Hi guys, today I'm going to be going over the mythic Gruul fight, including one of the most awesomely confusing, but epic once you get it tanking set ups Blackrock has to offer. So, grab your finest brews and rocket science degrees, and lets go.....
Fight Overview and changes from Heroic.
Gruul dishes out a fairly hefty amount of both physical and magical damage for tanks, and the debuff he puts on us means that we can employ a 3 tank method for Mythic. Gruul still casts Inferno Slice at 100 energy, which must be split among your companions, (so you'll want to have 3 groups set up if you're using the 3 tank method, more on that later), which now deals a larger amount of both magical and physical damage to the tank taking it, we found it a good idea to use a CD like sac for every second Slice each tank has to take. On this note, it's worth mentioning that Gruuls energy does increase quicker on Mythic so he will cast the slice a lot more frequently, hence the need for the crazy tanking organization.
The only new ability that Gruul has is Flare, which basically sends some fire balls around the room at various intervals, which are a pain if they hit you but relatively easy to dodge, so we wont spend too much time on those, for tanks they are just your basic "stand out of the bad" mechanic.
There is one ability that is somewhat enhanced on Mythic although this doesn't really affect tanks too much but worth noting, and this is that Petrify will now affect everyone in the raid apart from tanks, so just try to avoid standing next to people about to explode when not tanking to minimize extra damage taken.
Tanking Rotation.
I will try and explain the tanking in the easiest way possible but first, lets have a look at Overwhelming Blows a little more closely; The debuff itself lasts for one minute from each application, and unfortunately the stacking 10% damage increase makes this pretty pants to try and heal 2 tanks through on mythic, when adding to the blows you will also be taking more Inferno Slices and melee attacks, it's just not worth it, even if you do have exceptional healers.
Groups: We went with 2 groups on either side of Gruul, and one behind him, and we tanked him in the middle. We had one group of 6 (Group A), one of 7 Group B) and a small group of 4 (Back Group) at the back.
If you get it right, you should have 9 slices in total before he goes into his destructive rampage phase.
So Group A takes 2 slices
Back group takes one Slice
Group B takes 2 Slices
rinse and repeat.
The tanking is where it gets a little complicated, but for me, once I had written it down it made more sense. I will actually use our toon names instead of tank 1, 2 and 3, as it helped me out. (If you want to rewrite it with one two and 3, I would be tank 1, Drake would be tank 2 and Lala would be tank 3)
So here goes...
~I taunt the boss and stand on the tanking spot.
~Drake taunts into group A (Slice 1)
~I taunt back.
~Drake taunts into Group A (Slice 2) and keeps the boss, moving himself into the tanking spot.
~LalaGirl taunts into the back group (Slice 3)
~Drake Taunts Back
~LalaGirl taunts into Group B (Slice 4) and keeps the boss, moving himself into the tanking spot.
~I taunt into group B (Slice 5)
~LalaGirl taunts back.
~I taunt into Group A (Slice 6) and keep the boss, moving myself into the tank spot.
~Drake taunts into Group A (Slice 7)
~I taunt back.
~Drake taunts into Back group (Slice 8) and keeps the boss, once again moving into the tank spot.
~Lala taunts into Group B (Slice 9)
~Drake taunts back.
(Please consult my highly professional visual guide* below that denotes where each group is, the boss is the purple blob in the middle. It's that detailed, I have even highlighted where the door is in case you need to run like a little girl when wiping :))
The boss will now go into his rampage phase.
After the rampage I pick up the boss again and we just repeat the process. it's worth noting that at this point I will still have my last lot of overwhelming, not to worry, get some nice big fat guards up and having your healers keep an eye on you is fine here, thanks to stagger working the way it does (for now at least), Monks can cope with this just fine, though if you're feeling a little squishy you can pop Fort Brew here if you like, as this is the biggest damage you will take.
As I said previously, we used an external CD on each tank's second inferno slice, we run 2 Ret Pallys so we just rotated the Sac's (they both took Clemency) and we also used pain Sup and Barrier from our priest, but any externals will be fine here, it just helps take the edge of the second slice as it was one shotting us at times without them!!
Talents and Glyphs.
I use Zen Sphere (Though Chi Burst would also be nice here to help out after slices when it's up), Diffuse Magic (nice for the magic part of inferno slices and if you "accidentally" get hit by the floaty orbs), Xuen for extra DPS (tight enrage on this one) and Soul Dance - which has incidentally become one of my "Go To" talents lately.
Glyphs I ran Zen Med and Fort Brew, then the third doesn't really matter, I think i ended up with rapid rolling, but for me personally there wasn't a third glyph that really mattered.
If you can get your head around that lot, congratulations!! I'm currently working on guides for Mythic Oregorger, Hanz & Franz, and FlameBender
Be Good!!
*If you would like your own highly professional visual accompaniment for your blogs/posts my drawing skills can be purchased for a small fee :D
In honor of our Mythic Beastlord kill I have spent the past two weeks umming and ahhing about what transmog to use, recently I have been using my purple ninja outfir but after much deliberation I have now gone full Beastlady mode!!
Using the staff Mog that actually drops from Beast Lord himself of course....
Having a somewhat matching mount is a must, it was close between the Skeletal Raptor from Archeology and the PvP Mount but I love the little skulls on the seat on this one :)
I've used all the gear you can purchase from the War Mill, except the belt which is the Prideful Gladiator belt from the last PvP season, which I love a lot because it looks badass and changes colour every once in a while.
Power Torrent is pretty much an essential illusion Mog for me on all my weapons....it's so pretty...how can I not!?
I did try out the bloody one as well but I didn't want to look too drastic or fearsome, I may be a tanky tank but I'm only a soft cuddly Panda underneath, and I didn't want to take that away from my beloved monk.
Streaming more raids next week, may even venture into streaming some of my Druid PvP, until then
Be good xx
Hello babies, some of you may or may not know that I am well and truly back in the tanking saddle now and today I am going to talk about Mythic Beastlord in the BlackRock Foundry.
This will be a little more in depth than some of my usual "this is how I did it" posts, as I feel a little more qualified now and am going to attempt to write a proper "guide" of sorts, of course in my own way with my quirky spin on things, but never-the-less, if this manages to help just one person, I'll be happy!! As always, any comments or extra bits you feel left out or if you do something different that also works, please feel free to add it at the bottom.
So let's get to it (and I will try not to waffle).....
Boss Overview, what's changed for Mythic?
As before on other difficulties, Darmac still jumps onto his beloved mounts, Cruelfang (Wolfie), Ironcrusher (Lellaflump) and Dreadwing (Firebat thingy), he also busts out a super duper mount after all these have been dealt with , but more on that later. The main mechanic change is that when each mount reaches 40% HP, Darmac will jump off said mount and you will have to deal with them both, the mount will continue to do whatever ability it has, and Darmac will still not gain use of the ability until after that mount is dead, but he WILL use all the other abilities he has gained so far. (For example, if he already has Rend & Tear, he will continue to use this when he jumps off Iron crusher, but wont gain access to Tantrum until the Elkk is dead.)
The pack beasts will continue to spawn throughout the fight, and this is where we, my fellow Brewmasters, come into our own once again as the kings and queens of aoe add control. The fact that Darmac and the mount will need a tank each, means a lot of guilds are using a 3 tank method, whereby 2 will manage Darmac and his personal mounts, and the third is there to manage the mass of pets that come in. Incidentally the pack beasts gain a buff that periodically increases their speed and damage done, so towards the end of the fight, you NEED to be able to kite these things, or hope you have good healers as they HURT, and face tanking them isn't a great option!!
Enter Faultline.....
The final change for Mythic is Darmacs use of a fourth mount, that dramatically charges into the room to his master's aid after the other Three mounts have been dispatched, one of those "oh you thought dis was OVER?!?!?" kinda moments....
Faultline makes things rather difficult as his abilities are AOE and hit hard, thankfully though, Darmac does not get off Faultline at 40% like the other mounts, but he does gain some of his abilities and his HP will double when Faultline dies.
He has:
Epicenter - A large circular AOE that slows movement speed and deals nature damage to any players in it. (Darmac gains access to this once Faultline is down)
Heavy Smash - Does 200% of normal melee damage split between a player and an ally (Tanks need to stand on top of eachother for the time that Faultline is active)
Unstoppable - A 10% damage increase buff that stacks. (Darmac gains access to this ability once Faultline is down)
CannonBall Barrage - Faultline hurls out cannonballs around the room dealing nature damage to anyone hit, though they do make swirly patches on the ground so they can be avoided.
Unsteady - periodically inflicts damage to ALL players and reduces movement speed by 50% (Note: This will also continue after Faultline has been dispatched)
Tanking Tactics
If you are tanking the adds, which, let's face it, as a Brewmaster, you probably will be, there are one or two things to note, and things that you can do personally to help out your raid.
Pack Beasts CAN be slowed/stunned/gripped etc. While this is nice, this can also cause you issues if you overdo it too early/everyone uses all their abilities at once. Particularly early on in the fight, Keg Toss on its own along with a glyphed BoF will be more than enough to get these adds over to the boss safely, while there's not a lot going on in the fight, your DPS will be able to AOE these little guys down in seconds, so you don't need to go ham with slows and stuns just yet.
Being Vocal. Tell your raid when the beasts are inc, especially towards the end of the fight, the DPS will be having to deal with a multitude of abilities and will likely not have much time to look at timers, when Faultline dies, all hell pretty much just breaks loose and the DPS will likely appreciate you letting them know that you're bringing adds to them, also, calling out for extra slows and stuns allows you to negotiate your way round all the crap on the floor while being chased by 6 beasts with a speed increase ;)
Face tanking is ok to a point....Be warned, by the end of the fight, if all 6 of these guys connect on you, it's going to HURT. I recommend keeping hold of your leg sweep for this, as that will give you enough room to get the hell away from them.
Aggro reset?!?! These pack beasts have a weird little aggro table, when they initially spawn they will not be aggroable (yes that IS a word!). They will run out to the room and then they will stop momentarily, this is the point at which they are able to be picked up, try to make sure you do not have healers stood near this point when they spawn as they will go and attack them instead of you, especially if they are healing their tits off in the final phase.
If you're tanking the Beastlord and his mounts, you need to have very good communication with your co tank, as you will need to manage stacks and swapping the mounts and Beastlord over between you, as you basically have to pretend you are the only two tanks and act as if your add tank is not there, as he/she will have their hands full and unlikely to be able to help you out.
Fight overview/the order of the beasts.
Phase one: Darmac will be on foot, pack beasts will spawn and Darmac will throw out spears (if you are the add tank, you NEED to keep an eye out for these, as if you get caught by pinned down it will hurt your group a lot)
Phase two: Darmac will mount whatever he is being tanked closest to, we went for Cruelfang first, as rend and tear is the easiest ability to deal with, as it is avoidable by DPS/healers and on occasion, tanks if they can sidestep quickly enough.
After Cruelfang has been dealt with we went for IronCrusher, as although Tantrum is a pretty heafty AOE spell it's manageable with a good CD rotation and less of a pain in the arse than Shrapnel.
Following Ironcrusher's demise you will need to deal with Dreadwing, be careful of the breath as being caught in it needlessly will cause healers to oom/use up CDs that they will need for later.
Phase 3: Darmac now has all the abilities form his fallen mounts and things will start to get really hectic from here on in. When Faultline spawns you should try to aim to have Darmac up in that end of the room, then "snake" the epicenter spawns horizontally down the room in order to give your raid as much room as possible. (Incidentally we initially tried snaking vertically down the room, only to discover that this makes positioning for the final phase really hard, so not advisable!)
Phase 4: This begins when Faultline dies, Darmac now has all his abilities and I recommend you use bloodlust here, you want him to die as soon as possible, as he will still continue to fill up your room with epicenters and adds will also continue to spawn. One thing to note here, it is not advisable to ignore the adds at any point, they are very difficult to kite, even for a monk as the room is filled with so much crap it becomes a gauntlet of death and there is a lot of damage coming out so it is just easier to continue to AOE them down and help the add tank with any stuns and slows that you have.
Talents/Glyphs and other abilities.
Tigers Lust is nice for little bursts of speed and nullifies Unsteady later on in the fight, though to be honest, any of the movement speed talents would be fine, I just prefer TL personally.
Zen Sphere is pretty much my go to talent in this tier now, though Chi burst is also nice here for helping AOE down adds.
Leg Sweep can be used offensively or defensively depending on what pert of the fight you're on, I found myself hanging on to it toward the end of the fight and using it as a get out of jail free card if I got caught by adds.
Diffuse Magic is great for when Dreadwing comes out, in case you get caught by a breath.
Use RJW if you are having aggro difficulties, however Xuen can be used as a defensive CD as he can tank adds for you, be careful though as if he dies the adds may run loose and hit your dps so keep an eye on him.
I went with Soul Dance for this, I was finding myself not having a lot of up time on adds toward the end of the fight so I was unable to really utilize the other two, it depends on whether or not you're kiting or tanking, but personally I still don't like Chi Explosion so would be more likely to take Serenity if I was tanking the mounts/Darmac.
Glyph of Breath of Fire - Really nice for the adds, particularly early on, can just give you a little breathing space.
Keg Smash - having the range increased can help here.
Freedom Roll - helps you get out of Epicenter.
Leer of the Ox - can pick up an add in a pinch but requires a lot of micro management.
Fortifying Brew - Almost makes this a viable cooldown....
I personally ended up with Breath of Fire, keg Smash and Freedom Roll.
The statue.
Towards the end of the fight things get VERY hectic, being able to dump your statue down at the add spawn location means they will guarantee to aggro on it, ensuring your dps/healers are safe, and giving you time to go and collect them.
Transendence.
Place it near the add spawn, does what it says on the tin. means you don't have to try and run through a bunch of crap to go pick up your adds and can get you away from them if they are too close.
We start working on Mythic Oregorger/Gruul this week, I shall most likely be streaming some of our progress, we raid 7-11pm UK time Mon-Thurs so feel free to drop in!
Be Good
Dark xx
......Is a lazy day, and today as I am still working on compiling my challenge mode posts and some raiding videos, I have decided to down tools and take a little trip out on my monk to visit some of the more scenic places I have discovered in Draenor.
On the whole I think that Blizz have done a really nice job with the scenery in Draenor, as most of you know I am a huge fan of my screenies, it's one of my "WoW life simple pleasures" to go out on a random journey to nowhere in particular and see what I can find to add to my already overflowing screenshot collection. It is actually a regular occurence for me to find myself somewhere to "sit" while I am blogging, I will often park my monk in a pretty spot, and then just tab back in while I am thinking of what to write and just look at my surroundings. I'm in Nagrand as I write this, sitting on top of the waterfall above the Throne of the Elements, one of my favorite places in Draenor.
These tiny Silverpelts are quite possibly some of the cutest mobs I have come across!!
I love how once the quest line is complete you get to see all of the elementals.
Taking a random path that could lead to anywhere....
Using Aviana's Feather from the top of the falls makes for some beautiful flight scenery without the constrictions of a flight path.
Overall I think Nagrand is fantastic, the only other place that comes close to its beauty for me is Shadowmoon Valley.
I love the way it's got that eerie yet, enchanting feel to the forest areas, being Horde it almost feels as if I shouldn't be here, which makes it all the more fun to explore.
These little guys are pretty awesome, I've ended up accidentally angering a few opposing faction troops and getting myself killed a couple of times, and having less flight paths there makes for a lot of walking to find the nice places but the walk is always worth it....
Places like this just make this game so much more than just leveling, raiding and collecting gear, it makes it a place to enjoy, relax, and enjoy the simple pleasures.
Have a happy Sunday folks!!
Be good xx
A very happy new year to everyone!! As most of you know I have predominantly been a tank or healer on my monk, and I have never really gone into using the DPS spec all that much, since WoD dropped though I have switched to windwalker for raiding. So here it is, my opinions on Highmaul from a new perspective, my talent choices and as always, my "this is how I do it" version of tactics :)
Talent overview.
At the moment I'm still in the process of trying out different combinations of talents for various fights, I have to say that at first I was really disappointed with Chi Explosion, it seemed to encourage far too much chi pooling for my liking and it was almost steering me away from using RSK and FoF, most likely because I was not used to the rotation and keeping the RSK debuff up was not something that I was doing naturally. For this reason I stayed away from CE when I first picked up the spec and got myself used to the "old" rotation. Now that I am more comfortable with keeping my RSK debuff up and my Tiger Palm buff up I am finding it a lot easier to utilize CE, especially when I run it with Ascension for the extra chi pool. Serenity Is really nice for opening burst for me, especially with the Chi Brew and lucky mastery procs, if you can start a fight with 8-10 stacks, get TP and RSK up, then "windmill" with BoK for the duration of serenity on single target fights this has produced some very nice opening numbers, especially as the BoK builds up stacks of brew ready for a FoF straight afterwards. I have tried Hurricane strike on some trash pulls and in dungeons but at the moment for me, the CD is too long and it doesn't ever really contribute much to my overall damage, This could be because I am using it incorrectly but on the whole , personally I find it to be the weaker of the 3 new talent choices.
Highmaul - Welcome to Ogre country.....
On the whole I have to say the raid is quite fun, I really wasn't sure how I would settle into playing a new spec, or how I would cope with not being able to tank. DPS has never really held a lot of intrest for me, I am not really bothered by the numbers, I try to do "too much" instead of doing damage and end up not really doing enough or dying. I have had to learn to find myself a happy medium of running off and doing mechanics and simply just sitting there and belting the boss for all I am worth when I need to. I am finding it a lot easier that when I first started, I don't find myself as frustrated as I initially did, and my overall numbers aren't too horrendous.
Butchwork.
This was the fight where I really learned a nice rotation, for melee it's just a case of sitting on the bosses arse and whoring numbers. It was a nice way for me to practice and let the rotation become more natural for me, it's helped me out on fights like Brakenspore where I can abuse my mobility a lot, while still keeping a good rotation up.
"It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves"
Edmund Hillary really had that one right when it came to Tectus. This fight is one of the mist fun but challenging fights for me so far in Highmaul. The combination of keeping up DPS while hardly being able to stand still for more than a FoF was really fun to master - I don't think I'm quite there yet, and I could definitely squeeze out a few more numbers, but my survivability on that fight is at an all time high due to having a tool kit almost perfect for the fight itself. I never realized just how well equipped Windwalkers were in general until I abused pretty much everything I had during one pull to stay alive when we were progressing on this fight.
Two targets?? Use the Red wun!!
Twin Ogron is a perfect example of how monks just excel at multi target fights, the other monk in our guild and I have affectionately renamed Storm Earth and Fire "The Red wun, Green wun and the Bloo wun". Funnily enough though, by the end of this fight, our clones have generally our DPS'd us, probably because they don't seem to give a monkeys for tactics, fire, falling ceilings or whirlwinds, basically all the things we spend half the fight avoiding!! on a more serious note, I really enjoy this fight, it's a good test of how much you can sit on a bosses arse when the odds are stacked against you, particularly on mythic, when things can kill you at the drop of a hat. I find Chi Explosion to be the best way to pump out numbers in this, and more often than not, both of us monks will top DPS charts by quite a margin, which is actually quite fun to do - never thought I'd catch myself saying that though!!
I've been putting quite a bit of effort into challenge modes lately, picked up a few realm best times and am halfway to my 8/8 gold, so keep an eye out for my next blog which may well just cover more Draenor challenges; )
Be Good
Dark xx
