Brewmaster VS Megaera

[Levity 0]

Hey guys!

I recently joined a new core team for Throne of Thunder; the guild in question switched servers and had to rebuild their core team. For a while I was healing for them as a Mistweaver, but since my main spec since Mists launched has been Brewmaster, and since our other Brewmaster ended up leaving, I've been slotted as the new tank beside our prot pally. This is good because we finally got past Tortos, which we were stuck on forever thanks to this guy because he was not very good at playing his Brewmaster.

We're now on Megaera, and we've honestly done really well so far, we came really close on our first attempt (last head at 50%) before wiping because our other tank ended up getting hit by a breath and a poison bolt at the same time. Technically we're not doing bad, however I thought I'd get some advice.

Since I've been player Mistweaver up to this point, my gear isn't incredible—I'm sitting at about 503, and haven't had much free time in a couple weeks to Valor cap and get some new stuff. However I know my class inside and out, so it hasn't been a problem thus far. What I'm wondering is this:

How do you guys survive the onslaught of the last head?

I don't have any parses available, I'll get some tonight if we don't get past Meg, but here's my armory: http://us.battle.net.../Nerites/simple

I cycle my CDs like so: For the first four or so heads I usually eat the first breath and let the healers and my self-heals keep me up. Then I'll go Guard -> Diffuse Magic + Elusive off CD -> Guard off CD -> Fortifying Brew + Elusive off CD -> Guard off CD -> Zen Med if necessary. This is sort of my general CD rotation; I am running a crit build for 10-man so that I can help close our DPS gaps, so I do keep Elusive Brew up a lot of the time as well.

However on the last head I'm finding it difficult not to use a CD before a breath happens, simply because the melee hits are punishing at that point, so I'm taking a lot of damage on the last head and straining the healers a little.

It may be worth noting that because I've gone from healer to tank, we've had to PUG a healer a few times, and our night of attempts on Megaera saw us running with a fairly meh shaman healer who was burning her mana way too quickly. With a better third healer we'll probably ace it. I'm also running Chi Torpedo and Celerity for extra Rampage healing.

Do you guys have any suggestions for surviving that last head, other than getting more gear because I just haven't had time? It hasn't caused any wipes yet, it's always been other stuff leading us to wipe, but I still feel like I'm underperforming taking that much damage.

Edited July 28, 2013 by Levity

[Brown 14]

Mmmmm, what healer cds are available at the time or are they dumping them into the other tank? Probably at least want to start making sure they aren't using their cds when yours are up.

Also, what head kill order are you doing?

[Levity 0]

We have a Holy Pally and a Disc Priest in our normal roster, and right now we have to pug a third healer.

I've never played either of those so I'm not 100% sure of all their CDs but they're mostly using them on Rampages or our pally tank because my CDs are strong enough usually that I don't require extra attention from them until that last round.

They are set on doing the LFR-style green-red-green-red kill pattern. Personally I think it'd be easier if we killed the blue head too because that's where most of the healing and heal CDs seem to be going - whichever tank has the blue head later into the fight almost needs to be focused if CD execution and DPS on the target head isn't perfect. If we struggle tonight I'll probably try to convince them to kill blue too.

[Tengenstein 11]

We generally took the blue head as the 5th one to kill, just to stop it wrecking the tank with its 120% haste buff. The Ice Beam on the 6th and 7th head isn't too much to handle, especially on 10 man where there's like only 6-8 people at range to avoid kiting it over.

[penance 0]

I had the same problem as well. people wouldnt budge.. as a tank the blue with 120% haste is brutal. even at 516. they practically 4 healed it. I was in a PUG group so my raid leader authority didnt exist. it was a tough few hours

[Levity 0]

Awesome, I'll definitely push to get that blue head down tonight too. I was thinking doing it 5th or doing it 3rd and 6th if we reaaally struggle.

Honestly our raid lead isn't terribly authoritative either. Myself and the pally tank usually lead; the RL is sort of just RL in name but not so much in spirit.

Thanks for the suggestions so far, guys!

[penance 0]

Im the RL in my guild but since i joined a PUG for a different guild i wasent the leader anymore. doing it on the 5th should be fine. as long as the raid can avoid the other mechanics you should be fine. remember ice beam knocks out embers void zone

[Tarazet 144]

Which tank is on the red head? Yesterday I took my undergeared (490) Paladin alt to Megaera before we failed on our first heroic Ji-Kun attempts, and he took a laughably small amount of damage because I used Hand of Purity on cooldown whenever the fire dot was up. Then I just threw my Light's Hammer on the raid whenever I could because our Holy Paladin was failing to time it correctly. :D If you're currently on the red head, consider a swap.

[Benke 0]

Personally, I like to use the Guard glyph for this fight and save guard for the breaths. It helps negate a good deal of damage from the breath and the green/red DoT. Also, since I normally end up tanking green last, I spec Dampen Harm and pop it during the brutal melee swings on the last round. Combine those two with maximum stagger uptime and lots of GotO grabbing, HP stays manageable during that last phase.