I've accumulated some gear for my dk Tank now (~333) and would like to try out the heroic dungeons. Now my question is: Are there somewhat easier heroics to begin with or are they all pretty equal difficulty wise? Maybe there is one I should avoid until I get some more upgrades?
as Gnomity mentioned, its easy when you know the mechanics. So if you want to help yourself, you got 2 options (not counting in a guildrun, since that makes it easier with option 1):
- When you enter the heroic, the first thing you say, after hi, is "its my first time here (on heroic, if you have done normal ), so please explain any tacs i should know". I did this on my first lvl 85, and that helped me a lot. People were kind enough to go through anything that was needed in order to kill stuff
- Read up on tacs. I know theres a lot of bosses, but doing so will deffo get you a long way.
Until next patch, stay clear of Grim Batol and possibly stonecore. Stonecore should be harder for the tank but Grim Batol seems to be the hardest for dps without doubt, so whine will ensue.
Maybe it's different for a tank but from my perspective (healer), Lost City of Tol'vir and blackrock caverns are the easiest heroics, vortex pinnacle is also really easy. SFK and Deadmines are both fairly easy, but there's quite a few mechanics in Deadmines where n00bs might fail.
I suggest to watch some video beforhand, it will help you with the 'surprise element' of doing a HC.
Also, tell your group this is your first time tanking that specific heroic.
I indeed watched TotalBiscuits Beta Videos, but this is a while back and there is a ton to remember...
And tbh I actually took notes on the whooping 8 bosses in HoO, which came in quite handy in explaining the fights for normal mode, though I hadn't done them myself yet.
Well I think, I'll start with VP tonight after rewatching a video, didn't find it too hard on normal either. I also have the luxury of a guild healer with vent, that should help a bit too.
Granted, I'm a healer, but having experienced the fights and seen many a failed tank, I'd say each heroic has at least one boss which could cause issues for a first time HC'er, some more than others (hello Grim Batol).
I think HoO is a good choice, the changes from normal aren't too bad and as long as your party had plenty of CC you should get through it with no problems.
If you were to attempt HoO as heroic, you'd need to make the following changes to your normal tactics:
First boss: everyone jumps down and sticks together, as the snakes are much harder than in normal. Make sure you interrupt boss when you get back up to end his pulse
Second boss (optional one): no differences, your healer will just have to work harder
4 mini bosses: just make sure the water boss doesn't bubble your healer and don't step in fail, also don't stand in the inferno pulse on the fire boss for long
Third boss: you may need to kite the boss around near the end of the fight due to all the alpha beam void zones he spawns (they dont disappear)
Assuming you skip all the other bosses now and end up on Rajh: kite the boss away from the fire and interupt fire orb or whatever it's called
My vote would be heroic HoO as well. It is very similar to normal save the previous poster's noted differences. There are 7 bosses, so plenty of loot tables available and rep. The trash is very manageable as well. When my warrior was running through it over and over (for both tank and dps gear), it was giving me the most rep per hour (can't remember the addon I was using when testing this) of any heroic.
IMO watch the yogscast videos on all the heroic bosses. Theyre about 2 min long and have great editing, are explained simply and clearly, and are quite funny. I forgot the YouTube account name but it shouldn't be to hard to find.
Edit: the YouTube name is BlueXephos. All the videos are titled "How to: (bossname) - (instance). They also have raid boss guides.
Last edited by undethknight; 2011-01-14 at 03:52 PM.
Lost City is easy, vortex pinacle (bring a lock / shaman / both) for a super easy run. Then Halls of origination, deadmines, shadowfang keep are all about even, Grim Batal can be tough if your dps/heals are sub par, Blackrock Caverns and Stonecore should probably be just after shadowfang keep.
HoO isnt the easiest, but its always a good choice imo bc its not too hard and there are so many bosses which means its a good opportunity for gear, with relatively little trash for the number of bosses/JP. Otherwise, BRC is quite easy, as is VP. I actually personally hate lost city, but if you have good ranged dps its not too bad. Deadmines is fun but does have some tricky mechanics that mess up certain people.
Did a couple of heroic dungeons tonight and wanted to let you know what I experienced.
I started with a full guild run of Grim Batol, did it as DD though. I can see why you call it difficult. Valiona and Erudax require some pretty good people to be succesfull.
After that one we did the Halls of (Loot) Origination. From this point on, I tanked. After messing up the first pull (damn you big fire summoning guys) we did pretty good. We left out Ptah and wiped a while on Setesh due to a random "Feral" Druid pulling 4k dps as he "was actually a healer"... The Boomkin we got after him was a bit better, pulling at least 6k dps but he didn't pay to much attention to boss mechanics. Nevertheless we killed all of the 4 bosses up there. Though most of the kills were pretty tight: healer oom and 1-3 people dead as well.
Lost City was pretty smooth, but we had a pro priest healer in there, who didn't complain about our Setup of 2 meele plus Arcane mage. But I certainly wouldnt want to run that with less than 2 CCers.
Didn't do VP because my guildies already had an ID.
All in all I have to aggree that most of the fights aren't really hard once one figured out the mechanics.
The worst part for me was kiting the adds on Setesh as my second specc is Unholy and not Frost.
So once again thank you for your thoughts and good wishes. I don't regret trying, instead really enjoyed the heroics tonight.
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), so please explain any tacs i should know". I did this on my first lvl 85, and that helped me a lot. People were kind enough to go through anything that was needed in order to kill stuff
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