Priestly Bubbles

This is going to be a long blog... Okay guys, I'm back.  I went through a really rough time the past few weeks and I haven't been doing well.  I had a few friends by my side for about three weeks, keeping me going.  Without those guys, I'm not sure I could have kept going.  Man, this has been a crappy year.  I'm not going to sit here and bitch about all the stuff that happened.  You guys don't want to hear all that.

My Christmas shopping is done.  I got my family gifts and for my friends I play WoW with, I got in game gifts.  Sorry guys, but I'm broke.  However, anybody who reads this:  got a suggestion for a good friend's birthday present?  He doesn't play WoW but he is a gamer.  I believe his main games are L4D, FFXI, Aeon, and some other stuff.  He flits between games, so I have no clue what he's playing now.  His birthday is right after Christmas, so I need to get it soon.


Feast of Winter Veil
I'm working on my Merrymaker title right now.  The two achievements I have left are Fa-la-la-la-Ogri'la and He Knows If You've Been Naughty.  Obviously, for the second one, I have to wait until Christmas.  For the first one...yeah...I've just been lazy.  I'll attempt to do it tonight.


Icecrown Citadel
I'm really enjoying this raid.  It was pointed out by a guildie that we seem to be "roflstomping" ICC25.  Well, here's my two copper.  Blizzard has now designed raids so that casuals can get into the hard content, so that everyone can see the content.  However, hard modes have been designed for those raiders who raid every week and put their all into it.  ICC25 is designed for raiders who are casual and in ToC25 gear.  That's regular.  While we are not gearstomping ICC25, our ToGC25 gear is definitely giving us a boost.  I think these complainers will be given a reality check once ICC25 heroic comes out.  I'll give you guys a rundown of each boss and how I do things.

Lord Marrowgar
This is a fairly simple fight.  Kind of neat though.  The two tanks tank him in the middle of the room (his debuff hits both I believe to alleviate the damage on one).  The dps and healers spread out around the room in a semi-circle.  He will send out lines of blue icy fire.  These are easy to avoid.  Just strafe away from where they are aiming.  He also impales raiders on ground spikes.  These have to be dpsed down so the raiders can get free.  His other phase is fairly simple as well.  He begins a whirlwind which is very difficult to avoid.  Just be sure you are avoiding the fire and try to stay away from him.  Healers should be able to cast instants while running to heal through the whirlwind.  Whirlwind+fire=dead, so be careful.  That's basically the fight.  Two different phases and a really neat voice telling you to "stick around".
Discipline Heals for Lord Marrowgar
In the first phase, I shield both tanks and any dps I see impaled.  I will also bubble any raiders who get caught by the fire.  Penance I reserve for the tanks, but I cast Flash and Greater Heals around the raid, depending on how much healing that raider needs.  Binding heal is also excellent for this, if I am taking damage as well.  I make sure to keep PoM bouncing as well.  (Off the tanks is always the best policy.)
For phase 2, I am running around quite a bit trying to avoid fires and whirlwind.  Because of this, I will mostly be casting shields and PoM.  I keep PoM bouncing, typically off myself since there are no tanks in this phase.  I cast as many shields as possible due to the large amount of damage the raid takes.  I gain a lot of mana from Rapture and will have time to regain mana in the other phase, so I shield without worrying about mana.

Lady Deathwhisper
Lady Deathwhisper reminds me of two bosses in Northrend.  Kel'thuzad in Naxxramas and that lich in Gundrak.  It makes sense, since she is also a lich.  She will summon adds for the first phase, giving them buffs.  The melee dps must burn these adds and tanks must pick them up.  Ranged dps will stay on Deathwhisper, dpsing down her mana shield.  She will randomly cast a Death and Decay on the ground.  Raiders must be sure to get out of it.  Phase two starts when her mana shield is burned down.  She will stop summoning adds.  It's generally a good idea to slow down when her mana shield is at 5% to allow the melee to kill any existing adds.  She will throw frost bolts around the raid and will summon the ghosts that will explode upon reaching their target.  The ghosts must be avoided.  Other than that, phase two is a burn phase and ends fairly quickly.  Phase one, however, is fairly long.
Discipline heals for Lady Deathwhisper
This fight isn't nearly as good for Discipline as Lord Marrowgar.  Basically, I heal phase one as I would heal trash.  It's fairly simple.  No one should be taking large amounts of damage.  In phase two, I dispel the frost bolts to enable the dps to be able to run from the ghosts.  Bubble tanks, keep PoM bouncing and that's basically it.

Airship Battle
This is a really fun fight.  First, one of the opposite faction's mages will create a portal over your airship, causing adds to spawn on your airship.  Kill them.  Avoid the pretty red marks on the ground.  Three raiders will need to man the cannons and shoot the other airship as fast as possible.  At a certain percentage (I can't remember what), the airship's captain will call for a mage to shut down your cannons.  The raiders will be pushed out of the cannons and your rocketpack crew will jump onto the other airship.  Tank first.  Dps down the mage channeling the frost spell on the cannons and then jump back.  And repeat.
Discipline heals for Airship Battle
I stand near the cannons so that when the group jumps over, I can reach both airships.  Bubbles, PoM, your basic healing.  Pretty easy to heal as long as everyone is paying attention.

Deathbringer Saurfang
After a fairly long but cool introduction, the Saurfang fight starts.  This is a really cool and really new type of fight.  Every bit of damage your raiders take will give Saurfang power.  Once his power meter reaches 100%, he will cast a debuff called Mark of the Fallen Champion on a raid member that must be healed through the rest of the fight.  The more debuffs he throws out, the harder the fight gets to heal.  Tanks will get a debuff called Rune of Blood that causes him to gain power.  Raiders will get another debuff called Boiling Blood that gives him power as well.  He also summons blood beasts, which give him power every time they hit a raid member.  He has a soft enrage at 30% which Bloodlust/Heroism should be saved for.
Discipline heals for Deathbringer Saurfang
This is the best fight for Discipline right now.  I try to keep PoM bouncing if I have the GCD to spare.  I keep shields on the tank, anyone who has Boiling Blood, anyone who has Mark, and anyone who is targeted by the blood beasts (vuhdo shows which raiders have aggro).  The shields are a full time job.  Watching DBM is very important here as it shows who gets what debuff.  Because shields absorb damage, Saurfang gets less power from a raid with a Discipline priest than he would from a raid without one.

Achievements my guild has accomplished in ICC
I've Gone and Made a Mess (25 player)
I believe this achievement has a lot to do with the fact that our raid makeup contains a Discipline priest.
I've Gone and Made a Mess (10 player)
Same with this one.
Boned (10 player)
Fairly simple.  Just do the fight correctly with good dps.

ICC Loot
I haven't won any drops, due to my dkp being a bit lower than most.  (I missed a few raids from RL drama.)  However, with 60 frost emblems, I obtained Gloves of False Gestures.  As far as I can tell, these appear to be BiS for Discipline, even surpassing the 277 gear.  Just barely.  If anyone finds anything better, please link it here.  I'd love to be challenged.  I gemmed my gloves with two Luminous Ametrines.  For the socket bonus, but also because I noticed that I needed a bit more mana to be comfortable on Saurfang.  I also achieved friendly with the Ashen Verdict and picked up my first rep ring:  Ashen Band of Wisdom.


Ulduar Hard Modes
A few of my guildmates, myself included, have noted the fact that we have left a boss standing in an "older" raid!  Algalon.  Since it will be a while before the entirety of ICC is available, we will have time to go back into Ulduar and finish the hard modes that we have skipped.  We will keep this raid lockout until we have finished all of them.  This week, we started with Iron Council.  Difficult fight but interesting.  We managed to down it, as we have worked on it quite a bit in the past, getting very close several times.  Gear stomp?  I think not.  The way Ulduar is designed it is nearly impossible to gear stomp these fights.  More gear definitely makes the dps/heals part easier, but IC is not based on heals or dps.  Every raider must be paying attention.  When finishing up Steelbreaker, no one must die.  We are proud of our accomplishment and hope to continue on to the keepers' hard modes next week.


Shadow 3.3
Shadow is so much fun in 3.3!  I've been selecting dps only for my random heroic each day.  I'll continue to heal raids, but I want to dps heroics from now on.  Unless I'm helping guildies.  I can keep up with those on par with my gear!  Dpsing as shadow is super rewarding now.  I'll have to start putting aside haste pieces for my shadow set too.  Haste for shadow and crit for discipline.  Now it is easy to tell which shadow priests were complaining for good reasons and which ones just...sucked.


Let's see...did I forget anything?  If I have, I will edit this post.