Brackenspore Detailed Strategy Guide (Heroic+Mythic Modes included)

Table of Contents

• +1. General Information
  • 1.1. Normal and Heroic Difficulty
  • 1.2. Enrage Timer
• +2. Summing Things Up
  • 2.1. Tanks
  • 2.2. Healers
  • 2.3. DPS
  • 2.4. Everyone
• 3. Overview of the Fight
• 4. A Note on Surroundings
• +5. Abilities
  • 5.1. Brackenspore
  • 5.2. Adds
  • 5.3. Beneficial Mushrooms
• +6. Strategy
  • 6.1. Overview
  • 6.2. Using the Flamethrowers
  • 6.3. Positioning: Stack!
  • 6.4. Tanking Concerns
  • 6.5. Handling the Adds
    • 6.5.1. Beneficial Mushrooms
    • 6.5.2. Hostile Adds
• 7. When to Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp
• +8. Mythic Mode
  • 8.1. Differences From Normal/Heroic Mode
  • 8.2. Strategy
• 9. Learning the Fight
• +10. Loot
  • 10.1. Armor
  • 10.2. Weapons
  • 10.3. Amulets, Cloaks, Rings, and Trinkets
• 11. Concluding Remarks
• 12. Changelog

Introduction

This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of the encounter with Brackenspore in Highmaul. It is targeted at anyone who desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft WoD 6.1.2.

Brackenspore is a boss in the Highmaul raid instance. Throughout the fight, your raid will fight Brackenspore as well as a few adds that he regularly spawns. There are also some adds that, under certain circumstances, benefit your raid. The fight is mostly about positioning and awareness.

This main part of this guide covers both the Normal and Heroic versions of the encounter, as far as mechanics and general strategy is concerned. The only difference between these two modes is found in the tuning, with Heroic being more difficult.

When we speak of extreme situations (such as the difficulty of a soft enrage timer, or damage from a certain source being too high to survive), we mostly refer to Heroic mode.

In addition to this, we have a specific Mythic mode section, where we present all the differences between Normal/Heroic and Mythic, as well as the strategy to defeat the Mythic encounter.

This fight has a 10-minute hard enrage timer. There are no soft enrage mechanics present in the encounter.

In this section, we will very briefly summarise what the players belonging to each of the three roles have to do during this fight. This is by no means meant to provide sufficient information to master the encounter, and it is only supposed to give you a very rough idea of what to watch out for.

• Perform a tank switch to handle Rot and Necrotic Breath.
• Use a defensive cooldown to survive Necrotic Breath, and make sure not to face Brackenspore towards any other players at this time.
• Pick up and tank the Fungal Flesh-Eaters.
• Move Brackenspore near any beneficial mushrooms that spawn, so that the raid can remain stacked up.

• Heal up any beneficial mushrooms that appear.
• Make sure to have a Living Mushroom up and at maximum health for each Infesting Spores.
• Top Brackenspore's tank off before Necrotic Breath is cast.

• The adds are a higher priority than Brackenspore, so always DPS them first.
• Make sure to interrupt the Fungal Flesh-Eaters' Decay.
• You may be assigned either to burn the Creeping Moss with a Flamethrower, or to a intercept the spores shot by Spore Shooters (ranged DPS players only).

• Stack up near the beneficial mushrooms.
• Avoid standing in the Creeping Moss.
• In Mythic mode
  • Avoid getting hit by the Call of the Tides wave by moving into its gap.
  • Avoid getting hit by any exploding mushroom when Exploding Fungus is cast.

The Brackenspore encounter is a single-phase fight during which you must face Brackenspore and a number of adds. There are also two types of beneficial mushrooms that help your raid.

Throughout the fight, the fighting area will progressively become covered in a fungus that slows and damages any players that stand in it, and which also heals the boss and the adds. Some of your raid members will need to make use of a Flamethrower (that provides an extra action button to use) to burn some of the fungus, keeping a clear area for the rest of the raid.

We have released a video preview of the encounter against Brackenspore, based on our (Heroic) Beta testing. You can watch this video to get a good idea of how the fight works, but keep in mind that some things can still change before the fight goes live.

You engage Brackenspore in a rather large, open area. Throughout the fight, the area will progressively become covered in Creeping Moss, a green fungus that fills the ground up in large patches. If left unattended, it will eventually cover the entire fighting area. Players who stand in the fungus take Nature damage every second, and their movement speed is also slowed by 50%. In addition to this, the boss and the adds are healed for 2% of their maximum health every 2 seconds, while in the fungus.

Fortunately, there is a means through which your raid can keep the ground clear of Creeping Moss. Before engaging Brackenspore, you will notice two Flamethrowers on weapon racks, which two of your raid members can pick up. These Flamethrowers can be used to burn away Creeping Moss, as we explain below.

• When players pick up a Flamethrower, they receive an extra action button (to use the Flamethrower) and a resource bar, indicating the heat of the Flamethrower.
• While using the Flamethrower, players cannot use any abilities.
• While using the Flamethrower, it will gradually heat up. Eventually, it will reach maximum heat and it will stop working for about 10 seconds, after which time it will begin to cool down once again, becoming usable.
• While using the Flamethrower, players gain a stacking buff called Burning Infusion. This increases their Critical Strike chance, Multistrike chance, and Haste. It stacks up to a maximum of 15 stacks, and a stack is lost every 3 seconds.

We will discuss this in more detail in the strategy section, but the idea is that two of your raid members will be on permanent Flamethrower duty throughout the fight.

Throughout the fight, you will have to face Brackenspore, one type of moving add, and two stationary adds. You will also have two types of beneficial mushrooms that spawn at certain times in the fight. We will go through all of the abilities of these mobs below.

Brackenspore only has 3 abilities.

• Rot is a stacking tank DoT that deals Nature damage every second. It requires a tank switch.
• Necrotic Breath is a frontal cone breath attack that deals a high amount of Nature damage every second for about 5 seconds, and reduces the healing received by affected targets by 99% for the its duration.
• Infesting Spores is an ability that is channeled over 10 seconds and eventually deals massive raid-wide damage. The way it works is that every second it adds a stack of a 3-second DoT on all raid members. After 10 seconds, it reaches 10 stacks and deals its highest damage for 3 seconds.

Large adds called Fungal Flesh-Eaters will spawn regularly throughout the fight, one at a time. These adds can be tanked and killed normally. They have two abilities.

• Flesh Eater is a stacking buff that the add gains, increasing its damage, attack speed, and casting speed by 10%.
• Decay is an interruptible spell that deals high raid-wide Nature damage. The adds try to cast this often.

In addition to the Fungal Flesh Eaters, two types of stationary adds will spawn throughout the fight. These adds do not need to be tanked.

Spore Shooters spawn in random locations of the fighting area, and they target random raid members with Spore Shot. This ability fires a small green spore projectile at the target, which explodes and deals high Nature damage in an 8-yard radius on contact with any raid member.

Mind Fungus is a stationary add that spawns at the location of a random raid member. While it is alive, it casts Mind Fungus, reducing the casting speed of all raid members in its proximity by 75%.

There are also two types of beneficial mushrooms that spawn throughout the fight. In both cases, they spawn in random locations of the fighting area, and they spawn in a damaged state. When they are healed up to full, they provide a beneficial effect in an area around them. However, the mushrooms also take increasing damage as long as they are alive. This means that in order to keep benefiting from their effect, you need to keep them at full health. As the damage increases, it will eventually no longer be possible to keep them alive.

• Living Mushrooms cast Living Spores when they are at full health, healing all raid members within 20 yards for a huge amount of health every second.
• Rejuvenating Mushrooms cast Rejuvenating Spores when they are at full health, granting all nearby raid members 30% haste and increased Mana regeneration.

The strategy for this encounter has many different elements to it, but it is not very complicated overall. We will first take a general look at the strategy for this fight, before going into more detail later on.

To begin with, two raid members will have to be assigned to use Flamethrowers throughout the fight to keep the Creeping Moss away from the raid or the mobs. The rest of the raid will have to perform the following tasks.

• The raid should stack up at the location of any beneficial mushrooms, in order to benefit from their effects, for as long as the healers can keep the mushrooms at full health.
• The tanks have to perform a tank switch on Brackenspore after each Necrotic Breath (this will also handle the Rot stacks). In preparation for Necrotic Breath, the tank should be topped off, and the use of defensive cooldowns is advised.
• The raid will have to focus on killing Fungal Flesh-Eaters as quickly as possible, while making sure to interrupt all casts of Decay.
• The melee DPS will also have to kill the Mind Fungus adds. Ranged DPS have to kill the Spore Shooter adds. In the case of the Spore Shooters, certain ranged raid members will have to intercept the spores shot by these adds before they can reach the rest of the raid (which will mostly be stacked up).
• The healers will have to pay special attention to the raid's health when Infesting Spores is being cast.

There is no great complexity to using the Flamethrowers to clear out the Creeping Moss. If you assign the same players to the task on every attempt (which you should do), they will quickly get a good idea of how to best do it.

Players should avoid overheating the Flamethrower, because the long period of time needed for it to begin cooling down will most likely cause the raid to be overwhelmed by Creeping Moss. Instead, players should turn the Flamethrown on and off as needed to clear the moss and keep it from overheating. Keybinding the extra action button for the Flamethrower is a good idea.

The top priority is to keep the area where the raid, the boss, and the other mobs are located clear. When this area is clear (and only when it is clear), the edges of the fighting area can be cleared out.

We recommend assigning two DPS players to this role. Because these players gain the Burning Infusion buff while using the Flamethrower, they can use their DPS cooldowns in between Flamethrower sessions to do large bursts of damage on the boss or the adds.

The first thing you must keep in mind with regards to positioning is not to stand in any Creeping Moss. Naturally, if the players assigned to burning it are not doing their job, then there is nothing you can do, but you should always make sure to step out of any Creeping Moss that might momentarily spread to your location.

There is no reason for your raid not to be stacked up during this encounter. In fact, there are great incentives for stacking up. The positioning set-up we recommend is having the raid stacked together on top of the boss (and, as we will see, on top of any beneficial mushrooms that are up), with a few designed ranged DPS players acting as satellites for the raid (to intercept Spore Shot). Hunters are best suited for this given how easily they can DPS while on the move.

Firstly, by stacking up on top of the beneficial mushrooms, your raid will maximise the gains from the benefits they provide. Stacking up near a Living Mushroom, especially during Infesting Spores, means that raid healing is a non-issue. Stacking up near a Rejuvenating Mushroom results in a high DPS increase for your raid, something without which completing the encounter will prove very difficult.

Secondly, by stacking up, the spores shot by Spore Shooters will all be heading in roughly the same (predictable) direction, making it much easier for them to be intercepted by your satellite players. The damage done by the spores is quite high, but it is not difficult for the designated players to survive it with proper healer attention. They are at their most dangerous when they can hit a group of raid members, dealing the same damage to all of them.

Because both of the beneficial mushrooms spawn in random locations of the fighting area, the raid will also have to move regularly. In order for melee DPS to be able to stay together with the raid, the boss will have to be moved as well.

As far as Brackenspore is concerned, the tanks do not have very much to worry about.

Necrotic Breath is the main concern for tanks in this fight. While Brackenspore is channeling Necrotic Breath he does still move, following his tank. This means that the tank cannot avoid Necrotic Breath, and that erratic movement could cause Brackenspore to turn and face the raid. Obviously, the tank currently not tanking Brackenspore should make sure not to be in the way of Necrotic Breath when it is cast.

Surviving Necrotic Breath can be somewhat problematic (depending on your gear level and the tuning of the fight), since it is not possible to receive healing while the breath is going. This means that the tank should be topped off before the breath is cast, and it is also recommended that they use a defensive cooldown. It is recommended to perform a tank switch immediately after Necrotic Breath. This will also make sure that the two tanks switch often enough for the stacks of Rot to remain manageable.

Handling the beneficial mushrooms is not very difficult. As we have stated above, you will want to stack on top of them when they spawn, and your healers will want to put everything they have into keeping them at maximum health. Indeed, having a Living Mushroom up (and at maximum health) during Infesting Spores is almost mandatory to survive this ability.

The Fungal Flesh-Eaters will have to be picked up by the tanks and killed off quickly. Your raid should set up an interrupting rotation to make sure that as few casts of Decay as possible go through.

The Mind Fungi will most often spawn right on top of the stacked raid, greatly debuffing casters and healers. This means that it is up to melee DPS (primarily) to kill them off as quickly as possible. Casters can help, but their contribution will be limited. On the Beta, casters who were standing away from the Mind Fungus were still received the debuff each time they were damaging it. If this carries over to live servers, then it is really up to the melee DPS to kill it.

Finally, for handling the Spore Shooters, we have already outlined a strategy above. Your raid should be stacked up, and a few designated players (preferably Hunters, or other mobile ranged DPS players) should stand outside the raid, ready to intercept any spores that the Spore Shooters fire towards the raid. The other ranged DPS players should switch to the Spore Shooters and kill them as quickly as possible. Alternatively, if your raid's DPS is high enough, you can opt to simply DoT up all the Spore Shooters and let them die off this way, allowing you to maximise DPS on Brackenspore and the other adds.

We recommend using Heroism/ Bloodlust/ Time Warp at the start of the fight, when all raid members have their cooldowns and potions available.

The Mythic mode of the Brackenspore encounter is extremely similar to the Normal and Heroic mode versions, as far as the strategy and mechanics are concerned. That said, due to the tuning of the fight, it is a much more difficult encounter, and it is among the more difficult Highmaul Mythic modes.

As with all Mythic modes, all the mobs in the fight deal more damage with all their abilities and have more health. In addition to this, there are two new mechanics in the Mythic version.

• Call of the Tides is an ability that Brackenspore uses regularly throughout the fight. He will create a damaging wave that comes in from the sea (located adjacent to the fighting area) and moves towards the raid. The wave sweeps across the entire fighting area, dealing massive (practically lethal) Frost damage to all players it touches. In each wave there is a rather large gap, which players can use to avoid being hit. The position of the gap changes with each wave.
• Exploding Fungus is an ability that Brackenspore uses regularly throughout the fight. A very large number of mushrooms will spawn all over the ground, and, a few seconds later they will explode, dealing massive (practically lethal) Fire damage to any players in a 3-yard radius.

Aside from these two new mechanics, none of the Normal/Heroic mode abilities are different at all (with the exception of dealing more damage, as stated above).

In principle, the strategy for the encounter does not change at all from the Normal/Heroic mode version of the fight. The two new abilities are extremely straightforward to handle, and that is the only change to the strategy, although given that they are not cast very frequently, the fight will feel much the same.

Avoiding the Call of the Tides wave is a simple matter of noticing where the gap is located in the wave, and moving in such a way that all raid members are located within the gap as the wave passes by. The tanks will have to move the boss in that gap, of course, and as a pre-requisite, the ground will have to be fairly clear of Creeping Moss in order to allow the raid to move to the desired location.

Avoiding the exploding mushrooms from Exploding Fungus is also a straightforward task, albeit not necessarily an easy one. The mushrooms do not all spawn at the same time (their number increases rapidly over the course of a few seconds), but they all explode at the same time, roughly 3 seconds after the first mushrooms appear. This means that the mushrooms that spawn last are much more difficult to avoid, although if raid members focus intently on avoiding them, it is certainly possible not to get hit.

Aside from these two tasks, the increased damage and health of the mobs means that certain strategy requirements from Normal/Heroic mode become much more important. For example, it becomes imperative that the raid makes maximum use of the DPS increase from having players close to each Rejuvenating Mushroom in order to meet the DPS requirement of the encounter.

Likewise, avoiding damage becomes more important than before. This means that the spores cast by the Spore Shooters must absolutely be intercepted, as even a single one reaching the stacked raid can result in multiple deaths. An extra mention is worth making here; the beneficial mushrooms have a tendency to spawn in the general vicinity of raid members, so the players who are soaking the spores should not be too far away from the rest of the raid. This ensures that the mushrooms will always spawn close-by, meaning that the raid will not have to move very much in order to benefit from them.

There are several important tasks that your raid has to perform well for the overall strategy to work.

Firstly, you will have to get the Creeping Moss under control. For this purpose, you should assign the most competent players (who are not desperately needed elsewhere). It will probably take at least a handful of attempts for them to master the task, but it is worth being patient.

Secondly, your healers will have to soundly understand the importance of healing up the beneficial mushrooms. Obviously, this is only worth doing if the entire raid is stacking up next to them, so that is also an important aspect to focus on.

Thirdly, you will have to make sure that the spores shot by the Spore Shooters are properly intercepted by the designated players, because their damage can be devastating if they manage to hit the raid.

In this section, you will find the loot table for Brackenspore. The section is divided in 3 subsections: armor, weapons, and the rest (neck, back, finger, and trinket items).

Item Name	Armor	Slot	Secondary Stats
Rotmonger Bracers — LFR	Cloth	Wrists	Haste Multistrike
Girdle of the Infected Mind (Heroic, Mythic)	Cloth	Waist	Critical Strike Versatility
Robes of Necrotic Whispers (Heroic, Mythic)	Cloth	Chest	Haste Multistrike
Deep Walker Paulders (Heroic, Mythic)	Leather	Shoulders	Critical Strike Haste
Carnage Breath Gauntlets — LFR	Leather	Hands	Critical Strike Versatility
Sandals of Mycoid Musing (Heroic, Mythic)	Leather	Feet	Mastery Versatility
Shoulderguards of Perpetually Exploding Fungus — LFR	Mail	Shoulders	Critical Strike Mastery
Moss-Woven Mailshirt (Heroic, Mythic)	Mail	Chest	Critical Strike Haste
Grips of Burning Infusion — LFR	Plate	Hands	Mastery Critical Strike
Fleshchewer Greatbelt (Heroic, Mythic)	Plate	Waist	Critical Strike Haste
Mosscrusher Sabatons (Heroic, Mythic)	Plate	Feet	Versatility Critical Strike

Item Name	Type	Main Stats	Secondary Stats
Crystalline Branch of the Brackenspore (Heroic, Mythic)	Bow	Agility	Critical Strike Mastery
Maw of Souls (Heroic, Mythic)	Shield	Intellect	Haste Mastery

Item Name	Type	Main Stats	Secondary Stats
Tide-Caller's Gorget — LFR	Amulet	Agility Strength	Bonus Armor Versatility
Collar of Wailing Mouths (Heroic, Mythic)	Amulet	Agility Strength	Critical Strike Bonus Armor
Rotmelter Mosscloak — LFR	Cloak	Agility	Critical Strike Haste
Cloak of Creeping Necrosis (Heroic, Mythic)	Cloak	Agility	Versatility Multistrike
Immaculate Living Mushroom — LFR	Trinket	None	Spirit Crit on proc
Bottle of Infesting Spores (Heroic, Mythic)	Trinket	Strength	Critical Strike Versatility
Petrified Flesh-Eating Spore (Heroic, Mythic)	Trinket	Stamina	Mastery on proc

This concludes our raid guide for Brackenspore. We hope you have found it helpful. Please do not hesitate to post any feedback you may have on our forums.

• 15 Dec. 2014: Added Mythic mode strategy.
• 12 Dec. 2014: Updated the sections regarding Flamethrower usage to no longer recommend overheating it.
• 07 Dec. 2014: Added hard enrage timer.

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