Al'ar

[YoYoMa]

Dive bomb is every 30 seconds now, right? The Afterlife/Reckoning video posted down below shows a timer of 53 seconds. That's a big difference in figuring out worst-case ember count.

It's 30 seconds? I thought it was 45 but if they changed it then that definitely hurts my math.

First issue would be as you stated. I was only factoring in 3 hunters with a 45sec meteor cooldown. If it's 30sec then yeah you'd need 5 and that's not gonna happen. Having another person just drag them over though would be a suitable replacement and then just RD off them. That was my initial plan but in hopes of keeping as much dps on al'ar I was going to rely on the hunter MD rotation.

Not to mention With a 45 sec cooldown you are talkin 26 birds max if you take it all the way to 10 minutes. We were going to kill the first 3 rounds so that I'd have a max of 20 if we ever got that far. Hitting for a max of about 7k. But if that moves to 30 seconds then you are talking 40 adds max and that wouldn't be doable for all intents and purposes in this gear.

Anybody confirm if it's now indeed 30 sec?

[Rasmfrackn]

Dive bomb is every 30 seconds now, right? The Afterlife/Reckoning video posted down below shows a timer of 53 seconds. That's a big difference in figuring out worst-case ember count.

It's 30 seconds? I thought it was 45 but if they changed it then that definitely hurts my math.

First issue would be as you stated. I was only factoring in 3 hunters with a 45sec meteor cooldown. If it's 30sec then yeah you'd need 5 and that's not gonna happen. Having another person just drag them over though would be a suitable replacement and then just RD off them. That was my initial plan but in hopes of keeping as much dps on al'ar I was going to rely on the hunter MD rotation.

Not to mention With a 45 sec cooldown you are talkin 26 birds max if you take it all the way to 10 minutes. We were going to kill the first 3 rounds so that I'd have a max of 20 if we ever got that far. Hitting for a max of about 7k. But if that moves to 30 seconds then you are talking 40 adds max and that wouldn't be doable for all intents and purposes in this gear.

Anybody confirm if it's now indeed 30 sec?

I don't remember my timer bars from the other night... like I said, the video was using 53 seconds. 45 would be fine too. "30 second cooldown" is just what a lot of the strategy sites say.

I've been having a bear charging around and swiping to pick up embers and drag them back, and that's been working well when we need it. I think I prefer killing adds as they spawn, though, and it doesn't seem to hurt our dps too much in phase 2. I guess I should stop preparing for both options and just pick one for us.

[YoYoMa]

Yeah we've used the kill all adds too, and it works fine. The only issue I have, and the reason I'd like to move to this one is that there were times that I'd be late in picking up adds (i.e. shield toss missed and had to run over to grab them). And then dps was getting worried and would start dpsing but then pull aggro. Basically, if it didn't go exactly as planned we'd start to get behind. This way we wouldn't care about that and everybody could just do their thing.

We'll try tonight so we'll see how this way works

[Rasmfrackn]

At one point in phase 2, though, I started seeing full blocks, and the only debuff I saw on them was a demo roar from a feral. Does that mesh with anyone else's experience?

Not really, but I have a hard time maintaining a high block value, high spell damage, and 102.4% avoidance. We kill the adds as they spawn so generating large amounts of threat quickly is important.

I just realized... this was probably AD kicking in.

[guillex]

At one point in phase 2, though, I started seeing full blocks, and the only debuff I saw on them was a demo roar from a feral. Does that mesh with anyone else's experience?

Not really, but I have a hard time maintaining a high block value, high spell damage, and 102.4% avoidance. We kill the adds as they spawn so generating large amounts of threat quickly is important.

I just realized... this was probably AD kicking in.

Uhm ... AD doesn't affect your blocks. So no. It most likely wasn't AD.

[Alorianna]

He means it was most likely AD reducing his icoming damage so that he could fully block the attacks instead.

And why try to maintain 102.4% when on add duty? They don't crush. I get about 850 BV and 500 +damage now myself and really think I should lower my BV since I am having mana issues. Only reason I still have it is in case we get overwhelmed in p2.

[Scarzi]

If your just tanking the adds, all you have to do is swap out some gear for healing loot with lots of int. Just make sure your uncritable. Should have like 8-9k mana pool and you take a little more damage so mana is never an issue. Have fun

[YoYoMa]

Just replying, we finally got Al'ar down last night. I ended up just tanking all the adds in p2 and had the ranged just focus on al'ar. Worked much better for us.

Healing got harder in the last minute or so but I'm only at like 660 BV / 19k in block gear. On a bright note I was avoiding about 40% of the hits it looks like so that helped too.

[Mouse]

In phase 1 I do the adds, but in phase 2 I have found that my taunt can accidentally grab alar if I end up taunting off someone who has pulled aggro, or if the add has switched to the tank. THerefore in phase 2 I am one of the taunters on alar and our 2 ferals do adds in phase 2. Has anyone EVER had this happen?

[Rasmfrackn]

Just replying, we finally got Al'ar down last night. I ended up just tanking all the adds in p2 and had the ranged just focus on al'ar. Worked much better for us.

Healing got harder in the last minute or so but I'm only at like 660 BV / 19k in block gear. On a bright note I was avoiding about 40% of the hits it looks like so that helped too.

We had more attempts last night and went this route. Some people didn't like it as much (my healer was one of them ) but I don't think they quite grasp the details of how holding the birds works. They were suggesting we go back and blow up all the birds at 50% or so in phase 2, but I'm almost positive that'd kill me, and at that point I can't just soulstone and taunt, since if it doesn't go right there will be more than 3 left alive.

Otherwise, same stats almost exactly. I found that every once in a while I'd really get slammed when holy shield and redoubt were down, but most of the time it didn't seem too bad. I had a shaman healing me, but I would've loved a tree.

We got him to 27%, better than our previous best of 50%. We just killed all the birds in phase 1 to keep things simple, but I think holding those and blowing them up with an intricate plan of SoC bombardment and a clear flight path might let me hold all of them at 5-10% AND let me live.

Oh, and the reason I'm posting back: Phase 2 is definitely a 60 second timer on meteors/dive bombs when you take the "air time" and animation into account. I only had about 10 birds on me by the time we wiped at 27%, so that wasn't so bad at all.

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-- An edit since nobody's posted in the mean time.

Alar dead. That's our second T5 boss, after VR. Probably doing it the hard way, but it's what I wanted to do.

We ended up hybridizing the two strategies... I held *all* the birds from phase 1, and got them all down to 12-15%. It ended up being 7 or 8 of them. Then we called the 3 warlocks to SoC spam them so they'd blow up simultaneously. I got thrown clear on the first explosion, like I planned, and they all flopped in a big pile.

My healer(s I hope, but I couldn't tell) were having troubles keeping me up past 10 birds or so, so we started killing the first few birds spawned in phase 2. 10 seemed to be the threshold where holy shield and redoubt weren't keeping up with the # of hits I was taking anymore. I just had the shadow priest and 3 warlocks helping me, since they were the most threat capped from phase 1. (Non-salved destro locks are a *great* aggro ceiling for everyone else, though) After about 4 or 5 were dead, we were slowly falling behind on killing them with the pickups and stuff, so that's where we called that I'd just hold the rest and they went back to alar. After the first 2 p2 birds were dead, he was already at 77% thanks to the p1 birds.

We lost *both* tanks in the last 2%, but a kindly feral picked him up long enough for the win. And the birds despawned! Thanks blizz.

[Enkal]

I've been asked to be MT1 for Al'ar tomorrow night. Are there any problems with running up the ramp in phase 1 after a Fire Quill?

I got (for some reason) Boar's Speed on my Battlescar Boots, will it help alot? Or do I stack Speed potions?

[Worldie]

Actually the charge seemb even to be bugged for us, so we did last 3 kills with tanks running up instead of charging.

Speed potions are quite interesting way to cheat it. If it's on your side, drink and run up

[Enkal]

Next question: Al'ar doesnt hit that hard rite? So I should gear for max threat (oil, flask of blinding light etc)? I'll be tanking him in Phase 2 as well.

[Gerilith]

Next question: Al'ar doesnt hit that hard rite? So I should gear for max threat (oil, flask of blinding light etc)? I'll be tanking him in Phase 2 as well.

He hits harder than Rage Winterchill, actually Don't know your TPS compared to the second tank, but full threat should not be nessessary. You will want him to be taunted of you as soon as you get molten armor anyways.

[Enkal]

Well we got him to 50% tonight, tanking was quite easy with that Boar speed enchant. The main issue was to pick him up in P2 when taunt is resisted so often.

I also wish DPS could stay alive during phase 2....