It's that time of the month again! If your mind didn't automatically think of the Darkmoon Faire then you obviously haven't been hanging around us long enough.
Come join me in taking down that pompous top-hat Jeremy Feasel on the faire grounds. As Horde you can take the portal located just outside Thunderbluff. But if you're Alliance you can just [EXPLETIVE REMOVED]. JUST KIDDING! I'm pretty sure the portal for Alliance is located in good old Goldshire, just outside of Stormwind.
The Flowing Pandaren Spirit marks our fourth and final stop on our tour of the Pandaren Spirit Trainers. One more battle and you can claim supremacy over those "illiterate mongrels", as Bheez likes to say... to us. Hooray! With the right lineup this fight is no contest.
A few things I kept in mind when selecting and testing my lineups were; availability, pet level, replay value, and their likelihood to succeed. My lineups aren't necessarily for the people that truly LOVE pet battling, you know the ones that are methodically working through their pet journal and replacing all their lesser quality pets with rares- then leveling them to 25 (totally not me), although they would surely find success with these comps. This mini-series was to target and help people that are a little more casual about the whole experience. 'Cause, really, I think everybody deserves a shot at some cool pet skins! Never let it be said that I am not an equal opportunity collecting enthusiast.
Now that we've got that out of the way, on to the fight!
It used to be popular (and maybe it still is) to "carry" a lower level pet through these high-end trainer battles to get some big XP upon success, obviously assuming your low level pet didn't get KO'd during the encounter. I've tried that strat on most of the trainer battles in Pandaria, and in my opinion it isn't an effective way to level a pet if you're going for speed.
I've heard from various sources around the internet that this battle seems to be the most difficult of the four you need to complete the Pandaren Spirit Tamer quest.
Personally, I haven't found that to be true and here's why:
So you finally got a team of three of your favorite (or maybe at this point not so much) pets to 25, congrats! If you have been dutifully defeating pet trainers all over Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, Outlands, and Pandaria along the way then you probably have a quest to defeat the Pandarian Spirit Trainers in your log and it's high time you knocked them out! No, put the bat down that's not what I meant...
It's already been a whole day since Guild Wars 2 shoveled the snow, packed up the tree, and took down the lights (things I haven't done). Lion's Arch just isn't as exciting without all those jerks pelting me with snowballs every time I run through. So to fill the void I bring you the third installment of "How to World Vs. World, A Silent Film". Because it's exciting.
OK FINE- Mostly because I finished it a couple days ago and I hate having things just sitting around... which is exactly why the chocolate is gone as well.
So take advantage of my impatience and clear 14 minutes and 7 seconds of your schedule starting.... now!
The long awaited continuation of "How to World Vs. World: A Silent Film" is finally here! I know you've been patiently waiting so to positively reinforce your good behavior I made it twice as long as the first one, yay!
YES, I said POSITIVELY REINFORCE. Geesh, so ungrateful.
And maybe if you click the link below you'll find that I've also made cookies and hot coco for you!
I have to thank Bheez for motivating me to complete all the jump puzzle paths in the Wintersday Winter Wonderland Jump Puzzle in GW2 this holiday season. How did he do such a thing you might wonder?
Oh, by beating me to the finish line of the first two paths and rubbing it in my face. Repeatedly.
Since it is genetically impossible for me to sit by as Bheezem attempts to best me, instinct kicked in and I proceeded to destroy all those who would oppose me; be it Snowmen, Gingerbread men, ...or Quaggan.
Click the link below to see if all was for naught!
Bheez and I have had some epic adventures in the past. This may (or may not be) one of them. The only way to find out is to see for yourself. And seeing as how you're here in first place, you probably have nothing better to do, so enjoy!
How to World Vs. World (A Silent Film) - part one presented by Team Vashj, aka the Cuddwy Kwoo [Ck] - after the break! YEAH YOU HAVE TO CLICK THE LINK. Gawd, kids these days... so lazy.
It has been nearly four days since Guild Wars 2 has launched and I'm having such a great time exploring the world of Tyria that I put together some clips of my Vista Exploti-eer, Vista Viewing Adventures.
While in Lion's Arch one day, going about my business of attempting to 100% the map, I happened upon a super secret cave opening...One thing led to another and I soon found myself knee-deep in pirate's booty with Shirley hot on my tail.
Watch the video to see what we were up to!
Check out my channel for more videos of this nature and other unnecessary nonsense.
My first impressions of the Guild Wars 2 launch have been really good. They brought the servers up three hours prior to the "official" preplay scheduled time and I had no problem picking my server or creating my character! Already winning in my book. Even the lag was pretty minimal given the amount of bodies populating the zones (dead or otherwise). One of the smoothest launches I've participated in, eva!
Now, that isn't to say there haven't been hiccups, but what launch would be complete without them?
CLICK THE LINK FOR THE CURE TO HICCUPS! Ok, not really, it's just more text and a video... but still, click the link!
Actually, I take that back. It's so misleading isn't it? You pass Hell then you end up in Inferno... shouldn't it be the other way around? Cause it sure feels like it should.
On a lighter note: Bheez helped me put together this "Barbarian's Guide to Inferno" for you. Check it out!
The fights are explained in detail within the video, however one thing to note about our video is we had a few glitches on certain fights such as the Jindo Krey and the final stealth phase of HK-47. Keeta also disconnected towards the start of the malgus fight and didn't make it back until the end.
Don't be discouraged if you have a hard time with this instance, it was our first hard mode ever, and back when we didn't have gear ended up spending 40k credits in repairs each getting through it.
Results may vary, if you believe this video guide may not be right for you, consult your doctor about when and if you should take advice from welfaregamers, side effects may include mind numbing disbelief, sadness, shame, humilation, and ultimately failure. Other side effects may apply
This is our footage from hard mode kaon under siege, minus the bonus boss on hard mode. (We got owned miserably due to lack of gear)
Boss fights The Gauntlet- 0:00-1:53
Have 1 dps mount the turret while the rest gather around it and defend it(this also makes it easier for aoe heals and tanks to grab aggro)
Kill the infected mercanaries first, otherwise their constrict will cost you dearly when they add up over time, the infected screamers are also a pain in the ass with the knock back. Bloaters are meh, but you still have to kill them, and when you do if you don't do it right you'll pay for it.
Take bloaters away from the group so that when they start to blow up at around 20% they don't hit your group with their devastating dot and damage, DO NOT HIT THEM WITH THE TURRET AS THE TURRET WILL KILL THEM BEFORE THEY GET A CHANCE TO BE MOVED
rinse and repeat, thats about it for this fight
Rakghoul Behemoth- 1:54-3:31
He spawns up on the platform, melee tanks be careful when approaching. He pretty much back hands you down the steps if you dont use some kind of range pull
Kite him around the park in a square motion, passing him by the explosive barrels and blowing them up when he gets close. (We had a designated barrel blower kerploder) Repeat this by kitting him around until he's dead.
WARNING: It is very hard as a melee tank to keep aggro on him without getting hit by him, its ok to get smacked around a bit, but while he is frenzied it's best not to tempt fate, save any high threat ranged attacks you have for his frenzy phases.
Super Soldiers- 3:32-5:14
The video says it all, there is 3 soldiers, the only one who has an aggro table is the trooper, the other two will randomly switch focus attacks to different players, with the juggernaut having no special abilities minus enrage and the big guy having an enrage, and a channeled stun.
Kill the big guy first, and prepare for adds around the time he dies, (it is better to have the tank kite the adds then to straight up tank them). Kill the adds and kill the second mini boss. The main guy is interruptable and tauntable, its a simple tank and spank
Bonus Boss- 5:15-8:00
easy fight on normal, not so much on hard mode(VERY healing intensive)
You don't have to, but we pulled him back to the pillar so we could kill the adds and line of sight the boss at the same time, the only things to remember for this boss are to run out of GRAPPLE and to kill the adds when they spawn.
Some nice changes were made to the Tregg and Malgus fights for The False Emperor, the latter should definitely help groups lacking knockbacks.
The False Emperor
The Sith Entity's affliction ability now properly deals damage in Hard Mode.
HK-47 now has the correct amount of health in Normal Mode.
Tregg no longer immediately initiates his whirlwind attack after leaping to a player target. Players now have more time to react and avoid whirlwind damage.
Corrected an issue that caused Jindo Krey to randomly target players with his blaster attack. He now focuses those attacks on his primary target, making him "tankable" as intended.
Players can now acquire special Pulse Grenades outside of Darth Malgus' throne room. These grenades aid groups lacking knockback abilities in defeating him.
And then there was this...
Vanity pets can no longer be considered targets for any abilities.
Your Sand Crawler lives to see another day Sel....... >:|
This fight is all about
positioning. If your group can master where they should be at the right times
then your success will come much more easily.
Have your tank move
Malgus to the lower end of the stairwell that is directly behind Malgus when
you first engage him. The tank's back should be to this wall. The rest of the
group should have their backs to the wall opposite. The reason for this is to
avoid being thrown over the side of the space station (it's really
quite embarrassing) by his Push back ability. Push backs should not be
mistaken for Knock backs- I did not have my casts interrupted by this
ability so that's a plus.
Malgus will randomly
Leap to a player, apparently his ugly face strikes fear into your heart and
you subsequently shed some HP (try closing your eyes next time!). He
is also going to use Smash, which is an AoE ability that does a good amount of
damage (upwards of 2k each time), so if you don't need to be in melee range of
him consider yourself lucky.
A random player will be
afflicted by Doubt, there will be an emote to indicate who the lucky one is.
This person will sit in a stun for what seems like an obscene amount of time.
It is important for this person to be healed up quickly and shielded
if available before Malgus uses his Empowered Choke which will render
everybody but the person afflicted with Doubt useless and airborne- whee!
Malgus does next to no damage during this time.
While most of the group
is being choked the person with Doubt will have to face Malgus one on one, he
will swing his lightsaber at you in addition to using Vengeful Strikes twice.
We found there are two ways to handle this. The first being to tank it with the
use of interrupts and/or defensive abilities which works pretty well
unless your gear was made out of left over gift wrapping and scotch tape
(/eyesKitty). If that isn't working out too well you can simply kite him, we
pathed him up the stairs and around the base of his throne and then led him
back to the tank. By the time this circuit was complete the Empowered
Choke was over and everybody could move back into their positions. Treat kiting
him like you would towing a trailer- if you make too sudden a turn he could
fishtail or flip and get stuck and then everybody would be pissed at you when
he resets. :D
Once Malgus hits about
40% you will need to watch out for an ability he uses called Unlimited Power,
it is a 3 second cast. He can, and most likely will, use
this immediately following the end of the Empowered Choke/Vengeful
Strikes phase. Be ready to interrupt this, failure to do so will
result in the death of your group via massive AoE damage. He will do this again
around 20%.
Now for the fun part.
Malgus will start
channeling Lightning around 9% and become immune to damage, however, while he
is doing this he will be vulnerable to knock backs and grip
abilities. Have the tank start to move him toward side of the bridge at
around 15% hp. Everybody needs to be mindful of their positioning because he
will continue to use his Push back ability while he is
being re-positioned. You should make use of the bridge's architecture to
reduce the risk of being thrown off.
You must time at least
two knock backs to go off (with Malgus facing the appropriate direction of
course) either at the same time or within a second of each other in order
to successfully knock Malgus off. And even then your results might not be
typical. We executed this perfectly on one attempt only to have him fly
back up and wipe us with more lightning. So don't be discouraged if you
experience something similar, there are still a bunch of bugs to be worked out.
Now we haven't tested this, but in theory you could also use a pull to ability
while teetering on the ledge and then follow up with a knock back. You could
also try knocking him back and then having your tank suicide jump and use a
pull to ability while falling (that would be so epic). We have NOT tried these
methods, but feel free to have some fun with it!
It's important to note
that if he is in-between lightning channels he will be immune to
knock backs and pulls again so you MUST time these abilities to happen at the
same time and while he is channeling. If you don't manage to knock him off by
the second channel you are most likely dead- the damage at the end of the fight
is not meant to be healed through. You can buy yourself some time by using
defensive abilities such as the Smuggler's AoE damage reduction shield.
There is no TLDR
version- I am picking the dark side option to make you suffer! Happy trails~!
Note: Hopefully Bioware
will change this, but, if you feel iffy about your group downing this boss and
want to attempt to go back after you have tried your hand at defeating Malgus
you're in for some bad news. Using the elevator console after the Malgus
encounter will crash your game, repeatedly. If you're on the fence, just
give it a go otherwise you might regret not having at least tried. If your
DPS is low you will hit the enrage timer rather quickly on this one. GL!
This is an uncomplicated
fight, tank and spank the Sith Entity. When he spawns his three adds, you can
either split DPS or focus- depends on what your group is comfortable
with. Interrupting the caster's lightning abilities will greatly
reduce outgoing damage. You should not have to go through more than three add
phases for this encounter.
This "boss"
fight could easily be mistaken for a trash pull. You can breathe a sigh of
relief now! Take out the two guards accompanying him
and interrupt Spinning Strikes.
