Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Bastion of Shadows Tank Impressions

Unfortunately, I wound up doing this wing out of order, but I still got through the whole thing, so I've got a little quasi-guide/rundown as usual. There are three bosses here and, joy of joys, not a single Orc! Seriously, I did not see any Orcs whatsoever in this wing. Bastion of Shadows consists of Shadow-Lord Iskar, Socrethar the Eternal, and Tyrant Velhari. If you ignore the first one, this is effectively the Sargerai/Eredar wing (not counting of course the Black Gate, which is purely Archimonde and thus the real Eredar wing.)

Trash before Iskar:

The trash before Iskar is pretty quick - you'll get I think three packs of Arrakoa, giving you a preview of the adds that spawn during the fight. I believe the constructs will create a shield - though whether it affects just them or everyone, I couldn't be certain. Anyway, quick series of fights and you're ready for the boss.

Shadow-Lord Iskar:

First things first: regardless of your role, you should have your raid frames up so you can see fellow raid members and whether they have debuffs up.

The central mechanic here is the Eye of Anzu - an item that a raid member will be able to pick up at the start of the fight. The person holding the eye will get an extra-action button to toss the eye to another raid member.

The main key to this fight is to toss the Eye to people who have various debuffs. The main one that I was aware of was Phantasmal Winds, which will gradually push a player toward the edge of the room, eventually dumping them to their deaths. You can run against this wind, but the best way to deal with it is to toss the Eye to anyone who has it, which will dispel the debuff. I believe there are other debuffs that can be cleared with it, but that's the one that comes up the most.

The tank-swap is similar to Iron Reaver - you'll be targeted with a Chakram that will land after a few seconds. The other tank taunts and you get out of the way.

Periodically, Iskar will fly away and summon adds. Group them up where you were tanking the boss and have the raid stack up, as he'll channel a massive death laser that splits damage between those it hits. He'll also shoot fire at random players, leaving a trail as the fire chases them. Just run away from this if you get targeted (which you shouldn't if you're a tank.) Stay out of the fire. Kill the adds (who seem to be the same as the trash.)

Trash before Socrethar:

The Sargerai have enlisted some Vigilant robots to serve them. The flesh-and-blood Sargerai in these packs are not terribly hard, but some will do Shockwaves that stun you for a few seconds, so you'll want to face them away from the raid and try to step out before they go off.

The Vigilants will periodically shoot lasers in a big arc around them and also use "Crowd Control Protocols" which will disorient everyone nearby and then go off after one of the ranged. Taunt them back once you recover.

Socretar the Eternal:

This fight is sort of reminiscent of Professor Putricide, in that, at least during one phase, one tank will spend the time piloting a big construct.

There are two phases - one you want to get through quickly, the other you want to last long.

In phase one, Socrethar will be piloting his own Vigilant (remember that we killed him in Shattrath.) The Vigilant has a couple tricky abilities. The main one you'll want to deal with is Reverberating Blow. He'll smash the ground, sending out a cone of pain. You'll take some damage and get up to three stacks of a debuff, which will increase the damage that you take from subsequent Reverberating Blows. The key here is to have others - NOT the other tank - stand in the strike with you, as if there are others to take the strike, they'll get some of the stacks instead. The debuff lasts long enough that you'll have to take the strike multiple times before the other tank takes over, but if you can keep the debuff at low stacks like two or three, you'll survive, but if it gets up to five or six, you'll get one-shot.

There are other things to watch out for, like a charge that leaves a path of fel fire, but Reverberating Blow is the big one.

When the construct is depleted of health, the Soul of Socrethar will be ejected from it, allowing you to actually fight the boss.

One tank picks him up while the other takes over the Construct. I did the latter, so I'll talk about that, primarily.

You only get two of his abilities - no fire-charge - but you can help a lot with the adds and putting hurt on the boss. Use Reverberating Blows to keep the boss debuffed and smack him for big damage. You can also hit the ghosts with it from afar. But you also want to avoid standing near said ghosts when they die, as they will damage the construct. While you won't be able to do it yourself, the raid should interrupt the boss when he casts Exert Control, as that will further damage the construct. There are other adds that pop up, but I believe the ghosts and Exert Control are the biggest dangers to you during this phase.

If you're good and lucky, you might be able to down the boss from here, but at least on my first go, the construct eventually lost its health. This simply reverts the boss to phase one, requiring you to take down the construct again and eject Socrethar from it.

Trash before Velhari:

The ramps you took down into Socrethar's room are now filled up with demons and Sargerai forces. There are four portals at each corner of the ramps. You'll need to take out the adds nearby and have someone shut down the portals to keep the adds from continuing to stream in.

As you make your way to Velhari's room, you'll need to deal with some named Eredar Vindicators who are accompanied by several unnamed adds. Each has a special ability, but the main one you'll want to worry about as a tank is Seal of Decay, which reduces healing and necessitates a tank swap. The final named add will resurrect the other two when you pull her.

Tyrant Velhari:

This fight I was admittedly a little shakier on. Seal of Decay is your main tank-swap debuff to worry about here. It's your standard "swap when your stacks fall off," though I think there's a little grace period, so you can actually taunt after your co-tank gets I believe two stacks.

Velhari will go through three auras as the fight goes on at each third of her health. She'll also summon three adds that you'll probably want to tank if you're off the boss.

During the first aura, you'll take damage for moving, so you only want to move when she casts her big fire tornado and puts a knock-up attack under your feet.

The second phase, she'll prevent all healing, so you'll want to burn her quickly. (Not sure how this applies to Death Knight tanks. I'd hope they'd get an exception, because otherwise they'd be crippled on this fight.)

On phase three, she'll start dropping shadowy "consecrations" on the ground. You'll want to gradually kite her around the (rather small) room as she does this and hopefully kill her before you run out of space.

Conclusion:

There are some interesting new mechanics in this wing, and it's a nice change in aesthetic as well. Despite being arguably the most conventional fight, I found Velhari to be the hardest, and the most likely to wipe raids. That said, we got through without any wipes (though I died twice due to two different tanks failing to do a taunt-swap.)

I believe it's two more weeks before we get the penultimate wing, which will have Xhul'horac, Fel Lord Zakun, and Mannoroth, and then another two before we get Archimonde himself.

And hey, it's possible that we'll know what expansion six is by then!

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