2012: Just Another Year in Azeroth

This year has been a real roller coaster ride for me in Warcraft and to be honest I got to admit that what looked real scary at the beginning ended really well and I'm really looking forward to the next ride although I must admit I'm hoping for a more gentle run this time around. That said, I have doubled my wow friends list and have had the honour of being in 2 awesome guild with a load of awesome people and really I couldn't wish for being surrounded by better people.

So with a new year almost upon us (or probably here by the time you're reading this I thought I'd take you all on a whirlwind tour of MY 2012.

Merry Christmas 2012

Just a quick note to wish you all a Merry Christmas.

Project Titan Update: ReExhumed are raiding!

Our first official raid night and a valiant band of 7 heroes entered Wrath raiding at the beginning and we kicked some ass!

The team was Artherion, Cumingallove, Evangelysm, Heideroosje, Krius, Shifthead and Zombaal.

The Necropolis fell first as Kel'Thuzad and his minions failed to stop us, although they did take more than a small bite out of Zombaal who seemed to be their main focus. He has therefore become the official ReExhumed sacrificial gnome!

Heart of Fear: Blade Lord Ta’Yak (10)

Blade Lord Ta'yak is a two-phase fight with no adds. 

Phase One lasts between 100% and 20% of the boss' health. Ta'yak has several abilities which require that you stack up and spread out at various stages.

Phase Two begins at 20% health and in this phase the raid will have to dodge oncoming tornadoes, and deal damage to the boss. 

Throughout the fight, Ta'yak gains a stacking buff that increases his damage done, acting as a soft enrage that will eventually wipe your raid. Additionally, Phase One has a second soft enrage mechanic of its own.

Heart of Fear: Imperial Vizier Zor’Lok (10)

Imperial Vizier Zor'lok is a 2-phase fight.

Phase One, has 3 mini phases that can occur in any order. You have to fight Zor'lok on each of the three elevated platforms (once each). He changes platform every 20% and when moving between platform fills the room with Pheromones of Zeal, a damaging/silencing gas. Zor'lok uses an extra ability on each platform.

Phase 2 begins when Zor'lok reaches 40% health and he flies to the middle of the room, absorbs the gas which buffs his damage, and pull everyone to him. During this phase, Zor'lok uses all the abilities he had on the platforms.

Mogu Shan Vaults: Will of the Emperor (10)

The Will of the Emperor encounter is a two-phase fight. After activating the control panel you have to wait for 25 seconds before the fight begins.

• Phase One lasts for 90 seconds you will have to handle three different types of adds;
• Phase Two begins after 90 seconds when Jan-xi and Qin-xi become active. The adds from Phase One will continue to spawn;
• Jan-xi and Qin-xi have a shared health pool;

7 WoW Podcasts You Should Be Listening To

I've been a follower of many WoW podcasts since teh early days of WoW and the majority have faded away either because the show stopped or the host(s) stopped playing WoW. 

Over the years though the general trend has been a steadily increasing quality of production and some great content too. My current list is below in alphabetical order because sorting into a ranked order was just too tough:

Mogu Shan Vaults: Elegon (10)

Elegon is the toughest fight in Mogu Shan Vaults and in my opinion should have been the end boss. 

This is a 3 phase fight, each phase repeats twice throughout the fight and you fight Elegon in a circular room with an Inner Ring and an Outer Ring.

The Inner Ring is covered by a floor made of energy. Any raid member that stands in this area receives two debuffs, one that increases damage done and healing received by 50% and the other, Overcharged, increases damage taken by 5% per stack, up to a maximum of 20 stacks. A new stack is applied every 5 seconds. Leaving the Inner Ring immediately removes the Overcharged debuff.

Phase One lasts from 100% to 85% of Elegon's health. Elegon is located in the center of the Inner Ring, and he is stationary. He can be turned, but he does not move from his position.

Elegon does a frontal cone AoE attack every 20 seconds. He also summons a Celestial Protector (every 35 econds) who melees its main aggro target and regularly attacks a random raid member and applies a debuff which reduces the healing taken by that target by 50% for 20 seconds, and MUST be dispelled. When the Celestial Protector is outside the Inner Ring and has over 25% health, he takes 90% reduced damage. At 25% health the Celestial Protector deals a small amount of damage to all raid members every second until he dies upon death he deals a large amount of damage to all raid members and should therefore be killed in the Outer Ring as he also gets the 50% damage buff.

Phase Two starts as Phase One ends and lasts until the adds that the boss repeatedly spawns are not all killed in a given amount of time. The time frame for killing each wave of adds is shorter each time, generally it lasts 40 seconds.

Phase Three starts as Phase Two ends and the floor disappears (fail and you will fall to your death). Phase three lasts until the all of the objects the boss spawns during phase Three are dead. The raid takes increasing raid damage that will lead to a wipe and should not last beyond 80 seconds.

Phase One starts for a second time when Elegon reaches 50% health, and the cycle repeats.

Once the second cycle ends, Elegon will no longer wipe the raid but will stay at Phase 1 and deal massive raid wide damage.

Because of the high DPS requirement it needs to be 2 healed.

Mogu Shan Vaults: Spirit Kings (10)

This is a council-type fight with 4 bosses which you fight one at a time, in random order, except the first which is alway Qiang the Merciless.

Each new boss becomes active when the previous one is killed. Each of the bosses has his own health pool and his own set of abilities. Each boss has one ability which persists through death. This means that the fight becomes progressively more difficult.

The fight involves a lot of movement, and proper positioning is an important requirement for success, throughout the course of the fight.

Project Titan: A Guide to Killing Algalon The Observer

Yes this is 2012 and yes Alaglon was way back in 2009, but for Project Titan, Algalon will be proper content!

We're still looking for some players who are interested in getting the Herald of the Titans title and Feat of Strength, so if you're keen and able to bring a level 80 Horde character to the party and preferably to the Defias Brotherhood server, get in touch with my by:

• joining our forums at the ReExhumed guild website;
• in game mail to Evangelym on the Defias Brotherhood EU realm;
• an email to evlyxx at evlyxx dot com;
• or leaving a comment on this or one of the other Project Titan threads