T15 Warlock Style - Normal & Heroic

[Sifon 25]

You need some heals after that, big heals on p3. But its doable.

[mediocregatsby 18]

so i assume i need dark bargain to handle it? is it not possible to soak it with just pact + unending resolve? 

[Darthsoul 3]

The numbers match up to where you could to my knowledge if your sac, but I wouldn't go sac with the aoe needed for balls. So basically DB+UR and a health stone shortly after is a requirement.

[Vile 9]

You can't do it with SP + UR but you can indeed do it with DB + UR.

There's also a neat trick to double dip on your UR where you throw on DB + UR right before it hits, then cancel DB right after the soak so UR mitigates the backlash aswell. Remember Twilight Ward can help soak some of the backlash!

[mediocregatsby 18]

You can't do it with SP + UR but you can indeed do it with DB + UR.

There's also a neat trick to double dip on your UR where you throw on DB + UR right before it hits, then cancel DB right after the soak so UR mitigates the backlash aswell. Remember Twilight Ward can help soak some of the backlash!

that is an awesome trick. definitely using it.

[Zagam 1,982]

25 man heroic Static Shock is going to hurt...Warlocks don't have a true immunity...you'd have to use the trinity of CDs just to survive.  If you get picked, share it.  It's difficult to solo 10 man heroic Static Shock because you don't have Soul Leech during that part of the fight.

[Darthsoul 3]

I run 25 and the strat I said works using DB and UR with a health stone after.

[Khalam 3]

Hi,

 

This week we will be doing Dark Animus Zerg so I was wondering how should I open the fight as demo and if there are any tips?

 

I heard Demo can do 350k+ dps on that fight.

[Zagam 1,982]

I run 25 and the strat I said works using DB and UR with a health stone after.

What do you do if you need to take two within 3 minutes and Dark Bargain isn't available? 

 

[20:05:34.911] Unknown Static Shock Eazycheeze 500577 (O: 4491420) (more)

 

This is pulled from a friend's 25 man Heroic attempt.  That looks like 5,000,000 damage to me.  How, again, are you splitting that solo?  Even if you pulled the trick to double dip from Unending Resolve, I don't see this ending well without an external CD.  Let's say you have 600k HP.  Fel Armor would reduce 5,000,000 to 4,500,000.  DB and UR would reduce the hit to 2,700,000.  DB would eat all of this and deal 50% back to you over 8 seconds.  Without UR, that'd be hitting you for 1,350,000 over 8 seconds or 168,750 per second.  Twilight Ward would absorb around 115k of the first DB backlash tick leaving you with a hit of around 50k for the first second and 170k for the next 7 seconds.  If you cancelaura your DB as soon as SS hits so you can use UR to absorb say 5 seconds of your DB backlash, you'd still be getting hit for about 95k per second for 8 seconds.  Your healthstone would negate a single one of these, but you'd still require a pretty intensive set of heals to stay alive and this is after you've blown your ENTIRE defensive CD arsenal.  This may be reliable for the first transition phase, but what happens when you use this in the 2nd transition and have no defensive CDs going into P3?  Yes, you CAN solo a 25 hit.  Is it worth it?  Not in my opinion.  Just take Sac Pact or Soul Link and stack with friends. 

 

Hi,

 

This week we will be doing Dark Animus Zerg so I was wondering how should I open the fight as demo and if there are any tips?

 

I heard Demo can do 350k+ dps on that fight.

I highly advise against the zerg strat.  My group decided to learn the proper way to do the fight and we've been one shotting it for weeks now.  Other groups who only learned the zerg strat required good RNG from their Demonology Warlock to meet the DPS requirement.  I've seen groups who only learned the zerg strat wipe 20+ times the following week because of poor RNG, missing a player, etc.  Learn the proper way to do the fight or forever risk losing chances at Ra-den and H Lei Shen because you're wiping the floor on Dark Animus.

 

Demo can do way more than 350k, but it requires incredibly good RNG.

[Khalam 3]

Well the dps check aint that hard. Even if I did 200-250k we should make it before enrage.

 

We dont want to do the normal strat cause there is much more happening there (matter swap/interupting jolts) and the fight last much longer.

 

If people cant avoid anima fonts for 2:30min how can they do this for 5-6minutes? Also we currently have only 2 main healers with 3rd being "weak".

 

If for example I get UVLS proc on first coruption cast, should I swith to Meta and do double Doom + 1-2 dooms on additional target or try to cast 3-4 dooms on different targets?

[Zagam 1,982]

The DPS check is hard.  Not sure what numbers you're looking at.  He has 288,000,000 HP.  Considering he would hit Full Power at the 2:00 mark, you would need 2,400,000 raid DPS to kill him at the 2:00 mark.  Considering you can survive for about 20-30 seconds after, let's just give you a cusion of 2:30.  Your raid DPS requirement drops to 1,920,000.  We use 2 healers, and you'll need to use 2 healers.  Considering you need a tank to soak huge amounts of damage for vengeance DPS, dividing 1,920,000 by 8 you get 240,000 DPS from all 8 other players and that's if they don't do any damage to anything else.  Inflated DPS by multi-dotting doesn't matter.  You need 240,000 DPS from 8 people on Dark Animus to succeed.  This is reduced by tanks having hyper-inflated DPS by tanking 3 of the adds as well as a Demo Warlock pushing 450k+ by getting good RNG and Unerring procs.  Placing Doom on every single thing alive is necessary to pump the DPS requirement needed to win. 

 

I know you don't WANT to deal with *insert mechanic here,* but you really should.  Gear makes this fight trivial if you learn the strat while zerging it requires RNG and insanely good DPS from EVERYONE.  We kill him in 4:30 now down from 5:15 on our first kill.  Also, if you're trying to just bypass mechanics, you're going to have one hell of a time with Lei Shen.  Having raiders in your group that can't avoid Anima Font for 5 minutes is a show to their ability, not the difficulty of a mechanic. 

 

For your Doom procs, if you just cast Corruption, you're only going to be able to place 4 Dooms before losing Metamorphosis because Doom costs 50 DF, hence the need for good RNG because you'll need another trinket proc in the next 30 seconds to pump out enough DPS to make this strat viable. 

[Rrasis 13]

We tried the zerg strat for a day before we switched over to normal, it's not just about the DPS numbers you pull it has so much to do with RNG and just everyone doing everything exactly right. the tank can die soo easily it's not even funny, one screw up from them is a wipe, on missed heal is a death, you getting the proc 10 seconds later than normal means not enough dps. everything has to line up perfectly for you to get a win and after an hour of wiping your chance of things being perfect goes down as people start getting tired. At least with the normal method you can make mistakes and you can slowly progress forward.

[Rrasis 13]

Heroic Lei Shen day 1

 

We've been making it through the first intermission on a regular basis, the only trouble I've been having is when i get hit twice with static shock, I end up pairing up with the tank and popping unending resolve. we both live but he starts off the fight at low HP which worries me. Is there any way around this or because it's so rare we'll just have to deal with it and Pray to the RNG gods?

 

Will Dark Bargain be back up for the second intermission? the thing that's been killing us most often is diffusion chain in addition to the balls, they seem to hit at almost exactly the same time after the first intermission, is there any way do avoid getting too many adds without spawning even more balls? or is it best to just get them and try to keep them stunned while we aoe them down.

 

our lowest and last attempt was 44% so I think we're doing well for 25 attempts. we'll see how we fair when we start getting to the second intermission.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Rrasis

[Zagam 1,982]

Diffusion Chain was responsible for all of our wipes until we pulled our heads from our asses.  Lightning Balls in 10 man spawn based on the difference between ranged and melee in regards to distance from the boss.  We keep 3 ranged out for Lightning Balls and only 3 spawn every time.  That needs to happen.  Your progression will make it so you get through the 2nd transition and get your ass handed to you quickly in P3 because you're going to wipe there a couple of times.  Lightning Balls and Diffusion Chain MUST MUST MUST be done perfectly to get you a kill. 

 

Dark Bargain can be used to solo soak Static Shock in 10 man for each intermission, but if you get it in the middle of P2 or P3, you're going to have one helluva time taking the hit. 

 

Going into P3, you must watch positioning.  If you spawn two of the upgraded adds, GG.  You lose DPS on the boss and you have to deal with a shit ton of healing as well as Lightning Whip, the winds, and Thunderstruck.  After Thunderstruck, you need to be ready for Ball Lightning IMMEDIATELY.  That means 3 at range, 7 in melee range.  Your tanks should be standing on the Gateway Portal to prevent much movement.  Someone needs to call Diffusion Chain EVERY SINGLE TIME.  When Diffusion is coming, regardless of the LBs, you MUST spread out to only allow one to spawn.  Then kill it.  P3 should go Diffusion Chain, Lightning Whip, Thunderstruck, LB, Diffusion, Lightning Whip, Thunderstruck, rinse and repeat. 

[Darthsoul 3]

Ok I've only got 3 Heroic Lei Shen kills this far in 25 man but this is how it works for me. Phase 1 transition, if I get static shock I solo soak with DB and UR. Phase 2 we soak any Statics behind the boss with melee. During phase 2 transition we stack for Static Shock. In phase 3 if you get static shock you try to live with whatever you have, you also make sure you doing this solo so your suiciding if you cant solo soak.

Another tip for transitions is on overcharges make sure you are running out the second they pop so you can get to bouncing balls, your never going to outrun it spreading unless you pop engineering belt and burning rush which would be dumb anyways.

[Rrasis 13]

for the static shock in P2 and P3 we had named one of the other range classes to run out to the ranged and the person with static shock to run into the melee and just rotate around like that to handle static shock. we're going to try designating places for people to stand along with them watching their radius so hopefully we don't get more than the 1 diffusion chain add

[Lappenforce 0]

Dark Bargain? Inform your healers though or the dot rips you apart

[Rrasis 13]

Dark Bargain? Inform your healers though or the dot rips you apart

 

 

Between health stones and twilight ward it's manageable. I pair up with the monk tank and if we take a lot of damage i just grab some of the balls he puts down, the other tank pairs with a S-priest. The only time either of us comes close to dieing is when we get a second static shock and we have to stack up. It's almost always one of the platforms that doesn't have a tank that ends up spawning multiple adds or dieing, they seem to have it a lot harder than the two tank groups.

[Soulzar 42]

 

For your Doom procs, if you just cast Corruption, you're only going to be able to place 4 Dooms before losing Metamorphosis because Doom costs 50 DF, hence the need for good RNG because you'll need another trinket proc in the next 30 seconds to pump out enough DPS to make this strat viable. 

 

After a few nights of attempting this strat I can offer this advice to Locks for the opener in regards to Zagam's snipet above..

 

The 3 minute timer for RPPM procs is absolutely needed for this.  You  must proc instantly or you will be 100-150k dps lower than an instant UVLS proc.

 

Initiate your pull with Fel Flame instead of Corruption.  Fel Flame will give you 16 fury, where as corruption require 4 ticks for that amount of fury.  This fury is needed to be able to put up 4 dooms on pull from my exp as you need some extra fury for the 6fury/sec that meta costs.  You must Fel flame and instantly go into meta so that you can apply doom as the trinket procs. This is the only way I was able to reliably apply 4 dooms on pull and in a 400k range half way through the fight.

 

Hero must be active the second adds are active for your initial 4 dooms.  Late hero will kill your dps, and the raids.  Additionally I did do some test with Kafa Press vs dps prepot with good results. Theory behind this is your first 4 crit dooms will get an additional imp each, and your non crit dooms you apply while waiting on your next proc will also have additional ticks for added change to proc imps.  Seeing as between the delay from +combat to when you are actually tunneling the boss your duration of dps pot is mostly over, and you do not need extra buffed dooms on the adds, added fury and imp dps worked well.

 

I found building up a bank of fury before trying to put up more dooms was better than trying to quickly get back into meta for the final few seconds of DS.  More often than not it left me with no fury when I got a second proc.

 

My pull:

 

Prepot, DS, Fel Flame -> Meta, Doom my add, 2 others and Animus.  If your layout does not have boss in range in time, 4th doom on another add.  4th doom should auto drop you out of meta.  CoE and Cor on boss.  By this time your Meta proc shoudl have a fw seconds left, pop imp swarm and doomguard.   Burn mc procs until about half fury using one or two HoG  between before poping back into meta. I did not double stack the buff as I only wanted the fury and MC procs, not the dmg or melee adds could die too quickly (our comp had 6 adds in melee, can only have 5 die into him).  By this time enough imps will be up to allow you to pop back into meta and doom everything else thats moving and start your boss tunnel.   If you got 4 dooms up, you will be able to soul fire spam form this point on.  With only 3 crit dooms on pull Soulfire had me out of meta too frequently to straight SF spam.

 

We tried the zerg strat for a day before we switched over to normal, it's not just about the DPS numbers you pull it has so much to do with RNG and just everyone doing everything exactly right. the tank can die soo easily it's not even funny, one screw up from them is a wipe, on missed heal is a death, you getting the proc 10 seconds later than normal means not enough dps. everything has to line up perfectly for you to get a win and after an hour of wiping your chance of things being perfect goes down as people start getting tired. At least with the normal method you can make mistakes and you can slowly progress forward.

 

We spent a few nights on it and came to the same conclusion.  It was hard to let it go once you got to a 10% wipe, but you either had the DPS rng and a tank died.. or you had the tanks live and shitty dps procs.  Its very fun strat for warlocks and the tank, but the rest of your raid will hate it.  We have now put one night in doing 2 massive and dumping 2 inactive larges after 4th siphon and are very close to a kill with much more stability.

[Vile 9]

I see most warlocks go Destruction for Ra-den. Is it viable to play Demonology and pool DF/Molten Core procs for balls or am I gimping myself by going this route?

[Zagam 1,982]

Destro is good for groups that have bad switchers or low ranged.  I've gone weeks where I ignored it.  We raid Warlock, Boomkin, Mage, Hunter, UH DK, and Rogue for DPS on that fight.  Depends on your group.  Chaos Bolt has a slow travel time, so sometimes you can cast it and it doesn't hit.  The server registration for Shadowburn isn't fast enough either.