On the E-Sofa with Dark - When a Panda meets a Bear and a Draenei....

Happy Sunday!! Yes I know it's two days late but I've been playing host to two of my favourite bears this weekend!! Yes, the sofa has been filled with Panda, Bear and Draenei bums, as I sat down to talk to Sunnier and Arielle about what they've been up to lately, including Alpha testing and tanking Garrosh Hellscream!!

So grab your FINEST brews (better make it a big cup, we'll be here a while) and join me as the Bears take over the sofa.....

Hi guys!! It's wonderful to have you here, I'm so glad that you could join me on my E-Sofa!

Just as a reminder, or for people reading for the first time, who are you both, what classes do you play, and how long have you been WoW'ing?

I'm Sunnier, creator of SunniersArtOfWar.com, a Brewmaster guide site and blog. I've been playing for nearly 9 years, though obviously not as a monk. :) Before I discovered my true calling, I played a bear druid (which is why you may see me around as "SunnierBear").

Hello! I’m Arielle and I play a Guardian Druid.  Most people probably know me as the person that writes for the Inconspicuous Bear (www.theincbear.com), or from Twitter (@ArielleEJ).  I’ve been playing WoW since Vanilla (April 2005 actually), although I have taken breaks now and again.  I actually leveled as a Protection Warrior in Vanilla, which was one of the most arduous experiences I’ve ever been through.  For the last little bit of Vanilla I played a PvP Arcane/Fire Mage with some real life friends, and it was awesome.  I didn’t actually switch to the Druid until halfway through TBC, and I’ve been Feral/Guardian ever since (with a brief stint as a DK at the start of Wrath).
 

Arielle, I heard something about a home for retired bears?

Something like that I guess.  The guild used to be called on Suramar.  There was some drama, and then we moved to Sargeras part way through Throne of thunder.  At that point we had been running double Guardian tanks for some time, and another former Guardian (Reesi, you may have heard of her) was our Hunter.  Then Sunnier joined and a couple of my friends (Buraan and Ahanss) added alts.  At that point I made a joke or something about us actually being a bear retirement home.  I thought it was hilarious, and Sunnier even drew some doodles of “retired bears”.  Our GM at the time – Kal / @Cybnext – finally bit the bullet and changed the name of the guild, and one of Sunnier’s doodles became our logo.  Now we have even more alts from other current or former Guardians (Lyfa, Mowse, Fasc) and I think it’s just a lot of fun.  I’ve jokingly said that my method of putting together a successful raiding guild is:

1. Recruit former Guardians

2. ???

3. Profit!

I mean, if they’re no longer Guardians, they’re technically ‘retired’ right?  Makes sense to call ourselves the Bear Retirement Home then (BRH website).

What have you been up to lately, how is WoW for you now?

With Garrosh dead raiding is mostly about getting together and having a good time.  We have one new recruit right now so there’s a few wipes while he learns the encounters, but overall everyone’s still having fun which is what counts.  I’ve been waiting for level 100 characters to be available before doing anything serious in Alpha, but now that they are I’ll be doing some work on that soon-ish.

I also have 2 CM groups per week.  The weekend one is really just an excuse to hang out with some of my friends.  The Tuesday one is really just charity (shhhhhhhh).  Because I’m nice.

Other than that it’s really just making sure we’re farming Garrosh every week so we’re prepared when the transition to Mythic happens.  I don’t really have any interest in re-progressing on 25m.  Thankfully all of my raiders share that opinion.

It's been pretty quiet lately, after Garrosh. Ideally I would be spending lots of time in the alpha (an excuse to play tauren!), though I've been too busy IRL to spend as much time as I'd like. My ongoing goal on live is to level up pets because I want a baby ox celestial, but that may be a pipe dream since my strategy for pet battles is "pick the cutest ones".

Something I must ask Sunnier, as a fellow mog enthusiast, how is your transmog looking right now?

Funny you should ask, since I just completed a set that I've wanted for a while -- my orange druid-inspired set. I think it passes pretty well as a mysterious monk.

So you've both tanked the mighty Hellscream on Heroic, how was it for you? Any tips?

Honestly it was underwhelming.  I was expecting it to be a lot more difficult than it was.  By far the hardest thing was learning the timings on Iron Stars in phase 4 (since I’m the kite bitch b/c Guardians OP).  Being a “tank” on Garrosh is pretty much a complete afterthought as a Guardian.   Given that we stack offensive stats almost exclusively, you’re supposed to push your DPS as much as possible to make the transitions between phases as smooth as you can.  I am routinely the top DPS through the first 3 phases, and I only get caught in phase 4 because I don’t tank the boss at all.

For those interested, you can check out my Heroic Garrosh Guardian Guide here

I enjoyed Hellscream. There are a lot of different types of fights wrapped into one, which makes talent choices interesting. There's the dps fight, there's the high physical damage fight, the high magical damage fight, the AoE control fight, and finally, the high-damage tank-n-spank where you're tired and really hope you, the person with the easiest job, don't mess up. I was switching talents, glyphs, and gear constantly as we progressed, which I love doing.

So, what encounter in SoO do you both enjoy the most?

The qualities of the perfect encounter for me are: high tank damage, high movement, interesting talent choices, and low tank downtime. I think Iron Juggernaut fits those pretty well, especially as a Brewmaster. The periodic magic damage is particularly difficult for Brewmasters, but it forces you to make hard decisions (like: should I glyph Guard to better handle the magic damage, or unglyph it to better handle bomb damage). And in this case, the choices are really great because there is no defined best build -- it depends on your gear and healers and skillset. 

Spoils.  The rest of the encounters are not that exciting from a tank perspective.  It’s nice to break out of the mould and do something different.  Paragons requires the most attention to detail out of the bunch for me – due to our strat – and I get to turn into a scorpion which is pretty cool.  But I still find Spoils to be the most fun.

So, the alpha landed, how are you both finding it? What have you been getting up to in it?

I've been enjoying my time with a tauren monk. He is a beautiful beast. Brewmasters don't have any significant changes, but I've still been playing around with questing (I always love questing, and every expansion I enjoy it more), and animations. What I'm really waiting for is unlocking level 100 talents, particularly Chi Explosion. I want to see if that talent has some angle I'm missing (because right now it seems sort of confused).

Other than briefly logging in when I first got access, I pretty much ignored it until Alliance was made available.  Now that both Alliance and level 100 premades are out, I’m having a lot more fun.  SMV is PRETTY.  Way more visually enticing than the Horde starting area (Frostfire something?).  I’m really excited to go through it for real on live.

Are you both looking forward to WoD? Based on what you've seen/read so far, what aspect are you most looking forward to?

For Guardians specifically it has to be GCD reduction from Haste.  I had my first opportunity to play with it in a dungeon setting last night, and I loved it.  Going back to regular 1.5s GCDs on live afterwards felt painfully slow.  Other than that I’m really appreciating the increasing dedication the developers have to making sure all of the different classes and specs are balanced.  We had a giant leap forward during Mists, and it looks like we’re taking another leap in that direction again.  I really appreciate that.

Definately new character models. What I've seen is so vibrant, I want to experience all of them. I cannot wait to see female tauren, but since I'm Alliance I'll have a tough time picking between draenei, dwarves, and gnomes.
 

Sunnier we should all know by now that you are the true mistress of the brews, but just in case anyone's not aware, where is your blog and what can we find there?

My site is at SunniersArtOfWar.com, where you can find my guide and any musings I have about Brewmasters. I've also started streaming again at twitch.com/SunnierBear. I stopped streaming a few months ago because a lot of people (by my standards) were watching and it freaked me out. But now I can pop out the chat window and never see how many people are watching and it's okay! You can also find me on Twitter @SunnierBrew.
 

Arielle, your Inconspicuous Bear forums are awesome, where can people find those and what can they expect to see there? 

The forums can be found at http://www.theincbear.com/forums .  There hasn’t been a lot of Alpha discussion yet since very little in terms of mechanics has been available to test until recently.  Other than that there are places to ask general Guardian questions, discuss specific raid encounters, or ask for combat log analysis.  Quite a few of the top US/UK Guardians are regulars there (including Danishpsycho, Buraan, Ahanss, Kartog, and Khaelyn among others) so the discussion is usually polite and detailed.

Sunnier and I have been friends for gosh....over 3 years now?  It’s a real treat to tank with her, and I can always rely on her to get the job done (except that one time she clicked a Warlock portal and died to an Iron Star).  I routinely count my lucky stars that I managed to convince her to come tank for us :)

For those that don’t know I also help out Tickle (@tickletotem) by doing reviews of Guardian logs / armories over at Sentry Totem (http://www.sentrytotem.com).  just a quick reminder that I’m doing it for fun, so any tips you give for my services will go back to fund the site.  You can also simply ask the same questions over on the TiB forums (http://www.theincbear.com/forums).  I do stream sometimes (http://www.twitch.tv/deastin) but I’ve taken a break from streaming farm since it takes up so much bandwidth to stream in 1080p :(

I also host the Team Waffle Podcast (http://www.teamwafflecast.com), which is an all-Druid podcast that covers the PvE side of the game for all 4 specializations.  We also do 2-3 “roundtables” per expansion where I gather up 5-6 people from a given specialization (Rank 1 Gladiators, top tier heroic raiders, and theorycrafters) to talk about the spec is doing at a given point.  I really enjoy doing it and I’ve made a lot of friends along the way.

If you’re interested in becoming a better Guardian, it helps to learn from the best.  So definitely check out Buraan’s raid streams over at http://www.twitch.tv/buraan.  Who better to learn from than the rank 1 Guardian?

So guys, there you have it, all that is left is for me to say thank you SO much to the both of you for joining me on my E-Sofa!!

I hope you all enjoyed the interview as much as I did!!

The last challenging post.....

Hi guys, 

I hope everyone is having a great Friday!! I am going to conclude what has been a much more involved set of posts than I thought with the last 4 CM dungeon monk perspectives, and one more voice over video, which I shall upload to YouTube tonight and add to the post tomorrow! For now, join me with your brews, as we wander into the spooky Scholomance.....


Scholomance.

Gold Timer: 20m
Silver Timer: 33m
Bronze Timer: 55m

Completion Difficulty: Relatively easy throughout with some potential high damage phases (dependent on how much you want to pull at once!).
Invis Pots: Yes
Talents used:
Windwalker - Tigers lust/Chi Burst/Chi Brew/RoP/Diffuse Magic/RJW.
This is one of the longer instances, and there are a few different ways you can meet your mob count. You can also run the instance on normal first to get the Polyformic Acid buff which will provide a minor dps boost.The first 2 mobs are killed as usual, make sure you have someone open the gate ready to enter the boss room as there are a few seconds of RP before you can go down to her. One important thing to note about starting this encounter - when you engage Instructor Chillheart, she will kill everything in the room with her apart from a skeleton on either side of the room (these two mobs need not be touched incidentally), HOWEVER.....If you hit the floor before she does this, sometimes, the 3 caster mobs that are in front of her will not die, so make sure you start the encounter by hitting her before anyone's feet hit the floor crackling jade lightening is nice for this but you will usually have a caster in your team so a ranged spell would be more ideal). The encounter is pretty straightforward, move from the Frigid Grasp (Looks like a Mage's ring of frost) she periodically places at a random players feet, move away from other players when you have Ice Wrath on you, and keep towards the wall where you jumped down as the wave of ice she spawns will one shot you. When she is dead have your casters back up against that wall to avoid the flying books and dps the Phylactery down.



     There is one mob in the next corridor which you can pull through into the next room with you, there will be 4 candlestick mages in total, the little skeletons still hit for nothing and can be one shot, make sure you get good use out of your Storm Earth and Fire and RJW here!!
Jandice Barov is dealt with in the same way as normal, avoid her Wondrous Rapidity, and if you dont have the Barov Helper addon from Curse, memorise her portrait so that you can be sure to attack the right one when she casts Whirl of Illusion, as dpsing the incorrect one causes party damage.
    After the boss is dead the door to the next room will open, your tank will need any speed boost effects available to the group and themselves as they will be running into the next room to pull ALL of the Bone Wavers and Guards. There will be a lot of tank damage here, to avoid random aggro from other party members, you will all stack up on the right hand side of the door until the tank comes back with the mobs, as soon as the tank is in place you will need to move to the left hand side of the door and aoe the mobs down. As a wind walker you need to be careful you don't out aggro your tank or stand in front of the mobs, again S.E&F is REALLY nice here, also, don't for get to use your RoP when the mobs are all bunched up, a few seconds of silence on the casters will help your healer and tank out massively. Rattlegore is the same as heroics, just kite him round the room and DPS him down, pay attention to who gets bone spiked and ensure that person gets a new bone shield as soon as possible.
    The next room can be done in one of two ways, you can either: pull enough mobs so that you have 30/35 enemies killed or: kill the whole room, which will leave you with 34/35 enemies killed. I will explain what to do for each scenario later when we get to the last boss, but for now, pull and kill whichever amount of mobs your group wants to kill. You can either pull them pack by pack or pull the whole lot out of the room into the previous room and LoS them all down, but to be honest, if you're going at a stead pace, pulling them one pack (meaning one giant mob) at a time is fine and doesn't put any unnecessary stress on tank/healer. It also leaves you with large dps cds ready for Lillian. If you can kill Lillian before she transistions, great, if you have a BL/TW, this is where I would recommend you use it. Do not use dps pots as you will need to invis straight after the encounter. kill her in the way you would on normal, just be aware that all her abilities hurt more, diffuse magic is really nice for dealing with the purple fire on the floor here. Don't forget to help out slower moving players with Tigers Lust if you don't kill her before transition as she will fixate on people, although she moves slowly if someone is in a bad position when fixated it can really help them out. 
        Invis through the Professor Slate room - You do NOT need to kill Slate. If you opted to kill the mobs in the room before Lillian until you have 30/35, run into the next corridor, pull the last pack of 5 casters and LoS them round the corner, making your mob count. If you killed everything leaving you with 34/35 mobs, head straight to the final boss. The Darkmaster Gandling encounter is fairly simple, and he does not deal any major damage deal with it as you would in heroic mode, just be aware that he takes less damage while channeling Rise, so you can just focus down his adds here. If you already have your mob count, you will finish the encounter and the dungeon, if you are still on 34 mobs, simple pop back to the previous room, pull 1 pack and single target one mob, as soon as it is dead you will have your achievement and the rest of the mobs will despawn.

Tips and tricks from the Tinterwebz: From @Arielle_EJ: You can pull Jandice behind the pillar and the "right" image will always be in the closest corner. 

Scarlet Halls.

Gold Timer: 13m 30s
Silver Timer: 22m
Bronze Timer: 45m

Completion Difficulty: Moderate tactically with two high damage pulls. 
Invis Pots: Yes.
Talents used:
Windwalker - Tigers Lust/Chi Burst/Chi Brew/RoP/Dampen Harm/RJW
Brewmaster - Tigers Lust/ChiWave/Ascension/RoP/Dampen Harm/Xuen
This is where all of your team members need to be on the same page and quick to do what is needed. The first section of the instance requires you to use the buckets of meat to not only stop the Starving hounds from attacking, but, when done correctly, to add to your mob count. 3 Buckets will spawn when the instance begins, have your tank pick up one and two of your dps, one with the intent to use the meat and one as a back up. (Note: this can be extremely buggy at times, so try not to be too frustrated with the spawns of the first pack of dogs and the Watchman.). To deal with the first pack, your tank must first aggro the Watchman - (do NOT use AOE like I did the first time, single target him so that he aggros on you) as SOON as this mob aggros, the tank must dump their bucket of meat on his head, the dogs will eat the guard and you will have  mobs for your count. The rest of the team must run through avoiding the dog on the chain (stick to the right hand wall you should be fine). The tank must then aggro the next watchman, and one of your dps who has a bucket must do the honors. Use the shields to get up to the mini boss at the end and take care of the fire arrows.(You can kill the adds with this boss - leaving him alive, pull him back to the entrance and reset him, and kill him and his add as again to save you doing the next dog pack if you wish). When the misi boss is dead, pick up the meat buckets, the tank can run on ahead and deal with the pack of dogs before Houndmaster Braun, while a dps and healer deal with the pack immediately on your right before the corridor to the boss(this is the bit you can skip if you reset the mini boss). Dps the boss down, save your tank cds for Bloody Rage and try to pick up the dogs as they spawn so they don't rip your dps/healers to shreds.

      Wait until the hounds have dispatched the guards before running to the bottom of the stairs. Invis and run to the next set of stairs, turn around and pull the last pack of 8 mobs, LoS at the bottom of the stairs. Take care with this pack, they hit very hard, and the casters are a pain in the backside, so use RoP on yourself once the tank has aggro as a WW and silence any that are further back. As a tank, use all of the CDs you have available to you and Xuen to help with the damage, there is nowhere to kite these mobs so you will have to face tank them, make no mistake, they hurt. on the plus side, you will gain a shed ton of vengeance here, so you will be hitting like a truck yourself. Take care not to aggro the pack in the corridor at the top fo the stairs, they are the same as the pack you just dealt with and you will not have CDs to deal with them. Enter the boss room and deal with Armsmaster Harlan as you would on heroic, DO NOT get caught in Blades of Light, you will die. Do not bother to dps down the adds he spawns, they wear Heavy Armor and it's a dps loss, just aggro them and make sure they stay with you, they will die to cleave damage later on if they lose their armor by getting caught in Blades of Light.

         After this boss, you should have enough CDs up between the group to deal with the 8 mob pack in the corridor, pull them back into the boss room and LoS, use all of your tank CDs and get full useage out of S,E&F and RoP to silence the casters. Move through the next corrodors, dealing with the mobs on a pack by pack basis, they do not hit as hard as the two packs you just dealt with, make sure you interrupt the Scholars Scarlet protection. The final boss encounter is very simple and deals little to no tank damage provided you don't stand in any bad. Flameweaver Koegler only has a few abilities, only 2 of them are interruptible so make sure you do in fact interrupt them, avoid the Dragons Breath and Book Burner.

 Siege of Niuzao Temple.

Gold Timer: 19m
Silver Timer: 30m
Bronze Timer: 50m

Completion Difficulty: Easy provided you do not get held up, one or two big pulls and one moderate difficulty boss.
Invis Pots: No.
Talents Used:
Windwalker - Tigers Lust/Chi Burst/Chi Brew/RoP/RJW

Apart from being lengthy, this daunting appearing instance is one of my favorites. Mainly because it has one of the biggest "YoloWTF" pulls out of all 9 dungeons (apart from the Brewery), and when done correctly, this can be really fun. The first pack of adds and every other one after it with Mantid in should be stacked up and the Weavers interrupted. Deal with the first pack of 3, move onto the first pack of blobs. The Resin Flakes leave a debuff on every one, so be mindful of this when moving on. Go left straight after this pack and skip the pack of Mantids, take your first right out of the boss room (the boss will not be able to be activated yet) and prepare fr massive aoe damage. The pack of blobs should be dealt with one at a time, they do not have much health and die quickly however killing them ali at once will usually result in a wipe due to Residue. Kill these, pull and kill the boss and exit the boss room once your residue has dropped off. Continue right the way to the top of the tree dealing with the mobs on a pack by pack basis, get as much out of S,E&F as you can , and keep RoP for the Mantid packs.

      The second boss encounter is easy but long, when you are dealing with the last pack of mobs in the tree have one of your dps open the door for you and pull them outside to get the RP started. Have your healer and one ranged stay up top to drop amber, and tank and rest of DPS go down to greet the incomming mobs. make sure your ranged takes out the adds carrying bombs, have a designated spot to throw the amber and tank the rest of the mob in this. When Commander Vo'jak is ready to approach, retreat to the top level. Have a designated amber spot again, and tank him in it. Be aware that he will cast Dashing Strike and Thousand Blades on players, you must avoid this ability, as monk you can roll, it's handy to use Tigers Lust on a friendly party member to help them out.

    Move down to the next area, using either of the paths on the picture, do not pull anything. Position yourselves in front of the General. Another option situation: pull just the General, wait for him to retreat to his shell and use the bombs to aoe down the 3 packs of mobs, or, pull EVERYTHING and Yololust it down before he even uses the ability. Either way is perfectly doable, it depends on your composition, and how experienced your tank is as kiting, because unless your a monk, you don't really want to be face tanking these mobs, and even then, they hurt. Use the bombs that get dropped to kill the General and his minions. He will continue to cast Blade Rush on party members, so keep a roll ready to get out of the way. 
     The last packs of adds on the bridge should be dealt with pack by pack, the boss is dealt with in the same way as Heroic, a nice easy end to a long dungeon!! (one thing to note about the packs of mobs, don't pull them before your tank is ready, they will target you with hurl brick, and that hurts!)

 Shado-Pan Monastery.

Gold Timer: 21m
Silver Timer: 35m
Bronze Timer: 1h

Completion difficulty: Moderate Damage throughout.
Invis Pots: Yes.
Talents Used: 
Windwalker - Tigers Lust/Chi Wave/Chi Brew/RoP/Diffuse Magic/Xuen

Almost in the home stretch now, another long instance, with some fairly hard hitting bosses and trash packs. But of course, we're monks, so we're going to nimble our way through taking as little damage as possible! Pull everything in the first corridor, these mobs are relatively hard hitting, so be careful that you don't out aggro your tank, use S,E&F to aoe them down, but note that RoP is of little use here as the mobs have no weapons, however you can possibly stop a set of casts if you time it right. Use Xuen on the first boss, and avoid the lightening, diffuse magic is nice here if you do get hit by anything unsavoury. Ensure you group up to release the healing energy. Once the  serpent is down, you will want to group up and use some big healing cooldowns to prepare for the final phase, where Gu will cause damage to everyone, this is a great opportunity to help out your healer by using Touch of Karma. Take the 4 mobs in the following corridor to the end of it and aoe them down, again RoP will not disarm but can stop a set of casts with its silence ability. 
      Go out of this corridor, do not pull the 4 mobs outside the door, but hug the right hand wall, mount up and head on up to the next boss room. For the first part of the Master Snowdrift encounter, S,E&F can be used on the initiates, as the item squish means they take longer to kill, making it more viable than normal heroic as everything is usually dead before your clone even gets to it.  Flying Snow and Fragrant Lotus will deal a moderate amount of tank damage, as a melee dps you may want to use your Fortifying Brew to help out your healer, as Flying Snow will periodically cast Flying Steel, of course it goes without saying that Touch of Karma will once again bail you out. For snowdrift himself the only thing you really need to do is not stand in his Fist of Fury, as this will down even the mightiest of tanks (however if you have ToK ready you can use this, but be careful, ToK is 6 seconds and FoF is 5, so watch your timing!!). You will also need to avoid his Ball of Fire, and have designated people to deal with either side when he splits into 3 to save time finding which ones are illusions. For his final phase you will need to spend a few healing CDs if they are available, the Tornado slam can one shot someone who is already on low health. Try to stay in melee range to minimize damage from his Kick, and nuke him as hard as you can without using pots or dps CDs as you will need them for the next boss.
       Once you have Gotten to know Master Snowdrift by beating him in combat, you will want to run toward the chain fence outside, pop invis pots and run right down to the bridge, the mobs you are invising past are just nasty and you need not deal with them. Deal with the mobs on the bridge and the pack of 3 at the end, ToK and Diffuse magic will be your friends here, again no disarm but a well times RoP can stop a lot of tank damage, the casts these mobs make are also interruptible with Spear Hand Strike. If you have a Bloodlust and Xuen off CD you will want to use both on the Sha to get the encounter finished as soon as possible. The boss will cause moderate tank damage through the fight and high at the end during the Enrage phase. During the fight the tank will be the target of the Sha's Disorienting Smash, so players must try to avoid Sha Spike as much as they can, to make things easier for the healer, who will be having to heal through some fairly heavy tank damage.

      Once the sha has been defeated, head outside and pull the two Pandas outside the door. (Note: if you have a DK, these make great MC mobs) While the tank holds onto the two pandas, all 4 remaining party members must click the floating panda AT THE SAME TIME. This is important, as it means you do not have to click any more floating pandas. Mount up, head down the bridge and go right through the ropes, avoiding the trash pack at the end of the bridge, run up the little slope out of the water and stop at the next bridge to deal with the trash here. Use S,E&F and RoP to get this trash down as quick as possible. Cross the bridge and go left through the ropes to avoid the trash pack at the end. Engage the final boss and pop any remaining dps CD's you have available. Taran Zhu doesn't melee that hard, so the tank shouldn't take too much damage compared to previous bosses. Interrupt Rising hate whenever you can, be sure to use your extra action button to purge your own hatred before you gain Haze of Hate (you can time this when the gripping hatreds are up and you will not get gripped). Dps down the Gripping Hatreds as quick as possible, again S.E&F becomes useful, as the grips are surrounded by Pool of Shadows, so use ToK whenever its available for this or Diffuse Magic to negate the damage and help your healer. Avoid the Ring of malice, and healers and tanks beware that he will cast Sha Blast while this is active, this is the only substantial damage the tank will take through this encounter.

StormStout Brewery.

Gold Timer: 12m 30s
Silver Timer: 21m
Bronze Timer: 45m

Completion Difficulty: Hard. Short timer, less room for error and some HUGE pulls.
Invis pots: Optional.
Talents Used:
Mistweaver - Tigers Lust/Chi Wave/Chi Brew/Dampen Harm/Xuen.
So, you've made it to the fabled Brewery, rumored to be the toughest of all 9 dungeons, filled with dancing monkeys and deadly bunnies.

If you've made it this far, thank you for staying with me though my challenge mode adventures! I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I have enjoyed writing this series of posts, and as always if you have any tricks and tips of your own then feel free to post them below or message me. To anyone else who has done 9x9, congrats on your achievement and enjoy your Regal Lord armor, title and Phoenix!!

Dark xx

Another very challenging post!!

Hi Ladies and Gents and Gents and Ladies!! Welcome to part 2 of my Challenge Mode Dungeon "this is how I did it!". First off, thanks ever so much for the lovely feedback from the previous post. I was genuinely surprised and really humbled by the messages, and I'm super happy that I have actually managed to help people!! So, thanks for reading and thanks for supporting this little Panda, it means a lot!! *Ahem* ok, enough with the soppy stuff, lets get to it!!

Following this totally non soppy statement I am going to post a short piece on each dungeon. (Upon getting halfway through I discovered that there is quite a lot to say about each one so I will most likely make a 3rd installment of this!!) I will cover it from my perspective, I have a few videos to share, and I will also cover how we got through the content as a TEAM. I think this is one of the biggest points to focus on here, it takes all 5 of you to get through the dungeon. It should not matter what class or spec you are, as long as you can play your class competently and know how to use all your utilities. A great saying I have heard "bring the player, not the class." Since doing these dungeons on a number of toons now I have discovered this to be more and more relevant. So, without further ado, grab your brew...and let us begin!!

Gate of the Setting Sun

Gold Timer: 13m 30s
Silver Timer: 22m
Bronze Timer: 45m

Completion Difficulty: Moderate after the first pull + Boss.
Invis Pots: No.
Talents used: 
Brewmaster - Tigers lust/Chi Wave/Ascension/RoP/Diffuse Magic/RJW.
Mistweaver - Tigerslust/Chi Burst/Chi Brew/RoP/Diffuse Magic/Xuen.
I have healed and tanked this dungeon on my monk, from my experience it is one of the easiest ones to get started with. The first trash packs require some effort and care, as does the first boss, but after that it is really not that hard as long as you all stay alive!! Most of the "oneshot" mechanics appear in the first main pull and Boss (Bomb trails). As a monk, you have a massive advantage over all other healers here, you can heal through the smoke bombs the mobs drop with your orbs. The first trash packs (Recommend Xuen usage here) can be dealt with in one of two ways, you can either pull the first 6 mobs, stop, deal with them and move on to the rest, or, you can pull the whole lot to the very end, and yolo them all down together. Having done it both ways I would say the second method is far more stressful for a monk healer, as all you have to shield your tank is your bubble, so you must rely on the rest of your dps to use AOE crowd control abilities to ensure the tank takes as little damage as possible. Do not be stingy with your cds here, this trash hits hard. After this the bomb boss is relatively simple, you want to take a corner each (ranged and healer) while the tank stays as central as possible without standing in the way of bombs. If you are targeted with her ability: Sabotage, just drop behind a pillar to minimize potential bomb damage.
     Following this the next few trash packs are easy to deal with as long as you interrupt the casters and take them out first. The Boss at the top of the elevator is not a problem as long as you remember to keep a close watch on who he chooses to Feed on and ensure that they are healed (I would recommend soothing + enveloping for this - for a clothy you may want to add a surging mist for good luck, better to over compensate than not heal enough). The trask after the cut scene should be dealt with on a pack by pack basis, paying particular attention to interrupting the casters. The boss should be kited up the side of the wall and back down until he is dead with the tank avoiding Frenzied Assault at all costs. (Even as a monk we can't take this, believe me, I tried :D ). There is one more trash pack to deal with after this before the final boss, which is dealt with exactly as normal. Note: The adds hit HARD, and as your dps will not be there to take them down, if the swarm spawn, you need to use all your kiting skills to avoid them, as a tank that is pretty much all you do on this boss, as the dps will be taking care of the giant bug for you, though feel free to dump kegs on its head after the carpace is down, your dps will love you for it I am sure ;) As a healer you can also just go ham on the boss during the final phase, as if the tank is kiting, they will generally not need a lot of assistance, just keep an eye on them and throw them a tigers lust if they need that extra speed boost. 

Temple Of the Jade Serpent. 

Gold Timer: 15m
Silver Timer: 25m
Bronze Timer: 45m


Completion difficulty: Moderate with a difficult first pull.
Invis pots: Yes
Talents Used:
Brewmaster - Tigers lust/Chi Wave/Ascension/RoP/Diffuse Magic/RJW.
Mistweaver - Tigers lust/Chi Wave/Chi Brew/RoP/Diffuse Magic/Xuen.
This is another one with a difficult first pull. Again, one of two ways it can be done; pull all of the mobs to the top of the flight of stairs before the boss and kill them all there. Or, take the mobs to the boss and start his RP and kill them at the boss pool. Either way, the adds spawn pools on the floor when they die, this HURTS, so do not stand in it. Get ready with your Diffuse Magic, lest you get caught in some as a tank. As a monk tank I would actually recommend method two, and take them all to the boss, and kite them round in circles while your dps kill them. (This method is particularly nice if you don't have a BL/TW). There is an outer circle and an inner circle around Wise Mari, if you stray beyond the outer circle he will proceed to shoot water at you, so don't do that.  Keep an eye on the water in the pools, if it starts to bubble black, move away, this can one shot you. Be prepared to take a few pulls on this, getting this right is not easy if you are all new to it, so allow a little time for everyone to get settled into their role and where they need to be stood. As a monk, ensure you are making full use of your transcendence here, you can use it to avoid the water beam the boss spirals around after you have killed 4 of his big adds. Following this boss you will get a speed boost, run up to the next set of adds and get invis pots ready, pop the pots and come out of invis over the little bridge. pull the pack on the bridge and the pack after it, keep interrupts up on the bird which will periodically send your team members to sleep, and pull all of this trash into the boss room and start the RP. This trash will hurt so use any CD's you have to keep your tank alive. Deal with the boss by starting on Agony and swapping to Strife at 6 stacks, continue this until both are dead. There is a fair amount of tank damage from this boss so ensure that enveloping mist is on your tank as much as possible. 
     Take your free speed boost into the central room and pull 1 pack at a time, as one pack gets to 10% hp, pull the next. do not be stingy with RoP here, it silences the casters, and interrupt them where possible. There is a roaming pack of 3 of the larger sha minions, so watch out for those and focus them down when they are pulled. The serpent boss is easily dealt with and deals a moderate amount of tank damage, so feel free to use up any CDs you have left here as you won't need them for the last boss. Note: when she transforms into Yu'lon she will sometimes randomly aggro on a party member before the tank, so be prepared to have healing orbs/bubble for whoever gets hit. 3 mobs before the last boss, Tanks save your Diffuse for these and kill them as quickly as possible, use RoP to stop them from casting, whichever spec you're in. The last boss is nice and simple, save any CDs for the part where he produces clones of each part member, and remember to protect your clothys first. I found Avert Harm to be a nice CD for this, as tanks take minimal damage from this entire fight. Ensure you dispel Touch of Nothingness as this can wipe your group, other than that as a healer you can help with DPS, I would recommend saving Xuen for this encounter.

Scarlet Monastery.

Gold Timer: 13m 30s
Silver Timer: 22m
Bronze Timer: 45m

Completion difficulty: Moderate/hard throughout.
Invis pots: Yes.
Talents used:
Windwalker - Tigers lust/Chi Burst/Chi Brew/RoP/Dampen Harm/RJW.
Mistweaver - Tigers lust/Chi Wave/Chi Brew/RoP/Dampen Harm/Xuen.
This was actually from my point of view one of the most challenging of these 9 dungeons. As a healer it is quite intense until you get to the last boss (minus Brother Korloff who is not difficult.)  As a DPS however this dungeon is a lot easier! 
    The first pull is one of the gigantic "yolopressallthebuttons" pulls. Note: The big ghosts at the end before the boss...will wipe out anyone that they are in range of when they are stacked, so your tank needs to kite them, they melee for a stupidly large amount and will literally one shot your tank, these need to be killed asap. If like us you have a DK this boss is easy, as the DK can control one of the large minions that the boss spawns. Ensure you dispel any dots off this minons and let it melee the boss to death, it does a fantastic amount of damage, just don't forget to kill it before moving on. If you're a healer you want to amber up just through the doorway, you're going to be pulling all the things from the following hallway and your tank is going to take A lot of damage, so pop all of the things and get your bubble on them asap. Use RoP on the tank/yourself to silence the casters and help with interrupts. Follow the corridor down and kill the three mobs at the end, the monk hits hard so be wary of him, I used RoP again here. Invis just through the doorway and run right up the steps to the higher of the two fountains, pull the boss when he is between the two packs of 3 mobs and stay near the edge of the waterfall for the encounter. This is a low damage fight and a welcome breather for a healer during this dungeon. 
    Run directly between the two packs of mobs into the chapel, and do not pull them, take the packs in the chapel one by one and use the pillars to line of sight them. These mobs hit hard and they have casters, so be liberal with big heals and RoP here. Mana up if needed before the last boss and contribute as much dps as you can. Be wary that during the first part of the encounter adds will spawn, use the right hand pillar to LoS them and dps them down, taking care that the boss does not get healed by any Zealots. (You can CC this mob for the remainder of the fight if you wish) For Whitemane herself, take her to 50%, have someone ready to interrupt her Mass Rez and someone else ready to interrupt her Dominate mind. Both of these casts will cause a wipe if they are successful, so have back up interrupts too!! As a Mistweaver for this fight you will want to help contribute as much DPS as possible, neither Durand or Whitemane melee for a lot, so your emminence healing will be sufficient once the initial mobs are dealt with. Make sure that once Whitemane revives Durand, you kill her first, paying close attention to the interrupts, as she will continue to attempt to cast these abilities until she is dead. As a windwalker I put my clone on Durand, this meant that he took extra damage on top of the cleave, thus shortening the encounter. 

 *Image from MMO Champion.

Mogushan Palace. 

Gold Timer: 14m
Silver Timer: 24m
Bronze Timer: 45m
Invis pots: Yes.
Talents used:
Mistweaver - Tigers lust/Chi Wave/Chi Brew/RoP/Dampen Harm/Xuen.
I maded a Vidleo!!!!!!

Hope these were of some help, or if not just an insight into how someone else does things can be good :) I will do the remaining 5 dungeons in next weeks post!!

Be good for now!!

Dark





     

A rather Challenging post....

Hi guys! This post has taken me quite some time to compose, so forgive the lateness. Today I am going to impart some of my Challenge Mode experiences with you all. I have done the dungeons as a mixture of specs so I thought it would be nice to share with you what I discovered in each one!! Also, I have noticed a lot of people have different methods for completing each dungeon, there is no "correct way" of doing it. So it's good to have different ideas to throw around. Without further ado, I present to you...my Challenging Dungeon extravaganza!! (Please note this post was bigger than I had originally envisioned so it will be split into one this week and one next week!)


Challenge Modes: A Brewmasters perspective:

As a Brewmaster you are actually one of the most sort after tanks for completing these challenges. All the top fastest times on record will more often than not have a Brewmaster as their tank. Through my own experiences I have discovered where are three pretty strong reasons for this;

1. Our "kiteability".
As a Brewmaster  we have amazing add control. Got a fight that needs some adds being taken care of? Get a Monk tank. Our unique Keg Toss enables us to single handedly "mass slow" mobs while we run off freely to do what we please. Other tanks don't have this ability, the closest is a warrior with their hamstring but this has to be applied to each individual mob from melee range, whereas ours is aoe, and ranged.

2. Our Speed.
I guess this is closely linked with the previous point, but it is a factor none-the-less. When it comes to getting from A to B we are incredibly mobile with our roll and tigers lust. 

3. Our damage output. 
This is not to say we can do more damage than all the other tanks, Prot Warriors are also very good at pushing out numbers. When you put this with our mobility and Kiteability however.....

The other thing we can do on top of all this as a Brewmaster is take a lot of punishment before we fall over. Which is something you will need to be prepared for as these challenge dungeons are NOT forgiving.


To gear up for this you want plenty of gem slots (though that can be said for ANY spec or class) and you will probably want to run a crit heavy/avoidance build, as mastery seems to be really weak here. I managed to tank two of the dungeons with my mastery build but it was more of a struggle than it should have been. With the crit build you can actually turn around and tank a pack of mobs rather than having to kite them like I did. As when I turned to tank them, I had no brew running so I fell over :(


Challenge Modes: A Mistweavers Perspective:

Mistweavers are unfortunately one of the weaker healers for these dungeons. That's not to say they are bad or cannot do it, but in comparison to other healers we do not have a massive set of cool downs to keep our tank up through periods of heavy damage and actually have to work to keep them topped. I say this in comparison to a priest, who can spirit shell, bubble, pain sup and shield a tank, while keeping the rest of the dungeon topped too. A druid has Ironbark, Cenarion Ward, Tranq, and a constant rolling heal placed under the whole group if needed. 
Do not be disheartened by this. Mistweavers still have plenty of tricks up their sleeves to make us viable healers, we just have a harder time in the big damage phases is all ;). 
As a monk we have our speed, which means we can keep up with our tank while healing, unlike a druid for example, that must go kitty to speed up, and use an extra GCD to shape shift back to heal. As these dungeons revolve heavily around how quickly you can get through them, being a monk is not a bad thing!! Another thing we have is healing spheres (well until WoD anyway!). Do not under estimate these little green bubbles, they are instant, cheap and can crit for a decent amount and keep your tank alive through line of sight effects such as the smoke bombs in the gate of the setting sun. We also have the damage factor, meaning that unlike most other healers whi will have to switch to DPS for the last boss in the brewery, we can stay healer and STILL put out dps!
Stat wise I'd run the same as you would for PvE, plenty of crit! Mana won't be an issue, although you will have very little spirit, the Amber that you can buy from the Kalaxxi will sort you right out between pulls, so don't be afraid to blow all your mana.


Challenge Modes: A Windwalkers Perspective:

Here's where the fun really begins. As a Windwalker, you bring not one, not two, but THREE dps to the fight with Storm, Earth and FIRE! This is by far one of the most "OP" things since the Fire and Brimstone hit the dungeons on warlocks. Combine this with RJW and you have a whole wirlwind of damage just ready to go. As a WW you have plenty of everything, damage, survivability, and mobility. Even though you don't have a Timewarp or Bloodlust, your ring of peace is an awesome cool down to help out the tank during periods of heavy damage. It can also get that all important silence on a group of casters when needed. So bringing a WW monk to your CM runs is definitely something to consider, even though melee are not as "popular" as ranged.


Talent choices and quelling a few CM "Myths". 

Before I go any further i'd just like to comment on a few things that I have heard on the grapevine while running CM's.
"Only ranged are viable for proper runs". This is codswallop. Melee are just as viable. Especially monks. So don't let anyone fob you off with this comment. 

"You HAVE to have a TW/BL to make gold timers." Again, bullsh*t. We did all ours on my monk with no such thing, and for the first 4 dungeons one of our locks was running affliction so we had lower damage too. It's about co-ordinating CD's, pulling the right things, and working as a team. TW and BL are nice, but not essential.

"You must have experience".  This is by far one of the silliest things I have come across, but yet it is on pretty much every run on open Raid. Don't be disheartened, people just want an easy run. My question is, how are people supposed to gain exp when they aren't allowed in with none?

"Monks don't have many useful utilities unless they are a tank". Yes I have actually heard this one. This is of course completely untrue as we have plenty of utilities in all specs. So don't let anyone force you to tank if you're not comfortable with it. Do what YOU are happy with.

 *Side note, some of the dungeons leave you little space for preparation, be careful with things like jeeves if you use him to access your bank, he may end up in the wall!!

Talent choices.

Tier 1: Tigers lust is pretty much the only choice here, especially if you are tanking. Its great in all 3 specs though as its a nice helping hand for any of your "slower" comrades ;) 

Tier 2: For me personally, Chi Wave is the best choice for all dungeons. It's spammable, and contributes dps and healing with minimal input from you, so you can concentrate on other things. As a healer you might like to try the sphere but I personally preferred the wave.

Tier 3: I liked to use chi brew for healing/dps and the ascension for tanking. Though this is personal preference I would definitely recommend the chi brew as a MW so you have extra tea stacks when you need them. 

Tier 4: Although leg sweep seems like a nice Idea RoP is actually better here for all 3 specs, unfortunately when you mass stun mobs, their current swing gets interrupted. Consequentially they all "re-swing" together, usually annihilating your poor tank. RoP is a nice choice over all as it can be cast on someone else if your healing, keeping you, well out of harms way.

Tier 5: This Varies from dungeon to dungeon. For something like temple of the jade serpent, I would recommend the diffuse magic, as the initial pull comprises of a LOT of magic damage. As a tank it's pretty important which of these you select, so find your way round, and decide as you go through where the magic damage lies. For WW I actually preferred the healing elixirs as they were low maintenance and kept me alive long enough for a healer to help me. For MW again it's dungeon dependent, although you may not find yourself using this talent much as a healer, if there are any phases where you may need to get stuck in, it is preferrable to have a CD for yourself apart from the fortifying brew.

Tier 6:  As a WW I would recommend RJW all the way. It's extremely powerful and provides consistent damage. As a tank it's really your choice, if you're having no threat issues then Xuen is great, he can also face tank some adds for you, allowing you to pull more than your average tank. As a MW I would recommend Xuen all the way. RJW eats mana and doesnt really provide enough healing to be that useful, whereas Xuen provides a huge dps boost to your group. 


Next week I shall go through the individual dungeons and post some videos! If you have any comments or questions feel free to contact me on twitter or post them in the section below :)