It is Lunar Festival, the time of year where I must travel across Azeroth to honor the Elders of old. I land at Hammerfall, a small horde outpost, where I can provision myself before continuing deep into Alliance territory.
I stop at the inn to change out of dusty travel clothes. I hear the cry of battle outside the wall, and a guard rushes in to warn everyone of an attack at the gate. Quickly I change into my Gladiator gear, and shift into Shadowform.
At the front gate, a level 80 warrior is quickly mowing down the guards. I shield myself, then set about building my shadow weave around him. Disease and Shadow surround him just as he stuns and strikes me. My shields and armor hold true, and his damage is of little consequence. My Mind Flay slows him as he tries to position himself to my back, but I jump and turn, then quickly disarm him with my Horror. I weave, cast, and shield myself. His health is quickly fading, so he turns to run away, but my Devouring Plague and Shadow Word:Pain ticks down till he falls facedown in the dirt.
I sneer at his body, and turn toward the second foe: a Death Knight. He, too, falls before my dark magic. His ghoul cannot penetrate my shields, and my Scream only serves to open the foolhardy Death Knight to my offensive attacks. Soon he, like his comrade, falls at my feet.
I duck into the inn to wash my hands of dust and gore. The innkeeper hands me a tankard of ale with his thanks. I lift the drink to my lips, and hear another cry of alarm. The warrior is back.
Abandoning my drink, I quickly make my way to the courtyard. The warrior tries to take me down, but his rage and frustration makes him sloppy. He is felled in moments. I pause, expecting his companion to come at me from a hidden spot, but there is no attack. Toeing the corpse with distaste, I order the guard to get rid of the stench. I mount upon my Black Mammoth, and start to make my way south, toward Thelsamar.
Wednesday
ICC 25: Putricide
General Notes:
- 3 Phases. 3 Tanks, 6 healers.
- Clean phase transition is vital, so that only one small puddle is present when raid gets stunned (Tear Gas) so as not to overrun raid.
- Abom does constant AoE raid dmg
- Unstable Experiment (the ooze/cloud spawns only during Phase 1 and 2), and they alternate reliably [Volatile Ooze > Gas Cloud > Ooze > Cloud etc]. They have approx 300K HP.
> Can't attack oozes till it has a target.
- Choking Gas Traps/Bombs and Malleable Goo, doesn't necessarily alternate and can sometimes happen simultaneously (as in 5:29, 7:14)
- Shadow Resistance and Nature Resistance buffs may help with goo.
- If player is stunned by slime and targeted by puddle, abom eats puddle near stunned player. Don't need to stack ppl on top until slime almost reaches them.
- Adds may change target after Tear Gas, so abom saving slow till after Tear Gas stun may help with this.
- Abom Abilities:
> Eat Ooze: eats slime puddles decreasing size and giving 4 ooze energy.
> Regurgitated Ooze: slow movement on target and deal dmg every 2 secs for 20 secs.
> Mutated Slash: Melee attack that does 100% weapon dmg instantly.
Phase 1 - until 80%
- Slime Puddle aka Mutated Slime (1:04): spawns growing green puddle under 2 random ppl.
> OT runs to table and drinks potion to become an abom that will drink these puddles (1:15, 1:39). Don't drink too fast, need at least 13 drinks for next ability (Unstable Experiment). The drinks give energy to Abom to allow for slowing of ooze/cloud.
> Abom must be dead center in puddle, if can't drink it, shift around till can.
> If puddle isn't consumed by Abom, it will continue to grow until it fills the room.
- Unstable Experiment: this is cast before spawns adds. The adds will always alternate, and first add is always green (aka Volatile Ooze, 1:16) and pours from the green tank on the right side wall. So have raid move to the orange tank side and vice versa, giving range dps time to kill it.
> Adds will target random, move toward them quickly, and immobilize them.
> Aboms 2nd ability is to slow oozes by 50% for 20 secs.
> Adds must be killed, otherwise they will explode for heavy dmg and do knockback. If this is about to happen, stack up on person to distribute dmg and pick a new target. Volatile Ooze's explosion is called Ooze Eruption.
> Can still attack, cast, and do abilities while targeted. This includes vanish, iceblock, FD, DS etc, which will cause ooze to target new person. If one of the range dps is targetted, they can blink, portal, and feign to prevent getting blown up.
- 2nd Unstable Experiment is a Gas Cloud that is another type of ooze (aka Orange Slime, 1:53). This will debuff a random player with a 10 stack of Gaseous Bloat.
> Gaseous Bloat: stack will tick down every 2secs and when it ticks off it will stop and target new player. Should it reach player, it will explode ( Expunged Gas) and do raid dmg based on stacks left on targeted. You want to kill Gas Cloud before it picks a new target.
> Can move while targeted, so range can attack and melee follow behind it. If DPS is on the ball and can kill it before it reaches targeted, then Gas Cloud need not be kited.
> Melee stop attack and leaves at 2 stacks in case they r targeted if slime doesn't die in time.
> Targeted needs heavy heals since debuff does significant dmg.
> Don't need to move nearly as far to the right (or green side) of the room as in previous, making abom's puddle job easier. (2:08)
> Around 83%, have DPS stop attack so Abom can clear out puddles, and hold off on slowing the Orange Slime till after Tear Gas.
- NOTE: adds don't target Putricides main aggro target, throughout Phase 1 and 2, but may target in 3 if adds aren't taken out.
Phase 2 - 80% to 35%
- back and forth killing of adds while avoiding traps described below. Abom drinks green puddles till 35%
- Tear Gas (2:32): Stuns everything in room, including adds for 20 secs. Starts right at 80%.
> Have abom slow the add after Tear Gas ends.
- Choking Gas Bomb/Trap(3:05, 3:40, 4:16, 5:29, 6:41, 7:17): 1 of 2 abilities during Phase 2. Drops 2 traps in melee range that looks like orange flasks.
> Walking on these will give a 75% hit reduction debuff for 15secs, after which they will explode for 15K, and knockback anyone w/i 10 yrds and giving those ppl a 75% hit reduc for 20 secs.
- Malleable Goo (2:53, 3:19, 3:43, 4:09, 4:35, 4:51, 5:06, 5:29, 5:53, 6:23, 6:49, 7:14): Ranged equivalent of Choking Gas Bomb/Trap with an unlimited range. *Provided there is enough ranged (see Phase 2 Notes).
> Launches 2 goos rather than just 1 (as in 10man).
> Picks 2 random ranged and hurls 2 bouncing balls of green goo in a straight line at them. If there's enuff distance, they can be avoided by moving out of the way.
> Upon landing, anyone in area is hit for 15K dmg and attack/cast speeds reduced by 200%.
> Range should strafe, not go back and forth to avoid.
- Phase 2 Notes:
> Melee avoid boss when green add spawns in case it targets you and you r surrounded by orange traps (Choking Gas Trap). Add explosion plus trap will kill everyone nearby.
> Don't kite boss through ranged in case Malleable Goo targets a melee, also killing everyone nearby.
> Unstable Experiments during Phase 2: 3:11 (green), 3:45 (orange), 4:26 (green), 5:06 (orange), 5:42 (green), 6:20 (orange), 6:58 (green)
Phase 3 - 35%
- Tear Gas at start of Phase 3, same as Phase 2 starts. (7:41)
- Save Bloodlust for Phase 3.
- No adds will spawn but puddles, choking traps, and malleable goo still needs avoiding (8:11).
- Putricide hits harder and faster, and boss gets a buff (Mutated Strength, a DOT). Tank runs to the door as far from table as possible for more dps before first debuff is applied. (7:59)
Abilities:
- Mutated Plague (MP) is a stacking debuff that heals boss and does raid dmg. To mitigate this, 3 tanks rotate taunting and tanking boss.
> 60 second duration, recast every 10 seconds. Chance of 1st tank losing debuffing if Putricide is late on recast.
> MP heals Putricide for 1.7 million per stack when it falls off the tank (either by death, bubble, or natural fall off). These stacks also do periodic raid dmg.
> Have tank swap off each other after each gets a stack debuff.
> If tank is about to lose MP, then they should taunt.
> At 5 stacks, tank AoEs raid for 12-15k/sec, so make sure each tank takes turns tanking and taking on stacks so Putricide doesnt heal.
> Let each tank get 2 stacks before boss is taunted off (8:19), then next round get 3 stack (9:15).. and hopefully boss is dead before 4th stack. Also see a tank switch at 9:02, and 9:36)
> Tank Putricide along the wall counterclockwise to control puddle fill and traps.
ICC 25: Blood Queen Lana'thel (My Notes)
General Notes:
- Lrg Health Pool, Restrictive Enrage Timer > Use Essence of Blood Queen Debuff
- Raid Positioning is important b/c of Twilight Bloodbolt ability. Range and Heals spread out (about 6yds apart). Heals toward center. Melee DPS split up into 2 groups (one to the right, and other to the left of boss).
- Tank Blood Queen as far from center as possible to allow for extra bite time when she moves to center for Air Phase. First player bitten must get their first bite out almost instantly.
- Make sure you have Prayer of Shadow Protection and Shadow Protection aura up.
- Tanking: One tank, and a dps in tank gear for Blood Mirror ability. They will stack on each other.
> Note: Some recommend doing Tank swap so the current MT can use tank CDs to reduce incoming dmg for both tank. However Blood Mirror dmg is not reducable. DivProt, ShldWall, Barkskin etc will not reduce this. Absorbs work as normal dmg absorb.
Abilities:
- Twilight Bloodbolt: Randomly cast on non-tank doing 10,000 dmg to target and anyone near them. This is reason why positioning is important.
- Essence of Blood Queen(0:30, 3:35): Bitten Player (highest threat/DPS non-tank) gets 100% increased dmg, heals self for 10% of dmg, cause no threat. Lasts 50-60 secs, then is replaced with Frenzied Bloodthirst.
> Frenzied Bloodthirst (4:34): Action bar has Vampiric Bite. Player has 10 secs to bite another player, passing Essence to them and refresh own. These players will have to do same on diff player, and a prev. bitten player can't be bitten again.
> Establish bite order ahead of time. Prioritize higher dps. Know where the person they are biting is ahead of time. (1:28, see the melee run to the caster on the front left to bite)
> If player with FB doesnt bite anyone within 10 secs, they will be mind controlled and must be killed. They can't be CC'd
>Note: One group had Shadow Priest get bit first to increase healing output from Vampiric Embrace. You can also help "choose" who gets bitten first by having that person hit firstm (after tanks) and hit hard (use a CD).
- Bloodbolt Whirl aka "Air Phase" (2:28, , 3:06, 4:09): Every two minutes, Lana'thel will go to center of room, fear everyone, and start casting. Similar to Twilight Bloodbolt, but cast three times to every member of raid.
> Positioning is difficult, so find an open area. Assign each group in raid a general area to go to, splitting melee into left/right halves. You can spread out once in designated areas. Don't pile in center.
> Players near each other will affect the other and do 20,000 dmg instantly.
> Note: Healing is tight, so hybrid DPS who can't dmg her while she's in the air should help with heals. Healers can avoid fear with Fear Ward and Tremor Totems, so they can find a spot quick so rest of raid can position around them.
> Note on this phase: timing on Essence falls off near the first fear. Bites need to get done while she's going to center of room.
- Pact of the Darkfallen (0:30, 1:02, 2:02, 2:56, 3:27, 3:59, 4:36, 5:08, ): links 3 members together w/ purple beam. Linked playerswill be constantly exploding, causing shadow dmg to those nearby.
> Cancel Pact by having the 3 players stack on each other. Use the blue diamond on floor in center of room as stacking spot till debuff falls off.
- Swarming Shadows: (0:43, 1:14, 4:45, 5:07) similar to Legion Flame on Jaraxxus, so kite to edge of room and stay out of purple fire.
- Blood Mirror (0:16): Casts on tank and will link to player closest to them. Linked player takes 100% of dmg tank does, and is unresistable shadow dmg. Have second tank stand on top of first. Important thing is health pool and dmg reduction, so dps in tank gear also works. Seems to last throughout the encounter.
> Delirious Slash: The OT will also get an attack on them called Delirious Slash, and the OT will require slightly more healing than MT. This is the reason why tank swap isnt recommended.
- Shroud of Sorrow aura: Causes 4500 dmg to everyone in room every 3 secs, and must be healed through. Use Shadow Resist buffs.
Friday
My Notes on ICC 25man Blood Council
During my preparations for this weekends raids, I took a lot of notes to help everyone better understand the chaos of Blood Council. Yes, it is very simple once you know it, but for everyone else who just scratches their heads during the explanation of the fight: this one's for you (and me!).
Tankspot's ICC25-Blood Council: The movie referencing points are from here. You also get good explanation of the fight. Visit TankSpot.com and see their great movies as well as more details into abilities for this and other fights.
General Notes:
- Look for Invocation Mark on which one to target (looks like a red orb, see it transfer on 1:29, where it goes from Valanar to Taldaram), as well as who has the empower. Bosses do not necessarily empower immediately.
- Bloodlust during Keleseth's Invocation. Or, if threat is an issue, use during Taldaram.
- 5-7 healers. In Tankspot they used these - Raid Healers: 2 resto druids and holy priest. Tanks' Heals: Paladin with Beacon and Disc Priest on 3 tanks.
- After Valanar, either Keleseth or Taldaram gets Invocation.. and rotation is random.
- Fast target swapping is essential.
- Valanar and Taldaram tank healer: Stand with back against the wall and Taldaram tank out of range of knockbacks that may interrupt heals due to OOR (out of range).
- ABILITY THROUGHOUT: Kinetic Bomb aka "Beach Ball". There will be 3 of these that will float around the room and need to be kept floating up by direct damage. See a pet holding up the "beach ball" on 2:32. (Note: pets might not be able to hold it up anymore, they may have nerfed this.. can anyone confirm?). Do not let them hit the floor because it will explode and knock back everyone. These will despawn after a short time of being juggled. Letting the bombs hit the ceiling will trigger the Blood Queen. Marking the "beach balls" sometimes helps for keeping track of them. See the marks on 4:11.
> Shadow Priest: Perhaps not the best to keep these afloat since most dmg is dependant on channelling and dots. Only spells that can keep these up is Mind Blast and SW:Death.
- Time references are in regards to TankSpot's 25man ICC Blood Council video.
Valanar-1st to pull
*Ability: Shock Vortex
Normal: target random raid (including tank) and cast a vortex on the ground (it is bright and white and vortexy.. much like the Power Sparks on Maly.. anyone going near it will be knocked back). This will persist throughout the encounter. See it spawn from one spot to the next at 1:54-2:15 on video. It is stationary, so you can and should move away from it.
*Ranged/Healer tip: position so there is never a shock vortex btw yourself and Taldaram during Taldaram's invocation. Reason: once you get empowered conjured flame during Taldaram's Invocation turn, the raid can't follow you to help siphon the dmg from the empowered conjured flame's flares.
Empowered (see it at 1:02, 1:25: vortex on all members w/i 30 yrds of Valanar gets dmg.. and any player w/i 12 yrds of this player will also get their empowered shock vortex and get knocked back. It is not stationary (as in on the ground) and it comes from boss and player. So during this face be sure to be 30 yards from Valanar as well as 12 yrds away from other players.
- Ranged/Healers spread out more than 30yrds. Use the semi-circle in front of the stairs as an indicator. Tank should tank him in the center at the base of stairs so as not to be ranged from healers.
- Melee should run out as soon as he starts casting. They should not run same way, and should run in different directions/distances. Perhaps discussing directions they are running at and at what distance so they don't blow themselves up. Do not run into the range/healers! TIP: DPS fan out to back of "stage" while ranged/healers stay spread around semi circle in front of stage.
- You will not see this version on the ground.
Other Notes:
- Valanar gets empowered a second time and *might* immediately casts EMPOWERED VORTEX. Make sure melee is away just in case the old empower is still up when the invocation switches. See this at 3:01
Keleseth
*Ability: Shadow Lance
Normal: Spams shadow lance entire time.
Empowered: Bigger Shadow Lance dmg. But having Nuclei on you will help reduce dmg. See his Invocation on 2:19.
Other Notes:
- Summons orbs called Dark Nucleus. Channel a debuff on highest aggro'd target (shadow resonance), and deals minor periodic dmg but will reduce all shadow dmg to that target by 35% plus it stacks. These have HP, so person tanking this should have bars up (Shift+V) so they can grab more nuclei if theirs runs low.
- Suggested that a warlock tanks this near the door and keeps away from him. If warlock gets too close Keleseth will melee swing and kill the lock tank. Feed misdirects and tricks on him. As long as melee doesnt run in range of him, Keleseth never melees. This is why a warlock is suggested as a tank. As long as orbs are up on the warlock, there is very little healing that needs to be done on him, he can run around and grab nuclei plus not get melee dmg.
- You can see the warlock grabbing orbs and tanking on the left side of 1:48. Note: This is still during Taldaram's Invocation.
- As a priest, I pulled aggro from the warlock and ended up with 3 nuclei. Getting hit by vortex may reset the nuclei so it follows highest threat person (ie: healer). Targetting Keleseth or the Warlock to check for aggro and using Fade may help.
- Note: Melee Cleave Attacks (ie: Heart Strike etc) will hurt the nuclei.
- If using other ranged tanks: HP Flask and PvP Stamina gear. 4 orbs are safe. Maybe have Valanar Tank hold him until orbs spawn.
- If using Unholy DK to tank: have tank with unholy dmg reduction, AMZ, and AMS available. Use Icy Touch and Death Coil to pick up nuclei. Healers should watch aggro on orbs, if they do pull aggro, have tank Blood Strike for more Unholy Runes for Icy Touch. Use Death and Decay whenever it is up, and Icy Touch him whenever ossible. Use AMS at start of pull, AMZ during empower.. then Army for another.
- If Keleseth gets the second Empower (after Valanar) use healer CDs on him (Pain Suppression, Guardian Spirit, etc). Watch the Invocation to see if it travels to transfer to Keleseth then pop the CDs on him.. especially if orbs haven't spawned yet.
- If tank is having trouble collecting Nuclei: Have healers who have nuclei go to the tank so they can take nuclei off of him.. or have a resto druid collect nuclei and bring to tank... ensuring there are 4+ nuclei on him at all times.
- Spell Reflect does not work on Shadow Lance.
- Y Bloodlust on Keleseth? during Keleseth's Empower, he is constantly spamming shadow lance. So while he is casting, he can't dodge, block, or parry. Give melee a few seconds to get to Keleseth then Bloodlust to take a huge chunk of health off of every attack and each will land guaranteed if everyone is hit capped.
Taldaram
*Ability: Conjured Flame
Normal: a conjured flame will just blow up for a set damage on the person. Everyone should be spread out already, so damage won't spread out to others.
Empowered: Will be named Inferno Flames, and it will speed toward the target, see this at 1:45. Has stacks that must be siphoned or spread out amongst everyone. Once it picks a target, that person runs away from raid (kites it) while everyone else stacks beneath orb. Everyone w/i 10 yrds gets 1k dmg/sec. This siphoning also seems to slow the orb down a bit.
- Does a Glittering Sparks which is a cone attack, much like Rotface's Slime Spray, that targets randomly. If melee is clustered in that direction, they will take 4K dmg/2sec. This magic effect can be removed using Mass Dispel. Assign a priest for this. I *Think* an example of this is on 1:46. With so much going on, it was difficult to tell.
- See Taldaram get Invocation on 1:33
- Range and Healers make sure no Shock Vortex's are between you and Taldaram. This way melee can reach you to siphon the Inferno Flames if it targets you.
If this is helpful or I get a lot of positives from these notes, then I'll post more tips and videos on raid bosses later.
Tankspot's ICC25-Blood Council: The movie referencing points are from here. You also get good explanation of the fight. Visit TankSpot.com and see their great movies as well as more details into abilities for this and other fights.
General Notes:
- Look for Invocation Mark on which one to target (looks like a red orb, see it transfer on 1:29, where it goes from Valanar to Taldaram), as well as who has the empower. Bosses do not necessarily empower immediately.
- Bloodlust during Keleseth's Invocation. Or, if threat is an issue, use during Taldaram.
- 5-7 healers. In Tankspot they used these - Raid Healers: 2 resto druids and holy priest. Tanks' Heals: Paladin with Beacon and Disc Priest on 3 tanks.
- After Valanar, either Keleseth or Taldaram gets Invocation.. and rotation is random.
- Fast target swapping is essential.
- Valanar and Taldaram tank healer: Stand with back against the wall and Taldaram tank out of range of knockbacks that may interrupt heals due to OOR (out of range).
- ABILITY THROUGHOUT: Kinetic Bomb aka "Beach Ball". There will be 3 of these that will float around the room and need to be kept floating up by direct damage. See a pet holding up the "beach ball" on 2:32. (Note: pets might not be able to hold it up anymore, they may have nerfed this.. can anyone confirm?). Do not let them hit the floor because it will explode and knock back everyone. These will despawn after a short time of being juggled. Letting the bombs hit the ceiling will trigger the Blood Queen. Marking the "beach balls" sometimes helps for keeping track of them. See the marks on 4:11.
> Shadow Priest: Perhaps not the best to keep these afloat since most dmg is dependant on channelling and dots. Only spells that can keep these up is Mind Blast and SW:Death.
- Time references are in regards to TankSpot's 25man ICC Blood Council video.
Valanar-1st to pull
*Ability: Shock Vortex
Normal: target random raid (including tank) and cast a vortex on the ground (it is bright and white and vortexy.. much like the Power Sparks on Maly.. anyone going near it will be knocked back). This will persist throughout the encounter. See it spawn from one spot to the next at 1:54-2:15 on video. It is stationary, so you can and should move away from it.
*Ranged/Healer tip: position so there is never a shock vortex btw yourself and Taldaram during Taldaram's invocation. Reason: once you get empowered conjured flame during Taldaram's Invocation turn, the raid can't follow you to help siphon the dmg from the empowered conjured flame's flares.
Empowered (see it at 1:02, 1:25: vortex on all members w/i 30 yrds of Valanar gets dmg.. and any player w/i 12 yrds of this player will also get their empowered shock vortex and get knocked back. It is not stationary (as in on the ground) and it comes from boss and player. So during this face be sure to be 30 yards from Valanar as well as 12 yrds away from other players.
- Ranged/Healers spread out more than 30yrds. Use the semi-circle in front of the stairs as an indicator. Tank should tank him in the center at the base of stairs so as not to be ranged from healers.
- Melee should run out as soon as he starts casting. They should not run same way, and should run in different directions/distances. Perhaps discussing directions they are running at and at what distance so they don't blow themselves up. Do not run into the range/healers! TIP: DPS fan out to back of "stage" while ranged/healers stay spread around semi circle in front of stage.
- You will not see this version on the ground.
Other Notes:
- Valanar gets empowered a second time and *might* immediately casts EMPOWERED VORTEX. Make sure melee is away just in case the old empower is still up when the invocation switches. See this at 3:01
Keleseth
*Ability: Shadow Lance
Normal: Spams shadow lance entire time.
Empowered: Bigger Shadow Lance dmg. But having Nuclei on you will help reduce dmg. See his Invocation on 2:19.
Other Notes:
- Summons orbs called Dark Nucleus. Channel a debuff on highest aggro'd target (shadow resonance), and deals minor periodic dmg but will reduce all shadow dmg to that target by 35% plus it stacks. These have HP, so person tanking this should have bars up (Shift+V) so they can grab more nuclei if theirs runs low.
- Suggested that a warlock tanks this near the door and keeps away from him. If warlock gets too close Keleseth will melee swing and kill the lock tank. Feed misdirects and tricks on him. As long as melee doesnt run in range of him, Keleseth never melees. This is why a warlock is suggested as a tank. As long as orbs are up on the warlock, there is very little healing that needs to be done on him, he can run around and grab nuclei plus not get melee dmg.
- You can see the warlock grabbing orbs and tanking on the left side of 1:48. Note: This is still during Taldaram's Invocation.
- As a priest, I pulled aggro from the warlock and ended up with 3 nuclei. Getting hit by vortex may reset the nuclei so it follows highest threat person (ie: healer). Targetting Keleseth or the Warlock to check for aggro and using Fade may help.
- Note: Melee Cleave Attacks (ie: Heart Strike etc) will hurt the nuclei.
- If using other ranged tanks: HP Flask and PvP Stamina gear. 4 orbs are safe. Maybe have Valanar Tank hold him until orbs spawn.
- If using Unholy DK to tank: have tank with unholy dmg reduction, AMZ, and AMS available. Use Icy Touch and Death Coil to pick up nuclei. Healers should watch aggro on orbs, if they do pull aggro, have tank Blood Strike for more Unholy Runes for Icy Touch. Use Death and Decay whenever it is up, and Icy Touch him whenever ossible. Use AMS at start of pull, AMZ during empower.. then Army for another.
- If Keleseth gets the second Empower (after Valanar) use healer CDs on him (Pain Suppression, Guardian Spirit, etc). Watch the Invocation to see if it travels to transfer to Keleseth then pop the CDs on him.. especially if orbs haven't spawned yet.
- If tank is having trouble collecting Nuclei: Have healers who have nuclei go to the tank so they can take nuclei off of him.. or have a resto druid collect nuclei and bring to tank... ensuring there are 4+ nuclei on him at all times.
- Spell Reflect does not work on Shadow Lance.
- Y Bloodlust on Keleseth? during Keleseth's Empower, he is constantly spamming shadow lance. So while he is casting, he can't dodge, block, or parry. Give melee a few seconds to get to Keleseth then Bloodlust to take a huge chunk of health off of every attack and each will land guaranteed if everyone is hit capped.
Taldaram
*Ability: Conjured Flame
Normal: a conjured flame will just blow up for a set damage on the person. Everyone should be spread out already, so damage won't spread out to others.
Empowered: Will be named Inferno Flames, and it will speed toward the target, see this at 1:45. Has stacks that must be siphoned or spread out amongst everyone. Once it picks a target, that person runs away from raid (kites it) while everyone else stacks beneath orb. Everyone w/i 10 yrds gets 1k dmg/sec. This siphoning also seems to slow the orb down a bit.
- Does a Glittering Sparks which is a cone attack, much like Rotface's Slime Spray, that targets randomly. If melee is clustered in that direction, they will take 4K dmg/2sec. This magic effect can be removed using Mass Dispel. Assign a priest for this. I *Think* an example of this is on 1:46. With so much going on, it was difficult to tell.
- See Taldaram get Invocation on 1:33
- Range and Healers make sure no Shock Vortex's are between you and Taldaram. This way melee can reach you to siphon the Inferno Flames if it targets you.
If this is helpful or I get a lot of positives from these notes, then I'll post more tips and videos on raid bosses later.
Prepping for Weekend Raids
OK, so it is a holiday weekend... and that means more raids. However, Valentine's Day is a non-raiding day. No Exceptions!!!
Frankly, I'm a little burnt out. ICC is a headache! So, I am boning up on encounters and taking notes. Less stress this way. Also, since I'm not running tonight's 10-man, I'm using this time to get flasks, potions, elixirs etc ready.
We'll see if this small break will keep me from pulling out my hair and crying from frustration. I'm thinking that putting explanations in understandable terms for regular people, it will help the entire raid keep on track. We'll see if this bit of legwork pays off. I'll post my findings here.
FYI: In 25man ICC, we are currently on Putricide, Blood Council, and Dreamwalker.
Have a fun and safe weekend!
Frankly, I'm a little burnt out. ICC is a headache! So, I am boning up on encounters and taking notes. Less stress this way. Also, since I'm not running tonight's 10-man, I'm using this time to get flasks, potions, elixirs etc ready.
We'll see if this small break will keep me from pulling out my hair and crying from frustration. I'm thinking that putting explanations in understandable terms for regular people, it will help the entire raid keep on track. We'll see if this bit of legwork pays off. I'll post my findings here.
FYI: In 25man ICC, we are currently on Putricide, Blood Council, and Dreamwalker.
Have a fun and safe weekend!
Tribute to Mad Skill: Getting ToGC with 45 Attempts Remaining
Last night got the Tribute to Mad Skill achievement from heroic 10man Tournament of the Grand Crusader. Granted, our guild is geared out in Icecrown gear, but it was still a great achievement.
As a holy priest, it was my job to primarily watch the raid. We did it without a paladin healer, so I also monitored the tanks. Here are a few highlights that helped:
1) Utilize Serendipity. Use Flash Heals and Binding Heals on tanks then use that extra haste push to get the raid healed with Prayer of Healing.
2) Glyph of Guardian Spirit. I removed my Spirit of Redemption glyph to give this one a try. This is particularly helpful when you don't have a dedicated tank healer. So even if the person who is GS'd doesn't go down, you have a shorter cooldown plus get that added boost to heals.
4) Lord Jaraxxus: We had no mage to spell steal, so I just kept the boss targeted and cast my dispel on him.
5) Faction Champs: You are the most important person in the raid. My mistake during Faction Champs is worrying about others. Certainly, you need to Dispel and Mass Dispel plus heal everyone, but you also need to use your Fade, Psychic Scream, and any damage reduction you can. Once you go down, the chances of the raid surviving is cut. Also, stay away from clusters, this way you have less chance of drawing attention from adds. Lastly, it helps to be marked. So if you are getting attacked by that darn rogue, the raid can find you.
6) Anubarak: During Phase 3, keep up the tank, but throw the occasional heal to the raid. The raid will drop down to the point of dying, so I do Prayer of Mending and Circle of Healing now and then. Also note that there is less ice in this encounter, so you will have to be very careful how you position ice. You will have to alternate running front to back while Anub is submerged. The raid will also have to anticipate the direction to lead Anub for his next target.
As a reward for Tribute to Mad Skill, we got extra trophies. I got one of them plus a neck more suited to healing that replaces my old 245 neck.
Good communication, quick thinking, and familiarity are keys to successful raids. So, do your homework, know your stuff, and be prepared. Happy Raiding!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)