1. #1

    (H) Sha of fear as blood:

    Hello all, my guild has recently (as in this week) reached sha of fear heroic and I am a MT, as a blood tank. And I'm curious what cooldowns will suffice to tank thrash in P2, or if I need to stack CDs, or how to handle Thrash in general. That way when we wipe, like we know we will, it won't be on the tank's shoulders.

    I've tried reaching out to the guild on my server who's downed him before, but neither of their tanks were blood for this fight, so I'm looking elsewhere (here) for a possible cooldown priority/rotation in order to succeed in the fight. Any info from a tank's perspective about Thrash would be greatly appreciated.

    (I didn't see any other threads regarding this, or super closely related, nor did my quick browsing of the tanking sticky reveal any relevant information, so I didn't know where else to post this question.)

  2. #2
    You should aim to have 2 death strikes for each thrash. Pop a light CD if you can't get around ~300k blood shield before the thrash. The same applies for dread thrash, only you'll also want to use DRW + IBF + VB. I HIGHLY recommend Blood Tap. Be careful if he does Dread Thrash around Submerges, because you don't want to pop all your CDs only to have him submerge and then come back after your Glyphed IBF wears off. If this does happen, DRW and VB should still be active so ask for pain sup or something to replace IBF and you should be fine.

    Try to make sure you have 12 blood charges, 100 RP and max blood shield each time you start tanking Sha. Be diligent about keeping up blood shield between submerges!!! Hit the adds if you need to, but it's better to try and hit him as he goes down to make sure you don't drop your shield for submerge.


    I'll try to remember to record how I manage my CDs/runes for thrash/dread thrash during this weeks kill, though there are Blood DK PoV kills already out there.
    Last edited by Reniat; 2013-02-11 at 10:23 PM.

  3. #3
    I also have a question regarding Heroic Sha. Would Purgatory be good as a safety net for the Dread Thrashes assuming healers will be precasting a heal to me expecting the Dread Thrash to land a few hits?

  4. #4
    Our dk used purgatory, usually ended up saving him at least once an attempt.
    much more important than AMZ imo

  5. #5
    Purgatory is great for when RNG doesn't play nice. plus AMZ isn't great here anyway as blood, since we don't have hardly any strength. Spines are a steady aoe, so at best we could AMZ the raid through a couple ticks at most, which isn't really that helpful even if you timed it with huddles. Definitely go with purgatory.

  6. #6
    We killed it a few weeks ago and even did a more risky strat where I (the Blood DK) tanked it solo in P2 and just had two off tanks taunting just before naked and afraid went out, then I took it right back. The reason we did this was to keep my vengeance up and run the adds through the boss so I could spread diseases on them and help keep more dps on the boss earlier. It resulted in a very easy kill and I was something like 2nd or 3rd parse for that fight and I could have done more AE damage (even when you tank this fight well, it is a nail bitter as a DK).

    Anyways, tanking this fight as blood is just stupid hard, because if you screw up your CDs, or waste Death Strikes on otherwise heal-able damage, you are basically screwed. There is no margin for error as a Blood DK on Sha. Warriors, for example, have it easy, because they can have shield block up for each and every Thrash.

    So to solo tank it (only having other tanks taunt to tank naked and afraid), I did the following:

    -Glyphed IBF for the shorter CD. This allowed me to have it up for every other Dread Thrash, obviously, timing here is essential. If you pop it right when Dread goes up, he will not always cast it before your IBF wears off, so I would always wait a second until right before his next swing timer.
    -Save DRW for Dread Thrash when IBF is not up, however keep in mind this is RNG
    -Before a normal Thrash, I would have 2 Death Strikes up: one right before the Thrash (to ensure I have a shield up) and a second to recover after. This ensured I go into the Thrash with a shield up and come out of it with a very large shield up, to allow the healers time to recover
    -Have a CD rotation worked out with your healers and be ready to call for them. For example, when Sha is a douche and submerges with Dread Thrash queued, I would usually have blown my IBF, so I would call for a barrier or pain suppression from our priest

    If you do all of the above, you have enough CDs to effectively tank it solo as I did. If you are doing the more conventional strat of alternating tanks (each tank on the boss till they get naked and afraid) you should be able to have Bone Shield up for almost 100% of the time you have Sha, have DRW for any normal Thrashs you feel like you do not have much of a shield up and IBF just in case you take the occasional Dread.

    And always use purgatory. I've never taken any other talent in that tier. It's just to powerful, and the other two are still weak in comparison and take to much reaction time.

    Anyways, here is my armory, I used this same setup to tank Sha (minus the obvious Helm and weapon I got off him ^_^)
    http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...rings/advanced

    I'll try and remember to check back later if you have any other questions!

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Sufferings View Post
    -Before a normal Thrash, I would have 2 Death Strikes up: one right before the Thrash (to ensure I have a shield up) and a second to recover after. This ensured I go into the Thrash with a shield up and come out of it with a very large shield up, to allow the healers time to recover
    if you are doing that risky strat in ph2 your healers should be topping you off constantly. You shouldn't have to death strike after thrash. You should place both death strikes before the thrashes and rely on your healers to recover afterwards (plus 2 in front means you won't have to be recovered for as much). It feels weird just sitting there with open FU runes but you will get much smoother thrashes if you save your runes for before thrash as opposed to after/between.
    Last edited by Reniat; 2013-02-14 at 09:22 PM.

  8. #8
    If you don't need lich borne to cheese the fear on the shrines, purgatory is the way to go. You also have to call for an outside CD if dread thrash goes up and he submerges without burning dread thrash. You can not take dreadthrash without IBF / bloodshield / dancing rune up, call for hand of sac or pain sub, that's what they are there for on phase 2. Obv have boneshield too.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Reniat View Post
    if you are doing that risky strat in ph2 your healers should be topping you off constantly. You shouldn't have to death strike after thrash. You should place both death strikes before the thrashes and rely on your healers to recover afterwards (plus 2 in front means you won't have to be recovered for as much). It feels weird just sitting there with open FU runes but you will get much smoother thrashes if you save your runes for before thrash as opposed to after/between.
    The way I looked at it, I was likely wasting a lot of healing by stacking both right before the thrash (since healers are keeping me topped). With my method, it would ensure you didn't die (700k+ hp + a small shield) and then the ton of damage taken with the thrash, I would immediately DS behind it to heal a large portion of it and a big shield, to buy healers a big amount of time to top me back off. Both are the same thing in practice, as it prevents you from dying, but my method allows the healers to have less to heal. But both definitely work, just personal preference =)

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Sufferings View Post
    The way I looked at it, I was likely wasting a lot of healing by stacking both right before the thrash (since healers are keeping me topped). With my method, it would ensure you didn't die (700k+ hp + a small shield) and then the ton of damage taken with the thrash, I would immediately DS behind it to heal a large portion of it and a big shield, to buy healers a big amount of time to top me back off. Both are the same thing in practice, as it prevents you from dying, but my method allows the healers to have less to heal. But both definitely work, just personal preference =)
    It's not preference, a single stack blood shield if you avoided the previous attack isn't enough to prevent a potential gib. You need your blood shield to be 300k+, which is typically 2 hits.

  11. #11
    Deleted
    Apart from Sufferings who needed the AOE on the adds, why did you guys not take all the naked and afraids and let your offtank (esp is warrior/paladin) tank the boss 90% of the time?

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by SantaMaria View Post
    Apart from Sufferings who needed the AOE on the adds, why did you guys not take all the naked and afraids and let your offtank (esp is warrior/paladin) tank the boss 90% of the time?
    Because it has become quite apparent that my OTs cannot handle watching timers while watching the swing counter. I have since taken over, with them only soaking naked and afraids, and now we're progressing at a much healthier rate without tank deaths. In other words, don't make tank decisions based on class choice, especially if there is an apparent drop off in ability.

    (Speaking of which I'm currently tanking it during most of P2, while others soak naked and afraids, which has turned this boss into one of my favorites so far to tank.)

    Edit:

    Also, thanks for the tips reniat, you helped out greatly in reducing the learning curve.
    Last edited by Ravendale; 2013-02-19 at 11:56 AM.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •