Warcaster
2005-09-29, 07:07 AM
Last night we took down the Bat Boss again. We had some new events, refined a few tactics, and had some assumptions re-inforced.
* Bat Rider Spawns: This was a new occurrence on our first attempt. At about 80% health a flight of bat riders spawned on us. Some DPS switched off the boss to handle the new threat. Due to the tanks and healers being concentrated on the boss the new arrivals tore through us pretty good. One tank was diverted to the bat riders but the DPS had already started and that tank never did quite get solid aggro. By the time they were eliminated we had a fair amount of DPS dead or out of mana. Wipe #1.
* Resetting: Absolutely happens when she crosses the invisible line between the two green "stalks" in the back. On our second attempt we had her on the ropes when some got agg and ran back across the line. She reset and we had to try again. A couple of deaths but no wipe.
* Infernals: On the third attempt the warlock who summoned the infernal went down. The suddenly free infernal promptly started tearing through our healers and other squishies. Wipe #2. Infernals are darn handy but if used they absolutely have to be taken down ASAP if control is broken.
* Boss healing: She's immune to magical methods of interruption such as silence and counter spell. However, physical interupts do work and absolutely have to be used. CT Raid Assist pops up a message when she starts to heal. Every effort needs to be made to interrupt her at that time.
* Positioning: Ideal location to fight her seems to be on the little grassy mound near the last tree in the back of the courtyard. We also positioned our ranged DPS in two groups on opposite side of the fight along an axis parallel to the "do not cross or she resets" line. Once she changed into caster form and summoned the bomber bats the DPS spread out. The keys here is to keeps moving out of the AE bombs if you are the one targetted.
* Healing / Bandaging: Each tank had 2 dedicated priests - a primary and a backup. The healers had dedicated healers. Yexia told me afterward that her healers saved her several times, which in turn allowed her to save her tank, which kept us from wiping. So the healers for the healers concepts absolutely works. The down side of this is the healers are spread pretty thin and not able to give the DPS their full attention. It falls on the DPS to be more aware of their health than we may be used to. Health potions, health stones, whipper root tubers, and bandages all come into play here. For casters bandaging is kind of a double good thing because you are regenning mana while you aren't casting.
* Tank Aggro: We keep covering this but it bears repeating. The tanks need to establish solid agg before we unload on the boss. Last night we had a couple of people jumping the gun and it made more work for the tanks. Part of the problem was the "give me a good 10 seconds" directive was being interpreted in different ways. Some people took it to mean 10 seconds after the tank first pulled. Others thought it meant 10 seconds after the boss was pulled into position and MT was beating on her. Rawz has a nice macro for when to start DPS and Sol started using one as well. I like it since there's no confusion.
Overall it was a really good run. Everyone made an effort to get there early and we actually started on time. A few decent greens, lots of coins, a bijou, and a couple of lock boxes dropped. A really nice caster ring (decent int and +dmg/healing) dropped off the boss as well. That went to Amarras, one of the priests. The Hakarri bindings also dropped and went to Thwak, the lone hunter in our little excursion.
* Bat Rider Spawns: This was a new occurrence on our first attempt. At about 80% health a flight of bat riders spawned on us. Some DPS switched off the boss to handle the new threat. Due to the tanks and healers being concentrated on the boss the new arrivals tore through us pretty good. One tank was diverted to the bat riders but the DPS had already started and that tank never did quite get solid aggro. By the time they were eliminated we had a fair amount of DPS dead or out of mana. Wipe #1.
* Resetting: Absolutely happens when she crosses the invisible line between the two green "stalks" in the back. On our second attempt we had her on the ropes when some got agg and ran back across the line. She reset and we had to try again. A couple of deaths but no wipe.
* Infernals: On the third attempt the warlock who summoned the infernal went down. The suddenly free infernal promptly started tearing through our healers and other squishies. Wipe #2. Infernals are darn handy but if used they absolutely have to be taken down ASAP if control is broken.
* Boss healing: She's immune to magical methods of interruption such as silence and counter spell. However, physical interupts do work and absolutely have to be used. CT Raid Assist pops up a message when she starts to heal. Every effort needs to be made to interrupt her at that time.
* Positioning: Ideal location to fight her seems to be on the little grassy mound near the last tree in the back of the courtyard. We also positioned our ranged DPS in two groups on opposite side of the fight along an axis parallel to the "do not cross or she resets" line. Once she changed into caster form and summoned the bomber bats the DPS spread out. The keys here is to keeps moving out of the AE bombs if you are the one targetted.
* Healing / Bandaging: Each tank had 2 dedicated priests - a primary and a backup. The healers had dedicated healers. Yexia told me afterward that her healers saved her several times, which in turn allowed her to save her tank, which kept us from wiping. So the healers for the healers concepts absolutely works. The down side of this is the healers are spread pretty thin and not able to give the DPS their full attention. It falls on the DPS to be more aware of their health than we may be used to. Health potions, health stones, whipper root tubers, and bandages all come into play here. For casters bandaging is kind of a double good thing because you are regenning mana while you aren't casting.
* Tank Aggro: We keep covering this but it bears repeating. The tanks need to establish solid agg before we unload on the boss. Last night we had a couple of people jumping the gun and it made more work for the tanks. Part of the problem was the "give me a good 10 seconds" directive was being interpreted in different ways. Some people took it to mean 10 seconds after the tank first pulled. Others thought it meant 10 seconds after the boss was pulled into position and MT was beating on her. Rawz has a nice macro for when to start DPS and Sol started using one as well. I like it since there's no confusion.
Overall it was a really good run. Everyone made an effort to get there early and we actually started on time. A few decent greens, lots of coins, a bijou, and a couple of lock boxes dropped. A really nice caster ring (decent int and +dmg/healing) dropped off the boss as well. That went to Amarras, one of the priests. The Hakarri bindings also dropped and went to Thwak, the lone hunter in our little excursion.