Last night, one of my favorite healers wanted to run Kara for badges, so I told him I'd help. Our guild had already run a couple of Kara's this week, so the group ended up being a hodge-podge of those that hadn't yet run it and alts. Our composition was:
1 Feral Druid
1 Resto Shaman
1 Rogue
2 Elemental Shamans
2 Hunters
1 Mage
1 Holy Priest
1 Shadow Priest
Interesting make up...1 tank, 2 healers, and an odd mixture of DPS. But, we made it from the beginning to Curator (skipping Nightbane) in under 2 hours with no wipes...so not too bad.
Since I was the only tank available, I had to 1 tank everything...except for 2 times when one of our Elemental Shamans brought in his Fury Warrior to off tank. So, this post is going to focus on tips for 1 tanking with the assumption that you already know how to run Kara with 2 tanks as well as general tanking and threat generating skills.
1 Tanking Attumen the Huntsman
One tanking Attumen really isn't any more trouble than double tanking him. You start off tanking his horse, Midnight, and once Attumen spawns, you pick him up. It's best if you set up a target macro as follows:
/tar attumen
Once you get aggro established with Midnight with a Mangle and 3 Lacerates, cease to use Mangle (you don't want it to be on cooldown when Attumen pops up) while continuing to Lacerate and Maul to keep threat. Attumen spawns when Midnight is at 95%, so once you get him to 97%, start spamming your target macro as you Lacerate and Maul Midnight. As soon Attumen spawn, hit your Mangle to get his attention then follow it up with 3 Lacerates. After that, switch back to Midnight and burn him down while using Swipe liberally to keep Attumen glued to you. Once Midnight is at 25%, he and Attumen will merge. At this point, you will need to re-establish aggro and tank and spank as usual.
1 Tanking Moroes
For Moroes, one of our Elemental Shamans logged and brought in his Fury Warrior to help off-tank. But, and no offense to him as a player, he just couldn't hold aggro, so the fight was closer to 1 tanking than 2 tanking.
Honestly, 1 tanking and 2 tanking Moroes is basically the same, except if the 2nd highest threat is a ranged DPS or Healer, you will need to Charge and drag him back to the 'tank spot' as soon as your Blind or Gouge wears off. Other than that, it's normal Moroes tankage.
1 Tanking Maiden of Virtue
Well, since the Maiden is always a 1 tank job there is nothing different here...move along people.
1 Tanking the Opera Event: Wizard of Oz
When we got to the Opera Event we discussed the various ones we hoped we'd get and hoped we wouldn't get...Big Bad Wolf is what we wanted, Romulo & Jullianne was our second choice, and the Wizard of Oz is what we did not want...guess what we got...
If you find yourself faced with the Wizard of Oz event and only 1 tank, just know that it is doable. In fact, we did it on the first try. Typically, I, as OT, would tank Rawr and pick up and hold Tito and our MT would tank the Tin Man. However, last night, I had to manage all three.
I first picked up Rawr and tanked him as I normally do. Once the Tin Man was up, our two Shamans Frostshock kited him around until Rawr was dead. After Rawr died, I picked up the Tin Man and Tito. Our Mage tanked the Stawman as usual. Once the Stawman and then Tin Man were dead, I dragged little Tito over to Dorothee and we began working on her. When we got Dorothee to about 40%, I noticed Tito was almost dead! And, before we had a chance to tell the raid to not DPS him he was lying on the floor, lifeless. Ooops. Oh well, we burned down Dorothee before we encurred her wrath...and who wouldn't be pissed off if their dog was killed before their very eyes? Then the Crone spawned and it was the typical tank and spank on her.
1 Tanking Curator
Curator was pretty easy as well. Basically, we picked the person with the 2nd highest hit points to be the 'off-tank' of sorts to take the Hateful Bolts. That person was one of our Hunters who had about 13k hit points. I think anyone with 12k or more hit points who can generate a resonable amount of threat can off tank Curator. The key here is that the other DPS need to watch their threat and stay below him. Now, since DPS should be focusing on the sparks and only DPSing the Curator after they are down, it shouldn't be too much of a challenge.
As far as the MTs role here...normal tank and spank as you'd typically do.
1 Tanking Trash
Most of the trash was not an issue. We had 2 priests for shakles on the trash before Attumen reducing the number I would need to tank. We had a Mage for AoE pulls, so I did the 'initial' pull on those with a Moonfire, followed by Barkskin and Hurricane so I'd take most of the damage. Any pulls with 2 elites such as; the 4-5 group pulls right before Attumen, the Philanthopist pulls, etc., I would Starfire and Moonfire target X (our 2nd target on the kill list), then Moonfire Skull (the 1st target on the kill list), switch to bear and proceed with Mangle, Lacerates and the liberal use of Swipe. If I was tanking 3 mobs, I'd Starfire and Moonfire the 3rd on the kill list, Moonfire the 2nd, switch to Bear form and proceed as above.
The only problem on trash were the Skeletal Ushers before the Philanthopist hallway. These mobs ice block the tank and typically an off tank is needed to take over when this happens. This is the other area where our Elemental Shaman logged on his Fury Warrior to off tank. However, we still had the problem with him not being able to maintain aggro, although letting him make the pull did help a little bit.
Conclusion
One tanking Kara is doable even with a Feral Druid. It makes it a bit more challenging and lets us use our full arsenal of tricks...which always makes things more fun. However, one tanking is not for those new to Kara. If you're still gearing up from Kara, Heroics, and Badges of Justice, then don't try this at home. ;p It's also is a must to have good healers as well. Honestly, I'd like the chance to one tank the later half as well just to see how much of a challenge it is and see if I can tank Nightbane and Prince which are the only bosses I have yet to tank myself.
Showing posts with label Kara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kara. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
OMG!! Feral Druids have an AoE Spell?
And you thought all that mana was just for shape shifting!
I think one of the most forgotten abilities that Feral Druids have in their arsenal is their Hurricane Spell. I know I'd forgotten about it. In fact, I'm embarrassed to say that I had been running Kara for over three months before it dawned on me to use it on our AoE pulls. So, tonight when I was watching my husband run one of our guild's 2 Kara groups through, which happened to have one of our newer Feral Druids Off-Tanking, I noticed him frantically swiping in Bear form trying to help out as best he could. I immediately sent him a whisper and suggested that he cast Barkskin and Hurricane on the next AoE pull.
This is one of the best things we can do, as off-tanks, on an AoE pull. Swipe only hits 3 mobs on each application...if they are directionally in front of you and within range and if you have the rage. However, Hurricane affects all the mobs in the target area. Lets take a look:
Hurricane - Creates a violent storm in the target area, causing X Nature damage every 1 sec, and reducing the attack speed of enemies by 25%. Lasts 10 sec. Druid must channel to maintain this spell.
At Rank 4, hurricane will do 206 damage to each enemy in the targeted area each second for 10 seconds. That is a lot more damage on a lot more mobs than what your swipe will cause. My swipe (and I'm going on memory here), typically does around 130 damage to each of the 3 enemies I'm attacking unless I crit, then it can be 200-450 on 1 or more of those mobs. So, lets say I do an average crit of 300 on one mob and base damage of 130 on the other two, total that's 560 damage. However, one tick of the Hurricane spell on those same 3 mobs totals 618 damage. Now, considering that you'll have a lot more enemies in the target zone than 3 (I used 3 to compare to swipe) we can see how this spell is much more effective in burning the enemies down.
Another good aspect of this spell is the attack speed reduction of 25%. I know before I started using this spell, we'd always emote /bye to our mage prior to an AoE pull as, about 30% of the time, he'd die from the agro generated by his AoE spells. So, the 25% attack speed reduction can actually help save his life enabling him to dispense with the mobs more quickly.
There are three drawbacks with the Hurricane spell. One is it's a channeling spell and therefor generates a lot of threat and when you get hit, it can be interrupted wasting that 1,905 mana it costs (usually about a 3rd of a feral druids mana). However, this can be avoided/reduced by casting Barkskin prior to Hurricane.
The second drawback is that it has a one minute cooldown (as well as Barkskin). So, if your tank pulls two AoE groups in a row, you won't be able to use your AoE spell on the second group. This can be easily fixed by asking your MT to alternate AoE pulls with the single patrol pulls, when possible.
The third drawback is that Hurricane is a targeted AoE spell. This means that once you place that big green target, that is where the damage happens. If the enemies run out of that area, they no longer take damage. There are quite a few things to consider here; if the tank does a ranged pull and you target the area the mobs were originally standing, you'll be lucky if one or two stays in the target zone. If you place your target where the tank is, but hang back in the healing and casting area, you'll find that a few of the enemies will break away and come to attack you...which means you just pulled baddies into your squishies...doh! You also have to consider the positioning of the mage as he's the one who will generate the most threat and will have most of the mobs surrounding him and these are the ones that need the attack speed reduction. Since I'm usually in my Bear clothes, I just run up to where the MT is (our mage is usually nearby as well), cast Barkskin followed by hurricane and position my target around us and the mage. That typically takes care of the majority of the mobs.
Once Hurricane has run it's duration, I check to see how many mobs are left and what level of health they have. If I see one or two on the 'out skirts' with a decent amount of health, I go into kitty and burn them down quickly. If I see a couple over near our healers, I go into Bear to ensure I get their attention. Overall, though, once we're all done with the AoE, we rarely have more than 3 baddies left and they certainly don't last long.
In Kara, there are a lot of AoE pulls in the first half of the instance. Most of these are found in the Banquet Hall with Moroes and in the Ballroom. The only time I do not use Hurricane is when we have an AoE pull with more than one elite; for example, the pulls containing the two Philanthropist. On those pulls, you will need to off-tank and, since the non-elite adds are minimal, you and your MT should be able to hold agro on them all.
So, the next time you're in Kara and your raid leader announces a non-elite AoE pull, cast Barkskin followed by Hurricane and position you and your big, green target between your MT and Mage. Then bask in the glory of all that damage text drifting across your screen!
I think one of the most forgotten abilities that Feral Druids have in their arsenal is their Hurricane Spell. I know I'd forgotten about it. In fact, I'm embarrassed to say that I had been running Kara for over three months before it dawned on me to use it on our AoE pulls. So, tonight when I was watching my husband run one of our guild's 2 Kara groups through, which happened to have one of our newer Feral Druids Off-Tanking, I noticed him frantically swiping in Bear form trying to help out as best he could. I immediately sent him a whisper and suggested that he cast Barkskin and Hurricane on the next AoE pull.
This is one of the best things we can do, as off-tanks, on an AoE pull. Swipe only hits 3 mobs on each application...if they are directionally in front of you and within range and if you have the rage. However, Hurricane affects all the mobs in the target area. Lets take a look:
Hurricane - Creates a violent storm in the target area, causing X Nature damage every 1 sec, and reducing the attack speed of enemies by 25%. Lasts 10 sec. Druid must channel to maintain this spell.
At Rank 4, hurricane will do 206 damage to each enemy in the targeted area each second for 10 seconds. That is a lot more damage on a lot more mobs than what your swipe will cause. My swipe (and I'm going on memory here), typically does around 130 damage to each of the 3 enemies I'm attacking unless I crit, then it can be 200-450 on 1 or more of those mobs. So, lets say I do an average crit of 300 on one mob and base damage of 130 on the other two, total that's 560 damage. However, one tick of the Hurricane spell on those same 3 mobs totals 618 damage. Now, considering that you'll have a lot more enemies in the target zone than 3 (I used 3 to compare to swipe) we can see how this spell is much more effective in burning the enemies down.
Another good aspect of this spell is the attack speed reduction of 25%. I know before I started using this spell, we'd always emote /bye to our mage prior to an AoE pull as, about 30% of the time, he'd die from the agro generated by his AoE spells. So, the 25% attack speed reduction can actually help save his life enabling him to dispense with the mobs more quickly.
There are three drawbacks with the Hurricane spell. One is it's a channeling spell and therefor generates a lot of threat and when you get hit, it can be interrupted wasting that 1,905 mana it costs (usually about a 3rd of a feral druids mana). However, this can be avoided/reduced by casting Barkskin prior to Hurricane.
The second drawback is that it has a one minute cooldown (as well as Barkskin). So, if your tank pulls two AoE groups in a row, you won't be able to use your AoE spell on the second group. This can be easily fixed by asking your MT to alternate AoE pulls with the single patrol pulls, when possible.
The third drawback is that Hurricane is a targeted AoE spell. This means that once you place that big green target, that is where the damage happens. If the enemies run out of that area, they no longer take damage. There are quite a few things to consider here; if the tank does a ranged pull and you target the area the mobs were originally standing, you'll be lucky if one or two stays in the target zone. If you place your target where the tank is, but hang back in the healing and casting area, you'll find that a few of the enemies will break away and come to attack you...which means you just pulled baddies into your squishies...doh! You also have to consider the positioning of the mage as he's the one who will generate the most threat and will have most of the mobs surrounding him and these are the ones that need the attack speed reduction. Since I'm usually in my Bear clothes, I just run up to where the MT is (our mage is usually nearby as well), cast Barkskin followed by hurricane and position my target around us and the mage. That typically takes care of the majority of the mobs.
Once Hurricane has run it's duration, I check to see how many mobs are left and what level of health they have. If I see one or two on the 'out skirts' with a decent amount of health, I go into kitty and burn them down quickly. If I see a couple over near our healers, I go into Bear to ensure I get their attention. Overall, though, once we're all done with the AoE, we rarely have more than 3 baddies left and they certainly don't last long.
In Kara, there are a lot of AoE pulls in the first half of the instance. Most of these are found in the Banquet Hall with Moroes and in the Ballroom. The only time I do not use Hurricane is when we have an AoE pull with more than one elite; for example, the pulls containing the two Philanthropist. On those pulls, you will need to off-tank and, since the non-elite adds are minimal, you and your MT should be able to hold agro on them all.
So, the next time you're in Kara and your raid leader announces a non-elite AoE pull, cast Barkskin followed by Hurricane and position you and your big, green target between your MT and Mage. Then bask in the glory of all that damage text drifting across your screen!
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