Category Archives: Boss Fights

Healing Throne of Thunder – Forgotten Depths

Posted on April 22, 2013 | 1 Comment

Here are some tips for healing the second section of Throne of Thunder as a Resto Druid, including the best time to use cooldowns and which talents and symbiosis targets are optimal for each fight.

First, a few general tips:

  • Feline Swiftness is the level 15 talent that I recommend on most fights.
  • Nature’s Swiftness is the level 30 talent I recommend for any fight. Remember the cooldown is only 1 minute. It makes your next heal instant, 50% bigger and mana-free, so use it often.
  • The major glyphs I usually recommend are: Glyph of Wild Growth, Glyph of Lifebloom and Glyph of Regrowth.
  • For the good of the raid, using Symb on a tank is a good bet in most cases (a Paladin or Warrior would be my last choice since, really, who wants Cleanse or Intimidating Roar on a boss fight?) If you use this on a DK or a Monk, be sure to use IBF or Fortifying Brew during the encounter.
  • Carry lots of Tome of the Clear Mind. Which talents are strongest can change from fight to fight. It you want to maximize your healing potential, you will be changing talents often.

Tortos

Mechanics-wise, Tortos is one of the least complicated fights in ToT, but it does require very good execution and a lot of awareness. The fight involves extremely heavy, spiky tank damage as well as high raid damage at frequent intervals throughout the fight. Throughout the fight your raid will need to deal with Tortos himself along with smaller Whirl Turtles which will spawn and spin around the room and Vampiric Cave Bats.

Here are the major damaging abilities to be aware of:

Tortos

  • Furious Stone Breath is what Tortos uses when he reaches 100 fury. This must be interrupted by kicking a turtle shell at him. If this is channeled on the raid for more than a tick, it’ll be a wipe.
  • Quake Stomp is cast about every 40 seconds and deals raid wide damage along with stunning everyone.
  • Rockfall is something that happens throughout the fight, and more so right after a Quake Stomp. These will appear as blue circles on the ground. These will kill anyone standing in the blue circle, and do moderate damage to anyone within 20 yards.
  • Snapping Bite is the main attack on the tank. It hits for a ton, so it’s best if the tank has a cooldown up for each one. It is also a good idea to have a Pally or Priest as the tank healer so some of the damage can be absorbed.

 Whirl Turtles use only one damaging ability: Spinning Shell, which will constantly spin around the room and knock people around. Getting slows up on the whirl turtles as they spawn makes avoiding the damage much easier.

Vampiric Cave Bats also have one major ability (other than strong melee attacks) to worry about: Drain the Weak. If the Bats’ target is not near full health the attacks will heal the bats. The bat tank needs to be topped up as much as possible. Cooldowns are useful, and stuns on the bats are great.

There’s a lot going on in this fight and a lot of damage to heal. At the start of the fight I like to keep LB rolling on the Tortos tank to help smooth out damage. Make sure the raid is topped up before any Quake Stomp and be prepared to deal with the damage afterwards. This includes having mushroom set up where people are grouped up and getting Swiftmend down under a group of players just before the Stomp hits. Use WG and ample Rejuvs to deal with the continuing damage from Rockfall. As bats are spawning I like to move my LB stack over to that tank.

Talents

Level 45 – I like Faerie Swarm here. If your group is short on slows or one of the turtle gets missed, you can use FS to help out.

Level 60 – Either SotF or Incarnation are useful here, though I prefer Incarnation. The instant RGs are very nice while you’re running around dodging Rockfalls.

Level 75 – Ursol’s Vortex can be placed under or just in front of Tortos as Whirl Turtles spawn to slow the turtles moving though. The pullback aspect of this spell doesn’t work though. If you don’t want to use this (I actually find it of limited value) you can use Disorienting Roar on the bats frequently to give the tank a brief respite.

Level 90 – Either Heart of the Wild or Nature’s Vigil can be used here. There won’t be much of a chance to use the HotW cooldown to help with damage, but the passive Intellect is always good. Nature’s Vigil will allow you to help put out a little damage while also giving you a weak healing boost that can be used pretty much on cooldown.

Symbiosis

I use Symbiosis on a Shaman so I can use Spiritwalker’s Grace before I cast Tranq.

Cooldowns

Wild Mushroom – I set up Mushrooms under the melee and bloom them after Quake Stomps. Spread then out a bit, as melee will also be spreading out due to Rockfalls.

Tranquility – Use after a Quake Stomp. If you have it, use Spiritwalker’s Grace first so you can dodge Rockfalls without having to interrupt the spell.

Incarnation – Use while damage is heaviest – Rockfalls are happening frequently, the bats are out. Keep LBs on both tanks and get out as much group healing as possible.

Ironbark – I save this for the bat tank.

HotW – If you take this, the only time you may be able to use it to dps a little is at the start of the fight.

Megaera

Megaera is a healing intensive fight against a hydra. The goal is to kill 8 of her respawning heads. The fight isn’t too complex but does involve heavy damage to two tanks at once along with very heavy raid wide damage every time a head is killed. There’s also some dispelling to do.

Here are the major damaging abilities to be aware of:

  • Rampage happens whenever a head is killed. This is the biggest source of raid damage in the fight and cooldowns will be needed.
  • Cinders gets applied to a random player and deals heavy damage to them. This must be dispelled, but the target must get out of the raid first, as it leaves behind a fire patch when dispelled.
  • Torrent of Ice targets a random player and chases them with a frost beam that does damage to anyone it touches and leaves damaging frost on the ground. These ground two effects will cancel each other out if placed on top of each other.
  • Acid Rain will target a random player and launch an acid globule at them, doing very heavy damage at the point of impact and less damage as players are further away. Players need to be moving away from this.
  • Tanks also get debuffs from the head they are tanking, necessitating swaps.
  • Each head also does a cone breath attack, but no one but the tanks should be hit by this.

Keep LBs on the tank taking the most damage – fire and poison heads tend to cause more damage than ice. If you are a dispeller, make sure the target has run out of the raid before getting rid on Cinders and put at least a Rejuv on that person as soon as the debuff is applied. Outside of the Rampage, the biggest source of raid damage during this fight is the Acid Rain. Keeping Swiftmend under the melee stack is a good idea and be liberal with your Wild Growth and Rejuvs. 

Talents

Level 15 – Displacer Beast can be very useful on this fight to quickly move out of the group if you get targeted by a frost or fire beam. Alternatively you can use it to get back to the group faster on the way back.

Level 60 - I prefer Incarnation since I find this fight very hard on mana. 

Level 90 - Either Heart of the Wild or Nature’s Vigil can be used here. There won’t be much of a chance to use the HotW cooldown to help with damage, but the passive Intellect is always good. Nature’s Vigil will allow you to help put out a little damage while also giving you a weak healing boost that can be used pretty much on cooldown.

Symbiosis

I use Symbiosis on a tank (preferably a Monk or DK so I get a damage reduction cooldown).

Cooldowns

Wild Mushroom – Set up Mushrooms in the spot the raid will be grouping for each Rampage and bloom during it.

Tranquility - Use during Rampage.

Incarnation - I use this outside of Rampage, so I can keep LB stacks on both tanks and do more reactive healing to poison bolts.

Ironbark - Use on tanks who are taking high damage.

Ji-Kun

Ji-Kun is a really fun fight that involves jumping and flying to platforms to deal with adds, periods of heavy raid damage and a lot of movement and spreading out. You fight Ji-Kun in the center platform, where everyone must be spread out to avoid AoE damage abilities.  Throughout the fight nests around the room, both above and below the main platform, activate and eggs on them need to be killed. My raid assigns one group of 3-4 dps and a healer to handle certain nests each time – one lower and one upper.

Damaging abilities to be aware of:

  • The tank will be taking damage from Infected Talons, a stacking DoT and Talon Rake, which needs tank swaps.
  • Caw sends out sound waves at random players that will do heavy damage to anyone within 5 yards. People need to be spread out for this.
  • Quills is the big raid damaging ability. This happens every minute. It’s best for everyone on the main platform to group up for this, then  spread back out again immediately after it ends.
  • Feed Young, if not intercepted, will leave a slime puddle on the ground which will deal damage over time to anyone who stands in it. However, standing in these for 3 seconds also removes the puddle, so it may be necessary for people to stand in these - preferably tanks or people with immunities/good damage mitigation cooldowns.

You may also have to deal with damage on the nests. If eggs hatch into Hatchlings, they will do light melee damage. If Hatchlings grow into Fledglings they will bombard random raid members with heavy damage.

Druids are a great choice for healing nests on this fight, so a lot of your healing is going to be focused on your group. Keep LB on the active tank while you’re on the platform, but feel free to move it to someone in your group while you’re on a nest. WG and Swiftmend are both great for keeping your nest group healed up since the platform area is so small.

Make sure you have a good handle on when you can use your Feathers to fly. You’ll likely have extra charges and will be able to use one during Down Drafts so you can ignore that whole mechanic. You do not need to use a feather when jumping down from a high nest (there’s no fall damage), so don’t waste charges on that.

Glyphs

You may want to consider replacing Glyph of Regrowth with Glyph of Stampeding Roar for this fight. Using Roar on the raid during Down Draft can be very helpful.

Talents

Level 60 - I prefer Incarnation for this fight. It’s a good cooldown if your group is on a nest during Quills.

Level 75 - Disorienting Roar can be somewhat useful if you’re dealing with Hatchlings in a nest.

Level 90 - Either Heart of the Wild or Nature’s Vigil can be used here. 

Symbiosis

I use Symbiosis on a tank (preferably a Monk or DK so I get a damage reduction cooldown).

Cooldowns

Wild Mushroom – Pre-pull I will jump down to my nest and place Mushrooms so I can bloom them while my group is down there. After that, I’ll try to put them in the center to have them ready to use for Quills. However, if they are in the center and you fly off to a nest, they’re going to despawn because of range.

Tranquility - Use during Quills.

Incarnation - Use so you can keep LBs on your whole group if Quills happens while you’re on a nest.

Ironbark - Use on tanks who are taking high damage.

Stampeding Roar – Use just before Down Draft to help out the raid.

Heart of the Wild – If you take this you can use it while on a nest and help kill eggs/hatchlings.

Happy healing!

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Posted in Boss Fights, Druid, Glyphs, Guides, Healing, Strategy, Talents & Spells, Throne of Thunder

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Healing Throne of Thunder – Last Stand of the Zandalari

Posted on April 4, 2013 | 4 Comments

Here are some tips for the first three bosses in Throne of Thunder as a Resto Druid, including the best time to use cooldowns and which talents and symbiosis targets are optimal for each fight.

First, a few general tips:

  • Feline Swiftness is the level 15 talent that I recommend for any fight.
  • Nature’s Swiftness is the level 30 talent I recommend for any fight. Remember the cooldown is only 1 minute. It makes your next heal instant, 50% bigger and mana-free, so use it often.
  • The major glyphs I usually recommend are: Glyph of Wild Growth, Glyph of Lifebloom and Glyph of Regrowth.
  • For the good of the raid, using Symb on a tank is a good bet in most cases (a Paladin or Warrior would be my last choice since, really, who wants Cleanse or Intimidating Roar on a boss fight?) If you use this on a DK or a Monk, be sure to use IBF or Fortifying Brew during the encounter.
  • Carry lots of Tome of the Clear Mind. Which talents are strongest can change from fight to fight. It you want to maximize your healing potential, you will be changing talents often.

Jin’rokh the Breaker

This is a fairly simple and undertuned fight compared to the rest of the raid instance. However the damage can get high, especially if people mess up.

The fight follows a simple pattern. After a brief period at the start of the fight where not much happens, the boss will throw the active tank at one of the 4 pillars around the room. When this happens, a pool of water will spawn and grow until it takes up almost a quarter of the room. This pool increases damage taken and received, and is conductive – so any damage taken by someone in here is shared with everyone else. After 90 seconds, Jin’rokh will electrify the pool so the raid can no longer stand in it. Shortly after, Jin’rokh will hurl the tank at another pillar and the cycle will repeat. Jin’rokh needs to be killed before you run out of room to stand.

There are a few abilities to be aware of:

  • The tanks take moderate damage, but the real dangers are Static Burst and Static Wound. When the active tank has this debuff, any damage done to them will do damage to the raid as well. Make sure you can see this debuff on your frames.
  • Focused Lightning will focus on a random player and do significant damage to them when it hits them. They will need to be topped up before they get hit and will need a heal afterward as well. If someone gets hit by FL while in Conductive Water, everyone in the water will take damage.
  • Lightning Storm deals heavy raid damage over 15 seconds and happens in between every pool.

Keep your HoTs rolling on the current tank. While the raid is in Conductive Waters I try to keep Swiftmend under the melee stack, while healing the ranged with Wild Growth. When someone gets Focused Lightning, get a Rejuv on them before they run out and be ready with a direct heal after they take the hit (or before if they are at low health). Lightning Storm is the most damage intensive part of the fight. Make sure you’re using your AoE and group heals on cooldown while everyone is stacked up, along with Rejuvs and Regrowths on those low on health.

Talents

Level 60 – This is one of the few fights where I think Soul of the Forest might be more worthwhile than Incarnation, but it depends on your raid group. If your raid dps is good, this fight will be short – less than 4 minutes. If that’s the case the extra output from SotF should outperform Incarnation, since you’ll only get to use it once.

Level 90 – Heart of the Wild. The first 30 seconds of the fight is quite uneventful, you should be able to help out a bit by doing some damage.

Symbiosis

I give Symbiosis to a tank to give them an extra cooldown (even if it’s a Paladin), or to a Monk/DK for an extra damage mitigation cooldown for myself.

Cooldowns

Wild Mushroom – I set up Mushrooms in the center of the room, where everyone will be standing for the Lightning Storm. You should be able to Bloom them during each Storm.

Tranquility – Lightning Storm is the best place to use this since you know everyone will need healing. However, it can also be used in an emergency – like if someone gets hit by Focused Lightning in the Conductive Water.

HotW – If you take this, you can spend some time doing DPS at the start of the fight since there’s not much to heal.

Horridon

 Horridon is a 5 phase fight with four different groups of troll adds to kill. Each add phase will have one of the tanks handling Horridon while the rest of the raid deals with the adds. On each add (or gate) phase, the goal is to damage a Dinomancer which will drop an Orb of control which will let one of your raider will be able to use on Horridon to end that add phase. Once all the adds have been cleared, you will fight Warlord Jalak and Horridon himself. A very important part of this fight is to dispel.

Here are the major damaging abilities to be aware of.

  • Triple Puncture stacks on the current tank, increasing their damage taken. They will need more and more healing as their stacks increase.
  • Double Swipe does heavy damage, but is completely avoidable. No one should be taking damage from this.

Farraki Trolls

  • Stone Gaze is the priority dispel target.
  • Blazing Sunlight will go out on many members of the raid. This is a stacking DoT. Don’t try to dispel every single one, you’ll run out of mana. Only dispel when the stacks start getting high (3-4).
  • Sand Traps is a ground effect that does a ton of damage, but are completely avoidable.

Gurubashi Trolls

  • Rending Charge is a bleed effect that can occur on anyone. This person will need some dedicated heals. At least keep a Rejuv on them.
  • Venom Bolt Volley – Hopefully many of these can be interrupted, but your raid is doing to get pelted by this stacking poison DoT. Again, don’t try to dispel every one. If you have a Monk, they can clear everyone’s poison once it reaches 3-4 stacks.
  • Living Poison is another ground effect that does lots of damage but can be avoided.

Drakkari Trolls

Amani Trolls

  • Fireball will do damage to random players.
  • Chain Lightning will damage 3 random players. It will only jump to 3 people so it’s not worth spreading out for.
  • Hex of Confusion – Dispelling this should be your priority as not everyone can get rid of curses.
  • There are also 2 avoidable sources of damage – Swipe (don’t stand in front of bears) and Lightning Nova Totem.

Once all four troll gates have been cleared, the fight becomes a simple burn of Jalak, then Horridon. Jalak will cast Bestial Cry often, since the damage increases every time, he needs to be killed quickly. Once Jalak dies, Horridon will enrage, doing more damage to the tank.

As a healer, how difficult this fight will be for you depends very much on how well your raid avoids all the avoidable mechanics. If no one gets hit by Double Swipe or stands in Sand Traps and such there’s actually very little to heal (but lots to dispel!). I keep Lifebloom rolling on the current Horridon tank, as they are usually taking more damage than the add tank. Keep your AoE and ground healing spells on cooldown and be ready for some quick spot heals on those who stand in bad things. For dispels, prioritize Stone Gaze on the first gate and Hex of Confusion on the fourth.

When you reach the final phase of the fight, do everything you can to keep the raid topped up before each Bestial Cry – this shouldn’t be too hard as everyone can group up. Once Jalak is dead the current tank is the only one who should be taking damage so just pile heals on to them.

Talents

Level 60 – Incarnation. This is a long fight and the extra mana efficiency will be needed.

Level 75 – I like to take Disorienting Roar here so I can help out a bit if adds are getting out of control.

Level 90 – Either Heart of the Wild or Nature’s Vigil can be used here. There won’t be much of a chance to use the HotW cooldown to help with damage, but the passive Intellect is always good. Nature’s Vigil will allow you to help put out a little damage while also giving you a weak healing boost that can be used pretty much on cooldown.

Symbiosis

If you’re short on Paladins and Priests, you can use Symbiosis on a Paladin so you can help cleanse on the third gate.

Cooldowns

Wild Mushroom – Mushrooms are not great for this fight. I try to set them up around the front of each gate (pre-pull for the first, as we’re running over for the next), but with all the ground effects to get out of and varying behviour of the troll adds, it’s hard to predict where people will end up standing. In the last phase you should be able to set up Mushrooms where the raid is grouped up while fighting Jalak and you can Bloom them after one of the later Bestial Crys.

Tranquility –  I try to get in as many uses of Tranq as I can. The first time I use it is usually on the 2nds gate, when poisons are ticking on everyone. After that, use when it’s up when needed – 2nd use tends to be either at the end of the 3rd gate or start of the 4th and then hopefully it can be used a third time after a Bestial Cry.

Incarnation – Use this early and often. Keep LBs up on both tanks.

Nature’s Vigil – If you take this use it pretty much on cooldown. Try to line it up with Tranquility if you can.

Ironbark – Be free with your Ironbark usage during the first 4 phases of the fight. The best place to use it is on the Horridon tank as their Triple Puncture stacks are getting high. In the last phase make sure Ironbark is up and ready to be used when Horridon is enraged.

Council of Elders

Council is a fight against 4 bosses at once who do not share a health pool. Each boss has their own abilities you need to worry about plus one at a time gets empowered, giving them a new ability or modifying an existing one.

Here are the major damaging abilities to be aware of:

Malakk

  • Biting Cold targets one player and does heavy damage to them for 30 seconds. They will need some dedicated heals and to get away from everyone else.
  • While Malakk is empowered he uses Frostbite instead, whose damage is shared among anyone in range of the target.

Kazra’jin

  • Kazra continuously uses Reckless Charge. People should be getting out of the way of this as much as possible.
  • While empowered, Kazra will become Overloaded at the end of each charge. He will be stunned, but will reflect 25% of all damage taken. Since he’s the kill target when he’s empowered, the dps will need extra healing here.

Sul

  • Sand Bolts inflict heavy damage on random players. They can be interrupted, but some are bound to get off.
  • Quicksand is a ground effect that heals very heavy damage. People must get out of this asap. People in this will be slowed, then eventually Entrapped and will need a dispel.
  • While empowered, Sul will cast Sandstorm which deals heavy raidwide damage over 8 seconds. While this is happening, Living Sand adds will spawn from quicksand pools. Be sure you are standing near the add tank and have a mitigation/threat drop ability ready if you’re anything like me and have a tendency to pull threat on adds.

Mar’li

  • Wrath of the Loa inflicts heavy damage on random players. It can be interrupted, but some are bound to get through.
  • Mar’li will also summon Loas spirits. These aren’t something you have to worry about from a healing perspective, but they can be stunned and knocked back, so you should be able to help control them.

 On this fight I keep Lifebloom on whichever tank is currently tanking two bosses. I try to keep Swiftmend down on either the melee pile or under the Frostbite target if Malakk is empowered. Be prepared to Regrowth anyone who takes a hit from Wrath of the Loa or Sand Bolts and watch out for people who get trapped in Quicksand. The most healing intensive parts of the fight are the Sandstorm and Kazra’s Overload.

Talents

Level 45 – Take Typhoon so you can help knockback Loa Spirits before they reach their target.

Level 60 – Incarnation. This is a long fight and the extra mana efficiency will be needed. It will also allow you to keep Lifebloom on both tanks at times.

Level 75 – I like to take Disorienting Roar here so I can give myself a brief reprieve if the Living Sands aggro on to me.

Level 90 – Either Heart of the Wild or Nature’s Vigil can be used here. There won’t be much of a chance to use the HotW cooldown to help with damage, but the passive Intellect is always good. Nature’s Vigil will allow you to help put out a little damage while also giving you a weak healing boost that can be used pretty much on cooldown.

Symbiosis

Either give it to a tank (preferably a Monk or DK so you can get a mitigation cooldown for yourself), or use it on a Shaman. Between the Quicksands and Kazra’s charge you may have to move a lot and you don’t want Tranquility interrupted when you use it.

Cooldowns

Wild Mushroom – Mushrooms are okay for this fight. There are two places I will set them up – either around the melee, or at the Frostbite stack point. The amount of movement on this fight makes Mushroom healing a little hit and miss, but they should be able to help out a bit.

Tranquility –  I generally use Tranquility while Kazra is Overloaded and reflecting damage back at your dps.

Incarnation – I like to have this up during Sandstorms. The extra output is great for all the damage the raid is taking and having LBs on both tanks is also useful since one of the tanks will be dealing with adds.

Nature’s Vigil – If you take this use it pretty much on cooldown. Try to line it up with Tranquility if you can.

Ironbark – Use this often to help reduce damage on whichever tank has two of the bosses.

Happy healing!

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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Posted on February 25, 2013 | 6 Comments

Last night, Apotheosis killed Will of the Emperor on 25-man Heroic mode. It was, without a doubt, the most difficult fight we had encountered this tier. Hell, it was probably the most difficult fight we had ever encountered as a guild. I know it may just seem that way since it’s fresh in my memory, but I’m pretty sure it was tougher to execute than Heroic Spine or Blackhorn by the time we got to them, and nothing from T11 or 12 that we tackled (we didn’t really work on H. Ragnaros) sticks out as being this hard.

It took us more than 100 attempts over 7 raid nights to get this boss down. We changed strats often. Kill Rages 8 at a time, kill every pack, now back to 8. The strategy that finally worked for us was to kill packs of 4 or 8 during the first round then CC and kill all 12 at a time in between each add break period.

Heroic Will is a complex fight that requires a ton of organization. We need a CC order any time we’re controlling Rages. We need 4 tanks (2 on bosses and 2 on Strengths). We need slows assigned to Courages. Every dps needs a primary target (Rages? Courages? Strengths? Bosses?), then they need a secondary target when theirs isn’t up or is being CC’d. We need assigned Spark soakers. Hunters can soak every pack of Rage Sparks, the Strength tanks can soak their Sparks, a Rogue and Moonkin can soak the Courage Sparks – oh but wait, the Moonkin’s won’t be up for the middle one, he’ll need externals or a backup soaker. Then we need extra backups to Soak in case anything gets missed. The only part of this fight that did not require an inordinate amount of organization was the healing, for which I am grateful.

On top of the organization, execution needs to be pretty close to perfect. Lose focus for one second and stand too close to a Spark – you’re dead. Dance with the boss and mistime the swings – you’re dead. Stand next to a pack of Rages who are rooted – you’re dead. Pop your cooldown a second too late or early while soaking Sparks – you’re dead. Strength gets away from its tank and does a smash – a few people are likely dead. A second late on your Ring of Frost or Gorefiend’s Grasp on the Rages – they go everywhere and soon everyone is dead.

The thing about this fight I didn’t like was that it really required some degree of class stacking. When I asked people for tips when we were going into this fight, having a couple DKs for Gorefiend’s Grasp to control the Rages was always mentioned. Problem – we have one DK on our roster. I’m really not a fan of bringing alts into raids. I don’t think we should have to, and I don’t think it’s fair to anyone. However, after nights of failed attempts, I finally gave in and we had one of our Monk healers switch to his DK (whom he had raided on throughout Cata). We still had a ways to go after this, but controlling Rages got much better. Killing the Rages and soaking the Sparks is 100x easier when each pack can be gripped into one spot – which is something that couldn’t be done with only one DK. The fight also requires a lot of Spark soakers. Hunters are optimal since they have a 100% deflection every minute. Shadow Priests are good too, though their cooldown is longer. Rogues can soak well. Feral Druids and Monks are good for soaking single Sparks. Through Symbiosis, Resto and Balance Druids can soak as well. Apoth has 2 Hunters, 1 Shadow Priest, 1 Rogue, 1 Feral, 1 Resto Druid, 1 Balance Druid. One night, both of our Hunters were unable to raid. Result? We were unable to even attempt to do Will. We probably could have worked out a complex rotation of Rage Spark soakers but it would have left us no backups and no room for error. I really wasn’t a fan of the roster restrictions this fight put on us.

This fight really wore on people. Spending whole raid nights where our attempts didn’t progress past the 4-minute mark because of a couple mistakes got frustrating quickly. The fight was exhausting and tired people make more mistakes. There was one point when I even considered whether to not we were capable of succeeding on this fight as a guild. Had we met our skill cap? When Bashiok said 5.2 was going to be released on February 26th I thought about how absolutely soul-crushing it would be for guild morale if we spent all this time on this fight and didn’t get a kill.

Thankfully, we had not reached our skill cap, and it felt pretty damn amazing to finally see those bastards go down and see the Cutting-Edge raid achievement pop up on my screen. I’m really proud of my guild for their persistence – fighting through a non-optimal roster, adapting to strategy changes until we found one that worked for us, not losing focus after a heartbreaking 800k wipe.

For me personally, Heroic Will was full of ups and downs. At first I was excited about the amount of utility I could offer the raid. Aside from knockbacks, and options for CC, HotW could let me help on dps during breaks, I could Symbiosis a hunter and Deterrence would let me help soak Sparks. But there was a problem. I was bad at soaking Sparks. No, I wasn’t just bad – I was fucking terrible. I’d use Deterrence too early and it would wear off before I hit the last Spark. Over our first two raid nights this happened a lot. Way too much. In my eagerness to help, I was only succeeding in killing myself half the time. I felt awful and like a complete and total failure. Hearing our raid leader sigh and say “Please rez Jasyla” so many times was terrible. Thankfully, I got better. Actually, that’s probably not the truth of it. The thing that made the biggest difference was that our controlled killing of Rages got much better. They died closer together, Sparks spawned closer together, Hunters were able to get them all without the need for backups. By our latter attempts I only occasionally had to soak 1 stray Spark on its own, and that I could handle.

If I can put aside my Spark shame for a moment, I’m pretty happy with how I did on our actual kill. (However, if you’re watching our kill video, ignore the part where I need a rez). I felt really useful. My healing was good. I never stopped moving as I bounced between our two Strength tanks, healing them up when they soaked a Spark. I was able to do a couple million damage with HotW during one of the break periods (in between running between the Strength tanks). I picked up Mass Entanglement and helped to control the first set of Rages after each break, affording our Mages some more dps time on the boss before they had to start CC’ing. I used Ursol’s Vortex to help CC later on. I even soaked a stray Spark (on purpose, without it killing me).

It was certainly a rough ride, but I’m so happy we managed to complete this really challenging fight. I feel more confident and more excited about entering T15 with Heroic Will under our belts. 

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The Best and Worst of Tier 14

Posted on January 23, 2013 | 1 Comment

Today I wanted to take a look at boss mechanics in Tier 14 – not bosses, but individual mechanics. Overall, I’ve been very pleased with this tier of raid content. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed most fights overall, but some mechanics tickle my fancy more than others and some just make me mad. I asked on Twitter what other people thought, and they were full of opinions!

Twitter on boss mechanics

I may be writing this a little prematurely, as Tier 14 isn’t quite over and there are heroic fights I haven’t seen yet, so feel free to tell me if you think I’ve left something out.

The Worst Boss Mechanics

In this list, “worst” can mean a few different things. Some are mechanics that I think are poorly designed and don’t work very well. Some are things I just find to be an excessive pain in the ass.

1. Elegon – Energy Vortex line of sight (Heroic only)

I actually enjoy the Heroic Elegon fight for the most part, but line of sight is just not a fun thing to deal with. If the line of sight mechanic worked seamlessly, it might be okay, but it doesn’t. There are a ton of issues that cause this to be much more of a burden than it should be. Step out of the inner ring to heal up someone stunned by Destabilizing Energies and it takes the game a second or two longer than it should to recognize that you should be able to heal them. Same when you go back in. I’ve run into problems when trying to rez people who die right on the border many times, usually having to reposition myself half a dozen times before I can actually cast on them (and the console in the room provides an extra barrier). I’m sure that not being able to damage Elegon while resetting stacks or running out with an add isn’t much fun for the dps either.

2. Stone Guard – Jasper Chains

These are just a major pain in the ass. Melee isn’t a fun place to be on this fight in the first place, and forcing healers and ranged to run in there to collapse chains makes it even worse. The variable nature of this fight can make Chains a piece of cake or a raid wiper. If you don’t get a Jasper Petrification cast that will allow you to break chains, you can find yourself in a situation where almost your whole raid is stacked up on top of each other. Trying to avoid all the Mines and Puddles that will inevitably spawn right on top of the stack of people, all while trying to not get too far away from your Chain partner gets a bit ridiculous. Also, the fact that 10-mans don’t have to deal with Jasper Chains 25% of the time is BS.

3. Amber Shaper – Mutated Construct

People generally aren’t fans of vehicle fights. They want to play their character and use the abilities they’re familiar with. For me, I don’t mind so much becoming a construct in phase 2. I interrupt a few things, get dps’d down, then go back about my healing. But in phase 3 it gets annoying and boring. Press 1 on cooldown, interrupt yourself with 2 every 10 seconds or so, eat a puddle occasionally. I’d really rather be helping to keep my raid alive.

4. Lei Shi – Hide

I have yet to participate in a Lei Shi fight where I don’t hear a handful of dps moan about Lei Shi hiding right after they’ve popped their cooldowns. Phases that occur in random order can make fights dynamic, but in this case it mostly just frustrates people. I also don’t find the way of getting her to reappear (hitting her a certain amount of times with AoE spells) very interesting.

5. Wind Lord – Wind Bombs

Usually I enjoy fights with many “stay out of the bad” mechanics, but I find Wind Bombs too punishing. Insta-wipe mechanics suck. Having one person’s mistake kill half of the raid is pretty brutal. I’d be good with a Wind-Bomb one-shotting the person that hit it (or even killing the people within a certain radius), but potentially killing everyone? Blech.

6. Blade Lord Ta’yak – Unseen Strike

This mechanic is more of a pain in the butt than it should be and is easy to screw up. It sounds simple enough – damage gets shared in a 15 yard cone around the target. But in practice, determining where the cone of effect will be is not so straightforward. With a bit of lag, where the target is standing on your screen can be quite different than where they are on their screen. Plus, the knock-back doesn’t always send you in the direction you think you’re going to go, and getting punted into tornadoes is no fun. A small change like making the Strike hit anyone within 5 yards of the target (in any direction, not just behind them) would be a big improvement.

7. Sha of Fear – Everything on the main platform

I love long boss fights, but not when it just means doing the same thing for 15 minutes. I guess the shrine bit of this fight is okay, but everything on the main platform is super dull. Are you a tank? Here, stand in this light circle. Healer? Stand around and be bored until the boss gets to about 20% and there’s a bit of healing to do. Strafe out of circles occasionally. Dps? Well, you guys at least have some movement to do, going between the backs of the adds and the safe zone (but honestly that sounds more annoying than interesting). This is not the epic, end of tier boss you’re looking for. Move along.

The Best Boss Mechanics

 The best mechanics are not just the ones I enjoy the most, but also the ones I found most innovative and creative. A lot of them are new ideas that we haven’t really seen in raids before.

1. Blade Lord Ta’yak – Storm Unleashed

Based on the feedback I’ve seen this isn’t a popular choice, but I think this mechanic is great fun. I think it’s especially fun as a healer, as we’re not just concerned about getting to the end of the hall as fast as possible, but also have to continue to heal all the way along. I like mechanics that make people focus on survival and quick movement. Storm Unleashed is also one of the few places where I find Demonic Gateways useful and not an annoyance.

2. Garalon – Pheromones

Another one that doesn’t seem to be a popular choice. I like this because it gives some of the dps (and sometimes healers) extra responsibility. I like the coordination required to get a good kiter rotation going and the fairly strict positioning requirements. The consequence of messing up passing the Pheromones is punishing, but not overly harsh. As a healer, I like occasionally having a target other than the tank who requires focused healing.

3. Feng – Stolen Essences of Stone

Fights in tier 12 and 13, with a few notable exceptions, didn’t challenge tanks a whole lot. Feng was a huge change of pace. Though I have spent a raid night or two cursing Feng’s existence, now that my raid has this fight down I really like the mechanics of it. Shroud of Reversal requires very good timing. Nullification Barrier requires both good timing and proper positioning. And while using these new abilities the tanks have to do all their normal tanking stuff too.

4. Elegon – Touch of the Titans/Overcharged

This is a mechanic (or combination of mechanics, really) that emphasizes personal responsibility. You want to always have that 50% damage and healing taken buff, but you also don’t want to get your damage taken debuff so high that the healers start screaming or you can get one-shot. The mechanic could have been made even more interesting if the damage done buff and the damage taken debuff increased together.

5. Will of the Emperor – Devastating Combo / Opportunistic Strike

The Devastating Combo puts a lot of emphasis on positioning and fast reaction time. What I like most about it is that it gives a real incentive for avoiding all the strikes. Not only do you get to avoid damage (important, but not exciting), but if you successfully avoid all of them you get rewarded with a big damage ability (big numbers, woo!) This is an ability that mostly affects the tanks and melee, but even the healers can get in on the action too.

6. Grand Empress Shek’zeer – Dissonance Field

This is another one that emphasizes personal responsibility. When you get Cry of Terror, you need to go into once of the Dissonance Fields. You can still take damage while you’re in there, but cannot be healed at all. Stay in there the whole time and you’re likely to die when the Field expires and explodes. But spend too much time outside the Field and Cry of Terror will be really hurting your raid group and the Field won’t go down quick enough. I like this mechanic because it forces the DPS to pay a little more attention to their health than normal. It also makes the healers pay close attention so that when the person in the field steps out, they get a heal quickly so they can go back in.

What mechanics in Tier 14 have stood out the most for you?

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A First Look at Resto Raid Healing

Posted on October 16, 2012 | 9 Comments

Apotheosis officially started raiding last week. We finished the week with 4/6 bosses killed in Mogu-Shan vaults so I thought it would be a good time to take a look at how resto Druids (or more specifically, this resto Druid) are doing in raids.

After the ease of healing all the heroic dungeons, the normal mode raids were a step up in difficulty. Mana was definitely a concern at times. When I fought my first raid boss, when Mogu’Shan Vaults opened I had about 4500 spirit. This was not enough. I’m now sitting around 6000 spirit, which feels much better.

The Stone Guard

Stone Guard on Tuesday was probably my best performance of the week, healing meter-wise.

I assigned myself to heal our Monk tank, who was tanking 1 add. Here’s what my healing breakdown looked like:

49% of my healing went to my assigned tank, 14% went to another tank and the rest of the raid split the rest of my healing.

Lifebloom did some really strong healing, mostly because I was the only healer assigned to my tank, I think, so it had the chance to heal (rather than overheal) a lot. Rejuv also did a lot of healing as it was constantly rolling on my tank and was used to spot heal the raid. Regrowth was my main direct heal. Because I used Regrowth so much, and was focused on tank healing, Living Seed had a good showing (comparatively), doing 4.3% of my healing.

Overall, there’s nothing too surprising here. The HoT portion of Swiftmend did very little healing as the raid is spread out for most of this fight. I also tended to use SM on my tank so he would benefit from it rather than try to place it so it would heal more people. Wild Mushrooms, as expected, are complete shit. I used them once on this fight and this week I will avoid them altogether. I used Healing Touch 7 times – 4 of those were in combination with Nature’s Swiftness, while the rest were out of habit. This week I will work on not hard casting HT at all, as it is inferior to Regrowth.

Sadly, I had an Amethyst Pool spawn under me just as I started channelling my first Tranquility, so that got interrupted after only one pulse.

Here’s what my buffs cast tab looks like:

As expected, it’s really easy to keep Harmony up 100% of the time. Boo. I’m happy that for the most part, I was good about using my new abilities. The fight lasted 5:46 and I used Ironbark on my tank twice. I used Symbiosis on a Monk and I remembered to use Fortifying Brew twice as well. I could up my Nature’s Swiftness uses a little bit. The one big omission I see here is a lack of tier 6 talent use. This tells me that I probably forgot to switch HotW (which I use in dungeons) for Nature’s Vigil before this fight started. Oops.

Besides a few small things regarding spell use that I can improve on this week, I was happy with my healing on Stone Guard. I felt very strong as a tank healer, much better equipped to handle it than I was in Cata.

Feng the Accursed

Feng is the boss that gave my raid the most trouble. It’s also the fight that hurt my mana pool the most. We ended up using 7 healers for this to compensate for all the damage going out in phase 3.

Those darn Monks. Our entire raid was stacked on top of each other for at least half of this fight, so Spinning Crane Kick and Chi Burst kinda destroyed everyone else in terms of healing. Still, I don’t think I did too bad.

I was raid healing on this fight, so my healing breakdown is a little different, a lot less of my healing comes from direct heals. The Swiftmend HoT is performing much better on this fight since we’re stacked up so often. I did use Mushrooms a couple times on this fight, but only because there are parts of phase 1 and 2 where there’s nothing to heal, so I wasn’t losing anything by setting them up. Still though, they hit for an average of 3500 (before overheal), that’s not even a drop in the bucket.

The only reason Harmony isn’t at 100% here is because I died near the end of the fight. Tree of Life and Nature’s Vigil were really useful on this fight, as there are so many times when the raid damage is incredible. I made sure to use them once in phase 1 and then again to help handle phase 3. Nature’s Vigil also did 750,000 damage to the boss, not a huge amount, but every bit helps. My NS and Fortifying Brew use could have been better and I didn’t use Ironbark at all, which is awful. And goddamn it, I need to stop interrupting my Tranquility cast.

This was a tough fight. I had to make sure I was conserving as much mana as possible in phase 2 in order to be able to handle phase 3. Having two big output increasing cooldowns (and Tranq) for phase 3 is really useful.

Gara’jal

Gara’jal was by far the easiest fight for me to heal. I was assigned to one of the groups that goes down into the spirit realm. The spirit realm was simple to deal with. The first time I went down I used Tranquility to heal everyone up. The 2nd time I just tossed out WG and a few Rejuvs then spammed Regrowth.. Tranq was back up for the 3rd. Because of the mana regen buff you get in the spirit realm, mana wasn’t a concern and I could spam my little heart out.

Because of phasing, the overall healing meters are worthless on this fight, but here’s how my healing breakdown looked.

Pretty standard for raid healing.

I felt really good on this fight. Tranquility was excellent for the spirit world. Ironbark (which I used 3 times on this) was very nice to put on a tank who had Voodoo Doll to prevent some incoming raid damage, and I thought that my HoTs dealt with Voodoo Doll on the raid quite nicely.

Spirit Kings

This was another fight that was relatively easy to heal, mostly because my raid did an amazing job at avoiding everything that could be avoided.

Those Monks… This is another fight where the raid is stacked up for 50% of the encounter. The combination of it being a single-tank fight, plus our raid avoiding all the damage meant there wasn’t a whole lot to heal.

The fact that Tranquility is was my highest healing spell is absurd. That, along with the HUGE amount of overheal on Rejuv and Lifebloom tell me 6 healers is too many.

There’s something a little odd about these numbers – pretty sure Living Seed didn’t have 100% uptime. Spirit Kings is a long fight with a 10 minute enrage, so you can use your cooldowns at least 3 times each. Nature’s Vigil did 850k damage to the boss. Hoever, now that I’ve seen how little healing is needed when things are done correctly, I’ll probably try using Heart of the Wild next time to see if I can help even more with dps.

Overall

Overall, I thought druid healing was fun and effective my first week in Mogu’shan Vaults. My new cooldowns were fun to play with and interesting to find the best timing for. Though it was a little disconcerting to see myself anywhere but on top of the healing meters more often than not, I never felt like I wasn’t equipped to handle the incoming damage. There are a few spots where I can improve my spell use and hopefully increase my healing.

Goal for this week: beat those Monks!

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Dragon Soul Retrospective

Posted on July 13, 2012 | 9 Comments

We’ve been raiding in Dragon Soul for almost 8 months now. I thought I’d take a look at how enjoyable (or not) the instance was as a healer.

Bosses

My guild cleared the raid on normal within 3 weeks of the instance being released, so I’m mostly going to focus on the hard modes. To give a sense of perspective, I’m including the nerf level the instance was at when we defeated each one.

Morchok

Heroic mode killed pre-nerfs

Morchok was disappointing. The first boss should be the easiest, but not *that* easy. Walking into DS for the first time and one-shotting him was not expected.

In heroic, Morchok wasn’t a whole lot harder, and was certainly easier than a number of the later normal mode bosses. The healing wasn’t particularly difficult, and the Black Blood of the Earth phase was more of an annoyance than a challenge.

Enjoyment factor: 3

Hagara

Heroic mode killed pre-nerfs

Normal Hagara wasn’t tuned to be very difficult, but I did enjoy the components of this fight. I liked that every phase was distinct and that there was a lot of movement (hey, I’m a Druid I like to run around in circles). My biggest problem, which is a complaint I have about most normal modes, was that there wasn’t enough damage to heal.

Heroic Hagara was interesting, but many of the mechanics could be brute-forced. Focused Assault should have made this a 2-tank fight but with enough cooldowns (and a DK) it could be single tanked. Frost phase should have required everyone to run around and dodge Ice Waves but it was easier for all the healers and ranged to stand in the middle and heal through the Watery Entrenchment. The one part of the fight I did find challenging was lightning phase. The damage got pretty intense if the lightning wasn’t quickly chained, and this was definitely a challenge to heal through while learning the fight.

Enjoyment factor: 5

Yor’sahj

Heroic mode killed at 5% nerf

Normal Yor’sahj was a complete bore. It was another fight that we one-shot our first night in Dragon Soul, and to me, it was even easier to heal than Morchok. It’s been a while since I’ve done the fight on normal but I remember there being very little healing to do. I was hard-pressed to even find a time to use ToL and Tranquility because there was so little damage going out through the fight.

The difference between normal and heroic Yor’sahj is night and day. Heroic Yor’sahj is my favorite fight in Dragon Soul. It’s amazing the difference an extra ooze (and a whole lot of extra health and damage) can make. Heroic Yor’sahj is a dynamic fight and required a lot of coordination. It was  really fun and challenging when we started learning it. I remember trying to work out cooldowns for the fight and having 2 groups of CDs to use, based on whether or not purple was up, and calling them out when needed. RNG could make the fight extra challenging as having a red-black-yellow phase followed by a red-black-blue could easily use up all the cooldowns and leave you with none for the next set. I also really loved how each combination required you to heal in a different way. One combo required you to put out as much HPS as possible, while the next required planning and control. The purple ooze was a really nice challenge. Though I never found using ‘tricks’ (like Swiftmending pets) necessary on the fight, I liked how it made me heal differently than normal. Not using Wild Growth is harder than it sounds.

The one downside to Heroic Yor’sahj is that the increasing nerfs really killed everything interesting about this fight.

Enjoyment factor – 9

Zon’Ozz

Heroic mode killed at 5% nerf

I don’t have a strong opinion on the normal version of this fight. It was a step up in difficulty from Morchok and Yor’sahj, but it was rather simple. The biggest difficulties usually came from bugs with the void ball. I did like that the fight involved some dispels, which had been absent through most of tier 12.

Heroic, on the other hand, was a lot more fun. The first phase isn’t too challenging, as long as you had enough people capable of bouncing the void ball without dying. Black blood phase is where things got interesting. There were many adds to deal with and a ton of raid damage going out. What made this part enjoyable for me was that people were spread out all over the room. Where much of the healing in Dragon Soul amounts to “group up in one place and use all your AoE and ground heals,” phase 2 of Zon’Ozz made you do something different. Healers were each responsible for their own group. Since my group consisted of 2 melee, 2 ranged and myself, I got a chance to flex my single-target healing muscles.

Enjoyment factor : 7

Ultraxion

Killed at 10% nerf

This was the epitome of a tank and spank fight and it was pretty dull. The only complication was having to use Heroic Will, and healers got the simplest job of anyone as we didn’t even have to deal with Fading Light.

Heroic Ultraxion, from my healer perspective, wasn’t much different from normal. I don’t have any damage mitigation cooldowns (besides Barkskin, which isn’t really good enough) to allow be to be a soaker, so my job didn’t change. The huge problem with Ultraxion was how inconsistent it was in terms of outgoing damage. The first 3-4 minutes could be easily 2-healed. But once you get to Timeloop, you need 5. The transition from dull to nerve-wracking was jarring.

This fight was interesting for me in one way though. When we were working on this fight at the 5% nerf, it was still a very tough dps check for my raid. This pushed me to put out as much damage as I possible could during the first minutes of the fight when little healing was needed. It was fun to tweak my spec and glyphs in order to do as much damage as possible, while making sure I could still put out as much healing as possible at the end of the fight. A few million damage from a healer could be the difference between a 0.2% wipe and a kill.

Enjoyment factor: 4

Blackhorn

Killed at 15% nerf

I really can’t even remember normal Blackhorn. I have so much time and so many attempts on heroic Blackhorn, I think it has erased all my memories of normal mode. DBM shows I’ve only wiped to this on normal once, so it couldn’t have been too difficult.

Heroic Blackhorn was one of the most frustrating fights in DS for me. First because of how buggy it was. We got to see (or rather not see) invisible monsters one-shoting people on the pull. We had to distinguish between real deck fire and fake deck fire. And I can’t even count the number of times deck fire continued to spawn all over the boat during phase 2, making Shockwaves all but impossible to see and leaving us nowhere to safely stand.

Second, soaking barrages really showed my raid’s flaws in terms of movement. We had so many sub-30 second wipes called after a handful of people died to barrages almost immediately. Blackhorn made it really easy to play the blame game when you ended up dying because you solo-soaked a barrage. Not fun.

The other thing that made Blackhorn less enjoyable was that by the time we got through our kinks in phase 1, phase 2 was a complete pushover. When we killed this at the 15% nerf we really didn’t even need to use our cooldowns properly in order to survive any Roars.

Enjoyment factor: 4

Spine of Deathwing

Killed at 20% nerf

Spine is the first normal fight that provided a healing challenge. The Searing Plasma debuff was something new to worry about and it was fun learning how to deal with.  But once you got beyond that, this fight was very long and repetitive.

Heroic Spine was the most difficult fight in the instance. The healing, even when the fight had been nerfed quite a bit, was very challenging. Combining the debuff, bloods bursting, grips, heavy damage on up to 3 tanks, and the Superheated damage meant the healers not only had to put out enormous healing, but also had to correctly prioritize who they were healing. I actually really enjoy healing this fight, and don’t dislike it as much as a lot of people do. It has it’s downsides – it is too long, and too repetitive, and the difficulty scales up incredibly on the 3rd plate, but I like to be challenged, and this fight challenged me.

The one major thing I would change about this fight is the tendon burn phase. As a healer it’s not something that really effects me, but I sympathize with the dps having to respec and reforge for maximum burst for one tiny portion of the fight. It really disrupted raid continuity.

Enjoyment factor: 7

Madness of Deathwing

Killed at 20% nerf

Like Spine, Madness is very long and very repetitive. The mechanics on normal aren’t terribly interesting. The 4 platforms felt almost exactly the same and that got boring fast.

On heroic, Madness was a letdown. My raid had to work long and hard to get Blackhorn and Spine down, and Madness took about a quarter of the time that Spine did to defeat. Very anti-climactic for the last boss of the expansion. The Impale mechanic was a bit of an annoyance. It seemed like a test of how many damage mitigation cooldowns you could throw at it and as a healer without any, made me feel a bit powerless.

The worst part of the fight for me was that the first 3 platforms were simple, the 4th platform was more challenging to heal, but barring large screw-ups, not too bad. Then the final phase was exponentially more difficult. When learning the fight we were seeing wipes happen around the 12 minute mark. It was very frustrating to have to go through 12 minutes of the fight just to get a little bit more practice on the last phase, which required the most coordination and effort. That said, I do enjoy the last phase of the fight. It’s very stressful to heal – I’m a little in awe of those raids who did this fight at the 5% nerf. After 12 minutes of fighting Deathwing, you’re running low on mana, you’re getting a little tired, and both the tanks and the rest of the raid start taking crazy damage. I felt like the last phase of the fight really pushed me to put out at much healing as I possibly could, pushed the rest of the raid to mitigate as much damage as possible (“use your goddamn Dream!”), and I still breathe a sigh of relief every time we finish the fight.

Enjoyment factor: 5

Atmosphere

I’ve heard many people complain about the recycled environments in Dragon Soul, but I really didn’t have a problem with it. I liked having Wyrmrest Temple as a backdrop for Morchok and Ultraxion, it gave it an epic feeling. Not all the boss areas were as impressive however. Zon’ozz and Yor’sahj were in rather boring areas. I think the two Deathwing fights could have been done much better but at least the environments were unique.

The biggest issue I had with the Deathwing fights was a problem of scale. Fighting on a dragon’s back should have been amazing but the actual fight area and camera angles made it very difficult to tell what was going on. Similarly, Madness was disappointing because you couldn’t really see Deathwing. It didn’t feel like you were fighting an awesome, fear-inducing, world-destroying, dragon because you could only see parts of him at a time – a wing here, a tentacle there. I think it was a huge misstep that we never got to encounter Deathwing in his human form – it’s an amazing model, and we never got to see it. Rades wrote an excellent post about lore disappointments in Cataclysm and how the way Deathwing was presented was one of the most disappointing things. Had Deathwing been better presented (both in character and in the form he takes), fighting him at the end of Dragon Soul would have felt much more exciting. The area where you fight Madness, surrounded by the dragon aspects, is kind of cool when you have the time to look around, but during the course of the fight you really don’t.

Overall

Overall, I’d say that Dragon Soul was okay. There were some disappointing bosses, but there were also quite a few that I found really fun to heal. I like that the environment varied – it was a nice change after Firelands where everything was red (and on fire). The worst thing about Dragon Soul was the nerfs. While I’m grateful for some nerfs (my guild never would have killed a fight like Spine without them), they come too fast and go too far. There were a number of fights – Yor’sahj, Ultraxion, Spine – that I felt we could have killed with just a little more time and effort, then the next level of nerfs came in and they were a cakewalk and much less satisfying to conquer. At 25% we’re pretty much stomping over everything, and next week the nerf is going to 30%. It’s gotten to the point where the mechanics don’t even really matter. One positive thing I can say about Dragon Soul is that I’m not nearly as sick and tired of it as I was of Icecrown Citadel at the end of Wrath. Of course, if you ask me again in another 2 months, that may change.

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A Better Perspective

Posted on April 6, 2012 | 4 Comments

My guild started working on Heroic Spine recently. At first I kinda liked it. Now I’m beginning to understand the levels of frustration and boredom that many people have expressed for this fight.

I was pretty excited about the concept of Spine of Deathwing when it was first announced. The idea of fighting on the back of a dragon seemed pretty cool. In practice however, it wasn’t that cool. The mechanics were okay (at least for the first couple normal kills until the fight became a faceroll and more time was spent standing around doing nothing than anything else). But the worst part was the environment. This is a fight that could have felt really epic. You’re fighting on a dragon’s back! It could have had a sense of movement, a sense of danger that you’d fall off and it could have looked really good. But instead, we get clumped up in a tiny area where most of the time I can’t even tell which way his head is.

This is what I see for most of the fight:

Spine of Deathwing - up close

Getting a close up of my priesty friends isn’t the worst thing in the world, but I don’t feel like I’m actively seeing or participating in a boss fight with this view.

What if I zoom out?

Spine of Deathwing - Zoom out
Those are some nice tentacles you’ve got there, Deathwing. But I still don’t know which way is up, down, front or back from this view.

Let’s try positioning the camera overhead…

Spine of Deathwing - Overhead view
Bleh. This is the worst view of all. 12 minutes of seeing this? No thank you.

Then, after 3 months of killing Spine, I finally found out the secret to making this fight look as epic as it should.

Spine of Deathwing
Much better! I can tell I’m in the air, I can tell that we’re moving and I can actually see Deathwing and appreciate how huge he is. He keeps looking back and he looks pissed that we’re hanging out on his back. Turns out, all I have to do to make this fight look good is fall off when he’s doing a barrel roll. I feel silly that it took me 3 months to figure this out.

Disclaimer: I am in no way condoning falling off the dragon…at least not if this is still a progression fight for you. :)

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