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Iron Juggernaut Heroic Guide
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Introduction
Hi all,
I created a guide for my guild as reference for Iron Juggernaut 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.
I've also included a TL;DR summary, for those only interested in the key points, despite the fairly succinct strategy for each phase.
Disclaimer: This guide is aimed at the 10-man Heroic version of the Iron Juggernaut 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 is what we will be using 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, 4-5 DPS, 3-4 Healers
Recommend Composition: 2 tanks, 5 DPS, 3 healers
This composition assumes that the raid is standing out of range of Iron Juggernaut during Siege Mode, to totally negate the barrage that occurs as it won't be able to reach them.
If the raid is staying in during Siege Mode, the damage will likely be much higher and a 4 heal composition is more advisable. However, the tactic described below is for 3 healers. No doubt with much better gear, some guilds will choose to 2 heal this encounter, but it's not of any benefit to do so during progression as the healing requirement is very high.
This fight benefits hybrid classes that can offer strong off healing (Druids with HotW, Shamans with Healing Rain and direct heals, Shadow Priest or Ret Paladin off-healing and so on), but also classes with mitigation cooldowns for the raid, such as Smoke Bombs from Rogues, AMZ from Deathknights, RC/Banner from Warriors and Devotion Aura from any Paladin.
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Overview
The encounter itself is mechanically very simple, the primary difficulty in the encounter lies in the healing requirement and with this strategy also requires strong DPS and very little damage will be done to the boss during Siege Mode.
During Assault Mode, all of the mechanics present from Normal mode still occur, but in a more damaging form. There is an additional mechanic in the form of a Sawblade which targets a random raid member (non-tank) and flies out at them before turning back to the boss, it deals high damage to anyone in its path, both on the outward and return journey but can be avoided. This phase is not particularly challenging, though the damage on the raid can be quite spiky if players are not careful of their surroundings. The DPS need to be optimised for a single target burn to meet the enrage timer for the encounter and almost all damage done to the boss will only occur during the Assault Mode phases.
During Siege Mode, all of the mechanics present from Normal mode also still occur, but the increase in raid damage is noticeable. There is an additional mechanic in the form of a barrage of Mortar Cannons, which fires multiple cannons very rapidly to at random raid members within range of the boss. This mechanic is ignored entirely using the strategy described in this guide, as the whole raid will be well out of it's range. The rate at which Crawler Mines spawn during the phase is also increased. Siege Mode is the most challenging part of the encounter, due to the large AoE damage on the raid and the very high damage dealt by the Shock Pulses which occur 3 times per Siege Mode phase. A good healer and raid mitigation cooldown rotation will be required to keep everyone alive until the next Assault Mode phase. The DPS will not be able to attack Iron Juggernaut during this phase, so should be focusing on self healing, off healing other players and using personal and raid mitigation abilities to ensure there are no deaths. The Laser Burn will still reach the raid no matter how far away from the boss they are, and the Demolisher Cannon ability will also still target random raid members during Siege Mode, so it is vital that the raid are spread at least /range 6 to avoid unnecessary splash damage (it hits for 250k damage on 10-man Heroic!) and give room for kiting the Laser.
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Positioning
Assault Mode
Siege Mode
Unhappy Brown Circle = Iron Juggernaut
Green Circle = Active Boss Tank
Red Circle = Inactive Tank
Blue Circle = Melee DPS
Purple Oval = Ranged DPS and Healers (spread)
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Unhappy Brown Circle = Iron Juggernaut
Striped Purple Oval = Raid spreading location prior to stacking for the 1st Shock Pulse
Blue Circle = Stacking location prior to 1st Shock Pulse
Green Circles = Tanks
Red Circle = Raid spreading location after 1st Shock Pulse until the end of Siege Mode
Strategy
Assault Mode - Lasts 2 Minutes
Handled identically to Normal mode, with the addition of trying to dodge Sawblades. Tanks should swap on 3 stacks of Flame Vents and use cooldowns or immunities to soak as many Crawler Mines as possible. The timing for the first set of Crawler Mines and the 3rd stack of Flame Vents for the starting tank can vary relative to one another, so for safety it may be advisable to have a raid member with a large cooldown (e.g Pain Suppression, Life Cocoon) or immunity (e.g Hand of Protection, Divine Shield) to soak one or two of the first wave. It is possible for the inactive tank to soak all 3 mines of every wave, though they may need a movement speed increase to do so and should use mitigation cooldowns to survive the damage of the blast as well as the Flame Vents DoT ticking on them. The tank soaking the Crawler Mines will need spam healing to ensure they are topped off between each soak.
Heroism and DPS cooldowns should be used on the pull to maximise damage in this phase - very little damage will be done to the boss during Siege Mode due to the strategy described in this guide, so single target damage must be optimised in each Assault Mode. Having the tanks primarily soaking Crawler Mines contributes towards this.
The raid need to be very aware of the Borer Drill spikes travelling along the ground, the Mortar Cannons (signified by a large red circle on the ground, with an 8 yard radius around the location of a player when they are targeted) heading to their location and the Ricochet sawblades, as these all cause very high damage if not avoided. The sawblades are fairly easy to dodge on the way out, but can take a fairly unpredictable route back to the boss on their return, so expect some damage to result from them. Having the raid fairly spread minimises the risk of damage from all of these sources, but nonetheless try to make use of ground targeted AoE abilities such as Efflorescence and Healing Wave, without getting unnecessarily close to your fellow raid members.
Tanks will be taking very high damage both whilst tanking the boss and whilst soaking Crawler Mines, so it is important for the rest of the raid to minimise damage on themselves to allow the healers to focus heal the tanks.
Laser Burn is a nuke that deals high Fire damage to random raid members, and that also leaves a Fire damage DoT on these players. It is unavoidable, it's unavoidable and must just be healed through. It will be the main source of damage on the raid during Assault Mode and will cause some pretty spiky health pools!
Use of healing cooldowns during the Assault Mode phases should be avoided and if the raid are careful shouldn't be required anyway, as the cooldowns will be needed to keep the raid up during the Siege Mode phases.
Siege Mode - Lasts 1 Minute
The healing requirement for this phase is a huge step up compared to anything encountered so far in Siege of Orgrimmar and will need an extensive and well timed chain of healing cooldowns, raid and personal mitigation cooldowns, effective raid positioning, off healing and self healing to survive. Throughout this entire phase, Seismic Activity is dealing constant and high raid wide physical damage.
The additional Heroic mode mechanic, a barrage of Mortar Cannons can be avoided entirely by having the whole raid very far away from the boss, but the Crawler Mines, Cutter Laser, Explosive Tar and Demolisher Cannons must still be contended with.
At the start of the Siege Mode, the raid should start moving away from Iron Juggernaut but ensure they are spread at least 6 yards apart to avoid splash damage from Demolisher Cannons hitting multiple people. A couple of seconds before the first Shock Pulse, the raid should stack up as shown by the Blue marker in the positioning diagram, using burst healing abilities such as healthstones, Holy Prism from a Paladin and ideally an ability like Barrier from a Priest or AMZ from a Deathknight, to ensure no one is instagibbed by the Shock Pulse.
The whole raid will then be blasted back towards the area near the Red circle on the positioning diagram for this phase. This is well out of the range of the Mortar Cannon barrage and allows the raid to stay fairly close together, whilst being sufficiently spread to deal with the other abilities that Iron Juggernaut is using against them.
At this point, the raid will remain fairly spread out in that area until Assault Mode begins again. All Crawler Mines should be soaked by the tanks, who will still need focused healing even though they won't have the Flame Vents DoT ticking on them; make sure they are topped off before taking a 2nd Crawler Mine.
Prior to each Shock Pulse, the raid should ideally be topped up using a healer cooldown and have a raid mitigation ability used to reduce the damage of the Pulse. You will have to time your raids personal mitigation abilities and/or healthstones to fit in with the rest of your raid cooldowns.
For example, our composition allows us to do the following:
- First Shock Pulse - Stack up just before the Shock Pulse and use Barrier with personal mitigation cooldowns, spread out again and Healthstones to top off.
- Second Shock Pulse - Stay spread out, Resto Druid Tranquility to top everyone up beforehand, Devotion Aura and Rallying Cry to reduce the survive of the Pulse.
- 3rd Shock Pulse - Stay spread out, Holy Paladin healer cooldowns to top everyone up beforehand, Devotion Aura and Rallying Cry to reduce the survive of the Pulse.
Obviously, depending on your comp you should be using Mistweaver Revival, Shaman Healing Tide Totem, Feral/Guardian/Boomkin Tranquility, Feral/Guardian/Boomkin Heart of the Wild for off healing, Lights Hammers or Holy Prism and Devotion Aura from Paladins and all that jazz to keep up. All hybrid classes with healing or mitigation utility should be getting straight on it for this phase - Physical damage reductions will reduce Seismic Activity, Crawler Mines and Demolisher Cannon damage whilst anything reducing magic damage will reduce the damage of Shock Pulses and Cutting Lasers.
Cutting Lasers should be kited away from raid members and kept well away from any puddles of oil, as if the oil is ignited it will deal additional raid wide damage.
Once Siege Mode ends, move back into position for Assault Mode, it's rinse and repeat from there on in.
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Summary
Assault Mode
- Heroism and DPS cooldowns on pull.
- Save healer cooldowns for Siege Mode.
- Tank swap at 3 stacks of Flame Vents.
- Tanks soak as many Crawler Mines as possible, use mitigation cooldowns and heal bomb them to ensure they don't die.
- Raid stay fairly spread and dodge Borer Drills, Ricochet Sawblades and Mortar Cannons.
- Heal through Laser Burn damage.
Siege Mode
- Healer and raid mitigation cooldowns used in rotation to survive Shock Pulses.
- Tanks soak all Crawler Mines.
- Kite Cutting Lasers away from raid members and puddles of oil.
- Raid should be spread /range 6 so as not to splash Demolisher Cannon damage to multiple players.
- Make use of hybrid off healing, healthstones and personal mitigation to keep yourself and other raid members alive.
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General Tips
- Bring as many hybrid classes with off healing abilities as you possibly can.
- Make use of your full arsenal of raid mitigation, raid healing, personal mitigation and self healing abilities to survive Siege Mode.
- Paladins can use Hand of Protection to allow players to soak any Crawler Mines that the tanks can't reach.
- Even if you don't have a Warlock in your raid, park an alt inside the instance for Healthstones, then swap back onto the main for said main to get a healthstone as well before kicking the Warlock from the group if healers want their frames tidy.
- Spell reflect can be used to negate the damage of the Borer Drill if required.
- When knocked in the air by soaking a Crawler Mine, you will not get knocked back by Shock Pulse.
- If 2 Crawler Mines are within a few yards of each other, you may be able to click both of them in quick succession but only get knocked up once - it appears that when this is achieved, only damage is taken from the first Mine clicked on.
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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 To be added.
Gabestah Short Video Guide:
LINK To be added.
Gabestah Tank Video Guide:
LINK To be added.
Gabestah DPS Video Guide:
LINK To be added.
Gabestah Healer Video Guide:
LINK To be added.
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Reference Links
For a full list of Gabestah Video Guides, please check out his thread HERE
Icy Veins Iron Juggernaut Guide: LINK
Healiocentric Iron Juggernaut Normal Guide: [url=http://healiocentric.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/soo-6-iron-juggernaut/]LINK[/url To be added.
Healer CDs Tips: LINK
MMO-Champion Discussion Thread: LINK
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Change Log
- Added link to MMO discussion thread.
- Added some General Tips.
- Added positioning diagrams and descriptions for both Assault and Siege Mode.
- Added links to Evrelia and Fatboss video guides.
- Added additional tips.
- Added Facebook, Twitter and Blog links.
- Fixed link to the website.
- Removed a load of left over "To be added" text
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