Salyis's Warband Detailed Strategy Guide

Table of Contents

• 1. General Information
• +2. Loot
  • 2.1. Armor
  • 2.2. Amulets and Rings
• 3. Spawn Location and Respawn Time
• 4. Overview of the Fight
• 5. Abilities
• +6. Strategy
  • 6.1. Dealing with Adds
• 7. When to Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp
• 8. Raid Composition
• 9. Corpse Running/Avoiding Wipes
• 10. Learning the Fight
• 11. Concluding Remarks

Introduction

This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of the encounter with Salyis's Warband in Pandaria. It is targeted at anyone who desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft WoD 6.1.2.

Salyis's Warband is a non-instanced raid encounter, also known as a world boss. The chief antagonist is Galleon, a giant Mushan, who you will fight for the majority of the encounter. Occasionally, several adds will jump off of Galleon's back, also joining the fight.

Galleon can be found in the Valley of the Four Winds.

The encounter is not complex, nor should it be too difficult to overcome.

Galleon will always spawn just south of the Silken Fields, in the Valley of the Four Winds. Currently, he has a long, 4-5 day respawn timer.

The encounter against Salyiss' Warband is actually against a giant Mushan called Galleon. The animal will use several abilities against your raid. Additionally, adds will jump off Galleon's back and engage your raid, at regular intervals throughout the fight.

The encounter is a single phase fight of little complexity.

Galleon uses the following abilities against your raid:

• Fire Shot are arrows being fired by unattackable adds on Galleon's back, throughout the course of the fight. They deal a moderate amount of Fire damage to random raid members.
• Stomp is a stomp ability that deals 150,000 Physical damage to all raid members and knocks them down for 3 seconds. Galleon uses this ability every 60 seconds, and uses it for the first time about 50 seconds after the start of the fight.
• Cannon Barrage causes 8 cannon blasts to hit the area in front of Galleon, dealing 600,000 Fire damage to all players within 10 yards of the location, and knocking them back. Players must simply make sure not to be in front of Galleon at any time; the tank can avoid the blasts by being close to the front of the boss. Galleon uses this ability every 60 seconds, and uses it for the first time about 25 seconds after the start of the fight.
• Every 60 seconds, 6 adds, called Salyin Warmongers, will jump off of Galleon's back and engage the raid. They are attackable, tankable and have functional threat tables. The adds spawn for the first time about 60 seconds after the start of the fight.
  • Their only ability is Impaling Pull, which deals 30,000 Physical damage to a random raid member, and pulls them to the add.

Galleon will always use these abilities in the order we listed above, with the exception of Fire Shot, which is spammed constantly throughout the fight.

The strategy for defeating Galleon is predictably simple. It can be broken down in the following steps:

• The main tank must move close to Galleon's head when Cannon Barrage is about to go off (indicated by an emote). In actuality, it is best if the tank is always very close to Galleon's hitbox.
• The healers will have to heal raid members through the damage from Fire Shot and Stomp.
• The off-tank will have to pick up the adds when they spawn (this is also indicated by an emote), and the DPS should focus on killing them.

The chief difficulty of the encounter comes from the 3 second stun caused by Stomp. This can cause raid members to die if they were low on health to begin with. Therefore, healers must be prepared and must use cooldowns to stabilize raid members before Stomp. Abilities such as Divine Shield can be used by healers to continue healing after Stomp.

Stomp is also the ideal moment for defensive cooldowns, both from the tanks or from other raid members.

The Salyin Warmongers deal relatively low damage to the tank that is tanking them. Indeed, a tank can survive tanking 12 adds for a long period of time, with the proper healing support.

It is easiest to kill the adds just as they spawn. This makes the fight less stressful for both the healers and the off-tank(s).

Players should be prepared for the fact that they may be pulled to the adds, due to their Impaling Pull ability. This can be especially problematic when the main tank is pulled to the adds (which can happen). This causes Galleon to turn and face the raid, which can be deadly if he begins casting Cannon Barrage. The tank must be quick to resume his position, and everyone else must be ready to avoid the Cannon Barrage.

It is best to use Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp when Stomp has recently occurred, so that you are not interrupted by the 3 second stun. Other than this, there are no constraints.

Given the fact that this is a world boss, you can utilize a raid group of up to 40 members in order to defeat it. Moreover, the boss can be damaged even by players outside of the raid group (although they will not be eligible for loot).

This poses the problem of how many raid members are actually needed to defeat Galleon. We would make the following comments:

• Tanks: You will need 1 tank for Galleon and at least one tank for the adds. You can utilise two off-tanks if you desire.
• Healers: Raid and tank damage is relatively low, so you do not need an excessive amount of healers. 4-6 healers should be more than enough for a raid of 40 people.
• DPS: The encounter does not require a high amount of DPS (although we are currently unaware of any existing enrage timer), and it can be defeated with as few as 10 DPS players. Adding additional DPS players will significantly lower the duration of the fight, and it will make it much easier to deal with adds. The only caveat is that more players will take damage from Stomp, requiring healing.

Because the fight does not take place in an instanced environment, it is possible for dead raid members to release spirit and run back to the place where they died, and resurrect. This is a good way for your raid to replenish its numbers. Keep in mind the following things:

• After 2 resurrections in quick succession, you will have wait 2 minutes before you can resurrect again.
• When you resurrect, you come back with 50% of your maximum health. It is best that healers are prepared ahead of time to heal you.
• It is best to group up (in ghost form) and resurrect at the same time, rather than each one individually. This gives you a better chance to recover.

It is also important that raid members pay attention not to resurrect just as a Stomp is about to be cast.

If a large portion of your raid dies, remaining raid members should attempt to delay a wipe for as long as possible, to give the dead raid members a chance to run back.

The fight is one of abounding simplicity, and as such there is no great learning process to go through. As long as your tanks are able to avoid Cannon Barrage and your healers are able to contend with the 3 second stun from Stomp, defeating the boss is merely a matter of having the required amounts of DPS and HPS.

This concludes the guide for Salyis' Warband. As you can notice, the boss has simple and straightforward mechanics, and it serves as a smooth introduction to raiding in Mists of Pandaria. If you have any suggestions or alternative strategies, we would love to hear them on our forums, or through e-mail.