MC Class Guides

Class-Specific Guides for MC

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Druid - Alliance

(written by Tuftears)

Brief notes for druids: most often we will be pigeonholed for healing in the end-game raids. Yes, it's boring. You'll be mostly playing 'health bar whack-a-mole' - something starts going yellow, hit it with a regrowth until it's green again. Or you'll be spamming Decursive to get rid of curses on the raid. Gearing for this is int and +healing, and enough stamina so you won't fall over easily.

There are some exceptions. If we're short on warriors, you might find yourself being asked to play a bear tank. You should be prepared with a 'bear set of gear' which has high armor and good strength. (with good damage comes good aggro) You should also understand the basics of tanking with a bear.

Bear-tanking: this is actually pretty easy. Whack them with your auto-attack and maul. If you have feral charge (a great 11-point feral talent) then use that to close with the enemy quickly and immobilize/counterspell them. Save growl for when you've lost aggro and you need to get it back, or you think you're going to lose aggro very soon. The 10-second timer is irksome but not horrible. Save challenging roar for the real emergencies. 10 minutes is too long for anything less.

However, practice makes perfect!

Back to healing: druids don't have great mana pools or regen compared to priests. You should work on your healing gear so you'll be okay, not weak on mana. Good sets include the Wildheart set and many +healing/int/sta leather items from Dire Maul. The Soothsayer Headdress from Celebras in Maraudon is also a very good leather headpiece.

Conserve mana by not spamming regrowth if you've already hit someone with regrowth in the last few seconds. Regrowth's heal-over-time lasts about 20 seconds, rejuvenation lasts 10 seconds. In between, use lesser ranks of Healing Touch.

You can draw aggro by healing. Wait to heal until you're sure the tanks have aggro. Don't start immediately healing with a 'heal over time' (HoT) spell. In the worst case, this means that as soon as the tank's taken even a few points of damage and your heal runs, the mobs that were initially aggro'd will beelien for you instead. If you wait a little while, the tanks will have pulled and tanked their separate mobs and you won't have any problems.

Druids don't have a 'fade' ability to reduce aggro temporarily like priests. We can shift to cat and cower, but it's probably easier and more survivable, if you have aggro from something, to shift to bear-form instead and wait for a tank to regain aggro. You can use frenzied regeneration and enrage to get back some life this way too.

(written by Tal)

Further Druid Notes:

Healing - As Tufty pointed out, this is our bread-and-butter role. And don't let anyone fool you, we're good at it. Yes it's boring, yes it's repetitive, but in those moments of action it's a lot of fun. It's also immensely rewarding once you realise just how much we, and all healers, tip the scales .

Tips for the fuzzy healers: - Innervate: 31pts I admit, but it's a free greater mana potion that you can cast on anyone. Best used on either a nearby Priest or on Yourself. - Rejuvenation: Stock and trade, when combined with a Priests's renew (and Regrowth if things really hit the fan) this can render a tank in virtual God-Mode for about 12 seconds. Use this to buy yourself time to cast something bigger. - Regrowth: Flash-Heal for Fuzzies, far less mana-friendly but does have a HoT component and can get a 50%+ crit chance when specced right. Has the downside of generating a lot of aggro if you overheal. - Healing Touch: Used correctly (ie. anticipate the damage) this is the fastest big heal there is, and it's actually pretty darn easy on the mana. - Rebirth: Wipe prevention/recovery. Usually on the prevention side, though when timed right a rezzer can use this as a soulstone. - First Aid: Get it, love it, 300 makes things very easy on the mana (especially in phase 2 Onyxia)

Aggro Management: Easiest way to do this (and make life less boring) is to make use of multiple ranks of the same spell. Why use Rank 10 HT when Rank 5 will do? If something comes after you, it's pretty much all she wrote so for us the use of the lower rank spells allows us to lay down some impressive healing with almost no aggro (read overheal). If, inevitably, something does come after you: Bear, Bash, Buzz-Off. And then proceed to pick up right where you left off. You're no good to anyone staying there unless all the other tanks are down, in which case you're probably on the receiving end of somone else's mana - so cut sick with everything you can to stay alive.

Gear Suggestions: For healing gear: personally I swear by a 7/8 Wildheart Set plus Robes of the Exalted with the Argent Crusader as this provides quite a respectable Mana pool and a very tidy +heal (even better when combined with the Royal Seal of Eldre'Thalas). Although occasionally I've been known to use the Devout Skirt when more mana regen was called for. And with a bit of finesse this is how I lay down the healing I do (those of you who have received it know what I mean )

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Hunter - Horde

Hunters actually have a purpose in MC besides being (inferior) DPS in most other instances, our job is to pull mobs to the MT, and to peel mobs off the MT to off-tanks so the MT doesn’t get swarmed.

Things to do before and in the raid:

- Join the hunter channel (basinhunter on Tich, aim2please on SR), this is the channel the hunters, MT and Off-tanks communicate.

- If you get assigned to an Off-tank, communicate in regard to where to peel to, and let him know you're his designated peeler.

- The main puller and secondary puller should run up and be ready for the next pull as fast as possible after a kill, if one of the hunters is dead assign a third Hunter to sub, and take the task of the current dead hunter(s).

- On peels, the only target getting Hunters Marked, is the one that’s going down first. Most often peeled by the secondary puller.

- Get “Wardrobe-mod”, (unless you use a better mod, in which case link it), even experienced pullers will die frequently, and you will notice that the repair bill will be steep if you pull in your primary gear, in addition to the possibility of rendering yourself useless in the raid due to broken gun/bow. Most classes find “Wardrobe” to be cumbersome, due to the fact that you have to be out of combat to be able to use it, as hunters we have the possibility to FD, and get out of combat, so you will be able to change gear mid battle. Note! Most of the hunters on Tich don't do this anymore, mainly due to the fact that we've gotten better gear, and don't die that much anymore :) I really recommend doing this, if your guild is starting out in MC though. Note2 Personally I swap to my Rag, (fire res gear), on fun packs.

Pulls:

Solo pulls: Lava Annihilators, 'Surgers, Fire lords and Core Hounds.

Usually the Core hound can be pulled by the MT, but if needed the hunter may be asked to pull it. Freezing trap will work on Annihilators/Surgers, which makes it possible to buy some time getting back to the MT.

Some of these pulls may require a peel, (Distracting Shot), from a second hunter, depending on how far away the mob is, this is especially important on the way to Lucifron/Magmadar, where there are 3 Annihilators/Surgers, a Firelord and a Core Hound that needs to be pulled from the bridge area. (Note! The last pull here, is a Surger which should be pulled on his way to the right, if you try to pull him on his way to the left, you will get imps).

Giants:

These come in pairs, either Giant/Giant(G/G), Giant/Destroyer(G/D) or Destroyer/Destroyer (D/D), these guys have an AoE stomp, so expect to die a lot . Our way of doing most of these pulls is that the secondary puller, marks his target and when the main puller has pulled, peels him off to the off-tank. The main puller runs to the MT, usually a bit aways from the raid. As we do it, the destroyer always goes to the MT if G/D. If dual, G/G or D/D, the puller gets the closest one, and the furthest away one gets marked and peeled to the off-tank. If the Destroyer is the furthest away one on G/D’s, I, personally, prefer to let the secondary puller pull, and have the main puller peel to the MT, (according to Vlo this is not necessary though ;)).

Note! In Garr’s part of the instance there will be two D/D pairs with a random spawn mob in front of each pair, these pulls can be very hard. It's recommended to pull the giant pair closest to the entrance near the cave wall, (behind the pillar), as the single mob in front of them will not add.

Other multipulls:

Through the tunnel from Garr to Baron Geddon and Shazzrah, you will have to pull some packs consisting of Flameguard, Flamewalker and two ‘Reavers, (gets banished), to clear the way for "clean" boss pulls. Lately we’ve been doing pet pulls on these “tunnel pulls”, as it’s very hard to get a successful peel off in there, and have the time to run back. Having Dash/Dive is helpful. (Baron Geddon and Shazzrah is pulled the same way).

These packs will also be on the way to Sulforon and Golemagg. Usually we pull either the Flamewalker or the Flameguard, (whichever is easiest to pull), and peel the other one. It's important that the hunters, MT and off-tank communicate on who gets what.

Boss encounters:

Lucifron/Gehennas:

Requires 3 hunters, one to pull closest guard, one to peel the second guard and one to peel Lucy/Gehennas himself. Note! The peeling of the boss should be done as fast as possible after the initial pull!

Magmadar:

This encounter requires Tranquility shot, a special attack you learn by a book that drops off Lucifron. Mag will every 15 seconds or so, go into a frenzied state, where he will cause more dmg to the MT, this state must be shut down as fast as possible with Tranq. (Timer is 20 seconds). The way Basin on Tich do it, is that we pair up hunters, where the players in each pair fire at the same time when he gets into frenzy, the hit rate is like 90% with an average decked character, so it’s very unlikely that both will miss. If the tank has him facing the end of the cave the sides are a good way to stand. Hunters with improved range will have no problem firing from outside his fear range.

Requirements:

- Magmadar mod. (Gives you a warning when he gets into frenzy, and when his fear will be released).

- Macroes for /Basinhunter; “<charactername> Hit” and ”<charactername> missed”.

- Isolate your "combat spell hits" in combat log for this encounter, as it's important that you can easily see if you hit/missed to send the hit/miss macro to /basinhunter channel.

Garr:

Pending on the amount of Warlocks for banish, Hunters get assigned to off-tanks, where each team gets assigned to a location in the cave by the raid leader, and peels the assigned “guard” to the off tank, freezing traps will buy some time here too.

Baron Geddon/Shazzrah:

DPS duty, besides pet pulling. (Note! The hunter pet-pulling, should stay in the middle of the room with the MT, and stay there until he’s sure the MT has aggro).

Sulforon/Golemagg/Majordomo:

Peel assigned guards to off-tanks. On Majordomo we have 2 hunters Distracting Shot'ing Domo to the MT.

Ragnaros

DPS.

Sjur

Note! some additional info in regard to gear on:[1]

Hunter - Alliance

(written by Mirajj, the main puller on the Avarice raids on Stormrage)

The primary role of the Hunter is single target, smooth, aggro-free, high, ranged DPS output. We are (or should be) nearly heal-free damage. We are pullers or splitters. We bring the mob to the tanks toes. Then we stay there, hoping that the tank gets it off us before we die. If not...well, we died well in service to the raid.

There are several ways to pull, and as you are likely 60 by the time you are raiding, you've got your favorite already. All I will add is to use a low ranking instant cast (my pulling macro is currently set to fire a single Arcane Shot, Rank 1) so the tank has no trouble getting aggro from the puller. Don't use a DoT, as those can be tricky to beat for aggro.

When I am pulling and need a hand or a split, I will randomly pick a hunter from the rank and file. It could be you. IMHO, if you are in the raid, you can be called on to perform raid duties. I will quickly explain (in our class channel) what I want you to do. Generally, it'll be something like "I need you to split the Giant off my Destroyer pull, and pull him to the MA." Step up quickly, acquire your target, stand on/near your tank, and tell me when you are ready. Remember that while the raid is waiting for you...I'd rather be sure that you are sure of what you are doing than botch the pull. If you aren't clear on what needs to be done, please ask for clarification.

Pulling in MC can be both as easy as it looks, or harder than you can imagine. Lots of little tricks to learn, as several of you will be learning when raids resume.

Pets have a place in MC now, and I'm not going to tell you how to use your pet. You ought to know by now. Just, please, be careful with them.

Spec...As far as I'm concerned, all three Hunter talent trees are viable. We hunters are a widespread bunch through the trees though, and have passed several "I'm just standing here waiting" times discussing builds and specs. Bring yours to the 'table'.

The last point of discussion is gear. What is the well dressed endgame Hunter wearing these days? It comes down to, IMHO, 3 choices. Well, really 2 choices and a special case. The special case is the Black Dragonscale Armor 'set'. High fire resist plus Ranged attack power bonuses make it a shoo-in for the second half of MC. Not required, but nice, to be sure.

The two choices boil down to the full BeastStalker set, or the DM "Crit Set". From my tests, and what I can tell from TheoryCraft, there is very little to distinguish one from the other, aside from your damage preference. I'd say pick one or the other (The DM set would be easier to get, imho) and go for it. It's something else we'll talk about in channel, during the downtimes.

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Rogue - Alliance

(written by hiryuu1115)

Rogues get the lousy job in raiding. We have probably the best single-target damage output in the game, but are at the most risk while doing so. Unlike the rest of the DPS classes (with the exception of the DPS warrior), we will be in melee range and will probably get squished by an errant footstep. Alternately, the overanxious rogue will draw attention by doing too much damage and get flattened. Tip - don't do that

Feint - this ability is essential in raiding. A sucessful hit with Feint will reduce your threat to that mob, making it less likely to attack you. While Alliance rogues may get 30% less threat due to Blessing of Salvation, it is still important to use Feint liberally. Depending on the mob, the tank, and your damage output, you may not need to feint all that much. Other mobs may require you to feint every time you can and to back off in addition to that so the tank can establish aggro. This is something you learn through practice.

Vanish - also known as "poof." If you have been feinting liberally and you still get hit, Vanish is probably your best choice in a raid. If it works (sometimes a big IF), you leave combat and wipe aggro. This is good, since it lets you start in again. Just remember the 5 minute timer and reagent cost.

Utility skills - these don't get much use in raiding, see Mirajj's section on hitting one button. Sap is usually safe, but usually doesn't quite cut it; especially when you need to be in melee range. As someone who has used Improved Sap to pull UBRS, I can say that it was one of the most stressful runs ever. Distract can be useful to stop patrols, but will not be used all that often.

Poison - Instant Poison is pretty much all you use. Once in a while, Mind Numbing and Crippling. I usually keep 2 stacks of Instant, 2 stacks of Crippling, 1 stack of Mind Numbing, 2 stacks of Flash Powder and 1 stack of Blinding Powder. There have been reports of Mind Numbing being helpful in encounters like Onyxia.

Talent Spec - again, almost all talent specs will work. Some will work better than others. Personally, I would recommend 31/8/12 for a dagger rogue where Imp. Ambush gives you a solid opener, and Improved Backstab and Seal Fate allow quick generation of combo points for finishers. Alternately, sword/mace/fist rogues may want a 31+ combat build to maximize their Sinister Strike damage (remaining points often end up in Assassination). These builds focus on damage output, which is really all a rogue brings to the table in a raid.

Gear - Shadowcraft is decent as a whole, the standout pieces are probably the helm, belt, and boots. Depending on your build and preference, other blue items may be more preferable. For example, a Seal Fate Rogue might prefer items with straight +crit%, while a SS rogue might prefer items with +Attack Power to get a more consistantly powerful attack. Shadowpanther.net is a good place to start your wish list.

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Warrior - Alliance

(written by Darian of Carpe Aurum)

In Molten Core, there are essentially a total of four possible roles you can play.

1) Main Tank. As a newbie, you'll almost certainly not be asked to fill this role, as the main tank is generally going to be either the best-geared or the most experienced (or both). If you are called on, however, your job is painfully simple: get aggro, hold aggro, avoid being feared, survive. Regardless of your spec, you should be in defensive stance and carrying a shield unless you're so ridiculously geared that healers have no trouble keeping you on your feet while 2H or dual-wielding. Sunder Armor and Revenge are your best friends, and you'll be mashing them every chance you get. Your job is not to pump DPS. Your job is to keep the mob's attention. Period. Sometimes you will be the puller; most times you won't. It's important for the main tank to understand and accept this, and to know when it's time to let someone else do the job.

2) Main Assist. Again, this role won't fall to you as a newbie, but you may be called on. Your choice of weapon, stance, and spec isn't that relevant (unless you're also serving as secondary tank); your job is simply to pick the target and call DPS. You generally want to call DPS on the target once 5 sunders have been landed by whoever's actually tanking the mob, except on boss mobs when the rules are completely different depending on the boss. Sometimes, there won't be an MA at all -- Onyxia, Magmadar, Geddon, Shazzrah, Golemagg are all good examples. Sometimes, the MA will just be the secondary tank (double giant pulls). Sometimes, we actually require TWO main assists for a fight (double firelord pulls). Adaptability is vital.

3) Secondary tanks. This encompasses a couple of different situations. One is the "kill one and move on to the next" battle plan, used on double giant pulls, Lucifron, Garr, Sulfuron, and Majordomo. For this role, it's important that you be able to take punishment, but we'll set a kill order for the mobs in question, cascading down from the best-geared tank. If you're not really well-geared up, there's still room for you at the lower end of the chain on the mobs which will die first. The second situation is the "keep 'em busy" role. This applies to both the core hound packs in MC, and being in a whelp group on an Onyxia run; you just want to hold aggro while AoE burns relatively benign mobs down.

4) None of the above. One of the most difficult roles for a tank in raiding situations is to not have an assigned role at all, or to have a very limited role where you're the fifth offtank on the core hound packs or your target is the first kill target on a Garr attempt. A lot of tanks have asked me in these situations what they should be doing. Basically... you're just DPS. Stay out of the fight until the DPS call, then come unload.

The skills you use are going to be directly related to your role. Sunder, Revenge, Taunt if you're tanking (and Challenging Shout if you're the assigned warrior in an Onyxian whelp group -- you won't have a lot of use for it in MC). Your usual suite of DPS abilities if you're not tanking. Straightforward.

Gear... armor isn't important if you're not tanking. If you are, it is. One mistake you desperately need to avoid, however, is to build a single set of gear that leans heavily on one specific attribute. Some tanks were completely blown apart by putting together +def builds only to see Blizzard nerf +def, for example. In addition, gear which is heavily loaded toward one attribute is, by necessity, deficient in all others. The best bet is to have your main gear be balanced. In your pocket, a set of FR gear is vital as well.

Being a tank on an Avarice raid -- so long as you're on board with the game plan and not being a divisive ass who doesn't want to follow instructions -- is in my opinion one of the funnest "jobs" in the game. It's all about teamwork (and that's the thing the Avarice tank corps takes the most pride in, being a TEAM that supports one another), being prepared to leap headlong into the breach when the guy in front of you falls in battle, and executing detailed plans of action under the command of the raid leader and/or main tank.