Last weeks Magmaw kill for my guild was a little different than usual. Due to a few of our regular 10 man group being away the group that was formed was a not the normal lineup and more importantly, was a little melee heavy.
This led to an interesting discussion as we headed to Blackwing Descent and discussed how we were going to kill Magmaw effectively with the group we had. It was during this discussion that I remembered a strat I had read a few days earlier that was proposed and executed by another guild in the same situation and the strat posted online on the Tankspot Forums.
The strat for a 10man group was simply this. A Paladin off-tank would stand out away from the group while the rest of the raid, including healers and any ranged DPS, stood in melee range of the boss (most important!). Then what would happen is that the Paladin off-tank would always be targeted for Pillar of Flame and would be close to the Lava Parasites that spawned to easily pick them up, in fact the exact strat that was used was that as soon as Pillar of Flame was being cast and the spot for it marked the Paladin would drop a Consecrate so that he had aggro straight away as the adds spawned (the off-tank still moved out of the Pillar spawn point to avoid unnecessary damage).
This allowed the rest of the raid to concentrate DPS on the boss which brought about a very speedy kill indeed.
Now there are several things that you think might happen to the off-tank:
1. Adds overwhelm the tank - the adds only melee for roughly 12k damage per hit which was easily healed through by the healers
2. As there are no slowing effects on the adds and the off-tank is getting hit an insane amount of new Lava Parasites will spawn due to the off-tank being infected multiple times - not true, the infection debuff only stacks to 3 making the number of extra adds that spawn easily manageable
3. As more and more Pillars of Flame occur there will be too many adds for the off-tank to handle - not so, the Paladin off-tank was easily able to single-handedly DPS down most if not all Lava Parasites between each Pillar of Flame
So there you go, a good alternate strat to the one first proposed on most boss strat sites, and one that is much more effective than the original strat. Even if your group is not particularly melee heavy I recommend using this strat as it greatly shortens the fight overall and gives you more time to get stuck in to the other bosses in the instance!
Showing posts with label tankspot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tankspot. Show all posts
Thursday, February 24, 2011
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!
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!
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