ToT HC difficulty right now

[Dangg]

Will SoO geared (~555 ivl) guilds without ToT HC (12/12 normal though) experience run into much trouble after the 5.4 20% nerf or is it a joke now?
I assume Lei Shen still requires effort, but what about the other bosses?

[Deleted]

We're pugging ToT HC, we are like 5 friends pugging people randomly and making every boss except Animus, I don't wanna try that shit with randoms.
About lei shen I have no idea. Animus should be kinda easy also. And we all had an average item level of 545

[Frozendekay]

It's a joke. We did a few runs for the achievements with everything on heroic, Durumu died in 2 minutes, Horridon after 2nd door, 2.5min Elder Council etc. Damage is really low too, could solo heal most of the instance on 10m probably.

Some mechanics will still be problematic if you've never done them on Heroic, but it should be pretty easy. For example Ra-den we killed by just lusting on pull and pushing the boss to 40% before 3rd set of balls hit. You can brute force most mechanics.

[coocoo]

My guild went in a week ago with 10 man 535-550 group, we killed everything up to Dark Animus in 1-5 pulls, only there did we hit our first road block. He's still a bastard to learn & simple mistakes are still brutally unforgiving.

[Radio]

In any kind of significant (530+) gear the danger of Anima Font + Interrupting Jolt/Matter Swap combos should be far less of a concern on Dark Animus heroic due to the 20% damage nerf on those abilities, though you'll still have to learn the fight.

Lei Shen heroic should be doable with less pillar energy which would help a lot, especially not having to level up as many pillars in p2. You'd also be able to stay in p3 for much longer before you start feeling the winds damage.

[EzG]

Did a full HC run about 3-4 weeks ago. The only boss that caused us any trouble at all was Dark Animus. You can still screw up royally if you run in blindly with no plan. We had someone get killed by and add and a bunch linked and screwed us over. On another attempt we screwed up the strat and the boss did his ultimate.

For the rest of the instance, everything is incredibly easy.

[Dangg]

Did a full HC run about 3-4 weeks ago. The only boss that caused us any trouble at all was Dark Animus. You can still screw up royally if you run in blindly with no plan. We had someone get killed by and add and a bunch linked and screwed us over. On another attempt we screwed up the strat and the boss did his ultimate.

For the rest of the instance, everything is incredibly easy.

Interesting that Lei Shen is easier than Animus.

[Deja Thoris]

If you have proper dps you can zerg animus easily. You still need to understand the fight somewhat but not activating the massives avoids matter swop and makes it much easier. You only have to make sure you don't link golems stupidly, soak the anima ring and avoid the font.

Lei shen will be a LOT more forgiving but no amount of gear can save you if you fuck up the transitions. By this I mean:
1) Not soaking bolts
2) Falling off with helm
3) Spawning too many diffusion adds.

The dps and healing check should be trivial from SoO gear and the 20% nerf. Actually, trivial doesn't even begin to describe how non-existant it is :P

[Deleted]

It's a joke. We did a few runs for the achievements with everything on heroic, Durumu died in 2 minutes, Horridon after 2nd door, 2.5min Elder Council etc. Damage is really low too, could solo heal most of the instance on 10m probably.

Some mechanics will still be problematic if you've never done them on Heroic, but it should be pretty easy. For example Ra-den we killed by just lusting on pull and pushing the boss to 40% before 3rd set of balls hit. You can brute force most mechanics.

OP was asking in terms of SoO N geared players. Not almost full hc geared. While the fight are now a joke to anyone who did them as current tier content I think they'll till provide a challenge to a group who's NEVER done those fight before. Biting cold (or frostbite I forget which is which) on council for example is still going to hurt like fuck if not dealt with, getting nommed by a dino on horridon will still one shot you, allowing adds to link on animus is still going to result in a wipe. With ilvl 565+ these things are trivial but for a group of 550+ player with no ToT HC xp they'll still provide a decent challenge.

I doubt Lei Shen hc is easier than animus. I should imagine most people could pull the dps for zerg strat now seeing as his hp has been nerfed by 20%. Lei shen HC ball lightning is still painful, as can be thunderstruck and static shock if not managed correctly.

[chopp]

Even with 20% nerf, if you have never done Heroic Lei Shen before 5.4, you WILL wipe. 20% health/damage nerf does NOTHING if you screw up intermissions (90% of the fight is about managing intermissions).

[PrairieChicken]

With 555 gear you will roflstompzergthru everything except animus and lei shen.

With 20% nerf being at ilvl 530s would feel like previous 550s, which means 550ish gear will feel like 570s

[Vathral2]

I've pugged TOT 10H twice this week alone (5 pugs first run, got the ra-den achievement too, and the run zerged H DA), and the 2nd one (straight out of openraid, was invited to tank at H DA, which of course, was also a zerg) and that 2nd run was able to kill lei-shen/raden with pretty much the other 8 having no idea what to do.

Zerg Dark Animus and the instance is a joke with some coordination at leishen. Absolute joke.

[Deleted]

Haven't tried HC after the nerf but I can probably imagine is a complete and utter joke now.

[Haywire5714]

Zerg Dark Animus and the instance is a joke with some coordination at leishen. Absolute joke.

How much of a joke was it?

[Deleted]

In my opinion, if you take 10 people who have never set foot in heroic ToT, you will get destroyed. Even with current gear.

[Vathral2]

How much of a joke was it?

I can do this for a while, but I'd rather not. I typed it one too many times, tired from our spoils pulls, gimme a break x.x but no, it really is easy.

[Deleted]

Be careful with legendary cloak on Dark Animus.

Rest should be faceroll, including Ra-den achievement which should've been bound to 10 and 25 man specifically, and should've become an unobtainable FoS after 5.4 release.

[Novx]

OP was asking in terms of SoO N geared players. Not almost full hc geared. While the fight are now a joke to anyone who did them as current tier content I think they'll till provide a challenge to a group who's NEVER done those fight before. Biting cold (or frostbite I forget which is which) on council for example is still going to hurt like fuck if not dealt with, getting nommed by a dino on horridon will still one shot you, allowing adds to link on animus is still going to result in a wipe. With ilvl 565+ these things are trivial but for a group of 550+ player with no ToT HC xp they'll still provide a decent challenge.

I doubt Lei Shen hc is easier than animus. I should imagine most people could pull the dps for zerg strat now seeing as his hp has been nerfed by 20%. Lei shen HC ball lightning is still painful, as can be thunderstruck and static shock if not managed correctly.

Those 3 scenarios you just said aren't even experience problems, they are the problem of a person that has been repeatedly beaten over the face with a mallet. Obviously they would go in and read the mechanics at the very least and understand "Hey, This giant frost pulse hurts everyone around me, lets not stand in the raid wtih it". We did a 10man clear this week for shits n giggles and brute forced every single mechanic to the point where we killed Council without a tank for half the fight. 1 Heal / 1 Tank / 8 DPS in most cases, the instance Post-20% nerf is a total joke even for people without extensive experience in H-ToT. Lei Shen 10man also has never been an exceedingly difficult fight and the Ball lightning's tickle. Static shock can be immuned/solo soaked by like 5-6 classes/specs and Thunderstruck is a normal mode mechanic (as is the other 2, but yeah, nothing changes). H-ToT was cleared by people with 525ish ilevel Pre-20% nerf...Post-20% with 555 is a joke.

[TwentyTwelve]

Went back 3 weeks ago in hope for a trinket i needed, we had a full guild run but only like 5-6 core raiders, we had a few socials in, pulling under 100k dps. We cleared the place and it was an absolute joke. We wiped once at tortus due to mechanic (no shell kick) and a few on animus, twice i think. But even with the low dps, we managed to do the `zerg` tactic and just laugh at it. I didn't think it would work anymore with vengeance changes in 5.4 but i got around 300k vengeance still. Lower than before but at 555ilvl, it dosent matter xD

If yous prepare with learning tactics for bosses, you'll laugh at them and wipe maybe only a few times, Lei Shen will cause trouble if you dont spread correctly for ball lightnings or Thunderstruck placements are bad. Ra-den, learning the rotation correctly.. Not much more to it than that though

[Chrispotter]

Will SoO geared (~555 ivl) guilds without ToT HC (12/12 normal though) experience run into much trouble after the 5.4 20% nerf or is it a joke now?
I assume Lei Shen still requires effort, but what about the other bosses?

We went and 9 manned ToT HC this week to boost someone. The place is a complete joke. Most bosses died within 2 minutes . On megara, each head died before it had even finished its rampage lol. Everything up to Dark Animus felt like Trash, really.