Mythic Jaina questions.

[DreamSlaveOne]

Hi, it's me again looking for help from great people that post here! We killed Blockade last night and I'm preparing for daunting progress as it looks by stats.

1. So, what makes this fight so difficult aside from last phase DPS check?

2. Some of my friends tell me that there is heavy RNG elements in 1 and 2 phase that. Most say that p1 you can play around but p2 have much more unforgiving RNG.

3. Should we farm for offhand from Heroic for easier navigation during intermission, how much people should have it or it is irrelevant.

Thanks in advance!

[Tehterokkar]

1. Individual responsibility in first intermission is by far the biggest difficulty. Also in general being mindful of the mythic mechanic when dealing with other mechanics(firing ballistas, running from avalanche or Siegebreaker/Broadside).

2. P1 is complete RNG, you are most likely never going to have 2 pulls back-to-back that have the same timings, so there are just multiple situations that you have to learn deal with. P2 from what I have experienced has really no RNG(apart from Icefall spawn)

3. Since intermission is rarely about min-maxing DPS, offhands from even normal will make it easier for your casters/healers to help them avoid balls, also people with offhands should be vocal about the tornadoes during intermission as they can appear out of nowhere for people without the off-hand.

[HonneurVilified]

Icefall spawn RNG is the worst RNG in the fight IMO; the rest can be played around pretty easily.

In P2, you will get an Icefall during the vision-obstructing blizzard (Howling Winds? I forget what it's called), so you will have to pray you don't get fucked by that (hunter's Eagle Eye can help spot Icefall spawns, but it's difficult to do reliably). I don't think you can see that spawn before your vision is obstructed. There's also one Icefall spawn that can completely cover most of the Wall of Ice, so depending on which side of the Wall you end up on when you push to the transition, your melee might be completely unable to attack it. There might be ways to play around these things -- you can run through Icefall to get to a better position without getting stacks if you have the warming debuff from the barrels, for example -- but they will probably cause some wipes.

Other than Icefall, I'd say most of our failed pulls were just due to individual mistakes like getting frozen during the intermission or people just dying in P1-P2 to random stuff, costing us desperately needed battle rezzes in P3.

Other minor notes off the top of my head that might help:
1. You need 5 shots from ballistas to kill a boat. Don't fire until you can see the boss frame for the boat.
2. If your DPS is solid, you might be able to ignore any bombs dropped by the last set of adds in P1; they despawn when you transition. You don't want to be out trying to get them off the boat when you transition, or you will probably get frozen (call for grips if you think you're in danger).
3. If you have a tank paladin, I think they can bubble and interrupt 2-3 adds in the transition, making it significantly easier.
4. Once you get comfortable with the Ice Wall, make sure you start allocating ranged to attack Jaina as much as you can afford to during the second transition. You can easily shave off 2-4% from the last phase. Melee with long cooldowns might want to consider holding CDs for the last phase rather than using them on the wall.
5. Make sure you have all of your grips assigned (e.g. which priest grips each Siegebreaker, which priest will grip the interrupter going into P3, if you use a hunter instead of a warlock pet). Your priests need to be on-point with grips in all phases, as they can easily save a pull.
6. Siegebreaker will often land during a Glacial Ray in P2 -- make sure the Siegebreaker is placed such that players are not knocked into the Glacial Ray (since it'll land basically right after they bait the Ray). This is up to both the Siegebreaker player and the baiting/running out of the Ray in the correct direction.

Good luck!

[Nigloh]

Yes get the offhands, especially for healers(if they have any problems whatsoever with the intermission) since losing a healer at the start of p2 is often just a wasted pull if you have no CRs available. You can still practice the timings and movement in p2 with a dps or three dead.

Also don't let people think that p1 is a pushover and doesn't require any effort at all, since getting complacent or lazy can easily kill you(or others). Regards; 200 pulls and still regularly wipe on p1 due to people not caring enough to play it properly, thinking that the only part requiring any concentration is in p2 and beyond.

[KiwifruitOCE]

1. As far as end bosses go, Jaina isn't that hard. Don't feel too intimidated by the fight. I would estimate Jaina to be around 230~ pulls for guilds who are 412+ raid ilvl, which most guilds will be at this point of progress. A lot of the 'difficulty' comes from lost pulls due to icefall rng, but this can be mitigated (at least in p2).

2. Phase 1 has rng timings but its nothing major, there's hardly ever an overlap where you're like, if this overlap happens we wipe. Its just a matter of being prepared for multiple things. Phase 2 and Phase 3 have rng icefall spawns. In phase 2 its perfectly possible to mitigate icefall rng. You should preferably assign a very reliable player to keep track of icefall and call out where the raid should move to if the spawn is not favourable. Your raid leader would be the best for this job if they are attentive. In phase 3, you get two icefalls at once, so sometimes you'll get a double icefall spawn on the area you are tanking jaina. If this happens, 95% of the time it is a wipe.

3. Offhands on healers help because they have to look at frames and watch for glacial shards. Other than that, offhands aren't a necessity, just a bonus. If you turn particle density to low it will reduce the number of snow particles that fly across the screen and can help with visibility.