Cataclysm: Situational Tips and Tricks - Page 6

Lewstherin · 03/17/11, 1:58 PM

Actualy I was who asked about the trinket delay.
I know there is a huge chance to loose a proc in the whole fight, but the benefit what i gained from the larger combustion can outwheight this. Also mind that i didnt want to delay the proc with 45 sec, just only around 20. I usualy try to build the combustion on Maloriak and spread it to the adds as soon as they spawn, same as Ushtarador. The int proc from DMC:V gives higher crit chance what leads most of the cases at least 1 HS pyro proc.
A strong combustion ticking in 6 targets not only in 5, hasted with heroism, what we blow right after the adds spawn.

Wilderness81 · 03/17/11, 3:49 PM

Originally Posted by Lewstherin

Actualy I was who asked about the trinket delay.
I know there is a huge chance to loose a proc in the whole fight, but the benefit what i gained from the larger combustion can outwheight this. Also mind that i didnt want to delay the proc with 45 sec, just only around 20. I usualy try to build the combustion on Maloriak and spread it to the adds as soon as they spawn, same as Ushtarador. The int proc from DMC:V gives higher crit chance what leads most of the cases at least 1 HS pyro proc.
A strong combustion ticking in 6 targets not only in 5, hasted with heroism, what we blow right after the adds spawn.

That seems like an approach with more downsides than positive. The damage on Maloriak is irrelevant, since I can't imagine a guild doing this fight that doesn't have to stop dps prior to the 2nd green phase so you don't push him over too fast - particularly if you use BL/Hero for the first black phase (I don't know why it wouldn't be saved for the last phase, but that's not relevant to this discussion). With the extra damage on Maloriak not mattering, the bonus of doing what you say is a higher combustion to use on the adds. However, you have a small window with which to have a good ignite going, hit combustion, and spread it to the adds before they are kited away from Maloriak. First, you need a strong ignite ticking within a few second period right as he is summoning the adds so that you don't have a bad combustion. Then you need to spread it, which either involves getting a lucky impact proc in that time period, or you have to hit a blastwave on the adds which will usually force an impact. But that adds another global into the process and there are only going to be a few seconds where the adds are close enough to the boss.

Doing it your way you can gain better dps on the adds, but the risk is having a bad combustion and/or not spreading it to the adds or not all the adds as they are kited away. Not to mention that delaying the trinket proc very much risks losing out on one proc. My guild's last couple of kills were around 9:30 in length, with a 50 second average on procs I'll be losing out one if I wait more than 20 seconds, and the adds spawn about 30 seconds in.

• Intermission · 03/17/11, 5:04 PM

I assume most guilds use a mage to hit Atramedes gongs (blink and/or improved blink is awesome). When kiting Atramedes beam in the flying phase, do not Ice Block if there is more than about 4 seconds left on flying phase. Ice Block will not slow down his beam as if you hit a gong, it simply finds another player and increases speed.

I found this out the hard way when I had to hit a gong early last night. With Improved Blink, Rocket Boots, Goblin Rocket Jump, and Ice Block, I thought I'd be fine to kite it the whole time. It started going so fast I Ice Blocked and it then traveled across the room within 2 seconds and killed someone.

ryah98 · 03/18/11, 3:35 AM

Originally Posted by Intermission

Ice Block will not slow down his beam as if you hit a gong, it simply finds another player and increases speed.

You can cancel the aura and the beam will come back to you. Possible example could be if you have one second or so left untill blink is off cd. Hard to perform, but still technically a possibilty.

• Intermission · 03/18/11, 6:31 AM

Nice call, I didn't think of that. A downside would be that it spreads fire around a little more, but better than dying.

Thazzdingo · 03/18/11, 10:33 AM

Mirror Images also cause the beam to follow another player. This can save your life if it's coming too close at the end of the airphase.

When spreading Combustion off Maloriak, you will usually have more debuffs active than on the adds. But of course do not do this at all costs.

fok · 03/27/11, 9:15 AM

You can't die in Alakir's tornadoes because when your hp=0, they throw you out with Cauterize debuff, and when you fly, there is possibility to use your mana shield + mage ward -> ~10% hp + alive + happy
...if no lightnings on a way

lmaoskates · 03/28/11, 12:07 PM

Originally Posted by Rulaneda

Yeah, my guild is doing Valiona and this Thoralion and we use cauterize to eat blackouts and meteors. But sometimes you "die" and may get a blackout or meteor about 60 seconds later and today we had this situation once that I didn't know wether cauterize was up or not.

Oh, and I can't find your addon on the two usual websites I get addons from. Or is it possible to add this cooldown to Forte somehow? I just downloaded it a few hours ago and still try to figure out details.

Just a tip from my side: You can actually blink the meteors, without having to use your Cauterize on them.

♦ nathanbp · 03/28/11, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by lmaoskates

Just a tip from my side: You can actually blink the meteors, without having to use your Cauterize on them.

How tricky is the timing on this? Can you pull it off 100% of the time just pressing blink as the timer on the debuff runs out?

lmaoskates · 03/29/11, 12:04 PM

Originally Posted by nathanbp

How tricky is the timing on this? Can you pull it off 100% of the time just pressing blink as the timer on the debuff runs out?

It helps a lot to have the drake casting the meteors on focus, and blinking as soon as the drake FINISHED (!) casting, not that much of a deal afterall. This way you avoid the damage to 100%. Just be cautions in which direction you blink, so you don't blink into a voidzone or too far away from the meeting-point in case you get 2-3 in a row. Oh and it is also possible to simply invis those.
Hope I could help!

(Eventually a mod could move these posts to the "Cataclysm: Situational Tips and Tricks" thread.

zimzamzoom · 03/30/11, 2:27 PM

Two of our fire mages were unable to avoid Blackout deaths with cauterize last night. You can see my death in this death overview example, I'm the first one on the list. I believe the debuff was healed off before the expiry time, should we be simply allowing it to expire to properly trigger cauterize?

Penji · 03/30/11, 3:44 PM

Originally Posted by zimzamzoom

Two of our fire mages were unable to avoid Blackout deaths with cauterize last night. You can see my death in this death overview example, I'm the first one on the list. I believe the debuff was healed off before the expiry time, should we be simply allowing it to expire to properly trigger cauterize?

Yes, the 15s debuff needs to expire by duration not by healing in order for Cauterize to avert death.

Napwneon · 04/02/11, 12:26 PM

My guild is currently working on heroic 25-man Cho'gall. We're looking into doing getting a deliberate 100 corruption for our mages for p1. I was wondering what the best way was to go about this method – i.e. the best way to get to 100 corruption, and the best way to keep the mages alive: should we be mana shielding on every cooldown? Should disc priests be putting bubbles as often as possible?

Malcophant · 04/02/11, 6:00 PM

My guild has been working on Cho'gall as well, and we've learned a few things about it:

You only need to take 3 crashes to get to 100 corruption. The debuff you get after hitting 25 corruption will bring you up to 100 if it is not cleansed. You just need to be topped off before you hit 100. After hitting 100, the only damage you should take is from the raid-wide AOE (can't remember the name right now). To stay alive through as many of them as necessary, you should use two mana shields (one more than 12s before it comes, and one right after it breaks) as well as two disc priest shields. Ice Block should be saved for this as well, as you can sit through an entire AOE with it. If you have access to the Mirror from Tol Barad, the use effect will be up for half of them for sure, occasionally more due to delays in casting. Depending on how many mages are going to 100 corruption, it might be viable to rotate hand of sacrifice/pain suppression or other damage reducing cooldowns, but this is dependent on your raid comp.

As a separate question, I'm looking for thoughts on how to maximize our damage on this fight, when hitting 100 corruption. Mage Armor+Glyph is a given, and I've been reforging to crit instead of haste, but I'm wondering whether living bomb should be used, or if spamming pyroblast will do more damage. In addition, maximizing damage on Blood of the Old God is important: would it be better to spam flamestrike/blastwave, or individually pyro adds and impact any ignites (assuming they live long enough).

Currently, I've been simply spamming Pyroblast and ignoring Living Bomb, except when I want to combustion. For the Bloods, flamestrike spam seems too mana-intensive for this fight, so I've simply been blast waving then individually pyroblasting adds. I'd be interested to hear what other mages are doing on this fight.

Zersto · 04/02/11, 10:13 PM

Napwn and Malco,

Two disc priests are not needed. You will die shortly after entering P2 (unless you are in fact running dual Disc and have a Pain Suppression to give you a extra few seconds). We learned the fight with one disc and one holy pally (and one ret). Here was our rotation (courtesy of Tuna, officer in my guild. This is with one disc and two holy pally). Commas separate the wave, slashes seperate cooldowns:

iceblock, pw:b ret sac, divine guardian + amz +holy pala sac/am, pain supression+ 2nd holy pala am/sac, pw:b+ ret sac, divine guardian +holy pala am/sac, mana shield+amz+ 2nd holy pala am/sac

One thing to note. Your survivability will be mostly dependent on your raid. Being able to break MCs instantly and have Cho'gall at no stacks, along with ensuring all Shadow Lords die is key.