Galakras Heroic Guide

[Zabuzan]

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Galakras Heroic Guide
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Introduction
Hi all,

I created a guide for my guild as reference for Galakras Heroic, describing our original kill strategy.

I'm a big fan of text guides in conjunction with video guides and I feel that each has their own merits when preparing for a new encounter during progression. I'd also recommend the Fatboss, Evrelia and Gabestah video guides as a great resource ahead of any progression. Links to these video guides can be found below the text guide I've created.

Hopefully this guide can be of use to other people as well.

I've also included a TL;DR summary, for those only interested in the key points.

Disclaimer: This guide is aimed at the 10-man Heroic version of the Galakras encounter and not all of the information presented may be applicable to 25-man Heroic. This is not a definitive strategy and also assumes a basic knowledge of the normal encounter and the changes to mechanics on Heroic. Other strategies are entirely plausible, but this is what we will be using for our first kill and I can vouch that it works for us!

For links to my other Heroic boss guides, check out the Index Thread.

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Raid Composition
Standard Composition: 2 tanks, 5-6 DPS, 2-3 healers
Recommend Composition: 2 tanks, 6 DPS, 2 healers

Whilst 3 healing the encounter is entirely possible, if executed properly a 2 heal composition will make both Phase 1 and Phase 2 a lot shorter, as well as drastically improving the level of control over waves of adds in Phase 1.


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Overview
The Heroic edition of the Galakras encounter is barely any different to Normal. The primary difference is the damage output on the raid has been greatly increased, especially in Phase 2, but also from all of the mobs encountered in Phase 1. The only entirely new mechanic to be aware of is that the Demolition Crew NPCs (which many people may not even have noticed on Normal difficulty) which are working on opening each of the towers, are now attacked by enemies and must be protected; failing to protect these NPCs and allowing them to die will mean that the raid becomes stuck in Phase 1 and effectively wipes.

Due to the Heroic tuning of the waves of adds in Phase 1, the Tidal Shaman in particular are more dangerous and it is even more pivotal that they are controlled and killed rapidly. Each of the adds and minibosses do the same abilities as on Normal, but with a higher associated damage or healing output in most cases.

The friendly NPCs (leaders of the Alliance or Horde depending on your faction) are still assisting the raid and it is particularly useful to actively make use of the AoE spells they provide to keep on top of the waves of adds. Bear in mind that if any of these NPCs die, the encounter will immediately end without wiping the raid and will have to be started again from scratch.



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Strategy

Phase 1 - Killing Adds, Capturing Towers
The general positioning for this phase is as described below:

Green Circle = Location of ground team for the duration of the phase, location of the tower team when not assaulting towers.
Blue Circle = Location of the southern tower.
Red Circle = Location of the northern tower.
Purple Arrow = Location where each wave of adds spawns.

The first thing to do, is to split your raid into 2 subgroups, one for handling the towers whilst the other will be staying down below and dealing with the waves of adds that continue to spawn. The tower group favours mobile and single target DPS. The ground group favours more static and cleave DPS. Both groups should ideally have 1 tank, 1 healer and 3 DPS - however if you are struggling to control the waves of adds on the ground, you may find it more suitable to have the tower group consisting of only 1 tank, 1 healer and 2 DPS.

Aim to have at least one ranged DPS in the tower group; this person can stand up near the tower currently being assaulted by the friendly Demolition Crew NPCs and take out any enemies trying to impede their progress.

The waves of adds and tower assaults should spawn in an order as below:

1. Wave 1 - 2 Dragonmaw Bonecrushers, 1 Dragonmaw Flagbearer, 2 Dragonmaw Grunts
2. Wave 2 - Dragonmaw Flagbearers, 1 Dragonmaw Flamesinger, 3 Dragonmaw Grunts, 1 Dragonmaw Tidal Shaman
3. Wave 3 - Miniboss Korgra the Snake, 2 Dragonmaw Ebon Stalkers (+ Kor'kron Demolisher when Southern Tower "Tower Progress" hits 100%)
4. Wave 4 - 2 Dragonmaw Proto-Drakes
5. Wave 5 - Miniboss High Enforcer Thranok, 1 Dragonmaw Flagbearer, 1 Dragonmaw Grunt, 1 Dragonmaw Tidal Shaman
6. Wave 6 - 1 Dragonmaw Bonecrusher, 1 Dragonmaw Flagbearer, 1 Dragonmaw Grunt (+ Kor'kron Demolisher when Northern Tower "Tower Progress" hits 100%)
7. Wave 7 - 1 Dragonmaw Flagbearer, 2 Dragonmaw Flamesingers, 1 Dragonmaw Grunt, 1 Dragonmaw Tidal Shaman
8. Wave 8 - 1 Dragonmaw Bonecrusher, 1 Dragonmaw Flagbearer, 1 Dragonmaw Grunt, 1 Dragonmaw Tidal Shaman
9. Wave 9 - 2 Dragonmaw Proto-Drakes (you should be aiming to shoot Galakras down at around this point or earlier, the next wave has a double Tidal Shaman combo in it and the later waves take longer to kill if you still have some players up in the towers, which will mean a greatly delayed Phase 2 unless you want to be killing the boss whilst a pack of adds are still up! )

• Dragonmaw Flamesingers, Dragonmaw Flagbearers and Dragonmaw Grunts - The more peripheral adds encountered on Normal difficulty are still present on Heroic and are handled in exactly the same way as on Normal difficulty, just with a bit more caution! When the Flagbearers spawn War Banners, they still have 1hp and should be instantly tabbed onto and killed (any damaging ability will one shot them!). The Flagbearers, Grunts and Flamesingers themselves will still drop rapidly to cleaving done off the more dangerous adds. The Flamesingers still fire arrows spawning fire AoE on the ground, but this damage is now even more dangerous and must be avoided.
  
• Dragonmaw Tidal Shaman - Healing Totems from the Shaman heal surrounding mobs for 20% of their HP every 3 seconds so must be killed rapidly as well, which should be doable before the first 3 seconds of their existence have elapsed. Shaman also spam Tidal Wave, which deals a significant amount of damage in a frontal cone, but bear in mind this is fully interruptible and the Shaman themselves can be stunned as well as being susceptible to various other forms of CC. The Shaman are the priority DPS target of all of the mobs that spawn in any wave, they have the highest potential damage output on the raid and a huge potential healing output which can can easily ensure that a wave of adds is kept up until the next wave spawns, meaning the raid will be overrun.
  
• Dragonmaw Bonecrushers - These are still as troublesome as on Normal, but are easily controlled by stunning them or knocking them back should they charge a friendly NPC and use Fracture. The Shattering Roar that they use is also a little more annoying in its harder hitting Heroic form and if it hits in combination with a Tidal Wave from a Shaman, people could easily get instagibbed, however with good control over the Bonecrusher in combination with the Shaman, that risk should be easily mitigated.
  
• Kor'kron Demolishers - One of these will spawn each time a tower reaches 100% "Tower Progress" and should be destroyed before the tower group enters the tower, as it will spam attacks on the tower that has been opened by the friendly NPC Demolisher Crew, dealing damage to any players inside the tower and stunning them. Whilst it is possible for the tower assault to begin whilst this is occurring, it's far simpler and less risky to quickly destroy the Demolisher that spawned before heading up into either of the towers.
  
• Dragonmaw Proto-Drakes - The Proto-Drakes are flying around at the start of the encounter and occasionally will land in pairs. When in the air, the Proto-Drakes use and ability called Drakefire, targeting random players and firing bolts of fire which deal splash damage within 5 yards of the impact point. Each successful Drakefire cast increases the Proto-Drake’s Fire damage done by 10%. Proto-Drakes that have landed use a frontal cone AoE Flame Breath ability, so tanks should just turn them from the raid. All of the Proto-Drakes flying in the air can be shot down after the Southern Tower has been captured, using the gun turret, so the only time Proto Drakes will be engaged on the ground is during the 4th wave of adds providing all the other Proto-Drakes are killed by a player in the gun turret.

Minibosses - The 2 ground wave spawning minibosses and the 2 minibosses on top of the towers have no new abilities and just hit harder on Heroic than in their equivalent Normal encounter forms. They should be dealt with in exactly the same way as on Normal difficulty.

• Ground Miniboss #1 - Korgra the Snake and 2 Dragonmaw Ebon Stalkers - Korgra deals relatively low Nature and melee damage to the tank, spawns poison clouds on the ground at her feet which must be avoided and at 40% health transforms into a snake and spams Poison Bolt Volley until she is killed. A Kor'kron Demolisher will spawn shortly after Korgra's does, so the raid should make the call as to whether to finish off Korgra or nuke the Demolisher down as soon as it spawns before switching back to Korgra, as soon as Korgra hits 40% health she must become the main DPS target however. The Dragonmaw Ebon Stalkers can be dangerous if raid members aren't paying attention, they will move behind a random raid member and start channelling Shadow Assault which deals very high Physical damage in a small front attack; it can be entirely avoided by just moving out of melee range.
• Ground Miniboss #2 - General Thranok - Thranok hits fairly hard and still does a frontal cleave, alongside his mass grip ability called Crusher's Call followed by Skull Crusher which will one shot anyone standing within the clearly visible ground effect around Thranok when his cast ends.
• Tower Miniboss #1 - Lieutenant General Krugruk - Krughuk melees the tank, uses Thunderclap which slows nearby players and most dangerously uses Arcing Smash, a ground marked cone shaped knockback which will knock any players not quick enough to move out of the ground effect straight off the tower; the damage of the Smash with the fall damage will probably result in a death. No one should be getting hit by Arcing Smash!
• Tower Miniboss #2 - Master Cannoneer Dagryn - Deals high damage to the tank spamming the single target Shoot ability and also uses Muzzle Flash, which is effectively a thinner but faster version of the Arcing Smash ability used by Krugruk. No one should be getting hit by the Muzzle Flash ability either!

Tower Offense - The tower group should utilise the following strategy:

1. A ranged DPS from the tower group guards the friendly NPC Demolition Crew whilst they are making "Progress" on the Southern Tower.
2. When the Southern Tower initially opens, the tower group should only enter it after the Demolisher that spawns shortly thereafter has been killed.
3. Kill the adds from the bottom of the tower, this can either be done as soon as the group enter the tower, or by dragging the adds up to Lieutenant General Krugruk and cleaving them down.
4. Kill General Krughuk, being careful to avoid getting knocked off the tower by Arcing Smash.
5. The healer can jump down at this point and go back to assist the ground group, whilst the tank and DPS kill any remaining Flamesingers.
6. Once the Flamesingers have all been killed, the tank or one of the DPS should get in the gun turret and shoot down all the remaining Dragonmaw Proto Drakes flying around. This greatly reduces ongoing raid damage. The rest of the tower group should obviously head back to the ground group whilst the lone player is in the gun turret. Once all the Proto-Drakes are dead, the player in the gun turret should also leave and head back to the ground group.
7. A ranged DPS from the ground group should be guarding the Demolition Crew as soon as the start working on the Northern Tower, until a ranged DPS from the tower group has come back from the Southern Tower and can take over.
8. Once the Northern Tower is open, the tower group should only enter it after the Demolisher that spawns shortly thereafter has been killed.
9. Kill the adds from the bottom of the tower, this can either be done as soon as the group enter the tower, or by dragging the adds up to Master Cannoneer Dagryn and cleaving them down.
10. Kill Master Cannoneer Dagryn, being careful to avoid getting knocked off the tower by Muzzle Shot, the tank may want to use a mitigation cooldown or some active healing when first engaging Dagryn as the damage from Shoot being spammed is very high.
11. At this point, the healer at the Northern Tower can jump down and they or a DPS/healer from the ground group should make their way back up the Southern Tower and get in the gun turret. We choose to have one of our healers do so, so that it's easier to keep the adds in each wave under control.
12. The DPS and tank from the tower group should be killing the Flamesingers remaining next to the gun turret on the Northern Tower at this point. Once they are dead, we choose to have the tank get in the gun turret and get ready to shoot Galakras down. This frees up more DPS to head back to the ground group and focus on getting the adds killed or at least under control before Phase 2 begins.
13. When the ground team are happy that they have got a wave of adds near death or to a good point of control and before a new wave spawns, the players in each gun turret should both shoot at Galakras at the same time, there is a couple of seconds as a window after the first turret hits for the second turret to hit, causing Galakras to land and Phase 2 to begin.
14. Both the players in the turrets are then ejected and should jump back down and rejoin the rest of the raid to kill Galakras himself!

Important Point: Drake Fire
The Proto Drakes flying around above the towers are the most dangerous part of Phase 1. They won't be cleared until the 1st Tower has been captured and someone hops in the turret to shoot them all down. Until this point, the Drakes cast Drake Fire on the raid members below them, which steadily increases damage dealt until the point where raid members will begin to suddenly just get globalled.

With regards to the first tower (and actually the same for the 2nd), we send:
Tower group = Prot Paladin, Mistweaver Monk, Hunter, Warlock, Frost DK

Which leaves behind:
Ground group = Prot Warrior, Disc Priest, Arms Warrior, Ele Shaman, Boomkin

Some groups may find that they need to use raid cooldowns for the ground group to keep them alive whilst the tower group are finishing off the first tower miniboss before shooting the drakes down; it will depend on how quick your tower group can capture the tower.

If your DPS is a bit too low, you can send extra DPS up the tower, meaning they will finish quicker and be able to join back up with the group before the ground team is over run. Some teams have also reported success sending 1 tank, 1 healer and all 6 DPS up the first tower, just to zerg it down before the Drakes start globalling people.

With the 5/5 split we use, by the time the 1st tower has been captured, things are getting a little sketchy down on the ground, with people getting spikes of 60-80% of their health if there aren't any raid cooldowns or personal mitigation abilites up when they get hit, but it's not a massive problem as we have already got a couple of resets of Heroic gear at this stage. For our first 2 of kills of Galakras on Heroic, we did use some raid cooldowns at this point, rather than loading more DPS into the tower group (Devotion Aura, Rallying Cry, Healing Tide Totem).

This week we killed the boss 2-3 minutes faster than in the first couple of kills and didn't need any cooldownsat all until phase 2; as people get more and more gear, the lethality of the Drakes decreases rapidly, simply because the tower starts getting cleared so much more quickly!

It should be noted that Drakefire appears to be a ground targetted AoE where a player is standing; if you run around continually then you should find that the damage from Drakefire on the raid decreases. It is also possible to turn your camera skywards and watch for balls of fire flying down at your location, but as they move very rapidly, at a slight angle and also have no ground effect prior to collision, this isn't very practical.



Phase 2 - Killing Galakras Before He Kills You!
Entering Phase 2 with as few adds from Phase 1 remaining as possible is key. The first thing to do during phase 2 is to clear up any remaining adds whilst getting into an optimal position for dealing with the rapidly occurring Flames of Galakrond ability. This is far more brutal than on Normal difficulty, occuring far more often and dealing more damage, so it is important to formulate a strategy allowing the raid to drop stacks so that the healers have a chance of keeping up with the high and steadily increasing AoE fire damage on the raid.

Unhappy Orange Circle = Galakras
Red Circle = Active boss tank
Pink Circle = Inactive boss tank
Dark Blue Circle = Subgroup #1 (1 healer, 3 DPS)
Light Blue Circle = Subgroup #1 player targeted by Flames of Galakrond
Dark Green Circle = Subgroup #2 (1 healer, 3 DPS)
Light Blue Circle = Subgroup #2 player targeted by Flames of Galakrond

At the start of Phase 2, the tower group tank will pick up Galakras whilst the ground group tank will move to the side of Galakras with any adds left over from Phase 1. DPS will focus on burning adds before nuking the boss. The raid should split up into 2 groups, consisting of a healer and 3 DPS in each group, as described and illustrated in the positioning diagram and key above.

The Subgroup #1 and #2 stacking locations can be close enough that they lie on the edges of an Efflorescence or Healing Rain, improving potential AoE healing and making the lives of your healers that little bit easier. If a player in Subgroup #1 is targeted by Flames of Galakrond, they run behind the rest of the players in Subgroup #1 until the flame orb moves through that sub group and detonates on the targeted player. Once the orb has detonated, the player should move back onto the other members of their Subgroup. Subgroup #2 do exactly the same thing but contained within their own players.

If the same Subgroup is targeted again and again by virtue of bad (from the raid's perspective) RNG, say a 4th consecutive time, then instead of the player targeted by Flames of Galakrond running out behind their own Subgroup, they should run over to the space behind the other Subgroup and this should be repeated until stacks have dropped off the unlucky Subgroup. Optimally, each group would take 2 stacks, before letting them drop off whilst the other group took 2 stacks.

A tank swap should occur every ~3 stacks of Flames of Galakrond the tank takes. It may be preferable for a tank to chain personal cooldowns and take more stacks, however they should bear in mind that the Flames of Galakrond DoT will keep ticking on them after the tank swap.

Heroism can either be used to clear up a big pack of adds at the start of Phase 2, to nuke the boss at the start of Phase 2, or later into phase 2 when the healing requirement is getting more difficult to meet. Personally, I prefer to use Heroism to burn the boss with as many DPS cooldowns up at the same time as possible. Second pots should also be used in this phase, rather than at any point in Phase 1.

Healer and mitigation cooldowns will be needed fairly early on in Phase 2 and a rotation should be set up to deal with the increasing damage as the phase goes on, with the weaker cooldowns (e.g Rallying Cry) earlier in the fight and the more potent cooldowns (e.g Tranquillity) towards the end. Personal mitigation abilities are also vital and bear in mind that some classes are able to drop Flames of Galakrond stacks to drastically reduce the damage they are taking.


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Summary
Phase 1

• Heroism should be saved for Phase 2, as should second pots.
• DPS cooldowns should be up for Phase 2 if used on the early minibosses in Phase 1.
• DPS Priority: Healing Totem > War Banner (1hp) > Tidal Shaman > Other Adds
• Kill the Demolisher before going up either of the towers.
• Protect the Demolition Crew NPCs heading to open the towers.
• Take more mobile / better single target DPS to the tower boss, leave less mobile / better cleave DPS on the ground. 1 Tank / 1 Healer / 3 DPS for each sub team.
• Don't get knocked off the towers!
• Make use of the ropes to rapidly climb back up the first tower when it's time to shoot Galakras down.
• Time it so that Galakras is shot down with as few adds alive as possible.

Phase 2

• Use Heroism during Phase 2, either to boost healing later into the phase, or alternatively at the start of the phase. 2nd pots and DPS cooldowns should be timed with Heroism if possible, though if Heroism is left until late into Phase 2 that may no longer be optimal.
• Raid split into 2 groups of 4 to minimise Flames of Galakrond stacks on any one group. Try and drop stacks as often as possible.
• Inactive boss tank stay away from raid and active boss tank, to ensure they drop Flames of Galakrond stacks. Tank swap on ~3 stacks.
• Rotate healer and mitigation cooldowns, bearing in mind that the damage increases the longer Phase 2 lasts.
• Individual responsibility to use personal mitigation/healing abilities as necessary. Some classes have abilities allowing them to drop stacks of Flames of Galakrond entirely.

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General Tips

• Prot Paladins should be able to take a large number of stacks and then Divine Shield to clear the DoT on the tank swap or use a Divine Shield + "/cancelaura Divine Shield" to drop stacks of the DoT and keep tanking, so this could be used for high Vengeance gain for more DPS and HPS if needed.
• Taking DPS classes with good cleave or multi-dot damage output will make Phase 1 significantly easier, so if you've got access to Ele Shamans, Shadow Priests, Boomkins, Warlocks, Fire Mages, Arms Warriors or 2x1H Frost Deathknights then you'll have a much easier time clearing the waves of adds. Elemental Shamans in particular are very powerful - Chain Lightning ftw.

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Video Guides
Below are some video guides for further reference, bear in mind that not all aspects of the strategies or tips described in the videos may be shared with my own information, but can be used in conjunction with the guide for a better overall idea ahead of progressing on this encounter.

Fatboss Video Guide:
LINK

Evrelia Video Guide:
LINK

Gabestah Long Video Guide:
LINK (not yet released)

Gabestah Short Video Guide:
LINK (not yet released)

Gabestah Tank Video Guide:
LINK (not yet released)

Gabestah DPS Video Guide:
LINK (not yet released)

Gabestah Healer Video Guide:
LINK (not yet released)


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Reference Links
For a full list of Gabestah Video Guides, please check out his thread HERE

Icy Veins Sha of Pride Guide: LINK

Healer CDs Tips: LINK

Healiocentric Guide: LINK



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Change Log

1. Added a couple of tips with regards to DPS choice for P1 and tanking for P2.
2. Added more tips
3. Added more detailed section about the Drakefire mechanic to Phase 1 guide.
4. Added links to Facebook, Twitter and Blog.
5. Fixed link to the website.

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[Grackin]

Awesome guide. Thanks much!

[Deleted]

What about stacking altogether in P2 and only the one's with high stacks go aside to drop it? We're currently progressing on Sha of Pride heroic, but if I remember correctly from normal, not everybody gets a stack if you have only one group?

[Deleted]

What about stacking altogether in P2 and only the one's with high stacks go aside to drop it? We're currently progressing on Sha of Pride heroic, but if I remember correctly from normal, not everybody gets a stack if you have only one group?

Only first ?four? players gets the stack. I find it alot easier to just make one big pile of players and then reset debuff stacks if you have high stacks.

[Deleted]

We did the two group strategy, it rquires less movement from individuals since there's no need to move to reset stacks. Furthermore you still can stand close enough to each other to share a healing rain or efforesence so it doesn't make healing any harder.

One word of caution is that the mini bosses at the top of the towers hit surpisingly hard and tanks should be ready to pop a cd.

When Galakras lands its useful to tank her near enough to the NPC's so they can get involved.

[schworck]

We put in 15 tries yesterday and just couldn't get past the first tower without at least two/three people getting killed by those drakes even tho we didn't even come close to the 5 minute soft-enrage. as soon as our tower-group goes up it gets pretty messy and bursty downstairs. is there anything we are forgetting? didn't try this, but is it possible to jump into the cannon as soon as you are on the platform? we've downed 5/14, the first 4 and nazgrim so far.

thanks in advance

[Deleted]

You mean you were losing people on the ground to drake fire? The only soultion to that is to keep moving.

You have to kill every enemy in the tower before you can use the canon.

At 5/14 already this boss should be straightforward for you. It sounds like you might be missing something obvious although from your details i can't guess what.

[Deleted]

Just killed this last night, we've been having a lot of problems with the first tower and drakefire too.
There's really not much you can do about Drakefire except powerheal through and cycle all available raid cds (they'll be back up for p2).

[22:48:40.134]        Dragonmaw Flameslinger Flame Arrows Zhin 82152 (A: 23683)
[22:48:40.437]        Dragonmaw Proto-Drake Drakefire Zhin 276544
[22:48:40.814]        Dragonmaw Proto-Drake Drakefire Zhin 279555 (O: 34796)
[22:48:41.203]        Zhin dies

[22:48:46.323]        Sweeples casts Soulstone Resurrection on Zhin

[22:48:53.684]        Dragonmaw Proto-Drake Drakefire Zhin 313240
[22:48:56.865]        Dragonmaw Proto-Drake Drakefire Zhin 20242 (A: 280916)
[22:48:58.180]        Dragonmaw Flameslinger Flame Arrows Zhin 106636
[22:48:58.308]        Dragonmaw Flameslinger Flame Arrows Zhin 106351
[22:49:00.095]        Dragonmaw Proto-Drake Drakefire Zhin 34076 -- Diffse Magic
[22:49:03.683]        Dragonmaw Proto-Drake Drakefire Zhin 33240 -- Diffse Magic
[22:49:05.709]        Dragonmaw Proto-Drake Drakefire Zhin 331070
[22:49:07.317]        Dragonmaw Proto-Drake Drakefire Zhin 226125 (O: 113914)
[22:49:07.708]        Zhin dies

Log of our kill: Log
Killed it the 3rd time we reached phase 2, try 16+17 are p2 wipes too.

[schworck]

we had a discipline priest down, even added a restodruid for some tries but our raidmembers were literally globaled around the time we reached the miniboss upstairs. as far as i could tell, we didn't have any delay on the bombsquad or anything. is there any way to avoid drakefire? or is it just like: be quick to top off everybody and don't stand in anything else. like i said, we are currently 5/14 hc and our priest is on of our better players.

any info would be nice.

[Zabuzan]

We had some problems with the drake fire on the first few pulls - the only thing I can suggest is making sure you are preemptively using healing and mitigation cooldowns when the tower group get to the top of the first tower. Make sure all your raiders have their fingers on their healthstones and personal mitigation - getting hit by the Flame Arrows isn't going to help matters either. Keep on the move as much as possible and just brute force through it. All the healer cooldowns should be up again by the time you hit P2 so no issues burning through them

[Huevos]

we had a discipline priest down, even added a restodruid for some tries but our raidmembers were literally globaled around the time we reached the miniboss upstairs. as far as i could tell, we didn't have any delay on the bombsquad or anything. is there any way to avoid drakefire? or is it just like: be quick to top off everybody and don't stand in anything else. like i said, we are currently 5/14 hc and our priest is on of our better players.

any info would be nice.

We started this boss last night and had similar problems until we sent up 4 dps and no healer in the first tower. Disc priest was still able to hit tower group with atonement heals and the tower went down hella fast. Also helped that we sent up an ele as our fourth.

If you have a hybrid to spare and can keep the waves under control it made the Drakefire significantly easier to deal with.

[wombats23]

Can anyone confirm that moving prevents you from taking drake fire damage? Last night, my group had attempts where the drakes in the sky only got as high as 5 stacks while other time they had 8 stacks. We had a disc, Mage, moonkin, blood and spriest staying outside and the only 'pattern' I noticed was that our moonkin was more likely to spike than everyone else and he was always on the move spamming instants while our Mage and disc were stationary and seemed to take less damage on average.

It didn't look like raid members ever stacked on each other either so the splash from the drake fire wasn't an issue. We ended up making our resto Druid stay outside since tranq can do wonders but it's still frustrating to sometimes die in the span of just 2 seconds and not know why.

Huevos: with the 4 dps strat, how were the 3 grunts at the bottom of the tower dealt with? Did your group just have all 4 people run up at once and drag the grunts along?

[Fanatik]

To help get that first tower down faster, we kill the demo, then we send all but 1 tank, 1 healer, and the grunt protector(s) up the first tower. Once the miniboss is dead up there, the healer leaves. Once the inner tower adds die the tank leaves. Once all the outer adds die, all but 1 dps leave and that 1 dps is on drake cleanup.

[Squishei]

Dragging the 3 mobs at the bottom of the tower saves time. Time is of the essence in the first tower due to drake fire. Send extra dps and only leave enough to defend the tower crew. The 2 drakes on the ground will die to passive AoE, just watch the frontal breath.

[wombats23]

To help get that first tower down faster, we kill the demo, then we send all but 1 tank, 1 healer, and the grunt protector(s) up the first tower. Once the miniboss is dead up there, the healer leaves. Once the inner tower adds die the tank leaves. Once all the outer adds die, all but 1 dps leave and that 1 dps is on drake cleanup.

I was considering leaving 4 outside (tank, healing, 2x demo group protectors) and then send the rest into the tower but I was worried that with only 4 targets outside, drakefire could end up RNG gibbing you (as if it didn't already).

Gonna just try messing with the number of people and the composition of people being sent up the tower then. Also gonna send the healer and tank off the tower early as you mentioned. Thanks for the reply!

[Squishei]

I was considering leaving 4 outside (tank, healing, 2x demo group protectors) and then send the rest into the tower but I was worried that with only 4 targets outside, drakefire could end up RNG gibbing you (as if it didn't already).

Gonna just try messing with the number of people and the composition of people being sent up the tower then. Also gonna send the healer and tank off the tower early as you mentioned. Thanks for the reply!

Leave 4 outside is exactly what we do, it works fine, drakefire is not a big deal to heal since there's less targets to heal.

[schworck]

will try the "all-in"-tactic tonite. what do u guys do with the demolisher that keeps stunning the towergroup? kill it first and then run up with all three adds?

[Deleted]

We always kill the demolisher before the group goes in the tower. Have them start moving at around 30% on the demolisher. One thing to note is to be careful with pushing the 1st mini boss (Snake something) to below 40%, as he spams raid wide AE that is very dangerous aswell, and it comes around the same time as drake fire.

[Zabuzan]

With regards to the first tower (and actually the same for the 2nd), we send:
Tower group = Prot Paladin, Mistweaver Monk, Hunter, Warlock, Frost DK

Which leaves behind:
Ground group = Prot Warrior, Disc Priest, Arms Warrior, Ele Shaman, Boomkin

If your DPS is a bit low, you can send extra DPS up the tower, meaning they will finish quicker and be able to join back up with the group before the ground team is over run. I know that some teams have also reported success sending 1 tank, 1 healer and all 6 DPS up the first tower, just to zerg it down before the Drakes start globalling people.

With the 5/5 split we use, by the time the 1st tower has been captured, things are getting a little sketchy down on the ground, with people getting spikes of 60-80% of their health pre mitigation, but it's not a massive problem. For our first couple of kills we used some cooldowns there, this week we kill the boss 2-3 minutes faster than usual and didn't need any cooldowns until phase 2; as people get more and more gear, this boss just gets stupidly easy!

[Zabuzan]

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Kor'kron Dark Shaman guide will be up later on today.