Higmaul and Blackrock - DK DPS Style

[Storm 426]

This is just a placeholder for the moment, but also an announcement that I'm working on this and would like all of your advice and input. This post will be used for discussion about tips and tricks for DK DPS for the boss encounters in High Maul. points of discussion could be useful abilities, talents to take for the fight, and which dps specs perform strongest (hopefully some of us can find niche uses for something other than unholy+defile all the time)

 

 

Highmaul

 

Kargath Bladefist

- Gorefiends grasp makes it easy to group the adds in the stands for aoe

- Defile is reccomend for aoe up top

- Per something DemonArdvark tested, Necrotic Plague + Unholy Blight may allow you to spread 15 stacks of necrotic plague very quickly, and absolutely wrecking all the adds.

- Position yourself on a side of the boss that is away from fires/ranged so the boss's beserker rush won't clip you

 

The Butcher

- The first 70% of this fight is patchwerk

- The last 30% of the fight you'll need to use all the defensive cooldowns you have to stay alive when taking the 2nd and 3rd stacks of gushing wounds

 

 

Tectus

- Make sure you always position yourself on the opposite side of the boss from ranged, that way you'll rarely ever have to worry about moving for crystalline barrage

- Tectonic Upheaval is nature damage so you can use AMS on it. 

 

 

Brackenspore

- It's mostly melee responsibility to interrupt the Add, but it can be done with just 2 melee, so set up an interrupt rotation

- Use AMS during infesting spores. I wait until 3-4 stacks and then pop AMS and the stacks drop then build back up to about 2. using this strategy I've completed the fight in heroic with under 500k total damage taken before. 

 

 

Twin Ogron

- You can use AMS to run through fires without taking damage.

 

 

 

Ko'ragh

- Gorefiends Grasp is a great help getting all the Anomaly adds inside one of the voidzones before their death.

 

- Soul Reaper can execute on both shield % and boss hp%. So you can get in a very large number of Soul Reapers on this fight.

 

 

Imperator Mar'gok

- The Cooldown of AMS lines up almost perfectly with the cooldown of Force Nova. Use it as often as you can.

- Interupt Mages in the transitions

 

 

Blackrock Foundry

 

Gruul

-

 

 

Oregorger

-

 

 

The Blast Furnace

-

 

 

Hans'gar and Franzok

-

 

 

Flamebender Ka'graz

-

 

 

Kromog

-

 

 

Beastlord Darmac

-

 

 

Operator Thogar

-

 

 

The Iron Maidens

-

 

 

Blackhand

-

[Ceraius 34]

Ko'ragh

 

Gorefiends Grasp is a great help getting all the Anomaly adds inside one of the voidzones before their death.

 

Also Soul Reaper takes into account the boss' shield amount while its active, so you can get out quite high amounts of soul reapers during the fight. (Whenever boss' shield goes under 45% use that reaper)

Disproven

 

 

Twins

 

Save AMS for when you can't avoid the flames from Quake and you have to run through them to not get any dot stacks.

Edited December 22, 2014 by Ceraius

[Storm 426]

Ko'ragh

Also Soul Reaper takes into account the boss' shield amount while its active, so you can get out quite high amounts of soul reapers during the fight. (Whenever boss' shield goes under 45% use that reaper)

 

That's a really good one that I probably never would have stumbled onto myself. Thanks!

[Ceraius 34]

All execute abilities seem to work this way. It was actually our raidgroup's rogue who figured this out with Dispatch. Abilities like dispatch and kill shot dont however do the "available glow" since that effect only tracks health but they are indeed usable.

[drumsmani 47]

AMZ can help your healers for Tectus' Tectonic Upheaval, Brackenspore's Infesting Spores (especially if the boss / melee are away from green mushroom) and for Destabilize if a bunch of Volatile Anomalies die near Melee coming out of intermission phases on Imperator.

[mredig 0]

Twins: If you're good enough at dodging fire to not need AMS, you can get ONE stack of fire and then use AMS to get an increased amount of RP during the fight. Just be sure to dodge the remaining fire. If you get two stacks, you start to pressure the healers. Also note - AMS prevents the application of the debuff and since it's a dot, won't give you RP if you don't get the debuff before using AMS.

Edited December 14, 2014 by mredig

[konexile 0]

Just to clarify, is it only the shield's percentage that's factored in on Ko'ragh?

 

If he's under 45% hp but has a 75% shield will I get the additional damage?

Edited December 16, 2014 by konexile

[Ceraius 34]

Afaik the shield acts as the "health" when its active, so to my knowledge nope. I could be wrong though (and how amazing would that be :D )

[Leviatana 0]

Butcher:
Switch in critical situations in blood presence (with the rune for less runic power loss)

Tectus:
Necrotic plague feels like a strong damage boost when you can spread a 15 stacked from the second middle boss to the 4 small bosses.
( https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/fq9ghDBXLKP7MT1y#type=damage-done&source=19 )

Brakenspore:
Use AMS after the 4/5 Stack of Infesting spores. you don't get additional stacks and take almost no damage.

Twin Ogron:
You can use AMS like a 5 second ignore fire button and keep on dpsing.

Also if you use AMS at 1 debuff stack and get another, the debuff is removed. (feels a little bit buggy to me) couldnt test with more stacks if it works that way too.

Mar'gok:
Use AMS when you are Branded or when he uses the nova.

Use AMZ when the adds die in the intermission. also you can use it when the big add is alive.

[Deathdoc 0]

Ko'ragh

 

- Soul Reaper takes into account the boss' shield amount while its active, so you can get out a high amount of soul reapers during the fight if you use it whenever the shield is under 45% (35% for frost).

Has this been verified? If this is true Mind = Blown :0

[Leviatana 0]

Has this been verified? If this is true Mind = Blown :0

I tried it in hc. It didnt work. https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/xd9tDwQXjZGNaALf#fight=20&type=damage-done&source=15

5 Soulreaper without delayed dmg proc

[drumsmani 47]

Yeah, I finally got a WA to track the percentage of the shield remaining and Soul Reaper's additional effect seems to work only on his actual health and not the shield.

[Ceraius 34]

Well that sure sucks.   

Has someone checked if the instant type executes work on the shield amount (Dispatch, Kill Shot etc)?

 

Also does soul reaper work at sub 45% health regardless of the amount of shield?

Edited December 19, 2014 by Ceraius

[drumsmani 47]

Well that sure sucks.   

Has someone checked if the instant type executes work on the shield amount (Dispatch, Kill Shot etc)?

 

Also does soul reaper work at sub 45% health regardless of the amount of shield?

 

Does Kill Shot get enabled only during execute phases? If so, it appears to work for hunters in our group:

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/RA479mZvLwg6by1p#fight=22&type=damage-done&ability=157708

 

SR does seem to work at sub 45% health regardless of the shield amount.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/FdpRb2LKHW8V73rC#fight=20&type=damage-done&pins=0%24Separate%24%23244F4B%24damage%240%240.0.0.Any%24134211559.0.0.DeathKnight%24true%240.0.0.Any%24false%24130736%5E0%24Separate%24%23909049%24damage%240%240.0.0.Any%24134211559.0.0.DeathKnight%24true%240.0.0.Any%24false%24114867%5E0%24Separate%24%23a04D8A%24auras-gained%241%240.0.0.Any%240.0.0.Any%24true%240.0.0.Any%24false%24156803&source=54

[Moozedude 47]

Hammer of Wrath also activates for Ret.  Even gets the glowy proc on the HUD.  Perhaps it is an intended effect, but the Soul Reaper logic isn't verifying properly when it goes to confirm the status of the health pool?

[SparroTyrghymn 0]

I do this with Butcher and twins, I've written a macro that activates both IBF and Blood pres on the left click and will reactivate Unholy(cause I'm UH dk) when you right click it, I also have IBF glyphed cause you only need it for those 5 or 10 seconds during the hits of gushing wound and the final part of pulverise so it lets you use it slightly more during the fights

#showtooltip Icebound Fortitude
/cast [nomod,button:1] Blood Presence
/cast [nomod,button:1] Icebound Fortitude
/cast [nomod,button:2] Unholy Presence

you can also make an Aura with these settings, Event > Combat log > Spell > Start Cast, Source Name Imperator Mar'gok, and then the name of the nova(there are 5) this will tell you when Imperator is starting to cast his nova spell giving you time to ams even if you aren't targeting him at the time

 

I've put my string for WeakAuras if anyone wants it predon it will play a shotgun noise and show a rune circle for 5s once the starts his cast of nova

 

string is in the spoiler to save room

dGd8laGlfQETKIzsfQ5IQmBrDtfv3gv2Pi2lz3iTFQKFsf0WeeJtqQ8BedvqknyQudxbhur5WuCmjLoNGu0cvKwQGKflPA5s9qjjEQQLPqPNJYefKctvOjtvthCrbPQhlWZOc56kTrfrFwIntfy7urFusWxLezAkcFxsuNMs)vKgnQQXlO6Kss9jjHUMc58ckxg6BssADkuSQvrDJIc0z6JD8qgp0C8qNoNUx3ROodZoi0sSuqFQdJrho3XH(jJ6nwSeAmSbuV0KDqNUCX2wkyZusT6wV(SoWqrxUtion6zIXRO(YW0GSHXuD9MKrf152myvuGaDWKrkOOo3MbRIceO3MaurDUndwffiqGog(GH6rVQlqpqrLuRI6lfABPGTI6ldt9idwQfuD9LHPEKbQUa9glwcng2aQdy4W2OUjaSektrDgyAqrDpjLrwQxt1zKL61RMcy7ataYBM37qkJxLqtnZ22W4nh9wdVtwQNX78jqzPJtkfDgzP(0a(gkfZ6ZnmaBbc0bmCyBu)dyoZ4nBBtOwkoQcnIuDRxpH40OdTTuWwrDiSbuhDIuqNr2oa1RMBaBdqAxUNB6kwi1OZgWCoXWH6ts6a0L7eItJUFBdyju9r6OtKc6vHWv3aUC7ysrFzykJSDaQP6ldtzdyoNy4qnvFPOtKc6GLd96bldiCP8TEuhSCOxGELTEGVsMOQosNUCX2wkyZusT6gV3cwc1KtH2wkyZuuGoF0w4dkzuiHONjgVI6njJkQZTzWQOab6GjJuqrDUndwffiqVnbOI6CBgSkkqGabkzSkQVuOTLc2kQVmm1JmyPwq11xgM6rgO6c0nbGLqzkQZatdkQ7jPmYs9AQoJSuVE1uaBhycqEZ8Ehsz8QeAQz22ggV5O3A4DYs9mENpbklDCsPOZil1NgW3qPywFUHbylqGoGHdBJ6FaZzgVzBBc1sXrvOrKQB96jeNgxUhRUX7TGLqn5uOTLc2mffOxzRh4RKjQQJ0PlxSTLc2mLuRo02sbBf1HWgqD0jsbDgz7auVAUbSnaPD5EUPRyHuJUFBdyju9r6OtKc6vHWv3aUC7ysrFzykBaZ5edhQP6lfDIuqhSCOxFzykJSDaQP6SbmNtmCO(KKoaD5oH40mgxUdnSSHSja5qkOhSmGWLY36rDWYHEb68rBHpOKrHeIEMy8kQ3MaurDUndwffiqhmzKckQZTzWQOab6njJkQZTzWQOabc0BSyj0yydOoGHdBJcuIJuuFPqBlfSvuFzyQhzWsTGQRVmm1Jmq1fOBcalHYuuNbMguu3tszKL61uDgzPE9QPa2oWeG8M59oKY4vj0uZSTnmEZrV1W7KL6z8oFcuw64KsrNrwQpnGVHsXS(CddWwGaDadh2g1)aMZmEZ22eQLIJQqJiv361tionUC7iDJ3BblHAYPqBlfSzkkqVYwpWxjtuvhPtxUyBlfSzkPwDOTLc2kQdHnG6OtKc6mY2bOE1CdyBas7Y9CtxXcPgD2aMZjgouFsshGUCNqCAgJl3tsAW6aBGbSeQUFBdyju9r6OtKc6vHWv3aUC7ysrFzykJSDaQP6ldtzdyoNy4qnvFPOtKc6GLd96bldiCP8TEuhSCOxGoF0w4dkzuiHONjgVI6njJkQZTzWQOab6GjJuqrDUndwffiqVnbOI6CBgSkkqGa9glwcng2aQdy4W2OaLmHI6lfABPGTI6ldt9idwQfuD9LHPEKbQUaDtayjuMI6mW0GI6EskJSuVMQZil1RxnfW2bMaK3mV3HugVkHMAMTTHXBo6TgENSupJ35tGYshNuk6mYs9Pb8nukM1NBya2ceOdy4W2O(hWCMXB22MqTuCufAeP6wVEcXPXL7j0nEVfSeQjNcTTuWMPOa9kB9aFLmrvDKoD5ITTuWMPKA1H2wkyROoe2aQJorkOZiBhG6vZnGTbiTl3ZnDflKA0zdyoNy4q9jjDa6YDcXPzmUCpjPbRdSOx3VTbSeQ(iD0jsb9Qq4QBaxUDmPOVmmLr2oa1u9LHPSbmNtmCOMQVu0jsbDWYHE9GLbeUu(wpQdwo0lqNpAl8bLmkKq0ZeJxr9MKrf152myvuGaDWKrkOOo3MbRIceO3MaurDUndwffiqGEJflHgdBa1bmCyBuGsgPO(sH2wkyRO(YWupYGLAbvxFzyQhzGQlq3eawcLPOodmnOOUNKYil1RP6mYs96vtbSDGja5nZ7DiLXRsOPMzBBy8MJERH3jl1Z4D(eOS0XjLIoJSuFAaFdLIz95ggGTab6agoSnQ)bmNz8MTTjulfhvHgrQo02sbBf1HWgqD0jsbDgz7auVAUbSnaPD5EUPRyHuJEWYacxkFRh1blh619BBalHQpshDIuqVkeU6gWLBhtk6ldtzdyoNy4qnvFPOtKc6GLd96ldtzKTdqnvNnG5CIHd1NK0bOl3jeNMX4YDOWHSnWawcvGU1RNqCAC5EKELTEGVsMOQosNUCX2wkyZusT6gV3cwc1KtH2wkyZuuGoF0w4dkzuiHONjgVI6TjavuNBZGvrbc0btgPGI6CBgSkkqGEtYOI6CBgSkkqGa9glwcng2aQdy4W2Oab6ovsTtm2qeib

[Anfauglith 6]

Suggestions

 

Gruul 

Breath of Sindragosa is a solid choice here, because you can soak Inferno Slice with AMS for extra runic power.

Glyph of Icebound Fortitude  can help with Petrification. (doesn't work anymore)

 

Oregorger

Icebound Fortitude gets rid of the stun from Explosive Shards and Rolling Fury. 

Purgatory + Death Pact can save you if get rolled over (tested for heroic difficulty).

 

Hans'gar and Franzok

Purgatory + Death Pact can save you if you get stamped (tested for heroic difficulty).

AMS can soak the fire thingies. 

 

Flamebender Ka'graz

AMS generates tons of runic power during Firestorm, so make sure you always have it available when the boss starts casting.

Breath of Sindragosa can be a good pick here, because there are a lot of magic abilities that can be soaked for extra RP. 

 

Kromog

AMS soaks every other Stone Breath (haven't tested for Reverbs). 

Make sure you extend NP enough for it to last during the entire hands phase. Use BB for faster spread. 

 

Beastlord Darmac. 

Defile's cooldown lines up perfectly with the add spawns. 

AMS soaks Tantrum. 

 

Operator Thogar

Purgatory + Death Pact saves you if you get run over by a train (tested on heroic difficulty).

 

Iron Maidens

AMS soaks Blood Ritual (the magic part), Rapid Fire and Detonation Sequence. 

Breath of Sindragosa can be a good choice here, because of the multiple abilities that can be soaked (if you're comfortable with this talent, pick it over Defile if you go on a boat. If you don't go on a boat, NP is better).

Edited March 23, 2015 by Anfauglith

[Antenora 3]

Ko'ragh

 

Anti-Magic Shell can prevent the application of Expel Magic: Shadow

 

Noticed this just now in Normal Highmaul.