Firstly, not all of you will agree with my methods, and not all of you will need this guide, but I get asked how to deal with the encounter a lot by other prot warriors on my own realm, so I've decided to write this up and put it up here so that I can re-direct them to it, whilst at the same time providing some tips to anybody else who may be battling this boss at the moment.
Introduction
Protection Warriors are one of the best tanking classes for this encounter, mainly for their ability to also deal high burst damage. This is particularly useful for dealing with the Automated Shredders that will be landing approximately ever 60 seconds, throughout the encounter.
The Siegecrafter encounter is very reliant on your tanks doing their job correctly, and the Automated Shredders are the main consideration here. To understand why this is, you'll first need to understand the mechanics of the fight, and how they tie into each other.
Tank Specific Mechanics
As already mentioned, Automated Shredders will be landing on the platform approximately every 60 seconds. These land on the opposite side of the room to the belt on which various members of your raid group are assigned to kill weapons.
If you look at your Dungeon Journal, you'll note that Automated Shredders are buffed with Reactive Armor. The journal will tell you that:
Automated Shredders have been retrofitted with Reactive Armor, reducing damage taken by 90%.
Automated Shredders can also be damaged by Serated Slash*, Shockwave Missile, Detonate and Superheated
*Serrated Slash is the damage done by the Sawblades that are periodically launched at other members of your raid group.
You should also note that tanking these Shredders within 35 yards of the boss will cause the boss to heal them.
So, how do you kill something that has a 90% damage reduction buff up, permanently? The answer is Electrostatic Charge. Electrostatic Charge is an ability used against the current highest threat target (tank) by the boss throughout the encounter. Your Dungeon Journal will tell you:
Siegecrafter Blackfuse charges his target with static electricity, inflicting 375,000 Nature damage.
Electrostatic Charge also leaves a lingering effect increasing the damage taken from Electrostatic Charge by 100%
increasing damage dealt to targets with Reactive Armor by 400%.
This effect stacks up to 10 times.
Ergo, abusing this debuff is how you'll want to deal with the shredders... But it gets better! Looking further into the Dungeon Journal, you'll find that the Shredders have an ability called Death from Above:
The Automated Shredder propels itself into the air and then slams back into the ground, dealing 750,000 damage to players within 15 yards of the point of impact.
After landing, the Shredder is stunned and takes 200% additional damage for 5 sec.
These 5 seconds are key in making sure your shredder is killed quickly.
Recommended Talents
The only 2 talents that I strongly recommend are Dragon Roar and Storm Bolt. Depending on your guilds choice of tactic; there are 2 main widely used tactic - one tanking the boss near the main belt, and one tanking the boss near the boss near the Shredder spawn point. If your guild chooses to tank near the Shredder spawn point, I'd also recommend Piercing Howl as the Crawler Mines will also be spawning in this area, so you'll be able to support your DPS with a slowing effect on these Mines.
Safeguard and Vigilance are also good, but I personally prefer to use Vigilance. They're both useful to help your other tank out once they start reaching high stacks of Electro Static charge. However, Electrostatic Charge casts can be delayed by the boss using other abilities, making the 6 second buff of Safeguard a risk, as it may fall off before the charge is applied. Vigilance also allows you to put your buff on your co-tank from a distance, such as while you're away killing a Shredder.
The Pull
The pull is pretty important for your Electrostatic Charge debuff building rotation. The first charge is applied immediately when the boss is pulled, and can be cast from a distance. Therefore, if you have some hungry DPS who pre-cast, it's possible that the first debuff will land on a DPS - this will make a mess of the debuff rotation and may cause the first Shredder to be alive for too long. Killing the first one quickly is vital, as you want to get back to the boss in time to gain another charge before your existing charges fall off.
The way I do this, is as follows:
When the pull timer reaches 3s, use your pot, and when the timer reaches 1 second, Taunt the boss and charge in. This should guarantee that you'll receive the first charge.
The first Shredder will land at around the same time that your 3rd charge is applied. Killing a shredder quickly with only 3 charges can be very difficult, but you'll remember that they can also be damaged by Sawblades, Missles and the fire left behind by lasers. You should ask that your ranged DPS and Healers drop the FIRST 2 sawblades next to eachother, somewhere further than 35 yards from the boss tank spot (I recommend the centre of the room), but not too far as you'll be out of range of healers.
When you receive your 3rd charge application, grab the shredder, have your co-tank pick up the boss, and use your heroic leap to quickly get to these 2 saw blades*. Position the shredder so that it is being damaged by one of the saw blades.
* It's only really necessary to have 1 saw blade for damage, as the Shredder will only take damage from 1 blade at any given time. However, if you're finding it a pain in the ass to position (and it changes position very slightly after landing) then 2 can be helpful for a guild making their first progress pulls.
Killing your Shredder Quickly
You want to deal as much damage as you can to your shredder before it casts Death from Above. So use your ultimatum procs as soon as they're up. Make sure, wherever possible, that you have Shield Block up when casting Shield Slam (making use of Glyph of Heavy Repercussions).
When the boss lifts off into the air, you have 2 options:
1) Use a cooldown and eat that damage
2) Move at least 15 yards away
Either way, you'll want to get back on him as soon as possible and make use of the 5 seconds of 200% damage taken increase.
I use the following macro (this is basically my macro for pulling when I need instant high threat - I don't use it very often on the pull these days, but it's still handy for times when your vengeance is high, and does not need updating when you change talents):
Code:
#showtooltip Recklessness
/cast Berserker Rage
/stopcasting
/cast Battle Shout
/stopcasting
/cast Recklessness
/stopcasting
/cast Avatar
/stopcasting
/cast Bloodbath
/stopcasting
/cast Blood Fury
/stopcasting
/cast Charge
/stopcasting
/cast heroic leap
You'll want to press this when you see the shredder hit the ground. You'll charge the Shredder whether you ate the damage (as it knocks you high into the air) or if you moved away from the landing zone. Either way, as soon as you arrive back at the boss, you want to Dragon Roar and Stormbolt, you should also have sufficient rage from this macro to shield block and drop a shield slam.
You can also use your Shattering Throw as it's casting Death from Above, but this requires some precise timing.
With 3 stacks of Charge, you should be able to drop the Shredder to below 20% hp or very close, so you can start executing to finish it off.
I then use intervene to quickly get back to the boss and taunt, ready for my 4th stack.
For most of the Shredders after this, you will have plenty of fire around the room to tank the Shredder in. At 7 stacks you really don't need any help killing it, and in many cases can actually finish it off, before Death from Above, and with no DPS cooldowns needed.
Charge Rotation on Tanks
So how do you manage your charges?
We do it as follows:
Charge 1: Tank 1 (1)
Charge 2: Tank 1 (2)
Charge 3: Tank 1 (3)
- Tank 1 goes to kill Shredder 1
Charge 4: Tank 2 (1)
Charge 5: Tank 2 (2)
Charge 6: Tank 1 (4)
Charge 7: Tank 1 (5)
- Tank 1 goes to kill Shredder 2
Charge 8: Tank 2 (3)
Charge 9: Tank 2 (4)
Charge 10: Tank 1 (6)
Charge 11: Tank 1 (7)
- Tank 1 goes to kill Shredder 3
- Tank 1 allows stacks to fall off
Charge 12: Tank 2 (5)
Charge 13: Tank 2 (6)
Charge 14: Tank 2 (7)
- Tank 2 goes to kill Shredder 4
At this point, you restart the process. Tank 2 allows stacks to drop, while Tank 1 builds up to 3 again.
Preventing Death due to Charge Damage
For the first 5 Electrostatic Charges, I am able to survive comfortably using only Shield Barrier
For stack 6 I ask for a Hand of Sacrifice and use a Shield Barrier
For stack 7 I ask for a Pain Suppression and use a Shield Barrier
This leaves me with Shield Wall available to use if things get messy and I need to take an 8th.
See what I've explained, in action!
In this video I did not choose Storm Bolt, but was testing how Bloodbath was for the encounter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2lHhbNe_4
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Originally Posted by Warriorsarri
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