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Malkorok Heroic Guide
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Introduction
Hi all,
I created a guide for my guild as reference for Malkorok Heroic, describing our original kill strategy and have decided to share it with the community.
I'm a big fan of text guides in conjunction with video guides and I feel that each has their own merits when preparing for a new encounter during progression. I'd also recommend the Fatboss, Evrelia and Gabestah video guides as a great resource ahead of any progression. Links to these video guides can be found below the text guide I've created.
Hopefully this guide can be of use to other people as well.
I've also included a TL;DR summary, for those only interested in the key points, despite the fairly succinct strategy for the fight.
Disclaimer: This guide is aimed at the 10-man Heroic version of the Malkorok encounter and not all of the information presented may be applicable to 25-man Heroic. This is not a definitive strategy and also assumes a basic knowledge of the normal encounter and the changes to mechanics on Heroic. Other strategies are entirely plausible, but this is what we will be using for our first kill and I can vouch that it works for us!
For links to my other Heroic boss guides, check out the Index Thread.
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Raid Composition
Standard Compositions: 2 Tanks, 5-6 DPS, 2-3 Healers
Recommended Composition: 2 Tanks, 6 DPS, 2 Healers
Avoid taking too many players that are limited to being in melee range, to give you the best chance of soaking the ranged puddles easily.
5 players at range is the minimum I would recommend taking for progression, but if you have a composition option with only the tanks in melee with 1 other player soaking the melee pools and the other 7 players at range, it will make progression significantly easier to go with that!
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Overview
alkorok is a rinse and repeat style fight and the mechanics are handled very similar to the Normal difficulty incarnation of the encounter. However, the 3 new Heroic mechanics in addition to the increased damage from the boss make this quite a challenging encounter. The biggest risk of all to the raid, is people switching off for a few seconds due to the somewhat repetitive nature of the fight, at which point it's likely they will get bit by an orb/smash/miss a pool and ultimately make a wipe more likely.
The major change on Heroic, is that throughout the main phase where the Ancient Barriers are in place, Malkorok spawns orbs at players locations continually throughout the phase. Standing on or very near to one of these orbs will detonate them, instantly removing the entire Ancient Barrier shield and dealing an additional 150k damage to the player that popped it! Throughout the main phase, there is less and less space for the raid to work with as the number of orbs increase; placement of the orbs to allow for players to move around effectively is key.
When Malkorok knocks a player into the air, an add spawns where the targeted player was stood. It is tankable so should be picked up and dragged into the centre with the boss, it also inflicts it's target with a slow, which makes it somewhat of an annoyance if a slowed player is trying to get out of the way of an Arcing Smash. The adds should be cleaved down quickly, they have low health and as long as they are picked up fast shouldn't pose much of a threat to the raid.
The final addition to Heroic, is that during the Blood Rage phase, the debuff that Malkorok applies to random raid members also roots them in place. This means that stacking up the soak the Blood Rage hits as a raid is infeasible and promotes having only specific players with large mitigation cooldowns to soak the entire phase alone. Having a lone tank without stacks of Fatal Strike soak the Blood Rage is ideal, as it gives them massive Vengeance and helps ease the DPS requirement for a kill. Solo soaking the Blood Rage also means that the rets of the raid are free to run around and clear up as many orbs as they can before the Ancient Barriers go up again and the main phase resumes.
This guide has been quite a long time coming, mostly because the fight itself is very simple but just very brutal relative to Normal and I've struggled to work out exactly what the key issues we had as a group were to get a kill on this guy. Hopefully I've highlighted the key issues and some useful tips below.
Malkorok Heroic is a mechanically simple fight, with no massively worrying Heroic only additional mechanics, but if you aren't fully focused, he will crush you!
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Positioning
On Pull
Standard PositionRaid stacked up for AoE healing, before quickly spreading out.
Unhappy Light Blue Circle = Malkorok
Purple Circle = Raid stacked up before pull
Purple Arrows = Raid spread to positions after pull
Orange Circle = Starting tank
Breath of Y'shaarjRaid should be spread out well and move back to assigned positions after moving to dodge an Arcing Smash or soak a puddle. This is also the positioning the raid should use for the Blood Rage phase.
Unhappy Light Blue Circle = Malkorok
Purple Circles = Ranged DPS and Healers, spread out
Pink Circle = Melee DPS and Inactive Tank
Orange Circle = Active Tank
-------------------------------------------------------------------------This is just an example and the movement will depend on the Arcing Smash locations; but the general gist is: MOVE!
... and once you've dodged it, get back to your standard positions!
Unhappy Light Blue Circle = Malkorok
Purple Circles = Ranged DPS and Healers, spread out
Purple Arrows = Ranged DPS and Healers, moving to dodge Breath of Y'shaarj
Pink Circle = Melee DPS and Inactive Tank
Orange Circle = Active Tank
Red Circle = Arcing Smash location raid marker
Blue Circle = Arcing Smash location raid marker
Green Circle = Arcing Smash location raid marker
Strategy
General Information
Phase 1 is handled in the same way as on Normal, but with the addition of watching out for orbs and cleaving down the adds that spawn.
If you weren't already doing this for Normal, then I would definitely recommend marking the location where each Arcing Smash has targeted, so that it's easy for your raid members to get in a safe location each time 3 Arcing Smashes have occured and Breath of y'shaarj is about to occur. There are plenty of addons which make keybinding markers for quick placement and cancellation a lot easier, such as: http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/wmarker-addon. There are plenty of other options however and simple macros can also be used to the same effect:
The tank that will be solo soaking the first Blood Rage should pick up the boss on the pull. The main phase is 2 minutes long, so any cooldowns on a longer time than this that will be required for the Blood Rage should be saved. To quickly top up the whole raid on the pull, I would recommend having the whole raid stack up in an Efflorescence, Healing Rain or similar and then blow some healing cooldowns or just AoE heal like mad to get everyone topped up quickly before spreading out. Heroism and all DPS cooldowns should be used on the pull.Code:/click CompactRaidFrameManagerDisplayFrameLeaderOptionsRaidWorldMarkerButton /click DropDownList1Button1
After each Arcing Smash, as on Normal, 3 puddles spawn and explode after a few seconds dealing massive raid damage if a player isn't stood in them to soak. 2 of the puddles are always at a random ranged location, whilst one is always near the melee and tanks. The tanks should never soak the melee pool if they have any Fatal Strike stacks, so either have a melee DPS do it or allocate one of your ranged/healers to soak the mele pools should you be running a zero melee composition.
Have the raid spread out evenly around the arena - if anyone has to move to dodge Arcing Smash, make sure they move back to their assigned location afterwards to avoid gaps forming that will make the puddle soaking very difficult.
To ensure that the starting tank has no stacks of Fatal Strike when the Blood Rage phase starts, the tank swap should occur at 15 stacks. The damage on the tanks above 12 stacks can get quite high, so if possible use a small defensive cooldown to cover that point or at the very least ensure active mitigation is up for the final few stacks. Depending on what tank classes you have available and what externals you have at your disposal, it may be that one tank cannot solo soak both Blood Rages. If that is the case, then the tank that didn't start on the pull should tank first after the first Blood Rage, to ensure they begin the second Blood Rage without stacks of Fatal Strike.
Every time a player is knocked up, the tanks or melee should taunt the add that spawnsinto the centre with the boss and the raid should quickly cleave it down to avoid players being slowed.
Fight Outline
So, as you can see, there really isn't much to this fight at a general level! There are 2 key topics I'll touch on next, which if handled incorrectly will cause serious issues.MAIN PHASE - STAY WELL SPREAD OUT TO MAKE SOAKING PUDDLES EASIER - 2 minutes
Add spawns
Arcing Smash -> Mark
Soak Puddles
Add spawns
Arcing Smash -> Mark
Soak Puddles
Add spawns
Arcing Smash -> Mark
Soak Puddles then move to avoid getting hit by Breath of Y'shaarj
Add spawns
Arcing Smash -> Mark
Soak Puddles
Add spawns
Arcing Smash -> Mark
Soak Puddles
Add spawns
Arcing Smash -> Mark
Soak Puddles then move to avoid getting hit by Breath of Y'shaarj
BLOOD RAGE - STAY AWAY FROM THE SOLO SOAKING TANK TO AVOID THE MELEE CLEAVE - 20 seconds
MAIN PHASE - STAY WELL SPREAD OUT TO MAKE SOAKING PUDDLES EASIER - 2 minutes
Add spawns
Arcing Smash -> Mark
Soak Puddles
Add spawns
Arcing Smash -> Mark
Soak Puddles
Add spawns
Arcing Smash -> Mark
Soak Puddles then move to avoid getting hit by Breath of Y'shaarj
Add spawns
Arcing Smash -> Mark
Soak Puddles
Add spawns
Arcing Smash -> Mark
Soak Puddles
Add spawns
Arcing Smash -> Mark
Soak Puddles then move to avoid getting hit by Breath of y'shaarj
BLOOD RAGE - STAY AWAY FROM THE SOLO SOAKING TANK TO AVOID THE MELEE CLEAVE - 20 seconds
Enrage shortly afterwards, should aim to kill the boss before the Blood Rage ends.
Dealing with the Orbs
Orbs will be spawning on non-melee raid members every few seconds, so it is vital that all players are constantly on the lookout and adjust their position accordingly each time an orb spawns on them. Popping an orb during the main phase is a huge waste of the Ancient Barrier shield that the healers are frantically trying to keep filled up, so avoiding getting hit by the orbs is pivotal to the encounter. At 150k damage to a players actual health pool per hit, it also means that if a single player runs into more than a couple of orbs during a main phase, their chance of survival to the Blood Rage diminishes greatly.
One thing that is absolutely key, is the placement of the orbs - and as a result, your own positioning. In early pulls, we had numerous occasions where players had lined up orbs in a row to save space, only to find that they need to get past the wall they've created to soak a puddle after the Arcing Smash and either have to go the long way round and risk wiping the raid by not soaking the puddle, or end up having to pop a load of orbs to soak the puddles which might kill them in the process (after which they then soak the puddle which will almost definitely kill them in the process!).
Throughout the main phase, players need to be aware of the routes they have available to them and avoid closing themselves off into a corner. Dropping the orbs in small groups and then leaving a few yards gap as an exit route between the next drop zone works quite well and conserves space. However, if you are able to soak a large number of orbs during the Blood Rage, then dropping each orb a couple of yards apart from any other orb will make life a lot easier.
Dealing with the Blood Rage
Solo soak it! Aside from anything else, solo soaking the Blood Rage turns the affected tank into a Vengeance King! Any tank will be able to do this effectively, though Paladins and Monks are ideal as they do not even need externals to do so. Blood Rage lasts 20 seconds, with Malkorok hitting every couple of seconds for 2.4M damage per cleave and piercing armor. Below is the calculation I used at the time to see how solo soaking was looking for me:
I've made this spreadsheet available on Google Docs, so you are welcome to download the tempalte and plug in your own cooldowns if you like!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...3c&usp=sharing
On our first kill, I actually solo soaked both Blood Rages, with just Divine Protection and Externals for the 2nd Blood Rage.
Whilst a tank is soaking the Blood Rage alone, the raid should spread out and keep nuking the boss. If anyone strays too near the tank soaking the Blood Rage, they will probably get one shot by the cleave if they don't have a large mitigation cooldown up... so just don't do it!
Any players with large mitigation cooldowns or immunities should run around popping as many orbs as possible before the Blood Rage ends. Hunters with Deterrence, Shadow Priests with Dispersion, Paladins with Divine Shield and so on all work very well. The healers need to be watching out for dispels as soon as any players get the debuff applied to them - abilities like Stampeding Roar and Hand of Freedom are also great for removing the root so the affected players can keep clearing orbs.
If handled correctly and sufficient players are soaking orbs, pretty much the entire arena can be cleared before the Ancient Barriers go up and the Main Phase gets going again. The players soaking will be taking a relatively high amount of damage unless they are using a total immunity, so an AoE healing cooldown is ideally placed here to keep the raid topped up.
After a Blood Rage ends, the damage that Malkorok deals is increased by 25% - get ready for the pain
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Summary
- Heroism and all CDs on pull.
- Pick up and cleave down the adds that spawn.
- Heal everyone's shields up as quickly as possible.
- Place a marker at each Arcing Smash location.
- Clear markers after Breath of Y'shaarj.
- Stay well spread to soak the puddles that spawn after Arcing Smash.
- Don't corner yourself with orbs, always leave a gap to escape.
- Don't get hit by Arcing Smash (if you do, you are a scrub!!)
- Don't get hit by Breath of Y'shaarj (if you do, you are a scrub!!)
- Don't get hit by orbs that spawn on you (if you do, you are a scrub!!)
- Call out each distinct event to remind everyone where they are up to:
Add
Arcing Smash
Soak Puddle
Add
Arcing Smash
Soak Puddle
Add
Arcing Smash
Soak Puddle
Breath of Y'shaarj - GET SAFE!
Add
Arcing Smash
Soak Puddle
Add
Arcing Smash
Soak Puddle
Add
Arcing Smash
Soak Puddle
Breath of Y'shaarj - GET SAFE!
Blood Rage - GET AWAY FROM THE TANK!
REPEAT!!
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General Tips
- You can use an immunity or high mitigation cooldown to clear orbs during the Main Phase as well if space becomes an issue, but bear in mind that it will remove your shield and even through a full immunity such as Divine Shield, we did notice that hp did deplete very slightly.
- Call out every add spawn, smash (and mark), puddle soak and when to get safe, even once it's clockwork, it's still far safer to remind people as if someone switches off for a second, they will probably die!
- Stick a marker on the tanks and shout at any players getting too close to the solo soaking tank during the Blood Rage! If a player gets clipped by the cleave, they will probably die.
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Video Guides
Below are some video guides for further reference, bear in mind that not all aspects of the strategies or tips described in the videos may be shared with my own information, but can be used in conjunction with the guide for a better overall idea ahead of progressing on this encounter.
Fatboss Video Guide:
LINK
Evrelia Video Guide:
LINK
Gabestah Long Video Guide:
LINK To be added.
Gabestah Short Video Guide:
LINK To be added.
Gabestah Tank Video Guide:
LINK To be added.
Gabestah DPS Video Guide:
LINK To be added.
Gabestah Healer Video Guide:
LINK To be added.
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Reference Links
For a full list of Gabestah Video Guides, please check out his thread HERE
Icy Veins General Nazgrim Guide: LINK
Healiocentric Malkorok Guide: LINK
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Change Log
- Amended colour formatting
- Added Positioning diagrams
- Added Blood Rage calculation diagram
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