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Norushen Heroic Guide
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Introduction
Hi all,
I created a guide for my guild as reference for Norushen Heroic, describing our original kill strategy.
I'm a big fan of text guides in conjunction with video guides and I feel that each has their own merits when preparing for a new encounter during progression. I'd also recommend the Fatboss, Evrelia and Gabestah video guides as a great resource ahead of any progression. Links to these video guides can be found below the text guide I've created.
Hopefully this guide can be of use to other people as well.
As this encounter is fairly simple after having already got used to the mechanics on Normal difficulty, I've not bothered including a TL;DR summary, for those only interested in the key points.
Disclaimer: This guide is aimed at the 10-man Heroic version of the Norushen encounter and not all of the information presented may be applicable to 25-man Heroic. This is not a definitive strategy and also assumes a basic knowledge of the normal encounter and the changes to mechanics on Heroic. Other strategies are entirely plausible, but this guide reflects what we have used for our first kill and I can vouch that it works for us!
For links to my other Heroic boss guides, check out the Index Thread.
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Raid Composition
Standard composition - 2 tanks, 5-6 DPS, 2-3 healers.
Recommended composition - 2 tanks, 6 DPS, 2 healers.
2 healing the encounter makes meeting the DPS requirement significantly easier and the healing requirement isn't particularly high.
This fight is a borderline "Patchwerk" style nuke, so there is no disadvantage taking either melee or ranged DPS due to fairly minimal movement. Just take your highest single target damage dealers! AoE healers are going to be very strong on this fight as well, expect Efflorescence and Healing Rain to be pushing Resto Druids and Resto Shamans forward as the fight favourites.
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Overview
The Norushen Heroic encounter received an early hotfix which has greatly affected strategies for the fight. This hotfix does not affect the tactics used by many 10-man guilds however, unless they were originally doing the fight without ever sending any DPS to do the Tests; the zerg strategy was far more common on 25-man Heroic difficulty.
Hotfix information - http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/2...erk-reduction/
What this means, is that the primary strategy used to defeat the encounter is likely to be identical or at least very similar to how most guilds defeated the encounter on Normal difficulty. Players still begin the encounter at 75 Corruption in the hotfixed version of the Heroic encounter and the Tests for all roles still produce the same number of adds and effects in the room where the Amalgam of Corruption and the bulk of the raid are located at any one time.Originally Posted by Blue Post
The primary change to the difficulty of the fight is in the healing requirement and the 7-minute hard enrage time, requiring your DPS to perform well and minimise or ideally totally avoid any corruption gains. It should be more than possible that once a DPS has been Purified by completing their Test, they gain no further Corruption, providing that the tanks and healers soak all the orbs dropped by the large adds and avoid standing between the small adds and the Amalgam of Corruption as the bolts they cast deal 5 Corruption to a raid member standing between them and the boss.
As on Normal, the fight consists of a single Phase, with role specific Tests that can be accessed by clicking on the golden orbs floating in the room. Players do not actually fight Norushen, so the boss is actually the Amalgam of Corruption. 4 golden orbs are present in 10-man Heroic, rather than the 2 orbs present in 10-man normal, meaning that more raiders can enter the Test realm at any one time.
As a final note before I continue with a more detailed breakdown of the encounter, I'd like to clarify some things:
- Boss = Amalgam of Corruption
- Big add = Manifestation of Corruption
- Small add = Essence of Corruption
- Wave of adds = 1 Manifestation of Corruption + 3 Essence of Corruption
- Adds = Manifestation of Corruption/s or Essence of Corruption/s
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Strategy
Assuming you are familiar with the Normal difficulty Norushen encounter, there is no real additional complexity with the Heroic version. Providing you can cope with the increased healing and DPS requirements, as well as dealing with the adds effectively, this should be a simple fight to progress.
Heroism should not be used on the pull, as all the DPS will be doing reduced damage due to the 75 Corruption that every raid member shares.
How to Handle the Tests:
The key to the fight is getting your DPS purified as soon as possible, in order of highest single target DPS output. Avoid sending multiple DPS into the test realm at once however, as this causes more harm than good - having more than 1 large add spawning with the raid is a bad idea.
I would recommend either of the following Orb orders for the first 5 sets of Tests:
However, numerous other orders will work so adapt it to meet the needs of your raid; the key is sending out a DPS with either a tank or healer with each wave, or more preferably even more DPS per set of golden orbs than that! If you are having trouble with tanks getting gibbed or with DPS, send your tanks in earlier or a healer with DPS output. If you are having trouble with raid healing, send a good AoE healer in early. Many guilds end up choosing to stick with whatever order they used for the Normal version of the encounter and still find success.(If you are confident in handling multiple large adds at once)
Orbs #1 - Tank1 + Healer1 + DPS1 (kills big add first) + DPS2 (kills big add last)
Orbs #2 - Tank2 + Healer2 + DPS3 (kills big add first) + DPS4 (kills big add last)
Orbs #3 - Tank1 + DPS5
Orbs #4 - Tank2 + DPS6
OR
(Slightly easier as fewer simultaneous big adds, but means you are freeing up DPS slower)
Orbs #1 - Tank1 + Healer1 + DPS1 (kills big add first) + DPS2 (kills big add last)
Orbs #2 - Tank2 + Healer2 + DPS3
Orbs #3 - Tank1 + DPS4
Orbs #4 - Tank2 + DPS5
Orbs #5 - Tank1 + DPS6
The longer you leave it before getting all your DPS purified, the longer the fight will take and the more likely it will be that the boss will hit 50% health with a DPS in the Test realm causing a big add to spawn at the same time the boss summons his first wave of adds.
Irrespective of composition, whenever a DPS enters the Test realm, they should kill the small adds first and the big add last, so that when they leave the realm they can help burn the big add down, unless multiple DPS have gone in on the same wave of orbs, in which case the spawning of the big adds needs to be staggered.
Once all 6 DPS are Purified, the tanks and healers will take turns getting Purified again and again as necessary - if either of the tanks or healers gets to 100 Corruption, it's important to do another Test and get Purified again as the tanks and healers will be soaking all of the orbs dropped by the big adds, to ensure that the DPS don't gain Corruption and are at maximum potential damage output.
We found it easiest for the tanks to soak ALL of the orbs dropped by the big adds and for the tanks to do a new Test each time there was a tank swap.
There are 2 times during the encounter when Heroism can be used effectively. The first is to pop Heroism as soon as all 6 DPS have been Purified, which provides the highest DPS for the encounter - especially if the DPS time their CDs accordingly. Alternatively, if you are struggling with the healing towards the end of the fight, it could be use during the sub-20% execute as a combined healer and DPS cooldown, to help the healers keep the raid up. Personally, I would recommend the former.
How to Handle the Amalgam of Corruption and Adds:
Dealing with the main phase is best handled almost identically to how it is managed on Normal difficulty.
DPS Priority: Adds > Amalgam of Corruption.
As the small adds should be killed first in the Test realms, from a DPS perspective the fight basically consists of nuking Norushen, then switching to kill a few small adds, then the big add, then nuking Norushen again until the next add Phase. When the boss is sub 50% and spawning waves of adds every 10%, switch to the big add as soon as it comes in to reduce AoE damage even if there are some small adds up.
Everytime a big add dies, a tank or healer should be stood exactly on top of it, so that they immediately soak the orb it drops before any AoE pulses occur.
Whenever a small add is present, DPS must ensure that they are not standing between it and the boss as intercepting the bolt it casts will cause them to gain 5 Corruption. Tanks and healers can stand between them if necessary, however there is no real need as the small adds should be dead almost instantly after they spawn. Bear in mind that if you are at greater than 75 Corruption, you cannot soak the orbs that the big adds drop.
Positioning:
There is no reason for the raid not to be stacked up on this encounter and it will make raid healing significantly easier to do so. Avoid moving unless the Blinding Hatred cutter beam is going to go through where the raid is stacked and make the call as to whether to strafe away and the move back to the same spot (if it's about to expire), or relocate in an entirely new location. The Blinding Hatred cutter beam can move both clockwise AND anti-clockwise, so just because it's spawned nearby doesn't mean you know whether movement of the raid is required until movement of the cutter beam has occured. It should be noted that the cutter beam is not a one shot mechanic, but it does deal very high damage.
One way of dealing with keeping the raid together, is to have 2, 3 or 4 stacking locations marked around the boss and then moving around the boss as required. This allows healers to pre-emptively move Efflorescence, Healing Rain or similar abilities to the new planned location as the raid is moving.
For example:
Where the Red, Blue and Green medium sized circles signify raid markers, the smaller Light Orange circles signify the golden orb locations and the unhappy looking Purple circle is the Amalgam of Corruption. The cutter beam moves just over half way round Norushen, so 3 stacking locations should be sufficient, though you may occasionally have to strafe out and back in of a marked location just as the beam is about to finish.
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General Tips
- This fight is 3 healable, however most guilds will probably find 2 healing easier, so if you are getting low percentage wipes with a 3 heal setup and have no further means of pushing out a bit more DPS, drop a healer and you'll probably get the kill. Learning to execute the fight properly is safer with 3 healers, but once you can do it well and minimise AoE damage from the big adds, 2 healing should be far easier to ensure you meet the DPS requirement.
- You can get away with only sending DPS and healers into the Test realm once, and sending your tanks in again and again so they can always soak Corruption stacks and no one else has to.
- Interrupt the small adds when they spawn around the raid and don't stand between them and the Amalgam of Corruption.
- Stun the big adds and make sure a tank (ideally) is standing at their location when they die to instantly soak the purple orb before it pulses.
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Video Guides
Below are some video guides for further reference, bear in mind that not all aspects of the strategies or tips described in the videos may be shared with my own information, but can be used in conjunction with the guide for a better overall idea ahead of progressing on this encounter.
Fatboss Video Guide:
LINK
Evrelia Video Guide:
LINK
Gabestah Long Video Guide:
LINK
Gabestah Short Video Guide:
LINK
Gabestah Tank Video Guide:
LINK
Gabestah DPS Video Guide:
LINK.
Gabestah Healer Video Guide:
LINK
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Reference Links
For a full list of Gabestah Video Guides, please check out his thread HERE
Icy Veins Norushen Guide: http://www.icy-veins.com/norushen-detailed-strategy-wow
Healer CDs Tips: http://www.healercds.com/siege-of-or...trategy-guide/
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Change Log
- Added links to the Fatboss and Evrelia video guides.
- Raid composition advice rewording
- Amended the guide to promote 2 healing over 3 healing to ensure the enrage timer is a non-issue.
- Amended the suggestions for who completes their Tests and when.
- Added links to all of the Gabestah video guides.
- Added a statement clarifying the number of orbs allowing access to the Test realm.
- Reworded "Trial" to "Test"
- Reworded "Amalgamation" to "Amalgam of Corruption"
- Added a proper positioning diagram.
- Reformatted to make reading the walls of text a bit easier.
- Added links to Facebook, Twitter and Blog.
- Fixed the link to the website.
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