Holyssa

Thing to know if you decide to trek there after Bioware's newest patch:

- Supply Boxes are not shared objectives if you're in an Ops group. You'll need to loot them individually. There's 30 for the Daily. Not sure about the Weekly.

- The Boxes only spawn in the Central area, thankfully at a decent rate. Expect to get eaten by stealthers if you loot the ones too close to the roads, so watch out!

- Kills are shared even if you are not grouped, though this is kinda buggy. Some kills gave credit/Valor, some did not. It may depend on who lands the killing blow on the person you're fighting with. Test/gank at your own risk.

- Flipping any of the five objectives with the other faction doesn't do anything except provide a buff now, just like before. It has no impact on the daily/weekly.

- The daily still only gives 1 Champion Bag for all that hard work.

This reminded me of that How Many Five Year Olds Can You Take in a Fight site:

http://www.howmanyfiveyearoldscouldyoutakeinafight.com/

http://www.swtor.com/blog/launch-downtime-reminder-new-servers-incoming

Finally, don't forget that after tonight's downtime, you are entering a 'grace period' in which you will need to enter your final product registration code (AKA 'game code') from your copy of the game (or your email from Origin), along with your preferred payment method, to activate your 30 days of game time. You can redeem your game code here.

As another reminder, we'll be taking down the game servers and SWTOR.com at the end of that 'grace period' at 2AM CST (12AM PST/3AM EST/8AM GMT/9AM CET), the early hours of December 22nd. When the servers come back up at that time, you will need a product registration code redeemed on your account to continue playing. To ensure you can continue to play, make sure you redeem your code as soon as possible.

Not sure if it only applies to Early Access folks, but keep checking your inboxes again for that game code after servers come back up tonight! Two days is a pretty tight time window, so hopefully Bioware's monkeys can send 'em out quickly.

WAHOO! JUSt got my Early Access not even an hour ago. Will be playing Bounty Hunter named Sendack

The patch is friggin' here finally. But you have jack squat to use Transmogrification for! Here's more links to help you find the perfect suit to pwn face with, or make those people in LFG PuGs turn heads.

The Visual Roleplayer:

http://wowroleplaygear.com/

I listed this one before, but it's a nice list of pre-made outfits that are transmog friendly, or even for just plain ol' RPing. Check the side links for other gear blogs.

MogMyGear.com:

http://mogmygear.com/

A listing of 'sets' for nearly every race and class combo. Beware, some can induce blindness (female dwarves for example).

Wowhead:

http://www.wowhead.com/transmog-sets

Wowhead now lists Transmog sets also. They are also one of the few sites to have collected sets of the new, green Cataclysm 1-60 quest rewards that match.

MogIt:

http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/mogit

This addon is amazing. You can browse an in-game loot list in full 3D, and even try on multiple pieces that match your class. It even lets you link and search by color. As of 4.3, it still seems to work without a hitch.

Mr. Pinchy, I CHOSE YOU!

GRAGH! Won't be able to come along tonight due to unexpected (and urgent) company dropping by. Pretty sure Orcala already declined herself as well. Sorry!

After some time, he cried, left behind some shiney's and retreated back down to the depths of the firelands...

Wait! Didn't he retreat because Uncle Ug said "I'll cut ya!", and proceeded to poke him anyway?

And now, the hotfixes!

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/3019413

Dungeons & Raids

Firelands

• Hell Hound Rend Flesh damage has been reduced by 25%.
  
• The damage multiplier granted by energy to Unstable Magma has been reduced by 50%.
  
• Alysrazor
  
  • Health and damage have been reduced by 25% on normal difficulty. Health and damage have been reduced by 15% on Heroic difficulty.
    
  • Alysrazor now drops 1 additional feather in 10-player mode and 2 additional feathers in 25-player mode in all cycles.
    
  • The Wings of Flame buff duration on Alysrazor is now uniformly 30 seconds.
    
  • Alysrazor’s Fiery Tornados now move slower.
    

  [*]Baleroc

  • Health and damage have been reduced by 25% on normal difficulty. Health and damage have been reduced by 15% on Heroic difficulty.
    
  • Baleroc now swings 25% slower while Decimation Blade is active.
    
  • The duration of Tormented has been reduced on normal difficulty.
    

  [*]Beth'tilac

  • Beth'tilac's health and damage have been reduced by 15% on both normal and Heroic difficulty.
    

  [*]Lord Rhyolith

  • Health and damage have been reduced by 15% on both normal and Heroic difficulty.
    
  • The health and damage of additional enemies in this encounter have been reduced by 15% on both normal and Heroic difficulty.
    

  [*]Majordomo Fandral Staghelm

  • Health and damage have been reduced by 25% on normal difficulty. Health and damage has been reduced by 15% on Heroic difficulty.
    
  • Druid of the Flame have had their health reduced by 15%, and Sunfire damage reduced by 25% on both difficulties.
    
  • The health and melee damage of Spirit of the Flame have been reduced by 25% on normal difficulty, and reduced by 15% on Heroic difficulty.
    

  [*]Ragnaros

  • Ragnaros' health and damage have been reduced by 25% on normal difficulty.
    
  • Ragnaros' damage has been reduced by 15% on Heroic difficulty.
    
  • Magma Trap damage has been reduced on all difficulties.
    
  • The health and damage of additional enemies in this encounter have been reduced by 25% on normal difficulty and 15% on Heroic difficulty.
    
  • Wrath of Ragnaros now knocks targets up, but not back, on normal difficulty.
    

  [*]Shannox

  • Health and damage have been reduced by 15% on both normal and Heroic difficulty.
    
  • Riplimb's health has been reduced by 15%.
    
  • Rageface's health has been reduced by 15%.
    
  • Magma Flare damage and Hurl Spear damage have been reduced by 15% on both difficulties.
    

Holy smokes.

With the final showdown against Deathwing approaching, we’ve been keeping a close eye on players' progress through the current Firelands raid content. Before patch 4.3 is released, we want groups who are working on Heroic-difficulty content to be able to get as close to Ragnaros as possible, and we want players who are tackling normal progression to be able to experience as many of the encounters as they can. To achieve these goals, we’ll be toning down the difficulty of both normal and Heroic raids through hotfixes in the coming weeks. In general, we plan to reduce health and damage of all raid bosses in both normal and Heroic Firelands by around the same percentage we brought difficulty down for the original Cataclysm raids when Rage of the Firelands (patch 4.2) was released.

We're looking forward to seeing more groups of players face off against the Fire Lord in the weeks ahead. However, before we make these changes, we want to give everyone a final shot at the bosses at their current difficulty level -- so this is a heads up that we’re planning to apply the difficulty hotfixes beginning the week of September 19.

Stay tuned to the Patch 4.2 Hotfixes blog for these and other live updates to the game as they happen.

This is a nice change (coming next week!), but I can't help but feel it's a little too soon (no pun intended). Don't they usually save this crap for AFTER the latest content patch? I guess they want people to kill Deathchin sooner with all the juicy FL stuff.

Not sure how much this will affect Drae's progress, but...

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2437-Legendary-Staff-Smoldering-Essence-Droprate-Stealth-Nerf-Confirmed?page=3#comments

Legendary Staff - Smoldering Essence Droprate Stealth Nerf Confirmed

One of the many stealth nerf deployed yesterday on live realms was a nerf of the questline to obtain Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest, but not in a good way.

The Smoldering Essences required for the Heart of the Flame quest has been considerably lowered, you will now get about 50% less essences than before the nerf.

For example, you will now get 9 or 10 essences from bosses in 25-Man Heroic mode instead of 17-19.

Players in 10-Man Heroic mode will only get 3 or 4 instead of an average of 7.

This change is surprising and might not be a good news for players, if Blizzard suddenly wants some parts of the game to last longer before the next patch.

Just like any of yesterday's nerf to the firelands raid bosses, we don't have any comment or information from Blizzard at this point and the only comment is from a Blizzard QA poster who confirmed that this is indeed an intentional change.

Blizz response: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3123245166?page=4#63

If you're like most people, browsing Wowhead or AtlasLoot for cool looking gear to use with the next big patch can be a pain in the butt. This site thankfully takes all the hard work (or at least some of it) from looking for a set of armor that looks good and makes you a bit more badass:

http://roleplaygear.wordpress.com/

This site has tons of armor 'sets' (not just tier gear either) complete with drop locations and commentary.

Bear in mind that if you want to use this stuff with Transmogrification (see Blizzard's preview HERE), keep your eyes only on sets that match your class's armor type (Mail for Shamans/Hunters, Leather for Rogues/Druids, etc), since Blizzard states that you cannot mix armor types with this up and coming feature.

Happy shopping/farming!

Great job killing super chicken last night, but I think these hotfixes may explain why the raid felt a little...simpler than usual:

Classes

Threat

Threat generation for all tanks has been increased to 500%, up from 300%. This applies to warriors in Defensive Stance, death knights in Blood Presence, druids in Bear Form, and paladins with Righteous Fury.

Vengeance should no longer be generated when damage is fully absorbed by damage shields. When the shield breaks from damage or damage is partially absorbed, the amount of Vengeance generated is equal to the full amount of damage taken (including the damage absorbed.)

More information can be found in our latest Dev Watercooler.

Dungeons & Raids

Baradin Hold

Occu’thar has come into a larger supply of PvE gear than he previously possessed.

Firelands

Hell Hounds should now be nigh impossible for a single player to kill.

The Grab Bag dropped by all Firelands bosses should now occasionally contain Crystallized Firestones in Heroic difficulty.

Baleroc

Baleroc should now always choose Inferno Blade the first time he casts Blades of Baleroc.

Beth’tilac

Beth'tilac now does slightly less damage on normal difficulty.

Lord Rhyolith

The explosion damage radius of each Magma Meteor just before Lord Rhyolith should now more closely match their spell effect visuals.

Volcanoes should no longer emit plumes of smoke while they are dormant.

Concussive Stomp should no longer knock nearby players back.

Magma Flow lines are now 30 yards long, down from 40 yards.

Rhyolith now activates volcanoes less often on normal difficulty.

Stepping on an active volcano now removes 16 stacks of armor, up from 10.

Majordomo Fandral Staghelm

All threat generated in this encounter has been reduced in Heroic difficulty.

Ragnaros

Ragnaros’s Sons of Flame should now be immune to silence effects.

Shannox

Shannox, Riplimb and Rageface have all had their damage reduced slightly on normal difficulty.

Quests

Players should now be able to keep the Quest Giver buff from the quest Welcome to the Machine in Hillsbrad Foothills.

Bear in mind this is the Testing phase of this new thing, so it's currently free till Blizzard pulls the premium crap on us. Have fun!

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/3119305

When delving into the depths of Azeroth's darkest dungeons, it always helps to have some friends at your side... now you're able to issue a call to arms no matter what realm they play on. We're pleased to announce the new Real ID Party feature is now available for testing! This new feature will allow World of Warcraft players to invite their real-life Real ID friends of the same faction to a party regardless of the realm they play on, and then queue up for a 5-player regular or Heroic dungeon.

To learn more about Real ID, please visit the Real ID web page and read the FAQ.

For more information about how the Real ID Party system works, check out the FAQ below.

Real ID Party Feature – Test Phase FAQ

Q: What is the Real ID Party feature?

A: Players can now invite Real ID friends of the same faction to a 5-player normal or Heroic dungeon group, regardless of what realm their friends are on. This system is designed to make it easier for real-life friends to play together.

Q: How do I invite Real ID friends to a Real ID party?

A: Inviting a Real ID friend to a Real ID Party is simple. Just open up your Friends list to see which Real ID friends are online. Click on the “Plus” button to send an invitation to a Real ID friend to join your group. You can continue to add Real ID friends to your party until the group is complete. If you cannot complete the group with Real ID friends, you are free to join the Dungeon Finder to fill in the missing roles.

Q: Does a player need to have Real ID enabled to accept a Real ID group invite?

A: Yes, a player must have Real ID enabled, and both players must be Real ID friends to accept or initiate Real ID party invitations.

Q: Can a party leader invite a mix of Real ID friends, character-level friends, guildmates, or random players to the same party?

A: A party leader can invite any combination of Real ID friends from any realm, guildmates from the same realm, or other characters from the same realm to the same party. If the party leader isn’t able to fill up the entire party, the Dungeon Finder can fill in the missing roles.

Q: Can I invite someone who is not a Real ID friend?

A: You can only invite members to a party if they are on your Real ID friends list or if they are on the same realm as you are.

Q: Can I invite a friend of a Real ID friend?

A: No, you can only invite those who are Real ID friends with you directly to the party.

Q: How long will the testing period last?

A: We haven’t yet determined how long the testing period will last. We'll keep you updated on the status and inform you when the test period is going to end in the future.

Q: Will aspects of the Real ID Party system be premium-based?

A: We'll have information on the premium-based aspects of the Real ID Party system toward the end of the testing period.

So....is this what happens when a druid is ganked by another hunter?

((That guy's vids are amazing BTW Sky XD ))

WOW - this is amazingly well done, chief! If we wanna contribute screenshots & stories, where do we send 'em to? I think I can come up with some goodies for next issue.

Ragnaros (By feet, be purged!)

Video:

Strat/ideas:(I'm not sure if this applies to 10 or 25, but it's insightful reading either way)

Phase 1

Ragnaros is two-tanked, and will put a stacking fire DoT on its current aggro target. Tanks must switch off near 10 stacks and use cooldowns towards the end of their turn.

Every 30 seconds, Ragnaros will cast Sulfuras Smash. He will face a random player and hit the area they were standing in after two seconds of cast time. The location of the smash is given away by three lava pools formed together on the spot. When the cast is finished, three lava waves will spawn and move in different directions. (one is in the direction the boss was facing, and the other two will be to the perpendicular sides.) The locations of these smashes will always be within an arc just barely past the edge of the platform in front of Ragnaros. They are easily avoidable by standing diagonal to the direction of the smash or close-up to the boss. Touching the lava wave will knock back the player and place a strong magic DoT on them which will kill them if not dispelled immediately.

Ragnaros will also randomly burst the entire raid, knocking them back a few yards. (Similar to Al'Akir's Wind Burst but without a cast time.) Players should not be near the edge of the platform or they will get knocked off into the lava. Players must also be aware of this knockback possibly due at the same time a Sulfuras Smash occurs so they do not accidentally get knocked into the lava waves or a trap. This mechanic only occurs during Phase 1.

Ranged must be fully spread out as a random ranged player will be targeted with a trap on the ground that will damage the entire raid when triggered. It will remain there for the entire fight unless it is activated by a player moving into it. Warlocks with Demonic Portals, Mages with Slowfall, or Priests with Levitate can trigger these without dying. However, they must be sure the entire raid is topped before doing so as this combined with Ragnaros' random burst will kill someone who is not fully healed.

Phase 1.5

At 70%, Ragnaros will face a random direction in front of him and throw down Sulfuras before submerging. Eight fire elemental adds will spawn in static locations around the perimeter of the platform.

If any one of these elementals touches Sulfuras, they will cast Supernova and blast your entire raid for a lot of damage. This will wipe your raid if you are not fully topped. They start with a movement speed increase which will decrease as their health lowers to 50%. All melee should be separated to their own assigned add to stunlock and burn it down while ranged finish off all adds prioritized by whichever is closest to Sulfuras. These adds cannot be rooted or snared, but they can be Death Gripped, and knocked back with Typhoon. When all adds have died or 45 seconds have elapsed in this phase, Ragnaros will reemerge.

Phase 2

Ragnaros uses a new ability which will also be used in Phase 3. Engulfing Flames will be cast for 3 seconds on a third of the room (separated in lanes: melee, middle, ranged)

Every 60 seconds, Ragnaros will spawn lava seeds on random players within the raid. All players must be spread out to avoid the splash damage these seeds cause when placed but remain on one side of the room before they are placed. After all seeds are placed, players must cross over to the other side immediately before these seeds detonate. Damage from all the seeds are based on proximity, so the closer the deadlier. After the explosion, adds will spawn for each one of these seeds and target random players. The raid must stack up to AoE all these adds down before spreading back out for the next wave of seeds. The raid can stack anywhere, but it would be easiest to do so on top of the tank at the very front of the platform to avoid being caught off guard by Sulfuras Smash. However, if any players stagger and are too far back they are likely to get instantly killed by Sulfuras Smash.

The biggest part of this phase is being in the right place at the right time. When a Sulfuras Smash or Engulfing Flames occurs, players must remain at least 6 yards away from each other when Lava Seeds are coming. These two abilities will also occur when players are stacking up to AoE adds so they must be aware of them coming. The abilities used in this phase are static and sequential, so it's easy to memorize what will happen when. (e.g. Every second lava seed spawn having a Sulfuras Smash happen right after the explosion)

Phase 2.5

Starts at 40% HP. The exact same as Phase 1.5 with the addition of two Lava Scions, each one spawning on separate sides of the room which must be tanked. All players must kill their elemental adds quickly as before with the exception of the furthest one to buy time to kill both Lava Scions before Ragnaros reemerges. Chain grips and knockbacks on the last add to use the full duration of the phase while burning down one of the scions to free a tank for Ragnaros in Phase 3.

Phase 3

Sulfuras Smash and Engulfing Flames are still used in this phase. Very large meteors will now start spawning as a soft enrage in this fight to chase random players. The spawn location is given away with a graphic similar to Hellfire which everyone nearby must move away from. They are extremely slow, and can be knocked back every 5 seconds by doing direct damage to them. However, it should only be hit if it's in danger of touching the player. Meteors do not stay on the same player and may switch to a different one at any time, so it's important to keep distance from all active meteors. Collision with the meteor will cause it to explode, killing the colliding player and everyone within 8 yards. As this phase persists, meteors will keep spawning and chasing more players so Ragnaros must be killed as fast as possible.

At 10% HP, Ragnaros dies instantly. No cutscene, no home-free burn to 0.

Majordomo Staghelm (TOO SOON, STAGHELM!)

Video:

Strat/Ideas:

http://www.tankspot.com/showthread.php?76466-Majordomo-Staghelm (Tankspot, 25-man)

General Tips:

Fandral transforms into a Cat when his enemies are not clustered together or into a Scorpion when 7 or more of his enemies are clustered together. On every third transform, Fandral briefly pauses in human form.

When switching. from Scorpion to Cat Have players use Blink, Disengage, heroic leap, Demonic portal to spread out instantly. This is especially important during the first scorpion phase where you are likely to push Staghelm to 10+ stacks and the flame Scythes will come fast and furious.

Similarly when going from Cat to Scorpion have players start moving in as his energy passes85%. you can get most of the way in while he's still in the air without risking him leaping on someone close.

If you are having difficultly with enough room for seeds in the second scorpion phase make sure during the preceding cat phase that players stay well outside the circle center of the room, and if a Leaping Flames void zone is within 10-20 yards of you be sure to stand near the edge of it to overlap the void zones as much as possible.

Regarding Burning Orbs 2 people are generally sufficient to control an orb. the Orbs usually last until around the 6th leap of the corresponding cat phase. As you approach the fifth and sixth leaps you will likely have void zones on the Orbs and it will be harder to control who they are hitting. During this time Remember that abilities like Deterrence, Cloak of Shadows, and Iceblock can clear and/or prevent new stacks from applying if a player gets caught tanking two, or goes much above 5 stacks.

This fight is won or lost with how fast you can stack up and spread out so make sure your raid knows at which points to do each, and it will die fairly quickly.

Baleroc (FFS, just call it a Balrog)

Video:

Strat/Ideas:

http://www.tankspot.com/showthread.php?76470-Baleroc (Applies to 25-man, not much 10-man info out there just yet)

Shannox (Release the hounds!)

Video:

Strats/Ideas:

Regarding Spawn Methods:

-He spawns after a certain amount of trash has been killed (I don't know the exact details yet, just kill things until the hunter's horn emote has happened 3 times).

-He can be tanked anywhere you want, he doesn't leash to any specific area. Make sure you have a large area of trash cleared, you could easily use a lot of space fighting Shannox.

-He pats around the main ring road. Watch out for him while clearing trash!

-Make sure you're ready to pull when you see him coming, since he takes a looong time to do a full lap of the road, so if you miss pulling him into your trash-free area, you'll be waiting a while.

Kill related:

1. Start the pull, but put a 55-60 yard separation on Shannox and Riplimb. Exceed 60 yards and they both enrage.

2. Kill Rageface first. The Shannox tank gets hit much harder as a result, but it's easier to deal with that than whatever Rageface will dish out.

3. AFter Rageface dies, melee go to Shannox while ranged go to Riplimb.

4. When Shannox throws his spear, the Riplimb tank immediately runs towards Shannox. This causes the spear and Riplimb to be 30 yards apart when the spear lands, so Riplimb has to run 30 yards just to get to the spear, then another 60 yards to get back to Shannox. If you can slow Riplimb, or even get him in a crystal trap in the path he takes to run to the spear and back, will give both tanks enough time to lose their debuffs. In the event that the Shannox tank doesn't lose his debuff completely, he should still be able to survive until the next spear throw

5. DPS Shannox down to 35%, then DPS Riplimb down to death, then kill Riplimb, pop Lust and cooldowns, and kill Shannox.

Alysrazor (Reserved till more 10-man info surfaces)

Video:

Strat/ideas:

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=52530#comments:id=1455609 <-- applies to 25-man, but still somewhat insightful.

Lord Rhyolith (WTB the Anti-christ like name from PTR back ))

Video:

Strat/Ideas:

The fight starts when players cross the bridge onto Rhyolith's platform. When engaged he does not need tanked as rather than attack players directly he begins walking in a straight line from one end of the platform to the other. Players need to steer the boss by attacking either his Left Leg or Right Leg, both of which are targetable. Attacking the Left Leg makes the boss turn left and attacking the Right Leg makes the boss turn right. If Rhyolith reaches the edge of his platform he drinks from the lava surrounding it and kills everyone.

Phase 1

During the course of the first phase Rhyolith stomps on the ground, inflicting fire damage to everyone and knocking back players within 20 yards. The stomps also spawn two to three little volcanoes around the platform, which are activated over the course of the fight. When a volcano is active it does a small amount of unavoidable damage to random players, also randomly stacking a debuff on your raid that increases your fire damage taken. This debuff can stack up to 20 times. Your dps must attack Rhyolith's legs in order to force him to walk over these active volcanoes, which will cause them to become craters. Once a volcano becomes a crater it stops causing fire damage and applying debuffs to players, and it also reduces Rhyolith's stacks of Obsidian Armor by 10. The lower his stacks of Obsidian Armor, the more damage Rhyolith takes.

When the boss is marched over a volcano there is a chance that he will cause lines of lava to blossom from it in multiple directions. If you are in the path of a line of lava as it grows you will take a large amount of damage. When the lines have finished growing they explode, which will also cause a large amount of damage and throw your character into the air.

Also throughout the first phase of the fight Rhyolith will summon adds to help him. There are two different types; small adds and large adds. The small adds, Fragments of Rhyolith, have fairly low health, but are also quite dangerous. If not killed within 30 seconds, these adds will explode, doing damage equal to the amount of health they have left to a random player. They spawn in groups. The large adds, Sparks of Rhyolith, do an AoE fire attack similar to a warlock's Hellfire. They also have a buff that increases the damage the Sparks give and receive, making them more dangerous as time goes on, but also easier to kill. These adds spawn one at a time.

Tactic

The tactic we used (in 10 man) was to put two melee on the legs full time, with one of them calling out on Vent which leg to attack. With one person in charge of where to steer the boss the volcanoes become a lot easier to get rid of. We used only one tank for the encounter, having him tank the Fragments in the first phase, and had two ranged take care of the Sparks (hunter and warlock), the hunter kiting the Spark away from the rest of the raid.

When only one volcano was active the healing was pretty easy, but if a second volcano popped up before the stacks from the previous volcano dropped off, the healing became much harder. The rest of the dps attacked the legs as directed and helped on the Fragments when they spawned.

Having the ranged stack up together helped with the healing, and it also made it easier for the tank to pick up the Fragments, as they mostly went for the healers just after spawning. Just make sure that if you do stack your raid up that everyone stays over 20 yards away from Rhyolith; a knockback from the stomp at the wrong time could leave you standing on top of a line of lava that's about to explode.

Phase 2

Rhyolith needs to be picked up by the tank and the last 25% of his health burned off. Save Bloodlust/Heroism and some personal cooldowns for this phase, stack the raid up away from the boss to avoid the stomp and help with the healing and cycle through raid wide healing/defensive cooldowns to make it to the finish line.

Beth'tilac (OH GOD, SPIDERS...on FIRE!)

Video:

Strat/ideas:

General Boss Information:

This boss is a 2 phase encounter.

She summons adds and sprays fire/magma to try and kill the raid

It is a fairly simple encounter and mainly just a gear check

Boss Abilities:

---Phase 1: (Not % based)

Upon engaging Beth, she retreats to her canopy and begins casting a magma spew that damages all members of the raid until a player goes to the canopy with her... which is reached by mounting on the remaining webs of dead spiders.

Shortly after engaging, she will spawn groups of adds...

1 Cinderweb Drone

A large spider that needs to be tanked

He does a frontal cone AoE magma spew, so turn it away from the raid

Also casts Burning Acid on random players

We had our rogue on this add the whole time with help from everyone else when there was nothing to do.

4-6 Cinderweb Spinners

These are medium sized spiders that dangle from webs, and will remain there until taunted down.

They don't do much damage and have ~230k HP

Also casts Burning Acid on random players

Once these spiders die, their webs can be used to reach the top of the canopy... We usually send the tank first, followed by a healer and then 1-2 DPS.

We had our hunter solo these during this phase

15ish Cinderweb Spiderlings

Run around casting Seeping Venom if they get too close to a player.

Have very little health and can be AoE down easily

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These adds will spawn as groups with the numbers stated above. You will get them after each Smoldering Devastation, which she will cast once her mana reaches zero.

You want to make sure that the people going up jump down through a hole in the canopy as she starts casting this ability. While up top, all you have to do is DPS and watch out for the Meteors that she casts. There is an effect on the ground and it's pretty easy to avoid

Smoldering Devastation will happen 3 times before entering Phase 2

---Phase 2:

Phase 2 starts after the third Smoldering Devastation cast.

Make sure the adds are dead when she enters P2 because she will consume them and get healed up.

This phase is 100% a burn phase.

Have everyone in your raid stack, except for the 2 tanks. This is due to The Widow's Kiss. When this happens, tank swap.

Alongside the kiss, Beth will begin to slowly enrage by casting Frenzy every few seconds. This stacks indefinitely until the end of the encounter.

Finally, the hardest part of P2 is Ember Flare, which is cast periodically and hits the whole raid. Stack up and use CDs to survive the latter part of this phase

Tips:

Send as much DPS up top as you can to get as much damage on her as possible without getting overrun below.

Execution is key, but fairly easy... just kill what you need to and avoid meteors

Don't be bad.

Like my Blackwing post, this'll be filled with vids, and strats collected for all of the new bosses in Firelands. And again, if you have changes or contributions, feel free to add onto the thread

Definitely a sigh of relief to slaughter this guy, just before the wave of nerfs coming next patch. 'Nefarian's End' is a fitting name for this encounter indeed.

Bring on da Firelands!