WoW: Battle for Azeroth (8.3)

thanks for that weak aura, i'll see if i can try it out today. yea i learned about the potions recently, the +100 san potion is super helpful, i'm not even sure what the other do but i grab one when i see it. before i was avoiding them completely because the risk of the bad sanity potion was too punishing

Finally got my cloak up to Level 7 last night after two partial clears (the Thrall area plus one corrupted area).

Realistically, what do y'all think I need to do to pull off a full clear of a vision -- i.e., all the zones plus the boss? My retadin is at i445 at the moment, and unless I was missing some trick or some late-stage Titanic Research I haven't gotten to yet I wasn't going to do more than two of the five zones in one run.

i was stuck on 2 for a long time and all of a sudden jumped up to a full solo clear. for me getting the thirs minor essence slot made a big difference ,as well as the buff to damage and survivability based on your sanity talent in the research tree. i'm not sure what my ilevel is

I'm at about 455 ilevel now, but the biggest boosts to time in the visions are definitely the memento research points... the biggest one for a full clear is the talent for the 200 extra sanity when you kill an elite or boss. That is easily an extra sanity bar and a half worth of time each run. That plus the sanity cheat death earlier in the tree being another half of a bar extra, all very helpful in extending your time.

Demosthenes wrote:

... the biggest one for a full clear is the talent for the 200 extra sanity when you kill an elite or boss. That is easily an extra sanity bar and a half worth of time each run. That plus the sanity cheat death earlier in the tree being another half of a bar extra, all very helpful in extending your time.

Aha! That makes sense. I was thrilled last night to put points into the research tree so I could see the black empire caches for the first time. There's nothing that WoW dwarves love more than treasure chests except maybe the Brew of the Month Club.

I was thinking about trying to push three zones but I'll think I'll wait till I get further into the research tree. Probably some upgraded essence slots wouldn't hurt either. One of mine is still green.

I probably also should stop pulling the Mail Muncher. That might help with the sanity loss. Or maybe I'll grind on that for a while as I build up some more Corrupted Mememtoes. Decisions, decisions ...

A. If you've gotten Mail Muncher more than once, I hate you. I want that mount! (Though I did just get the Swift White Hawkstrider and the Sunwell legendary bow last night so...)

B. It's a time loss to open the mailboxes, but hardly a BIG one unless you're opening like ALL of them along the way, in which case... meh? If it's limiting your cloak upgrades, probably stop. If you're not even coming close to another zone finish, might as well, it's mementos to upgrade your talents on top of the mount chance... unless you've got the mount, then yeah, stop, nothing else comes from those.

My BM hunter was so close to a first clear and Thrall got me!

As Demosthenes said, the +200 for killing elites and bosses made a gigantic difference once I got it.

Yeah, I just unlocked the +200 for killing elites and bosses upgrade and I can quite comfortably do a 2 mask run. I ran the Stormwind vision (I still get lost in the mage quarter, and that final boss in the area is a pain in the butt running back and forth, especially with the stacking slow down debuff) and as a result I have all of the masks. I'm still a long way away from a full 5 mask run however.

what class are you running Buzzrick?

You got it next time Mortal!

BM hunter, did my first full clear of Stormwind. the mage quarter really confused me since I had never been more than couple steps in, so i think i can shave a bit of time off there (i went up the tower early so that cost me a bunch of time) i ended up killing alleria with no orbs maybe 200 san left over but not having using the emergency res.

I don;t want to risk not getting my two cloak items w my second run this week, but what is y'alls opinion on my chances with that first mask? i understand it is a pretty brutal downgrade?

thrawn82 wrote:

what class are you running Buzzrick?

You got it next time Mortal!

BM hunter, did my first full clear of Stormwind. the mage quarter really confused me since I had never been more than couple steps in, so i think i can shave a bit of time off there (i went up the tower early so that cost me a bunch of time) i ended up killing alleria with no orbs maybe 200 san left over but not having using the emergency res.

I don;t want to risk not getting my two cloak items w my second run this week, but what is y'alls opinion on my chances with that first mask? i understand it is a pretty brutal downgrade?

25% more health on mobs, if you're not coming close to death from damage, that's the only difference with like, the burned bridge mask. If you don't take many sanity HITS from damage (and SW's pretty good about that), Daredevil is a pretty minor debuff too.

As for the Mage Quarter, again, I'll try to remember when I get home, I made a "map" for my guild that shows the path me and my friend have been taking, though there's other good paths around too and we're getting it more "figured out" even now... but it's a good starting route for the zone at least, and the first portal it takes you to is the one that spawns all the annoying fleshbeasts in the zone (which then stop when you kill it's portal master).

Yea that giant fleshbeast i think is the only time ive ever come close to dying from health damage in a horrid vision. Sanity is my concern there, almost never damage. particular nasty combined with lead foot because i couldn;t get away from his things or the swarm o beasts

thrawn82 wrote:

Yea that giant fleshbeast i think is the only time ive ever come close to dying from health damage in a horrid vision. Sanity is my concern there, almost never damage. particular nasty combined with lead foot because i couldn;t get away from his things or the swarm o beasts

Note, the big fleshbeast spawns some extra ones during his fight, but he's not the one spawning the ones that are running around the zone... that's the named portal keeper on the north side of the zone... which is why my path always goes immediately right to get to him, but especially on Leaden Foot weeks.

ooh thanks good to know.

thrawn82 wrote:

thanks for that weak aura, i'll see if i can try it out today. yea i learned about the potions recently, the +100 san potion is super helpful, i'm not even sure what the other do but i grab one when i see it. before i was avoiding them completely because the risk of the bad sanity potion was too punishing

That weak aura WILL stop you from picking up the bad, so it's handy there... the non sanity restoring ones are... eh? The survivability one isn't BAD, but I'd argue with the Ghoul food, it's probably not even worth it. The firebreathing, in theory, sounds good as a DPS boost, but A. COMPLETELY random proc, including out of combat, and it fears you for 6-8 seconds when it ends so... it's actually kind of not worth it when you're worried about sanity... because it has the potential to fear you at some very BAD times depending on when you pick it up (hello last night's fear into the blade flurry for that first named in Old Town).

What a difference the rank 11 (?) cloak (50%->65%) and that bottom "talent" makes. Finally managed to clear a vision, with plenty of time left. Also first time visiting mage tower area, damn Leaden Foot is annoying. Was a bit pure luck I didn't die. Still need that resurrect on death talent, which I for some stupid reason skipped.

The people responsible for Slow Time and Leaden Foot should present themselves for a very public shaming.

IMAGE(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/549454345687662610/680322931695681567/SWVisionMageQuarterRoute.png)

I didn't say it was good, just that I made it. XD

Anyway, same stumbling block for me in both SW and Org now, basically "dying" as I hit the second Lost Zone boss. Definitely got some min-maxing to do with potions, buffs, and eating my damn k'babs (ate 3 last run, which is criminal really)... but I also had some seriously bad luck ON potions last run, only saw 2 sanity the whole way through SW. *shakes head*

But, I think with a week or two more of upgrades for the cloak and to my ilevel (hello heroic gear this week)... shouldn't be too hard to get the double achievement for doing 5 masks in both zones by myself. I'm almost tempted to try it as a tank instead (that was actually probably a mistake for me this run, having had my infinite stars boots on instead of my Twilight Dev boots).

Are there any good sources on which corruption gear is best for visions? As usual everything seems focused on 5+ min boss fights.
Tried infinite stars yesterday but seemed very mediocre for these short fights.

My wife has the black sky laser one. When that goes off it makes short work of the entire pack. So it's not steady and reliable, but when it helps it can really help.

Demosthenes wrote:

I didn't say it was good, just that I made it. XD

it's better than the plan i had before and I do find it helpful, so i'll put it in my personal good category at the least. thank you!

Shadout wrote:

Still need that resurrect on death talent, which I for some stupid reason skipped.

i picked it up earlier than the supposedly 'optimal' talent progression and do not regret it in the least. it got me a cloak upgrade i would not have otherwise gotten the week of at least twice.

So I read somewhere that if you want to advance your cloak asap just try to clear out as many corrupted and lost zones as you can and skip the bosses.

On one hand, the zones drop the pages you need to turn in to Wrathion.

On the other, you give up the corrupted mementos, gear and any other loot you might get from the bosses.

Is this accurate and viable if I'm aiming to boost my cloak?

Enix wrote:

So I read somewhere that if you want to advance your cloak asap just try to clear out as many corrupted and lost zones as you can and skip the bosses.

On one hand, the zones drop the pages you need to turn in to Wrathion.

On the other, you give up the corrupted mementos, gear and any other loot you might get from the bosses.

Is this accurate and viable if I'm aiming to boost my cloak?

You still get all the mementoes that tic on the right side, and all the memtoes from the challenge zone chests. All you give up by pressing to finish a zone instead of going to kill the final boss is the piece of gear and 100 memetoes (the boss chest typically holds 150, if you don't clear the boss it holds 50)

thrawn82 wrote:

what class ar
e you running Buzzrick?

I'm soloing it as a guardian druid.

Demosthenes wrote:

IMAGE(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/549454345687662610/680322931695681567/SWVisionMageQuarterRoute.png)

I think I understand this. Basically, head to the right around the outside, and the last couple you have to go through the buildings.

I think that is what initially messed me up in the Mages Quarter, is that you can skip through some buildings that aren't normally open in the non-vision version of Stormwind.

Vargen wrote:

My wife has the black sky laser one. When that goes off it makes short work of the entire pack. So it's not steady and reliable, but when it helps it can really help.

On a DPS, it's pretty good for AOE, it's basically the polar opposite of Infinite Stars in terms of IS over time on a ST will blow them up... Twilight Devastation (the skylaser of doom) with even a single proc on a pack can just melt that entire pack. Middle ground there would probably be something like Echoing Void which basically does like 10% of TD's damage, but does it a decent number of times in sequence... and can be useful for AOE but is also decent for ST too.

TD and EV's biggest thing though is that it's MAX HP based damage... so as a DH, while using TD, it's GROSS. If I get it during a Vision of Perfection or Gluttony proc... it's hilarious. I've hit a whole pack with like 120k damage each all at once. It was hilarious. My co-tank on nights where I get to tank in Raids jokes about how how once he sees the skylaser, he stops worrying about pulling things off me and just goes nuts with his DPS.

That's actually something I consider a failure of my SW 5 mask run is that I totally forgot to switch my boots from IS to TD. Had a few packs that took a bit longer than they should have, cutting down on my time and sanity by the time I reached Umbric.

I have some 430 gloves with Twilight Devastation on them, that I still wear even though I have some 460 gloves to replace them with. The TD proc is just so powerful, especially when it does 18% of my health (as a bear tank I have ~730k health; that means it does ~130k damage to each target). It can totally melt big groups of mobs.

It's disappointing when it procs at the end of a big group fight when there is a single mob left, but I just love it when it procs on pull of a group of ~6 mobs and they all just die immediately.

Got my cloak upgrade over the weekend, and next week is also a 4 page upgrade so i feel comfortable trying for my first mask run with my third run this week tonight. fingers crossed.

Buzzrick wrote:

I have some 430 gloves with Twilight Devastation on them, that I still wear even though I have some 460 gloves to replace them with. The TD proc is just so powerful, especially when it does 18% of my health (as a bear tank I have ~730k health; that means it does ~130k damage to each target). It can totally melt big groups of mobs.

It's disappointing when it procs at the end of a big group fight when there is a single mob left, but I just love it when it procs on pull of a group of ~6 mobs and they all just die immediately.

Oh yeah, my TD gear stays in my bags at all time, my rank 3 proc on a 430 belt will be hilarious once I get enough corruption resistance not to basically be the jittery tank who moves all the time with it. But my rank 1 is still hilarious in DPS for AOE. Hivemind and M+ leads to basically any procs making me the top DPS for the pack no matter what cooldowns others are using.

Woot! Got my first solo clear with my BM hunter. Stormwind is really so much easier.

EDIT: I meant Orgrimmar of course!

mortalgroove wrote:

Woot! Got my first solo clear with my BM hunter. Stormwind is really so much easier.

grats!!! my mask run went down in flames. got the two minor goals down, but i got careless moving too fast and pulled a group I didn't mean to, lost my pet and got stomped before i could get him back up. that 50% sanity reduction is punishing

thrawn82 wrote:
mortalgroove wrote:

Woot! Got my first solo clear with my BM hunter. Stormwind is really so much easier.

grats!!! my mask run went down in flames. got the two minor goals down, but i got careless moving too fast and pulled a group I didn't mean to, lost my pet and got stomped before i could get him back up. that 50% sanity reduction is punishing

Yeah, I generally recommend doing those runs as "my only goal is to get the other masks"... and the moment you have one other mask, transition to it instead as nothing is more punishing than that first mask you get... except maybe Daredevil if you take a lot of sanity damage (that weakaura I linked earlier for Visions will track that and give you a number by the end).

For Stormwind, most of my sanity loss from sanity damage is - pre-boss mini-boss in the Trade District, too many casts of that sanity drain to interrupt, even as melee, as he's immune to all other forms of CC... which feels like an oversight, even the Forgemaster dude in the Dwarven District is at least stunnable... and Umbric because you either interrupt missles to minimize sanity damage or you interrupt sheep to avoid the movement that pulls you into your own puddles... and you still don't have a second interrupt for the other missles. It's a weird set of guys that makes me feel, while there are achievements and scaling for doing it solo... it was still meant to be done with a group.

Oh yeah, for anyone who needs it... the 4 "buffs" for Stormwind are...

Right of the North Exit from Cathedral District (so like towards the Trade District) is a shop, if the door is open, kill the guy inside for 7% vers. Interrupt Psychic Screams, his other casts are just damage.

Left of the Western Exit from Cathedral District (towards the Dwarven District) is a door that can be open, when you step in a bear spirit will appear and attack you. Kill all three waves of enemies for a 10% haste buff.

As you enter the Dwarven District, go left. On the left by the first pack of mobs, you may see an open door. Avoid the mines and go upstairs (using the banister when the mines completely block the stair case). In the room uptop will me a mine glowing green, step on it. 10% damage boost, use another mine to teleport back out quick.

In the Trade District, the bank's door can be open, if it is, there's an Opulence mob in the guild bank area in the back, killing him gives you 10% crit. I know two of each of these are linked together, if one is up, the other won't be... but I'm not sure which is which for this one.