Halfus Weekly Combinations and Discussion

[Simca]

There are a lot of Halfus Wyrmbreaker normal mode threads. To cut down on some of that, and to create a unified place for people to go and seek any help they may need, this sticky was created.

If you want to discuss the theory behind these tables, please do so here instead.

For the current week's drakes, you can check out http://www.halfus.info/ to see which will be up. It is based on the theory posted above.

If you need help with this week's drake combination, free feel to post, including helpful information like your group composition, the things you were struggling with, and the strategy you tried.

Here are a few possible strategies to get you started... and don't forget, you don't always have to do the same one (or even any of these). My guild switches our strategy week by week to account for the drakes.

• Pulling the drakes one at a time, killing all three - If you have great healing, especially mana-wise, this is a viable option to help with struggling DPS because it will help with the enrage timer.
• Pulling two drakes to start and then not freeing the third - The enrage timer will be semi-tight, but if you have two really powerful drakes like Storm Rider and Time Warden, this is a very, very viable strategy.
• Pulling the drakes one at a time but not freeing the third - If you have good DPS and are struggling with healing and only have one super dangerous drake, this could work very well.
• And many more combinations of these three strategies - pulling one at first, and then two, etc.
• Using four healers - If you have great DPS and are struggling with heals, this is viable.
• Freeing all drakes and AoEing them down - The top WoL guilds do this, but it isn't easy.

6/15/2011 Edit: Switched the topic from a sticky to a "R&D Useful Thread" and changed the tables to be a link to halfus.info.

[Deleted]

hey, we are a 10man raiding guild, and killed halfus several times before. we also clear deathwing descent except nefarian. so we have some expirience and gear.

our problem this week, is that 3 dragons are activ, cause the whelps are inactive. and we really dont get how to handle that. the main problem is the heal reduce debuff. our tanks just get to 90% healing reduce in somehow 10 seconds. if the other tank taunts the target to him, it doesnt change anything, we just end up with both tanks having this healing debuff, untill they just die. the raiddamage is not that much of a problem, we just cant handle the healing reduce on the tanks.

our lineup: tanks: druid, warri
heal: shaman, pala, druid
dd: rogue, mage, warrior, warlock, hunter

it would be really nice, if someone who actually killed halfus with this combination, how you did it.

[Deleted]

Well, I would help but I wasn't online when my guild killed it, they said they one shotted it and we're 10/12 (just al'akir and nef left) so I imagine it isn't THAT hard, just release nether and slate first, lowers tank damage then release warden after

edit: release warden when the 2nd drake is on 10%ish :P
pala can bubble a tank to get rid of debuff first time round, then tank swap the next time he needs to change

[conscript]

Release Time and Nether at the same time. Haste disappears from boss, aoe damage to raid disappears. Burn Time then Nether, or vice versa if you prefer. Success. We never even bother to release the third dragon, especially if it is Slate as his debuff to boss is fairly useless when your dps can easily beat the enrage timer and your healers don't need the stun to keep up.

Edit: Bloodforsilence brought up the correct point that the haste doesn't disappear. The reduced chance to hit and attack speed by 25% is what makes the strat we use work.

[Garil]

We released both the Nether Scion and Slate Dragon right at the pull. If you don't release Nether Scion, Halfus does too much damage and stacks the debuff too quickly. Rotate cool downs on the tanks until one is dead. Then it's a piece of cake.

[Bellinne]

We released both the Nether Scion and Slate Dragon right at the pull. If you don't release Nether Scion, Halfus does too much damage and stacks the debuff too quickly. Rotate cool downs on the tanks until one is dead. Then it's a piece of cake.

So your healers had time while trying to keep up both tanks to actually heal the raid from the fireballs?

[kedri]

You have pala healer, so you can clear debuff from one tank too. Is should help a lot

[Garil]

So your healers had time while trying to keep up both tanks to actually heal the raid from the fireballs?

Yeah. I mean, everyone, tanks, dps, healers are blowing all cooldowns right off the bat with this combination of drakes. We probably wouldn't have gotten through it without Tranquility. But that first drake dies pretty quickly. We release Time Warden as soon as it does. Then it's just tank healing.

[Deleted]

thank you for all your fast answers, i think this will help a lot. thx

[necrotic]

EASY tactic = release nether - kill. then release time and kill. then kill the boss. E-z mode

[Deleted]

what we did was kill nether one first then slate then time cause the nether first gives him lower stacking time and we used a pala to hop the stacks off for the first drake so we dint need to switch

[Shanto94]

Its no problem, I would start by releasing the nether dragon and the time warden, this reduces the damage taken, have 1 tank allways have nether and the other allways have time, have halfus in focus, when 1 tank get 50% reductionish, you use a macro like "/cast [@focus] Taunt" So you can easy keep control off both your dragon and the debuff,make sure to allways face boss and dragon (for the tanks), DPS just nuke 1 target then nuke the next, healers just make sure u keep the tanks alive (I barely take damage as a block capped protadin) and all dodge fireballs, easy.

[sawier]

we just killed him in 25man with same config of drakes, just nuked time warden>nether scion>Slate>nuke boss

[Izzyotta]

We release nether from the start, lust and burn it. We don't have a pally to bubble, so when I'm at 9 stacks we taunt swap the drake/boss. But the time other tank is up to 8 my stacks are about to fall off. If the drake isnt dead we taunt swap again.

Release time next and then the fight is over pretty much. no more damage on anyone but tanks. Just keep swapping as stacks wear off.


And yeah, suggest you don't release slate, just burn through unless your dps is quite bad.

[bloodforsilence]

the haste doesn't disappear it adds a hit debuff to the boss....... just sayin

and pulling nether and time at the same time is the way to do it imo.

[Biketobe]

We started with Scion, popped BL and nuked it down like shit, while OT kited Halfus with some TotT's from a rogue. Went down 2nd try.
2nd drake was slate, then we did Time warden, then boss. easy peasy.

[Shanto94]

the haste doesn't disappear it adds a hit debuff to the boss....... just sayin

and pulling nether and time at the same time is the way to do it imo.

It adds a hit debuff, a damage debuff and an attack speed debuff (all in one)
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=83611
Here is the spell

[RyanEX]

Time Warden up equals GG imo. Release Time and Nether, raid damage disappears till 50%. Nuke them both down. After that it's up to you if to release Slate or not. To handle the debuff have Halfus tanked away from the raid and once the tank gets 10+ stacks, BoP him. Halfus starts running after a healer, tank clicks off Bop and taunts.

By now one drake should be dead and you can move the other next to halfus to get some cleave damage and allow the tanks to taunt efficiently.

[Elvarg]

Have one tank start the fight by pulling Halfus with a ranged attack across the room to give some time to release the drakes before he starts getting debuffs. Then have the second tank release the scion and a dps release the time. With a hunter this goes smooth with MD, works with TotT too. Lust/Hero down scion first, then time warden. When they're both dead offtank slate for some more pew pew Our tanks had CD's up for the first 30 sec or so, external or internal. They swapped the boss every 5-6 stacks or so.

[Garganchewin]

we just killed him in 25man with same config of drakes, just nuked time warden>nether scion>Slate>nuke boss

25m halfus is a joke aoe-fest zero strat fight.

For 10m, paladins make this comp a lot easier. Have your OT tank nether/warden, burn nether with hero. When healers can't keep up the heals on the halfus MT, bop him to reset debuff. Nether Scion should be close to dead, burn down warden after it dies, switch tanks again when needed. No need to bring slate up.