=============================================================================== _______ _______ _ ______ _______ _______ |\ /| ___ ) ____ )( \ ( __ \ ( ___ ) ____ \ | ) ( | ( ) | ( )|| ( | ( \ ) | ( ) | ( \/ | | _ | | | | | (____)|| | | | ) | | | | | (__ | |( )| | | | | __)| | | | | | | | | | __) | || || | | | | (\ ( | | | | ) | | | | | ( | () () | (___) | ) \ \__| (____/\ (__/ ) | (___) | ) (_______)_______)/ \__/(_______/______/ (_______)/ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ ________________ |\ /| ___ ) ____ )( ____ \ ____ )( ___ ) ____ \__ __/ | ) ( | ( ) | ( )|| ( \/ ( )|| ( ) | ( \/ ) ( | | _ | | (___) | (____)|| | | (____)|| (___) | (__ | | | |( )| | ___ | __)| | | __)| ___ | __) | | | || || | ( ) | (\ ( | | | (\ ( | ( ) | ( | | | () () | ) ( | ) \ \__| (____/\ ) \ \__| ) ( | ) | | (_______)/ \|/ \__/(_______// \__/|/ \|/ )_( _______ _______________________ _______ _ _______ _______ ( ____ \ ___ )__ __/ ___ ) ____ \ \ |\ /| ____ \ ) | ( \/ ( ) | ) ( | ( ) | ( \/ ( ( \ / ) ( \/ () () | | | | (___) | | | | (___) | | | | \ (_) /| (_____| || || | | | | ___ | | | | ___ | | | | \ / (_____ ) |(_)| | | | | ( ) | | | | ( ) | | | | ) ( ) | | | | | (____/\ ) ( | | | | ) ( | (____/\ (____/\ | /\____) | ) ( | (_______// \| )_( |/ \|_______/_______|_/ \_______)/ \| =============================================================================== This is a Restoration Druid guide for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm patch 4.0.3. The guide focuses on PvE. Some of this information--particularly the Heroic Dungeon and raiding guides--can be useful to all players and all healers. I play the character Panis on the server Skullcrusher. Currently, I have cleared all 10 man raid content on normal mode. According to WorldofLogs.com, I have top 100 healing performances on most of the Cataclysm raid content, including a #1 ranking. I appreciate any feedback and am always looking to improve my healing or consider alternate strategies and approaches. Thank your for reading my guide. To navigate this guide use control-F and type in the brackets and what is between the brackets to quickly find the proper section. -Panis [email protected] ========================^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^================================== ^ TABLE OF CONTENTS ^ ========================^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^================================== I. Leveling [1.0] II. Spells & Strategy [2.0] III. Talents & Glyphs [3.0] IV. User Interface & Addons [4.0] V. Stats [5.0] VI. Gems, Enchants, Food, Flasks, & Professions [6.0] Gems [6.1] Enchants [6.2] Food & Flasks[6.3] Professions [6.4] VII. Gear [7.0] Pre-Heroic Gear [7.1] Heroic Dungeon Gear [7.2] Pre-Raiding Gear [7.3] Raiding Gear [7.4] Heroic Raiding Gear [7.5] VIII. Heroic Dungeon Guide [8.0] IX. Raid Guide [9.0] i. Baradin Hold [9.1] Pit Lord Argaloth [9.1a] ii. Throne of the Four Winds [9.2] Conclave of Wind [9.2a] Al'Akir [9.2b] iii. Bastion of Twilight [9.3] Halfus Wyrmbreaker [9.3a] Valiona & Theralion [9.3b] Ascendant Council [9.3c] Cho'gall [9.3d] iv. Blackwing Descent [9.4] Magmaw [9.4a] Omnotron Defense System [9.4b] Maloriak [9.4c] Atramedes [9.4d] Chimaeron [9.4e] Nefarion [9.4f] X. Heroic Raid Guide [10.0] XI. Links [11.0] ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^================================================== ^ GLOSSARY OF TERMS ^ ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^================================================== Aggro: When a mob targets you, you have aggro on that mob. AoE: Area of effect. Usually refers to a spell or ability that targets an area. BoA: Binds on Account. Can trader this item between players on your account. BoE: Binds on Equip. Can trade, sell, or buy these items from other players. Boomkin: Druid with Balance specilization. Buff: A status effect which aids the unit under its effect. CC: Crowd Control. An ability that prevents a mob from taking action like Polymorph, Hex, Fear, etc. Crit: Critical strike rating Debuff: A status effect which hinders the unit under its effect. DoT: Damage Over Time. Ability that damages the target over time like Moonfire. DPS: Party member brought along to provide damage. GCD: Global Cooldown. 1.5 second limit on how often you can cast spells and perform certain actions. Can be lowered with more haste. HoT: Heal Over Time. Spell that heals the target periodically like Rejuv. ilvl: Item level. Better items have a higher item level. Int: Intellect LoS: Line of Sight. To cast a spell on a target you have to have line of sight with someone. Staircases have the mysterious ability to sap the intelligence from tanks and cause tanks to forget about the existence of LoS. Mast: Mastery Rating Spi: Spirit SM: Swiftmend ToL: Tree of Life form UI: User Interface ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^======================================================== ^ I. LEVELING ^ ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^=[1.0]================================================== = Choosing your Race = Tauren Druids get a small boost to health. Troll Druids get to use Berserking which increases your attack and casting speed by 20% for 10 seconds. = The Grind = Level as a Feral Druid. When dual specilization is available, purchase it and learn restoration. Level primarily by questing and killing mobs. Run dungeons to break up the monotony and practice healing. This is a viable build for Feral damage: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#0ZrbGfRzrdbfzMcz:fzM Choose Skinning and either Herbalism or Mining as your levelling professions. When you reach 85 change your professions (see section six of this guide). Get an add-on like Bad Kitty or Destruction for Dummies that helps maximize your dps. Joining a high level guild and having Heirloom items gives an experience bonus to make leveling faster. Levels 10-20: Quest in Azshara, Ghostlands, Northern Barrens, or Silverpine Forest. Levels 20-25: Ashenvale, Duskwood, or Hillsbrad Foothills. Levels 25-30: Arathi Highlands, Northern Stranglethorn, Stonetalon Mountains, or Wetlands Levels 30-35 Southern Barrens, the Cape of Stranglethorn, the Hinterlands. Levels 30-40: Desolace and Stranglethorn Vale. Levels 35-40: Dustwallow Marsh, Feralas, and Western Plaguelands. Levels Levels 40-45: Eastern Plaguelands and Thousand Needles. Levels 45-50: Felwood and Tanaris. Levels 50-55: Un'Goro Crater, Winterspring and Swamp of Sorrows (51-55) Levels 55-58: Blasted Lands and Silithus At level 58 start leveling in the Outlands. At level 68 start leveling in Northrend. At level 80 start leveling in Cataclysm zones. Try to obtain a faction rep of at least Honored with the Guardians of Hyjal. At level 82 move to Deepholm and complete all quests until you are able to run the Therazane faction dailies. At level 83 quest in Uldum and at level 84 quest in Twilight Highlands. Make sure to open up the Dragonmaw Clan dailies. It is nice--but not essential--to hit Honored with all factions. This will make getting geared up for Heroic Dungeons easier. ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^============================================== ^ II. SPELLS & STRATEGY ^ ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^=[2.0]======================================== First part of this section is devoted to explanations of spells, how they funcion, and how they are best used. Strategy has tips on how to best use the spells in conjunction with other spells. If you have any other strategies or recommendations please email me with your thoughts. :::::::::::::::::: : Healing Spells : :::::::::::::::::: ~ Lifebloom ~ Low mana heal that stacks on one target up to three times. Can only be cast on one target. Lasts 10 seconds. Is refreshed by casting another Lifebloom on the target or casting Nourish/Healing Touch on the target (with talents). In Tree of Life form Lifebloom can be cast on multiple targets. Blooms for extra healing if the stack is allowed to expire. Three Lifeblooms should almost always be stacked on the tank and never allowed to expire (except maybe in emergencies). Cast Lifebloom - Lifebloom - Rejuv - Lifebloom so that the Lifebloom and Rejuv both benefit from Mastery. In Tree of Life form Lifebloom should be cast on multiple targets to trigger more Omen of Clarity procs. Having Lifebloom up allows Omem of Clarity to proc and Revitalize to proc, giving you a free heal and mana regen respectively. It also refreshes Replenishment which allows the raid to regain mana. ~ Rejuvenation ~ Periodically heals the target over 12 seconds. Use Rejuv on damaged targets who do not need an immediate heal or combine Rejuv with Swiftmend for emergency healing. Keep a Rejuv on the tank at all times. ~ Nourish ~ Low mana cost heal that heals target for a small amount. Refreshes the target's Lifebloom (with talents). Use Nourish to refresh Lifebloom or to conserve mana. If mana is an issue or will be an issue later in the fight try to cast more Nourish throughout the fight so that mana is available during the difficult parts of the fight. ~ Healing Touch ~ Our most powerful direct heal. Refreshes the target's Lifebloom (with talents). Use Healing Touch on targets with low health and on every Omen of Clarity proc. ~ Regrowth ~ Quick heal that also heals the target slightly for six seconds. Fast but has a high mana cost. Can use Swiftmend on a target with Regrowth. While in Tree of Life form Regrowth becomes an instant cast and can be cast on the move. Use once every minute to trigger Nature's Grace (with talents). In emergencies, you may need to spam this. While in Tree of Life form use this when Omen of Clarity procs. ~ Wild Growth ~ Heals the six (five without the glyph) lowest health targets within 15 yards of the target over seven seconds. 10 second cooldown. Very mana effecient and should be cast on cooldown in many cases. In five man groups, try to position yourself so that any Wild Growth cast on yourself will hit all party members. After casting a Wild Growth, target each of the members hit by it with a Rejuv so that the Rejuv benefits from Mastery. ~ Swiftmend ~ Low mana cost heal that instantly heals the target. Can only be used on a target that has Rejuv or Regrowth on it. 15 second cooldown. Leaves an Efflorescence around the target (with talents). Use Swiftmend on cooldown in most cases or save it for emergencies or times when there are damage spikes. Unfortunately, Swiftmend consumes an Omen of Clarity proc so try not to use it when Omen of Clarity is active as the mana cost is so low it is a waste of and omen of Clarity proc. ~ Efflorescence ~ With talents, your Swiftmend will leave a green circle on the ground that heals up to six members in it for 30% of the Swiftmend'd amount over six seconds. Most of the time it is better to use Swiftmend on cooldown but there are some fights where your Swifthmend & Efflorescence should be saved for damage spikes. However Efflorescence heals for such a small amount it is not essential that it be saved. ~ Tranquility ~ Heals all raid members for a ton over seven seconds. Huge heal that can only be used once every 7 minutes. Use during emergencies or save it for the hardest part of a boss fight. Make a macro so that Tranquility is combined with Barkskin. /cast Barkskin /stopcasting /cast Tranquility ~ Tree of Life ~ Shapeshift into Tree of Life form. Increases healing by 15% for 40 seconds. Usable every 3 minutes. Enhances the following spells: Lifebloom (can be cast on multiple targets), Regrowth (can be instant cast and cast on the move), Entangling Roots (instant cast), Wrath (reduces the cast time), and Wild Growth (hits an extra target). A common Tree of Life tactic is to cast Lifebloom on multiple targets in order to increase your Omen of Clarity chance. Then cast Regrowth or Healing Touch. Tree of Life form with multiple Lifeblooms and Omen of Clarity procs is a chance to conserve mana while still giving great healing output. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::: : Other Spells & Abilities : :::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ~ Nature's Swiftness ~ Turns your next Nature spell into an instant cast. 3 minute cooldown. Typically used with Healing Touch or Rebirth. This is an optional talent which may or may not be chosen. ~ Omen of Clarity ~ Proc that allows your next Healing Touch, Regrowth, or Swiftmend to not cost any mana. Best used with Healing Touch (though I prefer Regrowth when in Tree of Life form or to trigger Nature's Grace). ~ Nature's Grace ~ Increases spell haste by 15% for 15 seconds after casting a Regrowth (requires talents). Can and should be used every minute. ~ Rebirth ~ Brings the target back to life during combat. Use with the Rebirth Glyph so the target comes back with full life. Combine with a Nature's Swiftness macro: /cast Nature's Swiftness /cast Rebirth ~ Barkskin ~ Reduces all damage taken by 20% for 12 seconds. Prevents spells from being delayed. One minute cooldown. Use during heavy damage phases or if mobs aggro onto you. ~ Nature's Grasp ~ The next three targets to melee damage you will be caught in Entangling Roots. Use when mobs aggro onto you. ~ Thorns ~ If buffed with Thorns, any target attacking will take Nature damage. Can be cast on the tank. ~ Entangling Roots ~ Snares the target leaving them unable to move. Damage will break the roots. Cast on a target attacking you, a target that needs to be snared or as cc in a dungeon. ~ Cyclone ~ More of a PVP ability. Puts the target in a Cyclone for six seconds. ~ Cat Form ~ Use Cat Form plus Dash (or Stampeding Roar) for the movement speed bonus. Suprisingly useful in emergency situations. :::::::::::: : Strategy : :::::::::::: ~ Queue Your Spells ~ You should be able to immediately cast every time you are able to and eliminate downtime. Every time the GCD is up another spell should be going out. This requires some practice and can be made much easier with addons like Quartz and GCD. Go to the menu and set your latency settings to allow you to queue spells. This makes it able so you can cast your next spell while your current spell is still being cast. Your next spell will be queued and start casting as soon as your first spell is cast. This is essential for Regrowth plus Swiftmend, Rejuv spamming and any other number of sequential casting patterns. ~ Mastery ~ Mastery only works if there is a HoT on the target. Rejuv then Healing Touch is more effective than Healing Touch then Rejuv. ~ HoT Stack ~ Always have a full Lifebloom stack and a Rejuv on the tank. Cast Lifebloom - Lifebloom - Rejuv - Lifebloom so that both the Rejuv and Lifebloom benefit from Mastery. Some argue for Lifebloom - Rejuv - Lifebloom - Lifebloom (blasphemy!). ~ Wild Growth & Swiftmend on Cooldown ~ These are strong, mana effecient spells. Maximize their use by using them as often as possible (unless you are saving it for a specific damaging ability the boss casts). ~ Chase the Wild Growth ~ Wild Growth will hit the six lowest targets. Follow this up with a Rejuv on each of the six targets to provide healing for the six lowest targets and so that each Rejuv benefits from Mastery. ~ Conserve Mana ~ Use Nourish more if mana is an issue. Turn into Tree of Life form and cast more Lifeblooms and only use Healing Touch/Regrowth on Omen of Clarity Procs. ~ Juggle Multiple Lifebloom Stacks ~ Lifebloom can only be on one target except in Tree of Life form. Nourish or Healing Touch can be used to refresh one of the Tree of Life Lifebloom stacks even when you are not in Tree of Life form. Remember which target received the last Lifebloom in Tree of Life form and use Nourish to keep this stack active. You can then cast Lifebloom on another target to give them a stack. The key to this is your non-Tree of Life Lifebloom can fall off and then be restarted. You DO NOT have to keep both stacks active, only keep the Tree of Life stack active if you need to cast other spells. Then restart the second stack at any time. Multiple stacks allow for more Omen of Clarity procs. ~ Save your Tranquility ~ Many bosses have a burn phase where the party takes increase damage for the 25% or so or a soft enrage. Save your Tranquility for the last possible moment in these fights. In Heroics, be generous with your Tranquility to avoid stupid wipes. ~ Rejuv Bath ~ Rejuv is ridiculously mana cheap and powerful. It is on a fast GCD cooldown. Do not be afraid to overheal with this spell. Use it early and often. Use it prior to heavy damage. Use it after heavy damage. Use it to allow you to proc more Mastery. ~ Swap Innervates ~ The Innervate glyph allows you to get 10% of your mana pool when you cast Innervate. If you have two Druids in the group, you can swap Innervates and gain roughly 30% of your mana back. ~ Zoom Out ~ The default zoom and zoom settings do not give you a good enough vantage point to see all the action. Type the following the zoom in or out to find a comfortable distance: /console cameraDistanceMaxFactor 4 ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^=================================================== ^ III. UI & ADDONS ^ ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^=[3.0]============================================= There are many useful Addons that can make your life easier as a healer. Experiment to find the ones that work best for you. Hamlet at ElitistJerks.com puts it best. To paraphrase him you want to be able to see: -All party members health -The HoTs you have active on targets and their time remaining -Who has aggro -Who is in healing range -Debuffs that can be removed and other useful to know debuffs -Incoming heals for all players from all healers Grid & Clique is the preferred UI for most healers. Grid offers some great customization, particularly for boss debuffs. Personally, I use Healbot. Make sure to zoom out properly so that you can see the action. The default max zoom is not sufficient. Use this or a similar script: /console cameraDistanceMaxFactor 4 ::::::::::: : Add Ons : ::::::::::: ~ GCD ~ Allows you to properly time your spells to minimize downtime and perform as soon as the GCD ends. ~ Quartz ~ Shows your cast time. ~ Omnicc ~ Counter that shows how much time is remaining on your spell cooldown. ~ forteXorcist ~ Convenient bar that shows the cooldown on your spells, talents (like Nature's Grace), items (Tyrande's Favorite Doll/Synapse Springs), and other abilities. ~ Recount ~ Allows you to see your performance and analyze how you did and what you can do better. WorldofLogs.com is preferred. ~ Deadly Boss Mods ~ Warns you of boss mechanics. Essential for raiding. Comes with a /range check to check the range of nearby party members. ~ Outfitter ~ Swap easily between different sets of gear. I also have some UI Add Ons like Tidy Frames and Perl to make things look a little crisper but that is more personal preference than performance enhancing. If you have any other Add On recommendations please email me at [email protected] ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^=============================================== ^ IV. TALENTS & GLYPHS ^ ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^=[4.0]========================================= ::::::::::: : Talents : ::::::::::: The standard Talent Build: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#0hbhZMZMfzId0ruouo ~ Things to consider ~ -Remove Nature's Swiftness and spend it on Nature's Bounty. I usually only use Nature's Swiftness for the instant Rebirth and am now spec'd out of it. -Nature's Cure is not needed for raiding BWD, 25 man BH, and may or may not be needed for BoT depending on your healing assignments. I do not spec into it for raiding. -When mana is not an issue, the two points in Furor can be moved to Genesis The result is something like this: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#0hrhZZMfzIbMru0uo Some argue for Nature's Bounty instead of Gift of the Earthmother or Blessing of the Grove instead of Nature's Bounty but I am not persuaded. Looking at my logs, the crit amounts from Nature's Bounty typically outweight the theoretical 4% Rejuv healing Blessing of the Grove would have provided. I also like Nature's Bounty for the emergency burst it provides. When I am casting Regrowth it is usually in a time of need so the extra crit healing is especially useful. :::::::::: : GLYPHS : :::::::::: ~ Prime Glyphs ~ Glyph of Rejuvenation: Increases healing done by 10% of Rejuvenation Glyph of Lifebloom: Increases crit effect chance of Lifebloom by 10% Glyph of Swiftmend: HoT remains on target even after Swiftmend is used The only other glyph to consider is Glyph of Regrowth which is terrible. ~ Major Glyphs ~ Glyph of Wild Growth: Wild Growth effects a 6th target Glyph of Innervate: You get 50% of Innervate's effect when you cast it on another target Glyph of Rebirth: Your Rebirth target comes back with 100% life For certain fights and Heroics, Glyph of Entangling Roots has some utility. ~Minor Glyphs ~ Glyph of Dash: Reduces cooldown of Dash by 20% Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth: Rebirth never requires a reagent ========^^^^^^^^^^^^=========================================================== ^ V. STATS ^ ========^^^^^^^^^^^^=[5.0]===================================================== Our stat priority in general is: Int >>> Spellpower > Spirit > Haste (to a breakpoint) > Haste/Mastery/Crit ~ Intellect ~ Int is our primary and most important stat. Int increases our spellpower, mana, mana regen, and critical strike chance. ~ Spellpower ~ Spellpower causes our heals to heal for more power. Boost Int or upgrade your weapon to increase. ~ Spirit ~ Spirit increase our mana regen. ~ Haste ~ Haste reduces our spell casting time, our global cooldown (GCD), and can increase the number of time our HoTs tick. See below for Haste breakpoints. As we have a talent in our tree which reduces our GCD after Rejuv to the GCD cap, more haste does not help our GCD Rejuv cooldown. ~ Mastery ~ Mastery increases the efficacy of a healing spell if there is already a HoT on a target. For example, if a target has a Rejuv on it any heal you cast on it will benefity from Mastery. ~ Crit ~ Critical strike improves the critical chance of our direct heals and HoT ticks. Notes: -Take the higher ilvl item if it has more Int, even if it does not have Spirit -If mana is not an issue Spirit may not be such a priority -In 25 man raids, Mastery is not useful. In 10 man raid or 5 man Heroics Mastery is more useful. -After you reach 915 Haste, some recommend stacking Mastery/Crit unless you are able to get to 2004 Haste. Personally, I like having enough haste to get the 4th tick of Regrowth. Not that the 4th tick does anything--it is pretty much worthless--I just like to have more Haste. I feel the Haste gives me more healing output during the tough parts of boss fights and slightly reduces my GCD after Wild Growth and Lifebloom. ::::::::::::::::::::: : Haste Breakpoints : ::::::::::::::::::::: These all assume that you have the 5% Haste buff from a Shadow Priest or Boomkin and do not include the Dark Intent Warlock buff. Thanks to Hamlet and his excellent TreeCalcs spreadsheet for providing this information. 915 -- 5th tick or Rejuvenation 1220 -- 12th tick of Lifebloom 1423 -- 4th tick of Regrowth 2004 -- 9th tick of Wild Growth (72 with Nature's Grace) 2440 -- 13th tick of Lifebloom (451 with Nature's Grace) 3659 -- 14th tick of Lifebloom (1512 with Nature's Grace) 3746 -- 10th tick of Wild Growth (1587 with Nature's Grace) 3964 -- 6th tick of Rejuvenation (1777 with Nature's Grace) 4879 -- 15th tick of Lifebloom (2572 with Nature's Grace) 5489 -- 5th tick of Regrowth (3102 with Nature's Grace) 5489 -- GCD cap (3102 with Nature's Grace) The 9th tick of Wild Growth is 1575 Haste if you have the 5% Haste buff and Dark Intentions. ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^==================== ^ VI. GEMS, ENCHANTS, FOOD, FLASKS, & PROFESSIONS ^ ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^=[6.0]============== :::::::: : Gems : :::::::: [6.1] Meta Gem: Ember Shadowspirit Diamond -- 54 Int and 2% Max Mana Requires 2 Yellow Gems Brilliant Inferno Ruby (40 Int, Red) is your gem of choice. Stack Int above all else. Reckless Ember Topaz (20 Int and 20 Haste, Yellow) x2 is needed for your meta bonus. If the socket bonus is 20 Int or more Purified Demonseye (20 Int and 20 Spi, Purple) is fine for a blue slot. Ignore all socket bonuses unless getting it provides more Int than Brilliant Inferno Ruby would or if it is one of your two yellow gems slots needed for the Meta Gem Bonus. One exception is it may make sense to gem Haste to hit a breakpoint but I do not recommend that practice in general. :::::::::::: : Enchants : :::::::::::: [6.2] ~ Helm ~ Arcanum of Hyjal from revered reputation from Guardians of Hyjal faction ~ Cloak ~ Enchant Cloak - Great Intellect (50 Int) ~ Chest ~ Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats (all stats +20) or Might Stats (all stats +15) ~ Boots ~ Enchant Boots - Haste (50 Haste); Enchant Boots - Mastery (50 Mastery). Also some enchants that enchant run speed by a bit which may be situationally useful. ~ Gloves ~ Enchant Gloves - Haste (50 Haste); Enchant Gloves - Greater Mastery (65 Mastery) or Enchant Gloves - Mastery (50 Mastery) ~ Legs ~ Powerful Ghostly Spellthread (95 Int and 55 Spirit). Ghostly Spellthread if you are poor. ~ Weapon ~ Enchant Weapon - Power Torrent on ilvl 359 items or if you have a lot of gold. Enchant Weapon - Heartsong on ilvl 346 or below. ~ Offhand ~ Enchant Off-Hand - Superior Intellect (100 Int) ~ Shoulder ~ Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone ~ Wrist ~ Enchant Bracer - Exceptional Spirit (50 Spirit) or Enchant Bracer - Greater Critical Strike (50 Crit) ~ Waist ~ Eternal Belt Buckle and a Brilliant Inferno Ruby ~ Neck & Rings ~ None that I am aware of (outside of professions) ::::::::::::::::: : Food & Flasks : ::::::::::::::::: [6.3] Severed Sagefish Head for 90 Int and 90 Stam. For some fights, Delicous Sagefish Head for 90 Spi and 90 Stam may be useful. Flask of Draconic Mind for 300 int. Flask of Flowing Waters may be useful for some fights but I do not recommend it. ::::::::::::::: : Professions : ::::::::::::::: [6.4] Leatherworking and Engineering are the two strongest professions. Jewelcrafting, Alchemy, Inscription, Blacksmithing, Enchanting are basically equivalent to Leatherworking and Engineering. Mining is useless and Skinning and Herbalism are not that great. Leatherworking: 130 Int to a bracer (instead of 50 Spirit or Crit enchant) Engineering: Synapse Springs to the Gloves. Increases Int by 480 for 12 seconds on a 1 minute cooldown. Also can craft an ilvl 359 helm, add a damage absortion item to a belt (macro this with barkskin for 24000 damage absorption). There is further utility like a ranged interupt, slowfall from a cloak et al. Alchemy: Mixology - 80 int from flasks. Flasks last twice as long. Blacksmithing: Extra socket in gloves and bracers thus 80 Int from Brilliant Inferno Ruby. Enchanting: Enchant rings for 80 Int. Inscription: Enchant shoulders for 130 Int and 25 Haste versus 50 Int and 25 Haste available from the Therazane shoulder inscription. Jewelcrafting: 81 Int from the three gems only Jewelcrafters can use. Tailoring: Darkglow Embroidery - chance to restore 800 mana when you cast a spell. Herbalism: Lifeblood - 240 Haste for 20 seconds on a 2 minute cooldown. Skinning: 80 crit Mining: 120 stam For further information, please see Keeva's excellent and entertaining guide at treebarkjacket.com http://treebarkjacket.com/2010/11/29/cataclysm-professions-for-resto-druids/ ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^========================================================== ^ VII. GEAR ^ ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^=[7.0]==================================================== The first goal is to get sufficient gear in order to get an average ilvl of 329 or more. Once you get ilvl 329, Heroic dungeons can be run. Heroic dungeons give you good enough gear to raid. Raids give you gear so you can run Heroic raids. This section is broken into five sections: Pre-Heroic Gear & Factions, Heroic Dungeon Gear, Pre Raid Gear, Raid Gear, and Heroic Raid Gear. Pre Raid Gear can be gotten prior to running Heroics for an extra ilvl boost. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: : Pre-Heroic Gear & Faction Rewards Gear : :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: [7.1] See the end of this section for a quick summary of Pre-Heroic gear available in a table format. Questing can get you decent items for running dungeons and reputation with factions. Try to hit Honored with all factions for some decent items. At level 80 quest in Mount Hyjal. At level 82 go to Deepholm and quest there until you have access to the Therazane daily quests. Once you hit level 83, I recommend questing in Uldum until 84 and then Twilight Highlands. Make sure you open up the Dragonmaw Clan dailies in the Twilight Highlands. Those quests should give you some decent items for running level 85 dungeons and Heroics. In particular, try to get the below quest items. = Notable Quest Rewards = Talisman of Sinister Order: Trinket from Uldum quests. Follow the Harrison Jones questline. ilvl 325. Gurgthock's Garish Gorebat: 1H Mace from Crucible of Carnage quests in Twilight Highlands. ilvl 333. Wrap of the Fallen City: Chest from Uldum quests. Follow the Ramhaken questline. ilvl 325. Vision-Tainted Treads: Feet from Twilight Highlands quests. ilvl 333. Eye of the Stars: Ring from Uldum quests. ilvl 325. Red Dragonheart Ring: Ring from Twilight Highland quests. ilvl 333. Gloves of Baleflame: Gloves from Grim Batol quest. ilvl 333. Helm or Reorigination: Helm from Halls of Origination quest. ilvl 333. Air Raid Beacon: Offhand from Twilight Highlands quest. ilvl 333. = BoE & Crafted = ~ ilvl 359 ~ There is an ilvl 359 crafted belt--Lightning Lash. However there is a faction reward that is slightly better so probably not worth picking up the crafted belt unless you have gold to burn. There is also an ilvl 359 chest--Chestguard of Nature's Fury--crafted by Leatherworking. Chelley's Dark Staff of Mending (Two Handed Weapon), Heartbound Tome (offhand), Fading Violet Sandals (boots), Ritssyn's Ruminous Drape (Cloak), and Hide of Chromaggus (shoulders) are all ilvl 359 and available on the Auction House for a hefty price. There are also some ilvl 359 Archeology items available (please see Pre-Raiding Gear section for more details). ~ ilvl 346 ~ Tarvus's Poison-Scarred Boots (feet) and Blazewing's Furious Kilt (legs) are ilvl 346 items available from rare monsters or on the Auction House. I bought the boots from the AH but similar legs can be bought with Justice Points. Elementium Hammer (ilvl 346) is crafted by blacksmiths but is very expensive and only equivalent to Heroic drops. The Bloodied Wyrmhide PVP set can do in a pinch. Get these pieces to boost your ilvl or to replace a mediocre piece. Bloodied Wyrmhide is available in any leather slot. Book or Origination or Bone-Inlaid Sarcophagus Key are ilvl 333 offhands. See the Auction House. Battle Tome can be crafted for the offhand but is PVP gear. Thousand Bandage Drape (ilvl 325 cloak), Rainsong (trinket), Charm of the Muse (ilvl 333 neck), Kuang's Locket of Secrets (ilvl 325 neck) are BoE and available from the AH. Tatooed Eyeball (ilvl 346 relic) is crafted by Inscription professionals. = Faction Rewards = Dragonmaw Clan is highest priority faction. Run Heroics with their tabard and run their dailies until hitting exalted. After that, Guardians of Hyjal have the Helm Enchant at Revered and Therazane has the shoulder enchants at Honored and better shoulder enchants at Revered. ~ Dragonmaw Clan ~ Withered Dream Belt -- Exalted ilvl 359 belt Yellow Smoke Pendant -- Exalted ilvl 359 neck Spaulders of Endless Plains -- Honored ilvl 333 shoulders ~ Therazane ~ Honored & Revered Shoulder Inscriptions Diamant's Ring of Temperance -- Revered ilvl 346 ring ~ Guardian's of Hyjal ~ Arcanum of Hyjal -- Revered Helm enchant Aessina-Blessed Gloves -- Revered ilvl 346 gloves Cloak of the Dryads -- Honored ilvl 333 cloak ~ The Earthen Ring ~ Cloak of Ancient Wisdom -- Revered ilvl 346 cloak Leggings of Clutching Roots -- Revered ilvl 346 legs Pendant of Elemental Balance -- Honored ilvl 333 neck ~ Ramkahen ~ Ammunae's Blessing -- Honored ilvl 333 ring ~ Hellscreams' Reach ~ Shimmering Morningstar -- Revered ilvl 346 Mace Mandala of Impatient Youth -- Exalted ilvl 359 Trinket (this is not very good) This section at a glance... ::Helm:: Crafted PVP gear, ilvl 333 quest reward from Uldum ::Neck:: ilvl 359 Exalted Dragonmaw, ilvl 333 Earthen Ring Honored, ilvl 325 and 333 on the Auction House ::Cloak:: ilvl 346 Earthern Ring Revered, ilvl 359 on the Auction House, ilvl 325 on Auction House ::Shoulders:: ilvl 359 on the Auction House, PVP gear, Dragonmaw Honored ilvl 333 ::Chest:: ilvl 325 Uldum quest reward, PVP gear, ilvl 359 crafted ::Wrists:: PVP gear ::Gloves:: ilvl 333 Grim Batol quest, PVP gear ::Belt:: Exalted Dragonmaw ilvl 359, crafted ilvl 359, PVP gear ::Legs:: ilvl 346 at Auction House, PVP gear, ilvl 346 Revered Earthen Ring ::Feet:: ilvl 346 Auction House, ilvl 333 Twilight quest reward, PVP gear, ilvl 359 BoE item on the Auction House ::Rings:: ilvl 325 Uldum quest, ilvl 333 Twilight quest, ilvl 333 Honored Ramkahen, ilvl 346 Therazane ring ::Trinket:: ilvl 325 Uldum quest reward, Rainsong from Auction House ::Weapon/Offhand: ilvl 333 Twilight quest reward, ilvl 346 crafted, ilvl 346 Hellscream's Reach (Maces); ilvl 333 offhand quest, ilvl 359 Auction House Offhand, ilvl 333 Auction House Offhands; ilvl 359 Auction House Staff ::Relic:: ilvl 346 crafted ::::::::::::::::::::::: : Heroic Dungeon Gear : ::::::::::::::::::::::: [7.2] All these items have Intellect and Spirit unless noted otherwise. Some Boomkin gear may serve in a pinch but for items of the same ilvl it is Spirit is generally the preferred secondary stat. This section also includes some useful ilvl 346 gear that does not drop from Heroics. I recommend running one random Heroic every day to get your Valor Points. If you are just getting used to Heroics, run an eay one like Vortex Pinnacle, Blackrock Caverns, or Lost City of the Tol'vir until you feel more comfortable and get some better gear. Once you have done your daily random, do not do any randoms. Instead specifically target Heroics that have items you want. If the Heroic you are in does not have any more bosses that have drops you want and you do not need the JP you can drop group and choose a new Heroic. This is against common etiquette and you may disagree with this tactic. I do not see it as a big deal for the following reasons: -The group you leave behind will only have to wait a short while until your replacement comes. They can also use this tactic and will benefit from not having to be stuck in Heroics they do not want to be in. -The healer that replaces you gets a shorter run and more easily obtains his Valor Points. -You get to spend more of your time getting the items you want. = Helm = Cluster of Stars: Purchased from Vendor (2200 JP) Int/Spi/Haste Cowl of Rebellion: The Deadmines -- Vanessa VanCleef (6th Boss) Int/Spi/Mast = Neck = Amulet of Tender Breath: The Vortex Pinnacle -- Altairus (2nd Boss) Int/Spi/Crit Celadon Pendant: Purchased from Vendor (1250 JP) Int/Spi/Mastery Quicksilver Amulet: Blackrock Caverns -- Karsh Steelbender (3rd Boss) Int/Spi/Haste = Shoulder = Mantle of Bestilled Winds: Altairus -- The Vortex Pinnacle (2nd Boss) Int/Spi/Haste Mantle of Soft Shadows: Anraphet -- Halls of Origination Int/Spi/Crit Somber Shawl: Purchased from Vendor (1650 JP) Int/Spi/Mast = Cloak = Azureborne Cloak: Grim Batol -- Drahga Shadowburner (3rd Boss) Int/Spi/Crit Solar Wind Cloak: Halls of Origination -- Rajh Int/Spi/Haste Springvale's Cloak: Shadowfang Keep -- Commander Springvale (3rd Boss) Int/Spi/Crit There is also a cloak available from Earthen Ring Revered faction rep which does not have Spirit on it. = Chest = Cursed Skardyn Vest: Grim Batol -- General Umbriss (1st Boss) Int/Spi/Mast Robes of Forgetfulness: Purchased from Vendor (2200 JP) Int/Spi/Haste There is also an ilvl 359 crafted Boomkin chest available. It is not an upgrade over the Robes of Forgetfulness. = Wrist = Due to a bug there are no ilvl 346 bracers in the game that have Int and Spirit. Other options: Oasis Bracers: Normal Lost City of Tol'vir -- Random BoP drop from any mob. Rarely seen or dropped. Armbands of Change: Blackrock Caverns -- Corla (2nd Boss) These are the Boomkin bracers. Int/Crit/Haste Wyrmhide Bracers: PVP Crafted Gear = Gloves = Blessed Hands of Elune: Purchased from Vendor (1650 JP) Int/Spi/Crit Deep Delving Gloves: The Stonecore -- Slabhide (2nd Boss) Int/Spi/Haste = Belt = There are two ilvl 359 belts that are much better than these Heroic belts. It is better to get those. One is available by hitting Exalted with the Dragonmaw Clan in Twilight Highlands. Lightning Lash is crafted by Leatherworking and available at the Auction House. Thatch Eave Vines: Purchased from Vendor (1650 JP) Int/Spi/Haste Underworld Cord: Halls of Origination -- Earthrager Ptah Int/Spi/Mast = Legs = Blazewing's Furious Kilt: Check the Auction House -- BoE Int/Spi/Mast Drops off a rare mob in Mount Hyjal Leggings of Clutching Roots: Requires Exalted Reputation with The Earthen Ring Int/Spi/Crit Leggings of the Path: Lost City of the Tol'vir -- Siamat (4th Boss) Int/Spi/Mast = Feet = Decapod Slippers: Throne of the Tides -- Mindbender Ghur'sha (3rd Boss) Int/Spi/Crit Tarvus's Poison-Scarred Boots: Check the Auction House -- BoE Int/Spi/Crit Drops off of a rare spawn in Twilight Highlands = Rings = Band of Life Energy: Ammunae -- Halls of Origination Int/Spi/Crit Kibble: Beauty -- Blackrock Caverns (4th Boss) Int/Spi/Mast Ring of Frozen Rain: The Vortex Pinnacle -- Asaad (3rd Boss) Int/Spi/Crit Veneficial Band: The Lost City of the Tol'vir -- Augh (2nd Boss) Int/Spi/Mast = Trinket = These trinkets have plus Int as a base stat. There are other trinkets that do not have Int. I would rather have the ilvl 325 Talisman of Sinister Order (quest reward in Uldum) than those in most cases. Int is your best stat. I do not endorse using a non-Int trinket in most cases. Tear of Blood: The Stonecore -- High Priestess Azil (4th Boss) Witching Hourglass: Blackrock Caverns -- Ascendant Lord Obsidius (5th Boss) Figurine Dream Owl: Requires Jewelcrafting I prefer Tear of Blood slightly over the other two trinkets but the other two can be better in some situations. = Weapon & Offhand = As of this patch (4.0.3), 1H Weapon & Offhand are preferable due to the +100 Int enchant available to an offhand. The only reason to go for a Two-Handed Weapon is if it is a higher item level. Torturer's Mercy: Blackrock Caverns -- Rom'ogg Bonecrusher (1st Boss) Int/Spi/Mast Scepter of Power: Halls of Origination -- Setesh Int/Spi/Haste Elementium Hammer: Crafted by Blacksmith -- Ridiculously expensive Shimmering Morning Star: Vendor in Tol Barad -- Requires revered reputation and 85 tokens Int/Spi/Crit = Relic = Book of Dark Prophecies: The Stone Core -- High Priestess Azil (4th Boss) Int/Spi/Crit Captured Lightning: The Vortex Pinnacle -- Asaad (3rd Boss) Int/Spi/Haste :::::::::::::::::::: : Pre-Raiding Gear : :::::::::::::::::::: [7.3] It is possible to get quite geared prior to raiding. Below are the ilvl 359 items (raid equivalent ilvl) that are available. Three of them are available from Archeology, all of which can be found in Kalimdor. If you are leveling up Archeology stick to Kalimdor. Remember to run your random Heroic every day and you can spend your Valor Points for ilvl 359 items. I would recommend starting with the ilvl 359 set gloves--Stormrider's Handwraps--or the Relic of Eonar. Conquest Gear is easy to obtain and great for raiding. Win five arena matches a week to get some good gear. Spend your Conquest Points on either the Bracers or Mace first or replace your weakest item. ::Helm:: Engineers can create Camouflage Bio-Optic Killshades, which are arguably Best in Slot until Heroic raids. ::Neck:: Yellow Smoke Pendant is available at exalted reputation from the Dragomaw Clan faction. ::Shoulders:: Hide of Chromaggus is a BoE item availabe on the AH for a hefty price. Expensive but they look awesome. This drops in Blackwing Descent. ::Cloak:: Rittsyn's Ruminous Drapes is a BoE item world drop. ::Chest:: There is a BoE crafted leather chest. However the it has no spirit and the Int value on it is equivalent to the ilvl 346 chest with two Brilliant Inferno Rubies so it is not worth getting. ::Weapon & Offhand:: There is an ilvl 359 Arena Mace and Dagger available for two weeks' worth of conquest points. That combined with the BoE offhand from the AH--Heartbound Tome--is the best combo. Chelley's Dark Staff of Mending is BoE and available from the Auction House. Staff of Ammunae is crafted from Tol'vir Archaeology and BoA. It takes forever but since it is BoA can be passed around to your alts. ::Belt:: Belt of the Untamed is available from exalted reputation from the Dragonmaw Clan. Lightning Lash is crafted by leatherworkers. ::Boots:: The ilvl 359 boots--Fading Violet Sandals can be purchsed from the vendor for Valor Points and are BoE. People are often willing to sell these. ::Ring:: Ring of the Boy Emperor is crafted from Tol'vir Archaeology and BoA. ::Trinket:: Tyrande's Favorite Doll is crafted from Night Elf Archaeology and BoA. There also plans of adding an alchemist trinket in future patches that has Int as base stat and a chance to proc Haste. The ilvl 359 Tol Barad trinket is not very good nowbut may be improved in a future patch. :::::::::::::::: : Raiding Gear : :::::::::::::::: [7.4] Following is a list of the items to complete your ilvl 359 set. Some of this information is a duplicate of the Pre-Raiding items section. A particular type of ilvl 359 items are the set pieces. These five pieces (helm, shoulders, chest, gloves, and legs) provide the Resto Druid with a bonus for wearing two of the pieces and another bonus for wearing four of the pieces. The two set piece bonus is not all that great--5% increased Lifebloom crit chance--but the four set piece bonus is very nice--500 Spirit if you have three stacks of Lifebloom on a target. Set pieces are also needed to purchase the Heroic set pieces. Even if you have an ilvl 359 item in that slot you will want to work towards getting your set pieces. As you raid and run your daily random H you will acquire Valor Points. Spending valor Points is left to your discretion. A couple of factors to consider are your guild's progression--why buy an epic cloak when it can drop for you in the Bastion of Twilight on a boss your guild has on farm?--and the availability of other comparable drops. The Relic of Eonar is the only ilvl 359 PVE relic so it is a worthy purchase. After that the set pieces--in particular the set gloves--are recommended purchases. The set Chest does not have spirit so you may not want to buy that if you can get the four other set pieces. The Valor Point ring and boots are low priority as the boots are BoE and can be purchased from the AH and ilvl 359 rings drop from two of the easier bosses (Omnitron Defense Council and Conclave of the Four Winds). PVP Conquest gear can also make a decent substitute for any of your weaker slots. = Helm = Helm of the Blind Seer: Blackwing Descent -- Atramedes Int/Spi/Crit Stormrider's Helm: Blackwing Descent -- Nefarion Int/Spi/Haste Camouflage Bio-Optic Killshades: Engineering Int/Your Choice/Your Choice = Neck = Wyrmbreaker's Amulet: Bastion of TWilight -- Halfus Wyrmbreaker (1st Boss) Int/Spi/Crit Yellow Smoke Pendant: Exalted reputation with Dragonmaw Clan Faction Int/Crit/Mast Dorian's Lost Necklace: Purchased from Auction House. World Drop. Int/Haste/Mast Valiona's Medallion: The Bastion of Twilight -- Valiona & Therion (2nd Boss) Int/Haste/Mast = Shoulder = Hide of Chromaggus: BoE drop from Blackwing Descent Int/Spi/Crit Passive Resistor Spaulders: Blackwing Descent -- Omnitron Defense System Int/Spi/Haste Stormrider's Mantle: The Bastion of Twilight -- Cho'gall (4th Boss) Int/Spi/Mast = Cloak = Drape of the Twins: The Bastion of Twilight -- Valiona & Therion (2nd Boss) Int/Spi/Haste Shadow of Dread: Blackwing Descent -- Nefarion (6th Boss) Int/Crit/Mast Ritssyn's Ruminous Drape: Boe World Drop Int/Mast/Haste Haunt of Flies: Purchased from VP Vendor (1250 VP) Int/Crit/Haste Heavenly Breeze Purchased from VP Vendor (1250 VP) Int/Spi/Mast = Chest = Scorched Worling Vest: Blackwing Descent -- Magmaw Int/Spi/Mast Stormrider's Robes: Purchased from VP Vendor (2200 VP) Int/Mast/Crit = Wrist = Manacles of the Sleeping Beast: Blackwing Descent -- Chimaeron Int/Spi/Mast I used the Conquest Point bracers in this slot until getting the above drop. = Gloves = Stormrider's Handwraps: Purchased from VP Vendor (1650 VP) Int/Spi/Haste Hydrolance Gloves: Bastion of Twilight -- Ascendant's Council (3rd Boss) Int/Spi/Mast Set gloves may also drop from Baradin Hold. = Belt = Withered Dream Belt: Exalted reputation from Dragonmaw Clan Faction Int/Spi/Haste Lightning Lash: Crafted by Leatherworkers Int/Spi/Haste Belt of the Nightmare: Blackwing Descent -- Nefarion Int/Spi/Crit = Legs = Leggings of Consuming Flame: Blackwing Descent -- Maloriak Int/Spi/Mast Stormrider's Legwraps: Purchased from Vendor (2200 VP) Int/Spi/Crit Stormrider's Leggings: Boomkin Set piece. Purchased from Vendor (2200 VP) Int/Spi/Haste Set legs may also drop from Baradin Hold. ilvl 359 legs with random stats also drop from Al'Akir in Throne of the Four Winds. = Feet = Fading Violet Sandals: Purchased from Auction House or from VP Vendor (1650 VP) Int/Spi/Haste Treads of Hideous Transformation: Bastion of Twilight -- Cho'gall (4th Boss) Int/Spi/Crit = Rings = Security Measure Alpha: Blackwing Descent -- Omnitron Defense System Int/Spi/Crit Twined Band of Flowers: Purchased from VP Vendor (1250 VP) Int/Spi/Mast Ring of the Boy Emperor: Tol'vir Archeology BoA Int/Hast/Mast Band of Secret Names: Purchased from VP Vendor (1250 VP) Int/Hast/Crot Signet of the Fifth Circle: The Bastion of Twilight -- Cho'gall (4th Boss) Int/Hast/Mast ilvl 359 rings with random stats also drop from Conclave of Wind in Throne of the Four Winds. = Trinket = Tyrande's Favorite Doll: Night Elf Archeology 321 Int + 4200 Mana Restored ever minute Darkmoon Card Tsunami: Quest reward (combine Ace through 8 of Waves) or Purchased from the AH 321 Int + 400 Spirit Core of Ripeness: Purchased from VP Vendors (1250 VP) 321 Int + 1926 Spirit for 20 seconds on use Fall of Mortality: The Bastion of Twilight -- Chogall (4th Boss) 321 Int + 1926 Spirit for 15 seconds These trinkets do not have Int and I would not recommend using them except in special circumstances: Jar of Ancient Remedies: Blackwing Descent -- Maloriak Mandala of Stirring Patterns: Tol Barad Exalted Reputation & Commendations Soul Casket: Purchased from Vendors = Weapons & Offhand = Incineratus: Blackwing Descent -- Magmaw (Dagger) Int/Haste/Mast Andoros, Fist of the Dragon King: Blackwing Descent -- Nefarion (Mace) Int/Spi/Mast Blade of the Witching Hour: The Bastion of Twilight -- Valiona/Therion (Dagger) Int/Crit/Mast Twilight's Hammer: The Bastion of Twilight -- Cho'gall (Mace Int/Crit/Haste Vicious Gladiator's Gavel/Spellplace: 2350 Conquest Points from PVP vendor Int/Crit Heartbound Tome: BoE -- Available from Auction House (Offhand) Staff of Ammunae: Tol'vir Archeology -- BoA (Staff) Chelley's Staff of Dark Mending: The Bastion of Twilight BoE drop (Staff) = Relic = Relic of Eonar: Purchased from VP Vendors ( VP) Int/Spi/Crit ::::::::::::::::::::::: : Heroic Raiding Gear : ::::::::::::::::::::::: This section is coming soon. I need some clarification on BoE Heroic drops--I need to confirm that they are not in the game as many suspect. I also need to clarify how the ilvl 372 set pieces work. I hear some conflicting information on that. ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^======================================== ^ VIII. HEROIC DUNGEONS GUIDE ^ ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^=[8.0]================================== While these guides are written from a healer's perspective, they include all relevant mechanics for each fight. The guides can be useful to all classes. Before starting Heroics, please read section 2 to understand the spells and strategy of the Resto Druid class. Also glance over section 7.1 and pick up some of the easy to acquire gear on that list. When first starting Heroics bring along some food and cheap flasks for the well fed and flask bonus. I recommend running one random Heroic every day to get your Valor Points. If you are just getting used to Heroics, run an eay one like Vortex Pinnacle, Blackrock Caverns, or Lost City of the Tol'vir until you feel more comfortable and get some better gear. Once you have done your daily random, do not do any randoms. Instead specifically target Heroics that have items you want. If the Heroic you are in does not have any more bosses that have drops you want and you do not need the JP you can drop group and choose a new Heroic. This is against common etiquette and you may disagree with this tactic. I do not see it as a big deal for the following reasons: -The group you leave behind will only have to wait a short while until your replacement comes. They can also use this tactic and will benefit from not having to be stuck in Heroics they do not want to be in. -The healer that replaces you gets a shorter run and more easily obtains his Valor Points. -You get to spend more of your time getting the items you want. ||====:====:====:====:====:====|| || Heroic Blackrock Caverns || ||====:====:====:====:====:====|| One of the easier Heroics. Great for a Resto Druid as every boss has a useful ilvl 346 drop. ~ Notable Trash & Gimmicks ~ The Evolved Twilight Zealots need to be interrupted. The Angered Earth mobs drop a meteor that is split between the group. Stack for this. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Rom'ogg Bonecrusher = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ::Abilities:: Quake: Damages the ground you are standing under and spawns adds. Move towards the tank so he can aggro these adds off of you. Adds do not need to be killed as the boss will do it for you. Chains of Woe: Pulls everyone near the boss and immobilizes them until the chains are broken. Chains must be killed quickly or the boss will kill the group with Skullcracker. Run when the chains are broken. Skullcracker: Deadly AoE ability that kills anyone nearby. Run away as soon as the Chains of Woe are broken. Massive damage to anyone nearby him when it is cast. ~ Mechanics ~ The tank has to pick up the adds after Quake. DPS targets the boss and does not worry about the adds. After Chains of Woe, the tank and the DPS have to destroy the chains before Skullcracker finishes casting. After the Chains of Woe are destroyed run away from the boss until Skullcracker is finished. ~ Healing ~ The adds from Quake will aggro onto you due to your HoTs. Be ready with Barkskin and to run to the tank so he can pull them off of you. Cast Wild Growth, Rejuvenation, and Swiftmend where needed on the party after Quake. After Chains of Woe be prepared to run out of range of Skullcracker as soon as possible. Kitty form and dash is not needed but can be used in an emergency. Rom'ogg does not hit hard. A stack of Lifebloom, Rejuv, and a few Healing Touches should be sufficient. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Corla, Herald of the Twilight = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ~ Mechanics ~ Note the three kneeling mobs in front of Corla. When the fight starts, the shadow beams flowing into them will start stacking a buff on them. When that buff reaches 100, the mobs turn into a mob and will likely cause the party to wipe. To stop the buff from reaching 100, someone will have to stand in front of each of the beams. However by stepping into the beam the debuff will start stacking on you. If it reaches 100 you will likely cause the party to wipe. The trick is to alternate standing in the shadow beam and letting the shadow beam hit the mob. Let the beam reach 80 on the mob then step in front of it. When the buff on the mob has disappeared, move out of the way and let the debuff on you disappear. The buff disappears after 15 seconds. This is complicated by Corla casting Dark Command which will cause someone to be feared and run out of the beam thus letting the buff reach 100. Dark Command has to be interupted. Shamans can drop a Tremor Totem to prevent the fear but the spell should still be interrupted. ~ Healing ~ Corla does not hit hard at all. Just worry about the mechanics. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Karsh Steelbender = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ~ Mechanics ~ This fight relies almost entirely on the skill of the tank. Karsh takes almost no damage until he touches the flame pillar in the middle of the room. When he touches the flame he gains a debuff that melts his armor, allowing the party to damage him. The longer he is in the flame, the greater the debuff grows allowing the party to inflict more and more damage. However when he is in the flame it causes damage to the entire party and Karsh gets stronger. The debuff wears off after 15 seconds. If the tank does not lure him back into the flame pillar before the debuff disappears then his armor hardens and he can not be damaged. Everytime the debuff falls off adds come. When the adds die, they drop a pool of fire that causes damage to anyone who stands in it and functions similar to the flame pillar when Karsh stands in it. The tank has to draw him into the flame pillar until the debuff reaches 2 or 3 stacks. When the debuff is about to fall off, the tank has to repeat the process until Karsh dies. Two things can go wrong. The first is if the tank messes up and does not get Karsh back into the flame pillar in time and the debuff falls off. Adds will come. Kill the adds AWAY from Karsh, then drag Karsh back into the flame pillar. For some reason, tanks who mess this up drag Karsh back into the fire first before taking care of the adds and also aggro the adds so they cannot be pulled away from Karsh before they are killed. It is like tanks' reaction is "Hey, I messed up, let's make this worse!" Either ignore the adds or kill them away from the boss, THEN drag Karch back into the flame pillar. The second thing that can go wrong is if the debuff grows too big and Karsh starts hitting too hard. If this happens then the tank has to let the debuff fall off. Kill the adds then drag Karsh back into the flame pillar. ~ Healing ~ Watch the tank and the debuff on Karsh and anticipate when the tank will be dragging Karsh through the flame pillar. At that time the party will take increasing flame damage. Be ready with Rejuv prior to the flame damage and Wild Growth and Rejuv after the flame damage. As the debuff grows, pop into Tree Form and cast Lifeblooms on everyone. Continue to cast Rejuv and Wild Growth. Be ready with Tranquility if needed. Keep a full stack of Lifeblooms with Rejuv on the tank at all times. Cast Regrowth to trigger Nature's Grace and be ready to pump him with Healing Touches and Swiftmends as the debuff grows and Karsh gets stronger. =~~=~~=~~=~~= = Beauty = =~~=~~=~~=~~= (optional boss) ~ Mechanics ~ Beauty has three puppies with her. These must be cc'd or killed. The fight lasts a few minutes so the cc has to be renewed. Polymorph, Fear, Freezing Trap, Hex and Hibernate all work. Beauty also casts fear occasionaly. This can be prevented by Tremor Totem. From time to time Beauty will cast a charge ability or some minor fire abilities. The pups drop flame pools that appear on the ground. Do not stand in the fire. ~ Healing ~ Keep the tank and party as close to full as you can at all times as fear will cause you to be unable to heal for a period. The fight is not hard with good cc. Save your Swiftmend so that it is ready for after you recover from a fear period. Be ready with a Hibernate if designated as a CC person or if one of the DPS misses their assignment. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Ascendant Lord Obsidius = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ~ Mechanics ~ The boss has three mobs in front of him. One of the DPS must aggro the mobs and pull them away from the boss. The DPS has to then kite the mobs. These mobs inflict a stacking debuff on anyone nearby that prevents healing, thus the need to pull them away from the tank and to kite them. Periodically the boss will switch with one of the mobs. The kiting DPS must once again aggro the mobs and pull them away from the boss. It helps to have a DPS who can slow or stun the mobs like a Shaman with earthbind totem, a hunter with Frost Trap, or a Frost Mage. ~ Healing ~ Healing is complicated depending on how good the kiting DPS is at avoiding damage. A bad DPS will force you to constantly heal two targets: the tank and the kiting DPS. Keep a Rejuv on the kiting DPS and be ready to give this person additional heals. If the kiting DPS is good, this fight is very easy to heal. The boss will also cast a debuff which should be removed as it causes damage over time. ||====:====:====:====:====:====:====|| || Heroic Throne of the Tides || ||====:====:====:====:====:====:====|| ~ Notable Trash & Gimmicks ~ CC the Spiritmenders, mana drain them, or kill them first first or they will heal up the other mobs. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Lady Naz'jar = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ::Abilities:: Geyser: Summons a pool of water on the ground that will later erupt and cause massive damage to anyone standing in it. Move out of the Geyser. Shock Blast: Massive damage to the tank. Should be interrupted. Fungal Spores: Minor poison damage that can be dispelled or strafed to avoid. Cyclones: Summons a cyclone that damages and stuns anyone caught in it. Move away from the cyclone. Summon Adds: Summons 3 adds. Occurs at 50% and 25% life. ~ Mechanics ~ This is a two phase fight. Phase one she casts Geyser, Shock Blast, and Fungal Spores. It causes minor damage. Phase 1 is simple. Interupt Shock Blast and move if you are standing on a Geyser puddle. Phase 2 starts when she reaches 50% life and 25% life. She moves to the middle of the room and becomes invulnerable. Three adds will come. The one on the east and west side are casters and the one from the north is a melee add. The casters deal huge damage--more damage than the boss does. CC one of the casters and kill the other one asap. Hex, Mind Control, Sheep, Freezing Trap, and Fear are all sufficient CC's. After you kill one caster, kill the melee then the last caster. While this is going on tornados cyclones will come from Lady Naz'jar towards the outside of the room. If you get caught in a cyclone you will be unable to perform actions and take damage. Avoid these. Before the fight starts designate the kill and CC order for phase two so that everyone is on the same page. ~ Healing ~ Keep the tank full in phase 1 in case someone misses an interupt and a Shock Blast hits. Move out of the Geyser puddles. Make sure the group knows who is going to be cc'd and who is going to be killed first in phase 2. Position yourself accordingly as the mobs will aggro on you due to your HoTs. If the east add is being killed first, move to the east side of the room during phase 1. Face the boss and avoid the cyclones. Be ready for big heals at the start of each phase 2, when CC breaks, and if someone gets sucked into a cyclone. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Commander Ulthok = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ::Abilities:: Dark Fissure: Causes a shadow puddle on the ground that slowly expands. Deals damage to anyone in the puddle. Squeeze: Does damage and immobilizes the target hit by this. Enrage: Ulthok does slightly more damage, can be Sooth'd if someone is bored. ~ Mechanics ~ Ulthok main ability is Dark Fissure. He slams the ground and drops a shadow puddle that will slowly grow as the fight goes on. Standing in it causes damage. If the fight goes on long enough it will expand to cover the entire room and there will not be a safe space to stand. From time to time he will grab someone with the Squeeze ability and deal 75000 damage over six seconds. Periodically he will Enrage and deal more damage for 10 seconds and cast Curse of Fatigue. Dark Fissure is the only ability to concern yourself with. The tank has to pull the boss to the side of the room before the first fissure and then slowly tank the boss around the room. The tank can leave room for the group to retreat into Lady Naz'jar's room and continue to fight the boss in there. ~ Healing ~ The tank will not take much damage in the fight, even during the enrage. Save your big heals for the Squeeze. Have a Rejuv and Swiftmend ready and drop a couple of Healing Touches on the Squeezed target. Dispell Curse of Fatigue and if you are bored cast Soothe to dispell Enrage. Stay out of the Dark Fissure puddle and be ready to move if it expands or if you get Squeezed. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Erunak Stonespeaker & Mindbender Ghur'sha = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=(optional) ::Abilities:: = Phase 1 = Cone of Fire: Tank should face the boss away from the raid. Earth Shards: Line of shards in a random direct. Avoid the line if heading in your direction. Lava Bolt: Fire damage at a target. Interrupt this. = Phase 2 = Mind Control on a random member. DPS the member down to 50% then go back to killing the boss. Absorb Magic: Shield that absorbs all magic damage for five seconds. Purge or Spell Steal. ~ Mechanics ~ This is a two phase fight. In phase 1 the target is Erunak. He casts a cone of fire in the direction he is facing so tank the boss facing away from the party. He will randomly target a party member with Earth Shards, which does damage in a line from the boss to the target. If he targets you or someone near you move away. He also casts Lava Bolt which should be interupted In phase 2 the jellyfish on his head drops off and is the new target. Ghur'sha will mind control a random member. DPS down that member to 50% then go back to killing the boss. Ghur'sha will periodically drop either a green cloud on the ground which must be moved out of or Unrelenting Agony, which causes damage to the entire party. Damage from this can be avoided by LoS'ing the boss behind a pillar but then you will be unable to damage the boss. Absorb Magic gives Ghur'sha a 5 second shield that absorbs all magic damage. Can be spell stolen or purged. ~ Healing ~ In phase 1, keep a full HoT stack on the tank and be ready with big heals if Lava Bolt is not interupted. Dispell the tank to avoid further flame damage. Be ready to move if targetted by Earth Shards. For phase 2, cast Wild Growth on the party during Unrelenting Agony and keep Rejuv on the party in anticipation of that spell. After a party member is Mind Controlled be ready to heal him up from 50%. =~~=~~=~~=~~= = Ozumat = =~~=~~=~~=~~= ~ Mechanics ~ Three phases in this fight. Phase 1 tank grabs all the adds and dps them down. Phase 2 three stationary adds will come and start damaging Neptulon. DPS kills these. Other adds will spawn from the ground. These must be picked up by the tank and kited around the room. After the stationary adds are dead phase 3 will start. Everyone gets a buff which makes them huge but everyone also starts taking stacking shadow damage which increases over time. A squid will appear which must be killed. ~ Healing ~ Stand near the tank in phase 1 so he can take the adds off of you. In phase 2 follow the tank around the room as he kites the adds. Use Nature's Grasp, Barkskin, and Entangling Roots if mobs aggro on you. Towards the end of phase 2 or beginning of phase 3 use Tree of Life and cast Lifebloom, and Rejuv on the entire part. When phase 3 starts use Wild Growth on cooldown and keep the Lifebloom and Rejuv stacks an each party member. Tranquility may be needed. ||====:====:====:====:====:====|| || Heroic The Stonecore || ||====:====:====:====:====:====|| ~ Notable Trash & Gimmicks ~ The Crystalspawn Giants stomp the ground. Jump when the casting bar is at like 70% to avoid damage from this. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Corborus = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ::Abilities:: Crystal Shards: Direct damage to the target and anyone standing in it. Move out of the shards and dps them down ASAP before the morph into explosive adds. Dampening Wave: Deals minor damage to the party and absorbs 15000 healing. Healer should heal this debuff off the tank then let it fade before healing the rest of the party. ~ Mechanics ~ This is a two phase fight. In phase 1 Corborus attacks the tank. Periodically he will target a random player with Crystal Shards. Unless the Shards are destroyed an add will spawn in them and cause damage to any target it touches. Corborus will also cast Dampening Wave periodically. Quickly kill the Crystal Shards and this fight is a simple. After a minute or so he will go underground and begin phase 2. In phase 2 adds will come. Corborus will also pop out from under the ground, killing any target standing in the area. This will look like dust coming from the ground so move if you see the dust coming from beneath you. Adds will also come in phase 2. Tank should aggro these and DPS kill them. ~ Healing ~ In phase 1, be ready to heal the target that gets hit with Crystal Shards or move if it targets you. The Dampening Wave debuff that absorbs healing and causes minor damage is not much of a concern. Simply use a Healing Touch on the tank to eliminate it and wait for it to disappear from the party. Follow this with a Wild Growth. The debuff can be dispelled if necessary. Adds will aggro onto you in phase 2. Use Nature's Grasp and Barkskin. Keep moving to avoid Corborus from popping up underneath you. Run back to the tank after this phase so he can aggro the remaining mobs off of you. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Slabhide = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ::Abilities:: Crystal Storm: Deals massive damage to anyone in her LoS. Move behind a stalagtite to prevent. ~ Mechanics ~ Slabhide has a ground and air phase. In air phase stalagtites will drop from from the ceiling onto a spot on the ground marked with a black circle. Move away from the black circle. On the ground phase puddles of dust will appear which quickly turn into puddles of flame. Move out of these to avoid taking damage. Slabhide will also cast Crystal Storm during the ground phase. Anyone within her line of site will take damage. Hide behind a stalagtite to avoid taking damage. DPS can avoid all damage in this fight. If they take damage or die it is their fault. ~ Healing ~ Avoid the stalagtites falling from the ceiling and dodge the flame puddles on the ground. Move behind the stalagtites when Crystal Storm begins. The only tricky thing about healing this fight is mainting line of sight (LoS) with the tank. Try to stay within his line of sight at all times while still maintaining a path of retreat for the Crystal Storm. Have HoTs on the tank in case LoS issues arise. =~~=~~=~~=~~= = Ozruk = =~~=~~=~~=~~= ::Abilities:: Elementium Bulwark: Reflects spells back to the caster for 10 seconds. Paralyze: Prevents the party from moving until they take damage. Either reflect a DoT on you during Elementium Bulwark or melee him to take damage. Ground Slam: Deals damge to anyone within 8 yards of him. Happens right after a Paralyze. Move away from him after the Paralyze. Shatter: Deals damage in a cone in front of him. Tank must face the boss away from the party then move behind the boss or to his side to avoid. ~ Mechanics ~ This fight depends on the skill of the tank. The boss casts two spells that will almost certainly kill anyone hit by them--Ground Slam and Shatter. To avoid the paralyze, ranged DPS and healers have to cast a DoT spell on Ozruk when he uses Elementium Bulwark. This will reflect the DoT onto you. Then when paralyzed the DoT will damage you and break the paralysis. Melee DPS and tanks get a DoT by hitting Ozruk with a melee hit. The tank has to get the DoT from Ozruk. Shortly after Paralysis, Ground Slam will occur so all melee must be ready to move away. Tank should always face the boss away from the party. When Shatter is being cast, tank has to move to the other side of the boss to avoid the Shatter. ~ Healing ~ Cast Moonfire or Insect Swarm after Ozruk casts Elementium Bulwark. Hope that your tank knows what he is doing. The boss does so little damage that if you die, you can run back in and rejoin the fight (make sure to heal yourself before taking the teleport). =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = High Priestess Azil = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ::Abilities:: Gravity Well: Causes damage to anyone in it. Causes adds in it to die. Kite the adds into it. Force Grip: Causes damage to whoever is targetted by it. Can be interrupted. ~ Mechanics ~ Two phase fight. Phase 1 she summons Gravity Wells and adds. The adds die if they go into the wells so either kite the adds through the wells or position yourself so that the adds aggro you by running across the well. She also casts Force Grip which can be interrupted. In Phase 2 she goes back to her pillar and summons three huge boulders. Watch for dust on the ground which indicate where she will throw the next boulder. Avoid standing there or the boulder will kill you. Continue to dps the adds or kite them through the wells. It helps if tanks can pick up these adds and keep them off the healer. Also helps if the DPS kills these adds. ~ Healing ~ Adds will aggro onto you throughout the fight. Position yourself by the side of a Gravity Well so the adds can die by running through it or so you can kite the adds into it. Nature's Grasp and Barkskin are helpful here or stand near the tank. Watch out for Force Grip and be ready to heal that target up. Be ready to dispell her Curse of Blood which causes the target to take extra physical damage. Do not get hit by a rock in phase 2. ||====:====:====:====:====:====|| || Heroic Vortex Pinnacle || ||====:====:====:====:====:====|| Probably the easiest Heroic. ~ Notable Trash & Gimmicks ~ It is all pretty easy. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Grand Vizier Ertan = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ~ Mechanics ~ Stack on the boss. Pew pew. ~ Healing ~ The party will take damage when the boss summons in the cyclones. Use Wild Growth, Rejuv, and Swiftmend at this time. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Altairus = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ~ Mechanics ~ The boss summons cyclones which cause damage and throw you up into the air. They can also throw you out of the bosses area and kill you. Avoid the cyclones and the fight is easy. Wind will also start swirling around the boss. DPS and healers should stand up-wind of the boss for a buff that boosts your movement speed and spellcast time. If you are down-wind of the boss you will get a debuff which slows your casting time. The boss will also target a party member and breathe fire on him, damaging the target and nearby enemies. Tank should taunt the dragon at this time so the damage is taken by the tank. You may be wondering, hey Panis how do you see which way the wind is swirling so I can get up-wind? Sorry, I have no idea. Resto Druids do not really need the buff. If I do want it I just run to where the DPS is standing or move around a bit til I get the buff. ~ Healing ~ First priority is to avoid the tornados. Keep a HoT stack on the tank. Most of the time Swiftmend, Wild Growth, and Rejuv will be enough to keep people healed up so you do not have to move into the buff. If people start to take too much damage, move to get the buff or turn into ToL form and insta-cast Regrowth. =~~=~~=~~=~~= = Asaad = =~~=~~=~~=~~= ~ Mechanics ~ When the boss casts a triangle of lightning on the ground move into it or you will die. Spread out afterwards for the chain lightning. If you jump at 60% of the cast time of Static Shock then you can avoid the debuff and get an achievement. ~ Healing ~ Move into the triangle of lightning. If people do not jump and get hit by Static Shock then decurse them (or wait until the next Static Shock when applicable). Pattern is Static Shock -> triangle -> Static Shock -> Static Shock -> triangle -> Static Shock -> Static Shock -> triangle -> (he's still alive?!) -> Static Shock -> Static Shock -> triangle ||====:====:====:====:====:====:====:====|| || Heroic Lost City of the Tol'vir || ||====:====:====:====:====:====:====:====|| ~ Notable Trash & Gimmicks ~ None of note. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = General Husam = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ::Abilities:: Shockwave: Causes damage in four lines out from teh boss. Bad Intentions: Damages and throws a random member up in the air. Detonate Traps: Causes mines to explode. Cannot be seen unless graphics are on good or better setting. ~ Mechanics ~ Husam will throw mines on the ground. Do not walk on top of them or you will take damage. He will also target a random member with Bad Intentions. He will cast Shockwave in a line, which should be moved out of. Periodically he will use Detonate Traps which causes the mines to explode and damage nearby members. Move away from the mines. Have your graphics set to Good or higher in order to see the mines during Detonate Traps. Move out of the way of Shockwave and do not stand on the mines. If you die in this fight it is because you made a mistake. ~ Healing ~ Avoid the mines and Shockwave. Keep LoS with the tank around the pillars. Be ready with a Healing Touch for the Bad Intentions target. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Lockmaw & Augh = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= Ranged DPS and the healer can stand on the Croc statue behind the boss for the Lockmaw fight. This keeps the adds from aggroing and damaging them and allows you to avoid Augh's whirlwind. ~ Mechanics ~ Phase 1 you dps Lockmaw and Augh will occasionally join the battle. Lockmaw will cast Scent of Blood on a random member. That person has to run to the tank so the tank can get aggro on the adds. DPS can then kill the adds. Avoid Lockmaw's tail swipe by standing away from the tail. Augh will join the battle by targeting a random member and casting Whirlwind. Move away from the Whirlwind. Phase 2 begins when Lockmaw is dead. The party is out of combat so can drink and heal up before killing Augh. Move away from Augh when he begins casting whirlwind. ~ Healing ~ Both bosses cast a poison debuff which should be removed. Both also enrage at low health so be ready for some bigger heals at that time. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = High Prophet Barim = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ::Abilities:: Fifty Lashings: Boss's melee attack gets stronger. Extra heals or a defensive cooldown at this time. Plague of Ages: Causes nature damage and jumps to nearby targets. Can be dispelled. Heaven's Fury: Flame pillar on a random target. Move out of it. ~ Mechanics ~ This is a two phase fight. Phase 1 he will summon a phoenix. A ranged DPS can either kite this or the DPS can kill it. This should be moved away from the tank to avoid the flame AoE. He will also call down a pillar of fire on a random member. Move out of this. Fifty Lashings gives the boss a buff to his melee attacks. Phase two begins at 50% of the boss's life. He will summon a dark phoenix which must be killed to end the phase. Periodically a player will get targetted and summon a Soul Fragment. Kill the add before it reaches the dark phoenix or the boss will get a buff and do more damage. Try to stun or snare the Soul Fragment while the tank moves the dark phoenix away. Phase 1 begins again when the dark phoenix is dead. ~ Healing ~ Be ready for extra tank healing when Fifty Lashings begins. Move out of the pillar of fire. In phase 2 everyone will take shadow damage so keep Wild Growth and Rejuv up on the party. Use Tree of Life form so that you can use instant Entangling Roots on Soul Fragments and roll Lifebloom on the party. If a Soul Fragment reaches the dark phoenix, expect the tank to take extra damage. =~~=~~=~~=~~= = Siamat = =~~=~~=~~=~~= ~ Mechanics ~ Phase 1 the boss takes reduced damage from a shield. Kill the three Servant of Siamat adds to drop the shield and begin damaging the boss (phase 2). When the adds die they drop a debuff on the ground that increases damage taken by 33%. In phase 1 the ranged adds cast Chain Lightning which should be interrupted. Avoid standing in the green stuff on the ground which causes damage. Phase 2 begins after the third Servant dies. Siamat will then cast Wailing Winds which tosses everyone around the platform. Continue to interupt the Minion's chain lightning and damage the boss. ~ Healing ~ Have everyone near full life at the end of Phase 1 as it will be hard to heal when being tossed around by Wailing Winds. Try to conserve mana when possible as this fight can drag on. Wild Growth plus Rejuv on the party when necessary. Save your Tree of Life form and Tranquility for Phase 2 if things begin getting dangerous. Tree of Life form in phase two plus Lifeblooms on everyone is very useful for this fight. ||====:====:====:====:====:====:====|| || Heroic Halls of Origination || ||====:====:====:====:====:====:====|| ~ Notable Trash & Gimmicks ~ There is a gauntlet between the first and second bosses. Avoid the troggs in this gauntlet as they will continue to spawn and just go straight for the elementals. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Temple Guardian Anhuur = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ::Abilities:: Burning Light: Blue fire spawns under a random member. Move out of this. Divine Reckoning: Hurts target and heals the boss. Dispell this. ~ Mechanics ~ Two phase fight. Phase 1 dps the boss. He occasionally casts Burning Light on a party member. Move out of the blue flames. Dispell Divine Reckoning. At 66% and 33% the boss will become protected by a shield and invulnerable to damage. Beneath the boss's platform there is a pit. On each side of the pit there is a lever. The two levers must be pressed to release the shield. To release the shield both levers must be held for 10 seconds. However there are snakes in the pit. If the snake hits you it will interrupt the lever press. One person must aggro the snakes while someone else presses the lever. Once the shield is down the boss will cast a spell that damages everyone until he is interrupted. There are multiple ways to do this fight: 1) The tank grabs the snakes at the beginning of the fight. No one dps's the snakes. When the boss puts up his shield, one person drops down to each side and presses the lever. DO NOT dps the the snakes or they will die and respawn down in the pit. 2) The entire group drops down to the same side. The tank aggro's the snakes, and quickly moves to the other lever and aggro's those snakes. He then quickly moves back to the boss. One dps gets each lever and the third dps kills the snakes. 3) 2 people drop down to each side of the platform. One person aggro's the snakes while the other pulls the lever. I recommend 1) if the tank and healer are good. 2) otherwise. The problem with 3) is at least two people are out of the healers range for an extended period. This forces the healer to expend a lot of mana trying to heal them up and leaves the damaged party members vulnerable. ~ Healing ~ Move out of the blue flame. Dispell the debuff. Always stick with the tank. It is much easier to keep someone at full life or near full life then it is to try to heal them up from low life. Use strategy 2) and be generous with your Wild Growth and Rejuvs. Pop ToL form if you need to cast some Regrowths on the move. Barkskin and Nature's Grasp if the tank fails to aggro the snakes on you. If you do strategy 3) cast a Rejuv on people who are going to leave your LoS and stick with the tank. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Earthrager Ptah = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= (optional) ~ Mechanics ~ The boss cleaves so only the tank should stand in front of him. The boss disappears at 50% and adds come. Stack on the tank and dps down the adds. ~ Healing ~ Yawn. It's so sleepy in here. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Anraphet = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ::Abilities:: Alpha Beams: Shadow damage to anyone standing in it. Move out of it. Omega Stance: Damage to the entire party. Heal through it. Nemesis Strike: Extra melee damage and shadow damge over time. Dispell it. ~ Mechanics ~ The boss casts five Alpha Beams and then he will shift into Omega Stance. Move out of the Alpha Beams. The boss casts Nemesis Strike on the tank which should be dispelled. Everyone should spread out so that each Alpha Beam only hits one person. Be prepared to move quickly when the boss targets you with Alpha Beam. It is easier for the healer if people group up during Omega Stance for AoE heals but this is not essential. ~ Healing ~ I like to do this entire fight without standing still. HoT stack and dispells on the tank. Rejuv on the Alpha Beam target with a Swiftmend if needed. Have Wild Growth available for Omega Stance and follow it up with Rejuv on each party member. Cast Regrowth during Omega Stance to proc your Nature's Grace and heal everyone up. ToL form for instant Regrowth. After you are targetted with an Alpha Beam, it is usually safe to stand still and cast Healing Touch where needed. Until you are targetted by Alpha Beam I like to keep moving. =~~=~~=~~=~~= = Isiset = =~~=~~=~~=~~= (optional) ::Abilities:: Supernova: Stuns any target looking at her. Turn away. Astral Rain: AoE damage to the party. Veil of Sky: Spell damage is partially damages her mana instead of her health. Celestial Call: Summons an add. Split: Splits into multiple targets. ~ Mechanics ~ At 66% the boss will split into three targets. At 33% the boss will split into two targets. All DPS should focus on one target. When the target is dead the boss will reform. When she splits into multiple targets, killing the target will prevent her from casting that spell any more. I.e. kill the Celestial Call target and that spell will no longer be cast. I recommned killing Celestial Call, then Astral Rain, but the order is not important. Another ability to be aware of is Supernova. Simply turn away to avoid. This effect can be dispelled. ~ Healing ~ Face away from the boss during Supernova (or the entire fight) and dispell the fails if needed. Move to avoid the arcane thing on the ground if it is following you. Astral Rain is simple to heal through with Rejuv and Wild Growth. =~~=~~=~~=~~= = Ammunae = =~~=~~=~~=~~= (optional) ~ Mechanics ~ Fairly straightforward. Ammunae will drop seed pods on the ground. When these hatch adds will come out and the boss will be healed. Kill the pods ASAP and the boss will go down quickly. The boss will also grab a target from time to time and cast Rampant Growth, which are both easy to heal through. ~ Healing ~ This fight is about the DPS making sure to kill the pods. =~~=~~=~~=~~= = Setesh = =~~=~~=~~=~~= (optional) ::Abilities:: Seed of Chaos: Green painful bubbles on the ground. Move away from these. Shadow Missle: Slowly fires at a target leaving a pool of shadow on the ground. Move to avoid and do not stand in the shadow. ~ Mechanics ~ The boss cannot be aggro'd. He runs around the room opening portals. The DPS has to kill the portals ASAP or too many adds will come and the group will wipe. The tank will pick up any adds from the portals. The DPS resumes damaging the boss when the portals are destroyed. Periodically the boss will cast Seed of Chaos. Move away during this. He will also cast projectiles which leave a painful pool of shadow in the ground. Move to avoid. DPS only kills the portals and the boss. Let the tank worry about the adds. ~ Healing ~ Your HoTs will aggro the adds from the portal. Help the tank out and stay near him as he runs around the room. This makes it easier for him to grab adds from you. Nature's Grasp and Barkskin when needed. Avoid standing in the painful stuff on the ground--leave that for the bad DPS. This fight can last a bit so try to conserve mana by using Tree of Life form and casting Life Blooms on everyone and Regrowth/Healing Touch only on Omen of Clarity procs. =~~=~~=~~= = Rajh = =~~=~~=~~= ~ Mechanics ~ Rajh needs to be interrupted. He casts Sun Orb, which should be interrupted before it causes big damage to the tank. He also casts Inferno Leap which will target a random member. The random member can move out of this--the indicator is a circle of flame on the ground--or this too can be interupted. Throughout the fight the party will take minor flame damage and flame cyclones will move through the room. Rajh will periodically move to the center of the room and recharge his energy. At this time everyone takes damage but everyone also deals double damage. Use Bloodlust or Time Warp at this time. ~ Healing ~ This is easy to heal through if the boss is interrupted. Keep Rejuvs on everyone and Wild Growth and Swiftmend on cooldown. Pop ToL form during the recharging phase or to conserve mana by blooming everyone one and using Regrowth/Healing Touch only on Omen of Clarity procs. ||====:====:====:====:====|| || Heroic Grim Batol || ||====:====:====:====:====|| ~ Notable Trash & Gimmicks ~ Free the dragons caught in the nets. Ride these and spam fireballs on the trash to damage them down. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = General Umbriss = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= (optional) ::Abilities:: Blitz: Targets a random target then charges them. Strafe to either side if he targets you. Ground Siege: Targets a random direct. Move to the side to avoid. Bleeding Wound: Causes damage over time to the tank. Dispelled if tank is healed to over 90% of his life. ~ Mechanics ~ Adds come from the back of the room. If the purple glowing add is killed near the boss he gets a huge strength buff. The tank should grab the boss and all the normal Trogg adds while a DPS pulls the purple add away from the boss and kills it. DPS should kill all other adds too but take special care when working on the purple add. Umbriss will occassionally set his eyes on someone and begin to cast Blitz or Ground Siege. Dodge to the side to avoid either one. ~ Healing ~ Be ready for adds to aggro onto you. Barkskin and Nature's Grasp when needed. Keep an eye on the boss and be ready to dodge the Ground Siege and Blitz. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Forgemaster Throngus = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ~ Mechanics ~ Forgemaster has three modes. Each mode will begin by him grabbing a weapon. Throughout each mode flame pools will fall on the ground and rocks will fall from the ceiling. Do not stand in this or you will take a lot of damage. This may be the hardest boss for a healer so help him out by avoiding unnecessary damage. When Forgemaster grabs a mace, he moves slowly but hits very hard. The boss must be kited. During this phase he will occassionally grab and impale a target. DPS watch your aggro as the tank will not be able to melee the boss. When Forgemaster grabs his shield, he deals damage in front of him. The group must run behind him. When he shifts his direction move behind him again. When Forgemaster grabs his dual blades he deals a lot of damage to the tank and leaves a stacking debuff on him. Healer must occassionally dispell this while the healer and tank burn defensive cooldowns. ~ Healing ~ This may be the toughest Heroic fight to heal. During dual blades phase keep a full stack on the tank plus Regrowth to trigger Nature's Grace. Occassionally dispell the debuff on the tank. If you are hit by Disorienting Roar, your cast time will be much longer. Cast three instant spells to remove this. On the mace phase, heal the party up as the tank will not take much damage. Be ready to drop big heals on the impaled target. Shield phase is a pain. Use Wild Growth and Swiftmend on cooldown. All targets should have a Rejuv on them at all times. Barkskin is good to use here. Save your Tranquility to late in the fight but use Tree of Life early to conserve mana. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Drahga Shadowburner = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= (optional) ~ Mechanics ~ The boss will summon flame adds throughout the fight. The flame add will randomly target a member. If the flam reaches that member it will blow up, likely killing the target and anyone nearby. The DPS must stun, slow, snare, and kill the adds ASAP. If you are targetted by the add run away so the DPS has more time to kill it. Phase 1 is simply dps'ing Drahga while killing the flame adds. Phase 2 Drahga disappears and a dragon appears. Keep dps'ing the flame adds. The dragon will periodically cast a huge breath attack at a random target. Move behind the dragon or you will take a bunch of damage. This attack is the same as this dragon uses in the raid Bastion of Twilight. Practice dodging it here so you are ready for the raid. ~ Healing ~ Healing this fight is easy. However people really struggle with the mechanics so be ready to help them out. Root every fire add. Twice if needed. Glyphing Entangling Roots can help out. Root then run away if the flame add aggro's you. Be ready to move behind the dragon when she casts her breath. This means standing somewhat near the boss so it is easy to get behind her, not standing 30 yards away and beginning to move when she casts her breath. Kitty form, Dash and Barkskin if you need it to get to the other side of her. =~~=~~=~~=~~= = Erudax = =~~=~~=~~=~~= ::Abilities:: Summon Faceless Corruptions: Two adds come. These must be dps'd down quickly or the boss will regain life and eggs will hatch causing damge to the party. Summon Gale: Summons a storm killing anyone not in the eye of the storm. Move into the eye. Feeble Body: Tank takes more damage and is knocked back. Tank should run away until this debuff fades. Binding Shadows: Shadow missle on a random target. Strafe to avoid. Dispell if someone is hit by it or they will be unable to move and take damage. ~ Mechanics ~ The boss will summon two adds. These adds have to be dps'd down before they reach the eggs. If they are dps'd down, the fight is the easiest in this place. If they are not dps'd down, you will likely wipe. When the adds reach the eggs they will release something that causes party damage and heals the boss. The adds can be slowed but not stunned. I.e. Frost Trap can slow the adds, but Freeze Trap will not stop an add. Split the DPS up to ensure equal DPS on each add. The tank should also dps an add. Before summoning the add the boss has three abilities. One is Summon Gale. The boss will cast a spell that damages everyone not standing in the eye of the storm. Move into the eye--it is a black circly on the ground--or die. When the boss casts Feeble Body, the tank should run away until it fades. The third ability is Binding Shadows. This can be dodged by moving out of the way. Dispell it if someone is hit so they can move to DPS the adds. ~ Healing ~ If the DPS does their job this fight is simple. Move into the Shadow Gale. Be ready to cast some extra Healing Touches after Feeble Body if the tank is bad. Be ready to dispell if the DPS is bad and does not move out of Binding Shadows. If an add does reach the eggs and begins to hatch then it gets difficult. Everyone will begin to take damage. Wild Growth on cooldown, Rejuv on each party member, Swiftmend and Efforesence when people group up in the middle. ||====:====:====:====:====:====|| || Heroic Shadowfang Keep || ||====:====:====:====:====:====|| ~ Notable Trash & Gimmicks ~ After killing the first two bosses there is a ghost near the entrance who you can talk to in order to teleport to places further in the dungeon after wipes. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Baron Ashbury = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ::Abilities:: Asphyxiate: Brings everyone down to 1 health. Stay of Execution: Heals the boss and the party for 10% of their health every second. Let it tick once or twice before interrupting. Wracking Pain: Damages a target. Interrupt or dispell. Mend Rotting Flesh: Heals the boss. Interrupt. Dark Angel Form: Boss morphs at 20% life and causes massive AoE shadow damage. ~ Mechanics ~ Good interrupts are essential to this fight. The boss will cast Asphyxiate every so often bringin all party members down to 1 health. He will then cast Stay of Execution, healing himself and the party. After the Asphyxiate, let the Stay of Execution tick one or two times before interrupting it. If you interrupt before any ticks, then the entire party will have low health and be vulnerable to death. If you interrupt too late the boss will gain all his life back. The boss also casts Wracking Pain which needs to be interrupted or dispelled. It does not hit for too much but since everyone is at low life after the Asphyxiate it is deadly. Interrupt the Mend Rotting Flesh before it heals him. At 20% he will go into Dark Angel form and cast AoE shadow damage on the party. This gets stronger and stronger and will eventually kill the group. The important thing is not to push the boss under 20% right after an Asphyxiate as the party will have low health. Let the healer heal up, push the boss below 20% then burn all cooldowns. Lust or Time Warp if you have it. ~ Healing ~ Keep a Rejuv on the tank at all times. After an Asphyxiate Swiftmend and then Wild Growth. If no Rejuv is on the tank drop a Regrowth then Swiftmend the tank. Save your Tree of Life form and Tranquility for when the boss gets under 20%. If the DPS is bad at interrupts be ready to dispell Wracking Pain. There is no need to fully heal the DPS after an Asphyxiate (as the next Asphyxiate will get them down to 1 health) unless the party is about to push the boss into the Dark Angel phase. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Baron Silverlaine = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ~ Mechanics ~ DPS the boss. The boss summons adds. Kill the adds, then go back to dps'ing the boss. ~ Healing ~ The boss casts a debuff which reduces healing taken by 75%. Remove this from the tank and keep him full. When the debuff falls off the other party members, resume healing the party. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Commander Springvale = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= (optional) ::Abilities:: Shield of the Perfidious: Does damage in a cone in front of the boss. Tank should turn the boss and DPS remain behind him. Desecration: Green circle on the ground that causes anyone standing in it to take damage. ~ Mechanics ~ The boss starts with two adds. If the adds or left up, they will cast a buff on the boss that heals him. More adds will come periodically throughout the fight. If your DPS is good you can ignore the adds and burn the boss down (or just kill the first two adds and burn the boss down). The adds can be shackled. The proper way to do the fight is to kill the adds, then the boss, then have the tank grab the adds that come throughout the fight, kill those, and then the boss. This is made more difficult by two of the bosses abilities. Desecration causes damage to anyone standing in it and forces the tank to move. Shield of the Perfidious will damage anyone standing in front of him. As the tank will be grabbing adds throughout the fight the boss will be turned around, making it more difficult to stand behind the boss or for the tank to turn the boss, causing the Shield of Perfidious attack to cause more damage. ~ Healing ~ This is not an easy fight to heal. Position yourself so the tank can easily pull adds off of you. Use your Barkskin when the adds aggro. Keep a full HoT stack on the tank and be ready to Rejuv the tank and melee dps when the boss drops his green damaging circle on the ground. Save your Tranquility for as late into the fight as you can stand it. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Lord Walden = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ~ Mechanics ~ The boss will mix different potions for various effects. The Green potion means everyone has to move. If you stand still you will die. The blue potion casts ice shards round the room. Do not stand where the shards are about to fall. The red potion increases critical strike chance by 100% for as long as you remain stationary. Red light green light game brought to WoW. ~ Healing ~ Either people will move during the green phase and live or they will stand still and die. I just run around for the entire fight but you can stop or simply jump up and down if you would like. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Lord Godfrey = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ~ Mechanics ~ Fairly straightforward. The boss will summon adds which the tank must pick up. He will periodically cast Pistol Barrage in front of him. The tank should point the boss away from the party and when Pistol Barrage starts, move to the side of it to avoid the damage. ~ Healing ~ Keep the tank at full health. The boss will cast a Cursed Bullet at a random party member. Dispell this and heal the target up. ||====:====:====:====:====|| || Heroic Deadmines || ||====:====:====:====:====|| ~ Notable Trash & Gimmicks ~ My least favorite Heroic. I cannot stand this place. Hop into the cannons to do more DPS. Stack on the pirates to avoid their charge. =~~=~~=~~=~~= = Glubtok = =~~=~~=~~=~~= ~ Mechanics ~ Very easy fight. Phase 1 Glubtok will teleport around the room. At 50% he moves to the middle of the room. He will cast a line of fire on the ground which rotates around the room. Do not stand in this. He drops ice shards from the ceiling. Avoid these by not standing in the blue circle. Flame adds will come which the tank should pick up. ~ Healing ~ Avoid the wall of flame, do not stand underneath where the ice falls. Stick with the tank so he can get the adds off of you. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Helix Gearbreaker = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ~ Mechanics ~ Helix starts on top of an oaf. Kill the oaf then Helix. Helix's minions will drop mines from the ceiling. Do not stand near these. The oaf will occasionally pick someone up then slam them against the wall. Do not stand in this path (do not stand on the tracks). Helix will also grab onto someone's chest and plant a bomb. If you have the bomb attached to you move away from the group. ~ Healing ~ Watch who Helix and the Oaf target. Be ready to heal this person up. Drop a Rejuv on them before they take damage and follow it up with a Swiftmend and a Healing Touch. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Foe Reaper 5000 = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ::Abilities:: Overdrive: Causes more damage to anyone dumb enough to still be near him when he channels it. Harvest: Targets a spot on the ground then runs towards it dealing massive damage to anyone dumb enough to be in the path. ~ Mechanics ~ Adds will come throughout the fight. One person has to ride in a Reaper bot and kill the adds. This person should hit 1, 1, 2 (damage, damage, stun) to kill the adds and keep them off the group. The tank will pull the boss up the ramp a short ways. The boss casts two spells: Overdrive and Harvest. Move up the ramp to avoid these abilities. Once the abilities are over, pull the boss down the ramp a bit. ~ Healing ~ HoT the tank and heal the Reaper bot where needed. Run up the ramp during Overdrive and Harvest. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Admiral Ripsnarl = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ~ Mechanics ~ The Admiral will summon adds at 75%, 50% and 25% health. Kill the adds ASAP or they will grow stronger and do massive dammage to the party. Keep the adds under control and this fight is pretty simple. DPS down the Admiral, switch to the adds, and then back to the Admiral. The Admiral does a cleave so do not stand in front of him. ~ Healing ~ This fight can last a bit so be ready to use Tree of Life form to conserve mana. Stay somewhat near the tank so he can get adds off of you but not too close or the boss will damage you. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = "Captain" Cookie = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ~ Mechanics ~ The boss will drop good food and bad food on the ground. Eating good food increases your haste by 30% and stacks. Bad food causes a green painful swirl on the ground--do not stand in this. Eating bad food causes damage. However if no one eats bad food there will be nowhere safe to stand and everyone will take too much damage to heal through. The good food will be shiny and gold, the bad fool will be green. Eat a piece of bad food then a piece of good food. This removes a piece of bad food from the ground then gives you a buff. Doing this allows you to keep the ground clear of bad food and gives the party plenty of time to kill the boss. ~ Healing ~ Help people out by clearing the bad food and then eating good food to remove the bad food debuff. Rejuv the party and Wild Growth on cooldown. This fight can drag so use Tree of Life form to conserve mana and stack Lifeblooms on all party members. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Vanessa VanCleef = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= The boss comes when someone reads the note on the ground. Before fighting Vanessa the party must go through the nightmare. If you die in any phase then run into the zone and take the teleporter. Part 1 of the nightmare, the party is hanging over a vat of fire. Mouse over the valves and click to free yourself. The party must then run down the ramp to nightmare Glubtok. Either run down the ramp avoiding the fire on the ground and ice falling from the ceiling or very quickly drop off the side of the ramp before the flames start. Kill Glubtok and avoid the falling ice. Nightmare Helix is next and is the toughest part of the nightmare. Burn all cooldowns at this phase and Lust if you have it. Spider adds will come but these do not need to be dps'd down. The phase ends when Helix dies so focus on him. The tank should pick up the spider adds if any aggro onto the party. Phase 3 has the party dodging shiny lightning orbs. Do not touch these or you will die. Dodge the orbs til you reach the foe reaper. Kill him. Phase 4 of the nightmare has you running back up the ship. Kill the worgens while healing the Harrisons. If either Harrison dies then the party will wipe. Run to the top of the ship to find Vanessa and start the fight. ~ Mechanics ~ Adds come throughout the fight. Kill them then resume dps'ing the boss. At 50%, 25% and 0% the boss will set off explosives. Move over to the ropes and click them in order to swing off the ship. If you do not reach a rope in time you will die. DPS can stand in the red bubbles to get a dps bonus but they will also take more damage standing in the circle. ~ Healing ~ Stand near the tank so he can grab the adds off of you. Be ready to run to the ropes and jump off. ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^================================================ ^ IX. CATACLYSM RAIDS ^ ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^=[9.0]========================================== All raids can be run once every week. Killing a boss in a raid gets you saved to that raid. Each boss killed grants 70 Valor Points in 10 man raids and 90 Valor Points in 25 man raids. To reach to Valor Point cap (assuming you run your Heroic Daily every day) you must kill 11 bosses in 10 man raids or 9 bosses in 25 man raids. For all raids you should come prepared with Flasks of the Draconic Mind, Severed Sagefish heads, Mythical Mana Potions, and Potions of Concentration. ||====:====:====:====|| || Baradin Hold || ||====:====:====:====|| [9.1] Baradin Hold is located in Tol Barad. To enter this dungeon, your side must have control of Tol Barad. The entrance is located to the west side of Baradin Keep in the basement beneath it. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Pit Lord Argaloth = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ::Abilities:: Meteor Slash: Massive damage to a target and any nearby members. Causes a debuff which causes fire damage to increase. Must be absorbed by multiple members. A group cannot survive two Meteor Slash's in a row so tanks must alternate taunting the boss and taking Meteor Slash's. Consuming Darkess: Deals shadow damage every .5 seconds. Must be dispelled asap. Fel Firestorm: Damage to anyone standing in the flames. Targets random members. Must move around to avoid. Cast at 66% and 33% life. ~ Mechanics ~ This boss is a DPS check. The DPS in the group must be able to collectively average 10,000 dps or higher. The boss must be killed within five minutes or he will go Berserk and kill everyone. This fight requires two tanks. The raid will form into two equally split groups. Each group will have one tank. Stack on your tank. The boss will cast Meteor Slash on the tank who has aggro. The tanks will swap aggro after each Meteor Slash. The tank that is not being targetted by the boss will taunt after the first Meteor Slash and the other tank will taunt back after the second Meteor Slash. This will cause damage that is split among all party members he is facing, thus the need to stack. Meteor Slash will also leave a debuff on the target which increases fire damage taken. If a group takes two Meteor Slashes in a row they will die, thus the need for the tanks to swap taunts after every Meteor Slash. At 66% and 33% the boss will cast Fel Firestorm. At this point the group must spread out and avoid the flames on the ground. Move around until it ends then stack back up in your original groups. Lust when the boss has 25% health remaining. Throughout the fight healers will have to quickly dispell Consuming Darkness, which causes Shadow damage every .5 seconds that it is active. ~ Healing ~ Healers must quickly dispell the debuff--start with the lowest health target-- and conserve mana so that they have enough throughout the fight. Full HoT stack on the tank who has aggro. Plant a pre-emptive Rejuv on a target in that tanks group prior to the Meteor Slash. Cast Wild Growth and Swiftmend after each Meteor Slash and then Rejuv and Nourish where needed to top people off. Cast your Innervate and Tree of Life early so that it can be used later in the fight. Move around when Fel Firestorm starts and heal the bad players who get hit by the fire. ||====:====:====:====:====:====|| || Throne of the Four Winds || ||====:====:====:====:====:====|| [9.2] Throne of the Four Winds is located in the southwest part of Ulduar floating in the sky. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Conclave of Wind = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= [9.2a] Coordinating raid movement is essential to beating Conclave. There are three bosses on three platforms. Someone must be on each platform throughout the fight. The bosses must be killed within 90 seconds of each other or they reset to full life. This is a two tank fight. = East Platform - Rohash = Rohash does not require a tank. Only a healer and ranged DPS. In 10 man you want 1 healer and 2 ranged DPS on this platform to begin the fight. ::Rohash Abilities:: Slicing Gale: Minor damage to a random target. Tornado: Summons a tornado on the platform. Do not get caught in this. Wind Blast: Rotates around the platform, knocking anyone in front of him on the platform off. This should be avoided and may result in a wipe if people are knocked off. Hurricane: Rohash's ultimate ability. Cast when he gains 90 energy. Everyone on the platform is caugh in a Hurricane and thrown into the air. Causes minor damage and some fall damage when you land. = West Platform - Anshal = Anshal requires a tank. In 10 man, all melee DPS and 1 healer should start here as well as any ranged DPS not on Rohash's platform. ::Anshal Abilities:: Sooting Breeze: Summons a circle on the ground that heals anyone caught in it, including himself and his adds. The tank must quickly pull Anshal out of this circle before he heals himself. Nurture: Summons adds. These adds do damage to anyone nearby. Tank must aggro the adds and the DPS should dps them down. Zephyr: Anshal's ultimate ability. Heals any adds left alive on the platform. He also gains strength. During this phase, the tank on the platform must kite the boss and use defensive cooldowns. = North Platform - Nezir = Nezir requires a tank. Places a debuff on anyone on this platform that increases frost damage taken. In 10 man start with 1 healer and 1 tank on this platform. ::Nezir Abilities:: Permafrost: Damages any targets in front of him. Only the tank should be in front of him. Chilling Wind: Stacks a frost debuff that increases frost damage taken and deals minor damage. Ice Patch: Drops a patch of ice on the ground that slows and damages anyone standing in it. Move out of it. ~ Mechanics ~ All three bosses must die within 90 seconds of each other. If at any point a boss is alive and no one is on the platform, a raid wiping ability will begin to be cast. Each boss has an energy bar that start at 0 and reach 90 at the same time. Divide your group among the three platforms. A tank on the north and west platforms, sufficient heals on each platform, ranged DPS on the east platform, and melee DPS on the west platform. In 10 man you want 1 healer on each platform, a tank on the north and west platforms, 2 ranged DPS on the east platform and the remainder of your DPS on the west platform. The bosses charge up their energy throughout the fight. At 90 energy the bosses each perform their ultimate ability and you will be unable to move from platform to platform. The North platform ultimate deals damage that is split equally among all players there so everyone except for essential personnel should be on the North platform for the ultimate. In 10 man, this means everyone is there except for the one healer on the east platform and the one healer and tank on the west platform. The east platform should DPS the boss down. At 85 energy the ranged DPS will jump to the North platform and DPS the North boss. They can will then go back to the east boss or stay on the North boss depending on how much life each boss has. Remember that all bosses must die within 90 seconds of each other so you may have to juggle DPS a bit. Healer will remain on the east platform at all times. The North platform will have a tank and healer on it. At 85 energy the tank and healer will jump to the West platform. They must leave the platform because the frost debuff they have will leave them unable to survive Nezir's ultimate. The West platform will attack the boss. The tank must move the boss from the middle of the platform. This is important because if Anshal drops a Soothing Breeze healing circle in the middle of the platform, he will heal to full during his ultimate. When adds are summoned the tank must pick them up and the DPS promptly kill them. Healer, stack on your tank when the adds come so the tank will pull aggro easier. After the tank has aggro move away from the adds unless you are melee as they hurt anyone standing near them. At 85 energy everyone will go to the North platform. DPS can stay at the North platform for a bit after the ultimate but must return to the West platform to kill the adds. Repeat this until all bosses are down to low life. Then you can either: 1.) Kill the west and east bosses at the same time then burn and kill the North boss 2.) Kill the north boss then split into two groups where one gets the west boss and the other gets the east boss. Either strategy is fine, just make sure to have all three bosses down to low health before killing any boss. ~ Healing ~ East platform is about avoiding tornados and staying on the platform. The other healers will be switching back and forth so must be able to heal the North and West platforms. North is simple when there is no ultimate. Simply heal the tank and keep a Rejuv on yourself. During the ultimate Wild Growth and Rejuv's all around. The west platform is simple until the adds come. Stack on the tank so he can aggro the adds then move away. Pre HoT the melee DPS as they will take damage and be ready with big heals on the tank while the adds are still up. I like to use Tree of Life form during this part of the fight. If you are on the West platform for the ultimate, the tank will need big heals if he is unable to kite the boss. =~~=~~=~~=~~= = Al'Akir = =~~=~~=~~=~~= [9.2b] Al'Akir has three phases. The important thing is phase 1 is to stay out of the cyclones, in phase 2 to properly manage the add kills, and in phase 3 to remain on the proper level. Only 1 tank is needed. ::Abilities:: ~ Phase 1 Abilities (100%-80% Health) ~ Wind Burst: Knocks everyone on the platform back. If you are not close when he casts this, then you will be knocked off of the platform. Be near the boss when it is cast. Tornado Wall: Wall of tornados with one hole. Must move through the hole while timing the movement with the Wind Bursts. Lightning: Blast of lightning in a single direction. Must spread out to minimize the amount of people getting hit by lightning. In 10 man, no more than 2 people should be hit. In 25 man, no more than 2 or 3. Sleet Storm: Rains ice and leaves a patch of ice on the ground. Do not stand in this or the patch or you will take damage. ~ Phase 2 Abilities (80% to 30% Health) ~ Wind Burst and Lightning stop in this phase. Tornadow Wall continues. Summon Add: One add comes every 20 seconds. Timing the kill of these adds is important as every add that dies stacks a debuff on the boss. Acid Rain: Stacking debuff ~ Phase 3 Abilities (30%-0% Health) ~ Wind Burst: Now an instant cast. Continues to knock people back and knocks people down slightly. Lightning Rod: Does damage to you and anyone near you. Move away from the group. Cloud wall: Entire altitude is filled with clouds. Dodge by moving vertically up or down. Have to move as a group. = Phase 1 = Phase 1 everyone must spread out in groups of two in 10 man and two/three in 25 man. The boss will cast lightning at a random group. This should not hit more than 2 (3 in 25 man) people. Use the markers on the platform that kind of look like spades to seperate the groups. ~ Positions (10 Man) D----D-BOSS-D----D H ~ Healer T T ~ Tank HD DH D ~ DPS H He periodically casts Wind Burst which will knock everyone back. If you are not close to the boss when he casts Wind Burst you will be knocked off the platform. He will also summon a wall of tornados. There will be one gap in the wall which the group must dodge through. Have someone call out in vent where the gap is. Stay out of the tornados at any cost. It is better to get knocked off the platform by Wind Burst than to get caught in the tornado. It is better to run on top of another group and risk getting more people hit by lightning than to get caught in the tornado. The tank cannot get hit by tornado or it is likely a wipe. In phase 1 your priority should be finding where the hole in the tornado is and doing whatever it takes to run through that hole. If a Wind Burst is coming up either pre-emptively run to the hole in the tornado wall or run away from the tornado wall until after the burst. When the tank is not within melee range of Al'Akir he will be targetted by a lightning beam and take more damage. If you are standing within melee range of Al'Akir, any spell with a cast time will be interrupted by him. He will also rain ice down during phase 1. Do not stand in the ice puddles. = Phase 2 = Phase 2 starts at 80%. You no longer need to worry about lightning or Wind Burst. However now multiple walls of tornados come and you must continue to dodge them. The party should group up in a loose stack near the tank. One person should off-tank the adds (in 10 man a DPS like a Warrior or Death Knight can do this). The adds cause damage to anyone nearby so they should be tanked away from the group. Everytime an add dies the boss gains a debuff and takes more damage. This debuff stacks with each add that dies. The debuff lasts 20 seconds. A new add comes every 20 seconds. Add kills must be timed so that the debuff stacks higher and higher and the boss takes more damage. Do not kill the first add until 10-15 seconds after the second add appears. Then burn down the first add. When the third add appears, kill the second add. When the fourth add appears kills the third add. Try to time your kills so the add dies when the stack on Al'Akir only has a few seconds left. The off-tank should call out over vent when the ranged DPS should start burning the add. In phase 2 the party will take stacking damage from Acid Rain. At some point this becomes unhealable. With proper add management this will not be an issue. At 30% phase 3 starts. = Phase 3 = In phase 3 the platform disappears and everyone can fly around. The important thing is everyone must be on the same altitude but spread out horizontally. Either group up at the top of the boss or at his feet (preferably). Do not fly too far down or you will get burnt by the lightning clouds. The boss will summon clouds of lightning on a random member. This can only be dodged by moving out of it vertically. Eventually there will be too many clouds and no where to dodge vertically. Thus the need to be on the same vertical height. If one person is on a different level and the cloud appears on his level than everyone else will have no where to dodge or be stuck on the wrong side of the cloud. The boss will target a random member with Lightning Rod. Anyone near that target will take heavy electric damage. That member should move away from the group horizontally, staying on the same vertical level. The boss will now cast Wind Burst instantly, knocking people back and down. Group up at the bottom of the boss. Stay on the same vertical heigh in a loose group. When the lightning cloud comes hit space bar to fly up and out of it. Stay on the same vertical height. If you get lightning rod fly horizontally away from the group, staying on the same vertical height. Repeat until the boss is dead or there is no room to fly around in. Pop lust right in Phase 3 when everyone is in position. ~ Healing ~ Phase 1 is more about mechanics than healing. Healers will typically be assigned to groups that only they or one other healer can reach. You will be responsible for keeping those people healed up after the lightning blasts. HoT stack the tank if he is in range. Phase 2 has the Acid Rain debuff stacking up more and more throughout the phase. Wild Growth on cooldown. Spam Rejuv on every member. Continue to dodge tornados and stay away from the stormlings. Tranquility can be used late in this phase, save it for when Acid Rain stacks are very high and right after you dodge a tornado wall. Phase 3 is also more about the mechanics than healing. Stay out of the lightning clouds and fly away horizontally if you have the lightning rod debuff. ||====:====:====:====:====:====|| || The Bastion of Twilight || ||====:====:====:====:====:====|| [9.3] The Bastion of Twilight is located in Twilight Highlands high up in the air on a large platform on the west side of the area. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Halfus Wyrmbreaker = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ~ Mechanics ~ Halfus's abilities change each week depending on which of the 5 drakes are up that week. Each week 3 of the 5 drakes can be talked to, determining which of Halfus's abilities he will perform. Typically in 10 man you want 2 tanks, 3 healers, and 5 DPS. In 25 man you may want a third tank. Below are the drakes listed in preferred order of release: Storm Rider: Halfus gains the ability to perform Shadow Nova. Shadow Nova damages the entire raid and knocks them back. .25 second cast time. Releasing Storm Rider reduces the cast time to 1.5 seconds. Halfus will cast this ability every 8 seconds. Nether Scion: Halfus gains the enrage ability, allowing him to attack more quickly. Releasing the Nether drake will remove this enrage. Time Warden: The Proto-Behemoth behind Halfus gains the Fireball Barage ability, causing damage to raid members it hits. Releasing Time Warden allows the raid to strafe and dodge the Fireball Barage. If Time Warden is the 2nd drake that needs to be released, it is best to release him at the start with the first drake. Emerald Whelps: The Proto-Behemoth behind Halfus causes raid wide damage with his Flame Barrage. Releasing the whelps drastically weakens the Flame Barrage. Slate Dragon: Halfus gains the Malevolent Strikes ability. Every time Halfus hits the tank, the tank will gain a stack of Malevolent Strikes, reducing healing by 8%. The more stacks, the more healing reduced. Tanks must taunt swap Halfus when the stacks get too high (usually around 8 or so). When the debuff fades, the tanks have to swap again. Releasing the Slate Dragon causes Halfus to become periodically stunned. Each week's strategy will depend on the drake comp. I will try to give you an idea of the general mechanics and some various pointers. Halfus has a 5 minute enrage timer. Each drake released causes Halfus to take 50% more damage so you can release all three drakes and beat the time but it is not necessary to do. The typical strategy is to release one or two drakes right after pulling Halfus. Lust right away, have all DPS target and kill one drake, kill the next drake and then either release the third drake or kill Halfus. The beginning of the fight is the hardest part so burn all cooldowns early. At 50% Halfus will begin casting Furious Howl. Furious Howl will prevent all raid members from performing any action for about 10 seconds. All drakes must either be dead before this or you must choose not to release them. If Storm Rider is up this week, Halfus will follow Furious Howl with a Shadow Nova. A mage MUST blink after the third howl and interrupt this Shadow Nova. If Storm Ride is up.... -He must always be released first and at the beginning of the fight -An interrupt rotation must be assigned. Shamans can windshear every Shadow Nova but barring that, a solid rotation must be assigned. -The first Shadow Nova is hard to interrupt but can be done (in Heroic Mode this has to be interrupted) -When Furious Howls start, a Mage must blink out of the third how and interrupt the subsequent Shadow Nova If Nether Drake is up... -He must always be released at the beginning of the fight if Slate Dragon is up or the tank will take too many stacks of Malevolent Strike. Even if Slate Dragon is not up, he should still probably be released at the beginning of the fight. If Time Warden is up... -Release him at the pull if he is the 2nd drake to be released. This will greatly reduce raid healing needed but force the healers to focus more on tank healing If Whelps are up... -The raid will take a lot of damage. This makes the fight much more healing intensive. Try to release these Whelps ASAP to relieve the healing burden. If Slate Dragon is up... -Tanks will have to taunt swap Halfus throughout the fight. Let your stack get to 8 or so then swap, let your stack fall off then swap back. -Avoidance trinkets and cooldowns can prevent Halfus from stacking the debuff on you. -Using the Palidan spell Hand of Protection will remove all stacks. Use this then have the tank remove the buff and taunt back to remove the stack. -If Slate Dragon is the third dragon you are going to release, then do not bother to release him. Simply release the two other drakes, then kill Halfus. ~ Healing ~ The beginning of this fight will be the most healing intensive part. Tree of Life immediately, get Lifebloom stacks on both tanks, and try to keep both stacks active throughout the entire fight. Proc Nature's Grace early and be ready for an early Tranquility if needed. Some combinations drain a lot of mana so Innervate early so it can be up again later in the fight. If Whelps are up... -Be ready for serious raid heals. Wild Growth on cooldowns, Rejuv for everyone, save your Tranquility for the last possible moment. If Slate Drake is up... -Know who is tanking Halfus (ie make sure you know who Halfus's target is by setting Halfus as your focus) and have a rough idea of how many stacks he has. Even if you are not assigned to heal that tank, when the stacks reach 7 or higher the tank will be needing some extra heals. -Keep a HoT stack on the Halfus tank and keep Swiftmend on cooldown for this tank. Healing Touch plus an immediate Swiftmend is our biggest burst heal. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Valiona & Theralion = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ::Abilities:: ~ Phase 1 Abilities (Valiona on ground) ~ Blackout: Causes damage that is split between all nearby members. Must group up and dispell this to split damage between the raid. Group up and spread out quickly due to the Meteor ability. 2 Blackouts in first ground phase, 3 Blackouts in the second ground phase. Meteor: Causes damage to everyone within 8 yards of the target. Must stay spread out so that multiple people do not take damage from the same meteor. Devouring Flames: Targets random member and flame breaths in a wide cone in that direction. Must quickly run behind the boss. Dazzling Destruction: 5 patches of purple shiny stuff on the ground. Avoid or you will be sent to the Twilight Realm. ~ Phase 2 Abilities (Theralion on ground) ~ Twilight Meteor: Now causes damage to be split between nearby members. Have to group up in a ranged group and a melee group. Engulfing Magic: Your HoTs, DoTs, and direct damage abilities cause damage to nearby enemies. If you are hit by Engulfing Magic, then run away from the group before you kill everyone. Shadow Pools: Pool of shadow on the ground. Immediately run out. Do not finish your cast first. Move out. This should only hit the ranged group. If this is hitting the melee group then there are not enough people in the ranged group. Deep Breath: Randomly targets 1/3 of the room. Someone in vent should call out which side it is hitting so the raid can dodge. ~ Mechanics ~ = Phase 1 = There are two dragons in this fight. The fight will alter between Valiona on the ground and Theralion in the air (phase 1) and vice versa (phase 2). This is a one tank fight, with three healers on 10 man. In phase 1, Theralion will target random raid members with meteors so the party should be spread out most of the fight. If you are grouped up, multiple people will be hit by the same meteor, causing unnecessary damage. The only time when you should group up is when someone is targetted by Blackout. Blackout causes massive damage that is split among all nearby members when it expires or is dispelled. If only one or two people are nearby when it is dispelled it will kill them instantly. Group up at a set location--like the bosses tail--dispell it and then spread out again. Do this quickly to avoid Meteors. After each Blackout Valiona will face a random direction with a breath attack. Move behind the boss to avoid this. There will be two Blackouts and two breath attacks before the first phase 2. The 2nd phase 1 has three Blackouts. = Phase 2 = Phase 2 begins with Theralion casting Dazzling Destruction. 5 large pink swirls will appear on the ground. Do not stand in these. Theralion will then drop to the ground and Valiona will fly into the sky. The tank needs to get aggro on Theralion ASAP. Theralion will cast Engulfing Magic two or three times in this phase. Engulfing Magic causes anyone nearby to take massive damage from you based on your current damage and healing. If you get hit by Engulfing Magic move away from nearby members immediately and halt dps until you are at a safe range. Resume dps or healing when you are at a safe range. Valiona casts two abilities: a Shadow Pool and Twilight meteor. Her meteor damage is split between all nearby members. The party must stack into a ranged group and a melee group to split the damage from the meteors. The ranged group should have at least 5 members, that way Shadow Pool will only target them. Mark a ranged group member with a star and make sure that all ranged members follow this person around the room. Quickly move out of Shadow Pool--even if it means interrupting a spell cast. The ranged group will rotate around the room, moving away from Shadow Pool, splitting meteor damage, and not killing the group with Engulfing Magic. Phase 1 begins again after Valiona casts three deep breaths. She will randomly target the left side, right side, or middle of the room. Have someone in vent call it out and be ready to move out of that third of the room. Repeat until the boss is dead. Lust after a Blackout sometime in Phase 1. If you are hit by Dazzling Destruction or a deep breath you will enter the Twilight Realm. To get out find a portal and click it. Avoid the balls to prevent damage. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Twilight Ascendant Council = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= ::Abilities:: ~ Phase 1 Abilities ~ Flame Torrent (Ignacious): Cone of fire. Tank turns boss away from raid. Burning Blood (Ignacious): Debuff that causes fire damage. Spreads a buff that causes members to deal more damage to Feludious. Move this buff to the ranged group, let it tick so they get the debuff, then dispell. Aegis Shield (Ignacious): Raid-wide damage that tick every two seconds. Must destroy the shield then interrupt to stop this damage. Must be stopped before the 4th tick. Water Bomb (Feludious): Puts a debuff on you. Run into the trail of fire or the next Glaciate will turn you into an ice block. Glaciate (Feludious): Nearby members take ice damage. Tank should move away from the boss during this. Heart of Ice (Feludious): Debuff that causes ice damage. Spreads a buff to nearby members that causes them to deal more damage to Ignacious. Move this buff to the melee group, let it tick so they can get the debuff, the dispell. Hydro Lance (Feludious): Heavy damage to a single target. Should be interrupted primarily by the tank but have a ranged interrupt on standby. ~ Phase 2 Abilities ~ Quake: Causes damage to anyone who does not have the tornado buff. Hop in the cyclone when the Quake is the next cast. Thundershock: Causes damage to anyone who does not have the gravity well buff. Hop in the gravity well when Thundershock is the next cast. Lightning Rod: Deals chain lightning to the target and anyone nearby. Must move away from the group until this is over. Harden Skin (Terrastra): Deals 100% increased damage and absorbs 50% of damage until this shield is broken and hurts him. Burn him down when the shield appears. Eruption (Terrastra): Deals damage from spike eruptions. Only hurts a little. ~ Phase 3 Abilities ~ Cryogenic Aura: Ice pool on the ground that reduces the damage the boss takes and spreads when he is in it. Tank must pull the boss out of it and keep the boss moving throughout this phase. Gravity Crush: Entrapped target cannot move and takes damage. Takes fall damage when released. Lava Seed: Plants a fire seed on the ground that then erupts. Do not stand in the ground where the seed is placed. Chain Lightning: Spread out to avoid the lightning hitting you to be chained to other nearby people. Only effects ranged. ~ Mechanics ~ This fight is a bit of a gear check. If your DPS does not average 12000 DPS per player then it is best to skip this fight until you get better gear or better DPS (unless your healers are exceptional). This is a two tank fight, typically three heals on 10 man (though two healing it is possible). There are three phases. In phases 1 and 2 you fight two targets. When either of the targets gets to 25% the phase ends. In Phase 3 they join up to form one target. The phase 3 boss will have the combined health of the four previous targets. That means the closer you get the four prior targets to 25%, the less health the phase 3 boss will have. It is essential that all targets have less than 28% health when the phase ends or the phase 3 boss will likely have too much health to defeat. = Phase 1 = Phase 1 has Ignacious (fire boss) and Feludius (water boss). One tank on each boss, a tank with a reliable interrupt should be on Feludius. The bosses should be tanked so that the ranged DPS can be in range of each boss. Ranged DPS should be in a loose stack. Stack too tightly and Ignacious will hit the entire stack when he jumps on them. Stack too loosely and everyone will not get the Heart of Ice debuff. Ignacious should be turned away from the raid so that only the tank gets damage from Flame Torrent. All melee dps should be on Ignacious (if melee DPS is on Feludius they will get hurt by Glaciate). When Aegis Shield starts, ranged DPS should switch to Ignacious to destroy shield. During Aegis Shield, burn cooldowns and then promptly interrupt the spell. The shield must be broken and the spell interrupted as soon as possible. Aegis Shield ticks for raid wide damage every two seconds. If it ticks four times it is likely a wipe. The group should aim for two ticks. Aegis Shield will begin shortly after Glaciate. Feludius's Hydro Lance should be interruted every time. The tank can get most of them but you should have a ranged interrupt on standby--a Mage is good for this. Move away from Feludius if he is too close during Glaciate. Felidius may hit you with Water Bomb which causes the Waterlogged debuff. If you have this debuff when Glaciate starts you will be turned into a block of ice. To get rid of this debuff run through the line of fire that Ignacious drops on the ground. The two debuffs, Heart of Ice and Burning Blood, hurt the person who gets them but provide a needed raid buff. If you get the Heart of Ice debuff you should run to the melee group damaging Ignacious, stand there until it ticks and nearby people get the buff, and then have a healer dispell it. If you get the Burning Blood debuff run to the ranged DPS group, let it tick, and have a healer dispell it. = Phase 2 = Phase 2 begins when either Ignacious or Feludius (hopefully both) reach 25%. Arion and Terrastra then join the fight. This phase alternates between a deadly Quake spell being cast and a deadly Thundershock spell being cast. These casts are predictable. It starts with Quake, then goes to Thundershock, then back to Quake etc. To avoid damage from Quake, find the cyclone and hop in it. To avoid damage from Thundershock find the Gravity Well and hop in it. Someone on vent should call out which buff you need to get next and where to find it. Terrastra also casts Eruptions which is not such a big deal. Melee DPS should avoid standing in it. Arion casts Lightning Rod which is the deadliest ability in this phase. If you get Lightning Rod you MUST run away from the group. Do not worry about getting the proper buff. Run to the side of the room and wait for Lightning Rod to be over. You can survive a Quake or Thundershock but if you stand near people with Lightning Rod, multiple people will die. When Terrastra casts Harden Skin burn the boss to get rid of it. The tank will take extra damage until it is eliminated. Use defensive cooldowns as needed. Each tank takes a boss and typically melee DPS on Terrestra and ranged DPS on Arion since she teleports around a bit. Make sure both targets are at 28% or below before pushing to phase 3. = Phase 3 = Phase 3 is a dps race. The Elementium Monstrosity will cause more and more damage until the fight is unhealable. Have all healing and DPS cooldowns available. Save your lust for this phase. The boss hits ranged DPS and healers with lightning which will chain to any person near you. Healers and ranged DPS need to spread out and avoid chaining lightning into each other. He will also drop a ice pool on the ground which reduces damage the boss takes when he stand in it and causes damage to anyone who stands in it. The boss will also pick up a target with Gravity Crush rendering the target unable to take action and to take damage and then fall damage. His last ability is Lava Seed which puts seeds on the ground which explode a couple seconds later. The tank should pull the boss out of the middle of the room and tank him in a circle about mid-way through the room. The tank has to keep the boss moving throughout this phase. Ranged DPS and healers can stand in the middle of the room, spread out to avoid the chained lightning but able to dps the boss without moving. To dodge Lava Seed simply do not stand on the ground where the seed is planted. This phase is all about the DPS. They have to go all out. Pop all cooldowns and maybe a DPS increasing potion. ~ Healing ~ There are only two difficult healing parts to this fight: the Aegis Shield in Phase 1 and all of Phase 3. Pop Tree of Life prior to the first Aegis Shield and pre HoT with Lifebloom and Rejuv. Follow up with Wild Growth. Get a HoT stack on both tanks after the Aegis. A Potion of Concentration can be drinken between phase 1 and phase 2 for mana regen. In phase 2 a healer might get Lightning Rod and have to run out of the group. Be ready to pick up his role. If it is a tank healer, help out by healing that tank. If it is a raid healer, help heal the raid a bit more. Phase 3 is where you go nuts. Pop Tree of Life form 10 seconds into this phase. Wild Growth and Swiftmend on cooldown. Do not worry about healing the tanks, focus on the DPS and healers. Lifebloom like crazy and cast Regrowth on every Omen of Clarity proc. The key is to save your Tranquility to as late as possible into the phase. Be ready to heal up the Gravity Crush target and if you are hit by Gravity Crush, kitty form will reduce fall damage. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Cho'gall = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= [9.3d] ::Abilities:: Shadow's Orders: Deals three bursts of raid-wide damage. Flame's Orders: Cho'gall's melee attacks gain extra damage. Conversion: Mind controls a target. Must be broken with any stun or snare. Fury of Cho'gall: Places a debuff on the tank. Must tank swap after this. Fester Blood: Causes adds to come from the corpses of dead adds. ~ Mechanics ~ The key to Cho'gall is to properly manage adds so that the raid has low corruption going into phase 2. Two tanks are needed and for 10 man three healers are needed. Each player gets a corruption bar. Throughout the fight taking damage will increase a player's corruption and leave them more vulnerable. 25 corruption: You get a debuff that increases corruption taken. Dispell this. 50 corruption: You vomit in front of you damaging anyone in a cone in front of you. Turn away from the group when this happens. 75 corruption: Two tentacles spawn. 100 corruption: You can no longer be healed but spells become instant cast and you deal more damage. = Phase 1 (100%-25% Health) = Tank Cho'gall on one side of the room far away from the entrance. Group up right behind Cho'gall and be ready for Conversions. When Cho'gall casts Conversion break the mind control with any stun ability like Fear, Scatter Shot, Thundering Stomp, etc. Be ready for tank heals during Flame's Orders and raid heals during Shadow's Orders. After Fury of Cho'gall the tanks must swap aggro with the off-tank picking up Cho'gall. Cho'gall will summon an add. A tank must take this add to the room entrance and all DPS shoud switch to the add and kill it. Interrupts on this add are needed or the tank will take too much corruption. The add will shoot out shadow missles that target a random raid member. Dodge these by moving out of the shadow circle on the ground. The add must die before Cho'gall casts Festering Blood. Festering Blood is where things get tricky. 5 slime adds come out of the corpse of each dead add. These must be killed before they attack people and cause their corruption to increase. The first Festering Blood there will only be one dead add and the 5 slimes are easy for the ranged DPS to kill. Second Festering Blood will be 2 dead adds so 10 slimes. The third and fourth Festering Blood means 15 and 20 adds. At this point the melee DPS must help out. Any slowing ability like Frost Trap and Hungering Cold should be used to slow the adds and buy more DPS time. Do not get hit by the adds or your corruption will rapidly increase. At 25% health phase 2 starts. = Phase 2 (25%-0% Health) = Corruption increases gradually in this phase even if you are not taking damage. Eventually this becomes unhealable so it becomes a DPS race. Burn Lust at this phase. Watch your corruption stack and be ready to turn away when you are about to barf. Tentacle adds come during this period. They must be dps'd down by all dps before returning to the boss. Designate a DPS leader and have everyone /assist that leader. Kill the tentacles then burn the boss. Repeat as necessary. ~ Healing ~ If you are a tank healer, keep your full stack on him and Wild Growth and Rejuv the raid when you can. If you are designated the raid healer, keep your Lifebloom stack on the Cho'gall tank. Be ready for extra Healing Touches during Flame's Orders. During Shadow's Orders heal up the raid. Remember there are three bursts of Shadow's Orders. After the third burst you have plenty of time to heal up the raid so do not panic. Use Tree of Life early but make sure all cooldowns are available for Phase 2. Pop Tree of Life form when things get hairy and save your Tranquility for as late as possible in that phase. Dispell anyone who gets to 25 corruption or if they are interrupted from Conversion with something that can be dispelled. ||====:====:====:====|| || Blackwing Descent || ||====:====:====:====|| [9.4] =~~=~~=~~= = Magmaw = =~~=~~=~~= [9.4a] Phase 1 of the fight is about properly managing the adds. Phase 2 is the dps phase. 1 tank is sufficient. In 10 man 1 tank, 3 healers and at least 3 ranged DPS are needed. Kill the adds promptly and Magmaw is easy to defeat. ::Abilities:: Flame Pillar: Flame pillar appears on the ground. Does damage to anyone standing on it when it erupts and causes Lava Parasites to spawn. Cast on a random raid member more than 15 yards from Magmaw. Mangle: Heavy damage on the tank. After Mangle tank gets injested and cannot take any action. Dusty Room: Half the room gets dusty. Move to the other half of the room. He will also periodically cause massive raid damage and some single target damage to random members. Heal though these. ~ Mechanics ~ Have two melee and the tank healer in the melee group. This group will stay near Magmaw until his head drops to the ground. The two melee (three in 25 man) will hop on Magmaw then chain him to the ground. Chain him by spamming 1 then clicking the green target circle on the spike on the ground. If this is not done promptly by both members Magmaw will break free and cause major raid wide damage. After both chains are placed Magmaw will be spiked to the ground and Phase 2 will start. DPS should use all cooldowns here and Lust. After a phase 2, Magmaw will drop aggro. The two melee and healer should back slightly away until the tank gets aggro again so that Magmaw does not melee them. The tank will get Mangled and take extra damage. He will then get swallowed and be able to move. Heavy heals are needed on the Mangle and defensive cooldowns should be saved for this time. The rest of the healers and ranged DPS will be stacked up 20-25 yards or so from Magmaw. They will stay stacked until a Flame Pillar is cast. Quickly move out of the Flame Pillar and regroup at another designated point. All ranged DPS should kill the adds ASAP. Use any slowing abilities you have like Frost Trap, Tsunami, Earthbind Totem, Cone of Cold, etc. If the adds hit you they will infect you and more parasites will spawn. Do not get hit by the adds. After the adds are dead stay grouped up until the next flame pillar then move back to your original spot. Keep this up until Magmaw is chained to the ground and phase 2 starts. Typically groups start on the left, wait for Flame Pillar, and move to the right. In 10 man, there will almost always be 2 Flame Pillars, then a phase 2, then one Flame Pillar between each phase 2. ~ Healing ~ During each phase 1 Magmaw will cast single target damage on random members and periodically hit the entire raid with massive damage. Direct heal the single target person and use Wild Growth and Swiftmend during the raid wide healing phase. Pop Tree of Life form very early as the prior to the first phase 2 is the most difficult, mana intensive part of the fight. Keep a full HoT stack on the tank. While the tank is being Mangled, move out of the ranged group and closer to the tank so you can hit him with Healing Touches in addition to your HoT stack. During phase 2, use a Potion of Concentration if needed and regen your mana. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Omnotron Defense System = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= [9.4b] The four golems rotate with any two of them being active at any time. It is important that each member understands the mechanics of all the bosses and his role in the fight. This is a two tank fight. ::Abilties:: ~ Arcanotron Abilities ~ Arcane Annihilator: Inflicts damage to a single target. Should be interrupted. Power Generator: Places a glowing buff on the ground that increases damage dealt and mana regen. Arcanotron must be pulled out of it but healers and DPS can stand in it for a dps and mana regen bonus. At 50 energy, Arcanotron puts up a barrier that should be purged or spell stolen asap. ~ Toxitron Abilities ~ Chemical Bomb: Hits an area with a poison cloud. Those in the cloud--including the bosses--take extra damage. Move out of the cloud. Poison Protocol: Summons poison adds. Summons 3 adds. When Poison Protocol starts melee DPS must move away and ranged DPS burn the adds ASAP. They can be slowed and stunned. Roots, Cone of Cold, Frost trap, etch work. If one fixates on you run away. At 50 energy, Toxitron puts up a barrier. If anyone DPS's him they get hit with poison. All people should stop attacking him at this time even the tank. ~ Electron Abilities ~ Lightning Conductor: Targets one random member. Anyone nearby takes lightning damage. If you get this move away from the group. Electrical Discharge: Chain lightning on a random target. Raid must spread out. At 50 energy, Electron puts up a barrier. Do not attack it or everyone takes AoE damage. ~ Magmatron ~ Acquiring Target: Targets random member with a beam. Anyone in between that member and the beam takes heavy damage. Move away from the group if targetted. Incineration Security Measure: Deals raid wide fire damage. At 50 energy Magmatron puts up a barrier. If this barrier is broken it deals heavy damage to the raid. ~ Mechanics ~ As the order of the golems is random it is important to know their abilities and your role. Tanks will alternate Golems. When one is shutting down--getting near 0 energy--the next one is ready to be picked up. When a golem gets to 50 energy its barrier gets put up. For barriers, It is okay to DoT it but no direct damage or direct damage DoTs can be done (ie if your DoT ticks every 3 seconds it is fine however if it does damage on the cast then ticks it is not okay). The barrier drops at 25 energy so DPS can resume at that point or burn the other golem. When Electron is up, the raid needs to spread out. The person with Lightning Conductur runs away from the raid. When Toxitron is up, the melee DPS has to run away during Poison Protocol and the ranged DPS has to be ready to burn the adds. When Magmatron is up, group up for AoE healing UNLESS Electron is up. Stay spread out if Electron is up. Move away from the group if you are hit with Acquiring Target. If Arcanotron is up, coordinate your interrupts over vent. Ranged DPS be ready to move into Power Generators unless Electron is up, in which case stay spread out. Only healers get the Power Generators in this case. ~ Healing ~ Tank healing is pretty easy. A HoT stack and then some Healing Touches where needed. Even if designated on a tank, be ready to help with the raid. Wild Growth and Swiftmend on Cooldown. Raid healing means mass Rejuv and helping out the low tank when needed. Juggling a stack on Lifebloom on both tanks with the Tree of Life then keeping it up through the fight is useful on this fight. If Magmatron is up... This is the toughest part to heal. I use Tree of Life for the first Magmatron. Lifeblooms all around, Healing Touch and Rejuv + Swiftmend when someone is targetted with Acquiring Target. Typically Tranquility is best timed late into the fight after Magmatron's second Incineration. If Arcanotron is up... Hop into the Power Generator. Be ready with Healing Touches when interrupts miss or fail to happen. If Electron is up... Stay spread out. If Toxitron is up... Root a slime add if no one needs healing. Move away if fixated or root if fixated. =~~=~~=~~=~~= = Elevator = =~~=~~=~~=~~= A fiendish contraption crafted from the darkest depths of Nefarion's twisted heart. Elevator lures unsuspecting raiders onto it, triggering horrendous deaths from fall damage. You encounter Elevator after killing Omnitron and Magmaw. ::Abilities:: Up: Elevator quickly moves up. This occurs right when you are about to step off the elevator, causing you to move up before you step off the elevator and increases your fall damage. Down: Elevator rapidly moves down. This occurs right when you are about to step on Elevator, causing you to miss the platform and plummet to your death. ~ Mechanics ~ Slowly approach Elevator. When located on the edge of the ledge wait for the platform to come up. Cautiously step onto the platform. As Elevator goes down move to the edge of the platform. Be ready to jump off as Elevator approaches the bottom. Do not jump too early or you will take fall damage. Jump too late and you will begin riding up Elevator. Levitate, Slow Fall, Engineering Parachute, and Pali bubble are all useful abilities to have. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Maloriak = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= [9.4c] The only difficult part of the Maloriak fight is the add burn in Green Vial Phase. Good DPS for these two burns is essential. This is a 2 tank fight. It can be two or three healed on 10 man. Maloriak At a Glance... -Spread out during Blue phase -Group up during Red phase -Kill adds during first Green phase -Kill adds and push Maloriak below 25% during 2nd green phase ::Abilities:: Arcane Storm: Damages the entire raid until interrupted. Interrupt immediately. Curse of Tongues or Rogue's poison will slow the cast on this and lessen the damage per second. Remedy: Heals Maloriak. Must be spell stolen or purged ASAP. Release Aberrations: Release 3 adds from nearby vials. ~ Blue Vial Phase Abilities ~ Blue vial phase means spread out. Flash Freeze: Freezes a target and any nearby members. Causes initial damage and causes damage when broken. The raid must be spread out to avoid multiple people from getting hit by the same Flash Freeze. Do not break the target out of Flash Freeze until they have over 65k health. Ranged DPS must break the target out after he has been healed up. ~ Red Vial Phase Abilities ~ Red vial phase means group up in front of the boss. Scorching Blast: Deals massive damage in a cone in front of the boss. Damage is split between all members in the cone. Everyone except for the off-tank must group up in a cone to mitigate the damage. Use a damage reduction cooldown if available. Consuming Flames: Deals minor fire damage and increase fire damage taken. If hit with this debuff you must move out of the way of Scorching Blast or you will die. If the tank gets it, he must stand there and take the extra damage. ~ Green Vial Phase Abilities ~ Green vial phases means burn the adds ASAP. Acid Nova: Causes the shield on the aberrations to temporarily dissolve. Burn the adds quickly before debuff disappears. ~ Mechanics ~ Designate someone to interrupt Arcane Storm. This must be interrupted every time. The faster the better. When the Green Vial phase starts, Maloriak will jump then cast Arcane Storm so be ready with a quick interrupt. Group up during the Red phase, spread out during the Blue phase. The target hit with Consuming flames in the Red phase has to move out of the group. The target hit with Flash Freeze in the Blue phase must be healed up before a ranged DPS breaks him out of the Blue phase. Maloriak is surrounding by vials containing adds. Throughout the fight Maloriak will release the adds. This can be interrupted however any adds not released will be released when Maloriak hits 25%. If you interrupt all the Release Aberration casts, all the adds will release at the end and the tank will promptly die. The adds have a buff on them that causes them to do more damage if there are more adds around. This also buffs Maloriak so the adds must be kept away from him. A tank can survive 9 adds and 12 adds for a bit but any more than that and the tank will likely die. Maloriak has 5 minute berserk timer. The proper timing of the fight is to push Maloriak to 25% during the second Green Vial phase. Any later and you will not meet the Berserk timer. Any earlier and there will be adds still alive. Adds are hard to kill except during the Green vial phase (though they can be killed out of it if the DPS has nothing better to do). During the first Green phase quickly burn the adds. The second Green phase kill the adds then push the boss below 25% to trigger the final phase. Do not push Maloriak below 25% before this if adds re up. You will want to have 9 adds released and ready to kill during the first Green vial phase and 9 adds released and ready to kill during the second Green phase. This means only interrupting 2 of Maloriak's 5 Release Aberrations spells. Sometimes Maloriak will interrupt himself so it may not be necessary to interrupt at all. = Final Phase = Two large adds will come along with the remaining Aberration adds. The two large adds will fixate after 10 seconds and be untauntable. The off-tank must get aggro or have them Misdirected/Tricks of the Traded over to him ASAP. This is the DPS burn phase. Lust and pop all cooldowns. Maloriak gains two new abilities. He will cast Absolute Zero on a random target, summoning an ice sphere that will explode and do damage. Simply move away from it to avoid damage. He will also turn and phase in a random direction--like the first boss in Grim Batol--and fire a jet of flames in that direction. If Maloriak is facing you strafe to the side to dodge this. If hit by this it will hurt you, pick you up and then cause fall damage. Have all defensive cooldowns ready to go in this phase as it eventually becomes unhealable. ~ Healing ~ Tank healing the main tank is easy until the final phase. Tank healing the off tank is difficult during the first phase and easy during the final phase. As this fight is two healable, you must be able to raid heal while keeping your tank up. Follow each poorly interrupted Arcane Storm with a Wild Growth and Rejuv. During the Red vial phase use Barkskin and save your Swiftmend and Wild Growth til immediately after a Scorching Flames hits. I like to use Tree of Life for the first Red vial phase and then again during the Final Phase. During Blue vial phase Rejuv, Swiftmend, and Healing Touch the person hit with Flash Freeze. Flash Freeze will be cast twice each Blue Phase. When the off tank gets 9 aberrations on him focus almost all of your healing on him. Full HoT stack, cast Regrowth to trigger Nature's Grace and keep a steady stream of healing touches on him. = Final Phase Healing = Pop Tree of Life at the beginning of the phase and roll Lifeblooms on everyone. Use your Omen of Clarity procs for Regrowth and hit the low health man. Wild Growth and Swiftmend on cooldown. Alternate between pre-emptive Rejuv's to keep the raid up and healing the low health man. The main tank will need big heals but the off tank should be fine if he properly uses his cooldowns. Save Tranquility for as late into this phase as you can. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Atramedes = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= [9.4d] Atramedes is a unique fight. Everyone gets a sound meter. If you take damage during the fight your sound meter increases. If it reaches 100, Atramedes will kill you instantly. To lower your sound there are 8 gongs placed around the room. The fight consists of avoiding sound as much as possible and properly using the gongs to reset sound. This is a one tank fight. ::Abilities:: Searing Flames: Massive raid wide damage. Ticks every second for five seconds. If this ticks more than once then you are doing it wrong. If it ticks more than twice you will likely die. Cast once per EACH ground phase. Modulation: Raid wide damage that increases sound. Unavoidable. Sonic Pulse: Summons a disc that will move out from the boss causing sound to increase on anyone who gets hit by it. Sonic Breath: Randomly targets a member and chases them with a flame. In ground phase, if you are targetted run one way, everyone else should take a couple steps in the other direction. Circle around the boss as you run. or the flame will catch up to you. In the air phase this breath will slowly catch up to you. Burn movement enhancing abilities and have a stand-by ready to gong. Due to how the game calculates positions when you jump--ie it assumes you are at the same position until you land--you should not jump if a flame is tracking you. It is counter-productive and leads to more sound and damage. ~ Mechanics ~ There is an air phase and a ground phase. Properly execute the mechanics or you will face unavoidable sound deaths (And by sound I mean "the sensation perceived from hearing" not sound as in "free from error, fallacy and misapprehension"). = Ground Phase = Form a melee group on one side of the boss--let us say his starboard side-- and a ranged group on his other side. Damage the boss while avoiding the discs of sound that come out from beneath him. Stay stacked in your groups. When he starts Sonic Breath--there will be two per ground phase--run one way while the rest of the group takes two steps in the opposite direction. In this example the ranged member targetted would run counterclockwise or right (away from the tank) and the rest of the group would move slightly left. The melee member targetted would run clockwise or left (away from the tank). When running from the boss try to circle him or the flame will catch up. Restack and be ready for the next Sonic Breath. Designate a Ground Phase gong man. He will leave the ranged group early and move to a gong prior to Searing Flames being cast. Hit the gong right when Searing Flames is cast to interrupt it. Only 0-1 ticks should go off from Searing Flames. M T ~ Tank T-Boss M ~ Melee Stack R ~ Ranged and healers stack R = Air Phase = Atramedes will fly into the air and target a random member with Sonic Breath. If you are not moving at the beginning of this phase and he targets you, you will die. The flame starts to move faster and faster until it catches up with the target. Designate two gong hitters for this phase. You will need someone with some reliable movement increasing skills like a Shaman with ghost wolf, a Mage with blink, a Warrior with Heroic Leap etc. When someone hits a gong during this phase the flame breath will stop tracking the random person and target the person who hit the gong. This gong hitter must immediately start running. If the flame starts to catch up to them a second gong must be hit. No more than two gongs should be hit per phase and ideally only one. A priest can use Body and Soul or Leap of Faith to help the gong hitter kite the flame. In theory the Druid Stampeding Roar can be used but that would mean implying the ability actually had a use. A Shaman in ghost wolf form with a priest Leap of Faith or Body and Soul can kite the entire air phase by himself. Ground phase will begin again and the fight will repeat itself. ~ Healing ~ This fight is very easy to heal. It is more about mechanics. Either execute the mechanics and live or take 100 sound damage and die. Wild Growth and Swiftmend after Modulation. You will have so much mana during this fight feel free to cast Rejuv whenever. It may help to heal the gong hitter in the air phase or cast a Stampeding Roar. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Chimaeron = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= [9.4e] This is a strange fight. Phase 1 stresses the healers and their burst healing while phase 2 relies on tank avoidance and DPS burn. ::Abilities:: Finkle's Mixture: When this buff is active you will survive any hit--no matter how much it hits you for--as long as you have more than 10000 health. When Finkle's Mixture is active, 10000 health is the new 100% health. Any healing above 10000 is useless. Caustic Slime: Hits the target and any nearby target for a lot of damage, bringing them down to 1 health. Must have 10000 health or more in order to survive. Necessitates spreading out to limit the amount of people getting hit. In 10 man, 2 people will be hit by Caustic Slime each cast. Masscre: Deals massive damage raid wide. Anyone with less than 10000 health will die. Feud: Finkle's Mixture will go offline. Melee attacks on the tank will stop but he will deal raid wide damage split between all nearby members. There will be three pulses of raid wide damage followed up by a Massacre. This phase requires heavy burst healing with every member being over 10000 health before the Massacre. The party must group up for this and healers must burn their healing cooldowns. Double Strike: Chim's next melee will be a double attack. The off tank must taunt this, absorb the double strike before the main tank taunts back. ~ Mechanics ~ Release Finkle and get the Finkle's Mixture buff before attacking Chim. The main tank will tank the boss while the off-tank will taunt and eat all double strike abilities. The main tank only needs to have over 10000 health but the off tank should be kept topped off. The off tank should be the better geared tank with more avoidance and damage reduction abilities. A Death Knight is the perfect main tank due to his self healing. Healers must keep every member above 10000 health at all times. Split healing assignments so that when people are hit by Caustic Slime, every healer immediately jumps to their assigned person and heals them over 10000 health. After each Massacre be ready for a Feud to start. When a Feud does follow a Massacre, the raid must group up immediately. Use damage reduction spells and Nature's Aspect, Divine Guardion, protection bubbles etc to reduce damage taken. Healers must use their best heals and stagger their healing cooldowns so that a powerful healing cooldown is available for each phase. There will be three burts of nature damage followed by a Massacre. The group does not need to be topped off at the end only kept above 10000 health for the Massacre. The healers should be ready to heal for 3 or 4 feuds. Please email me at [email protected] if you have advice on any damage mitigation abilities that can be used during the Feud. = Final Phase = At 20% Chim will enter his final phase. No one can receive any healing at this point. The boss will go berserk and deal massive damage. He will basically one shot each person, starting at the top of the aggro list and working his way down. Have someone on vent call out the aggro list so the next person is ready to use their avoidance ability if applicable. Tanks should use their avoidance cooldowns, and DPS should either kite the boss or use their special abilities like Evasion for Rogues, Deterrance for Hunters, and Mirror Images for Mages (if I am missing any other useful abilities for this phase please let me know). Abilities that lower you on the aggro list can also be useful. Be ready to kite if you can. Since you cannot heal during this phase, healers must go to DPS mode. ~ Healing ~ Tank healing involves keeping the main tank above 10000 health and the off tank topped off. A Palidan is preferred for tank healing with his Beacon of Light on the Main Tank and direct heals on the off tank. I try to keep a Rejuv on each tank and a Lifebloom on the off tank. Lifebloom can also be useful in that a person with a Lifebloom stack is never in danger of dieing from a Massacre or Caustic Slime. If brought to 1 health, the Lifebloom stack will heal them up before the next Massacre or Caustic Slime. For the Caustic Slimes have a set order in place so each healer knows who they will heal. For example if the Rogue and Warlock both get hit you should know, hey I've got to heal the Rogue and the other guy will get the Warlock. Work out a good burst healing rotation with your other healers for the Feuds. There will be four Feuds at the most. I like to go: 1st Feud: Tree of Life 2nd Feud: Nothing Special 3rd Feud: Tranquility During each Feud, use Wild Growth on cooldown and Swiftmend. Cast Regrowth to proc your Nature's Grace. At first, Rejuv's all around--Chase the Wild Growth-- and let the other healers cast the direct heals on the low target. Later in the Feud Rejuvs will not mean as much so switch to direct healing. After the third burst everyone must be over 10k. Any healing over that is a waste. Barkskin during this phase. For the Final Phase, pop Tree of Life if you have it and spam Wrath. If not spam Wrath with Moonfire and Insect Swarm. =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= = Nefarion = =~~=~~=~~=~~=~~= [9.4f] Nefarion is about mitigating and dealing with the Crackle's while properly managing the adds. ::Abilities:: = Nefarion's Abilities = Crackle: At every 10% of his health, Nefarion will cast Cracle which deals 100,000 damage raid wide. I can't believe that this is a mechanic. It is dumb and unimaginitive. Use any damage reducing abilities you have such as: Guardian Spirit Mirror of Broken Images (trinket anyone can get from Tol Barad) Barkskin Anti-magic Barrier Divine Protection (glyphed to reduce magic damage) Divine Guardian (this is awesome) Nature's Aspect Please email me and let me know if I am missing any other useful abilities. [email protected] Tail Lash: Do not stand behind the dragon. Shadowflame Breath: Do not stand in front of the dragon unless you are a tank. Will also resurrect any skeletons hit by this and reset their energy to full. Shadowflame Barrage: Only occurs in phase 2. Does shadow damage to his target. = Onyxia's Abilities = Tail Lash: This has a stupidly large range. You will want to be like 45 yards away from her tail. Shadowflame Breath: Do not stand in front of the dragon unless you are a tank. Will also resurrect any skeletons hit by this and reset their energy to full. Lightning Discharge: Will emit fierce lightning damage to anyone not in front or well behind the boss. When Onyxia's lightning bar reaches full, she will wipe the entire raid. ~ Mechanics ~ This is a three phase fight. Two tanks are required. = Phase 1 = Onyxia is the only dragon to start. Nefarion will join shortly. Nefarion and Onyxia must be kept apart or they will both gain a buff and kill the raid. All DPS starts on Onyxia. The tank must pull her to the west side of the room and face her North or South. DPS stand on her side to avoid her breath and tail swipe. When she starts her Lightning Discharge, the tank must turn her so she is facing west. The DPS must move away to avoid the Lightning Charge and, if possible, the Tail Swipe. When Nefarion comes down, switch all melee DPS to Nefarion. The main tank must aggro Nefarion and drag him to the east side of the room. When Onyxia reaches a comfortable level, switch all ranged DPS to Nefarion also. At this time, all ranged DPS must move far, far away from Onyxia so when the tank turns her they will not get tail swiped. This means moving well across the room so that you are almost in melee range of Nefarion. Adds will pop up during this phase. They will run around until their energy runs out. If hit by either dragon's breath they will get full energy. CC them but try to do it intelligently so that they all run out of energy in a convenient location. Your off tank will thank you for this in Phase 3. Try to push Nefarion down as much as possible. You should have force him down below 80%--at least two Crackle's--before killing Onyxia to begin Phase 2. We like to push him down even further and get 3 Crackle's in Phase 1 but your DPS may not be able to manage. Kill Onyxia at the last possible moment before her lightning bar fills up to trigger Phase 2. = Phase 2 = The room fills up with lava. The raid must split up into three groups and each has to hop onto a pillar. To get on a pillar, hold the space bar to swim up then when you reach the surface jump out of the lava and up onto the platform. I am not good at this but can make it up to the pillar. Some tips: -Go to Menu -> Interface -> and turn off Water Collision -Do not be too close to the pillar when you begin to swim up or you will be stuck on the lip and not able to jump up. -The best person I have seen at this (Reldraw) says he zooms into first person, stands just a couple steps out of range them swims up and jumps up and onto the platform -You can pratice in somewhat similar conditions in the port in Azshara near the Goblin town. There is a lip coming out of the water near the docks. Each pillar has a mob on it that casts an interruptable spell called Blast Nova. If more than 1 or 2 of these go off it is likely a wipe. Each pillar should have at least one interrupt on it, capable of interrupting every 12 seconds or less. If your interrupt cooldown is higher than you need two interrupts. It also helps to have a ranged interrupt on each pillar so that an interrupt can be performed as people swim up. When on the pillar spread out to avoid multiple people taking Shadowflame Barrage damage and interrupt the adds. Heals and melee dps should be equally spread to the three pillars. Phase 3 begins when the add on each pillar dies. The melee DPS should focus on this mob while the ranged DPS either burn Nefarion or burn the mob. If you did 3 Crackles in phase 1, then either push Nefarion down to 62% or push him for another Crackle and as far down into the 51%+ range as your healers can take. If you only did two Crackles in Phase 2 then you must push a Crackle here and then push Nefarion as far down into 61%+ range as you can. Phase 2 is very mana intensive. If the healers begin to run low, improvise and push for Phase 3 when needed. = Phase 3 = Tank Nefarion in the middle of the room. Avoid his Tail Lash and breath attack. All DPS and healers--except for the off tank and his healer--should be grouped up to one side of Nefarion. The skeleton adds will be reborn. Every time they hit a target they gain a debuff which makes their next attack stronger. They must be kited around the room. Do not let them get in front of the boss or his breath will recharge their energy and necessitate more kiting. There will be flames on the ground. Do not stand in them. Keep the skeletons out of them or their energy will recharge. Burn Nefarion as quickly as you can but make sure to heal the raid up to full for every Crackle. You may need to slow DPS so the healers can catch up. Use damage reducing cooldowns for every Crackle that you are able to. Lust at some point in this phase but this will depend on how the healers are doing and the raid damage at this point. A non-healer heal like a Tranquility from a Boomkin/Feral Druid or a Hymn from a Shadow Priest may be needed. ~ Healing ~ Keep the raid topped off and be ready for every Crackle. After a Crackle, Chase the Wild Growth with Rejuv's and Rejuv's all around. Keep your HoT stack on the tank that needs it the most or the one you are designated for in both Phase 1 and Phase 3. I like to have ToL available for Phase 2 as blooming the platform allows you to produce serious healing output while conserving mana. Instant Regrowth during that time is also a plus. The raid will rely on you to have mana and be able to heal up after each Crackle. There is time to get the raid up after a Crackle so do not panic and use ineffecient heals unless it is an emergency. Rejuv and Wild Growth with Swiftmend and a Healing Touch or Nourish thrown in should be sufficient. Save Tranquility for an emergency--when multiple people need heals and a Crackle is incoming. Potion of Concentration can be managed in phase 3 if you are raid healing. ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^========================================== ^ X. CATACLYSM HEROIC RAIDS ^ ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^=[10.0]=================================== This section coming soon (I hope). ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^========================================================== ^ XI. LINKS ^ ========^^^^^^^^^^^^^=[11.0]=================================================== Wowhead.com - Excellent info on gear, abilities, bosses and more. ElitistJerks.com - The Resto Druid thread put together by Hamlet is great. TreeBarkJacket.com - Keeva has some useful info and a fun guide on choosing your professions. Curse.com - Place to get addons WorldofLogs.com - Check here to see what the best healers are doing on fights. Guild leaders should sign up and track every raid fight. Tankspot.com - Tankspot has some useful videos for raid fights. Narrated in a useful and entertaining way with plenty of great drawings. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I hope you enjoyed this guide. I appreciate any feedback, comments, or questions. If you wish to host the guide or use any part of the guide, please email me for permission. ~Panis [email protected] v1.00: Guide Released!