Frozen Halls

[mothwing]

On Wednesday, I went around my resolution not to log on during the week apart from on Friday night to have a look at the Frozen Halls, and oh, they were fun. They weren't over as quickly as dungeons are these days, we actually had to make sure and avoid pulling together the entire room and make sure we deal with mobs one group at a time. Fun times.

What made this all the more enjoyable was the fact that Recount decided to die on me and thus I could not even see potentially sucking as I plodded through unknown rooms and fought unknown bosses whom I had only ever read about. Of course we wiped, and of course I died, most annoyingly, because I wasn't quick enough to avoid Ick's poison nova. Twice. The best part about the second time is that I was battle rezzed by our druid just before we wiped. We did make it through the first two dungeons and did not dare doing the third. I did get a nice, shiny souvenir, though.

I've only attempted Halls of Reflection once so far, and I don't really know how anyone can survive that one. Our damage clearly wasn't good enough (me being the best DD with 3.3-3.4k damage -  we didn't stand a chance), and I am not sure how our healer managed to heal us without going OOM half-way through. I'm looking forward to doing this with a good healer and good DDs - it's pretty clear what people are supposed to be doing, I'm just not quite clear on how to get there, damage-wise.

Still, I do like this instance, even though it's only because I really enjoyed the Sylvanas sequence - I've had a soft spot for the Banshee queen ever since I first played WarCraft III (not so much a fan of her outfit, though. Even though I loved the new model when it first came out and still think she's very nice-looking, but I don't think her tummy needs to bare to achieve that. And don't get me started on the armour - it looks so uncomfortable).

Also, I love the random dungeon finder tool. I've never had so much fun in dungeons in ages, and it makes emblem collecting really easy. Only the time spent in the queue could be a lot shorter.Still, it means that I've finally got my emerald and ruby void achievement, doing this. Fun.

... And obviously, I like procrastinating as much as ever. I'll go have a very late supper now.

Comments

[lisaquestions.livejournal.com]

At which point do you wipe in HOR?

I know with some parties, it feels like "How can anyone ever complete this?" and with others it feels pretty easy. On one occasion, the tank wiped us by standing in the wrong place during the chase.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

We never got to the chase, we died waaay in the beginning, towards the end of the spirit waves. It was probably less our position (with our backs to the door, most of the time) than the lack of damage that killed us.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Ok, now we made it, but wow, that was close. :)

Out of interest, where IS the best place for the tank to be during the chase? The only time we made it was with a tank who pulled the mobs rather close to the wall, but most tanks seem to insist on tanking the mobs as close to the advancing Lich King as possible.

Merry Christmas. :)

[lisaquestions.livejournal.com]

During the chase? Intercept the mobs as they're coming in. Not too far away from the wall or Arthas will bulldoze him. And yeah, I've seen more than one tank go too far away. No reason for that, at all. One tank wiped the group by doing that. :(

When I made comments about tank positioning and such, that was in reference to the first part of the instance, where you're mobbed by waves of ghosts. Most groups I've been with break on that fight.

[lisaquestions.livejournal.com]

Oh, and whoops, I did mean during the chase wrt tank positioning. Serves me right for saying something ages ago and forgetting. :)

Anyway, yeah, The tank stood about halfway between Arthas and the fourth wall, and basically ignored the rest of us when we told him to move closer to us. So while we were burning down the mobs, Arthas hit him and that was it.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Thought so. :)

We survived that fight by crouching in the corners of those nooks behind Marwyn and Falric. I found that part actually quite manageable as long as there was enough damage and the healer doesn't go OOM. Still, surprisingly doable even with a random group on RDF. But it seems to be a strong indicator of how the group will do during the chase. If they suck during that part they don't seem likely to make it later.

The chase, OTOH - I never thought I'd see the end of that during the first five wipes. Our tanks had a hard time staying away from Arthas, insisting it was the best place for that, but failtank insisted that we could just ignore Arthas and the sparkly white cloud around him during the chase (... yeah. Remorseless Winter? Wozzat? Frostmourne? Huh?). Deathgripping the casters closer and nuking down the ghouls closer to the wall, with a solid distance between the slo-moing Arthas and the wall worked best.

[lisaquestions.livejournal.com]

BTW, how do you pronounce "þeof in þystro" and what does it mean?

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

The "þ" is the rune thorn, a letter in the Anglo-Saxon alphabet which is pronounced like the "th" in, well, "thorn". "þeof in þystro" means "Thief in the darkness" and is taken from the Old English riddle about the bookworm:

Moððe word fræt. Me þæt þuhte
wrætlicu wyrd, þa ic þæt wundor gefrægn,
þæt se wyrm forswealg wera gied sumes,
þeof in þystro, þrymfæstne cwide
ond þæs strangan staþol. Stælgiest ne wæs
wihte þy gleawra, þe he þam wordum swealg.

Which translates to (I'm using the Wiki translation here):

"A moth ate words. I thought that was a marvelous fate,
that the worm, a thief in the dark, should eat
a man's words - a brilliant statement
and its foundation is strong. Not a whit the wiser
was he for having fattened himself on those words."

"Eo" is pronounced by half-pronouncing "neigh", but stopping yourself before you go on to the "i" part and gliding on to the "o" in "off" briefly, almost (but only almost!) as though they were two syllables.
The "y" is pronounced like the "u" in the French word "tu" or the German "ü" or the Scottish "oo".

Listen to the riddle here (http://fred.wheatonma.edu/wordpressmu/mdrout/wp-content/plugins/podpress/podpress_backend.php?podPressPlayerAutoPlay=yes&standalone=yes&action=showplayer&id=431&mediaNum=0&filename=http%3A%2F%2Ffred.wheatonma.edu%2Fwordpressmu%2Fmdrout%2Fpodpress_trac%2Fplay%2F431%2F0%2Fasprexeter-riddle-47-all.mp3&dimension=300:30) - "þeof in þystro" can be heard at 0:12.

[onthetide.livejournal.com]

The RDF is so amazing. I LOVE it on my bb shaman.

And I love the new instances, too. Can't wait to get in on the raid!

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Me, too! But due to the break I made there's a lot of raid content ahead of me. Icecrown Citadel, and TotC, too. Can't wait. :)