|
Post by Raine on Jun 24, 2006 10:37:40 GMT
Welcome to this detalied guide of Hakkar and his aspects. I will be updating this thread with the optional bosses at a later date. I can't take credit for the information contained here all that goes to wowwiki.com Hope you find it some use though: High Priestess Jeklik - Bat AspectBackgroundHigh Priestess Jeklik is the second easiest boss in ZG (Venoxis is easier). After your raid gets the hang of it, she's rather easy, since she has no high burst damage, and none of the nasty abilities (like Mind Control). Still, everybody should have Tier 0 or better equipment, else this fight is hard. Some practice is required in all cases. Jeklik begins the encounter in bat form. In this form she has an AoE silence that also damages. She randomly charges people in the group, and summons 4 bloodseeker bats periodically to attack the raid. When she drops below 50% HP, she reverts to priest form. Here she casts Shadow Word: Pain, Mind Flay, and Greater Heal. She also summons bomb bats which drop fire bombs on the ground which DoT those inside. Phase 1It's a good idea to pull her to the small hill (which is just to your right as you enter her area). If she's there, you get good advance warning before a bat wave comes in. You should have as few as possible people at her (ideally only the MT and OT), one sacrifice guy (e.g. a hunter) between her and the raid, and the raid at maximum casting range away from her. Everybody close to her will take AOE damage, so rogues will have to withdraw and bandage from time to time. You will want to apply very high DPS in order to get her to 50% health as soon as possible. Your mages should save mana for AOEing the bat waves. They come once a minute, starting a minute after she is engaged in battle. It is important to kill these bats as quickly as possible or they will eventually swarm you, attacking your casters and then going for the melee. If your mages' mana is very limited, it is possible to keep the mages out of the main combat; place them between the place where she initially stands and the raid, and let them kill the bat waves, and drink while out of combat. She will at times charge the closest person in a 8-40ish yard range dealing AoE 1k damage and a 5 sec silence. Keep a hunter at a shorter distance to her than the rest of the main party but off to the side and just toss a HoT on him after charges. She has an ability to fear if you cannot maintain control on her. If you're doing well she'll get to 50% and shapeshift before the third bat wave, second if you're putting out enough dps. Phase 2At 50% she goes into caster form. Don't bother keeping her mana drained - you can interrupt/kick/pummel/counterspell her healing. Although you may recieve an "immune" message, that is an immunity to silence effects, not the counterspell itself. Having at least 1 person running CT_Raid here helps, as you'll get a warning message anytime she starts to cast a spell. If she manages to get off even a single heal, you'll most likely wipe as she heals for about 20-30%. She will eventually start to summon bats that drop bombs on your raid. These bombs hurt and will deal some significant DPS as long as you stay within the fire that results. You can usually avoid this by having the tank steadily move Jeklik around in a circle. This works because the bombs take 2 seconds to hit the ground after they're dropped, therefore not allowing the bats to aim. As long as the DPS continues she will fall shortly after. StrategyPosition the MT and melee on the left side of Jek'lik's ledge, 30 yards from the wall (in the grass near that tree). The rest of the raid group will group together at max distance another 30 yards from where the MT is. Its best to choose a spot where you can see the MT (boss) and Jek'lik's ledge (where the bats come from) in view at the same time. To start the fight, the MT should go up to the ledge, shoot Jek'lik, and then run to the tanking spot. The boss will follow quickly and allow the MT to get his aggro/sunders in quickly. The group should have at least 3 people with a short cooldown interrupt (and a rotation for it), at least 4 AoE, and at least 4 healers. All warriors and rogues should save enough rage/energy to use their interrupt at any time (on heals or on mind flay). The key to the first phase is getting out of the first phase as quickly as possible. When there are no bats, dps the boss hard. When bats do spawn, they need to be gathered tightly together, Frost Nova'ed, and then AoEd down quickly. To make this easier, we have used a triangle formation. 3 people are specifically placed in a triangle, with the tip facing the boss (8 or so toons apart). Healers line up along the back row and everyone else just has to know where that triangle is. When the bats come, EVERYONE who isn't meleeing the boss goes into the triangle to ensure that no bats wander away from the Frost Nova. It also helps to have an armored class (Plate/Mail) get the initial aggro. Once they are Frost Nova'ed, the AoE starts and people can then go back to their spots and the DPS. 1 spawn of bats is ideal, 2 is the goal, 3 is doable, anything more is probably a sign of the strategy not working or of needing more DPS. If you can get the boss to 78-82% health when the first bat wave comes, you are in good shape to only have 2 waves. If you can get the boss to 66-70% health when the first bat wave comes, you are in good shape to only have 1 wave (and will probably have her beaten in 2 minutes or so). The raid caller should watch the boss' health carefully and tell everyone to go all out if the boss can be brought to phase 2 before the next bat wave. At 50%, Jek'lik will yell something and turn into a priest form and will not do much for about 10 seconds after this. Everyone should spread out (don't be within 5 yards of any other player) and use up any actions that require being stationary (evocation, FD & drink, rapid fire, etc). After that 10 seconds, Jek'lik will periodically try to cast a greater heal (which must be interrupted immediately with kick, shield bash, Counter Spell, etc) and bats will throw fire bombs with increasing frequency. The MT needs to start moving her around in a small oval and the melee needs to be right on top of the MT, to avoid bombs. Everyone else should avoid the bombs and the fires as best as they can. In this phase, if you can stay out of the fires, prevent the greater heals, and maintain high dps, she will fall. Next up: High Priest Venoxis - Snake Aspect
|
|
|
Post by Raine on Jun 24, 2006 10:40:28 GMT
High Priest Venoxis - Snake Aspect
General
Venoxis comes with 4 snake adds. He stays in priest form to begin where he cast Holy Nova, Holy Fire, and Renew. He can also cast Holy Wrath, a spell which jumps from person to person with damage increasing exponentially as it hits people (9000dmg per hit isn't uncommon). In snake form his melee damage goes up dramatically and he releases a poison cloud AoE (500dmg/tick).
Strategy
# The first thing about this boss is getting to him and clearing out the entire room but him and his snakes. You will need this room. After you have killed all the other enemies in the room, get your MT and and offtanks in the room, along with any CCers. This works best with at least 2 tanks, and 2-3 Mages or Druids. Get the rest of the raid directly outside the room, like this: outside the room
# The next step is to have your offtank pull, so all the adds will come down to him. The main tank must immediately pull the High Priest off the OT or he will likely die. The OT must pull the adds to the rest of his raid, killing them one at a time. Sheep 3, sleep 3, Blind, Freezing Trap, whatever you have; the point is to have only one fighting at a time. Take them down quickly and move onto the next one, allowing the OT to break CC.
# Next, you all run in to where the MT is tanking the boss. (He should be tanked near the bonfire for best results, I've seen.) When the snake adds are dead, get within shooting range of the boss and unload anything you want on him while conserving some mana (meaning wands, bows, dots, low mana cost spells). Do this so that the High Priest won't use his Holy Wrath spell (a cranked-up chain lightning form of Holy Nova) to hit people, even those far away. This can easily wipe a raid.
# Now, you MUST get rid of his mana and keep it gone the entire remaining fight to prevent Venoxis using his defence spells. With one hunter putting on a Viper Sting, use Warlocks to Drain Mana, Priests to Mana Burn and any other way you can think of. Do not melee until he is without mana. Circle around him like this to get rid of his mana: Mana draining # When all of his mana is gone, DPS with all melee you have, until he hits 50% health. Keep him away from casters, against a wall like this: DPSing him when no mana Keep him there, and back away at 50-55% because he will turn into his snake form and create a poison cloud. You won't enjoy it.
# Next thing is to stay away from him. Everyone but the MT must stay at least 25 yards from him. No melee. At this time, you will have to be de-poisoning the MT and healing him like crazy. If he falls without a Soulstone, you will probably wipe. See this: Ranged DPS snake form You will be doing all the ranged DPS you can. Use your arrows, use your speed cooldowns, use your mana. Kill him quickly or your tank can drop.
# At roughly 20% your other Warriors may want to use Bloodrage, run in and Execute in between Poison Clouds; this will do extra damage and drop him faster.
Alternate Strategy
# Set up crowd control for 3 of the 4 adds and have the main tank body pull Venoxis by standing on the right side of the steps and being careful not to go in too far. The Mages immediately pick up their 3 Sheeps and a Hunter pulls in the marked add to the group (where an offtank is waiting). (We usually have the group stand near the campfire, with the tank along the right wall as you walk into the area.)
# Take each add down individually. Once all 4 adds have been dealt with (they go down very fast) then everyone sets up to do range DPS only, because Venoxis will do a nasty AoE attack to all in melee range. (We don't bother with mana draining, just keep all heals on the tank and all DPS outside of the range of his AoE.) # At 50% he will turn into a snake and immediately drop a poison cloud. This conversion is crucial; all heals should remain on the main tank. The MT's job at this point is to run out of the Poison Cloud when it drops.
# After the first poison cloud expires, we send in our melee DPS to unload.
# Keep an eye on Venoxis's hands; when he raises them above his head, that means he has just cast Poison Cloud and you need to move out of that area ASAP. If everyone pays attention and moves out of the cloud (especially the tank), this boss is easy.
Next up: High Priestess Mar'li - Spider Aspect
|
|
|
Post by Raine on Jun 24, 2006 10:40:47 GMT
High Priestess Mar'li - Spider Aspect
Background
Mar'li has two main forms, like the other bosses in Zul'Gurub. She starts off in her troll form where she can spawn adds and cast 30 yard AoE poison. These spider adds quickly gain strength and size if not killed quickly. When she transforms into her spider form she will web everyone standing near her in place and charge. As soon as she webs everyone she will attack the person with the highest aggro that has not been webbed (usually a healer if they are out of range.)
Strategy
For this fight you need two tanks. To start the fight, have a priest Mind Control the Speaker and make the Speaker attack Mar'li. At this point four spiders will spawn that need to be AOE'ed down right away. Once the spiders are down, and the Speaker gets pwned by Mar'li, the tank will pick up aggro and all ranged classes should cluster up outside of her aoe range. So set up like this:
xx xx____________r xx___OT_______r BOSS - MT xx____________r xx
x = Ranged / Healers MT = tank #1 (Main tank) OT = tank #2 (Off tank) r = Rogues
Once the tank gets aggro, all melee apart from the OT begin attacking. Periodically, she will shapeshift into a spider form. When she does this, she'll web all the melee around her and wipe their aggro. She'll then charge the ranged group where the other tank will be waiting to pick up aggro and pull her back to the MT position. The OT is now the main tank, and the MT heads back to the ranged group to pick up the next charge. Be sure the ranged stay clustered up, otherwise it will be difficult for the tank to pick her up right away.
Periodically, a spider will spawn. If the spider is not immediately killed it will grow larger and more powerful and will wipe the raid. Just call it out and have your ranged deal with them right away, they drop quickly.
When in caster form, Mar'li will attempt to life drain someone. Be sure to immediately counter this with an interrupt ability such as Kick or Shield Bash. It is sometimes hard to see if she is life draining or not, so pay attention. Do not let her heal herself; it is a significant amount. None of these abilities seem to use mana - mana drain is of no use.
Additional notes
Cuski says -
04/29/2006 - Tried using the Mind Control method on the Speaker, not sure if he has changed but priest was getting an immune message (or at least that is what they said). Will try again for a definative answer. If you kill the speaker, however, he will not respawn even after a reset of the encounter.
05/13/2006 - Something that my raid group does is leash the boss so we can pull the speaker and the initial wave of 4 spiders. We have a person mount and aggro, and then pull them all back to the passage leading up to the main spider room, have everyone stand at least behind the second set of torches, Mar'li will then return to her spot, but the Speaker and the initial spawn of spiders will stay. This takes care of the speaker, and the initial (hardest spawn) of spiders when you actually fight her. Note, that I think this method only works if the speaker is alive, if tried after a wipe, Mar'li does not appear to leash, and will stay to fight back in the hallway.
05/18/2006 - Draining mana does work to prevent Mar'li from healing. However it is important that a hunter keep vipor sting on at all times, as any positive mana can enable a heal. If Mar'li is at zero (0) mana, we've never seen her heal.
06/06/2006 - If the raid has 3 warriors, a variation is to form a triangle after killing the speaker and initial spiders, with the main group set normally with an OT guarding them. Then you have the other two tanks out in front, spread apart to either side of the path. A hunter is also with a tank. The solo tank gains aggro on the boss, and once webbed the hunter uses distracting shot to draw the boss from the group to the other tank. If it misses the third tank taunts the boss to the other tank. The hunter then moves to the other side and readies distracting shot for the next web attack. This minimizes the time the main group spends within range of the poison AoE, which saves lots of druid/paladin mana.
Next up - High Priest Thekal - Tiger Aspect
|
|
|
Post by Raine on Jun 24, 2006 10:41:17 GMT
High Priest Thekal - Tiger Aspect
Introduction
Thekal comes with 2 named humanoid adds(Zealot Lor'khan and Zealot Zath) and 2 tigers. The 2 humanoid adds are a shaman and a rogue. Thekal initiates the fight in priest form, where he can mortal strike. If any of the adds or Thekal dies, the remaining ones will resurrect them. This means all 3 must die simultaneously.
After dying once, Thekal respawns as a Tiger. In this form he can charge, flurry, enrage, and Force Punch. Force Punch is an AoE attack around Thekal that does ~1000 damage. He often does it twice in a row. Furthermore he spawns 2 tigers periodically throughout the fight.
Strategy
This fight is another two-phase affair. Phase 1 has three tanks grabbing the Priest and the Zealots. The offtanks take the Zealots about halfway to each corner of the lower area. The Priest is tanked just south of his hut. Lor'Khan needs to be far enough away from the others so he cannot heal them. Zath can be closer to Thekal, but again needs to be away from Lor'Khan.
Note: Zealot Lor'Khan has been confirmed that she's susceptable to chain rogue stuns - not sure if this also works for Zealot Zath.
Once the MT has enough aggro on Thekal, everyone attacks until 20%. They then switch to Zath, and take him to 15%. Finally, Lor'Khan is taken to 10%. Rogues need to kick and mages need to silence to avoid him healing, and making this a longer fight, and a potential wipe.
By this time, Thekal and Zath will be at around 10% as well. Then all that is needed is to kill all three in quick succession. It is recommended that most of the DPS kills Lor'Khan, and a few of the ranged start to kill Zath. As Lor'Khan gets lower, more of the DPS can move on to Thekal and Zath, but the Rogues must stay until Lor'Khan dies, since a Heal at any point will mean everyone has to either get back on Lor'Khan, or run out and start again. Once Lor'Khan dies, the Rogues and other melee can move on to Thekal, whilst the ranged finish off Zath.
An alternate strategy is to simply split into three groups and try to keep the DPS even all the way down, but this can be easily ruined by a single heal from Lor'Khan. By having Thekal and Zath at 15-10%, the Tanks can simply stand there and take a beating, getting healed, until Lor'Khan is ready to be killed. This strategy is more forgiving of lag, mistakes, and mistimed kicks/silences.
Another finishing off strategy is once you have them down around 10 percent health bring all 3 together and AOE as much as possible. This is an easy way to kill them all at the same time. From the time of the first death, you have about 10 seconds before they start resurrecting.
Next up: High Priestess Arlokk - Panther Aspect
|
|
|
Post by Raine on Jun 24, 2006 10:41:39 GMT
High Priestess Arlokk - Panther Aspect
Setup
Two tanks in the 'pens' (places with straw and fence), a druid and shaman/paladin facing them with their backs to the wall on side of the room with the gong, MT in the middle of the room, ready to gain aggro on Arlokk, and the rest of the raid with their backs to the wall with the big shield on it.
Strategy
High Priestess Arlokk is spawned by hitting the gong in her room. She spawns near the entrance to the room in priest form using Shadow Word: Pain and standard melee attack. Have your tank get her to the back of the room near the rest of the group and start the DPS as soon the tank calls it. You want to end the fight quickly so you're healers don't run out of mana or get killed by her opener.
Immediately upon engaging her, multiple level 60 (non-elite) panthers spawn from cages on each side of the room, about one every 5 seconds. Do NOT bother killing the panthers, as they will respawn indefinitely. The panther spawns are stealthed and will path out around the fence towards the back of the room with the big shield on the wall and the rest of the raid. Your tanks in the pens will have to gain aggro on the panthers and hold them for the duration of the fight. Have both the tanks in the pens pop Bloodrage as the fight begins and stand at the inside or end of the fence ready to smack the first panther that comes by then. Let the 'pen' tanks keep getting panthers from his cage until they can start spamming Demoralizing shouts. Once they do this, they can stop attacking and just stand there, spamming Demo shouts which will aggro any panthers spawning in the cage and the others they are holding. Panther spawns hit for about 30ish on plate, which isn't much but with 20+ panthers attacking it can add up. To neutralize alot of the damage, have the shaman near that tank be in his group and have him lay Stoneskin totem. The druid can lay some HOTs and whatever else they want to do to keep the 'pen' tanks up, but make sure they conserve mana for the most part because the fight can be long.
She has the ability to 'mark' someone, which looks like a big V over their head. This usually is the person with a high ammount of aggro and can sometimes be the 'pen' tank or their healers (if that is the case, have a healer from the back come up and take the spot of the marked healer since the marked healer might die). This mark attracts tigers to the marked person IF they are in LOS (line of sight) of the panthers. To make sure you don't pull ALL the tigers off the 'pen' tanks, run to the very back of the room with the rest of the raid and pray you haven't already aggroed them. If you did, have all your mages and warlocks AOE the panthers until they are dead. This will make the panthers respawn from the cages so the tanks can reaggro them. After one minute she stealths. She does not attack while stealthed, but she has a powerful opener that can easily 2-shot clothies and usually targets those healing the OTs.
Alliance Side: Holy Paladins can be placed as Healers for the Pen Tanks. We use a Druid and Paladin set-up. Paladin "bubbles" remove the mark effect. As such, if the paladin receives the mark, Divine Shield will remove it. If the druid receives the mark, Blessing of Protection will remove it.
Be wary, when she unstealths she WILL 2shot the druid. We have taken to using a bear form druid or 4th tank if available to stand next to the druid during the stealthed phase to prevent her from ganking the healer.
_______
Setup: This requires 3 warriors, preferably with 1h and shield unless geared out. The MT will be on Arlokk while the two OT's will stand under the torches along side the panther cages. The rest of the raid group will begin the battle with their backs to the wall opposite of the gong (door side). Combat: This is a fairly simple fight if executed as dictated. Have a non-tank member ring the gong to initiate the fight. Arlokk will spawn immediately, which will require the MT to begin the aggro process. Once the tank has it on lock-down, the entire raid (except the Off-tanks) must focus on dps'ing down arlokk. During the battle, panthers will spawn in great numbers. Arlokk will also place a 'mark' on a raid member, who will become the main target of the panthers. When a player is marked, he/she should kite the panthers between the two off-tanks. The job of the off-tanks is to drop demoralizing shout and any other aggro-grabber to strip the panthers off the marked member. This process will continue until Arlokk vanishes. When Arlokk is gone, focus on one OT's panthers first to dps them down, then move to the 2nd OT's panthers and dps them down. Continue killing panthers until Arlokk reappears. When Arlokk reappears, she will activate a red aura which indicates her double-cleave. AVOID THE CLEAVES! Continue going full-out DPS on Arlokk, and continue to have the OT's taunt the panthers. by the end of the 2nd vanish, she should be well below 50%. Continue with dps'ing the panthers after she disappears. When she reappears, again watch for the cleave. Continue DPS'ing arlokk until she is dead. Most guilds can do this in about 3-4 vanishes. Better guilds will kill her before the 2nd vanish. Anyway, the key to this is constant, heavy DPS while she is out, and then killing panthers when she's gone. The off-tanks should have a healer assigned to each of them.
Next up: Hakkar the Soulflayer
|
|
|
Post by Raine on Jun 24, 2006 10:41:59 GMT
Hakkar the Soulflayer
Strategy
BEFORE THE BATTLE: Assign at least one hunter with pulling Sons from either side of the temple onto the platform across from Hakkar. Assign a mage to sheep the Son when it is pulled. Assign another mage to sheep mind-controlled players. Assign only two tanks to hold aggro on Hakkar--any more and it gets confusing for healers as to which tank they should heal. A mod that keeps track of and announces impending life drains will help immensely. Warriors should use Intimidating Shout before the encounter starts (and again when it cools down, during the encounter) in case they get mind-controlled.
DURING THE BATTLE: Tanks should attack Hakkar where he stands and turn him so his back is facing the platform. This way, rogues and other melee DPS can simply run back to the platform as needed without the risk of running through a cleave in the process. Ranged DPS and healers have almost the entire temple room to work with, but should still remain close to the platform. This is to mitigate damage done by corrupted blood.
Hakkar will mind control whoever is tanking him at the time in approximately 20 second intervals. The mage responsible for sheeping the now-hostile target should tab around and sheep the player as quickly as possible. In many cases, Hakkar's mind-control will SAVE a main tank from certain death by MCing them at very low health. In this case, allow the tank to remain sheeped until they have regained 90%+ health, then dispel (if they have not broken out of it already).
Meanwhile, the hunter responsible for pulling the Sons of Hakkar should always be searching either side for a new Son to bring to the group. Timed correctly, there will always be a supply of Sons available, but a hunter should waste no time in starting the search as sometimes the Son will be located a considerable distance from the battleground. At approximately 30 seconds, the raid group must immediately switch DPS to the Son and everyone except the tanks should hop into the poison.
As of 1.9, Poisoned blood is no longer the key to killing Hakkar but does help speed the process. It is imperative that Hakkar successfully drains no more 3 raid members at any time so he doesn't actually GAIN health from each drain.
You have approximately 10 minutes from start to finish before Hakkar enrages and begins tearing apart raid members. Go all out on DPS, but manage your aggro as well.
|
|
|
Post by isindur on Jun 24, 2006 14:39:24 GMT
GJ.
|
|
|
Post by Culski on Jun 25, 2006 8:16:37 GMT
Very nice guide indeed [Moved your information into the guide - hope you don't mind - Raine]
|
|
|
Post by Natsuki on Jun 25, 2006 12:15:22 GMT
only minor healing for the paladins, sweet : D
|
|
|
Post by Hawkster/Ravenstaff on Jun 27, 2006 17:16:16 GMT
great guide
look forward to going there again soon!
;D
|
|
|
Post by Ascension on Jul 12, 2006 1:52:26 GMT
Well we were ok until he watched Xyko (twice in a row i might add), where he then lashed out on people behind the spears...
|
|
|
Post by Ascension on Jul 14, 2006 1:38:26 GMT
and scratch those plans and now:
2 tanks on raptor switching due to sunders, and 1 on bloodlord with all dps
like what we did today, with first time success with this tactic ^^
|
|
|
Post by Endy on Jul 14, 2006 9:30:19 GMT
Removed my post as it has nothing to do with how we work this boss now!
Plan is MT hold the boss all raid after aggro is got attacks the boss.
OT starts on the raptor, after recieveing 3 sunders from the raptor the OOT needs to aggro the raptor and switch with the OT. When the OT looses aggro he should bandage (also can the OT and OOT have a macro saying I've lost aggro!)
This is how it happened last run and we got her down gratz to all!
|
|
|
Post by Shortbread on Jul 15, 2006 11:38:00 GMT
Made a very nice read (not much to do at work ^_^), I didn'y realise how few aspects there were, we're guna munch this place within a few weeks. Hakkar here we come
|
|
|
Post by Endy on Jul 15, 2006 14:21:23 GMT
Just a side note, We are gonna look at how to maw of madness, as the boss drops stuff to make ZG set (5 pieces in total) Will be speaking with officers about it all!
|
|