There is a mod and generally accepted appoarch on loatheb:
Before engage: Shadow potion
After doom 1: Shadow potion
After doom 2: nothing
After doom 3: bandage
After doom 4: Healthstone
After doom 5: Bandage + Shadow potion
After doom 6: Nothing
After doom 7: bandage

I sometimes die before doom 4 or before doom 5. No poison is debuffed. My buff HP is around 4.7-4.9K. I'm a mage.

This happens to a few of our guildies too.

A few of our guildies conclude that the death = we are not doing the right order, but we did do the right order. And the combat log said only doom dmage of 2.55k. Why sometimes we have less than 2.55k HP before the doom as per the above appoarch?

I turn out to survive by using a bit more sta gears, HP regen potion and mana shield. But, I'd like to see if you guys experience this and know any reason for HP < 2.55k before doom. Thanks.

Erm.
Why not just do this:
After doom 1: Shadow potion
After doom 2: bandage
After doom 3: Healthstone
After doom 4: Bandage
After doom 5: Shadow potion
After doom 6: Nothing
After doom 7: bandage

Should stop you dying before doom 6.

Bandaging after Doom 7 is probably not fun.

We use

1. nothing - pre emptive SPP absorbs this
2. New SPP and bandage back to full after this
3. nothing - SPP absorbs this
4. Bandage after this
5. Healthstone/Whipper root
6. Bandage and new SPP
7. Nothing, as SPP absorbs this

Would you say thats optimal? Or is there something I've missed?

[edit]
this is intended to leave you at full or almost full HP after doom 7 incase low dps pushes fight into enrage

We use this order. Dying before Doom 4 should not be possible. Assuming you only get 1950 absorbs across the board, using the above order:
After 1: -600hp
After 2: -1200hp
After 3: -3750hp, bandage back up to -1750
After 4: -4300hp, healthstone back up to -3100
After 5: -5650hp, bandage back up to -3650
After 6: -4250hp

Now, the above assumes you are the unluckiest person in the world and you get the very low end of a large range (1950-3250) time after time. -5650hp looks like a lot but in practice that pretty much never happens. But it makes 5650hp a good goal, and if you get the ZG buff and the EPL tower buff on the way in, even a mage should be able to hit that hp target without much effort. If not, look into using a Troll's Blood pot, which can help quite a bit. Or just use the alternate order given above.

Personally I like to aim for sub-5 Loatheb kills on a regular basis, and I'd rather only bandage twice if possible, and repotting immediately means you only bandage at 3:10 and 4:10.

We haven't tried the fight with consumables yet, but unless I'm missing something, I strongly prefer using GSPP to absorb Dooms 1, 3, and 7.

Gurg, you said you like to aim for sub-5 kills, and using 16 seconds bandaging rather than 24 makes that more likely. However, it seems the primary goal of utmost importance is make sure as many people as possible survive until 5:25 or even 5:40.

Using GSPP on Dooms 1, 3, and 7 rather than 1, 2, and 6 carries a few advantages:
--Since you're using the Healthstone after Doom 5 rather than Doom 4, you can use a WRT or NDB after Doom 1, eliminating the chance (or rather, the effect) of an unlucky roll on your first potion.
--You can use 3 GSPP's and 3 bandages without trying to squeeze in a bandage between 7 and 8.

As a result of both of those, the lowest HP you can ever reach is -5360 after Doom 6, And the lowest HP you can reach even at doom 8 is -6510. This ensures that nearly everyone will survive until Doom 9. Some people may even survive Doom 9, although your tank will probably be down.

Basically, your way does maximize the chance of a 5-minute kill, yes. But wouldn't the near-disaster that Navaash posted have been averted if you did it the other way?

Still, the other order is better if you aren't sure you will get a kill before 5 min. You would then have

After 1: Full health
After 2: -2550 hp, bandage back to -550
After 3: -1150 hp
After 4: -3700 hp, bandage back to -1700
After 5: -4250, healthstone back to -3050
After 6: -5600, bandage up to -3600
After 7: -4200
After 8: -6750

And also the advantage that with a lucky first pot the additional amount absorbed will carry over to all the next dooms. Another advantage is that you take damage earlier and get more use of hp regeneration buffs (only with average or better absorbs of course).

I just noticed that I was counting a Healthstone as 1440, and you guys were as 1200.

EDIT: Can't the Healthstone be made even bigger with Amplify?

No.


Also, without world buffs, we would die at 5:40 every time, with 2-3% left on Loatheb.

With world buffs, he died at 4:48 or similar for the last 3 weeks; the fight shouldn't last 5:40 if you're savvy.

You're forgetting the EPL buff which is +5% health. Also, it's probably a waste of Chops for DPS to use them on Loatheb... one of these will give similar effectiveness in a 5min+ fight, and they're dirt cheap: http://www.thottbot.com/?i=10334

Edit:
No. However the spore buff does give everyone's Healthstone a far greater crit chance. You obviously don't want to design a strat that requires healthstone to crit, but in practice, most people's will.

lightwell solves.
just get 2 priests to respec, its still the best pve spec just without spi buff. thats 10 charges. 11 ppl being the unluckiest person in the world won't happen in one attempt/kill. i can't recall the exact order, but we use 3 pots and 2 bandages and a HS for low hp guys. i use full priest T2 and we don't world buff, so i have like 4.8k hp with food buff max. i think i had to use lightwell twice in 4 or 5 weeks of loatheb. otherwise it was always enough. with 10 lw charges, you really have no hp problems. and we always kill around the 5 min mark, not much faster.