Adventures in MS Paint: Lord Rhyolith

Jen’s Guide to Healing Nef

My brain is pretty fried when it comes to spitting out words, so I continue to abuse my awesome guildies for guest posts.  Here’s the latest from Jen, who also writes over at Pots ‘n Kettles.

Because we had dedicated this week primarily to Nef, I went and head and respecced to this: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#hhZbh0bZfGbMsbcosd:dbMcmr

Nef isn’t that complex for heals (especially compared to Cho’gall or the RNG clusterfuck that is Al’Akir), but there is a ton of damage going around. Also, thanks to massive dragon noms at the tanks and raid wide damage from electrocute, this is one of the two fights (Chim being the other) where shaman resto mastery really shines.

This is a bit of a longer fight (our kill took just over 7 minutes), so you can use longer cooldowns (like spirit link and mana tide totems) in phase one and have them up again for phase three.

Phase One – Ony and Nef and Adds!

We had an Ony tank, a Nef tank, and a BM turtle-noms-adds tank. Your dragon tanks need to be on opposite sides of the pit (if they’re too close to each other, they get a buff that essentially rips your tanks into bits). Ony and Nef need to be parallel to each other sideways to the raid. While they are chewing on your tanks, they’ll also do standard dragon breath and tail swipes.

This means that your healers do want to coordinate who’s going to focus on which tank, because you can’t reach them both without running back and forth. Ranged can help out heals a bunch by staying near each other in the middle.

Ony, while lying dead in a puddle of lava, has grown lightning globes on her sides. When they start glowing, the tank needs to turn her tail into the raid, or she’ll shoot lightning at the raid instead (and your healers will curse you emphatically). More likely than not, the raid will get hit with a tail lash, which knocks us all over for very minor damage and stuns us for two seconds. Once the lightning is done, kindly turn her tail back out of the raid.

Ony is apparently very squishy for a dragon, and when they had her down to about 40ish%, our melee went and chewed on Nef. Every time you get 10% of Nef’s health down, he will do a raid wide electrocute for 100k. It really helps to know when these are coming, because I had a few seconds to drop a rain puddle and start casting chain heals. The first electrocute is also a good opportunity to drop Spirit Link Totem, and it’ll be off cooldown for phase three. After the first electrocute, I tried to drop a glyphed stoneclaw totem each time for a little extra resistance – any damage reducing abilities are good for these.

While the dragons are chewing on their respective tanks, you also get to deal with adds!  \o/

Our BM hunter MD’ed all the adds to Donatello, and rolling riptides, gift of the naaru, and GHWs kept the little turtle up. You can build up heals as more adds spawn, and there were a few scary moments when they were all up, but then once they start dying off, you can help out with the tanks more. Our hunter helped me out a ton by keeping him near the middle, so that the turtle would get the benefit of aoe heals as well. (Once the adds were all dead, the hunter switched to a dps pet for the remainder of the fight.)

We pushed for two electrocutes in phase one (three made us go smush, mainly because each one ups Ony’s enrage mechanic – you have to kill her before her meter reaches 100) and then finished off Ony (and made her go smush instead).

Once Ony dies, the room fills will lava and you transition into:

Phase two – Nef and Adds!

There are three pillars around the room, and our raid was split up to have a healer on each (you can’t reach the other pillars), along with at least one ranged dps and one melee interrupter. You’ll need to run to your pillar as soon as Ony dies, and swim up as the lava fills the room. The pillars have an obnoxious-as-hell overhanging lip, so you need to jump straight up and then over, or you’ll get stuck on the lip.

Each pillar will have one add. They don’t have an aggro table – they just stand there and continuously try to cast a shadow AoE that will pretty much nuke everyone on the pillar. Their casts HAVE to be interrupted. Our ranged dps nuked away at Nef while melee killed and interrupted the adds. We controlled the health of one of the adds so that we could get Nef down through two more electrocutes. Healers need to make sure that their pillar is topped off before the electrocute hits, and be ready to heal people back up after it.

During all of this, Nef hovers in the middle of the room and casts shadow blasts at random raid members, so you’ll have plenty of healing to top off. It really helps for people to use their self heals or damage reduction abilities (if they aren’t major ones that they need for electrocutes).

This phase ends once all three adds die – the lava will drain back out of the room, Nef will descend back onto the ground, and you can jump back off the pillars.

Phase Three – Nef and (you guessed it) MOAR Adds!

One tank will pick up Nef, and the other will get to run around and collect, then kite, adds (someone should probably follow your add tank around to heal, too). The rest of the raid should group up next to Nef’s side. Purple fire will spawn at the most inconvenient places possible, which everyone needs to avoid until it disappears.

We popped heroism as soon as everyone was in place, and nuked the hell out of Nef. You’ll get electrocutes fairly close together, so raiders want to make sure to use damage reduction abilities, and healers need to get people topped off quickly. Both tanks will take lots of big hits, especially if the adds get too close or play in the fire.

Burn everything you have, and profit! ^^

Friday Flowchart: A General Overview of Cata Raiding

Bastion of Twilight: Halfus Wyrmbreaker

Bastion of Twilight: Halfus Wyrmbreaker
King of the If-Thens
or Omnomitron, with Dragons

“Amber,” you’re probably wondering, “What is with the ‘King of the If-Thens’ thing?” 

He’s the King of the If-Thens because while reading strats my head started to hurt.  So much so that I doubt this will be as funny as usual, I don’t have cheap opportunities for penis jokes.

Like Nef of old, every week is different due to the random combination of drakes that can be freed.  This means a lot of headdesking for everyone involved at first.  I have only attempted this boss a few times, so if there’s errors, just let me know and I’ll try to fix them.  Expect a lot of repeated info from section to section because, OMG, so much shit.

General Overview

This is a two tank fight.  The proto drake that is present does not need to tanked, it’ll just sometimes chuck things at you (Thanks buddy!).  Instead you’ll have one tank on Halfus and one on the released drake(s).

When you walk into the room, two drakes will have cartoon-like seeing stars effects over their heads.  These will be the drakes that are NOT active that week.  You can walk over to the drakes you plan on releasing without aggroing the boss.  How many drakes you release depends on who is up–we were releasing two, thanks to the fucked up combo we got (Nether + Slate + Storm, FUUUUUCK), but the video I watched showed only one.  YMMV.

Berserk timer: 6 minutes.

I just wanted to draw a dragon. This one may be considering eating you.

Tanks
If the Slate Dragon is up, Halfus will gain Malevolent Strikes.  This applies a stacking healing debuff, and will require the tanks to swap to drop the stacks.  When this drake is released, the boss will periodically be stunned for 12 seconds (I presume this is long enough for the debuff to drop, perhaps negating the need to swap tanks once Slate is released).

If the Nether Scion is up, Halfus’ attack speed will double.  When released, he will cast a debuff that will reduce his chance to hit, attack speed, and damage done by 25%. 
Note: when we had both Nether and Slate up at once, the MS stacked absurdly fast, so releasing the Scion seemed to make a huge difference. 

If the Storm Rider is up, Halfus gains a shadow nova.  It does roughly 30k shadow damage and knocks everyone back.  Needless to say this ability is an ABSOLUTE BITCH, because until you release the drake, interrupting the nova is well nigh impossible.  Once the Storm Rider is released, however, the cast time is slowed and you can (and need to!) interrupt.   The tank may need to pitch in with interrupts here and there.
When we attempted this fight, two of us (DPS DK and warrior) stayed on Halfus to cover interrupts, because our interrupts were on too long of a CD to handle it with only one.  The first shadow nova seems to make it off regardless, so be aware of that and use what cooldowns you can.

If the Emerald Whelps are up, then the proto drake gains scorching breath.  I have a hunch this means you should not stand in front of him.  If you release the whelps, then they case a stacking poision that reduces the proto drake’s damage done.   You should probably still not stand in front of him, though. 
Note: I watched a video and this may well be unavoidable damage.  Fuck if I know for sure. 

If the Time Warden is up, then the proto drake will spit random fireballs at people.  Thanks, asshole!  At least if you release him he slows down the cast rate. 

Other things: Below 50% Halfus will periodically cast Furious Roar, which will deal ~10k damage and knock everyone down.

Healer
If the Slate Dragon is up, Halfus will gain Malevolent Strikes.  This applies a stacking healing debuff, and will require the tanks to swap to drop the stacks.  When this drake is released, the boss will periodically be stunned for 12 seconds (I presume this is long enough for the debuff to drop, perhaps negating the need to swap tanks once Slate is released).

This will probably make you cry, so prepare to kiss your mana goodbye and be ready to cover switching tanks.

If the Nether Scion is up, Halfus’ attack speed will double.  When released, he will cast a debuff that will reduce his chance to hit, attack speed, and damage done by 25%. 
Note: when we had both Nether and Slate up at once, the MS stacked absurdly fast, so releasing the Scion seemed to make a huge difference. 

Just more ow for your tanks.

If the Storm Rider is up, Halfus gains a shadow nova.  It does roughly 30k shadow damage and knocks everyone back.  Although the drake should be released shortly so that it can be interrupted, it seems like the first shadow goes off regardless, so be aware of that and use what cooldowns you can.

If the Emerald Whelps are up, then the proto drake gains scorching breath.  I have a hunch this means you should not stand in front of him.  If you release the whelps, then they case a stacking poision that reduces the proto drake’s damage done.   (Note: having watched a video with this active, it may be unavoidable damage)

Oh look more shit for you to heal through!

If the Time Warden is up, then the proto drake will spit random fireballs at people.  Thanks, asshole!  At least if you release him he slows down the cast rate. 

…even MORE shit to heal through!

Other things: Below 50% Halfus will periodically cast Furious Roar, which will deal ~10k damage and knock everyone down.  Do I need to say it?

DPS
If the Slate Dragon is up, Halfus will gain Malevolent Strikes.  This MS-like ability will mean that your tanks will be switching, so you might want to watch your aggro a litle more closely.
When this drake is released, the boss will periodically be stunned for 12 seconds\ (I presume this is long enough for the debuff to drop, perhaps negating the need to swap tanks once Slate is released).  Enjoy the easy DPS time!

If the Nether Scion is up, things will happen that you don’t really care about.  Next!

If the Storm Rider is up, Halfus gains a shadow nova.  It does roughly 30k shadow damage and knocks everyone back.  Needless to say this ability is an ABSOLUTE BITCH, because until you release the drake, interrupting the nova is well nigh impossible.  Once the Storm Rider is released, however, the cast time is slowed and you can (and need to!) interrupt.  
When we attempted this fight, two of us (DPS DK and warrior) stayed on Halfus to cover interrupts, because our interrupts were on too long of a CD to handle it with only one.  The first shadow nova seems to make it off regardless, so be aware of that and use what cooldowns you can.  If you’re an interrupt bitch do not leave Halfus ever OMG.

If the Emerald Whelps are up, then you will have fire breathed on you.  Damn.

If the Time Warden is up, then you will have random fireballs spit at you.  Ow.

Other things: Below 50% Halfus will periodically cast Furious Roar, which will deal ~10k damage and knock everyone down.  Fuck being knocked down oh my god.

BWD: Magmaw

Blackwing “Wait Didn’t I Kill Nef Already?” Descent: Magmaw

Note:
I have now done this fight!  We have even killed him!  You can check out my “lol instructional video” here.  Done with captions because I am a nub with a  broken mic.  ETA: Apparently that vid spazzes out at one point, showing a still until the kiting segment.  I have no idea why, as all I did to make our plain kill video was remove the captions and the kiting part and kill video works fine, but I’ll see about fixing it.  In the meantime, the link to the less fubar’d, but non-captioned, video is here.

Basic Concepts:

• Don’t stand in bad (pst, fire is bad)
• GROUP HUG
• Multiple phases
• AAADDS!  AAADDS!

Tank
Guess what!  The boss doesn’t move.  Stand there and mock your kiter during the first part.   Of course, during the transition, the boss is eating you, so…yeah.  After a few stacks of mangle you might want to pop a cool down.  And not mock the kiter so much.

At the end of phase 2, threat is wiped, so you want to reestablish that quickly before your melee does something stupid like tank it for you.

Healer
Hug your ranged DPS and fill green bars.  Move with the group away from pillar of fire.  Weep at the AoE damage.   When the tank is being OMNOMNOM’d during the transition, toss him some extra heals.

DPS
One of you is going to be the kite bitch.  Hunters are naturally pro at this, but DKs with Chillblains are a popular choice right now as well.  Any class that can slow/knock back/teleport/get really fucking creative can pull this off as well.  See: kite bitch section below.

The rest of you (sans melee) will be basically shuffling from one designated spot to another as the boss tosses down a pillar of burning badness every 30 seconds.  If you’re slow you’ll get knocked in the air by the pilalr so don’t be fucking slow.

Killing the adds seems to be the preferred method, so ranged DPS should burn those down.  Just make sure all DPS (and cooldowns are blown) are on the boss when he’s impaled, which is phase 2.

There is a boss ability named ignition.  It covers half the room and looks like steam jets, so don’t stand in it.  Duh.

Two DPS will have to chain the poss during the transition phase.  Jump on his head and use Constricting Chains.  Don’t have your best add burners do this as they’ll still need to be killing those damn worms.  If you’re breaking the chains you’re fucking it up so…uh…don’t do…whatever you’re doing.

At the end of phase two the boss drops threat.  Don’t be stupid.

Kite Bitch
Worms spawn from the pillar of flame.  Grab them and run around like a headless chicken.   MANY WORMS, HANDLE THEM.  No I don’t know why this really got its own section either.  I felt like it, okay?

Raid Comp, MS Paint Edition

GMs and raid leaders can catch a lot of flak for how they put together a raid.  Why’d you bring THAT guy?  Why do we have 5 paladins in a 10 man?   What’s a warlock? 

That’s why this week, I decided to do SiB’s raid comp in MS paint, so you can enjoy my scribbles and arrows and WTFery!  Come, share in the pain of being a GM!

While I’m at it: Are you melee?  Do you want a guild?  I APPARENTLY NEED MELEE WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT.*

*But not too many because I might decide to go DPS warrior for Cata.  Or ret pally.  What?  I know.

Friday Flowchart + Bonus Funny!

If I was smart I’d save the other funny for next week, but I’m too amused by it now to wait.

Today’s flowchart is by Kiss My Alas.  It’s true…so very, very, true.

All cloth gear goes to boomkins, duh.

Click to embiggen, it didn't fit! >.>

Friday Funny

In short form, that would be RAID NIGHT =

Ice Crown Social: Saurfang

There’s a few number of ways to handle this boss, so let’s poke at them!

Saurfang stands on top of the stairs.  Everyone else except for your two tanks should stand…not on the stairs. 

Tanks:

Welcome to Yet Another Tank Swapping Fight.  This time, if you fuck up, the boss heals like OMG WHOA and your DPS screams at you and your healers weep.  Okay?  Okay.  So when he puts Rune Blood on you, scream TAUNT, TAUNT into your mic really loud just in case the other tank is reading 4chan again.

There’s a soft enrage at 30% to be aware of.

Cranky Tank also likes to use Shockwave when the adds spawn so that he knocks one silly.  

Heals:

First off, your third healer (or whoever your bitch healers are in 25s) need to go DPS.  A holy pally and a disc priest is an AMAZING team for this, but most things work.  A disc priest on the raid can help reduce the amount of blood power he gets from his blood novas, by bubbling the nova target.  At least I think that’s how it works…I’m normally shadow this fight.  Or huntering.  >.>

It doesn’t get frantic for you until he throws a Mark of the Fallen Champion on someone after 100 BP are gained.  This is where paladin Bacon Hax can come in handy-beacon the Marked target and continue on as normal.  I’m not a fan of letting the Marked target die if at all possible, because sometimes it’s a healer and well, that just sucks.  When there’s two Marks up…uh…uh…well, then you pray that your DPS is on the ball.

DPS:

Ranged, spread the fuck out.  No, really.  If you’re giving hugs to each other, you’re increasing the about of BP.  :(

Anyway, two of you (or…more of you for 25s…man I don’t even know how many spawn for 25s, I should) will probably be assigned to deal with the adds, and this is where things can vary.

We’ve had two hunters kite them, usually with ranged DPS switching targets to get them down.  Use frost traps, etc.  If you’re not toting around multiple hunters, a boomkin can root/typhoon if it gets too close.  YOU DO NOT WANT THEM MELEEING ANYONE.  This creates BP, and BP creates sad.

We’ve also had a hunter kite one while melee DPS stuns and kills the shit out of the other one.  This is only advised if you have a way to keep it stunned: see above CAPSing. 

When not killing beasts, DPS the shit out of the boss-you know, like normal.