Phase 1 is very similar to normal. All damage is increased for all adds, and LDW herself hits harder. The kill order of the adds becomes vital to the success of this fight. Shadow resistance also becomes far more useful in mitigating damage. So, don't be crap, tank the adds properly, smash the adds down in the correct order (see normal mode for that detail) and be very sure that you are focussing fire and getting those adds down as fast as possible and back on the boss. Watch for reanimateds and enrageds. And, again, remember your kill order and do it.
Phase 1 has another amusing change to it. Instead of one MC there are now three! Oh yes, it's Time for Fun! Now, if you don't manage those MCs properly, your own players will start oneshotting you. Let me say that again just to be clear. Your own players will start wiping out the raid!! I highly recommend that if you have a boss mod that marks the MCed players, that you allocate people to control them specifically. Mages, druids, locks, shammies, stun locks, traps, anything you can do to ensure that those MCs are locked down as soon as possible. This is absolutely vital to the success of phase 2.
One last thing on MCs... use your CDs early, and keep them on CD. If you are MCed you do NOT want the AI popping your CDs and a) wasting them and b) oneshotting your team mates. CD early, CD often, blow hero early on.
Ok, so you managed to get through phase 1 with minimal casualties (none is the preferred option) and LDW is at 5ish%. Watch the timers of the adds, and try to tick LDW over when you have few to no adds up. You really dont want LDW ticked over when the tanks are also having to worry about the adds. So, call it, watch it, and pay attention to what the RL yells out in decision to this.
Special Note to People with Pets: Put them on passive. Not defensive. Do it NOW. No, I don't care how good you are at managing your pets, just do it. Trust me on this. You MUST have them on passive. You must 100% control what target they are attacking, this is because if you are a CCer, or you are not attacking something temporarily and an MC person attacks you, your pet will run off and defend your honour! Now, usually this isn't an issue, but when 4 pets start attacking an MCed player, not only will they DIE, but it will break CC and cause havoc. The defensive AI in this fight is a detriment to your ability to succeed. If you are even arguing this point you need to go and learn more about how your pet works. There are plenty of websites out there that can help you with that.
Passive. Now.
Ok, sorry for that little rant, I have been killed more than once by wayward pets on defensive while I was MCed, you see. Ok back to the main plot.
Phase 2 has ticked over in a safe time between adds. Let me tell you a little story about non tauntable bosses and aggro resets. I am a holy pally, and I heal things. I hit like a girl and, generally, I am not a threat to anyone (even when MCed I tend to look threatening and buff the boss with wisdom). EXCEPT when I am in melee range, I am pre-healing the MT ready for him to take aggro, My heal lands and heals him a metric buttload (and perhaps my bacon target as well) BEFORE he lands a hit on LDW. At this point, LDW turns around and swats me one to the face. That is how delicate that aggro dump is. If you are a DPSer, just plain dont touch her, stay at range if you are melee from about 1% just GTFO! Seriously! Don't worry about your DPS, because if you pull, you are DEAD DEAD DEAD and that is terrible for your overall DPS.
Ok so, no one pulled, the first MT has aggro, and people are now pumping MD's and Tricks into the MT to get their threat up.
Phase 2 has some nasty surprises in store for you, and is where the real fight begins. First of all, adds keep coming, only one side at a time, but they keep coming none the less, more on that in a moment. Second, 3 MCs keep happening. Keep up the same CC rotation as Phase 1, no big change there.
Third, the ghosts will probably one shot you and everyone in range of you if they get in melee range of you. If there is a ghost even in your general vicinity RUN THE FUCK AWAY! Stop what you are doing, interrupt your casts and GTFO! They don't have to be chasing you specifically to explode, they explode in 2 ways. They explode when they reach the spot their target was standing, they also explode when they get in melee of anyone at all. Let me say that again, THEY INSTANTLY EXPLODE ON MELEE RANGE!! Melee range is bigger than you might think. So just stay away... as far away as possible.
Phase 2 will require interrupts, make sure you have an interrupt rotation sorted out for the frost bolts and other interrupt-able casts.
Mage dispels are vital on the tanks, and still important all the time. This becomes an issue in P2 because adds are still appearing. Don't forget to continue to dispel.
Tanks will have a new issue to contend with. There are two ways to deal with this - the first is tank rotation, the second is one tank with a lot of MDs/Tricks. They come in 2 separate add strategies as well. I will deal with the two below.
Ok, now we have dealt with changed the mechanics of the fight (I don't think I have forgotten anything), let's look at strategy and positioning.
Phase 1, bring the adds toward the platform. All healers and range stay up on the platform, melee go to the adds, but be very aware of LoS on healers. Resto Shaman, and perhaps Resto Druids will be doing a lot of healing in this phase and may pick up stray adds. Other healers should be wary of who in your team is likely to pull healer aggro and be ready with a quick heal to keep them alive. Mana can be managed by JoW on the boss and going up and autohitting the boss if necessary.
Phase 2 is much more difficult. I will detail the strat I am familiar with: Tank rotation+Add Kiting. There are variations on this theme with regards positioning. All ranged should spread out around the room, as far apart as possible. The MT should bring the boss to the bottom of the entrance stairs, and the MT healers should position themselves up the stairs away from everyone else as much as possible.
The add kiting tank should be ready to taunt/keep aggro on the adds, MDs should be used to redirect any stray adds to the tank that he can't pick up himself. This tank will kite the adds around the outside of the room. Make sure they are dispelled of all effects at all times, especially frostbolt slows, and topped up as best as possible. This should leave everyone free to kill the boss.
The other two tanks will take turns tanking and letting the stacks of insignificance drop off. Calling out stacks and managing threat is key here to ensure that the tanks keep the threat going. Tricks, and spare MDs can be of great help here managing the tank threat. It might take a bit of practise to get right, but it is certainly doable.
There is another variation where there is one tank who tanks LDW and all tricks and MDs go into that tank to keep it on top of threat. This requires a much more coordinated and aware DPS team who will take time off to smash down adds as well, I believe. The advantage it has is you have one less tank. It requires a much higher raid DPS output than the method I am aware of. But again, I am not au fait with the detail on this variation, having never done it myself. I suspect this will be much less tolerant of mistakes but will burn the boss down faster than the version I am using.
That's pretty much it. That was quite a lot to explain. They key features to this fight are as follows:
- Stay AWAY from ghosts, don't be even in the same postcode as they are.
- CC your MCed people asap
- use all your DPS CDs all the time
- careful tricks/MDs
- burn down the adds in the correct order and be coordinated
