Elemental Shaman and ICC: A Love Story (Part 4/12)

Deathbringer Saurfang

A rather simple fight in terms of mechanics, the Saurfang the Younger fight starts off with a monologue from papa Saurfang that touches the childhood and his life expectations of Jr. You can use this to get into position or go for a bio break, there’s an almost 2 minute mark for the yapping.

Saurfang Jr, whom we will only refer to affectionately as Saur or Jr, has an interesting gimmick up his sleeve that will kill your defense if you’re not paying attention. He casts Boiling Blood at a random target, an ability doing 5k dmg every 3 seconds and you want to be 11 yards away from your closest teammate if you get tagged otherwise upon him using Blood Nova (another interesting ability) he would get more blood energy back, 1 for each player within 11 yds of the Boiling Blood target. When he reaches 100 energy he will cast a Mark of the Fallen Champion on a random target except the tanks, who will take the same damage taken by the tank each hit Saur lands.

Because of the above abilities, positioning is crucial. If your team is bunched up he will get the chance to cast a helluva lot of Marks and that will bring extra stress to the healers (most comps are running 2 healers for 10 man and 5 for 25). If the target of the Mark dies, Jr will be healed for 5% of his total HP so you will not be only down a player but also will have a harder task ahead of you.

Periodically Saur will also call a couple of Blood Beasts and they will give him 1 energy per hit made as well so it’s important to kill them on sight and not get gibed. Here is what smart positioning does. Ideally you will want more ranged DPS than melee for this fight because you can keep your spacing for Boiling Blood and be able to kill the Beasts until they reach you. As a Shaman this is where you shine, with Thunderstorm and Earthbind Totem.  With a bit of luck you won’t need to use the totem if you have a strong partner that can also CC the beasts (they cannot be feared) so you get some damage done on them plus some mana back? Good times!

You will want to be at maximum range from Saurfang, that’s a given, but you also want to be in a place where you can easily kite the beast around without having to get into somebody’s 11yd bubble. I found that the location I’m most comfortable with is at the bottom of the big platform leading up to him, far into the corner. You would then be able to kite the beast towards the enclosed area of the balcony (where the loot chest will spawn) without anyone else having to run out of your way.

If carefully executed, the beasts thing will at most have you move one or two yards back, if TS isn’t enough or on CD, just then use the totem and /profit.

The beasts will be spawned roughly every 10% of HP the boss looses so you will know when they will be summoned. Plus, if you’re using DBM or BigWigs or any other similar addon you’ll have a visual representation of the CD on this ability.

The best time to use BloodLust (again, wait for the RL to call out for it or ask when he wants it used) would be around 30% HP left on Jr. That’s when he will hit a soft enrage and the healers will need the breathing room. That’s also when adds will be summoned so you get to not go full out DPS on the boss because you have to kill them dead. Not a big win for us ranged but at least we’re helping out so it should be cool. Remember to always switch to the closest beast to you as soon as possible.

Elemental Tips:

1. When beasts are spawned you don’t actually need to immediately (as in split second) switch, as long as you make sure your CL is off CD. Hit the button for the extra damage on the boss plus both adds (in 10 man) and then rock your beast’s world with DS, LvB, LB and then TS if you’re the one with the aggro.
2. When you see that Blood Beasts are about to be summoned and the LvB CD just ended don’t blow it on the boss, instead LB again so that it will be up from the get go when the beasts actually spawn. You really want your hardest hitting attack fly as soon as possible (except if you want to go with 1.)
3. If you are the target of a Mark of the Fallen Champion, depending on how far into the fight it’s cast, you would rather want to keep yourself alive rather than doing damage to Saurfang. For instance if you’re it before the 30% soft enrage you will want to let the healers handle this. If you’re tagged on the enrage or immediately after (that would be down to 20% on the boss, until things cool off in their department) you will want to keep yourself alive. Spamming LHW will be enough for this. Another moment when you will want to self-heal is if you get gibbed on the last 10%. A lot of players relax early and might miss the Mark, if you get it and die that’s another 5% more HP that they’ll be too relaxed for.

Totem Selection:

Earth: Stoneskin Totem, for the extra mitigation on the tanks, thus making it easier for any Mark victim. Switch for Earthbind only if needed.

Fire: Go with Fire Elemental in the start and then, when it expires, ToW is the best choice.

Water: Depending on if you have a Paladin that dishes out GBoW, Mana Spring or Healing Stream Totem

Air: Wrath of Air Totem all the way, baby!

The 25 man version doesn’t bring a lot more, just 5 beasts and more HP on them and the boss. Well, that and, given the extra numbers, more Marks will be cast so watch out.

Elemental Shaman and ICC: A Love Story (part 3/12)

The Gunship Battle in ICC is one of the easiest and more exciting battles that you will find in end-game content by far. It is, in fact, so easy, that it doesn’t even merit a walk-through but I’m’a do it anyway because it is also one of my favorites.

OK, so you’re on the boat. Remember to always equip the jetpack. This is mighty important for you, as a shaman, because otherwise you will not only not contribute to the success (or only marginally) but you can also be the bringer of death and sorrow, namely of a wipe. This is, of course, given the fact that you are stepping into ICC for the first time and are not at a vast disadvantage, gearwise, compared to your group. After you have the jet-pack equipped it’s very important to ask what is expected of you for this fight. There are a number of viable scenarios as to how this battle can be won so make sure you know what your part in it all is. Most likely you’ll be on add duty and that is the easiest part of the easiest battle. You just have to grow roots in one place near the ledge of your ship and go all out on the dwarven riflemen on the other side. CL is a good idea for this part, because said riflemen will be shooting at your ship and try to take it down. More on this later.

You will see that there are two cannons you could use but usually they are assigned to specific people so unless told otherwise, stay clear of them because you’ll be most likely mocked for your gunnery affinity. If you are assigned to be in a cannon, however, the only thing you need to do is to spam 1 until the heat bar to the right of the ‘vehicle’ UI goes up to around 75%-90% and then pres 2. A normal way to start causing more damage (albeit not a lot) is to pre-heat the cannons by starting firing them once the gunship is on the move so that you can use the special attack as soon as possible on the enemy ship.

Now down to the nitty-gritty, (if only) the fight itself. Your job will be to kill the enemy’s riflemen. Normal rotation on these guys, FS, LvB with the addition of CL off CD. Don’t worry about mana, it’s EZ mode, trust me on this one.

From time to time you’ll hear Muradin asking for a mage to come to the stage (‘Get a Mage in here to freeze those cannons!’ I believe are his exact words), and your cannons will be enclosed in a block of ice and their respective gunners will be ejected. At this point the jetpack kicks in and you’ll have to board the enemy ship and kill that pesky mage as soon as possible. Once he’s down the cannons return to normal and the group can have at it again. Rinse and repeat until the enemy ship starts going down in flames. Loot. But make sure you’re not actually aboard the enemy ship when it starts descending or you’ll be going down with it. Like a captain. With a another faction’s ship. Erm… yeah…

A little tid-bit about the riflemen. Make sure you snipe all of them, otherwise the longer they stay up the stronger they become and the more they hurt your ship.

This was the offensive part, now for defense: to make your healer’s lives a lot easier when you see that there’s a circle under your feet get outside it’s radius and start blasting again. That’s where a rocket is going to land and even though it doesn’t hurt that much, multiple rockets can kill you if you’re not paying attention. Be wary also of Muradin’s cleave. It hurts like a MOFO even though you’re wearing mail so make sure that when you jump over to the enemy ship:

a) You’re not the first one otherwise he will come get you and turn you into a smear on the floor.

b) Make sure that you don’t target him at some point and start unloading damage in his arse or you’ll be getting some back in retaliation – this doesn’t hurt, some 1.5K ranged attack (while you’re on your boat) but it’s better to not cop damage at all, if possible, as your healers would appreciate it.

Fun things to do while in this fight:

1. Just as you’re about to jump back on your ship after killing the enemy mage position yourself between two riflemen , select your landing target and as soon as you’re in the air Thunderstorm. You’ll get some mana back and do upwards of 15 k dmg if you’re lucky enough to hit 3.

2. I’ve never actually tried this but you can leave your fire elemental on the Alliance boat, in the furthermost left corner. You want him there otherwise he might wonder up to Muradin and he won’t be happy about having a big ass fire thingy wondering about on his wooden boat.

Totem Selection:

Earth Totem: Stoneskin. It will help everybody and it’s the safest choice.

Fire Totem: You want to go with ToW on this one unless you’re trying the Fire Elemental thing mentioned above. Searing might also be a fun choice but it always chooses a random target and might end up shot at by a rifleman.

Water Totem: Unless GBoW is on the table, really, really go for Mana Spring, otherwise Healing Stream.

Air Totem: Wrath of Air, plain and simple

The difference between the 10 man and the 25 man version is in the number of cannons available to your side (2/4) and the HP of the mobs.

Happy Sniping!

Bloodlust/Heroism Uses

You know what Bloodlust does and you kind of have an idea by now that this is one of the more important reasons you are brought to a raid.

In case you missed it, the tooltip says that:

Bloodlust: Increases melee, ranged, and spell casting speed by 30% for all party and raid members. Lasts 40 sec. After the completion of this effect, those affected will become Sated and unable to benefit from Bloodlust again for 10 min.

You are no doubt familiar with the offensive uses of the ability and if you made it through any Dungeon, Raid or HC Dungeon you know when to pop it. In ICC it’s a little trickier, because, if you run with different Raid Leaders, they might have different approaches to its use. Take for instance the Saurfang the Younger fight, the last one in the Lower Spire. While I found that the best time to use it  is when the dude’s HP is at 30% and he hits the soft enrage there, in PuGging the 25 man version I was asked to use it in the beginning (perhaps this way you guarantee a very good start for the team and manage to DPS more until the first Blood Beasts come out) and even have been asked to delay it until 28%. The latter is for situations when you need max DPS on the boss if a healer has the Mark or something and you want to burn the beasts down and thus get more face to face time with Saurfang under the effects of BL.

You will want to ask, if you are the only shaman in the group, or if you are the one designated to BL, beforehand, who will be the one that will give the go ahead (usually the Raid Leader) or if you can use it when you think it’s necessary. Enough of the offensive uses for it, tho.

Defensively it is a very, very powerful tool to have as well. Picture a fight that has heavy unavoidable damage on the MT and then a bunch of avoidable damage, such as Rotface. If one healer bites it fast, and by fast I mean  around 70% and no Combat Rezzes are available (druid healer is the one that has been ‘deaded’ or the only durid you have is the MT) and it’s close to raid time end you (or actually the RL, if he is on the ball) might consider trying to go on and not request a wipe and a fresh start. A defensive Bloodlust will be the difference between a wipe and a kill. Pay close attention to the healer still standing and if it’s you, well, good luck!

Timing the BL just as the healer is getting overwhelmed is essential. The 30% haste will give him the much needed breathing room for upping the tank to full and then moving on to the DPS that need it the most. He will be performing  triage at this point so if you end up being the one dying just Ankh up and keep on rolling. But, if a similar situation to the above one does happen, you have to be available to BL or else it’s pointless after all.

Another fight that has the same approximate mechanics but is far less punishing IMO is the Onyxia fight and the above can be used with the same results. Or Patchwerk, if you get the weekly quest to kill him dead.

I’m not saying that this is a good tactic to try but I did want to point to the spell being far more useful and, dare I say it, versatile, than usually meets the eye.

The PvP ramifications are all there, of course,  but due to my limited time in Arenas, I would not dare venture in trying to give tips and pointers of BL uses.

Elemental Shaman and ICC: A love Story (Part 2/12)

On to part two of the ICC and Elemental Shamans, the never ending story of life and love. Or loot pinata:

LADY DEATHWHISPER

I’m not sure if this was intended or not, but the only raid boss in this instance that has the Lady title is a chatterbox. She keeps yapping about how the LK is the savior and you are doomed and about apple pie recipes. Or something like that. After the first time you fight her you sorta zone out while she blabbers and go on a mental afk.

Remember the room heading up to Blackheart the Inciter, In Shadow Labyrinth? It’s about the same, with nasty ass mobs that you need to kill plus two priests on the sides. Word of warning:  while it is possible to AoE the trash here, be careful not to pull one of the priests as well, they have a nasty AoE and do a bomb-type thingy on a random player (this time it can be a tank too) that will act like a DoT and explode after a few seconds. Once you have this, and if you’re using DBM you’d have to be legally blind and deaf not to notice, move away from the raid, 20 yards will do. Once you explode you can go back and hit that if you want to. You might get it twice or more in a row so look out for it!

The fight itself is not a lot different than the M’uru fight. It boils down to managing adds as soon as they spawn and dropping them, if possible, where they stand, and then on to phase two and kicking the oh, so honorable lady’s behind. Also known for us shamans as the BL BL BL BL BL BL phase. You’ll get it.

First phase:

This begins when somebody throws a random punch or kick or spell at the good lady. She will be so afraid of the lot of you that she will immediately shroud herself in a mana barrier. The faster you DPS it down, the faster you push onto phase two.  Mind you, this phase is not a DPS race. You have to take care of the spawning adds and then, until the next wave spawns, go for her shield. If you have a very good group with lots of people dishing out insane amounts of hurt you can have one or two people DPSing her shield at all times. Not recommendable tho, it can all go to hell in a hand basket really quick if the adds are not controlled.

For the 10 man version the adds will spawn alternatively from your left and right, in this order. On 25 they spawn both left and right with a couple thrown from behind for some surprise buttseckz if your tanks aren’t paying attention.

There are two types of adds to begin with, Cult Fanatics and Cult Adherents. Usually you’ll set your melee DPS on the Adherents and Spell Flinging DPS on the Fanatics. Don’t fret, if their names are just as I’ve written them above you can actually use Chain Lightning and Magma Totem freely. The problem becomes when Lady D. brings one back to life. Now if you’re not careful you can haz a cup o’ death by 1 shotting yourself. The assignments above, melee-> Adherents, ranged ->Fanatics are in placed because at this point they will be almost immune to spell respectively melee attacks.  Their names will change to Reanimated Fanatics/Adherents and your sole concern is to down yours. They hit twice as hard as well, as an added bonus. You might also encounter the Deformed A/F, just as deadly and just as almost immune to specific damage. They deal thrice the damage but have their speed cut in half. All fanatics hit like Mike Tyson so melee (and you, if you had to go Enhancement for this one) will need to be behind them while someone kites them.

Be careful with the buffs they get. Your priority, the Fanatics, get something to further boost their damage done by 25% so Purge it immediately. For this fight I have my Purge button bound to one of the side mouse buttons, just like for the Jaraxxus fight if you don’t have a couple mages handy. Be on the look-out for Curse of Torpor, which is cast at random by the Adherents on a healer/caster DPS. If you get it stop casting and wait for it to be removed, it’ll make your GCD some 8 seconds and you don’t want that. The boss will cast at times Death and Decay on the ground so MOVE! ASAP, it ticks for some 4-5-6 k and will get you killed din no time flat if you’re not paying close attention.

Time the death of the adds very well when the the Lady’s shield is low so there aren’t any adds up when you move on to

Phase two:

At this point it becomes a DPS race, albeit not a very challenging one after a while and some 6 K DPS raid average.  You will only have Death Yeller, erm, Whisper to handle.

You will get Raid Warnings, Whispers, Yells and so on telling you to BL! Do it! Watch the boss’ cast bar, she will only cast Frostbolts which ARE interruptible. If you see nobody else is doing it, go for it. Even if you see somebody else kicking go for it, they deal a decent amount of damage and can cause death when combined with:

a)      Death and Decay, which she will continue casting at random

b)      Ghosts

Yes, Ghosts! They will spawn at a random location and target a random player, to explode on impact for some 10-12 K-ish AoE damage.  When you see them just run for the hills, they don’t have a very long life and move slower than you do. After they explode go back to DPS-ing and barring any tanks not switching when their debuff hits the mark and/or healers dying from Frostbolts/ Ghosts you should get a kill.

And that will shut her up! Or at least until the next week, that is.

Totem Choices:

Earth Totem:  Stoneskin is your best choice in this fight hands down.

Fire Totem: You might want to start out with ToW and after Lady D’s barrier is down switch to Fire Elemental Totem. If you have a Demo Warlock with the right speck you can go Searing instead in P1 and Fire Elemental in P2.

Water Totem: Unless you absolutely must use the MP5 totem, go with Healing Spring.

Air Totem: Haste, pure and simple.

What the 25 version brings, besides from more adds, is that Lady Deathwhisper will periodically Mind Control a random player (not a tank but I could be wrong here). Do NOT kill him, CC his ass instead. Frog him! Go on! Do it! You know you want to!

This is, at least for PuGs, the make or break fight. A lot of 25 man pugs can’t manage the adds and disband. If you’ve leading said raid try to assign people to sides. It should go something like:

3/4 Ranged + 1/2 Melee on the left + Tank

3/4 Melee + 1/2 Ranged on the right + Tank

At the back you only need a tank, really, because what spawns there is random. If you feel like it then assign somebody, otherwise after side adds are down the respective DPS should switch there and the rest go on the Mana Barrier.

And during P1 always know how much of the mana shield is left. Trust me, it’s important!

Elemental Shaman and ICC: A love Story (Part 1/12)

I’m more acquainted with the 10 man version so this is what I’ll be focusing on, with some additions for the 25 man version.

Without further addue, I bring to you

LORD MARROWGAR

Simple enough fight and you should kick his arse long before the enrage timer starts flashing red. He has three abilities that concern you, the small and slightly undergeared (if you’re reading this you’re just stepping into ICC and don’t have the gear yet) shaman. The first one is called Bone Cemetery. What he does is to target a random player (non tank) and impale him with a Bone Spike. You will be unable to move cast, drink a pot, Thunderstorm and whatnot. You will also take a moderate amount of damage over time that will need to be healed through until you escape.  To get out of it you will need your raid to dps the spike until it’s dead. There’s an achievement to doing this too. All Spiked players must be released within 8 seconds of impale and you get BONED. Get it?

The second ability (or first, in order of cast) is Coldflame. This will start at the bottom of his hitbox and head towards a wall in a straight line. In the classical style of Don’t stand in bad shit, you should run away from it as soon as possible, preferably before it reaches you. It will do a damage per tick kind of thingy and a lag spike might kill you. Healers will need to be on the ball with damage from coldflame because it usually happens that once a bone spike is down you will find yourself in the coldflame. For the most part, this is avoidable damage and you shouldn’t be taking it at all unless spiked.

• To avoid this ability you can stand behind the boss, inside his hit box. The flames will start just outside it and you’ll get no damage and will be close enough for melee to DPS the spike, if you’re chosen.
• If you go ahead and do this make sure that you’re not ahead of the tank on the pull. You won’t grab aggro but he does a cleave like melee swing that is shared between the tanks. Learned this the hard way.

The last of his abilities is Bone Storm. He will drop aggro and whirl around the room chasing random players. Big ass radius for the damage on this one but totally manageable with a couple of good healers or just one. If you want to play it safe you can run towards the closest wall (thus putting some distance between his melee whirlwind swing towards his current target and you). This is a very good time to refresh your water shield if you’re having mana problems, because you will get hit and you will get some mana back. You can also use TS at this point, it’ll do the damage and give you the mana. I would suggest however keeping it until the spike he does is close enough for TS to do some damage on it. Instant cast decent damage? Good!

• If you have good healers you can actually ignore the running jumping part of this, the damage is in the 4k-ish area per swing if you’re using a shield and you can keep DPSing Marrowgar merrily.

After a Bone Storm is finished it’s all rinse and repeat.

Shaman Tips:

Time your Bloodlust/Heroism for after a Bone Storm for maximum DPS uptime. A god time to use it is after the Storm that he does when Marrowgar’s in the 2 mil-ish HP area.

Totem Choice:

Most of the bosses in ICC do a truckload of physical damage and unless your tank/s is a druid who asks you for Strength of Earth Totem, go with Stoneskin as your Earth Totem.

Fire Totem. Oh, the possibilities! If you have a Demonology Warlock that is specced right you can and should not use ToW. Instead use Fire Elemental Totem and Searing Totem when the first one expires. Watch its timer and refresh when needed.

Water Totem.  If you have more than one paladin in the raid chances are you have GboW and the safe choice is Healing Stream Totem. It’s not much but it helps and your healers definitely won’t mind it.

Air Totem. Depending on the composition of your raid, you can:

a)      Use Wrath of Air if you have at least another caster DPS in the group. Your healers will be thankful for it as well. This is the default choice.

b)      Use Windfury Totem if you have good healers but not so awesome melee dps and no Frost Deathknight DPS.

The only difference with the 25 man version of Marrowgar is that he will spike 3 people at once and will have more HP.