Heroic Halfus as Destro

[Fastpasta]

This community has always been helpful to me in the past, so I thought I would come here looking for a few more tips...

My guild has only downed Heroic Halfus once, and I was away for that run. I find myself barely able to break about 39k dps in this fight as Destro. My priority is usually as follows:\

1) BoH Halfus
2) Focus fire add #1 (Time Warden) until its dead
3) Focus fire add #2 (Nether) until its dead
4) Finsh enounter dpsing Halfus

The "AoE" classes in the raid usually look after the Whelps by the time the other 2 targets are down, and then the whole raid basically switches to Halfus.

Should I be doing something else other than what I am doing? 30kdps seems laughable compared to what the other classes are doing in this fight...should I be multi-dotting 2 or even 3 targets and not bothering with Incinerate fill until we are down to Halfus?

Once we shift to Halfus I also BoH any remaing add that is up to pad the meter (if it doesn't hurt the raid, I am all for this)...

What else should I be doing? Rank limit on this fight for a Destro lock is around 66k atm...so I am doing something woefully wrong imo...

Please let me know what your personal experince on this fight has taught you...I would love to push my dps up to sround 45 - 50k in my current gear...

Thanks.

ps...sorry, no logs at the present time...I will take some logs during tonights raid and post them later...

[Deleted]

just a question, why wouldnt u use Boh on add number 2 when u dps 1 down?

[Chaoslux]

You can get up to a 500% damage debuff on Halfus if you release all 5. It's not that farfetched to think the people at the "top of the ranks" do that.
I have no experience with Heroic Halfus yet but that sounds plausible.
Also, lots of things are wrong in those ranks because of the changes. Before the changes, a fire mage could get upward 200k from spreading aoe.

[jman101]

I run the 10man heroic fight as a destro lock and pull around 50k. Keep BoH on halfus and then just focus fire down the drakes. Using shadowflame on cooldown will boost your dps big time and maybe throw in a focus cast immolate on halfus if you can spare it while working on the drakes. Dropping your infernal when the whelps are released is also a big help.

Here's a log from the other night if you want to take a look. http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/7...?s=7617&e=7892

[Beyz]

If you want to high dps focus fire is definitely not the way to go. Use Shadowflame on every cooldown while keeping BoH on Halfus ofc. Will do ridicolous amounts of damage. Use Infernal in intro phase with whelps with prepot + hero on while using shadowflame on every possible use and rain of fire the rest of the time. When whelps are down, multidot with immolate, keep doing shadowflame on cooldown while using nukes such as conflagrate on every cooldown. Also use instant soulfire everytime the CD is ready because with so many targets dying through the fight you will never run out of shards.

So yeah, the key is AOE, while it may not be what most would call constructive DPS, it does definitely increase your own dps

Oh and to clear up some misunderstandings. The damage buff aint gained on release anymore, it's gained on a dragon kill. And it's only 50% pr drake

All this being said, you should definitely be demo on this fight. Doing 250k dps the first 20 seconds while tanking halfus, thus taking stacks off the tank is just.... awesome... Make sure to hover your hand over Soulshatter at all times tho

All this being said,

---------- Post added 2011-03-23 at 10:43 PM ----------

just a question, why wouldnt u use Boh on add number 2 when u dps 1 down?

Because you would need to cast BoH more than once which is a waste of cooldowns from a personal point of view. Raidwise it would be a benefit, but the damage is relatively insignificant anyways

[Killora]

If you want to high dps focus fire is definitely not the way to go. Use Shadowflame on every cooldown while keeping BoH on Halfus ofc. Will do ridicolous amounts of damage. Use Infernal in intro phase with whelps with prepot + hero on while using shadowflame on every possible use and rain of fire the rest of the time. When whelps are down, multidot with immolate, keep doing shadowflame on cooldown while using nukes such as conflagrate on every cooldown. Also use instant soulfire everytime the CD is ready because with so many targets dying through the fight you will never run out of shards.

So yeah, the key is AOE, while it may not be what most would call constructive DPS, it does definitely increase your own dps

Oh and to clear up some misunderstandings. The damage buff aint gained on release anymore, it's gained on a dragon kill. And it's only 50% pr drake

All this being said, you should definitely be demo on this fight. Doing 250k dps the first 20 seconds while tanking halfus, thus taking stacks off the tank is just.... awesome... Make sure to hover your hand over Soulshatter at all times tho

All this being said,

You should be shadowflaming anyway when in melee range. Regardless of the whelps presence or not. It's not AoE, it's called splash.

[Beyz]

You should be shadowflaming anyway when in melee range. Regardless of the whelps presence or not. It's not AoE, it's called splash.

True, I've just noticed that many locks go out of their way to stay on range on many fights in order to make it easier for melee. Which is kind of stupid especially on this fight since shadowflame is your best damage spell on cleave encounters

[Swagger]

There's certain fights I wouldn't compare yourself via World of Logs on, and this is one of them. If you really wanted too, you could sit on Halfus the entire time, probably do 70k+ DPS, and lead World of Logs. With that being said, you're putting the raid in Jeopardy by not killing the adds to alleviate the healers mana.

We were talking about letting one of our DPS sit Halfus each week while everyone else killed the drakes (allowing them to get top ranks), so I wouldn't think just because you're low on damage overall that you're definitely doing something wrong. Could just be that alot of the people that are ranking are meter padding by sitting Halfus more than they're supposed to.

[Fastpasta]

If you want to high dps focus fire is definitely not the way to go. Use Shadowflame on every cooldown while keeping BoH on Halfus ofc. Will do ridicolous amounts of damage. Use Infernal in intro phase with whelps with prepot + hero on while using shadowflame on every possible use and rain of fire the rest of the time. When whelps are down, multidot with immolate, keep doing shadowflame on cooldown while using nukes such as conflagrate on every cooldown. Also use instant soulfire everytime the CD is ready because with so many targets dying through the fight you will never run out of shards.

So yeah, the key is AOE, while it may not be what most would call constructive DPS, it does definitely increase your own dps

Oh and to clear up some misunderstandings. The damage buff aint gained on release anymore, it's gained on a dragon kill. And it's only 50% pr drake

All this being said, you should definitely be demo on this fight. Doing 250k dps the first 20 seconds while tanking halfus, thus taking stacks off the tank is just.... awesome... Make sure to hover your hand over Soulshatter at all times tho

All this being said,

---------- Post added 2011-03-23 at 10:43 PM ----------



Because you would need to cast BoH more than once which is a waste of cooldowns from a personal point of view. Raidwise it would be a benefit, but the damage is relatively insignificant anyways

Thanks for the input...some good tips in here, and stuff I have certainly thought about trying if I stay Destro for this encounter tonight. I have to take issue with you saying that RoF is viable here however...using a long channel spell like RoF will have you eating fireballs and stress your healers.

I think a key spell that I underutilized on my last several Heroic Halfus attempts is Shadowflame...you can cast it on the move if necessary, and with BoH up on Halfus and all those targets to hit...it should be a significant damage boost for me.

Refreshing Soul Shards is also something I will focus on here...I did not do a very good job of it last time, and there are several easy opportunites to Shadowburn dying adds...it would be nice to be able to SB: SF coming out of Halfus' triple knockdowns for sure.

[Beyz]

Thanks for the input...some good tips in here, and stuff I have certainly thought about trying if I stay Destro for this encounter tonight. I have to take issue with you saying that RoF is viable here however...using a long channel spell like RoF will have you eating fireballs and stress your healers.

I think a key spell that I underutilized on my last several Heroic Halfus attempts is Shadowflame...you can cast it on the move if necessary, and with BoH up on Halfus and all those targets to hit...it should be a significant damage boost for me.

Refreshing Soul Shards is also something I will focus on here...I did not do a very good job of it last time, and there are several easy opportunites to Shadowburn dying adds...it would be nice to be able to SB: SF coming out of Halfus' triple knockdowns for sure.

I might have forgotten to say this, but you should only use RAF as long as whelps are up, so if you wait with releasing time warden untill whelps are at about 25-50% health moving out of fire shouldnt be a concern. If you release time warden from the very beginning, it's not your personal performance that is solely to blame for your DPS, it's the entire tactic

[Fastpasta]

I might have forgotten to say this, but you should only use RAF as long as whelps are up, so if you wait with releasing time warden untill whelps are at about 25-50% health moving out of fire shouldnt be a concern. If you release time warden from the very beginning, it's not your personal performance that is solely to blame for your DPS, it's the entire tactic

Doesn't releasing the Time Warden slow the Fire Barrage down??? I don't understand why leaving him inactive would be a benefit...help me understand please and I will raise the point tonight...

[Vurrin]

If you can dodge fire you HAVE to dodge fire. which means you move and lose dps. if you can't dodge the fire you can just turret your max dps rotation. Of course that also shifts additional burden unto the healers to raid heal.

[Cluck]

If you can dodge fire you HAVE to dodge fire. which means you move and lose dps. if you can't dodge the fire you can just turret your max dps rotation. Of course that also shifts additional burden unto the healers to raid heal.

If you can "turret your max dps rotation" without the Time Warden being freed, you can do so with it being freed as well. That'd make no difference.

The benefits from the drakes are now applied to Halfus when the drake dies, not when it's released.

Example: You can't interrupt Shadow Nova until the Storm Rider is killed.

That's wrong. The *damage taken* debuff on Halfus is only applied now when a drake dies, but their other effects are still being applied upon release.

[Fastpasta]

The benefits from the drakes are now applied to Halfus when the drake dies, not when it's released.

Example: You can't interrupt Shadow Nova until the Storm Rider is killed.

This is incorrect. The benefit (ie, special ability) is immediate upon releasing the add. The bonus damage % debuff on Halfus is the only thing that delays until the add is killed.

---------- Post added 2011-03-23 at 11:11 PM ----------

If you can "turret your max dps rotation" without the Time Warden being freed, you can do so with it being freed as well. That'd make no difference.

That's wrong. The *damage taken* debuff on Halfus is only applied now when a drake dies, but their other effects are still being applied upon release.

Cluck beat me to responding to Tobias = )

I think Vurrin means that if the RL decides not to open up Time Warden to slow down the avoidable fire damage, then a dps could simply say "oh well...since I don't have time to move, I will tunnel dps the shit out of this thing!!"

That will not happen in our raid. We will be expected to move out of the fire. Every time.

[Beyz]

Doesn't releasing the Time Warden slow the Fire Barrage down??? I don't understand why leaving him inactive would be a benefit...help me understand please and I will raise the point tonight...

The fire on the ground won't spawn in the first place if he is not released thus making it unnecessary to move.

[HoldTheOnion]

we once left time warden inactive cause we had a new tank who was gettin face raped and we needed to ease tank damage to get it done. so our healers had an easier time healin raid damage than tank damage in that case. we hurried the welps down then released time warden. it seemed a crazy idea when suggested in vent, but it was a rough night with a shit geared tank, so we were open to anything at that point. killed it 2 pulls later.

[gherkin]

Remember that the damage buff does not apply until the drakes die now.

Heroic order should be Time Warden to make fireballs dodgeable, Nether to make shadow nova interruptable, and whelps to make aoe healing easier. If your guild is having no problems with aoe healing, then you could release something else instead of whelps to prevent the tank from exploding.


BOH Target 2
Kill target 1
BOH Halfus
Kill Target 2
Kill Target 3
Kill Halfus.

[Frtyoneyrds666]

I play Halfus as either Destro or Affliction. When I am affliction I Soulburn SoC the pile of mobs and continue to single target skull/x/square while keeping my focus soul swap on Halfus and eventually switching it to stone when the Halfus burn comes. When I am Destro I obviously bane halfus and do the kill order, but I also shadowflame/shadowfury the pile.