Explosives Affix

[maaksel]

I'm usually around 50% of our group's damage on fel explosives as a bear. Bears are amazing for dealing with them.

I guess that is your luck then, because I'm usually top damage on them in my groups.

And them some DPS is below the healer.

[Evilmoo]

I did upper and lower kara +10 with a mage friend
the affix was indeed fun, had to be on toes all the time, but kara + teeming + this was stressful.

[OrcsRLame]

This is the prot pally affix. Even on 10 mob pulls I can solo the orbs with Crusader's Judgment and Last Defender. It's fucking nice to finally be able to play something that's not First Avenger and Seraphim in high m+.

[ruggleee]

someone tried HOV +10 this week, the pull after the first boss? spawning 7 orbs in same time, well we had 2 pugs after severals attemps they left, oh well gg my key this week. teeming and orb on this 9-10 mobs trash + lot of int healing + 6-7 orbs spawning, make it really challlenging.... i agree our tank sucked to do any damage on them(did mostly soloed them on my dk tank on BRH 12)

p.s i was playing lock, hello drainsoul orb LOLOLOL

[Emancptr]

I've ran a bunch of pug HoV +10-14s (not carry groups) and at least 2 chested all of them (3 chested most). That pack spawns a maximum of 4 orbs (orbs generally spawn 1 per 2.5-3 mobs) and orbs aren't the problem with this pack. The problem with that pack is getting the dps/pugs to understand that nothing matters but killing/interrupting the healers. If a single heal goes off (god forbid 2) you're probably going to wipe because eventually you'll miss an orb and/or the healer gets overwhelmed by the damage from the caster adds.

I mark the two mystics (healers) with a skull and make sure the dps are focusing skull, while I interrupt the other mystic. As soon as the healers die the pack is over because the champions (melee mobs with much less health) will follow shortly. Then you're only left with 2-3 mobs and almost no orb spawning. If heals are kicked properly you have to deal with 1 set of 4 Fel Explosive orbs, but after that you'll have 1-2 mobs dead and less orbs. If heals aren't kicked then the champions stay alive and you're still fighting 8+ mobs 30-45 seconds into the pull. At that point, you're going to wipe because keeping up with 4 orbs constantly spawning eventually overruns pug groups (although it wouldn't be too much of a challenge in a coordinated group).

[Rioo]

Tried it out in Vault 10 and must say this is what affixes should be like. Everyone has to deal with it, not just tank and healer. How much you can pull highly depends on how good you are. Downside is how certain classes are better than others, but hard to make a challenging affix balanced.

[Deleted]

As Afflock, I kind of like them orbs

Initially, they were a pain, but once the group is used to this new mechanic, it's not really that hard. Yes, on bigger pulls, there can be up to 4 orbs at the same time and spawning quickly again, but with up-to-scratch melees (who are just much better at killing them quickly) and alert ranges (for orbs out of melee range), it worked well after a while.

As afflock, I really love that you can use them to basically play with 5 WoC stacks throughout the whole dungeon (20% increased DOT damage). Plus the shards you get from sniping drains on them when they die

[GreenJesus]

In Vault of the Wardens on Inquisitor boss, an explosive spawned on top of an eye... really??

[Evilmoo]

In Vault of the Wardens on Inquisitor boss, an explosive spawned on top of an eye... really??

Yeh, in case of VotW you need to run to the boss when he teleports and nuke adds there OR if you are lucky and both teleports are ranged adds, just ignore explosives summoned by them.

--
Arcway 12 onechested. shit was intense especially with mana wyrms and globes.

[Deleted]

God this shit is a nightmare as a clicker. I have no problems anywhere else but those things, half the time they aren't properly targeted even if you click in the middle of them.It's been a long time since I was that frustrated. Teeming in lower Kara didn't help either.
With that being said, Is it normal that they have healthbars and are "tabbable" during Bosses but not during trash? I thought the behaviour during trash is the norm?

[Shakou]

Just gonna leave this here: https://www.wowprogress.com/character/us/illidan/Shakou

Anyways. Can say that with few exceptions explosive hasn't been an issue in any key I've run this week. Just don't bad comps. Don't be a clicker. Git gud.

[ryklin]

most of my issues with them have been solved by just los'ing
and I honestly found kiting huge groups of mobs around corners to fun

-2nd boss of vault: los around the walls by the elevator to last boss (this one is dumb though and is something I'd like to see fixed), especially if you get mogu door and the rock thrower spawns or fel orcs and someone has to suicide to stop seed of corruption
-wyrmtongues in BRH and vault: los
big pulls of withered and wyrms and rats or blobs in arcway: los or bust harder or run out of the instance to despawn blobs
-big packs anywhere: constantly kite around corners or burst a bit harder, especially for lower and upper kara
-1st boss of maw: burst down adds
-cos imps: los (this is scary though, especially if you're high up or have low dps), it's already annoying to kill these things within your group's aoe cc without having extra targets

things I couldn't solve
-last boss of maw: cry as they spawn underneath the broken floor boards or floating off the side of the boat and cry as they kill you (you can get the ones under the floorboards at least if you walk up close)
-3rd boss of Nelths: couldnt even find these, but they definitely were hurting us
-last boss of eoa: spawning really far away

other thing I found is as ele, just run aftershock and/or icefury for on demand nukes

[Gasparde]

It seems like 0 testing went into this affix. The RNG of this affix is ridiculous, sometimes it's like 1 orb in 30 seconds and already on the next pack of the same size it's like 10 orbs in 10 seconds. The orbs spawn everywhere and you can pretty much never be sure on whether they will actually hit you or not (seeing as they can spawn on the drogbar stand @ boss 3 in Neltharion). Also, the second you pull more than 5 mobs (which is pretty much all the time with teeming) enjoy clicking through 10 stacking enemy name plates to get through 3 orbs at once (because guess what, CC'd mobs still spawn orbs).

This affix manages to be even more stupid than skittish.

[BergErr]

someone tried HOV +10 this week, the pull after the first boss? spawning 7 orbs in same time, well we had 2 pugs after severals attemps they left, oh well gg my key this week. teeming and orb on this 9-10 mobs trash + lot of int healing + 6-7 orbs spawning, make it really challlenging.... i agree our tank sucked to do any damage on them(did mostly soloed them on my dk tank on BRH 12)

p.s i was playing lock, hello drainsoul orb LOLOLOL

Tried HoV this week, id say its one dungeon where Explosive is almost nonfactor.
Some nasty dmg on the trash there though.

[Shakou]

Hardest dungeon I did this week was 13 COEN (not highest but the hardest yes, Cathedral is stupid). We ran guardian and resto druid, 2 bm hunters and a frost mage. We did not have any issues with explosive, just had the frost mage focus orbs 100% during trash while we plowed shit down.

I can't stress enough that people just aren't used to this affix. You can even los it to not take any dmg, or outrange it.

- - - Updated - - -

Yeh, in case of VotW you need to run to the boss when he teleports and nuke adds there OR if you are lucky and both teleports are ranged adds, just ignore explosives summoned by them.

--
Arcway 12 onechested. shit was intense especially with mana wyrms and globes.

This is wrong. You LOS/outrange the orbs that spawn in mid, just tank him where he spawns, hide in the corner for orbs that spawn was out in mid or on the stairs. I can't stress the level of "this is not rocket science".

[Evilmoo]

This is wrong. You LOS/outrange the orbs that spawn in mid, just tank him where he spawns, hide in the corner for orbs that spawn was out in mid or on the stairs. I can't stress the level of "this is not rocket science".

Yeh, when you get orc spawns & crawlers, good luck LoSing them.

[Radianshot]

Well in any case, goodbye to this affix for hopefully what is 2 months so we can necro this thread again when it comes back...
Seriously though, explosives needs to be much bigger and visible, just like totems in Ursoc trash..

[Auberdeen]

Ya people are overreacting as usual. This is actually one of the easier affixes because it either does 0 or it near-wipes you. Its punishing, but the hardest part is actually targeting them. Once you get used to targeted them, they die in one global and that's that. Make sure your healer and tank is handling the heavy load. DPS will overkill them, but a healer and tank should do just enough damage to get them killed, resulting in no net dps loss that is sizeable AND keeps the utility roles focused on just that.

tbh you kind of just blew my mind right now. have i been viewing this affix wrong the whole time?

tanks and healers should be the ones dealing with the orbs...? i have been under the impression it's the DPS' job to switch to them, but now that I really actually stop to think about it, mobs die soooo slowly in teeming/explosive/fortified solely BECAUSE DPS is forced to be pulled off to switch to orbs...

imho and experience, every group i have ran with seems to expect the DPS to be switching to orbs, and its usually the tank grumbling about how we are not switching fast enough... but the idea of the tank doing the switching while dragging around mobs seems ideal so DPS can just wail away

[david0925]

tbh you kind of just blew my mind right now. have i been viewing this affix wrong the whole time?

tanks and healers should be the ones dealing with the orbs...? i have been under the impression it's the DPS' job to switch to them, but now that I really actually stop to think about it, mobs die soooo slowly in teeming/explosive/fortified solely BECAUSE DPS is forced to be pulled off to switch to orbs...

imho and experience, every group i have ran with seems to expect the DPS to be switching to orbs, and its usually the tank grumbling about how we are not switching fast enough... but the idea of the tank doing the switching while dragging around mobs seems ideal so DPS can just wail away

a lot of classes are penalized for switching, and tanks are usually the ones that's least affected by them. The only tank that has issues killing large number of orbs by himself will be paladin since SoTR has a relatively long CD compared to other more spammable abilities and is used defensively, and Avenger's shield doesn't hit them at all. You can play around that by taking the double Judgment talent. As far as spammable abilities or abilities with low CD/high refresh rate goes

Tanks:
Druid: Mangle, Maul, or GG-MF one shots them
Warrior: Shield Spam, or just autos from Devastator. These orbs proc Victory Rushes so are basically free healing when you kill them
DH: Fracture, a few Shears if low on resources
Monk: BoS, TP (not sure if you can one shot without BoC)
DK: Heart Strike (if you target them), Death Strike, Marrowrend

Most healers also have instant casts or abilities that can 1-2 shot orbs in a reasonably high key.

[A-sayo]

Monk: BoS, TP (not sure if you can one shot without BoC)

Depends whether it's Fortified or Tyrannical. Most of the time, BoK crit/empowered TP is enough to one shot an orb. In high Fortified, that's another story.