Time to Tank The Eredar Twins - Tips and Tactics, and need Advice

[Maccers]

Note - This post concerns tanking for the warlock only, not the other tanks.

Ok so im the unlucky warlock that has the job of tanking Grand Warlock Alythess, and at first it seems a bit daunting, but after a few tries its not so bad. My guild is however fine tuning the kill process and i would like to discuss various tactics with other warlocks who are tanking this fight.

Firstly, i too have found fire resistance gear to have no effect on the fire damage you take. Tonight i had about 20 tries, and ONE time i managed to mitigate fire damage, but.....i was wearing full shadow res gear. Wearing full fire res gear seemed to have no effect at all. Since i deleted all my PvP gear (simply cba with lock pvp anymore -_-), my highest stam gear is full shadow res, and well, ive also found this can help with the shadow damage (although ive yet to prove this, shadow damage resisted doesnt appear too often in my combat log either)

Secondly, tanking position. Ive found that making a rectangle with 6 blaze "stopping" points is the most organised way of avoiding standing in the fiery mess that will spell death. The first of the 3 points are on the outer circle on the floor, and the next 3 points in the inner circle, (with the mob almost exaclty in the same position as before you start the fight). This seems to be a perfect rotation of taking 5-7 fire debuffs, and then taking a shadow hit when you get in the inner circle and then to the outer circle to stack fire debuffs again.

Thirdly the spec. This is where id like the most feedback is possible. Heres what im going to spec into for the fight.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=Iq0rVMftVzZcxc0IZxx

The reason i think this is the best spec is because -

1) Siphon life and instant corruption with t6 set bonus = extra healing for you
2) Dark Pact is better than taking your own life when your tanking
3) Improved fel armour and stam talent points maximises your hp and incoming heals
4) You can dot Lady Sacrolash up fior even more healing / dps and provide shadow embrace for the tanks which mitigate the physical damage she does.

Why not choose soul link i hear you ask -

1) With shadow resistance gear, im already shadow res capped. therefore the 70 resistance you would get with felpuppy out is irrelevant.
2) 20% damage mitigation only provide a buffer, and healers will still need to heal for the same amount to keep you alive. I actually believe it makes their job harder having soul link in this encounter since they need to switch targets more to keep you alive.

However i will admit the 20% buffer you get from soul link is nice. But i believe unessecary, since resistances in this fight seem to not work at all.

Anyway these are the main points i have found for the lock tank, im still waiting for the rest of my guild to get organised with confalg etc, and our best attempt on the first night was 69%.

Any feedback / help / tips / pointes etc etc especially concerning tank spots / builds and resistances information is much appreciated.

[Nørf]

Even tho im not a warlock it makes me happy when i see people willing to share their experiences, very nice little guide =)

[Tenrai]

Your spec will not build enough aggro for the DPS. Remember, you have 6 mins to kill both, and in most cases, your target will be the first to die. You need to go a fire destro spec similar to this: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=IZMxczIdzZVx0xbhtVhq to put out enough threat. Talking from a shadow lock stand point (what I play in raid), even with this spec, I find myself threat capp'd by the tank. Furthermore, mages MUST MUST MUST rotate pyrogenics steals otherwise they will cap also and the dmg buff will be wasted. The healing from the affliction build is crap, and honestly, the damage you take is not that bad. Soul link is a bad idea because the pet needs to be healed as well. Spec the above spec, sac your imp, and go berserk.

[Deleted]

I'm confused about your statement that soul link doesn't matter because of resistances not working. Soul link does not at all have anything to do with resistances

[Malte]

First off: Did the dps have issues with your tps?

I'm just thinking that youre gimping your tps alot by going in shadow resistance gear. Your correct in the fact that you can really resist anything, so you should just go in gear with high stamina. I mean for instance if you have Belt of Blasting and Anetherons Noose you go with the stamina item.

You should keep your hit cap and just go for stam from that point. But to not to an extent where it nerfs your tps, cuz the raid still needs to do alot of damage to stay within enrage, and they cant do that if they have to gimp their dps cuz you arent producing enough threat. Your priorities for gear should be:

1. Hit cap (tps)
2. Stamina
3. dmg/crit (tps)

As for your spec there are a few flaws too i believe: You cant rely on teh healing you produce yourself. This seems to be your major concern, but i think you should just forget it. Rely on healers to do their job. Dark Pact vs Life tap isnt really tat big a deal either, cuz you get that 6-7 second window from when she starts casting conflageration until the next blaze hits you, where youll most likely take 0 dmg, hence safe life tapping. Youll get the stam talents and improved fel armor in the other specs too. As for dotting up the melee twin: I really cant see where you find the global cooldowns to do this in between providing enough tps grand warlock whatever,

Regarding soul link or not: I like it. I tried 0/21/40 as well and its prolly superior threat wise, but its very close to 0/38/23. You'll have the same amount of crit and abit more +damage with soul link, but youll have 20% less fire damage. However youll take 20% less damage, which is amazing for smoothing out healing on you. Youll prolly be looking at somewhere between 14 and 16k hp, and the average blaze hits for 7000. So it isnt gonna take that much random damage to kill you if you dont have soul link. A shadowy image, a random burn tick or whatever. With Soul link itll hit you for 5500 which is alot easier to handle anyway.

As for the pet taking too much damage: tehres multiple solutions. Youll summon a voidwalker which will have between 13 and 14k hp. I am currently using 2part tier5, cuz it helps on healing it and also produces a bit more tps. Also just using thsoe parts cuz it makes me able to enchant/gem them with stamina. Also, as i mentioned before there is that 6 sec ish window where you dont take damage, abuse it. Tell your healer to throw a flash of light or lifebloom or renew or whatever on the voidwalker and itll be fine.

So yea, 0/21/40 is proly the best spec once you killed them and have full control of the fight, but until then i would advise you to go with 0/38/23 as its amazing for both tps and survival. (you need destructive reach for the pull as theyll aggro within 30 yards/unless youre playing with 2 hunters).

you can check out what gar im using at http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...n&n=Norahjones

love, malte

[Maccers]

Thanks for the replies.

Nice information Malte, the only thing that i would disagree with with what you said is about taking destructive reach. If tps is an issue then the threat reduction the lock recieves from this talent isnt going to help much :-\

And to socronoss when i talked about soul link, i was referring to soul link build where you normally take master demonologist for resistance boosts aswell, and just mentioning that it was no help in this encounter. Badly worded on my part, but i think most got what i was on about (maybe )

[Chrysalis]

Hey Maccers,

I was just about to copy the link to this thread and give you to read when i noticed "Hey, it's Maccers".

Just to make this clear cause i think some people are worried about your tps: we're trying this encounter killing the Shadow twin first. This means that the warlock tank has enough time to build proper agro on his target till we switch to the Fire twin.

So atm Maccers concerns are all about survivability and how to fine tune his tanking in order to do it succesfully.

Ty all for the input,

Chrys