Threat
It came as quite a bit obvious when we were doing Karazhan that threat was a major issue. Salvation and Taunts can only go so far. It's up to each individual player to watch their own threat (healers have more trouble with this as every heal cast causes AoE threat to every tapped mob). Everyone should have Omen (it's the most accurate), even if they forsake every other addon. Omen will allow you to watch your threat in regards to the tank (or let the tank watch his/her own threat in regards to the rest of the raid). Then, you can judge when and where to do which attacks or when to back off and let the tank's threat jump a little higher.
The Sunder/Second Rule
I'm sure while doing regular instances, you've heard the saying, "Wait for sunders." They're not saying that just so you can get some armor penetration. It's one of the ways a warrior builds threat on a mob. In the case of trash, it's generally polite to wait 2-3 sunders, depending on your own threat output. On bosses, it's always a good idea to wait for 5 sunders. Losing a DPS on a boss fight because they didn't wait for DPS can result in a wipe.
For paladins and druids, it's generally good to wait 3-4 seconds on trash and 6-10 seconds on bosses. Use that time to apply poisons, oils, or get a drink. Unless you're needed to CC something, you shouldn't be firing off bolts, stabs, and shots before the tank has time to build threat.
Threat Threshold and Range
When DPS'ing or healing, you're permitted a certain percentage of threat over the tank. If you're within 10 yards of the target, you cannot exceed 110% of the tank's threat. If you're outside of that 10 yards, it's 130%. In the early seconds of tanking a target, the numbers for those percentages are miniscule and very easy to breach. However, on a boss that you've let a tank take the lead on, breaking through 110% or 130% becomes more and more difficult as the tank continues to build threat. This is a good thing, I assure you. It may be fun to try to out-threat the tank, but there are some tanks that will keep from taunting just to teach you to sit back and do your job. We might or might not have tanks like that, so keep that in mind. :)
Preparedness
Come to raids prepared. Have all your ammunition, reagents, consumables, and have yourself repaired. Also, if you are not 375 First Aid, I suggest you work on that until the next raid. I don't care what your role is; having a stack of bandages on you is very important. There are some times that it's better to step back, bandage, then resume your role. 3400 healing over 8 seconds is very nice, not only for your own survival but also for the healer's mana pool. There are some fights where we cannot afford to heal everyone else. It then falls onto YOU to keep yourself alive. To put it simply, You aren't doing DPS if you're dead. :) For Healers, this is a great way to not only heal yourself but to also regen mana at 100% rate since you're not casting an actual spell. Keep this in mind for situations that might call for it.
Melee
I've done as much or more raiding with Zelven as Enhancement as I used to do with Tseta as a mage. There are some things that must be done as melee to keep from ******** over yourself and, subsequently, others.
Firstly, all melee should situate themselves behind the mob or boss. This does include Off tanks in most situations (such as when you don't need to taunt bounce the mob/boss back and forth). When you're in front of a mob or boss, they can parry and dodge your attacks. When you're behind them, they can only dodge. Now, there are two reasons why you don't want to get parried, one is obvious and one is not so obvious:
- DPS. If you're getting parried, you're not doing DPS. Simple, no?
Parry-Gib Effect. Every time a mob or boss parries an attack, whether it be from their current target or another, their swing speed increases (upwards of 40% increase; this stacks if multiple attacks are parried in rapid succession). The tank obviously cannot prevent this (unless he/she stacks 236 Expertise Rating) from happening from his/her own attacks.
For the safety of the tank and your own DPS, it's best to keep your a** on the mob's/boss' a**. :P
Exception: With some bosses, such as dragon bosses like Nightbane (not Netherspite), it will be impossible to situate yourself behind the boss. Instead, it's advised to keep yourself to their side, such as next to their hind legs. This will both keep you safe of the rear AoEs and keep Parries from happening.
Ranged
At times, there's less to worry as a ranged DPS. You don't have to worry about parries or dodges, your threat threshold is higher than someone in melee range, and you can sit safely out of range of most mob or boss AoEs. This does not mean, however, that you can slack off or "go all out" with no consequences. As stated with the threat sections, wait for a few seconds for the paladins/druids/warriors to build their threat, then you can start DPS. Being further away from the mob or boss can be hurtful to you in that the tank will have to chase the mob to get it back. Further, this can put your other raid members into jeopardy. If, for instance, a healer was at 126% of the tank's threat when a mage hit 131% and pulled aggro, the mob will barrel for the mage, but, if he goes within 10 yards of the healer, he will turn on the healer instead. The mage will still be at 131%/130, but the healer would instead be at 126%/110. The 16% difference would be more enticing than the 1% difference. This could very well result in a dead healer if the tank isn't able to pick it up in time. Don't pull threat. If not for your own repair bill, "Keep it in your pants," so to speak, for the rest of the raid.
Healers/Decurse
First and foremost, get a raid bar addon. Someone's character shouldn't have to be in sight for you to heal or decurse them. There will be times in raids or instances that you cannot see the tank or other players at all. Line of Sight does not mean that you can see them but that the game sees that there aren't any objects or walls obstructing the view. There will be times that the tank absolutely MUST tank a mob away from the rest of the raid, and you'll be lucky to see the tank. If your only method of healing or decursing the tank is by clicking on him, congratulations, you might've just cost us the pull. Likewise, melee need to stay behind the boss or mob at all times, for the reasons stated above. So, even if the tank is visible, the other melee may not be. Melee players will take damage on many pulls. It's the life of being a melee class. Void Reaver, AKA Loot Reaver, does a 6-8k damage pounding every 12 seconds or so. The melee CANNOT escape this. They get to sit in there and take it. It's the healer's(s') job(s) to keep them alive as they are the main source of damage on that fight (I'm not going to go into the full strategy with him). And if we had the people, we could probably take him no problem. Loot Reaver really is a fitting name for him. As long as the ranged/healers pay attention, the fight is cake.
Another thing, some pulls will require spam healing. Pallies already spam heal. Flash of Light spamming is the most efficient way for a paladin to heal. But for the Shamans and Priests, we've got to downrank. I'll get more into that a bit further down. :)
Classes
Druids
I won't claim to know everything about this class. I've done my reading, sure, but I have yet to level one to 70. That said, I do have some things to say to our fellow druids here.
As Balance, you have two main sources of damage dealing: Starfire and Wrath. There aren't any Nature immune mobs or bosses in Karazhan (if I recall correctly, you won't meet your first until Hydross, and that's only for half of the fight). However, there are Arcane immune mobs strewn throughout the instance. Curator, too, is immune to Arcane damage. However, for the most part on that fight, you should be focusing on the Arcane Flares that spawn. Further, Wrath proves more useful during that time. If anything, you can refresh a Faerie Fire and/or Insect Swarm on Curator during the times in between Astral Flare spawns.
Since I don't think we have a feral druid, I won't bother commenting on them.
Resto, it's struck me as pretty simple. Roll three lifeblooms on a tank, throw a Rejuve or Regrowth on others that need healing in the raid, and Swiftmend or NS+HT if healing REALLY needs to be done. Otherwise, there's not much to say that I don't think our Resto druids don't already know.
Hunters
I'm still a little new to this class as my hunter hit 70 just last week. That does not, however, discredit things that I have found to be helpful.
- Firstly, specs. At this level of progression, Beast Mastery is the best way to go. It has the lowest gear level requirements. You can enter Kara with 1100 AP (though it's recommended to be at 1300+) and do just fine. Marksman has a recommendation of 1600-1700 for Kara. And Survival requires 700+ UNBUFFED Agility. Beast Mastery's buff is also good for nearly everyone in the raid. Marksman's and Survival's buffs are melee/hunter DPS only. In a 10man instance, it isn't always going to be one melee group and one caster group. There might be days where you have a caster DPS sitting in your group.
Now then, a few tips for our hunters.
Pets. It is YOUR job to keep your pet alive. However, this does not mean that you keep your pet at your side the entire time.
- Make sure your pet has been trained in Avoidance. THIS IS IMPORTANT. 50% reduction to all AoEs, physical and magical, is very important to your pet's survival.
Turn off Growl. There's no need to have it on in a raid. Your pet does not make a very good tank.
If your pet gets low health, call him back. Also, in situations that heavy AoE occurs, keep Mend Pet on him at all times as well as calling him back when needed.
Be sure to watch for some pulls. Your pet does not have an AI that tells him to stay to the sides or the front of a mob when it comes to tight pulls (such as, if you go to the back of the mob, you'll pull adds). This is your job to know what's best to do.
Keep your pet on Passive. This will allow you to have full control over him.
If you must, bind Pet Attack and Passive to two easily accessed keys. This can permit you to send your pet off when you need to as well as pull him back.
As a BM hunter, your pet can do upwards of 1/3 of your damage. Treat him well instead of just a "Fire and Forget" toy.
Misdirection is a very important skill for hunters. It takes 3 of your shots and directs their threat to the target you've buffed with MD. This can be done however you want. However, you should try to make the most of these when you're pulling a boss or mob to the tank. It's best to start out with an Aimed Shot. It does high damage, and thus, high threat. It's a very nice opener when you're misdirecting to the tank. To follow that, you should use Distracting Shot. It's already a high threat shot. The threat from this shot will go all towards the misdirected target. There is no reason to NOT use this. After Distracting shot, Jump to cancel Auto Shot and cancel attack. For your final shot, choose between Arcane or Multi. Multi, most of the time, will be best. It does more damage and can hit multiple targets (doing so will result in all targets hit to have threat from the misdirected target :3 ). Only real reason to use Arcane is if you need to purge an immediate buff off of the mob or boss or you have to keep moving and can't stand still for a second to drop a Multi.
Feign Death. This is one of THE most important skills a hunter receives. A hunter does not receive threat reduction talents. Hunters were always used to pull mobs and to kite mobs. Having threat reduction hinders this ability. Feign Death is the hunter's way to drop threat. Yes, it sucks for other classes that your complete threat wipe is only a 30 second cooldown. But the reason for this is as I just stated: you get NO threat reduction. Even Salvation is a horrible idea. You don't want your Misdirected shots to be reduced in threat, yeah? :P Feign Death is something that you should use at every cooldown. WATCH Omen. If you've passed 90% of the tank's threat and Feign Death is up or about to be up, use it as soon as possible. Pop back up and continue DPS.
Aspect of the Viper is a new but very important skill for hunters. This aspect will likely be active MORE than Aspect of the Hawk. Hunters have a shoddy mana pool and a shoddy amount of mana regen. This skill greatly assists with these facts. To further help out with Aspect of the Viper, it's suggested for hunters to have 2 sets of weapons: Your DPS weapon(s) and your regen weapons. Your DPS weapon(s) will have Agility enchanted on it(them). More often than not, it's best to go with the Vengeful Gladiator's Waraxe (it only costs 800 Arena points and has no personal rating requirement) and to throw a 35 Agility enchant on it. If inapplicable, just go with what you can find. For your regen weapons, go with whatever DPS weapons you can find (such as two Breeching Comets) and throw +30 Intellect enchants on both of them. If you want to continue doing DPS in raids, you do it like this. Otherwise, make good friends with your Auto Shot as that will be the extent of your ability to DPS with no mana.
Ammunition...DO NOT FORGET. It's a terrible inconvenience to the rest of the raid when you need to go stock up during the middle of it. "Oops, I forgot to buy arrows!" makes you look like you bought your character off E-bay. By 70, you should know when to buy ammo. Down to 800 out of 4k? Go buy ammo. That 800 won't last longer than a couple more hours. Seriously.
Mages
Ah the mage. I played this class for about 2 years, mostly at 60, but some at 70. There are many things about this class that cannot be taught, but rather learned through experience (such as how to AoE without breaking any crowd control). However, I will try to cover what I can.
- Reagents. Arcane Brilliance and Ritual of Refreshment both require Arcane Powder. One stack might not be enough. 2-3 should cover the job just fine, though.
Armors. Almost always, you should have Molten Armor active, regardless of your spec. However, if the fight happens to be more about longevity than it is "Burn the b***h down", then using Mage Armor can be fine if you have mana issues. Ice Armor has little reason to be used in a raid environment. You should not be hit. If you are, you will likely die. 3nodding
Arcane Intellect vs Arcane Brilliance. If 3 or more people in the group need Arcane Intellect (whether they need the buff to begin with or their AB/AI buff is running out), use Arcane Brilliance. It saves mana that way. However, you're more than welcome to use Arcane Intellect on someone's who's just been ressed or when it's 1-2 mana users in an otherwise all warrior/rogue group. Arcane Brilliance is a convenience buff. Unless you want to waste the reagents, you aren't required to buff a single person with Arcane Brilliance.
Ritual of Refreshment. When everyone is at the raid, summon the table INSIDE in the beginning room. It's even better if you have Raid Assist and can do a ready check, while stating in raid and vent/skype, "This isn't if you're ready for the pull. I'm just trying to see who's AFK or here." or something of the sort. If everyone's there, then drop the table. If anyone says after, "Anyone have any Manna Biscuits?", I hope permissions are given out to drop kick that person in the head. :D Really, now. The table persists for 3 minutes. Little reason for anyone to miss out.
Paladins
I noticed our pallies stumbling over themselves trying to figure out buffs. I also noticed some misinformation given out. I'll try to fix this.
- Blessings. This is one of the few reasons to ever bring a paladin to a raid. I'll list down what classes should have what blessings and in order of the priority of them (such as, Rogue: Salvation, Might, Kings).
- Druid ~ Balance: Salvation/Wisdom/Kings; Feral DPS: Salvation/Might/Kings; Feral Tank: Kings/Might/Light; Resto: Wisdom/Kings/Salvation.
Hunter ~ Might/Kings/Wisdom.
There's no reason to give a Hunter Salvation.
Mage ~ Salvation/Kings/Wisdom
Paladin ~ Holy: Wisdom/Kings/Salvation; Protection: Sanctuary/Kings/Light; Ret:Might/Kings/Wisdom.
Priest ~ Healing: Wisdom/Kings/Salvation; Shadow: Salvation/Kings/Wisdom.
Rogue ~ Salvation/Might/Kings
Shaman ~ Elemental: Salvation/Kings/Wisdom; Enhancement: Salvation/Might/Kings; Resto: Wisdom/Kings/Salvation.
Warlock ~ Salvation/Kings/Wisdom.
Warrior ~ DPS: Salvation/Might/Kings; Tank: Kings/Light/Sanctuary.
These are the top three blessings, in order of importance, for classes and specs. Kings is one of the most powerful buffs. Almost always, it should be given to classes. Also, if you're ever unsure, you can ask what each person's spec/role is so you can best figure out what to use.
Blessing of Sacrifice is one of your least used blessings. It's a very situational ability. In Kara, it does come into use for a Holy paladin. You can use Blessing of Sacrifice on, say, the offtank or another melee DPS for the Maiden of Virtue fight. This will cause you to take small amounts of damage while they suffer damage from Holy Ground. When the Repentance hits, the damage the offtank/melee suffers from Holy Ground will knock you right out of the Repentance and permit you to continue healing.
Flash of Light vs Holy Light. Flash of Light is your main spell while healing. You sit there and SPAM the living hell out of that. Bind it to the mousewheel and just scroll, if you must. Your main source of mana regen is based around getting mana back from spells that crit. Flash of Light has a low mana cost as well as being a fast cast. Unlike other healers, it is not frowned upon for a Holy pally to spam FoL. When it comes to Holy Light, there's little reason to spam it unless the tank is consistently taking damage like a clothy. :P It's also a decent skill to use to top someone else off, but it could still be better to just use FoL.
Priests
Jerry's been my personal trainer in priests. Not so much in actually teaching me, but I've watched him plenty. I've also raided with many priests, both holy and shadow. They have quite a few nifty tricks with them.
- Fade. Use this often. Use it at every cooldown, if you can afford to. It may not be a permanent threat drop, but it's still something that could keep the mob or boss from barreling straight for you. It's also a good thing to use when you go to heal the tank at the very start of a pull. Such as, Greater Heal then Fade. That could keep you alive. :3
Inner Focus. As Holy or Shadow, you should have this skill. It not only gives you a free spell, but also makes that spell have a 25% increased chance to crit, if it's capable of producing a critical strike. Inner Focus is very nice to use on spells like Prayer of Healing. Or, if you don't think you'll need it immediately after, just use it to make Prayer of Fortitude mana-free. :P
Shadowfiend. For the most part, this pet is stupid as all hell. It's been known to pull extras. However, there are times that it can prove very valuable to a priest who is low on mana. Also, it's a VERY nice thing to use against Curator when he's Evocating. The pet also does 200% increased damage and can restore upwards of 12k mana to the priest during its lifespan. If you find yourself in need of mana, don't forget this little thing. :3
Downranking and you. Out of all the priest heals, only one should ever really be downranked for efficiency: Greater Heal. Flash Heal costs too much mana anyway. But Greater Heal is an ideal spell to downrank.
Binding Heal. If there are ever times that you find that both you and your target need to be healed, do not forget about this spell. It's useful in both PVE and PVP. Some priests I know have sworn off this spell as being useless. Those priests are also among the worst I know. :3
Prayer of Mending. Every time this ability comes off of cooldown, throw it onto the tank. Not only is it a nice instant heal that can heal upwards of 5 separate targets through bouncing around, but it also lends its threat to THEM not YOU. It's very nice for the tank to get a small burst in threat from this spell. Keep this in mind.
Mana. If you find yourself out of mana, tell the other healer(s). If they have no way to help you out (Innervate or Mana Tide), then let them take over for a while. Start wanding the boss, if you must. But don't cast until at least 20% of your mana is back or Mana Tide/Innervate become available. Casting a spell every time you have the mana to do so results in it taking that much longer to restore your mana back up. Also, during times of "rest" on fights, try to keep from casting any spells whatsoever (such as on the Evocation for Curator). If the other healers have more mana regen than you, let them top everyone off. Just sit back and wand. :P
Rogues
There's not much to say for rogues. Closer you are to hit cap, the better your DPS will be. Also, make good use of Blind. Since it doesn't require a reagent anymore, if you see a mob barreling for a ranged DPS or a healer (that isn't SUPPOSED to do that - such as in the case of a hunter pulling a mob to trap it), throw Blind on it. If it doesn't work, oh well. If it does, you just saved someone's a**.
Shamans
I'm sure I'll likely be our only shaman going. But I'll go over some things for anyone who has a shaman alt. :P
- Elemental is fairly easy. Bring plenty of mana potions (they're crack for Elemental) and keep your totems down. Do NOT use Chain Lightning around CC'd targets.
Enhancement is also fairly easy. Watch your threat at all times. It only takes a second for everything to crit and for you to be on the receiving end of a big, angry mob/boss. Also, the first time your mana pool drops under 50%, use Shamanistic Rage. After that, use SR every time the cooldown comes up. This can easily remove the need to drink or use mana potions. There's little reason for any Enhancement Shaman to run out of mana unless they're dealing with Mana Burn/Drain or having to offheal.
Restoration is fun to play. But there are a couple things to remember.
- Lesser Healing Wave is not a healing spell to use at length. It's more of something to use to quickly bring a tank out of the red. It's also something to use to top someone off. NEVER downrank this. It's mana inefficient enough as it is.
Healing Wave is a nice spell. It's also good to downrank this spell. Personally, I use Healing Wave 6 and 7. I also use 10 when needed. -Only- times I use Healing Wave 12 (max rank) is with Nature's Swiftness as part of a macro or if I'm confident I can bring a target up in those 2.5 seconds it takes to cast.
Chain Heal is the reason you're brought to the raid. This isn't a joke. Resto Shamans simplify many T6 encountres, all because of Chain Heal. It also helps greatly in T4 and T5. It's a very strong heal. It's also classified as a Smart Heal. Chain Heal will not bounce to people who do not need to be healed. It will also prioritize targets, in that if one target has -2k health and the other is -1.9k, the -2k will be hit first, then the 1.9k if its in range of the next jump. Chain Heal is also incredibly mana efficient when downranked. There's very little reason to ever use max rank. Ranks 1, 2, and 4 are the most commonly used ranks of chain heal amongst Resto shamans. 4 is especially nice as it not only costs a little over 100 less mana than rank 5, but it also doesn't suffer from the downranking penalty.
Earth Shield is generally cast on the tank, or, in the case of multiple tanks, the one who takes the most damage (Hi, Shiro!). However, there will be times that Earth Shield is best cast upon another player or on yourself. If you find that you're receiving a lot of spell pushback, throw ES on yourself so you can completely avoid it.
Mana Tide totem is another reason Resto shamans are brought to raids. Unlike many other totems or buffs in general, this totem scales. It restores 24% of each party member's total mana for the 12 second duration. Also, if downranking properly and it isn't a spam heal encountre, you should only really have to drop Mana Tide for your other party members, preferably the healers.
Totems. Each spec has their own specific totems that they can drop. There are times, however, that it's best to drop a totem that does not directly benefit either you or your group. Some encountres will have fears, charms, or sleeps thrown throughout it. At that time, it's best to put down a Tremor Totem. Other times, bosses or mobs will use single target spells that could be particularly harmful. At that point, Grounding Totem is the best choice. Melee can suck it and forgo their windfury totem in favor of prolonged life. :P
Warlocks
The warlock class, like rogues, don't have too much to be said about them. Basically, come with a full Soul Shard bag, be repaired, have consumables, and don't suck. Nearly the entire raid instance can be done without a warlock. Nearly is said because a warlock is very helpful on Illhoof. That's about it, though.
Warriors
Warriors...ehh... not too much to be said here. I've never bothered to look into the highest threat producing spell rotations. And I'm sure our DPS warrior knows how to play his area (isn't it, what, 3 buttons? :P ).
Karazhan Bosses
Attumen
This fight is rather easy. While Attumen and Midnight are split up, keep Attumen turned away from the raid. Attumen does a cleave that hits for a horrid amount. When they combine together, EVERYONE needs to get on Attumen's a**. If you're a hunter, stand just at 6 yards so you can shoot. He likes to do a charge attack on the person furthest away.
One other thing, I've found that he is immune to taunt. DO NOT PULL AGGRO. Unless, of course, you've decided you wanted to die. Then feel free. :3 In the case of someone pulling threat on a taunt immune fight, I'd fully understand if no healers healed the person who did so. It's what I would do! :D
Moroes
Lowest health players get priority on Blessing of Protection. If you're a pally, even a tank, use your own bubble (as a tank, use Bubble then IMMEDIATELY taunt. This will cause Moroes to attack you while you're bubbled so you have time to remove the bubble).
Also, if there is a druid in the group, try to keep an Abolish Poison on the offtank. Moroes casts Blind on a person in melee range. If that person happens to be an offtank, and he soon after hits the main tank with Gouge, he will go ape on the rest of the raid. Setting up a focus macro would handle that very well. :3
Maiden of Virtue
First and foremost, pally tanks suck on this fight. The Holy Ground is a near constant silence. It makes their job stupidly hard as nearly everything they do is a spell.
As learned from the other day, she is immune to taunts. So keeping the main tank up is priority.
If you are a pally healer, please do keep in mind the above use of Blessing of Sacrifice. You can also use one of your bubbles, preemptively, to avoid the Repentance altogether.
For the rest of us healers, we can take a step into the Holy Ground seconds before Repentance is supposed to hit. The tank can also move Maiden closer to us, momentarily, to break the Repentance that way with Holy Ground.
Opera Event
- Romulo and Julianne
It's imperative to have both people that can purge and people that can interrupt. Romulo and Julianne have self buffs that can be purged. Julianne also has a very powerful heal. It needs to be interrupted.
The trick to this fight is to split the damage evenly between them. They both have to die within 10 seconds of each other, or the dead one will rez up and you continue the hell. DoTs can really screw you in this fight. I suggest strongly against their use after about 25%. Also, the tank on Julianne will have to be a warrior as well as maybe a rogue or another warrior to interrupt her heals when Romulo is being DPS'd down.
Wizard of Oz
- Dorothee
Just kill her. Seriously. She's an annoying b***h, to put it simply. She is the first to die, and you'll be glad when she's gone.
Tito
He has to be killed after Dorothee. Killing him before her causes her to enrage. Only real trick to him.
Strawman
Burn him. Hitting him with a fire spell, any fire spell, will result in him walking around disoriented. It's amusing, really. However, keep in mind that you need to use max rank fire spells that are not DoTs and not AoEs. Flamestrike or Rain of Fire will not work. Nor will rank 1 Fireballs (I found that out the hard way...).
Tinhead
Let a tank pick this guy up. His rusting happens over time, not due to certain skills hitting him. He hits for A LOT. And his cleave hits like a truck. So, the tank who is kiting him needs to keep him away from the raid. At the least, keep his front side away from the raid. :P
Roar
It's likely not known, but I do believe Roar is classified as a beast. Thus, he should be able to have Scare Beast effect him. Futo can try the next time we get that event. xP
The Crone
Stay away from the tornadoes. They're not that hard to spot. Big swirling black wind of d00m. Stay away. Kay? Kay.
Red Riding Hood
The next time we go into Kara and this event doesn't pop up, I'd like each person (aside from the tanks) to run around the edge of the room. I'm being quite serious. I don't want you dying to the Red Riding Hood debuff because you don't know how to run away (but if you're a rogue, you should be pretty used to running away :P ).
The Curator
Save all your DPS cooldowns for the Evocation. Also, the Hateful Bolts (those random Arcane Bolts he casts) hit the target with the second highest threat as well as having the most health (so even if you have the second highest threat, if you have low health, he'll hit someone else). Oh, go figure, he loved me! a**.
Anyway, healers will often be hit with Hateful Bolt. Shrug it off, ignore it, whatever. Priests, use Binding Heal here. It'll save your a**. Also, when the Evocation comes up, use your Shadowfiend. Do NOT cast any damaging spells. The Evocation is a time to regen mana for us healers. Top everyone off then just sit back and watch the fun. :P
Shade of Aran
Interrupt the Fireballs and Frostbolts. Watch for Flame Wreath (even if you don't hear us call it out, if you see little rings of fire, DO NOT MOVE). Hopping around when Aran is casting onto you will not make him stop. Especially if it's Flame Wreath. Wiping the raid because you don't want him to target you is a stupid reason. Please, pay attention. I found this to be a problem when we attempted him. It could've gone a hell of a lot smoother.
The Water Elementals are worthless. They're very ignorable. Honestly, I think I was tanking all four. P: However, they can be dispatched rather quickly (only around 30k or so health). Throwing a DPS or two onto each one can be alright. Make sure, however, that the DPS on the water elementals is not essential for interrupts. Hunters do well for this.
As a final note, as Kiri made the suggestion before: If you can get out of the Polymorph (if it comes to that), hitting him will not help the situation. Let everyone heal up from the effects of the Polymorph. If Aran is interrupted while he's drinking, he will use a potion and still cast AoE Pyroblast.
Terestian Illhoof
I don't care what you're doing, if someone gets sacrificed, your FIRST priority is to get them out of the chains. Not only do they quickly die while in them, Illhoof gets healed for every second they are sacrificed.
It is best to have a warlock for this fight for Seed of Corruption spamming. However, a mage with plenty of Fire Resist or even multiple shamans with Fire Elemental totems can handle the imps just fine. That's about all there is to really know about this fight. P:
Netherspite
This fight is hard for those that don't know how to pay attention. That's seriously the most difficult part about the entire fight: attentiveness. It's an otherwise easy fight.
Red Beam - In for 3 seconds, out for 3 seconds. COUNT IT. This is very important to both your and everyone else's survival.
Blue Beam - If you have under 10k health, don't stay in there for more than 25 stacks. If you have more than 10k health, only go up to 30 stacks. When you are switching who is in the beam, the next person up needs to go BEHIND the person currently in the beam. Directly behind. Then the prior person who was in the beam can move out. Letting this hit Netherspite will increase his damage done. We really don't need that.
Green Beam - This beam is often best kept to the warriors, rogues, and feral druids as they don't have to worry about the mana reduction effect. However, mana users -can- be in this beam if needed. Specifically, healers. The beam reduces spell cost and increases healing done by percentages. So, a healer can stand in the beam (after a certain amount of already lost mana) and not really be effected by the mana reduction. When the maximum mana is reaching their current mana, they can step out. More often than not, that should be right as the Portal phase ends. Also, when switching beam recipients like this, it should be done the same as the Blue beam.
Another common deal is to have a Searing Totem tank Netherspite while everyone else moves to the windows. This isn't a joke. EVERYONE moves. If the actual tank stands up there, he may very well die as the healers will have moved back. It's also possible for Netherspite to hit everyone with his Netherbreath attack if the tank is fighting him turned towards us at the windows.
Chess Event
Nothing much to say here. Just pay attention and don't suck. Srsly. :P This is a free loot event.
Prince Malchezaar
This fight can be tricky. Firstly, I noticed people dying to the Enfeeble + Shadow Nova combo Prince uses. If you see Enfeeble and you're in melee range or within 30 yards, move your a** back. You -will- die. That includes our rogues. I'd prefer if you use Cloak of Shadows on something useful than sitting there DPS'ing and having that 10% chance to not resist bite you in the a**.
Another thing to note about Enfeeble is that it's cast on 5 people. It will not cast, however, on the person with the highest threat. This may not be the tank. Remember above when I talked about threat threshold? Melee can get to 110% of a tank's threat and ranged can reach 130%. This is VERY important for this fight and others like it. If, say, a mage has 115% of a tank's threat, the tank can receive Enfeeble. Welcome to a wipe. It's VERY crucial that you watch your threat on this fight. Enfeeble stops casting in phase 3.
For us healers, try to lightly heal for phase 1. When phase 2 starts, you're going to be spam healing. It's very heavy damage. Phase 3, there's more AoE healing going on. Otherwise, it's all a fun fight to heal.
Nightbane
Stay away from his a**. Stay away from his mouth (unless you're the tank). Bunch up on the tank in the air phase. Don't stand in the scorched earth. Really, not hard. Another "attention" fight.
One trick I have found, however, is for a pally healer to heal with Righteous Fury active. Reason for this is for one of Nightbane's aerial abilities. It does physical damage, firstly, then places a Fire DoT. It is first cast on the healer with the highest threat. Thus, a RF healing pally is a great choice.
Another thing to note, don't think that you can run away from Nightbane. For our sakes, stay with the rest of the raid. If you get outside of 40 yards of NB, he will hit EVERYONE with a Fireball Barrage. It's spammed, too.
If we have a priest, it's best to keep Fear Ward on the main tank.
Mmm, that should be about it! I don't think too many will read this, honestly. But I enjoyed writing it. :3
