Aggramar Nutshell Guide
#1
Aggramar is a three-phase encounter, punctuated by two intermissions.  There are several mechanics that become enhanced over the course of the right.

PHASE ONE:  Wrath of Aggramar:  100 to 80% health


Aggramar's passive aura / anti-tank attack (Taeshalach's Reach):  All of Aggramar's melee attacks ALSO strike the next closest target (within a close radius) in addition to his current target.  If no secondary target can be found the current target is struck twice.  Each melee attack applies a stacking debuff to the PRIMARY target that increases damage taken.

--> Tank the boss facing away from the entrance, with both tanks standing on top of each other.  Should the tanks need to move, they need to coordinate to stay close together, to keep from getting a melee DPS killed by Taeshalach's Reach.

Scorching Blaze:  Pulsing AoE applied to several random targets, damages everyone within 4 yards.

Wake of Flame:  spawns 5 points of flame at Aggramar's feet, which shoot outwards in a cone after a small delay. Getting hit does a lot of damage + a DoT. There are spaces between each cone.

--> When the wake spawns, note the spawn point and figure out the path of the individual wakes, and get to a safe spot.  They can be side-stepped at point-blank range, or squeeze between them at long range.  Mid-range is the hardest distance at which to avoid to wakes.

Taeshalach Technique:  each time Aggramar reaches 100 energy, he will unleash Taeshalach Technique, which has three parts:

(1) Foe Breaker is a massive cone attack + increases damage of successive Foe Breakers by 5x.  

(2) Flame Rend is a massive cone attack that is split evenly between all targets hit + does a knockback.  If too few targets are hit Aggramar gains a stack of Burning Rage which is a permanent stacking self-buff.

(3) Searing Tempest:  forms a large 25 m radius circle with Aggramar at the center.  Any players caught in this circle when the cast ends take heavy damage and are disoriented for 5 sec.

--> This ability is the focal point of the raid's positioning and movement.  During the Foe Breaker portion, face the boss away from the group by the tanks (he should be facing away anyway).  Make sure only ONE of the tanks eats the damage from Foe Breaker.  During the Flame Rend portion, Aggramar must be faced TOWARD the raid.  Players should make sure they are all within the frontal cone of Flame Rend.  Stay away from the edge of the platform to avoid getting knocked off.  For Searing Tempest, the raid should vacate the large circle before it detonates.

So, to sum up:  tanks keep the boss facing AWAY for Foe Breaker, then spin him around to face TOWARD the raid for Flame Rend, then the whole raid needs to get out of the circle of Searing Tempest.  Away, Toward, then Run Out.

INTERMISSION ONE:  Fires of Taeshalach

Starts at 80% health and ends when the adds are killed.

Aggramar is shielded during the intermission (by Corrupt Aegis) so we can't attack him.  Touching the shield does damage and a knockback.

He casts Meteor Storm periodically, inflicting moderate damage at a player's location and to anyone in the area.

He spawns two adds, called Flames of Taeshalach, during every intermission.  They spawn near the center of the platform, one on either side of the boss.  There will also be smaller adds, called Embers of Taeshalach.  These little adds spawn at the edges of the platform and move slowly toward the center, toward to boss.  The little adds have an energy bar, and when it reaches 100 energy (this takes 180 seconds) they will explode (Blazing Eruption) which does raid-wide damage and applies a stacking DoT.

The big adds, Flames of Taeshalach, have a 15-yard aura (Catalyzing Presence) which buffs the little adds (Embers), increasing their movement speed and damage, and making them immune to CC.

The big adds do Unchecked Flame, which inflicts increasing raid-wide damage.

--> Each tank should pick up one of the Flames of Taeshalach.  One should be targeted as the priority kill and eliminated immediately.  The little adds (Embers) should be slowed, snared or CCd while the first Flame is killed.  Those that aren't CC'd can be DoTTed up.

PHASE TWO:  Champion of Sargeras: From 80 to 40% health

Once both Flames of Taeshalach are dead, Aggramar re-enters the fight.  He continues to have Taeshalach Technique (big multi-part attack), his anti-tank attack, and his Scorching Blaze and function just like Phase One.  No more wakes in this phase though.  He also gains a new ability:  Flare.

Flare:  Aggramar marks 3 locations with Flare, each with a 12-yard radius.  After 4 seconds, each of these locations explodes, damaging anyone caught inside.

--> Same positioning as in Phase One.  The main difference is the Flare mechanic. We can one of two techniques for the flares:

(a) The "spread and stack" method: spread out before each Flare cast, which spreads out the Flares and lessens the chance that multiple people will be hit.  Then we need to group back up for the upcoming Flame Rends (the cone attack we need to share).  This technique requires a lot of raid movement.  It reduces risk but also efficiency.

(b) The "stack and sidestep" method:  Stay in normal positions and sidestep the Flares when they appear.  This requires less overall movement, and so is more efficient, but it does increase the chance of lots of people getting hit at once.

INTERMISSION TWO:  Taeshalach's Rage

This starts when Aggramar reaches 40%, and ends when both Flames of Taeshalach have been killed (Same as the last intermission).

This intermission is the same as the first one, but this time we'll get the Wake of Flame, which are the cone attacks with spaces between them for us to stand.

--> Same as Intermission One, but with Wakes.  Same strategy.  Just make sure not to get hit by Wakes as raid damage is really high and getting higher.

PHASE THREE:  The Avenger:  40% to the end

He continues to have his big attack, the anti-tank attack, and Scorching Blaze, but he now gains a new ability:  Empowered Flare.

Empowered Flare:  same as Flare from Phase Two (marks 3 locations with a 12 yard radius, which explode after 4 seconds).  But in Phase Three the flares are empowered, which means that several Wakes of Flame (the cone attacks) will ALSO spawn and radiate outwards when the flares explode.  The wakes function the same as in other phases, but the source is now the flare instead of Aggramar.

-->  Same as Phase Two (and we can use either Flare technique).  But make sure to get at least 15-30 yards from the empowered flares or sidestep them entirely, because each one will spawn a Wake of Flame when it detonates.  This is the only new mechanic but it does make the fight very hectic.  Use plenty of movement speed, personal cooldowns, and healing cooldowns.

Bloodlust:  either in Phase Three or the Second Intermission.
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#2
Just a quick note on what we learned last time:

1. The Taeshalach Technique attack (the multi-part combo attack) is actually a sequence of FIVE actions:  Foe Breaker, Flame Rend, Foe Breaker, Flame Rend, Searing Tempest.  In practice this means:  face boss away, then toward the raid, then away, then toward, then everyone run out of the circle.

The pattern is:  Away --> Toward --> Away --> Toward --> Run out of circle

2. During the intermission, if the little adds reach the middle circle they explode for a LOT of damage.  We cannot allow them to reach the middle.

The little adds must be CC'd, slowed, snared, and killed.

3.  The big adds do progressively more raid-wide damage over the course of the intermission.  Plus, they have an aura that speeds up the little adds and makes them immune to CC when they get close the big adds (which is near the middle circle).

We have two possibilities here:

(1) Little guys first:  Start by killing all the little adds, then do the big adds.  This increases the odds that no little adds will reach the middle and explode, BUT it means that the big adds up for a long time...  which means that raid-wide damage may become very intense at the end of the intermission.

(2) Kill one big add first, while snaring and CC'ing and slowing as many little ones as we can.  Once the first big add is down we kill all the little adds, then finish off the second big add at the end.  This would reduce the raid-wide damage at the end of the intermission, but it would increase the chance that some of the little adds get through and explode.
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#3
The main difference on heroic Aggramar is that the little adds in the intermission don’t die when you kill them.  They form an 18 second void zone instead, then reform and continue to move toward the boss.  The only way to kill them for real is to let them reach the boss and detonate.  However, each detonation puts a 15 second debuff on the raid that increases damage from subsequent explorions.

—> We need to allow the little adds to reach the boss in a staggered fashion, 15 seconds apart from each other.

We also need to kill the large adds promptly as they do increasing raid-wide damage.

So we will CC the little adds, but allow one to reach the boss. Then we’ll kill the two large adds, allowing one or two more little adds to hit the boss during this time.  When the big adds are dead, we go back to the boss phase, but the remaining little adds will persist.  They will need to be CC’d and allowed to reach the boss every 15 sec through the next phase.
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#4
Note:  there will be SIX Embers -- the little fire adds -- in each intermission.

Recommended strategy:  Set up hard CC on five of the six adds.  If CC breaks on one of the five, use a slow or a knockback.  Grip the sixth add directly into the boss, and use a healing cooldown to cover some of the damage.

While the other five remain CC'd, kill off the two big flame adds.  They do increasing raid-wide damage so they need to die quickly.

(Make sure the large adds stay away from the little adds, as the large adds have an aura that buffs the speed and damage of the little adds).

Once both flame adds are down, phase 2 will begin.  Keep them CC'd, then grip them into the boss one by one.  Make sure the raid is healthy before each grip.  Wait out the 20-second DoT before gripping a new add in.

After 3 minutes the little adds will explode.  So they need to be dealt with in a staggered fashion before the 3 minute mark, though we can potentially allow one to explode on its own at the end.

Note:  if we can handle more than one explosion at a time, we might be able to grip the adds into the boss two at a time.
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