H Jin'rokh - Dodging Sparks

[Valored]

Hey all and thanks for reading.

My guild recently started H Jin'rokh, we are pushing the right amount of DPS, dealing with ionization correctly, but are having a few members who are consistently having trouble dodging the sparks during the Lightning Storm phase.

Is there any tips, tricks, you guys can offer to help make dodging them easier?

Our comp:
Blood DK
Guardian Druid
MW Monk
H Priest
Resto Sham
Hunter
Lock
Rogue
Warrior
Boomkin

[Thexasoul]

Go to the grate areas for the spark phase if people are having trouble dodging them in the middle area. This way the sparks can really only come from one direction, so people can focus a little easier.

[Riemu2k3]

Two things

a) Don't stack up, unless your tactic revolves around it. Sparks that have been released by the lightning and are flying around in the room will always move towards players. You can check this by just stacking up and you will see that all the lightning will eventually move right into your spot. It works something like a homing missle. They spawn, they fly around abit and after a while they lock on to you position and "move out of the room" (they wont follow you, they simply lock on to your position or a players position in general).

b) Therefore, try to be spread out evenly and don't have a large clumb of people anywhere. Grates at the sides are always simplier - but not if you have all 10 people there. Middle can get hectic pretty soon so try to avoid the middle area.


What we do - also called "doing it the easy mode"

c) The way we handled it however simplifies it quite alot. When the Storm starts, everybody stack up right beneath the statue whats to your right (we always have our first big puddle on the left statue when you pull and move around counter-clockwise. So that means the right statue is your stacking point to begin and then move around counter-clockwise for each new puddle). You always hug the wall and stack up underneath the statue. Turn your camera to the ground so you can see the sparks easier.

You pre-stack Spirit Shell (if you have a disc) and drop some kind of dmg-reduce cd (Barrier, Spirit Link etc.). You can dodge the first 2-3 lightnings coming your way by simply sidestepping within the Barrier/Spirit-Link. After about 5 seconds (from the moment the storm casts) you need to start to move or the "homing missiles" will knock you out of your shoes. You just move as a group to the right (counter-clockwise). Move about 15y and then stack up again. Stay like this for about 3 seconds then move again. Use a healing cooldown while moving (healing tide, shamans on-the-move-healing, druid tranq with shaman symbiosis etc.)

It's alot like the Atramedes HC tactic where you stack up in front of the boss and move as a group. It pretty simplifies the phase. You won't even take any damage from sparks. And even if you do, it doesn't really matter since you can heal it up quite fast. You will only have to worry about sparks coming sideways towards you, because no spark from the middle of the room will lock onto you.

Also this way, you dont have to worry about people messing up their dance. You move as a group. Took us two tries with this tactic.

[Deleted]

a) Don't stack up, unless your tactic revolves around it. Sparks that have been released by the lightning and are flying around in the room will always move towards players. You can check this by just stacking up and you will see that all the lightning will eventually move right into your spot. It works something like a homing missle. They spawn, they fly around abit and after a while they lock on to you position and "move out of the room" (they wont follow you, they simply lock on to your position or a players position in general).

They move in straight line as far as I know and never change direction.

[Chrispotter]

They move in straight line as far as I know and never change direction.

The do indeed move in a straight line. They spawn on a point where you see lightning, and then the sparks fly out in a straight line in 4 different directions. Kinda like Rag's Hammer.

[Porcell]

They move in straight line as far as I know and never change direction.

From what I've seen the pillar drops down and when it explodes it generates 4 sparks that shoot off in all four directions, and those sparks move in a straight line.

We just did it last night on 25mH (finally...) and we just stacked everyone on the grate areas. We started activating the statue to the right of the door (SW) then stacked at the entrance (W), then activated the NW statue, then stacked North, and rotated around the room that way. We did pop some CDs and Tranqs during the lightning phases to make sure we didn't lose anyone. It was pretty easy to just sidestep balls when they are all coming in from the front of the grate.

[Deleted]

I always tell people to run towards the pillar just as it explodes... as u know all the sparks will be traveling away from it... so thats basically a safe zone (at least for that pillar).

Theres no right or wrong tactic as its random patterns.. you just gotta zoom out, look down, and use them feet of urs to move!

[Deleted]

We've had trouble for a while with that phase too, turned out we simply weren't burning enough cooldowns and pumping enough heals.
Don't expect people to dodge 100% of the balls 100% of the time, stack CDs (personals + raid) and spam raid-heals and you'll likely be fine.

The Storm phase lasts for 15secs and the enrage timer is very forgiving (atleast for 10m). So a mage could simple "hide" in his ice block for that phase (as an example)... Have your members use personals in that phase, not for negating Ionization (Deterrence, symbiosis cloak, Diffuse Magic, Dark Bargain come to mind) cause as long as everyone survives you'll likely manage the enrage.

Note: I'm not saying "don't dodge the sparks", I'm just saying "don't solely focus on dodging them", having some people get hit by two sparks simply shouldn't kill them in that phase (provided they're not eating them within 2 seconds...).

[Riemu2k3]

I am 100% sure that sparks lock on to player positions after some time (like when they want to leave the room or sth like that). Not exactly sure how and when, but you can test it quite easy:

Stack up on one point at the side. Dont move _at all_. Just stand there, burn all your cooldowns. After a few seconds, you will have 9313 sparks coming for your position. If you die then or have 1-2 people run out, you will see that you have like 40 sparks rushing through the dead players corpses, through the position the raid was in.

EDIT: Maybe that mechanic only happens if you stack up or sth like that dunno, but it is there

[Spiralphoenix]

I am 100% sure that sparks lock on to player positions after some time (like when they want to leave the room or sth like that). Not exactly sure how and when, but you can test it quite easy:

Stack up on one point at the side. Dont move _at all_. Just stand there, burn all your cooldowns. After a few seconds, you will have 9313 sparks coming for your position. If you die then or have 1-2 people run out, you will see that you have like 40 sparks rushing through the dead players corpses, through the position the raid was in.

EDIT: Maybe that mechanic only happens if you stack up or sth like that dunno, but it is there

I suspect that they don't "lock on" necessarily, but that one of the 4 directions that the orbs aim towards is initially directed at a player. They are always in a "+" sort of formation, with the center of the plus being the location of the lightning strike, but I'm pretty positive (lolpun) that the plus is aligned rotationally to have one of it's "arms" aimed at a player. But once that alignment is done, all 4 orbs move in a straight line along the arms and doesn't do any more adjustment. The Icy Veins guide video has a very clear picture of the phase at 1080p.

[Riemu2k3]

That sounds logical! So for all intent and purposes, stacking up like I suggested above makes the fight alot simplier.

When you have "one arm" aimed at a player and all players are stacked up, you will have 45° where you can't get hit by orbs from the front once you move. Only Lightning Strikes that spawn directly left or right of your groups position will hurt you / require you to do a step forwards or backwards.

It makes the fight alot easier. You stack up when the fight starts. You then wait till about half of the lightning bubbles have spawned or you really need to move. As soon as you move like 15y to the right, 1/4 of all spawned lightnings will rush to you old position/fizzle. The rest won't bother you anways, since they didn't spawn towards you location. You then stack up again until you need to move/sidestep again from the lightning storms that spawned on your second position.

Dunno if that was understandable or not. Don't have a grafic or something like that handy.

[Deleted]

What we do - also called "doing it the easy mode"

c) The way we handled it however simplifies it quite alot. When the Storm starts, everybody stack up right beneath the statue whats to your right (we always have our first big puddle on the left statue when you pull and move around counter-clockwise. So that means the right statue is your stacking point to begin and then move around counter-clockwise for each new puddle). You always hug the wall and stack up underneath the statue. Turn your camera to the ground so you can see the sparks easier.

You pre-stack Spirit Shell (if you have a disc) and drop some kind of dmg-reduce cd (Barrier, Spirit Link etc.). You can dodge the first 2-3 lightnings coming your way by simply sidestepping within the Barrier/Spirit-Link. After about 5 seconds (from the moment the storm casts) you need to start to move or the "homing missiles" will knock you out of your shoes. You just move as a group to the right (counter-clockwise). Move about 15y and then stack up again. Stay like this for about 3 seconds then move again. Use a healing cooldown while moving (healing tide, shamans on-the-move-healing, druid tranq with shaman symbiosis etc.)

It's alot like the Atramedes HC tactic where you stack up in front of the boss and move as a group. It pretty simplifies the phase. You won't even take any damage from sparks. And even if you do, it doesn't really matter since you can heal it up quite fast. You will only have to worry about sparks coming sideways towards you, because no spark from the middle of the room will lock onto you.

Also this way, you dont have to worry about people messing up their dance. You move as a group. Took us two tries with this tactic.

Thanks for the tip, might try it tonight.