Omnotron Defense System Tank Strategy Guide

Table of Contents

• 1. General overview as a tank
• +2. Reacting to boss abilities
  • 2.1. Magmatron
  • 2.2. Toxitron
  • 2.3. Arcanotron
  • 2.4. Electron
• 3. Final Considerations

Introduction

This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of the encounter with Omnotron Defense System in Blackwing Descent. It is mostly targeted to tanks who desire to have a short but detailed overview of what is expected of them during that fight.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft WoD 6.1.2.

From a tanking perspective, the main challenges that this encounter presents are boss positioning and interrupting. Tanks also need to have quite good awareness and be able to cease attacking their respective targets when required to do so.

This fight utilizes 2 tanks in both 10 and 25 player mode. Because of the nature of the fight, at the pull only one tank will be needed as a single tron is active. The second tank should be ready ahead of time to pick up the second tron when it activates, while the first tank will have to deal with the third tron and so on and so forth.

Aside from dealing with the boss abilities as they come up, tanks have to be very quick to taunt and gain aggro on newly activated trons, as these will generally head for healers as soon as they become active. Do note, however, that the trons do retain their threat tables during periods of inactivity, so this becomes less of a concern after each tron has activated at least once.

It is important for tanks to stop attacking their tron when it reaches 45 energy and shields itself in order to avoid any of the negative effects this has on the raid.

Because some abilities will require movement from the tanks, it is very important to make sure you remain in range of healers and that you are not on the exact opposite side of the room from the other tank, meaning that healers cannot stay in range of both of you at the same time.

This encounter revolves in great part around reactivity to abilities, and even though as a tank you can survive mistakes more easily than other people can, this doesn't mean you should not be performing adequately. Before going into detail about each ability, it is important to note that you must stop damaging the trons when their shields are up! This will probably require you to deselect the tron, or have a /stopattack macro set up so that you do not attack the tron.

Acquiring Target can cause problems if you are targeted by it as the tank - in which case you should make sure that you will not get your melee DPS incidentally damaged by this as well. It is advised that if you are tanking and are targeted by Acquiring Target you use a damage reduction cooldown. A list of useful damage reduction cooldowns against Acquiring target is found below.

• Icebound Fortitude or Anti-Magic Shell for Death Knights;
• Survival Instincts or Barkskin for Druids;
• Divine Protection for Paladins;
• Shield Wall for Warriors.

Both of Toxitron's non-shield mechanics are relevant to tanks. After Toxitron casts Chemical Bomb, you should always aim to position him inside the resulting Poison Cloud, while making sure you yourself are not affected by it. This will provide your raid with a very good DPS boost.

In addition to this, you should always be mindful of Toxitron's Poison Protocol. If you are the tank currently tanking Toxitron, you yourself cannot be Fixated upon by the adds, but you should move away from the boss for a few seconds regardless of this, in case one of the melee DPS is targeted and fails to move in time. If you are tanking the other tron while Toxitron spawns the adds, keep in mind that you can be targeted by them just like an other raid member and should be prepared to move yourself (and your tron) accordingly if you need to kite it.

Arcanotron presents a specific interest for tanks, especially in 10 player mode where the number of interrupters is limited, because of the need to interrupt Arcane Annihilator. As Arcanotron's tank, you should enter an interrupting rotation with at least one other member of your raid (preferably one of the melee DPS, or a shaman). Interrupting Arcane Annihilator is extremely important.

The other problem that Arcanotron presents is the fact that he will regularly spawn Power Generator under himself, which increases his damage done if he is left inside it for too long - so be sure to always move him out quickly. If your raid has melee DPS and Arcanotron is the tron currently being attacked, make sure you move him just outside the Power Generator to allow your melee DPS to stand in it and benefit from the 50% increase damage done.

A particular problem can emerge while tanking Arcanotron, namely that while backing away to move him out Power Generator, he will stop and cast Arcane Annihilator, and because you are out of his range, you are unable to interrupt him. If he is uninterrupted, he proceeds to more or less chain Arcane Annihilator casts until interrupted, so he is likely not to move from Power Generator, and thus gain a 50% damage done increase in the process. For this reason, it's advisable that you either move him right after having interrupted him, or make sure that someone else is assisting your interrupts during that specific moment.

Additionally, Arcanotron presents yet another problem for tanks in the fact that he must continue to be interrupted while his shield is active - and you must do this by attacking him as little as possible (ideally not at all, so having a ranged DPS interrupt here is very useful). If either because of your own attacks or someone else's Arcanotron gains stacks of Converted Power, you should quickly announce this and have it dispelled or spellstolen.

As a tank, you should aim to keep some distance from your melee DPS to prevent Electrical Discharge from jumping to more targets, and you should be careful to move away from your melee DPS if you (or one of them) is affected by Lightning Conductor. Using voice communication to ask them to stay away from you may be required and indeed useful.

Overall this is an easy encounter for tanks. The main focus should be on making the fight as easy to perform for the rest of the raid by proper boss positioning as well as helping mitigate damage both on themselves and on the raid.