T6 Raiding and you! Part 1

I'm going to begin this blog with a series on T6 Raiding for the Elemental Shaman.

This series will aim to cover encounters from our point of view. Mostly this is because strat sites like www.bosskillers.com include us as "ranged dps", while ignoring anything useful we may offer.

Firstly, Mount Hyjal
Mount Hyjal trash is a bit different from the norm. Rather than just sitting there (or walking around) the mobs all run towards you in waves. So the first tip is this: Make sure your totems are dropped before each wave, in a position to avoid mob agro, and still cover your whole group as best you can.

For the Human camp, the trash is fairly boring for us. Burst down Necromancers when they aren't being crowd controlled, avoid attacking Banshees when their Magic Shell is up (apparently this has a limit on the amount of magic damage it can absorb, but your melee dps should have them dead well before this), and whenever you attack mobs in the AoE group make sure you change targets frequently (3 bolts, 1 chain, change target & repeat).

The Orc camp gets a bit more interesting.
In addition to the mobs from the Human camp, there are a few extra types. Gargoyles & Frost Wyrms are of particular interest. Gargoyles fly, and will cast nature damage bolts at their targets, so we can either range tank them (this is where Elemental Warding comes in handy) or use Earth Shock to interrupt the casts so they fly lower for the tanks to pick up. Work out a system with your tanks as to how you are to do this, in my case the tanks mark a target and call on vent for it to be interrupted.
Frost Wyrms are airborne as well, but they don't land, requiring a ranged tank. Warlocks and Mages will often tank these, with the locks Searing Pain & Fel Armor, or the Mages Frost Armor. However, we can do the same job, mostly due to Elemental Warding again. The Wyrms ranged attacks are frost based, so a 10% reduction will make healing on you easier. If needed, a Frost Resist Totem can be dropped, but this will probably reduce you bellow the hit cap, so would not be advisable at the start.

Now, the Bosses.

• Rage Winterchill
  Rage is the first of the five Hyjal bosses, and to be quite honest, a bit of a pushover. The only things you will need to worry about are avoiding Death & Destruction, and the Frostbolts.
  Aside from dodging D&D, if the melee get it, or it is cast away from most of the raid (ie: not on you and your group) use bloodlust so you get the most out of it before D&D can be cast again.
  The frostbolt can be very deadly, and generally the use of your PvP trinket is advised to get out of the ice tomb. If you have Elemental Warding this damage will be reduced, and be survivable. Normally the maximum damage you would receive is 15.7k from the whole spell, but with Elemental Warding it gets reduced by 1575 to 14.1k. This means one or two direct heals will see you through, which you should be getting at this point.
• Anatheron
  Anatheron is a straight DPS fight from our viewpoint. The only things I would say is that if you are not suffering from the healing debuff, a chain heal would not be a bad idea (it can be very healing intensive), and save bloodlust for the second infernal spawn, to burn it down quickly and get a bit more damage done to the boss before the third one spawns.
• Kaz'Rogal
  This fight is a bit different. Stacking a bit of Shadow Resist is advisable, but the big thing is making sure you regen mana. To do this, I have 4pc T5 (the helm is part of my SR set for Shahraz), [Ashtongue Talisman of Vision], [Fathom-Brooch of the Tidewalker], and [Totem of the Pulsing Earth] equipped. Combined with Mana spring, Water shield, and liberal use of mana pots, I am chain casting bolts for 90% or more of the fight.
  Bloodlust should be saved for rotating into the melee group.
• Azgalor
  There isn't much to say for Azgalor. Save ankhs in case you get Doom, and don't bother with SR gear to resist the silence as you'll end up reducing your overall damage.
• Archimonde
  Archimonde is a classic case of "So, you're a hybrid? Heal". The fight really boils down to staying alive (cue: the song by the BeeGees), so if anyone in range is low, throw them a quick heal. Make sure Tremor totem is down, and placed between you and any doomfires that come your way.
  Save bloodlust for melee rotation again, and do not be afraid to heal. Equip your healing set (if you say "what healing set?" then you're doing it wrong) if you are learning the fight, as it's much more important to survive than to deal large amounts of damage yourself.

Hopefully this gives you a better understanding of Mount Hyjal, and how to raid it as an Elemental Shaman.

Next part: Black Temple, Naj to Bloodboil