Pet Battles; Pandaren Spirit Tamers

Hi guys!

Hope everyone's weekend is off to the nice start mine is! After 8 months I have finally picked up my Minfernal pet from Felwood, in addition to this, 2 days ago I managed to capture my Unborn Val'kyr from Crystalsong forest after 6 months of camping her!! I also completed my Pandaren spirit pet collection, which is what led me to my post topic for today.
     Before I get into how I farm the Pandaren spirit tamers, I am going to go through my top pet for each pet family (only some in this post and the rest in future posts), these will be the ones that I use for leveling other pets, farming, or just for the way they look :) 

Mechanical:

Son of Animus - Not only is little guy ridiculously cute, but he is an amazing leveling pet. He has a self heal and a shield and hits like a truck. The best thing about him has to be the way he runs after your toon!! He is a drop from the Dark Animus in Throne of thunder, you can pick him up on any difficulty including LFR. However be warned, if you do not have enough room for him in your bags in LFR when you win him (he drops as personal loot), he will be lost to the twisting nether forever and you will not get him back. He can also be caged and traded so you could always check out your auction house to see if anyone has put him on there.


Darkmoon Zepplin - A little easier to get hold of than the Animus ad you can farm the Darkmoon tickets to purchase it. You can also purchase the Darkmoon Tonk which is another good pet although I tend to favour the Zippy the Zepplin as his decoy move can avoid some real issues with hard hitting enemies such as Lil' Oondasta, buying you some all important turns to get your damage done.



Magical:

Oily Slimeling - This pet I use when I am against flying pets as he is actually really strong, he can heal himself and deal DoT and has a hard hitting spell which can take off half of a flying opponents health if it crits. I also use him against other pets for his nuke and self heals.

Living Fluid - Aother ToT drop (Primordius) which works the same as the oily slimeling but has a different level 20 spell.









 
Harmonious Porcupette - Selfish reasons, it's shiny and cute, nuff said ^_^










Humanoid: 

Anubisath Idol - My little Amun Ra, he is an amazing tank pet and he can hit like a train too, plus he looks really cool (I am a massive fan of Egyptian style stuff).  The ONLY downside to him is that you must either pay a fortune for him from the AH or farm him from AQ 40. He is an 11% drop from Emperor Vek'lor.

Taming the Pandaren Spirit tamers.


Flowing Pandaren Spirit 

This guy can be found in the Dread wastes, on the long rocky path that runs out into the sea between the Wastes and Krasarang Wilds. The spirit has 3 pets; Marley (Aquatic), Tiptoe (Critter) and the Pandaren Water Spirit (ele).
This is one of the harder ones as his first pet Marley can cause huge issues if he is not taken down quickly. I use an Amber Moth and hit him with Moth Balls and Slicing Wind, saving Cocoon Strike for when his Whirlpool is about to hit (This way you take only the hit from the pool, and not him as well). After this I just use Sw and MB's to nuke him down as fast as possible (As he is aquatic these spells will hit quite hard and he is usually dead withing 5 turns). 
Tiptoe is easier to deal with but again you want him to go down quick to minimize the Tidal wave casts as they hit your other pets. I sometimes continue to use my moth as it still seems to hit quite hard and I can avoid an attack every 3 turns with Coocoon strike. However If you want a pet to directly counter him I like to use either my Kovok or My Zandalari Foot slasher, both of which will hit him hard enough to kill him in a few turns. For the Spirit I use an aquatic pet, usually Squirt, my Eternal Strider. Be careful with this water spirit, he can hit really hard and kill you if you don't kill him quickly!
If I am leveling a pet I will always use the moth to kill Marley, use the leveling pet for a round on Tiptoe and take out the eternal strider, replacing for the oily Slimeling as aquatic does not deal as much damage to magic and the slimeling has quite a heavy nuke ability to kill  Tiptoe quick enough.

Whispering Pandaren Spirit.

This is one of my favorite locations for pet battling,m you can find the Whispering Spirit right at the toip of a mountain in the Jade forest, on the left of the map, directly below Dawns Blossom and to the north east of Grookin Hill. He has 3 pets;  Dusty (Flying), Whispertail (Dragonkin) and the Pandaren Air Spirit. (ele)
In my experience dragonkin pets are the best to use here, I have read that an Emerald Proto Whelp can solo all three pets!! The first pet he uses is Dusty, again, the oily slimeling is great here as he does so much damage, also I have noticed that Dusty usually opens with Moth dust, so you can use your Expunge straight away with minimal risk of having it miss due to Cocoon Strike (Obviously if the RnG gods are displeased with you then Dusty may cast CS first but you can always reset the fight if this happens). After I dispatch Dusty (Badum-bum-Tshhhh) I use Chrominius to nuke down Whispertail, purely because he hits like a truck and I usually want to get him gone as soon as possible, I use Howl and Surge of Power, which will usually get at least half, if not more of his HP. I will then use bite until he is dead, unless she manages to kill Chrominius, in which case I will switch back to the slimeling to finish her off. For the Air spirit I tend to use my water spirit as his Whirlpool/geyser combo usually kills the Air spirit, however if you don't have one I would recommend an Eternal strider, use healing rain and pump as soon as you can to get damage out as the Air spirit hits harder against aquatic. 
For leveling I get the leveling pet out against the spirit as the first thing he will cast is the soothing mists, so your baby pet will not get nuked, I will swap out Chrominius as the Pandaren Water Spirit can also take care of Whispertail. If I am leveling I will also keep the slimeling out to get some damage onto him and just let her kill it, this way you can split 2 pets over 3 opponents easier.

Thundering Pandaren Spirit.

This due is up on the mountain between the Horde Shrine and The Seat of Knowledge. His 3 pets are; Pandaren Earth Spirit (Ele), Sludgy (Magic) and Darnak the Tunneler (Beast).
Unlike the other spirits he will open with his mini version of himself, I use the Eternal Strider, open with charging my pump, then he will incapacitate me for a round (there is a chance this can stun for a further round when he deals the damage, I usually reset the fight if this happens!) I will then release pump and try to nuke him down with Water Jet, healing myself with Healing Wave if I drop to 50% HP. All this spirit will do is throw rocks at you, which will hit for 300-400 each time, so you should be able to kill him within 5 turns. For Sludgy I tried anti magic pets but nothing seemed to work for me, so I thought, know what? I'm going to "out Magic-pet" you!! So yeah, you guessed it, out comes the old faithful oily slimeling, and I just mirror his moves, he will usually kill my slimeling just before he dies, so I will pet out my animus to finish him off. I then use the Animus to kill his last pet, taking the spells metal fist, touch of Anima and interrupting jolt. Basic tactic is to nuke down with MF and IJ (although you wont get to interrupt as Darnak is faster) and as with the Eternal Strider, at 50% health use ToA. (Just make sure he has used Burrow within the last 4 turns or you will not get the heal). If you dont have the Animus the Zepplin is also nice here, use Decoy to stop his hardest hitting abilities straight away, then nuke down with Missile after applying Bombing run!
i have yet to figure out a strat for using two pets aginst this guys, as such I don't use him for leveling, I'm working on it though :)

Burning Pandaren Spirit.

Found in north Townlong Steppes west of Fire Camp Osul, this Spirit uses Crimson (Dragonkin), Pandaren Fire Spirit (Ele) and Glowy (Flying).
 Ever seen  a snail kick 3 level 25 pets butts? Well sit back ladies and gentle men, you're about to see something rather spectacular....


Meet Brian. Brian is a Rapana Whelk. Brian is going to single handedly beat 3 legendary pets.

 (Left) Start with a Shell shield
(Right) Follow with a Dive.

 
 (Left) use Absorb until you have 1 turn left on Dive.
(Right) Re apply Shell sheild and follow up with dive again.

 
 (Left) As you can see, Crimson is almost dead and Brian is on 3/4 HP.
(Right) Repeat the process against the Fire spirit's "minime".

 
(Left) After killing the spirit get out your levelling pet and allow Glowy to cast his Confusing sting, use your turn to switch pets.
(Right) Brian is back and begin your Shell/Dive/Absorb routine again.


 
The Shell will block pretty much every Swarm Glowy casts, it takes a little while but you can kill him fairly easily.

So there you have it! A Rapana Whelk that can solo 3 Legendary pets, little dude deserves a medal. If you want to pick up your own Brian, you can find them down in the Briny Muck in the Dread Wastes, they are usually level 22-23 and are easily caught.









This is by no means any sort of official guide to beat these tamers, and there are probably better ways to do it and better pets to use, but this is what I do each day to get my pet supplies, which have a chance to contain one of the spirits, good luck!!

A week away, an all monk flex and more!!

Well hello darlings!!!! Seeing as it's been a whole TWO weeks since I posted last, I guess we have some catching up to do!!

Firstly, my week away was well spent, I went to visit my family, whom I had not seen since Christmas so it was lovely to catch up with them. We also had some gorgeous weather while we were there so I spent some much needed time in the sun walking my Mum's little dog :). Having a week off WoW was also much needed, Midlifecrisis has been running 2 raid groups per week, enabling us to gear our new folk and gear some alts, which is great fun but it's 5 nights a week of solid raiding, so it was lovely to have a break and not have to be sat at the computer for 7.30 each night! 

    Upon my return on Saturday night, I took part in the open raid flex race, I was on Sneezers team with 20 other monks, we raced against a team of Druids, a team of DKs and a team of Paladins. Monks came second by 2 minutes, but we are still maintaining that we are the best class, plus we were horde so we had more trash ;) I jest, it was all good fun and I really really enjoyed it, seeing 25 Xuens leaping all over the place is a truly beautiful sight to behold!! All the guys were really nice, and Sneezer did an awesome job of leading us, I felt very privileged to be picked as the second tank!!


Sneezer runs a lot of races on Open Raid, if you are interested in joining any (EU) you can fins his OR page right...... HERE!! He's a great guy, very fun to rid with, and I really look forward to running more races with him in the future! You can also catch him talking about how we did on the latest Monk Meditation episode by clicking....HERE!!!! 

    I have been doing a bit more "Windwalkering" lately, I have my normal 4 set with 2 heroic weapons and chest piece. I'm really enjoying the spec a lot, I love the extra mobility (That flying serpent kick!!) and I REALLY love when everything lines up and you get those 900k RKS's, but at the moment I'm still feeling a little lost with it. I don't know if this is because I love tanking so much and being a DPS just isn't the same, or if it's because I don't understand the spec enough to get the most out of it, or even a combination of both. Also, I'm still completely confused by the Assurance of Consequence, again I think this is due to my lack of experience with the class to really test out whether I do more damage with or without it, I suppose a few more weeks will tell, especially seeing as we are progressing on heroic Thok at the moment, which up until now I have been doing on my rather undergeared hunter, which I feel cannot pull its weight at the minute. So I shall use my monk (even though 3 melee for 10 man is a bit "meh"), and take Lazeebow to the other raids we run, and get him some more gear, because to be quite frank, hunters are ridiculously overpowered for that fight, being ranged and not suffering to any of Thoks interrupts means that they can push out silly damage (even me sat at 557 i lvl can manage a 1mil burst with 270k sustained), and as we already have one that sits at 400k, I'm guessing it would work to have another. 
       I'm looking forward to trying out WW for the fight, it should be interesting to see how Lady performs with full raid buffs, as until now I have been testing on dummies with self buffs only, so....watch this space!!


I am scouting for another victim to interview, as my E-sofa is feeling a little empty right now, I am also coming up on 10k blog hits (Ermagherd), so if you have any ideas on how I can celebrate feel free to let me know! 

See you next week,

Be good!!

Heroes of the StormTechnical Alpha review

I have been lucky enough to receive an invitation to play the Technical Alpha for Heroes of the Storm. I am going to give an overview of what I think of the game, and I will also compare it to other games of it's nature. So sit back, grab a heroic brew and join me in the storm....


A quick overview of the MOBA games.

So, for anyone who has never played a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA)  game, here are the basics: Two teams of 5 players (can be less on smaller maps but usually no more) will battle against one another on a (usually) symmetrical map. Each team will have a main base, surrounded by barracks (from which creeps will usually spawn), and towers which will shoot at enemy players. Each player will pick from a pool of heroes, with each hero having 4 abilities (again, usually) which will become available as you gain levels through experience, which will be granted through killing enemy heroes and farming neutral or enemy creeps. Players will also gain money for kills, which will enable them to purchase Items to make their hero stronger. The aim of the game being to make your teams heroes strong enough to take out the enemy base. 

Problems with current MOBAs. 

If you've never played one of these games before, or have played once and not bothered playing again, the reason may be that the learning curve for these games is just too damn steep. Not only do you need to know all the abilities of a hero, but you need to learn how to lane (farm creeps), you need to learn which items to purchase (some items only suit certain heroes), and you need to be incredibly aware of your surroundings and positioning while doing all this. Previous to playing WoW I played Heroes of Newerth quite a bit (Basically DOTA with different named heroes). I really enjoyed the game, after I played it for about 6 months to try and learn how to play it, fortunately having a patient husband meant that I could learn in peace by just playing against him. Unfortunately, the players that play these style of games (in my experience) tend to be more than just a little unforgiving when new payers attempt to learn the game, and instead of encouragement, more often than not, I have seen these new guys (and been on the receiving end of it) take an onslaught of insults and name calling because they don't know how to play. Sadly having just one person on your team who is not self aware and doesn't know how to play means they will get ganked (killed) a lot, thus "feeding" the other team, giving them more money and experience.
      The problem I find is that there is no real safe place for people to learn, when I say safe I mean safe from the constant barrage of "feeder/noob/useless/idiot etc" insults that they will inevitably receive. This makes the game incredibly unattractive to most. Games are meant to be fun, and there is nothing enjoyable about trying to learn a game in such a hostile environment. So for 50% of the people who try playing these games, they end up playing once or twice, assuming they suck, and not picking them up again.


Enter HotS....

The first thing I noticed about HotS is that there are NO ITEMS to purchase, and you level AS A TEAM. These two factors alone, completely negate the "oh my goodness what items do I buy" and "omg that guy's shit he's level 2 while we're all level 6" problems that I found quite predominant while playing other MOBAs. You get to pick talents for your hero as you level, and the maximum choice you have is 4 options, which to me, is so much more simple and attractive as a new player. 
Most of the other aspects of the game are the same, you can kill creeps to get XP, and also enemy players/towers/other structures. However, with no individual gains from kills, there is no contest for getting the killing blow and it becomes more of a team effort, another issue dealt with. (Being accused of Kill Stealing is one of THE most annoying things in a TEAM game!!)
       Another thing I really like about this MOBA is that on each map, there will be a main protagonist that will assist whichever team earns their favor the quickest, which makes the game less about getting the highest KDR and more about achieving objectives, which is something I think other MOBAs lack, and thus, they usually become a kill fest, which gets boring after a while.


Spoiler alert...

If you do not want to know about any game content such as heroes, maps and do not want to see a game play video STOP HERE!!!!!!!! You have been warned!!!!



How it all starts.

You begin the game by playing a short tutorial which goes over the basics of your character and how to use them. It shows you the objectives of the game and forces you to play against AI until you understand enough to get stuck into other players. There is an individual level system in the game, which you can increase by winning matches and completing daily quests. When you queue for a game it will put you against people of a similar  level to yourself. (Note that you must only reach level 3 because you can take the training wheel s off and play against real people!)

Maps.

Currently there is no map selection tool, though I suspect that if you were to create a group you could select a map, or they may have plans to implement this in the future. The maps available in the Alpha are as follows:

Cursed Hollow.

This map features the Raven Lord, for whom you must gather "Tribute" upon receiving 3 tribute from either team, he will help you out by cursing your enemies!

 Haunted Mines.

A really fun map that makes the team go below ground to collect skulls from mobs to empower their Golem (1 per team) every few minutes, quite a crazy push map that I enjoyed playing immensely!!

 Dragon Shire.

2 Shrines appear at the top and bottom of the map, with another in the middle, one team must control top and bottom in order to activate the central shrine and release the Dragon knight!! One of the more "positional" maps, whereby having the right players in the right place is the key to winning.

Blackheart's Bay

Last but not least, my favorite map, featuring Cap'n Blackheart, who, in exchange for Dubloons, will periodically bombard yer enemy team with his cannons!

As it stands, these are the only maps available for play, each of which requires a different strategy to win, I will say that I got put into Cursed Hollow quite a few times in a row, which was slightly annoying as it's my least favorite map to play, but it did encourage me to play some different heroes to add some variety.....which reminds me.....


The Heroes!!

As far as Free to play heroes goes, there are only 6 available, however you can purchase more with real money or in came currency. You may also purchase mounts and alternative skins for your heroes. Each hero starts with a choice of 2-4 talents with 4 becoming available at later player levels, this is nice as it doesn't burden new players with too many choices, enabling them to concentrate on other mechanics. Once you reach a suitable level, you will begin each game by picking a talent from 4 options, from there, your hero will already have 3 abilities available on Q, W and E. Most of the talents I have seen so far are passive, but there are a few "activatable" ones, which seem to go on buttons 1-0, the passives will usually enhance an ability you already have. When your team reaches level 10 you have access to your heroes ultimate ability, this will be a choice from 2, or in Abathur's case, you only have access to a single ability. 
      All of the heroes will either be a Warrior, which is your tanky, up-in-your-face, you cant kill me hero, an Assassin, which are your damage dealers, Support, which bring the heals and other buffs or a Specialist, which will have a range of abilities and a a unique playstyle, foe example, Abathur doesn't actually go into battle, he can "enter" other heroes on your team and assist them, or for his ultimate, he can clone any ally and you have access to all their skills for a limited time. This may seem OP, but when you consider that for the majority of the game, you play 4vs5 when you have an Abathur, it balances it out. 

Would I recommend this game?

Short answer, yes. Longer answer, as I previously stated, it is a nice simple game to pick up, that still has all the aspects of other MOBAs, but without the crazy complexity, meaning it is attractive to the less experienced MOBA player, that just wants to have some fun with friends. Over the next week I shall be compiling some game play to put together into a video, which I shall add to this post!! 

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