Heroic T14 Warlock Style

[Zagam 1,982]

In this thread, much like I did with Dragon Soul, I'll be posting my findings in how us Warlocks can help our team down bosses faster and in style. Other tips, recommendations, and strategies are always welcome as no two teams do things exactly the same way. All fights explained as if you know the normal encounter well.

Heroic Stone Guard

Preferred Spec: Affliction

Preferred Talents: Dark Regeneration, Mortal Coil, Soul Link, Unbound Will, Grim of Sac, Kil'jaeden's Cunning

Preferred Glyphs: Soul Shards, Siphon Life

Log Example of Kill: http://www.worldoflo.../?s=5339&e=5722

Cobalt Mines will one shot you. Otherwise, this fight is largely the same. My group one shot this with me being the only person who did the floor tiles. As a Warlock, set your Demonic Gateway about half way back through the room and up to near the crystals. The way I approached this was I took the crystal of the dog trying to perform his petrification effect. This nullified the damage incoming making our healers not really worry about me. I didn't do very much DPS while painting tiles, but I did get some DoTs up. Unfamiliar with the fight, I kept painting tiles, but when I got to 40, the dogs hit 70% and they reset. I repeated another 40 and bosses hit 40%, so I painted 30, ordered Bloodlust, and finished the dogs. Really easy fight. However, we didn't have Jasper chains up during this attempt. If we did (and will in the future), use your Demonic Gateway to get close to whomever you are linked to. While the chains are doing bigger damage, use your Healthstone, Unending Resolve, Shadow Bulwark, and Dark Regeneration to remain alive. Other than that, this Heroic is very tame. If you're not doing tiles, just do the fight exactly like you do on normal mode.

Extra Tip: if Jasper Chains is up for your group (3 out of 4 weeks), have one of your DPS spec as a tank and run tiles. Jasper Chains cannot link to a tank, so that person can spend the entire time running tiles while you DPS. The log example of kill is based on this scenario which is SUPER helpful for limiting the damage.

Heroic Feng the Accursed

Preferred Spec: Demonology

Preferred Talents: Dark Regeneration, Shadowfury, Dark Bargain, Unbound Will, Grim of Supremacy, Archimode's Vengeance

Preferred Glyphs: Soul Shards, Imp Swarm

Log Example of Kill: http://www.worldoflo.../?s=6524&e=6964

The only explanation needed is how to handle the extra phase, the Shield phase, that is unique to Heroic Mode. The Shield phase is the only difficult part of this fight because these adds require a very high amount of DPS, snares, slows, and stuns to manage. Try to enter the Shield phase with enough DPS to only have to handle these adds once. On the first shield, your tank should Nullify it. When the 2nd one comes, you should open with Hand of Guldan to place a snare and get started with your DPS burst. As your Wrathguard runs over, use Shadowfury, Imp Swarm, then another Hand of Guldan. As the 2nd HoG is falling, pop Dark Soul, enter Metamorphosis, pop Immolation Aura, and start spamming Void Ray. Do NOT use Chaos Wave as the Demonic Fury cost vs damage done is not high enough. Your Imps should keep your DF high enough to keep Immolation Aura running. If you kill them all, focus back on Feng and use CDs to push him before he gets a 4th shield off (3rd will be Nullified). The rest of the fight is largely unchanged.

Heroic Gara'jal

Preferred Spec: Affliction

Preferred Talents: Dark Regeneration, Mortal Coil, Dark Bargain, Unbound Will, Grim of Sac, Kil'jaeden's Cunning

Preferred Glyphs: Soul Shards, Siphon Life

Log Example of Kill: http://www.worldoflo...?s=9910&e=10246

This fight is a very tight DPS race. As such, you'll be busting out Bloodlust at the beginning of the fight. Use a potion, Doomguard, and open like this: Curse of Elements, Dark Soul + Soulburn: Soul Swap, 1 full Malefic Grasp Channel (allows both trinkets to proc), Unstable Affliction, Corruption, Agony, Haunt, MG, MG, MG, Haunt, etc. You should be able to open up around 250-300k DPS for the 30 seconds before the first totem spawns. This will pay off in the long run. As a DoT class, you are SUPER DUPER AWESOME for this fight. Try to go down to the spirit realm as much as possible. When down there, DoT EVERYTHING, but pay particular attention to the two larger adds you will see...these MUST be killed or your Banished tank will die. They are a super high priority. Other than that, DoT up every single little add you see. A SB:SS will be enough to kill them. Make sure to use Drain Soul on them as they die to replenish Soul Shards and heal yourself for 20% of your max HP. Spend about 28 of the 30 seconds max duration in the shadow realm before popping back up. When you come up, you'll have to skip the next totem and take the next totem you can when your 30 second debuff wears off (Frail Heart, I believe). Remember to DoT up Gara'jal before going into the shadow realm...I was able to maintain a 10 stack of Agony throughout the entire 5:40 fight by hitting him with it right before using the totem. Rinse and repeat, use Dark Regeneration + Healthstone if you dip to 50%. Voodoo Doll will be the only source of your death because in heroic, you'll take 100% of the damage the tank takes. Dark Bargain if you are super low, Unending Resolve otherwise. Use ALL of your defensive CDs on this fight. Other than that, it's straight up just like normal except for the two extra adds in the shadow realm and your debuff that makes it so you can't go back in right away.

Very tight on the DPS, but we managed to 3 heal it by having our healers focus on DPS'ing at the beginning. Healing is very intensive...if you don't have super awesome DPS, you might have to two heal. Good luck!

Spirit Kings

Preferred Spec: Affliction

Preferred Talents: Soul Leech, Mortal Coil, Dark Bargain, Unbound Will, Grimoire of Sacrifice, Kil'Jaeden's Cunning

Preferred Glyphs: Soul Shards, Siphon Life

This fight is all about surviving. During Qiang, simply do as much DPS as possible and avoid the China Man Army. Set up your portal incase you get squeezed somewhere that will end up causing you death. When Qiang hits 30%, Subetai pops out. Your group should be stacking them close so that Subetai doesn't wipe you. You should be receiving Bloodlust here, so DoT up Subetai and finish off Qiang. Unbound Will removes Pinning Arrows, so be sure to pop that immediately because Volley comes shortly after. If all of your raid is alive at this point, it should be a kill. If caught in a bind, use Dark Bargain, but this should be a tool for mistake recovery, not needed if done correctly. Always be spread out and always be max distance from your portal so you can instantly summon yourself to safety if caught in a bad spot. Use Rain of Fire during Maddening Shout...couple this with Unending Resolve and/or Shadow Bulwark. Nothing super crazy during this fight...just lots of stuff to avoid.

Elegon: COMING SOON

Will of the Emperors: COMING SOON

Vizier Zor'lok: COMING SOON

Blade Lord Ta'yak: COMING SOON

Garalon: COMING SOON

Wind Lord Mel'jarak: COMING SOON

Amber Shaper Un'sok: COMING SOON

Grand Empress Shek'zeer: COMING SOON

Protectors: COMING SOON

Tsu'long: COMING SOON

Lei Shi: COMING SOON

Sha of Fear: COMING SOON

[Merq 1]

Can't wait for the rest. Your guides are nice.

[Zagam 1,982]

Updated for H Gara'jal kill. More coming tonight (hopefully Elegon, Blade Lord, and Wind Lord).

[Jayra 0]

Good guide so far, but Im not a fan of your talent choice for Heroic Gara'jal, namely Kil'jaeden's Cunning. In my experience, Mannoroths Fury is vastly superior on this fight. There is zero, or as close to zero as possible, movement on this fight which completely negates the benefit of KC. Mannoroths Fury and the 500% increased AoE range on the other hand allows you to enter the spirit realm and completely wreck the place. SB:SoC into an add that is in the middle of the room, SoC the other adds, then Fel Flame the first add target to detonate, which in turn will detonate the rest of the adds in the room thanks to the increased AoE range. You will clear the room of adds in a matter of seconds. Any newly spawned adds that remain simply dot up and burn down. Don't forget to throw dots on any big adds that may spawn right before you exit the spirit realm.

[Zagam 1,982]

Mannoroth's Fury really has no bearing on your attempts if your group is working well at clearing adds. Corruption alone won't take them all down, and I find that to be 3 wasted globals in setting up and putting a worthless singular DoT on any of them when those globals could be used to take our 4 adds right away and immediately lessen the raid damage. KJC allows me to keep DPS'ing Gara'jal while I move to the next totem...which I did frequently. If any talent would give KJC a challenge, it would be Archimonde's Vengeance with all the damage taken. The adds also spawn mostly on the outside of the room which means even with a 500% increased AoE range, they wouldn't hit the others on the opposite sides. Perhaps I am blessed with DPS in my group that are very efficient at taking adds out, as even on our first heroic kill, there were never more than 4 up when we went down. It mostly was me and my Fury Warrior going down on one totem and my Rogue and Hunter going down on the others...we always were able to clear all the adds before coming back up with our buff. When we went down, we'd tell each other what direction we were going and he'd find some that were bunched up to Bladestorm while I took the spread out ones and burned them down with SB:SS.

You also can prevent that crappy scenario of when the bigger adds spawn as you're leaving by delaying going into the shadow realm until about 15-20 seconds remain on the next totem cast...this will delay you enough to allow you to actually kill those adds before leaving making this much less stressful on your tanks.

[Nikima 3]

Not that I claim to be an expert on these kills, but as thanks for the assistance over the years from tis forum I thought I'd post my thoughts on the heroic bosses I've killed.

Spirit Kings

Qiang isn't that tough until you hit Subetai. All I can say is keep an eye on his Immunity, you don't want to refresh dots just before it occurs, or worse use a cooldown. Don't be afraid to pop a defensive CD when Subetai spawns, raid damage is pretty low until Meng so do whatever you can to survive the Volley (which always seems to align with one of Qiang's abilities).

Subetai is simple really. Unbound Will lets you escape arrows quickly, so inform your paladins or dps you won't need assistance unless you get unlucky.

I decided on sacrificing the Felhunter here. I likely used the interrupt once during the fight on Zian. With the gear we had, enrage was not an issue, so I tended to focus on the Shadow adds. I also tried to be the closest to any respawning, if you're running with 2 healers any bit of damage Twilight Ward absorbs is helpful. Just don't be that one guy that triggers Zian's shield. You could use a felhunter/observer to dispel it, but with the cooldown on it, other classes are much more suited.

For Meng, I wouldn't bother trying to break people out of the MC. If you are huddled up, many other classes can do it in one GCD. I would focus on anyone who was out of the group. Use cooldowns during the reflect. You can also dispel the debuff from yourself with Unbound Will. Whether or not this saves you health I'm not sure, but because of how the debuff works, it is useful if your healers dispel it, tends to work better than healing.

Elegon

I went Mannoroth's Fury for this. As such I didn't have a designated energy charge to kill. If you do this, make sure you have a tank assigned to the charge you would kill. If your tank never resets stacks, they will get alot of venegence and do as much damage as a dps. While we overgeared our first kill and got 6 waves down per phase, Mannoroth's Fury and Seed of Corruption gave me 30% of the damage on those charges, enough to get you another wave.

Affliction obviously nice to multi-dot the adds that spawn in the usual phases. Warlocks can also soak well with Dark Bargain, up there with Shadow Priests and Mages.

I admit I died twce on our kill, both times to the adds that spawn during the pillar phase. Mannoroth's Fury I blame. I could have handled it with Soulshatter, but just warning you. Shadowfury helps with keeping them under control.

Blade Lord Ta'yak

We always seem to find this guy a dps race, we never seem to get any breathing space on the enrage.

I would always keep track of the timers. KJC can really slow you down to get into position for Unseen Strike, I normally run closer to melee once the Wind Step has occured. Don't Life Tap (without the glyph) before Unseen Strike. Tempting it is while you can't do any dps, I have died due to it before.

For Blade Tempest, have your portal somewhere you can reach. If possible, try to avoid anyone dropping tornados on it. With KJC you can do some dps on the boss, but once or twice I felt too close to the boss, so didn't risk it. Survival over damage it has to be. If you do get sucked it (normally because the portal failed due to range), pop Dark Bargain and inform your healers you will be taking alot of damage on the rebound.

Set up a Gateway before hand on the steps, with one gateway where the boss will be in P2. Also drop a portal once you land in P2.You'll have only 5 charges, so make sure you don't get ambitious dps taking it and getting split from healers. I made a habit of letting those raiders who are less confident of dodging, or can't heal on the move (like our Holy Paladin) taking it, while the rest to the run manually.

At 11%, send most of your raiders down a slipstream, this way they are at the boss' second location and don't have to dodge. Keep yourself and a healer back. The healer's job at this point was to get me safely to the otherside. We have alot of cooldowns at our disposal for the run, even if you get seperated from your healer. Once you're within range of your portal, take it and breath a sigh of relief.

If you can get away with not using Dark Bargain, using it on the enrage can get you a kill, along with your DKs and Paladins.

Garalon

With KJC, you really should be kiting. You are certainly one of the best classes to do so. Always use a defensive CD to survive Crush, you inevitably get stunned in a puddle.

Should you apply dots in a blue circle, they remain 'empowered', so at the start I would dot the closest leg then run straight for the next one.

Should you lack good melee for legs, warlocks are pretty good at it. If you aren't assigned to legs though, I would steer clear. We usually killed 15 legs, resulting in 45% of the boss' damage. That means the rest of the dps need to do 55% to the body. If you're assigned to the body and all 15 legs die, but the boss does not, the blame falls at your feat. I quickly got used to being the lowest dps on World of Logs, but the highest damage on the boss' body.

Wind Lord Mel'Jarak

We went for a CC all Amber Shapers. Killing Menders first, then when Recklessness ends, the Blade Masters.

I went for an Observer pet here. He may not be the best dps, but the Shivarra can't knockback and his Spellsteal, even left to it's own devices, will dispel some stacks over the fight. Alternatively manually dispel the boss during Rain of Blades.

Warlocks have the advantage when CCing. Generally we ran out of room around the CCed mobs, so I would stand far away from them, then when the DBM warning comes, move in range, CC, then return.

On the pull, once tanks have the mobs, I would Soulburn: Curse of the Elements, Soulburn: Soul Swap the boss then Soulburn:Seed of Corruption the boss. From then on, it was keep UA and Agony on all 3 Menders and the boss, while using SB:Seed to refresh Corruption. Once the soul shards return you can either haunt adds or do what I did and SB:SS the other adds. At 20% of an adds health, Drain Soul it so you have 4 shards ready to go for Recklessness.

Remember Healthstones for Rain of Blades, and Drain Life too if you happen to be stood far away from healers, Death Coil also. Space really can become an issue so the more obscure spot you stand in, the better it can be.

[Glorn 1]

Nice post Nikima,but I'm confused.You ain't using Grimoire of Sacrifice for Wind Lord?Aren't you losing quite some dps because of that?

[Nikima 3]

It depends what part of the encounter you struggled with.

We never got close to the enrage with 2 healers. We found the hardest part was always when the adds were up on our tanks, especially at the start. Since there are 4 or 7 targets up at that time, depending on what you might be attacking (menders, or everything), the Observer did more dps since I hardly ever used Malefic Grasp.

If DPS was more of an issue, then Sacrifice would likely be better. Another alternative would be Service, you still get the pet and the dispels, but can summon another during Recklessness. In the end though, it was a fight for survival. We knew we would kill him during the 4th Recklessness, we just needed to get there. The Observer also lets you cover a few other bases of things that may wipe you, specifically Quickening on the Boss, and heals from those melee that don't make focus macro.

[Nikima 3]

Imperial Vizier Zor'Lok

Although I was Affliction for this, I think each spec really brings something useful to the fight. Affliction is certainly weaker at breaking Converts than the other two. I actually swapped most of my talents around from what I usually had for this fight.

Dark Regeneration, most of the damage comes in bursts. Mortal Coil you should remember to have, and use it, especially if you touch an Attenuation disk. If you are sacrificing a pet, take Sacrificial Pact. This spell is amazing on this fight. Blood Fear or Burning Rush are both good. I took Blood Fear since Converts caused us issues. Burning Rush can allow you to do full dps during Attenuations at the cost of health.

Before the pull set up a gateway between the Attenuation Platform and the Convert Platform.

Use cooldowns and pots on the pull. The simple aim is to bring Zor'lok to 80% before his 2nd FaV. Once the Echo spawns, turn your attention to him, he doesn't need cooldowns. Your tank and another player will need to stand out of the shells, I volunteered myself. Partly because I like to do things myself and partly because Warlocks can do full dps during the FaV unlike Mages and Priests. To stay alive, I used Shadow Bulwark (from sacrifice), Dark Regeneration and Sacrificial Pact. You can also use Mortal Coil and a Healthstone, but I would try to avoid Unending Resolve.

I used Unending Resolve to cross the pheremones. Attenuation will still be up and can hit hard, plus you can get stunned in there. Don't use a gateway to get over, the disks will still hit you.

On Attenuation, don't try and run with KJC. You really need to move at 100%, so unless you also use Burning Rush, just refresh dots and spam fel flame or life tap.

Once the Echo spawned, we had all our dps stay until the first Attenuation, then 3 of them (out of 5) took the gateway to get to the Convert Platform. Although Affliction I think is rather weak on convert, Attenuation dodging was not perfect from me, so I had to go.

On convert platform, as affliction, pool up soul shards. I tried many different ways to break people and the best I found was nuking with haunt. Don't dot, just haunt, mix in Mortal Coil and Blood Fear if people become dangerous. DPS on the boss really is irrelevant here. If you are lucky enough to get MCed, your raid can rejoice. Generally all affliction will do is cast UA once then use Rain of Fire, hardly the worst you could do. Once you take even a hint of damage, use Sacrificial Pact (you can use it while MCed). This will remove 50% of your health, instantly free you and give you a nice shield to boot. The only downside is that if you use it at 100% health, you tend to stay MCed, with a giant shield, but you can get freed in a single GCD with Sacrificial Pact so I really recommend.

There are different tactics for P2. We went for a kill the Echo approach, so saved Hero for later. I found dodging Attenuation much easier at 40 yards, so I just stood far from the boss. After the first Attenuation, weave through (using mortal coil or drain life if you know you'll get hit) and get in melee-ish range for a FaV.

Once FaV ends he will generally cast Convert and spawn the Echo. If you're MCed, great. This single Convert caused us the biggest issues, if you get MCed and break yourself out the fight falls neatly into place. Once the MCed are broken, Hero, pot, Doomguard and go to town on the Echo. If you have paladins, make sure they use all of their Hand of Protections on casters. Double attenuation is very hard to dodge. The key is to kill the Echo with at least 6 people left alive.

On our kill we lost myself ( >.< ) and our feral druid. Even with Hand of Protection I still died once it ended. Lesson learnt, pop all defensive CDs for that double Attenuation.

Once the Echo dies the fight is simple. Just stay alive. Even with only 5 people left alive at the end, we beat the enrage by a minute, it isn't hard. Drain Life, Mortal Coil during FaV, survival is the key. Best of luck.

Edited February 4, 2013 by Nikima

[Nikima 3]

Will of the Emperor

Bear in mind this set is for the tactic we used, namely 10-man, having a 3rd tank soak all Rage sparks.

The fight is basically a repeat of 5 add waves. Once you have killed one wave, you can kill the boss. The waves are:

2 Rages

1 Strength

2 Rages

1 Strength

1 Courage

2 Rages

As a warlock, I was assigned to solo the Courage. With Glyph of Exhaustion and 4-Set (so Dark Soul is available for every one) you can kill it before it reaches the tank. You get two globals on it before shields, one for Exhaustion and one for SB:SS. Make sure you are ready for it with at least 2 shards, and do not apply Curse of the Elements. You do not need to kill the Courage fast, only before it reaches the tank. You will have to go out of range of healers at the start. Use cooldowns to survive and inform your healers you can keep yourself alive for a bit.

With this, we found we could leave 4 dps to handle rages full time. Rages are the crux of the fight, Courages, Strength and Bosses just cause players to be unable to kill Rages. We handled them by CCing the right one, and nuking the left. For the first two sets in each pack, I would Blood Fear (with glyph). You will be unable to CC the 3rd set as you will be fighting a courage. Shadowfury is available for every Rage pack. It is vital Rages die out of the ranged group, they should die where they spawn. Do not be afraid to use Curse of Exhaustion on them, if you will not need it soon.

In terms of multi-dotting, this means you can't kill Rages at the same time, one needs to be kept CCed. For us, we found excess damage on the Bosses was un-needed. I would multi-dot the Strengths when rages were down, occasionally the Bosses.

Make Soulwell during break phases. The fight lasts 11 minutes and that is a potential 6 Healthstones.

The usual playthrough of a pack for me was:

CC right Rage, kill the left. Kill right and shadowfury it.

DoT and CoE the Strength, Malefic or DS (if I had missed DSing the Rages)

CC right Rage, kill left. Kill the left with Drain Soul and locate Courage spawn location.

CoEx and SB:SS Courage. Use Sacrifical Pact with either Shadow Bulwark or Unending Resolve.

Dark Soul, Haunt and kill it, avoid Devastating Combo.

Arrive back at Rages to kill last Rage.

Nuke Bosses until next wave begins.

After 5 waves the Bosses should be around 20-25%. Keep all rages CCed and pop Hero/BL, potion, Doomguard and kill the Bosses.

[Omaric 246]

Those are very insightful additions Nik, thanks!

[Zagam 1,982]

I'm going to get around to updating this when work slows down...likely Thursday or Friday. DEFINITELY next week. I'll also be more proactive during T15. I apologize to those who counted on me to get strats up. I'll be better.

[Omaric 246]

Does anyone try to keep just Corruption up on the off boss/bosses during the entire fight?

At the start I place CoE on everything followed by SB:SS on the main target. Once done I place a single Corruption on the 2 off-bosses for extra Shadow Trance procs. At this point I pop Dark Soul and refresh the Corruptions on the off-bosses to max duration with haste from Dark Soul for a better rate of Shadow Trance, then it's business as usual on the main boss. That all sounds like a lot, but it all happens pretty fast.

When a boss is about to die I apply Agony to the next target so I'm close to (or at) 10 stacks when I begin on them. Any time Corrupting Waters dies I'll refresh Corruption again on the off-bosses for free haste. I see people SB:SS'ing the other bosses for inflated DPS, but it just isn't a good use of Soul Shards.

So, anyone do anything similar or is this not optimal?

[Fel 42]

I think it depends on your assignment Omaric, and your group's capabilities. From the perspective of getting the boss down, I think the GCDs to maintain corruptions on the offtargets are not offset by increased primary-boss DPS from shadow trance procs. You'd be better served (or your raid would) by simply having you perform an optimal single-target rotation on the boss. This is conjecture however, and something that you can test yourself. Get skada, open multiple windows to display damage taken and enemy damage taken, and then mouseover when Kaolan is about to die and check your damage done to Kaolan only, vs your overall DPS/damage done. Within a few attempts you should have a pretty good idea if it's worth it, not worth it, or just a wash.

Presumably you're regularly draining the adds to regain soul shards too, which is a muh more effective and predictable shard-management mechanic for the fight than maintaining multiple corruptions, so if in doubt, I'd just do this. If you aren't directly assigned to adds, you should be able to maintain a very high haunt uptime on the primary boss by just tapping every 3rd add with DS when it gets to ~35% life.

-A

[Zagam 1,982]

On my Heroic Protectors progression, I reapply Corruption on Kaolan with Soulburn: Seed of Corruption. It does two things at the greater cast time of about a half a second...it does an explosion of damage (meaningless on the other two targets) and applies Corruption to all 3 targets. Out of the 60+ attempts done this week (some people still can't dance during Lightning Storm), I was always swimming in shards. I kept Haunt up a lot (70%+) and always had the Soul Shards to SS and Haunt the Corrupted Waters. Anytime you have secondary targets, I always think it's effective to fish for Nightfall procs. Just don't be one of those Warlocks who uses shards to SB:SS all three targets to inflate your DPS.

[Nikima 3]

Lei Shi

There are a few tactics, but for 10-man we went with 3 healers and 2 Scary-Fog stackers, with myself going up to 20 as soon as possible.

I was Demo, with the Dark Apotheosis glyph, Imp Swarm and Siphon Life. I'd also pick up the Hand of Guldan targetting glyph, as this lets you hit her during hide.

Talent-wise I went with Dark Regen, Howl of Terror, Sac Pact, Blood Fear, Wrathguard and Mann's Fury. There are certainly advantages to other talents, but since I was Dark Apoth form when I really took damage, Soul Leech would have done nothing (if you aren't using Dark Apoth certainly go for Soul Leech). Howl of Terror is amazing for the adds, Blood Fear for those too. All three final tier talents are viable depending on what you lack. For us, hide was an issue hence my choice. Turn off your pets charge or Assist, it will charge CCed mobs and break them.

Start with a gateway from ranged to the middle of the room. Stand by it and start the usual demo rotation, saving cooldowns for the first special. If it is hide, start looking, save HoG and Wrathstorm for when she is located. If it's Get Away, take the gateway and pop Meta, spamming away damage.

I found a Weak Aura's string useful to tell me if Lei Shi had my stacks on her or not.Nothing worse than having high stacks but them not applied.

Once the special ends, drop a portal in the centre and leave. You may or may not have another special.

During Protect stay out. Banish, Blood Fear adds, and Howl of Terror if you can grap two. We went for the approach of CC everything, and the tank marks a skull and selects his/her target. Have them bring the add to the edge so you can debuff it (but still stack your own debuff), use Axe Toss to stun it.

Stay outside until the next special. If it's Get Away, portal in, if it's hide, pop a cooldown and hellfire. Hellfire will deal more damage to you (you'll be around 13 stacks).

Once it ends, refresh your stacks and run in. Even if you're only on 13, you should make use of that 130% damage. Get back out to ranged (demonic leap can help) if the new special comes in 10 seconds unless the boss will reach 60% first.

Treat 60% the same as 80%. Wait for the special and deal with it. If it is Hide, do not use Hellfire unless you are in either Demonic Form, you will kill yourself.

Now wait until 20 stacks and enter. If you're going to enter Dark Apoth, do it now. Run into melee and watch her health drop.

From now on it's get out for Protect, stay out until the special then get in. Your raid should be able to push 20% with 200% extra damage with only 1 special.

Don't be afraid to use those defensive CDs, especially during Hide and Get Away.

If you are stacking, you cannot lose your stacks, it is as simple as that.

Good luck on getting that staff.