1. #1

    [Heroic] Spirit Kings Tanking Tips?

    Hey there. My crew has been working pretty hard on Heroic Spirit Kings the last few nights. Most of us are only 2/16H, but the RL / Officers are 5/16H, so here we are. It hasn't been going very well at all, and of course it's the first transition that's causing us issue. We've had to remove a couple of people for constantly failing to Annihilation and Volley, both mechanics from Normal mode that should not be holding us back.

    Here's my issue though: Being the MT, I feel like a lot of it falls on me. Positioning seems very important, as does quick decision making when dealing with Flanking Orders. I personally don't die to Volley/Flanking/Annihilation, so I'm doing good for -myself-, but it seems like I'm not decision making fast enough, and inevitably someone gets caught in some bad shit.

    Here's how I'm doing it currently: I try to tank Qiang near Subetai. I like being close to a wall because it reduces the chance we have to move for Flanking. It also gives me time to position Subetai and Qiang so they're facing me. On paper, Subetai should Volley, we should run through him, turning Qiang around, and if Annihilate happens after, we just run through Qiang like normal and burn him.

    The DPS/Healers are going to mutiny pretty soon and force me to tank in the center, they swear its the safest way. I'm down with whatever really though.

    So, have any of you picked up any personal wisdom when doing the fight that you can share? I'd like to work on moving for Flanking Orders safely with my crew. One thing I've also seen is holding DPS on Qiang at like 35%. Would that be for the Shield, Flanking, or Annihilation, or -all- of them. That seems like a ton of standing around.

    Here's a link to my armory as well, I'm pretty confident in my gearing strategy and stuff, but maybe there's some new simcraft data I haven't heard
    http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...antes/advanced

    Thanks!

  2. #2
    I've found the best way is to face Qiang near a wall so annihilation goes off so it's not covering the center of the room, making it much easier to avoid. If you don't like how volley is lining up with the other abilities, you may want to consider completely stopping dps on Qiang around 35% and waiting for him to annihilate with flanking orders before bringing subetai out.

    Also there are much easier heroics you probably should do to get geared up for that fight. My guild did everything in mv except kings and will, and blade lord, garalon, and wind lord, before doiing spirit kings (we are 25 man though, spirit kings is a bitch on 25 man).

  3. #3
    Deleted
    Well, I think the only special thing to do is anounce where I'm going to move and do it stuttering, so no one falls behind. I don't think there is a good tip to navigate through the guards. Just max zoom the camera, deduce the closest safe spot, and move not too fast there. Sometimes you can move two times, to avoid both lines, one at a time. I prefer the center too for Qiang+Subetai. Tanking the near wall can make for a very messy flanking, volley, annihilate combo, when space is restricted and someone who don't react fast just die.

    Also, you don't need to wait for anything. Even if you don't have a priest with your raid, use Shattering Throw to break the shield whenever it appears and continue to burn him. The transition it's the worst part of the fight to be honest, so just use heroism and CDs there, the DPS don't really have a need to use CDs on the pull, so they might as well save everything for that point. If they want to rank they can do it when the fight is on farm.
    Last edited by mmoc38db56fadf; 2013-01-30 at 08:37 PM.

  4. #4
    Deleted
    The only real problem with qiang is annihalation, with flanking orders. So if u are having issues moving the boss and working out where to position for flank then either get somone else to call an area to move to (Mark up with markers 4 points of room on boss spawns). Then that will give you one less thing to think about, Also on the second annihalation willo be the most awkward of fight as you have it at the same time as flanking orders so u need to aim annihalte in one direction and stack on another for massive attack this is the only major factor for the tank in this phase.

  5. #5
    Deleted
    OP: While I see the point about tanking him near a wall, I wouldn't recommend it. You will have a better camera view if you tank in the middle. Do you Bloodlust/Heroism here? We usually save some some DPS cd's and BL for when Qiang is sub 30% hp.

    I usually MT it and when flanking orders appears I call to go for the gap if there's one. If I see a minor gap in between the soldiers I go for it. Rallying Cry and Demo Banner is good for when you aren't sure they all follow you fast enough. As Tapps said, marks can be helpful.

    Other tips for the fight can be a focus target interrupt macro so you can interrupt your focus when two bosses are up later in the fight. Utilize Heroic Leap when Meng is up and he's at 80+ energy. He hits hard above 50 ish energy and you should have cooldowns ready here. If you two tank it you can kite a little with taunts also or use Vigilance/Safeguard.

  6. #6
    Deleted
    We wait(ed, haven't done the boss since the kill. Better things to wipe on) for the final flanking orders, made sure everyones major DPS CD was up potted and unloaded (it should be more than enough for most guilds go kill him before the pinning arrows). The annihilate that happens during the transitions lined up with volley, mostly, for us and we just ran through him, it's hectic and it was mostly me with a mark and "stay on top of me being shouted", I mean if you are avoiding this and others aren't it might not be a bad idea. We did stop DPS to not put us in the shit and wait for the right moment.

    I tanked them all in the middle, gives range more room to spread around quicker for pinning arrows, and moving for flanking orders just requires knowledge of their movement. His swing timer is also rather long, 5 or 6 seconds I believe (bigwigs has a timer for it), can be useful for calling out the exact moment when to move

    I don't recommend using lust, the last transition can be just as awful (and an even more horrific place to wipe, time wasted etc.) as you generally won't have the Maddening guy fully interrupted and thus his damage ramps up quick usually meaning I kited him to save CDs.

  7. #7
    Sounds like you one tank it? We tried doing that at first but found 2 tanking was much more simple.

    Edit: We also have just the two tanks eat the cleaves, everyone else stays back and does their thing.

  8. #8
    Deleted
    You're using one tank, which definetly is the way to go. No reason to have two as it dosen't make the fight easier at all.

    People should only use CD's with a 60-90sec cd on pull. 2min CD's might be ok depending on your teams dps.

    It's important that everyone have their major dps cooldowns+bloodlust when quiang reaches 30% as this is the most critical part of the fight due to annihilate/volley/flanking. Make sure everyone singletarget Qiang until he is dead, cleave won't Do you any good.'

    Ideally you want to tank Qiang close to the middle to have an easier time reacting and dealing with flanking. Stampeding Roar is insanly good here. Might even be worth it giving a warr symbiosis to have another one.

    The key to the fight is communication and patience. There's really no dpsrace at all, instead everyone should focus on survival. If you want to push for nice placement on meters, Do it on some other fight. If you are the maintank, you and the raidleader should be the only ones talking on vent. Leader should call stuff as usual but it's your job as maintank to choose direction on flanking. If you feel uncomfortable talking on vent I suggest you get used to it, since if you of all people isn't vocal on vent it will make the fight harder than it has to be. If you feel that you don't react to flanking fast enough I Suggest you change your priorities as a tank on this fight. Instead of tunneling your dps or abilities just establish threat and focus on flanking/positioning.

  9. #9
    We killed it yesterday for the first time. What worked for us is tanking in the middle when flanking came the tank announced left or right and we moved that way as tank you don't want to move too fast, turning+backpeddling is saver then strafing but you have to choose fast which way to go. Usually we end up near a wall after flanking then annihilate run through him and back up some more towards the middle. Hold dps around 35% for the 2nd flanking then push him to 30% after so you get annihilate followed by volley 2-3 secs after then kill Qiang before the 3rd flanking.

    On Subetai you can avoid any rng deaths by lifegripping pinned people if volley comes their way. 3rd boss is easy just have an interrupt rotation or someone calling it out and have a ranged interrupt when the shield is up. 4th boss can hit the tank hard just make sure maddening shout is handled quickly with some proper stacking up, if flanking is coming do the same as in P1 and have the tank call it out.

  10. #10
    We mark our tank and everyone runs with him. He also shouts where he'll be heading - but tbh, as melee I find it easier to just keep my eyes on the mark, see where it's going and follow the pattern.

    You don't need to be in front of Qiang to eat the cleave, as melee you can eliminate the parries but still get hit by the distributed damage if you stay right at his ass.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by bigbad View Post
    On Subetai you can avoid any rng deaths by lifegripping pinned people if volley comes their way.
    To my knowledge this does not work anymore (at least not according to our priests). More to the point, we killed it last night too so might give some pointers in addition to what has been said previously. This comes from a melee dps perspective. Any movement speed buffs like stampede when trying to follow the tank is bad since it makes people go all over the place faster. Make the movement as slow as possible, while still getting out safely. We use four markers, one in each corner, and a direction is called out before tank starts moving. Personally i find it easier just to follow the marker over the tank's head, but once you have wiped 30 times or so you know the colors in the corners by heart so you get a heads up on the direction without even looking around really.

    For melee dps, standing on top of the boss behind him can usually be in the area of the cleave, but I find it somewhat unreliable and try to avoid doing it and just simply stand in front of the boss. The first boss is not a dps issue and I find it easier to move in time if I'm not trying to wing the boss from behind. Control is everything, so tell your people not to focus overly much on dps and try to watch the mechanics instead (we had well over a minute left on enrage timer).

    For the first transition, bad things usually happen when you get volley and people run all over the place followed by a cleave. At this point you probably want to use big defensive cooldowns to mitigate the chaos. Also try to avoid running straight through him as a tank since that makes him go 180 and cleave you alone a lot. Try edging around him instead so he turns more slowly.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Delath View Post
    To my knowledge this does not work anymore (at least not according to our priests).
    It doesn't remove the pinned arrow but it get's the person out of the volley, lifegripping defenitly "works" to move them away.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by bigbad View Post
    It doesn't remove the pinned arrow but it get's the person out of the volley, lifegripping defenitly "works" to move them away.
    Okey, thanks for the info. I'll pass this on to our priests when we are doing it next time

  14. #14
    Do not tank it in the middle of the room. It guarantees you will be moving the maximum distance every single flanking orders. It's retarded.

    The best place to tank it is the edge of the carpet closest to where you enter the room, exactly on the corner of the carpet, right next to Subetai. Always call out where you will be going when the FO spawns. I'll tell my raid: we're moving through the boss, and then slowly strafe to the left.

    First annihilate you run through the boss. After that the first flanking orders comes. 90% of the time it is a matter of running through the boss and then going left or right a bit. Easypeasy. Time for the next annihilate, easy as there is nothing else going on (this is the one that lines up with the shield cast). Now comes the cool part:

    At this point you have the boss standing on the corner of the carpet, facing into the room. What you want, is to have him slightly further into the room and facing the wall for that next nasty combination of Flanking Order + an annihilate 3 seconds after the Orders. The way to do this as a warrior, in a way that only requires you to be good, instead of the much more difficult task of ensuring your entire raid isn't blind is as follows: you wait for him to do a massive attack, right after he does it heroic leap straight back, about 10 yards. You wait for the boss to run through the raid. The second he passes the raid you intervene one of the raidmembers. What you have done now, is positioned the boss perfectly for the next annihilate. When the flanking orders comes, you tell the rest of the raid to just move away from it in whatever direction they please. There will be no more massive attacks between that orders and the next annihilate. You stay in front of the boss until the annihilate starts, so it is pointed at the wall. When he starts to cast, simply run away to where the rest of the raid is. By this point you should be at 30%, pop all cooldowns, bloodlust, banners, and nuke it down. For that first volley just tank the bosses on top of eachother and run through the boss when the volley starts, then run back through on the annihilate.

    GG
    Last edited by Psyy; 2013-02-01 at 11:29 PM.

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