Page 1 of 6
1
2
3
... LastLast
  1. #1
    The Lightbringer
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Cork, Ireland
    Posts
    3,041

    Post Official LFR Compilation, FAQ & Tactics (t14)

    LOOKING FOR RAID
    COMPILATION & FAQ




    CONTENTS:

    You can quickly find the topic you wish to browse by a quick find search (ctrl + f) and typing in the number corresponding.

    1 - Purpose of this Thread
    2 - What is Looking For Raid (LFR)?
    3 - Launch details of LFR in MoP
    4 - LFR Encounters in MoP - The changes
    5 - Loot Changes & Elder Charms
    5(a) How to get the Elder Charm of Good Fortune?
    5(b) The Elder Charm of Good Fortune
    5(c) Loot Changes in LFR
    5(d) Loot ilvl Changes

    6 - Encounter Tactics
    6(a) - Tactics for Mogu'shan Vaults - Guardian of Mogu'shan
    6(b) - Tactics for Mogu'shan Vaults - The Vault of Mysteries
    6(c) - Tactics for Heart of Fear - The Dread Approach
    6(d) - Tactics for Heart of Fear - Nightmare of Shek'zeer
    6(e) - Tactics for Terrace of Endless Springs

    7 - Change Log


    1 - Purpose of this Thread:

    The purpose of this thread is to provide information about LFR. Feel free to discuss anything within. If I forgot something or you have a useful link to provide for this thread, please comment or PM me. This thread will facilitate anything LFR related within reason. This thread should not be used to bad mouth LFR or other players. It should not be used to discuss why you have not won an item from a boss. If you need extra help in a tactic then ask, or if you can provide new information please do so. If you think you have a better tactic feel free to discuss but remember it must be pug friendly and not something that only works in a guild or needing a voice chat etc. I hope this guide helps you, any suggestions or thank you's are always welcome.

    Welcome to the Official LFR COMPILATION & FAQ!


    2 - What is Looking For Raid (LFR)?:

    This question may be very obvious for the majority of forum users. However, there are those in the community that have not played during Cataclysm and may be unaware of what LFR actually is. LFR stands for Looking for Raid, it is a 25 man version of the instance that is tuned for pugs. It is designed with the intent of providing an easier challenge, and is aimed at those who do not have time for raiding with guilds (however guilds still do this for loot or practice). You can see all content within LFR, but in an easier version of the instance. So what exactly do I mean by "easier version of the instance"? Some mechanics that exist on normal/hc raiding may not be present in LFR. Some mechanics may be changed from the normal/hc raiding mechanics to accommodate LFR. An example here is Ultraxion in Dragon Soul: His main mechanic that usually would 1 shot a player in normal/hc would only severely damage a player in LFR. This is just a very brief example. All damage and healing requirements will be scaled down.

    Players view LFR in many different ways, some accept the idea, some reject the idea. Players view LFR positive for: getting practice on an encounter, loot, gold, valor points, seeing lore events and experiencing content that they may otherwise not. LFR has arguments against it and is negatively viewed such as: providing a 'face-roll experience' and it is not 'real raiding'. Regardless of how you view it, LFR may serve you or not. You will be able to get various achievements within the LFR version of the instance, you will not however, get mounts and titles. The loot you may receive (discussed in another section of this thread) will not be as good as the normal and heroic counterparts.

    LFR does not share a lockout with normal mode.

    I hope this answers exactly what LFR is.



    3 - Launch details of LFR in MoP:

    10th of October 2012: LFR will begin 1 week after the normal mode version of Mogu'shan Vaults is unlocked. It will start with the two queues of Mogu'shan Vaults. You must finish the Guardians of Mogu-shan before advancing to Vault of Mysteries.

    17th October 2012: Second half of Mogu'shan Vaults will unlock.

    7th November 2012: Four weeks later (after MV part 1 unlocks) the second raid will unlock in the LFR queue. This is 1 week after the normal version of the Heart of Fear is released (October 31st). This will provide LFR users with access to the first of two queues within Heart of Fear, that being: The Dread Approach.

    14th November 2012: One week after The Dread Approach unlocks, the second queue will be accessible, please note you must clear The Dread Approach before advancing to the Nightmare of Shek'zeer.

    21st November 2012: One week after the Nightmare of Shek'zeer unlocks, the final raid will become available on LFR. The Terrace of Endless Springs is a one queue instance.

    This concludes the launch plans of all LFR Raids on the release of MoP.

    Please note that the above dates are European, simply subtract 1 day off each of the above for the American dates.


    4 - LFR Encounters in MoP - The changes:

    LFR has changed with the coming of MoP. During it's inception LFR was regarded as a "bland experience which trivializes the raiding experience". Blizzard has taken note of this and has made the new LFR a more appropriate experience which will require more co-ordination from it's origins in Dragon Soul. Players should be prepared entering the raids with the use of the Dungeon Journal and the information found on our very own MMO-champion, with videos included. I can thankfully say that LFR in MoP is no longer a loot piñata as that of Dragon Soul, encounters will get easier as time goes on with gear upgrades, community knowledge and possibly tuning. The quality of raids are improving and I out-lined many of the changes below.

    Some differences (the following remains true from a beta perspective):
    - Encounters are longer than Dragon Soul LFR encounters.
    - Teamwork and communication is needed on some encounters more so than others.
    - Some abilities will wreck you.
    - There is individual awareness involved in certain encounters that can make or break your raid.
    - Many mechanics can be ignored (some still can't however).
    - Some encounters can be tough on healers and healer's mana. Beware of not screwing up so they won't waste even more mana.
    - Tanks will have their work cut out for them on a few key encounters. They should manage their defensive cds more efficiently.
    - There are enrage timers on many bosses so the DPS must be good (no more extreme slacking).

    I encourage people to stop leaving a raid just because you wiped. If you don't have time to join LFR, you should not join in the first place. The first days of a new queue in LFR will be extremely demanding as only a few people may have experience from beta.

    Lastly, I recommend boss mods such as Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs, to make things a bit easier, downloading from the Curse Client is quick and simple.



    5. Loot Changes & Elder Charms:

    Before I talk about Loot changes, I'd like to discuss the second chances of loot with the Elder Charm of Good Fortune.

    5(a) How to get the Elder Charm of Good Fortune?

    There is a weekly quest received at your faction's Shrine in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms (level 90). This quest will require you to collect 90 Lesser Charms of Good Fortune which can be obtained by doing daily quests throughout Pandaria. When you complete the quest you receive 3 Elder Charm of Good Fortune.

    Elder Charm of Good Fortune

    5(b) The Elder Charm of Good Fortune:

    The Elder Charm allows a player to have an extra chance at obtaining an item from a boss. This chance does not impact anyone else's chance of loot, it is a personal roll the game decides for you. You will always win something, gold, flasks or even an item from the boss's loot table, the extra item is a very low chance, but a chance regardless. This chance can occur only in raids, be that LFR, normal or heroic.


    5(c) Loot Changes in LFR:

    I've attached a very simple blue post that explains the current system.

    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

    Here is how looting works in today’s Raid Finder groups:

    1. The boss dies.
    2. The game randomly decides which items off of the boss’s loot table drop.
    3. The group rolls Need, Greed, or Pass on each item.
    4. If you were raiding with a group of friends, you might discuss who should get each item. Even if you ultimately lost, hopefully you are happy that a friend got an upgrade and that your group as a whole is now a little bit stronger.
    5. But if you’re in Raid Finder, you are quite possibly alone with a bunch of strangers.
    6. So, if you can Need, you probably do, because there’s no time for discussion, some of the rollers may be AFK, and even if you piss someone off, you aren’t likely to have to pay the social cost of doing so since you’ll never see them again.
    7. The highest roll wins.
    8. Drama ensues.

    Here’s how the new Raid Finder system will work in Mists of Pandaria:

    1. The boss dies.
    2. The game automatically decides who won some loot, and gives those players a spec-appropriate item.
    3. Some players may still get mad, but hopefully they are mad at the laws of probability and not at the rest of the raid.

    So, realistically, that’s really all you need to know to understand how it'll play out in-game.

    For those looking for more detail, here's what's happening behind the scenes:

    1. The boss dies.
    2. Each player has a chance to win loot, independent of the other players.
    3. For each player who wins loot, the game randomly assigns them a spec-appropriate item from that boss’s loot table. This subset contains only items that the game (meaning the designers in this case) thinks are appropriate for your class and current spec.
    4. Notice that you aren’t rolling Need or Greed. You don’t have an option to Pass. The game just says “Take this.”
    5.You can’t trade this item, or that would defeat the purpose of removing the social pressure on groups of strangers. If you don’t want the item, you are free to vendor, delete, or disenchant it.

    Basically what you need to know is that once the boss dies, you will either get loot or you won't. You can also use your charm as discussed above. No one will see who receives what loot (unless you link it). This will hopefully provide a much better experience from Dragon Soul where there was a huge amount of QQ and trading. The item you may receive will be something for your current spec and class. As far as we are aware there is no limit to how much loot the boss can drop for the raid, but maximum 1 item per player (unless you use a charm). You will usually win a bag of gold for your troubles. Everyone has a personal roll, you are not rolling against others, therefore you can only blame luck (or lack of) if you did not get an item. No one can trade you an item and you will not know what dropped, so there is no point in QQ'ing guys, it's hopeless. This effectively stops guilds from exploiting the system (as seen in Dragon Soul), as you cannot force the game to decide who gets what.

    An example of the above:

    Mary, Mark and Mike all are in LFR and defeat the Stone Guard encounter.
    Mary received an item but no one but her can see it.
    Mark did not receive an item but had an Elder Charm of Good Fortune. He uses the item and receives some additional gold.
    Mike however, received an item and used an Elder Charm of Good Fortune and was rewarded with a second item. This item did not impact anyone else's chances of receiving loot.

    Let's examine this further: (please note the numbers involved are examples!)

    Let's say the game has set up that when the boss dies everyone will roll a personalized roll for a chance of receiving loot from the corpse/chest. If someone rolls between 1-5, they get an item, any higher, they don't. This means there is a probability that all 25 players could get extremely lucky and everyone receives an item. There could also be a probability that no one receives loot, whether this is correct or not, we will not know, but it sums up the system easily. If a player then decides to use an Elder Charm of Good Fortune, they will have another roll between 1-100, if they get between 1-5, they get an item.


    5(d) Loot ilvl Changes

    I have included a Blizzard message of the following:

    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

    - Currently we have two separate item levels in LFR, items from the last 2 encounters have a level of 390, while the rest have 384, this made the LFR gear from Deathwing a bit too attractive for just about everyone, including hardcore raiders, so we’ve decided that this needed to be changed for MoP.

    Our initial intention was that this difference would work as a special reward for beating such difficult encounters but that didn’t really translate in LFR since those encounters don’t have a difficulty that is relevant enough for this reward to be warranted.

    Basically our intention for MoP is that if we decide to give a slight bump and increase the loot table ilvl of end bosses, that same bump won’t be applied to LFR but only to normal/heroic modes.

    - While the LFR gear from a new tier will continue to be slightly better than the normal difficulty items from the previous tier, we’ll structure the power level of future tiers’ LFR loot so that it doesn’t replace Heroic gear from the previous raid, and we’re continuing to discuss other solutions internally to limit the pressure for competitive raiders to run LFR.

    This means that unlike LFR Dragon Soul, LFR raids in MoP will have the same ilvl spread throughout, regardless of a last boss or not. Spine and Madness for example gave ilvl 390, while the rest of the raid bosses gave ilvl 384, this will not be the case in MoP. The ilvl is now the exact same through the first tier of raids and this trend will continue.

    This implies that Mogu'shan Vaults drops ilvl 476 throughout (489 normal mode), whilst Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Springs drop ilvl 483 (ilvl 496 normal mode). Only normal and heroic mode will grant a slight extra bump in last bosses loot, if they decide to. LFR loot will never be better than the previous raid's heroic loot in the following raid tiers.


    6 - Encounter Tactics:

    There are 16 bosses in total in LFR queues. Each queue is divided into 3 bosses of that instance (exception being Terrace of Endless Springs having 4).

    Below you'll find a general proven strategy to work. Lists of some important abilities and role responsibilities. Each fight is also ranked 1-5 on Awareness required to down the fight on LFR. 1 meaning not much awareness, 5 being highly aware of what's going on, this does not actually mean how difficult it is, just how important it is to be aware of mechanics etc. There are also other features such as HP values and known hard enrages.

    You must clear all bosses in the first section of the raid to be granted access to the next section (attunements). LFR progression is out-lined in the order the bosses are written below. Higher ilvl requirement to enter Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Springs is also needed.

    Clicking on a boss name below will transfer you to a special screen with lots of additional information.

    ilvl Required for Mogu'shan Vaults: 460

    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    LFR Item Level Requirement Reduction

    We're currently looking into reducing the item level requirement for Mogu'Shan Vaults LFR from 463 to 460. This should mean that more players will be ready to go once LFR is rolled out, but their gear should still be at an appropriate level for the fights.
    ilvl Required for Heart of Fear: Expected to be ilvl 470
    ilvl Required for Terrace of Endless Springs: Expected to be ilvl 470 (will confirm on release)


    6(a) - Tactics for Mogu'shan Vaults - Guardian of Mogu'shan


    The Stone Guard

    Awareness Rating: 2
    HP Value: 212m
    Hard Enrage: No/Unknown
    Fatal Abilities: Petrification - Raid wipe alert
    Special mechanics: Energy Bars: Overload, Special Bar: Petrification Monitor

    General Strategy:

    There are 4 Quillian Guardians, 3 which will be active and rotate on a weekly basis. They share the same HP pool.

    The mechanic of Petrification will turn the entire raid to stone and wipe if it ever gets full. To prevent this a Guardian is select to initiate the process, the bar will turn their colour and a light emits from the Guardian. The raid should nuke the Guardian who is selected and the tanks must group the selected Guardian with another Guardian so their energy bar rises quickly. This Guardian must Overload to prevent Petrification from occurring, this does big raidwide damage. Once interrupted, another Guardian will begin. The players must keep an eye on each Guardians energy and only allow the selected Guardian to Overload. In the case where more than 1 Guardian Overloads, the damage may become hard to heal. The raid must stay out of pools on the floor, move from blue crystals and two players should stay together for Jasper Chains.

    Zerg strategy: If the healers are decent you can gather all three of them together and just nuke them down, provided the healers are somewhat decent you should be able to live through the Overloads, a raid cd etc will help.


    Tank Responsibility:

    There will be 2 tanks. Each will be spread at either side of the room. 1 will pick up 1 Guardian, while the other picks up 2 Guardians. The tank must be aware of the Energy Bar on each Guardian. As long as a Guardian stands next to another Guardian, the bar will fill up for both Guardians. When the selected Guardian reaches high energy (60+) he should be taunted by other tank across the room. This will allow the Guardian to reach full energy whilst stopping the others from exploding early, because the Guardian who it was grouped with at the start can no longer gain energy and the new Guardian it is grouped with has too low energy. Repeat this tank swapping by taunting as needed back and forth the Guardian that must Overload.

    Healer Responsibility:

    Healing through Overload damage is the main source of raid damage here. Jade Shards will also be another aoe if the Jade Guardian is there. There will be minor damage from the Cobalt Mines if someone gets stuck by it. There will be a lot of Amethyst Pools around, so prepare to heal anyone standing in them. Jasper Chains is another high damaging move that should only try to be broken during the Jasper Petrification phase, but most likely they'll try do that at any point, the stacks get hard to heal towards the end. Overall this should be an ok fight to heal.

    DPS Responsibility:

    Damage the Guardian who is petrifying the raid, dots on other Guardians can be useful, but not needed. They all share the same hp, so it's up to you if you are a multi-dotter/cleaver. Try stay out of any bad things on the floor such as Cobalt Mines, Amethyst Pools and beware of the stacking damage debuff from Jasper Chains if you are inflicted with them, these should be broke during the Jasper phase.


    Feng the Accursed

    Awareness Rating: 3
    HP Value: 318m
    Hard Enrage: No/Unknown
    Fatal Abilities: Arcane Resonance - Raid wipe alert
    Special mechanics: Tanks: Shroud of Reversal, Nullification Barrier. Boss Aoe: Epicenter, Draw Flame and Arcane Velocity

    General Strategy:

    Feng has three phases. Each phase is represented by whatever weapon he has in his hand. The three phases will be: Fist (95%), Spear (66%) and finally Staff (33%). The fight has no adds and is merely tank and spank but the raid must watch out for many things. This is primarily a healing test and awareness test of the raid.

    Fist: When Feng channels Epicenter, the melee and tanks should move out of the radius. He will also smash into the ground causing lightning to appear at angles moving towards the raid, easily avoidable and will never hit a melee in melee range.
    Spear: Feng will give a player a debuff that causes them to put fire on the ground, after some time he will draw this fire and begin aoeing the raid via Draw Flame. The tank should kite Feng slowly around the room, stopping when he casts Draw Flame.
    Staff: The whole raid should be slightly spread out during this final phase and when he casts Arcane Velocity, the whole raid should stack next to him reducing the damage. There are however dots put on raid members called: Arcane Resonance, if you get this, move away from the raid or you could wipe the entire raid easily. It is this little dot, that is responsible for many raid wipes.


    Tank Responsibility:

    You have a very important job here. There will be two tanks, you will swap debuffs before they reach too high. When your debuff disappears, taunt. You will see special shards around the room. If you click on this shard as a tank you will gain a buff that allows you one of two special buttons.

    1) Nullification Barrier - To be used when the boss casts a high damaging aoe attack (he does a few of these each phase). This prevents a lot of damage on the raid and communication and proper use of these special buttons should be done. Fist during the Epicenter. During Spear phase cast this when the boss uses Draw Flame. On Staff when everyone runs in under the boss.
    2) Shroud of Reversal - Allows you to target an ally and buff them with this ability that absorbs the next damaging move made against them and mimic it against Feng. This can be highly useful if used properly.

    Healer Responsibility:

    This is a high damage fight for you. You will need to heal through Epicenter aoe, Draw Flame aoe and Arcane Velocity aoe. You will have an easier or harder time depending on the tanks, if they know how to use special buffs they can receive. The last phase in particular is devastating to heal especially if you have bad players that don't see they have the dot called: Arcane Resonance. Be ready to pop cds when needed during aoe and as long as tanks swap effectively, the damage on tanks is not too bad.

    DPS Responsibility:

    Nuke the boss. If you are melee, move out of epicenter damage. Move out of flames during the 2nd phase and stack up during the casting of Arcane Velocity in final phase. As far as I'm aware melee cannot get the Arcane Resonance dot, only ranged/casters. Be quick to move away from the raid if you have this, or you could raid wipe.


    Gara'jal the Spirtbinder

    Awareness Rating: 1
    HP Value: 213m
    Hard Enrage: No/Unknown
    Fatal Abilities: Soul Sever - Instant Tank Death alert
    Special mechanics: Cross Over, Voodoo Dolls

    General Strategy:

    Position the raid on top of each other behind the boss. Gara'jal will summon Spirit Totems throughout the fight in which 4 DPS and 1 healer should click on to enter the spirit world. While within the spirit world, the dps must attack Shadowy Minions. If left un-checked they will spawn too quickly and towards the end of the fight will be a major struggle to survive. After 30 seconds you return to the normal world. When you are healed within the spirit realm you will a gain major damage increase (DPS) or mana back (healers). Gara'jal cannot be taunted and will turn to the next tank when he banishes his current tank. When a tank is banished they are sent to the spirit world where they must kill the Severer of Souls within 30 seconds or be instantly killed, only the tank can attack this spirit.

    The rest of the fight is tank and spank in the real realm with Voodoo Dolls being caused on random players preventing them entering the spirit realm and receiving a % of the tank damage done to their character. When the tank gets banished Voodoo Dolls will be re-cast on other random people. At 20% Gara'jal will receive a damage boost and attack speed boost in which the tank damage jumps up considerably. He will also stop spawning Spirit Totems and Shadowy Minions will continue to spawn, this acts as a soft enrage. Depending on how well your dps did in the spirit world throughout the encounter will determine how easy or hard it is to stay alive. Pop heroism/bloodlust and keep people alive, if you are within the spirit world when the boss reaches 20% exit it as soon as you can.

    Zerg strategy: Provided DPS is decent, you can just ignore the spirit realm and full out nuke boss from start to finish ignoring everything.

    Tank Responsibility:

    Kill the Severer of Souls when banished. Keep high threat on the boss at all times (he cannot be taunted). Use defensive cooldowns as he hits quite hard with combo attacks, especially after 20%.

    Healer Responsibility:

    Heal up the random raid damage from the Shadowy Minions (which hits people in the real world). Heal up the voodoo doll targets and keep the tank alive. If you are going down to the spirit world heal people so you get mana back and give them a damage buff, do not let people die.

    DPS Responsibility:

    Tunnel vision the boss, except for going into the spirit world killing the adds.


    6(b) - Tactics for Mogu'shan Vaults - The Vault of Mysteries


    The Spirit Kings

    Awareness Rating: 4
    HP Value: 69mil each
    Hard Enrage: Yes
    Fatal Abilities: Flanking Orders, Massive Attacks, Annihilate - All massive damage alerts
    Special mechanics: Maddening Shout, Pillage, Undying Shadows

    General Strategy:

    In this encounter you will fight 4 spirits of kings, after killing each spirit they will remain in the fight with 1 special ability, as follows:
    Qiang the Merciless: Flanking Orders
    Meng the Damned: Maddening Shout
    Subetai the Swift: Pillage
    Zian of the Endless Shadow: Undying Shadows

    Be careful when pulling this encounter, everyone should be stacked on the tank so Qiang will be facing him and the raid. The idea is that you stay on the tank for Massive Attacks to hit you all so it doesn't insta-gib a few people. The tank must be aware of this and all movement must be thought of. Qiang also casts Annihilate which is a frontal cone attack that will inflict 250,000 damage to anyone caught in it, when you see the animation run through him and stack on the tank once again. Qiang will finally do Flanking Orders which is an attack that will be cast throughout the whole fight. Mogu will attempt to flank you by marching at an angle from somewhere in the room marching slowly, the idea is to not be in the path of them, this may sound simple but players must move with the tank due to Massive Attack, once Qiang is defeated the raid should stay stacked next to Meng.

    Meng will enter the fight and every so often will cast an interruptible spell called Crazed Thought, doing this prevents him gaining Insanity too quickly. While Meng is Crazed he will do increasingly more damage, once he reaches 100 Insanity he switches to Cowardice, which makes him reflect a growing amount of damage per attack back at the attacker, this also will last till 100 and switch back to Crazed. Meng is a simple tank and spank but he will do a mass mind control called Maddening Shout, which will mind control the raid, a few players should do light aoe to break free people from this, this is why you are stacked. Beware of Flanking Orders which can still occur.

    When Subetai enters the fray, the raid should spread out to minimize the amount of people hit and trapped by Rain of Arrows. If you are trapped by Rain of Arrows you cannot do anything and people must nuke the arrow from your body. Volley is a frontal cone attack which the tank should move from when cast, it does high damage. His final ability and special ability is Pillage, this causes you to receive more physical damage and do less damage and healing for a short amount of time, if you are spread out it should only hit you, if people are stacked it will hit multiple. Beware that Flanking Orders and Maddening Shout will still occur.

    Lastly, Zian will come out to play and the raid once again should be spread out due to his spell: Charged Shadows, which acts like a chain lightning. Shadow Blast will be cast at a random player and damages them and anyone nearby, it should be interrupted. His special ability: Undying Shadows, causes a mob to float after a selected player damaging all players nearby. The player should kite this mob far from the boss then have it killed. When killed a circle (similiar to a void zone) will remain, this will stay for 30 seconds before re-spawning into the mob once again, after some time there will be several of these void zones/mobs, so plan carefully where you are running. Remember as always, the other bosses special abilities are active time from time.


    Tank Responsibility:

    Mark yourself and have everyone stand on you and follow you when Qiang is alive. Don't move too hastily from Flanking Orders when Qiang is alive due to Massive Attacks could 1 shot you. Move from Volley when Subetai is active by running through him, when the cast ends, run back to your original position. The other two bosses are tank and spank, just beware of your tanking position.

    Healer Responsibility:

    Massive Attacks will do massive raid wide damage, players will be getting hit by random spells so be ready to heal them and act accordingly to the general strategy. Kite the Undying Shadows away from the raid before it is killed.

    DPS Responsibility:

    Be aware of the abilities and environment. Aoe the raid slightly when Maddening Shout occurs and nuke the bosses. Kite the Undying Shadows away from the raid before it is killed. Kill the arrow if anyone is hit by Rain of Arrows.


    Elegon

    Awareness Rating: 3
    HP Value: 305mil
    Hard Enrage: Yes (timer needed)
    Fatal Abilities: Total Annihilation, Energy Conduit - Huge damage alert. Also instant death from pit fall after transition ends.
    Special mechanics: Radiating Energies, Stability Flux, Arcing Energy

    General Strategy:

    Phase 1: Upon entering the Energy Vortex (the special platform where Elegon is), you will receive a 50% damage and healing buff, which is needed for this encounter. The boss should always be facing away from the raid. The extra tank should be ready to tank the Celestial Protectors that spawn in Phase 1. While the Celestial Protector has over 25% hp they must remain inside the Energy Vortex, when they are under 25% you should take them outside for when they die they will cast Total Annihilation for high raid damage, they randomly attack two players with a spell that must be dispelled also. Phase 1 ends upon reaching 85% and 50% hp remaining. At this time he'll enter a transition phase.

    Transition: Elegon will summon a wave of 6 sparks called Energy Charge that will slowly move towards the Empyreal Focuses, around the room (they look like generators). If an Energy Charge ever reaches the Empyreal Focuses, the transition ends immediately. The goal here is to kill several waves of Energy Charge. Each wave you kill adds a stacking 5% damage taken increase to Elegon. Each wave of adds will move faster and faster until it's impossible to prevent them reaching the Empyreal Focuses. Each Energy Charge that dies will cause an aoe damage attack so beware of this. Once one reaches it, this must be called out because in a few seconds the Energy Vortex will disappear and everyone will fall to their deaths, so move off it onto the surrounding area.

    Phase 2: The raid should split into two groups killing the Empyreal Focuses. Elegon will cast Energy Cascade at a random player, if hit (big white circle) it will cause damage. From this circle a Cosmic Spark will form, these adds must be killed and can be killed after all Empyreal Focuses have been destroyed and are awaiting the Energy Vortex to reform. Elegon will also do minor raidwide aoe damage and increases after each Empyreal Focus has been destroyed so kill them quick. Do not travel through the white beam next to each one, it is lethal. Once all 6 Empyreal Focuses are destroyed, Elegon will reform the platform and everyone should quickly re-enter it and tanks be quick before he starts killing people. Phase 1 will start again.

    After a second phase 2, Elegon will begin phase 3. Hopefully he has a lot of damage stacks on him from the Energy Charge waves Elegon will constantly do aoe damage to the raid, and even more damage to those outside it. This is a burn phase so heroism/bloodlust should be used.


    Tank Responsibility:

    Keep Elegon faced away for breath attack. Second tank should pick up Celestial Protectors and after 25% take them outside the Energy Vortex where they will explode upon reaching low hp. Assist damage on the Energy Charges and Empyreal Focuses, also pick up any Cosmic Spark adds during phase 2.

    Healer Responsibility:

    Healers be ready for multiple aoe situations throughout the encounter. Dispel the debuff from the Celestial Protector. Assist with light dps on the Energy Charges during transition if possible, otherwise conserve mana. Never move in front of the boss during phase 1.

    DPS Responsibility:

    Nuke the boss only when a Celestial Protector is not active. During transition ignore the boss. The priority are the Energy Charges, the more you kill the more damage the boss takes later on. Be ready to kill the Empyreal Focuses during phase 2 and Cosmic Sparks after the Empyreal Focuses are destroyed. Never move in front of the boss during phase 1.


    Will of the Emperor

    Awareness Rating: 3 (tanks/melee need much higher awareness to make healers happier)
    HP Value: 239mil(shared)
    Hard Enrage: Soft enrage: After 4th Titan Gas it is permanent and adds constantly spawn.
    Fatal Abilities: Devastating Arc, Stomp - Tank/melee death alert
    Special mechanics: Opportunistic Strike, Titan Gas

    General Strategy:

    This fight depends almost solely on the tanks, they have a massive burden here which will make or break your fight. For the first 90 seconds adds will spawn exclusively. The adds are:

    Emperor's Rage: These can be CC'd, spawn in a pair and focus on a random target, they have little HP and should be killed quickly. They will always spawn in the same area.
    Emperor's Courage: These adds focus on the farthest tank of where they spawn. These adds alternate in spawning east or west. They cannot be attacked from the front and slowly move towards the tank, these should be killed before reaching the tank. These can and should be slowed.
    Emperor's Strength: These adds alternate east or west and cannot be CC'd. The adds are tanked by the dps. Their attack Energizing Smash tries to strike a player within 10 yards of the attack point, this should be obvious and avoided easily.

    After 90 seconds the bosses come into play, they have a shared health pool and each tank should bring them to either side of the room, preferably near the alcove on where you enter the area. Every so often Titan Gas will fill the room causing everyone to take minor damage every second and increasing melee damage by 25%. The bosses will melee the tank normally, however, when their energy reaches full, they will spend it by completing a Devastating Combo, which they will perform 5 attacks before returning to their normal melee attacks. Dodging these attacks is vital to survive for a tank or the healers will spend too much mana compensating. Dodging all 5 attacks grants a special action button called Opportunistic Strike which instantly deals 500k to the boss. The melee will be split on either side attacking each boss, the melee will also perform this 'dance'. Try to see the direction the boss is about to strike, it's not very obvious, but you'll get used to it with practice, Stomp will be a 10 yard radius around the boss so just run out of it. Continue avoiding the combo and gaining the Opportunistic Strikes, killing off the adds and you'll have a kill. Heroism/Bloodlust should be used when the boss has low hp.


    Tank Responsibility:

    Picking up a boss each and bringing them to either side of the room. Dodging the learning to dodge the combination attacks is vital to the raids success. Don't try running far away, the boss grips you and pulls you back. Good luck.

    Healer Responsibility:

    Heal up any tank errors during the combo, this will be costly on your mana. The Titan Gas requires minor healing throughout the fight. The only extra damage should come from melee attacks from Emperor's Rage or failing to avoid Emperor's Strengths attacks.

    DPS Responsibility:

    Melee & Range: Nuke down Emperor's Courages from behind. Nuke down Rages when they appear, and 'tank' Strength whilst avoiding their attacks. When the boss appear, melee must learn to dodge the combo like the tanks, while range handle all the adds, multi-dotting works well here. If you are a melee and really cannot dodge the attacks, stick with the range on add duty. All melee gain a 25% damage increase here, hence why it's best for them to be on the boss.



    6(c) - Tactics for Heart of Fear - The Dread Approach


    Imperial Vizier Zor'lok

    Awareness Rating: 3
    HP Value: 320m
    Hard Enrage: Yes
    Fatal Abilities: Inhale/Exhale, Attenuation, Force and Verve, Song of the Empress - All extreme damage alerts
    Special mechanics: Convert, Pheromones of Zeal, Inhale Pheromones

    General Strategy:

    Zor'lok will fly to 1 of 3 platforms during the encounter. The middle will fill up with gas known as Pheromones of Zeal, you should only pass through this when moving to a new platform. When Zor'lok lands on a platform he'll gain 1 of 3 abilities. He'll remain on this platform until he loses 20% of his HP.

    Platform Abilities:
    Attenuation: Arguably the hardest of the three, but also probably the most fun. The objective here is to avoid the sonic rings thrown out by the boss.
    Force and Verve: Noise Cancellation Zones will spawn and the raid must group up within these zones and be healed. Do not leave the zone early.
    Convert: Mind controls up to 5 players which must be brought down below 50% hp before the effect wears off.

    At 40% remaining Phase 2 will trigger and he'll use Inhale Pheromones, removing the Pheromones of Zeal from the center of the room which is where the remainder of the fight takes place. This increases his damage by 10% and haste by 20%. Cast heroism/bloodlust during this phase. He will cast all his previous platform spells one after another until he dies. Once he dies, enjoy the RP moment.


    Tank Responsibility:

    Run between the target of the Exhale. Avoid the abilities listed above.

    Healer Responsibility:

    Be prepared to heal up a lot of damage from any mistakes made. Make sure to stand in Noise Cancellation Zones during Force and Verve before you start healing, pop a cd to assist healing during this.

    DPS Responsibility:

    Avoid all listed abilities above and nuke the boss.


    Blade Lord Ta'yak

    Awareness Rating: 3
    HP Value: 290m
    Hard Enrage: Yes
    Fatal Abilities: Unseen Strike, Tempest Slash - Extreme damage alert
    Special mechanics: Wind Step, Intensify, Overwhelming Assault, Storm Unleashed

    General Strategy:

    Ta'yak will cast Tempest Slash every so often that create a tornado that will encircle a small area, this hurts quite badly so don't ever run into them. It is best to fight the boss where there is no tornadoes, move accordingly only after an Unseen Strike is finished. The only deadly ability this boss has is Unseen Strike. The boss will vanish and mark a player to attack, the boss will attempt to strike the player from behind, the player should run into the raid group and everyone should be stacked up to split the damage. Intensify is a damage increase buff that grows by 5% every 60 seconds. Overwhelming Assault is used only on tanks and is simply a tank swap. Wind Step is a small aoe attack that puts a dot on people nearby. Basically, stay spread until the boss disappears for Unseen Strike, then bunch up, after Unseen Strike finishes, spread out again. Be always careful of the tornadoes. Currently this boss has a very tight enrage.

    At 20% he'll cast Storm Unleashed. This is so much fun! In my opinion, basically a mini game occurs and you must dodge the tornadoes making your way down the room towards the boss. Getting hit by one will bring you back to the start, if you past the halfway line, getting hit by a tornado brings you back to this marker. Once at the boss just continue to nuke or heal. After some time he'll fly down the other end of the corridor and the process repeats. Big props to Blizzard on this mechanic, it's amazing. Every time I get to the boss I think of Mario and say: "Sorry Mario but the Princess is not in this castle", then the boss flies away.


    Tank Responsibility:

    Swap on the Overwhelming Assault debuff. Move the boss away from the tornadoes.

    Healer Responsibility:

    Main damage will occur from Unseen Strike which should hit everyone if done right, other than that it's a breeze to heal.

    DPS Responsibility:

    Nuke the boss and be careful of tornadoes. Also be extremely careful of your positioning for Unseen Strike.


    Garalon

    Awareness Rating: 4
    HP Value: 348m
    Hard Enrage: Yes
    Fatal Abilities: Crush - Very high raid-wide damage alert
    Special mechanics: Pheromones, Furious Swipe

    General Strategy:

    This fight is quite tricky and awareness is highly important at all times. The main mechanic is Pheromones. Garalon will target a player with this and they must slowly kite the boss in a giant square starting at the right wall corner and making their way around in a square-like motion around the walls of the room. Pheromones grow dangerous overtime (20 stacks maximum as of 13th November) and if someone comes in contact with the player, the debuff will swap and Garalon will fixate on them and they must continue the square, there is no need to kite too quickly, just be careful you are never directly in front of Garalon or you'll die.

    The next mechanic is that Garalon has Legs... so he can er... walk... Garalon's Legs have a Weakpoint that is marked by a faded blue circle on the ground, any damage done to his Leg while within its weakpoint deal 100% more damage and is encouraged to do so, especially by melee. Destroying a leg hurts Garalons body and reduces his movement speed which stacks, over time however, he will recover by mending his Leg. Players should destroy the Legs throughout the encounter as this is vital for the design of Pheromones.

    If any player ever enters the purple circle under Garalon's body he will Crush (30 second cooldown as of 13th November), which deals massive raid wide damage and if you try to remain under him, will instantly kill you. When positioning, the raid should stay near each other, never in front of Garalon, only Tanks. The only players who should not be near each other are those passing the Pheromones when the damage is getting to high to deal with.

    Below is a hotfix which I am listing as a source which makes the fight much easier than it was for the first week this raid has been released.

    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    We have a few updates regarding the hotfixes, and a couple new changes based upon some of the feedback we've received:

    In Raid Finder, the 30-second cooldown added to Garalon's Crush ability didn't properly apply through our most recent hotfix. We've isolated the issue and will apply a new hotfix to address this tomorrow during restarts.
    Also included in the next hotfix, the Raid Finder version of Pungency (with relation to Garalon's Pheromones ability) will only stack 20 times, and Fury will only stack 5 times.
    Once the realms are back up tomorrow, classes with pets can rejoice! All class pets will now gain the Weak Points buff in all versions of the encounter (Raid Finder, Normal, and Heroic).

    EDIT: Clarification, not just Hunter pets, but all classes that have pets.
    Tank Responsibility:

    Tanks should stand on each other in front of Garalon at all times, use a defensive cd if needed throughout the fight as you won't be directly tanking him. Instead you'll be soaking his Furious Swipe (huge damage decrease as of 8th of November), which is a frontal cone ability. If he does not hit both tanks, he will gain a damage increase and movement increase that stacks, this should never happen (stacks to a a maximum of 5 as of 13th November)

    Healer Responsibility:

    There will be a lot of damage going out from Crush, extra Crushes should be prepared for, by people or 'griefers' etc that will stay in the purple circle or go into it un-aware. Heal the Pheromone targets. There will be a constant aoe to heal through. Tanks will need light healing.

    DPS Responsibility:

    If you a the Pheromone target, be responsible and aware of where you stand. If you are not a target and are melee, stand within the dotted blue circles by the legs and focus a leg one at a time. If you are ranged assist melee in focusing a leg one at a time.



    6(d) - Tactics for Heart of Fear - Nightmare of Shek'zeer


    Wind Lord Mel'jarak

    Awareness Rating: 4
    HP Value: 348m
    Hard Enrage: Yes
    Fatal Abilities: Wind Bomb - Potential to trigger multiple times in raid succession causing a wipe alert
    Special mechanics: Whirling Blades, Rain of Blades, Watchful Eye

    Zerg Strategy:

    It is possible in a good group (generally a group with several guild people etc) to actually tank all the adds and the boss together whilst interrupting the menders in one giant aoe cluster. This does result in a lot of damage so be ready for it, however, it makes the fight significantly shorter.


    General Strategy:

    This fight will look extremely chaotic when you look at it, and it is quite chaotic. The raid can start off by CC'ing 4 of the adds, this can be done via spells or by the spears on the racks at the back of the room, this will not pull the boss. If you CC more than 4 targets his ability Watchful Eye will trigger and dispel all active forms of CC. When a group of adds (Trappers, Menders or Blademasters) die, he becomes even more Watchful and this will trigger if there are ever more than two targets CC'd. After another group dies, he will be at maximum alertness and dispel any CC.

    The idea here is preferrably to CC with the spears as it is easiest if you assign four people to do it. CC 2 Battle Menders, 1 Blademaster and 1 Trapper. The rest of the adds should be tanked on the boss being cleaved, multi-dotted and aoe'd down, or single targeted. The Mender should die first and keep him interrupted, after that the Blademaster is probably the most preferred, but you can kill the Trapper too. By the time all the adds are dead, the boss should be almost at 75% hp triggering phase 2.

    The Swarm: Each pack (mobs with the same name) share the same HP pool. When a pack dies, the boss receives a damage taken debuff, which is needed to kill him before he enrages. Each pack consists of 3 of the same named mob.

    Trapper: The Trapper will target a random player and trap them in an Amber prison and anyone next to them, because of this, people should be lightly spread out, we found that having the range and healers near each other to be the easiest way to heal. To break a person out you simply click on the prison, but you'll receive a debuff preventing you doing so again for some time. Corrosive Resin is applied randomly too and can be removed by moving, whilst moving pools will form, naturally like all bad pools on ground, stay out of them.
    Battle-Mender: Your typical healers. Menders will attempt to cast Mending on a group of allies healing them this should always be interrupted. They also grant a haste effect to a group of allies called Quickening, this should be dispelled.
    Blademaster: Your typical melee mobs. They have a nasty ability called Kor'thik Strike in which they'll all attempt to attack the same player for massive damage, be aware of this.


    The Wind Lord himself has a handful of nasty abilities. Whirling Blade will target a player and everyone between the player and the blades will be hurt, and hurt once again as they travel back, this will always hit a ranged target as long as there are people at ranged. Rain of Blades is the bosses primary aoe move that once every approx 60 seconds will deal high damage to the entire raid.

    Phase 2: When Wind Lord is brought under 75% he will trigger Wind Bomb which will target a player and arm itself. After arming, anyone who enters the radius of the bomb will explode it hitting the entire raid, he does this ability quite often. The raid should make sure they are slightly spread out around the boss and always move away from Wind Bomb, if there are too many of them in the area, move to another area with the boss. Wind Bomb is the most common cause of a raid wipe. Currently his enrage is quite tight.


    Tank Responsibility:

    As MT tank and boss and 1 of the Blademasters. As the OT you must take all the remaining non-CC'd mobs. When 1 pack dies, take all the Blademasters and tank them on the boss. I encourage defensive cds often as Blademasters tend to hit hard. After that pack dies, bring over the Menders and keep them interrupted.

    Healer Responsibility:

    Tanks will take most of the damage. Aoe from Rain of Blades, and potential aoe from Whirling Blades will keep you occupied, however, in phase 2 be ready for dealing with both these abilities and players who trigger Wind Bombs. It always happens, let's just hope it doesn't happen too often.

    DPS Responsibility:

    Only attack the current pack that should be attacked, muti-dotting the pack and cleaving is very useful and recommended. If you are on CC duty be aware to not over do it and cause them all to be dispelled by Watchful Eye. Remember no more than 4 CC at any time, no more than 2 CC when all Trappers are dead and no CC can occur once only the final pack remains. Do not run into Wind Bomb, try to spread out from Whirling Blades.


    Amber-Shaper Un'sok

    Awareness Rating: 5
    HP Value: 261m (Amber Monstrosity: 109m)
    Hard Enrage: No/Unknown
    Fatal Abilities: Amber Explosion, Massive Stomp, Re-shape Life - All potential raid wipe alerts
    Special mechanics: Amber Scalpel, Parasitic Growth, Concentrated Mutation, Volatile Amber, Willpower bar (for Mutated Constructs).

    General Strategy:

    First off this fight is complex and it requires intense individual awareness on the Re-shape Life mechanic, which transforms you into e Mutated Construct. The Mutated Construct will be dealt in detail below with the buttons and what you must do. When the boss enters phase 3, he will rapidly start turning the entire raid into these, which acts as a soft enrage, you should try to learn the mechanic before ever entering this boss.

    The boss will cast Amber Scalpel on a preferred ranged target that must kite it for a few seconds, this leaves behind a trail which spawns Living Amber. These adds will randomly fixate on a player and attack them. When destroyed, they leave behind the important Burning Amber pool for your Mutated Construct people. These should be killed throughout the fight, but not at the same time, never group them up on the raid for when they die they explode for heavy aoe damage. These should be killed over time. When a player is turned into a Mutated Construct via Re-shape Life, you must kill the Mutated Construct allowing the player to break free.

    Phase 2: Upon reaching 70% this phase will occur. The boss will summon his very own creation called Amber Monstrosity. The boss will become almost immune to damage (99%) and should only be attacked by a Mutated Construct to keep the stacking debuff on him, he will also need to still be tanked, otherwise all attention should be on this new add. He will try to cast a fatal ability called Amber Explosion which can be interrupted by Amber Strike (Mutated Construct ability). He will cause huge raid-wide damage by Stomp also. The add will attempt to Fling the main target, knocking them back, stunning them and dealing big damage, this is just an annoyance for the tank. Never let the add or the boss hit a Mutated Construct as this rapidly reduces their Willpower (explained below).

    Mutated Construct in detail:
    While being selected as a Mutated Construct you will gain a new bar. This bar will have 3 important buttons, and 1 not important button (for LFR). You'll gain a bar called Willpower that starts at 100 and quickly drains, if you ever lose all Willpower, you die instantly and the Mutated Construct will remain alive until it dies. The idea for the DPS is to quickly nuke the Mutated Construct to free the trapped person. However, while you are within the Construct you must do a few key things.

    1: Amber Strike - Use this to cause massive damage to the target and give them a stackable debuff causing them to take 10% more damage. This should be kept on the boss and/or Amber Monstrosity at all times, this also interrupts Amber Monstrosity .
    2: Struggle for Control - This is an extremely important button. You use 8 Willpower but you interrupt yourself and cause you to take 100% more damage. Since the objective is to get you out, this should be used often. As you control the Mutated Construct you will see yourself casting an aoe that damages the raid for high damage, you must struggle for control literally by pressing this button and interrupting this cast, thus preventing the raid damage. Keep this button for every time your Mutated Construct tries to aoe the raid.
    3: Consume Amber - Restores 20 Willpower but heals you for 2 million. This should be used if the DPS is taking too long to kill you, so you don't die early, this also should be used if there are too many pools active.
    4: Break Free - on LFR this button is not needed, but you can release yourself after 20% HP remains or the game automatically releases you, I wouldn't worry about this button.

    Phase 3: Once the Amber Monstrosity dies, the boss snaps out of his reduced damage phase and begin with: Concentrated Mutation which turns him super-size and increases his attack speed and damage by 50%. Any pools during this phase launch projectiles at players, they will heal Mutated Constructs if hit also. Pools should be carefully dispatched, but not too soon. The idea here is the ultimate burn phase so destroy the boss with heroism/bloodlust. He will attempt to turn your raid 1 by 1 into Mutated Constructs. If you know how to interrupt yourself, take the odd pool now and again (if needed) and use Amber Strike at every available opportunity, you will succeed. Ultimately this phase will bring individual awareness to it's max, by either guaranteeing a raid-wipe from people not interrupting themselves, or winning.

    I've added a special responsibility for this boss as this paramount for your success. Everyone read your responsibilities carefully and always remember the Mutated Constructs abilities.


    Mutated Construct Responsibility:

    COMMUNICATION! Shout if you are running low on Willpower and cannot use pools, DPS must break you free. Follow the above information on what to interrupt and when and keep Amber Strike on the boss and/or Amber Monstrosity. The players who become these will ultimately wipe your raid or succeed. It's easy as that.

    Tank Responsibility:

    When transformed, check the abilities above and use them correctly. When not transformed, tank the boss or Amber Monstrosity. If tanking Amber Monstrosity, be aware of the Fling attack, it's merely annoying.

    Healer Responsibility:

    Parasitic Growth can kill a player if you heal him/her too often. This player should be very lightly healed and watched, Priest shields work well here. You'll most likely suffer from a lot of aoe damage as people will need time to learn their Mutated Construct. When transformed, check the abilities above and use them correctly.

    DPS Responsibility:

    When transformed, check the abilities above and use them correctly. Nuke down Mutated Constructs as a priority. Living Amber should be DPS'd when no Mutated Constructs need urgent attention. The boss is last on your agenda in Phase 1. In Phase 2 nuke the Amber Monstrosity, when no Mutated Constructs need urgent attention. In Phase 3, the majority of your focus should be on the boss, it's probably best to just tunnel the boss and let people in Mutated Constructs die, unless a tank needs to be broke out.


    Grand Empress Shek'zeer

    Awareness Rating: 5
    HP Value: 457m
    Hard Enrage: Yes
    Fatal Abilities: Sonic Discharge, Calamity, Consuming Terror
    Special mechanics: Amassing Darkness, Eyes of the Empress, Dread Screech, Visions of Demise

    General Strategy:

    Phase 1: The most important mechanic here is Dissonance Field, when this loses its full HP it causes Sonic Discharge dealing heavy aoe damage to the raid. The Dissonance Fields tick their HP down on their own but both will explode at the same time which will instantly wipe you, to make 1 explode well before the other, a player with Cry of Terror preferably should enter the Field causing it to tick down faster, using magic also ticks down the Dissonance Field faster. You cannot stay inside for the full duration due to the damage, you cannot be healed within it due to LoS issues. When it has under 10% left, everyone should stack up by the boss and pop a cooldown and be ready for aoe healing. Once done, spread out and await the next Dissonance to reach 10% and repeat. Dread Screech is just a random spell attack on a player which will hit nearby players, for this reason you should be spread out except when stacking for the Dissonance Field explosion.

    Phase 2: Starts when Grand Empress Shek'zeer reaches 0 Sha Energy. She retreats and her adds will come rushing in from the sides. You'll deal with 2 Kor'thik Reavers and 4 Set'thik Windblades. All adds must be spread away from each other or they gain a damage boost for each add near them. Reavers must be tanked by each tank and preferably spread out. They will do a frontal poison cone and also grant allies near the tank with Poison-Drenched Armor increased damage, this should be passed to everyone in the raid once your Reaver dies for a big damage boost. They will also throw bombs at random players. The Windblades are the interesting adds. They will fixate on a random player until swapping 30 seconds later. They will attempt two different ranged abilities. Dispatch can be interrupted and Sonic Blade deals damage and silences a player if casting.

    The important mechanic here is Sticky Resin which will drop a pool of resin on the floor. If a player comes in contact with it, it will damage them and slow them, if resin comes in contact with other resin it will drop to the floor eventually forming an Amber Trap with enough resin, which should be used to trap a Windblade causing it massive damage overtime. All other Windblades will drop their Fixates and rush to aid their ally allowing you to get even more DPS on them.

    Phase 2 will end once all adds die OR after a certain time elapses (approx 2.30mins).

    Phase 1: After phase 2, phase 1 will repeat once again and last until 0 Sha Energy or if you cause enough damage to the Empress (30% HP remaining), she will begin Phase 3 with a nice RP event.

    Phase 3: The Empress will be fully consumed by the Sha corruption and add new abilities. Tanks will still need to tank swap. But this time they must be careful to not stand in front of the boss waiting there because of Consuming Terror which is a high damaging frontal cone ability with a fear. The raid should be grouped up for easier healing. Amassing Darkness hops from player to player until it hits all enemies for damage, this is the most common aoe during this phase. People marked by Visions of Demise should run out of the raid until they are feared and take damage before returning to stacking again, you only have 4 seconds to move away fast so be quick, if you are too slow you will nuke the raid with high aoe.

    Finally her most lethal ability is Calamity, it instantly reduces every players HP by 50% of their current HP, this is very similiar to Anubarak in Trial of the Crusader. Never try to top everyone to full hp, there is no point and is a waste of mana, instead try keep everyone around 50% of their max. After a valiant last hand you should emerge victorious.


    Tank Responsibility:

    Swap with the Eyes of the Empress debuff or you'll be charmed. Always keep the Empress turned away especially in phase 3, only have 1 tank stand in front of her at a time. In phase 2 tank the Reavers and have people aware of your Poison-Drenched Armor, run into them to spread it after your Reaver dies for a good damage increase.

    Healer Responsibility:

    Lot's of aoe damage, preferrably 1 raid-wide cooldown per Dissonance Field before it explodes. In phase 2, the damage is generally light so use this as regen phase. Phase 3 is very nasty for healing with the amount of aoe. Kite the Windblade adds over the Resin pool to form an Amber Trap. Pay close attention to Calamity on the last phase and keep people around 50% of their max hp, trying to heal them to full is a huge waste of mana.

    DPS Responsibility:

    Nuke the boss but be lightly spread. In phase 2 nuke the adds but do not kite them near each other. Interrupt Dispatch if you can. Kite the Windblade over the Resin pool to form an Amber Trap. It is best to split dps. Melee should try and nuke Reavers when not kiting, ranged should nuke the Windblade adds. In phase 3 watch your positions and nuke the boss.



    6(e) - Tactics for Terrace of Endless Springs


    Protectors of the Endless

    Awareness Rating: 1
    HP Value: 102m Regail, 102m Asani and 157m Kaolan
    Hard Enrage: No/Unknown
    Fatal Abilities: Overwhelming Corruption - Soft enrage alert
    Special mechanics: Defiled Ground, Corrupted Waters, Lightning Prison

    General Strategy:

    The encounter consists of 3 Protectors: Protector Kaolan, Elder Regail and Elder Asani. Only Kaolan can be directly tanked, the others cast spells that can be interrupted. There are various ways of doing this encounter, and if you have killed the Iron Council in Ulduar, you'll be familiar to how this works. Once a Protector dies, the other remaining Protectors are healed to full and gain an additional ability due to they are corrupted further by the Sha of Fear and a 25% damage increase. Once two Protectors die, the last Protector has ultimate corruption, healed to full, does an additional ability and gains another 25% damage increase.

    The recommended kill path for LFR is: Elder Regail, Protector Kaolan and finally Elder Asani. This is the easiest combination. This will be the combination the strategy is aimed for.

    Elder Regail is tank and spank and you may interrupt his spells while you kill him, there is nothing very spell that he does except Lighting Prision, which will attempt to entrap two players, deal moderate damage and stun them, this can be dispelled. Once Regail dies the tanks will kite Kaolan slowly in a circle around the room, moving him whenever he puts Defiled Ground on the floor. Kaolan will also put a Touch of Sha debuff which periodically damages them.

    Whilst killing Kaolan all ranged and healers should be standing in the middle of the room. The reason for this is that Elder Asani creates Corrupted Waters in the middle of the room which looks like a globe of water. While this is active the Protectors gain 25% casting speed and melee attack speed buff, this must be killed asap and when it is killed all nearby people gain the buff instead for 20 seconds. The melee should continue nuking Protector Kaolan the whole time, let the ranged take care of this.

    When he dies, Asani will be fully empowered and everyone will receive a stacking debuff (Overwhelming Corruption) the longer the fight lasts. Heroism/Bloodlust should be popped now and everyone should stack in the middle of the room. When Elder Asani creates the Corrupted Waters again, everyone nuke it and you all will receive the buff. His casting bolts are interuptable, so the only damage should be from the stacking debuff.


    Tank Responsibility:

    Move Kaolan from Defiled Ground. Kite him in a circle around the room.

    Healer Responsibility:

    The healing is light throughout the fight, make sure to stay in the middle when Elder Regail falls for the casting buff. Aoe heal the Overwhelming Corruption stackable debuff at the end of the fight.

    DPS Responsibility:

    Fully focus on Elder Regail, then Protector Kaolan, if you are melee move out of Defiled Ground asap. Ranged stay stacked in middle after Elder Regail dies and focus on Corrupted Waters. When Kaolan dies everyone stacks in the middle and everyone should kill Corrupted Waters. Interrupt the two Elders if you are attacking them.


    Tsulong

    Awareness Rating: 4
    HP Value: 285m
    Hard Enrage: No
    Fatal Abilities: Shadow Breath - Position and Tank alert
    Special mechanics: Dread Shadows, Sunbeam, Nightmares, Sun Breath, Terrorize, Instability

    General Strategy:

    Tsulong is a two phase encounter that repeats itself every 100 energy. The boss starts in the Night Phase and after 100 energy transfers to the Day Phase and repeats. During the Night Phase, DPS must nuke the boss hard, whilst on the Light phase the healers must heal the boss.

    Night Phase:
    The main mechanic for here is the Dread Shadows debuff. This debuff stacks very fast and does more damage the more stacks. It is recommended to remove this debuff every 7+ stacks by running through the Sunbeam, do not stay in the Sunbeam, just run through it and continue your duty. Never run in front of the boss as he has a lethal breath attack designed for tanks to swap with. This phase is pretty rough on the healers so do not make their lives harder. Also move out of the two large circles on the floor as they do big damage to you and fear you.

    Day Phase:
    Healers should stack in front of the bosses face and heal the boss. When he casts Sun Breath be ready to cast HoTs on him and big heals. Two healers should be responsible for healing the raid, whilst the remaining healers focus on healing the boss as much as you can, pouring most of your mana into big spells when buffed. The tanks must pick up the Embodied Terror adds and tank them about 30 yards in front of the bosses face, the reason for this is so they will receive huge damage from the boss when he does his breath attack (which does not hurt you). They also cast Terrorize which must be dispelled from Tsulong and the random player inflicted.

    When they die Fright Spawn appear from the corpse that must be nuked down. They cast Fright, which is a fear on people within 30 yards, you do not want your healers feared. Lastly are the Unstable Sha, which will move towards the boss and randomly attack people while they slowly make their way to the boss. If they hit the boss they will cause massive damage to the boss called Instability, which should never be allowed happen. It is up to the range to look for these mobs and kill them. If there is none alive assist the melee on the other mobs.

    In the Night Phase, the more you damage the boss, the more HP he will have entering the Day Phase. In the Day Phase the more HP he has when it ends (via healing), the less HP he will have in the Night Phase. When the boss reaches either 100% in the Day Phase or 0% in the Night Phase, Tsulong will break fully free from corruption and the encounter ends.


    Tank Responsibility:

    Rotate after each Shadow Breath, do not both get hit by it. Tank Embodied Terror and Fright Spawn 30 yards away from the boss in front of him. Use cds on the Shadow Breath if needed. Refresh your stacks in Sunbeam every 7+ during Night phase.

    Healer Responsibility:

    Sun Breath increases the healing by 500% for 6 seconds and restores 25% of your mana, so make sure you are staying in front of the boss during the Day Phase. In the Night Phase be ready for big healing as the whole raid suffers constant raid damage. Refresh your stacks in Sunbeam every 7+ during Night Phase. Dispel Terrorize from Tsulong and the random player during Day Phase.

    DPS Responsibility:

    Nuke the boss heavily in the Night Phase whilst avoiding Shadow Breath and Nightmares. Refresh your stacks in Sunbeam every 7+ during Night phase. In the Day Phase if you are ranged focus on finding Unstable Sha and killing them before they reach the boss, assist on other mobs if there are none alive. Melee focus on killing the Embodied Terror and Fright Spawn.


    Lei Shi

    Awareness Rating: 3
    HP Value: 252m
    Hard Enrage: Yes (10mins)
    Fatal Abilities: Afraid - Deadly damage alert
    Special mechanics: Hide, Get Away, Protect, Spray

    General Strategy:

    Lei Shi changes her phase every 10% HP mark. Every 1% of her HP lost, she will gain Afraid, which will make her Spray ability attack super-fast at low hp, it is recommended for this reason that tanks make sure to have a cd or 2 ready for her at low hp and heroism/bloodlust is also used at low hp, preferably after Hide at low %. No one should ever stack on top of a tank on this fight and tanks should always remain spread from each other as the Spray is a cleave-like ability. This boss has many very unique abilities. Get Away causes you to be constantly pushed back, this is stopped when she receives 4% damage of her total hp, you can cast while being knocked back as long as you don't move your character yourself.

    Hide is a very simple ability but just annoying. She disappears into the perimeter of the room and can only be attacked by aoe attacks. The raid should split up and spam aoe until they see her forming, and call out where she is. Protect will cause elemental adds to appear. This is where people wipe generally. Elemental adds hit very hard on non-tanks, and hit hard on tanks. The key here to make this as pain-free as possible is CC. One Elemental should be marked with a Skull to be nuked down whilst the others are CC'd. If your group has trouble with CC'ing stuns will suffice. The Elementals can be slowed and it's a common tactic that the tank kites the elemental to save healers mana, once 1 Elemental dies, the rest despawn.


    Tank Responsibility:

    Do not stack on each other due to Spray cleaves and adds a stacking damage debuff. This debuff should be rotated every 8-10 stacks by the tanks. Whichever tank is currently tanking when the Elementals spawn from Protect, should tank/kite the add. This is a lengthy fight, so use cds when needed but make sure as she gets very low hp that you have a few ready. If possible try and keep her in the middle of the room.

    Healer Responsibility:

    The tank will be getting smashed into the ground, this is even more apparent in the later stages. Be ready to heal people who take a melee hit from the Elementals (it happens). Perhaps pop a defensive raid cooldown during Get Away. Stay spread during Hide, this is your time to regen your mana too.

    DPS Responsibility:

    Do not stand on the tank or you'll be cleaved by Spray, this is seriously a pain for healers. Aoe the 4 corners searching for Lei Shi when she casts Hide. Spread out during this phase and nuke the boss during Get Away. CC adds during Protect, do not multi dot them. Slow them, stun them, banish etc. Focus ONLY on the Skull target.


    Sha of Fear

    Awareness Rating: 3
    HP Value: 343m
    Hard Enrage: Yes
    Fatal Abilities: Thrash, Breath of Fear - Deadly damage alert
    Special mechanics: Ominous Cackle, Pure Light

    General Strategy:

    The fight is quite straight forward. The tank will stand on the light in the center of the room, you'll see a wall in a 'V' shape upon the encounter beginning, stay within this light 'V'. Please note whoever stands on this pillar of light will have infinite aggro until you leave it. Whilst within you cannot be harmed by the Breath of Fear attack (used every 100 energy), you also take 10% less damage. As Terror Spawn begin spawning you'll find yourself often running out of their bolts, marked by a circle on the floor. These Terror Spawn should be dealt with in between Breath of Fear attacks, when there are only 1-2 alive, keep focused on the boss, you do not want too many active or you can't stay still long enough to dps properly. The bosses enrage timer is very generous.

    Every so often Ominous Cackle will teleport random healers, dps and the current Champion of the Light (tank who is Pure Light) to another platform where an Archer is. This Archer has little HP. The job here is to spread out and to soak orbs on the ground/air before the Archer absorbs them after a few seconds, doing so does minor damage to you but you gain rapid regeneration of your power (mana/rage/energy etc.) Kill the Archer asap you'll receive a huge damage/healing and movement buff when you leave the platform which can be used to kill adds a lot quicker or nuke the boss.

    At about 20% cast heroism/bloodlust and burn the boss. One thing to note is if you die on a platform you cannot be resurrected unless someone arrives on the same platform as you. This can be painful if a tank dies because once the other gets teleported the boss will focus on the raid. However, having someone standing in the Light will at least slow down the possible wiping process, preventing Breath of Fears hitting the raid and his shadowbolts.


    Tank Responsibility:

    Your job is to stand in the light and become the Paragon of Light. Whilst standing in the light you'll have all the threat of the boss. Every fourth attack the Sha of Fear will hit with Thrash, this will do high damage (attacks 3 times rapidly) so preferably pop some cooldown. Other than that you will be transported to the platforms where you simply have to tank the archer.

    Healer Responsibility:

    Healing is fairly light overall as long as people do not get hit by Breath of Fear and can move from the circles on the floor. Be ready with tank healing for Thrash and when teleported to a platform, gather the orbs to refresh your mana. The platform requires big healing but the buff from the orbs should help your mana considerably.

    DPS Responsibility:

    You will need to attack the Terror Spawn from behind. Whilst doing this be wary of the energy bar on the Sha of Fear, get back into the Wall of Light before the Breath of Fear attack. Other than that dodge the bolts and nuke the boss. When teleported to a platform nuke the archer whilst being spread out around him and pick up the orbs for your power regen.


    PS. If any links do not work for you, try refreshing your page.


    7 - Change Log:

    - 16/9/2012 - Release: Added to R&D Section.
    - 2/10/2012 - Confirmation of ilvl 463 for Mogu'shan Vaults. Added extra unlock date (2nd half of Mogu'shan).
    - 8/10/2012 - Confirmation of a new ilvl requirement for Mogu'shan Vaults of 460, source in thread.
    - 10/10/2012 - Updated Guardians of Mogu'shan Vaults boss health and adjusted their Awareness Rating. Added zerg strategies for both Stone Guards and Gara'jal.
    - 26/10/2012 - Adjusted opening dates, slight mix up from myself (damn confusing myself!).
    - 14/11/2012 - Added a zerg strategy to Wind Lord and updated several details throughout the guide.


    I hope you enjoyed this LFR Compilation and FAQ, I hope some great discussion can be had here. Please use this thread for your LFR needs. I will update and changes things as is necessary, there are some minor additions still to be added but I'll wait until it is on live to be correct (as things can change before we see them).

    Azshira
    Last edited by Azshira; 2014-05-11 at 03:51 PM.

  2. #2
    Deleted
    This is very interesting! Although, used as we are with cata LFR, I doubt people will actually bother reading tactics. I cringe just by thinking of the amount of "omg nub idiot, l2play, you need to do X or Y" and "lolwtf shutup nub, it r lfr, qq moar".
    This is unbelievably well structured tho, hopefully people will actually bother with it

    PS. "STOP FKING DPSING THE AMALG YOU IDIOTS" when nobody actually is dpsing and their health isn't going down, anyone?
    Last edited by mmoc3f3b8cca6c; 2012-09-16 at 06:31 PM.

  3. #3
    The Lightbringer
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Cork, Ireland
    Posts
    3,041
    Well hopefully before they enter the instance they will check the 3 bosses for the queue they are in whilst waiting for it to pop so there will be LESS: " STOP FKING DPSING THE AMALG YOU IDIOTS"

  4. #4
    Deleted
    I thought dps's responsibility was to blame tanks and healers for a wipe ^^
    Kidding, nice and loooong post

  5. #5
    The Lightbringer
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Cork, Ireland
    Posts
    3,041
    Quote Originally Posted by Maticko View Post
    I thought dps's responsibility was to blame tanks and healers for a wipe ^^
    Kidding, nice and loooong post
    It may still very well be

  6. #6
    Hey so. I'm pressing control+f and I'm trying to find the section that explains how LFR is killing WoW community/raiding. Could you point me in the right direction?

    LOL ahahahaha. Looks like a certain Irish moderator has been hard at work, thread looks so legit with all those boss details.

    I feel like your launch dates are a little off, at least that November 7th one (I think it's Nov 6th) but I can't prove that.

  7. #7
    The Lightbringer
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Cork, Ireland
    Posts
    3,041
    Quote Originally Posted by Blueobelisk View Post
    Hey so. I'm pressing control+f and I'm trying to find the section that explains how LFR is killing WoW community/raiding. Could you point me in the right direction?

    LOL ahahahaha. Looks like a certain Irish moderator has been hard at work, thread looks so legit with all those boss details.

    I feel like your launch dates are a little off, at least that November 7th one (I think it's Nov 6th) but I can't prove that.
    The 6th would be possibly for the US, since all the dates are Wednesdays when Europe gets it's maintenance, so most likely take each date back 1 day for the US openings. Yea the tactics are the long section, but unless they drastically change the current difficulty when servers shut down, these tactics are vital

  8. #8
    Deleted
    Will there be a 10player version?

  9. #9
    The Lightbringer
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Cork, Ireland
    Posts
    3,041
    Quote Originally Posted by hmzlol View Post
    Will there be a 10player version?
    LFR is only a 25man version of the instance.

  10. #10
    Assuming full heroic blue gear, I assume that will be enough ilvl to enter LFR. Is that a correct assumption or will people have to grind out some rep epics or have to buy some to make the LFR ilvl requirement?

  11. #11
    The Lightbringer
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Cork, Ireland
    Posts
    3,041
    You will need a minimum item level req of 463, this can be obtained via full set of heroic blue gear. Any additional craftables / epics etc etc will help.

  12. #12


    Tsulong definitive has an enrage :P thats from beta LFR.

  13. #13
    The Lightbringer
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Cork, Ireland
    Posts
    3,041
    Judging from my longest kill approx 13mins I didn't see one, maybe it's 15mins or the addon is wrong. Will need to see on live.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Azshira View Post
    Judging from my longest kill approx 13mins I didn't see one, maybe it's 15mins or the addon is wrong. Will need to see on live.
    the addon was wrong beacuse he enraged earlier than the addon was showing. You can see how he turned red and the enrage buff on his health bar. Insta wiped the raid. Also Protectors of the Endless on the bata in LFR had a enrage, got screenshots from it but wont spam ;P

    So i expect a QQ wave incoming the next week as LFR aint faceroll like it was on DS.

  15. #15
    The Lightbringer
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Cork, Ireland
    Posts
    3,041
    hehe I'll update what I can once I get on LFR and also get reports with proof on live too keep up the good work Pilek

  16. #16
    Is it confirmed that LFR and normal/heroic modes SHARE a lockout now? So if one does LFR, they can't do normal or heroic in the same week? That'd be helpful information to put in your post as well

  17. #17
    Thank you very much.

  18. #18
    The Undying Cthulhu 2020's Avatar
    15+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Rigging your election
    Posts
    36,799
    Since 95% of people don't bother to research the fights or even look up info on LFR before its out, I forsee torrents of tears from people who wipe endlessly when they find out that LFR is no longer faceroll.

    Good post, I hope as many people as possible read it... to avoid the above. :P
    Last edited by Cthulhu 2020; 2012-10-07 at 10:54 PM.
    2014 Gamergate: "If you want games without hyper sexualized female characters and representation, then learn to code!"
    2023: "What's with all these massively successful games with ugly (realistic) women? How could this have happened?!"

  19. #19
    The Lightbringer
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Cork, Ireland
    Posts
    3,041
    No problem Also if you find anything such as HP and enrage timers, the exact times before I do, please feel free to confirm them here. Since things will change from beta and live it's impossible to really predict until we see it first hand Wednesday

    To Aleros, yes I hope people will browse at the bosses they need to know, there's only 3 new at a time, so the read doesn't/won't seem as daunting

    ---------- Post added 2012-10-08 at 12:02 AM ----------



    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    LFR Item Level Requirement Reduction
    We're currently looking into reducing the item level requirement for Mogu'Shan Vaults LFR from 463 to 460. This should mean that more players will be ready to go once LFR is rolled out, but their gear should still be at an appropriate level for the fights.
    Adding in this and the 460 change.
    Last edited by Azshira; 2012-10-07 at 11:03 PM.

  20. #20
    Epic! Vordie's Avatar
    15+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Somewhere over the Rainbow
    Posts
    1,654
    Great compilation Azshira, great compilation.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •