H-Tortos without a hunter?

[Forumchibi]

I'm sure there's something obvious I'm missing, but are there any suggestions to handling the bats on H-Tortos without a hunter for Misdirection?

I'm on my monk trying to either kite or tank the bats, but the problem I have either way is that the aggro for the bats while they're coming down from the ceiling is all over the place. In general they go for our druid healer, sometimes they go for the paladin tank (yes, we're currently two tanking, which would not be an issue if we could just control the stupid bats - we've gotten him down to 3-7% on several attempts)... at worst, I've seen them split up and attack 4 different raid members at once before.

I normally grab them with Dizzying Haze, but the timing seems to be very tricky (or I'm just not grasping it correctly). If a person moves at all the barrel will miss, and if I'm too early the bats just seem to ignore it and instantly destroy any non-tank member. That's assuming I even know where the bats are going in the first place (is there a good addon to tell me who has each of the bats' aggro?). We have a warlock and myself for stuns, but those seem to be rather fail until the bats actually touch the ground, and again the timing needs to be perfect or else they just one-shot someone in the moment it takes to hit.

We've got a monk and paladin tank, a priest, druid and shaman for heals (though the shaman has tried swapping to elemental... we're still experimenting with strategies since we haven't gotten a kill yet), sometimes we swap in a holy pally as well... rogue, DK, boomkim, warlock, and a mage on DPS. I know some people are on turtle slows and kicking, some are on Tortos, so I'm not sure who's free for what. But any suggestions you might have are appreciated - I don't care if I have to bark orders at people or if I'm told that I need to lrn2play, I just want this thing dead. :P

[Squirl]

Since you have a prot pally, all the bats should going to him (RF+Insight+Battle Healer should produce more threat than any healer). So, you should know exactly where they're going every time. If they're not always going to the prot pally, fix that.

We used an hpal running RF during progression to control where bats are going since we also lacked a hunter.

Stun the bats when necessary and pick them up. Watch your timer. Use Salv and other threat drops. I recommend kiting them, meaning zero DPS on bats.

[bals]

have the rogue tricks them to you.
also our monk tank would ignore getting shields and heal himself up after stomps to get initial aggro on the bats (make sure healers don't heal you up).

[Forumchibi]

Thanks for the replies!

I know when we were doing normal that the bats went to the paladin all the time, and I didn't know why it changed as of late. Maybe he swapped to new talents, so I'll check on that.

And the rogue was using tricks towards the end of the night, but maybe not consistently (I wasn't really watching), so I'll emphasize that as well.

[bals]

well battle healer was nerfed a few weeks ago.
also not sure if healing being applied to the shield generates threat

[Thedave]

They will likely go to your protadin most of the time, unless one of your healers blows your other healer out of the water. If that's the case, the distribution will be more variable. In any event, have your strong healer go on top of the tank at the very least on bat spawn timers.

We never had a hunter or rogue MDing the bats to me, and I went BrM for the first time ever on this fight (kiting strat). It was simple. Spam kegs on top of the tank spot, keep ZS on you and the tank, EH as soon as you refresh a shield that's fallen off, Chi Torpedo once or twice on bat spawns (adds to healing aggro), and bam, threat is easy.

[Aquamonkey]

If you have a DK, just have him/her go frost in BP to kite.

[Forumchibi]

have the rogue tricks them to you.

I was told the issue with this was that Fan of Knives only works on ground targets, so trying to use Tricks also requires precise timing, just like the stuns and such that we have.

They will likely go to your protadin most of the time, unless one of your healers blows your other healer out of the water. If that's the case, the distribution will be more variable. In any event, have your strong healer go on top of the tank at the very least on bat spawn timers.

We never had a hunter or rogue MDing the bats to me, and I went BrM for the first time ever on this fight (kiting strat). It was simple. Spam kegs on top of the tank spot, keep ZS on you and the tank, EH as soon as you refresh a shield that's fallen off, Chi Torpedo once or twice on bat spawns (adds to healing aggro), and bam, threat is easy.

Besides stunning the bats behind you with Charging Ox Wave and running/teleporting, is there some trick kiters are using to be up front and grab aggro at the right time? It wasn't as much of an issue on normal since the bats weren't one-shotting people. I had a little trouble every now and then being in position to get up there... usually I could time it with the Furious Stone Breath, but as the fight goes on it strays from that timer more and more. I realize that's probably more of a lrn2play issue, as I was trying to change my kiting paths to see what worked best.

[Deleted]

Have your warlock keep a demonic gateway up and simply place them as close you can, your healers can use this as a threat drop on the bats which will force them to the tank.

[Deleted]

Just have your ox-statue in the middle and tell your healers to stand near it when bats spawn, that way you can just AoE-taunt off your statue and everything is fine.

That's how we do it and it works everytime, assuming someone watches timers.

[Patham]

I was told the issue with this was that Fan of Knives only works on ground targets, so trying to use Tricks also requires precise timing, just like the stuns and such that we have.

The rogue can shadowstep to the pack mid air and throw a few Fan's out.

[Deleted]

Back when I was doing him with a guild I joined, as a DK Tank I went into frost spec, specced into chillblains, glyphed Death and Decay and kited the bats. We eventually dropped the tactic but I'm convinced it would've worked with a few more tries as I got better at the kiting.

You get the DK to use howling blast to pick up the adds, Frost Fever slows the adds thanks to chillblains and Death and Decay applies a further slow (This should be dropped as often as possible, or used to help slow turtles if Howling Blast is enough) allowing you to kite them.

The DK has to be quick, however. Whilst it's easy for them to kite and not take damage (Assuming they're generally good at kiting, not everyone is) they've got to be on their toes, ready to use Howling Blast. If they do it at the right time, it'll hit all the bats and pull aggro; the only other thing to be aware of is if there are any bats following the DK which can cause issues if the DK needs to pause for a moment and pick-up more bats. Having adds on you whilst you pick up a 2nd pack also brings the problem of adds being separated and not all getting struck by the following Howling Blasts, thus not all getting chillblains; this is rare, but it did happen.

I can't really speak for yourself, I don't know monks too well. If you want to try this tactic, then you may just want to go WW.

Again, apologies if this isn't much help but it's all I can input.

Good luck!

[Juddalenko]

Druid using Ursol's Vortex can help to group them together.

[Forumchibi]

We finally got it tonight. Thanks again for all the tips, everyone!

[Deleted]

well battle healer was nerfed a few weeks ago.
also not sure if healing being applied to the shield generates threat

it doesn't

[smellywaffle]

We finally got it tonight. Thanks again for all the tips, everyone!

Would you mind telling us which strategy you used?

[Jackkernaut]

Glyph DnD on bats drop zone trust me it will make the difference even with Chiliblains

[hossam]

its not that hard without hunter since u can have slow from DK or warlock or monk u can also use 2 tanks if u dont have MD

[devilminion]

dont make a frost dk kite them.. it can be done.. it has been done.. it is just not consistent. if turtles hit you u are most likely dead. if bats go on a healer on the opposite side of where you are kiting currently.. that healer is dead etc.. lots of rng involved.

i tank them without hunter as dk.. outbreak glyph + spam BB as you can make sure u have 6 blood/death runs up b4 they land.. much more consistent..
usually the bats run to our pally tank but half the times they do aggro on healers too so i am sure theres osmething funky with battle healer perhaps? or may be they arent timing it when bats come.. idk =).

[boombeef]

We finally got it tonight. Thanks again for all the tips, everyone!

So what did you guys do?