[25] Heroic Maloriak

[superworm]

My guild pulled him several times tonight, and people were dying in the black phase. I suspect it was just someone failed moving out of black spots on the ground, but people were complaining that they died due to poor positioning strategy.

We assigned a pull route for the add tank, which goes to the left side of the room, then takes a U shape and goes to the right side.
We asked ranged and healers not to stand in this route to ensure melee didn't take too much damage. For the ranged and healers, at first we just let them scatter as they wish. but too many people died and later we changed the strategy to let people stack to 2 spots and move gradually. Neither of them worked for us. Any suggestions?

[baleogthefierce]

My guild pulled him several times tonight, and people were dying in the black phase. I suspect it was just someone failed moving out of black spots on the ground, but people were complaining that they died due to poor positioning strategy.

We assigned a pull route for the add tank, which goes to the left side of the room, then takes a U shape and goes to the right side.
We asked ranged and healers not to stand in this route to ensure melee didn't take too much damage. For the ranged and healers, at first we just let them scatter as they wish. but too many people died and later we changed the strategy to let people stack to 2 spots and move gradually. Neither of them worked for us. Any suggestions?

Your kite strategy is sound, just tell your ranged to react more quickly when they're in a puddle (stop casting and get out ASAP). You can also turn off projected textures and set particle density to high, as that will help you see the puddles more easily. If they can't manage that, power auras are always great (I recommend all melee use them anyway since it's hard to see the puddles through multiple types of ground AoE).

[superworm]

So the black puddles put a debuff on people? I didn't notice that. I will try the Power Aura idea next time. Thanks!

Also from BLZ hotfixes:

Maloriak's Scorching Breath should no longer incorrectly share its damage among pets. To offset what would be increased damage per player as a result of this fix, the damage dealt by the ability has been reduced on Heroic difficulty.

They said pets no longer share fire damage. Does this also apply to mage mirrors/snakes/treants?

[baleogthefierce]

So the black puddles put a debuff on people? I didn't notice that.

Yup it puts one debuff on you per puddle you're standing in, so it's possible to be taking damage from multiple puddles at once.

[Arianne]

Sounds like people just need more practice and to move faster. Multiple slimes can spit on the same person, but anyone with an aggro alert should know that they need to move when they're targeted. They don't really seem to have a ranged vs melee bias and they spit too often to have everyone grouped together. People will need to move a lot at the start of the phase because you have all of the slimes up and will need to move less as the phase continues because fewer slimes will be spitting.

Also, strafing helps because the game is pretty laggy at realizing that you're out of a pool.

[Thark]

If I can attach a file, it might help you.

It diagrams the add path I take in the black phase. We can kill all of the Swill, but typically lose 1-3 people to standing in things (generally graphic lag when everyone starts to AOE it seems). From there it doesn't go well in the Red phase, as when you're short a few people the breath seems to be killing some members through CD's, or if a Swill is slow to die people can be stacked in the sludge.

One of the suggestions I heard a lot is to move faster with the adds. It seems a little counter-intuitive, but was easy to manage. The DPS wanted the adds to be moved faster so they were always chasing them and not getting stuck in puddles. However, I didn't want to make a loop with the adds, and instead always planned it so that I moved just fast enough to end in the far corner. I haven't tried it yet, but I'd see if moving faster in a loop helps people to stay alive. I'm concerned if moving close to Maloriak again will mess any ranged/healers up, but I can't think of a reason to not try it a few times.

Hopefully a suggestion or two helps you, and I'd also take any feedback as we can improve as well.

[superworm]

Thank you for your drawings. My guild has worked out the black phase. Instead of pulling the adds to the far end of the room, we assigned several ranged dps stand there to reduce the clumpiness in the room.

The problem we're having is the green phase. Our Maloriak tank ( a bear) constantly die in this phase. We assigned two dedicated healers for him in this phase and I'm considering to ask another healer to watch for him in this phase as there is no big raid damage in this phase.

Also the interrupts are really intent in this fight. During the red phase, sometimes the interrupt was a bit slower and the arcane storm went out 1 tick which would always kill someone combined with the fire breath, even with PW: Barrier. I read from the hot fixes that they reduced the damage of the fire breath and pets no longer shares damage. However the damage of the fire breath is still quite high in my PoV.

[Marblehead]

The problem we're having is the green phase. Our Maloriak tank ( a bear) constantly die in this phase. We assigned two dedicated healers for him in this phase and I'm considering to ask another healer to watch for him in this phase as there is no big raid damage in this phase.

When the green phase starts, everyone in the room (aberrations and raid members) get the Debilitating Slime debuff. Your Maloriak tank needs to save his Survival Instincts and pop them immediately after Maloriak's leap. The debuff only lasts 15 seconds.

[PsiVen]

Also, strafing helps because the game is pretty laggy at realizing that you're out of a pool.

Strafing does help the actual event register quicker, but actually I have noticed a different effect which creates the appearance of lag: debuffs stick for a full second after you touch a pool, even if you leave it immediately, and do not remove themselves until they are due to tick again and realize you're not there anymore. So it can seem like you haven't yet registered getting out of those three pools at once, but you will immediately notice not having taken any more damage.

[superworm]

After more practice, we successfully got him to 300k, when he wiped us with a poison nova thing (he had already enraged by that time). Then I noticed the fight can be as long as 12 minutes. We wiped at 12:14. It seems we can use heroism at the start of the fight and then we can use it again later.

Also we usually got a 3rd black phase. The thing is, when he had already thrown the black vial into the cauldron, but before the oozes appeared, we could have pushed him to 25%. We didn't do that in fear that we had to deal with the oozes. But maybe if you push him to 25% then he will not summon the oozes. Has anyone tried that?

[Belloc]

After more practice, we successfully got him to 300k, when he wiped us with a poison nova thing (he had already enraged by that time). Then I noticed the fight can be as long as 12 minutes. We wiped at 12:14. It seems we can use heroism at the start of the fight and then we can use it again later.

Also we usually got a 3rd black phase. The thing is, when he had already thrown the black vial into the cauldron, but before the oozes appeared, we could have pushed him to 25%. We didn't do that in fear that we had to deal with the oozes. But maybe if you push him to 25% then he will not summon the oozes. Has anyone tried that?

Once, a while back, we entered phase 3 during a dark magic phase and actually got to test this. If you transition him before he starts vomiting, you will be safe. After that... I don't know.

[exiledknight]

After more practice, we successfully got him to 300k, when he wiped us with a poison nova thing (he had already enraged by that time). Then I noticed the fight can be as long as 12 minutes. We wiped at 12:14. It seems we can use heroism at the start of the fight and then we can use it again later.

Also we usually got a 3rd black phase. The thing is, when he had already thrown the black vial into the cauldron, but before the oozes appeared, we could have pushed him to 25%. We didn't do that in fear that we had to deal with the oozes. But maybe if you push him to 25% then he will not summon the oozes. Has anyone tried that?

You can lust on the pull however I would look at the remedy more so, how much is it healing him for? How fast is it getting purged or spell stolen?

[Arianne]

Yes, you can transition him while he's in black phase but before he starts vomiting and he won't spawn oozes. This is the best time to transition him really.

Your bear tank should be moving Maloriak out of the range of aberrations with 5 seconds left on the debilitating slime debuff. That way Maloriak isn't buffed by the aberrations.

It'd be helpful if you could post a WoL or something showing your DPS. I'm of the opinion that it's likely that your DPS is just very low or your strategy has some missing part that we can't see from what you're saying. The Vile swill should be down before the next phase starts. The aberrations should be mostly dead before the debilitating slime wears off (ie: out of the 6 or 9 you should have at least half dead and the remainder at sub 10%).

[superworm]

Here is the WoL log for our best try: http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/ikco ... 58&e=11992
You can also see other tries, though sometimes people disconnected and we just run out of the room to reset.

About the bear dying on the boss, after getting really annoyed by this, I decided to tank the boss myself (as a DK tank). As long as I save IBF for the green phase, the biggest killer seemed to be the red phase fire breath+melee combo, which I countered with self healing abilities and minor CDs. It worked well and the bear was OK with add tanking. The main reason I hadn't been tanking the boss from the beginning was that I feared the self-healing would pull the adds off the add tank constantly. It did happen but they just tanuted them back, and it was not a big deal.

[Arianne]

Hmm... well since I can't read that language, I can't be of too much help, sorry. The attempt you linked to looks good except you didn't use hero early enough. If you have your warrior go Arms, he can blow all of his cooldowns during the AoE phases and do a lot more damage than he does now (will need a salv though).