The Highlord's Return - Prot Warrior tips

[Eninya]

I'm guessing zerging is impossible without the gloves. So far, I've reached 36% on Inquisitor as my best attempt, but I usually die around 40-44%, or something like 19-23m damage done to him. I've only had one death where I was knocked off, but that was largely due to drawing the fight out.

I gave Indomitable a try, and it makes surviving phase 1 substantially easier (rolling with 7.1m+ HP), especially when not running Impending Victory--which I see so many people do this with. I find it doesn't provide enough healing, ever. To that end, best attempt with it was like 22m damage done, so it was pretty much on par with Devastator, just taking a bit longer.

Mind Rend is still death, and the RNG that comes with it is absolutely stupid and cannot be manipulated. He will cast Drain Life from the second cast, or as late as 8-9 stacks of his Aura. This makes planning the first phase impossible, and why I can't seem to do much. I don't have enough interrupts to weather his casts, and never enough mobs to stay alive. He just pelts me for 2.5m a cast, and Ignore Pain mostly just takes the sting out.

The real great wall to this is the Aura stacks vs. Drain Life. Since I'm not an engineer or a blood elf, I've got a single ranged interrupt. Drain Life comes randomly, and more often than Storm Bolt is up, and seemingly never when I'm actually gaining stacks. As a result, I have to burn an orb to stop him safely, and those run out pretty quick.

You can out range Inquistor's cast if you are far enough. Allows you to let your stacks fall, just be careful because sometimes you can isolate yourself doing this and you have jack squat to generate rage on or Victory Rush.

Does this trigger him to Drain Life more often, or does he just stand there? It would seem a little easy to just stand out and heal up before going back in to nuke him with Battle Cry again.

[KrotosTheTank]

I'm guessing zerging is impossible without the gloves. So far, I've reached 36% on Inquisitor as my best attempt, but I usually die around 40-44%, or something like 19-23m damage done to him. I've only had one death where I was knocked off, but that was largely due to drawing the fight out.

I gave Indomitable a try, and it makes surviving phase 1 substantially easier (rolling with 7.1m+ HP), especially when not running Impending Victory--which I see so many people do this with. I find it doesn't provide enough healing, ever. To that end, best attempt with it was like 22m damage done, so it was pretty much on par with Devastator, just taking a bit longer.

Mind Rend is still death, and the RNG that comes with it is absolutely stupid and cannot be manipulated. He will cast Drain Life from the second cast, or as late as 8-9 stacks of his Aura. This makes planning the first phase impossible, and why I can't seem to do much. I don't have enough interrupts to weather his casts, and never enough mobs to stay alive. He just pelts me for 2.5m a cast, and Ignore Pain mostly just takes the sting out.

The real great wall to this is the Aura stacks vs. Drain Life. Since I'm not an engineer or a blood elf, I've got a single ranged interrupt. Drain Life comes randomly, and more often than Storm Bolt is up, and seemingly never when I'm actually gaining stacks. As a result, I have to burn an orb to stop him safely, and those run out pretty quick.



Does this trigger him to Drain Life more often, or does he just stand there? It would seem a little easy to just stand out and heal up before going back in to nuke him with Battle Cry again.

You should be using impending victory regardless. There's literally zero reason not to as both of the other options are 100% useless here.

Don't get past 5-6 stacks unless you plan to burn CDs, and use devastator, not indom, your issue is that you're trying to push too fast; speed makes it easier, but control makes it possible. Don't murder all the adds at once if you can, especially the eyes as they can be more or less one shot for a quick VR when needed, I just try to keep total eyes to 1-2, 2 being if they are next to each other as it's easy to avoid looking away from them.

You can easily use SB to interrupt the first life drain, and an orb for the second, by then the next one should have SB up or it will time out well with your pummel since you'll be in range. Don't be afraid to burn an orb if you have to, it's much better than having him heal 20-30%.

What are your talents you are using? and what Legendaries do you have at your disposal? I saw you have bracers so that's an easy choice, but the shoulders should be really nice, though i used belt along with AM/BV for extra damage and rage. BV saved me a few times just because even if you, for some reason, aren't near inquisitor, it'll still provide enough rage for a full IP on demand.

[Matthias]

I'm guessing zerging is impossible without the gloves. So far, I've reached 36% on Inquisitor as my best attempt, but I usually die around 40-44%, or something like 19-23m damage done to him. I've only had one death where I was knocked off, but that was largely due to drawing the fight out.

I gave Indomitable a try, and it makes surviving phase 1 substantially easier (rolling with 7.1m+ HP), especially when not running Impending Victory--which I see so many people do this with. I find it doesn't provide enough healing, ever. To that end, best attempt with it was like 22m damage done, so it was pretty much on par with Devastator, just taking a bit longer.

Mind Rend is still death, and the RNG that comes with it is absolutely stupid and cannot be manipulated. He will cast Drain Life from the second cast, or as late as 8-9 stacks of his Aura. This makes planning the first phase impossible, and why I can't seem to do much. I don't have enough interrupts to weather his casts, and never enough mobs to stay alive. He just pelts me for 2.5m a cast, and Ignore Pain mostly just takes the sting out.

The real great wall to this is the Aura stacks vs. Drain Life. Since I'm not an engineer or a blood elf, I've got a single ranged interrupt. Drain Life comes randomly, and more often than Storm Bolt is up, and seemingly never when I'm actually gaining stacks. As a result, I have to burn an orb to stop him safely, and those run out pretty quick.



Does this trigger him to Drain Life more often, or does he just stand there? It would seem a little easy to just stand out and heal up before going back in to nuke him with Battle Cry again.

Storm Bolt should almost always be up for each Drain Life, if not a few seconds off, which you can spare. If Storm Bolt is off CD you can honestly afford to use Pummel to Interrupt a Mind Rend. If Storm Bolt is ever off CD then you should make sure Pummel is up, and just punch him in the mouth even if it'll cost you a stack and delay you.

Also I personally only take up to 3 stacks, aside from the opening when I go from 6 to 7. If there is an Orb up you do have the option of sitting longer and using it before his next cast to reset stacks.

I'm not sure what he does exactly if your out of range, he does seem to try to move a tad closer to get in range. All I know is he's not nuking you and it buys you time. One again though you need to be careful going back in though because you can isolate yourself thus cutting your self off from Rage and targets to Victory Rush or IP. Going back into range at around 50% HP even with no stacks but no IP or rage can be dangerous.

[brutallord]

Impending Victory is as useless as other options with how easy it is to proc normal Victory Rush

[Eninya]

You should be using impending victory regardless. There's literally zero reason not to as both of the other options are 100% useless here.

Don't get past 5-6 stacks unless you plan to burn CDs, and use devastator, not indom, your issue is that you're trying to push too fast; speed makes it easier, but control makes it possible. Don't murder all the adds at once if you can, especially the eyes as they can be more or less one shot for a quick VR when needed, I just try to keep total eyes to 1-2, 2 being if they are next to each other as it's easy to avoid looking away from them.

Impending Victory is useless because I can proc VR just as much and heal twice as much without the talent. You're never idling long enough for it to come off cooldown on its own, so it's better to keep it untalented for a bigger heal. It's how I generally stay alive with Devastator. I've tried several variations of talents, mostly with AM/BV, but all it's really there for is more Battle Cries.

Storm Bolt should almost always be up for each Drain Life, if not a few seconds off, which you can spare. If Storm Bolt is off CD you can honestly afford to use Pummel to Interrupt a Mind Rend. If Storm Bolt is ever off CD then you should make sure Pummel is up, and just punch him in the mouth even if it'll cost you a stack and delay you.

Also I personally only take up to 3 stacks, aside from the opening when I go from 6 to 7. If there is an Orb up you do have the option of sitting longer and using it before his next cast to reset stacks.

I'm not sure what he does exactly if your out of range, he does seem to try to move a tad closer to get in range. All I know is he's not nuking you and it buys you time. One again though you need to be careful going back in though because you can isolate yourself thus cutting your self off from Rage and targets to Victory Rush or IP. Going back into range at around 50% HP even with no stacks but no IP or rage can be dangerous.

This is where the horrendous RNG of this comes into play. Storm Bolt is virtually never up between casts of Drain Life, and neither am I in melee because I'm dropping my 4-5 stacks (my usual number). Rolling with only 3 stacks and I end up standing around too long taking too much damage without pressuring him. I see most people push through phase 1 in about 2 minutes on average.

It bothers me that adds take so long to spawn that I have to chain some cooldowns in the beginning before the first wave of arcanes. The 1-2 eyes that spawn aren't enough to sustain me before then.

[Horrorless]

This is where the horrendous RNG of this comes into play. Storm Bolt is virtually never up between casts of Drain Life, and neither am I in melee because I'm dropping my 4-5 stacks (my usual number). Rolling with only 3 stacks and I end up standing around too long taking too much damage without pressuring him. I see most people push through phase 1 in about 2 minutes on average.

It bothers me that adds take so long to spawn that I have to chain some cooldowns in the beginning before the first wave of arcanes. The 1-2 eyes that spawn aren't enough to sustain me before then.

It isn't RNG though. You need to be certain that you always have an interrupt ready for Drain Life -- that's it. If that means you need to Intervene -> Pummel and extend your stack duration + pop a CD or an orb to survive, then you gotta do it. If it means you have to soak an extra mind wreck instead of interrupting it because you know you'll need it for a potential Life Drain, then you gotta do it.

Keep putting in attempts. I was stuck at the same stage as you (25 - 50% P1) for awhile because I didn't have a consistent pattern. What adds am I gonna kill here? How many VRs will I likely need to survive the next 2-3 mind wrecks? Are my interrupts gonna be off CD for the next life drain? Can I afford to interrupt this mind wreck? Can I hold off on popping this orb by using a CD instead? etc

Pushing damage is important and makes the fight somewhat "easier," but people have done this with 3 or 4 infernals up in P2, meaning it's far more about survivability and control than DPS racing.

Don't discourage yourself. It's a single-player progression fight, it's gonna take a good many pulls to really figure it out.

[ImpTaimer]

Finally completed it today with no gear changes from last post and even ran out of Bear Tartar and Drums (still had plenty of flasks and Old War pots) and told myself "fuck it last try."

Race: Troll
Talents 2-1-1-2-1-3-1
5.2mil Health
896.06 E-ilvl (with Gronntooth) 916 A-ilvl, and 47 AR (extra point into toughness, revenge, clap, leap, dragonskin).
Legendaries were bracer and belt. Belt to substitute gloves that I don't have. Bracers highly recommended because of Phase 2 regardless if Phase 1 can be cheese with amazing DPS (and RNG).

1. It's mainly Phase 1 RNG, including some phase 2 orb placement and infernal smash RNG. I finally got really good RNG on mindflay/drain rotation, add spawn time, eye spawn location, and orb spawns. Pre-pot highly recommended, and saving 2nd pot for start of Phase 2.

2. Phase 1 it's important to save first orb till after adds spawn and pray boss casts Drain before they come out of portals, at which point you should jump to the spot you entered the instance and LoS Variss towards Velen (but not on) and charge him when the adds go for Velen and use Shield Reflect and Battle Cry (it should be up by now) for (almost) every set of adds. With Belt you can manage Demo and Battle at the same time much more reliably.

3. After that it's all about using the orbs to drop stacks and cleaning up some eyes while helping your cooldowns lower and make sure to repeat. Must dodge infernal slams. Do not bother trying to LoS Variss anymore unless it's an emergency, as the first LoS will likely make it impossible.

4. Phase 2 blow drums and pot if you have them and go to town. Waste an orb to top your health off if you have to. You have to dodge shit and save Heroic Leap for the Netherstomp, always making sure to leap near an orb if possible. Eat the first Annihilate without major cooldowns (besides ignore pain and shield block) if you can help it. You need Demo shout for second and Shield Wall for third.

5. Save your stuns to delay Annihilate if you can help it. Always Shield Reflect Twisting.

6. Pray to RNGesus, because nearly nothing about this fight can be out-skilled, only out-geared and out-cheesed by being Tauren, BE, Engineer, and/or having HoV stun trinket or BrH.

I have to say people saying Phase 2 is harder than Phase 1 are full of shit and probably just trying to cheese Phase 1 by dpsing it down as fast as possible and hoping the negligible Phase 2 RNG won't screw them over.

It isn't RNG though.

It absolutely is. Even if you cast Storm Bolt exactly when he casts Drain life there's still a chance he'll cast drain life and finish cast while your storm bolt has 1-3 seconds left on cooldown. I've had it happen. I've had Variss cast Drain life AND add portals spawn after the first mindwreck cast, making it impossible to line up my cooldowns.

I'm also going to add this is absolutely not a single player progression fight. It is tuned for ToS Normal geared players. Unless you get really really good RNG on Nethershards and Titanforging you're never going to get enough gear to do this without raiding or doing Mythic+.

No matter how many pulls you make to "figure it out" there is heavy RNG in phase 1 that will royally fuck you over. The only way to un-fuck yourself is by overgearing, which will never happen until 7.3 without Titanforge luck.

[Anuibus]

It absolutely is. Even if you cast Storm Bolt exactly when he casts Drain life there's still a chance he'll cast drain life and finish cast while your storm bolt has 1-3 seconds left on cooldown.

Then you need to burn an orb to stop the cast.

[Matthias]

There are times when it seems like your caught with your pants down and he's using Drain Life when Storm Bolt is off CD.

If your only using Storm Bolt for Drain Life, then Bolt should be up in a few seconds, he'll heal a tad, but you can deal with it. Otherwise charge in and Pummel, and try to reset your stacks.

[KrotosTheTank]

Impending Victory is useless because I can proc VR just as much and heal twice as much without the talent. You're never idling long enough for it to come off cooldown on its own, so it's better to keep it untalented for a bigger heal. It's how I generally stay alive with Devastator. I've tried several variations of talents, mostly with AM/BV, but all it's really there for is more Battle Cries.

The bold part is untrue. The proc still heals for the same, only now you'll also have a heal available when there isnt a recent kill. You've got no reason to unspec it.

[Eninya]

Then you need to burn an orb to stop the cast.

Entering phase 2 with 0 orbs doesn't seem like a good sign.

[Anuibus]

Entering phase 2 with 0 orbs doesn't seem like a good sign.

Burning 1 orb shouldn't be leaving you with 0, not that its impossible to do phase 2 going in with 0-1 orbs.

[Matthias]

Entering phase 2 with 0 orbs doesn't seem like a good sign.

Better to get to Kruul then worry about how many Orbs you have transitioning, Kruul is easier, but still takes a few attempts to get used to, I was personally never able to read when he's about to Stomp, but that's ideally when you want to stun him. Also you could always just delay finishing off Insquitor until Velen spawns another Orb.

[Eninya]

Burning 1 orb shouldn't be leaving you with 0, not that its impossible to do phase 2 going in with 0-1 orbs.

Does Velen continue to spawn orbs in phase 2?

[KrotosTheTank]

Does Velen continue to spawn orbs in phase 2?

Yes, but as other's have said, get there first, it's a faster and more stressful part of the encounter but it's so much simpler to do. Worry about not having orbs in P2 when you start to get to P2 consistently.

[Delath]

Just completed it finally after like 150 pulls so here's some pointers:

- did it with 1-2-3-2-1-3-1 build for more burst when inside the pool in phase 1
- 904 ilvl
- gloves and bracers as leges
- use dps pots, flasks, shoulder enchant and bear tartare food
- having gift of radiance and engineer belt helps a LOT

Phase 1:
- burned him for as long as I could on pull with chaining interrupts and reflecting one of the high stack hits
- stayed on boss until adds came in and then i shockwave them and leap out (9-10) stacks, boss should be at like 50% or so at this point
- after this just try to burn as much during each inside phase and kill eyes if they are in convenient spots when u go out for reset
- you can find spots to interrupt casts with outranging boss during the whole phase 1 mostly
- dont worry about going to 0 orbs, use them liberally

Phase 2:
- blow all cooldown and drums and go ham on boss
- make sure u have reflect for the heals, that makes healing a non-issue
- keep moving or leap out of pools
- use orbs for oh-shit moments when u cant get out of pools fast enough or such
- Annihilate 1: block and some IP
- Annihilate 2: shield wall
- Annihilate 3: last stand + nelth
- should be dead before nr 4 (i died to this but boss was at like 1,5% and npc killed him)

[Deleted]

I'm having major problems trying to mitigate the Mind Rend cast, he seems to cast it so often at 2mil+ a hit that I cannot manage to get the rage to maintain enough IP, especially when I have to get out to drop stacks from the debuff and/or I have no targets to build up rage against. I feel like most of the guides dont even seem to mention that the mind rend damage is even a thing so I'm obviously doing something wrong. Any tips?

[Deleted]

I'm having major problems trying to mitigate the Mind Rend cast, he seems to cast it so often at 2mil+ a hit that I cannot manage to get the rage to maintain enough IP, especially when I have to get out to drop stacks from the debuff and/or I have no targets to build up rage against. I feel like most of the guides dont even seem to mention that the mind rend damage is even a thing so I'm obviously doing something wrong. Any tips?

yeah sometimes you can end up in a bad spot with no rage. in such a situation you can use storm bolt to stun him, or even a orb if need be, the absolute worst that can happen is that he casts life drain right after and a few ticks go off before your stacks drop and you can pummel.

also remember you can victory rush, but that's actually harder to time now that the adds hp has been nerfed so much, but generally if theres 2 eyes up that should always give you a target.

i've also heard you can outrange it but that never struck me as a particularly viable tactic.

If it happens a lot instead of occasionally, you might be spending to much rage on revenge. it's also less a problem as the fight goes on, after the first minute orso there is always something alive you can attack for rage.

[Delath]

From my experience the first part of phase 1 until like 30% hp was pretty much predictable once you get the strat ironed out (after a substantial number of attempts though) according to what interrupts you have at your disposal etc, not accounting for some random flukes of very odd cast timings. This was the case at least if you use a strat where you burn a substantial chunk of health before jumping out the first time. After that the final burn of phase 1 was more or less hit or miss for me depending on what spawned where and when and whether i got thrown around because of this pushback or that, so that was just a matter of doing it enough times that you got through it every now and then. The last phase was comparatively easier, but still took a number of fuckups on this and that before I managed to do it calmly enough to get through it.

[reathe]

Here's my take on Highlord Kruul:


I went a little against the grain with legendaries and talents, mainly taking Indomnitable and using Prydaz/Sephuz