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Madness of Deathwing — 10 man heroic

Posted by on May 6, 2012 No comments

Disclaimer: This is the heroic version of the fight, and I will only be going into changes and the strategy specific to heroic mode.  For a full list of abilities and general strategies, please check out the normal mode guide.

Introduction: Wrapping up this tier is everyone’s favorite tentacle dragon, Deathwing.  While certainly more interesting than Spine, this fight is still quite repetitive in nature and all comes down to the last few minutes of the encounter.  Deathwing will try his hardest to get that final money shot on your raid, but if you have managed to get this far, you should be able to make fairly quick work of the encounter.

Difficulty: 4.5/5: Personally I found this encounter slightly less taxing than Spine.  The first three platforms are pushovers, but Kale’s platform and the head phase will take some fine tuning to get down for the first time.

Comp and Stats:

Tanks: 1-2 (We used 1)
Healers: 3
DPS: 5-6 (We use 6)
Deathwing (Head): 29M
Arm/Wing Tentacle: 38.1M
Mutated Corruption: 17.1M
Elementium Bolt: 950k
Corrupting Parasite: 3M
Blistering Tentacle: 236k
Regenerative Blood: 1.26M
Elementium Terror: 3.2M
Elementium Fragment: 1.6M
Congealing Blood: 944k
Enrage: 15 minutes

Note: Due to the ever increasing nerfs in Dragon Soul these HP values will decrease.  Please take the value of the aspects buff currently applied to get the latest info.

Heroic Changes:

  • Lots more health and damage!
    • Impale — Deals slightly more than double the damage from normal mode.
    • Shrapnel — Deals double damage from normal mode (use that Dream!).
    • Tetanus — Deals about an extra 20% more damage than normal mode.
    • Crush — Deals about 30% more damage.
    • Elementium Blast — Deals more damage, but still has the same reduction based on range and time until second tick.
    • Degenerative Bite — Deals slightly more damage per stack.
    • Blistering Heat — Deals slightly more damage per stack.
  • Corrupting Parasite
    • Who is affected: Random non-tank raider
    • Timing: This will occur in Phase One (all four initial platforms), twice per platform. The first will be timed around when the Mutated Corruption spawns.  The second will occur 60 seconds later.
    • Debuff Phase: The debuff will place a DoT dealing increasing Shadow Damage for 10 seconds for a total of about 240k damage.
    • Add Phase: An add with the same name as the debuff will spawn after 10 seconds and will explode once on spawn killing anyone within 10 yards of it, except the person who was infected by it.  After spawning it will begin channeling a spell for 10 seconds called Unstable Corruption.  This can only be prevented by killing it.  If allowed to go off it will hit all raiders for 10% of the Parasite’s remaining health in fire damage.
    • Tips: Place the parasite in the Time Warp provided by Nozdormu to slow its cast.  If Alexstraza is up, she will also burn down some of its life with her Cauterize ability.
  • Congealing Bloods
    • Who is affected: New DPS target needing immediate snares and DPS.  No tank aggro needed.  Adds do not attack.
    • Timing: Phase Two (Deathwing’s Head) occurring when Deathwing’s life reaches 15%, 10%, and 5%.
    • What They Do: Charge towards Deathwing, healing him for 1% for each one that reaches him.
    • Tips: Nine of these will spawn at once from one of four random points of the platform.  They move quite quickly, but can be snared (not stunned or rooted).  Fan of Knives with Crippling Poison works wonders here since it is 70%.  Regardless of what you choose to use, everyone needs to be aware of when they spawn, snares need to be out immediately, and DPS need to AoE them quickly.

Setup:

Platform Order: Ysera -> Alexstraza -> Nozdormu -> Kalecgos

Initial Pull: Have three DPS with the least ramp up time to start on Kalecgos with the rest of the raid on Ysera.  This will help get an extra 10% or so on Kale’s platform where your Cataclysm timer might be somewhat close.  They should be moving back to Ysera a couple seconds before the Mutated Corruption spawns.

Raid Markers: It helps to put raid markers down on Ysera’s platform to easily call positioning for Bloods in Phase Two (see screenshot).

One vs. Two Tanks: With proper cooldowns and raid makeup it is simple enough to solo tank this.  Currently we are using a Paladin tank who will soak the 1st impales on most all platforms, a shadow priest to dispersion the second impales on all platforms, and a rogue to Vanish the first impale on Nozdormu’s platform.

Ysera’s Platform:

Begin the fight by splitting up the raid as mentioned above.  Once the mutated corruption spawns all raiders should be on Ysera’s platform with the first Corrupting Parasite having gone out.

Once the mutated corruption spawns all DPS should be on it.  This is handled just like in normal mode.  Remember: Spread the fuck out!  If you have 2-3+ people getting hit by Crush, you should be yelling at people.

Corrupting Parasite target should move towards where the Time Zone placed by Nozdormu will spawn, while other raiders moving 10 yards away from the infected player.  The infected player should use their Dream during the DoT phase of the Parasite.

Once the parasite explodes, all ranged DPS should burn it down quickly.  Switch back to the corruption when done.

At this point the 1st impale will have gone off, cooldowns should be applied as needed to survive.  This will vary by tank and raid makeup, so take the time to figure it out before hand.

The Elementium Bolt will begin to cast at which point the second Impale will be coming soon.  When Impale reaches 6 or so seconds left before cast all melee including the tank needs to leave melee range and the Shadow Priest or designated soaker needs to move into melee.  The raid still needs to stay spread for Crush and also kill the Elementium bolt.  NOBODY should run back into melee range until the Impale has been cast on the soaker, at which point it is safe to run back in.

At this point the second Parasite will be out, it should be moved into the Time Zone.  Regenerative Bloods will also be spawning and should be picked up by the tank (or Misdirected).  All DPS should finish off the Mutated Corruption at this point.

The leader should be watching the energy of the Regenerative Bloods as well as the timing of the Parasite explosion.  No one should move into the Time Zone until the parasite explodes.  Once it explodes move the bloods into it and begin AoE’ing them down once they are at 0 energy to make sure you get maximum effectiveness of Kale’s buff.  No one should touch the Bloods until it is called for.

When the bloods die it is likely the parasite will be dead or close to it, finish it off quickly then kill the arm/wing tentacle just like in normal mode.

Alexstraza’s Platform:

The loss of Ysera’s healing buff and Dream will not change any aspect of what you just did on her platform.  Simply repeat the above process again keeping in mind melee should be out on the second impale, people should be spread, and DPS on bloods should begin at 0 or low energy as called.

Nozdormu’s Platform:

Much like in Normal mode the loss of Alexstraza’s buff means DPS will need to watch the initial burn of the arm/wing tentacle to make sure it does not reach 70% before corruption/bloods/parasite die.

Our tank did not have appropriate cooldowns ready for the first impale so we had melee move out on the first and second impale.

We used a rogue to stay in melee range with Evasion up and Vanish the impale.  If you are unfortunate enough to have him infected with the parasite, have the rogue use Cloak of Shadows to remove the debuff when timely, spawning the parasite next to the Corruption.

Repeat the same procedure for everything else, remembering that DPS needs to kill Blistering Tentacles now at 70% and 40% of the Arm/Wing Tentacle’s life.

Kalecgos’s Platform:

Let the fun finally begin!  This platform will begin the same having everyone on the Arm/Wing Tentacle.  Handling the parasite will require some more oomph from the DPS however as the Time Zone will no longer spawn.

We chose to place the Parasite to the left of the Corruption allowing for some melee to switch to it quickly (see screenshot below).  Once the first Parasite spawns we use Heroism to burn it down quickly and push the Corruption down fast as well so we can be prepared for the upcoming push.

Once the Elementium Bolt cast timer gets to about 3 seconds people should be reminded and start moving towards the Arm/Wing tentacle.  Everyone except the Shadow Priest will stack up for the bolt, and the priest will have to perfectly time their Dispersion to mitigate the Impale followed shortly after by the Elementium Bolt Explosion.

Once the bolt lands everyone kills the bolt quickly remembering to stay spread out for Crush.  The second parasite will go out.  DPS should be finishing off the Corruption, and once the Corruption dies all the bloods should be piled over by the parasite add and AoE should commence.  If done right the timing will work out so that the Bloods will be at 0 or low energy.

Once all that is done, it is simply beat the Cataclysm timer, remembering to switch onto the Blistering Tentacles as they spawn.

Phase Two: Give Me Some Head!

Phase Two is all about self-control and awareness.  Your raid leader should be well aware of your time left on Berserk and adjust risk taking as necessary.

Begin by having everyone stack up and killing Deathwing.  The goal is to quickly get Deathwing to about 17% as the first round of adds spawn.

As soon as the Fragments spawn DPS should be on them, prioritizing any that are close together to take advantage of Spellweave.  Shrapnel will hit like a truck even with Dream so make sure folks are topped.

As the Shrapnels die, the Terrors will spawn.  A mark should go on one, and massive heals and CDs placed on the tank in order to survive Tetanus.  You can also have a DPS taunt one away temporarily to have the tank taunt back before they go to the DPS just to lessen their uptime.  These adds need to die fast.

As they die DoT’s should have brought Deathwing down to 15%, so you will have your first round of Congealing Bloods.  Make sure the whole raid is aware of their spawn location and that snares and DPS switching are immediate.

Once Bloods die, resume on Deathwing getting him to 7%, dealing with Bloods again as they spawn at 10%.  The second round of adds will spawn, the same idea goes for the adds, kill them quickly being extra liberal with heals and CDs on the tanks as Terrors come out.  If you get through this wave of adds you are essentially home free.

Once the adds are dead stack back up and kill Deathwing, remembering to still kill Bloods as they spawn at 5%.

Congratulations on completing Dragon Soul on Heroic difficulty!

Videos:

Madness of Deathwing – 10 man normal

Posted by on December 19, 2011 3 comments

Introduction: Madness of Deathwing will test your raid’s longevity and ability to survive through abilities like falling through the world, cataclysmic disconnects, and oh yea a boss fight.

Difficulty: 4/5: Easily the hardest of all the normal mode fights, the sheer length of this fight can be the biggest issue.  There are multiple ways to approach this fight depending on your raid comp as well which makes it more personal than other boss fights.  Once you have your platforms figured out and your rhythm the boss will not prove much challenge.

Comp and Stats:

Deathwing: 20M
Arm/Wing Tentacles: 28M
Mutated Corruption: 11M
Elementium Bolt: 840k
Blistering Tentacle: 249k
Regenerative Blood: 664k
Elementium Terror: 2.5M
Elementium Fragment: 830k
Tanks: 1-2 (We used 1 Tank in the strat outlined below, but you really need a pally tank and holy priest to make 1 tank work).
Healers: 3
DPS: 5-6
Enrage: There is an enrage per platform.  Once Deathwing starts casting Cataclysm which will destroy the world and your raid.  Once this cast begins you will have one minute to finish the platform by killing his wing/arm tentacle.  Deathwing will also hard enrage after 15 minutes.

Aspect Buffs:

  • Thrall: Carrying Winds allows traveling between platforms and grants a 60% movement speed buff after changing platform.  This stacks twice.
  • Alexstraza: Alexstrasza’s Presence increases all max HP by 20%.  She will also use Cauterize destroying all Blistering Tentacles in phase one, and lower the damage done by Corrupted Blood in phase two.
  • Ysera: Ysera’s Presence increases all healing done by 20%.  Dream will become available to all raid members and puts another new button on your UI.  This works identically as Ultraxion so your previous Extra Action Button key binding will work.  You can use Dream every 30 seconds and it will reduce all damage done to the player by 50% for 5 seconds.
  • Nozdormu: Nozdormu’s Presence increases the raid’s haste by 20%.  Nozdormu will also place a Time Zone on the ground (swirly yellow bubble).  This will slow the attack speed of any enemies in it by 50%.  It will also slow the Elementium Bolt giving your raid a chance to kill it before it lands.
  • Kalecgos: Kalecgos’ Presence increases the raid’s damage by 20%.  Kalecgos also grants your raid Spellweaver.  This causes all attacks to deal 23,000 arcane damage to enemies within 6 yards.

Phase 1: Deathwing and Adds:

  • Deathwing is not attackable in phase one, but will use the following abilities:
    • Assault Aspects: This just targets the platform that the most raid members are on.  This is your “selection.”
    • Elementium Bolt is a projectile shard that shoots from the maelstrom towards the platform.  It will be used 45 seconds after Assault Aspects.  Once it lands it will deal massive amounts of fire damage.  This can be decreased by standing far away from where it lands (indicated by a faint void zone on the ground).  Once it lands it will continue to pulse damage until killed, kill it quickly.
    • Cataclysm: Deathwing will use this spell 2 minutes after Assault Aspects.  It takes 60 seconds to cast after which it will immediately kill your raid.  The way to stop it is to kill the arm/wing tentacle.
  • Arm/Wing Tentacles: Limbs of Deathwing, they do not attack directly or need to be tanked.  Once killed you will have cleared the platform and can move onto another.  Once all four have been killed phase two begins.
    • Blistering Tentacles: These small adds will spawn at 70% and 40% and will need to be single targeted, AoE has no effect on them.  You can use cleave to continue DPS on the arm/wing tentacle however.  These little adds will be instantly killed if you have Alexstraza up.  These adds will stack Blistering Heat on all raid members until killed.
    • Regenerative Blood: These adds will spawn 90 seconds into a platform.  More detail on these is below.
    • Burning Blood: Will deal damage to the raid every 2 seconds.  This will increase the closer to death the limb tentacle is.
  • Regenerative Blood: Six of these adds will spawn 90 seconds into a platform and have aggro tables and need to be picked up.
    • Degenerative Bite: These attacks will stack on the tank.  This will quickly overwhelm healers, meaning bloods need to die quickly.
    • Energy Bar: Each add has an energy bar that if it reaches 100% it will completely heal the blood.
    • AoE vs. Single Target: You can safely AoE and quickly kill these with Kalecgos up.  If Kalecgos is not up, make sure to mark which add to focus.
  • Mutated Corruption: This tentacle will spawn 10 seconds into a platform and will need to be picked up by a tank immediately (be over where it spawns!).
    • Impale: Deals a fuck ton of damage (400,000) to the tank.  A strict CD strategy is needed here in order to survive.  Ideally if your DPS is good you should only ever have 2 Impales per platform.  Dream can also be used to lessen the damage by 50% if Ysera is up.
    • Crush: This highly damaging (100,000) attack is an AoE attack.  It will target a random raid member and smash down on the ground.  Anyone in a line between it and its target will also be damaged.  Therefore it is imperative to spread out and not be directly in front or behind anyone.

Phase one strategy and rhythm:

The goal of phase one is to kill all the arm/wing tentacles bringing Deathwing’s head crashing down starting the final phase.  We used the following platform order and setup:

Alexstraza->Ysera->Nozdormu->Kalecgos

1 Tank, 3 Healers, 6 DPS

Here is the rhythm we use when dealing with this order:

All buffs:

Do as much damage to arm/wing tentacle and after 10 seconds switch to Mutated Corruption tentacle.  Healers deal with impale by communicating with the tank for CDs.  When Elementium Bolt comes up all DPS switch and kill it before it lands.  Switch back to Mutated Corruption if needed and finish it.

Switch back to the arm/wing tentacle and blow it up.  When Regenerative Bloods spawn, switch DPS to them and kill them all quickly.  Finish off the arm/wing tentacle.

Loss of Alexstraza:

Care will need to be taken not to push the arm/wing tentacle to 70% health or it will spawn its Blistering Tentacles and will likely wipe the raid.  Repeat the same rhythm until the Mutated Corruption tentacle dies.  If you have around 20 or more seconds until Regenerative Bloods and the arm/wing tentacle is close to 70%, push it under 70% and kill the Blistering Tentacles.  After these die kill Corrupted Bloods making sure to pull them into the time zone, then finish the arm/wing.

Loss of Ysera:

Same as Loss of Alexstraza except healers need to be aware of the healing buff being gone and tanks will no longer have Dream to fall back on for Impale.

Loss of Nozdormu:

Same as before except when dealing with Elementium Bolt.  Mark a raider to stack on (close by the arm/wing tentacle) but careful not to range the tank over by the Mutated Corruption.  Defensive Cooldowns both raid and personal are a must here for all players.  Once it lands players must immediately kill the Elementium Bolt as it will pulse more damage until dead.  Care should be taken by melee on the bolt to still spread out for the Mutated Corruption’s Stomp which will likely kill people if they have not been healed up from the Bolt damage.  This is a very dicey portion of the fight and heals really need to be on top of things here.  Once Regenerative Bloods spawn they will also do more damage as there is no time zone.

Phase Two:

This is a burn phase, but there are still things everyone needs to execute in order to make it through.  Once the final arm/wing dies Deathwing’s head will land on Ysera’s platform and become targetable.  Deathwing starts at 20% health.  In addition, all aspect’s buffs have returned.

  • Start by having the entire raid stack by Deathwing and do as much damage (do not use heroism/lust yet) as possible.
  • Corrupted Blood: Will pulse throughout the fight and do more damage as Deathwing reaches 15%, 10%, and 5%.
  • Adds
    • Elementium Fragments will spawn every 90 seconds, but initially will spawn quickly after Deathwing lands.  Three of these little tentacles will spawn and must be killed immediately.
      • Shrapnel: Will be used by these adds and target a random raider.  This means if all 3 are up, 3 raiders will be targeted.  Players targeted will receive a debuff that when it expires will deal about 200,000 physical damage.  Players must use Dream if targeted by this to survive.
    • Elementium Terrors: Need to be picked up and tanked in the Time Zone.  These need to be DPSed down quickly as well before their Tetanus kills the tank.  Tank CDs and Healer CDs should be used to keep the tank alive.
  • Once the adds are dead, blow Heroism/Lust (ideally around 10%) along with 2nd combat pot and kill Deathwing.  If the tentacles spawn again, stay on the head and make sure people use Dream in conjunction with Shrapnel.  If you feel that the Terrors will spawn before he dies, you can try to make a second pass at the adds, but it will likely wipe you.  At best have the tank pick them up and blow what he can to survive in the Time Zone.

Video: