Rowendelga
2007-08-01, 09:58 PM
Howdy. This is Rowendelga, from SS. So, I hear you are trying to put a little wang into the big gronn... Gratz. While I don't know about the whole HKM fight, I do know it very well from both a mage tank perspective and a caster dps standpoint. I can also pick brain on anyone in my guild, and ask them to post here as well if you would like more perspective from different views.
Ok, I understand Warcaster is your magetank. First, I want to know, is there a backup, in case he has school, work, or a police lineup? If so I can keep my eye out for stamcloth for them, as well. Anyways, tanking Krosh requires just 1 good mage, and 1 good healer. When I am tanking him, I grab a Flask of Fortification, 500hp is better than 30 stam, and the extra damage and int from the unstable flask of the ***** are really not needed. Also, make, get from a guildie, or buy Spicy Crawdad. It is the highest stam food in game. I have been told food buffs stack with drink buffs, have not tried it yet, so I do not know, but worth looking into, imo.
Ok, that Fireball being tossed your way hits for 9-10k without the shield. You WILL be hit for full hits, right as the shield goes down, before he casts the next. WC needs to be fully healed at all times. I would recommend 10500 hp at the very minimum, I do it with 11583, our other mage tank does it with 13ksomething... insane.
Talents... You HAVE TO have 5/5 Arcane focus, as well as 75 or more hit rating. ??+ boss mobs have an innate 17% resist for us, and 1% of that is completely unavoidable, due to game mechanics. 5/5 Arcane Focus gives 10% to hit to arcane spells, which is Spellsteal. Speallsteal resists more than once, you are probably going to die. Period. I sacrifice a bit of stam to stay at 16% total hit rating for arcane, and I have had 1 resist out of ?? times doing it. A lot...
Buffs... As the mage tank, you do not want Salvation, Kings is absolutely neccesary, Wisdom is bonus cheese. MoW, Fort, Spirit, food/drink buffs, flask, and if you have 3+ 'locks in the raid, a parked imp are all needed. If only 2 locks, they are needed for the doggies... No imp for you! Self buffs, I recommend Mage armor, not because you can resist even a little bit of his pain, but because it keeps mana regen up.
Talents again! Ok, repeated Spellsteal is very mana consuming, and you have to keep casting Scorch/Fireball/Frostbolt the entire time, so your healer doesn't grab aggro... Not likely, but you don't even want to risk it. As for talents, it is very handy to go 40 points into Arcane, get the extra int, clearcasting, mana regen, and extra damage from a percentage of int...
I personally use scorch, it is more mana efficient, faster, and I just like it. I use max rank for the first 5-6 shots, and then maxrank - rank6 - max - 6 - max... You get the idea... Mages are aggro whores, shouldn't be too much trouble, but if you let your healer die, you die, then that bastard Krosh kills the entire raid.Hellooooooo repairs!
Ok, on the pull... We use 2+ hunters to MD to the other tanks, and do a countdown on vent. on 0, I start casting Fireball, and the hunters are aware it is a 3 second cast. I follow it up with a POM Fireball, just in case it is resisted. Immediately spellsteal and continue until you 1) have a bubble not of your own doing on you and 2) do not see a bubble on Krosh. Right before the countdown, I toss on Fire Ward, it is mana cheap, and absorbs some of the initial blow, just in case your first 1-2 Spellsteals are resisted. Bad juju anyways, but better safe than wiped. I would not recommend Mana Shield, because you will see very quickly how fast your mana will go if you waste it.
Prep... Have your top 3 mana gems ready for action, and plenty of mana pots to drink. You will need them. After Krosh dies, you will have time to evocate, and won't need much for the last bit of fight... Once the 4 are down, Maulgar will be your bitch.
Now, this much I know about the entire fight... Priest goes down first, get an interrupt sequence ready, between rogue kick, mage counterspell, and earth shock, and make damn sure he doesn't heal. Burn him, he hits like a gurl, just don't pull aggro, because gurl hits on cloth hurt bad still. Second is the warlock, he is also fairly easy to take down... He needs to be tanked by a tank and 2 of his puppies. Aggro shouldn't be too bad there, you have left him alone for a while to kill the priest. Next, we do melee on the shaman, and ranged on Krosh, both usually die about the same time. As they die, move all dps to Maulgar, and do the taunt sharing for the 2 main tanks, so the fears at 50% and below are covered. No one wants to be ahead of either tank at that point.
Whoop, T4 Shoulders!!! and other sweet drops! And screenshots, and... Oh, ressing... People are gonna die, please be kind, let them share loot too! ;-)
So, that is it from me, I am a bit scatterbrained... Sorry. If you have any questions, any other perspectives, whatnot, either reply to this or whisper me in game, again, I am Rowendelga, I might be on Staborama. Good luck.
Ok, I understand Warcaster is your magetank. First, I want to know, is there a backup, in case he has school, work, or a police lineup? If so I can keep my eye out for stamcloth for them, as well. Anyways, tanking Krosh requires just 1 good mage, and 1 good healer. When I am tanking him, I grab a Flask of Fortification, 500hp is better than 30 stam, and the extra damage and int from the unstable flask of the ***** are really not needed. Also, make, get from a guildie, or buy Spicy Crawdad. It is the highest stam food in game. I have been told food buffs stack with drink buffs, have not tried it yet, so I do not know, but worth looking into, imo.
Ok, that Fireball being tossed your way hits for 9-10k without the shield. You WILL be hit for full hits, right as the shield goes down, before he casts the next. WC needs to be fully healed at all times. I would recommend 10500 hp at the very minimum, I do it with 11583, our other mage tank does it with 13ksomething... insane.
Talents... You HAVE TO have 5/5 Arcane focus, as well as 75 or more hit rating. ??+ boss mobs have an innate 17% resist for us, and 1% of that is completely unavoidable, due to game mechanics. 5/5 Arcane Focus gives 10% to hit to arcane spells, which is Spellsteal. Speallsteal resists more than once, you are probably going to die. Period. I sacrifice a bit of stam to stay at 16% total hit rating for arcane, and I have had 1 resist out of ?? times doing it. A lot...
Buffs... As the mage tank, you do not want Salvation, Kings is absolutely neccesary, Wisdom is bonus cheese. MoW, Fort, Spirit, food/drink buffs, flask, and if you have 3+ 'locks in the raid, a parked imp are all needed. If only 2 locks, they are needed for the doggies... No imp for you! Self buffs, I recommend Mage armor, not because you can resist even a little bit of his pain, but because it keeps mana regen up.
Talents again! Ok, repeated Spellsteal is very mana consuming, and you have to keep casting Scorch/Fireball/Frostbolt the entire time, so your healer doesn't grab aggro... Not likely, but you don't even want to risk it. As for talents, it is very handy to go 40 points into Arcane, get the extra int, clearcasting, mana regen, and extra damage from a percentage of int...
I personally use scorch, it is more mana efficient, faster, and I just like it. I use max rank for the first 5-6 shots, and then maxrank - rank6 - max - 6 - max... You get the idea... Mages are aggro whores, shouldn't be too much trouble, but if you let your healer die, you die, then that bastard Krosh kills the entire raid.Hellooooooo repairs!
Ok, on the pull... We use 2+ hunters to MD to the other tanks, and do a countdown on vent. on 0, I start casting Fireball, and the hunters are aware it is a 3 second cast. I follow it up with a POM Fireball, just in case it is resisted. Immediately spellsteal and continue until you 1) have a bubble not of your own doing on you and 2) do not see a bubble on Krosh. Right before the countdown, I toss on Fire Ward, it is mana cheap, and absorbs some of the initial blow, just in case your first 1-2 Spellsteals are resisted. Bad juju anyways, but better safe than wiped. I would not recommend Mana Shield, because you will see very quickly how fast your mana will go if you waste it.
Prep... Have your top 3 mana gems ready for action, and plenty of mana pots to drink. You will need them. After Krosh dies, you will have time to evocate, and won't need much for the last bit of fight... Once the 4 are down, Maulgar will be your bitch.
Now, this much I know about the entire fight... Priest goes down first, get an interrupt sequence ready, between rogue kick, mage counterspell, and earth shock, and make damn sure he doesn't heal. Burn him, he hits like a gurl, just don't pull aggro, because gurl hits on cloth hurt bad still. Second is the warlock, he is also fairly easy to take down... He needs to be tanked by a tank and 2 of his puppies. Aggro shouldn't be too bad there, you have left him alone for a while to kill the priest. Next, we do melee on the shaman, and ranged on Krosh, both usually die about the same time. As they die, move all dps to Maulgar, and do the taunt sharing for the 2 main tanks, so the fears at 50% and below are covered. No one wants to be ahead of either tank at that point.
Whoop, T4 Shoulders!!! and other sweet drops! And screenshots, and... Oh, ressing... People are gonna die, please be kind, let them share loot too! ;-)
So, that is it from me, I am a bit scatterbrained... Sorry. If you have any questions, any other perspectives, whatnot, either reply to this or whisper me in game, again, I am Rowendelga, I might be on Staborama. Good luck.