I'll finish the last two bosses when I get back in a few days, but this is the basic strategic info and research I have so far so I thought I'd throw it up and give people a few days to digest it.
Kargath Bladefist
Kargath is a very basic introductory fight that only has a handful of mechanics to deal with and should be generally very simple.
Impale is cast on the current tank, dealing heavy damage over 8 seconds and applying the Open Wounds debuff, forcing tank swaps.
Pits around the room should simply be avoided.
Frequently spawned Fire Pillars around the room deal heavy damage if touched.
Occasionally Fixates a random ranged member and rushes toward the player, dealing massive damage to any player he touches on the way. The player targeted by Fixate should kite Kargath through a Fire Pillar, breaking the fixate and returning him to the tanks.
Crowd Group
Infrequently uses Chain Hurl, which causes Kargath to leap to the center of the room and begin the 6-second cast while knocking everyone back. At the end of the cast, the nearest ~5 players will be thrown into the stands.
Ideally we'll want to send 1 healer plus 4 DPS into the stands as the nearest player to Kargath after Chain Hurl. That Crowd Group will circulate around the stands, killing the enemies up top (careful of the bombs placed on the ground when they die) until all are dead. Taking too long to kill an agroed audience member can cause a player to be thrown back down below, so burst stuff down quickly!
The Butcher
This entire encounter is all about the frequent use of Cleave on the largest group of melee-range players, splitting the ~300k damage among all targets hit.
WeakAuras (for Adjustment Pair players only): http://voximmortalis.com/wiki/WeakAu...ul#The_Butcher
Cleave also applies Gushing Wounds, a physical and stacking DoT that causes instant death if a player reaches 5 stacks.
Cleave is cast every 5 seconds and because Gushing Wounds lasts 15 seconds, two groups of Cleave Soakers will be required to rotate (similar to Iron Qon's Unleashed Flame attack in Throne of Thunder).
The Butcher gains ticks of 5 energy every 3 seconds, and upon reaching max (100) energy uses Bounding Cleave. This knocks everyone back and after about 5 seconds, The Butcher will leap to the largest clump of players found and perform one more Cleave before returning to the tanks as usual.
The logical positioning for this boss can be seen below:
We have the boss in the center of a equilateral triangle comprised of the 2 tanks at the top (stacked), and two evenly split melee groups on either side at the other two points (also stacked). These two groups will be cycling the Cleave hits.
We also have the majority of range DPS and healers stacked up near max range, directly opposite the boss from the tanks. Being along the center line opposite the tank position allows the range group to simply step forward to the assigned position following the knockback from Bounding Cleave and allows an easy soak of that extra ranged Cleave attack that immediately follows before the boss turns around and moves back to the central tank position.
Cleave Management
Notice the position of (2) ranged players directly behind one of the melee stack groups. These two people (known as the Adjustment Pair) will be effectively in control of the entire Cleave process and therefore the fight as a whole.
All melee in the raid are split into two even groups (or as even as possible) to form the two Cleave Soak groups. In addition to the melee split, we'll also have (1) healer permanently stacked in each Cleave Group to assist with healing and bump up the number of soakers slightly (this generates more total damage from Gushing Wounds but I think is worth it to have in-melee healers).
For example, if we have 7 melee DPS (as our current roster allows), groups will be split with 4 melee + 1 healer in Cleave Group A (as seen on the left side of the diagram) and 3 melee + 1 healer in Cleave Group B, with (2) ranged also assigned and stacked with Group B (on the right).
This allows for a simple chain of events to handle Cleave:
1. Cleave Group A (4 melee + 1 healer) and Cleave Group B (3 melee + 1 healer + 2 Adjustment Pair ranged) all start the fight stacked up in position.
2. Once Group B reaches 4 stacks of Gushing Wounds, the (2) Adjustment Pair ranged in the group step back a few yards (or Warlock portal out).
3. With the Adjustment Pair out of Group B, Group A now has the higher player count (5 vs. 4) and will receive all Cleave attacks.
4. The Adjustment Pair immediately steps back into Group B melee position when their Gushing Wounds stack drops, reverting the balance back in the favor of Group B (6 vs. 5) and repeating the process.
5. Since Bounding Cleave knocks players back and the Cleave that follows that can hit players at range, the range group in the far back will always be the majority of total grouped players and thus take the hit.
In the event that our melee DPS distribution is even, the simple solution is to add an extra ranged player to Group A on the non-adjusting side.
To further elaborate, I also noticed that Gushing Wounds has specific spell data listed for *Max Targets*:
Code:
10 - Raid Finder
4 - Mythic
5 - Default
5 - Heroic
6 - Normal
Again we'd need to test to be certain, but it's a safe assumption that this means that if Cleave hits a group of 10 people for example, Gushing Wounds will only be applied to the max target cap of players (~5-6 depending on group size).
30%/Frenzy
At 30%, The Butcher uses Frenzy, increasing damage by 10% and haste by 30%. This also causes Cleave to occur 30% faster, or once every ~3.5 seconds instead of 5 seconds. Strategically, nothing should change once Frenzy occurs, but it simply requires that the Adjustment Pair of players react that much faster to their changing status of gaining 4-stacks or losing Gushing Wounds so an extra Cleave does not hit Group A or themselves in Group B.
Tanking
The Butcher has a variety of melee attacks, but the essentials are that he duplicates his melee attacks on one tank to the other via Heavy Handed. The Cleaver attack is particularly important, as it can be avoided using active mitigation/dodge.
Tectus
Tectus requires proper positioning of environmental effects that can quickly limit the available space of the room while dealing with ever-multiplying quantities of those effects due to the Shattering effect, causing multiple Tectus clones to spawn throughout the encounter.
Tectus gains energy over time and upon reaching 100 energy, casts Tectonic Upheaval, dealing 300k damage to the raid over 12 seconds and healing Tectus by ~20% after completion.
Earthen Pillar is probably the most important ability in the fight and is used when Tectus (or a copy) reaches 25 energy (while gaining energy, not while losing it). Earthen Pillar creates a giant circle on the ground near ranged players and after a few seconds, a rock pillar emerges at that location, killing anyone in that area and most importantly, closing off that area for the remainder of the encounter.
Fracture is a smaller version of Earthen Pillar, but is only a temporary spike under a player and does not permanently alter the layout of the room.
Crystalline Barrage targets a random ranged(?) member, causing a line of pink clouds to emerge from Tectus and move toward the player. Anyone standing in it takes heavy damage per second. However, to reduce the area of the room covered in clouds at any given time, it may be worth testing if the player targeted by Crystalline Barrage can rush forward nearly into melee range next to the boss and stand in place inside the cloud. If the cloud damage doesn't duplicate itself, it may be easier to heal that player through the damage than to cover a lot of the room with cloud and potentially see misc players taking hits from it instead.
Tectus > Shards > Motes
If Tectus is killed while casting Tectonic Upheaval, he will split into (2) Shards -- smaller albeit weaker versions of himself with the same abilities.
From there, if a Shard is killed during Tectonic Upheaval, the Shard splits into (4) Motes -- even smaller versions but again with the same abilities.
Basic Adds
While Tectus himself is still active, a handful of smaller adds will emerge frequently. All should be picked up by the offtank and faced away from the raid (due to conal attack of Earthen Flechettes).
The offtank that is not tanking Tectus should be certain to be the player to soak up Gift of Earth a swirling ability cast by the Night-Twisted Earthwarper. Allowing this to hit Tectus gives him 10 stacks of Accretion (+50% damage). On the other hand if the offtank soaks it, the offtank gains Petrification for 30 seconds. Petrification is a minor slow but more importantly, *if Tectus melees the Petrified offtank*, Tectus will heal himself ~20% (as well as gain a stack of Accretion.
Tactics
The simplest method to handle the space we're given in the room without limiting ourselves by spawning poorly-placed Earthen Pillars is to keep the boss toward the middle of the room slightly, but a few seconds before Tectus (or any Shard or Mote) reaches 25 energy, have all the ranged/healers stacks up on the outside wall, ideally on the edge of an already existing Earthen Pillar. Once the Pillar spawns, we have another X seconds (depending on number of Tectus' active) before the next cast, and are free to move about until that occurs. The key is to always be near the walls and existing Earthen Pillars when the next cast occurs.
Beyond that positional tactic, DPS order should be as follows:
1. Tectus first of course, killing him during second or third Tectonic Upheaval, while killing off adds ASAP when they appear.
2. Split tank both Shards on top of each other to maximize cleave damage, but DPS should focus on one single Shard to get it down ASAP. Ideally we can kill this first shard during the first cast of Upheaval.
3. It seems that the Upheaval from the dual Shards is the most dangerous moment of the raid damage, so personal and/or raid cooldowns are best used there.
4. Once Shard #1 dies, DPS cooldowns/Bloodlust should be blown to kill off the first (4) Motes as quickly as possible. This moment is the DPS check, and killing all (4) initial Motes before they begin Upheaval will be crucial to our success.
5. After the first (4) Motes are dead, we're only left with the remaining (1) Shard, so the process repeats but missing DPS cooldowns for round two on the Motes is not as important with much lower damage potential due to fewer active bosses.
Brackenspore
This fight has a reasonable number of moving parts, but is primarily about handling creep spread, interrupting Flesh-Eaters throughout, and efficiently swapping DPS targets during the encounter.
Fungus
- Mind Fungus - Priority target for DPS. Casts a massive haste debuff.
- Spore Shooter - Priority target for ranged DPS. Targets random player with Spore Shot, dealing moderate damage in a small radius around that player. Stay away from others if targeted.
- Fungal Flesh-Eater - Big off-tank mob that deals increasing damage the longer it remains alive. Most importantly, casts Decay every ~10 seconds, requiring precise interrupts. Failing to interrupt even one Decay could mean a wipe, as the damage starts at around 160k to the raid and increases as the Fungal Flesh-Eater gains stacks of Flesh-Eater.
Mushrooms
- Living Mushroom - Once healed to full, provides massive healing per second to players within 20 yards. The Mushroom's health will decay rapidly once fully healed, so eventually it must be left to die completely.
- Rejuvenating Mushroom - Also once fully healed, provides 30% haste and 5,000 mana per sec regen within 20 yards.
Creeping Moss
Throughout the fight, patches of Creeping Moss will appear randomly around the room and begin to spread and grow rapidly, dealing damage/slowing players that touch it and healing enemies within it as well.
Similar to the Dreadflame mechanic from Heroic Ragnaros, Creeping Moss can be destroyed by a couple people that are utilizing the Flamethrower special ability.
Staying on top of new Creeping Moss spawns and destroying the patches quickly before it spreads is probably the most important aspect of this encounter. Due to the high movement involved in this job, this is best suited for players with strong mobility (Hunters and Monks come to mind).
We'll have to test it to determine the intricacies, but there is a special energy bar associated with using the Flamethrower, and if the energy is maxed out, a 10-second cooldown is incurred. There is likely a happy medium of use to prevent totally maxing the energy accidentally.
Tanking
Tank swaps should occur between the boss and the currently active Flesh-Eater after the Brackenspore tank reaches 5 stacks of Rot.
Additionally, the boss himself uses a very dangerous ability called Necrotic Breath on the tank (and anyone in front, so watch the facing) that deals ~50k nature damage per second and most importantly, reduces healing on the tank during that 5-second period by 99%. Tanks and Healers: This means absorb effects should be cast in the 2-second CAST TIME before the breath hits, and otherwise cooldowns should be used on the tank to mitigate damage.
Infesting Spores
Every ~90 seconds (when the boss reaches full energy), he will cast Infesting Spores, a 10-second channel that stacks a 3-second DoT on the raid that deals 4,000 damage per second (per stack). Thus the total unmitigated damage is 300,000 including the damage as the buff is stacking up plus the final two ticks at the maximum 10-stack:
Code:
n+2n+3n...+xn = nx(x+1)/2
thus
4000*10(10+1)/2 + 4000*10*2 = 300,000
There are two possible methods to deal with this ability:
The first is simply to heal through the damage and use cooldowns for survival. Given our skill level and the difficulty, this shouldn't be an issue.
The second option (which I suspect will be utilized for Mythics where the per-tick damage goes up to 7,000 and thus total damage is 525k) would be to take advantage of the Living Mushroom activation by saving a Mushroom until just before the boss reaches full energy, spamming it up to full health, and triggering the massive healing that it provides for everyone within 20 yards.
Twin Ogron
This fight looks incredibly simple, with only a handful of mechanics revolving around the energy levels of the Twin Ogron.
Tank swapping does not seem necessary from what I can tell, so long as the Phemos tank avoids Shield Bash & Shield Charge from Pol, and the Pol tank avoids Whirlwind from Phemos.
Phemos
33 Energy - Casts Whirlwind with a fairly large radius. Phemos may(?) be mobile during this time as well, requiring the Phemos tank to soak the damage (and thus debuffs). Everyone else should obviously just stay away.
66 Energy - Casts Enfeebling Roar, requiring most of the raid to be stacked up and spread the debuff effectiveness across all players within 20 yards. @Tanks:: This ability has about a 3-second cast time, so if possible it may be worthwhile to have the Phemos tank dash away, out of the 20-yard range, before this ability hits. Given that the next major ability from Phemos is one where we want him in the corner, moving in that direction may be ideal, as avoiding this debuff means avoiding a 10-20% damage taken debuff for the next 10-20 seconds.
100 Energy - Throws both his weapons to the ground, one directly ahead of him and one directly behind approximately 15 yards in either direction. These weapons remain stationary and unleash waves of Blaze fire that travel around the room.
Since the weapons are thrown out at a known time (100 energy on Phemos) and they are thrown based on his position and facing, the flames can largely be avoided by moving the boss into a cubby in the room prior to 100 energy and facing him parallel to the wall (his left or ride side against the wall essentially).
Pol
33 Energy - Casts Shield Charge, rushing toward a random raid member after a short wind-up period, dealing damage based on distance traveled. Everyone should watch the boss to see where he's charging and sidestep heavily during this period.
66 Energy - Casts Interrupting Shout, dealing moderate damage but more importantly interrupting and silencing for 6 seconds if a player is casting at the time.
100 Energy - Casts Pulverize, which is a series of three increasing attacks.
- Pulverize #1: Deals damage to players within 3 yards of any other player. Spread out for this first cast.
- Pulverize #2: Drops a few rocks from the ceiling.
- Pulverize #3: Drops a one huge rock, dealing more damage the closer to the impact a player is.
Boss Distance & Kill Priority
If the bosses are moved ~15+ yards apart, they will begin to gain increasing haste based on that distance. It seems that the bosses are safe to be kept on top of each other in nearly all circumstances, except for during two specific abilities:
- When Phemos gains 33 Energy and uses Whirlwind, then obviously the Pol tank will need to be out of range of that.
- When Phemos gains 100 Energy and uses his weapon throw, then the Phemos tank will need to have pulled Phemos away into the corner. We could technically move Pol with Phemos during this setup period for Phemos' weapon throw, but it seems more hassle then it's worth.
Ko'ragh
This fight focuses on dealing with the variety of magical attacks Ko'ragh uses on the raid while managing the ever-increasing number of Overflowing Energy bombs that drop from above and must be soaked by select individuals who are buffed with the massive Nullification Barrier absorb shield.
Managing Nullification Barrier
The boss will generally have a Nullification Barrier active on himself throughout most of the fight, which absorbs incoming magical damage (around 11 million for 23 people). While Barrier is active, the boss does ever-increasing damage due to the stacking Breaker's Strength buff. Once the Barrier is broken, Breaker's Strength drops off the boss/is reset and Ko'ragh moves to the center of the room and begins channeling for 20 seconds to reapply his lost Nullification Barrier.
During the 20-second recharge period while Ko'ragh is in the middle, the first player only to set foot into the center with Ko'ragh will gain Nullification Barrier for him or herself but will also suffer from heavy damage per second (and reduced incoming healing) from Caustic Energy. Caustic Energy deals 45k per second and reduces healing by 35% for Heroic. Perhaps most critically, damage from Caustic Energy IS NOT reduced by immunities or damage reduction cooldowns. Effectively this means that the only "advantage" a particular individual could gain while standing in the Caustic Energy is if he or she received more incoming healing which I don't know if any classes/specs have innately any longer(?).
All healing done to the Caustic Energy absorbing player will be applied to his or her total absorb shield from Nullification Barrier. If we assume we can maintain a player for the full 20-second duration, that equates to a total damage taken of:
45000/sec * 20 sec = 900,000 damage
Since our healing is reduced by 35% on the target, the actual healing requirement is:
Code:
healing_required = 900000 / (1 - 0.35)
healing_required = ~1.38 million
1.38m healing / 20 sec = ~69k healing per second
To reiterate the process:
- We break the Nullification Barrier on Ko'ragh by dealing enough magical damage to him.
- Just before the Barrier is broken, the entire raid moves out of the center of the room so when the boss jumps to the middle he is alone.
- A predetermined individual player steps into the central shield where the boss is channeling and gains Caustic Energy while also building up his or her personal Nullification Barrier.
- 2 or 3 assigned healers will spam the Caustic Energy target to keep the player alive while any extraneous healers throw extra heals on the Caustic player as they are able to do so.
- The Caustic player receives absorption shielding for each point of healing done during this 20 second period, though the ratio of incoming healing to generated absorption is unknown (but seems to be around 10 point of absorb for every 1 point of healing).
- After the 20-second Nullification Barrier recast is complete, the boss resumes his normal activities and attacks the tanks once again.
- Meanwhile, the newly processed Caustic Energy soaker has a massive Nullification Barrier of his or her own to use while soaking the primary "soft-enrage" mechanic: Overflowing Energy
Overflowing Energy bombs
Throughout the fight, small green circles will appear in random locations around the room that indicate where an Overflowing Energy bomb will drop after a few seconds. Mechanically we've seen similar abilities many times, but the most obvious comparison are the Kinetic Bombs from the Blood Prince Council in ICC, which just like the Overflowing Energy bombs, required players to stand underneath them when they land to prevent a worse effect from happening to the raid as a whole.
In this case, standing inside Overflowing Energy deals around 1.5 million damage to that individual and IS NOT REDUCED BY IMMUNITIES OR DAMAGE REDUCTIONS. If no player is standing inside an Overflowing Energy when it lands, it instead deals around 68k (?) damage to the entire raid (Note: The actual raid damage dealt is unconfirmed, as the mined spell data is very mixed, but the best guess is ~68k for Heroic and likely upwards of 100k for Mythic.)
Note: This theory needs verification and testing, but it seems to me that the Overflowing Energy bombs cease to fall during the 20-second Recharge period while the boss is in the middle of the room (that is, the bombs stop falling and are stationary at that time). If this is the case, it may impact our chosen method for dealing with Anomalies (as seen below).
Initially only (1) Overflowing Energy bomb will spawn at a time, but as the fight progresses, soon more and more bombs will appear simultaneously. Since the only method for soaking a bomb is to have a player with an active Nullification Barrier inside, the entire goal of this mechanic is to push through the boss' Barrier quickly, create a new player-bound Barrier of our own, and repeat this process rapidly, creating more and more raid members capable of soaking Overflowing Energy.
Expel Magic Abilities
While Ko'ragh is doing his normal stuff, he'll cast a variety of Expel Magic abilities. As far as I can tell, these abilities do not seem to have a rotational order, but instead seem to have individual "soft cooldowns" whereby some abilities are cast far more frequently than others.
Roughly in order of commonality (most to least):
Expel Magic: Arcane -- Cast solely on the current Ko'ragh tank and lasts 10 seconds, creating small explosions where the tank was standing 1.5 seconds prior, dealing heavy arcane damage. Also debuffs the tank, increasing Physical damage taken by 100%.
Management: The offtank should taunt the boss immediately so the afflicted tank with Expel Magic: Arcane can begin running away from his or her explosions. Since the trigger period for the explosion is only 1.5 seconds, the tank can choose to either run in a single line pattern out toward and along the walls, OR create a smaller circular pattern that is large enough to prevent looping back on the created explosions.
Expel Magic: Frost -- Cast at the location of the current tank, this orb is massive and deals damage/slows anyone within it, dealing more damage the closer to the center the player is.
Management: Tanks (and by extension melee) should run out immediately as soon as Expel Magic: Frost is cast to avoid the brunt of the slow (and thus damage). Movement boosts will work well here. Since the orb only lasts 20 seconds and thus we'll never have two active simultaneously, ideally we'll want to have two distinct tanking locations marked ahead of time that the tanks can alternate between when moving out of one Frost orb to another safe location.
Expel Magic: Fire -- Places DoT on everyone in the raid that deals 15k damage per second for 10 seconds. After the 10-second expiration ends, deals 80k damage to every other player within 5 yards of the afflicted player. This ability is dispelable.
Management: It appears that since this is dispelable and because the spell data has two uniquely worded phrases based on how the buff is removed, I suspect the idea is that manually dispelling the debuff causes another standard damage tick 5 yards around the player (so 15k damage within 5 yards), while allowing the DoT to expire after 10 seconds without dispel causes the much larger 80k damage within 5 yards.
Note the wording on these two spell data phrases:
Inflicts 15000 Fire damage to nearby allies on removal.
When Expel Magic: Fire expires, it inflicts 76000 to 84000 Fire damage to all allies within 5 yards.
I've emphasized the important parts, but I believe that supports the theory. If that is the case, then the ideal management strategy is:
- Fire is applied to the entire raid.
- Mass dispel/personal dispels are used primarily on melee DPS and tanks to allow them to remain in range and attacking the boss.
- Meanwhile, all ranged DPS and healers spread out around the room 5+ yards apart and allow the debuff to expire naturally after 10 seconds.
- Explosions occur but should not hit anyone if spreading properly occurred.
Expel Magic: Shadow -- Seems approximately as common as Expel Magic: Fire, but this final ability debuffs the entire raid once again, creating a healing absorb shield of about 140k.
Management: Nothing fancy here, we've seen this mechanic many times in the past. Ideally we'll want to rotate 1 or 2 healing cooldowns for each Shadow cast throughout the fight, so we always have a good way to handle it. We'll come up with the rotation before the pull, but ideal spells are Revival, Tranquility, Healing Tide Totem, Amplify Magic, etc. Depending on the other abilities that may be happening at the time, we may wish to call a raid-stack in melee when this debuff is applied, to allow us to quickly push out the required healing.
Suppression Fields & Volatile Anomalies
Throughout the fight, the boss will create a Suppression Field at the feet of a random ranged player. As expected, standing in this field deals damage but also silences the player. Generally, while a ranged player or healer is standing still, he or she should try to be standing JUST OUTSIDE an existing Suppression Field, such that a future Field on that player will overlap with the existing one and use up less real estate around the room.
Other than limiting space, Suppression Fields have a second purpose for the tanks during the Recharge phase where the boss is in the center for 20 seconds applying his Nullification Barrier once again.
During this period, Volatile Anomaly adds will spawn near the boss and should be picked up by tanks and moved inside a Suppression Field before dying. By keeping the adds in the Field, we prevent them from casting Destabilize when they die, which would normally deal 53k damage to the raid when an Anomaly dies. Since it should die within a Field however, it will be silenced and unable to cast that on death.
Anomalies SEEM to have standard threat mechanics, but they spawn slowly throughout the 20-second recharge phase (in pairs), so it will be ideal to use threat transfer mechanics or ranged pickups (Monk statue, shield throw, taunt, etc) to bring newly spawned adds to the tank positions. Since a tank that is inside a Field is ALSO silenced of course, tanks may need to alternate stepping into and out of the Field to get new adds as their existing ones die.
Another possibility, if we can handle the damage on the tank, is to ignore the adds during the 20-second Recharge phase and just let them build up on one specific tank. Once the phase is over and all the adds are spawned, we then have the add tank move into a Field and call for burst AE damage to take the adds down quickly. This method is the simplest, but relies on two unknown caveats:
A) Whether the tank can survive the damage of all those adds beating on him for that long.
B) Whether the boss will cast a new Expel Magic: Arcane on the other tank that is dealing with the boss too quickly after the Recharge phase ends, thus requiring a tank swap before the add tank is done dealing with said adds.
I'd prefer to try the second method as it will allow us to spend our Recharge phase period dealing heavy damage to the boss while no Barrier is active, but we'll need to test those unknown caveats to see if it's viable.
Imperator Mar'gok
This encounter focuses on a handful of unique abilities used throughout the fight that become modified in some way based on the particular Phase that is active at the time. Phase modifications alter the abilities in minor ways but in some cases, force entirely different techniques to handle.
Mar'gok has approximately (4) Phases and (2) Intermissions, so I'll just briefly go through each and talk about the differences as the fight progresses.
Phase 1 (100% - 90% HP)
This is the Phase where we see all the Normal versions of his basic abilities.
Mar'gok casts Arcane Wrath which applies the Branded debuff to a random raid member and is easily the most interesting and unique ability in the fight. After 4 seconds, Branded will expire and deal ~74k damage to the afflicted player. The Branded debuff will then jump to the nearest player within 200 yards and apply Branded to that new player, but with an additional stack of the debuff.
Each time Branded jumps and gains a stack, two things occur:
A) The damage dealt upon expiration is increased by 25%.
B) The distance the debuff will search for a new jump target is reduced by 50%.
Therefore, we can illustrate the basic pattern of standard Branded damage and jump distances as follows:
So the table shows that the first stack applied (to the initial target) will deal 74k damage and travel 200 yards maximum to find the next nearest target. After 1 jump, we're down to 100 yards and 92.5k damage, then 111k damage and 50 yards max after jump #2, and so on.
Management: While I considered some strange assigned location positions to allow players that are dealing with this to remain stationary and plan on a specific number of jumps every time, the fact that this ability becomes modified in the future means we should use something that is simple, repeatable, and does not require specific areas of the room (indicated by markers) to be utilized.
Therefore, I think the simplest method to deal with Branded is to create a Buddy System:
- When Branded is first applied to a random raid member, that raid member runs out from the raid 25+ yards or so, just to create some distance and visually simplify things.
- Simultaneously, (2) other predetermined Brand Buddy players (ideally a healer with high movement capability and one ranged DPS with innate damage reduction) will move out with the Branded player.
- These (2) Brand Buddies will stack up on the initial Branded target player until the initial 4 seconds pass and the first jump occurs, placing the debuff on one of the (2) Buddies.
- From then on, the (2) Brand Buddies stay stacked in the 25-yard out position and allow the Branded debuff to jump back and forth between them as it gains stacks but simultaneously reduces the max distance traveled.
- After 4-5 jumps (when the debuff reaches stack #4 or #5) and it is on the predetermined healer with high movement, that player will break away from the group while the other Buddy partner is free to move back into the raid group.
- The healer Buddy with 4-5 stacks rushes to get well out of 25 yards from the raid to ensure the debuff doesn't accidentally pass once again.
That's it. All players involved, including the (2) Brand Buddies are free, to move back into the raid group and resume normal actions until a new Branded is applied and the process repeats anew.
Force Nova is cast by Mar'gok and emanates outward from him, dealing damage to players that touch the edge.
Management: Everyone should RUN THROUGH (or jump/Blink/Leap over if possible) the wave, rather than try to avoid it entirely.
Destructive Resonance will spawn an arcane mine at a random player's location that activates after a brief period. If stepped on after activation, deals heavy damage to the player and debuffs that player causing them to take damage extra Arcane damage and be stunned when taking said Arcane damage.
Management: There are two methods we can try that seem plausible.
A) Since the mines have a limited duration (1 minute), we can simply avoid triggering them and do our best to position them properly. This means stacking up most ranged raid members along walls or otherwise near existing mines, such that a new spawn will limit the amount of space taken up by these deadly areas.
B) The other option is to clear them purposefully using specified raid members with personal cooldowns. Because there are numerous sources of miscellaneous arcane damage during the fight, I DO NOT think this will be the ideal method, but it's worth noting that it's a possibility (and something that may be required come Mythic).
Mark of Chaos is applied to the active tank and essentially turns the tank into a living bomb that will explode after 8 seconds, hitting anyone within 35 yards.
Management: The simple answer is to ensure a tank swap occurs when this is applied and the afflicted tank runs away from the raid in the OPPOSITE direction to where the Brand Buddies are dealing with Branded. This should give a good half of the room for the afflicted tank to move toward at any given time.
Arcane Aberrations will spawn infrequently from the edge of the room and while alive will deal a small amount of pulsing Arcane damage to the raid.
Management: The simplest method should be to have the offtank quickly pull the add into melee range and have DPS cleave it down. There may be scenarios where we'll wish to focus primary DPS on these adds rather than simply cleave it down, based on the other mechanics (and therefore damage output) we're dealing with at the time.
Phase 2 (90% - 60% HP)
When this phase begins, Mar'gok activates the Displacement rune which modifies all his normal abilities as follows.
When Branded: Displacement is applied to a player, he or she will now see a 10-yard radius ring around their location (that only they can see) that prevents that player from physically moving outside of that ring.
Management: Mechanically the jumping and damage of work the same as the standard Branded ability, but since afflicted players can only move within a 10-yard radius circle, the (2) Branded Buddies will need to use a slowly moving "leap-frog" technique to push themselves further out of the room over time. If done properly, once the stack reaches the aforementioned 4-5 stacks and they are far enough apart, the non-afflicted Buddy can move back into the raid quickly while the other Buddy stays at max distance inside his or her circle and lets the debuff expire.
Force Nova: Displacement pushes back against anyone that has not yet moved inside the wave radius so using teleports or movement boosts will be critical to avoid taking extraneous damage.
Displaced Mines are identical to normal except they become twice the normal size before they expire.
Displaced Mark of Chaos teleports the afflicted player to a random place, but is otherwise identical. Tanks should be certain of where they are running following a teleport to remain far away from the raid.
Displaced Aberration casts Impactful Pulse when it dies, knocking everyone away 100 yards. It's important that we don't get knocked too close to active Branded Buddies during this time nor into existing Mines, so angling yourself relative tot he Aberration is critical.
Intermission #1 (60% HP, 60 second duration)
(2) types of adds spawn during this phase while the boss spends 60 seconds charging up his laz0rz (or whatever he does over there).
(2) Gorian Warmages will appear that should be tanked by one tank each and held at least 30 yards apart to prevent the Warmages from buffing one another with their Dominance Aura.
The Warmages will fixate on a random raid member and chain cast Nether Blast dealing 65k damage to the targeted player as well as anyone within 5 yards. Therefore, fixated players should quickly move outside of the raid a few yards and remain stationary, preventing incidental Nether Blast damage.
The other add type is Volatile Anomalies, which will spawns every 12 seconds from one side of the room (where the boss is charging his laz0r). These have standard threat and should be picked up by the nearest tank and tanked on top of that tank's assigned Warmage. While this does mean the Anomalies will be buffed by the Aura from the Warmage, it should allow for proper control and enable DPS to easily AE down the adds while still dealing solid damage to the current Warmage target.
When an Anomaly dies, it deals 40k Arcane damage to the entire raid, so it is vital we DO NOT kill all Anomalies simultaneously, but stagger their deaths somewhat instead.
Phase 3 (60% - 25% HP)
After the 60-second Intermission #1, the boss re-engages and has gained the Fortification modification for all his basic abilities.
Fortified Branded is like normal, except the maximum jump distance is only reduced by 25% after each jump (instead of 50%), giving us a jump/damage table as follows:
Management: Mechanically this will be handled as we did for the very first standard Branded, just with more certainty (and longer delay) on the stack requirement before the Healer Buddy can move out and get rid of the buff entirely.
We'll essentially want the Healer Buddy to move out to the opposite side of the room when he or she gains stack #5 or #6 (at most). This ensures the jump distance is a maximum of 63 yards at that stack level, which can be accomplished with use of proper movement boosts.
Fortified Force Nova occurs every 8 seconds over a 16 second period (including initially) for a total of 3 waves. There is no pushback, but players may want to utilize personal cooldowns (or even raid cooldowns) to mitigate this damage.
Fortified Mines last twice as long (two minutes) but are otherwise identical.
Fortified Mark of Chaos roots the tank in place when applied. It appears that some movement abilities work however (warlock teleport, heroic leap, lifegrip, etc), but likely the simplest method is to have the tank preemptively move far away from the raid (toward the non-Brand Buddy side as usual) before the ability is going to be cast (assuming our timers are accurate of course), then the offtank can taunt the boss back into position when the debuff is actually applied.
Fortified Aberration simply has a lot more health and cannot be stunned. We may be forced to focus DPS on these Aberration spawns to avoid getting multiple spawns simultaneously (as well as reduce overall damage taken to the raid).
Intermission #2 (25% HP, 60 second duration)
Identical to Intermission #1, except a single Gorian Reaver add also appears and must be tanked. It uses a Shockwave that is a cone attack (of course) and thus it must be faced away from the raid by the current tank. Furthermore, it also casts Kick to the Face on the active tank, knocking the tank away and dropping threat. The non-tank will need to be prepared to taunt or otherwise agro the Reaver when the second tank gets Kicked.
Phase 4 (25% - dead)
The final phase gives Mar'gok the POwer of Replication, which essentially causes every ability to duplicate itself to such a degree that properly handling the abilities seems futile. This phase is almost certainly a hard DPS burn to kill the boss before he kills us.
Replicated Branded creates two initial Brands when it first jumps, so everything is duplicated.
Management: The simplest method seems to be have an entirely second pair of Brand Buddies ready to go to deal with this second set, each consisting of one healer with high movement and one ranged DPS with damage reduction, so we have Brand Buddies (A) and Brand Buddies (B), each with a healer and a ranged DPS.
When the first Branded is applied in Phase 4, the initial Branded target runs out to the 25-yard area away from the raid along with all (4) Brand Buddies. Once in position, the (2) healers that are part of the Brand Buddies teams stack on top of the original Branded target, so that both Healers in each Brand Buddy team are afflicted by stack #2.
Once each healer from each Buddy team is debuffed, the pairs break off from one another a few yards and stay stacked with each other as normal, jumping the debuff back and forth.
After stack #4 lands on the Healers once again, they break off and run in away from the raid (and each other) the 25+ yards necessary to let the debuff drop.
Note: It is worth testing another possible theory, which is whether the (2) healers can actually simultaneously pass their debuff jumps to one another. If that's the case, then we needn't worry about having a second Brand Buddy team at all, and can simply perform the same actions as outlined above but with only the (2) original Brand Buddy players involved. It will require twice as much healing, but that shouldn't be a major concern.
When Replicated Force Nova deals damage to a player, it also deals damage to any other players within 4 yards of that initial player. This will simply force the entire raid to spread around the boss in a circle to avoid AE radius damage hits.
Replicated Mines causes expiring mines to create two extra mines, so again there's no point in dealing with these and they should be avoided in this phase it seems.
Replicated Mark of Chaos creates 8 orbs around the tank that move in a straight line and deal damage to anyone they touch. Avoid them as normal.
Replicated Aberration spawn Arcane Remnants when they die, but I am unable to determine what these little adds do (if anything). Presumably they will deal pulse damage to the raid while active, similar to the parent add.
Highmaul Strategy Notepod
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Originally Posted by Nephani
