Highmaul Protection Warrior Tips and Tricks

[Estarriol 167]

This thread is for tips and tricks for each of the fights in Highmaul. Advice will be added to the main post as it is available. Please feel free to leave any advice you've gleaned from doing the fights. A separate thread will be made for Blackrock Foundry once it's out.

 

Kargath Bladefist:

• The tank who is not going into the stands should tank first. There should be a tank swap after every Impale. There is no need to take 2.
• Make sure you will not be thrown into a tiger pit after Impale by keeping the boss toward the center of the room.
• If you go up into the stands, make sure to keep moving in order to avoid bombs.
• Use Vigilance on your cotank for their Impales.

 

The Butcher:

• You are taking full damage whether the boss is on you or not. Keep your mitigation up and rotate CDs as necessary.
• The Tenderizer can be blocked. Try to have Shield Block up for it every time.
• Charge back in after Butcher knocks every back before Bounding Cleave.

 

Brackenspore:

• Use Vig on your cotank for his or her Breaths.
• Make sure to have around 40% reduction for your Breaths. Call for externals if needed.
• When the add gets higher stacks, it hits harder and faster, you may need to use cooldowns to survive it if it lives too long.

 

Tectus:

• Do not face the Earthen Night-Shaper at your raid, it does a frontal cone. Do make sure to intercept the Earthen Gift if it gets cast.
• Try to keep the Night-Shaper stun locked to avoid its two casts.
• Make sure you're positioned 90 degrees from the area your ranged are standing in. The Crystal Barrage always travels straight to that group and you'll be able to completely avoid it this way.
• If you can, move Tectus a little bit out from the center before he dies. His dirt mound blocks the melee from seeing the brown swirls and the Crystal Barrage.
• Use Ravager, Bladestorm, and Dragon Roar on the Motes of Tectus.

 

Twin Ogron:

• Watch about 20 yards ahead and to the side of you to know when to avoid fire. Don't try to outrun it, just strafe out of the way.
• If you're on Phemos, you'll need to start moving him out a few seconds before Quake ends. Announce to your raid that you're moving him out for Whilwind. You may need CDs. Make sure to take him to a consistent location.
• Keep the bosses as close as possible when mechanics permit. Cleave is essential to beating the enrage on harder difficulties.
• You can Shield Block during Phemos' Whirlwind to reduce your damage taken significantly. You'll likely only have one healer in range, so this is important.

 

Ko'ragh:

• Make sure your ranged and melee know where you will be running the Arcane debuff out.
• You can use Heroic Throw to pick up the adds during transitions. You shouldn't need more than that. Your DPS should not be hitting them.
• Once all of the adds have spawned, pop and CD and run straight through a Suppression Field. Call for a stun. You can stand just on the other edge of the field and you'll be tanking all of the adds in the field still, if any of them are still alive after the stun.
• The tank not on adds may take an Arcane debuff and need to run it out while the boss is still on him or her.
• You can use Mocking Banner every other add phase.

 

Imperator Mar'gok:

• Do not be afraid to call for external CDs when needed.
• Taunt around 4 stacks or as needed. The boss does not have taunt DR.
• try not to taunt right as a Mark of Chaos is going out as it can get a bit weird with who it goes out on at that point.
• If you Heroic Leap out while Mark of Chaos is being cast, you can get out of range of your raid before you get rooted.
• When you're not getting rooted, make sure you are going far enough without going too excessively far or your cotank will have to tank the boss with many stacks by the time you get back.
• Make sure you taunt the Reaver in the second transition and pull him out of the range of the Warmages or he will likely oneshot you.
• Do not point the Reaver at people.
• Make sure your cotank hasd a bit of threat on the Reaver so that it goes to them if Kick to the Face goes out.
• You can Charge or Intervene through the Force Nova.

[Padicow 1]

On imperator mar'gok, our superior mobility really comes in handy.. if the co-tank isn't a warrior or monk, consider being the one taking all marks of chaos...

Most importantly though.. In the phase where the tank is trapped when getting the mark, use heroic leap to one of the sides when he casts it.. then the raid don't have to move at all, negating the mechanic completly.. and the heroic leap CD alligns perfectly with the cast of the marks

Edited December 8, 2014 by Padicow

[Padicow 1]

Double post

Edited December 8, 2014 by Padicow

[Edo 6]

Liking vigilance on Kargath and Brackenspore. Cast it on your other tank for Kargath's impale, and the breath of no healing on Brackenspore.

[Agromat 1]

Any suggestions for picking up adds during Ko'ragh's recharging phase? It's pretty straightforward if Vigilance or Mocking Banner are up, but trying to do it without either is kind of chaos. Is Heroic Throw enough to pull them into Thunderclap range?

 

Also, how often are people tank swapping on Mar'gok? Seems like there's no reason not to do it every 2-3 stacks, but I've only made it to the first intermission phase, so there may be some nuances I'm missing.

[Padicow 1]

Make all healers (and ranged dps) stack behind a supression field then they run to them and you can take them easily..

There is the matter of diminishing returns on taunt, so if you do it too often you risk that you cant taunt when mark of chaos is thrown.. thus we keep it to atleast 8 stacks before switching

[Estarriol 167]

Agro, Heroic Throw is enough by itself. No one else should be hitting those adds. You can swap Mar'gok around 4 stacks without taunt DRs.

[Astelar 0]

Mocking Banner is really good for Ko'ragh. The spell is up one time every two shield phase. So with two war (even dps with glyph eventualy) it's easy to handle the adds.

 

PS : Sorry, I'm french, my english is really bad :(

[Estarriol 167]

Your English is fine. =)

 

Also, added some clarification: Mar'gok does not have taunt DR at all.

[keaghen 0]

if i pick and tank the reaver where he spawns with him facing the arcane wall, is the range from the warmages sufficient ?

Edited January 3, 2015 by keaghen

[Estarriol 167]

No, you will likely die in one hit.

[Feardread 0]

I would like to add that even though tanking Imperator to 3-4 stacks will reduce damage on the tanks, maintaining the taunt till 10 stacks lines perfectly with Mark of Chaos and add pickups.

 

Also, when the add spawns seconds before Mark of Chaos, (Phase III (Root) and you don't have a tank with much mobility or you are not the tank moving the Mark) since both the Mark and the add come out within one Taunt cooldown, using Vigilance can help with picking up that add and then taunting the boss for movement. It maintains uptime on the add and still keeps the raid outside of the blast range.

Also works if you're DPS. The add does not hit hard on a Glad Warrior (pop a Demo Shout or Shield Wall).

 

As well, saving Heroic Leap till AFTER his Force Nova (which spawns well within one cooldown period if used to move Phase III Mark of Chaos (root)) or using an intervene/charge to a raid member/boss WITHIN the nova can help you move through it's knockback much smoother with little to no damage taken.

 

Edit: Phase #'s were wrong.

Edited January 8, 2015 by Feardread

[Estarriol 167]

You can still align Mark of Chaos just fine while taking fewer stacks.

[Feardread 0]

You can still align Mark of Chaos just fine while taking fewer stacks.

I have always gone to 10 stacks so I hadn't tested the fewer stack switch.

 

Edit: This post has helped me exponentially, even post 7/7 N/H. Share this post!

Edited January 8, 2015 by Feardread

[Estarriol 167]

Glad to hear it's helping.

[Calenleya 0]

I'm confused with the leaping out for Mark of Chaos in phase 3, how big is the timeframe for that? If I have threat at 100 % and  leap out with 3 seconds left till the cast, he sometimes casts it on the other tank, but target switches shouldnt occur until I am at <95 % threat, right? Do you just set up the targeting for leap and wait till he casts?

[Padicow 1]

2 sec i think the cast time is.. if he first begins his cast it shouldn't matter if you drop below the other tanks threat, he will target you...your co-tank is prolly taunting before he begins his cast, OR it can be that you run out of his cast range and he then cast it on the other tank afterwards... I'm not sure but i THINK that happend to me once.. otherwise my co-tank just did a mistake without knowing... when the cast is about to happen i just keep my mouse out there and then i leap away when he starts casting

[Tekko 0]

Does anyone have issues pulling The Butcher with Charge on Heroic?  He always runs forward and I end up behind him (leaving him in a crappy position in relation to the markers on the ground).  I normally pull with a Heroic Throw/Charge macro, but I have tried without it as well.

 

I do exactly the same as I do on Normal Butcher and I have no issues with Charge there.

Edited January 14, 2015 by Tekko

[Calenleya 0]

2 sec i think the cast time is.. if he first begins his cast it shouldn't matter if you drop below the other tanks threat, he will target you...your co-tank is prolly taunting before he begins his cast, OR it can be that you run out of his cast range and he then cast it on the other tank afterwards... I'm not sure but i THINK that happend to me once.. otherwise my co-tank just did a mistake without knowing... when the cast is about to happen i just keep my mouse out there and then i leap away when he starts casting

Thanks for the answer

[Estarriol 167]

I'm confused with the leaping out for Mark of Chaos in phase 3, how big is the timeframe for that? If I have threat at 100 % and  leap out with 3 seconds left till the cast, he sometimes casts it on the other tank, but target switches shouldnt occur until I am at <95 % threat, right? Do you just set up the targeting for leap and wait till he casts?

 

You only need to Heroic Leap out once he starts the cast itself. If you leap out before the cast starts, the boss will follow you. There's plenty of time to leap out and even run a little bit if you are keeping a close eye on the boss' cast bar.

 

 

Does anyone have issues pulling The Butcher with Charge on Heroic?  He always runs forward and I end up behind him (leaving him in a crappy position in relation to the markers on the ground).  I normally pull with a Heroic Throw/Charge macro, but I have tried without it as well.

 

I do exactly the same as I do on Normal Butcher and I have no issues with Charge there.

 

Charge-pulling Butcher is a bit obnoxious. Some bosses are like that, unfortunately. The best way I've found to mitigate it is to try to be close to the minimum range of Charge before you pull. ~10 yards away or so.

[spartiate 2]

Hey guys i have a simple question :

Is it useful to use shield block when Phémos is doing whirlwind?

I mean can we actually block ?

[Estarriol 167]

Yes, you can! I should probably add that... You can also dodge and block the whirlwind.

[spartiate 2]

thank you for the answer