Last night, I spent a couple of hours in LFR, working through the first offering from the Throne of Thunder Raid.Normally, you’d see an awesome purpley screenshot up there. But given the concentrating on doing a new raid, and discussing tactics with the other raiders, I somehow didn’t manage to take even one screenshot last night. CRAZY! I know. But I digress.
The great thing about doing an instance and having a wipe or two on each boss is it gives you some time to figure out your strategy for maximum DPS and utility. And before it all leaves my mind, I thought I’d share it with you.
Jin’rokh the Breaker
What is it about the first boss being the hardest? In many ways he was the most difficult for all the newbies to adapt to (I think we had 3 wipes on him, and a number of people dropping in and out). Your key to do’s here:
- Watch for pools of water to be set down on the ground; when you see one, run for it ASAP and stand in it. You will see a serious DPS increase (40% is what I recall from last night)
- Don’t get too comfy in that pool of water — when he casts lightning storm, you need to GTFO out of that pool as it is going to become electrified, and kill you. Run and stack with the group near the boss
- As you are running out from the lightning storm cast, pop your Vampiric Embrace up on the boss. This will very likely save a life or two, perhaps even your own. Coordinate w/any other friendly shadow priests in raid to trade off on casting it.
- If you are the focus of targeted lightning, make sure to run away from the group and DO NOT STAND IN OR RUN THROUGH THE WATER, lest you electrocute everyone.
TL&DR: Stand in the pools of water; run out of water in lightning storm; do not electrify the pools.
Horridon
This fight is somewhat akin to being at the 6 a.m. opening of a superstore on Black Friday. Angry mobs everywhere! Total chaos! Whch is why it is important to stay focused:
- As the tank moves Horridon around the circle of the room, from door to door, avoid his head and tail.
- Keep DoTs up on the boss but focus on the adds.
- DoT all the ads then focus fire the add with the least health, unless there is a Dinomancer up in which case he’s your priority.
- Don’t stand in bad.
- If you happen to be close to it, click the Orb of Command when it appears.
- After Horridon is done smacking his head against the wall, focus DPS on War-God Jalek,keeping your DoTs up on Horridon as well.
- You are most likely to die by aggro’ing too many of the adds in Phase 1, so try not to be the first to DPS all out on them.
TL&DR: Focus on adds; prioritize DinoMancers. Kill War-God Jalek then finish off Horridon.
Council of Elders
Unlike other council fights, killing off one at a time doesn’t seem to make the team more powerful. So try to get folks to pop Heroism/Bloodlust when Sul is empowered; getting rid of his quicksand will be a big help. Here’s your to do’s:
- Prioritize the Loa Spirits and Living Sands adds.
- When adds are dead, DPS the empowered boss a.k.a. the huge shadow priest.
- Keep an eye on the ground — quicksand and barrel rolling trolls can do some serious damage to you.
We had folks try to start in on the usual “you are all so fail” trash talking, but happily it was shot down quickly. Look folks: this is new content just now available to Raid Finder. Most everyone is learning the ropes. So chill out already! Let folks who haven’t read the strats know the basics of what to do. Then everyone wins and we all go home happy and understanding how the fight works for next time. MMMM’kkkk?
Speaking of going home happy, I took home a pretty new dress so that totally made my day.
I hope your first trip into this new LFR is rewarding!