Tales of the Horde
Background
To change up a weekly group of balanced questers on Stormrage, we migrated the group to Tichondrius and decided on a gimick: all one class (inspired by The Volvo Project). And what better class to concentrate on than the jack-of-all-trades Shaman? A few strategic discussions later, Tales of the Horde began to take shape.
After progressing through the initial growing stages, the team made a decision to focus on instances where possible. This page reflects that focus.
In its current incarnation, there are five specific roles defined on the team:
| Role | Character | Player | Notes |
| Primary Tank | Jaco | Alan | Enhancement-heavy, a bit of Elemental |
| Primary Healer | Pauco | SnowDog | All restoration, heading to NS first |
| Secondary Tank | Fako | Magimac | |
| DPS Caster | Cracko | Sosostress | A lot of Elemental and a bit of Restoration |
| Utility/Backup | Belcka | DarkMoonRising | Extra healing when needed. |
Scheduling
The team meets Tuesday nights between 5:30 and 6:00 server time (8:30 - 9:00 Eastern). They usually close down by 8 PM server time.
Instance and Quest Planning
Scheduling and planning for the next instance and quests is done here.
We may someday try to go after the final optional boss in Wailing Caverns. That will require another full clear, however.
Our next step is probably either ShadowFang Keep or Blackfathom Deeps, with the possibility of some dabbling in Warsong Gulch.
Tales of the Past
The group quickly ran through the first dozen levels before conquering Ragefire Chasm. The biggest lesson learned in RFC is that a team of four is much much weaker than a group of five. When doing normal questing or grinding, we'll sometimes play when a teammate cannot make it. Instance runs just can't handle this change, however.
In running Wailing Caverns we learned that we need Tremor Totem running when fighting Druids and that someone must always run Stoneskin. Staying together and avoiding accidental aggro is obviously key, and we continue to improve :). Our biggest problem in WC was not boss fights but rather managing larger fights or pulling too many foes. A swarm of "trash mobs" can quickly take the healer down if he gets aggro; instead of pretending to be a priest at this point the healer probably needs to start swinging that staff.
The Shaman Quest, Call of Water, was harder than anticipated not due to any particular fight but just the logistics of getting everyone to complete it without any problems. The quest is very picky and one of our team had to attempt the final step several times before the steps fell into place.
After that, the group hit Deadmines twice, once 4-manning the last part (and wiping on Van Cleef), and once 5-manning all the way through. The 5-man run was smooth as butter, with most of the team at L23 and having no problems with VC. Our big problem was maintaining Jaco's HP while not losing our off-tanks to the adds.
Strategy and Build Discussion
Primary Healer build at L41. Goal is to reach NS as soon as possible then go back for Mana Tide totem. Comments welcome.