Cataclysm 4.0.x Raid Mechanics - Page 3

Belegûr · 12/28/10, 4:07 AM

This has been announced in the 27/12 Hotfixes:

Dungeons & Raids
Throne of the Four Winds

* It is no longer possible to disarm Al'Akir.

Istarian · 12/28/10, 9:08 PM

Be wary using Killing Spree on the Exposed head phase. Make sure you time it so it goes off well before he transitions back to the first phase. If you use Killing Spree on the Exposed head as it transitions so that ticks still remain, it WILL teleport you into the lava and unfortunately end your life with no chance of return! Quite embarrassing if you're one of the two worm riders.

n0point · 12/30/10, 8:47 AM

Don't think that has been mentioned yet but Lightning Rod(Lightning Rod - Spell - World of Warcraft) can be cloaked on Al'akir phase 3.

Raconzor · 12/30/10, 2:12 PM

I'm wondering about what mechanic(s) of Al'Akir are making assassination rogues the clear leaders on this fight (and this fight only, of the current raiding tier). Thoughts? Why would we be favored over unholy DKs and survival hunters?

Feist-Mok · 12/30/10, 2:20 PM

Originally Posted by Raconzor

I'm wondering about what mechanic(s) of Al'Akir are making assassination rogues the clear leaders on this fight (and this fight only, of the current raiding tier). Thoughts? Why would we be favored over unholy DKs and survival hunters?

We're much more likely to get a substantial chunk of execute time during a period in which the boss has a +50, 60, or even 70 or 80 percent damage taken debuff, because we have a execute that starts at 35% HP.

At this point, for most raids, he's not hitting 20% until such buffs have fallen off.

Zulkeir · 12/30/10, 2:23 PM

Looking at WoL rankings, while there are a fair number (haha, half) of Assassination rogues at the top, they are by no means dominating over Survival Hunters or Unholy DK's; however from a mechanic standpoint, I would venture a guess that cloaking the wind burst and not getting knocked back would have a high value on DPS, and the ability to mitigate a large amount of damage through feint and cloaking Acid Rain stacks means that Rogues need to spend less of their time healing themselves (as healing appears to be intensive on this fight) and can spend more time appropriately DPSing. It also seems to be a boss fight with mechanics that favor a high amount of time on target for damage, so long as you pay attention.

EDIT: Feist responded as I was making my post, and I have to agree; Having an execute phase that matches with the damage bonus from killing the static would severely boost Assassination DPS. This would be even more favorable if your guild allowed those classes with execute phases to remain on the boss, which is not far fetched, especially as some guilds in ICC were intentionally making fights harder to boost players into rankings (kiting slimes through raid on Rotface for cleave damage) just for guild recognition. Considering rogue ramp-up time on new targets, it would probably be favorable to allow the rogue to stay on the boss during this phase, not that I have any bias in this matter.

Crevan · 12/30/10, 5:33 PM

Did anyone have trouble with Killing Spree not putting you directly behind Al'Akir when it's over? On several attempts today I've used the skill while standing at his back, and ended up about 30-40 degrees clockwise from the original position. I didn't notice the boss turning while KS was up, though I don't dismiss this possibility. I did, however, notice a similar issue on some trash in BoT. It's quite annoying, since I could end up frying people with chain lightning.

Istarian · 12/30/10, 7:03 PM

Be wary of using Killing Spree during the exposed head phase. If you use it too late, it will teleport you with him, and drop you into the lava (Is it safe to use at any other time?).

I made the post warning of this and yes, it IS safe to use at other times, it will put you right next to the spike. The ability is safe to use so long as he is not about to transition (and if there are no adds near your Killing Spree path).

Also I was noticing the same ~30º offset Crevan did on Al'Akir.

Crevan · 12/30/10, 9:09 PM

Originally Posted by Istarian

I made the post warning of this and yes, it IS safe to use at other times, it will put you right next to the spike. The ability is safe to use so long as he is not about to transition (and if there are no adds near your Killing Spree path).

Also I was noticing the same ~30º offset Crevan did on Al'Akir.

Now that you mentioned Magmaw, I realised that what I've seen on Al'Akir is similar to the mechanic that prevents you from dropping into the lava - after KS is over, I end up somewhere between our melee dps group and the tank. Perhaps, this mechanic was only intended for Magmaw, but is unintentionally working on other bosses as well?

Ireath · 01/03/11, 5:14 PM

Doing Al'Akir just now, and the Wind Bursts seem to be changed. Cloak can not be used to avoid the knock back.

After a few tries it actually worked cloaking it. Seems a bit inconsistent for me. Will try to get a few more goes at it to pin it down.

Edit: I was a bit quick about this. Last 5 tries or so I've had no problems at all.

Machinae · 01/03/11, 6:26 PM

The information on Atramedes is somewhat lacking. We noticed that both of it's main AOE abilities can be feinted (Modulation and Searing Flame). On normal mode at least, the only real danger is a Modulation immediately followed by a Searing Flame, or vice versa; as long as you feint at least one of the abilities you can negate much of it's damage.

Quackers · 01/03/11, 11:14 PM

Originally Posted by Ireath

Doing Al'Akir just now, and the Wind Bursts seem to be changed. Cloak can not be used to avoid the knock back.

After a few tries it actually worked cloaking it. Seems a bit inconsistent for me. Will try to get a few more goes at it to pin it down.

Edit: I was a bit quick about this. Last 5 tries or so I've had no problems at all.

From the blue posts of today:

"It is no longer possible to fully resist Wind Burst from Al'Akir, avoiding all damage and knockback." - I'm assuming this applies to CloS

Source

Istarian · 01/03/11, 11:55 PM

It seems that, while you can Feint the Lightning pulse (at every 10% hp), you cannot pre-Cloak for an immunity. Also Killing Spree is a great tool for getting up on top of the Pillars. Tricks a DPS target on your pillar, cloak, then KsP (with another person on the first interrupt) and you should be up top with zero stacks every time (assuming you've saved Killing Spree for this mechanic). The mobs on the pillars seem to never use melee autoattacks, so threat shouldn't be an issue. I haven't been doing this yet but I think I might just keep Recup up full time to help out during Phase 2. Also unfortunately Lava =/= Water, so R.I.P. [Glyph of Blurred Speed]. Just like with other Knockdowns (Sartharion), Ony / Nef's tail-whip can be human racial'd to remove the stun debuff allowing for more damage, but you will still be incapable of movement after the dispel.

In short:

-Cannot cloak Electric Discharge
-Killing Spree for getting on top of Pillars quickly and easily
-Chromatic Prototypes have a threat table, but do not autoattack
-Recup. up during Phase 2 is quite helpful
-[Glyph of Blurred Speed] (reiterating, it's never worked on lava) will not allow you to walk on the lava
-Human Racial for the knockdown tail-whips

Ends · 01/04/11, 3:01 AM

Originally Posted by Istarian

In short:

-Cannot cloak Electric Discharge
-Killing Spree for getting on top of Pillars quickly and easily
-Chromatic Prototypes have a threat table, but do not autoattack
-Recup. up during Phase 2 is quite helpful
-[Glyph of Blurred Speed] (reiterating, it's never worked on lava) will not allow you to walk on the lava
-Human Racial for the knockdown tail-whips

This is not entirely true. You can immunity cloak the discharge as seen here:

[20:52:12.715] Endz gains Cloak of Shadows from Endz
[20:52:12.715] Endz casts Cloak of Shadows
[20:52:13.015] Nefarian's Lightning Machine Electrocute Endz Immune
[20:52:17.761] Endz's Cloak of Shadows fades from Endz

You just have to have really good timing. I've only done it successfully a couple of times. As it is I just use the emote as my signal its hard to pinpoint exactly but the emote is a 5 second countdown. So if you're sub 40k health I can see the benefit of using it as a last ditch effort in conjunction with feint.

Sakuru · 01/04/11, 3:50 AM

As mentioned, it is possible to CoS Nefarian's Lightning machine, but with tactic my guild is using (as many other I suppose), where we switch from Onyxia as she is arround 20-25% health to let the tank solo her down while the dps classes start nuking Nefarian (our tank solos Onyxia down in about one and a half minute or so), using CoS on the first Lightning machine (nefarian = 90%) leaves you with CoS on cd during the transition to phase two where survivability is much more a key then just mitigating 50-60k dmg during p1 where raid damage is relatively low anyway.

Using CoS during the swim up to the pylons leaves you with lower dot stacks, which will leave the healers with more time to focus on getting the rest of the raid up, and your survivability higher if you get a Shadowflame barrage or two from Nefarian.

If you want to save healer mana during P1, faint tailswipe from Onyxia during her Lightning thing where you end up standing behind her, and during Nefarians lightning machine, and leave CoS for the times that raid damage is high.

While we are nuking Nefarian, all dps (ranged and melee) are stacking at one spot which gives the raidhealers an easier time to aoe heal us up after a lightning machine strike, and the tank healer (if a paladin or shaman) can use an additional aoe heal to top everyone off whitout almost any offtime on the tankhealing.