansion on my server is not exactly success.

Maybe I should go sit in Westfall and wait to stand in fire.

By the way, this blog entry is fail. Blame The Shattering, then blame me. ;) Don't worry, there will be more interesting reads in the future.

Just a thought or two,

- Keona