Held this post off for a wee bit too long: the first reason being that separating the last few bosses into groups of two would've meant an aeon for dark animus, the second being that I hadn't managed to get a video of a twin consorts kill. Now that I have both, here we are.
Ninth Heroic was TWIN CONSORTS
I was playing as MARKSMANSHIP
Note that the first kill we had done of Twin Consorts I was actually playing as Survival. Generally for new bosses, with the exception of Beast Mastery as I hadn't had the spec, I put preference on the specialization that other hunters seemed to favour for the fight. Since Twin Consorts has an AoE segment, and that as a result most everyone was favouring Survival for its burst, that's what I used for our first kill.
As you can see, in retrospect, I decided the AoE factor of the fight was a severe non-issue and went back to my single target spec for further repeats. If, for whatever reason, you are having trouble with the Dark of Night AoE intermission, then by all means - but I found bombardment to be perfectly strong for this quick phase. In other words, very similar to Ji-Kun, only without the damage buff and only occurring once.
Twin Consorts is not a DPS fight. There is nothing special you need do here except for stand away from everyone else and show how good your throughput is. Every once in a while Suen will pop up, whereby a Survival hunter has a nice edge being able to multishot an ISS onto her each time. Since she no longer retains DoTs when she disappears, though, I'd almost wager that the Marksman swapping to her for a reactivation of their Careful Aim phase to be better spent.
It's important you don't stand too close to an icy comet so as to cause it to melt, but other than that all our job is consists of pewpew and hiding behind meteors whenever alysrazor decides to blow the winds of fire. Er, I mean, stand behind the comet when Suen casts Nuclear Inferno. You can jump and disengage away from Cosmic Barrage, but without good timing and posthaste you are likely still going to be hit by this ability - you can practice doing this, or do so simply to spread away from others, but if you are already in a safe location it's probably best to just stay in range of your healers.
As you'll see in the video, it's very important not to be clumped up right before a Cosmic Barrage, even if something else is about to happen. Oops!
If you're the unlucky soul who has to run through and activate the Celestials, keep in mind your timing. Here's my original video of the Celestial constellation drawings followed by some notes from our Celestial runner:
Heroic constellation timings -
Went down with 15 seconds roughly on the transition from p1 to p2, started running roughly 10 seconds remaining. Popped about a second into the phase. This leaves plenty of time for them to reactivate before the next.
Ox was next - timed this one with about 20 seconds left on the nuclear inferno timer. Lasts 30 seconds, complete it asap.
Serpent - 15ish seconds on timer, because its quick to run. Try not to land it before about 3 seconds on the timer.
Xuen - Same thing, 15ish on the timer.
Phase 3:
Xuen first. Start running with roughly 13 seconds before tidal force, and you should make it just before.
Ox next, same as p2, 20ish seconds on the inferno timer.
Serpent third, I think that one actually lined up with the next tidal force, I can't remember exactly.
Cranes whenever after that.
As you can see, in retrospect, I decided the AoE factor of the fight was a severe non-issue and went back to my single target spec for further repeats. If, for whatever reason, you are having trouble with the Dark of Night AoE intermission, then by all means - but I found bombardment to be perfectly strong for this quick phase. In other words, very similar to Ji-Kun, only without the damage buff and only occurring once.
Twin Consorts is not a DPS fight. There is nothing special you need do here except for stand away from everyone else and show how good your throughput is. Every once in a while Suen will pop up, whereby a Survival hunter has a nice edge being able to multishot an ISS onto her each time. Since she no longer retains DoTs when she disappears, though, I'd almost wager that the Marksman swapping to her for a reactivation of their Careful Aim phase to be better spent.
It's important you don't stand too close to an icy comet so as to cause it to melt, but other than that all our job is consists of pewpew and hiding behind meteors whenever alysrazor decides to blow the winds of fire. Er, I mean, stand behind the comet when Suen casts Nuclear Inferno. You can jump and disengage away from Cosmic Barrage, but without good timing and posthaste you are likely still going to be hit by this ability - you can practice doing this, or do so simply to spread away from others, but if you are already in a safe location it's probably best to just stay in range of your healers.
As you'll see in the video, it's very important not to be clumped up right before a Cosmic Barrage, even if something else is about to happen. Oops!
If you're the unlucky soul who has to run through and activate the Celestials, keep in mind your timing. Here's my original video of the Celestial constellation drawings followed by some notes from our Celestial runner:
Heroic constellation timings -
Went down with 15 seconds roughly on the transition from p1 to p2, started running roughly 10 seconds remaining. Popped about a second into the phase. This leaves plenty of time for them to reactivate before the next.
Ox was next - timed this one with about 20 seconds left on the nuclear inferno timer. Lasts 30 seconds, complete it asap.
Serpent - 15ish seconds on timer, because its quick to run. Try not to land it before about 3 seconds on the timer.
Xuen - Same thing, 15ish on the timer.
Phase 3:
Xuen first. Start running with roughly 13 seconds before tidal force, and you should make it just before.
Ox next, same as p2, 20ish seconds on the inferno timer.
Serpent third, I think that one actually lined up with the next tidal force, I can't remember exactly.
Cranes whenever after that.
Tenth Heroic was DURUMU
I was playing as SURVIVAL
Again, this was another fight where I returned to the scene as Marksmanship after our first kill. Bombardment is not as strong as Serpent Spread ISS, but combined with Barrage I found it to be perfectly up to par. Regardless of spec, the usefulness of Barrage's cone will win out here. More often than not, it seems, the high AoE numbers on Durumu ice walls are simply from people AoE padding onto all three of the wall segments rather than just bursting down the first one in your way. If you have the AoE burst to still get them all down, this is obviously the best route - but when you're first learning, sometimes it's best to play it safe.
Heroic Durumu is essentially the same as normal Durumu, minus the inclusion of tri-angled Ice Walls that are set into six segments per wall. These six segments have a shared health pool, meaning that AoEing each of the six segments of a single wall will cause the whole wall to collapse very quickly. Since they spread from the center of the room, with Durumu as the origin, it's more throughput to AoE each of the first few segments of all three ice walls along with the boss. However, if you're not making the damage par on time for a particular wall, switch only to that wall. Your damage will look lower, but you'll just have to explain why this lower damage is actually more damage to the right place giving the time restriction. Preferably, however, you can just AoE them all down from the center without issue. If you're moving through the main ice wall, you are safe to hug this ice wall as the maze approaches. If you're going through the opposite wall, however, bare in mind that the maze will be directly under it and hugging this wall will kill you swiftly. Watch the swirling in the maze to know what sections are next to dissipate.
Do not underestimate the usefulness of emphasizing boss mechanics. This is one fight where "keeping an eye" on things is truly important. Make sure you have lingering gaze emphasized, because there is no larger sin than not noticing you had a lingering gaze to drop on the outside edge. Besides lingering gaze, which is what drops the purple puddles, I suggest also emphasizing the five second countdown to the tri-beam phase. This lets you be prepared with some peripheral vision action to spot the add spawn points.
Finally, if you're a beam carrier, do be aware of this. You will have the tri-beam phase emphasized, so you will have a reminder to check if you are carrying a beam. Here is the post I made on the Might forums about Durumu beam handling:
If you KNOW WHERE THE RED ADDS ARE then you can just cut across the circles in a diamond shape to each spot. But if you DON'T KNOW WHERE THE REDS ARE then one of two things happen:
1. You move too quickly.
2. You move too slowly.
By being in these relative positions you are ensuring two things -
1. You will not move too quickly because your beam is moving at average (50/50) speed. It is the most efficient spacing because you have twice the width of an add to work with.
2. You will not move too slowly because it is the most efficient movement both for finding at 50/50width squared AND anyone either behind or in front of you will have relatively equal chances of keeping up in the radius.
You are also only three spaces away from the toilet buffer, so if you get a shit on you you're not going to mess it up. Anyone behind you is also still going to have enough time to reach the edge of the toilet.
The two WORST THINGS YOU COULD POSSIBLY DO EVER are:
1. Over shoot the red beam. I was grilling people to Aszh on our first week of normal modes for this, go ahead and ask him! I won't forgive you if you do it in heroic and I guarantee it's because you were too close to the boss and whipping your dick around too fast. Now that I've said that it'll happen to me.
2. Move too slowly. Being afraid of committing number 1 is twice as bad as actually doing so. You're not going to do so because you know what to do already, so don't be afraid of something you already know. We are all gamers and I guarantee you that you have the reaction speed to stop when you get the alert (unless you're whippin' dicks).
Do you have to do it exactly like this? Probably not. But I think you'll be surprised how much calmer and nicer things are when you treat it like a well oiled machine.
Heroic Durumu is essentially the same as normal Durumu, minus the inclusion of tri-angled Ice Walls that are set into six segments per wall. These six segments have a shared health pool, meaning that AoEing each of the six segments of a single wall will cause the whole wall to collapse very quickly. Since they spread from the center of the room, with Durumu as the origin, it's more throughput to AoE each of the first few segments of all three ice walls along with the boss. However, if you're not making the damage par on time for a particular wall, switch only to that wall. Your damage will look lower, but you'll just have to explain why this lower damage is actually more damage to the right place giving the time restriction. Preferably, however, you can just AoE them all down from the center without issue. If you're moving through the main ice wall, you are safe to hug this ice wall as the maze approaches. If you're going through the opposite wall, however, bare in mind that the maze will be directly under it and hugging this wall will kill you swiftly. Watch the swirling in the maze to know what sections are next to dissipate.
Do not underestimate the usefulness of emphasizing boss mechanics. This is one fight where "keeping an eye" on things is truly important. Make sure you have lingering gaze emphasized, because there is no larger sin than not noticing you had a lingering gaze to drop on the outside edge. Besides lingering gaze, which is what drops the purple puddles, I suggest also emphasizing the five second countdown to the tri-beam phase. This lets you be prepared with some peripheral vision action to spot the add spawn points.
Finally, if you're a beam carrier, do be aware of this. You will have the tri-beam phase emphasized, so you will have a reminder to check if you are carrying a beam. Here is the post I made on the Might forums about Durumu beam handling:
If you KNOW WHERE THE RED ADDS ARE then you can just cut across the circles in a diamond shape to each spot. But if you DON'T KNOW WHERE THE REDS ARE then one of two things happen:
1. You move too quickly.
2. You move too slowly.
By being in these relative positions you are ensuring two things -
1. You will not move too quickly because your beam is moving at average (50/50) speed. It is the most efficient spacing because you have twice the width of an add to work with.
2. You will not move too slowly because it is the most efficient movement both for finding at 50/50width squared AND anyone either behind or in front of you will have relatively equal chances of keeping up in the radius.
You are also only three spaces away from the toilet buffer, so if you get a shit on you you're not going to mess it up. Anyone behind you is also still going to have enough time to reach the edge of the toilet.
The two WORST THINGS YOU COULD POSSIBLY DO EVER are:
1. Over shoot the red beam. I was grilling people to Aszh on our first week of normal modes for this, go ahead and ask him! I won't forgive you if you do it in heroic and I guarantee it's because you were too close to the boss and whipping your dick around too fast. Now that I've said that it'll happen to me.
2. Move too slowly. Being afraid of committing number 1 is twice as bad as actually doing so. You're not going to do so because you know what to do already, so don't be afraid of something you already know. We are all gamers and I guarantee you that you have the reaction speed to stop when you get the alert (unless you're whippin' dicks).
Do you have to do it exactly like this? Probably not. But I think you'll be surprised how much calmer and nicer things are when you treat it like a well oiled machine.
Eleventh Heroic was DARK ANIMUS
I was playing as MARKSMANSHIP
Ah, Dark Animus. The one fight where our pets do something useful. First of all, I have an interactive map for you to download of the Dark Animus' room with each Anima Golem being click-and-draggable. As it's HTML5, this will only work offline in the Firefox browser. If you were to upload and host these files somewhere, you would be able to use it in Chrome. Since I am only providing a download link to my Google Drive, though, you will have to use this in Firefox if you want to do so.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7oy4ukn56teN3IxMnBkbGFYdk0/edit?usp=sharing
This will allow you to make positional diagrams with a little bit less effort. If you would like to see what it looks like before downloading, it was made from the map below (just without the player names, obviously).
You must dodge anima font! There is simply no excuse to stand in these as a hunter. If nothing else is happening, then yes, you can survive standing in one: but standing in this should be a mistake. These hurt like hell and nine times out of ten someone's death on this encounter is directly caused by being hit by an anima font + something else. Here is a video clip on dodging anima font:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7oy4ukn56teN3IxMnBkbGFYdk0/edit?usp=sharing
This will allow you to make positional diagrams with a little bit less effort. If you would like to see what it looks like before downloading, it was made from the map below (just without the player names, obviously).
The process of this fight is going to change based on the strategy your group is using, but for the most part the hunter is going to be placed somewhere in the room, probably away from the massive golems, and told to hold two little anima fellows with their body and their pets body. As a result, you will probably prefer having a tenacity pet with you. Thus, you'll have to make a decision regarding glyph of stampede: On one hand, if you use this right away you will still have your tenacity pet out, so you will likely not want glyph of stampede. On the other, if you only are able to use it later, then glyph of stampede once your ferocity pet is back out will reduce the tenacity downgrade by one pet. Either way, not a big deal: I was in a position to unload on the boss immediately after getting set up and therefore ran without the glyph.
Chances are you will play this fight as Survival, since I can't imagine Beast Mastery is that great with your pet distracted for half the fight. Careful with killing others' golems if you're trying to assist with DoT spreads.
To simplify things, here are a few of the posts I made regarding the Dark Animus:
Hunter Dark Animus Check List
- PICK YOUR PET. It doesn't matter. You can swap. Best choice for add-tank part is TURTLE or BEETLE. Really doesn't matter though.
- TURN THAT PET TENACITY
. - Turn ON Charge, Claw, Cower, Growl.
- Turn OFF Thunderstomp. (optional, depends on positioning)
- KEYBIND: Pet Attack, Move To, Last Stand.
Things to Remember For After Pet Tank
- SWAP pet if you're using tank pet back for buff pet. FEROCITY
PET CHAMPION. - TURN OFF GROWL. Animus is not tauntable but if your pet is tenacity you will be so sad when "oops I wrong target SQUISHED MY FRIEND." No Heart of the Phoenix on tenacities.
PROCESS FOR KEEPING THING ON PET
- Use Move To to position pet. Not a big deal because Blink Strikes but prevents one step.
- Click PET TARGET. Have NAMEPLATES ON. Hover mouse over your target.
- When Nameplate appears SLAM FACE ON PET ATTACK.
- Click down on mouse to get your target. SLAM FACE ON ARCANE SHOT.
- Mend Pet because your pet is probably now cowering and crying. As in it literally probably cast cower.
- Stand in awe as pet growls and nothing happens and you're bored and what the fuck is this fight even.
- Use MOVE TO to reposition pet as need be. Remember to tell PET ATTACK again after every MOVE TO. Wait for golem to reach new location before PET ATTACK because Blink Strikes.
- If pet is dying USE AWESOME LAST STAND CAST. Must be in a macro. Macro below.
Or simplify everything with this mouseover macro. Click your target. Hover mouse over pet target. Nameplates appear, press macro. Profit.
/petattack [@mouseover,harm,nodead][harm]
/cast Arcane Shot
You can see the above macro in action in this video. However, please note that if you are using this macro for the Dark Animus fight itself, then you MUST wait for both health bars to appear above your two anima golems. If there is no health bar, then there is no mouseover target, which means your pet will just go onto whichever golem your attacking. Wipe ensues.
Last stand Macro:
/cast Last Stand(Tenacity Ability)
/cast Last Stand(Tenacity Ability)
You must dodge anima font! There is simply no excuse to stand in these as a hunter. If nothing else is happening, then yes, you can survive standing in one: but standing in this should be a mistake. These hurt like hell and nine times out of ten someone's death on this encounter is directly caused by being hit by an anima font + something else. Here is a video clip on dodging anima font:
One more thing... If you're being a rebel like me and standing off in the middle of no where, make sure you are in range of healers, dispels but not in range of slam. Your deterrence will block all damage from Matter Swap, but only for you - the other target still takes full damage.
If you cast Mend Pet while pet is at full hp, I think it continues to heal for 10 seconds? So if the pet takes damage subsequently, that damage will begin to heal immediately?
ReplyDeleteIf I am right about this, then it makes sense to cast Mend Pet as soon as you see the anima fly out indicating a pull. That will begin healing your pet immediately when it takes damage from an animus.
Yes, Mend Pet is a HoT. You can put mend pet up immediately and then refresh it whenever you like, even if it's not falling off yet, but I found the pet wasn't in any immediate danger. The only benefit would be if the golem happens to crit on its first few hits, then your going to be telling your pet to "Move To" it's new location while it's cowering - aka, slower movement speed. So basically, there's no real reason NOT to precast Mend Pet, so long as it's not at the expense of messing up your pull.
DeleteI tended to put it up after the pull and after I was positioned, simply for the benefit of everyone else around me knowing where I was ASAP. Plus if my pet died in those few seconds I could blame the pocket healer :) Between cower, shield wall and last stand, they're pretty durable little buggers.
Doesn't happen all the time but every once in awhile when I get matter swapped my pet is instantly ported to me and its lost all threat on the mob it was on. Has this ever happened to you and if so how do you get around this so it no longer happpens?
ReplyDeleteHasn't happened to me, but it was happening for our other hunter. The only thing we could gather was that it was a ranged issue, so if you're leaving your pet on the top of the stairs you might want to consider using the MoveTo function to bring it down closer to the center.
Delete