Shannox 25

[Echaa]

My guild jumped into firelands today and hit Shannox. managing threat on 2 targets at once wasn't working out so we had 2 dps swap to tank specs and used 2 tanks for limbrip and 2 for Shannox himself. What I noticed was that the debuff only stacks up and refreshes if the cleave actually hits you. I also tried bubbling the debuff which did not remove it. Question is - would it be feasible in current gear to create a set with enough avoidance to effectively solo-tank the boss or his add and still have the health to not fall over dead if the rng gods decide to smite you?

[PsiVen]

The proper strategy seems to be the split where tanks don't attempt to swap, you just reset by making the hound run forever with the spear. This allows the entire raid to avoid the fire AoE caused by the spear. Limbrip is snareable but will free himself by progressively resisting movement slowing effects. He cannot apply debuffs while running to/with the spear, and Shannox cannot debuff without the spear.

[Repartee]

My 10 man was trying the 'delay retrieval method' last night instead of controlling tank aggro via Hand of Salvation(s).
We used the road leading back to the entrance as a guide for raid alignment. I'd tank Shannox at the crossroad that he paths on with ranged dps and healers loosely on the road away from Shannox as a way to control where crystal prison traps would be laid. The longer the fight goes, this becomes a bit more haphazard.

Was it just me or did it seem like immolation trap targets were prioritized by those closest to Shannox? Nearly every pull I'd eventually have a semicircle of immo traps placed. Once away from the trap, I could get fairly close to it without triggering one. [Aside: once this is on farm, I foresee shenanigans in spelling out words or acronyms with those traps, because they seem to last forever]

[Meloree]

Question is - would it be feasible in current gear to create a set with enough avoidance to effectively solo-tank the boss or his add and still have the health to not fall over dead if the rng gods decide to smite you?

Yes, you can solo tank the boss or his add, and have the health to not fall over dead. Just reset stacks a couple of times by kiting during spear toss. Hell, you can probably solo-tank the fight completely, if you want to.

Kiting for long enough to reset the stacks is extremely easy to do, even if the spear is tossed directly at Shannox's feet, targetting melee. There's no cleave while kiting, so spot your healers and make sure to stay in range of them, even if you have to run over top of raid members.

[inthedrops]

Aww, the joy of bad strats online First pull we realized we couldn't taunt. So changed up the strat and got it a couple pulls later. I don't think anyone was slowing the dogs, that would have made it easier on me.

We just had one tank on each. I was on Rip. We'd stay roughly 40 to 50 yards apart, most of the raid in between us. I'd constantly look for a prison trap (darker red inner color, and mouse hovering works to identify it). As soon as spear went out, if I could, I'd drag Rip on top of a trap. He'd be trapped before picking up the spear. If I failed to trap him, then the Shannox tank would give it a go too but putting himself between a trap and the spear landing location.

Note that he gets a debuff from any of the traps that prevents him from being trapped again for a short period. If the dog isn't getting caught in a trap, that's why. So make sure you and the other tank are aware of that and steer accordingly.

Also, the Shannox tank stacks drop MUCH easier than mine. It's because the dog is still attacking you for a good 5 more seconds before he picks up the spear. That 5 seconds is plenty of time for the Shannox tank, but it's within about 1 second for me. Putting slows on the dog would have solved that so try to have one person doing this.

[Boèndal]

The proper strategy seems to be the split where tanks don't attempt to swap, you just reset by making the hound run forever with the spear. This allows the entire raid to avoid the fire AoE caused by the spear. Limbrip is snareable but will free himself by progressively resisting movement slowing effects. He cannot apply debuffs while running to/with the spear, and Shannox cannot debuff without the spear.

We used this strat for our kill today. Just have your riplimp tank wait near a crystal trap to trap the hound immediatly after spear throw. We actually had some problems during transition to "p2" as i had 5 debuffs not resetting letting me die eventually later and our second tank had to build up aggro first. Slows dont work on those dogs.

[fuzzygeek]

Slows dont work on those dogs.

We were able to slow the dog after he picked up the spear, IIRC.

[Kerriodos]

Slows definitely work. Doing this tonight we found that he only ever threw the spear at Riplimb. So to ensure the debuffs were not being applied long enough, we had three marks, on for Shannox+tank, one for Riplimb+tank, and one for the riplimb tank to kite to. As soon as the spear marker went on the ground, Riplimbs tank moved the dog, who then had to run to the spear, and then all the way to the boss. With a second or two of kiting the debuffs fell off easily. Once that's worked out, the boss will fall over.

[Ezelyn]

Hi, some of my teammates had some troubles with traps (very low graphic effects). Is there an add-on announcing when he sends a trap on you ?

[Brutalus]

The easiest (and seemingly most logical) way we found to deal with the stack resetting was just to tank Riplimb right next to a trap, farish away from the boss, and when he throws his spear move Riplimb over the trap and wait for him to return to you.

[Boèndal]

Both our prot warrior and our hunters told me yesterday they werent able to slow the hounds *shrug*

[Ezelyn]

Both our prot warrior and our hunters told me yesterday they werent able to slow the hounds *shrug*

I've seen something that should help you. He doesn't seems to be slowed when he cames back from Shannox. But when he takes the spear and run to Shannox, they can slow him, for sure.
But even if he takes the slow only in this direction (Spear to Shannox), it's enought to reset if your tanks are far away from each other.

[Juugimus]

Be careful when kiting the boss around, he gets a Separation Anxiety buff that increases his damage by 100% if he gets too far away from either of the dogs. I learned this the hard way.

[warden]

Hi, some of my teammates had some troubles with traps (very low graphic effects). Is there an add-on announcing when he sends a trap on you ?

DBM will probably do this soon. We had our first night in there last night, and noticed how he targets before he throws them... now that we have logs of it, it would surprise me if Myst hasn't already updated this.

[lakhesis]

Be careful when kiting the boss around, he gets a Separation Anxiety buff that increases his damage by 100% if he gets too far away from either of the dogs. I learned this the hard way.

What is the range before that kicks in?

I'm reading people talking about tanking 'em 60 yards apart, but exactly how much extra room to run do you have if (i.e.) you're the Riplimb tank and you've still got 5s of bleed left as he's running back to you?