Tanking Magister's Terrace...

[Audrie]

Thanks guys!!

I picked up a few more bits of gear in Kara too, so I'm going try MgT either later tonight or tomorrow (I hope!)

We did heroic Slave Pens the other day and it went OK except for one wipe right at the start where I assumed I could take on 3 mobs, 0 CC!

Will be reading up all your tips once again before I go and I'll report back once we've run it (or horribly failed! )

[Outback]

I've done hmgt on my rogue/mage 3-4 times a week or more since resub'n with a very well geared tankadin. And even he takes a serious beating on the trash. I've done one aborted PUG run on my pally, 2 enh shammies that didn't use rank1 ES, tree druid with ~800-850 +heal and a dumbass mage that didn't know to sheep his target early or counterspell. We made it t the last trash pull and couldn't get past it.

I know it goes against the tankadin creedo, but just bring lots of CC.

[Katerina]

The hardest thing, for me about HMgT is deciding what to kill first, as there are several nasties in quite a few groups, and I typically sheep/sap a lock or mage type since they seem to do the most damage to me, lol. When we have difficulties it is usually because the healer was panicking over the damage I was taking as I ran the mobs LOS and thus pulled them off of me. When I started consecrating the path they have to take to get to me, it helped, though there are still a few pulls that just suck, lol.

It is the only instance where I wish I had talented into Imp HoJ.

[Zoltar]

It's possible to enter, kill the first group and see who the priestess's adds are. If you don't like the group you can reset the instance and rinse and repeat. Some of the combinations are much easier than others.

If possible make sure you take a lock that knows what they are doing. Locks are like the kings of CC in H.Mgt. On the groups with succubus get the lock to enslave one and tank one of the clothie mobs with it. They really pump out some hurt and will usually kill their target before the group has dealt with the other 3. On the Priestess (provided you get a good group) your lock can banish one, chain fear another and pewpew the priestess. It's like 2 CCers in one.

[Maat]

Whenever I try "resetting" the Priestess group, I always end up with the same group :P

I overgear the instance, even when my friends make me tank it as holy or (godforbid) in my sanctity/imp.righteousness Garr soloing spec that doesn't even have imp. fury (imp. righteousness and sanctity made up for normal fury, thankfully, since it's unwise to aoe the elf groups down.

MgT's a good lesson in learning to utilize your CC options. I usually just do it haphazardly, but I try to CC Magisters and Physicians, or focus fire them if there's only one of the two in the group (modified by Blood Knights).

My kill order algorithm with one CC:
Physician/Magister/others = CC Physician, kill Magister first
Physician/Blood Knight/others = CC Physician, kill Blood Knight first
Magister/Blood Knight/others = CC Magister, kill Blood Knight first
Magister/Physician/Blood Knight/others=CC Physician, kill Magister first, keep eye on Blood Knight to HoJ a heal

Also a real painful lesson in how Prayer of Mending >>>> Consecrate. Smart protadins don't consecrate(much) in aoe dogpiles that include Physicians :>

[Maverick13]

Mgt easy mode
group =

Pally tank
Shadow priest
Warlock
Mage
Healer

Shadow priest MC's warlock uses it to tank 1
Mage sheeps 1
Warlock enslaves succy and tanks the 4th mob or just nukes
you Tank 1 max two and pick up mobs as they break use BoP on Shadow priest if MC breaks early and let him try again

[theshard]

Mgt easy mode
group =

Pally tank
Shadow priest
Warlock
Mage
Healer

Shadow priest MC's warlock uses it to tank 1
Mage sheeps 1
Warlock enslaves succy and tanks the 4th mob or just nukes
you Tank 1 max two and pick up mobs as they break use BoP on Shadow priest if MC breaks early and let him try again

This is probably the best cc group and beware if you have to use other cc options, certain mobs are immune to certain types of cc. Like don't try to MC the mages or trap the blinking-consortium-looking guys.

I usually AoE kill the healers first and then the mage and one of the mage-guards third, and cc the others with whatever options we have, but I run with a really well geared guild-group 95% of the time.

My big question is, in Heroic, on the second boss since he doesn't physically hit, does holy shield still proc? I have a hard time not losing aggro at least once on him, since I can't AoE. I have a frost mage that usually tanks all the adds but someone else seems to pull off me toward the end of the fight. Any suggestions there?

[Maat]

Elementals don't proc holy shield, so no bonus threat there.

You're probably losing aggro because your dps are killing the sparks, and you aren't. Their threat goes through the roof while yours stays less-than-normal. Or you're not consecrating because you think it will hit the sparks?

Consecrate is ok, the sparks aren't hit by normal aoe (they're kind of like totems, has to be single-target damaged). When I tank Vex, I usually jack a spark from the first two sets to keep up my threat.

[theshard]

Elementals don't proc holy shield, so no bonus threat there.

You're probably losing aggro because your dps are killing the sparks, and you aren't. Their threat goes through the roof while yours stays less-than-normal. Or you're not consecrating because you think it will hit the sparks?

Consecrate is ok, the sparks aren't hit by normal aoe (they're kind of like totems, has to be single-target damaged). When I tank Vex, I usually jack a spark from the first two sets to keep up my threat.

Thanks, I'll try that tonight. I had wondered if they were like totems but I had heard conflicting reports. It's been a while since we wiped on that boss but one death isn't uncommon. Do you wear any resist gear?

[Maat]

I just tank him in my bosstanking set (dodge/parry/hp) and it seems to work fine. I have around 600 spell damage even in that, though. If I had some gear for Kalecgos (I guess the Karazhan quest trinket and the cloak?) I would probably be too lazy to jack it out of my bank to wear it.

I'm pretty sure I remember hearing that the sparks proc Lightning Shield when they spawn. I used to tank with the Vengeance DMC trinket and that proc would apparently kill charges. I haven't run it with any troll priests lately, but I'm sure Shadowguard would kill charges the same way. What these have in common is that they are reactive damage shields that proc on spell impact.

Retribution Aura only procs on melee attacks and physical ranged, not spells, so it doesn't work the same as the above reactive shields. Neither should Fire Shield (imp), Molten Armor (untalented, that is), or Thorns.

So whatever mechanic it is that procs Lightning Shield and its ilk, paladins shouldn't normally have unless you run with the DMC Vengeance, so you can consecrate/ret aura/thorns freely without fear of eating sparks in an uncontrolled manner. I don't know if that accounts for any observations of sparks 'randomly dying', but in general they can't be hit by aoe damage like consecrate, arcane explosion blah blah.

[theshard]

I just tank him in my bosstanking set (dodge/parry/hp) and it seems to work fine. I have around 600 spell damage even in that, though. If I had some gear for Kalecgos (I guess the Karazhan quest trinket and the cloak?) I would probably be too lazy to jack it out of my bank to wear it.

I'm pretty sure I remember hearing that the sparks proc Lightning Shield when they spawn. I used to tank with the Vengeance DMC trinket and that proc would apparently kill charges. I haven't run it with any troll priests lately, but I'm sure Shadowguard would kill charges the same way. What these have in common is that they are reactive damage shields that proc on spell impact.

Retribution Aura only procs on melee attacks and physical ranged, not spells, so it doesn't work the same as the above reactive shields. Neither should Fire Shield (imp), Molten Armor (untalented, that is), or Thorns.

So whatever mechanic it is that procs Lightning Shield and its ilk, paladins shouldn't normally have unless you run with the DMC Vengeance, so you can consecrate/ret aura/thorns freely without fear of eating sparks in an uncontrolled manner. I don't know if that accounts for any observations of sparks 'randomly dying', but in general they can't be hit by aoe damage like consecrate, arcane explosion blah blah.

Are we sure about the consecrate issue? Last night I ran it and my healer asked me not to take any of the charges so I only attacked the boss and consecrated to keep threat up, by the end of the fight I had 7 stacked debuffs on me. I was using concentration aura to help the casters and I don't have any damage proc trinkets.

[Maat]

I'm pretty certain o_O I bust out all my threat after the first spark I gank and keep max consecrate up full time, and other than the second spark I gank I never get any other debuffs.

Or my pug dps are always really good about ganking the rest of the sparks. I've had mages jump around trying to arcane explosion and never hit the sparks though.

[enix]

Easily do able in pre-kara gear.
You can do herioc mgt in 50% kara 50% pre kara gear if you get some good people.

Just remember to always bring a lock / mage or both and you should be fine. (mage sheep, lock enslave demons, banish for 3rd boss).