lundi 23 janvier 2012

Sindragosa solo'd!

I probably would have thought her impossible, except for a small thing.
A year ago, I was 3-manning ICC. After multiple tries, we killed her. How?
Phase 3. Palatank dies. Mage gets aggro. Mage dies. So I switch pets and try to finish her off. But she had like 5% hp remaining.
She casts frost tomb. Again. And again. So I killed her. But I never understood why she hadn't frost-tombed me.
So, when I started testing her last week, I decided to find out what makes you a tank.



So, my tries told me that:
-FD didn't save me from frost tombs.
-if I grabbed aggro before she took off (by dismissing my pet), she would frost-tomb me.
-but sometimes she wouldn't
I quickly figured out that she didn't frost-tomb me if she melee'd me beforehand.
Besides, she didn't frost-tomb me the time I was merely at 5% aggro, having FD 5 seconds before.
I luckily got a try where she didn't frost-tomb me in phase 3 for a while. So I made a video and analysed it.

So, basically: I switch pets, using deterrence, and 30 seconds after the FD I get the frost tomb.

That is how I understood that it wasn't aggro + melee that protected me, just melee.
So, if she melees you, you are a tank for 30 seconds.

The strategy is:
In phase 1, try to grab aggro after her blistering cold, take a hit (it doesn't matter if it misses/doge/parry), and FD (if you managed to pull aggro without dismissing your pet. If not, wait for your pet to have more than 7K hp).

In air phase, intervention can protect you from a frost bomb.

In phase 2, switch pets while taking a melee hit. Then switch pets every time FD is off cooldown. An intervene beforehand will reduce damage.

samedi 21 janvier 2012

Professor Putricide down!

I told you ICC was back on the menu!
So after, chain-wiping in phase 3, I realized that it wasn't today that I would pull off 40K dps.
God, I just love ICC! Testing every ability the boss does, wiping, changing strategy... Understanding a boss is so fun! Human: 1 AI: 0.



So, the guide:
Phase 1 and 2: control puddle spawning (puddles grow up to a certain size).
So, you will need a side of the room clear for phase 3. I prefer the yellow side because 2 orange oozes: reset boss, 3 green oozes: death. Wich means you will need to make the green puddles spawn on the green side.
Now, your pet won't pull aggro from the green oozes if he is near the wall. Just FD as soon as the green oozes have cast their spell or they may move in aggro range of your pet.
In phase 2, never ever suffer a malleable goo.

Phase 3: Beware, at the start he may cast a last puddle. I believe there is a maximum number of puddles possible in the room.
Just tank him with your pet until he's at 6 stacks. Switch pets after making sure widow venom is active, and follow the wall (if you go in the middle, the orange oozes will aggro you). Continue until he gets dangerously close to the berserk. Then finish him before your pet gets at 9 stacks (like 100K/2seconds).

mardi 17 janvier 2012

Deathbringer saurfang down!

And so I finally brought death to deathbringer saurfang. This was made possible by the fact that death knights cannot use Cleave.


This fight requires you to keep a good 17.7K dps (23K with buff) during 8 minutes while handling adds, pet healing and kiting.
Macro you will need:
-target DS and taunt, and put pet on passive
-target blood beast and use aimed shot
-target BB and use concussive shot
-cast intervene, pet attack DS

Blood power: He will gain 1 blood power each time you are damaged by one of his spells (even if it is absorbed), and each time a blood beast damages you (or your pet!).

Blood beasts: 2 will spawn every 35 seconds (13 spawns total). The easiest way to kill them is to use aimed shot on one, followed by arcane shot or steady shot (if it isn't dead, no matter: remember there's a big DoT if your aimed shot crits); then deal with the other.

For the first 4:30, maximize dps on DS while keeping your pet alive (he Is a Saurfang after all, and dishes out tons of damage).
After he puts mark on blood on you, do as follow:
-chain-taunt with distracting shot
-use intervene before BB spawn
-after 15 seconds, taunt again
The difficulty will reside in killing the beasts quickly enough while running around in all directions. Quickly finish him off.

lundi 9 janvier 2012

Sartharion 25 down

Hello!
Solo'd Sartharion 25 a few days ago. Not very difficult, just a matter of practice.
Now, I remind people that LK raid locks work like Cataclysm ones, meaning you can get in in 10-man mode, kill the drakes (with a friend for the evil one), then switch to 25-man.


His Berserk is 15 minutes, so maximizing dps is the key.
Positionning: You want a positioning where your turtle won't get hit by the waves, and you won't get hit by his tail (stun: bad).
However, it puts you at risk of taking Pyrobuffets (+1000 damage per attack per stack), with increases damage you take by the small adds, if you go too far to the left.
You need less than 9K on Sartharion to kill him, so the whole fight is about the adds.

How to deal with big red things:
-If they aggro you but not your pet, FD despawns them. Works once in a while.
-If they get hit by the lava waves, Tranqshot them.
-If you kill them all one at a time, GL for surviving the Berserk.
So:
-try to despawn what you can
-If there are 1 or 2 on you kill them
-if there are a few on your pet, don't mend pet or they'll come at you
-if there are 5-6 in all, it's time to FD/misdirect/multishot.

Remember, they run slowly, so kiting them is easy.

At 10% health, Sartharion gets angry. And a whole bunch of angry little adds attack you. So make sure you have no pyrobuffet on, and Rapid fires off CD. Then focus boss with everything you got, run to kite the small adds.

dimanche 1 janvier 2012

Vezax Hard Mode and Loathed 25 down!




Vezax hard mode isn't that hard. It's mainly a matter of of finding the good balance of stamina and dps to kill him without having to change pets too often. In my video I had 2 stamina trinkets and a dps flask.

Strategy is the same as ever when the animus isn't there:
-avoid the black puddles
-avoid the shadow crashes
-Kite him for his "big mode" (blood of Yogg-Saron)
-interrupt one AoE out of two, use a pet CD for the others.

When the animus spawns:
-it will interrupt his big mode, so no need to kite him.
-Misdirect the add on your pet.

Vezax will stop casting his aoe, so use pet CDs as you like, intelligently (meaning, not during the kiting phase). If you attract aggro from the animus, better kite him a bit - anything to reduce pet incoming damage.
DBM won't warn you anymore for the shadow crashes, so open you eyes (Vezax turns toward you and launches a purple bolt: move).

Once the animus is dead, continue normally.
If you kill him before he berserks, you win.



Loatheb 25 is "yay look at me I'm topping the charts!" No strategy, just plain gear/rotation check. He has a 12-minutes berserk, so 28.1K dps is needed.
Unlike me, if you try him you should remember that stamina scrolls exist to be used in fights where your pet lacks survivability.

So: You have +50% crit chance. Since it affects everything, Chimera shot is a dps boost even during careful aim. Use an aimed shot rotation.
For your pet to survive, use a scroll of fortitude II, and use CDs as soften as possible, remembering to throw a heal when the debuff is ending.