Thursday, March 5, 2015

The Black Forge - DPS Perspective

I've actually run this wing a couple times as DPS - twice on the Death Knight and now once on the Mage - and I have a pretty decent idea of how the thing works.

Hanzgar and Franzok:

The main thing here is that you're going to want to multi-dot if you can - for much of the fight, both guys will be available targets, so if you're a DOT-heavy class, be sure to get both of them ticking away - much like on Twin Ogron.

For everyone, but ranged especially, you should note that between the conveyer belts are narrow spaces that will not move, so you can stand there and cast without worrying about being swept into the fire at the end of the belts. However, you should note that these areas are not safe from the stamp presses or the burning plates, so you'll still need to dodge.

Flamebender Ka'graz:

Ok, here's some actual perspective on this fight:

Ka'graz will use various abilities as she builds up energy. You'll first want to take out Aknor Steelbringer, who's really just a kind of "beginning of the fight nuisance," (he's there so that fancy people can keep him alive and gain him as a follower, but that doesn't work on LFR as far as I know.)

Ka'graz will send trails of fire at random players - ranged doesn't need to worry too much about this, as it's pretty easy to side-step, but melee should be aware of where the fire is on the ground, as it persists for quite a bit of time.

She'll also put two debuffs on ranged players, but you'll need to do two opposite things depending on which she casts on you. If you get a circle around you, move into the melee group to split the damage between everyone. If you simply get a debuff with no circle, run out instead.

She will occasionally summon a pair of fire wolves. These wolves are linked, so that if one gets to 1 health, it will begin to heal unless the other is also killed. One will fixate on a random raid member, while the other will grow large and need to be tanked. Melee should focus on the large one while ranged works on the fixated one. After a while, the two will switch, and everyone should trade targets.

Finally, Ka'graz does a channeled AoE that you should use some defensive cooldown during - it's not insane damage, but the healers will thank you.

Kromog:

Kromog is the LFR Killer, at least until people actually learn the mechanics.

Tanks will be on one side of him while melee should go to the other. Ranged should spread out and make sure they stand relatively far back.

The absolute most important mechanic here is Rune of Grasping Earth. Periodically, Kromog will summon a bunch of orange runes. Every raid member needs to pick a rune and stand on it - there no sharing of runes, so ranged be sure to pick the ones that are in the back so that melee doesn't get screwed.

Stone hands will grasp up from the runes and start squeezing, which does a bit of damage. You can damage the hands, but you'll want to leave them at about 40% or so. Kromog will channel a powerful AoE spell that, in addition to the damage, will send anyone not held by a rune flying into the air, where they will almost certainly die of fall damage (some classes might slow themselves or blink/shadowstep/demonic teleport down, but there will still be a lot of damage to deal with.)

Once he finishes this spell, kill your rune and then break out tanks first, then healers, and then any DPS who is somehow still trapped.

Aside from that, there are three abilities that need to be dodged.

First are these little shockwaves that will spawn constantly - just side-step them. Kromog will also slam the ground, creating a wave of rocks that move outward - again, run out of the way. Finally, RED (not orange) runes will pop up under ranged players, and a pair of red-runed stone hands will pop up and clap together. Be sure to get out of the way of these, regardless of whether you were the one targeted or not.

Kromog does a ton of damage to the raid, especially with Stone Breath, which he does frequently. Use self-heals when you can to alleviate the burden on the healers.

No comments:

Post a Comment