Heroic Horridon: Direhorn Fixate on Ret Pally

[blusenho]

We were putting in our first full night of progression on Heroic Horridon in 10 man last night and were making good progress. We still have some cleanup to do on the Amani gate, but we finally pushed through that gate and had the boss spawn towards the end of the night.

Since the spirits seem to focus ranged and healers before selecting melee, our melee didn't really have a chance to see the fixate before that attempt. Our rogue had no issues as he could just throw when the spirit got near. However, our ret paladin was saying that he was unable to keep a good dps uptime on the boss during our bloodlust (got the boss to 15% before we died due to bad cooldown usage on the doubled up dire call/roar) because he didn't have many options to knock back the spirit so he spent most of his time kiting.

Do any ret paladins have a good suggestion for keeping a good distance between you and the spirit while burning the boss/horridon down at the end? We were contemplating when we go in next time to clean up the amani adds after the gate is smashed, and then right before the boss is getting ready to spawn move the entire raid group over to where he jumps down (hoping to give us 20-25 seconds uninterrupted before our adds get to us during bloodlust). Should we just have our boss tank pull the boss around in a circle with a radius of about 30 yards or so, so melee just follow the boss as he's being dragged around and their spirits don't catch up?

Any suggestions would be appreciated for when we go back in there on Thursday. Thanks!

[Dysheki]

I haven't played a ret in years so I don't know what attacks they have, but you basically have to use whatever ranged attack you have even if it does no damage. For a feral I can use Faerie Fire every 6 seconds in form, but that is never enough and I have to switch out to moonfire. You can also use AoE attacks if they get too close.

Also: Focus macros work wonders.

You're not going to have 100% uptime and that is the purpose of the direhorn.

[Ishamyyl]

Ret has only 2 reliable ranged attacks, Judgement (5.5-6 sec CD) and Exorcism (13-15 CD, 20% chance to reset on melee).
There are two more ranged attacks, but both are connected to powerful cooldowns that probably shouldn't be wasted on spirits, especially with your wiping-at-15% case.
Ret also has 2 8-yard AoE. The first needs another target to be in melee range (Hammer of the Righteous) while the other needs 3 Holy Power (Divine Storm), and that's probably not reliable.
That's it

[blusenho]

And we don't have a Druid to symbiosis him for wrath either. Maybe we'll just have to kite the boss around.

[Spotnick]

I'm no longer on my ret, but I would talent judgement for range and do a macro to judge always on the direhorn spirit.

/tar Direhorn Spirit
/cast Judgement
/targetlastlarget

Not sure of spelling, but that's what I'd do. I did it with shadow word pain for my priest, works perfectly. You could probably use that to your advantage with the glyph where you get a buff for judging 2 targets.

[Vakna]

I'm no longer on my ret, but I would talent judgement for range and do a macro to judge always on the direhorn spirit.

/tar Direhorn Spirit
/cast Judgement
/targetlastlarget

Not sure of spelling, but that's what I'd do. I did it with shadow word pain for my priest, works perfectly. You could probably use that to your advantage with the glyph where you get a buff for judging 2 targets.

Why change target at all when you can just to /cast [@Direhorn Spirit] Judgement

[Lumineus]

I don't suppose they can be feared with Turn Evil? That would probably be too easy though...

[Deleted]

All they require is to be hit, taunt works.

[Squirl]

Why change target at all when you can just to /cast [@Direhorn Spirit] Judgement

Because that won't work. @ only accepts UnitIDs (target, focus, party members, etc.). Also, Judgment isn't spelled like that.

Here's the macro I used as a rogue:

#showtooltip
/cleartarget
/tar Direhorn Spirit
/cast Throw
/targetlasttarget
/startattack

As a Ret, you can use taunt or Judgment or Hammer of the Righteous or Exorcism or Light's Hammer. You could also check out the Harsh Words glyph and maybe throw some 1HP WoGs at the Direhorn.

[Nairobi]

1) Set Focus on the Direhorn when it spawns
2) Have focus macro for judgment (/cast [@focus] Judgment)
3) Install glyph of Double Jeopardy
4) Use #2 whenever the Direhorn gets close, else just Judgment on boss (with 20% bonus dmg)
5) ???
6) Profit.

Also, save the macro for Tortos, as it's very useful on Judging crystals as well.

[Blizzhoof]

He should be using Sanctified Wrath and he should be popping it during lust, so he should have a judge every 3 seconds or less for 30 seconds as well as taunt. Really should be more than enough. Honestly sounds like he just didn't care to do research or make macros for the fight and then blamed it on his class/spec.

[HardCoder]

He should be using Sanctified Wrath and he should be popping it during lust, so he should have a judge every 3 seconds or less for 30 seconds as well as taunt. Really should be more than enough. Honestly sounds like he just didn't care to do research or make macros for the fight and then blamed it on his class/spec.

Seems like he's doing research here? Is that all right with you?

[kaib]

as said above, use taunt whenever its up, otherwise judgment. just make sure that you use a taunt macro (/cast [@direhorn spirit] reckoning) so you don't get yourself killed.

[RuffwarWoW]

Check out this Heroic Horridon guide. Talks about Direhorn Fixates

[Deleted]

as ppl have said between taunt, judgment and exo u shouldn't have a problem

if hes still struggling after that, take the harsh words glyph and then he will have zero excuse.....however it shouldn't be needed

[Deleted]

Check out this Heroic Horridon guide. Talks about Direhorn Fixates

Cool guide, however the constant Zelda sound is reeeeeeally harsh on my mind lol

[Deleted]

Since you are only getting the spirit in the last phase as a melee you can just kite it around the boss (just run around him). You lose less dps from the few parried hits than wasting GCDs on the spirit (though I'll admit I don't know how many free GCDs you have as a ret).