Enhancement Shaman 4.3 Dragon Soul Raiding Discussion Thread

### Please note this thread is under construction###
***For information on the purpose and scope of this thread, please see the second post***
$$$Additional bosses will be added over time$$$

 

Contents

1Morchok 1.1DPS 1.1.1Set up 1.1.2Fire elemental during blood phase 1.1.3Ranged rotation 1.1.4Soaking crystals (ranged DPS) 1.1.5Soaking blood damage to maximise DPS uptime 1.1.6Glyph of Ghost Wolf 1.2Survivability 1.2.1Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem 1.2.2Soaking Stomps 1.2.3Soaking blood 1.3Utility 1.3.1A note on totem range 1.3.2Stoneskin Totem 1.3.3Bloodlust 1.4Other 1.5Videos 1.6Logs 2Warlord Zon'Ozz 2.1DPS 2.2Utility 2.3Videos 3Yor’Sahj the Unsleeping 3.1DPS 3.1.1On boss 3.1.2On Oozes 3.1.3On Mana Void 3.1.4AOE DPS 3.1.4.1Prime: Flameshock 3.1.4.2Major: Fire Nova 3.1.4.3Major: Chain Lightning Glyph 3.1.4.4Magma Totem 3.1.4.5AOE Rotation 3.1.4.5.1AOE while stationary (single black phase) 3.1.4.5.2AOE while moving (double black phase) 3.2Survivability 3.2.1A note on add damage 3.2.2Set up 3.2.2.1Talents 3.2.2.1.1Elemental Warding 3.2.2.1.2Toughness 3.2.2.2Glyphs 3.2.2.2.1Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem 3.2.3Cooldowns 3.2.3.1Shamanistic Rage 3.2.3.2Stoneclaw Totem 3.3Utility 3.4Other 3.5Videos 3.6Logs 4Hagara the Binder 4.1DPS 4.1.1DPS on boss 4.1.1.1Boss kiting 4.1.2DPS on Ice Tombs 4.1.3DPS on Floating Ice Stones 4.1.3.1Glyph of Flameshock 4.1.3.2Dropping Searing Totem 4.1.3.3Spiritwalker’s Grace 4.1.3.4Glyph of Ghostwolf 4.1.4DPS on lightning add 4.2Survivability 4.2.1Soaking Ice Lances 4.2.2Soaking lightning phase 4.2.3Avoiding ice cutters 4.3Utility 4.3.1Glyph of healing stream 4.3.2Lust/Hero during weak phase, sub 20% where possible 4.4Other 4.5Videos 4.6Logs 5Ultraxion 5.1DPS 5.1.1Enh's straight line dps curve 5.1.2Rotation 5.1.3Soaking an Hour of Twilight 5.1.4Lusting/Heroing your Spirit Wolves 5.1.5Pre-potting 5.1.6Timing your Heroic Will 5.2Survivability 5.2.1Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem 5.2.2Shamanistic Rage 5.2.3Healing stream totem 5.2.4Soaking an Hour of Twilight 5.3Utility 5.3.1Bloodlust 5.3.2Your totems fade with you 5.4Other 5.4.1Tracking your Fading Light Debuff 5.5Videos 5.6Logs 6Warmaster Blackhorn 6.1DPS 6.2Utility 6.3Videos 7The Spine of Deathwing 7.1DPS 7.2Utility 7.3Videos 8The Madness of Deathwing 8.1DPS 8.2Utility 8.3Videos

[top]Morchok

[top]DPS

[top]Set up

You are going to want to go your maximum single target DPS set up here, as prescribed by: http://elitistjerks.com/f79/t113391-...on_4_2_onward/

[top]Fire elemental during blood phase

For your first blood phase, it's recommend to drop a fire elemental while you run for cover. It will do more single target on the boss than would your Searing Totem. When you get back to the boss, be sure to re-drop Searing.

[top]Ranged rotation

As you will notice, it’s possible to ranged DPS Morchok from behind the stone pillars he drops. Ideally you want to run behind two adjacent pillars as the gap between the two of them provides you line of sight on the boss. In some circumstances it is possible to DPS from behind a single pillar, but it can be tricky to get into the appropriate position (you need to be right on the edge but not touching blood), which is why running to a set of two pillars is preferred. Note that on heroic mode, the blood from one of the bosses does not recognise the line of sight value of the other boss’ pillars, meaning that if you move to pillars that are between the two bosses, you will likely get owned by blood and die. Always run to pillars that are away from the ‘other’ boss.

When DPSing from ranged, your priority order should be:

1. Unleased Flame
2. Lava Burst (when FS on boss)
3. FS (when not on boss)
4. Earth shock (when FS on boss)
5. Lightning bolt

Save your Unleased Flame for when you have Flame Shock up on boss and use it to buff your Lava Burst damage.

[top]Soaking crystals (ranged DPS)

The above rotation is also (somewhat) relevant for when you are away from boss while soaking crystals. Try to minimise your crystal soak downtime as much as possible by running out as late as you can. Of course, use Ghostwolf and try to be as close to boss as possible to the boss while still soaking crystal damage properly (to minimise the run time back).

[top]Soaking blood damage to maximise DPS uptime

It’s possible to take some blood damage, but the amount you can take depends on which version of the encounter you are doing (LFR/Normal/Heroic). Doing so is a DPS increase at is maximises uptime on boss. For details on this see the ‘survivability’ section below

[top]Glyph of Ghost Wolf

This glyph is a must for this encounter. Less time spent running between the boss and crystals/pillars is more time spent on the boss. For details on the math that supports these sort of DPS gains, please see: [Enhancement] BiS gear and set-up discussion.

[top]Survivability

In terms of set up, I would recommend against Talents such as Elemental Warding (as the majority of damage you will take is physical, so these talents will provide no benefit) or Toughness (it’s a big DPS loss, and you really don’t need the extra HP for this). Still, if you had to choose something you would take Toughness as it provides broader utility. I would, however, recommend Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem.

[top]Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem

An obvious choice for a majority of encounters, including this one. Can be a life saver when soaking stomps/crystals, and can give you more DPS uptime if you use it aggressively (staying in to soak blood). Replace anything but Glyph of Lightning Shield and Ghostwolf to get it.

[top]Soaking Stomps

Yes, we can do this, but it’s high risk and isn’t ideal. We can pop Shamanistic Rage and drop Stoneclaw Totem to provide a lot of mitigation, but I would still recommend an external cooldown as you can still die from this if you aren’t fully topped before taking the hit. This really the job for a class with far better damage mitigation than us, but it can be done so don’t be afraid to step up.

Edit: You can also equip a shield when soaking stomps- Stomp dmg is physical, meaning that a shield will provide significant mitigation.

[top]Soaking blood

Again, it’s possible for us to do this and doing so can maximise DPS uptime on boss. A second before the blood hits, drop a Stoneclaw Totem for the absorb shield and continue to DPS. When your health starts to drop, pop Shamanistic Rage to slow the ramp up of damage. Run out when your stacks start getting too high. Notice that the damage stops immediately after you move out of the blood (it doesn’t continue to tick) so don’t be afraid to cut this close. The alternative to this strategy is to run out at the beginning of the blood phased and then start running back in early, cycling defensive cooldowns as earlier stated. You can also pop Spirit Wolves during this phase for extra self healing,

[top]Utility

[top]A note on totem range

On heroic, your group will have to split in two separate teams. Note that you will likely have to split far enough apart that some players may move out of the range of your totems. Be sure to accommodate for this by splitting group buffs equally.

[top]Stoneskin Totem

A very important totem for you to be dropping given that the Stomp ability is all physical damage, and that paladins should generally be casting more useful auras. Be sure that you have this down at all times if you have no Devo Aura near your group.

[top]Bloodlust

Given the amount of damage that tanks will be taking, Bloodlust is ideal during the last 20% of the fight as it aids both healers and classes with execute phase abilities.

[top]Other

Nothing at the moment.

[top]Videos

Nothing at the moment.

[top]Logs

Nothing at the moment.

[top]Warlord Zon'Ozz

[top]DPS

===Survivability===

[top]Utility

===Other===

[top]Videos

===Logs===

[top]Yor’Sahj the Unsleeping

Updated 10/12/11

[top]DPS

[top]On boss

Nothing special here. DPS as you normally would on the boss. When the oozes are up and you need to DPS them, leave a Flameshock on the boss as you run over to the ooze in order to squeeze out a little more DPS.

[top]On Oozes

As you run over to the ooze, drop your totems a few yards beyond the waterline (on the land, not in the water). With this placement, your Searing Totem will have ample time to stack dots on the target so that you get at least 1x 5 stack Lava Lash, increasing damage but more importantly, reducing the chances that the oozes will hit the boss. Don’t bother Flameshocking the ooze unless you intend to cleave the FS onto black phase adds- the Flameshock will never be able to tick its full duration, so better to use Earthshock. If you use Unleashed Flame, I recommend switching quickly to the boss to apply a Flameshock before switching back to the add, otherwise that Unleashed Flame cooldown is wasted.

[top]On Mana Void

Don’t bother re-dropping your totems if melee are ever called on to drop the void- it is generally in range of your totems already. While DPSing the boss, you can keep a second Flameshock up on the mana void when its required. Do not, however, Flameshock the orb when the melee are called on to DPS it- when this happens the orb will generally die very quickly, and Earthshock will do more total damage.

[top]AOE DPS

Enhancement Shaman provide a tremendous amount of damage on Yor’Sahj due to our recently buffed AOE. During attempts, 70k DPS (sustained) was not irregular, especially when there was more than one double black phase. When conditions are right, Enh will be your number one DPS contributors on this fight, and even when they are not Enh will still do extremely well. In order to provide the maximum amount of damage, you’ll want to apply the following glyphs:

[top]Prime: Flameshock

This glyph will bring your FS dot duration to nearly 30 seconds which adds a huge amount of damage when it comes time to AOE, especially on double-black phases when you are moving and AOEing at the same time. This glyph is a must for this encounter. Replace Windfury glyph as it accounts for the smallest damage gain versus other prime glyphs.

[top]Major: Fire Nova

Again, this glyph is a must have for this encounter. It increases the range of your Fire Nova by a few yards, which provides a huge damage boost on double-black phases when the adds will be spread out. Replace any major glyph but Lightning Shield.

[top]Major: Chain Lightning Glyph

This glyph will provide you more AOE damage as you will be casting CL during add phases instead of LB while adds are up. At the same time, using this glyph will consume a slot that you would have otherwise used for Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem (which provides a shield and will taunt an add). During progression wipes, it is probably wiser to use Stoneclaw, but as your healers become more comfortable you can move to this glyph to maximise DPS.

[top]Magma Totem

During add phases, you should be dropping Magma totem. As soon as the you see the first add spawning, drop it- is has a 1 min duration so you will only have to drop it again on double black phases. You want to drop it earlier rather than later as your GCDs becomes extremely valuable during add phases- you really don’t want to use a single one of them on a totem that you could have dropped earlier. Be sure to redrop Searing as soon as most adds are dead as Magma provides less total damage when less adds are up.

Edit: Some discussion in this thread has stressed the fact that magma totem being down means less DPS on the boss, which may not be ideal depending on the class make up you are bringing (you may have a heavily AOE burst stacked raid meaning that your magam would provide reduced utility). If your DPS is more useful on the boss than the adds, consider maintaining searing totem.

[top]AOE Rotation

[top]AOE while stationary (single black phase)

This can seem straightforward, but mastering this actually quite difficult. Follow these steps for maximum DPS:

1) When the water turns black, stop hitting Unleashed Flame and Lava Lash. You will need these to be off cooldown for when they are needed most. Don’t worry about lost DPS- you will make it up and then some.
2) Drop Magma Totem
3) As adds start coming to the boss, apply Flameshock to the boss
4) When 4 adds are on top of the boss, cleave the Flameshock using Lava Lash
5) Unleashed Flame
6) Fire Nova

At this point, you are going to want to use only one GCD in between your Fire Novas. Given the short cooldown of FN, you only have time for 2 GCDs in between Novas as any more than this will clip the Fire Nova cooldown by 0.5 seconds (or more). Given how much damage your Nova does versus other abilities, this 0.5 seconds is crucial. A general rotation would be something like:

1) Unleashed Flame
2) Fire Nova
3) Flame shock
4) Stormstrike
5) Wait
6) Fire Nova
7) Lava Lash
8) MW_5 Chain Lightning
9) Wait
10) Fire Nova
11) Flameshock
12) Unleashed Flame
13) Wait
14) Fire Nova

You may wish to burn your Maelstrom Wep procs with Chain Lightning during that phase as well, but this is very low priority as the damage is minimal. Note that Unleashed Flame is your highest, highest priority and must be used before a Nova every time. When there are only a few adds remaining (3 or less) you can settle back into a regular single target rotation and slip Nova in when you have a free GCD.

[top]AOE while moving (double black phase)

This is where Enh truly shines- no other class is capable of providing the same amount of AOE DPS while mobile, so your raid will be relying on you on here. The most important thing here is that you get a good, fresh set of Flameshocks up on the second wave of adds that spawn. To do this, take note of when the black water starts to bubble again, and refrain from re-casting lava lash or unleashed flame. Follow the same steps as above to get a good duration Flameshock onto your first 5 targets and then:

1) Start moving towards the ooze, casting fire Nova whenever it is off CD
2) Do not cast Flameshock or Lava Lash while moving. Keep casting Nova
3) Position yourself halfway between the water line and where the add spawns. Keep casting Nova
4) Flameshock the ooze and when it reaches you, Lava Lash it to spread a fresh set of dots. As most of the raid will be piled up on top of the ooze, you will get an excellent spread here.
5) Keep casting Nova as you DPS the ooze and move towards the boss
6) Some of the adds will likely still be alive at this time. Flameshock and LL cleave off the boss to get a new spread
7) Continue to Nova until adds are dead.

This all sounds like a lot, but it’s really about timing your lava last to get a good spread before you start moving, and then a good spread off the ooze. If you get these right (and remember to Nova on CD) your AOE will be excellent during this phase.

[top]Survivability

[top]A note on add damage

It’s important to note that the adds do have an agro table (of sorts). They will hit whoever is hitting them hardest, but will also switch to a random player at random intervals. This has the effect of making it look like the adds ‘fixate at random’ but really, they are just hitting random people in between moments when they are hitting whoever is highest on their threat table. You will notice that during a single black phase your mages, warriors, druids and hunters getting hit hard as these are classes with powerful burst AOE DPS while stationary. You will rarely pull agro here. At the same time, you will notice that during double black phases (when you are moving) you will be getting hit very hard as you will be doing more AOE dmg to the adds than anyone else. There isn’t really any need to pop CDs or anything here as your healers will be able to heal you at this point (no purple debuff active). Just brief your healers about how this works and make sure one of them is focusing on you during a double black runs.

[top]Set up

Raid damage is extremely high during this encounter, so depending on the capacity of your healers you may want to make some appropriate talent and glyph choices:

[top]Talents

[top]Elemental Warding

You may wish to consider this as all the damage you are taking is magic. With this, the extra 12% reduction will make a significant difference on the tricker healing combinations. Do not sacrifice Call of Flame to get this, however. It is too much of a nerf.

[top]Toughness

Extra HP is okay, but not ideal. If you must you could sacrifice the points you point into Lightning Shield.

[top]Glyphs

[top]Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem

Casting Stoneclaw will provide you with a 16k (?) damage absorption shield which (iirc) will not proc a purple healing debuff, making it safe to use at any time. Given the low cooldown of this totem, and the low cost of getting the Glyph (you only sacrifice Glyph of Chain Lightning, which a very small DPS gain) it is recommended.

[top]Cooldowns

A vast majority of the phases in this encounter will see you taking extreme amounts of raid damage and receiving minimal healing. As such, helping your healers out is very important:

[top]Shamanistic Rage

This is your most powerful defensive cooldown and should be used every phase (given its 1 min cooldown). In general, it’s better to use this earlier in phases rather than later as its better to avoid damage early on (healers cannot heal you properly and want to put off healing you for as much as possible during this phase. I tended to pop it at the first tick of raid damage on every phase, be that from adds or boss AOE.

[top]Stoneclaw Totem

Same as above in terms of use- use it early. You probably won’t need to pop this on every phase- just those with the maximum amount of AOE damage (such as red/black/purple).

[top]Utility

Lust/hero is a defensive cooldown for this encounter. Healers need it to keep you alive on high raid damage + adds combos. When you use it will depend on how your raid chooses to approach the encounter, but like I said- it’s really a cooldown for healers more than anything else.

[top]Other

Recount (and pretty much all damage meters) will often destroy your FPS during this encounter unless you are sporting a pretty beefy rig. Probably best to turn them off.

Tidyplates is an excellent mod for tracking which targets are currently affected by Flameshock. You simply mouseover them to see. Very strongly recommend this mod for this fight.

[top]Videos

Heroic 25man kill by Vespasian: Suit Up vs Heroic 25 Yor'Sahj the Unsleeping (Enh Shaman POV) - YouTube

[top]Logs

Still to come

[top]Hagara the Binder

This can be a fairly technical fight from a both a DPS and survivability perspective, so proper preparation/execution is important.

[top]DPS

[top]DPS on boss

[top]Boss kiting

At random intervals, Hagara will start smashing your tanks for a lot of damage. Tanks cheese this mechanic by taunting off each other or simply running away from Hagara, putting tanks beyond the range of these attacks. The net effect of this for you as a melee DPS, is that you are constantly running to keep up with the boss as she is constantly moving out of your melee range. Try to compensate for this by being as close to her hitbox as possible and paying very close attention to when she is using her focused strikes ability- this is when you will have to be ready to move. Further, get a feel for the way your tanks are handling this mechanic (and the time left until the next ice/lightning phase) so that you can make educated decisions about re-dropping your totems. Given that the boss moves so often, redropping your totems every time the boss moves isn’t ideal. Keep an eye on your totem’s range, and on the likelihood that the boss will move again before wasting another GCD on re-dropping. Of course, be sure to prioritize your Shocks and Unleased Elements while moving.

[top]DPS on Ice Tombs

Enh provides a fair amount of DPS here, so long as you set things up correctly. When tombs are incoming, try to refrain from using Lava Lash or Unleased Flame as you will need these off cooldown. Try to encourage your tanks to keep Hagara near the tombs as they are just about to form- this will allow you to cleave your Unleased-buffed Flameshock from the boss onto the tombs (you should have one with around 20 second duration on it if you are using Glyph of Flame Shock [which you should be- more on that later]). When the tombs are out, go into an aoe rotation that priorities Unleased Elements and Fire Nova (for more on this, see the AOE section of the Yor’Sahj section above). Given that there are only 5 tombs and that they die very quickly, Magma Totem is not recommend unless Hagara is being tanked away from the tombs. You can also use Glyph of Chain Lightning here, but doing so would remove Glyph Stoneclaw, which really isn’t ideal given how useful Stoneclaw is during Lightning phase/soaking Ice Lances (more on that below)

[top]DPS on Floating Ice Stones

[top]Glyph of Flameshock

Even with excellent DPS on the stones, your raid is still very likely going to do a few laps of the Eye before all the stones are down. Using Glyph of Flameshock will add small amount of DPS here, as it will be possible to get a Flameshock rolling all 4 stones at once. Given that this is the most high-risk phase in the encounter, this extra DPS is valuable.

[top]Dropping Searing Totem

As soon as an Ice Storm phases commences you should be on top of one of the floating stones to begin DPSing it. Make sure Searing Totem is down, and be sure to keep it there until you are at your next stone. Totems are immune to the Ice Cutters and will provide a small amount of DPS while you move around.

[top]Spiritwalker’s Grace

Often forgotten by Enh shaman, this spell allows you to cast while moving for a small window of time. It provides a very small DPS increase during the Ice Storm phase as you can squeeze in Flameshock > Unleashed Flame > Lava Burst > Lightning Bolt as you run between one of the stones. As I said, small DPS gain, but worth using nonetheless.

[top]Glyph of Ghostwolf

This Glyph will provide you with a tiny amount of runspeed, getting you to the stones quicker. As stated earlier, the net effect is so small that it’s really a matter of personal preference. This Glyph can provide some survivability benefit however (discussed below).

[top]DPS on lightning add

Nothing special here except to say that you shouldn’t be using Flameshock on this add- it will almost always die too quickly for its DPS value to be greater than Earthshock.

[top]Survivability

[top]Soaking Ice Lances

We can do this fairly well when required. Using Glyph of Stoneclaw totem is probably ideal for this component as its cheap and you really want Shamanistic Rage to be off cooldown for the lightning phase. If Lightning phase is more than a minute away, feel free to use Shamanistic Rage to help healers. Dropping Grounding Totem will soak I stack of Ice Lance.

[top]Soaking lightning phase

This is pretty simple. Stand in your assigned position and use Shamanistic Rage/Stoneclaw totem to mitigate, and spam heal yourself since you won’t be able to DPS anything. Keep Healing Stream totem down to provide passive healing and buff resistances (you should be using the minor glyph).

[top]Avoiding ice cutters

Here, the boss debuffs the runspeed of random players increasing the chance that they will be hit by ice cutters. This debuff can be dispelled but leaves a frost patch on the ground, slowing other players. Raids handle this mechanic by getting people with the debuff to run to the outside edge before dispelling them, leaving the inside track frost patch free. Note that Ghostwolf removes the runspeed debuff from you (you are shapeshifting out of it), and also drops a frost patch on the ground. Given our speed while in Ghostwolf form, we really should be aiming to run on the outside track the entire time during this phase, so that we can instantly shapeshift out of a debuff without any delay.

[top]Utility

[top]Glyph of healing stream

This Glyph will provide a resistance buff to you and your raid, which can be extremely useful when players are spread out and auras/other totems are out of range. This glyph is a must for this encounter.

[top]Lust/Hero during weak phase, sub 20% where possible

Note that Hagara takes increased damage after one of her ice/lightning phases end. Be sure to lust during this time, ideally when Hagara is sub 20% health (execute range).

[top]Other

None

[top]Videos

Heroic 25man kill by Vespasian: Suit Up vs Heroic 25man Hagara the Binder (Enh Shaman POV) - YouTube

[top]Logs

Heroic 25man kill by Sixthy: http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/5...?s=6710&e=7172

[top]Ultraxion

Updated 12/12/11

[top]DPS

This fight is entirely about DPS, and as Enh your single target is rarely going to be as competitive as a mage/warrior, but can compete against a majority of other classes (all things being equal). When aiming to meet the DPS requirement for this fight, there are a few things you should consider:

[top]Enh's straight line dps curve

Often, in WoW, we talk about DPS as the be all and end all. This isn't perhaps as accurate as it could be. Actual damage done (not damage per second) is often more important, and the distinction is very important for Ultraxion. As you are learning the fight (and wiping), you will notice that other classes (pretty much all of them in fact) will be doing substantially more DPS/dmg than you for the first 4 minutes of the fight. Don't be discouraged by this, as it relates to two things:

1) We derive very little benefit from bloodlust: haste is pretty garbage for us, where it can be absolutely amazing for classes that derive resource generation benefit from it (like rogues, hunters, DKs and especially warriors). Essentially, lust is a much better buff for them than it is for us, so if you are casting lust on the pull (which you should be doing) then you will be lagging far behind for about the first 4 mins of the fight.
2) We don't have large scale cooldowns: Compared to the DPS gains provided by Recklessness/Paladin AD and a host of other cooldowns our Spirit Wolves provide a very small amount of damage. This balances out in the long run though, as we can generally cast our wolves more often. The effect of these cooldowns becomes greatly skewed, however, when other classes can use these cooldowns at the beginning of a fight when they are both pre-potted and they have lust. The multiplicative affect of these effects is massive, which is why you will see Warriors doing 70k DPS at the start of the fight while you are struggling to hit 40k.

At the beginning of the fight, your DPS will be massively behind others, but by the end of the fight your total damage done will be far more similar. Where other classes start on massively high DPS/dmg done and then slowly come back down over time, we basically maintain a very similar/constant amount of DPS throughout the fight. Problematically this means that Enh will look like its doing terrible DPS when really, it's simply a case of the other classes looking 'inflated'. You raid really needs to get to the 5 min mark before it can make an accurate assessment of DPS, and at that time you will find that your damage is in line with most classes bar Mages and Warriors (who are simply unstoppable on this encounter).

[top]Rotation

Your rotation needs to be perfect if you are going to compete with other classes. Be sure to study the most up-to-date version of the Best in Slot list (currently http://elitistjerks.com/f79/t113391-...on_4_2_onward/) for your gear, gems, reforges, enchants, talents and, most importantly, priority options. I would also recommend downloading a priority management mod such as the excellent Shock & Awe (by Levva: ShockAndAwe - Buffs & Debuffs - World of Warcraft Addons - Curse).

[top]Soaking an Hour of Twilight

It is possible for us to do this (see below in the Survivability section) and doing so is a DPS gain as you don't have lost DPS time while faded. Try to soak as many as your healers' cooldowns will allow for.

[top]Lusting/Heroing your Spirit Wolves

Your dogs derive benefit from your lust/hero, resulting in a DPS gain for you. Given that you will cast hero twice during the encounter (more on that in the Utility section below), ensure that your dogs derive benefit from them both (timing the first set of dogs is easy, but timing the second will require communication with the other person doing the lust/hero.

[top]Pre-potting

Everyone knows this, but for those who don't I'll just put this in: it's possible to use an agi pot a few seconds before a boss is pulled, allowing you to derive the benefit of the pot and be able to use another pot during the encounter itself. The fact that you used it a few seconds before you engaged (while out of combat) simply puts the pot on a 1 min cooldown, rather then stopping you from using another. Obviously this is a good idea for a fight like Ultraxion.

[top]Timing your Heroic Will

A gigantic amount of DPS can be gained by become an expert on casting Heroic Will (hitting the button that makes you fade). I strongly, strongly recommend macroing the ability:

/click ExtraActionBar1

and binding it to a key so that you don't have to manually click the button. This makes a huge difference in terms of your ability to react quickly as his Twilight Hour cast is significantly shorter on heroic (3 sec) and Fading Light debuff can be as short as 3 seconds.

Further, you need to hit this button as close to the 0 second mark as possible- ever split second you are faded is time spent not DPSing. Try to cut it as close as you can while still being comfortable with whatever latency you are on.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, note that after you fade out there is still a 1-1.5 sec window when you cannot use any abilities. This extra dead time will strongly influence your rotation/priority, so remember to be flexible when coming out of Twlight and always ask: what's the next best move that's going to be off cooldown the moment I am able to use my abilities again?

[top]Survivability

While damage in this fight is extremely intensive toward the end, sacrificing DPS for survival is a very fraught choice. At present the fight is extremely finely tuned, and maximum DPS output is required from all players if you are to beat the enrage. As such, I would recommend against talent choices like Elemental Warding and Toughness- they will simply be too 'expensive' in the context of what this fight really needs: massive DPS. Still, there are some things you can do to assist your healers:

[top]Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem

This Glphy is a must for this fight. Replace anything but Lightning Shield to get it. As for its use, there are 2 times that you want to be using it:

1) Soaking a Twilight Hour (more on this later)
2) Sub 20%: you really want to be using it on cooldown here as your healers will need all the help they can (practically) get.

[top]Shamanistic Rage

This cooldown is quite useful, but it's long cooldown means it should only really need to be used twice:

1) Soaking a Twilight Hour (more on this later)
2) Sub 10%: The damage you will be taking here is insane, so you have to try to help your healers however you can. Given that you can only use this CD once in the sub 20% window, you will want to use it sub 10% as its likely people will be dying and the damage per player will be ramping up.

[top]Healing stream totem

It's a very small amount of healing, but anything is better than nothing. Be sure to keep it down during the encounter.

[top]Soaking an Hour of Twilight

It is possible for us to soak these, but to do so we need a barrier over our heads and we need to pop Shamanistic Rage. I also recommend dropping Stoneclaw just to keep your health out of the danger zone. As referenced above, this is a DPS gain.

[top]Utility

There are some important things to note here about how the buffs you provide to the raid are affected by the encounter's mechanics:

[top]Bloodlust

When you cast lust, it will only affect those in the same realm as you. As such, it's possible for your healers to fade out a second or two before you cast lust at the start of the fight so that they miss it, and for another shaman/mage to cast it again at 20% so that your healers are lusted for when they need it. In this way, you maximise the utility of lust for DPS (where it's better at the beginning as it lines up with pots/big cooldowns) and for your healers (where its required to heal the insane damage being thrown at the time).

[top]Your totems fade with you

Note that when you fade, so do your totems. This affects your own DPS (no searing being stacked on the boss) but more importantly it affects the raid's DPS as they lose WF/Str if you are the only person providing these buffs. If you run 10man, this could be a problem, but if you run 25man it could be disastrous. Be sure to make your raid aware of this and make arrangements for back-up buffs where practical.

[top]Other

[top]Tracking your Fading Light Debuff

The biggest thing that will wipe you in this encounter is people not seeing the proper duration of the Fading Light debuff and clicking it too late (clicking it too early is also a problem, as it costs your raid DPS). Dead people = not hitting the enrage timer = boom. Fading Light has a variable duration on Heroic of between 9 and 3 seconds, so you need to be able to see it quickly and react to it. I would strongly recommend a buff mod (such as SatrinaBuffFrame - Buffs & Debuffs - World of Warcraft Addons - Curse) that allows you to position debuffs in the centre of your screen for quick visibility (for a demonstration, see the video below).

[top]Videos

Heroic 25man kill by Vespazian: theralphmalf's Channel - YouTube

[top]Logs

Still to come

[top]Warmaster Blackhorn

[top]DPS

===Survivability===

[top]Utility

===Other===

[top]Videos

===Logs===

[top]The Spine of Deathwing

[top]DPS

===Survivability===

[top]Utility

===Other===

[top]Videos

===Logs===

[top]The Madness of Deathwing

[top]DPS

===Survivability===

[top]Utility

===Other===

[top]Videos

===Logs===

12-10-11: Updated with video for Yor'Sahj kill.
12-12-11: Updated with Ultraxion information (including video).
12-16-11: Add Morchok section.
12-20-11: Added notes on Magma vs Searing for Yor'Sahj
12-20-11: Added note on equiping a shield to soak Morchok stomps

Thank you for taking the time to write this, very nice read.

Regarding Yor'Sahj I have a few tricks I'd like to share and hear your opinions on:

-Dropping fire elemental totem around 20 yards from the boss when running to the newly spawned globule (if you drop it at his feet you risk it despawning because of range), since the globule simply dies too fast for searing totem to be worthwhile.

-At the end of black phase, when new globules spawn but adds are still up, I cast SWG and fit in chain lightnings in between nova cooldowns while running. So the spell sequence becomes something like: Nova, CL, stormstrike, Nova, CL, FS, Nova.

The following tips come from my experience with Normal Dragon Soul. Much of this should be applicable to Heroic Modes too.

Warmaster Blackhorn:

We have a variety of options when dealing with the sappers such as:

Drop an earthbind totem before he spawns to cover the area where he unstealths. Totemic Reach is an option here too.
Use Frost Shock. Its even better with the Frozen Power talent.
Swap to a Frost Brand imbued weapon and Unleash it after applying a Frost Shock to get the 70% snare.
Feral Spirit, Bash ability to stun the sapper.
Feral Spirit, Spirit Walk (sprint) to close the distance to the sapper more quickly.
Saving a recently gained MW5 proc to use on the sapper as you close in on him. Spirit Walkers Grace serves a similar function.

What you chose to use depends a lot on your composition, raid size and particular situation.

Madness:
Since we don't scale well at all with haste, we need to make sure that we deserve a spot on the fight, so I really focus on maximizing our usefulness on this fight.
Phase 1, chain lightning can be used to hit multiple blistering tentacles that spawn from Death Wing's limbs even though they are immune to aoe damage. Glyphed chain lightning is good to have for killing the regenerative bloods that spawn since it will increase the chance to proc spellweaving when available. For more damage on the elementium bolts, make sure that you have your ablities off of cool-down when its time to dps the bolt. In addition, its also good to save a recent MW5 proc to use on it as soon as you can target it and use a macro like '/tar elementium bolt'. Don't hold back on using healing rains when the raid is stacked up and taking damage, especially in phase 2.

Generic:
With 2pT13 we also gain a 20% bonus to our healing spells. Just about every fight in Dragon Soul has parts where the raid is stacked up. In situations where dps loss can be traded for increased survivability throwing out some healing rains can be very beneficial.

Another trade in dps for survivability comes with using Feral Spirits as a defensive cooldown by way of their healing when they do damage. I'll sometimes do this for periods of anticipated moderate to high sustained damage like on Zon'ozz when he eats the orb, Yor'Sahj when he consumes oozes(not sure if this is a bad idea for purple oozes yet) and Madness when you are letting an elementium bolt land (Spirit Walk is great here too).

Edit: typo

Do you have any background on your choice to use UE for FN instead of FS?

My understanding up to now was that until you had FSes rolling from at least 2+ cleaves you were better using UE for FS since the cleaved FSes get the UE bonus. Having not done the HM fight I'm sure there's a rationale I'm missing.

I play on normal, not HC. What do you mean when you say "double black phase"? Is this just black adds being out while the next oozes spawn?

Yep, pretty much. Anytime a Black ooze and a yellow ooze hits the boss you will get 2 sets of adds, the second set of which would likely be still up as you are trying to DPS down the next ooze.

Apologies if the language/explanations can be a little on the short side- I wanted to avoid detailing the boss mechanics themselves and focus more on how we interact with them as Enh Shaman.

Both good suggestions that I will incorporate in my next sweep (indeed, I think these things could be applied to a few bosses).

For Heroic Hagara, using ghost wolf is an excellent way to deal with the movement reduction debuff since you can't go below 100% run speed. Also having totems up near each frozen crystal thing helps to maintain dps on it. Lastly having healing stream glyph is excellent to help reduction both the frost and nature damage for your raid.

Certainly magma is required during double black: we need to get them down ASAP. Even for single black, I think it’s always our responsibility to get those black adds down ASAP. Many other classes do not have the same potential that we do to get them down, so any time/abilities we spend on the boss is extra time that other aoe classes (who may be less efficient than us at getting the job done) have to spend aoeing to pick up the slack. Yes, we could push more boss DPS on boss, but it comes at cost that others need to pay, so I don’t think it’s a net benefit for the raid.

Interested to hear other opinions on the subject if people have different thoughts.

I truly believe that it depends on your raid setup. We have tried it for an hour last night (25 man) just to see how the fight plays out.
We run double arms warriors, 1 enhance (me), 3 Fire mages, 3 Sp's , 2 boomkins, 1 DK, 3 hunters.
(I have only listed the main aoe'rs).

The adds die extremely fast when we don't really focus on it even, without gimping too much dps on the boss.
I've tried both ways (magma and searing) , it's about a 7-8k dps difference, but about 8% dps gain on the boss himself, so it really depends on how you're handling the enrage timer / setup.

I rarely used magma during progression on this boss. My perspective is that focusing on AoE above boss DPS is only worth it for a double black phase, or if your raid group is generally lacking AoE. As the previous poster said, one of the strengths of Enhancement on this fight is our ability to maintain almost optimal boss DPS while still providing significant add damage. My feeling is that by simply regularly spreading FS and using Nova on CD, we can do plenty of add damage and easily clean up each single black wave before the phase ends, allowing other specs that lose more boss damage when AoEing to switch back to the boss faster while we gradually finish remaining adds.

On a double black phase the priority is heavy AoE of course, especially during the second set of adds since you're on a short timer to kill them before everyone needs to prioritise the next ooze.

All of this is specific to a situation where your raid group is having trouble with the enrage timer overall, so it may not apply post-nerf. If you're comfortably ahead on boss DPS then chances are everyone will simply be racing to kill the adds as fast as possible, but if the enrage timer is a major issue I think it makes sense to have everyone switch and AoE hard for a couple of GCDs and then get back on the boss while classes capable of finishing the adds off without losing much boss damage gradually take them down, which is definitely a job to which Enhancement is well suited.

I have to agree with Asuul, if you can kill the adds faster the classes with horribad AoE DPS can get back to the boss and kill it faster. Which is why you drop Magma Totem unless your group kills the adds ungodly fast enough to where keeping Searing Totem up would be more beneficial.