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  1. #1
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    Galakras 10N - Importance of NPCs

    My guild spent last week struggling with Galakras, specifically keeping up with the adds. We never got to phase 2. We're all ToT normal mode-geared, and although a few of us are missing our legendary cloaks, none of us lag significantly behind one another in DPS. This was the first fight, though, that felt nearly impossible.

    My question is: Do the NPCs make a big difference when it comes to killing the adds? Most of the video guides for this fight were made by people in heroic ToT gear, in which case they end up twiddling their fingers for 5-10 seconds between add waves, NPCs or no NPCs. I noticed in a couple of our last attempts that we weren't tanking the adds in flamestrike/within range of the NPCs much at all, and I think that this might be a major reason why we can't get the waves down fast enough.

    What's helped you down it? After the night of wipes we had last week, this fight seemed unbeatable...
    Last edited by Synchrony; 2013-09-19 at 04:09 PM.

  2. #2
    Hope someone takes the time to answer this question definitively. I would assume that, yes, the NPCs matter if you don't drastically out-gear the fight (why else would they be there?). But it would be nice to point to some numbers.

    I could have written the same post about my group last week--we banged our head against it for hours and never got to phase two (group is probably all around a 536+ item level, TOT normal geared, most have legendary cloaks...wait, are we in the same guild?? :P)

    Granted, there were other issues with the tower execution (#$%* that knockback animation, by the time you see it it's too late), but even when that went well, it seemed we always got overrun by adds when the tower group split off (usually resulting in an NPC dying b/c there was just too many adds and too much to interrupt). We were given the impression that the flamestrike damage was "negligible" and therefore optional, and I know that frequently adds were being tanked way up the road, probably out of reach of Sylvanas. I'm rather starting to suspect that *that* would had made a non-negligible difference to our dps and needs to be cleaned up for this week.

    But regardless of the numbers, look at this way--if you're wiping because you're overrun with adds (and therefore more likely to miss interrupts, increasing damage etc), DPS is a problem. If DPS is a problem, it does not make any sense at all to ignore an easily-used mechanic provided by the fight to increase your DPS. Is it possible to kill Jin'rokh without standing in the puddle? Sure, depending on your gear. But why would you? So, why ignore the flamestrike and why ignore the NPC's ranged attacks? Take whatever help you can get!

  3. #3
    I haven't any figure to provide, but if it may help:

    1st wave: Nothing to say, be careful with the bonecrushers.
    2nd wave: Not much to say. Focus the shaman and aoe the adds in Jaina's blizzard. Once they're dead, go kill the two Flamesingers that remain up the hill.
    3rd wave: Mini-boss + 2 adds, start dealing with them.
    4th wave: A Demolisher appears, kill it quickly so that the tower group can enter the tower. Then resume killing the mini-boss.
    5th wave: Two drakes. Time to relax and drink a coffee.
    6th wave: Another mini-boss with some adds and a shaman. Focus the shaman.
    7th wave: A Demolisher appears. Kill it quickly so that the tower group can enter the tower. Then kill the boss quickly.
    8th wave: Another wave with a shaman. The precedent shaman and the boss should be dead by now. Focus the shaman.
    9th wave: Two drakes. Have one player go in each tower and be ready to pull the boss.
    10th wave: A wave with two shamans. That wave should never appear. Pull the boss before.

    I'm not 100% sure about the last few waves order, but that's the idea. Basically, we don't want two shamans alive at the same time, so in the "mini-boss+shaman" wave, we focus the shaman. Pay extra attention to shaman's totems. They heal 10% health for each tick. They shouldn't tick at all.

    Apart from that, yes, we try to have the adds stay in Jaina's blizzard. The only adds that remain behind are the Flamesingers that we kill in very last.
    You have to kill Banners quickly too, of course, and pay attention to bonecrushers. There are some new Bonecrushers in the last few waves (but one at a time, IIRC) and we had several stupid wipes because we forgot to stun them when we should have.

    Last thing, we 3-healed it.
    We sent 1 tank, 1 heal, 3 dps in the first tower. When they finished, 1 dps remained behind to use the cannons and kill some drakes.
    We sent 1 tank, 1 heal, 2 dps in the second tower. The same as before, but 1 dps less before you need some extra dps outside.

  4. #4
    Yes they matter,

    On our kill yesterday Lorthemar did39m damage, Sylvanas 27 mill etc.

  5. #5
    While my guild hasn't beaten phase 2 yet we pretty much have phase 1 down and we find the npcs very helpful, especially Archmage Aethas Sunreaver with his flamestrike, though Lor'themar can be a bit of a liability if people are not paying attention to the Bonecrushers who decide to turn on him instead of charging the others.

    Do your best to bring every enemy into the flamestrike, the Tidal Shamans might need one or two interrupts to get them from their original position.

    For the towers we only send one tank, one healer and two dps up to have one extra down below helping with the waves, and we kept the tank up in the tower to man the gun as you don't need two tanks on the waves.

    Always kill the Tidal Shamans first but prioritize the banners and totems if they show up and deathgrip/stun any Bonecrushers that target the heroes.

  6. #6
    We struggled a bit too, heres some tips:

    Tank close enough to engage the npcs and use the flamestrike! It looks like a dangerous ground animation but it does 200k every 2 seconds and helps a lot.

    This can be more difficult on the groups that have shaman and arrow guys ( i forget their name). Make sure you designate someone (we used our OT or a DK grip while MT picked up the rest) to bring them close to the npcs. Ignore the arrow guys until everything else is dead.

    Tower 1:
    after we kill the first boss and demolisher we send all our dps, our 3rd heal, and our OT up. MT sits at the bottom with the other healers (who can use this time to heal some NPCs if need be). He will have to tank 2 protodrakes, but they die easy if you move them into a flamestrike. Your dps should be back down soon after the next wave of adds spawns. 3rd heal stays up to shoot protodrakes before he hops down. Dont forget to drop the rope down so you can get back up quickly later

    Tower 2:
    After miniboss and demolisher are dead send the same tower group, minus your 3rd heal (he will be hanging out near the rope on tower 1 so he can help bring the boss down). Hop down and kill the next 2 shaman. Once the second one is dead, or near death, pull the boss. Tanks can cleave the remaining adds down (there shouldnt be many)

    Boss:
    Raid needs to be ready to stack up behind boss and move the beam behind the raid right away. (whichever tank has adds can keep them in flamestrike until the fireballs start showing up)
    The key here is to manage your debuffs and move out of the group if you get 3 to wait for them to drop (be ready to move behind the raid if you get the line though or you will kill everyone!)
    Tanks should stay in front of boss and swap at 3 stacks
    chain cooldowns until 40-60% then lust, healing is crazy tough here (we wiped several times 2 healing, for our raid, 3 heals was key in this phase)

    I feel like i rambled a bit but hopefully this helps some. Good luck!

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by wcard View Post
    Boss:
    Raid needs to be ready to stack up behind boss and move the beam behind the raid right away. (whichever tank has adds can keep them in flamestrike until the fireballs start showing up)
    The key here is to manage your debuffs and move out of the group if you get 3 to wait for them to drop (be ready to move behind the raid if you get the line though or you will kill everyone!)
    Tanks should stay in front of boss and swap at 3 stacks
    chain cooldowns until 40-60% then lust, healing is crazy tough here (we wiped several times 2 healing, for our raid, 3 heals was key in this phase)

    I feel like i rambled a bit but hopefully this helps some. Good luck!
    As for phase 1, take advantage of the flamestrike, because although not necessary, free damage is free damage. Tanking them closer to the NPC's also makes it easier to deal with the adds attacking the NPC's. My feeling tho, is your biggest problem may be the healing the shaman are doing. You MUST interrupt the chain heals and kill the totems immediately. We have a single interrupter assigned to all the chain heals and the other doing the waves. If you keep the shaman in check it greatly reduces the dps requirement and healing requirements of the fight.

    As for the quoted poster above. We found that splitting into two groups relatively close together behind Galakras worked much better for phase two. The reason is that the damage decrease of the flame orb is on effected by the first three players it passes over. So we had two groups of 4 behind the boss and would drag 3 orbs behind group 'a' then 3 behind group 'b' and repeat. Kept the stacks from ever getting to high, and eliminated the need to manage your own stack because it would drop off automatically. Once we switched to this strat, we got a kill in 2 attempts. The groups were close enough that they were both inside a druid healing circle, so they don't have to be far apart at all and both groups were in melee range so our melee weren't separated. Also, tank Galakras in the flame strike.

  8. #8
    Pit Lord Odina's Avatar
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    Here is a fast way to see how much the NPC's help!

    Look at the spells that they took damage from!
    Bone crushers
    http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/g...1#tab-dmgspell
    Flag bearer
    http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/g...1#tab-dmgspell
    Grunt
    http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/g...1#tab-dmgspell
    Shamies
    http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/g...1#tab-dmgspell

    As you can see the blizzard was in most cases the #1 dmg to many of the adds and since this came from an NPC I would say it's a pretty significant boost and what helped us keep it clean untill P2 as we arent all decked in heroic gear!

  9. #9
    it's possible you're struggling with adds because of the shaman healing his group. be sure to have someone dedicated to interrupting his chain heal (i do it for my group as a resto shaman myself). healing tide totem needs to be nuked as soon as it's dropped as well.

    the banner has 1 hp, so anyone can take that down.

    definitely use the blizzard/flamestrike to your advantage. there's no reason to tank adds anyplace else.

  10. #10
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    We finally killed Galakras tonight (Iron Juggernaut too)!

    The NPCs were a HUGE gain. We're all ~330-335 item level and 3-healed it. Using the NPC damage allowed us to have a clean break between add phases to bring down Galakras.

    Again, for anyone else struggling with P1 of this fight and is mostly normal geared, the NPCs are a HUGE benefit!

  11. #11
    my group is currently working on this asshole. We keep having our NPCs die due to the fucking bonecrushers charging them. we've discovered stuns will interrupt them, but don't have very many. any other suggestions on dealing with those dicks?
    Last edited by Youvegotfail; 2013-09-26 at 02:32 AM.

  12. #12
    Mostly stuns, grips and bumps. I guess fear/disorient should work fine, but it's not really necessary.

  13. #13
    Stuns and grips/knockbacks work on them.

    Without knowledge of your group composition it's hard to say, but I think most classes have one or more ways to interrupt them... possibly via talents or glyphs, so not all players are aware of their own capabilities.

    /e ok, your guild uses WOL. Some possibilities then:

    Tauren: Warstomp
    Monk tank: Leg Sweep/Ox Wave, Clash
    Warrior tank: Charge (perhaps with Blitz glyph/talent), Shockwave/Dragon Roar, Storm Bolt
    Retri: Hammer of Justice (+talent), glyphed Blinding Light, can also BoP an NPC
    Mage: Deep Freeze (if frost)
    Hunter: Intimidation or Binding Shot (throw a couple of seconds after add wave arrived and tank positioned them, so that they will get stunned if they charge away), pets with stuns, explosive trap+glyph, powershot
    Shadow: Psychic Horror
    Holy Priest: -
    Resto Druid: Typhoon, Mighty Bash/Ursol's Vortex (maybe)
    Enh/Resto Shamans: glyphed capacitor totem (3s delay is still a little long though), Thunderstorm (if someone wanna go Ele)
    Last edited by Lil; 2013-09-26 at 10:14 AM.

  14. #14
    A warrior tank alone can get every one of the charges by himself. Just get shockwave/storm bolt and the talent that gives two charges on your charge. Bonecrushers won't get more than 2 charges per time they are alive. Was a joke for me honestly.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Youvegotfail View Post
    my group is currently working on this asshole. We keep having our NPCs die due to the fucking bonecrushers charging them. we've discovered stuns will interrupt them, but don't have very many. any other suggestions on dealing with those dicks?
    That's your problem. Noone in your raid has checked a single guide (they all mention it).
    Anyways get a druid to typhoon them; it's not a hard dps check.

  16. #16
    Just an update, both groups I raid with killed Galakras last weekend. The NPCs are a great help. Once we kept everything in the flamestrike, phase 1 became cake. Took a few tries for everyone to get a hang of the balls-to-the-face mechanic once the boss came out, but not long. If you've never gotten there before, just be aware that people need to be patient and wait for the ball to actually hit them before stacking back up. It can be deceiving because when you get targeted, it's very obvious--screen aura, DMB skull on your head, an orange line going from you to the boss--all of which will disappear once the ball has left the boss and is heading your way. We had problems when people thought they were "done" at that point and stacked back up. Wait for it to actually come hit you. Sometimes it can be confusing because previous target's balls will be hitting them while you're waiting your turn, but those aren't yours :P

    Get the interrupts down (on my resto druid, I stood back near Sylvanas and just turned around and typhooned the Bonecrushers when they jumped down there, the melee dps/tanks handled the ones in melee), tank adds in the flamestrike (and therefore in range of Sylvanas) and you'll be fine. The faster those adds die, the less damage to the NPCs.

    FYI, for anyone who might be struggling with the tower mini-boss knockback, what I found worked best was to zoom my camera in closer before I entered the tower and then focused closely on where the boss turned and faced when he started casting the knockbacks. As long as I reacted quickly to getting behind him as he moved, it was very easy. Waiting for the visual ground effect to appear is waiting too long.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Lil View Post
    Stuns and grips/knockbacks work on them.

    Without knowledge of your group composition it's hard to say, but I think most classes have one or more ways to interrupt them... possibly via talents or glyphs, so not all players are aware of their own capabilities.

    /e ok, your guild uses WOL. Some possibilities then:

    Tauren: Warstomp
    Monk tank: Leg Sweep/Ox Wave, Clash
    Warrior tank: Charge (perhaps with Blitz glyph/talent), Shockwave/Dragon Roar, Storm Bolt
    Retri: Hammer of Justice (+talent), glyphed Blinding Light, can also BoP an NPC
    Mage: Deep Freeze (if frost)
    Hunter: Intimidation or Binding Shot (throw a couple of seconds after add wave arrived and tank positioned them, so that they will get stunned if they charge away), pets with stuns, explosive trap+glyph, powershot
    Shadow: Psychic Horror
    Holy Priest: -
    Resto Druid: Typhoon, Mighty Bash/Ursol's Vortex (maybe)
    Enh/Resto Shamans: glyphed capacitor totem (3s delay is still a little long though), Thunderstorm (if someone wanna go Ele)
    Thanks for putting the work in. We managed to get it down about 5 pulls after i posted this. I think the only people we had handling them was our warrior tank and ret pally (he defintely BoPed a couple times and stunned), so I'll definitely pass along these other options for an easier kill next week!

  18. #18
    Mechagnome Ailylia's Avatar
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    Another key is that this fight is not really a dps check, nor is the beserk timer a big problem. If you get overwealmed by the adds when going up the towers (2nd tower especially) just leave one of the dps that went in the first tower down for the second one to help make sure the groups go down. And always make sure the group is clear before getting the boss down. You can actually go another 5 waves in after the 2nd miniboss to get another pair of the easy drakes before bringing Galakras down and still have plenty of time to make the timer.

  19. #19
    Pit Lord lokithor's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lil View Post
    Stuns and grips/knockbacks work on them.

    Without knowledge of your group composition it's hard to say, but I think most classes have one or more ways to interrupt them... possibly via talents or glyphs, so not all players are aware of their own capabilities.

    /e ok, your guild uses WOL. Some possibilities then:

    Tauren: Warstomp
    Monk tank: Leg Sweep/Ox Wave, Clash
    Warrior tank: Charge (perhaps with Blitz glyph/talent), Shockwave/Dragon Roar, Storm Bolt
    Retri: Hammer of Justice (+talent), glyphed Blinding Light, can also BoP an NPC
    Mage: Deep Freeze (if frost)
    Hunter: Intimidation or Binding Shot (throw a couple of seconds after add wave arrived and tank positioned them, so that they will get stunned if they charge away), pets with stuns, explosive trap+glyph, powershot
    Shadow: Psychic Horror
    Holy Priest: -
    Resto Druid: Typhoon, Mighty Bash/Ursol's Vortex (maybe)
    Enh/Resto Shamans: glyphed capacitor totem (3s delay is still a little long though), Thunderstorm (if someone wanna go Ele)
    loltrue to all that...i like the end, if somoene wants to go ele.

    Ele owns on this fight. sit in back with the 2 ranged npc's and thunderstorm if a bonecrusher gets too close and chain lightning spam.

  20. #20
    Pit Lord Odina's Avatar
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    Just back to the OP...

    This week we tanked Galak closer tothe NPC's to engage them... It helps quite allot look at the damge taken by actor for Galakras
    http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/0...5#tab-dmgactor

    16% of the bosses dmg taken was from teh 3 major NPC's! Thats HUGE IMO!

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