Castsequence Macro Update

It isn't really an update.  I'm still using it; it's doing surprisingly well.  After 5.4's possible changes I may need to tweak the number of Arcane Shots in it, but until then, it's still:

/castsequence Chimera Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Arcane Shot, Arcane Shot, Arcane Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot

I still do Murder of Crows, Glaives, That Wolf Icon That Regens Focus, Rapid Fire, Readiness, and Army of Sporebats manually when they come off cooldown.  As a Marksman hunter, I'm still average on AOE packs, but I'm generally competitive against similarly geared folks for single target DPS.

Other things recently...  I've been trying to get my shaman up to the point she can be an alternate healer for our raids on nights we can't find one, and I'm liking shaman healing better than I did back when I last tried it: a.k.a., the Burning Crusade.  I still prefer my priest, but we have plenty of priests available usually.  I also like my baby druid healing more right now than I do shaman healing, but she's in her 40s, so that's going to take longer to do.

We're into Throne of Thunder!  Currently on Tortos.  My husband has done an amazing job both at finding us recruits, as well as finding us some casually allied guilds and friends who fill in when we're short two healers.  Perhaps somewhat ironically, the only thing we're missing post-exodus is a full complement of healers, and that's exactly who left us for a bigger server environment.  5.4 and Connected Realms can't come soon enough.

Quality of Life Addons

I don't run with a lot of addons.  I use the default interface for most things, including raid frames and healing.  I have the standard minimum for raiding - a boss mod (DBM), a threat meter just in case, and a DPS meter (Recount) to make sure I'm not entirely useless.  Most of what I use is for minor quality of life, things, though.  Here are the ones I absolutely can't do without:

• Altoholic:  Keeps track of what I've got on who, when the last time I logged everyone on was (I do a full log-on of my random little alts about every three weeks), who has auctions I should check on, and so forth.  It also keeps track of what my toons are wearing, so when I log over to a crafter, I can easily see who needs upgrades in which slots, or which slots aren't enchanted.

• AuctionLite and AuctionLite Improved Search:  I love love love the purchasing interface for AuctionLite, and I appreciate the searching/pricing options on the selling tab.  The improved search purchasing interface lets me search specifically for Battle Pets, and all the various entries for each pet are smooshed into a single entry in the big list, so I can easily see if any of the handful of auctionable pets I don't have are listed.

• BattlePetCount:  There are other similar addons out there; this is the one I use for the mouseover information and quality flagging (it tells me if what I'm fighting is better than what I've got with an asterisk).  Given that I occasionally try to up my standing on my realm on WarcraftPets, it's been fairly handy.
• CT:  I'm using three parts of CT: MailMod, MapMod, and PartyBuffs.  MailMod is nice for opening a lot of mail at once and having a log of just who you just mailed that 500g to, and it's the one that makes me realize a patch has disabled my addons (because they're now "out of date"), because it's the first one I notice missing.

I run others, but these are the ones that I miss the most if they're broken or if I haven't yet re-enabled addons.

Not dead!

Just, you know, busy.  With this:

And this:

181 and counting.

Actually I got Attumen's pony on my priest; I've been running ten characters through a week for about six weeks.  It apparently worked.

Durumu's Maze

I'm going to tell you something for which you can hate me:  Durumu is my favorite boss in Throne of Thunder.  One of the things I'm good at is situational awareness, so I notice a lot of the visual cues for the fight.  For example, when the red, yellow, and blue beams first pop out, circles of the corresponding color flash where the three mist beasts are.  You can save yourself a lot of running as one of the beams if you notice where they are.

What kills most people, though, is Durumu's maze.  When Durumu pre-casts his disintegration beam, it will always be pointed at the entrance of the wing, so if you remember where you came in, that's where he'll be facing.  If at all possible, immediately move to stand behind him at this point, where the blue circle is on the first graphic:

Durumu's disintegration beam pre-cast

The maze will start forming on either side of him.  It is important to note which side the maze starts forming on to minimize the damage you take during this phase.  He won't start moving the beam until the floor has filled with fog, so you have a bit of time to get in position.  The following two graphics are laid out for if the maze starts forming on Durumu's right; if it starts forming on his left, just flip the following two images.

The maze beginning to form

When the maze begins to form, a purple cone of fog will appear on the floor to one side of Durumu, at a 90-degree angle to the disintegration beam precast.  The fog will then begin filling the floor, moving in a circle around the room.  Regardless of which side it starts on, it will go in the direction which moves away from the beam pre-cast and behind Durumu.  So, as shown above, it it forms on Durumu's right (illustration left), it will move clockwise around the room.

In this case, the raid will move counterclockwise to get in front of where the maze fog began forming.  Never run through the beam pre-cast.  This will kill you.  Ideally you will be somewhere behind Durumu when he begins forming the maze, and you can just run through a bit of fog to get to the starting point.

Once the floor fills with purple fog, the maze will start forming.

Moving through the maze

The path for the maze will not open up all at once, but will open up in three paths as Durumu rotates the disintegration beam.  Basically, the floor is divided into six concentric rings; the inner (melee) path uses the two inner rings, and will zigzag its path between the two.  The middle path uses the third and fourth rings, and the outer path uses the fifth and sixth rings.  Avoid the outer path unless you have speed boosts, because the disintegration beam will move faster than you can run otherwise.

The maze path will move in the direction the maze formed, so if it formed going clockwise, you need to run clockwise.  Whichever way the maze fog filled in is also the direction the beam is going to move.  You must stay ahead of the disintegration beam, or you will die.

The full maze won't spawn at once, so you'll just want to stay at the furthest extent of your currently spawned path.  Try to avoid any puddles left from the lingering gaze attack.  If you need to, in the LFR difficulty, you can cut over to a closer path to stay ahead of the beam.  Just don't do this too often, or the fog of the maze will kill you.

Remember, the maze's fog can spawn on either side of Durumu initially, and the side it spawns on determines the direction you run.

Beasts of Fable

The initial pass on the Beasts of Fable took a couple tries for some, but for most of them I guessed pretty well.  I love my Infinite Whelpling.

• No-No: Infinite Whelpling, Silver Dragonhawk Hatchling
• Lucky Yi:  Infinite Whelpling, Mr. Grubbs
• Greyhoof:  Infinite Whelpling, Mechanical Squirrel
• Skitterer Xi'a:  Infinite Whelpling, Silver Dragonhawk Hatchling
• Gorespine:  Anubisath Idol
• Ti'un the Wanderer:  Infinite Whelpling
• Kafi:  Fluxfire Feline, Robo-Chick, Mechanical Squirrel
• Dos-Ryga:  Infinite Whelpling, Silver Dragonhawk Hatchling, Wildhammer Gryphon Hatchling
• Nitun:  Cinder Kitten, Disgusting Oozeling, Infinite Whelpling
• Ka'wi the Gorger:  Cinder Kitten, Disgusting Oozeling, Infinite Whelpling

Even with the nerf to the Anubisath Idol's Deflection (it was Reflection), he's still pretty strong.  There are several aquatics, and the Silver Dragonhawk Hatchling's Quills are really useful even when it doesn't go first.

I excised the Cinder Kitten from the second pass through, mostly because he makes such sad, sad, mewing sounds when he gets hit.  He's a total glass cannon, too - you'll get to hit hard with him maybe twice before he's dead on these guys.

One fight I haven't figured out how to do differently is Kafi - I'm still having to stack mechanical pets for him.  He eats the Anubisath Idol too quickly, and even with the critter's stun duration reduction, they still didn't make a dent like Wind Up or the Fluxfire's Supercharge + Pounce combo does.

Spirit Tamers

There are a lot of combinations of pets you can use to beat the spirit tamers; some rely more on the random numbers coming out in your favor than others.  These are some of the combinations I've had decent luck with.

Thundering Pandaren Spirit:

• Critter: Mr. Wiggles or a Tolai Hare.  Mr. Wiggles has the health and a hard-hitting attack to survive and pummel the Pandaren Earth Spirit, and the Tolai Hare just as the speed to ignore the crowd control and usually dodge enough to get the job done.
• Beast or Dragon:  Mr. Grubbs or the Infinite Whelpling.  I've had good luck with both beating the critter-family ooze.  Set up Mr. Grubbs with Leap to flip the speed advantage and you'll get to hit hard twice in a row.  (In the screenshot, the Cinder Kitten is filling in for Mr. Grubbs.  Adorably.)
• Mechanical:  Mechanical Squirrel or Fluxfire Feline.  Really, anything with Wind-Up is going to get the job done.  Stone Rush is going to hit hard, so something that can get back up afterwards helps.

Whispering Pandaren Spirit:

• Critter: Mr. Wiggles again.  The moth can be taken out by a lot of things, but Mr. Wiggles seems to be surviving best right now of what I've got available.  It's a critter-classed moth, rather than a flyer.
• Dragon:  Infinite Whelpling.  The dragon pet does mostly air attacks, which are weak against dragons, and the Infinite Whelpling generally hits hard, especially when going second, and can heal if needed.
• Dragon or Magic:  If the Infinite Whelpling didn't survive the dragon for some reason, the Disgusting Oozeling or another dragon (Silver Dragonhawk Hatchling, etc.) can finish off the Air Spirit.

Flowing Pandaren Spirit:

• Dragon: Silver Dragonhawk Hatchling.  Quills is strong against the fish, even if you don't get to go first.
• Critter or Beast:  I've found Mr. Wiggles to be quite nice with his combination of Headbutt and Crouch.  Hoof is a solid filler attack.
• Dragon:  Infinite Whelpling.  A solid closer in most cases, the Infinite Whelpling will have few problems with the Water Spirit.

Burning Pandaren Spirit:

• Critter:  Mr. Wiggles.  The Fire Spirit gives me the the most trouble still, but I've been going with Mr. Wiggles, against whom his attacks are weak.  Headbutt plus a self-heal make a decent combination here.
• Dragon:  Infinite Whelpling.  The Infinite Whelpling can handle the dragon pet here without many problems.  Just know that the dragon will do Lift-Off after Cyclone, so don't waste a cooldown skill on that round.
• Magic:  Disgusting Oozeling.  The Disgusting Oozeling puts flying pets to shame.

There are other pet combinations that will work, but with a half a dozen pets, you can comfortably cover all four.

Farmer Nishi

This probably isn't new news to anyone who's been battling Pandarian pet tamers for a while, but... Farmer Nishi is amazing for leveling up your low-/mid-level pets.  You can take two low-level pets up against her; they just need enough health to survive up to about four castings of Sunlight.

Farmer Nishi has two elemental pets that mostly heal and have weak damage options: the Singing Sunflower, set up with Photosynthesis, Inspiring Song, and Sunlight, and the Terrible Turnip, set up with Leech Seed, Inspiring Song, and Sons of the Root (yep, she's cheating on her skill set ups).  Her worm is a beast set up with Consume, Acidic Goo, and Burrow.  I think he's supposed to be a silkworm, but his skill set is more like Mr. Grubbs.

The key to making this fight easy, I think, is an aquatic pet with a) a moderately strong, often available damage spell (the sunflower is going to heal ~200 hit points a round) and b) a self-heal, because you're going to need to keep it alive through all three of Nishi's pets.  As you can see in the screenshot, I'm using Jubs, a Jungle Darter.  Most frogs and toads have this same skill set.  Other aquatic pets, or pets with aquatic abilities, may work just as well; aquatic is strong versus elemental, and the extra damage helps with the sunflower's healing.

Whatever pet you're using for killing things, you want to start with your low level pets, doing one ability with them before swapping them out to make sure they get credit for the battle.  Neither the sunflower nor the turnip is likely to kill them, as long as they have about 500 hit points, and the worm will always go last.

Nishi will open with either the sunflower or the turnip, but usually the sunflower.  If you get the turnip first, that's great; just kill it straight through.  If you get the sunflower first and you're using a frog, you want to use Frog Kiss on it until you get it frogged; Nishi will then swap it out for the turnip.  You're doing this because her worm has a very good chance of killing your pet if you take it on without the extra hit points from Sunlight.

The sunflower will open with Sunlight, then do nothing but heal itself until Sunlight is down to two on its counter, then cast it again.  The turnip generally starts with Sons of the Root, which should give you an opportunity to heal yourself once before you can actually damage it.  Sons of the Root is an eight round cooldown, so if you don't miss, you'll probably only see it once.  It usually follows with Leech Seed, which is a four round cooldown, and then Inspiring Song, a three round cooldown.  This means you will have rounds where the turnip does nothing.

If you've managed to get the sunflower second, either through chance or Frog Kiss, once the turnip is dead, you can kill the sunflower.  At this point, if you're  using the frog, you do not want to use Frog Kiss, since you're going to want to use it heavily on the worm, and you don't want to risk swapping the sunflower and the worm back and forth, because the sunflower will heal them both like mad.  If Sunlight is going to run out soon, it may be worth passing to keep the sunflower alive long enough to cast it again; you want it for at least two or three rounds on the worm, if not longer.

The worm tends to open with Acidic Goo, then will Burrow and alternate Consume and Acidic Goo until Burrow is back up.  If Burrow connects, it hits hard, easily 500 to 800 points, depending if it crits.  Luckily it does miss often enough that it's not a guaranteed game-over.  Spamming Frog Kiss and using Healing Wave on cooldown usually keeps a frog alive if it's got a couple rounds of Sunlight for extra hit points.

Depending how low level your pets were to start, you're usually looking at two to three levels when the battle's over.

If you don't have an aquatic pet with a heal yet, there are frogs, turtles, and water striders throughout Pandaria, which will start at level 22 or 23 depending where you catch them.  Any of those should take you just a few tamer battles to max out, and they're plentiful if you want to farm for a rare one if you haven't got an aquatic stone.