Dragon Soul 10 man help.

[Pandragon]

I'm looking for some real help here. The guild I am in, is ranked number 4 on my realm. I'm tanking for the second raid group that doesn't preform as well as raid 1 can, but everyone does have the potential.

My raid group has been working on Madness for 2 weeks now. We can blow through 7/8 with just a little difficulty.

Our set up:

Tanks:
DK: Blood/Frost(Me)
War: Prot/Fury

Healers:
Druid: Resto/Feral Tank
Priest: Disc/Shadow
Paladin: Holy/Ret

DPS:
Hunter: Surv
Rogue: Combat
Mage: Fire
Shaman: Ele
Druid: Balance

I know what the group can do, but I don't think we are maxing on things like we should.

Are there any specs that should be changed for MS or OS?
For healers, who would be better healing Madness?

I am the one who has been solo tanking Madness. If you need any more info just ask. Offer anything you can for help.

[Baini]

In what order do you do the tentacles? Also, is it cataclysm that wipes you or is it before? Anything you can see is a small problem, say bloods/blistering tentacles etc.

[Pandragon]

In what order do you do the tentacles? Also, is it cataclysm that wipes you or is it before? Anything you can see is a small problem, say bloods/blistering tentacles etc.

If by tentacles you mean platforms. We do Green>Red>Yellow>Blue. We end up having to lust on the blue platform to beat out the Elementium Bolt, which I think might be hurting us when we go into phase 2.

[Sayrah]

Aura Mastery and Barrier on the blue platform to mitigate the impact damage of the bolt, then just nuke it down.

[Baini]

Aura Mastery and Barrier on the blue platform to mitigate the impact damage of the bolt, then just nuke it down.

Indeed, also staying as far away as possible from the impact point is advisable, since then the bolt does less damage.

[Pandragon]

As for myself. AntiShell and Icebound should get me through the Bolts impact also correct?

[Baini]

The bolt do fire damage, so it should work. Also having the rogue use cloak/feint when the bolt is incoming might help the healers not having to heal another target for a big amount.

[Pandragon]

Yeah I do that on my rogue alt. I cloak and wait for the bolt to land in it's spot to start early dps.

How should we handle the 2 adds that spawn during phase 2 that I have to tank? I tend to die just as they do, even when I use my cds.

[Jurwi]

If by tentacles you mean platforms. We do Green>Red>Yellow>Blue. We end up having to lust on the blue platform to beat out the Elementium Bolt, which I think might be hurting us when we go into phase 2.

If you have DPS issues, you should not under any circumstances waste lust on platforms. You're gonna need it to burn DW's face down.

[Baini]

As I'm myself stuck on the last tentacle together with my guild I can't really say for sure, but you are tanking them in the timezone? Also, if you are solo tanking it I believe the debuffs stacks as 1, and not 1 per mob.

[Pandragon]

It's not so much dps issues. It's the raid leader is scared to death if we don't burn that tentacle down before the bolt lands I'll die.

---------- Post added 2011-12-19 at 11:31 AM ----------

As I'm myself stuck on the last tentacle together with my guild I can't really say for sure, but you are tanking them in the timezone? Also, if you are solo tanking it I believe the debuffs stacks as 1, and not 1 per mob.

Yes I pull them into the timezone.

[Dorfie]

Raid combo is fine. We do 5 DPS and we kill the Yellow platform first meaning we have to heal through 3 bolts. It tickles with proper raid cooldown usage. You've got barrier + aura mastery + 2 tranqs and if you didn't give your Blood DK 4 set straight away I question your mental stability. Basically - run away from bolt > pop CDs > win.

Also we always get our bolt while tentacle is up and the tank is fine.

[Pandragon]

Raid combo is fine. We do 5 DPS and we kill the Yellow platform first meaning we have to heal through 3 bolts. It tickles with proper raid cooldown usage. You've got barrier + aura mastery + 2 tranqs and if you didn't give your Blood DK 4 set straight away I question your mental stability. Basically - run away from bolt > pop CDs > win.

Also we always get our bolt while tentacle is up and the tank is fine.

OMG Thank you! I told the RL I needed my 4 set, but he gave the pieces to other ppl who "needed" an upgrade. Like the mage dropping a 378 spirit helm. I do have 3 pieces though. Hopefully this next week Ill have my 4 set.

So theres no reason for us to be lusting on the last platform. Basically the problem we are having is the usage of cds.

[Fulmetal]

If by tentacles you mean platforms. We do Green>Red>Yellow>Blue. We end up having to lust on the blue platform to beat out the Elementium Bolt, which I think might be hurting us when we go into phase 2.

we just downed him last night ourselves... we did the platforms in the same order. we did not use lust on the bolt, but rather on the "hand" to help dps down the blistering tentacles and beat the cataclysm timer.

to survive the bolt make sure your members use any immune to damage cd's... ice block for mage, talented deterance for hunter, pally bubble etc...

we tried with a similar dps setup, however we had to bench our boomkin and hunter. ended up with:

fire mage
shadow priest
demo lock
enhancement shaman
rogue - whatever it is that rogues do (poke stuff i think)

the idea was to make as much synergy for the group as possilbe and having as many (if not all) of the buffs and debuffs.

the demo lock brings most of them, DI, 10% sp which helps the casters and the enhancement shammy, 5% crit debuff with shadowbolt, and i think the spell damage taken debuff too (ill have to check) the shaman helps the rogue with totems. had a bear tank for the 5% crit. our hunter and boomkin were the weakest links when it comes to dps on this fight and we wanted him dead, sadly benching them was required. we needed this because we lacked dps to get onto DW head without using hero/lust on the 4th platform, and so really needed high dps to finish the fight before the healers couldnt keep us up anymore.

so make sure eveyone survives the bolt and everyone help the healers as much as possible with any defensive cd's you have (also /pray that the tenticle, if still up, doesnt smack someone down) and pop hero/lust when the first blistering tentacles spawn. that was the trick with our group that resulted in a kill.

good luck

edit: as others have mentioned, the 4 set tank bonuses help a lot, especially the DK

[Deleted]

You can lust on the last limb or on DW himself, just make sure you don't use raid CDs and Hero simultaneously. Use some on last limb, some on DW's chin.

If you're slow on the last tentacle you might end up dieing to a 2nd implae, but that's what BRez is for .

[Deleted]

The thing about madness is you can do it in virtually any setup. 2 tanks 3 heals; 2 tanks 2 heals; 1 tank 2 heals. It just comes down to what your raid performs best at.
For my raidteam we've killed it with 2 tanks 3 heals and the same platform rotation you guys do: green>red>yellow>blue. No need to lust on the last platform at all, you're gonna need it on his head.
If your worried about cataclysm on the last platform, ask your disc to start smiting/holy fire and set up a raidwall rotation

[Dorfie]

OMG Thank you! I told the RL I needed my 4 set, but he gave the pieces to other ppl who "needed" an upgrade. Like the mage dropping a 378 spirit helm. I do have 3 pieces though. Hopefully this next week Ill have my 4 set.

So theres no reason for us to be lusting on the last platform. Basically the problem we are having is the usage of cds.

Haha. We powered our druid tank the 4 set and it's amazing. Gives the raid like 30k HP and 30% healing taken for 20 seconds.

[Pandragon]

You can lust on the last limb or on DW himself, just make sure you don't use raid CDs and Hero simultaneously. Use some on last limb, some on DW's chin.

If you're slow on the last tentacle you might end up dieing to a 2nd implae, but that's what BRez is for .

2 Impales dont kill me. I build up a large blood shield, have hand of sac used on me, unglyphed vamp blood, and my Hyjal Rep trink

The thing about madness is you can do it in virtually any setup. 2 tanks 3 heals; 2 tanks 2 heals; 1 tank 2 heals. It just comes down to what your raid performs best at.
For my raidteam we've killed it with 2 tanks 3 heals and the same platform rotation you guys do: green>red>yellow>blue. No need to lust on the last platform at all, you're gonna need it on his head.
If your worried about cataclysm on the last platform, ask your disc to start smiting/holy fire and set up a raidwall rotation

It's not cataclysm the raid leader is worried about. He uses lust on the last impaling tentacle cause he doesnt think I can survive the tentacles melee swings, and the bolt landing.

[Deleted]

Pretty much the first 3 platforms in that order are very easy, so I will go over the 4th (blue).

We put down a marking around where the Wing Tentacle will come down, this is our hug point for the bolt.
So business as usual until the bolt comes down - put a barrier on the mark and EVERYONE (except the tank and your pala healer) go to the mark. Barrier and nuke the bolt. Remember, make a macro and get your ranged DPS to target it before its in range, you can get off 1-3 dots before its even landed if you are quick enough and it just adds to the speed of getting it down. Have your paladin bubble the bolt and keep spamming the tank.

You should not need more than the Barrier and Bubble on the bolt, you have to save your CDs for P2. With the other 8 people hugged up and with your healing setup the barrier should keep people alive.

Now, once the bolt is down and everyone is alive, you should start getting your timing right on spawns for the 4th platform. Get the tentacle to 75% and then stop DPS. Hemorage should happen and you don't want both at the same time (hemo = timed, Blistering = % based). Clear up the adds then take the boss down to 70%. Do not use herosim, just micro assign for the tentacles, get the lower ones (and nearer ones) killed by melee and the outside ones taken by ranged.
Remember though, you take more damage if you have 8 alive on 50%, than 4 alive on 100%. Assign melee to the middle, ranged to the left - then get them to switch to the right once those are dead. That way the melee doesn't have to move very far and they die quicker.
Then repeat the same at 40%. Remember, try not to use any more cooldowns - it doesn't matter if people are low on HP going into P2, aslong as they don't die. If you have passed the second blistering with 100% people alive, then its an easy kill.

P2 - Nuke the boss, save heroism for now.
Kill the adds nice and fast, once the adds are dead get the boss to 12% and stop DPS.
Wait for the 2nd adds to spawn, kill the tentacles and then heroism on the big adds. Use up the rest of the heroism (probably 25 seconds) on the boss and hug up on melee. Start rotating cooldowns at 6-7% onward and you shouldn't get a 3rd spawn of adds.

Hope this helps.

---------- Post added 2011-12-19 at 01:39 PM ----------

Haha. We powered our druid tank the 4 set and it's amazing. Gives the raid like 30k HP and 30% healing taken for 20 seconds.

This too, use the 4 set as the bolt lands - its amazing.

[darkwarrior42]

Our guild's strategy for handling the elementium terrors worked very well for us, but it requires 2 tanks, and ideally at least one is a pally. In our case, we actually had 2 pally tanks, me and the GM.
-Terrors spawn
-GM picks up both, tanks until he has 4-5 stacks of tetanus (about as high as our healers could safely handle; more risked tank death)
-I hit righteous defense, taunt both onto myself. By the time I'm up to 4-5 stacks, the GM's debuff has fallen off, so he hits me with righteous defense.
-Repeat until adds die.

However, I'm not sure that strategy of bouncing the adds back and forth between the tanks, letting the debuff fall off, works without at least one pally tank. You need a lot of taunts to make it work; possibly have the warrior pick them up first, then use DG + Dark Command to individually taunt both off? That would get the job done, though if you don't take down at least one before the warrior has to pick them up again you might have issues.

*shrug* just throwing out what we did to handle those adds, everything else I might say was already mentioned. Best of luck to you