Heroic Halion 25m Quick Tips

I'm going to debut my awesome paint skills in this post - you've been warned.

Last night marks our second night of hard mode Halion attempts. For a couple of reasons we didn't actually score a kill, but here are a few things that helped me and I'd like to think helped the whole guild while we learned the first two phases of the encounter.

Remember your mileage may vary - this is what worked for us learning the encounter and we have really clean Phase one.

P1 (Physical Realm - 100% to 75%)

1. Have a Holy Paladin put RF up - it makes the add tanks job (me) much much much easier in P1
2. DPS the Living Inferno (Big add: 1 spawns every meteor strike) first, allowing the add tank to get respectable aggro on the Living Embers (Small adds: 10 spawn every meteor strike).
3. All of the raid stack on one side of Halion and once meteor strike is cast, you have 5-6 seconds to run through the middle section of Halion to the other side. This ensures all of the little adds move through the boss as well and group up at or near the Holy paladin spamming heals with RF up.

4. Tank the Living Inferno close to the front of Halion (3rd tanks job), and the little adds close to the back of Halion (parallel to the hind leg).

5. Ensure that you have a squeaky clean transition to Phase Two. When the boss is around 77-78% (remember mileage may vary, we have exceptional on demand DPS potential in GCR) stop completely on the boss, burn down both the Living Inferno and the Living Embers, and then push the boss to 75%.
6. All adds should be dead in Phase One before everyone moves into the twilight realm for Phase Two.
7. Allow the MT a few seconds to get into the shadow realm, then follow, and group up similar to Phase One on the left side of Halion.

P2 (Twilight Realm - 75% to 50%)

1. Use Blood Lust/Heroism early (once the MT gives the go ahead), the goal is to get out of this phase as quickly as possible to minimize deaths to the cutters and bad placement of Soul Consumption dispels.
2. Stay still unless you need to run out Soul Consumption until a few seconds before the cutters are about to start.
3. Keep the boss dead center in the room at all times.
Right before cutters go off

4. A few seconds before the cutters start the MT should strafe so he is in one quadrant (Q4 in example below) and the raid is in the one adjacent (Q3 in example below).
     Cutters now!

5. Always dispel the Shadow Consumptions on the border of the circle.
6. At 50%, give the Physical realm MT time to take the portal, then follow, and position similar to Phase One.

Phase 3 on heroic is exactly the same as normal, except Halion uses all of the heroic abilities in the realms.

The fight is actually really manageable and we had no real issues getting into Phase Two and even a few attempts saw us in Phase Three, but people getting use to the Twilight Cutters and orienting themselves so they don't kill gibbed while this healing/dispelling/DPSing with just take some practice. I fully expect a early heroic kill next week, as we ran into issues with composition for the rest of the raiding week, so downed in on regular instead.

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Okay - now for the real reason I made a post!!!

Decided it was about time to craft one of these suckers, also note my girlfriend debuting as the perfect side car companion!

Remind me to never do that again..

So I admittedly had nothing to post about yesterday and when I went to MMO Champion and saw the news about the Real ID changes being made on the official forums I immediately wanted to post my opinion on the changes.

Well so did pretty much every other blog I have in my reader and so the news part at the very least was pretty redundant. Is that a bad thing? Personally I don't mind going to other blogs and seeing what others opinions are about a given news topic..so maybe it's not that bad..anyone else feel differently?

As for today - I quite enjoyed filling out this survey originally posted on sorry caps and brought to my attention by Jasyla on Cannot be Tamed so I figured I'd post my answers here.


1. Raider, farmer, PvPer, or altoholic?

Raider that dabbles with alts on occasion, far from a farmer.

2. Favorite raid or dungeon?
Karazhan - one of the best designed raids. It was unique because it was strictly 10 man, and I think Blizzard really has a knack for 10 man raid design. To further prove my point - my second favorite dungeon: Zul'Aman

3. Number one choice for a new playable race?
I love Tauren too much to want to play anything else.

4. Class you suck the most at?
I guess I would have to say Warrior or warlock only because any time I try to level one I can never make it out of the 20s, not sure why but it's probably because I suck at them.

5. Original UI or modded UI?
Modded. Grid/Bartender/X-perl/SexyMap/TinyTip are standard for any character I play.

6. Profession you’ve never leveled past 200?
Inscription and jewel crafting. Should probably switch my druids alchemy to jewel crafting though eventually.

7. Favorite flying mount?
Alar, which I have seen drop at least 4 times but do no have on my druid. =[

8. Nozdormu — friend or foe, you figure?
Foe for sure and probably a good place to mention that I absolutely hate grinding reputations, especially vanilla reputations.

9. Useless item you have in your bank that you’ll never get rid of?
No comment. Really it's quite pathetic.

10. Most expensive thing you’ve ever bought?
This. Not really a big gold spender. Thinking about buying a hog soon though.

11. Favorite starting area?
Honestly I don't have one because I hate the 1-10 experience right now, from what I've seen this will probably change in Cataclysm. If I had to pick though I would say the Blood elf zone is nice because it's much more like BC questing, very cut and dry and efficient questing.

12. Inane goal you worked hardest to achieve?
I guess farming rep for The Mag'har. Like I said not a huge fan of farming reputations or gathering achievements.

13. Darion Mograine VS Tirion Fordring, gloves off — winner is?
Tirion, not really sure why.

14. Game music or your own playlist?
Own playlist always. With the exception of my first LK kill for the cinematic at the end.

15. Particular option or setting that you always toggle on a new alt/server?
Too many to count/list because I have to set my UI up fully before I seriously level an alt.

16. Highest amount of levels gained in one play session?
If you count from level 1 up probably like 12 to 15. Especially with full heirloom gear.  It's just so easy now..

17. Thing you’d most like to experience or see in-game?
Even though the guild I am in right now is quite good and relatively far progression wise - I'd love to raid even if for just one night with a top 3 guild it would be an awesome experience.

18. Worst PuG moment?
When I first hit 80 on my druid in Cataclysm my girlfriend and I started to ease into heroics, and not knowing which ones were easier than others we started with Azjol-Nerub which in fresh WotLK leveling gear is quite difficult to tank for the first time. It was a miserable experience and I started to second guess if switching from my mage was a mistake in Wrath.

19. Best dungeon/raid moment?
Recently tanking Heroic 25m Sindragosa and popping cooldowns and battle rezzing the other tank, I love being a hybrid and I especially love being a druid.

20. Worst quest ever that you totally hate doing?
I've only done it once and it was actually quite recently doing the 140 quest achievement in Icecrown, but I solo'd everything except this one quest because you need at least two people because of a silly cooldown on the item need.

21. First thing you do when you hit 80?
Beg people to carry me through heroics? Oh no wait I know...completely stop playing that character and start leveling a new alt or come crawling back to my druid.

22. Character (of yours) you would RP as if you had to?
Druid, no question and no explanation needed.

23. Keyboard, mouse, or both for using abilities?
Keyboard.

24. Thottbot or WoWhead?
When I first started playing WoW I for some reason hated WoWhead and refused to use anything beside Thottbot, now it's completely the opposite.

25. Acronym you’ve seen in chat but don’t understand?
For a while I had no idea what QFT meant. Which is silly since Google knows all.

26. Plot point you’d like to see resolved someday?
Meh..I've got nothing.

27. Biggest thing you’re looking forward to in Cataclysm?
Any and all things feral druid. Especially feral tanking and the changes being made to make it a bit less dull.

28. Guild event you’d like to see?
Guild ToGC 25 with 50 attempts (we are really close to this), and a Ulduar Mimiron head run.

29. Level range you hate being in?
70-80. I have multiple toons stuck at this level range..not because I hate leveling, I actually quite like it, but it's difficult making the transition from BC/new-vanilla questing to regular speed questing.

30. Favorite map to quest in?
Nagrand. I love the map design/art, look and feel, the sky, and the efficiency of quests.

How personal is your real name anyways?

Recently posted on MMO-Champion if you haven't already refreshed the page since I know everyone is sitting at their computer with a browser open just tapping F5 hungry for Beta information...right..oh only me...okay nevermind.

Nethaera:

The first and most significant change is that in the near future, anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, their real-life first and last name -- with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character alongside it. These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm. Certain classic forums, including the classic Battle.net forums, will remain unchanged.

Blizzard wants to reduce the number of trolls on their official forums, and if you haven't been there for a while (or ever) go ahead and take a peek, probably close to 99.99% of the posts on the forums are complainers and trolls. So they no doubt have their work cut out for them. There first solution, if you post on the official World of Warcraft forums you post with your real name - no exceptions.

Honestly though what does this do?

People that troll others because of gear, experience (or lack thereof) and things of that nature may think twice before posting something rude and insignificant.

Why though? And realize I'm basing this off a really large assumption. Assuming that someone can search or easily view all characters that are attached to your real name on the forums, it's reasonable to assume the troll will be exposed to have the very same "weaknesses" they are flaming someone else for on one of their characters. Often times people post inappropriate and rude things on level 1 alt characters and hide behind these characters for everything they post on the official forums.

If your real name is only ever search-able by posts on the official forums then the only posts that are going to come up are from that same level 1 character that's been doing your dirty work since you started posting. Without actually seeing how the system is going to work it's difficult to tell how binding your real name is. It all depends on if you can search for people's post by their name, regardless of characters, which is pretty likely considering everyone is going to be required to post by name so the character becomes an after thought rather than search criteria.

If someone is going to flame someone aren't they just going to do it regardless? What's the consequence if someone knows your real name? This might cut down on the people with a "reputation" so to speak - who knows how many top end guilds have trolls that love hoping on the forums and belittling people - they'll have to stop now if they don't want their guilds to take action against them assuming they would even care.

Basically what it comes down to is this. If someone wants to be a troll on the forums they can. They probably don't use their name anywhere else on the internet so people aren't going to track them down and mess something else for them up.

For example: Someone that runs a very successful blog that doesn't include the names of their characters or they server they play on could easily be a troll on the forums and not worry about being traced to their respected blog because they probably also don't mention their real name anywhere on the blog. So what's the difference?

So it doesn't really seem that real names on the official forums will be that helpful. Sure it will probably cut down on the trolls a bit, but is the side effects worth it?

Two reasons it's not a good idea for honest/reasonable people:

1. Some people just aren't comfortable with their real name on the internet out there in the open for everyone to see. Which is reasonable, but this means they may not post anything and maybe they had something really useful to say.
2. What about the people that legitimately have their Battle.net accounts hacked? The level 80 key-log spammers at some point were normal people now they are going to be real named identifiable people spamming key-loggers. Probably not a good thing..

Any opinions?