Best of Season 6

As always, with a new arena season comes new “cookie cutter” comps. This season, almost underway for a week has already seen the power of priests buffs and other class nerfs. Rogues are doing amazingly well, considering almost all other classes got nerfed and they got a few minor buffs it puts them as one of the top classes this season.

Hunters and Warlocks make this section of the post. Warlocks didn’t get completely nerfed since destruction does a lot of damage and has survivability. Warlocks can no longer kill someone in a fear, have undispellable dots, and continually do damage out of line of site. You will still see some unstable affliction locks, but the population in top 100 will definitely decline. Hunters also took some heavy nerfs to survival. Playing with a hunter, they will be forced to wear raid gear to get their damage high enough to get a kill in. I expect both these classes to get some kind of mid season buffs.

2v2 Arena Tactics:

Priest / Rogue- This is the new paladin/dk comp. 44% of the top arena teams (sk-gaming.com 4/25) are running this comp. This comp did well last season if the rogue could wear full raid gear to burn down a dk. Now, with all other classes nerfed and priests get huge survival/mana efficiency buffs this comp will probably be the majority of the 2v2 bracket until a future content patch.

Druid / Warrior- Warriors got huge buffs this season to arms including some nasty overpower changes that dominate healers. This team won’t be at its glory days of Burning Crusade arena but it will definitely be more popular this season in the higher ratings.

3v3 Arena Tactics:

Paladin / Warrior / Death Knight- I’m not sure how well this comp will do later on in the season, but with everyone running melee cleave teams this one is pretty good. I have seen a lot of these teams at high ratings, if the paladin can coordinate his CC along with a warriors fear this team can be pretty deadly.

Mage / Priest / Rogue- Ever since season two this team has been a dominate comp. This season with almost all other classes nerfed and priest are buffed, they will definatly dominate. On sk-gaming this comp already takes #1 in popularity for 3v3 bracket. The team has heavy CC and turns the game into a 3v2, combined with amazing controlled burst from both the rogue and the mage makes this a very strong comp.

Season 6 Preview

Worried about the new system? Don’t worry, in case you haven’t stepped into arena yet you win 47 points and lose 0. It seems you will continue this trend past 1k and won’t win less till around 1500 or so. To be exact at 1079 you win 45 points. It may take a couple extra games but don’t sweat it, you will get there after a while. Remember the goal of the hidden rating is to go 50-50 whatever your team rating is. Also, you get to see your matchmaking rating now in the arena window, so make sure to check that out.

Healers:

Killing healers in a global has changed. With the increase in resilience and survivability buffs you can probably focus on getting healers oom before setting up a kill . Priest can penance themselves, Shamans have a 4400 shield usable while silences, Druids armor buffs in tree form.

Shamans get a 4400 shield from glyph of stoneclaw totem. Since totems are physical now you can use while silenced. Druids armory value in tree form was increased from 100% to 240% and barskin reduces chance spells will be dispelled by 60% and reduce chance you will be melee crit by 25%. Priest can pain surpression themselves while stunned and penance is now usable on themselves.

Season 6 Tier 2 weapons:

Finally, what all the pvpers have been waiting for. Weapons that are equivalent to the pve ones. If you can’t get 2200, dont worry there are still tier 1 weapons available at 1850 rating. Season 5 was dominated by Turning Tides and Betrayer of Humanities, but you probably won’t see many pve weapons anymore. Also, the new pvp weapons come with gem slots.

Yogg-Saron Boss Fight Strategy Guide

Looking for more amazing Ulduar strategies? Check out the complete Ulduar Boss Strategy Guide!

Yogg-Saron Boss Fight Abilities and Tactics

Sara’s Abilities:

Sara’s Abilities (Phase One)

Sara is not attackable in Phase One and casts these spells randomly on the raid and on the Guardians of Yogg-Saron.

• Sara’s Fervor – Increases a friendly target’s damage by 20%, but also increases damage taken by the target by 100%. Lasts 15 sec.
• Sara’s Blessing – Heals a friendly target for 27000 to 33000, but causes 60000 Shadow damage over 20 sec.
• Sara’s Anger – Inflicts 12500 Shadow damage every 3 sec, but increases Physical damage done by 12000. Lasts 12 sec.

Keepers’ powers

Talking to the Keepers of Ulduar before the fight will cause them to aid you in the encounter. The less you have helping the harder the encounter will be but better loot will drop and special achievements can be earned. Specific Keeper abilities below:

• Speed of Invention – Increases all damage done by 10% and movement speed by 20%.
• Mimiron also slows the casting speed and attack speed of all mobs in the encounter by 300%/100% respectively.
• Resilience of Nature – Increases all damage done by 10% and healing received from all sources by 20%.
• Freya also conjures Sanity wells allowing you to regain sanity.
• Fury of the Storm – Increases all damage done by 10% and total health by 20%.
• Thorim also finishes off Faceless Ones you bring to 1% HP in Phase Three. Without Thorim the Faceless ones are unkillable.
• Fortitude of Frost – Increases damage done by 10% and reduces damage taken from all sources by 20%.
• Hodir’s Protective Gaze – Allows Hodir to save a friendly target who sustains fatal damage by encasing them in a nearly impenetrable block of ice for 10 seconds. Hodir must rest after performing this action.

Yogg-Saron’s Abilities:

• Dominate Mind – Dominates the mind of the target, temporarily placing them under Yogg-Saron’s control. Also reduces Sanity by 4%.
• Sanity Well – Standing in the well brings you back to your senses, regenerating 20% Sanity every 2 sec. Damage done is reduced by 50% while you remain in the well.
• Psychosis – Inflicts 7500 Shadow damage. Also reduces Sanity by 9%.
• Brain Link – Links the brains of two enemy targets. Afflicted targets suffer 3000 Shadow damage and lose 2% Sanity every 1 sec. whenever they are more than 20 yards apart.
• Malady of the Mind – Inflicts 5000 Shadow damage and causes the enemy target to run in horror for 4 sec, then attempts to jump to another enemy within 10 yds. Also reduces Sanity by 3%.
• Lunatic Gaze – Looking into the maw of madness unhinges your mind, inflicting 5700 to 6300 Shadow damage and reducing Sanity by 4% every 1 sec. for as long as you are facing the caster.
• Induce Madness – Drives all nearby targets insane, reducing Sanity by 100%

Phase One: Have tanks pick Guardians of Yogg-Saron and kite them around the room and make sure you tank then away from the clouds that spawn. Anyone touching the clouds on the ground will spawn a new Guardian of Yogg-Saron, meaning you will eventually get overrun.

Abilities of “Guardians of Yogg-Saron”

• Mind Control: Cast on random players in the raid. Players must be CC’d or else they will destroy your casters/healers.

The Key to this phase is HOW you kill the Guardians. Each Guardian must be killed right next to Sara. After Killing 9 Guardians next to Sara the phase will end Phase 1 bringing you into Phase 2.

• It can be helpful to spawn an extra Guardian intentionally early on to start phase 2 faster as the Guardian spawn rate picks up the longer you remain in phase one.

Phase Two: Make sure you go into this phase with little or no Gaurdians up because you will immediately be overrun by tentacles. If you are using Freya and your sanity gets low, the green beams on the sides of the room will restore your sanity. Make sure to make use of it.

Types of Tentacles:

1.      Crusher Tentacle: Melees hard, has a ton of HP and has an aura that reduces damage done by the raid by 20%, stacks with other crusher tentacles so these must go down fast. Melee-ing these will interrupt their aura but they gain a temporary buff that increases their damage and attack speed when they are hit so this is dangerous if they are being DPS’d.

2.      Corruptor Tentacle: Casts various debuffs, Curse of Doom, Apathy, Draining Poison and Plague. Dispellers will need to be on their A-Game. All of these abilities are interruptible.

3.      Constrictor Tentacle: These have very little HP and appear underneath random players, grab them and hoist them into the air doing damage every few seconds until killed. Healers must heal the player being constricted

Note: Sara will hover above Yogg-Saron’s main body casting various abilities such as Psychosis, Brain Link and Malady of the Mind as well as lasers on the ground much like Kologarn’s eye beam.

Every 90 seconds or so Portals will open into Yogg-Saron’s mind. All melee DPS must take the portals. Do not take the portal if your sanity is low you will lose sanity the longer you are below.

You will see one of three random illusion rooms along with some disguised tentacles and laughing skulls floating around the room.

• The skulls cast Lunatic Gaze so you must strafe around the room with your back to the skulls at all times.
  • The illusion will shatter once you kill all the tentacles in the room.

Melee must then run into the brain room and try to get some DPS on the brain before taking the portal back up. The Brain begins a 60 second induce madness cast when the portals open so the melee must complete their task and get whatever DPS they can on the brain within 60 seconds or they will emerge from Yogg-Saron’s mind insane.

• This Means… You have about 50 Seconds of DPS before you must take the portal, to be safe, or you loose your DPS.

Phase 2 ends when the Brain is killed.

Phase Three: This is burn phase with a 5 minute enrage timer.

• Yogg-Saron will have 16 million HP left on 25-man and 3 million HP on 10-man.

Adds:

• Tentacles: These will stop spawning, any up will remain. Make sure you kill them.
• Faceless Ones: These adds hit very hard will spawn very rapidly in this phase. You must pick up and kill the Faceless ones, while also keeping enough DPS on Yogg-Saron to kill him within 5 minutes.
• Alternate to this: Burn Yogg-Saron extremely fast if you are not using Thorim.

Sara’s abilities continue. Yogg-Saron will begin to cast Lunatic Gaze in this phase so DPS must be ready to avert their eyes. Yogg-Saron will also heal the faceless ones with empowering shadows. It is recommended to save Bloodlust for this phase if you are horde.

• Lunatic Gaze - Looking into the maw of madness unhinges your mind, inflicting 5700 to 6300 Shadow damage and reducing Sanity by 4% every 1 sec. for as long as you are facing the caster.

Yogg-Saron Video Guide

Huge thanks to Aphieleon of Twisting Nether, he sent me this strategy write up from his guild’s experiences…big thumbs up!

Positioning in Arena

Welcome New Blogger, Hodzy!

Today Zug Gaming is honored to welcome Hodzy. The newest member to our contrubiting blogging staff here. Hodzy is an old friend and an experienced arena shamans I’ve known. His accomplishments and success as a top tier arena player speak for themselves.

• Current Overall World Ranking: #104
• Current World Shaman Ranking: #9
• 2v2 Rating – 2629
• 3v3 Rating – 2155
• 5v5 Rating – 2458

Source: 4/15/09 – SK-Gaming

Hodzy will be writing a litany of strategies and guides on arena, battlegrounds, shamans, pvp and many other topics. I’m thrilled to have him aboard and hope you are as well!

Check out Hodzy’s very first post at the following link:

Battlegrounds, Why They Are Important

Battlegrounds, Why They Are Important

A lot of people overlook the importance of battlegrounds when trying to get better at a class. The truth is, almost all problems with your play style can be worked on without tanking arena rating. A lot of people underestimate the skill level of other players in battlegrounds but,

“it’s like walking into a subway in New York, you don’t know who you are going to meet” (Azzamat).

Let uneven match ups benefit you. If you can, this is probably the best way to get valuable practice. A lot of people in BG’s are only there to gear up alts, this is why having an uneven battle will benefit you more. Some common problems to focus on would be:

Healers:

1. Survivability vs. mana conservation: I know this was a big reason I went back into battlegrounds on my shaman. The situation Earth Shield vs. Water Shield. Obviously tanking with Earth Shield will give you a lot more survivability but you will eventually go oom. As a Paladins you can work on the same issue of timing your Diving Plee after their cooldowns.

2. Healing Multiple Targets: If you only play 2v2 this usually isn’t as important for you, but finding a cast rotation that will allow you to keep 2 targets up will usually help against lock teams.

Casters:

1. Doing damage while taking damage: A lot of casters have the problem of not being able to do any damage with melee on you. Learning to juke Kicks or Mind Freeze while still setting up your shatter combos or burst is important in arena. Just remember, you do less damage locked out then spamming instants.

2. Crowd control under pressure: In arena, most mage/lock combos rely on CC. If your main role is to CC you should still be able to control 1 target with DPS on you. Practice setting up teleports to get off a fear or sheeping focus targets after a blink.

Melee:

1. Being patient: For rogues, making sure you have almost full energy before the full kidney shot on the kill target. DK’s/Warriors build ruinic power or rage to use with your interrupt to provide a nice burst.

2. Don’t miss: If you are going to use the energy to kick or the rage to pummel. Make sure you don’t miss. If you are going to miss the interrupt it would be better to let the heal go through and get the next one.

Emalon the Storm Watcher Boss Strategy Guide

Emalon is the most recent addition to Wintergrasp’s Vault of the Ancients. This encounter is located in the right wing of the instance in the back of the Wintergrasp Fortress.

Emalon the Storm Watcher Boss Abilities

• Chain Lightning – Deals zero damage to the first target, but damage increases with each jump. Can start killing players after 3 jumps.
• Lightning Nova – Deals 12,000 damage. The amount of damage dealt depends on your proximity from the boss. This ability has a lengthy cast time
• Tempest Minion:
  • Overcharged - Increases damage by 20% and stacks up to 10 times. Upon reaching 10 stacks the tempest minion will exploding, dealing 30,000 damage to all raid members.

Emalon the Storm Watcher Boss Fight Strategy

The most important aspect of this fight is simply staying spread out. Maintaining an acceptable level of separation will help you avoid taking unnecessary chain lightning bounces and also lightning nova damage. After about 45 seconds Emalon will begin overcharging one of the tempest minions, all DPS must switch to this add and burn it down. If you don’t kill it fast enough it will overcharge and blow up the entire raid.

After the add has been killed DPS may switch back to to Emalon. When a new tempest minion begins to become overcharged your raid DPS will need to switch once again.

This whole encounter revolves around your ability as a raid to stay spread out and quickly identify and kill the adds as they become overcharged. If you can accomplish this you’ll easily achieve your first kill.

Emalon the Storm Watcher Video (10 man)

Emalon the Storm Watcher Video (25 man)

General Vezax Boss Strategy Guide

Looking for more amazing Ulduar strategies? Check out the complete Ulduar Boss Strategies Guide!

General Vezax is the 12th boss encounter of Ulduar. General Vezax guards the prison holding Yogg-Saron.

General Vezax Abilities

• Health Points: 25,100,000 (heroic), 6,275,250 (normal)
• Shadow Crash – deals 11,310-12,690 shadow damage and knocking back all enemies near the impact point. Leaves a magical area at the impact point for 15 seconds that increases magic damage by 50%, reduces healing by 50%, and reduces mana cost by 30%.
• Searing Flames - deals 13,875-16,125 fire damage to all players within a 20 yard radius. Reduces armor by 75% for 10 seconds. 2 second casting time, can be interrupted.
• Surge of Darkness – increases physical damage by 100% and reduces movement speed by 55% for a 10 second duration. When the General buffs himself with this you  must kite him.
• Aura of Despair - prevents normal mana regeneration through out the fight. You can still gain mana via evocation, mana pots, etc. You can destroy the crystals flying around the room to get mana. These crystals drop a cloud on the ground, which will convert your health into mana.
• Profund of Darkness – deals 500 damage to all enemies and increases shadow damage by 10% per stack. Stacks on the raid (related to achievements)

General Vezax Boss Strategy

For the most part this is a pretty standard tank and spank fight…with a few slight variations. When you engage General Vezax simply start DPS like normal, have your DPS interrupt searing flames as often as possible. When General Vezax casts surge of darkness all DPS should stop, allowing your tank to kite General Vezax around the room. This is a great time for your casters to take advantage of the clouds for mana regeneration. Make sure you are rotating your casters appropriately, it’s important everyone maintains thier mana (particuarlly healers).

Continue to DPS General Vezax until he is about 35% health. Before reaching 35% you’ll want to make sure all your casters have enough mana, if not slow DPS and allow them to get some mana regeneration going. After you take Vezax to 35% he will summon Saronite Animus. Generally you want to simply off tank Saronite Animus and finish off the general. If you want to complete the achievement you need to kill Saronite Animus before Vezax. Continue burning down the General until he’s dead.

General Vezax Hard Mode Strategy

The hard mode is the same type of fight as I’ve detailed above, except you cannot use any of the mana-regeneration clouds for the duration of the fight.’

General Vezax Video Strategy (10 man)

coming soon…

General Vezax Video Strategy (25 man)

Hodir Boss Strategy Guide

Looking for more amazing Ulduar strategies? Check out the complete Ulduar Boss Strategy Guide!

Hodir is the 11th boss encounter of Ulduar. He’s located in the Halls of Winter.

Hodir Boss Abilities

• Health Points: 25,000,000 (heroic), 8,400,000 (normal)
• Melee hits on plate for up to 25,000
• Biting Cold – Aura that stacks up, dealing frost damage. Move to dispel the DoT.
• Freeze - Deals 5,550-6,450 frost damage, immobilizing them for 10 seconds. 10 yard radius, dispellable.
• Flash  Freeze – Freezes players in ice blocks, kill these ice blocks immediately. If a player is hit by a 2nd flash freeze they will die.
• Icicles - shards fall from the sky dealing a knockback and 12,000 frost damage to all players within the radius. These also create snowdrifts, which you can stand in to avoid being hit by flash freeze.
• Frozen Blows – self buff, adds 40,000 frost damage to all melee attacks and reduces physical damage by 70%.

Hodir Boss Strategy

Throughout the entire encounter you’ll need to constantly be moving to avoid biting cold. Periodically Hodir will randomly root a member of the raid, all players within a 10 yard radius will also be rooted. Stay spread out as much as possible to avoid large groups being rooted. Priests and paladins will need to be quick on their dispels here to avoid losing anyone.

Be watching for snowflakes pouring down from the ceiling, these indicate that icicles are about to fall. Anyone hit by these will take 12,000 frost damage and get knocked back.

Periodically Hodir will use frozen blows on himself. This essentially turns his damage from physical to frost. When this happens your frost resist tank needs to taunt. Healers should also be prepared to transition to the new tank. When frozen blows falls off the primary tank should taunt him back.

Finally, you’ll want to watch out for flash freeze. These are preceded by two icicles that create a snow mound. These mound of snow will protect the entire raid from being hit by the icicle. Anyone that doesn’t make it to the mound of snow should have their iceblock killed immediately to avoid death.

Hodir Hard Mode Boss Strategy

Defeat Hodir before he can shatter any of the chests in the room. The first chest is shattered at the 3 minute mark

Hodir Video Strategy (10 man)

Hodir Video Strategy (25 man)

Patch 3.1 Release Date Confirmed

Patch confirmed to release tomorrow, Tuesday, April 14th via this blue post. All I can say is finally! Make sure to check out the official Zug Gaming Ulduar Strategy Post.

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