[H] Gundrak first boss.

[mirkodeluxe]

Ive now tried this bastard of a boss twice, once with a guildgroup and once with a semipug, and failed miserably at both occasions.

I know exactly what we should do, or atleast I think I do..

Avoid Poison nova
AoE tank and Kill snakeadds
Nuke Coccons/traps

We try to do this, but whenever someone is cocooned they die within 2-3 seconds.. And we're not talking about people in greens either - everyone sits at a healthy 15-16K with buffs.

I can bubble out of cocoon, but it doesnt help when the healer gets trapped..
So what do we do?
I dont really want to use exploits, but if that's what it takes then sure.

[Arcia]

This is what you need to do.

Pull the boss back to the room with the water, where you enter the instance.

Position the healer IN the water, the snakes cant touch him/her and cant use their trap.

position ranged dps on the small ledge on the other side of the water, adds wont bother them and they dont have run from nova.

Kill adds as they come.

That should do it, GL HF

[mirkodeluxe]

Ok, kind of an exploit.. but ok, ill try it.

Thx

[Bregor]

Healer and ranged move up the altar (where the boss starts) after the pull and you tank the boss at the bottom of the stairs such that ranged group is out of range for the nova. Adds mostly have to move through your consecration to get to the ranged, and anything that sneaks past gets nuked first (if you don't pick it up with AS).

[DramaticBaby]

Position the healer IN the water, the snakes cant touch him/her and cant use their trap.

This doesnt always work, since I've done it a couple of times (not my idea though, some puged dps learned me )

Sometimes the snakes will go into the water anyway and kill your healer. Since it is an exploit you can't trust it entirely

[DragonBlade]

This doesnt always work, since I've done it a couple of times (not my idea though, some puged dps learned me )

Sometimes the snakes will go into the water anyway and kill your healer. Since it is an exploit you can't trust it entirely

Lol, they finally gave the snakes the ability to swim now? I dont see how your party members are dying in 3 seconds if they are cocooned unless they had 50 snakes on them and wearing cloth. Pain in the ass fight though

[towelliee]

Always bring a Shammy...Lust is FTW

[Andryana]

I actually think it may have been hotfixed, always done with healers/ranged on water with no problem at all, but today the snakes got smart and instantly zerged the people in the water, doesn't seem to work anymore.

[Elsie]

Have 2 dps on the healer outside the circle.
Put 1 dps strictly on the boss.

The healer will aggro all the snakes. Do not use consecrate and try to refrain from HotR once adds spawn. The 2 dps on the healer constantly aoe to pull aggro asap. Their entire job is to burn down adds.

You and the 1 dps have to run out for poison nova. The other three members are outside the AOE. If the snakes are not removes fast enough from the healer, you will have to use your cooldowns. Judging light is fine, as only one dps will be hitting the boss regularly - and you.

That's pretty much it. Finding good AOE dps can be hard. Elemental shaman is preferable due to thunderstorm. PvP trinkets give the healer / dps a mulligan. Even if one DPS gets trapped, the other can pick it up. Obviously the two on adds can throw some ranged dps on the boss and should help burn the last 10% when you start getting overwhelmed with snakes.

This boss doesn't have much hp, which is why this strategy works particularly well.

[Losbullitt]

I pugged it yesterday. That entire gundrak run took over an hour to complete. Nightmare fight with a pug.

[Kaeloryn]

I've done this fight a few times with 2/3 melee DPS with poor AoE. Not a really fun fight, but it is doable.

It's been mentioned, but I tank him in the doorway to the water. The healer and any ranged DPS stand on that opposite ledge, giving the snakes a longer slither. When he casts the Poison Nova, duck around the corner to get out of LoS (there are no LoS obstacles in the room itself; believe me, I've tried). You will need to drop Consecrate to hold as many of the snakes as possible if you don't have any good AoE to focus on them. Some snakes will get through; have DPS kill them before they eat your healer. They don't seem to respond to taunt.

By the end of the fight (without AoE) you will have a ton of snakes biting you. Right before they stun you, you will get a 3 second buff called "Snake Wrap" (the icon is the same as Cyclone and Windwall; tornado-looking thingy): you will be immobilized and then stunned after the 3 seconds. If you remove this buff you will not get the stun. You can right click the icon, or even better make a macro:

/cancelaura Snake Wrap

You will probably be mashing that macro at the end. Unfortunately removing the buff won't get you the achievement.

I suspect you can just brute force this fight at higher gear levels with a little luck. Burning him faster means fewer snakes, and I've had his first Poison Nova coming at ~30% or at ~70% for the same group.

Edit: Guess I had amnesia after I got the achievement; maybe you can get it with this method. So if anyone wants to test that...

[Frickit]

snakes swim now
how is this done?

[Zoltar]

Yup, tried last night. The snakes are definitely not frightened of water.

[Non]

What's up with all the water tactics. Bring better dps and just zerg him down. Didn't even know about the poison nova until I read this thread.

[Frickit]

What's up with all the water tactics. Bring better dps and just zerg him down. Didn't even know about the poison nova until I read this thread.

have plenty of good players and good gear still rough...need some advice that doesnt require two aoe dps.