Coven of Shivarra Nutshell Guide

[Zlinka]

Okay, we saw these guys before break and had several good attempts, and I think we now have a pretty good idea of what the fight looks like.  So this is just a refresher:

This is a council-style fight with three active boss which have a shared health pool.  Only two of the three will engage the raid actively at any time, while the third spends her time tormenting a Titan Soul.  This torment eventually results in a "Titan's Torment" add phase called which consists of a wave of adds with particular abilities.  There are four types of add phases, and one of them takes place every 3 minutes.  During these phases the raid will either have to evade obstacles or deal with a new mechanic, all while the bosses continue to engage the raid.  So the fight alternates between a boss phase and an add phase.  The ORDER of the add waves is random every week.

PASSIVE ABILITIES

The bosses take 99% reduced damage if they are within 18 yards of each other (Shivan Pact)
-->  tank them at least 18+ yards apart.

We'll take increasing Shadow damage during any of the Torment of the Titans add phases (Sense of Dread)
--> We need to get the adds down fast before the damage becomes overwhelming.

INDIVIDUAL BOSS ABILITIES

We'll get Noura and Asara as our first two bosses.

BOSS 1:  NOURA, MOTHER OF FLAMES

Anti-tank attack (Fiery Strike): frontal cone + stacking debuff.
-->  Keep her faced away from the raid and swap after two stacks of Fiery Strike.  It's best to have the tanks swap positions, rather than the bosses, to avoid the bosses shielding each other.

Projectile attack (Whirling Saber):  Noura throws a saver at a random player (there will be a targeting circle on the floor) which then starts spinning and slowly travels back to her in a line.
-->  Avoid these.

Fulimating Pulse: debuff inflicted on several targets which explodes with a 6 yard AoE (Fulminating Burst).  These players will have a 6 yard radius red circle around them.
-->  Keep a loose spread of 6 yards to avoid having too much running.  Get out of the circles.  Affected players will need surgical healing.


BOSS 2:  ASARA, MOTHER OF LIGHT

Line attack + knockback (Shadow Blades): Asara sends out 3 blades in a line.  Anyone hit takes heavy damage and is knocked back.
-->  Avoid these.

Raid-wide attack (Storm of Darkness): Entire raid takes damage for 15 seconds.  Safe zones will appear that look like golden circles on the ground.
--> Get into a safe zone during the storm.

Basic attack (Touch of Darkness): Basically a Shadow Bolt that targets random players.
-->  Not much strategy here, just needs to be healed through.

After 180 seconds, Noura will exit the fight and Diima will join.

DIIMA, MOTHER OF GLOOM

Anti-tank attack (Flashfreeze): stacking debuff that does heavy damage + slow
--> Swap when the mobility debuff becomes a problem (somewhere between 5-9 stacks depending on class mobility).  You need enough speed to be able to reach the safe zones of Asara's storm.  As with the other pair of bosses, try to keep the bosses stationary during the swap.

Healing absorption shield (Chilled Blood):  applied to random players, absorbs a set amount of healing.  When it expires the player is frozen for a duration based on the amount of absorption remaining.
--> Healers will need to remove the absorption shield before the end of the debuff.

Orb attack (Orb of Frost):  Spawns on a random ranged or healer.  Does moderate to all players when it spawns.  The orb is stationary, persists for 20 seconds, and slows the movement of all players within 30 yards by up to 85%.  The intensity of the snare is reduced by distance.  The orb despawns after 20 seconds.
--> Because it spawns on a ranged or a healer, it can be baited to the edge of the room if we want, though this may not be necessary.  The only time the orb is a problem is right before an add phase or a storm.

About 180 seconds after Diima enters the fight Asara will exit and Noura will come back.  The full order is Noura --> Asara --> Diima.


ADD PHASE:  TORMENT OF THE TITANS

Torment of Aman'thul

Spectral adds will spawn all around the edges of the room.  They don't move and can't be tanked.  Each will begin to channel Machinations of Aman'thul, which lasts of 21 seconds.  At the end of that cast all the adds will be healed to full and players will get a stack of a 26-second debuff.  It is repeated until they are killed.

--> These adds are top priority.  We'll kill one at a time and go counterclockwise around the room (we may be able to do two at a time, we'll need to evaluate this possibility during the raid).


Torment of Golganneth

Spawns four adds, one in the middle of each wall of the room.  They can't move and don't need to be tanked.  They cast Fury of Golganneth which makes all players do damage to each other within 2 yards.  This effect stacks, so if all the adds are alive and two players come together they will likely be one-shotted.

--> Make sure to stand 2 yards apart.
--> DoT and cleave the adds. Get some or all of them down before the next storm, as we need to group up in a safe zone during the storm and the 2-yard thing may be a problem -- if adds are still up some players may need to stand outside the safe zone and survive the storm with their own cooldowns.


Torment of Khaz'Goroth

Eight adds will spawn around the room in a circle shape, facing the center of the room.  They continuously channel Flames of Khaz'goroth, which spews flames into the center of the room.  Anyone in the center of the room when these adds spawns will be killed instantly.  During this time the raid must also avoid spectral adds that march through the raid.

--> Get out of the center of the room before these spawn, and stay out of it afterwards.
--> These adds are top priority and.


Torment of Norgannon

The Spectral Army of Norgannon marches through the raid in lines from all four sides of the room.  The overall effect is of a shrinking square.  These adds can be crowd controlled.

--> Use CC to create gaps in the walls.  The DK's Gorefiend's Grasp is excellent here as it makes a big hole.  Typhoon is good too.  Use speed buffs like Stampeding Roar to increase player mobility.

Note:  We can track this add phase by watching the Sense of Dread debuff.  When it expires, whichever titan is being tormented by the inactive Coven member will spawn an add phase.  The titan being tormented is RANDOM and will vary with each pull.  We can identify which one is being tormented, however, as the inactive Coven member will be channeling a matching ability, e.g. Flames of Khaz'goroth.

Bloodlust:  We can use Bloodlust once the bosses are in position after the pull.  Alternative:  use it on the the Torment of Aman'thul to get the self-healing adds down.

[Zlinka]

Heroic Coven

Okay, we saw these guys on normal.  There are three bosses, and we fight two of them at a time, while the third tortures a Titan.  When the third boss finishes tormenting the Titan, the Titan will perform a unique ability and we'll get one of those special intermissions (the moving wall, the 2-yard spread etc.).  During this intermission we deal with the special ability AND the two current bosses' abilities.  After the intermission we get a different configuration of bosses, and do it again.

On heroic, each of the bosses gains ONE new ability.  These are not difficult abilities.  The challenge comes from handling the new abilities of two bosses at once, and handling these new abilities during the intermission phases. 

So here's a rundown of the fight with the new heroic mechanics.

We start the fight with Noura and Asara.

Tanks:  the bosses need to be tanked at least 18 yards apart or they shield each other with Shivan Pact.

BOSS 1:  NOURA

On normal:  Noura does an anti-tank attack called Fiery Strike (frontal cone + stacking debuff).  The tank should keep her faced away from the raid, and swap after two stacks of Fiery Strike.  She also does a projectile attack called Whirling Saber, which we need to avoid.

On heroic:  Noura casts Fulminating Pulse on several members of the raid.  This is a 10-second DoT that will explode in a 6-yard radius when it expires (there will be an orange circle around you).

--> Keep a loose, 6-yard spread to keep from having to run too much.  If you get it, make sure to get away from others, and everyone needs to get out of the orange circle.


BOSS 2:  ASARA

On normal:  She targets random players with Touch of Darkness (basically a shadow bolt) which just needs to be healed through.  She also does a line attack + knockback called Shadow Blades.  She'll send out 3 blades in a line.  We need to avoid these.  

On heroic:  She does a raid-wide attack called Storm of Darkness for 15 seconds.  She will also spawn safe zones in the area which prevent all damage from Storm of Darkness.

--> Players need to get into the safe zones for Storm of Darkness.  Tanks should drag the bosses to two different safe zones at least 18 yards apart.

Overlap difficulties:

The difficulty here is that Storm of Darkness (run to a safe zone) and Fulminating Pulse (orange circle that explodes) can overlap.  So players with the orange circle must decide whether to get into a safe zone (and risk blowing others up) or staying out (and take a lot of personal damage from the explosion AND the storm).

This is a dynamic decision that we will have to play with.  If you have the orange circle and the safe zone is really crowded, it's probably best to stay out and use damage reduction to survive.  If only a few people are in the safe zone, you can probably get into it yourself and still leave room for others around the edges.  We'll need to practice this.

Here Noura exits the fight at Diima comes in.

BOSS 3:  DIIMA 

On normal...  Diima does an anti-tank attack (Flashfreeze) which is a stacking debuff that does heavy damage and a slow.  Tanks should swap between 5-9 stacks depending on class mobility.  She also puts a healing absorption shield called Chilled Blood on random players.  When it expires the player is frozen in place for a duration based on the amount of shield remaining.  Healers need to remove the shield before the debuff ends to avoid having people freeze in place.

On heroic...  Diima spawns an Orb of Frost at the location of a random player.  It does damage when it spawns, then it stays in the same place and slows players within 30 yards.  How much players are slowed is inversely proportional to their distance from the orb.

--> Ranged players should try to be at the edges of the room before the Orb is cast to bait it into spawning near a wall.
--> Use personal and raid-wide movement speed increases if needed.

Interactions between boss abilities and intermissions

*  The hardest overlap is Storm of Darkness (get to a safe zone) with Norgannon's moving wall.  The difficulty occurs when a safe zone spawns behind one of the walls.  We need to be prepared to either punch holes in all four walls, or be dynamic and punch a hole through the wall between us and a safe zone.

-->  Have four players handle CC, one on each wall.  Druid with Mass Entangle, Blood DK with AoE Grip.  We go through the gap that leads to a safe zone.

STRATEGY SUGGESTIONS

* Have a third tank, or a DPS, handle Asara when she is up, as she has no anti-tank attack, while the other two tanks trade off Noura or Diima.  This will also keep the tanks from having to swap across the room.  When both Noura and Diima are up, put two tanks on Noura, and the third dank (or DPS) on Diima and have a paladin remove the stacks from Diima's tank, OR the DPS can drop the stacks themselves.

Phase 1, with Noura and Asara:  1 tank on Asara, 2 on Noura.  Noura's tanks taunt at 2 stacks.
Phase 2, with Asara and Diima:  1 tank on Asara, 2 on Diima.  Diima's tanks taunt at X stacks of Flashfreeze (to be determined).
Phase 3, with Diima and Noura:  2 tanks on Noura, 1 tank on Diima.  Diima's tank can have stacks removed by a paladin, or if it's a melee DPS can use Tiger's Lust, Blessing of Freedom, Wraith Walk, Druid shape-shift to drop Diima's stacks.  Recommended:  Moonkin or a healer.  Need a DPS with taunt to hold aggro.

* Use Bloodlust on the adds that heal themselves up.

* Asara, who casts the Storm of Darkness, is the toughest due to her strict positioning requirement (safe zones).

* Have people equip Prydaz, the legendary choker that gives players a damage-absorption shield every 30 seconds, for 25% of their maximum health, which lasts 30 seconds.

[Zlinka]

Notes from last week:

1.  The three-tank solution worked quite well last week.  It cut down on movement and let the DPS focus on one target, which increased overall damage done.

2.  Having the DPS staying on Asara worked best as she has no frontal cone attack, and we don't have to worry about the spinning sword as much (which boomerangs from Noura).

3.  Bloodlusting on the adds that heal themselves also worked well.  Getting those adds down in three (or preferably two) cast bars is quite important as the raid-wide damage during the fourth bar is really high.

4. Having everyone who has a Prydaz -- the legendary neck that confers an absorption shield -- equip it was also quite helpful in giving the healers more margin.