Tortos nutshell guide
#1
Or, as Sevdrith would have it, "nutbag guide."

We've seen Tortos in LFR. The basic mechanics are the same: Tortos is stationary, and spawns two types of adds. The turtles must be DPS'd down until they are kickable, and they must be kicked into Tortos to interrupt his Furious Stone Breath.


ABILITIES

* Furious Stone Breath: happens every 45 seconds. Deals massive raid-wide damage and MUST be interrupted by kicking a Whirl Turtle into him. The time to his next Furious Stone Breath is indicated by his fury bar, which increases with time. He casts it at 100 fury. If someone (the tank) isn't in melee range he'll cast Growing Fury which increases his fury by 10 per second, bringing the Furious Stone Breath sooner.

* Rockfall: Causes stalactites to fall from the roof, dealing lots of damage to anyone within 5 yards of the impact area, and lower damage to anyone within 20 yards. The impact areas are clearly marked with blue circles -- get OUT of those!

* Quake Stomp: This stuns all players for 1 second and deals 65% of their max health as physical damage. When he casts this the stalactites caused by Rockfall increase in frequency for 8 seconds.

* Snapping Bite: Highly damaging ability used against his target every 8-10 seconds. Deals lots of physical damage.


ADDS

The Whirl Turtles

Every 60 seconds Tortos summons three Whirl Turtles. They can't be tanked; they move around the room randomly. They constantly deal damage to, and knock back, players within 5 yards of them with a spell called Spinning Shell. However, as they have very large hitboxes melee can still attack them from further than 5 yards away.

When it's almost dead the turtle will cast Shell Block, making it immune to damage and stopping its movement. In this state it stops casting Spinning Shell.

In the Shell Block state, the turtle can be kicked. Using the action button on the turtle will kick it in the direction the player is facing. Upon impact with Tortos, they interrupt him and debuffs him with Shell Concussion for 20 seconds, causing him to take 25% increased damage.

Turtles are used to interrupt Furious Stone Breath.

Vampiric Cave Bats

Every 30 seconds a group of bats enters the room. They have normal aggro tables. Their only ability besides melee is Drain the Weak, which does a little damage, and heals each bat for 50 times the damage it has dealt, if the target they're attacking has less than 350,000 health.


STRATEGY

* One tank stays on Tortos. They must have enough health to survive Snapping Bite, through use of cooldowns and help from healers.
* The other tank picks up and tanks the bats as they enter the room.
* Ranged DPS will kill any Whirl Turtles that are up. If no Whirl Turtles are up, they should DPS Tortos
* The bats should be tanked close to Tortos. Melee DPS should focus on Tortos while cleaving/AoEing the bats.
* Avoid the falling stalactites
* Be prepared to heal the high raid damage from Quake Stomp.

For tanks

Tortos' tank should always be in melee range of him. He should also be prepared for Tortos' Snapping Bites. Time active mitigation so that they always have something up for each Bite. Failing that, they should at least be topped off, as the Bite will do about 60% of the tank's health in one hit.

The bat tank should pick up the bats when they enter the room, then move them close to Tortos so melee DPS can cleave them. The bats aren't particularly damaging, but it's important that the Bat tank never drop below 350,000 health, as otherwise the bats heal themselves.

Kicking Turtles

As three turtles spawn every minute, and one Furious Stone Breath is cast every 45 seconds, we should never run out of turtles. One player will be assigned to always interrupt Furious Stone Breath. This player should be a ranged DPS player or a healer, and they should move into position behind a stationary Whirl Turtle a few seconds before the Breath is about to be cast. They should press Kick when the boss begins the cast of Furious Stone Breath. A backup should also be assigned just in case (e.g. if an interrupter gets knocked back by an active Whirl Turtle).

DPS priority

Ranged DPS should be primarily on Whirl Turtles; melee should be primarily on Tortos and the bats.

One Whirl Turtle must be available for kicking before each Furious Stone Breath. This is especially important for the first breath as the first set of turtles comes out only a little while before the first breath, which means there's little time to bring one of the turtles down. Melee DPS should therefore help on this first turtle.

DPSing the Whirl Turtles down as soon as they appear will also reduce the amount of time they spend spinning around the room, damaging people and knocking them back.

The second priority is to kill the bats. Though they don't do much damage, if the tank has to handle more than one wave at a time, the tank will probably drop below the 350K limit.

Finally, Tortos needs to be DPS'd. Time offensive cooldowns for the 20 second window that follows the impact of a Whirl Turtle, when he takes 25% increased damage.

Bloodlust

We'll use Bloodlust when Tortos is under the Shell Concussion debuff.
Reply
#2
Okay, I've done more research on this fight for Wednesday. Here's what I've been able to glean:

* We should use a raid cooldown or a personal cooldown for each Quake Stomp.
* Apparently, most of the damage in this fight comes from getting hit by stalactites or whirl turtles. So:
* Avoid getting hit by the whirl turtles. They have a large hitbox so there's no need to get close. Stay well away from them as they do damage + a knockback.
* Avoid getting hit by the falling stalactites. They target a player's location. They do massive damage if you are within the blue impact circle, but they STILL do damage if you are within a 20 yard radius the impact point. The damage from lots of stalactites during Quake Stomp can get overwhelming. DPS should spread out and get far away from the impact areas. (One comment I read suggested staying in the circle for 1 second, so that the second impact circle overlapped the first, then running out, to reduce the area covered with circles). Avoiding these things is critical. If you absolutely cannot get away, use a personal damage-reduction cooldown.
* One positioning strategy suggests putting a marker on each of of Tortos' two front feet (say, blue and green markers). The raid stays on the blue side for the first stomp (melee in front of the foot, more or less stacked, with a healer; ranged DPS more or less stacked a bit further back with a healer; and one floating healer). Then after the stomp we move to the other side of Tortos and form up in front of the other foot.
* Another strategy has people spread out to use the entire room.
* Call Quake Stomp 15-20 sec before it occurs so that everyone can be at full HP.
* DPS on the boss is the last priority.

Handling the Whirl Turtles:
* Whirl turtles can be SLOWED -- hunter trap, rogue crippling poison, curse of exhaustion, shaman can place a slowing totem under Tortos to slow the wirl turtles as they come out. Idea: have warlock glyph curse of exhaustion & mass apply it on the whirl turtles. Idea: have druid spec Fairy Fire slow & cast that on the first turtle.
* Turtles head toward a player's location. Spread out.

For the Kicker:
* For far-away whirl turtles, the kicker may need to trust DBM's timer and kick the turtle before Furious Stone Breath is actually cast, because it takes a while for a kicked turtle to reach Tortos from the back of the room. Trust DBM's warning.
* Rockfalls hit where people are standing, so the kicker should not get into position behind a whirl turtle until necessary, to avoid having a stalactite fall on them behind the turtle. Idea: drop a portal behind the turtle, standing in the correct orientation for the kick. Then stay away from it. When he's at high energy & about to cast, target the turtle, hit teleport, and hit the special action button.
* Any extra turtles can be kicked at the bats. Note: if bats are between Tortos and the whirl turtle, the whirl turtle will hit the bats AND Tortos. Nice.

*****************************
THE UPSHOT

* AVOID stalactite damage. The raid is responsible for GETTING OUT OF and AWAY FROM the blue circles. Not just outside the blue ring, but further away, to avoid second-degree damage. If necessary, use personal cooldowns. During Quake Stomp avoiding the falling rocks is your MAIN responsibility.

* SLOW the whirl turtles. These will make them easier to kill and will reduce damage on & disruption to the raid. Grounding totem, hunter trap, etc. can all help here.

* AVOID getting hit by the Whirl Turtles. They have a big hit box -- there's no need to get close to them.

* DPS PRIORITY is: (1) Whirl Turtles, (2) Bats, then (3) Tortos. The adds are more important than the boss, just like the Horridon encounter.

Ranged will deal primarily with the whirl turtles, but melee must help particularly on the first spawn.

Melee will deal with the bats while also DPSing Tortos. Tortos can be Dotted and cleaved and AoE'd with the bats, but the adds are top priority. The bats should be tanked close to Tortos to allow for cleaves.

* TIMING THE KICKS. The kicker must learn when to get into position behind the dead whirl turtle (getting there too soon may mean getting knocked away by spinning whirl turtle or getting targeted by a stalactite), and WHEN to kick it, as it takes a long time for the turtle to travel the length of the room if the turtle is far away. The turtle may need to be kicked BEFORE the start of Furious Stone Breath -- watching the DBM timer + Tortos' energy bar (he casts when it reaches 100) will help with the kick timing.

* Using the extra turtles. Extra turtles can be kicked at the bats, or through the bats at Tortos.
Reply


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Argus nutshell guide Zlinka 2 3,808 05-31-2018, 09:00 AM
Last Post: Zlinka
  Aggramar Nutshell Guide Zlinka 3 5,246 05-29-2018, 12:13 PM
Last Post: Zlinka
  Coven of Shivarra Nutshell Guide Zlinka 2 3,526 05-21-2018, 06:40 PM
Last Post: Zlinka
  Varimathras Nutshell Guide Zlinka 2 4,094 04-23-2018, 03:56 PM
Last Post: Zlinka
  Imonar nutshell guide Zlinka 2 4,362 03-29-2018, 12:39 PM
Last Post: Zlinka

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)