Will of the Emperor with no plate dps

[Fr3nzy]

Up until now our raid team have had a frost DK in our group to off tank the strength's. Although now he can't make it to any of our raids so this week we had to change our comp. We had real trouble on will that we've never had before. This is on 10N by the way.

Our comp:
Guardian Druid (me)
Prot Warrior
Disc Priest
Resto Shaman
Resto Druid
Balance Druid
Windwalker Monk
Combat Rogue
Survival Hunter
Shadow Priest

This week we had our WW Monk "off tank" the strengths, we had real trouble with this working as he had problems keeping threat on the strength, and as soon as the strengths get into the group of ranged dps and heals things sort of fell apart. We did end up bringing in a plate dps alt and it went down first time however we would rather not have to do this just for this fight.

How can we pull this off without a plate dps?

[Nivrax]

Just have the tank pick them up? You can still dance, even if bit more tricky, and getting hit once by combo isn't end of the world. Have one melee dps on each side and communicate so that all ranged (+that one melee) switch up to them as they spawn. Alternatively, get the hunter to kite them, but it really isn't needed on normal.

[Kaga]

we generally keep our 2 melee dps on the boss 100% of the time, and let casters deal with adds.

Anyone can "tank" the strengths, they don't really hurt

[Alhoon]

Sounds like a DPS problem to me. As in, your DPS will for some reason focus on Strengths right after they spawn. They should be the lowest priority, give their "tank" some time to pick them up. If there's no other adds as they spawn, just hit boss a little or something. Dots are fine obviously, if your WW can't outdps them he has issues. I tank them as WW every week without problems.

[Reyzzz]

You can't tank the Strengths...just move out from the aoe they cast.

[Kalmah]

Strenghts don't melee, there's no reason at all to take damage from the when "tanking" them. I don't see any reason why you couldn't put your rogue or windwalker on them.

[Aranc]

The only way you'll get hit by the strength is a) when your 'tank' doesn't move away or b) when dps dont kill the strength fast enough, as the AoE stun he does increases by 1 yard each time he does it.

[Deleted]

When we did WotE with a single lazy melee last reset, I picked up a couple of them. I'm a disc priest. So yeah, as long as people aren't trying to burst it down as soon as it spawns, anyone can do it. Well, maybe not the restos...

[Buu]

Up until now our raid team have had a frost DK in our group to off tank the strength's. Although now he can't make it to any of our raids so this week we had to change our comp. We had real trouble on will that we've never had before. This is on 10N by the way.

Our comp:
Guardian Druid (me)
Prot Warrior
Disc Priest
Resto Shaman
Resto Druid
Balance Druid
Windwalker Monk
Combat Rogue
Survival Hunter
Shadow Priest

This week we had our WW Monk "off tank" the strengths, we had real trouble with this working as he had problems keeping threat on the strength, and as soon as the strengths get into the group of ranged dps and heals things sort of fell apart. We did end up bringing in a plate dps alt and it went down first time however we would rather not have to do this just for this fight.

How can we pull this off without a plate dps?

Wait what? The Strength only hit with that AoE. In LFR I can easily deal with it as a Hunter, by constantly strafing, when he hits I'm always off his attack. Meanwhile Mages and Warlocks help me hit it. I don't see why it can't be made in Normal.

[Militant]

The strenghts don't hit so just have your WW(WW=dps right?) monk tank the strenght he can taunt it at first and then just keep agro from dps

[Soisoisoi]

As others have said, anyone can "tank" the Strengths. They don't auto attack, every few seconds they put the circle on the floor and deal damage to those who are in it when it hits. Just stand really close to it and then either strafe or move through him when the circle appears.

[Zubacz]

As people have said, anyone can tank the strength. Only concern might be aggro, for classes with no threat increasing stance.
What baffles me more, is that you run with 3 healers. The fight is much more stable when 2 healed.

[Cry]

Stick Symbiosis on your Rogue and he/she can taunt the Strengths. They don't actually do any melee damage (as others have stated above) so it's just a case of stepping through the NPC when it casts Energizing Smash.

[Deleted]

Any DPS that doesn't suffer from constant movement can do it (warlock, warrior, rogue, hunter, DK, pala, monk...)

[aGit]

the quality of armor worn by the melee has NOTHING to do with the treath generation of the player. The fact that you had to bring in a plate melee alt to defeat the encounter is mind boggling. ANYONE can tank the strength, if your healers and dps cannot move from the aoe hit, which btw is his one and only attack, you have much bigger problems than the lack of plate dps.

ps. to the poster who suggested that the tank should pick the strength up, that's idiotic.

[Qprah]

Just stick whichever melee dps is the worst at dancing on it, as its lowest priority in add killing it shouldnt be too hard for them to get a hold of it and keep aggro regardless of their dps compared to everyone elses.

EDIT: And I agree with the poster above, you should try 2 healing it as it makes it easier.

[Imaskar]

For the heroic 10 man Will we had to spec our MW Monk into WW to tank the strengths as we had exactly 0 melee dps in our comp. And WW turned out to be okay for that. Just look for timers and the lights on the walls to know when and where strength will spawn. Then pick it up fast. Also set strength's priority to low, so dps wouldn't burst it when monk just picked it up.

[Ninotchka]

In normal mode they don't hit all that hard. Just tell a couple of your dps to focus the strengths and get them dead quickly, the healers should be able to keep them up. Or have your hunter pet tank them if you're all that worried.

[Deleted]

Anyone can tank a str, both on hc and normal. Apart from the aoe smashes (which are incredibly easy to avoid) they aren't putting out any damage. The only reasons to have a plate melee tanking them is incase they screw up (the smash is physical so a cloth wearer will drop quite low on hc) and for a taunt/increased threat gen. As an example I've tanked them with no issues as a shadow priest.

[Slak]

We don't have a plate dps, we use a rogue. You have a hunter, this shouldn't be an issue...