Highmaul & You Discussion Thread

[Carrn 284]

Updated 19/1

 

With the release of Normal and Heroic Highmaul, I think it's a good time to start a thread for Tips & Tricks for the different bosses.  

 

Any glyphs and talent choices listed below are suggestions for optional ones. Glyphs such as Energy, Vanish, and Disappearance should still be used for their respective specs.

 

Please share, ask questions etc and I'll update the main post with anything that comes up

 

 

Kargath Bladefist

 

Combat is probably best if you're one of the ones going up top. The on-demand AoE burst is very strong with Blade Flurry and Killing Spree.

 

If you don't end up going up, its pretty much a straight single target fight, so Sub pulls ahead. Sub isn't bad up top, as you can provide a lot of CC for the mobs if needed.

 

In all cases, cooldowns should be saved for the top phase, since the faster you clear them out the better. 

 

Glyphs:

Cloak of Shadows. The instant physical damage reduction is really nice, especially if Kargath randomly turns around because somebody broke the Fixate by mistake.

 

Since this should be exclusively single target for you, Glyph of Hemo isn't completely necessary. I still recommend that you take it as a backup though

 

Talents:

Haven't tried falling in the pit with Cheat Death, but I don't think it would save you. That said, it can save you from mistakes with the Fixate, so there isn't really a loss to take it.

 

Shadowstep can help you avoid Berserker Rush very easily

 

 

The Butcher

 

Very much a straight single target. Nothing too fancy, but on higher difficulties its a very tight enrage timer. That said, Sub shines on this fight as you can mostly just watch your timers and focus on maximizing DPS. 

 

Glyphs: 

Glyph of Feint is very nice, since overall you will spent less energy to keep it up when you start to get wrecked by the bleed.

 

Glyph Cloak of Shadows can really help as well

 

Glyph of Smoke Bomb is also great - 10% reduced damage for everyone around you might not be a lot but it helps, and extending the time on it is always nice

 

Talents:

Shadowstep is awesome, since you can step right back to the boss after knockback

 

Elusiveness is probably mandatory to help your healers when it's your turn to get cleaved, especially later in the fight 

 

 

Tectus

 

Combat is really great due to the high amount of cleave and target swapping during this fight.

 

Glyphs:

As above, Feint is nice to allow you to keep up your own damage reduction and help your healers, especially during Tectonic Upheaval

 

Smoke Bomb lets you cover most of the duration of Tectonic Upheaval with the damage reduction

 

Talents:

Shadowstep allows you to swap targets more quickly, so I recommend that. It also allows you to jump over the red mist that gets left behind, so you can change targets without either running through it or having a lot of downtime

 

Elusiveness is great, although if you have a hard time staying out of the mist for whatever reason (Killing Spree isn't a valid excuse) then you might want to consider Cheat Death.

 

 

Brackenspore

 

Try and line your cooldowns up with the Haste mushrooms. Energy regen is stupid high at this point, and you'll get a lot out of it. Also, because of this Haste mushroom, Combat really shines here. 

 

Cloak takes off the spores debuff so use it when you need to.

 

For Sub, you will switch your rotation between Single and Multi-target many times during this fight. Be aware of any Shrooms, spore throwers, or anything else that FoK could hit and use it to generate a bonus cp whenever possible.

 

Glyphs:

Nothing too out of the ordinary here - CoS takes care of most of what you need to worry about

 

Talents:

Burst of Speed is very nice if you happen to end up on Flamethrowers - whether you get assigned there or one of the original people dies. It's also very nice if you need to secret-service a spore that some ranged dps missed.

 

 

Twin Ogron

 

Constant double target fight. There are tons of things that can mess up positioning as well, so Sub might not be the best choice if you're new to the encounter. Combat does nicely, but don't Killing Spree when there's fire around.

 

Glyphs:

Even though I recommend Elusiveness as a talent, I don't believe that Feint is a very useful glyph here. The only thing that lasts longer than the duration of Feint is the fire debuff, and you should be able to run around that just fine.

 

Talents:

Burst of Speed can help you avoid all the different things that are in this fight that can be avoided. 

 

Elusiveness is amazing on this fight

 

 

Ko'ragh

 

Assassination can benefit from an execute phase when his shield is at 35% - the added Dispatch casts really help your DPS.

 

That being said, Sub also plays this fight really well since its straight single target

 

Glyphs:

Nothing really of note. 

 

Talents:

Cheat Death can really help here, on the chance that somebody messes up with any of the AoE magic debuffs and runs one into you

 

Imperator Mar'gok

 

Another mostly single target fight, but with some target swapping. Sub plays nicely her, since your bleeds will continue to deal damage for you even when Melee has downtime on the boss

 

Glyphs:

If your guild runs a tight kick rotation on the Warmages, Glyph of Kick might help you. Otherwise, there's nothing really of note.

 

Talents:

Cheat Death is really nice if there's ever an error with passing the Branded mark. 

 

Shadowstep allows you to get back to the boss after any of the knockbacks, so is recommended

[lipsinch 46]

From what I've seen around and on my own thoughts:

 

Kargath Bladefist:

 

Sub and Combat Rogues are good picks to go up onto the stands, grouping and cleaving everything.

 

For Sub: If you're assigned to go up, try to save SDance up there (specially on later "stand phases" with more adds), since the mobs there are stunnable. Control them with it. Nerve Strike is a good pick, since you help your tank and healer, if somehow you end up leaving the mob uncontrolled or DR hits in.

 

I'll check tonight if you can Evasion in while he spins people who got caught in the chain. If so, you can go in DPS while that, and that increases the value of Energy Flows glyph for this fight. (doesn't work)

 

Butcher:

 

Elusiveness + Glyph of Feint is a good talent/glyph combo to pick here, helps healers a lot when on cleave group.

Smoke Bomb when your group are with 3 stacks in execute phase. Softens the next blow. Realistically able to use once (twice if you're ninja timing) due to the nature of the fight, but eh - every tidbit helps.

 

Tectus:

 

Elusiveness + Glyph of Feint and Glyph of Smoke Bomb are good picks here. Realistically you'd only use Smoke 2 or 3 times at max, but still - you basically cover half of Tectonic Upheaval duration. 10% is quite a bit. Feint + Elusiveness for obvious reasons.

 

Brackenspore:

 

Line up (and/or time) your CDs with the haste mushroom. Energy regen becomes retarded in these periods.

Cloak of Shadows cleans the stacking debuff.

 

Edit: typos.

Edited December 10, 2014 by lipsinch

[Tesslin 0]

One important thing regarding what NOT to do:

Imperator Mar'gok: don't shadowstep on him a millisecond before the actual pull. If you shadowstep while he's still sitting on his throne, you'll fall through the floor beneath it, die and you'll be too far away for anyone to be able to ress you.