The Lucy thread

[Volonazra]

Lets talk here about strategies we like and dislike for the Lucifron encounter.

[Huato]

My 2 copper were that last night the priests has one helluva time keeping up with Impending Doom, and some weren't even paying attention to it (at least from my perspective) until the last try that we took Luci down.

I know the priests were busting butt that entire fight, but the priest I had in my party on the last go at it didn't start removing it until I yelled it needed removed after one had already popped. With that in mind, I proposed this in a thread on the open forum:

Since we had problems with the Impending Doom magic debuff last night, I've been kicking around ideas to try and think of what we can do to help the priests out during this encounter...we asked an awful lot of them last night to be the only class to remove magic from the main healers, tanks, and mages.

One thing that came to mind was Felhunters. Apparently they can also remove Mind Control, and can remove the magic debuff...it will require a little more alertness from the Locks, but that would help tremendously. Maybe have the locks DOT up Luci and then switch to sending their Felhunters out to demagic a set group...mayeb have the priests on primary healers, locks on mages, etc.

Is that feasible?

Is that possible? We need some help for the priests during that fight because we can't expect 3 or 4 priests to be able to keep up with the number of people that keep getting the debuff unless we do slower dps to Luci once the flamewalkers are down and keep most of the raid back in that cubby.

Edited March 16, 2006 by Huato

[Tainish]

My Felhunter and I are not as close as I would like to be, so I had to go digging around the Internet. I found this summary of Warlock MC tactics, which had this quote:

7. LUCIFRON

If you're not tank support, whip out the felhunter. It will help with removing the 2k damage aoe curse. Thank Blizzard for confusing you with MAGIC effects called "Curse of (the Moron Questmakers that don't know how to spell)". Preferably you should already have some type of warlock addon which will automatically devour magic from affected party members or even raid members. You should set this addon to group only, since there isn't even enough time for devour to cooldown for your group.

FWIW...

[Huato]

Sweet! There we have it...the locks will be releasing their Felhunters for this encounter to help the priests out with the demagicing!!

I'm glad that will work - thanks for the info Tainish...the Priests and the rest of the group will have a newfound appreciation for a Warlock and their pet!

Edit: damn you. I read that link you posted and it makes the Warlock class even more fascinating to me...I don't have time for yet another alt!

Edited March 16, 2006 by Huato

[Waldonnis]

The devour cooldown (8secs) would be a pain to work around for even a group of five, given the frequency of the debuff cast. I'm not saying that it's not doable, but it could effectively remove the warlocks from the fight as well if the scope were too broad (auto-devour add-ons no longer function, btw...API changes).

We could try to have the warlocks assigned to key "targets" and use a simple macro to devour on just one or two people (priests and tanks primarily, mages/druids secondary) and see how that goes. If we find that the cooldown is impeding that, then scale it back. If, however, the cooldown allows for more people to be devour targets, then they can expand the target list.

I'm trying to avoid being too dependent on Decursive, but I can probably take a look at the code to see if I can add the devour cast to the list that Decursive supports. It wouldn't be spammable (since the felpuppy must be in range), but it would be a start and would provide the priority list functionality. It would also allow us to test the tactic without sacrificing too much initially and make some adjustments after that.

Also, a tip for frosty mages that may not know this: ice block removes DoTs including Impending Doom, so make sure to keep your cold snap up for this fight. It'll save our priests from having to demagic you twice and thus save some mana for healing the tanks. It also allows you to remain close to the priests and tanks longer while removing Luci's AoE curse. I cubed a couple of times last night when I had both on me and needed to stay in range of Greenbull and the healers for an extra couple of curse/doom cycles.

In all, I think the next Luci fight will go much smoother regardless. Most of our initial problems seemed to be more due to not being familiar with the encounter, positioning, and the range of the AoE curses/demagics. I think many of us have a much better idea of where to be (and not be) and rush-in/rush-out timing than we did last week and it showed in the successful fight.

One other note about felhunters....they are highly resistant to magic attacks, so I'm curious to see how they hold up against Impending Doom and the AoE curse. If they resist it frequently, then it may be a good idea to have them attack Luci as well to keep them in range of the priests and tanks (quicker devouring due to reduced "travel time"), while allowing the warlock to remain safely out of range of the AoE. The devour range is 30yds, so it may not be an issue, but it could be useful early on in the fight as it can be a "fire and forget" style tactic (since the recipients would all be within 30yds of the felhunter and the warlock would likely be DPSing the two guards).

Thoughts from the warlocks?

[Volonazra]

The warlock addons that Ive used are Necrosis and Servitude. Both were great prior to the changes Blizzard made to API. Now, the warlock must be more on the ball and manually seduce/devour/sacrifice where once it could be automated. We can attempt the felhunters vs the magic debuf. Probably, we will need to pick and choose who gets the curse removed (as mentioned before). Given the cool down, number of people effected, speed of recast from Lucy, dying felhounds, confusion and so on assigning each warlock a single target (at least at first) will be necessity. Im thinking from what we experienced last night that the healers need to be the ones covered by felhound so they in turn can do their job for others, and on down the line.

Oh and hey! Where are the props to the warlocks in raids? You always hear " awesome healing" or "good job tanks" Ive never once heard:"Great job SSing the tank so he can get up and regain aggro before the raid wiped" nor " great timing on that banish when we pulled the surger and the annihilator and were about to wipe." We 'locks get no respect i tell ya; no respect.

On another note, can resist potions help prevent damage from the curses and doom?

Other random questions and suggestions: Who can make and bring repair bots? What level of resistance do we need to make any real difference? What number/type of potions should people have with them? Did everyone take firstaid and get up to Hvy runecloth? Lets spell out the timered spawn situation so everyone can see why we have to hustle. Where is an explanation of the NDKP (is that right?) that we are using?

Edited March 16, 2006 by Volonazra

[Qiris]

Also, a tip for frosty mages that may not know this: ice block removes DoTs including Impending Doom, so make sure to keep your cold snap up for this fight. It'll save our priests from having to demagic you twice and thus save some mana for healing the tanks. It also allows you to remain close to the priests and tanks longer while removing Luci's AoE curse. I cubed a couple of times last night when I had both on me and needed to stay in range of Greenbull and the healers for an extra couple of curse/doom cycles.

I did not know that, and am VERY glad to get the information. My gear doesn't offer much in the way of extra hit points so I can only take one of these dooms going off on me, the second one (barring a heal, or exceptional bandaging) means I'm a dead frosty. So what suggestions do you have for me so I can add more value with the decursing stuff? I was lucky to get off a spell, run away for the AoE, and run back for another spell so I'm wide open to suggestions.

[Waldonnis]

I can make repair bots and am planning on making one per week for the raid. If others can as well, it would ease a bit of the burden, but I plan on making one per week regardless.

As for the warlocks, it's hard for me not to notice the great job there (having one myself)...in all, I think we all did a great job, honestly. I actually was surprised to see that I was soulstoned for the first Luci attempt last night which actually helped me be more effective (I sprang back up and kept decursing).

Resists and potions...hmm...I did manage to resist one of the AoE curse rounds, but I'm not sure how, given that I only had 85 shadow resist throughout each fight. It's an idea that we can definitely check out, though, and I wouldn't mind being a guinnea pig for it (I can bring my shadow resist gear to push my SR much higher and suck down a potion...worth a shot).

A note about first aid...if doom hits as you're bandaging, it cancels the bandaging, so be sure to bandage early. I found this out a little late and ended up face-down on the second attempt a bit earlier than I would've liked.

[Qiris]

Repair bots are from engineering, right? If so, where can I get the recipe? Jiris is almost 300 now (like 295), and I would be happy to have her make one.

[Huato]

The shadow resist potions would take up one, maybe two Dooms if you're lucky.

With the 8 second cool down on the demagic with the felhunter, you'd only get one person per pop. The timer on it is 5 seconds, so it would only get one, but that one extra would help the priests tremendously.

Oh, and believe me, we do notice and appreciate the warlocks...the soul stones, the health stones, the curse of elements, and the fire aoe...I notice those every time.

[Waldonnis]

Repair bots are from engineering, right? If so, where can I get the recipe? Jiris is almost 300 now (like 295), and I would be happy to have her make one.

The repair bot "plan" is obtained in BRD in the goblin area behind the boss there. It requires 300 engineering to learn and is a clickable scroll on the floor rather than a drop. Having more people that are able to make this would be really helpful, actually. I think we still have a few that need to be attuned, so if you hit 300 before the next run, come along and we can pay that spot a visit along the way through.

[Qiris]

Well in that case, I will need to both finish up her engineering, and more important level her up to at least 58 (she's only 43).

[Maube]

Let me say this...

We need to get our tanks with Shadow Resist for the Luci encounter... Was chatting with Mirk about what we were doing wrong and I believe Green didnt have a lick of shadow prot on him

[greenbull]

Let me say this...

We need to get our tanks with Shadow Resist for the Luci encounter... Was chatting with Mirk about what we were doing wrong and I believe Green didnt have a lick of shadow prot on him

It's not my fault

The only Shadow Proc I has was the Spell cast on me... :\

[Waldonnis]

I was watching the buffs before every encounter and the priests definitely did well with the shadow protection casts prior to each Luci attempt...everyone was covered that I checked. For the successful attempt, we actually should have had that recast (it was running out), but it seemed to work itself out and mine actually lasted the entire fight, even though I thought it wouldn't.

I'll dig around through my stuff and see what I can come up with anyway. I believe I have some shadow resist rings somewhere as a start and will bring my Polychromatic Visionwrap to help test the value of SR during our next run. With that on and a priest's shadow protection cast alone, I should be around 105 SR (with a potion pushing it even further).

[greenbull]

I can craft Thorium Helm (10 to all prots), Belt (6 to all prots), Bracers (5 to all prots) and Leggings (10 to all prots). I'll be sacrificing a lot of stamina and armor, so I don't know if the trade-off will be positive, but it's equal to more 31 shadow prot.

About crafting, anybody can craft Enchanted Thorium equips?

From a tank point of view the fight was nice. We all got our hands right on the pull and the healers being well positioned kept me alive enough time

I want to ask a thing: when I was tanking Luci away from the rest of the raid, was I away enough to prevent his AOE from getting to the rest?

[Huato]

Yep. I believe I mentioned a while back that the tanks in Nark's run had Shadow prot gear and Fire resist gear for this place...and Mirk I believe was the one that had forgotten to switch out after the fight and was taking some massive fire damage from the respawned core/ancient hounds as we left the cave from fighting Luci and Magmadar. What can we do to help our tanks get Shadow resist gear? I'm not real familiar with tank pieces at all.

That's why I carry three shields on Huato now...the Zulian Defender for most places, Rattlecage Buckler for the shadow resist in Scholo, against Luci, against Gehennas, etc, and the Draconian deflector for the fire resist for Magmadar, Geddon, et all. Even with the priest's shadow protection buff, my shadow resist was around 80-something. I was still taking 1000, 1500, or 2000 everytime one of those Impending Dooms popped - it seems that unless you are above 100 on Shadow resist it is random how much damage you take when it goes off.

The Tier 1 epic sets that come from Molten Core all have fire resist and shadow resist spread out amongst the pieces of the set. The more time we spend in there and get the gang geared up these encounters will get easier because we will be taking less fire, shadow, and even physical damage.

Edited March 17, 2006 by Huato

[Vanidi]

Greenbull - my roomate Korgall is a 300 armorcrafter, and I beleive he's got all the Enchanted Thorium recipes. I'll have to check with him, but I think he's got'em. I'll let'cha know.

-Vani

[Huato]

Ok, we're two days away from our next foray into MC. Where do we stand on the strat for Luci as far as having a lock helping with demagicing and helping tanks get more shadow resist?

[Maube]

FYI, Mirk said he would come tank Luci for us. he has full Shadow Prot gear as Huato knows =)

But more strat is always good. Goodness knows I am on Decursive duty

[Volonazra]

I will be at my daughters dance recital, and unsure when (or if) Ill be joining you all. So, as far as the fellhunters, I think its worth a try. I suggest you pick one target for each warlock to focus on. Ask the druid (yes singluar hehe) cast MotW on the Felhound to further ensure its survival via resists. Ask the warlocks to curse, dot, and focus on demagicing not dps. (dps while on cooldown)

Get those stacks of protection potions that --should-- be on Amule that ive was trying to store up and pass them around like candy.

Give em hell...er their already in hell..so, ah..you know what i mean

[Huato]

Having Mirk there will help, but it won't solve the problems we had last week with the Impending Doom being removed in a timely manner.

We need to assign one target for the locks to handle each time it goes off, as the Felhunter will be off the cooldown by the time the next one is cast. The priests then need to be assigned to the remainder of the people in the range of it.

One thing we need to try to do to help the priests and locks is to keep as much of the raid out of range of Luci after the Flame walkers go down. We can pulse the melee'rs in and out, but that's tricky. We can also keep the ranged attacks out enough that they shouldn't be getting the doom (I think).

The priests...I think they should stay back just enough to remove the doom from us (same with the locks) so that they aren't subject to it. That should help them a little too.

Please let me know if the placement was already taking place...I was on healing duty for Greenbull last week, so I did not see what was going on behind me.

The Shadow protection potions will be a god send for this encounter.

[greenbull]

Well, with Mirk tanking Lucifron I think we'll have no problems. With damage prot we need less healers on him and so we got more healers keeping people alive. I have no shadow prot gear, so I die pretty fast.

Cool fact of the week: you can go to the DKP site and add your wishlist. Type in your character name (Case matters), and the code 'crusher_w1sh' (or 'crushers_w1sh') to select what items you're after, some nice statistics are made based on drop rate, etc...

Edited March 20, 2006 by greenbull

[Huato]

Updated my wish list! Thanks Greenbull!

Only thing I didn't see on there was Malistar's Defender.

[Maube]

Lucifrons Curse is what Mages take off, we just need to have a priest assign priority to mages, Priests then to tanks =) Impending doom pretty much kills me in 1-2 shots

I went through my mana pool twice in that battle, the curses that popped on you prolly were because of me having to back out and bandaide up.

This week I am going to set up a mages channel like the priests and warriors have, maybe we really should look into a class channel for our big duties, so have mages and warlocks in one for decursive duty, hunters for Mags fight, etc =)