Cannot be Tamed

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

• Uncontrolled Abominations will attack random targets.
• Deadly Plague is a disease DoT that lasts 5 minutes, so should be dispelled.
• Frozen Orbs do damage to anyone standing nearby. This damage should be avoided as much as possible.

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!