Grim Batol: The Dragon Run

[Thornir]

What are your thoughts on the flying dragon run at the beginning? Do you think it's fun? I find the idea of being able to clear out trash beforehand fairly awesome, and it feels even better when you can completely negate certain pulls by either wiping out the trash completely or leaving them at abysmal health. What's the best way that you've found to do it? We tried to all go at the same time, but that lead to some people firing at dead spots where we all fired at the same time, wasting precious flight time. What's your best record? Any tips for clearing out the most trash possible?

[Belloc]

As long as you're only shooting at trash that you're going to pull, you're doing it right

Honestly, I don't like it when everything dies -- I prefer getting rep.

[PsiVen]

Best way in my book is to go staggered a few seconds, so you can fire at the same targets the person ahead of you shot at if you like. If you leave some pulls alone and burn others to 25% or so, you will have some pulls that you fully CC and focus one at a time, and some that you run in and AoE zerg before they can kill you. If you just need it to be easier instead of faster, you'd want the opposite and to weaken every group.

[Njall]

Yeah. The run is a lot easier than it was in the Beta. Then, any groups that were not wiped out respawned completely - full health and replaced their number! Ugly. The problem for me is getting kills for the quest. I've been through there 2x now and still haven't got that quest completed.

[Flex]

Yeah. The run is a lot easier than it was in the Beta. Then, any groups that were not wiped out respawned completely - full health and replaced their number! Ugly. The problem for me is getting kills for the quest. I've been through there 2x now and still haven't got that quest completed.

Does that thing drop anything useful. Everyone has gotten some gold and vendor trash with flavor text.

[Dakia]

Granted I've only done normal, but I generall ask my group at the start of the run to wait until I mount up, then proceed to stagger it a bit and only fire at what the person in front of you is hitting.

This allows me to properly target the pulls which I view to be problematic. My personal preference is to heavily target the large groups with the tall elementals in the alcoves. Other than those specific pulls, I heavily target the first big patrol. I've found that CCers often times have problems getting their CC off on time and properly.

Pretty much every pull, besides the ones listed, is perfectly manageable with minimal CC.

[baleogthefierce]

If I have someone in group who needs the quest for kills, we focus the right side going down and the left side coming back (so all fireballs on the same side of the gap coming and going). You can nearly wipe out that entire side even on heroic.

If we want a super speedy clear with rep gains to the max, we focus right side going down, right side coming back (so the damage is nicely split between both sides of the gap). Once your group gets good at skipping the non-essential packs, you end up with a lot of the mobs at sub 30% without missing out on rep gains.

[Gaxby]

That Dragon Run mechanic alone is enough to make Grim Batol my favorite 5-man as of right now.

[Treck]

That Dragon Run mechanic alone is enough to make Grim Batol my favorite 5-man as of right now.

It surely would be the worst one without it.
Its sad to see that some pulls that you dont have to kill sometimes have been hit multiple times xD
Not many people do, but i always try to get a few shots of on the pack "inside" the entrace to the last boss, as weakening all packs is a lot better than killing a few, and i know rarely will others dps those ^^
First pull aswell as the last pull before the warlock boss usually dies completely when i run it.

[Kraziness]

Yeah. The run is a lot easier than it was in the Beta. Then, any groups that were not wiped out respawned completely - full health and replaced their number! Ugly. The problem for me is getting kills for the quest. I've been through there 2x now and still haven't got that quest completed.

This quest that you are talking about can only be completed in non-heroic mode, that may be the very reason you are unable to complete it.

[baleogthefierce]

Yeah. The run is a lot easier than it was in the Beta. Then, any groups that were not wiped out respawned completely - full health and replaced their number! Ugly. The problem for me is getting kills for the quest. I've been through there 2x now and still haven't got that quest completed.

This quest that you are talking about can only be completed in non-heroic mode, that may be the very reason you are unable to complete it.

I've completed it in heroic mode, so unless it's been changed since 4.0.6 I would wager that your experience has been because it's simply harder to kill the mobs in heroic mode.

[Njall]

Yep, we eventually completed it - but mostly by my launching last and picking off cripples. Some kills in regular but most in heroic. However, in Beta if you didn't kill the entire group by the end of the run, the group would be resapwned at full health. Utterly ugly.