Al'akir Normal 10 Man

[Bloodrose]

Citing the pretty good http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...ss-quot-Thread, I present to you, the MMO-Champ community Power Word: Win v Al'akir, the Dickbag of Wind in his normal mode of 10 Man. The fight seems to honestly go pretty smooth but we run into a trainwreck on Phase 3.

The Original Post

1. What boss? Al'akir 10 Man Normal

2. What's your raid composition normally like? This could create problems or open opportunities for certain fights.

Everyone in raid is hovering 356-360 ilvl

Tanks
DK Tank
Feral DPS Druid basically tanking adds in phase 2 but DPS'ing otherwise (call him the OT, sure)

Heals
Holy Pally
Resto Shammy
Disc/Holy Priest

DPS
Arc Mage x2
Survival Hunter
Arms Warrior
Shadow priest tonight but usually we have a Frost DK who handles adds in p2


3. How long have you been working on this fight? Sometimes it's just a matter of getting more reps so your raid can get better at it, but if it's literally 100 wipes on a fight, there's probably a strategic or player flaw in your raid.

About 4 raid nights worth off an on. If I had to guess, probably 20-25 what would be solid attempts.

4. What phase of the fight are you wiping at?

Phase 3

4b. Is this just into the phase, near the middle of it, or almost at the end? This could be a clue as to if you're having problems with a transition, longevity in a phase, or just nailing the main mechanics of it.

Basically right as the first need to move everyone come in (Yeah, that's the obvious issue right there. It's handling this part of the fight where the issue comes in)

5. What are people dying to? This is the second most important question besides the boss you are on. Sometimes a solution can be given even without any other information except the boss and the mechanic that's killing people. Do not make a thread asking why your raid is wiping and ask for help without first telling us what people are dying to.


The raid is dying to the lightning. When it's time to move, either the movement is off or ppl are too far and we get zapped.

6. What have you tried already to fix #5? The fastest way to get help is to head off anything redundant and obvious that you've already thought of and tried.

We have made attempts at stacking up by his head and working down and also tried going from his base and working up. We run into the same issue. I guess the main concern and question I have is this: What is the best way to handle Phase 3? Is it working up from from the bottom? Is it going down from the top? Clump up? Spread apart? Best way to call out when to move and where? Yeah phase 3 is a trainwreck. Eff this guy.

The group we have is a solid group, we're 10 /12, we 2 shot Cho'gall and figured we're gonna try to get Al before Nef. We've been together as a guild and a consistent raid group since Ulduar so we know how each other works/ play styles, etc. but we know we are missing something in this fight. Feedback / suggestions / criticisms welcome.

[Styl]

Phase 3. Everyone go up. Once at the roof. go down when the lightning clouds spawn, down again, down again. On the third 'down again' go right down to the bottom, then go up, up and then all the way to the top. rinse and repeat. The clouds will despawn by the time you go all the way to the top again. Soo...

Phase 3 starts

Go to top.

Down

Down

All the way down

Up

Up

All the way up.

Rinse and repeat and P3 only has the ending of an enrage timer =)

[1kmodem]

my guild 10m wiped heaps on p3 using the head, neck/shoulder, belt, feet, belt, neck, head etc etc..... then we changed to bottm and moving up 10yards and 1 shot it.... (apparrently space bar aka jump was easier to press then x)
you can see the clouds form and therefore move before you get hit by lightning
you guys should be able to kill it before you run out of space easily

[Bendeis]

What we do in phase3 is:

Right before he goes into phase3, our tank marks himself (Or in your case, a player that knows the last phase well)
And then when the last phase hits, we all go down to the bottom, and stack up on the marked person.
The person that gets the debuff goes to the left/right and moves back to the group when the debuff is gone, and when lightning cloud spawn, we all move up a bit.

Rinse and repeat to you reach the top. If the boss is not dead by then, top everyone off, and fly straight down to where you started, you should not take a lot of damage by doing this. Then you start over again, working your way up.

[Warlight]

What we do in phase3 is:

Right before he goes into phase3, our tank marks himself (Or in your case, a player that knows the last phase well)
And then when the last phase hits, we all go down to the bottom, and stack up on the marked person.
The person that gets the debuff goes to the left/right and moves back to the group when the debuff is gone, and when lightning cloud spawn, we all move up a bit.

Rinse and repeat to you reach the top. If the boss is not dead by then, top everyone off, and fly straight down to where you started, you should not take a lot of damage by doing this. Then you start over again, working your way up.

^^^This. Al'Akir was one of my first cata raid bosses, and we 1 shotted him this exact way

[Whoopsa]

What we do in phase3 is:

Right before he goes into phase3, our tank marks himself (Or in your case, a player that knows the last phase well)
And then when the last phase hits, we all go down to the bottom, and stack up on the marked person.
The person that gets the debuff goes to the left/right and moves back to the group when the debuff is gone, and when lightning cloud spawn, we all move up a bit.

Rinse and repeat to you reach the top. If the boss is not dead by then, top everyone off, and fly straight down to where you started, you should not take a lot of damage by doing this. Then you start over again, working your way up.

It's a lot easier for most people to go directly to the top as holding spacebar until you stop is much easier than holding X until you get somewhere then deciding to stop going down, but either way works.

That said, whenever anyone mentions "the bottom", about where his cape tapers off is as far down as you go before you get into lightning. The key to phase 3 is to group up, stay grouped up through wind bursts, and to move at the appropriate time. If you look, there's a bluish-grey cloud that forms before the lightning hits. When you see that, go down a little and you're safe.


Also, @OP, thanks for citing my guide :3

[Nume]

I tend to have the most success starting at top. The reason for this is that many groups seem to have issues starting on a level field if you go to bottom (they'll be higher or lower, almost every time) and not stack well. Going to top, everyone starts out on the same plane since you can just hit space til it stops you. Its also easier to see when someone screws up and goes down too far when using that method, so I can yell at em to get back up higher :P. The key is to move when you see the cloud, before the lightning comes, but never move too far or you'll run out of space. If people aren't going too far though you have tons of space before you hit the bottom. Also one last thing, if you are able to maintain your stacks in phase 2 all the way through, and kill one just before phase 3, that extra damage helps a ton with the running out of space issue.

[Deleted]

And make sure you kill the adds in p3 aswell.

[Wilderness]

It's a lot easier for most people to go directly to the top as holding spacebar until you stop is much easier than holding X until you get somewhere then deciding to stop going down, but either way works.

I just want to highlight this because its actually something that many people don't know. I actually just learned about it recently and it made us go from struggling in P3 for H Al'Akir to killing it easily once we got to that phase. And that is that the "sit" key, which is by default X, also makes you move directly down just like the spacebar or jump makes you go straight up. It makes it so much easier to position yourself that way so you don't have to try and move the camera all around to swim down, etc. So once you get into position all together at the start you just use spacebar/x to move up and down unless you get the lightning and then you move out to the side a bit (people tend to move farther away than necessary, so be mindful of that as well).

[Bloodrose]

Also, @OP, thanks for citing my guide :3

I figured you would appreciate it lol. I've seen a lot of these too and the lack of information / direction in them sometimes makes puppies cry.

[Nume]

I just want to highlight this because its actually something that many people don't know. I actually just learned about it recently and it made us go from struggling in P3 for H Al'Akir to killing it easily once we got to that phase. And that is that the "sit" key, which is by default X, also makes you move directly down just like the spacebar or jump makes you go straight up. It makes it so much easier to position yourself that way so you don't have to try and move the camera all around to swim down, etc. So once you get into position all together at the start you just use spacebar/x to move up and down unless you get the lightning and then you move out to the side a bit (people tend to move farther away than necessary, so be mindful of that as well).

I still prefer just angling the view down a bit and pressing mouse buttons to go down. The reason for this is that you need to move forward anyways (due to the knockback) and I'm not used to hitting x, so I could easily misclick and hit something else. It is good to know though for people who have issues controlling with the mouse.

[Deleted]

Dunno if anyone mentioned this, but you can have everyone stacked on a marked person who's good at spotting new lightning clouds spawning. That person can also call out when to move on vent, and yell at anyone who's too far below you if you're starting at the top. Anyone who gets Lightning Rod can just move 20 yards to the left to avoid aoeing the raid.

[Tziva]

Phase 3. Everyone go up. Once at the roof. go down when the lightning clouds spawn, down again, down again. On the third 'down again' go right down to the bottom, then go up, up and then all the way to the top. rinse and repeat. The clouds will despawn by the time you go all the way to the top again. Soo...

Phase 3 starts

Go to top.

Down

Down

All the way down

Up

Up

All the way up.

Rinse and repeat and P3 only has the ending of an enrage timer =)

This is how we do it, but I don't think either way (being top-down or bottom-up) is "right" or "wrong" for this particular fight.

It sounds like your raid is mainly having trouble handling the perspective issue of free floating since it sounds like it's based on positioning. Moving and positioning in space is just something people need practice to get used to.

I will add that one thing that can help is turning your camera parallel & sideways to look at the group in profile. This will show you if you're too high or low, or too far in front or behind. A lot of times it will seem like you're right with the group from the angle your camera is at, only to sweep it around and see you're 20 yards above and/or behind everyone, and that's what is causing the issue. Best suggestion I can give is train everyone to spin their cameras around the group to make sure they really are clumped with everyone else. Mark someone to stack on if you think that will help at all.

Also, make sure the targeted zappy person strafes to the side and not up or down.

FWIW, we found Al'akir harder than Nef on 10man.