Monday, March 9, 2015

Handling Highmaul - A Slowpoke Raider's Guide - Brackenspore

About a week ago, we took down Brackenspore. I was going to wait until we had Tectus down to write the next of these posts, but schedule conflicts have been coming up, and we don't have him yet (though we got far enough that I could probably write a guide.)

Brackenspore is, of course, a fungal giant who climbs up out of the Zangar Sea and is harassing some Iron Horde soldiers caught out on the northern coast. Why are we attacking him when he doesn't threaten us and is in fact distracting our enemies? Why, loot, of course!

This is a fight that involves kill priorities, coordinating interrupts, some interesting healing mechanics and a bit of extra responsibility on the part of some of the ranged players.

Before the fight begins, there will be two flamethrowers left behind by the retreating Iron Horde soldiers. Have two of your ranged DPS pick them up (preferably hunters, given that they'll be running around a lot.)

Throughout the fight, a green algae or moss will slowly grow from the edge of the area inward. This stuff is nasty - it'll slow and damage players and it will heal the boss. The two people with flamethrowers will have to burn away the moss using the flamethrowers. Doing so will give them a big damage boost to help compensate for the time they're off the boss burning moss. However, the flamethrowers will overheat if they are left on for too long, so these players will need to know when to turn them off. Ultimately the moss will grow at a faster rate than the flamethrowers can burn them, which acts as a kind of soft enrage.

While those people are worrying about that, there are several other mechanics to bear in mind.

Periodically, beneficial, friendly mushrooms will pop up. If healed to full, they will provide a beneficial area around them. Green mushrooms will heal anyone standing in their circle, while blue ones will give a 30% haste buff and mana replenishment. The blue ones are the top priority and should be healed immediately (and everyone who can should stand within them) while green ones should be saved for Infesting Spores, which we'll get to.

Brackenspore itself has three major mechanics to pay attention to - though two of these are really just for the tanks to worry about. Rot is a stacking DOT that tanks will get. Though DBM starts shouting at you at three stacks, you'll need to let it get up to 4 for the other tank's stacks to fall off. Brackenspore also has a cone-breath attack. Tanks will need to keep it faced away from the raid and pop anti-magic cooldowns like Divine Protection or Anti-Magic Shell. The third ability is Infesting Spores, where Brackenspore will channel a stacking DOT on the entire raid, eventually hitting 10 stacks before it ends. At this point, healers should heal up any green mushroom that's in a safe place (not the moss,) and players should stand in the green circle.

There are three kinds of adds that need to be dealt with as well. Spore Shooters will pop up and send spores at the raid. DPS should focus these guys down quickly. Mind Fungi will also pop up, and while they don't have any real damaging abilities, they'll create an aura around them that reduces casting speed. Casters should get away from them before attempting to kill them, while melee can just wade in there and knock them out. These have a nasty habit of popping up around the blue mushrooms.

The final add type is the Fungal Flesh Eater. Whichever tank is not currently on Brackenspore should pick these up when they spawn over by the coast. If there are no Spore Shooters or Mind Fungi, DPS should focus these guys down (though they can be tanked next to the boss so that cleave damage will work.) The Fungal Flesh Eater has one ability, which is Decay, an interruptible spell that deals massive raidwide damage. Coordinate between your melee so that you can have one player interrupt the odd-numbered casts of Decay while the other does evens, as it casts it more frequently than a single person can interrupt.

Ultimately you're going to need good DPS to down the adds quickly and to make sure the boss goes down before the moss takes over.

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