Kulldam
06-02-2009, 11:08 PM
Strategy - Primary
Since we already have a kill under a belt I just wanted to briefly write down the basic strategy for reference to those that still need to learn the fight and a place to throw out a few more ideas.
Raid Positioning
We split the raid into two distinct groups. Group A is all Ranged DPS classes and Group B is all Melee DPS and Healers. Group A will spend the majority of the fight positioning themselves in and out of Shadow Crash puddles and should try to remain a fair distance from General at all times. If distance is not maintained and the raid is all too close, General may Shadow Crash or Life Leech a member of Group B which is annoying or can even cause a wipe.
Handling Shadow Crash for Group A
All Ranged DPS in Group A must be constantly aware of General targetting them with Shadow Crash, the slow moving Shadow projectile that explodes on impact and leaves the Shadow Crash puddle on the ground. If targetted, the player should immediately sidestep a safe distance from where they were standing when originally targetted and wait for the Shadow Crash puddle to appear.
Once the puddle appears (black puddle), the player should move to the closest edge of the puddle, just barely within it's effect radius. A second player from Group A should also make their way into this puddle, but as they approach, note which edge the first player is standing. The second player should position himself on the opposite edge of the puddle relative to the first player. This positioning of using the two furthest edges allows one player to stay still and continue DPSing from their current position even if the opposite player is targetted with either Shadow Crash bolt or Life Leech -- the distance is far enough to be out of range of each other.
Once two players are using a puddle, no other players should use that particular puddle and must wait for a new puddle to spawn.
Managing Saronite Vapors/Healer Mana
A total of 10 Saronite Vapors spawn over the course of the fight, at an interval of about one new spawn every 30 seconds. Once a Vapor is killed, a green puddle forms at that location and allows mana-users to regain mana by standing in the puddle. Each second in the puddle a debuff stacks higher, dealing 100 damage, then 200, then 400, then 800, and so on. Once the player leaves the puddle, the debuff stops stacking and the player recieves mana equal to half the damage dealt to them. Most healers seem to go for a 6400 damage or 12800 damage tick at most before resetting -- anything beyond is virtually unsurvivable without a great deal of health buffs and luck.
Our most successful tactic involves leaving the first Saronite Vapor unharmed until 10 seconds or so before General uses Surge of Darkness (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=62662) for the first time. We also found it most reliable to use pets only (warlock, hunter, dk) to attack the Vapor as they have very low health and this prevents too much Ranged DPS from being wasted moving in range and killing the Vapor.
Meanwhile, in the seconds before Surge of Darkness, the MT positions General facing toward the targetted Vapor at about a 30-40 yard distance from the Vapor. Once Surge of Darkness is cast, the MT immediately runs toward the Vapor (which is near death or just died at this point) while the General runs after the tank in his high-damage, 50%-snared state. Once Surge of Darkness wears off, the tank re-engages which places the General on top of the newly spawned green puddle from the Vapor. Group B healers can then simply move into the cloud and still remain within or close to melee range of General and the tank without risk of the tank kiting out of range of the puddle.
We repeat this process every 60 seconds, and with a 10 minute enrage timer and 10 total Vapor spawns, we either maintain our mana and kill him or don't do enough DPS and we wipe anyway, so it works well.
Tips/Ideas
Druids: I forgot to mention this to Kheelan and Wild but I read about a possible tip for Druids on this fight. Apparently if you step into a black puddle (and thus gain the 75% mana cost reduction buff but also the 75% healing reduction debuff), you can cast Lifebloom at the 25% cost on a bunch of random people and then step out of the black puddle before the bloom effect and still gain the full mana amount, thereby giving you slightly over 25% of the normal LB cost for each cast.
I don't know how often you'll get the chance to use this, but if this works it may prove especially useful once we start attempting Hard Mode where we can't use Green puddles at all and have to be extremely efficient.
Since we already have a kill under a belt I just wanted to briefly write down the basic strategy for reference to those that still need to learn the fight and a place to throw out a few more ideas.
Raid Positioning
We split the raid into two distinct groups. Group A is all Ranged DPS classes and Group B is all Melee DPS and Healers. Group A will spend the majority of the fight positioning themselves in and out of Shadow Crash puddles and should try to remain a fair distance from General at all times. If distance is not maintained and the raid is all too close, General may Shadow Crash or Life Leech a member of Group B which is annoying or can even cause a wipe.
Handling Shadow Crash for Group A
All Ranged DPS in Group A must be constantly aware of General targetting them with Shadow Crash, the slow moving Shadow projectile that explodes on impact and leaves the Shadow Crash puddle on the ground. If targetted, the player should immediately sidestep a safe distance from where they were standing when originally targetted and wait for the Shadow Crash puddle to appear.
Once the puddle appears (black puddle), the player should move to the closest edge of the puddle, just barely within it's effect radius. A second player from Group A should also make their way into this puddle, but as they approach, note which edge the first player is standing. The second player should position himself on the opposite edge of the puddle relative to the first player. This positioning of using the two furthest edges allows one player to stay still and continue DPSing from their current position even if the opposite player is targetted with either Shadow Crash bolt or Life Leech -- the distance is far enough to be out of range of each other.
Once two players are using a puddle, no other players should use that particular puddle and must wait for a new puddle to spawn.
Managing Saronite Vapors/Healer Mana
A total of 10 Saronite Vapors spawn over the course of the fight, at an interval of about one new spawn every 30 seconds. Once a Vapor is killed, a green puddle forms at that location and allows mana-users to regain mana by standing in the puddle. Each second in the puddle a debuff stacks higher, dealing 100 damage, then 200, then 400, then 800, and so on. Once the player leaves the puddle, the debuff stops stacking and the player recieves mana equal to half the damage dealt to them. Most healers seem to go for a 6400 damage or 12800 damage tick at most before resetting -- anything beyond is virtually unsurvivable without a great deal of health buffs and luck.
Our most successful tactic involves leaving the first Saronite Vapor unharmed until 10 seconds or so before General uses Surge of Darkness (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=62662) for the first time. We also found it most reliable to use pets only (warlock, hunter, dk) to attack the Vapor as they have very low health and this prevents too much Ranged DPS from being wasted moving in range and killing the Vapor.
Meanwhile, in the seconds before Surge of Darkness, the MT positions General facing toward the targetted Vapor at about a 30-40 yard distance from the Vapor. Once Surge of Darkness is cast, the MT immediately runs toward the Vapor (which is near death or just died at this point) while the General runs after the tank in his high-damage, 50%-snared state. Once Surge of Darkness wears off, the tank re-engages which places the General on top of the newly spawned green puddle from the Vapor. Group B healers can then simply move into the cloud and still remain within or close to melee range of General and the tank without risk of the tank kiting out of range of the puddle.
We repeat this process every 60 seconds, and with a 10 minute enrage timer and 10 total Vapor spawns, we either maintain our mana and kill him or don't do enough DPS and we wipe anyway, so it works well.
Tips/Ideas
Druids: I forgot to mention this to Kheelan and Wild but I read about a possible tip for Druids on this fight. Apparently if you step into a black puddle (and thus gain the 75% mana cost reduction buff but also the 75% healing reduction debuff), you can cast Lifebloom at the 25% cost on a bunch of random people and then step out of the black puddle before the bloom effect and still gain the full mana amount, thereby giving you slightly over 25% of the normal LB cost for each cast.
I don't know how often you'll get the chance to use this, but if this works it may prove especially useful once we start attempting Hard Mode where we can't use Green puddles at all and have to be extremely efficient.