Dark Animus

[Damien 1,514]

This thread is for comments about our Dark Animus encounter guide.

[Guest Anon]

As the tank on the Massive one I could dodge Explosive Slam.

[tidus93 0]

From what we saw last night, it looks like dispelling it right away isnt the way to go, preferably u want to wait 5-6 seconds before dispelling it, so the split is closer to 50-50, if you dispell right away the split will be like 90-10 and the person with the debuff will be very close to dying.

Edited March 11, 2013 by tidus93

[Lazlow 1]

Terrific guide once again! Your Optimal Activation (6.1.1) is spot on, that's exactly how we killed it tonight in four pulls.

A couple notes...Twelve Anima Golem are active in 10 man and thirteen are inactive (guide says the other way around). Three of the Large Anima Golems are critically damaged, five can be activated (guide says even split).

I might add, Take the Massive Golem to the middle of the room as soon as it's activated and then bring activated Anima Golems to it one by one to kill. This way all range can reach the ones that need to die, but more importantly... We first tried leaving it where it was activated but after every Matter Swap the far player's Anima Golem ran through other Anima Golems which buffed them with Acceleration Link and one-shot people. Also, people were blindly running their golems past other's when it was their turn and killed themselves. Keeping the Massive in the middle will avoid that. Anima Golems will gain Acceleration Link even when near critically damaged Anima Golems.

If you are caught casting for Interrupting Jolt you'll be locked out of that school for 8.5 seconds.

Edited March 12, 2013 by Lazlow

[Damien 1,514]

From what we saw last night, it looks like dispelling it right away isnt the way to go, preferably u want to wait 5-6 seconds before dispelling it, so the split is closer to 50-50, if you dispell right away the split will be like 90-10 and the person with the debuff will be very close to dying.

Thanks! This is going to be fixed in a few minutes.

Terrific guide once again! Your Optimal Activation (6.1.1) is spot on, that's exactly how we killed it tonight in four pulls.

A couple notes...Twelve Anima Golem are active in 10 man and thirteen are inactive (guide says the other way around). Three of the Large Anima Golems are critically damaged, five can be activated (guide says even split).

I might add, Take the Massive Golem to the middle of the room as soon as it's activated and then bring activated Anima Golems to it one by one to kill. This way all range can reach the ones that need to die, but more importantly... We first tried leaving it where it was activated but after every Matter Swap the far player's Anima Golem ran through other Anima Golems which buffed them with Acceleration Link and one-shot people. Also, people were blindly running their golems past other's when it was their turn and killed themselves. Keeping the Massive in the middle will avoid that. Anima Golems will gain Acceleration Link even when near critically damaged Anima Golems.

If you are caught casting for Interrupting Jolt you'll be locked out of that school for 8.5 seconds.

Thank you for your comment, all these suggestions will be added to the guide in the next few minutes.

[Guest Kochslinger]

hi, youve got a correction to make in 7.3.2.

../../../images/wow_icon_spell_nature_massteleport.jpg Matter Swap, as we said, should be dispelled immediately. <===Shouldnt*

awesome guild...love this site

[Damien 1,514]

hi, youve got a correction to make in 7.3.2.

../../../images/wow_icon_spell_nature_massteleport.jpg Matter Swap, as we said, should be dispelled immediately. <===Shouldnt*

awesome guild...love this site

Indeed, I'm going to make it right now. I forgot to update this part of the guide in a previous update :P

[Storm 426]

It's worth noting that "close proximity" for Acceleration Link is practically right on top of each other. If you position yourself directly inbetween 2 of small anima golems you can tank two of them without taking extra damage.

[Damien 1,514]

It's worth noting that "close proximity" for Acceleration Link is practically right on top of each other. If you position yourself directly inbetween 2 of small anima golems you can tank two of them without taking extra damage.

Thank you, I'll add a mention of this in the guide tomorrow :)

[MoacaBogdan 23]

Did anyone else have any problems with the trash pack right before Dark Animus (the 6 mogu summoners) or were we the only ones who wiped for a few times on them ? (And by few I mean 8-9 times :) )

[Guest Fyrian]

The way that anima works on LFR is totally different than normal. You cannot control who the anima flows to. It always goes from the smalls to the larges, then from the larges to the massive, and finally from the last few larges to the boss. What this means is that you cannot skip the larges and their nasty ability.

The key in LFR is to make sure everyone understands NOT to burn down all the smalls, as you will quickly become overwhelmed by all 8 larges being active at once. You need to kill just a few smalls, then burn down the resulting large, then kill a few more smalls and burn the resulting large, and continue to repeat until all larges are dead.

as the massive wake up, then tanks can just hold on to them while the last few larges are killed. Once all larges are dead, everyone should ignore the massive and burn the boss.

[MoacaBogdan 23]

Also, there is a good tip for 10man raids, in order to further reduce the number of golems present, drawback being handling the Massive Golem for a bit longer.

3 Large Anima golems are critically damaged in 10man, but that does not stop them from absorbing anima. So basically, you can kill 6 Anima Golems near them, get them to 8 Anima, and have them sit out the entire fight at full anima, also giving Dark Animus less targets for his absorb.

In order to fill up the Massive Golem, you will have to walk him around the room, place him right on top of critically damaged Small Anima Golems, and kill the small ones (they have really low hp, so watch out not to accidentally AoE them before).

So that's 6 Anima Golems -> Critically damaged Large (24 Anima)

5 Anima Golems -> Massive Golem (20 Anima)

-------- by this time the raid should have only 1 active Small Golem

Kite Massive Golem on top of 4 Critically Damaged Anima Golem (36 Anima on him)

That leaves 9 Critically damaged Anima Golems, 1 active Anima Golem, 3 full Large Golem (critically damaged), the other 3 Large 1 Massive with 0 anima, and the full Anima Massive Golem. Kite the last active Anima Golem on top of Dark Animus and carry on from there.

It will still take 3 min for Dark Animus to reach 100, but I think this aproach is a viable option because there won't be so many small golems active so less accidents likely to happen.

Edited April 4, 2013 by MoacaBogdan

[Guest Guest]

Can someone explain the Anima Font in more detail? There are times where it seems like I can stand in the little flaming ring and not be damaged by anything as long as I'm not next to another player. Then there are times where the person who has it, is like the opposite side of the room but still seems to be doing damage from it. We were just staying spread thinking that the mechanic was that one person "erupts," their targets then cause splash damage only to people around them when hit by the bolts. Is the flaming ring the animation? If so, why can I stand in it and get no damage at times, and then other times seem to get the anima font damage? This is the hardest part of the fight for us because we can seem how to figure out how to mitigate for it.

Thanks

[Guest Kep]

Just for completeness sake: Siphon Anima is cast every 6s, not every 5s.

[Damien 1,514]

Just for completeness sake: Siphon Anima is cast every 6s, not every 5s.

Thanks, I've fixed it (and the enrage timer).

[Guest Moromasa]

Might have figured something out, only tested in LFR so far, but a dps or a healer (who doesn't take melee damage) can run trough the Anima rings casted by the Dark animus, so they will get the melee damage taken % debuff instead of the tank.

[Guest tb]

Not that it makes a huge difference, but the spell ID of the Full Power should be 138738. You're currently linking to the spell that Alysrazor uses.

[madar 2]

we killed Dark Animus in 10 normal first time a week ago, and i felt this tactic very weak compared to the usual Icy Veins style. I found the following things:

- the matter swap is not always happen on the tank. It's looks like to random - i think this mislead me: "debuff that the golem places on its current target". We prepared a tactic with a dedicated player in most far from the tank, but cos this it didn't work. However, i can imagine a tactic where a dedicated ppl stay on a (far) spot, and the debuff winner run to the opposite direction, so always this player will be swapped always. However, it wasn't needed for us after all.

- i didn't really understood the Anima Font mechanics, but after all the most easy was something like: spread out, and if red circle happen below your feet, move out

- MoacaBogdan's tactic was pretty useful, thank you for it! We sorted 1 small golem for every player to tank (healers too), and for tanks 2-2 to take. For first 4 dps was putting down his golems into a deactivated large (used 2 deactivated), then 5th dps awaken one of the massive. (every dps nuking his own golem, 1vs1, and they watch to kill them on good location. We used markers for every golem and every deactivated large, so everyone know which golem is his and where to kill. The large golem awaker dps should be the slowest dps (or wait till the 4 other finish), because it's a huge help if the matter swap start only when half of the golems are down already). Meanwhile the tank1 kill his 2 adds (with some assist) near to the third deactivated large, and tank 2 and the raid killing the remaining adds (2 on tank2, 2 on healers) near to the activated massive + collect 4 deactivated small. And the last small golem activate the boss, so you activate the boss when only 1 massive golem up.

- the anima ring is not an issue at all. We asked a melee dps to soak 1 of them, and on this exit the tank went out without debuff, but if the tank just go out and take 1 debuff isn't an issue at all, because it will fall down before the next ring, and do not stack up on the tank.

- from the point of the boss activation we used some tank-swap between the massive golem and the boss, because the massive anima golem begin to do uncomfy damage with his stack. We changed tank just before the boss activation, and then changed back on 4 stack on the offtank - and then keep this till finish.

The entire P1 is very smooth after a bit practice, and in the p2 the biggest problem is the inerrupting jolt, but not difficult to manage it.

Edited May 24, 2013 by madar

[Zagam 1,982]

Heroic Dark Animus - the worst fight ever (10 man)

 

Strategy - Lube up and pray. There are lots of little things to know here. Fight comp we used was 3 tanks, 2 heals, 5 DPS (3 ranged, 2 melee). Everyone had a job and if one person made the slightest mistake, it was a wipe. How the fight needs to be done in terms of Anima is completely different in Heroic due to one difference...Dark Animus activates when the Anima Orb explodes. He starts with 52 Anima which automatically enables 2 of his abilities: Anima Rings and Touch of Animus. Before you explode the big ball of ooze in the middle, you'll need to assign some tasks to players.

 

T1 - Tank 1 - will be in the corner closest to one of the Massive Golems (M1) that has 3 activated small golems. This tank will pick up these 3 and pop CDs to survive. DPS near him will be assigned to assist him kill them ASAP. The vengeance that he picks up will allow him to destroy adds. He will then taunt activated golems off of players near him as well as kill inactive small golems on his side (left or right, wherever he started) until his Massive has 36 Anima and is completely full. T1 should be a DK or Paladin because both of these can reset stacks of Explosive Slam stacks via Bubble and AMS.

 

T2 - Tank 2 - will do the same thing but on the opposite side. The goal is by 2:00, both of these Massive Anima Golems will have 36/36 Anima and will have consumed 18 of the small Golems in the process (9 each). This should be a DK or Paladin. If not, you'll need to do tank swaps with T3. T3 - Tank 3 - will pick up Dark Animus and 1 small golem and will hold both in the middle of the room. Will need to perform a tank swap if T1 or T2 are both not a Paladin or DK.

 

H1 - Healer 1 - will make sure that everyone on T1's side stays alive. Handles dispelling Matter Swap at 5-6 seconds remaining

 

H2 - Healer 2 - will make sure everyone on T2's side stays alive. Dispels the same way. Late dispelling = a likely wipe.

 

D1 - DPS 1 - will be assigned to take care of one active as well as filling completely 2 inactive Large (L1 & L2) with his 1 active and 3 inactives. D1 should be assigned to the side where two inactives will automatically go to a large inactive upon death. D1 will kill both of these to completely fill L1 and then move his golem somewhere near another inactive large that will receive an inactive small. D1 will kill that inactive small and kill his active to completely fill the second large inactive golem, L2. D1, if ranged (should be), should also assist in killing T1's initial 4-5 adds before taking on his personal responsibilities of filling 2 large inactives. All of this must be done by the 2 minute mark, so multi-dotting classes are highly preferred here. This should be one of your best ranged, multi-dotting DPS.

 

D2 - DPS 2 - will be assigned to take care of T1's small adds, tank one add, and fill the remaining large inactive golem in the same method D1 does. He will find the inactive large, kill an inactive near it to put the large at half capacity, and then place his active small into the large inactive to create the 3rd full inactive large golem, L3. Once D2 is done with this, he gets on Dark Animus.

 

D3 - DPS 3 - will be a Rogue or very durable DK DPS (other classes may work, we used a Rogue because of Feint). D3 will tank one of his actives somewhat near T1 and should be T1's first taunted small after T1 kills his 3 initial targets. After D3's small golem is on T1, he should go DPS Dark Animus. His primary job will be to absorb 2 of the Dark Animus Ring spheres surrounding the tank to let T3 escape from the rings without any debuffs (each orb increases physical damage taken by 200%...not on the top of the tank's wishlist for Christmas if you catch my drift).

 

D4 - DPS 4 - will be assigned to assist with T2's adds full time, especially when he's cleaning up inactives. He should also have a small active on him that will be taunted when T2 handles his initial 2 adds.

 

D5 - DPS 5 - will be assigned to float and help wherever is needed. Should have a small golem on him until one of the tanks can take it off of him (last priority) If your raid accomplishes the first two minutes perfectly, you should have Dark Animus and 1 Small Golem in the middle, 1 Massive Golem completely filled on T1, 1 Massive Golem completely filled on T2, and 3 filled Large inactive Golems.

 

These are denoted DA, S1, L1, L2, L3, M1, M2. This is the first 'phase' of the fight and is absolutely crucial to your success. One mistake here such as activating a Large Golem or not cleaning up the 24 Small Golems will result in a wipe. For the rest of the fight, you'll deal with the same stuff over and over. Handle Anima Rings, avoid Anima Font (VERY IMPORTANT), Matter Swap, and Disrupting Jolt when DA gets to 75 Anima. Here are your list of goals to accomplish:

 

Before 2:00 (Siphon 1) -Completely fill L1, L2, and L3 with 6 Smalls -Completely fill M1 and M2 with 18 Smalls -Keep S1 alive on T3

Between 2:20 and 2:40 (Siphon 2 and Siphon 3) -Kill S1 into M1 (T1 can simply taunt S1 to him and have ranged blow it up)

Between 3:00 and 3:20 (Siphon 4 and Siphon 5) -Kill L3 into M2 Between 3:20 and 3:40 (Siphon 5 and Siphon 6) -Kill L2 into M1

Between 3:40 and 4:00 (Siphon 6 and Siphon 7) -Kill L1 into M2 To illustrate how this will be done in regards to siphons and how anima fit in other mobs, see this chartish type table:

 

Siphon 1 @ 2:00 -> DA +6 Anima to 58. M1 = 35/36, M2 = 35/36, L1 = 7/8, L2 = 7/8, L3 = 7/8, S1 = 3/4

Siphon 2 @ 2:20 -> DA +6 Anima to 64. M1 = 34/36, M2 = 34/36, L1 = 6/8, L2 = 6/8, L3 = 6/8, S1 = 2/4 *Between Siphon 2 and Siphon 3* Kill S1 into M1 so M1 = 36/36, S1 = 0/4

Siphon 3 @ 2:40 -> DA +5 Anima to 69. M1 = 35/36, M2 = 33/36, L1 = 5/8, L2 = 5/8, L3 = 5/8 Siphon 4 @ 3:00 -> DA +5 Anima to 74. M1 = 34/36, M2 = 32/36, L1 = 4/8, L2 = 4/8, L3 = 4/8 *Between Siphon 4 and Siphon 5* Kill L3 into M2 so M2 = 36/36, L3 = 0/8

Siphon 5 @ 3:20 -> DA +4 Anima to 78. M1 = 33/36, M2 = 35/36, L1 = 3/8, L2 = 3/8 *Between Siphon 5 and Siphon 6* Kill L2 into M1 so M1 = 36/36, L2 = 0/8

Siphon 6 @ 3:40 -> DA +3 Anima to 81. M1 = 35/36, M2 = 34/36, L1 = 2/8 *Between Siphon 6 and Siphon 7* Kill L1 into M2 so M2 = 36/36, L1 = 0/8

Siphon 7 @ 4:00 -> DA +2 Anima to 83. M1 = 34/36, M2 = 35/36

Siphon 8 @ 4:20 -> DA +2 Anima to 85.

Siphon 9 @ 4:40 -> DA +2 Anima to 87.

Siphon 10 @ 5:00 -> DA +2 Anima to 89.

Siphon 11 @ 5:20 -> DA +2 Anima to 91.

Siphon 12 @ 5:40 -> DA +2 Anima to 93.

Siphon 13 @ 6:00 -> DA +2 Anima to 95.

Siphon 14 @ 6:20 -> DA +2 Anima to 97.

Siphon 15 @ 6:40 -> DA +2 Anima to 99.

Siphon 16 @ 7:00 -> DA +2 Anima to 100. Full Power. You die.

 

This looks confusing until you see it in action. This method allows for 3 tanks to lessen tank damage from the Massive Golems. We also chose to kill S1 before Siphon 3 @ 2:40 to delay Disrupting Jolt, which starts at 75 Anima. Disrupting Jolt HURTS, so delaying it 20 seconds was AWESOME. @ 3:00, Disrupting Jolts enter the fray and this is when the fight gets super serious. You'll absolutely need CDs for each of these. This is how we did ours: CD 1 = Healthstones immediately after Jolt CD 2 = Personals + Spirit Shell CD 3 = Warrior Banner CD 4 = Rallying Cry CD 5 = Boomkin Tranq + Spirit Shell CD 6 = Devotion Aura We killed it just after CD 6, but everyone was dead except for me (Warlock) and a Holy Paladin. He taunted the boss to the opposite corner, I Soulshattered to drop threat, he Bubbled, /cancelaura, and I finished it with Drain Soul. This fight is absolutely no joke for healers at the end. Both of them worked their asses off. If you are working on this fight, try not to make personal mistakes like eating Anima Font. Your healers are doing a thankless job and they have it the hardest. Help them out. Handling Matter Swap: Matter Swap will do some of the craziest, stupidest crap you've seen. It will swap someone closer when you're further away, swap the person with Anima Font to surprise raid members with surprise damage, and it'll swap people at the least opportune time (I believe Swap happened simultaneously with Jolt 4). Warlocks are the supreme master for Matter Swap with Soul Leech. If your Warlock pays attention, the only damage he should be eating is Disrupting Jolt and Matter Swap, so Soul Leech and personal CDs will make him the best swap person to mitigate damage. Any ranged will work, but Warlocks are the bomb here. Healers, buckle up. You'll be healing massive damage from the small golems hitting your squishies like Mages and Hunters, healing personal mistakes like Anima Font, dispelling Matter Swap (if you do it too early or too late, someone will die), and utilizing your raid cooldowns like they are food rations during war. Best of luck on this one...this personally is my least favorite fight in this tier. Even after beating it and rolling a 535 weapon on a coin, I still hate it. It's neat, but VERY annoying when things don't work like they should (small golems linking 20 yards away, Matter Swap picking people closer than me, etc.)

[Guest Lughnasadh]

Running in 10 man, we just had a large animus get activated with only 4 anima. Is this a change on 10 man?

[Tova 6]

Thought I'd share our kill this week to give another perspective.

[Zagam 1,982]

If any Anima get into the ACTIVE large golems, then they activate. It does NOT require the full 8. You MUST place Anima in the INACTIVE golems in 10 man. In 10 man, some of the golems are "inactive" to compensate for the fact that you don't have a person for each one. The 8 capacity is important to note because if you try to put more than 2 smalls into a large, it'll overflow likely into the active beside it.

[Scoggleon 1]

Was a little disappointed this past week, our first interrupting jolt was about to come in, and I had a major trinket proc, so I decided to pop Unending Resolve(warlock) and keep casting through the jolt. I was still interrupted. Tried it again in lfr on my disc priest just a couple seconds after casting inner focus, also still got interrupted. Anybody else having this problem?

[Zagam 1,982]

Don't cast during Interrupting Jolt. It bypasses Interrupt-proof mechanics much like some boss abilities penetrate immunities like Iceblock and Paladin's Divine Shield.

[druideena 14]

• Avoid being hit by Explosive Slam (the affected area on the ground is clearly indicated).

How? and the affected area is only shown after he hits the ground correct?