Rage Winterchill and PvP Trinket

OK, day two of patch 2.4 and we finally make a visit to Mount Hyjal. I hadn't had much time online so had still not updated addons - DOH!

My that Jaina Proudmore has shrunk a bit since she was here!

But in we went, there was much discussion that we must have the *Emblem of the Alliance PvP trinket for the escape from movement impairing effects.

Screw that, I spent more than enough time pre-TBC grinding up to rank 10 only for the bastards to make that grind totally pointless, I have no intention of putting HolyWarrior into another battleground for grinding - Ever. Only PS the Rogue goes into BGs and that is just for a little ganking fun once in a while.

Luckily I have the pre-TBC *Insignia of the Alliance. The only difference is the reduced cooldown on the newer one and I am a paladin so have 2 bubbles (not sure if they work yet!!) to use during this longer cooldown. The guild is saying everyone should have the new one. Screw that if bubbles work! (Not sure if BoP will work though! Edit: No it doesn't)

So, in we go and start the event after lots of explaining. Unfortunately TiceNits' PC (NEW PC) doesn't seem to be able to handle the massive amount of mobs and WoW just freezes. Every time she logs or reboots and logs back on it just freezes again :'(

Well, back to the event, we die a couple of times on the last few waves before we get into our stride. On the first attempt I used my trinket and bubble on the frost nova effects thinking they were the uber damaging ice-tomb things. (14-15K damage) that you need the PvP trinket for.

Basically when you get encased in what looks like a mage's ice block you need to use your trinket to get out of it so that you only take 5K damage instead of 15K. The newer trinket has a 2 min cooldown and the old one has a 5 minute cooldown. Bubbles, Ice Blocks, CloS are all supposed to work too. Not sure about Vanish or gnome's escape artist. Edit: Healthstones, potions and Blessing of Protection do NOT work. But apparently blink does.

So on the first attempt I blew both of my escape routes pointlessly but luckily didn't need them. But I did die to Death and Decay which was something else. It's a big AoE red glowing effect around the prick, I didn't get out of it in time and died. At around 65% we were down to about 5 people left who actually got him down to 34%.

The second attempt saw us get him down to 15% with a similar quantity of casualties early on. I died because my shield was on cooldown and by the time I could get my mouse over to the Trinket I had died - oopsy - maybe I need to hotkey that!!

On the third attempt similar amount of early casualties and we got him down to 32%. I died to the ice-tomb because my trinket didn't work?? I checked my equipped items and it was not equipped. WTF? At one point I suspected that it might be my healing macro swapping out the trinket for the one it wanted to use, but that does a /use 13 rather than by name so I am still confused as to why I was not wearing the trinket for the last attempt.

We did NOT down Rage Winterchill on the first night. Gutted. Why? because half the raid hadn't read up on the tactics and had no form of PvP trinket at all, even though they'd had weeks of warning to get one!

We should easily have taken the bastard out.

So in summary:

• Stay out of the glowing red shit.
  
• After the last wave and before you even sit down to drink equip a PvP trinket.
• When Ice-Blocked (not Frost Nova) use trinket or bubble IMMEDIATELY - no hesitation!
• Keep everyone topped up on health, escaping from an Ice Block still gives you 5K damage and that's a lot for some squishys!!

But MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY: Why the fuck has Blizzard created a PvE encounter that seems so reliant on a PvP trinket that requires quite some grinding to get? Is there another solution? Not that I know of. Blizzard you suck fat sweaty arse!

As a consolation prize one of the wave trash mobs did drop and epic. Interesting comment on it!

*Might be the other way round!