10 Tips for Nub Raiders

Changelog
v0.9 First Version
v1.0 Fixed errors
v1.1 Updated class builds section, Community contributions.
A Note about me i have 2 70's which i currently use to raid. My warlock http://www.wowarmory.com/search.xml?searchQuery=soulsiffer&searchType=all
and my Prot Pally
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Stormreaver&n=Tabular

Ive been a semi-casual raider for almost 3 years now, so i know how my stuff works, and because i
have these classes i have experience from all 3 roles of raiding, healing, tanking and DPS.

I'm writing this guide in an attempt to educate new 70's on what they need to know before they come to their first raid, which indeed is an exhilarating experience. Hope you enjoy

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1. Your spec
THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS YOU WILL NEED
In wow, your spec is HEAVILY dependent on how you play. HEAVILY. A feral druid, for example has no chance of out healing a resto specced druid, even if the feral is in full kara quality gear. Equally, i as a prot paladin cannot hope to out heal my fellow holy paladins in raids. So one of the first things you need to do is have a decent spec.

This is a controversial section, and is subject to change. Every suggestion here may not be perfect, and I will do my best to guide you to the best one for your class

Druid

The most wanted druid build is by far resto, but feral druids are also VERY good tanks for raids. Feral druids are also very viable for increasing DPS of a melee group, through use of their 5% crit talent. Balance druids, while putting out very good dps, are still prejudiced against with people retaining there pre-bc mindset. Balance druids are VERY good for increasing dps where casting is dominant.

-Ultimatum

Hunters
For hunters, your most likely going to want to go BM for raiding, Ive never grouped with a survival hunter, so i wouldnt know their viability.Ive been told though, that use of expose weakness is good for increasing group DPS.

-Jame

-Ultimatum

-Deea

Mage

For mages, you have a bit more flexibility than other classes. Frost is still very viable for raiding, but most mages prefer a fire/arcane build over frost.

Paladin
Paladins are incredible endgame healers, and holy pallys are most likely to get raid spots out of the other 2 talent trees. Prot paladins are EXTREMELY powerful tanks, but people with a pre-bc mindset are going to be doubtful, but don't let them get you down. A good guild will realize what an incredible asset you are for raids. Ret with recent buffs from tbc are still very good dps'ers, but they are like balance druids in the fact that they are still prejudiced against.

Priest

I'm not going to lie, with the current state of the game priests are one of the weakest healers currently, But what they lack of strong and low mana heals, they make up with their HUGE array of group heals which will make the difference between life or death in fights with high ae damage. Shadow priests are HUGELY wanted for their mana battery abilities through vamparic touch. Priests of any spec also make kara much easier because of shackle, and therefor it is usually a good idea to carry around a priest or 2.

-Jame

Rogues

Rogues are the best single target dps'ers in the game. The general consensus for rogues state that the best spec for them is a combat swords spec.

Shaman

Shaman are likely to be taken to raids no matter what their spec. They are strong healers, and if specced elemental, can greatly increase the dps of a caster group, especially when paired with a balance druid. Enhancement is also VERY good at boosting melee groups dps through use of windfury totem, especially when paired with a ret paladin.

Warlock

Warlocks are very strong dps'ers. They bring strong damage over time spells, and also have valuable healthstones, soulstones, and an imp which increases your tanks health by nearly 1k. Affliction is probably the best spec for you when starting, but when you get into t5 content, most people go destruction for more dps.

Warrior

For raiding, your best bet on getting a position is prot. Prot warriors are currently the most powerful single mob tanks in the game. If tanking really isn't your thing, fury is your next best bet. Arms, while able to put out decent dps, is more of a pvp spec if anything.

2. Your gear

After you have a good spec, you need to have decent gear.

To get through kara, you could probably do it in mostly 70 blue dungeon gear.

For ZA, you will need at least full kara gear to be able to make it past the second boss.

For Gruul, you will need at least half kara gear, and mostly blues.

For most classes, look at these stats

To start kara, a tank will need
490 defense
11k UNBUFFED hp
Uncrushable is a HUGE +++ to get to anything past curator, but is not a requirement until prince or nightbane.

To start kara, a healer will need
1.1k UNBUFFED healing
8k UNBUFFED mana
140 UNBUFFED Mana per 5 sec

To start kara, a dps will need
1.1k UNBUFFED AP
20% UNBUFFED crit
7k hp will help for fights like maiden, curator and aran where the raid will take significant ae damage

A Caster will want
600 UNBUFFED spell damage
9k mana for mages, 9k HP 8k mana for warlocks
20% Crit for mages, around 50 or so spell hit for warlocks (affliction)

Destro warlocks can usually use the same stats for mages
3. Your buffs

If you feel you need it, flasks can become an important asset to any group. Flasks can do anything from give you 10 bonus defense for tanks to 70 spellpower for casters. Food buffs are also very good for increasing your dps. Weapon buffs like adamantine stones and wizard oil also help. Depending on your class, here is a general amount of buffs you should have

For tanks, you should have on you at all times
Blessing of kings and/OR Light
Flask of fortification
Fisherman's feast or equivalent
Mark of the wild
Power Word Fortitude
Blood pact

For a healer, your going to want
Blessing of Kings, Wisdom or Salvation
Flask of Mighty Restoration
Golden Fish sticks
Superior Mana oil
Gift of the wild

For dps you will want
Blessings of Kings, Salvation Might or Wisdom
Flask of relentless assault or Flask of pure death
Gift of the Wild
Prayer of Fortitude (for warlocks)

4. Your raid makeup

For a group entering kara your probably going to want

1 PROT SPECCED TANK
1 Offtank
3 Healers
1 Mage
1 or 2 Priests
1 Hunter
2 Dps of your choosing

This group allows room to breath, having 2 tanks for a group starting kara is ideal because most likely you will not have the HP or mitigation to successfully tank high ammounts of mobs. 3 healers is imperative for starting groups for the same reasons. A priest is very important for fights like moroes where CC is important, and hunters are also very viable cc'ers. Mages for keeping your raid fed, while dishing out respectable dps

5. Addons

Addons play huge roles in your successfulness in a raid. I hate it when people join my group without a threat meter and are constantly pulling threat. Here is a list of addons you should have before starting a raid.

Omen threat meter
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/9101/
Allows you to watch your threat so you dont pull aggro and die. Fairly simple to use

X-perl unit frames
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/3416/
Allows you to see your entire raid, without having raid tab open at all times

Deadly Boss mods
http://www.curse.com/downloads/details/4940/

VERY important mod. It tells you when bosses are going to do certain spells so you are prepared for them. Very helpful for new raiders.

6. Communication

Most raids require a VoIP Program like Ventrilo or Teamspeak. These programs are very helpful for keeping your raid organized and increasing response time. Its allot harder and slower for people to type when they could just yell at you instead

you can download these Here:
Ventrilo
http://www.ventrilo.com/download.php
Teamspeak
http://www.goteamspeak.com/

Your raid may use another program, or blizzards in game voice, but these are the most common.

7. Attitude

I HATE it when people join a progression raid and expect to one shot everything. Progression raids are for guilds that want to get farther, for example, a guild that has been running kara and then going to Gruul for the first time would be considered a progression raid. A Farm raid is where the guild has downed the bosses many times and doesn't need to explain anything.

If you are in a progression run doing kara for your first time, realize that it might not come just like that. Downing bosses requires extreme coordination between players and for complicated fights it may take more than 2 tries.

8. Come on time

I HATE it again, when people come online a half hour after the raid was scheduled to start, and then find that they lost their position because of this. I, and many other people will not wait for you if you are taking 30 minutes to log on, and if you were late accept it and move on. You cannot expect 9 or perhaps 24 other people to wait for you and only you when they could find another easily.

9. Know the fights

It is a very good idea to look up boss fights and have a general idea of how a boss strategy will work before coming to raids. A good place to look this up would be

Wowwiki
http://www.wowwiki.com/Main_Page
Provides general walkthroughs for most boss fights and strategies on how to best defeat them.

Bosskillers
http://www.bosskillers.com/
Provides guides and videos on how to down bosses.

10. REPAIR REPAIR REPAIR!

If it is your first time in kara, MAKE SURE YOU COME REPAIRED!!! this is the same for other raids where a place to repair may be very far away.

In kara, There is not a place to repair until very deep into the instance if you are not honored with the Violet Eye, so make sure you are fully repaired before you come.

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Well, hopefully you found these tips helpful. If you have any questions or comments feel free to post or PM me. Thanks for reading and GL On your raids!

Blackwing Lair Guide - First Two Bosses

NOTE: This guide only covers the first two bosses, and as BWL is rarely attempted since the release of The Burning Crusade, this guide will not be completed.

As my guild has finally cleared BWL, I thought I'd try and share some of my experience with you guys. This will not be a traditional guide, more like an event diary for each of the bosses and some of the trash pulls.

It is a work in progress, and all feedback is welcome. It is the way we do it in my guild and by no means a definate solution or approach to any of the encounters in the instance. Any feedback I find interesteing will be quoted in the guide itself at the appropriate place.

Right, let's start. There are a few things you need to take care of before heading into Blackwing Lair.

1. Find an endgame guild or try and build one yourself.
2. Get Molten Core on farm.
3. Get attuned to BWL. Check this guide.
4. Not needed from the get go, but start farming FR. You should have plenty if you have killed Ragnaros on a weekly basis.

Obviously these points are a quite obvious if you're already in BWL. My point is that Blackwing Lair for a while was the ultimate challenge in WoW and it's still a handfull to progress through. You need a firm and dedicated guild to make fast progress, it's not something you go LFG'ing for-)

Razorgore the Untamed

The beginning of BWL is virtually trash free. The first room you enter is where you find the first boss, Razorgore. Now don't be fooled, he may be the first boss, but he is most definately not the easiest in BWL.

What will happen
When you enter, the room is full of eggs. At your right you see Razorge on a raised platform, to your left is another platform with some orcs and an orb. The orb is used by the orcs to mind control Razorgore. After you kill the named orc, someone in the raid needs to take his place, or Razorgore will start attacking you. When the raid is MC'ing Raz, the room will start filling with orcs. They keep spawning until all the eggs are destroyed by Razorgore (through the raid member controlling him). As soon as all the eggs are destroyed, the mobs will run out and the raid can focus on killing Razorgore.

What to do
Once you enter the egg room go left and gather the raid south of the platform with the orb and the orcs. Take out the orcs through simple tanking and dps. Once the orcs are killed and someone is mc'ing Raz (a paladin is ideal as warriors are needed throughout phase 1 and whoever mc's will have quite some raz aggro once all the eggs are destroyed), the raid splits into four, covering each corner of the room. At this point the room should start filling with orcs, loads of them (there are a maximum of 40 of them at once) and a few dragons.

Now the trick to this fight is kiting. There are 3 types of mobs spawning, handled differently.

Legionares hard hitting melee orcs, kited around the room by warriors and hunters (piercing howl, hamstring, concussion blow, concussion shot etc). They should tag whatever legionare they see and start running. Follow a pattern close to what you see above, where you run up the platform and jump down. The orcs will run back down, thus creating some distance between them and the kiter. These kiters should be continuesly given hot's and shield by healers, anything else risks giving the healer aggro. My priest has gotten aggro several times simply by using too much renew, so if possible try and stick to shield.

Dragons very hard hitting, these need to be either sleeped or have a warlock on chain-fear duty. They can be tanked but it's not worth the trouble to be honest. Keep them scared or sleepy.

Mages they do nasty dmg, but are easily killed. They should be dps'd in the corner they spawn.

While all this is going on, whoever is controlling Raz needs to be fast in destroying eggs. Razorgore is as suspectable to attack from orcs as the rest of the raid, and if he is killed he will do an AOE that wipes the raid. Eggs should be destroyed east to west, ie from where Raz stood when you entered, to where the mind controlling orb is. Once there are only a few eggs left, have the orb controller use Razergore's AOE fireball attack to make every add in the room attack him. Have the raid move to the centre and use every cc there is psycic scream, demo shout, frost nova, to keep the orcs from destroying Raz.

When the last egg is destroyed the adds run out and phase 2 begins.

He has the following abilities

1. Standard melee
2. Melee cleave
3. Conflagurate. This attack is like a scatter shot with a nazty fire dot. For each tick it spreads to nearby raid members who get both the dot and the confusion effect. Razergore wipes aggro on whoever gets conflag'd, but it is restored once the effect wears off.
4. AOE Fireball on a timed interval, around 1k dmg.

Raz becomes where angry at however mc'd him, and he can't be taunted so MT must be fast in getting those sunders on him (we even used a pally as MT once cuz Raz simply wouldn't get off him, even with Salvation on him). Conflagurate makes two tanks on him a necessity. The OT must build agro directly behind Raz so he doesn't get hit with conflag when the MT does and visa verca. Make sure MT got good aggro before you start DPS. We wiped quite a few times cuz Raz ran around going splat on the raid. Due to conflag, rogues should stay away during this fight, they will simply take too much damage and require too much healing.

Once you got Raz controlled by the tanks, and dps is going steady he should be a cakewalk from here on (assuming you didn't loose too many during phase 1, especially healers). The AOE fireball should be easily controlled by healers if tanks are taking all other damage (conflagurate, frontal fire attack and melee). You can also try and avoid it by staying out of LoS with Razorgore on each time it's coming up, or move out of it's range (40 yards). Depending on who is tanking and where, chances are at least healers take a beating though.

Once the chubby is down, the door to the next boss opens, and the real challenge can begin.

Razorgore drops the tier 2 bracers.

Now onwards too the encounter that make or break many a dedicated guild. But before that comes, there are a few other things too take care of.

While the loot from Razorgore is being distributed, the raid must stay put in this room. Once everyone is ready, have the raid move inside the next room. Vael is lying on the floor, but don't worry, he's not hostile yet. Inside this room are also loads of goblins, and they start running away as soon as you enter. They drop elementium ore (needed for Thunderfury and AQ quest reward) and hourglass sand (needed for Chormaggus later on), so everyone in the raid must tag as many as possible and kill them. One dot or autoattack will do. They go down easy, you shouldn't have any problems here. Once that is done, head back to where Vael is lying and prepare the raid for what is about to happen.

Vaelastrasz the Corrupt

What will happen

When you enter the room (and start hunting down goblins) Vael will be lying on the floor, tagged as a friendly. You can see Nefarian on the throne, finishing off the corruption of the red dragon. Nefarian will eventually vanish and can't be damaged anyway, so don't bother with him. Once the goblins are dead and you start the fight (simply talk to Vael) he starts a monologue and after the fight begins. From then you have 3 minutes to DPS him down or you will probably wipe (for reasons you will see below).

What you need to do

Abilities

Burning adrenaline Every 15 seconds Vael targets a RANDOM MANA USER with the debuff Burning Adrenaline. It makes all your spells instant cast, and increases dmg by 100% (it does not remove cooldowns though) but also reduces your health by 5% each second until you die. When you do, you explode and everyone around for up to 5k dmg.

However, every 45 second, Vael will target the CURRENT AGGRO HOLDER (MT) with the same debuff. His attack speed is increased by 100% until he dies.

Essence of the Red This buff is given to the entire raid when the encounter begins, and lasts 3 minutes. It gives casters virtually endless mana, warriors endless rage and rogues endless energy. After 3 minutes you only have a few seconds if you haven't yet killed him, or the healers will OOM faster than you can say "OMG we g0t pawnzzzor by Vael".

Frontal fire attack that hits everyone infront of him for 2k and upwards depending on FR.

Cleave attack that hits everyone in range for 2-3k dmg.

Tailwipe that hits for 500ish dmg and knockbacks.

Fire aura that hits everyone in the raid for a few hundred fire damage per tick, depending on FR.

As mana is no issue here, every stat you have can be sacrificed to get as high fire resistance as possible. Everyone will need it due to the aura. The less dmg the raid takes, the more time healers can spend on the MT.

Now, what makes this fight hard, apart from the incredible annoying fire aura, the continues loss of casters and tanks due to Burning Adrenaline, the tight timeframe and tremendous ammount of healing needed on the ENTIRE raid...(discouraged yet?) is that this fight requires very good tanking rotation mixed with high DPS and good aggro control.

For your first try you can take your time and set up the raid, as Vael will be friendly. Use imps to show the position of the MT as there will be alot of tank switching when MT gets Burning Adrenaline. Have your MT standing right infront of Vael's face, as close to the throne as possible, and set up your OT's (five or six) on the blind spot between his left hind legs (out of reach for both cleave and tailwipe). Make sure the tanks know the order in which they step up as MT, and have them start sundering accordingly.

Give the first MT a few seconds to gain initial aggro, but not too long. If Essence of the Red ends, you're history. When DPS starts, go full out. Everyone needs to use their aggro reducing abilites as soon as they can. If they are resisted, hold back on DPS or you risk gaining aggro. In that case, Vael will flame breath and cleave the raid to death in seconds. Faint, feign death and even fade should be used everytime cooldown is up. Mages should use whatever they got speccd to reduced threat generation.

If you get the tanking rotation working, this fight will get alot easier. Our main problem when learning the encounter was tanks dying before they get Burning Adrenaline, thus when all tanks are up he goes splat on the first rogue/mage/hunter on his hatelist.

Ideally you should have a priest in each group to keep the fire aura in check with Prayer of Healing. This is rarely the case, so have a druid cast regrowth, rejuv and heal everyone as fast as possible. Remember, mana is no issue here, time is. Every healer should cast a heal on the MT when they can, be sure to have at least 2 or 3 healers on the MT at all times. A good tactic for priests is to have the MT targeted from the getgo, and change between PoH and flash heal rank 7. When the MT dies from BA (hopefully) hit TAB and then the assist key (F as default) to target Vael's next target, then keep changing between flash heal dn PoH.

That's it really. High DPS, good tank rotation and GET THE FUCK AWAY when you get Burning Adrenaline, or you blow everyone up, not just yourself. Run directly behind his legs, as close to the wall as possible and start spamming your highest dmg spell that has no cooldown (instant cast remember?). If you're a healer, try to keep yourself up until your 20 seconds have passed, to inflict as much dmg as possible (heals are instant as well).

And by the way...Vael starts the fight with 30% health (due to being raped by Nefarian beforehand), but don't let that fool you...it's still around 800k healthpoints and if the 3 minutes are up and you don't have him at around 2%, you are in for a wipe. Also, at the time the buff wears off many of your casters will be dead from Burning Adrenaline.

Vael drops the tier 2 belts. He also makes way for a long and boring chain of fast spawning trash mobs, but more about that later. Keep the feedback coming, next up is the more laidback encounter that is Broodlord Lashslayer (renamed Lootlord after he was nerfed).

Jame's Upper Blackrock Spire Guide (UBRS)

Upper Blackrock Spire guide

Introduction

The Upper citadel of blackrock spire is the first mini-raid zone to get you started before big raid instances such as Molten Core and Onyxia's Lair, but it is nonetheless important as you will have to go through UBRS if you want to access Onyxia's Lair, as the key quest requires many trips to UBRS. It is also involved in the main Molten Core quest, so it is one of the instances you cannot avoid. And why should you, it is a great place! Upper blackrock spire is designed for 3 groups, and no more than 15 players can be in the same UBRS instance at a time.
After reading this guide you will know how to clear UBRS from bottom to top without any problems

The raid:

Some of the fights in UBRS can be nasty, especially General Drakkisath, so you might as well go in there with as much people as possible. Try to recruit 10 people with a balanced mix of class and you shouldn't have any problem.

Ideally you need:

1. 3 Healers or more (try to have at least 1 priest 1 Druid 1 Paladin so you get all the existing buffs)
2. 2 Tanks or more (can be a prot spec paladin or a feral druid, but try to have at least one warrrior)
3. 2 AEing classes or more (Mages are the best choice here, but warlocks are good too, provided you also have a mage)
4. You can fill up the rest of your raid with anything you want then, try to get more DPS (Rogues, Hunters, etc). Try to have at least one of each class so the class specific loot isn't wasted also.

Addons:

Make sure all your raid has the latest version of CT_Raidassist, you can work without it but it is really a BIG help for raids. Would be a waste to not use it.

Quests:

Horde:

Quests you should get before entering UBRS:

1. [63] For the horde
   This is the most important quest to have when going to UBRS. It is part of the quest chain to get Onyxia's Lair key. To unlock this quest you must complete the main quest in Lower BRS: warlord's command; if you have any problem with this part you should go read my guide on Lower BRS.

2. [60] Eye of the Emberseer
   Another very important quest, its part of the chain quests that take you into Molten core, and the end reward is being able to summon Majordomo Executus, your only way to reach Ragnaros himself. To get this quest, seek Duke Hydraxis in Azshara, he's on a little island on the east/south part of the map. Do the quests he gives you and then you'll get Eye of the Emberseer as a follow-up.

3. [60] The Darkstone tablet
   An optional quest, easy to complete as it is on the way to the important stuff in UBRS, and just one click needed.

4. [60] Blackhand's Command
   A very important quest as it grants you access to Blackwing Lair. To get the quest, kill the Quartermaster outside of BRS entrance to the left.

Quest you obtain inside UBRS:

1. [60] The matron protectorate
   That quest only interests Warriors, rangers, shamans and arguably paladins. More about that quest in the walkthrough.

2. [62] Finkle Einhorn, At Your Service!
   That quest only interests Rogues, Druids, Priests, Mages and Warlocks. More about that quest in the walkthrough.

Alliance:

Quests you should get before entering UBRS:

1. [63] General Drakkisath's Demise
   This is the most important quest to have when going to UBRS. It is part of the quest chain to get Onyxia's Lair key. To get this quest you must kill Overlolrd Wyrmthalak in Lower BRS, on his corpse you will find a note, this note starts the quest.

2. [60] Eye of the Emberseer
   Another very important quest, its part of the chain quests that take you into Molten core, and the end reward is being able to summon Majordomo Executus, your only way to reach Ragnaros himself. To get this quest, seek Duke Hydraxis in Azshara, he's on a little island on the east/south part of the map. Do the quests he gives you and then you'll get Eye of the Emberseer as a follow-up.

3. [60] Blackhand's Command
   A very important quest as it grants you access to Blackwing Lair. To get the quest, kill the Quartermaster outside of BRS entrance to the left.

4. [60] Doomrigger's Clasp
   Starts in morgan's vigil. You are supposed to pick up something from the rookery and bring it back, then deliver to another guy in stormwind. After defeating Drakkisath, go out of this room by the left exit and you will be facing the Rookery again. You will now be above rookery room on a ledge, move right on this ledge until you reach a big pillar. Jump down, the box you need is just at the side of this pillar. You can take it without aggroing the eggs, if done correctly. Also, the box respawns after a few seconds if you have multiple questers. There is no really easy way to get back up, so bring a mage down with you for the portal home.

Quest you obtain inside UBRS:

1. [60] The matron protectorate
   That quest only interests Warriors, rangers, shamans and arguably paladins. More about that quest in the walkthrough.

2. [62] Finkle Einhorn, At Your Service!
   That quest only interests Rogues, Druids, Priests, Mages and Warlocks. More about that quest in the walkthrough.

Walkthrough

Before you even get started, make sure you have at least one person with the Seal of Ascension, and make sure this person has the Seal on him or in his bags, or your UBRS raid will stop at the first door. :roll:
If you have no idea what a Seal of ascension is, I suggest you go read my guide to Lower BRS about that part, there is a detailed explanation on how to get a Seal of Ascension.
Go to Blackrock spire, just as if you were going to Lower blackrock spire, and zone in. When inside, go up the stairs to the left and the sealed door to Upper BRS will open as soon as the person who carries the seal will approach. Make sure everyone stays on the bridge, and have one person pull the Dragons inside the room, all of them.

1. The first room:

The first room can quickly become a mess if you just rush in there mindlessly. The first room is divided in 7 little chambers, in each of these chambers 4 orcs which you must defeat to unlock the runes. Once the seven runes are unlit, the door to the next room opens. Now here are the dangers of this room:

1. Blackhand Summoners: they must be killed first and they must be interrupted and stunned when they start summoning. If they are let free, they will start summoning more orcs, and those are lvl 60+ elite annoying orcs, and you end up overwhelmed in no time.
2. Blackhand Veterans: use knockback, and it very often happens that they knockback someone in one of the opposite rooms, and you end up having to deal with 2 rooms (or more) at the same time. So once your puller cleared the whole room of dragons, call the move and have everyone rush in one of the rooms, get inside and with their backs facing a wall. Everyone must do that, including healers, casters, hunters, or you can be sure someone will get knocked in the wrong direction.

Clear all the rooms in the same manner and the door to the next room will open. If it doesn't, you are extremely unlucky, once in a while it happens that one of the runes doesn't unlit and bugs the door, your only option is to zone out, reset and re-clear. This happened to me twice, and I cleared UBRS a hundred of times approximately.

The same rules about Blackhand summoners and veterans apply for the whole dungeon. Summoners must be taken care of quickly, and when dealing with Blackhand veterans, make sure everyone minds what their backs are facing.

Move on to the next room, the chamber of summoning.

2. The chamber of summoning:

Make sure everyone is inside the room before people start messing with the clickable stone at the left wall. Once everyone is in, have several people click the stone, after a while all the orcs in the room will become aggressive.

The best way to deal with them is to just AE the hell out of them. So have everyone stand close to the altar, keep your mages / warlocks healed and make a quick work of them.

As soon as all the orcs are dead, have a tank get ready infront of the altar, where a big fire elemental is. That elemental will become agressive in a few seconds, he's one of the easy minibosses, you shouldn't have any problems.

Pyroguard Emberseer mostly drops so-so green loot but sometimes a few decent blue drops, especially the shaman set gloves:

Don't forget to loot the Eye of the emberseer from the corpse, and complete [60] Eye of the Emberseer quest.

On to the next room!

3. The Rookery:

The rookery's floor is full of dragon eggs. If you go straight ahead, avoid walking on the eggs, and up the ramp you can avoid messing with any of the dragon eggs, and go straight toward rend blackhand. But if you go left inside the room, you will reach a little red obelisk shaped stone. If one person clicks this stone an optional script will start. But first, let me describe how to reach that obelisk safely, so nobody pulls a LEEROY~!

Have your puller bring the 3 Dragonkin in the emberseer room and kill them. Once that is done, have your puller go inside the room toward the obelisk and walk on some eggs, awake some dragon whelps and bring them to the emberseer room where they will be AE'd to death. Needless to say this is pointless if you don't have at least a mage with instant arcane explosion in your raid. Have your puller repeat this step until he judges it is safe enough to move the whole raid straight to the obelisk. This must be done quickly, because those dragon eggs respawn quite fast. And needless to say your healers need to be quick on healing the mages / warlocks when they AE.

Once your whole raid is positioned at the obelisk and that your casters finish their drinks, start the script. Rookery Hatchers will start spawning by pairs, have your whole raid focus on kiling them besides your Mages/warlocks who will deal with the whelps. The rookery hatchers will go and break eggs, so it is good to stun them and kill them fast before they awake too many eggs. With luck, if you are fast enough, your casters will have time to drink quickly in between waves, but don't count on it.
After a certain amount of waves, a miniboss will spawn, make sure your main tank is prepared to intercept it.

Solakar Flamewrath is an easy miniboss, hits harder than the average Dragonkin, but the main difficulty is that you might already be dealing with a bunch of whelps and whatnot when he spawns. Let your maintank deal with the miniboss alone while the rest of the raid finishes the other dragons, then kill miniboss while the mages take care of possible remaining whelps.

Solakar almost always drop a blue item, including the very rare Priest set Mantle:

Horde: In the middle of the room you can also find the Darkstone tablet and complete another quest in the process.

Time to move your raid up the ramp, on the oposite side of the obelisk. Tell everyone to avoid walking on the eggs (or close to them), but odds are one person will not manage it (*sigh* ), so just have everyone run to the first corner on the ramp and AE the few whelps there.

4. The Armory:

Clear the first 2 dragons up the ramp, then have your raid move up to the corner and stay there. Ignore the first path to the left, and just pull straight ahead until you reach the opposite corner. (The reason why we ignore this gate on the left is because pulling through it is extremely buggy, mobs tend to run away and bring a lot of friends before they actually reach you).
Have your raid with their backs against the wall and pull the next room to this spot, as it is shown by the arrows on the map #3. That is only if you want to kill Goraluk anvilcrack, he is optional but he can drop decent items and smithing plans, so it's all up to you. If you don't want to kill him, just pull up the stairs and to the right. There are a lot of roamers in those rooms so make sure your puller takes his time and only calls the move to up the stairs when it feels safe enough.

Go up the next flight of stairs after clearing the few dragons and orcs there, and you will be looking over a small arena. (Yes, that means do not follow the arrows on the map this time). This is a shortcut, you can have everyone directly jump off to the arena, instead of clearing through the gate on the right. You will be skipping about 4-6 orcs that way, it's doesn't seem much but after clearing UBRS dozens of time it seems to be 'vital' 8O . Plus, it's fun to have the whole raid ninja jump all at the same time. It IS important that everyone jumps down at the same time because a script starts and Orc spectators spawn rigth where you jumped from. Make sure hunters and warlocks dismiss their pet, and make sure there is no totem left up there, that could create a huge train.

No time to chit-chat anyway, as soon as you jump inside the arena a very cool script starts, so let's get to that!

5. The Arena and Rend Blackhand:

Waves of orcs and dragons will start attacking you, they are kinda easy, fight them off the way you like it, AE them or kill them one by one. After a while, you will hear Rend and Lord Nefarius talk and rend will walk off, saying he will take care of it himself.

After a while Rend will appear, mounting a great dragon, Gyth. You will have to first bring Gyth down to low health (about 20%) to knock Rend off his mount, and then you will have to fight rend while finishing Gyth as well.

Gyth has a frontal breath, so make sure the main tank makes Gyth face away from the raid. Have another tank be ready to taunt Rend as soon as he's knocked off his mount. Finish Gyth and then deal with Rend. Nothing special to say about Rend besides he hits hard, and can kill a caster fairly quickly, so make sure your tanks are on their toes ready to taunt him off.

Optional cool stuff: To the wearer of the Seal of Ascension, make sure you have the ring equiped before jumping into the arena, and use it while fighting Gyth/Rend for a little surprise. (including a full heal for your raid in the middle of the fight)

Gyth can drop a few decent Green items, and more rarely a shaman set Pauldrons, and if you are really lucky he can drop a Chromatic carapace, needed to craft some really cool items, through questing (more about that later)

Rend also drops some nifty stuff, including warrior's set pauldrons:

And many other great items including a dual-wield weapon set. But the real prize is rogue's favorite drop (and a very rare drop it is):

Once the script sucessfully completed, the gate behind you will open, go there and clear the room, straight ahead on the oposite side of the room you will find a little dragon on the floor, whimpering. Awbee is the quest giver of the [60] Matron protectorate quest, whose final rewards are one of the following:

So only Warriors, hunters, shamans and arguably paladins should bother taking that quest. Actually, don't bother taking that quest as long as you don't have a chromatic carapace, which is the rarest drop of all the components needed for those crafts. ( about 1,50% chance to drop from Gyth)

Anyway, time to head towards the real bosses, go left, follow the arrows on map #4. From now on, the pulls are getting a bit more rough. The orcs are lvl 60-61. The dragons as well, and using druids to hibernate them is too risky, they are mostly immune to it now, or too resistant. So kill the dragons first and sheep the humanoids from now on.

Head to the beast room and set your raid against the wall opposite to the beast.

6. The Beast:

The beast is 'medium' difficulty fight for a raid new to UBRS. Here is what you should know about the beast:

1. Randomly charges a randomly selected person and then goes back to the person with highest aggro. There is nothing you can do about this besides healing the person who just got charged.
2. Casts AE fear every now and then on everyone besides the person on top of the aggro list (luckily), warriors may use berserker rage to break from it, undeads may use will of the forsaken.
3. Also cast some AE damage spell, make sure every group has a healer assigned.

Set up everyone against the wall opposite to where the beast is, assign a couple of healers to a main tank and then send your main tank to pull the beast and then make sure everyone in the raid gives a good 10 second head start to the main tank for him to build aggro before anyone starts attacking.

Other than being a simple fight, the beast can drop nifty items, and it always drops 2 blue items, out of a loot table of 9 blue items, including the Paladin set pauldrons:

And also sometimes:

This should be given to someone with a skinning skill of 300, and this person should be able to skin the beast after equiping the skinner. Why is this important? Because when skinning the beast, there is a very small chance that it might yield a:

Before I tell you what this pristine hide is about, you must know that when skinning the beast, you free a gnome that was trapped inside the beast's belly. Finkle einhorn, after you free him, gives you a quest. Similar to the Chromatic carapace quest, besides this time the rewards are for leather and cloth classes:

Needless to say, don't bother startng with these quests unless you have a Pristine hide.

Now, time to thead to the last room and the last fight!

7. General Drakkisath:

Pull the orcs on the bridge before crossing it, then head inside drakkisath room and set camp on the first corner to the right.

The general's room has 5 packs of mobs, and 2 patrols. You must be very careful with those patrols, just read the following instructions carefully and you will have no problem.

Each pack of mob includes 1 Dragon captain and 4 other mobs, which can be 4 orcs or 3 orcs and 1 Dragon flamescale. Kill the Dragon Flamescale first, they are casters and do AEs, then kill the captain, then the humanoids, which should be sheeped anyway. If you lack mages (or warlock with succubus), assign offtanks to those orcs: warrior, paladin, shaman, druid bear form, anything will do, just organize yourself and make sure none of these mobs is loose and beats on healers, because if they do, your healers will die quickly.
Also, make sure everyone fights with their backs against some wall, because some of these mobs knockback. There is a big chance you will wipe completely if someone gets knocked into an additionnal pack of mobs.

Kill order:

1. Kill the first pack right infront of you when entering Drakkisath's room.
2. WAIT on the first patrol, it WILL come. Just wait in this corner and pull it there.
3. Kill the pack of mob straight ahead in the middle of the lair, and then pull the pack on the left.
4. WAIT on the second patrol, pull and kill it.
5. Kill the last 2 packs in any order you like, you should be safe now.

Now remains the hardest fight of Upper blackrock spire, General Drakkisath:

Mob analysis:

1. Flame breath: Direct 800ish damage frontal cone breath. Solution: Make sure your main tank is positioning the general so it's facing only him.
2. Hits hard in Melee.

1. Have your main tank positioned somewhere where only him gets flame breath.
2. The rest of the raid should position themselves to the other side of the general if they need to melee it. Casters should just stay away.

Battle plan:

1 General and 2 Guards to deal with.

There is two way of dealing with it:

1) The kite tactic:

This makes the encounter really easy if you have a hunter confident enough to do it, here is what you should do. Make sure the previous room and the beast room are totally empty. The hunter should be buffed with aspect of the pack, then from max shooting range pull general drakkisath with Aimed shot followed by distract shot and run away with Drakkisath on his tail, taking him for a walk to the beast's lair while the rest of the raid kills the 2 guards quickly. As soon as the 2 guards are dead, warn the hunter, who should Feign death. General Drakkisath will run back to the raid, he's not so hard to deal with when his guards are both dead! In short, the hunter's role will be to keep running and stay alive as long as possible while the rest of the raid deals with the two guards.

2) The normal tactic:

Assign one tank to the first guard, and another tank to the other. The guards hit hard, 500ish+ on plate classes. And you better assign a class who can quickly build aggro to the 1st guard (warrior is best choice in this case), so rogues and mages can go full damage without overaggroing the tank and getting owned.

Plan the kill order beforehand, mark one of the guards and start killing that one, then kill the other guard, then kill the general.

Assign one healer per tank for the guards, One healer or two if possible for the General tank. Minimum numbers of healers I did this with were 2 priests. One kept the maintank alive, one kept the two other tanks alive on the guards. One of the guard tanks was a paladin though, and he helped with the heals after the guard he was supposed to tank died.

Once the guards are dead, some healers should be free to heal around where it's needed, that's where CTRaidassist is so useful. Communication is key as well, if the main tank healer goes low on mana, the other healer(s) should take over.

If you are short on tanks, you can also have a warlock chain fear one of the guards while killing the other. There is a risk your warlock gets bad luck on resists and goes splat, but if you are short on tanks (or healers), thats's the only alternative you have.

If you follow these insctructions carefully, General Drakkisath should become a trivial fight very quickly for your raid. Anyway, the room respawns are very slow, so if you wipe, soulstone / reincarnate and go at it again, adjust a few things, and you will manage it!

Behind General Drakkisath is a pillar, click it to complete your Attunement to Blackwing Lair quest.

Now you can reap your rewards, and good rewards they are. Drakkisath can drop any of the Class set BPs, and he always drops one, in addition he drops another blue item out of 4 items, one of the them is a great shield, which you will still use against mobs such as Ragnaros:

And the very rare drop, if you are lucky enough:

I hope this guide will provide enough information for you to go through UBRS without much troubles, but keep in mind this is just half the job, the rest is up to you to make your raid work together, as one person not paying attention can wipe your whole raid in no time. :roll:

If you see any errors in the guide, or if you feel I should elaborate more some parts of it, please say so, and I'll do my best to help!

-Jame

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Karazhan

Karazhan is located in the Deadwind Pass of Eastern Kingdoms, it is a 10 man raid dungeon which contains new unique challenges for your guild.

To enter Karazhan you must do a chain of quests, eventually giving you the Master's Key, which will allow you to enter.

If you want to know what and where you need to do/go please check out this wonderful guide by Limolia

Karazhan contains 12 different bosses.

Before engagin the trash infront of Midnight/Attumen you want every person in the raid informed of the tactic, so that you won´t have to waste time infront of Midnight, as what make Midnight hard is accually the trash. It is on a 25minutes timer so at most you will have 2 tries before trash spawns.
Attumen the Huntsman

Abilities:
* Basic Melee: 1.6k - 2.1k on tank, 8k on cloth. He can, and should, be disarmed. Immune to taunt.
* Shadow Cleave: Cleave attack for around 4k.
* AoE Curse: Casts every 30 seconds a wide-area curse that reduces chance to hit with melee and ranged attacks and spells by 50%. Can be removed by mages and druids.
* Mount Up: When he or Midnight is at 25% he will mount up.
* Charge: After Attumen is mounted, he periodically does a charge. This does over 6k on cloth, and causes a knockdown. Standing closer to him however, reduces the chance that you will be charged.

Midnight only hits for about 2k damage on a tank, and is very easy to heal through.

Attumen is the first boss fight you will encounter in Karazhan. At first only his steed is seen, but after bringing it down a few %, Attumen will rush in and join the fight.
The fight itself it pretty easy, and it requires you to have 2 tanks. The offtank engages Attumens steed, Midnight, brings it to the corner in the left and tanks it until Attumen spawns. The main tank has to be really quick to pick up Attumen, or he will probably quickly dispose of your healers. After Attumen has spawned the main tank brings him where Midnight stood in the beginning. The dps continues to attack Midnight until he´s down at about 25%, where Attumen will call for him and mount up. Now he will randomly charge someone in the raid, and if you are unlucky he will also hit the person, usually killing them. This won´t happen to often tho. At this point it´s quite simple, let the tank keep aggro and heal the charged people until he finally falls dead on the ground, giving your group some nice loots, for such an easy fight.

Loots can be found here

Moroes
The trash befroe Moroes is quite simple, not so short spawn time allowing for a couple of wipes. Some pulls consist of pac of nonelites, others of solo or 2 elites.

Moroes will have different adds in every instance, much like Chromaggus' breaths. Each add will be based off a class and spec.

Baron Rafe Dreuger
Retribution Paladin
Health: 68k
can dispel shackle, casts blessings

Baroness Dorothea Milstipe
Shadow Priest
Health: 66k
Casts mana burn

Lady Catriona Von'Indi Holy Priest
Health: 66k
can heal and dispel shackle

Lady Keira Berrybuck
Holy Paladin
Health: 68k
casts Holy Light, dispels shackles, casts blessings

Lord Crispin Ference
Protection Warrior
Health: 83.4k
very hard to kill

Lord Robin Daris
Mortal Strike Warrior
Health: 84k
hard to kill, can easily one-hit clothies, does melee-AE

You should crowd control as many adds as you can. It is recommended that you bring 2 priest, tho not nessesary.
Assign a shackle target to the priest(s), one for freezing trap if you got a hunter, while the hunter has one in frezzing trap he should aswell kite one of the adds. I also recommend you to shackle the warriors, as they are hard to kill. Also kill the priests first, and don´t shackle the retribution paladins, he tends to stun his shackler when he breaks free. The priests should reshackle every 15-20 seconds or so, to prevent them from going loose.

Kiting the adds with a mage and a rogue is very well working. The mage can shoot his spells from a distance while the rogue slows him down with crippling poison.

After crowd controlling and disposing of adds, you face Moroes himself. Moroes got a few nasty abilities who all can really annoy you. You will need 2 tanks for him as he will gouge the primary tank and then he should face the other one until it goes off. If you are really unlucky he wll gouge one tank and blind teh other, going a rampart though your group.

Abilities:

Meele: around 2000 on plate.
Vanish: Vanishing, does not drop aggro.
Garrote: After returning from a vanish he will garrote someone dealing 1000 damage every 3 sec for 5 minutes, meaning 100.000 damage.
Blind: A poison that causes the target to wonder around. This can be removed by poison removing effects.
Gouge: He will gouge his primary target and turning to the one with second most treath.
Enrage: At 30% health Moroes will enrage

Other then his adds this fight is very simple if you manage to live trough his adds. When you got the adds crowd controlled and some killed it´s simply just about healing the tank and the garrote targets.
Garrote can be removed by a dwarf using stoneform, a mage using iceblock or a paladin's divine shield.

Loots can be found here

Maiden of Virtue

The trash infront of Maiden is not hard at all, some has aura taht reduces meele or spell damage done by 50%, they should be taken care of first. Have the tank pull all the trash except the 2 mobs gurading the entrance to Maidens chamber out of the room and kill them there. Stay to the right wall when entering or you may aggro mobs in the rooms.

Abilities:
About 3000 meele damage on a warrior.
Holy Fire: An annoying fire spell that damages about 3000 damage and then ticks for an additional 1750 damage every 2 sec for 12 sec.
Holy Ground: A consecration looking aura, damaging about 300 every 3 sec. Silences for 0.5 sec every sec. Breaks the stun from repentance.
Holy Wrath: Aoe chained damage, make sure you are position away from other people (see below).
Repentance: A 10sec incaptitate. Any damage caused will awake anyone affected by repentance. Maiden will cast this random, but it is on a 25 second cooldown. This is the killer move of this fight.

The fight with Maiden herself is quite easy once you got the hang of it. Shamans should keep grounding totem up as much as possible as it will soak up the damage from Holy Fire, reducing the amounts of dispell the dispellers have to do.
Paladins can aslo cast Blessing of Sacrifice on the tank everytime the repentance cooldown is over, making them get out of it and heal the tank through repentance. The tank should be topped att all costs throughout the fight, especially when repentance cooldown is over.
Druids will need to keep up HoTs on the tank all the time aswell as giving targets og Holy Fire a quick HoT.
Priests and Paladins will mainly dispell throughout this fight, unless you have 2 shamans, that will remove about 90% of her Holy Fires if grounding is kept up all the time.
The tank should tank her where she stands, and the rest of the raid position infront of everypillar to avoid chaining Holy Wrath. If you got more then 2 meeles they should position in a triangle to avoid chaing the Holy Wrath to the tank. Any health increasing consumables should be used by the tank, aswell as being ready to pop Last Stand, Shield Wall, potions, healthstones for those unlucky repentances. One of the healers could aswell run in the Holy Ground after repentance cooldown is over to get loose from it and then quickly run out and spam the tank.

If you get the hang of repentance, she´s dead.

Loots can be found here

Opera Event

The first trash towards the opera event after Maiden has gone down, was pre-patch the hardest trash in the whole instance, now they´re a cake. Simply have 2 tanks building aggro on one while they otehr is crowdcontrolled. Having 2 tanks mean that the other one get hit instead of the group when one is put in a iceblock.

After reaching the opera, you talk the the stagemen to start the accual opera event. Which one of the events you get in randomly, and it´s reset by a soft reset, meaning if you get one one day and fail you can get another the next day. The opera event consists of either one of 3 random encounters, The Big Bad Wolf, Wizard of Oz and Romulo and Julianne.

Ths Big Bad Wolf

This is probably the easiest one of the encounters, aslong the raid know what to do, this even you can take your time to explain tactics, trash respawn ain´t that fast, and you start it by talking to the grandmother, and you don´t have to do that in the start.

The Big Bad Wolf (I´ll call him The Wolf from now on) has 2 main abilities.

Little Red Riding Hood; This will turn you into Little Red Riding Hood, causing The Wolf to chase that person until the debuff is over. Turning into The Little Red Riding Hood will reduce all your armor and will silence you. This also increases your speed.
Terryfing Howl; Instant, fears, can be countered by all usuall fear counters

What makes The Wolf an encounter that´s accually more then free loots is Little Red Riding Hood. You want The Wolf to be tanked in one of the corners while the rest of the raid stands on the other side. As soon one member of the raid beomce Red Riding Hood, he/she will wait until The Wolf comes closer and then start running around the wall, kiting him. While someone is running, healers want to spam lesser heals on the person, as he hits for about 4000 damage on everyone. It is recommended that heal over time spells and power word shield are used. Rogues can vanish to make him stop chase you, tho the debuff remains and if you leave stealth he will come after you again. Hunters can also feaign death but the debuff will still stay up, so do not jump up again until it´s gone. Druids do not want to be in tree of life form, as this will slow them. Paladins can aswell use blessing of protecting to prevent damage on the chased person but he will chase longer then the buff lasts, so be careful in timing it. Priests can also slow him with mind flay and as there is no magic damage mage's can boost the healing by using amplify magic.

Loots can be found here

Romulo and Julianne

First off, you face Julianne alone, she has a couple of spells, including a heal (Eternal Affection),which needs to be interupted, and a selfbuff (Devotion), that decreases casting time and holy damage done by 50%, this needs to be dispelled. Here´s a list of all her spells.

* Eternal Affection: Holy. Calls upon Holy magic to heal an ally. Heal 46250-53750, Cast Time 2 seconds.
* Powerful Attraction: Shadow. Stun 6 seconds. Range 45 yards. Cast Time 1.5 seconds.
* Blinding Passion: Holy. 6000 Holy damage inflicted over 4 sec (1500 initially, then 4 ticks of 750 each). Range 45 yards, Cast Time 2 seconds.
* Devotion: Holy. Holy damage dealt is increased by 50%. Spell casting speed is increased by 50%. for 10 sec.

After killing Julianne, you will face Romulo. He is a warrior type mob with high armor. Has four diffrent abilitys, namely Daring, which also has to be dispelled from him. Here´s a list.

* Backward Lunge: Physical. Strikes at an enemy behind the caster, inflicting weapon damage plus 300 (Knock Back 35 yard).
* Deadly Swathe: Physical. Strikes at nearby enemies in front of the caster, inflicting weapon damage plus 300 (Affects up to 3 targets).
* Poisoned Thrust: Physical. All statistics reduced by 10% (Stacks up to 8 times), the debuff can be depoisoned.
* Daring: Holy. Increases the Physical damage dealt by the caster by 50% and the caster's attack speed by 50% for 8 sec.

When Romulo dies, they will both spawn and attack you, so make sure the tanks can pick them up fast, also it´s preferred to stop dots at 10% on Romulo, as they will continue to build aggro when he´s "dead".
Some may want to split the dps into 2 groups, one for Julianne and one for Romeo, if you decide to do it this way, keep meele away from Romulo because of his abilitys.
Others however, might want to have everyone dps Julianne until she is 25%, and then everyone except a rogue or wahtever you would like to use as interupt stays on her along with the tank, autoattacking and interupting while the rest of the group dps Romulo until he goes 10%, at this point make sure they both are at 10%, or they might get enough time to res eachother.
Now, kill them both at the same time, or atleast quite close to, I think you will have about 10-15 seconds to finish the other once one dies.

Loots can be found here
http://wowhead.com/?npc=17533#drops
http://wowhead.com/?npc=17534