Omnotron Defense System

First, thanks to all those that encouraged me to write cheat sheets for the raid encounters. Hopefully these will be as useful, if somewhat less concise.

Voss and I firmly believe that no encounter should be talked about for more than 10 minutes at a time, ever. Talk briefly, try it, learn, repeat.  With the raid boss posts, I hope to give you enough information to get through the first ‘talk briefly.’

Also, as before, if you have suggestions, leave comments! Occasionally I run heroics as DPS just to see what other tanks are doing. I’m just as eager to see what other guilds are doing.

How to win 

(in one paragraph)

This fight consists of 4 constructs, which rotate out such that you’re fighting 2 at any given time. On their own, each one is simple. You win by learning how to avoid or mitigate their individual abilities while adapting to different pairings.

Basic Instructions

• Only two constructs will be up at any given time. DPS must switch to new targets when they spawn (except when Arcanotron is active).
• Toxitron – Kill adds without letting them reach raid members. Don’t stand in poison clouds, but do position the active DPS target in them.
• Arcanotron – Interrupt his nuke. Pull him out of blue puddles. DPS/healers should stand in blue puddles. Spell steal/purge his 50% shield, and leave interrupters on him.
• Electron – Players with the lightning debuff should not stand near anyone. Spread out to mitigate chain lightning.
• Magmatron – Heal through raid damage. Run out of the Big Red Line. If you are the Big Red Line’s target, help out by pointing it somewhere convenient.

Continue reading for more specifics…

Expectations – A raid killer

Raid leading is like a lot like Project Management.  What is a project?

A project has:

• A start (We start at 6pm)
• An end (We end at 9pm)
• A specified scope (What is going to be accomplished, the goal)
• A plan (The order and actions that need to be done to accomplish the goal and who is in charge of doing them)
• Resources (your great group of DPSers, Outstanding Tanks and Miraculous Healers)
• Communication (Call this in vent, healers using addons to see when someone needs special attention, etc.)
• Constraints (We need 2 tanks and three healers for this fight, this one cannot have more than 2 melee dps)
• Assumptions/Expectations
• Lessons Learned (A review of the project’s results with an emphasis on what was done well and what can we do better.  I’ll go more into details about this in another post.)

This is a very high level view of a project and as you can see, there’s a lot of similarities with projects done within a business.  Each of these parts is essential to a good project but the one that kills projects more often than not is Assumptions/Expectations.

Going into a project or a raid, every member of your team will have assumptions and so will you as the raid leader.  When those assumptions are not written out clearly for everyone to understand, you will find that your assumptions and those of your team members can vary wildly.

You may assume that when you send out an invitation to your team for a raid on Wednesday at 6pm and say “Be ready”, that it covers it all.  “Being ready” is very vague.  To ensure a fast paced and enjoyable raid, try to be as clear as you can and ask for feedback or questions so you can dissipate as many assumptions as possible prior to the actual raid.

Here is a quick checklist that we use at BT:

• Be on time – It’s a question of respect towards your teammates.  If you are not there 5 minutes before first pull, you will be replaced.  If you are going to be late, please let us know on the board ahead of raid time.
• Have enough flasks, food and consumables for the whole 3 hours of raiding.
• Have every piece of gear properly gemmed and enchanted.
• Review the strategies of the raid’s planned fights.

To help your members, give them the information they need to “Be Ready”.

Tonight, we’ll focus on Ominitron and then Magmaw.  Zierlyn, you will be using your offspec and help heal this one.  Idkittens, you’ll be kiting the adds on Magmaw, etc.

There are other assumptions that should be communicated to your team whether it’s in your raiding FAQ or in your invites.

• Don’t AFK outside of the planned hourly break.  If it’s needed, then tell your raid leader.
• Have vent configured and working.
• Have your PC in working order (I remember one of our members’ whose laptop had to be shutdown after overheating so much it melted a counter top).
• Make sure that you are free of other obligations during raid time.  By signing up, you’re committing to these three hours with your team.
• When the raid leader calls a wipe, stop healing, die quickly and then regroup as fast as possible for another attempt.

I know seeing lists like these may worry some people and make them think “It’s a game, relax.”  I agree, it’s a fun game and we’re playing it with other people.  These 9/24 other people have made the commitment to do all of these things and have a good time together.  By being late, stealth afking, showing up without the proper gear and needing to port back, you’re showing a lack of respect to them.  Your time is not more important than your teammates’.

As a raid leader, you need to make sure your people have clear expectations of what’s expected out of them and what they can expect out of you and the other raiders.  This is one small thing that will lead to smoother, more enjoyable and thus more successful raids.

The end of casual instancing

Cataclysm happened a bit more than a week ago and strangely enough, it is leaving me feeling of two minds about it.  I find the world to be superbly done.  The quests have never been better.  The humour found in many of them, the raw emotions of some of the NPCs make for a delight of a time.

Now, for people who know me, these above comments will sound very strange.  I hate levelling.  I do not alt.  I do not quest.  I have levelled a total of two characters to max level in 31 months and one of them is a DK.  I have never enjoyed this part of the game and yet this time, I feel like I want to achieve loremaster of Cataclysm.

If I strongly disliked the above, I completely and truly loved tanking.  Whether it was in instances or in raids, I never really felt as happy in this world as when I was getting my face smashed in.  Somehow, this too feels like it is changing.

I have run every single instance on normal and a few of the heroics.  The instancing world has changed.  Gone are the days of the heroic quickie.  These new instances take a long long time to finish.  I actually don’t mind it being harder even though they do feel harder than they did when I started heroics in BC.  Trash does matter and I love the challenge.  I’m using shield wall on most pulls where we can’t CC enough mobs and I’m truly enjoying this.

What I do not enjoy is the sheer length of them.  I loved in Wrath that I could, even at the beginning, start an instance and be done within 45 minutes to an hour.  Now, it feels like I might have a much harder time doing even a heroic daily on week nights.  The longest instance in Wrath was Old Kingdom which even at the beginning would take about an hour on heroic.  Even that long instance would allow you to have time to do your jewelcrafting daily, some other dailies, some mining, etc.  It allowed you to do other things in the game than just instancing and raiding.

Let’s compare this with Halls of Origination or as I like to call it now, HoO Crap.  Even on normal, it will take an hour easy.  Now the instance is beautiful, the fights are different and challenging.  But why does it have to be so damn long?

I like that trash matters again and I don’t think that there’s too much or too little of it.  The problem is when each trash pack can take 2-3 minutes compared to the 30 seconds of Wrath, it lengthens the instance quite a bit.

I’m guessing that by giving even the weakest of trash so many hit points, they’re future proofing the instances which won’t become a zerg fest even when the DPS reach 20k on average.  But now?

I try to play about two hours at most on non raid nights.  At this point, I’m having a hard time fitting in a heroic run without risking running late and not sleeping enough.  The challenge is great.  The time sink is not.

Cataclysm tanking cheat sheet part 4

By popular request, here are writeups for Heroic Deadmines and Heroic Shadowfang Keep.

Also, I’ve updated the older posts with information about what’s different in Heroic mode.  At least… I have for the heroics I’ve done.  Stonecore and BRC just won’t pop… why must I keep getting Halls of Origination?

Heroic Deadmines

Glubtok

• Don’t stand in fire or ice patches.
• In phase 2, bad things include a rotating fire wall.
• In phase 2, tank and AOE adds.

Helix Gearbreaker

• Avoid mines. Fuses indicate time-to-detonate.
• Players with the bomb debuff should explode away from the group.
• There’s a brief Helix-only phase after you kill the Oaf.

Foe Reaper 5000

• Assign a melee dps to control the Prototype Reaper.  He should stand on the ground level and kill adds.
• Run away from the boss’s two abilities.
• Tank the boss halfway up the ramp, with your party towards the top.  Party should run up, tank should run down.

Admiral Ripsnarl

• Kill Vapors ASAP.
• Use tanking cooldowns to survive his stacking buff.

Captain Cookie

• Don’t stand in green stuff.
• Eat the good food to get a haste buff, or remove a stack of the bad food debuff.
• Clear bad food by eating equal amounts of good food, or just eat only good food and treat it as a DPS race.
• Your tank can go DPS for this fight.

Vanessa VanCleef

• Gauntlet phase 1 – Click the steam valves.
• Gauntlet phase 2 – Dodge bad things.  This requires jumping off the right side of the ramp at one point.
• Gauntlet phase 3 – Focus fire the boss, ignore the spiders
• Gauntlet phase 4 – Dodge bad things.  There is a safe spot prior to the last two rotating beams if you need to wait for people.
• Gauntlet phase 5 – DPS race, with an emphasis on the race part.
• Vanessa – Kill adds, leave Blood Wizards alive for the rage zones if you want.
• Vanessa – Use the ropes on the side of the ship when they appear.

Heroic Shadowfang Keep

Baron Ashbury

• Interrupt his heal.
• Interrupt Stay of Execution once your healer has things under control.
• Save DPS/survivability cooldowns for his 25% enrage.

Baron Silverlaine

• Kill the adds.
• He has a Mortal Strike debuff.

Commander Springvale

• Tank him opposite where he starts.  Ranged and heals should stand on his ‘stage.’
• Kill both adds every time they spawn, Officer first.  CC the Guardsman if possible.
• Don’t stand in Desecration.
• Purple Death Vomit is randomly targeted, but roots the boss.  Just run behind him.  Players up on the stage should not be in range.

Lord Walden

• Dispel the poison debuff.
• Dodge ice shards.
• During the green Unstable Mixture, everyone has to stay moving.
• During the red Unstable Mixture, everyone has to stand still.

Lord Godfrey

• Tank and AOE ghoul adds.
• Decurse.
• Run behind him during Pistol Barrage.

cataclysm tanking cheat sheet part 3

Lets finish this off…

Grim Batol

General Umbriss

• Healers should keep everyone topped off – he has a dot that lasts until the target is healed to full.
• Spread out – strafe away from incoming Blitzs.
• Tank and splash-damage down the troggs.  They’re not worth focusing.
• Enrages at 30%, cannot be dispelled.
• Heroic: Ranged DPS should pull the purple troggs away and kill them.  They splash an enrage buff to nearby mobs when they die.

Forgemaster Throngus

• Don’t stand in cave-ins.
• Sword phase – high incoming tank damage, dispel his magic debuff.
• Mace phase – kite him, keeping the trail of fire in mind.  Heal impaled targets.
• Shield phase – everyone should stay behind the boss at all times.
• Heroic: Heal through the group damage during the shield phase.

Drahga Shadowburner

• During the orc phase, Kite (snares work) and kill Invocations of Flame.
• During the dragon phase, don’t stand in fire.  The dragon lands roughly in the center of the room.
• All party members must look out for her randomly targeted flame breath.
• Heroic: Nothing special.

Erudax

• Dodge Binding Shadows (purple spots on the ground).
• Eat the knockback – don’t back up to a wall, don’t charge.
• Everyone should stand in the purple spot that he drops prior to Shadow Gale.
• Snare (but don’t stun) the adds before they hatch eggs.
• Heroic: Two adds spawn at once.  Killing them in time is more difficult.

Halls of Origination

Temple Guardian Anhuur

• Spread out (15 yards) to avoid Divine Reckoning.
• Don’t stand in fire.
• One dps should drop off each side to pull a lever during the shield phase.
• Heroic: Two players per side during the shield phase – one pulls the lever, the other kills adds.

Earthrager Ptah

• Phase 1 – watch the cleave.  Heal through the party damage.
• Phase 2 – tank and AOE the adds.  Skeletons are elite.
• Heroic: Avoid dust clouds/spikes/whirlwind during phase 2.

Anraphet

• Spread out (5 yards), run out of Alpha Beams, don’t stand in void zones.
• Dispel the dot on the tank.
• Heal through Omega Stance.  DPS should continue to DPS.
• Heroic: Nothing special.

Isiset

• Don’t stand in laser beams.  Kill (no tank needed) the adds.
• Look away from Supernova (like Eadric in ToC).
• During the split phase, killing adds removes one of her abilities (adds, shield, starfall) while strengthening the two that remain. Tailor the kill order to your group makeup:
  • Caster-heavy? Kill shield first.
  • Got a great healer? Kill starfall last.
  • Cleave/passive AOE heavy? Kill adds last.
• Heroic: Nothing special.

Ammunae

• Interrupt and dispel Wither.
• Kill seed pods as they spawn – /target Seedling Pod.
• Kill the spores, kite the lashers through spore death clouds.  Or just ignore them and zerg the boss.
• Heroic: Lashers hit significantly harder.

Setesh

• Boss is untankable – just tank adds.
• DPS should focus on the boss.
• Tank should kill small adds, and kite big adds.
• Avoid anything that’s green or purple.
• Heroic: Killing portals is DPS’s highest priority.  Interrupt Void Seekers if they are allowed to spawn.  Adds move more quickly – use AOE slows (frost trap, earthbind) to kite, or just tank them all.

Rajh

• Dodge tornadoes.
• Heal through the AOE damage.
• Spread out, and run away from Infernal Leap.
• Interrupt Summon Sun Orbs.  If one spawns, run away from it.
• DPS should save cooldowns for Blessing of the Sun (cast when he is out of energy).
• Heroic: Nothing special.

Lost City of the Tol’vir

General Husam

• Don’t stand in dust clouds.
• Heroic: Traps pulse largely before they explode – don’t stand in those either.

High Prophet Barim

• Spread out to mitigate Plague of Ages.
• Don’t stand in red beams.
• In phase 1, kite the phoenix add – don’t bother killing it.
• In phase 2, DPS the small adds first, and the shadow phoenix second.
• In phase 2, don’t stand near the boss.
• Heroic: The above strat works.  I actually haven’t seen this one on normal, so I don’t know what’s different.

Lockmaw and Augh

• Both – don’t stand in dust clouds – drag the boss out of them.
• Lockjaw – AOE the small adds quickly.
• Lockjaw – remove his enrage.
• Both – dispel Paralytic Blow-dart
• Augh – kite whirlwinds.
• Augh – hits very hard – make him chase you after whirlwinds.
• Heroic: Nothing special.

Siamat

• Tank melee adds, DPS tanks and kills caster adds.
• Avoid the hurricanes that spawn when caster adds die.
• Spread out to mitigate caster adds’ chain lightning.
• Once the boss becomes vulnerable, burn the boss, ignore the adds.
• Heroic: Nothing special.

cataclysm tanking Cheat Sheet Part 2

Two more dungeons!  MMO Champion has excellent videos of all of the Cataclysm dungeon bosses if you haven’t seen them yet – for real live previews, head over there.  However, for the ADD-afflicted folks like myself (I did used to be DPS after all), here are the cliffs notes:

The Stonecore

Corborus

• One dispel will remove all stacks of his healing debuff.
• Don’t stand in pink shards.
• During the burrow phase, tank and AOE small adds.
• During the burrow phase, don’t get hit by the boss (dust clouds warn you before he surfaces).
• Heroic: Kill the pink shards ASAP.

Slabhide

• Not much to do as a tank – just face him away from the group (he breathes).
• Don’t stand in fire – shadows and dust clouds give preemptive warnings.
• The stalactites do count towards line of sight – try not to torture your healer.
• Heroic: Use the stalactites to LOS Crystal Storm.

Ozruk

• Run out of shatter – 15 yards.
• Ranged and melee dps have to watch out for spell reflect and thorns respectively.
• Spell reflect can be shield slam/purged.
• Ground slam is a frontal cone – dodge it by running through him.
• He enrages at low health.
• Heroic: Ground slam must be dodged.  Shatter must be out-ranged.  Melee DPS should keep stacks of the thorns-dot on themselves to cancel paralyze.  Ranged DPS can dot themselves (spell reflect) to cancel paralyze if necessary.

High Priestess Azil

• Dodge giant rocks.  Don’t stand in void zones.
• Adds come from the south end of the room – position void zones and yourselves accordingly.
• Tank adds if no void zones are available.
• Interrupt force grip if possible.
• Decurse if possible.
• Heroic: Interrupting force grip is very important.  More void zones on heroic means easier add management.

The Vortex Pinnacle

Grand Vizier Ertan

• Stack up in the center (Added note: If you stack up in the target circle during the collapse, you will not be hit by the tornadoes)
• You can either heal/cooldown through the ‘collapse’ phase, or have everyone run out temporarily.  Use gaps in the circle when running out.
• Heroic: Nothing special.

Altairus

• He breathes – keep him pointed away from the group.
• Dodge tornadoes.
• You want to face him perpendicular to the wind, so that you are just barely upwind.  The rest of your group should stand upwind at his tail.
• Heroic: Nothing special.

Asaad

• Stand in the electricity triangles that he makes.
• Otherwise, spread out to mitigate chain lightning.
• Heroic: Jump just before he finishes casting static cling to avoid the spell.

Cataclysm tanking cheat sheet

This post is written by Idkittens.  Id has been a member of Business Time since March.  He is also known under the name Dirtface for the habit that his warlock had to face his demise after pulling from our tanks.  In order to keep him alive in Cataclysm, he has now moved to our tanking team with his Death Knight.  He’s an outstanding player and strategist and I’m very happy to be hosting his guest post today.

The general consensus of the Internet seems to be that the Cataclysm dungeon bosses aren’t particularly difficult.  However, I am a perfectionist, and I prefer to look like I know what I’m doing… and lord knows Voss does.

I put together a cheat sheet – cliffs notes for all of the bosses you’ll encounter in normal Cataclysm dungeons.  This is TLDR in the extreme – but it should be everything you and your group needs to know in order to survive.  It doesn’t hurt to perpetuate the illusion that we tanks are always prepared… always well researched… always know what we’re doing.  Even if we are just copying and pasting.

ON THAT NOTE… please, for the sake of the kittens, please learn the routes to the dungeons.  This guy is going to be relying on you for directions when you wipe.  We must look like we know our stuff!

Blackrock Caverns

Rom’ogg Bonecrusher

• Clear the room, he calls adds.
• Be aware of the mortal strike.
• Be aware of the PBAOE (Point Blank AoE) quake, 40 yard range.
• When he pulls you to him, he’ll root you with Chains of Woe, then AOE the group.  Kill chains (single target, don’t AOE), then run away from the boss.
• Heroic: He summons adds, which can (and should) be killed by rooting them after breaking his chains (which must be done more quickly).

Corla, Herald of Twilight

• She has 2 adds – players have to stand in front of their beams to block them.  I recommend using the tank and a ranged dps.
• Party members cannot get 100 stacks of the beam debuff – step out of the beam until your debuff drops if you get above 80.  Other party members should pick the beams up when this happens.
• The boss will death grip and fear your party members, making beam-blocking more difficult.  Err on the side of caution.  Try to interrupt her abilities.
• Heroic: There is a 3rd add.  If you have a good tank and healer, you can simplify the fight by letting it evolve and killing it.  (Do this to all 3 adds to get the achievement.)

Karsh Steelbender

• Kill his trash by pulling the conflagrations away from the alloys.
• To damage him, you have to drag him through the central pillar of fire to stack a debuff on him.
• When his stacks drop, fire shoots out of grates on the ground.  Don’t stand in it.
• He cleaves.
• Heroic: When his debuff stacks drop, he spawns adds.  Manage this either by killing the adds (they drop a lava puddle that behaves similarly to the central pillar) in a good place, or by building stacks slowly throughout the whole fight (and never letting the debuff drop).  With practice, you can easily move him quickly enough through the pillar to get only 1-2 stacks at a time.

Beauty

• Pull and kill the 3 puppies in front of Beauty.  Beauty will not aggro.
• Beauty can be pulled without aggro’ing Runty (the puppy behind her).
• You must leave at least one puppy alive, or she will enrage and wipe the group.
• She has a fear, a PBAOE knockback, a charge, and an ‘explodes when dispelled’ debuff.
• Heroic: The puppies and the boss are linked – crowd control what you can, kill the puppies first.  Runty is not linked and can still be used to avoid the enrage.

Ascendant Lord Obsidius

• He comes with two unkillable adds that stack a healing debuff on their target.
• Ranged should kite the adds – they don’t have a normal aggro table, but instead follow whoever hit them last.  This makes kiting easy.
• Adds can and should be snared and rooted.  They hit reasonably hard on non-tanks.
• The boss will switch bodies with an add periodically – just switch targets.
• Boss abilities include a knockdown, a dot, and Thunderclap.
• Heroic: He comes with a 3rd add.

Throne of the Tides

Lady Naz’jar

• Interrupt Shock Blast – it hurts.
• Run out of blue circles.
• At 60% and 20%, summons adds and shields herself.  2 are casters – they should die first and only require provisional tanking.  The 3rd is a melee add with a low-health enrage.  Adds can be CC’d.
• Heroic: Dodge water spouts in the add phase.  The further away from her you are, the easier this gets.

Commander Ulthok

• He casts Dark Fissure, similar to Anub’arak’s Slam.  Don’t get hit by it.  It spawns a powerful void zone on the ground as well.
• He grabs party members, carrying them around for a while, then dropping them.  Make sure they don’t get dropped in void zones.
• He slows you, making Dark Fissure dodging more difficult.
• Heroic: Dark fissures slowly expand over time.  Start the fight by pulling him towards Naz’jar’s room, then kite towards the elevator.

Erunak Stonespeaker (and a squid)

• Face him away from the group – he has a breath-like attack.
• Interrupt his nuke, and avoid earth shards (a ground-traveling damage spell).
• At 50%, the squid will leave Erunak – tank’n'spank the squid until it mind controls a party member.
• When a party member gets MC’d, DPS them down to 50% to knock the squid off again.  Resume tank’n'spank.
• Green clouds will silence/pacify you.  Don’t stand in them.
• Heroic: Nothing special.

Ozumat

• In phase 1, tank and kill adds.  DPS order is murlocs, small faceless ones, big faceless ones.
• The big add will fly up and crash to the ground several seconds later – run away from the crash.
• In phase 2, DPS should kill the faceless one adds.  The tank should kite the demons.
• Phase 3 is a race against time – all players, including you, should switch to the boss at the edge of the room.  Use cooldowns to help out your healer if the fight drags on too long.
• Heroic: Nothing special.
• Death Knights: You can solo the last phase, even on heroic.  Spam death strike, and AMS to drop your debuff stack.