Dark Animus LFR - The perfect strat!

[Ichifails]

Some people were wondering how Dark Animus LFR will work, what start will best best to use for it and how much will they wipe until people get what they should do.
Here's the best thing you can do! (notice no wipes! :>)

[Art3x]

Stack and AoE?

I think that is pretty much the accepted idea for Animus by all LFRs

[shoooter]

Stack and AoE?

I think that is pretty much the accepted idea for Animus by all LFRs

We tried the stack and AoE but then the larges started their Crimson Wakes all at once on the stacked group and it got messy. So spreading out a bit helps. Later on I tanked the fight and noticed when all the adds were dead including massives the boss maxed out at 80/100 energy. Really, it could not be easier at that point.

[unholycrushe]

How to find afk players in LFR: Get matter swapped out of the room.

[wcard]

Nothing against OP (my group ended up zerging as well), but I think the zerg strat might be one of those LFR strats that causes a lot of wipes once higher geared players are no longer running LFR or have migrated to alts. This has the potential to be one of those fights where people suggest the "zerg and wipe until we have enough of the buff to kill it" strategies and that mentality really grinds my gears, so I feel compelled to present an alternative to the zerg in case people come to this thread after their zerg has failed.
(feedback welcome, I am making a few assumptions here)

If your group happens to have trouble just zerging through, my theory for an actual strategy is as follows:

- Tanks each grab a group of adds on pull
- Separate the groups
- Aoe 1 of the groups down (probably the smaller one)
- Hopefully this will activate a few larger golems, focus them down (if it doesnt just cleave a few more smalls until you get a large or 2)

- from this point on, either single target dps adds or simply cleave (Not Aoe) adds until further large/massive golems spawn
- anytime a larger spawns, kill it (this will prevent tons of crimson wakes from going everywhere)
- after all largers are dead you can probably kill everything and simply tank massives while you burn the boss, but keeping consistent and just killing each massive as they spawn will trivialize the fight even more. It will also allow for an easier tank swap

In Summary:
- Kill Bigs (there wont be any at the start)
- If no Bigs, kill smalls until you spawn a big (dont go full aoe)
- Repeat until just the boss is left

This strat assumes that golems in LFR activate after killing a certain number of small golems. I cant be sure that is the case, but it seemed that way to me. (my group tried to do the normal strat but you simply cannot control which golems you activate in LFR so I am assuming it is based on how many small golems die)

Hopefully this helps prevent a few "OMG just zerg it!" wipes

If adds happen to be on a timer, then this has all been pointless, but thanks for reading!

[stellvia]

Mass AoE is the worst thing you could do. Pull Smalls to the Massive Golems. Kill them at a controlled rate filling up the massives. if a Large or two activate, offtank with plate wearers. Kill Larges, then kill a massive. Dark Animus then activates and you offtank a massive while killing Dark Animus.

Killed him with 2 stacks without ever seeing the fight before in LFR last night.

[KrazyK923]

They put anima into random targets in LFR. Just watched it happen when we tried to use the "only active massive" strat.

[stellvia]

They put anima into random targets in LFR. Just watched it happen when we tried to use the "only active massive" strat.

That's why you kill the smalls at a controlled rate so you only activate 1-2 Larges at a time. If you just mass AoE, your tanks are gonna die, Crimson Wake will be everywhere, and everyone is gonna die to Massive golem slams.

[KrazyK923]

I know, my point was that you're not going to avoid Crimson Wakes because you can't control where the Anima goes.

[stellvia]

Well theoretically the people targeted would more easily be able to move away from the raid if only 1-2 Larges are activated at once instead of all of them.

But that's probably too much to expect from the idiocy of LFR

[Kagonos]

Split raid into 2 groups based on sides, tanks grab small adds, try to get raid to single target the small ones, tanks grab bigger ones that spawn, get raid to focus THOSE instead of smalls, rinse repeat. We had the dark animus up with both massives and the mechanics are not scary or deadly, i had like 9 stacks of the massive slam on me and sometimes we didn't tank swap the animus ring, so that's nothing to worry about. The dark animus caps at 81% animus or so, so that's not something to worry about either. The main thing is just convince the raid not to aoe the small ones, just single target so it's more controlled... Hell, we managed to succeed after 2 wipes first time in even though people were aoeing smalls, so w/e.

[Flaks]

You guys are discussing strategy in a raid environment where most people play for being able to avoid it. You're not going to get very far no matter how awesome strats you come up with except if you get lucky with a group or two.

[KrazyK923]

I feel like LFR horror stories cloud the entirety of all experience. As I just said, our group actually tried out the strategy of activating only the Massive Golems, and it would have worked if the fight operated like it does normally.

Ultimately, we ended up doing exactly what stellvia said and only activated a few Large golems at a time.

[Ichifails]

You guys know that the only reason I made the video because I found it funny, most of the raid found it funny and from what I saw here on MMO champion, people wanted to see how this part of LFR goes (since it wasn't open on EU) and when someone said his group zerged it in the mid, people were saying that they wanted to see it.

I made it to have a laugh not because it's "the best" or even a decent strategy :3.
I don't mind people talking about the proper way but remember that it's here to give you a laugh and not nightmares.

Also since it was LFR, some asshat decided to stay out (he wasn't afk, when we pulled he went out) and that caused people targeted by matter swap to be constantly ported in and out... so I'm sure a normal strat won't work when your tanks are out of the room .

[Puffman]

The LFR I was in had no problem with "Stack and aoe all the small ones, spread out for the large ones"

Really the only trouble in part 3 I've had is with Durumu. After him, the other 2 are downright enjoyable

[SamR]

So I was in a LFR tonight and got to this boss. Someone laid out some detailed plan and we pulled. Things got messy, there were golems everywhere and we just AoE'ed/burned everything down.

[Lolcraft]

We just stacked them all and AoE'd. Had only 1 stack of determination.