Thursday, February 17, 2011

Blackwing Descent - Atramedes

My guild downed Atramedes for the first time last week and so I'd like to give out a few tips on how to, from a rogues perspective, make the encounter all that more easier for the entire raid.

Atramedes is one of those fights where taking a rogue along can make the whole encounter fairly trivial. Atramedes is a blind dragon (no spoilers as to why, there's a small in game 'event' that explains why just before the boss) that works on sound levels, the more sound you make the more he will target you for his special attacks.

Apart from the general tactics for the fight which can be found on Tankspot rogues have a unique role during Atramedes's air phases. During his air phase Atramedes will target the person with the highest sound level and cast Sonic Breath on them chasing them around the room, Sonic Breath's damage is quite severe and will almost always kill it's target should it catch up to them. This is where a rogue steps in.

During the air phase hitting one of the gongs around the edge of the room will stun Atramedes for 5 seconds and interrupting Sonic Breath, but most significantly Atramedes now tracks the person who rang the gong and targets them for Sonic Breath instead.

So, after the stun wears off Atramedes is now not happy with you for ringing the gong and stunning him, not happy at all. He immediately fires a Sonic Breath beam in your direction tracking you to kill you. When this happens run away from the beam until it almost catches up to you and then use Sprint and/or any other speed boosts you may have to outrun the beam until air phase ends (40 seconds).

There are two scenario's that may happen during air phase, both are outlined below:

Scenario 1 - Atramedes targets another member of your raid first

In this scenario the above default action applies. Hit the gong when the beam is closing in on the raid member that Atramedes is targeting and then run away and use Sprint when it gets close. Almost always in this scenario the 40 second air phase will end before the beam reaches you, if not use Cloak of Shadows to extend your survival time

Scenario 2 - Atramedes targets you first

If it happens that you are the person with the highest sound level at the beginning of the air phase the strategy remains basically the same except you will have to ensure that when you are kiting the beam around the room that you are close enough to a gong so that you can hit it when the beam reaches you. After the gong has been struck then the default kiting strategy applies. Run until the beam is almost on you, Sprint and Cloak as needed until air phase is over.

I hope this post has been informative for you, whether you are a rogue or have a rogue in your group this information will make Atramedes cake if done properly!

4 comments:

  1. really do hate kiting the beam, but has to be done. Another good post

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  2. very good insight
    keep up the good work

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  3. it was quite informative, thank you! but now i'm wondering why it is blind...

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