The raid team I formed after my guild split up is finally coming together into a strong group. We downed Sindragosa last night, after I think two or three wipes where our new MT was learning the fight. It was my first kill (my previous raid team had killed her on a night when I wasn't present, and then we rolled the raid ID forward on LK) and it was a really clean kill.
Some stuff that made the fight easier -
- Two tanks in frost resist gear. This made it possible to go to 10 or more stacks of the debuff before the tanks swap. It meant there was less running around, less drama, and lower overall tank damage.
- Aspect of the Pack. We ran with this on for most of the fight - the only person who ever might get dazed is the tank, and both of our tanks had ways to escape it on a tank swap - I would intervene a player or charge an iceblock, while the druid would shapeshift. To prevent problems positioning the boss, the Aspect should be turned off during an air phase and then turned back on when the boss has been positioned correctly. The Aspect trivialised the boss's death grip ability, and I don't think anyone got hit by this the entire night, whereas normally we've had people reacting too slowly, or getting surprised by it in phase 3. To avoid any doubt - the boss's AoE does not proc the Aspect daze.
- Melee on icetombs. We only had one melee character - a ret paladin. In phase 3 we had him on tombs full time to ensure they went down fast enough.
- The boss does a really annoying thing after each death grip - she repositions herself by walking towards the tank (even if the tank is within her hitbox) until the tank is at the centre of her hitbox. This has the effect of spinning the dragon around so she is often facing the raid, and means that the dragon gets tanked further and further away from the raid as the fight goes on. This can be dealt with by tanking the dragon standing as close to the centre of her hitbox as you can, and then backing away slightly after she repositions herself so that she is tanked in almost the same spot after each death grip.
It was a real "phew" moment. Sindragosa is a tough fight and even our team 1 has problems with it. I was glad to (finally!) get the kill, and to get it in a way which bodes well for our LK attempts.
We tried LK later, and since we were without a DK tank or a rogue to fan-tricks the ghouls, we struggled getting all the small adds to the OT. The OT (me) used vigilance on the MT and tried to taunt the ghouls one at a time, but I was losing aggro to the healers before they reached me, which was infuriating. All of the LK guides I've seen suggest that you don't need the small adds on the OT to make the disease stronger, you can just stack the disease on the shamblers and have the MT tank the boss and the ghouls all at once, but it's not how I've always done it.
I need to give it some thought before Friday.
I lied about Manor Lords
1 day ago
Congrats on getting Sindy down!
ReplyDeleteAs a healer chasing the MT around the room I absolutely hate the repositioning thing she does! We try to have our Bear MT this one so she can charge back in as the Blistering Cold cast is ending (just before it goes off, I gather) which seems to keep her mostly still. I wonder if the old strafe-side-to-side trick works on her too?
As for the Lich King, it's interesting that you're finding most strats don't stack the disease on the ghouls. I've not got round to posting our LK strategy on my blog yet (might be the nudge I need, actually) but we've always tried to get the ghouls involved as well, although if one gets glued to a melee using DS or WW at the wrong time it's not the end of the world.
When we had our Druid tanking the adds, we assigned a Warrior to Whirlwind them to get a good chunk of threat first. The only time they get regularly stuck on healers is when we have a Paladin in the raid.
From a healer's perspective, the Ghouls don't hurt much, so it's probably safe enough to let them stay on people while they build up a good head of threat for you.
I'd not considered not stacking them at all though, I'd worry about the first one or two Shambling Horrors staying up too long and overlapping for a while, since they still cause us problems when they Enrage and we're painfully short on Hunters at the moment for quick dispels. Perhaps my concerns are unfounded.
I also wonder if perhaps you're making the Ghouls run further than necessary? We form a triangle with maybe only 15 yards to a side, so there's not much running time between the melee pack and the OT position.
Just some random thoughts, perhaps they'll help someone.
On the LK, I have always done with a rogue fan tricksing the adds to the OT, so attempting the boss without a rogue has meant we need to come up with something new. Both Tankspot and Bosskillers say that ghouls aren't needed for the disease, but I think the disease only gains a stack when it kills someone (although I could be wrong) which is why you need the ghouls. I wonder if the advice on those sites is wrong...
ReplyDeleteI've got two plans for Friday's raid. Plan 1 is for the MT to grab aggro on all the ghouls when they spawn, to get a threat lead over the remaining dps. The OT will then taunt a few of them over to stack up the disease, but we'll have the majority of them dying to the cleaves of the raid. I think this will work if I am dpsing, because with a fury warrior and a ret paladin we should be doing sufficient cleaving for the adds to die quickly.
Plan 2 is for the ret pally to hit divine storm once when the mobs have spawned, and then to drag the mobs over to the OT. The OT (probably a druid) will hit swipe a few times to grab aggro on the ghouls leaving the ret pally free to go back to the raid.