Horridon HC

[WarBringerPT]

Why exactly would you filter out boss damage entirely? Boss damage is also lost if you send it on the direhorn for a large amount of the time. Did I miss something? I thought we were talking about overall damage. 8-10% is still more than a few macroed AS's (or SS as someone suggested) or snaketraps/clever positioning for MS/Barrage.

This. Why waste some of your dps and damage on the spirit when, well played, you lose almost nothing (1-2 arcane shots, some barrage dmg, some multi shots, the time spent putting snake trap in position). Sure, you can put your pet on the spirit and ignore it for some time, but then you need to call back your pet(if spirit is coming from the middle your pet will despawn due to out of range). Sure, it's easier, but I prefer (and recommend) ppl not using their pets and using your arsenal in controlling the spirit.

Oh, and about applying SS? Never tested, but I think it doesn't work. It works in sv due to ISS, doing that initial dmg when applying the dot. If you're BM/MM, that initial dmg doesn't exist and will not knockback the spirit. So, if you are sv, you can use SS to knockback rather than arcane shot, saving 5-10-15 focus while doing it.

[shanattah]

Yea I haven't tried Horridon as BM but shouldn't it work just like how mages can use nether tempest to knock it back? haven't played my mage this expansion but afaik it doesn't have any initial damage either and also knocks it back on the application?

[Hayro1]

One thing I found out is that using snake trap to deal with the direhorn spirit is super OP for all specs. If you place it correctly and the spirit pops the trap, the snakes will chase after it for FIFTEEN seconds, knocking it back the entire time. By the time it gets back, it'll definitely be off CD again.

Pretty much, but you have to hit the spirit at least once, otherwise they go elsewhere. Kind of a pain since it should go on whatever popped it.

[steveh]

To the point of someone recommending Lynx Rush over AMOC, Lynx is a bleed and yeah its going to get those bleeds on the bigger elites but the full 15 seconds of the bleed is likely wasted on those little adds. I just use AMOC on Horridon on CD as you know he ain't going anywhere for awhile.

And to the point about explosive traps versus BA, it depends on the jumpiness of your add tank. My tank has ants in his pants and I could never get an explosive trap to be positioned well enough to make it worth it so I just BA Horridon and do my other such stuff to the adds.

And I'll chime in on the side of "just position your direhorn well enough to get knocked back by your normal aoe/barrage" although it doesn't always work out so popping him in the face with a few shots works out. I didn't know about the snake trap thing, that'll be a cool thing to try tonight.

[Karamok]

Hi there,

Horridon is my favorite fight. There's a lot of neat things you can do to up your damage and control.

Survival
http://worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-7x...?s=2674&e=3339

BM
http://worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-7l...?s=3380&e=4042

Here's what my strategy is for this fight:

Spec into lower deterrence CD. If your healers are struggling, deterring dire calls could help a lot.
Choose between Binding Shot and Silencing Shot. If your raid is good on interrupts, go with binding shot; if venomancers/dinomancers are getting casts off, go for silencing shot.
Spec into Thrill of the Hunt. This may lower your DPS in the final phase, but it'll give you cheap multi-shots and free arcane shots if your spirit gets too close.
Spec into Barrage. Glaive Toss may work better, but I don't think it's reliable enough when adds are spread out.
I use AMoC for the single-target boost in the last phase, but it's not particularly important.

For the actual fight:

Keep dots up on all adds with MS if SV. Pretty much spam MS whenever there's more than 2 adds up (read: almost all the time). Unload your single-target abilities (KC, ES) on high-priority targets. Interrupt/stun when it seems like a good idea.

One thing I found out is that using snake trap to deal with the direhorn spirit is super OP for all specs. If you place it correctly and the spirit pops the trap, the snakes will chase after it for FIFTEEN seconds, knocking it back the entire time. By the time it gets back, it'll definitely be off CD again.

Until the final phase, always use explosive trap. This is an AoE fight through-and-through until the last phase.

In the last phase, just switch to a normal single-target rotation, making sure to use snake traps to keep your add away.

The last major decision you need to make will be when to use readiness/stampede. Since your DPS is low, you will probably greatly exceed 10 minutes, so you could theoretically use readiness three times, and this would be a DPS gain; however, there may be specific parts of the fight you're struggling with, which may require you to save it so you only use it twice. If you use it at the start, it will probably be up by the middle of the frost door, and again **after** Jalak is dead.

EDIT: Oh, and one last thing. I keep my pet on assist. If you're SV, it might be okay to leave it on Horridon, though it's a bit greedy.

This is definitely one of those slightly counter-intuitive fights that forced me to change my approach quite a bit. Just like Heroic Stone Guard, despite the low number of targets, Multishot, and more importantly, Imp SrS, is where you'll really fatten up your numbers.

The trick is being in position to hit the adds AND the boss with Multishot as much as possible. As the fight progresses the single projectile from multishot that hits the boss will start doing nearly as much as all the other hits on all the other adds combined. If you're doing it right you'll notice that Imp Serpent Sting will be near your top three damage sources before the final phase.

As mentioned, I've found ToTH to be by far the best option, since it's all about how many well positioned multishots you can manage. I tried Lynx Rush and found it unnecessary once we perfected our strategy, as adds died in plenty of time. AMOC doing damage to a debuffed boss will always provide more total damage and as long as adds are dying in a timely manner you're not compromising yourself.