Highmaul Warlock Style - Normal, Heroic, & Mythic

[Lockybalboa 618]

Highmaul - Warlock Specific Tips and Tricks by Encounter

 

Just as was done with Tier 15 and 16, below is a Warlock specific guide on how to approach each encounter in Highmaul.

 

For Warlock style tips and tricks in Blackrock Foundry CLICK HERE

 

Please share your tips and tricks for this raid and they will be added to the main post!

 

(Note for now, servers were down last night so my guild didn't raid. After tonight I'll have some things to share. Till then those of you out there that did raid and want to share your findings, it would be awesome if you did. I'll check the thread throughout the day to update often.

Update! Some tips and tricks have been posted, this is be NO means a total or finished list. This is always a work in progress that is highly impacted by the community. This list will be updated for Heroic and Mythic and kept up-to-date as more tips and tricks are gathered. If you have something you'd like to add, comment!)

 

 

 

Kargath Bladefist

 

Recommended Spec: Destro or Demo if you're going in to the stands, any spec if you are on boss full time.

Recommended Talents - Stands Team: 

KJC is highly recommended, the amount of movement is low but timed well with KJC.

Burning Rush, if picked for the charge the speed boost really helps. 

DEMO - GoServ for extra Fel Guard Spin-to-Win awesomeness in the stands.

Cataclysm used after the adds have been bright together a bit in the stands is amazing. Save Cata for this moment only.

Recommended Talents - Boss Full Time:

KJC is highly recommended, the amount of movement is low but timed well with KJC.

Burning Rush, if picked for the charge the speed boost really helps. 

All other talents are optional.

 

 

ALL

-Very tank and spank fight.

- A well placed Demonic Teleport behind a fire pillar will help a lot if you're picked for the charge.

-Well placed Demonic Portals are helpful for you and your raid in getting behind the fire pillars. Place this before the fight.

 

Demo/Destro

-Taking Cataclysm for the stands is amazing, save it for when you're thrown up and the adds are gathered together for it. Another option would be Chard Remains for Destro if the adds die to fast for Cata

.

 

 

The Butcher

Recommended Spec: Any, Demo has a slight advantage if you're the player that balances the groups and forces the Cleave change.

Recommended Talents: 

KJC if you're the player that balances the groups. AD if you're just on the boss.

All other talents are optional, nothing really stands out.

 

 

All Specs:

-Depending on your role in the fight where and how you use Demonic Portals and Demon Gate changes. 

-Players that are moving in and out to balance the melee groups will want to put their portals outside of the group they are in so they can quickly move out. 

-Players full time on the boss can use their portal on the ranged stack point to quickly move on to it after the knock back, doing so mid air also gives you an extra GCD or two per knock back.

 

Demo:

-Demonic Leap for movement is awesome, it is almost the perfect distance needed to go in and out when balancing groups for Cleave.

 

 

Brackenspore

Recommended Spec: Any, Aff is at a slight disadvantage due to lack of snap DPS for Mushrooms and adds.

Recommended Talents: 

Burning Rush.

KJC.

All other talents are optional.

 

 

All Specs:

-Demon Gate set in the room might be helpful when moving from mushroom to mushroom, since this can't really be planed though it ends up being very RNG if the gate will be useful.

-Delaying snap damage cooldowns for Spore Shooters can be very helpful, but the delay should be no more then 10 or so seconds to avoid a large DPS loss.

-Save KJC for moving from one set of mushrooms to another set.

 

 

 

Tectus

Recommended Spec: Demo.

Recommended Talents:

Burning Rush

KJC

GoServ

Cata

 

All Specs:

-At the start you can try to place some portals but these will made useless fairly quickly since the fight devolves so quickly.

Demo:

-Demon Jump to get out of the way of the Earthen Pillar

-Demon Jump to get Crystalline Barrage out of the area

-Delaying GoServ and Cata usage when within 15-20 seconds of Tectus splitting is helpful, waiting longer then that is not recommended.

 

 

Twin Orgron

Recommended Spec: Any

Recommended Talents:

Shadowfury

KJC

Demo = Demon Bolt

Destro = CR or DS

Aff = SB:H 

 

All Specs: 

-Be ready for a lot of movement.

-Placing your pet on passive before the fight and using a pet attack command at the start will keep the pet focused on one target. Since the two bosses share HP pool there is no reason for a pet to switch targets - keeping it focused on one target will prevent DPS loss from pet movment/target swapping.

-Multi DoT is your friend.

 

 

Ko'Ragh

Recommended Spec: Any

Recommended Talents:

Burning Rush

KJC if you're part of the orb team, AD if you are not.

Cata

 

All Specs:

-Place a personal teleport at the center of the room if you are on Orb team.

 

Demo:

-Demonic Jump is very helpful for all types of movement.

 

 

 

Imperator Mar'gok

Recommended Spec: Destro

Recommended Talents:

Shadowfury

KJC

Cata

 

All Specs:

-Cata should be used on the add and the boss, timing will mean you should be able to hit every other add with Cata.

-Demonic Gateway from one side of the room to the other can be very helpful for Phase 3.

-Personal Portal out of the main area, depending on strat used.

[Lockybalboa 618]

Change Log:

 

12/6/14 - Added last bosses on normal. Edited some bosses with new comments.

12/4/14 - First few bosses on normal added, more coming soon as I get some sleep.

12/3/14 - Posted. Special thanks to Lockstar for reminding me to make this.

[mint 0]

Your "tipps and tricks"-link is not working for me, sir

[Stunlocked 8]

Your "tipps and tricks"-link is not working for me, sir

BRF hasn't opened yet,  I assume Locky just put that link in as a placeholder. 

[mint 0]

BRF hasn't opened yet,  I assume Locky just put that link in as a placeholder. 

Oh thank you, i thought its for Highmaul. My fail 

[Lockybalboa 618]

BRF hasn't opened yet,  I assume Locky just put that link in as a placeholder. 

 

This, I made the topic for the other raid but it is hidden atm. I'll open the topic once the raid is out, no point in it being open now and I dont want to remake links in a month.

[Bombsauce 3]

One thing I can think of that needs to be worked out is some way to track the shield on Ko`Ragh. I am going to work on a weakaura tonight. BigWigs doesn't have anything built in (didn't see it last night, if it does, it was small and out of the way and I didn't notice). Not sure about DBM, i've always preferred BigWigs.  I also got stuck taking care of the creeping moss on brackenspore - that was interesting. Fun but I wish I could have been doing more damage.

[Baifer 0]

Dark Bargain on Ko'Ragh is incredibly useful if you are someone who needs to get the shield. 

[Budman 0]

With a lot of the fights being movement fights I am thinking that KJC is going to be a go to talent over Arch. I am eager to see some Affliction logs as well I need to know where I  stand because last night I was doing shit DPS and that was not fun at all. I will do more logs and link them here soon so you guys can rape me lol. 

 

I was playing around with Harvest Life on some fights as well. In place of Soul link. Do you think that is ill advised?? That we as affliction locks should stick with Drain Soul and forgo that switch since the heals should keep us up? Last but not least. SacPac was my go too talent last night as well ESPECALLY on Tectus I am almost tempted to switch between demo and affliction on a per fight basis since well there is a lot of AoE potential on tectus and lets be honest Aff locks are not known for our epic AoE.

Edited December 3, 2014 by Budman

[Liquidsteel 279]

Did 6 of the bosses on Normal last night before running into issues on Imperator. Doing a split run so DPS wasn't stellar and we had a lot of ranged, so mistakes were high with the mines and the bouncing debuff.

 

Played Demo for everything bar the last pull on Imperator.

Was running a mix of GoSup or GoServ, with AD and Demonbolt. No Dark Soul Glyph. Trying to use Demonbolt every time it was available but not being hugely successful with that intention.

 

Switched to Cataclysm for Tectus that's it.

 

Fucked up my opener by relying on a cast sequence macro on Kargath and the Butcher, so damage was lower due to basically idling for the first 10 seconds and wondering why I wasn't doing anything. That will teach me.

 

Otherwise felt ok. I did get fed most of the gear so damage on the last few bosses was much better. Hunters seem very strong. Our Boomkin is slightly higher ilvl than me but lacks a weapon (got the WF Wand with Socket from Ko'Ragh).

 

Best fight's for me were Twin Ogron and Ko'Ragh. Both specs are ok for Imperator too, but I prefer the more controlled burst Destruction has on the elemental adds. Perhaps I might try delaying Demonbolt for these next time.

 

Both specs seem 'fine' and movement doesn't feel too bad, but it's pretty clear I'll fall further down once we're in main raid.

 

Logs for the night.

[Roblinz 0]

So is there a tips and tricks section for the raid that IS open? The forum title does say Highmaul after all.

Edited December 4, 2014 by Roblinz

[Lockybalboa 618]

The raid has been out for two raid nights. The first raid night much of North America, including myself, were unable to raid due to Blizzard. It's a work in progress, before I can post something I either need feedback from people or I need to do the content myself. 

 

 

 

EDIT: There. Added the first few bosses. Now I'm going to sleep. I'll do the others when I'm awake.

[Oldtrout 7]

Demo felt good on every fight, but I think Mar'Gok is tailor-made for destruction. Havoc cleave is just way too good with the constant influx of adds. Glyph of havoc is probably worth taking for the potential 6 shadowburns in intermissions alone (as long as you aren't going to be pissing your raid off with the damage when the adds die - we stack and popped raid cooldowns so it was fine for us). I was playing Sup / Serv and getting 20-25k every attempt (we usually made it to 2nd intermission before struggling with overall dps), but if we do it again tonight after our heroic raid I might try out sac / CR.

 

Affliction is very strong single target on the first two bosses, particularly on normal when they die so quickly. I think Demo and Destro will probably catch up in heroic mode when the fights go on longer than 4-5 minutes.

Edited December 4, 2014 by Oldtrout

[Deamux 4]

People told me that teleporting will make kargath change target. (Seems very vey strange but stil) So I was prohibited from using it. However I never tested,so can't confirm. Anybody heard something about this bug?

[Lockybalboa 618]

I ported, worked fine.

[Deamux 4]

Hah, thought so. Good to know!

[Djargo 4]

Our normal clear went smooth until last boss aswell. Destro was awesome for getting the add down fast with some havocs. The only fight i really disliked destro was on Tectus. I felt useless there, as we 1 shotted it and i didnt have KJC for that pull. 

 

We only managed to kill the first 2 bosses on HC before calling it a night. But i did manage to get some decent ranks on them https://www.warcraftlogs.com/rankings/report/fQkWRxqYm8CJLdVG#boss=0

[t3chy 0]

just curious, on fights like Tectus, Those using Demo with goserv / cata, do u normally cast cata even if it's just tetus ? :p

[Copperbad 5]

 

 

-Delaying GoServ and Cata usage when within 15-20 seconds of Tectus splitting is helpful, waiting longer then that is not recommended.

 

 

 

 

[Oldtrout 7]

For the pull, don't wait for the adds as they some crazy bitches running all over the place. For the first split, 15-20 seconds is worth waiting like Locky said.

 

For the split into 4, I would say always have cataclysm ready, even if it means waiting 30-40 seconds. The small adds should be dying at a rate that means you get 1 cataclysm on 4 and then another on 3 or 2. You can derp heavily like I did for the majority of the fight and have your damage at the end with cataclysms and hand of gul'dan completely boost you up the meters.

Edited December 4, 2014 by Oldtrout

[t3chy 0]

For the pull, don't wait for the adds as they some crazy bitches running all over the place. For the first split, 15-20 seconds is worth waiting like Locky said.

 

For the split into 4, I would say always have cataclysm ready, even if it means waiting 30-40 seconds. The small adds should be dying at a rate that means you get 1 cataclysm on 4 and then another on 3 or 2. You can derp heavily like I did for the majority of the fight and have your damage at the end with cataclysms and hand of gul'dan completely boost you up the meters.

 

I see, thanks for the advice.

[Liquidsteel 279]

So far I played Demo on all Normal encounters (and again as Frost Mage ^^) and the first 4 Heroic encounters.

 

I should note I've been playing without the Dark Soul glyph, and using Demonbolt on everything bar Tectus. I tried Servitude on Imperator and did ok, Demonbolt felt better. However I also tried one pull as Destruction which definitely brings better snap burst on the add.

 

The only real fight I felt KJC was worthwhile on was Tectus, in order to ensure you get those juicy Cataclysm's off in case you get picked by the fire debuff.

 

I wasn't required to do anything special on Butcher. I was in the melee camp so eye of kilrogg glyph to pre place portal helped a lot.

 

Even Twin Ogron I didn't take KJC.

 

I do think though that with me having both copelands and sandmans, I'm leaning towards no DS glyph and GoServ (and sometimes Imp Swarm!) as my go to set up, so I prefer AD. Having to move during a Demonbolt dump doesn't matter because you have 20s to get it off, kind of.

 

I might try KJC and DS glyph in the future, as my burst cycles seem to come in one minute intervals anyway, but I do feel more flexible with my current set up.

 

That's all I have for now.

[Oldtrout 7]

What do you think of also using GoServ with Servitude for destruction (or affliction), given the same logic with the Copeland's / Sandman's trinket combo? 

 

Never actually tried it, benefits seem obvious in fights with required burst phases such as the Mar'Gok intervals and Ko'Ragh's charge phase, but I'm thinking it could just be a general dps gain when you consider trinkets and DS will always line up with it, right? Not going to get to raid for a few days now so will be interested to hear from anybody that tries it.

Edited December 5, 2014 by Oldtrout

[Liquidsteel 279]

I think it works really well!

I was using it in heroics and liked it.

Also might as well point out that KJC will likely be much more appealing in Mythic where movement and mechanics will be a much bigger deal.

[Astynax 24]

... and using Demonbolt on everything bar Tectus. I tried Servitude on Imperator and did ok, Demonbolt felt better. However I also tried one pull as Destruction which definitely brings better snap burst on the add.

 

I'm sorry, but I feel like I'm missing something here.

Cata, to me, felt AWFUL on tectus.... Sure, it's insane when the 4 motes pop, but from my experience, the raid emphasis has been "Kill this thing before it mechanics too hard." And the emphasis has been on quickly burning down a single target. Fights felt so much better when I was dealing more single target DPS, and we were phase pushing faster, because even in 2 things devolved into a clusterfuck after a couple upheavals. 

By no means am I saying "I'm right." I just want it spelled out for me.