05-02-2013, 12:47 PM
This is a three phase fight, in which phases 1 and 2 alternate until the boss reaches 30% health, at which point phase 3 begins. We fight the Empress during phase 1 for 2.5 minutes, then she disappears and we fight adds for phase 2. Phase 2 ends when all the adds are dead or 2.5 minutes have gone by.
PHASE ONE
The most challenging mechanic of this field is the Dissonance Field (which is tied to Cry of Terror). Twice during phase 1, at 30 seconds and then 60 seconds after that, Shek'zeer will place two dissonance fields on the ground, a little way apart. They're yellowish swirly zones.
These fields have health pools, but they can't be damaged in the regular way. Instead, they lose health whenever a raid member casts a spell. All spells affect both fields equally, no normally they will die at the same time. Each time a field dies it deals a LOT of raid-wide damage.
Therefore, the goal is to AVOID having the dissonance fields die at the same time. To make one die faster than the other:
* Players should stand inside one field and cast spells there. This will cause that field to take more damage than the other.
* The player with Cry of Terror should stand in a dissonance field. Cry of Terror is a 20-sec debuff Shek'zeer places on a caster or a healer 4 times during phase 1. When it's active, every raid member takes moderate shadow damage every 2 seconds. When the player debuffed with Cry of Terror moves inside a field, Cry of Terror no longer damages the raid, that field takes increased damage compared to the other field, the player can't be healed while standing in a field, and the player keeps taking damage from Cry of Terror and the field.
The empress also does a Dread Screech, which affects 2 players in 10-man. It does damage to the target and to anybody else within 5 yards.
PHASE ONE STRATEGY
* Raid stands 5 yards apart from each other to avoid getting caught in Dread Screech
* Tanks swap at 4 stacks of Eyes of the Empress (if it gets to 5 the tank becomes mind controlled)
* Casters and Healers must handle the Dissonance Fields. Oryx will announce which one will die first. The person debuffed with Cry of Terror will stand in that field, but not for too long as they will be taking damage and can't be healed. That person must leave the field a few seconds before it dies to get topped off before the field blows up.
* Use damage mitigation to survive the explosions of the fields. Rallying Cry, Tranquility. The raid cannot stack. The damage is physical so cooldowns that reduce magic damage don't work.
PHASE TWO
After 2.5 minutes, Phase Two begins. We will get 2 Kor'thik Reavers (larger adds) and 6 Set'thik Windblades (smaller adds).
Windblades fixate someone (pretty rarely), cast an interruptible damage spell called Dispatch, and place a void zone called Sticky Resin on the ground. These can be *picked up* by players -- it will stick to the player. When the player with the debuff walks over another void zone, the debuff disappears and the two void zones merge. If this happens three times -- so when 4 void zones are brought to the location of a 5th void zone -- they turn into an Amber Trap which stuns, traps, and damages a mob that walks into it.
Reavers are melee adds that do a Poison Bomb debuff, a frontal cone attack called Toxic Slime, and apply the Poison-Drenched Armor debuff to the current tank. This does moderate damage to the tank but ALSO gives nearby raid members the chance to deal additional Nature damage with each attack.
PHASE TWO STRATEGY
* Tank the adds in two groups: 1 Windreaver and 3 Windblades on each tank. Or Reavers on one and Windblades on the other. The groups must be at least 8 yards apart.
* Face the Reavers away from the raid.
* Interrupt the Windblades' Dispatch
* Kill the Windblades first
* Aim to get the Reavers trapped in Amber Traps. We may need to keep some Windblades alive until we get enough sticky resin (it will take 10 casts) to build two traps. Ranged DPS (and healers if damage is low) will carry the Stick Resin to the spot of another void zone to build the trap. Once the add is trapped it can't get out -- the trap will eventually kill it. It doesn't need to be dead before Phase Two ends.
PHASE THREE
This is a burn phase. The boss gets several new abilities:
* Sha Energy does shadow damage to 2 random raid members.
* Consuming Terror is a frontal cone attack that does a lot of Shadow Damage AND fears all affected players for 8 seconds.
* Visions of Demise is a 2-part debuff that is applied to 2 players regularly. At first it's a 4-sec debuff which does nothing but trigger the second debuff. The second debuff will hit that player AND any other players within 8 yards, causing them to be feared and take moderate Shadow damage for 20 seconds. This second debuff can be dispelled. This is cast every 15-20 sec.
* Calamity is a spell that deals Shadow damage to all raid members every 6-10 seconds, equal to 50% of their current health.
* Amassing Darkness causes a random target to take moderate Shadow Damage. This spell affects an increasing number of players.
PHASE THREE STRATEGY
This is the HARDEST fight for healers that we've seen so far.
* The raid should spread out to 8+ yards so we don't get hit by Visions of Demise.
* Tanks will still have to alternate tanking the boss.
* Face the boss away from the raid.
* Avoid the frontal cone attack Consuming Terror. Anyone who gets hit by it should have their fear dispelled
* Dispell players with 2nd debuff of Visions of Demise
The hardest part will be surviving the enormous amount of raid damage.
We MAY be able to stack up behind the boss for healing, and have the players affected by Visions of Demise leave the group IMMEDIATELY.
We will use Bloodlust in Phase Three.
PHASE ONE
The most challenging mechanic of this field is the Dissonance Field (which is tied to Cry of Terror). Twice during phase 1, at 30 seconds and then 60 seconds after that, Shek'zeer will place two dissonance fields on the ground, a little way apart. They're yellowish swirly zones.
These fields have health pools, but they can't be damaged in the regular way. Instead, they lose health whenever a raid member casts a spell. All spells affect both fields equally, no normally they will die at the same time. Each time a field dies it deals a LOT of raid-wide damage.
Therefore, the goal is to AVOID having the dissonance fields die at the same time. To make one die faster than the other:
* Players should stand inside one field and cast spells there. This will cause that field to take more damage than the other.
* The player with Cry of Terror should stand in a dissonance field. Cry of Terror is a 20-sec debuff Shek'zeer places on a caster or a healer 4 times during phase 1. When it's active, every raid member takes moderate shadow damage every 2 seconds. When the player debuffed with Cry of Terror moves inside a field, Cry of Terror no longer damages the raid, that field takes increased damage compared to the other field, the player can't be healed while standing in a field, and the player keeps taking damage from Cry of Terror and the field.
The empress also does a Dread Screech, which affects 2 players in 10-man. It does damage to the target and to anybody else within 5 yards.
PHASE ONE STRATEGY
* Raid stands 5 yards apart from each other to avoid getting caught in Dread Screech
* Tanks swap at 4 stacks of Eyes of the Empress (if it gets to 5 the tank becomes mind controlled)
* Casters and Healers must handle the Dissonance Fields. Oryx will announce which one will die first. The person debuffed with Cry of Terror will stand in that field, but not for too long as they will be taking damage and can't be healed. That person must leave the field a few seconds before it dies to get topped off before the field blows up.
* Use damage mitigation to survive the explosions of the fields. Rallying Cry, Tranquility. The raid cannot stack. The damage is physical so cooldowns that reduce magic damage don't work.
PHASE TWO
After 2.5 minutes, Phase Two begins. We will get 2 Kor'thik Reavers (larger adds) and 6 Set'thik Windblades (smaller adds).
Windblades fixate someone (pretty rarely), cast an interruptible damage spell called Dispatch, and place a void zone called Sticky Resin on the ground. These can be *picked up* by players -- it will stick to the player. When the player with the debuff walks over another void zone, the debuff disappears and the two void zones merge. If this happens three times -- so when 4 void zones are brought to the location of a 5th void zone -- they turn into an Amber Trap which stuns, traps, and damages a mob that walks into it.
Reavers are melee adds that do a Poison Bomb debuff, a frontal cone attack called Toxic Slime, and apply the Poison-Drenched Armor debuff to the current tank. This does moderate damage to the tank but ALSO gives nearby raid members the chance to deal additional Nature damage with each attack.
PHASE TWO STRATEGY
* Tank the adds in two groups: 1 Windreaver and 3 Windblades on each tank. Or Reavers on one and Windblades on the other. The groups must be at least 8 yards apart.
* Face the Reavers away from the raid.
* Interrupt the Windblades' Dispatch
* Kill the Windblades first
* Aim to get the Reavers trapped in Amber Traps. We may need to keep some Windblades alive until we get enough sticky resin (it will take 10 casts) to build two traps. Ranged DPS (and healers if damage is low) will carry the Stick Resin to the spot of another void zone to build the trap. Once the add is trapped it can't get out -- the trap will eventually kill it. It doesn't need to be dead before Phase Two ends.
PHASE THREE
This is a burn phase. The boss gets several new abilities:
* Sha Energy does shadow damage to 2 random raid members.
* Consuming Terror is a frontal cone attack that does a lot of Shadow Damage AND fears all affected players for 8 seconds.
* Visions of Demise is a 2-part debuff that is applied to 2 players regularly. At first it's a 4-sec debuff which does nothing but trigger the second debuff. The second debuff will hit that player AND any other players within 8 yards, causing them to be feared and take moderate Shadow damage for 20 seconds. This second debuff can be dispelled. This is cast every 15-20 sec.
* Calamity is a spell that deals Shadow damage to all raid members every 6-10 seconds, equal to 50% of their current health.
* Amassing Darkness causes a random target to take moderate Shadow Damage. This spell affects an increasing number of players.
PHASE THREE STRATEGY
This is the HARDEST fight for healers that we've seen so far.
* The raid should spread out to 8+ yards so we don't get hit by Visions of Demise.
* Tanks will still have to alternate tanking the boss.
* Face the boss away from the raid.
* Avoid the frontal cone attack Consuming Terror. Anyone who gets hit by it should have their fear dispelled
* Dispell players with 2nd debuff of Visions of Demise
The hardest part will be surviving the enormous amount of raid damage.
We MAY be able to stack up behind the boss for healing, and have the players affected by Visions of Demise leave the group IMMEDIATELY.
We will use Bloodlust in Phase Three.