LK Observations/Comments

[Tsquared!]

Just putting a quick post on the observations/comments/notes for new people from Tuesday's LK raid. Anyone please add any constructive comments/strategies to this post.

I will only speak to the healing.

Just as a refresher...it is important to start shielding the entire raid about the 30sec mark - the first infest comes pretty quickly. In terms of priority, the tank group should require less shields as they will be picked up by other healers (so the main focus should be the 4 groups) and the infest will immediately be off them. Once the suggestion to spread out in phase 2 was called for...the healing was easy and could be an opportunity for some healers to regen mana (if required) and no infest will be present - so no mass shields. The shields take up alot of mana, so we decided on a strategy of the disc priest of first blowing shadow fiend in phase 1/2 (since it has a 5 min cool down) and I was throwing out an innervate on phase 3 (if required).

In terms of phase 3 (I will just speak to the healing - not the defile issues, etc.). We were having a problem with infest. It is important that we keep the shields up as the infest keeps coming through this phase. I think these missed shields were do to our placement. Initially, we are grouped up and were able to take advantage of AOE heals, etc to take care of infest...but once the first defile came out and we split apart...an infest will hit and we would be all over the place with people out of healer range. I think I will change my strategy for this phase and become less focused on the tanks and start to roll hots on the entire raid - so when we do split apart - we will have at least hots rolling (and hopefully a shield . This strat will put more pressure on the tank healers - so would like some feedback from the other healers as to if this is feasible...perhaps we should identify certain tank healers for that phase and see how it goes?

Of course when we get better with the expand (defile) and collapse (valk) phase we will have more AOE heals we can use to counter infest (and provide more tank heals), but thoughts on this healing strat would be welcomed....further observations/comments when we get through this phase...

[Camyu]

Only done this on Osana my disc priest in LK10, not LK25, but I do know that shielding the entire 25 people in a raid will cost me 25 x 666 mana = 16,650 mana. Each shield lasts 30 seconds. If all the shields pop at Infest at the same time, and not a single shield pops during any of the 12 seconds prior to Infest, I could get all my mana back via the Rapture talent. But that requires very precise timing, and the disc priest might not even get any mana back from Infest if even one shield pops too early (for example, the ones on the tanks). So I agree that if mana is an issue, less shield priority on the tanks, shield the raid first and then shield the tanks at 2 seconds before infest. Just a thought. I think blowing Shadowfiend early is important, just so that it can be used again later down the fight. I think the first Infest comes around 20-22 seconds after combat begins - I am going by this based on the first disc priest healing spike in the logs - and then every 20-22 seconds afterwards, so not exactly enough time to shield all 25 people - therefore, again, leaving the tanks out would be an idea.

I think the paladin healers and disc priests already know what they need to do, so it's a matter of figuring out how to make use of the remaining healers.

In terms of DPS, because of the diminishing returns of the stuns, by the 3rd pack of Val'kyrs, they were already non-stunnable. I think we need to better figure out who should do the initial stuns, and then we need SLOWS not necessarily stuns as we dps them down. In Camyu's LK fight spec, she has a talent that would automatically apply crippling poisons 100% of the time when my Instant poisons hit. I'm sure there are other folks with other slowing spells/talents that they can use liberally without a big sacrifice in dps.

[Logos]

There seems to be two different ways to handle the Valky'rs.

One is to position the raid closer to one side so the Valks will all go in one direction. We lose time (time it takes to get to the edge) but gain AOE attacks. Hunters can also setup successive frost traps so the Valks would be trapped all the way to the edge.

The other is to group in the middle. We gain time, but lose predictable pathing and possibly AOE attacks.

We were trying the first method the other night. Most of the boss fight videos I've seen do it the 2nd way. Next time around maybe we should give it a shot.

[kyo]

Another group I do some ICC with mentioned that the valks tend to grab whoever is the furthest out, and that some groups purposely have any warlocks stay out so they get grabbed. They can then use their gate/portal thing at the edge and just portal back up when they get dropped, so there is less valks to focus on getting down.

[Daewen]

Another group I do some ICC with mentioned that the valks tend to grab whoever is the furthest out, and that some groups purposely have any warlocks stay out so they get grabbed. They can then use their gate/portal thing at the edge and just portal back up when they get dropped, so there is less valks to focus on getting down.

You know, this is a more interesting experiment we should try. In combination with grouping up, have certain 'test subjects' placed for this. Based on the results, this might help make for completely predictable valks and pick who is carried.

[Akane]

Hmm, I just read in MMO-Champion that a Unglyphed Typhoon used during Val'kyr phase does a good job at stunning them, BUT they will not be knocked back. So, you think it is a good idea during Val'kyr phase to use Typhoon to stun them? I was mostly not using it because I was afraid of tanks ripping me alive as the val'kyrs got knocked back.

Also, glyphed Starfall apparently does a good job at killing Vile Spirits during that phase of the fight as well. But obviously not good for Phase 1 with the big guys and ghouls.

Thoughts?