Siege of Orgrimmar preview: Sha of Pride

Our preview series for Siege of Orgrimmar concludes with Sha of Pride. Icy Veins has a good discussion of strategy and a rundown of mechanics, which as usual I won't cover here. What's more interesting to me is they've already suggested a means to deal with most of the mechanics in the fight: by stacking up on the boss.

Now, I've been a raid leader a long time. I've seen lots of strats that suggest stacking up and having only particular raid members leave the stack when necessary. Perhaps it has to do with my 25-man background, but in my experience such strategies are very all-or-nothing, and one raid member's failure to execute often results in a catastrophic wipe. Thus, while the stack-up strategy makes sense, I feel it worthwhile to consider, as a thought exercise, what a strategy for this fight would be like without a big group stack-up in place.

Such a strategy would probably split the raid into 2-4 groups and give dedicated positions to cover the prisons (see note at the end of this post). This would make movement out of splash damage mechanics a lot easier to do. The big challenge would be getting everyone with Power of the Titans to stack up. I suggest keeping melee on one side of the boss (or perhaps, both sides) and designating the back of the boss as the stack point for those with the buff.

Still, it bears remembering that a spread-out strategy like this is inherently less efficient at keeping the group buffered and topped off. The question is whether this additional challenge is mitigated by the less-stringent need for any one person to respond to mechanics correctly at a given time. And it may also be that one person will accumulate a lot of Pride on their own and thus generate too much additional raid damage (and Pride) to matter. The one good thing about a stack-up strategy is that when you're hosed, at least it's a quick and efficient death.

Concerning the stack-up strategy IV describes, one of the things that troubles me Self-Reflection. The 2-yard radius on the initial damage is something that IV doesn't mention with respect to people moving out of the stack. Is this something that people will know is cast on them and will be able to react to fast enough to escape the stack? One hopes.

Another issue I've read on PTR forums is a disparity in dispelling, that 10-man groups could dispel without gaining any Pride (just use the healer who is currently Pride-immune), while 25-man groups don't have that luxury. Something to keep in mind with healing assignments.

On prisons: on 10-man, it seems that 2 prisons are cast (not 1 as said in IV's guide; see this 10-man vid around 8:55). The positions of the prisons seem to be Norushen's near left and far right. Since it may be there aren't enough ranged and healers to split like that, melee will likely have to help with freeing people from prisons. Note that on 25-man, 3 people are required to free a person (see this 25-man vid, but beware some sudden Chinese shouting).

This looks to be an encounter that will challenge both execution and DPS given the 1.2b health pool that was said to be in place on PTR. That may come down for live, but even with post-ToT gear, that's like killing Horridon with only the modest 15% buff in place. Looks to be a doozy.

Siege of Orgrimmar preview: Norushen

Third in our initial preview series is the fight commonly known as Norushen. You will actually be fighting the "Amalgam of Corruption," but that hardly has a nice ring to it.

Icy Veins already has a guide in place to review some of the basic mechanics and strategy. Note that, as of this writing, the guide is somewhat out of date, as it mentions a mechanic that has been removed: there is no restriction on players reaching or exceeding 75 corruption in the sub-40% phase.

The basic idea is simple (and is actually captured quite well in IV's "Summing things up" section. Rotate tanks, dps, and perhaps healers in the Test Realms to clear their corruption bars. Maintain control of adds in the normal realm, and use tanks first, then dps or healers as needed, to absorb void zones at the cost of increasing the Corruption bar.

One of the most important aspects of managing this fight will be rotating people into the Test Realm. It's unclear to me how many orbs will be available to click, and if they will be in designated positions (I saw one video that indicated 4 orbs at fixed positions, but the date of the video suggested to me that it was actually a heroic 25-man attempt, not not normal 25-man). Still, it looks like either 3 or 4 orbs will be available on 25-man, and 2 on 10-man. A tank will always take one orb, leaving the others for you to cycle dps through.

Videos: Unfortunately, this fight doesn't make very many of the little things needed to organize it very transparent during a fight. I'll only briefly mention a few vids without focusing strongly on any one of them.

Here's a tank-perspective video, which gives some idea of positioning, picking up adds, and the tank test, which involves some dodging of ground-targeted effects.

A healer perspective, from a MW monk who enters the test realm around 3:10. You can see health bars for the npcs that need healing in the boss frame, but it seems this monk decides to focus more on dpsing the add than trying to top off the npcs, which is consistent with the strategy.

And a ranged dps perspective (warlock). See around 2:30 for entering the test realm, which shows a lot of dodging of conal ground effects.

This is a fight that could strain the group in a couple different ways. The additional adds that spawn when the boss reaches 50% and each 10% thereafter will stress both the healers (in the increasing raid damage), the dps in trying to get those adds down, and perhaps the tanks who are trying to soak up void zones to keep the raid clear. Having a healer be purified to help with the additional soaking strikes me as worthwhile, if one can sacrifice dps in the 100%-50% phase.

If raid damage is really intense, one could consider sending more healers into the test realm, but I suspect this will be disfavored. Ending the fight quickly seems preferred, which means sending as many dps as possible into the tests, and in order of best dps to worst, with the worst dps soaking puddles if they must.

PTR impressions, addenda from Icy Veins guides

Got a few looks at some PTR fights through the past few weeks of testing.

Galakras: Did this on Flex with around 12-13 people several weeks ago. Rumor had it that the number scaling on this fight was a bit off, with smaller groups being disadvantaged compared to larger groups due to targeting issues. I think smaller groups will have a more difficult time stunning adds that zerg out to attack your faction NPCs (just as a function of composition). There was also some confusion over how the war banner mechanic worked; some dungeon journal wording suggested that the war banner left a persistent, stacking buff on all targets it affected for 2 minutes, which would suggest killing banners, killing their holders, and moving adds away from the banner holders might be a tactic to consider. Doing so takes dps away from targets that are more consistently dangerous, however, so it's a risky tactic.

Malkorok: Saw this in a disorganized 25-man pug on PTR. Overall positioning seems quite simple, in terms of dividing the ranged dps into groups to cover the whole platform adequately. Placement of raid flares to try to mark cone positions seems rather unsatisfying to me, though. I would consider placing fixed flares, remembering the positions of cones, and trying to designate a safe spot.

Immerseus: We saw this on Flex mode with 10 people (in which, due to tank shortage, I had to tank, which was unexpected). Kill video below:

As is discussed at points during the video, it feels like 25-man groups will be able to leverage the increased number of snares and roots available to them to make it easier to stagger damage adds' movements. I think efficiency with healing adds may end up being a primary determining factor in this encounter.

We divided the room into five regions: one large tanking region oriented to the stairs, and four other regions for a mix of dps and healers. In a larger group, some dps will have to be stationed outside the tank region but help out there to try to maintain even converage.

We only ever observed Immerseus swirling clockwise.

All usual roots and snares work, so don't be shy to use traps, Frost Nova, Void Tendrils, Mass Entanglement, etc. Death Knights can be great at saving adds from the puddle with Death Grip and/or Gorefiend's Grasp.

Fallen Protectors: Saw only a little bit of this (due to having few consistent interrupts in our group makeup). Of the main concerns, Gouge has a cast time, so it's clear when it's about to happen. The tough positioning requirement of Gouge means that it's impracticel to tank the Rogue while also trying to tank Misery. This is also consistent with the video I posted, where the same constraints are considered. On the plus side, each of Gloom, Misery, and Sorrow spawn in fixed positions each attempt, so you can quickly get to know where to stand to pick them up.

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Now some thoughts about Immerseus and Fallen Protectors stimulated by Icy Veins' new boss guides.

Immerseus: Not much really added here. In fact, they don't mention rooting and slowing at all, which I find surprising.

Fallen Protectors: IV suggest killing Sorrow first during the Monk's Desperate Measures phase. This makes sense, as the need to stack up does seem like a stressor on the raid. I personally have considered designating a stack point for the majority of the raid and only asking those with Sha Sear to get out of the way. Killing Sorrow right away reduces the amount of time the raid has to deal with that positioning constraint. That said, a couple interruptors will probably have to stay on Gloom, yet they may also have to dodge poison puddles. That said, since poison seems to clear on each new Desperate Measures phase, this may be less of an issue.

To be honest, I find IV's guides here a bit disappointing (it's why I started this blog). Important information about choices like who should tank what during Desperate Measures is not even considered. For a raid leader who needs to know how to organize the fight, a boss guide like this is simply inadequate.

Siege of Orgrimmar Preview: Fallen Protectors

Second in our initial preview series comes, of course, the Fallen Protectors. Information on the Protectors is a little more scarce in terms of explicit strategy, but consult Wowpedia for some basic information on abilities. Alternatively, consult this Icy Veins video.

The Protectors do not share health, instead demanding that they all be killed within a short window of time to stay dead (thus, think like Conclave of Wind). Each Protector uses their respective Desperate measures at 66% and 33% health. Since the Protectors do not share health, it's ideal to push each one separately through their Desperate Measures phases.

We'll start with Rook Stonetoe. He will do a Monk-like Clash occasionally, zerging out, and then will do AoE damage in an area around himself, as well as attacking his tank with a cone attack. When in Desperate Measures, he will spawn 3 mobs: Embodied Gloom does an interruptible 4-yard splash attack. Embodied Misery will have to be tanked, and anyone within 7 yards will take series AoE damage whenever it uses Defiled Ground, which persists as a void zone. Embodied Sorrow performs Inferno Blast on its aggro target, splitting damage with nearby targets. The strategy for this seems to be as follows: interrupt Gloom as much as possible, stack up for Sorrow, move Misery away from the group. Kill order is more of a question: Misery could be ignored for last. Stacking up ranged and killing Gloom first puts all the melee DPS interrupts in a good position.

He Softfoot also has to be tanked. He will Garrote and Gouge, but this Gouge will not disorient if the tank is facing away. Perhaps this mechanic can be effectively dealt with, then if the tank knows when it's coming. Otherwise, the raid will have to be creative while He is loose (in particular, he will only change targets when taunted after Gouge, in a fixate-type mechanic). He also uses poisons to put down puddles or deal extra damage to his tank. In Desperate Measures, Embodied Anguish fixates on a target, but the fixate can be shifted using the Extra Action Button. Icy Veins suggested this could be thrown onto a tank to effectively eliminate complexity here.

Finally, there is Sun Tenderheart, a shadow-priest-like boss. She is interruptible, and her DoT should be dispelled as soon as possible, for it will jump to two more targets with each tick (up to 3 total jumps). She will also deal increasing raid damage in big chunks during the fight, starting with 30% of everyone's HP and increasing each cast. In Desperate Measures, she spawns two types of adds and continually damages the raid, but she also erects a protective barrier that reduces damage taken. As many as possible should come under the barrier while the group kills adds.

Let's look at a video, this one by Blood Legion:

BL put Rook next to Sun for cleaving while moving He away to keep damage on him under control. As I thought, they kill Gloom first when Rook's Desperate Measures starts, and they do this using the He tank to tank Gloom as well (but this has the downside of putting Gloom next to poison puddles). You can't see it, but they seem to kill Sorrow next and then Misery.

For some reason, they decide to go on He next, even though he's at a higher health percentage than Sun. It makes sense that He is being kept largely away from the group due to poison puddles, however, and it could be they're counting on cleave damage doing most of everything on Sun while she's being kept near Rook's tank (or rather, while Rook is being kept near her). It's not clear to me how the tank knows when to turn, but it's clear there's some kind of cue (see 1:45) that he's looking for to clue him in on Gouge and avoid the incapacitation. At any rate, if the tank starts taking excessive damage, he should be able to throw the fixate on someone else for the last little bit.

When Sun goes into Desperate Measures, the He tank keeps He out of the barrier, as He is putting down poison puddles.

Beyond all this, it seems the main challenges will be execution: avoiding unnecessary damage, getting enough people stacked for Rook's Desperate Measures, killing all three bosses in the 15-second window.

Siege of Orgrimmar preview: Immerseus

So let's try this thing again.

I've been a raid leader since BC. It's part of why I haven't spent as much time with the WoW mage community. Of late, I've tried various things to get a better handle on preparation for new fights and new content. My guild, In Other News, isn't anything that will challenge top 100 US progression or anything like that. We raid only 9 hours a week, after all, and we just don't have that attitude. Still, I want to do everything I can to prepare myself, and my raiders, for the fights ahead of us.

So with that in mind, I'm trying a new thing here: an in-depth collection of information on new bosses.

Immerseus

First, let's look at some existing resources for information on this fight. WoW Insider put together a nice post on some of the basic ideas behind this fight, covering all the basic mechanics with accompanying images of a fight. Wowpedia has not only Dungeon Journal stuff but a bare-bones idea of what a strat will be like. Either way, the basic idea is the same: conal frontal attack forces a tank swap (and for raid to position away from the front); raid will have to place damaging puddles so as not to inihbit movement for the Lurker Below-type Swirl attack; DPS will try to kill as many adds as possible, staying together to get a stacking buff; healers will do the same for their adds, healing those adds to get the buff.

Let's look at a couple videos. First, we have Noah from Knights Of 67:

This video gives a good rundown of mechanics. What's of particular interest to me is the size of the hitbox (which Noah expected would be changed come 5.4 live) as well as the overall sizes of puddles and the size of the room. Immediately, what this gives me the idea to do is to have melee stand as close as possible to the boss, putting their puddles there, with ranged at a designated distance from the boss to put their puddles no closer than that distance. That would leave a channel of open space between two rings of puddles for people to run in during Swirl.

That said, there are quite a few puddles going out. How can this be managed? In 25-man, you might consider splitting the raid into groups with a roughtly equal number of melee and ranged in each group and dedicated healers. This would minimize movement--just have everyone stay in their own section of the room.

Now, what happens when we get Split? Well, it looks like all the adds come from roughly the same distance from the boss, and perhaps that they all come from designated positions as well. If so, it will be important to start at the end of a line, to get the DPS to go to that starting position, and to stay together as the group churns through adds. What's helpful is that healers' adds are mixed in rather evenly, so even though some healers will have to watch the rest of the raid for damage they're taking as black adds die, there shouldn't be range issues, and they should still benefit from the healing buff.

Now, should that be all the DPS? Or should we split into groups and cover areas? Given that the raid will take damage whenever adds reach the boss, Noah makes the suggestion that the raid should stay split up so that there's better coverage, and because the adds die too quickly to need the whole raid stacked in one spot to kill them. This seems sensible, even more so if the DPS's adds can be slowed.

To be honest, the adds look to move so fast that trying to get buffs from them would just be gravy on top of actually stopping a good number of them at all. Given how many one expects might be up, it also occurs to me that significant raid defensives might need to be prepared to deal with the damage from many adds hitting the boss at once.

Let's look at another video.

This is Echoes from Laughing Skull (EU) on PTR. This is a kill vid, and I like looking at kill vids over guide vids for a different perspective. This one is good also because of the vent chatter, which gives more of an impression of what gives people problems in a fight.

Like Noah's video, there are flares set up to keep orientation. At the pull, it seems only a few sections of the room are being used (sensible for 10-man to maintain range on everyone). If there's a strategy for dealing with puddles beyond this, it's not clear to me; their ranged seem to put puddles wherever they like.

Now, around 1:15 Swirl is cast, and in this case, the PoV character doesn't have to move very much. It's not clear to me if this is the result of good design (the group is in a position where they really don't have to move for Swirl at all because they know it will go clockwise from that position) or just luck.

At about 1:30 you can see adds going out of Immerseus's body for Split, emphasizing that they start out in many positions and supporting the idea of a split raid in designated positions.

By 1:45-1:50 many of the adds have either been killed or hit the boss, but some are still up. To me, this suggests they can be slowed.

Over the several Swirls, I see that it moves very fast and only being as close to the boss as possible gives a great chance of being able to outrun it. Picking up where the Swirl will start and getting the jump on it will be key.

Since Immersues starts with less and less health after each transition, it definitely seems that dealing with the first cycle, in terms of positioning and Swirl, will be hardest.

That's all for me. Got some nuggets of wisdom to share about Immerseus? Feel free to share. Otherwise, I'll be back in a few days looking at Fallen Protectors.