Hydross Group Composition

Mondragon · 03/26/07, 6:12 PM

let me set the scene.

my lot downed Gruul pre nerf nad we have had 2 full nights learning Hydross. We have the changeover locked down....we just lack the dps over the full length of the fight...though we have been getting better. 50% with 2.5 mins left is our best attempt.

My impression is this fight is impossible unless a fully flasked/potted (ofc) raid...but also stacked in favour of possibly 4 warlocks and not one weak sustained dpser in the group make up.

I was wondering if anybody shared this view..(apologies if its hidden in another thread but I searched keyword Hydross)

I also though..does anyone leave 3 adds up and just banish one..then use some forms of AoE keeping adds close to the boss.

I really feel like the bar was raised with this fight over pre nerf Gruul.

I am unsure whether to trust my instincts though..so I am looking for other peoples opinions/little tips to keep dps up at key points in the fight.

Stop DPS downtime on transition might also be a problem.

tekmatt · 03/26/07, 6:31 PM

How many were dead before you wiped on your best run? What buffs did your raid have? How do you handle the adds? You can't really answer questions about how to improve your dps without a good amount of details of the raid.

Mass consumable usage for the dps classes is not required to beat the fight.

Bubba · 03/26/07, 6:51 PM

I imagine your approach to the adds would strongly dictate your raid composition - if you choose an AOE approach, then your locks and mages are obviously going to get the call. If you go with the single target approach, then those Malchazeen's might come in handy.

How you deal with the adds is really the entirety of the fight imho - figure out which one plays to your strengths as a raid, and go from there.

Quigon · 03/26/07, 8:04 PM

Banish one, tank 3 (one by the previous MT, 2 ot's), clump the 3, kill them one at a time, with shadow priests on target #2 for max efficacy. They'll all be dead before the banish (forgot which rank) wears off. Finish that, and you're home before 50%. 20% per first/final minute, and you're good for a win.
AE is mana intensive even if it is "good"... we tried every method we could think of, this one was our best.

Keep in mind, LIKE ALL THINGS, that which works best for your guild, is the best strategy, for your guild. All other strategies are interesting, but nothing more. I've seen some fathom lord kill strategies for instance that boggle my mind, but to each his own, and keep that in mind.

The fight is significantly easier with full buffs. Because of the transitional demand with I/O on HP/DPS, consumables give exponentially (yet somewhat diminishing) returns (The kill time graph is likely an inflection about the 4k dps point). Meaning from negative to infinite kill times, to killable. Ultimately, breaking the barrier of damage per cycle sometimes for many guilds requires those consumables. Sorry about the prose, but sometimes I just don't care enough to make it in english. Edit: english: DPS consumables means more face time w/the boss, and the amount of time before berserk and # of adds is absolutely set in stone using standard strategies.

Mondragon · 03/26/07, 9:53 PM

thankyou for your replies. Tonight we see what we can run with and make an informed decision with regards to handling the adds.

ghooge · 03/27/07, 9:51 AM

I experienced my first night of beating my head against Hydross last night. The trash before him wasn't as bad as I had expected. I did shudder at the thought of clearing all the trash you can see from his platform though. Atleast, the Boglords change up their abilities and I chuckle everytime they spit and do that giant ass shake.

Hydross himself seems like a great fight as far as mechanics go. We attempted leaving him at 250%, but without a tank sporting 21k+ hit points it was a furtile effort. We the moved to swapping him a couple seconds before 250% which seemed easier to heal, but certainly slows dps down.

On our best attempt without consumables, sans tank flasks, we hit around 60% with 3:50 or so left. That seems like horrible dps when you calculate the dps needed to come in under the enrage and assume raid damage attrition via death or lack of mana. We were consistantly hitting 83-84% before the first transition.

After seeing Hydross, I completely understand and agree with Quigon about consumables on this encounter. Once you pass a certain point in dps, the fight should be come drastically easier. In my mind, it is similar to doing the Curator. With low dps, the adds barely die in before the next one spawns and you barely have time to dps him during evocation. Once you get the adds down just a tad faster, damage increases on him at an increased rate.

For those that have been killing him for a few weeks, have you gravitated toward the 250% strat as your tanks are geared enough to handle it? How fast do you kill him with this strat?

Dawme · 03/27/07, 10:14 AM

We let all the warlocks / rogues / shadow priest on Hydross and hunters/mages on the adds. 2 banish, 2 tanks, switch side just a few seconds after the 4th mark which let us a big final phase (1 min+) : ban/fear everything and full dps. We killed him 1 min before the enrage last time with this strat, it works pretty well.
Basically, you want to let on adds dps duty just the people needed. If you finish the adds more than 2 sec before the switch time, remove some dps from the adds and put them on the boss.

For those that have been killing him for a few weeks, have you gravitated toward the 250% strat as your tanks are geared enough to handle it? How fast do you kill him with this strat

In my opinion, it's very very wrong to learn the fight with this strat. It is obviously unintended and will probably be fixed sooner or later (500% mark anyone ?) so... just learn the fight with proper switches, it may take 1 or 2 days longers to get a kill but it's worth it and very repeatable, without consumables.