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Hellfire Citadel Notepod
NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, these initial notes for all bosses are based on Heroic difficulty and thus some mechanical differences may be noted on Normal.
Hellfire Assault
This encounter is very much an add-based fight, with a goal of destroying the Siege Weapons and picking up the dropped Felfire Munitions, throwing them into the pair of Hellfire Cannons to destroy the main gate. Each Fellfire Munitions box contains 4 shots and the encounter ends once 24 shots have been fired, thus requiring 6 Felfire Munitions boxes total.
During this battle, the raid is assaulted by numerous adds, so most of the encounter requires proper prioritization and splitting of the damage, healing, and tanking we have available to handle the threats in a timely and efficient manner.
Many attackers will attempt to destroy the Hellfire Cannons, and if allowed to do so, will instantly wipe the raid.
DPS should emphasize cleave/AoE damage specs, along with high movement abilites to traverse the room. The primary focus here is quickly dealing with the active Siege Weapon vehicle, then killing off the primary Gorebound Felcaster.
Tanks: since Mar'tak uses Inspiring presence to buff nearby enemies, the tank dealing with her should split her away from the rest of the adds until she's dead/goes away at 50%.
Mob Types
Siegemaster Mar'tak
A mini-boss active at the start of the fight, the initial goal is to attack her to below 50%, at which point she'll leave.
Shockwave is cast toward a random player, creating a series of ever-expanding "circles" on the ground to indicate where the Shockwave cone will appear.
Solution: Sidestep the initial indicator to avoid the follow-up cone attack.
Howling Axe targets 3 random players, dealing heavy damage to the afflicted players and anyone within 8 yards.
Solution: Debuffed players should spread apart from other raid members (and one another) immediately and wait for the damage to be applied before moving elsewhere.
Capsule Reinforcements
When a series of capsules hit the ground, a set of these reinforcement adds will spawn and must be tanked and killed quickly: Gorebound Felcaster, Hulking Berserker, Contracted Engineer, and Iron Dragoon.
Gorebound Felcaster should take priority, with melee in particular focusing them. When a Felcaster reaches 40% HP it will use Metamorphosis and thus chain-cast Felfire Volley.
Hulking Berserker is the primary tank swap mob in this encounter, casting Slam on the current tank and (potentially) requiring a tank swap.
Engineers will cast Conducted Shock Pulse that jumps between plays and applies a stun. Healers should dispel this.
Siege Weapons
Felfire Flamebelcher: Throw a volley of Belch Flame at a random player.
Solution: Self-awareness and avoid the volley fire.
Felfire Crusher: Rush toward the Cannons using Crush on anyone in front while also casting Burn jets along the sides.
Solution: Melee attack from behind while ranged nuked it down, of course.
Felfire Demolisher: Cast Siege Nova at a random player location, indicated by a large red ground circle.
Solution: Like, totally avoid it and stuff. Stand further away from impact point to take less damage.
Felfire Artillery: Casts Artillery Blast that deals heavy damage to the Cannons along with players.
Solution: Murder it quickly before it fires too many times.
DPS Priorities
Generally our top priority is the Active Siege Weapon followed by the Gorebound Felcaster (or transformed Gorebound Terror if it already morphed).
Beyond that, cleave is likely sufficient to deal with the remaining Reinforcement adds.
Spawn Timetable
The Siege Weapons spawn one at a time every 60 seconds, beginning at 40 seconds into the encounter. The following shows the order of spawns. We have no current plans for this information as of yet, but once we see the encounter it may be useful to plan ahead in some way:
General Tips
Raid should remain spread throughout the encounter if possible to avoid spreading abilities like Shock Pulse and Howling Axe.
Watch feet/positioning to avoid the multitude of ground-based attacks.
Iron Reaver
A two-phase fight with (virtually) no adds. Generally this fight revolves around proper positioning and spread to deal with a number of avoidable mechanics in the Ground Phase and during the Air Phase, also avoiding mechanics will killing a small handful of Bombs that will spawn around the room.
DPS should spec for single-target damage.
Tanks should emphasize personal movement abilities as quickly running in/out is vital.
Healers should plan CD rotations for Pounding.
Ground Phase
The boss begins at zero energy and gains energy over time. Once he gains 100 energy (after about 2:20 of fight time), he'll take off and begin the Air Phase.
The Ground Phase has a variety of abilities but largely dealing with them comes down to the same basic rules: STAY SPREAD AND SIDESTEP AVOIDABLE MECHANICS!
Artillery: This is the primary tank swap mechanic, and is a debuff applied (during the Ground Phase) to the current tank. When it expires, it deals heavy damage to the entire raid, but this damage is centered on the tank's location and is reduced based on distance, up to a minimum of 40+yards.
Solution: When the current tank gets Artillery the other tank must taunt the boss immediately. The Artillery tank runs out to the edge of the room at least 40+ yards from the rest of the raid to detonate, then rush back in.
Barrage: The boss will look toward a random player at begin casting Barrage. When the cast completes, a huge cone of fire will be shot outward in that direction, dealing very heavy damage to anyone hit and also leaving small patches of Immolation on the ground.
Solution: Everyone -- but ranged and healers in particular -- should carefully watch during this cast and side-step to get away from his facing position to avoid the cone.
Blitz: The boss will charge toward a random player/direction(?) and "grab" anyone in the path. This deals moderate damage but also applies a dispelable debuff.
Solution: Prior to the cast (we know when it's coming roughly every time), everyone should ensure they're spread to reduce chances of being caught. Healers should dispel the debuff if anyone does get hit.
Pounding: A common style ability we've seen many times before. Deals heavy damage over the duration to the entire raid.
Solution: Use a raid CD of some kind to reduce the damage/improve healing output.
Unstable Orb: Cast on 2(?) random ranged players throughout the phase, these players will take moderate Fire damage every second over 15 seconds. This will also hit anyone within 8 yards.
As an added bonus, these explosions will push away any existing Immolation patches that were nearby the impacted player(s). Note: Making use of this capability may not be required for Normal/Heroic, but I suspect in Mythic difficulty we'll need to get potential ranged targets that could be hit by Unstable Orb to stand near the outside edge of Immolation patches, so we can condense the affected area into a smaller space. This will likely be relevant in the Air Phase when we have to deal with additional swaths of Fuel Streak.
Solution: For Normal and likely Heroic, management is very simple. Both ranged and healers should stay spread at least 8+ yards apart at all times during Phase 1.
Air Phase
At 100 energy, the Air Phase begins and tactics switch. The boss is no longer directly attackable (existing DoTs will tick though), so this phase is about avoidance and survival.
Artillery will be cast simultaneously on 3 random players instead of tanks.
Solution: Afflicted players must quickly spread apart from one another (and from the raid), moving to the outside walls of the room before detonating. These players must use a personal survival CD for the damage impact. Note: While it may not be too vital in Normal/Heroic, we'll likely want a WeakAura or another addon helper tool to quickly identify which "areas" or sections of the room each afflicted player should run, so there's no confusion or overlap.
Fuel Streak: Cast by the boss in a straight line covering roughly a 1/5 or 1/6 swath of the room, this stuff snares anyone that walks in it. Additionally, if any part of a Streak line is touching some existing Immolation Fire patches, the entire Fuel Streak will be set aflame.
Solution: Just be aware of the boss' location and thus where the incoming Streak path will be and side step it. Players can technically pass through a Streak with careful movement, but it's inadvisable once set on fire.
Firebombs are spawned and distributed around the room. These are attackable and killable but otherwise will explode after 25 seconds if not destroyed.
Solution: Roughly split the raid into quadrants of the room to properly disperse damage for handling these Firebombs.
Falling slam is cast by the boss at the end of the phase, dealing extremely heavy damage to anyone within the indicated circle.
Solution: Circle is bad, mkay?
Gorefiend
Another two-phase encounter but with some cool twists. The overall goal is to survive the onslaught of attacks while attacking Gorefiend himself on the main platform while dealing with a small handful of adds. However, frequently during the fight a selection of random players among various roles will be killed outright by Shadow of Death and instead of dying as normal, these players are teleported into the stomach of Gorefiend to deal with mechanics/adds below and get safely transported outside.
DPS should focus primarily on single-target damage for this encounter (multi-dotting is also valid). Stuns are particularly useful for handling small adds in the Stomach phase.
Save burst cooldowns for the Feast of Souls phase where Gorefiend takes extra damage.
Additionally, DPS should always prioritize adds before attacking the boss, as we will get a big active DPS period during the Feast of Souls phase mid-fight.
Healers will want a /target Tortured Spirit macro for quickly finding targets in the Stomach. Healers will also want to save burst single-target healing throughput cooldowns for the Stomach phase to ensure they can quickly heal up the Tortured Spirits in time. Raid-wide/damage reduction cooldowns should instead be saved for the Feast of Souls phase.
Tanks should ideally pool DPS/burst cooldowns for when they are transported into the Stomach, to quickly deal with their Spirit add in the 40-second time frame. It appears that generally one tank will be active on the boss with the other tank on the currently active Gorebound Spirit above (or active in the Stomach below).
Above Ground
While many of the mechanics that must be handled above ground are due to interactions that occur in Gorefiend's stomach, a few of them are standard.
Touch of Doom targets a handful of random players. After 8 seconds it will expire and deal heavy Shadow damage to the player and the rest of the raid, but damage is reduced the further players are from the explosion point.
This will also leave a permanent(?) pool of Shadowy shit on the ground at the detonation location, hurting anyone that stands in it.
Solution: Very similar to Sinestra and many other fights with similar mechanics, the idea is simple: Afflicted players should quickly run to the outside walls or otherwise near the edge of existing Touch of Doom puddles before detonating.
Shared Fate is cast on (3) random players and will attach or link (2) of the players to the third player who is rooted in place. All (3) players take damage over time while the buff is active and if it is not removed within 10 seconds, all (3) players take massive damage.
Solution: To remove the debuff, the (2) non-rooted players must quickly run next to the third, rooted player. Once all (3) are within 6 yards, the debuff is removed.
Crushing Darkness is cast by the boss and creates a neat circular pattern of shadow rings on the floor that will explode after a few seconds.
Solution: Standard stuff; move out of them before they explode.
Surging Shadows is cast very frequently throughout the fight and causes the entire raid to take minor Shadow damage but this damage is also a small-range area of effect.
Solution: The raid must be spread out 5+ yards at all times while above ground.
Ooh, Your Stomach Acid Makes Me So Wet
As mentioned above, throughout the encounter the boss will randomly select players of various roles to be killed via Shadow of Death and transport them into the Stomach area. Additionally, any player that simply DIES normally while above ground will also be transported to the Stomach instead of truly dying (initially).
Once a player has been transported into the Stomach, he or she will receive the Gorefiend's Corruption debuff, which prevents being "saved from a death" while the debuff is active (and thus, the player will actually die this time).
As the fight progresses, a larger portion of the raid will be afflicted with Corruption, and therefore unintentional deaths can quickly cause future targets of Shadow of Death to already have Corruption active, meaning they instantly die instead of being teleported.
Digest is a debuff gained by Stomach-dwellers that lasts 40 seconds and forces everyone ported into the Stomach to exit before that 40-second debuff expires or they will be killed.
Solution: Everyone must exit the Stomach before the Digest debuff expires (likely run out with ~5 seconds remaining).
Bursting Ulcers also appear on the ground very frequently and deal moderate damage to anyone in the circle.
Solution: Circle bad, no stand.
Stomach Adds
All the adds that appear in the Stomach will eventually make their way to the central exit, causing them to spawn Above Ground and must be handled by the raid up top.
Tanks will need to handle the Enraged Spirit adds in the Stomach. They will cast Fel Fury at their feet (which should be preemptively moved out of). They also cast Bellowing Shout which increases the Spirit's damage massively and must be interrupted by the tank. Once the Spirit reaches 70% HP or lower, it will gain Gorebound Fortitude and drop threat, moving to the exit to emerge above ground. Tanks must push the Spirit to that 70% threshold before exiting.
DPS in the Stomach must quickly kill Shadowy Constructs, which will spawn on the outside edge of the room and run toward the center/exit immediately. It's possible (though I cannot confirm) that DoTs are "retained" on Constructs that have traveled from the Stomach to Above Ground, but we'll need to test. It also appears stuns affect the Constructs, but also unconfirmed.
Solution: DPS should utilize single-target burst and potentially stuns to quickly kill off select Constructs in the Stomach. There are far too many to get them all, so it is critical that players focus damage appropriately to ensure attacked mobs die (via single-target). Even if DoTs carry over, it's still in our best interest to reduce the number of mobs that transport to above ground anyway, because their management up top is far more cumbersome for the raid.
Healers will need to spam heal the Tortured Essence spawns in the Stomach.
Solution: As mentioned above, I suspect a /target Tortured Essence macro will simply this phase a great deal. Spam single-target heals as an Essence that is fully healed will not exit the Stomach. However, even an Essence healed to 80% is better than nothing, as it will emerge above ground at the inverse health (so 80% below means 20% above).
Above Ground Adds
The Enraged Spirit from the Stomach becomes a Gorebound Spirit and must likewise be tanked. These apply the stacking Fel Flames ability and are likely the primary tank swap mechanic. They also cast Bellowing Shout just like before that must be interrupted.
Solution: Tanks may need to swap between the active Spirit and the boss, but otherwise management is much the same as while in the Stomach. It is possible that a tank that was in the Stomach will need to purposely exit the Stomach when his or her active Enraged Spirit reaches 70%, thereby ensuring there is a tank available up top to pickup and handle that converted add Above Ground.
Shadowy Constructs from the Stomach become Gorebound Constructs above ground and immediately target a random raid member with Hunger for Life, which will instantly kill that player if the Construct reaches melee range.
Solution: Fixated targets must kite the Construct and potentially get assistance from other DPS. Ranged Dotters seem ideal for this.
Finally, Tortured Essences from the Stomach become Gorebound Essences above, spam casting Spirit Volley until killed which deals ever-increasing raid-wide damage.
Solution: All DPS should likely prioritize these mobs (depending on the damage ramp of their Volley casts), though the ideal solution is for healers from the Stomach to simply fully-heal these before they can exit at all.
Feast of Souls Phase
Once Gorefiend reaches zero energy, he'll begin channeling Feast of Souls over the next 60 seconds. During this period, everyone should stack and DPS should Bloodlust/burn the boss heavily, as he takes double damage.
Throughout this phase, Gorefiend will suck Unstable Souls toward him. If they reach him, he will gain 10 energy and thus shorten the phase (bad).
Solution: To prevent a Soul from reaching the boss, any player can simply stand in the path which causes the Unstable Soul ability to be cast on the player, dealing moderate Shadow damage to the player and minor damage to anyone within 10 yards. Tanks in particular should be able to spend this phase soaking these Souls before they reach the boss/raid, as it appears(?) the boss halts melee attacks in this phase (though even if that's not the case, one tank can still do it).
Meanwhile, the raid will be taking very heavy damage, so healers should rotate damage reduction/heal cooldowns.
Once the boss reaches 100 energy, the normal phase begins again and the fight repeats itself.
Last edited by Kulldam; 06-27-2015 at 09:22 PM.
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