Gabbexd #1 Overall DPS - How does he do it?

[Eightythree]

On Pro-Raiders/WCL Gabbexd is the top ranking DPS as Prot. I've been trying to deconstruct what he does but certain fights I can't figure out.

As far as I can tell it goes something like this:

Immerseus - has to be the only one on adds

Protectors - Appears to be solo tanking and eating He's fixate. Uses the a leave trinket.

Norushen - No idea.

Sha of Pride - Only person on adds and also transforming.

Galakras - Gaming the adds somehow?

Iron Juggernaut - Solo tanking? Although that seems like a ridiculous amount of damage with the stacking debuff.

Dark Shamans - No idea.

General Nazgrim - Gaming adds?

Malkorok - Solo soaking and a fast kill time.

Spoils - Gaming the tank buff by opening small and medium boxes?

Thok - Solo tank, low healer count and fast kill time.

Siege - No idea

Klaxxi - That's an easy one, all scorpion.

Garrosh - Solo tank and transition 1 gaming.

Any other input? Seems just insane the level of DPS he's pulling out of Prot.

[Khorm]

Norushen - They're keeping the big adds up so he's getting vengeance off their melee and AOE and increased damage by cleaving them.

Galakras - Keeping mobs alive. Thranok was alive for over 4 minutes.

IJ - He's soloing

Dark Shamans - Keeping trash grunts alive. 37 all up.

Nazgrim - Taking trash shamans and all the faithful adds and tanking them in the corner.

Siegecrafter - Taking 10 stacks.

[Warriorsarri]

There are a lot of ways to cheese encounters in SoO if you want to increase your rankings. I'll list a few that I know people are actively using.

Immerseus: Solo-AoEing the adds + solo tanking the boss. Standing in the black pool in P2 to get vengeance.

Protectors: Solo tanking. A group with few Warlocks so that the small adds stay up for as long as possible. Having the Anguish focusing on you for increased vengeance.

Norushen: "Semi solo tanking" (You go down instantly, have another tank tank for the few seconds you're down). Let small adds stay alive for a while so that they buff the tank, close to soloing them down on your own.

Sha: Solo Tanking. Get transformed and solo AoE the adds.

Galakras: Have 4-5 people AoEing the adds. Let them heal as much as possible. Leave all but the Shamans up when the boss lands and everyone but you focus down the boss.

Juggernaut: Solo Tanking. Saving CDs for when the boss hits 20% and you're at high vengeance. (require a very fast kill time)

Shamans: Solo Tanking. Solo AoEing the adds. Leaving a majority of the trash up to cleave down with the boss.

Nazgrim: Pull the shamans from trash and the Faithfuls, and AoE them the entire fight.

Malkorok: Solo Tank. Solo AoE.

Spoils: Getting 2x tank buff. Have someone open boxes for you. Always have as many boxes open as possible to maximize your cleave. Be in the slower group, so that you don't have any downtime as you're waiting on the other team.

Thok: Solo Tank. Solo AoE.

Siegecrafter: Solo Tank. "Semi solo AoE" (Will require a few others to help you clean them up as our AoE ain't that great against this spawning pattern). Don't kill the shredder instantly, wait until after he has jumped.

Paragons: Semi solo tank. Scorpion buff. spawn as many scorpions as your healers can manage for increased cleave.

Garrosh: Solo Tank. Solo AoE. Eat the cleaves in T1. Taunt a few adds in P3 so that you can cleave, and soak the extra vengeance and procs from them enraging. Don't spawn an Iron Star in P4.

Those are the ones I know are being used currently to get as high dps as possible. I know of a few other ways that could be increases, but I won't mention them until I've seen someone succeed in using them.

It also often comes down to the guild being willing to help you get your ranks.

[Hottage]

So very glad they are converting Vengeance into a purely defensive stat...

[Deleted]

Norushen: "Semi solo tanking" (You go down instantly, have another tank tank for the few seconds you're down). Let small adds stay alive for a while so that they buff the tank, close to soloing them down on your own.

Garrosh: Don't spawn an Iron Star in P4.

Could you be more specific with these 2? Garrosh you mocking banner all adds thats just it?

[Deleted]

Because he's the only one still raiding siege of Orgirmmar after 1 year.

[Warriorsarri]

For Norushen: You instantly click the orb, kill the dude inside ASAP. Once you get up you taunt the boss and tank him for the rest of the fight. The raid just moderately cleaves down the adds, so that you can do more damage to them, also the small adds cast a buff on the boss every few seconds that increases him damage dealt = Increases your vengeance.

There's also a bug on Norushen that if you have a healer click the orb instantly as it spawns, he won't have registered that the fight started until he is back up, meaning his logs will only count the part of the fight where he's up, meaning it will skip the start where you're doing very low damage.

For Garrosh: If you have good enough dps in the raid you can save lust for P4, then zerg him down and not spawn an ironstar. He will then start his cast when he's at around 10-15% hp, and spawn all adds. You now have to survive for 10-15 seconds with all adds on you while the rest finish the boss off. (This may have caused our tank to go from a mere 800k to 950k dps in those few short seconds)

But I'll just point out, unless you have one of the worlds best groups, some of these tactics wont' be feasible, as a few of them require very high raid dps and coordination.

[h34t0n]

It also often comes down to the guild being willing to help you get your ranks.

I always enjoy watching frag's stream and everyone saying "so you're going to go fury now?" to you lol

[Eightythree]

Warriorsarri, you confirmed a lot of what I was thinking.

2 questions :

On Protectors, how would you solo tank and not get owned by the Rook Stun + He Gouge combo? On Jugg, how would you not get melted by the stacking debuff?

[Nouway]

But I'll just point out, unless you have one of the worlds best groups, some of these tactics wont' be feasible, as a few of them require very high raid dps and coordination.

Pretty much this. You rely entirely on your team, especially on your healers, to fit a strat where you can outperform.

I agree on every suggestions pointed by Warriorsarri, though I have no clue about how some warriors manage to solo tank Malkorok. I know the Blood Rage phase is tankable, but his Fatal Strike stacks are too much! He usually 1-shot me at 25+, if I fail to avoid/block a melee swing.

I'm still trying to figure out something else for Norushen. I dont like the idea of sitting there, hitting the boss, farming vengeance and doing nothing else.

On Protectors, how would you solo tank and not get owned by the Rook Stun + He Gouge combo? On Jugg, how would you not get melted by the stacking debuff?

Watch your DBM timers. Turn your back on He when Rook is about to cast "Vengeful Strikes" and "Gouge" is about to happen. Put a big Shield Barrier before it happens and ask for an external CD, like Vigilance.

For IJ, you need to manage your own defensive CDs and your raid externals. Asking for externals is something you NEED to get used to, or you will spend most of your rage Shield Barrier'ing instead of Shield Blocking for extra damage.

[Eightythree]

Pretty much this. You rely entirely on your team, especially on your healers, to fit a strat where you can outperform.

I agree on every suggestions pointed by Warriorsarri, though I have no clue about how some warriors manage to solo tank Malkorok. I know the Blood Rage phase is tankable, but his Fatal Strike stacks are too much! He usually 1-shot me at 25+, if I fail to avoid/block a melee swing.

I'm still trying to figure out something else for Norushen. I dont like the idea of sitting there, hitting the boss, farming vengeance and doing nothing else.



Watch your DBM timers. Turn your back on He when Rook is about to cast "Vengeful Strikes" and "Gouge" is about to happen. Put a big Shield Barrier before it happens and ask for an external CD, like Vigilance.

For IJ, you need to manage your own defensive CDs and your raid externals. Asking for externals is something you NEED to get used to, or you will spend most of your rage Shield Barrier'ing instead of Shield Blocking for extra damage.

Solo tanking Malkorok isn't too hard you just have to time your CDs. I divide into into 10 second chunks (Blood Rage is roughly 20 seconds.)

First 10 seconds : Shield Wall, Last Stand, Demo Shout, Demo Banner and Rook's Talisman (I actually macro these together specifically for Malkorok so the timing is perfect.) For externals I take a Chi Cocoon/Vigilance/Hand of Sac.

For the last 10 seconds, I take Sacred Barrier/Pain Suppression/Hand of Sac and just spam Shield Barriers. You'll get 1M+ Barriers at that point.

For the Fatal Strikes, you tank first to 15 stacks, which is usually before the 2nd Smash. then after the Breath, taunt him back making sure your stacks are reset. Then you just repeat. By the Blood Rage all your stacks should be gone.

[Nouway]

I usually do that on my team. The Blood Rage is tankable, sure. I was talking about REALLY solo tanking the whole encounter.

Look a this log, where Gabbexd did 1.3M DPS: http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/...3&type=summary

There were 2 tanks, but he had 98% uptime on Fatal Strike, which means he solo tanked the fight, and it stacked until 63. HOW is that possible?!?

[Eightythree]

If you look at the damage it looks like the Paladin is taking the Blood Rage. Gabbexd only takes 1 hit of Rage.

[Gliff]

If you look at the damage it looks like the Paladin is taking the Blood Rage. Gabbexd only takes 1 hit of Rage.

Its because the blood rage is not what gives you the most vengeance, its tanking the boss the whole fight with the debuff. He has 63 stacks of the debuff and he has it never falls off.

Answer to original question: he is cheesing every fight as much as he possibly can.

[Eightythree]

Its because the blood rage is not what gives you the most vengeance, its tanking the boss the whole fight with the debuff. He has 63 stacks of the debuff and he has it never falls off.

Answer to original question: he is cheesing every fight as much as he possibly can.

Ahh that makes sense, I didn't realize that. I have solid rankings, but there are a few fights that I can't even get close, but we aren't major cheesing it like he is (IE Galakras/Nazgrim add abuse).

[Warriorsarri]

Don't worry, there are a few that will show you just how much one can cheese in SoO.

If only my raid would want to try my tactics on some fights... I would be world rank #1 overall as Arms without any issues..

[Eranthe]

Don't worry, there are a few that will show you just how much one can cheese in SoO.

If only my raid would want to try my tactics on some fights... I would be world rank #1 overall as Arms without any issues..

doesn't mean anything if you're going to RIDICULOUSLY great lengths to exploit any possible advantage you can. honestly i think it's stupid that you can pull trash with the boss and have legitimate ranks. it's already stupid enough that you have to leave adds alive for a long time to meter pad, but abusing every possible mechanic just isn't a road i want to go down.

[Eightythree]

doesn't mean anything if you're going to RIDICULOUSLY great lengths to exploit any possible advantage you can. honestly i think it's stupid that you can pull trash with the boss and have legitimate ranks. it's already stupid enough that you have to leave adds alive for a long time to meter pad, but abusing every possible mechanic just isn't a road i want to go down.

This is one reason why I'm pretty excited about WoD. With no more Vengeance cheesing, it will keep ranks more legitimate.

[Deleted]

This is one reason why I'm pretty excited about WoD. With no more Vengeance cheesing, it will keep ranks more legitimate.

Well, that would be true if the DPS didn't had methods to cheese without having any vengeance.

Also, I don't see anything bad wrt cheesing for rankings, vengeance or not. They do the fight more complicated, think outside the box and reap the rewards. Most people won't go that road, so the competition is almost null, but that's not his fault. There is also rankings for the faster kills, which are probably more interesting (although, class stacking). The only thing they should do with rankings is freeze them the instant a patch drops.

[Lorgrum]

If only was a way to sift out logs that have abnormal damage done to mobs inconsistent with a straight forward kill to view accurate logs, that would make logging more streamlines and less cheesed fights.