Tank help - BRC - Karsh Steelbender

[Deleted]

Hi guys,

The LFD was unfortunate enough to dump me in the BRC today with a group that was stuck at Karsh Steelbender. Now they'd obviously just replaced their previous tank and must have tried to teach him the encounter too. Anyway, at some point he must have given up and so it was my shot.

Anyway, I hadn't done the instance yet on normal so I didn't know what exactly to expect. But the group was kind enough to explain the strat.

Now what I got was this:
I must drag Karsh Steelbender through the lava in regular intervals and let the debuff stack 2-4 times so that the group can deal damage. However, this also increases his own damage so you don't want to get above 5 stacks. Should the debuff run out at any time, he will spawn adds that attack the group and basically it's almost a wipe then.

Edit: So I just read up the tankspot guide and they say you need to be 5 sec in the fire....5 sec out of the fire.....5 in....5 out. But wouldn't this cause the debuffs to stack too high? Or do they really fade that quickly?

Now I had a huge problem with tracking the debuffs as I simply couldn't see them anywhere amongst all the trash-debuffs on the boss. So I had no clue when they'd run out or when to refresh them. So I installed DBM but it caused more confusion then it helped. After all, it showed me a bar with a stack number and that it was about to run out. Yet somehow we'd still have adds spawn and the debuff would stack up to 16.

Anyway,, there's something about this fight I don't get although it seemed pretty logical at the time. And is there any effective way to track those damned debuffs?

[Soulstrike]

i did boss 2 days ago with LFD and guildies last week

we had pretty good tank but was his first time on BRC heroic...

ive done this with my guild before and we used a strat that kept steelbender's debuff up.
for example we would put him in the middle until he reaches 2 stacks, then when he is about to lose the debuff we would get him back in the lava until its 4stack. this would prevent adds spawning just an aoe wide damage. we would then stack his debuff to 6 before the 4 debuff wears off. and finally go back in the lava till he hits 8 stacks from 6 .
when he reaches 8 we would stop him going back in there again due to massive aoe damage (by the way i time warped at this point because this is the part where u want him down to 30% ish).
we would reset the debuff at 8 and allow the adds to spawn. as a dps myself we need to get the adds away from the tank so he doesnt get random debuff applied to the steelbreaker once the add is killed and drops lava shit on the floor.
oh at this point when the adds are spawned tank must NOT go in the fire in the centre because healers are just gona go oom later or its just unmanageable. once the adds are down repeat above and get him down XD. we did this about 2 times and got him down.

[Daetur]

My guild kept popping him in and out like Tankspot says until he reached about 8-10 stacks, but we then allowed the debuff to fall off and dealt with the adds. Rinsed and repeated until dead.

The trick is to have a plate dps (Me, a Frost DK) or a kiter pick up the adds and have the group kill them AWAY from the tank and from the center of the room. When the adds die, they drop a magma circle that will cause Karsh to get debuff stacks if he crosses them, and it really hurts your control. For example, if you kill one of the mobs near him/the tank and he touches the zone, it can put you in a position where his stacks do not fall off and the AoE kills you, or you weren't ready to start stacking again, and the new stack from the magma drops off, spawning more adds. These zones do not fade over time.

[Deleted]

We tried many different tactics, the killed ended up being ~

Karsh takes two stacks, then four, then six, then eight and then we drop stacks DPS kill the adds on one spot and rinse and repeat.

[monkeyelf]

If you do it with a guild group, 2 healers works well. I dpsd it on my ret pally with a rogue, DK tank (approx 180k buffed HP), holy priest(MS shadow but went holy for this fight), and holy pally. The tank went 5stack, dps, up to 10stack, dps, up to 13stack (pop hero around this point in time), dps, up to 16stack, dps, let it fall off, ignoring adds, just repeat. He'll die before a second set of adds, it doesn't take very long cuz all dps is on boss and he's taking insane increased damage, you have two healers for all the AoE damage, and you even get an achievement

I've only done the fight with this strategy, but in a normal pug with only one healer, Soulstrikes strategy sounds like it would work to me (so long as healer doesn't go oom)

[Blahu - Twisting Nether]

Surprisingly the lava the adds drop can make it easier to give him stacks. However, if you do this the problem is that it can get very overwhelming very fast. I did this in a pug and got the 15 stack achiev by accident as the tank. If you have a pally in your group have them put up fire resist and kings*. Also go buy some prismatic elixirs. This will put you at 300 fire resist (this was on my alchemist so it might be more like 250) which is roughly 33% fire reduction which is quite useful since he goes from doing 15k extra at 15 stacks to 10k at 15 stacks. You shouldn't really need to drop stacks if you save you big damage reduction ability for near the end when he has a large amount of stacks.

*note that a druid's MotW will also give the same effect as kings.

[Wild9ride]

My strategy for my guild runs, with an off tank (feral druid w/ dps gear):

Run him through lava once. Before it falls off, run him through it again. Do this 5-6 times and then let it fall off.

Deal with adds.
Kill adds away from boss.

run him through lava. Repeat step 1.

Loot.

Pretty successful so far.

[zeq]

The way I tank it is;

Grab him when hes on opposite side of lava and have him run through (getting 1 stack on the way) and gradually increase 1-2-3-4-5-6 and drop, then kill adds, then run him into the pool 1-2-3-4-5-6 and usually dead by then.

[Alianthos]

We actually used another strat for our 1st down but its hard that the strat mainly discussed in this topic

Boss in the middle to 6/7 -> Drop stacks, gets 3 adds on the tank. Kill all 3, use the pool to restack the boss up to 5/6, then move the boss out.

But its harder. Quite funny dance though

[Värgen]

I see alot of people are explaining the kill adds tactic. However, if you have a decent group and bloodlust/hero there is a super effective way to end him fast.

Get him up to 4 stacks fast, dps some, let the healer pick up the group, then get 6 stacks, dps and heal up, then 8 stacks. Pop lust/hero here, and never let the stacks run out. When it's about to run out, apply another, wait abit, apply another stack. The boss will be down super fast. Let the tank handle the adds, but try not to kill them. 1 or 2 dead adds is okay though.

[jho369]

Use his shoulders and feet to anchor him so he just grace the lava for 1 stack, rinse and repeat. He should be dead around 8 stacks, depends on the dps.

[Deleted]

If executed correctly, and/or with high dps, you will barely even have any adds.

Try to only apply one stack, it's piss difficult, but possible. Don't move him back in too early, delay it as much as you're comfortable with. Make sure not to ever drop the stacks, obviously.

[mrKanin]

our tanks normally just tank him at the side of the lava in midle. run in stack it to 1. go out.. just as its about to run out they drag him so he just hit the lava and get one more stack.. keep on going like that till we kill him..

the adds first spawn when the debuff runs off, so if u never let the debuff wears off u will never get adds.
but problem with this tacs is that if dps is not high enough u can get into trouble with healing at the end.

[Walkingsteak]

The group will take damage everytime you pull him through any fire, but thats gennerally easier too handle than spawning adds constantly.

What you need too do is pull him when he's on the other side (as said before)
Then you do the vals around the circle with him, occasionnaly and as late as you feel comfortable with, strafe in, dip a tip of the boss for a sec and the strafe out / backpeddle away.
Don't move the boss if not nessecary, but the easiest way too pull him out is by turning you're side and strafing away.

1 stack at a time if youre pro and no adds will have too be dealt with, a decent geared tank with a good healer can do 10 ish stacks (remember cooldowns, thats what theyre for!)

If you get too 10 stacks and he aint dead, drop em, if possible kite the adds away, if not, don't dip the boss again till theyre dead, otherwise the flame pools on the ground will shoot his stacks up like mad

[Deleted]

If executed correctly, and/or with high dps, you will barely even have any adds.

Try to only apply one stack, it's piss difficult, but possible. Don't move him back in too early, delay it as much as you're comfortable with. Make sure not to ever drop the stacks, obviously.

That's what the group said too. NEVER DROP STACKS1!!. But actually your are supposed to drop stacks after a while and reset them so mitigate damage. I guess the group didn't explain it very well but this makes a lot more sense.

[HolgerDK]

Use his shoulders and feet to anchor him so he just grace the lava for 1 stack, rinse and repeat. He should be dead around 8 stacks, depends on the dps.

Anchor him? - he is not a ship you know.

[Deleted]

That's what the group said too. NEVER DROP STACKS1!!. But actually your are supposed to drop stacks after a while and reset them so mitigate damage. I guess the group didn't explain it very well but this makes a lot more sense.

High stacks = high tank damage. At ~15, I find tank damage too high without CDs.

[Téuntjûh]

We find this a really easy boss tbh. Just let the boss get 1 extra stack each time. By the time the boss reaches 10 stacks it should be dead, else release stacks, kill adds, and start over.

Should reset stacks at 12/13

[lionross]

did till 21 last time, or the previous didn't recall it well.

BTW the rule is: slowly stack debuff on Boss, and never fall it down (DBM will help you a lot), better if you can stack one by one (you need to kite it at the very edge of the lava circle).
Stack debuff till you see healer can refill party under 6 seconds; when you feel the healer reach his limit, just let fall debuff and let dps deal whit adds, kill adds, then again form the start.

The key is, stack one by one, very very slowly to mach healer heal AoE.

[Scuravolpe]

Watch. Learn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqeEvnE7mD4