Janitorial crew unknowingly clears Firelands

STORMWIND--A cleaning crew hired to service the Firelands has unknowingly destroyed almost all the denizens of the Firelands, including major leaders of the realm.

"We are sorry," said 56-year-old Hector Fontaine, PR representative for Moss Contractors. "We have a strict policies against murdering people in their own homes, and we will make sure all our employees are aware of them in the future."

A raging Ragnaros demanded compensation for what he deemed "outrageously irresponsible behavior" of the cleaning service since the week of September 20th. "They kill my lieutenants and advisors, and even sprayed me in the face with hydrochloric acid. Do you know how much that shit burns?"

When reminded that he himself is a being of pure fire, Ragnaros promptly engulfed the interviewer in flames and demanded recompense of a thousand trees burned to the ground.

4.3 Heroic Dungeon Guides – End Time

Howdy folks! Seeing as how I don’t think anyone has written any strategy guides for the new 4.3 5-man dungeon End Time, I’ve decided to do it myself. It’s a fairly straightforward instance, and all of the fights minus Jaina are really well done. A few could use some buffing, but hey, that’s just my nitpicking.

The instance takes place in Dragonblight in a future where Deathwing defeats the denizens of Azeroth. However, it turns out he isn’t all-powerful and was only a tool being used by the Old Gods. His body is skewered upon the remains of Wyrmrest Temple, and it is up to you to stop such a future from ever coming to fruition.

So, is Skewered Deathwing going to be replacing my Skewered Eel for my buff food?

There are a total of five boss fights in this instance, but you only actually engage three of them per instance; the last boss is always Murozond, but the first two are a random choice of the remaining four familiar faces – Jaina Proudmoore, Sylvanas Windrunner, Baine Bloodhoof, and Tyrande Whisperwind. Each takes place at a different dragonshrine; Jaina at the Azure Dragonshrine; Sylvanas at the Ruby Dragonshrine; Baine at the Obsidian Dragonshrine; Tyrande at the Emerald Dragonshrine. There’s a bit of trash before each, but the only trash that is really “difficult” is Tyrande’s. The Dragonshrine is enshrouded in darkness, and all mobs take 90% reduced damage while in the dark. Luckily, beacons of light appear one at a time in a counter-clockwise circle around the Shrine. It’s basically just a gauntlet. Round up the adds, pull them into the light, aoe, rinse and repeat.

Now, on to the actual boss strategies! I’ve listed them here in the order I believe is most to least difficult. And yes, Murozond is absolutely the easiest boss in here.

Sylvanas – Attack her, don’t stand in black. When she goes up into the air and becomes immune, a bunch of ghouls spawn around her and are all attached with a purple beam. Everyone needs to focus one of the ghouls down asap to break the beam and get out. Leave the beam successfully, rinse and repeat.

Tyrande – Melee should stand on the rock with her, and it’s a tank’n'spank for them. Healers and ranged, on the other hand, have a few things to watch for. She shoots blue lines on the ground, don’t stand in those. Second, there are eyeballs that spawn around 75%, just stay 6 yards away from them. She gets slightly stronger at 80%, 55%, and around 25 or 30% she summons stars to fall. Just don’t touch those and you’re golden.

Baine – There are 4 platforms in this fight. Everyone should start the encounter on Baine’s platform, but stay spread out. He’ll target one person with a hammer, which will knock back; no big deal (if you can line yourself up so that you are in a direct line from Baine to the platform behind you, it may be possible to be knocked onto it rather than the lava. I’ve never tried though). You can pick the hammer back up though and throw it back at him for a bunch of damage and a stun. He’ll also periodically target a player and destroy the platform they are standing on – when that happens, just abandon ship and head to another platform.

Jaina – Interrupt the Frostbolt Volleys to help healers out. Otherwise, ranged/heals should just walk onto the fire traps she puts down asap. That’s it. Very, very easy fight, and definitely needs a buff of some sort.

Murozond – As with all dragons, he breathes all kinds of fire, so tanks should face him away. A large hourglass appears in roughly the center of the area. Designate somebody to click it about 5-10 seconds into the fight (so everyone can hit all their cooldowns) and then again every 20%. Stay out of the bubbles he puts on the ground and the subsequent explosions that pop out of them, and remember to re-hit all your CDs every time the hourglass gets used. Another really easy fight that could use some buffing, but the mechanics are awesome.

Transmogrification: The 11 Best-Looking Tier Sets

As many of you know, Top 10 lists are for cowards. Due to the fact that I am not a coward, any time I make a list like this, I always make sure to go to 11. Transmogrification is heavy on every WoW player’s mind right now, and I’ve decided to showcase what I believe to be the best of the best tier sets. If you play one of the classes listed below, you won’t find better than what’s on this list, so when patch 4.3 drops you’d better have the gear listed here. Of course, Blizzard has released most of the Tier 13 previews already, and they look amazing so far, so this will all be a moot point when 4.3 hits if Tier 13 is better than anything listed here. Finally, I’ve only included sets that are currently attainable in-game and are farmable (that means no T3, T11, or T12).

11. Rogue Tier 5 – Deathmantle: As cool as this set is, it’s the worst of the best. There are a lot of great rogue options available out there that were very close to making this list as well. Basically all of BC was fantastic to our sneaky friends, so you’re safe to bring out any armor from Tiers 4 through 6.

10. Priest Tier 5 – Avatar: This is one of those ones that’s going to be moot once 4.3 hits, because the new Tier 13 set is amazing. Like, drop-to-the-floor-drooling amazing. However, until you fill that Tier 13 set, this should be top of your priest’s list.

9. Hunter Tier 10 – Ahn’Kahar: So many spikes, so little time. I’m actually currently transmogged to this set on the PTR (well, the sanctified version of it – get this version if you can. The color scheme is way better). Brings me back to the good ol’ days, fighting Arthas, not taking shit from nobody… Good times.

8. Mage Tier 6 – Tempest: I was really, really torn on this one. It was very close between Tier 6 and Tier 2, but I went with the Tempest set. It’s gorgeous and really shows off what a mage is. Especially gorgeous on a draenei (as seen in the picture) or a gnome.

7. Warrior Tier 4 – Warbringer: One of the few Tier sets I really enjoyed out of Karazhan, and definitely the Warrior’s strongest. It boasts the strength of an ant in the body of a (insert race here), and it’s just terrifyingly powerful.

6. Paladin Tier 5 – Crystalforge: A lot of people are going to be rocking Judgement. And by that, I mean basically every Paladin in existence. It’s a nice set, but in my eyes it can’t hold a candle to the efflorescent purple glow of Crystalforge. Pick this set up if you want to look different than all the other Paladins.

5. Death Knight Tier 10 – Scourgelord: Just like how Paladins will be wearing Judgement everywhere, Death Knights will assuredly be wearing their starter set (either the blue or the green one, or even parts of both). Tier 10 is the Death Knight’s strongest tier set for sure, but I’d have to agree with the masses on this one – the starter set is superior.

4. Warlock Tier 2 – Nemesis: Another tough choice between Tier 2 and Tier 6, but I went with Tier 2 on this one. Malefic will be very frequently sported, while Nemesis just screams classic Warlock. Other very viable choices would be all of Burning Crusade’s tiers – like the Rogues, Warlocks received lots of love during WoW’s first expansion.

3. Shaman Tier 10 – Frost Witch: This set is awesome for two reasons. One, you’re wearing the skull of a poor boar on your face, and two, the shoulders. Although seemingly simple and basically hand-crafted (which just oozes shamanism), twin stags periodically proc from each shoulder in a beautiful, ghostly, luminescent aura of awesome. Everyone knows Warlocks for their Malefic armor’s giant wing proc, but to me, the Shaman’s Tier 10 is just much more elegant and peaceful; much more Shaman.

2. Druid Tier 7 – Valorous Dreamwalker: An update of druid’s Tier 3 set, and it’s just perfect. Everything about this set is gorgeous and just wonderful. However, that only applies to the 25-man Valorous version. The 10-man ugly purple-red version sucks, so don’t bother with that nonsense. 25-man or bust!

And the #1 best set in the game is!

1. Hunter Tier 2 – Dragonstalker: It is humorous by what a wide margin Dragonstalker won this little contest. It wasn’t even close. All the other sets combined don’t match the epicness of this set. Oh, hey there shaman, you’ve got some cool stags? I’ve got DRAGON FACES. Not scales. Not teeth or claws. Their whole damn faces. Three of them. If that doesn’t equate to a badass hunter, I don’t know what does.

Calvo obtains stick; Ragnaros missing

FIRELANDS—Autumn Sun junior officer Calvo received the coveted Branch of Nordrassil this past Tuesday.

"He earned it," said Ceipher, Calvo's senior officer. "I can't think of anyone that works harder at riding the backs of his fellow teammates."

The beautifully decorated wooden rod was recovered with a massive effort from Calvo's guild, spanning weeks of effort that will no doubt be taken for granted by the entitled gnome mage.

Witnesses at the scene described Calvo as "bald" and "efflorescent".

"I can't wait to get started on the next part!" said the elementalist, ignoring the audible groans from his raiding team in the background. "My favorite part of getting it was when I got it!"

-

In other news, the Firelord Ragnaros has been reported missing from his infernal abode in Sulfuron Keep. The whereabouts of the Father of Flame are currently unknown, but the police suspect a mature, friendly guild with 6 bank tabs. Any new information should be reported to PSI Investigators.

Feral Tank Stats and Reforging:

There are two schools of thought in terms of reforging as a feral tank. Depending which side of the coin you choose, the stat priority will change. You could reforge for Dodge or for Mastery/Crit. Dodge is generally considered the way to go as a starting tank, until your gear gets slightly better. Reforging for Mastery/Crit will help your Savage Defense shield grow, lowering spike damage. Plus it has the added bonus of allowing you to do a little more damage in cat form. The stat priorities are as follows:

Dodge Tank:

Agility > Stamina > Dodge > Mastery > Crit > Hit (up to 8%) = Expertise (up to 26 rating) > Haste

Mastery/Crit Tank:

Agility > Stamina > Mastery > Crit > Dodge > Hit (up to 8%) = Expertise (up to 26 rating) > Haste

Stat Breakdown:

Agility – Our go-to stat. Agility grants Attack Power, Crit, and Dodge. The former two will increase threat, while Dodge increases your survivability. Agility is the only stat that does both, and is easily our most valued stat.

Stamina – Higher stamina means higher health pools, and it scales wit Vengeance. The general thought with Stamina is to get enough of it to survive, and then enchant for agility.Dodge – Fittingly, increases your chance to dodge. It is the best secondary stat for a dodge tank, and scales incredibly well with feral tanks.

Mastery – Another amazing secondary stat, mastery will increase the amount your Savage Defense shield can absorb.

Crit – Obviously increases your chance to critically hit, but Savage Defense procs from critical strikes. The more crit you have, the more often you’ll have Savage Defense up.

Expertise and Hit Cap – Expertise reduces your chance to be dodged and parried, while hit reduces your chance to miss. These are the best stats for threat generation, which is generally a non-issue for bear tanks currently. However, if you seem to have problems holding aggro, reforge into this.

Haste – Increases threat generation, but not nearly as much as Hit or Expertise. Always a bear’s worst secondary stat.

Reforging:

Situation 1 – Threat:

If threat is ever an issue, put hit and expertise at the top of the stat priority. Reforge out of haste and crit, and into expertise or hit. With the new threat changes in 4.2, this should almost never occur, except in the rarest cases.

Situation 2 – Dodge Tank:

If you are a newer bear tank, I recommend reforging into dodge. Threat should not be a concern, so you should reforge out of haste, expertise, hit rating, and even crit where possible and into dodge. Do not, however, reforge out of Mastery. Even as a dodge tank, mastery is a valuable stat.

Situation 3 – Mastery/Crit Tank:

This is my current build, and I recommend it to most tanks. It gives great survivability with less spike damage, and gives a bit more damage if/when you switch to cat form. You’ll want to stack Mastery and, to a lesser extent, Crit. Reforge out of Haste, Expertise, and Hit Rating. Dodge is still a very worthwhile stat, so only reforge out of it if you have no other option.