Yeah, you thought I would never do it, but here it is! HPP for your reading pleasure.
HPP is very similar to normal mode for the most part. There are still 3 phases, there is still an abom to control, malleable goo to dodge and adds to kite and kill. However, I am going to outline a new way to stand in order to deal with the new bits more efficiently.
By now, everyone should have a good idea of where the green goo spawns and where the orange goo spawns. The new standing strategy goes like this: Everyone spread out on the right side of the room (and by right I mean as relative to facing Prof Puke's experiment table). The centre(ish) of the room must be kept clear for reasons I will outline in a moment. Also, for the same reason people need to spread out as much as they can.
So, one of the new abilities Prof Puke will be using is something called Unbound Plague. This will bounce around the raid if the raid is stacked up too closely together. Why is this a bad thing? because once it bounces off you, you get a debuff. So, the thing is, if it bounces around too many of the raid, then it might bounce back onto someone and that will pretty much kill them. So, there are 2 things you need to change to manage this issue. One is spread out, like I explained above, the second is why you need to keep the centre clear.
There are mods out there that help you deal with this debuff, but really, you don't need them. Just pay attention and organise yourselves and you will be fine. Being vocal on vent will help a lot with this debuff management. Alrighty, pick 5 ranged DPS to allocate a rotation to. DPS 1->2->3->4->5->1 and so on. To start with, DPS 1 sits in the centre. When the first plague is cast, that person needs to stop what they are doing and wend their way to the centre without (if possible) giving the debuff to anyone on the way. This is not as easy as it sounds!! If that debuff pops off onto someone else, the new person needs to move to the centre. Hopefully, all goes well, and the person in the centre gets the plague, the carrier then needs to get the hell out of dodge and back to whatever they are supposed to be doing.
The person in the middle needs to count out about 10s - healer note the person with the plague will be taking an increasing amount of damage, keep them alive! - and then DPS 2 needs to run in and take the debuff off DPS 1. DPS 1 needs to also get the hell out of dodge. After 10 or so seconds, DPS 3 needs to swap over. I think you get the idea. This needs to continue until the timer on the plague is 0. The plague has a global timer of 60s, and this is not reset when it is passed around.
Ok got that clear? This mechanic is the main reason for the positioning change. The positioning change has one further aspect to it. Since everyone is hanging out near the green goo spawn point, we need to look at dealing with green goo add differently. We know where the spawn point is; when the green goo add is about to arrive, everyone needs to stack together so that when the green goo hits (because it will... you are very close to it) you all get blasted in the same direction, and minimal damage is taken. This is really important, and you will notice the difference if people don't stack properly, they will be flung in weird directions.
The other major change is during transitions. Instead of smacking everyone with tear gas, Prof Puke will mark everyone with an Orange Affinity or a Green Affinity. He will then distract you all with spawning 2 adds, an orange one and a green one, of course. So, those of you with the orange affinity can affect the orange add, and those with the green affinity can affect the green add. Simple eh? Well, you better smash those adds down by the time Prof Puke comes back, or you will lose time on the boss, because those adds need to go down as a priority!
The rest is exactly the same.
We are still wiping NER, what's going on?
Are people spreading out?
Are people not moving the plague to the middle?
Are healers forgetting to heal the plague team?
Are the plague team holding on too long?
Are people DPSing the right affinity?
Are people standing in bad?
Are people not stacking properly for green add spawns?
Those questions should address the changes in this fight that cause wipes. Good luck guys, sorry it was so long between drinks!
Showing posts with label ICC Hardmode. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ICC Hardmode. Show all posts
Monday, September 6, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Heroic Lady Death Whisper
Lady Deathwhisper in heroic mode is amazingly difficult. There are a few mechanics changes that make this a bit of a cluster fuck of a fight, I will talk about the changes seperately. Also, there is more than one way to complete this fight from a strategic point of view, I will address in detail the way I am familiar with it, I will comment upon the other methods, but if any readers have experience with any other ways, pop a comment in and I will update and expand the varying methods. There is never one way to skin a cat, ladies and gentlemen.
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:
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
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Heroic Saurfang
Heroic Saurfang is again the same as normal saurfang in most of the ways that matter. In heroic mode, he gets more blood points from all the sources of damage he does. Oh and everything hits harder, but that goes without saying, right? One extra added BOOYA of hitting harder is that now, damage is proportional to BPs. The more BPs he has, the more damage everything he casts/hits with does to your toons. And yeah, once a new mark goes out, he goes back to hitting like a pussy for a short amount of time until his BPs rapidly increase again.
This makes it significantly harder to heal as marks go out faster.
One thing that makes this really heroic is the adds. A commenter noted that I missed out an ability cast upon the adds, being Scent of Blood. The 80% aoe slow makes kiting near impossible. If they touch you, you are pretty much dead. CCing them and killing them cleanly before they get to their allocated DPS is vital to beating this boss. Allocate your DPS to them carefully and ensure that those adds go down fast and without touching anyone. Slows, knock-backs, stuns are vital to making sure the DPS have enough time to kill those adds before they attack anyone.
Aim to hold off the first mark until AFTER the first set of adds go out. If you are getting the first mark before the adds go down, you need to have a look at what is causing the blood points to go up so quickly. Are the adds hitting someone? are people standing too close together for blood nova?
Healers need to look at their healing much more closely now. 6-7 healers is recommended, probably 7. If you can, get 2 holy paladins as they can heal the first 4 marks leaving 5 healers free to keep everyone else alive. Keep the paladins on the ranged, and let the other better aoe healers heal marks on melee.
This brings me to an extra point for healing - marks transfer melee damage done by saurfang as well as some extra just for fun, that's how it works in normal mode, too. BUT! In heroic, the difference in Saurfang's melee hits from 0 BP to 99 BP is really crazy, mark healers will really notice the difference, and they will also notice the difference in healing a clothie with the mark and a plate wearer with the mark. Try to keep your pallies healing the clothies if at all possible (your clothies should be at range anyway, so this should happen naturally).
If in the first 4 marks a melee is chosen, the paladin should heal it, but communicate that they are going to swap to the first ranged marked after the first 4 go out. 2 paladins makes healing much easier, but of course, this isn't necessary, the theory extends to any class. Make sure that marks are allocated out to healers, (ranged marks to specific healers, melee marks to specific healers). Keep as much mana for the 35% mark, as things will start going batshit insane for healers at that point. Save all your tricks for this point, and conserve your mana as much as possible up until this point.
This is a hard fight, there is little to no wiggle room. Stuff up an add, and healers will be unable to heal toward the end of the fight as marks start cascading out. Stuff up a mark, and Saurfang heals, extending the fight. Good luck!
This makes it significantly harder to heal as marks go out faster.
One thing that makes this really heroic is the adds. A commenter noted that I missed out an ability cast upon the adds, being Scent of Blood. The 80% aoe slow makes kiting near impossible. If they touch you, you are pretty much dead. CCing them and killing them cleanly before they get to their allocated DPS is vital to beating this boss. Allocate your DPS to them carefully and ensure that those adds go down fast and without touching anyone. Slows, knock-backs, stuns are vital to making sure the DPS have enough time to kill those adds before they attack anyone.
Aim to hold off the first mark until AFTER the first set of adds go out. If you are getting the first mark before the adds go down, you need to have a look at what is causing the blood points to go up so quickly. Are the adds hitting someone? are people standing too close together for blood nova?
Healers need to look at their healing much more closely now. 6-7 healers is recommended, probably 7. If you can, get 2 holy paladins as they can heal the first 4 marks leaving 5 healers free to keep everyone else alive. Keep the paladins on the ranged, and let the other better aoe healers heal marks on melee.
This brings me to an extra point for healing - marks transfer melee damage done by saurfang as well as some extra just for fun, that's how it works in normal mode, too. BUT! In heroic, the difference in Saurfang's melee hits from 0 BP to 99 BP is really crazy, mark healers will really notice the difference, and they will also notice the difference in healing a clothie with the mark and a plate wearer with the mark. Try to keep your pallies healing the clothies if at all possible (your clothies should be at range anyway, so this should happen naturally).
If in the first 4 marks a melee is chosen, the paladin should heal it, but communicate that they are going to swap to the first ranged marked after the first 4 go out. 2 paladins makes healing much easier, but of course, this isn't necessary, the theory extends to any class. Make sure that marks are allocated out to healers, (ranged marks to specific healers, melee marks to specific healers). Keep as much mana for the 35% mark, as things will start going batshit insane for healers at that point. Save all your tricks for this point, and conserve your mana as much as possible up until this point.
This is a hard fight, there is little to no wiggle room. Stuff up an add, and healers will be unable to heal toward the end of the fight as marks start cascading out. Stuff up a mark, and Saurfang heals, extending the fight. Good luck!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Heroic Blood-Queen Lana'Thel
This is very similar to loot boat, except I wouldn't expect you to one shot BQL! There is no new strategy in heroic mode, everything hits harder. Healing is much harder, by extension, and people taking unnecessary incidental damage will now cause wipes as opposed to annoying the healers. Even with the buff, losing a bite victim early will mean you don't make the enrage timer, in fact, at the moment losing a bite victim full stop will probably push you over the enrage timer!
Apart from those tips, it is business as usual. Don't take extra damage, keep your bite victims alive. Win.
I should add in here that I have noted that BQL will bite the person who does the most damage to her before the bite, not the person with the highest threat after the tanks. Often, the person with the highest threat IS the person who has done the most damage, but I have gone through the logs of several occasions where that has not been the case. Someone was clearly highest on threat and another person got the bite. Upon reflection each and every time, the person with the most damage done (regardless of threat generation) was bitten.
Apart from those tips, it is business as usual. Don't take extra damage, keep your bite victims alive. Win.
I should add in here that I have noted that BQL will bite the person who does the most damage to her before the bite, not the person with the highest threat after the tanks. Often, the person with the highest threat IS the person who has done the most damage, but I have gone through the logs of several occasions where that has not been the case. Someone was clearly highest on threat and another person got the bite. Upon reflection each and every time, the person with the most damage done (regardless of threat generation) was bitten.
Heroic Valithria Dreamwalker
Again, not a massive step up in difficulty for most people (ie not healers). For DPS and tanks, business as usual, it is just that everything hits harder and is harder to kill. So your priority order and ability to burn down adds as fast as possible is on the line here. Make sure you have allocated your left and right teams well enough to cover off managing adds. Also note you will be 1-2 DPS down due to increased healing requirements.
In heroic mode there are two major changes to Valithria - first, she loses health over time, second, going into the portals is damaging to your health and far fewer balls spawn in the dream. Oh yeah, and they are red! Because RED is BAD MKAY?
Anyway, you will need about 8 healers for Valithria - 3 raid healers to stay outside and keep the raid going and 5 dream healers. All healers should be putting any spare GCDs on Valithria as well as any spare AoE healing. The dream healers need to allocate themselves one eacy to a portal (when they appear) and edge their way toward them and stand next to them as soon as possible. While outside, dream healers should be helping with AoE healing on the raid, but their number one priority is healing Valithria.
Once in the dream, it is quite likely that there will be a red blob above your head. Go and grab it to refresh your stacks. Then, find a fellow healer or two and fly around together bursting red bubbles. It is really important that you move in groups of at least 2 more if possible so that the most people get the most stacks. The red blobs REALLY are thin on the *cough* air and you need to share them to get Valithria healed. As long as you are within the area of the explosion when one is popped you get the (de)buff.
Just like in normal, get your stacks up as high as possible, and heal the pants off valithria. Heroic is just plain Harder, so expect a few wipes while you find your groove. Good healers to go into the Dream are pallies and shammies, priests and druids are probably better on the outside. Save your CD heals for just before Valithria is healed and your stacks are high.
In heroic mode there are two major changes to Valithria - first, she loses health over time, second, going into the portals is damaging to your health and far fewer balls spawn in the dream. Oh yeah, and they are red! Because RED is BAD MKAY?
Anyway, you will need about 8 healers for Valithria - 3 raid healers to stay outside and keep the raid going and 5 dream healers. All healers should be putting any spare GCDs on Valithria as well as any spare AoE healing. The dream healers need to allocate themselves one eacy to a portal (when they appear) and edge their way toward them and stand next to them as soon as possible. While outside, dream healers should be helping with AoE healing on the raid, but their number one priority is healing Valithria.
Once in the dream, it is quite likely that there will be a red blob above your head. Go and grab it to refresh your stacks. Then, find a fellow healer or two and fly around together bursting red bubbles. It is really important that you move in groups of at least 2 more if possible so that the most people get the most stacks. The red blobs REALLY are thin on the *cough* air and you need to share them to get Valithria healed. As long as you are within the area of the explosion when one is popped you get the (de)buff.
Just like in normal, get your stacks up as high as possible, and heal the pants off valithria. Heroic is just plain Harder, so expect a few wipes while you find your groove. Good healers to go into the Dream are pallies and shammies, priests and druids are probably better on the outside. Save your CD heals for just before Valithria is healed and your stacks are high.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Something to keep you going
Here is something I posted about Heroic LDW in my guild forums. It is really the main hurdle to overcome in the heroic version of the fight (names have been removed to protect the guilty):
Dear DPS,
For some reason, HLDW likes to MC me a lot. And I mean A LOT. This gave me opportunity to notice a few things.
First, it took a long time for me to get CCed. Now, on me, this really isn't an issue. All this does is that I stand there and pretend to hurt people with damage that is easily healed through, my auras get changed around, I use my wings ... oh yeah, and I buff wisdom on LDW. Go figure.
But, you know, when people like a Certain Rogue or a Certain Hunter are not CCed, they have a tendancy to 1-2 shot me very dead. Hells, that hunter autoshotted me dead in 2 hits! And Mr Rogue smashed me in one blow! Now, while this gives opportunity for witty banter, it leaves me unable to heal tanks. When I am unable to heal tanks, Officer Bear Tank gets shitty because tanks die. And we all know what happens when Officer Bear Tank gets shitty. That's right, he argues with That Guy and we all have to put them on mute for 5 mins.
Second, when I am MCed, it seems that people like to kill me. A lot and often. Sometimes I got brezzed, then MCed immediately again and killed AGAIN. Now, this is not too much of an issue on the hip pocket at the moment, but it really is annoying and frustrating for the druids burning their BRezzes on me. Hells, it became so noticeable, even the LOCKS started SSing me. I mean HUH? I shouldn't be a target for SS's.
No Love,
Me
PS Holy Pally Buddy, next time we both get ghosts, let's not hug each other to death. Deal?
Dear DPS,
For some reason, HLDW likes to MC me a lot. And I mean A LOT. This gave me opportunity to notice a few things.
First, it took a long time for me to get CCed. Now, on me, this really isn't an issue. All this does is that I stand there and pretend to hurt people with damage that is easily healed through, my auras get changed around, I use my wings ... oh yeah, and I buff wisdom on LDW. Go figure.
But, you know, when people like a Certain Rogue or a Certain Hunter are not CCed, they have a tendancy to 1-2 shot me very dead. Hells, that hunter autoshotted me dead in 2 hits! And Mr Rogue smashed me in one blow! Now, while this gives opportunity for witty banter, it leaves me unable to heal tanks. When I am unable to heal tanks, Officer Bear Tank gets shitty because tanks die. And we all know what happens when Officer Bear Tank gets shitty. That's right, he argues with That Guy and we all have to put them on mute for 5 mins.
Second, when I am MCed, it seems that people like to kill me. A lot and often. Sometimes I got brezzed, then MCed immediately again and killed AGAIN. Now, this is not too much of an issue on the hip pocket at the moment, but it really is annoying and frustrating for the druids burning their BRezzes on me. Hells, it became so noticeable, even the LOCKS started SSing me. I mean HUH? I shouldn't be a target for SS's.
No Love,
Me
PS Holy Pally Buddy, next time we both get ghosts, let's not hug each other to death. Deal?
Thursday, May 6, 2010
LootBoat Hardmode
If you can do normal mode, you can do hard mode.
Make sure your cannoneers kill the rocket launcher guys at the back, and the ranged kill the axe throwers at the front. Apart from that, it is busniess as usual. Don't lose your head, and steady as she goes.
Make sure your cannoneers kill the rocket launcher guys at the back, and the ranged kill the axe throwers at the front. Apart from that, it is busniess as usual. Don't lose your head, and steady as she goes.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Blood Prince Council Hardmode
The major and HUGE difference in this fight is a simple yet incredibly annoying one: Whenever your character moves you gain a stack of a DoT debuff - it does 500dps per stack, and is refreshed with each new application. It has a 10s duration. This means, if you stand still for 10s all your stacks drop off. This debuff HURTS. This debuff is applied not only when you run, but also when you get knocked back by anything in this encounter that knocks you around.
So, this encounter now becomes even more about positioning and team work. Due to the Vortices and the need to be spread out, and also due to the need to Not Move, it behooves the raidleader to plan out where everyone is going to stand as their "permanent" position. A good idea is to space the healers around the semicircle at the bottom of the stairs with one healer at the top of the stairs to keep those on stage alive due to LoS issues. DPS need to stay spread around the room. Melee should be allocated spots on the top of the stage for the personal vortex phase.
Tank both Taladaram and Valanar as together as possible to minimise melee movement. The Keleseth tank will need to move around obviously, so the healers need to be aware of the stacks on this tank (as does the tank themselves).
The kinetic bombs drop significantly faster in hard mode, and also, you cant allocate 1-2 ranged to go after them as you just dont want people moving around. Allocate a spotter to call out where the bombs are falling (we actually use a mut rogue due to their reduced damage from all the target swapping and moving) and anyone in that area has to stop DPSing the boss and keep that bomb up full time until it goes away. If the bombs drop on stage, melee need to be allocated to hit them (in this case, our mut rogue generally handles the entire stage on his own).
If you do get knocked back from a vortex or kinetic bomb, run back to your position in stages to ensure you dont get too many stacks of the debuff.
Even more than in normal, this fight is NOT a DPS race, I cannot stress that enough. This fight is about staying alive and whittling away at the boss slowly. There is a stupidly long enrage timer, you are very unlikely to hit it, no matter how long you take.
The key factors are: Staying spread out and staying in your allocated position as much as possible and making sure those kinetics do not touch the ground under any cirucmstances. It is everyone's responsibility (except perhaps healers) to keep a kinetic up in their area. If a kinetic touches the ground near you and you didn't hit it, then the resulting wipe is 100% your fault.
So, this encounter now becomes even more about positioning and team work. Due to the Vortices and the need to be spread out, and also due to the need to Not Move, it behooves the raidleader to plan out where everyone is going to stand as their "permanent" position. A good idea is to space the healers around the semicircle at the bottom of the stairs with one healer at the top of the stairs to keep those on stage alive due to LoS issues. DPS need to stay spread around the room. Melee should be allocated spots on the top of the stage for the personal vortex phase.
Tank both Taladaram and Valanar as together as possible to minimise melee movement. The Keleseth tank will need to move around obviously, so the healers need to be aware of the stacks on this tank (as does the tank themselves).
The kinetic bombs drop significantly faster in hard mode, and also, you cant allocate 1-2 ranged to go after them as you just dont want people moving around. Allocate a spotter to call out where the bombs are falling (we actually use a mut rogue due to their reduced damage from all the target swapping and moving) and anyone in that area has to stop DPSing the boss and keep that bomb up full time until it goes away. If the bombs drop on stage, melee need to be allocated to hit them (in this case, our mut rogue generally handles the entire stage on his own).
If you do get knocked back from a vortex or kinetic bomb, run back to your position in stages to ensure you dont get too many stacks of the debuff.
Even more than in normal, this fight is NOT a DPS race, I cannot stress that enough. This fight is about staying alive and whittling away at the boss slowly. There is a stupidly long enrage timer, you are very unlikely to hit it, no matter how long you take.
The key factors are: Staying spread out and staying in your allocated position as much as possible and making sure those kinetics do not touch the ground under any cirucmstances. It is everyone's responsibility (except perhaps healers) to keep a kinetic up in their area. If a kinetic touches the ground near you and you didn't hit it, then the resulting wipe is 100% your fault.
Rotface Hardmode
As with the theme of Hardmodes, Rotface is mostly the same but hits a lot harder. In fact, rotface is one of the easier hard modes to achieve.
There are 3 real mechanic changes, first is that the infection causes a much higher healing debuff, so it is recommended that the person is dispelled as soon as possible and healed until they merge their ooze.
The second is the pools of goo coming out of the pipes now cause a stacking slow debuff that you need to be wary of. Most especially the tank who is doing the kiting. It is recommended you either skirt the edges of it, or use freedoms and other snare removing abilities to get the stacks off as soon as possible. If you are kiting a small ooze to the big ooze, it is wise to not even attempt to go into the green patches, just wait for the big ooze to get to you.
Third is rotface will cast a Vile Gas type thing on anyone at range. The off tank is a viable target for this as well. The vile gas will disorient you if you move. So, get all your range and healers out of melee and spread out around the room as best they can to reduce the risk of the off tank getting it.
Other than that, it is business as usual, just with more hitpoints and everything hits harder!
There are 3 real mechanic changes, first is that the infection causes a much higher healing debuff, so it is recommended that the person is dispelled as soon as possible and healed until they merge their ooze.
The second is the pools of goo coming out of the pipes now cause a stacking slow debuff that you need to be wary of. Most especially the tank who is doing the kiting. It is recommended you either skirt the edges of it, or use freedoms and other snare removing abilities to get the stacks off as soon as possible. If you are kiting a small ooze to the big ooze, it is wise to not even attempt to go into the green patches, just wait for the big ooze to get to you.
Third is rotface will cast a Vile Gas type thing on anyone at range. The off tank is a viable target for this as well. The vile gas will disorient you if you move. So, get all your range and healers out of melee and spread out around the room as best they can to reduce the risk of the off tank getting it.
Other than that, it is business as usual, just with more hitpoints and everything hits harder!
Lord Marrowgar HardMode
Lord Marrowgar is a great introduction to hard modes. It is twitchy and confusing and simply great!
There are several changes to the encounter. The most important one is that now bonespike happens all the time, so during the whirlwind phase, yes, RNG can happen so you are spiked, fired and spun upon all at the same time. There is not a lot you can do about that sometimes.
So, phase1 is business as usual. Marrowgar, of course, hits harder.
Phase 2 is where things get fun. Since people can be bonespiked, it is imperative that you get them out asap. Also, the whirlwind thing hits a lot harder, so you cant plant your feet and heal youself through it.
So, you divide the raid up into 2 groups, one goes left one goes right. Spread out a bit, but make sure you are in range of heals. The idea is to ping pong marrowgar left and right between the two groups. Try and avoid the blue fire on the ground, and as soon as you see Marrowgar heading in your direction, run away. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to move as SOON as you see marrowgar swap targets to someone on your side. However, keep the group together, so having 2 designated spots to run between on your side can help with this. If anyone on your side gets spiked, get them out as soon as you can, and healers, try to keep them alive.
But really, that's it! Heal hard, get those people out of the bone spikes as soon as possible, and ping pong Marrowgar between the raid groups, while staying away from his spinning blades of death, and not standing in fires.
There are several changes to the encounter. The most important one is that now bonespike happens all the time, so during the whirlwind phase, yes, RNG can happen so you are spiked, fired and spun upon all at the same time. There is not a lot you can do about that sometimes.
So, phase1 is business as usual. Marrowgar, of course, hits harder.
Phase 2 is where things get fun. Since people can be bonespiked, it is imperative that you get them out asap. Also, the whirlwind thing hits a lot harder, so you cant plant your feet and heal youself through it.
So, you divide the raid up into 2 groups, one goes left one goes right. Spread out a bit, but make sure you are in range of heals. The idea is to ping pong marrowgar left and right between the two groups. Try and avoid the blue fire on the ground, and as soon as you see Marrowgar heading in your direction, run away. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to move as SOON as you see marrowgar swap targets to someone on your side. However, keep the group together, so having 2 designated spots to run between on your side can help with this. If anyone on your side gets spiked, get them out as soon as you can, and healers, try to keep them alive.
But really, that's it! Heal hard, get those people out of the bone spikes as soon as possible, and ping pong Marrowgar between the raid groups, while staying away from his spinning blades of death, and not standing in fires.
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