Boss Tactics: Terestian Illhoof

Most groups will skip Illhoof and go to Shade of Aran first because all of the trash except for 1 pull right in front of Illhoof’s room are tied to Shade and they want to make sure the trash is taken care of. Illhoof is actually a very easy fight but a Warlock is basically a necessity.

Encounter Mechanics

 

Illhoof has a companion, Kil’rek. When Kil’rek dies, Illhoff will take 25% increased damage for about 45 secs and until he respawns. Most groups will have an off tank hold Kil’rek and also build threat on Illhoof (neither hits very hard), a slightly OP’ed tank will be able to tank both.

Illhoof will open 2 portals behind him and imps will come pouring out of them. The best way to deal with the imps is to have a Warlock spamming Seed of Corruption on Illhoof and when it goes off it will kill the imps. The can imps also be dealt with by 2 Mages that have a very specific AOE spec (I’m sorry but I don’t know enough about it to tell you how, but the information is out there on teh intarweb); as I understand it’s very difficult. The imps will aggro onto your trusty Warlock so he will usually need a dedicated healer and if you don’t have a Priest healer I recommend you as the Spriest maintain a Shield on the Warlock.

 

The ranged DPS and healers will also need to stack up on top of the Warlock (and have him stand just outside of melee range of Illhoof on one side of the ring in the center) incase one of them aggros an imp it will still be close enough to kill the imp with the Seed of Corruption. Your Warlock may periodically need some help with the imps, if so a mage throwing a few Arcane Blasts should do the trick.  In the picture above we have just pulled so we aren’t all stacked up yet, but where the other SPreist and I are standing is basically where you want to be.

Illhoof will periodically Sacrifice a random raid member (not the tank). They will be put into Demon Chains in the middle of the circle on the floor. The Chains do a lot of damage so all healers need to spam heal the person Sacrificed. All DPS need to take down the Chains as Illhoof will be healed as long as the chains are up. As with the Astral Flares a targeting macro is very useful (with all the imps running around tab-targeting is not a good idea); /target Demon Chain. I like to pan my camera over to look at the circle instead of looking at Illhoof. Deadly Boss Mods will tell you when there is a Sacrifice, but I find the visual clue of someone appearing in the circle very helpful. Demon Chains can be removed by Divine Shield and Iceblock.

It is a good idea to try and kill Kil’rek right after a Sacrifice and then burn Illhoof when he dies so that Illhoof’s increased damage doesn’t get interrupted by the next Sacrifice.

Key Players

As I mentioned a Warlock is almost a necessity. It can be done with a few Mages, but it’s not as effective. Tree Druids do very well MT healing this encounter. Illhoof hits like a girl so rolling Lifeblooms almost take care of the damage. Priest Shield helps the Warlock out a lot with spell pushback.

Since writing this post I have done this fight without a Warlock but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have heavy DPS to get through the fight quickly.  We had a DPS Warrior handle all of the Imps with Sweeping Strikes.  It worked but I’m not sure it would without an OP’ed group.  However, I encourage you to be creative if you don’t have an optimal make up!

This is actually an easy fight. Once your group gets the hang of it, should be easy purples!

Shadow Priest Specifics

As I’ve mentioned before, if you don’t have a Healpriest you should maintain a shield on the Warlock. Also I do not recommend staying on Illhoof through the Sacrifice to maintain mana-battery-ness. The Chains need to come down fast and every little bit of DPS will help. I don’t bother with anything but Mind Flay, if your group is switching to the Chains on time you’ll do better with Mind Flay instead of waiting to cast Mind Blast.

Holy Priest Specifics

This fight can be mana intensive if your DPS is weak. Be sure to keep your camera looking at the sacrifice circle so you can start healing them quickly. Throw a Renew early on and you’ll probably have to spam Flash Heal. Espcially if a squishy gets Sacrificed he can be dead in the time it takes to cast a Greater Heal. Maintain a Shield on your Warlock or AOE’ing Mages to help with pushback. [Edit: see comments for a great macro from Kirk!]

Priest Loot

• Maleific Girdle
• Cincture of Will
• Mender’s Heart Ring
• Shadowvine Cloak of Infusion
• The Lightning Capacitor (not a very good trinket for a Spriest since we don’t stack crit)

Object of the Encounter

I think the point of this fight is to make sure your raid pays attention. When the sacrifice happens DPS and Healers need to be on the ball to take care of it quickly.

As a side note, I remember a Kara run where a Lock had to go respec in order to take down the Imps effectively. I’m not sure what he had or what he changed to, but if the Imps aren’t going down, that’s something to look into.

SuperCoolPoints

Frank: What’s the first rule when entering a mans car?
Jack: Respect a mans car, a man respects you.
Frank: Rule number two?
Jack: Greet the man. Good afternoon frank!
Frank: Good afternoon Jack.
Jack: Can we play the game now? 
Frank: I would think your brain would be too tired after a whole day of school.
Jack: You’re just afraid I’m gonna win. 
Frank:  I’m afraid you’re gonna be too worn out to do your homework. 
Jack:  It’s Friday, I don’t *have* any homework.
Frank: In that case: The game. But first, what’s the third rule of the car? 
Frank:  [Jack buckles his seatbelt] Good.

Boss Tactics: Opera Event – Wizard of Oz aka The Crone

As a side note, I realized that I forgot the loot section on a few of the previous posts; this has been corrected!

This is one of the more rare Opera events, for me at least. We get BBW most of the time, Galadria says they did too. Between the two of us we’ve probably seen this one 4 or 5 times! This one seems complicated on the surface, but if you get everyone coordinated and doing their job it will go smoothly. You actually fight 6 mini bosses in this one; Dorothee, Tito, Roar, Strawman, Tinhead, when those go down The Crone spawns.

Encounter Mechanics

Phase 1

When the curtain goes up, Dorothee, Roar, Strawman, and Tinhead will be standing there. They become active in that order in quick sucession. I can’t find hard data, but it seems like Dorothee spawns Tito sometime after Strawman enters the fight; if someone knows when she summons him please comment! 

We’ll start at the top with Dorothee. She has no aggro table and cannot be tanked. She will shoot Water Bolts (can’t be interrupted) at random raid members until she dies. You should kill her first.

Roar is next, he will has an AOE fear but is susceptible to fear himself. A Warlock or Hunter fear (the cooldown on Fear Beast will mean he’s going to be unfeared for about 10 seconds, have an OT hold him or the Hunter’s pet deal with it) is best for him. He will sometimes run out of the doors when he is feared and has been known to bug out, there doesn’t seem to be a way around it. He should be killed after Dorothee.

Strawman has a high chance to get a disorient debuff when hit with Fire damage. A Mage or Warlock can easily tank him, and sometimes kill Strawman by himself. If you don’t have a Mage or Warlock a Searing Totem and Fire Elemental from a Shaman can do the trick in a pinch or you can kill him first and heal through the Water Bolts from Dorothee. You can save him for last, there shouldn’t be much left when you get around to him.

Tinhead hits rather hard and needs to be tanked. He gains a rust debuff as the fight goes on and will walk progressively slower allowing the tank to kite him. This tank will need a healer early on but shouldn’t take many hits as rust debuff stacks up. Tinhead should be killed after Roar, have the tank continue to kite him as he is being killed; there’s no reason to use healer mana when the tank doesn’t have to take any hits.

Dorothee will summon Tito at some point. He silences casters and should be tanked. Have an OT pick him up when he spawns. Finish off whatever target you are killing when Tito spawns, kill him and return to the kill order. It doesn’t really matter when you kill Tito, just make sure Dorothee dies before he does or she will enrage.

Phase 2

After all of them are dead, The Crone will spawn in the middle of the room. A tank should be ready to pick her up. She has 2 abilities, a chain lightning and cyclones. The chain lightning is cast on random raid members and can chain up to 5 targets. It is unavoidable but easy to heal through. Her cyclones will move around the room and pick up raid members. They no longer cause damage but you do take falling damage. Also there is no stun so instant cast spells are still available. These can and should be avoided. You will need to assign one person to watch the tank and instruct him/her to move when necessary (tanks can’t always see their surroundings!)

Getting through Phase 1 is the hard part. Once you get to The Crone it’s all downhill from there!

Shadow Priest Specifics from Vladvin

The only thing I can think of for a Shadow Priest is to help the OT if he has trouble picking up Tito. Throw a MF to slow him so the OT doesn’t have to chase him quite as far. Of couse this meant Tito will be coming for you… but if the tank needs help with a pick up I consider the risk worth it.

Holy Priest Specifics from Galadria

This fight has a lot of raid damage. You should consider assigning one healer to heal the Water Bolts. Any healer can do this job. Set Dorothee to be your focus and make an assist macro (/assist focus). Then hit the macro throw that person a heal and hit the macro again. Rinse. Repeat. A Renew should be sufficient to heal up the damage unless they get double targeted.

Your Warlock or Mage shouldn’t take any damage from Strawman, but keep an eye on them just in case something goes wrong.

Priest Loot

• Blue Diamond Witch Wand
• Ruby Slippers
• Wicked Witches Hat
• Trial Fire Trousers
• Ribbon of Sacrifice

Object of the Encounter

As I’ve said several times, the Opera events are easy but chaotic. A small test of coordination before moving on to Curator!

Boss Tactics: Nightbane

As a side note, I’m going a little out of the order I had planed on but these are the fights I have good screenshots for.  Deal with it 🙂 

Nightbane is usually one of the last fights a guild will attempt. You have to complete the Medivh’s Journial quest line order to summon him and it’s usually a good idea to have the Prince fight mastered before you attempt Nightbane. If your tank can handle Prince and you have enough DPS to get through it, Nightbane isn’t much harder.

Encounter Mechanics

Nightbane is an alternating 2 Phase fight; he takes off into the air at 25%, 50%, and 75% health. Positioning is key for this encounter. The tank needs to stand in a specific spot in order to pick up Nightbane when he lands. What we call the “magic skull” is in the picture below (Yellow Circle on the right). It tends to shift in and out of view so you may have to move your camera angle to find it. Have your tank stand on the outer wall directly across from that skull for a clean pick-up (Green Circle on the left, also the guy marked with the circle in-game). Everyone else needs to stand at max range to avoid getting squished if the pick-up isn’t perfect.

Ground Phase 

Nightbane has a frontal attack and a tail swipe so the raid needs to stay at range and Nightbane needs to be positioned properly:

He should be perpendicular to the railing so that melee can get close enough to attack and ranged won’t get hit by the frontal or tail attacks, as shown above. Melee should aim for his ribcage. In addition Nightbane periodically does an AOE fear, Tremor Totems are helpful and Fear Ward should be on the tank whenever it’s available but stance-dancing is a must so that Nightbane stays in the correct position (if the tank runs in fear, Nightbane is going to follow him and tail-swipe the raid). The strategy we use is to have the ranged split up between the north and south sides of Nightbane, with at least one healer on each side. That way if one side gets feared or gets trapped behind Charred Earth out of range, the other side is there to keep the tank alive.

The last hurdle in the ground phase is that patches of Charred Earth will appear on the ground that will damage anyone standing in it. The picture above is a little hard to see, but you can see the patch of Charred Earth, and Deadly Boss Mods has put “Charred Earth” in the middle of my screen.  If you’re having trouble seeing the Charred Earth, turn your Spell Detail up. Keep moving away from the Charred Earth until the warning goes away since the visual edges of the area aren’t quite the same as the actual edges.

Air Phase 

When he takes off into the air, a few things happen. Nightbane will cast “Rain of Bones” and you will get 5 non-elite skeletons that need to be killed. They have about 13.5k health.

 

It is best for the raid to stack up on one person to the side of where Nightbane was so that the tank can pick up the adds easily. As you can see, we are basically standing on top of each other and the Restless Skeletons are all in easy range for the tank to pick up.  We have found that it works best for the adds to be focus-fired down as AOE tends to be too mana intensive. Choose one DPS and assist them (create a macro that says “/assist PlayerName” or if you want to be more generic, “/assist focus” and set your focus to whoever your raid chooses). You do need to be careful about where your raid stands, anyone who gets more than 40 yards away from where Nightbane lands will get hit with Fireball Barage, it hits for about 3k a second.  If you split the raid the other side should still join the group for the air phase and stay until Nightbane is properly positioned. Then they can run through Nightbane’s ribcage to the other side.

The person with the highest healing aggro in the air phase gets hit with Smoking Blast. This is mitigatable by armor so if you have a Pally they should spam heal to take the damage (read Galadria’s article about it, most of the good info is in the comments). Nightbane will also cast Distracting Ash on random raid members.  This does very little damage and is’t really worth the mana to dispell.  Once the adds are down, the tank should return to the pick-up position and the raid stay at range until Nightbane is positioned properly.

A big thing to realize here is that most healing groups can’t be responsible for EVERYONE’s health. Nightbane hits like a freight train and healers need to conserve mana to make sure the tank stays alive. DPS needs to carry heave Netherweave Bandages, use Healthstones if available and if possible save potion cooldowns for health pots.

This fight requires everyone to be on their game. Tanks need to know how to effectively work around the fear and have the gear to deal with a heavy hitter. Healers need to be able to heal the tank and deal with possible widespread raid damage. Most importantly everyone has to be aware of their surroundings! Each person is responsible for knowing if they are standing in Charred Earth and get out of it as quickly as possible.

Shadow Priest Specifics from Vladvin

In this encounter you might want to be careful about using SW:D. If you’ve just gotten a crit and Charred Earth comes up right below you it could mean bye-bye mana battery. I’m not telling you not to use it, just be careful. Use your bandages and healthstones. This fight can be very healing intensive so be responsible for your own health bar. Be careful with range. You’re going to have to be closer in order to be within Mind Flay range so you have less wiggle room to get out of Charred Earth and not get close enough to be tail swiped. Just be aware of what’s going on around you.

Holy Priest Specifics from Galadria

This fight can be very healing intensive. Nightbane hits really hard and if you have raiders who aren’t used to being mobile in boss fights there can be a lot of raid damage from Charred Earth. Priests are probably better for raid healing in this encounter. Keep a Frisbee and Renew on the tank and throw heals to anyone in the raid who needs them. In phase 2 you’ll need to hold back on doing anything for a little bit. Let someone with more armor take the aggro for the Smoking Blast. Right when the Rain of Bones starts I like to Frisbee my self, Fade, and Shield. If you do get some attention from Nightbane in phase 2 make judicious use of Binding Heal, it’s got less threat and will heal someone else who needs it. This can be a long fight so it’s a good idea to use your Shadowfiend and potions early so you can use them again late in the fight.

Key Players

Any player with any ability to provide protection against fear is nice in this encounter, especially if your tank isn’t a Warrior.

Some strats out there will tell you to take up to 5 healers. That simply isn’t necessary, in fact you’re more likely to get good use out of extra DPS to make the fight go quicker. This fight (as do many others) tends to get harder the longer it goes on.

Priest Loot

• Emberspur Talisman
• Nightstaff of the Everliving
• Robe of the Elder Scribes
• Talisman of Nightbane

Object of the Encounter

Nightbane and Prince are what I would call “raid check” fights. These encounters will tell you if your raid is ready to move on to harder content. Your tank has to be able to handle a hard hitter. Healers need to be able to handle the incoming damage. Your DPS needs to be strong enough to get you through the fight at a reasonable pace. Everyone has to be mobile and aware of their surroundings. All of these are important for moving on to 25-man content.

SuperCoolPoints

Guy: Listen to me ___. I’m not the first guy who fell in love with a woman that he met at a restaurant who turned out to be the daughter of a kidnapped scientist only to lose her to her childhood lover who she last saw on a deserted island who then turned out fifteen years later to be the leader of the French underground.
Girl: I know. It all sounds like some bad movie. 

 

Boss Tactics: The Curator

In order to get to Curator you’ll need to go in the back door.  After leaving the front door, go down the path a little ways and you’ll see a small river on your left, cross the river and go around the corner of the building.  Go up the stairs, and up, and up, and up until you cross a small bridge and enter the back door.  Once you get inside go to your left and up the ramp, then up more stairs, until you get into Curator’s room. [Edit: see comments, there is a second way to get to the back half of Kara]

Encounter Mechanics

Curator is an alternating 2 phase fight. Once you have cleared the trash pulls around the room Curator pats in (be very careful, his agro radius is HUGE, you mostly have to glue your butt to the wall) you need to organize your raiders before pulling. All ranged DPS and healers need to spread out in 2 or 3 rows, using Deadly Boss Mods to space yourselves properly (you won’t be able to space out all the way before pulling and DBM won’t show up until you engage, but you need to be organized and know which row you will be in before pulling).  You can see our group spread out behind Curator in the screenie.

Every 10 seconds Curator will spawn an Astral Flare (shown by the yellow arrow above). The flares have a chain lightning that will damage anyone near and chain to others. Melee can follow the flares around and help kill them, but it’s important for the ranged to stand still. They will get hit with the lightning, but if they move around it will just spread the lightning around to more people. Flares need to be burned down quickly, if you get 2 or 3 Flares out at the same time it can easily wipe your raid. To facilitate targeting it is a good idea to use a targeting macro: /target Astral Flare. Once a Flare goes down start spamming the macro and as soon as you get the next one targeted resume DPS.

Curator’s other ability in Phase 1 is Hateful Bolts. He will throw a Hateful Bolt to the raid member (excluding the tank) with the highest health. This can easily be healed through. If you have a tank with some Arcane resist gear you can have him be the bolt soaker, just make sure to have a healer assigned to top him off. Since the Bolt soaking tank will need to be at high health all the time he needs to stay with Curator and not DPS the Flares.

When Curator runs out of mana, he goes into Phase 2, called Evocation just like a Mage, and regens all of his mana. He takes 200% [Edit, see comments: WoWWiki says 300% damage, I’m not sure I belive that, but the point is that he takes LOTS of extra damage!] damage during this phase and there is no aggro so all out DPS is called for. However, any remaining Flares need to be taken care of before DPS on Curator; some groups will have melee peel off and move to Curator early to help with running time. When he has regained all of his mana he returns to Phase 1. Rinse and Repeat (In our early attempts we would go through 3 or 4 Evocations, now we get him down to about 10% in the first one).

[Edit: At 15% health Curator will enrage and stop spawning Astral Flares.  The Hateful Bolts will come more often and his melee attacks hit harder.  However with no flares it goes quickly!]

As a side note, Curator is immune to Arcane damage so all you NElf’s out there won’t be able to use Sharshards.

Key Players

Tree Druids are helpful in this encounter. The damage from flares is not significant but is wide spread and HOT’s on everyone will take care of it. I also recommend no more than 3 melee in this fight unless you have OP’ed and/or very skilled healers. An Arcane resist tank is helpful but by no means necessary.

Some arcane resist won’t hurt anyone in this fight (the trinket from one of the Kara quest chains comes to mind) but it’s not necessary and I’d almost say that it’s better to maintain higher DPS than to reduce incoming damage. If you have weak healers, it’s an option to consider.

Shadow Priest Specifics from Vladvin

This is the first fight where I’ve got something special for the Spriest! Stay on Curator the whole time. In order to be a good mana battery you need a target that will stay alive long enough to get a VE up and do some damage to it. Even with an undergeared group the Flares will only be around for 10-15 secs. That’s not enough time to do anything worthwhile. If you stay on Curator the whole time you can use your normal spell rotation and be a good mana battery (to yourself and the other casters in your raid). You do need to save the extras for Evocation. Wait to use Devouring Plauge if applicable, trinkets, and your Shadowfiend for the Evocation since they will all be more effective with Curator taking extra damage.

Holy Priest Specifics from Galadria

My usual role in this encounter is to heal the Melee DPS and keep the Hateful Bolt soaker topped off. This works quite well for us. I keep Renews on all of the Melee (and the MT) and throw a Flash Heal if necessary. When the Bolt soaker takes a hit, Greater Heal and Renew to make sure he’s topped off for the next Bolt. I also like to throw a Lightwell in the middle of the area where the ranged are standing, that way Melee can make a quick tap right after a Flare goes down and get a little extra healing before the next one. Just like the SPriests, save your Shadowfiend for Evocation, you’ll get a full mana bar with the extra damage curator takes. [Edit: Keep an eye out for the enrage, the tank will be taking spike damage, but there will be no more Flare damage]

Priest Loot

• T4 Gloves – Handwraps of the Incarnate or Gloves of the Incarnate
• Staff of Infinite Mysteries
• Pauldrons of the Solace Giver

Object of the Encounter

This encounter is a gear check to see if your raid is ready to progress into the back half of Kara. Curator hits reasonably hard so your tank needs decent gear. The Flares have 12000 HP and need to be taken with in 10 seconds before the next one spawns. That means your raid needs to be doing at least 1200 burst DPS, not hard to achieve but not easy for an under geared group. This fight can be tough on healers if the DPS isn’t fast enough, but the larger hurdle that I see is healer organization. There is widespread raid damage so it can look like the healer assigned to heal the raid isn’t pulling their weight. The MT healer needs to trust that the raid healer will get his job done because if he leaves the MT to help heal the raid too often the tank can die. This is a common problem among healers and a fight like this really brings it to the surface.

Boss Tactics: Opera Event – Romulo and Julianne

These two star-crossed lovers are probably the easiest of the 3 Opera events, and if you’re not a Tailor, probably the most desired by Holy Priests; the Masquerade Gown is quite mice (and very pretty to boot!)

Encounter Mechanics

This is basically a 3 phase fight. You fight and kill Julianne, then Romulo, then both together (sound familiar anyone?). In the last phase, if they don’t die within 10 seconds of each other the remaining one will resurrect the other and you have to kill them all over again.

Julianne is a caster and can heal. She has a couple of ranged attacks that she will cast on random raid members. Romulo is Rogue-ish. He has a cleave-like ability and can also attack behind him.

Phase 1

When the curtain comes up, you will fight Julianne by herself. Her casting should be interrupted whenever possible. If you are light on players that can interrupt, focus on the heal, Eternal Affection. It heals for about 50k so this can really hurt if she gets the cast off. Devotion should be your next priority, it is a buff she gives to herself that increases her Holy damage by 50% and casting speed by 50%. Her last two abilities are Powerful Attraction and Blinding Passion. Powerful Attraction is a 6 second stun. This can be a problem if it lands on a healer, but otherwise is not a big deal. Blinding Passion is a painful DOT that totals for about 6k; it shouldn’t kill anyone that’s topped off, but whoever gets it needs to be healed.

For easy pick up in phase 3, make sure Julianne dies in a corner, I like to put her in the front right one. When she is getting low, have your Romulo tank move to the center of the room to pick him up when she dies.

Phase 2

When Julianne Dies, Romulo will spawn in the center of the room, your tank should be there to pick him up. He has a frontal cleave (Deadly Swathe) and a backwards attack (Backward Lunge) that has a knockback. For this one, instead of having the tank with his back to the wall, turn the other way and allow melee to put their back to the wall so they don’t loose time running back and the ranged just need to stay out of the Swathe. Be sure to heal through the Backward Lunge. [Edit: see comment from Mal, you can put Romulo’s back to the wall and Melee stand beside him, avoiding the cleave AND Backward Lunge]  He also has a poison attack that reduces all stats, be sure to remove this if possible since it stacks. Lastly he has a buff that he gives to himself that increases physical damage dealt and increases attack speed. This should be stolen or dispelled if possible.

We like to put him in the back left corner (basically as far away from each other as possible for phase 3). Just as before, your Julianne tank should move to her body when Romulo is getting low.

Here is a diagram showing positioning. Since I can’t seem to get an Opera that’s not BBW, you’ll just have to ignore Grandma in the middle 🙂

Phase 3

All the same abilities and interrupts apply to this phase, you just have both at the same time. There are a couple of strategies that all work for killing both within 10 seconds of each other.

First, you can split DPS. Have half your raid go to Julianne and the other half to Romulo. The RL will need to watch the health of both mobs and move DPS around as necessary. A Mage or a Hunter are good choices to move around if they aren’t going down evenly. When one dies, all DPS go to the other to make sure they die quickly.

The other option is to burn one down to about 10% and the switch to the other. When they die, switch back and finish the last one off. There are arguments both ways for which one you kill first. IMO it doesn’t really matter. Whatever you do, make sure there are enough that stick with Julianne the whole time to interrupt her. She will heal Romulo, but if you keep them separated, he should be out of range.

Key Players

Players that can interrupt are nice. Julianne casts a lot of things and if you can interrupt them all, why not do it. All of the interrupt effects work except for Silence. It is also recommended for a Mage to steal Julianne’s buff since it increases casting speed.

Shadow Priest Specifics from Vladvin

If you are the only player available to dispel, it’s probably a good idea to dispel the Blinding Passion. That’s all I’ve got!

Holy Priest Specifics from Galadria

Neither Romulo or Julianne hit very hard on the tanks so it’s not difficult to heal them. When fighting Julianne, keep the raid topped off so that Blinding Passion won’t kill anyone before you can heal them. Same thing with the Melee when fighting Romulo. You don’t want the Backward Lunge to one-shot anyone. If you have a trinket or Will of the Forsaken if you’re Undead use it to get out of the Powerful Attraction. Having a healer stunned can be difficult to deal with.

Priest Loot

• Masquesrade Gown
• Trial Fire Trousers – shared
• Ribbon of Sacrifice – shared

Object of the Encounter

As I said with BBW, the Opera encounters aren’t very difficult, just a little chaotic. This one is probably the easiest and will test your raid leaders ability to manipulate raid assignments on the fly, and your raiders ability to follow directions.  However, Netherspite is a much bigger test of this concept!

SuperCoolPoints

For 10 Points:

“[talking to Anna about Bob Marley] He had this idea. It was kind of a virologist idea. He believed that you could cure racism and hate… literally cure it, by injecting music and love into people’s lives. When he was scheduled to perform at a peace rally, a gunman came to his house and shot him down. Two days later he walked out on that stage and sang. When they asked him why – He said, ‘The people, who were trying to make this world worse… are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness.’ “

Boss Tactics: Opera Event – Big Bad Wolf

All of the Opera encounters tend to be a little crazy and hectic. Big Bad Wolf (BBW) is no exception, but it’s a lot of fun!

Encounter Mechanics

Unlike the other Opera events, this one does not automatically start when the curtain goes up. You’ll see “Grandmother” and talk to her to start the event.

In phase 1 BBW is a basic tank-n-spank with a fear (Terrifying Howl). Because of that, Warriors make better tanks for this encounter, but aren’t necessary. Fear Ward and Tremor Totems can help. Terrifying Howl is also dispellable.

The best placement for the group and tank are shown above (click for a larger image). Have ranged stand in the yellow circle and tank BBW in the other corner where the yellow arrow is pointing.

In phase 2 BBW will turn one of the raid members into Little Red Riding Hood (LRRH). The LRRH debuff, silences and makes you unable to attack but increases run speed by 50%. When there is a LRRH, BBW will attack that person with out regard to aggro. Since this person has a 50% run speed increase they can simply run away (he will 1 or 2 shot anyone but a tank). When you become LRRH run around the edge of the room (as shown by the green arrows), and BBW will follow. Make sure to run along the perimeter of the room but don’t touch the walls as they will slow you down. Since he takes a direct path you want to make sure he doesn’t cut corners and close the distance. If you pause for a brief second at each corner, he’ll get close enough that he won’t cut the corner but still won’t be able to hit you. If you have the tank and ranged positioned properly, BBW has to run across the front of the stage to get to LRRH, giving him/her time to respond and start running away.

During the LRRH phase the tank needs to chase BBW and continue to build threat so that he returns to the tank when he’s done chasing LRRH. Rogues can Vanish and Hunters can Feign Death when they become LRRH and will not be chased by BBW, they must stay stealthed/dead until the debuff wears off. However it can be resisted, check out BRK’s video and have yourself a little laugh :-).  Since there is no magic damage, Mages can use Amplify Magic.

BBW is relatively squishy with 380k HP. The trick is to survive. Give LRRH every little bit of help you can; Power Word: Shield, Earth Shield, Blessing of Protection, and Intervene should all be used to help keep LRRH alive. However, don’t be too quick to call a wipe; as I said he’s squishy. I’ve seen 3 hunters finish off the last 15% of him without a healer. Their pets took turns tanking!  It was hilarious… there are screenshots.

Key Players

Warrior tanks are the best for Berserker Rage, but it can be done without them.

Shadow Priest Specifics from Vladvin

When BBW is chasing LRRH around, he will run out of Mind Flay range.  I like to move to the middle of the room so I can DPS the whole time and return to the corner during phase 1.  If you are the only Priest, put a shield up on LRRH and give the tank a Fear Ward at the begining of the fight. 

Holy Priest Specifics from Galadria

As previously mentioned, Shield LRRH and give the tank Fear Ward everytime the cooldown is up.  Cancel cast Greater Heal on LRRH while s/he is running around.  This way your big heal will hopefully land quickly after the damage lands and LRRH won’t be killed.

Priest Loot

• Red Riding Hood’s Cloak
• Trial Fire Trousers – shared
• Ribbon of Sacrifice – shared

Object of the Encounter

These fights aren’t very dificult.  They’re usually chaotic, but fun.  If I could say one thing these fights teach you not to panic.  Roll with what happens and be flexible.  You just have to be able to get through them to get in the back door to take on Curator!

SuperCoolPoints

I think this one may have been done before, but it’s a good movie!

“Why should I sail with any of you? Four of you have tried to kill me in the past… one of you succeeded. “

Boss Tactics: Maiden of Virtue

This fight is optional, you don’t have to do it unless you want to get Keanna’s Log for the quest and even then you don’t actually have to do the boss to get to it, just some difficult trash pulls. The hallway leading up to Maiden has 3 rooms on the left side; you’ll need to hug the right wall as you move down to avoid the trash in the rooms. The middle room (with the Lions outside the door) has the Log in it. If you don’t want to deal with the trash, wait for a soft reset (30 mins after leaving the instance) all the trash associated with a boss will despawn if the boss has been downed. To get the Log all you need is a buddy. Get another person to form a raid group with you (open your Social tab, default key is “O”,  go to the Raid tab and at the top is a button “Convert To Raid”) they don’t even have to go into the instance you just have to be in a raid to get through the instance portal. Go in there after a soft reset and loot your Log!

Encounter Mechanics

 

Maiden is a single phase fight with a couple of abilities. She is a Pally and does an AOE called Holy Ground (like a Pally’s Consecrate), and is therefore hard on melee. She casts Holy Light (just like a Priest’s Holy Light but Fire damage) on a random raid member; this must be dispelled immediately as it will kill very fast. She casts Holy Wrath, a chain spell (again on a random raid member) that will chain to nearby raid members, increasing damage each time it chains. Deadly Boss Mods will tell you if you are too close (you do have DBM right?).  Every 30 secs she stuns everyone for 12 secs (Repentance). Damage will pop you out of the Repentance so this isn’t an issue for tanks and melee because of the Holy Ground. I’m sure you can see the issue here; healers are stunned. The best way to deal with this is to have a Pally cast Blessing of Sacrifice right before she casts Repentance. This will share all incoming damage and pop the Pally out of the repentance to continue healing the tank. If there is no Pally, one healer needs to put himself into the Holy Ground just before Repentance so he will be broken out (or the tank can move Maiden to the healer), move back, and continue healing. As a side note, she won’t cast the Holy Fire or the Chain during Repentance.

The usual strategy is to have all ranged pick a pillar and stand in front of it (you can also each stand between 2 pillars, doesn’t matter, just have everyone do the same thing).  You will be spaced well enough to avoid the chains and when Maiden is tanked in the middle of the platform you will be outside of the Holy Ground. Melee stand just at the edge of range in a triangular or square pattern to avoid the chain. We also have our melee run out and bandage periodically to lighten the load on the healers. If you can keep the tank alive through Repentance and dispel the Holy Fire quickly it should be an easy win.

Key Players

As I’ve mentioned, this fight is much easier with a Healadin for Blessing of Sacrifice. A Shaman dropping a Grounding Totem will help with dispelling the Holy Fire. The only requirement is to have 2 players with the ability to dispel the Holy Fire. The players directly across the circle from you will not be in range for dispelling so you need to position your 2 dispellers 180 degrees apart (I have read that if everyone comes up the steps just a little, everyone will be in range and out of the Holy Ground but I have never been able to make it work, I still recommend at least 2 Dispellers placed 180 degrees apart)

Shadow Priest Specifics from Vladvin

The main thing to note here is to make sure to refresh your DOT’s before Repentance. Even if you are overlapping them, it’s better to maintain the DPS on the boss while you are stunned. I’ve never tried this, but aparently if a Priest casts SW:D during the .5 second cast of Repentance the knockback will break you out of Repentance since it occurs after the global cooldown.  It would require some fancy timing, but a neat trick and no harm done if it doesn’t work.  Since you have the ability to dispel Holy Fire, you may need to do so to help out if a healer goes down or if your group doesn’t have enough that are able. Raid utility comes before personal DPS output!

Holy Priest Specifics from Galadria

Either a Priest or a Druid should be assigned to Raid healing.  Keep HOT’s on the Melee, but ask them to run out and Bandage if the HOT’s aren’t keeping them up.  There are several ways to aid in Dispelling Holy Fire.  There are a couple of addons that will show you who has a dispellable debuff, the one I use is SmartDebuff.  Most UI’s and Raid Frames will have an option to show who has a dispellable debuff, I use XPerl and anyone with a Disease or Magic will flash red (and most UI mods will have options for notifing you of dispellable debuffs).  Deadly Boss Mods will also flash on your screen who has it.  Your main job in this fight is to make sure no one dies from the Holy Fire.  Dispell it and get them at least close to topped off incase they get Holy Fire twice in a row.

Priest Loot

• Shard of the Virtuous
• Bands of Nefarious Deeds
• Bands of Indwelling
• Boots of Fortelling

Object of the Encounter

This fight is a healer check. Moroes gets a little hectic when you get lots of Garrotes but Maiden is the real gut check for your healers. Holy Fire must be dispelled very quickly and Maiden is the first boss to hit reasonably hard and you have to deal with the Holy Ground on top of that. Your MT healer has to be on the ball to make sure they don’t get stunned by the Repentance, or all of your healers have to make sure the MT has fresh applications of ALL available HOT’s right before Repentance just in case the assigned healer doesn’t make it into the Consecration to come out of the Repentance.

SuperCoolPoints

One of my favorite lines from this movie:

“Spartan! ”

“Yes, Milady?”

“Come back with your shield, or on it. ”

“Yes, Milady.”

Boss Tactics: Attumen the Huntsman

I had a billliant idea this morning in the shower!  I was thinking about this post and it occured to me that Galadria and I should collaborate.  She’s going to write some recomendations for a Holy Preist for each boss (and make sure I’m not saying something competly wrong on the other parts!)  We’ll start with the first one you’re likely to encounter, Attumen the Huntsman and his noble steed Midnight.

Encounter Mechanics

 

The encounter begins when a tank picks up midnight. You can see him up there in the stables.  Phase 1 lasts until Midnight is down by 5%. This first 5% goes very quickly and aggro going into Phase 2 can be touchy so I just wand for the first 5%. No one needs the mana battery and your DOT’s won’t have time to take effect.

(I managed to miss this phase, but I don’t really want to delay posting this article for one screenie so I may add another picture next week)

Phase 2 begins when Attumen spawns. Most groups will need a second tank for Attumen, but if your tank is OP’ed (I’m talking T5 here) they can tank both at the same time. Attumen does a frontal attack so all melee needs to stay behind Attumen and you can have the tank put his back to a wall to turn him away from the raid.  At this point you can DPS Midnight, Attumen or both.  When one gets down to 25%, Attumen will mount Midnight and wipe the aggro table, the resulting health will be equal to the higher of the two when they join.  The picture below is just at the moment when the tank picked up Attumen.

In Phase 3 Attumen will charge a random party member outside of melee range and curses a random party member every 30 secs, decreasing their chance to hit with melee, ranged and spells by 50%.  This should be removed quickly by a Druid or Mage as it can really hurt your DPS. He also continues the frontal cleave.  If you have all ranged stack up behind Attumen he won’t charge (this is not a myth, it works, I’ve done it) but of course you have to watch your threat. If you have a hunter, this is not possible because of range, but he’ll be the only one getting the charge.  Continue DPS until he dies (and never drops Handwraps of Flowing Thought).

Key Players

While there is no one class that is necessary for this encounter, there are a few that make things easier. All of the trash leading up to Attumen is Undead so a Priest or 2 with a Shackle makes the larger trash pulls towards the end easier (don’t forget your Shackle Macro!). A Mage or Caster form Druid to dispell the curse makes the fight go faster as the debuff really hurts your DPS.

Shadow Priest Specifics

There’s nothing specific for the SPriest in this encounter.  Try to time your SW:D for right after a charge so you know you won’t SW:D yourself and immediatley get a charge, which might kill you.  If you are light on healers be sure to keep VE up to help with healing through the charge. This is a relativley short fight so mana consumables aren’t much of an issue (we do this fight in about 1 min 30 sec, my first time in Kara it took 4 or 5 mins). If your group is undergeared and are going a little longer, take a Mana Pot as soon as it will fill your mana bar. Use your SF early in Phase 3 since that’s when you can really open up and burn him down (paying attention to threat of course!).

Holy Priest Specifics

This fight is usually easy on healers (if you have 3).  Keep a Renew on both tanks during Phase 2 and mantain it during Phase 3.  Aggro can be touchy during phase transistions so hold off on heals for a few seconds during pickups.  You can also use the Frisbee to help keep threat off of you.  If you are assigned to heal charges make sure to get them topped off.  It is not uncommon for Attumen to charge the same person twice.

Priest Loot

• Handwraps of Flowing Thought
• Gloves of Saintly Blessings
• Harbinger Bands

Object of the Encounter

This encounter is meant to test the gear of your entire raid.  Attumen is not a mandatory fight (as a matter of fact, Curator is the only boss that is REQUIRED in order to move on to further bosses) but it will tell you if your group is ready for the rest of the instance.  As for skill, the only real test is on the tanks.  The transitions between the phases are both aggro dumps.  Your tanks must pick them up promptly or your raid can wipe.

One last note, once you are Honored with the Violet Eye (rep goes really fast in there) you can repair just behind the room that Midnight was in, at an NPC named Koren. There is a large pull in front of him, but it’s worth the trouble to get the easy repair. Waiting for someone to hearth and be summoned back FTL!

SuperCoolPoints

Galadria insisted on a movie from this actor seeing his untimley death yesterday:

Girl: Sir ___. What are you wearing to the ball tonight?
Guy: er… nothing…
Girl: Well, we shall cause a sensation, for I shall dress to match.
Guy: [annoyed] Don’t you ever get tired of putting clothes on?
Guy’s friend #1: [whispers] I think she’s talking about taking them off, sir.
Girl: A flower is only as good as its petals. Don’t you agree?
Guy: A flower is good for nothing. You can’t eat a flower, a flower can’t keep your warm…
Girl: And a rose never knocked a man off a horse either.
Guy: You’re just a silly girl arn’t you.
Guy: Better a silly girl with a flower, than a silly man with a horse and a stick…
[she walks away]
Guy’s friend #2: It’s called a lance… hello…

Vladvin: How Very… Anti-Climactic

After Wednesday night’s ramapge last night was, as the title sugests, anti-climactic.  We went into SSC and struggled on content that is suposed to be on farm.  We wiped once on Hydross… the tanks weren’t switching smoothly (and therefore died) and the healers seemed to be having trouble with not pulling aggro.  The second try was still messy, but he went down.  I got an off-hand, but it was so marginal I don’t even remember the name of it.  There were no DKP bids and I won the roll with a 96.  Lurker also took 2 tries.  People kept dying to the spouts, tanks were going down on the add phase, heals were bad…  it was just messy.  On our way to Tidewalker one of our officers, up and quit.  He said he was done and just logged off.  Out GM talked to him in another vent chanel and he came back, but it was still very strange.  He’s usually a very dedicated player.  I was quite baffled by the whole thing.  When we actually got to Tidewalker things kind of clicked.  He’s usually a boss we have a lot of trouble with.  He’s kind of like Prince, somtimes you just get really unlucky; getting 3 infernals droped right on top of you or getting 5 healers sent to watery graves.  Tidewalker went down in one very smooth shot, but the bad mood/karma damage had already been done for the night and we decided not to continue on to Karathress.  The other Spriest won a DKP bid from Tidewalker, but again I can’t remember what it was.  It was a bigger upgrade for him so I’m glad he got it. 

In other news, I got my Frozen Shadow Weave Robe crafted last night!  Now I just need some gloves and my head enchant and I will be happy with my gear.  Gloves should happen on this week’s kara run, either Handwraps of Flowing Thought will drop or I’ll have the Badges to get Studious Wraps.

Have a great Friday and I hope your raiding goes smoother than mine did!

Vladvin: Many Bosses Down!

Our guild had a long, fruitful night of raiding!  We went into TK first; Al’ar, Void Reaver, and Solarian all down in one shot (first time for a 1-shot on Solarian).  I died to the fire on the 2nd phase of Al’ar again.  At least I can say that I’m not walking into it, it spawned exactly on top of me again and by the time I got to the edge I was dead.  I’m sure there’s something different I could have done (there always is) but I’m just not sure what.  Anyway, I got the Band of Al’ar, bumped my Shadow damage almost to 1k unbuffed!  After leaving TK we went and 1-shot Kazzak and then Doomwalker with no griefing from the Allies!  We actually got some help on Doomwalker from 2 other guilds that each had 1/2 of a BT raid waiting outside.  After that they (I didn’t go, needed to get my dailies done and work on my herbing, now at 315) did High King and Gruul.  That’s 7 bosses down in one night and all but High King in one shot!  Tonight SSC and hopefully we’ll get Vashj.  If she goes down I’m guessing we’ll go after Kael’thas this weekend. 

On another note, I started working on some Spell Review articles for the Dark Side and they just don’t work as well as Galadria’s Holy ones.  There’s just not much that’s insightful to say about them.  I’m still working on it, but in the mean time I’m starting another project.  I’ll be writing articles on boss tactics with some general strageties that have worked for us and some specific things for the Shadow Priest.  I’ve gotten most of the Kara bosses written but I’m waiting until we go in there this weekend (waiting for a friend to hit 70 so we can take him in there) to get some screenshots.  I also plan on working up through the progression to cover all of the bosses that I’ve seen.

Alas, I must go do something my boss will consider productive…  I can’t seem to convince her that blogging is productive.