20% nerf and HC Warmaster

[failladin]

So my guild just started its progression on HC warmaster 10m last week mainly getting used to the fight on heroic. We were always getting to the last set of adds (we had a pug dps that was really low, but this week that won't be an issue) and I have heard that p2 isn't very difficult with p1 being the phase with the learning curve and need for better dps.I guess my question is with the 20% nerf coming tomorrow will HC Warmaster become a pushover like some of the other heroics have?

[Jellospally]

Most likely. Long as the drakes die before they fly away the fight is a joke anyway. If you have Mages / spriests you can solo soak onslaughts and soak little ones in groups of 2 or 1 if you have CDs which many classes have.

Mainly just make sure your tanks are tanking each wave of adds together and the other one soaks don't have each tank tanking 1 add each wave. Have 1 take both and then swap next wave. So you have more soaking power and everyone else can focus more on drakes. Also, make sure you are 2 healing since the fight has always been easy to heal...3 is a waste.

P2 is simple if everyone spreads out makes for way less movement when shockwave picks someone.

[Deleted]

Well it'll definitely become easier, I dunno if I'd call it a pushover. That's a very relevant term, for an 8/8H guild that's been farming it since week 1 of DS? Yeah its a pushover. For a guild just now starting progression on it? Probably not. WM is one of the more execution oriented of fights in DS so if anything the nerf affects it less than most of the other bosses.

As for phase 2, the difficulty of it varies greatly on how much fire you have left over and what silly RNG it decides to hand you. Its not unheard of for guilds to 1 shot P2 the first time they get to it, but its also not unheard of to have the entire ship burning and a nightmare of a time positioning yourselves. But overall it really is easier than P1.

[Deja Thoris]

I have a few questions on this fight since we just started progression too.

1) Can a pala bubble and solo a little swirl without receiving the debuff?
2) Is there any resource on how many little swirls a team would realistically need to soak to get through to phase 2 safely? (Assuming the drakes die in one pass)
3) Do people generally stop soaking 15 seconds before an onslaught to remove the debuff and is it safe to soak if you dont?

Thx :P

[Harsesis]

If you are using the strat where the drakes are never allowed to leave you will only see 4 onslaughts. If everyone gets in those onslaughts then only 3-4 small swirls are required to be soaked. Those numbers are from the 0% buff so if the swirls are doing 20% less damage you might be able to get away with ignoring them and at worst only have to soak a couple. I know pallies can easily soak with a bubble but I'm not sure about the debuff.

[bigbad]

We bloodlust on the last set of adds, makes stuff go a bit smoother transitioning into P2. Are you doing that as well? 5% extra nerf will make it easier killing stuff faster and less damage but you still need to soak properly and get the sappers.

As for the other questions:
1: AMS works as DK not sure about pally bubbles but guess that would work
2: If the drakes die in 1 pass you need to soak 4 barrages
3: We avoid the barages a few secs before the onslaught soaking anything else is fine

[Rhiziana]

i dont know really. we just started progressing on him, and so far we belive that its easiest if you havfe a hunter, use detterence and soak one. it goes right through, but hallelujah for 30% damage reduction while its up!

then take a spriest, and a mage (soak one individually) and then make a gruop of 2 and soak, ignore the rest and it shoulld be easy if you have the DPS

[xiza]

Our Paladin uses the glyphed Version of Divine Protection; although he has to be at full HP to soak one swirl.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

P2 is a complete joke unless your tanks fail at swapping and fail at facing the dragon away from the raid.

[Timmeh7]

To the people talking about a solo soaker, there is a word of caution. Unlike normal, in heroic the ship counts as a player. If you have only one other person in the various mechanics, the ship will take 50% of the damage, if you have two people it'll take 33% and so on. It's easy to survive (as a feral tank I can even solo an onslaught), but it's almost always to your advantage to get as many people in them as possible.

1: AMS works as DK not sure about pally bubbles but guess that would work

If someone is immune in a barrage or onslaught, they simply won't be counted for the ship damage calculation. If they were the only one there, the ship would take 100% of the damage; they may as well stay out and save the cooldown.

Keep in mind that the goal here isn't so much to keep the ship alive (well, it is, but that's easy), it's to stop the final fire from spawning. Fire received a fairly substantial buff around 2 months ago, making it a lot harder for the little flying robots to extinguish. As such, avoiding the third fire will make your life considerably easier in P2.

You'll kill it the second or third time you transition into P2 cleanly. As long as you have a fire-free section of the ship to play with and have both tanks and healers alive, it's a fairly easy phase.

[Braindwen]

Unlike normal, in heroic the ship counts as a player.

That happens in normal too. Barrages don't count the ship on normal or heroic, Onslaughts count the ship on both normal and heroic.

A word of warning: Very, very little of the ship damage is actually affected by the stacking nerf. Barrages hit the ship on 10H for 420k at 10% nerf. At 15% nerf, they hit for 420k. They'll probably still hit for 420k at 20%. Onslaughts currently hit for their tooltip value, 1.2M, divided by the number of soakers+1 (since the ship is a soaker), at 15%. Looking at our video, Broadside was still taking 20% of the remaining health at 15%. Hell, the only ship damage that actually looks to be affected by the nerf is sappers, and they should never get through.

The rest of the fight is easier, and technically lower health drakes makes ship damage slightly easier. But really, ship damage is not something you'll be able to ignore. Warmaster isn't heavily affected by the nerf. Don't expect it to do too much.

[Frozendekay]

Those numbers are from the 0% buff so if the swirls are doing 20% less damage you might be able to get away with ignoring them and at worst only have to soak a couple.

Nope, the damage the ship takes is completely unaffected by the buff. 420k per barrage flat, never changing.

[Maelstrom51]

You're right about phase 2 being a lot easier. My guild has killed H Blackhorn twice, and we have wiped a single time in phase 2, and that was the second week we killed him. If you guild can tank swap correctly and avoid shockwaves it'll be a cakewalk.

[Deleted]

I have a few questions on this fight since we just started progression too.

1) Can a pala bubble and solo a little swirl without receiving the debuff?
2) Is there any resource on how many little swirls a team would realistically need to soak to get through to phase 2 safely? (Assuming the drakes die in one pass)
3) Do people generally stop soaking 15 seconds before an onslaught to remove the debuff and is it safe to soak if you dont?

1) On Barrages yes, you'll survive but it'll go right through you and damage the ship. On Onslaughts no, Bubble/IB don't affect it and you'll die if you're too low.
2) No because it depends on how much damage Broadside and Onslaughts did as well.
3) No, you can easily survive with 1 or even 2 debuffs if you know what you're doing. Again it depends on a lot of things, such as what health you're at, what CD you use and how many other people are soaking. If there's 7-8 people soaking and a person is 90%+ health they should survive with a single debuff.

[aztr0]

Certainly it will be easier, but the 1 shot mechanics are still there, so no it won't be a push over if you have dumbasses in your group.

[Maximus4004]

Keys to Warmaster
1. Have fire play nice.
2. Gnomes are not good firefighters.
3. Never let a goblin strapped with dynamite get to the cabin.
4. Properly soak onslaughts.
5. Kill drakes quick
6. Have tanks face dragons away from raid.
7. Profit.