Amber-Shaper Un'sok

[Guest mcp]

It may be of some use to mention that the amount overhealed would stack the Parasitic Growth's DoT as well.

[Fel 42]

Random tidbit:

A paladin's Hand of Purity utterly trivializes the final 6 seconds of the Parasitic Growth debuff, and can be used on every single one.

Quite handy if you're forced to use a heavy HPS raid CD while the DoT is active on a raid member that cannot clear it themselves.

[Vlad 411]

Thanks, guys. Incorporating your suggestions for Parasitic Growth into the guide as... we... speak.

[Zagam 1,982]

Alright, modified the strategy and this worked on the first try. Here goes:

P1: No one attacks the boss except the tank who is constructed. All DPS focus only on bringing constructed person to 20% and DPS adds to create puddles. Repeat this until about 30-32 puddles are on the floor. At this point, boss should be at around 75%...get him to 72% and await the next Reshape Life. As soon as a tank is reshaped, push the boss to 71% and break your constructed tank out. The Monstrocity should appear right as you are breaking your tank out. At this point, no one is reshaped, there are about 36 puddles on the floor, and things are great.

P2: DPS priority is Ambers > Monstrosity. When the first person is constructed, they are NOT DPS'd at all. They will remain in construct form the remainder of the fight using the plethora of pools abound to keep Willpower high. DPS focus down the Ambers while the constructed player begins stacking the debuff on the Monstrosity. When the 2nd person is constructed, they are ignored as well, consuming amber pools to regenerate Willpower as necessary. Last night, my Mage and myself were constructed (in that order) and we communicated who was going to eat a puddle while the other stayed on the boss to keep Amber Explosion from happening. Doing this method, we were able to destroy the Monstrosity and go into P3 before the 3rd Reshape Life happened, so P2 lasted just short of two minutes. At that point, the Monstrosity dies and Un'sok reshapes his 3rd construct.

P3: Bloodlust here, all non-constructed DPS finish off any Ambers left floating around while the constructed players start wailing away at the boss. Stack Amber Strike, remember to interrupt yourself, and make sure you right click the boss to begin your auto-attack, denoted "Smash" in the logs. With 3 constructs stacking Amber Strike, debuffs climb VERY quickly. Constructs consume pools to remain topped off and they form a wall around the raid members to protect them from the amber barrage coming from outside of the room. Our phase 3 lasted 36 seconds. He only got off two Reshape Lifes.

This method is darn near fool-proof, as the only mistakes that can come are from people not handling their own interrupt (Struggle for Control). The primary responsibility comes from the first constructed player in P2 to get the Amber Explosion from the Monstrosity. However, since that person needs to not worry about exiting the construct form, it's very easy to get down to 50 Willpower, go eat 2 puddles, then get back on the boss and wait for your interrupt. By the time two constructed players are laying on the Monstrosity, the interrupt should happen automatically. Good luck!

[Fel 42]

snip*

Awesome to have confirmation of a working strat for this, I might give this a go this weekend just to see. Thanks!

[Vlad 411]

*snip*

This actually sounds pretty awesome. I think it would need to be adapted a bit for 25-man though (for one, it would take only the tank an extremely long time to grind the boss down to 70%), and it could take a bit longer to execute it properly, with there being a larger variety of potential players that can be reshaped in P2 (so more failing possible), but it sounds awesome as I said.

[Zagam 1,982]

Agreed. I kind of had the idea to employee this once I saw there was no enrage timer (odd) and that it was essentially like stacking Pyrite ammo before Heroic Flame Leviathan. You're just preparing yourself with the highest opportunistic DPS. The DPS gain you get on the Monstrosity by not switching to them and instead killing Ambers and the Monstrosity is enormous.

For 25 man, I'm not sure how many Ambers come out. Is it still only 4? If so, I think the magic number of Scalpels you want is about 8. So the 8th Scalpel should come when the boss is at or around 73%. As soon as the Scalpel is being performed, DPS can immediately shift to the boss and the newly constructed Construct. Time breaking the Construct and getting the boss to 70% so they happen simultaneously and you'll always have your two tanks out.

[Stasis 36]

We're seeing an enrage, Berserk, at 10 minutes using this strat.

It's taking us about 7 minutes in P1 to get sufficient pools (and time the reshaped Tank with the Boss ticking over), 100 seconds in P2 'til the Monstrosity dies, which only leaves a minute or so in P3 until the enrage hits. This isn't long enough with only 2 pre-existing constructs. We get 4 additional constructs before the enrage, but it's too little, too late.

To be fair, we haven't had a super clean attempt, the parasite in P3 is basically a ticking death sentence with all the AoE healing required, but it's still feeling too tight on the enrage.

Do you have a log showing this method working? I notice on your most recent kill you spend only 3 minutes in P1, and 4 minutes in P2, but you're breaking out the P2 constructs, and spending 2 minutes in P3.

[Edit]

Figured I should add something to the mix also

If you keybind this macro, it'll target the Monstrosity in P2 and the Boss in P3 and start the auto-attack. Cuts back on a little of the construct hassle. (Tested and confirmed working as intended.)

/tar boss1

/tar boss2

/startattack

Paste it exactly as posted (Boss1 and Boss2 are actual unit IDs). One press will target the appropriate unit, i.e. if the Monstrosity exists, the macro will cycle from the Boss to the Monstrosity immediately.

Edited December 14, 2012 by Stasis

[Vlad 411]

I do believe that this boss has an enrage timer, though I cannot say what it is (and have, as such, not updated the guide in this regard) as we've never come across in 25-man. In fact, the only issues we ever had in our (numerous) wipes on this boss were individual people failing at their tasks, generally interrupting during Phase Two. It might be a balancing issue between 10 and 25-man, though.

*waiting to see Zagam's reply to Stasis.

[Stasis 36]

I do believe that this boss has an enrage timer, though I cannot say what it is (and have, as such, not updated the guide in this regard) as we've never come across in 25-man. In fact, the only issues we ever had in our (numerous) wipes on this boss were individual people failing at their tasks, generally interrupting during Phase Two. It might be a balancing issue between 10 and 25-man, though.

*waiting to see Zagam's reply to Stasis.

Here's Un'sok on one of our 10 minute attempts from Thursday (trying the new strat). Click on 'Buffs Gained' and you'll see the Berserk buff @10 minutes. He hits our Tank for a 450k melee swing right at the end Happens on our other 10 minute attempt also.

Excuse the messy attempts! We're basically fresh learning on him, and getting a bazillion explosions per attempt. And I was healing in my off-spec (Lytanshade) to cover an absence. Showing steady improvement though

Edited December 15, 2012 by Stasis

[Guest Ianthe]

Does anyone know if the Glyph of Power Word: Shield causes Parasitic Growth to tick increased damage when Power Word: Shield is applied to an affected target? Thank you for your time.

[Zagam 1,982]

I don't have the log from this week because my power cut out during an attempt and when I came back, I forgot to restart them. It has worked 2 times in a row. I think we do 8 Reshape Lifes in P1, and P2 is done before the third Reshape is performed. P3 ends so fast it's not even funny. You have 3 constructs from the get go and new shapers just spam their abilities. Just don't let your group panic and forget to interrupt themselves.

[Vlad 411]

Does anyone know if the Glyph of Power Word: Shield causes Parasitic Growth to tick increased damage when Power Word: Shield is applied to an affected target? Thank you for your time.

I don't know, but it should be triggering the debuff's effect. Someone else is welcome to confirm or deny :)

[Stasis 36]

Does anyone know if the Glyph of Power Word: Shield causes Parasitic Growth to tick increased damage when Power Word: Shield is applied to an affected target? Thank you for your time.

I don't know, but it should be triggering the debuff's effect. Someone else is welcome to confirm or deny

I don't use the glyph personally, but I'd be surprised if it didn't.

I used Spirit Shell on every 2nd debuff, which completely trivializes it. On the remaining parasites PW:S is generally enough to keep it manageable, spam a couple of greater heals towards the end if necessary. Mostly depends on what hots or aoe the other healers are doing. If you're Disc you should take responsibility for them and ask the other healers not to aoe/hot when it's up.

I don't have the log from this week because my power cut out during an attempt and when I came back, I forgot to restart them. It has worked 2 times in a row. I think we do 8 Reshape Lifes in P1, and P2 is done before the third Reshape is performed. P3 ends so fast it's not even funny. You have 3 constructs from the get go and new shapers just spam their abilities. Just don't let your group panic and forget to interrupt themselves.

Yeah we're getting 8 in P1, 2 in P2 but then there's a 70 second gap before we get the 3rd.The transition into P3 messes with the timing. We're hitting P3 a few seconds before he casts the next Reshape.

We'll try again tonight. I think the key for us is making sure that everyone is autoattacking and applying strikes correctly.

Edited December 16, 2012 by Stasis

[Stasis 36]

Thanks Zagam.

Killed him last night! We actually ended up getting 7 reshapes in P1 and 3 in P2, which made P3 quick and nasty. Were totally out of puddles shortly into P3, but managed to kill him right as the constructs were exploding and rebelling :)

We could still probably double the construct damage in P2, but good enough ftw!

[Guest Paul]

Hey,

We stack already on this. We was trying this tactic but i think we do something wrong ... We got 7 constructs in p1 and we are ok with this, in p2 we got 3, so we had enter p3 with 3 constructs and almost 100second to enrage... the problem is that we are unable to kill boss before it.. maybe maybe ppl are loosing their stacks on boss or they are not auto attacking it. <y question is ... when You are startng to stacking amber strike on boss ? when p3 started or maybe before it in p2 when big add got less then 15% hp. I would be grateful for answers and help.

Best regards

Paul

[Stasis 36]

Hey,

We stack already on this. We was trying this tactic but i think we do something wrong ... We got 7 constructs in p1 and we are ok with this, in p2 we got 3, so we had enter p3 with 3 constructs and almost 100second to enrage... the problem is that we are unable to kill boss before it.. maybe maybe ppl are loosing their stacks on boss or they are not auto attacking it. <y question is ... when You are startng to stacking amber strike on boss ? when p3 started or maybe before it in p2 when big add got less then 15% hp. I would be grateful for answers and help.

Best regards

Paul

Sounds like you're in the same position we were. The trick is getting the constructed people to immediately melee (right click or /startattack macro) and perform Amber Strike on cooldown (Monstrosity's explosion cooldown allowing in P2).

Once you get a few stacks up, the constructs can hit for well over 1M per strike. I was averaging 1.5M per strike (and a 287M crit!), and 500k melee hits in P3.... They're literally the most important mechanic in the encounter.

IMO it's not worth trying to put stacks on the Boss at the end of P2. Just focus on killing the Monstrosity fast.

Sucks that it's so hard for people to practice, even running LFR repeatedly doesn't guarantee much construct time. Just have to drill into people that if they're constructed they're responsible for winning or losing the fight

Edited December 18, 2012 by Stasis

[Evro 2]

Just have to drill into people that if they're constructed they're responsible for winning or losing the fight

;) Yee , good advice. Ok, thx again for help, we will try do this again tomorrow or maybe even today. I hope ppl will get less nervous when getting reshape into costructs -.-

[Evro 2]

;) killed on 2nd attempt !!! Great thx

[Amicitia 8]

Okay so following a similar strat our guild got out first kill of Un'sok. But like I said "similar", so at this point can this strat be added to the guide (as an option at least) or at maybe laid out in a little more detail here?

[Vlad 411]

Okay so following a similar strat our guild got out first kill of Un'sok. But like I said "similar", so at this point can this strat be added to the guide (as an option at least) or at maybe laid out in a little more detail here?

I will add it to the guide as an alternative :)

[Krazyito 521]

So there is a guild that Zerg'd phase 2 and 3 on Ambershaper

What do you think blizzard is going to do to fix this? are they going to leave it alone and let this happen?

I think blizzard is going to make the stacks on the boss fall off when he reaches phase 2 or prevent him from gaining more stacks.

[Vlad 411]

So there is a guild that Zerg'd phase 2 and 3 on Ambershaper

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJMZt0CavF0

What do you think blizzard is going to do to fix this? are they going to leave it alone and let this happen?

I think blizzard is going to make the stacks on the boss fall off when he reaches phase 2 or prevent him from gaining more stacks.

Hmm. I was sure I replied to this, but apparently I didn't.

I think that something like this was intended by Blizzard, because they made Un'sok immune to damage for all intents and purposes (during Phase Two), and only left that 1% window there so you can keep the stack up. There's literally no other reason that I can think of for keeping that small window in there.

However, I don't think that they anticipated such abuses of the mechanic, and I don't think they like it. I certainly wouldn't.

I don't really know what they can do to fix it. If they cap the stacks at some "reasonable" amount, then they're removing a lot of freedom from guilds, and they may as well make Un'sok immune during Phase Two because anyone who maintains the debuff throughout that phase will end up with a huge amount of stacks.

Although, what seems to be going on in that particular video is that they wait for the Amber Scalpel channel and burn him down during it. The easiest fix to that is to make the boss stop whatever he's doing when he reaches 70% health and just put up his shield.

[Zagam 1,982]

They won't modify this strategy at all. I think you chalk this up to clever use of mechanics, not abuse. There is nothing about Phase 2 that they do here...the method essentially bypasses Phase 2 and Phase 3 by using the fact he can't transition while doing his Scalpel/Reshape Life combo. The zerg method was basically my method blown up into a higher level that I now kick myself in the foot for not seeing. It does work...we tried it on normal last night just to see. You basically have to time it JUST right as he starts the Scalpel attack because he will then go into a Reshape Life before becoming 99% immune. If you want to do this strategy, take one healer, 2 tanks, and 7 DPS. When you see DBM alert you that Scalpel is coming in 2 seconds, Bloodlust/Timewarp, potion, all CDs, and go to town on him. Tanks must NEVER let Destabilize fall off.

Also, for those having issues, to give you a good idea of timing, you really should aim for SEVEN scalpels. After the 7th Scalpel, the boss should be around 73% if only the tanks have been DPSing. When the next Scalpel happens, start DPSing the boss and bring him to 71%. Focus all DPS on your Reshaped tank and break your tank out at the same time you drop Un'sok to 70%. You'll then have 2 free tanks and 30 more seconds before the next Reshape happens. We use this opportunity to Bloodlust since we already have constructs in P3 with our strat and they don't benefit from it. With Bloodlust, your goal should be to drop the Monstrosity before the 3rd Reshape Life. We manage it about 20 seconds after the 2nd. This strat is COMPLETELY dependent on the very first person to get Reshaped in P2. If that person performs his/her role perfectly, this fight is a breeze. Just remember to remind people to:

1) Interrupt themselves

2) eat puddles

3) ignore running around for non-existant puddles when they've been consumed and

4) right clicking the boss to do the mega damage from the construct

[Guest Thilun]

Has anyone used SLT for parasitic growth? does it still stack the debuff or does it avoid it like other healing debuffs? Ive tried to test it in LFR but yeah...LFR...