Yet another HC Will spark soak question

[Navoan]

Hey guys, we have had no trouble on this until last week (we dropped our s.priest and now use a DK). In our 10-man roster we have:

Tanks: Guardian Druid, Prot Pally.
Healers: Resto Druid, Disc(or Holy) Priest.
DPS: Arc Mage, Aff Lock, Ret Pally (can go prot), Surv Hunter, Frost DK and an Ele Shaman.

So far for spark soaking we have been doing:

Strength sparks: Warlock with teleport
Courage sparks: Mage with blink
Rage sparks (2 everytime): Hunter with deterance (1min CD talented) then resto druid with deterance (sybiosis, 2min CD) and S.Priest with dispersion (2min CD).

So for rages we have been doing Hunter -> Resto -> Hunter -> Priest -> repeat.


The problem for us is now without the S.Priest we're having major difficulties soaking the 2 rage sparks the priest used to take (every 4th set). We have tried CCing and killing the Rages when 4 are alive but they end up just going all over the place even when rooted/slowed (ice trap)/stunned etc. There is usually always at least 1-2 escaping regardless. Yeah we use gorfiend's grasp too but it is always used too early because adds are spreading out too much, and yeah I've tried getting people to stand together and such but with the ret tanking the strengths and warlock/mage out to soak at times etc it never seems to work.

My question: If we used a rotation of Hunter -> Resto -> Hunter -> using 2 DPS to soak individual sparks from the 2 rages -> repeat

What DPS would we use for that? Due to bad timing we can never have a Hand of Sacrifice from the ret pally as he's tanking the strength when the DPS need to soak. We had our DK trying but for some reason he was dying, is AMS+IBF enough for him to survive one spark? Our lock is sometimes busy with the strength spark so can't always rely on it to take the 2nd rage spark with his other CDs.

Alternatively I've seen many saying a 3 tank tactic works. We have the opportunity of either the Ret pally or the Frost DK switching to a tank spec. But would they be able to handle 2 sparks in very quick succession? Alternatively to that, would the lock reliably be able to take 2 sparks close together with Dark Bargain etc and still be healable afterwards, if say, the DK went blood and took care of the strength sparks?


I guess we could have the resto druid also getting displacer beast but it's major downtime from healing tanks if they have to take two sets of adds (one with deterance and one with displacer beast).

Suggestions guys? And I really appreciate it.

[Relapses]

We killed this earlier tonight. Having one of our melee DPS swap to his Blood DK helped smooth over the bumps quite well as it basically gives you a security blanket for people missing sparks or adds getting out of control. WotE is not a DPS fight so you should be fine. As long as your tanks are wearing their dancing shoes, it's basically just an endurance test.

[Navoan]

Just trying to figure out the best way / people for soaking the two rage sparks tbh.

Would a blood DK with CDs be able to take 2 sparks at the same time (still in DPS gear).

IBF (50%), AMS, blood shield stacked a bit (from killing the rages), bone shield, maybe a shield from our Priest. Ironbark could be used but would rather save it for tanks. Can use a PS on him if he would need it but I believe the CDs would be back up within 2 mins.

[Riemu2k3]

Blood DK with IBF + AMS can soak 2 Sparks without hardly any damage. I soak the first 2 sparks as Blood with Boneshield + IBF + AMS and dont even drop <50%.

Its possible to soak 2 Sparks with only Boneshield + AMS. But the DK needs abit of healing in between. Not much, but still enough so he can't kill 2 at the same time without IBF. Its 750k / Sparks, before any dmg reduction. Blood DK has like 650k HP approx. You can gylph IBF down to 90 Secs though if you need it in combination with AMS glyph. Use Vampiric Blood + IBF for the first and Vampiric Blood + AMS for the second.

Your have Purgatory as a safety net. So if you die for some reason (AMS dropping to soon etc.), you can still survive it with Healthstone / Heal / Lay on Hands. Works for Frost Dk too.

Blood DK + DPS Gear is fine too. Just use Stam Food / Stam Flask and you will be golden. You can even use Frost DPS DK with stam food/flask and Blood Presence + Ironbark + IBF + AMS to soak two sparks. If for some reasons shit goes south, you always have purgatory.

[Navoan]

Constructive post Riemu, cheers alleviates my concerns!