I finally got around to catching the bear heroic raid guides up to my guild’s progress. So if you are looking for some quick and dirty guides/discussion on T14 bosses, go check them out at http://theincbear.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=12

Should be updated to 11/16 (still missing Amber Shaper, Empress, Protectors, Tsulong, and Sha), but I will be adding them as my guild kills them!

Hello guardians! This week doesn’t have much in store because I am heading paws first into finals week and have more papers and exams than I can currently handle. Since I am about halfway through this tier (my guild killed H WIll last night making us 7/16 H and 9/16H once we steamroll Garalon and Wind Lord tonight), I wanted to do a little look back on the tier so far and what I really like about it from a tank perspective and what I don’t like.

Stone Guard

Great tank mechanic. Seemed incredibly complex at first, but turned out to be pretty simple as long as you have quick taunts. Definitely the right difficulty on heroic for the first boss, pretty much as long as everybody pays attention then you have a kill.

Feng the Accursed

Another amazing tank mechanic. It’s nice to have a fight where tanks literally hold the success of the group in their hands. Plus the Reversal ability is a lot of fun to play with and I still love stunning him with Lightning Fist. My only dislike about is that the Shadow phase is pretty much negated by two tanks with huge Vengeance stacks, so the ability of your dos to AoE appropriately is pretty unimportant.

Gara’jal the Spiritbinder

Another very interesting mechanic tank wise. On normal mode this guy is a total snoozefest since there is literally no real threat to your raid, but on heroic he gets pretty awesome. I like that the fight rewards perfect CD usage by benefitting the whole raid and not just you. However on a negative note, Voodoo Dolls does make some tanks much better than others.

Spirit Kings

I really enjoyed this fight on normal. No tank specific jobs to do, but tons of moving parts that made it more than interesting enough. Flanking Orders is a fun ability, and the way that the various boss abilities interact with each other is pretty cool. Then I did it on heroic, and a lot of wipes later this is my least favorite boss of the tier. To be fair, most of that hate is because of the random order (thank god they fixed it in the patch), but it also has to do with people getting randomly cleaved by Qiang for no real reason, tanks being targeted by Shadows, and various other annoying things. Really good concept here, but like all personal responsibility bosses it was incredibly frustrating.

Elegon

Probably the best fight this tier. Several distinct phases, dynamic adds with mechanics that take creativity to deal with. Lots of opportunities for cool tricks. If Blizzard makes more fights like this I will be a very happy bear.

Will of the Emperor

Really cool fight, but it lasts way too long. The Dance mechanic is really cool and all, but after 11 minutes I start to get tired of doing the whole thing over and over again. Granted, our heroic kill was awesome because I soloed the last .1% by myself, but if the fight only lasted 6 or 7 minutes I would enjoy it much more.

Imperial Vizier Zor’lok

Total slam dunk on Blizz’s part. Different phases, cool tank mechanic (Exhale), and lots of fun to be had by all. Can’t wait to try this on heroic and dodge Attenuation like a bawss.

Blade Lord Tayak

Kinda amazing we got this far before finding a true “taunt at 2 stacks” taunt swap mechanic. I really like the last phase as guardian because I can zoom way ahead of everybody else and not worry about dying. My only problem is that the Unseen Strike is pretty finicky, but that’s not too big a deal and once you figure out how to handle it it isn’t a problem.

Garalon

After really disliking this boss way back in beta testing, I was surprised to find this was one of my more favorite bosses. The pheromones mechanic is lots of fun to perfect, and its nice to not worry about tanking in the traditional sense. I wish I got to handle pheromones more than I do, instead of handing it off to the ranged dps. Still a damn good fight IMO.

Wind Lord Mel’jarak

I’m not gonna be lie, my primary source of excitement on this fight is going ape-shit crazy on AoE in the beginning of the phase. Doing ridiculous number, although totally broken, is lots of fun and its hard to not love it. I wish there was another mechanic in the last phase for tanks to deal with, but I’m too bothered about it.

Amber Shaper Unsok

Talk about cool mechanics. This fight is full of really good ideas that make for a really good encounter. Turning into an abomination is something I have loved since Putricide, and being able to put out decent dos while converted is lots of fun. I really wish tanks could get controlled in the last phase so I could be an abomination more, but oh well. Another really good fight.

Grand Empress Shek’zeer

Pretty boring for tanks most of the time. I have always been on Reaver duty, so I pretty much get to tank and spank the entire fight. Guess you can’t win them all. I really wish they did more with the buff you get from tanking reavers. The only interesting thing I do the entire encounter is sprint around gleefully spreading glorious dps buffs.

Protectors of the Endless

I’m a big fan of council fights, since they always give you variation due to the different kill orders. So far I have always been tanking Kaolan, but I have to say I probably have too much fun trying to draw shapes with the pools he drops after one Protector dies. Trying to utilize the room the best when doing elite mode is also pretty fun.

Tsulong

For a healer fight, I really like this one. Night phase is nothing special for us tanks, but I like being able to HotW and help out the heals in the Day and nuke down those little adds with Bear Hug. For a pretty simple tank fight mechanics wise I actually quite enjoy this one.

Lei Shi

The only other fight I actively dislike. This entire fight just really annoys me. Hide is just really stupid, especially since the only thing I can do is just sit there. Spray is a weird tank mechanic in my opinion, and the fact that you can’t get rage when protectors spawn is just obnoxious. This is really the only encounter in the tier where I can’t wait for it to be over.

Sha of Fear

Wonderful fight, if a little long. Thrash interacts with our new AM system in a wonderful way. I find the platforms to be very refreshing since I just zoom around picking up orbs. Lasts a little long and the phases become a little repetitive, but heroic mode looks like it will really deliver.

Welcome back to 25 Man WENSdays! I hope all you bears ate your fill on Thanksgiving, I know I sure did!

Anyways, this week we are going back to a topic we have discussed before, HotW vs NV. Last time, we talked about the general uses for each of these talents, and then applied them to the Mogu’shan Vaults and Heart of Fear. This week, we will be looking at these talents in regards to the newest raid, Terrace of the Endless Spring. Also, since that shouldn’t take very long at all, I will also be talking about my early impressions of Tooth and Claw. Let’s get right into it!

Protectors of the Endless

NV is pretty awesome here, since you can use it once with Berserk at the beginning of the fight to cleave onto all 3 bosses and generate some mean healing. It should then be up again for when you only have one Protector again and you are taking more damage. HotW is really only useful for the extra stats, but if you want that little extra passive survivability go for it.

Go with which ever you prefer, they are both good and one isn’t a clear favorite over the other.

Tsulong

I really like HotW for this, because there is never much tank damage so an extra CD from NV is unnecessary. Furthermore, during the day phase you can pump out some mean heals if you time it with a Sun Breath. For optimal use, precast a HT so it will land right after the Sun Breath finishes, then cast two more and finish with a Rejuv right as the healing buff falls off. You should be able to cover 2 breaths with one HotW duration so you should be able to pump out a not insignificant amount of heals.

Lei Shi

Lei Shi is another fight where you primarily take non-dodgeable physical damage in the form of Spray. This means that Nv become super powerful as it buffs your heals by a solid amount. The only reason I would take HotW over NV on this fight is if I found myself getting gibbed and needed the ext a health, but that shouldn’t be a problem unless you are undergeared.

Sha of Fear

This is another fight where the differences between the HotW and Nv are negligible. HotW provides extra EH to help take Thrashes, but NV provides a bit more dps either on the boss or the platform adds. Use whichever you prefer.

Initial Reactions to Tooth and Claw

I had all raid last night to play around with our new mechanic Tooth and Claw (which I will now abbreviate TC). Here’s what I noticed right off the bat:

- With no Vengeance, my TC absorbs around 26k damage. This changes roughly with your gear level and temporary buffs and whatnot, but it is safe to assume that when you aren’t tanking and you have no Vengeance, 1 rage = 1k damage reduced on your co-tank.

- TC procs all the time. Like seriously all the time. I made a WeakAura to track its procs, and halfway through my raid I deleted it because it is up so much. Especially during haste buffs such as Berserking or Bloodlust TC sometimes procs faster than you can use it.

- TC absorbs are not counted as a heal or absorb, so they don’t appear in Recount/Skada/WoL. This makes evaluating its overall effect a bit tricky.

- The highest I saw TC absorb was about 210k with roughly the same amount of Vengeance, so this has the potential to reduce a lot of damage.

So what does TC change about our play and gearing style? A lot actually.

- Haste becomes as good or better than Crit depending on the encounter. On certain fights you can pump out TC procs to make your co-tank take MUCH less damage.

- For gearing as a whole, rage gen stats are about as good as they can get right now. Mastery and survivability stacking is still viable obviously, but rage stats are looking better by the minute and personally I have already switched over to them.

- On fights with two tank mechanics (taunt swaps, adds, etc), guardians are now the best OT money can buy. On most fights this won’t be a big deal, but on Gara’jal for example you can reduce a ton of damage if you use TC right.

- While you are actively tanking, use TC if you already have SD up and you are at full rage and health. Otherwise it isn’t really worth it rage-wise.

Greetings Bears!

Due to a huge amount of work piled on me last week, I was unable to get anything written, but I am back this week with a bunch more info for you guys! This week we will be talking about SD vs. FR in the two latter instances of the tier: Heart of Fear and Terrace of the Endless Spring. So without further ado let’s get to it!

Imperial Vizier Zor’lok

Which ability you use largely depends on what job you currently have. As the Exhale tank, you take lots of undodgeable physical damage, which means FR is the best way to deal with it. Simply build up a full rage bar, wait til your health gets low, then pop 2 back to back FRs to top yourself off and you should survive the whole thing.

If you are tanking the boss, then the only damage he does to you is melee swings, which means SD all the way.

Blade Lord Ta’yak

Here’s my damage taken breakdown from this week’s kill:

41.3% Melee
28.5% Storm Unleashed
24.1% Overwhelming Assault
6.1% Unseen Strike

The important thing to remember is that this fight has two distinct phases. In the first phase where you tank the boss, you are taking mostly melee damage with predictable spikes of huge damage (the Assaults). Thus, the best way to use your abilities is to maintain SD and make sure to at least have 40 rage banked for a heal after an Overwhelming Assault.

During the second phase, spam FR to help out your healers since you will not be taking any direct melee swings.

Garalon

Here is my damage taken breakdown from my most recent kill:

46.6% Pheromones
44.0% Furious Swipe
6.9% Pheromone Trail
2.4% Crush

A few important things to know: Furious Swipe CAN be dodged. This makes SD pretty good on this fight, but in my experiences, you never take enough damage to really get a lot of benefit of timing SD for every Swipe. I had no problems just spamming FR to keep myself alive since the tank damage is pretty low on this fight.

Wind Lord Mel’jarak

Damage breakdown:

82.9% Melee
9.9% Rain of Blades
5.5% Whirling Blade
1.5% Wind Bomb

SD fight. No doubts about it. There is way too much incoming damage (especially on 25 man) to rely solely on FR to keep yourself. Learn to love SD on this fight.

Amber Shaper Un’sok

Due to WoL picking up damage taken while you are in Abom form, we can’t get an accurate picture of damage taken from logs.

However, a quick look at the fight mechanics reveals that there is no significant tank damage that isn’t melee swings. Ergo, we have yet another SD dominant fight. Keep it up, no buts about it.

Grand Empress Shek’zeer

Damage taken breakdown:

53.9% Melee
13.3% Poison-Drenched Armor
10.9% Cry of Terror
8.1% Calamity
5.2% Sonic Discharge
8.6% Assorted other damage

As you can see from the breakdown, your damage taken will mostly be melee swings, so keeping up SD is of the utmost importance. However there are several places where FR will come in handy. Make sure to bank some rage for an FR after one of the Zones explodes and you take a Sonic Discharge. Similarly, after you take a Calamity in the last phase, use whatever rage you have on an FR so you don’t get instantly gibbed by a melee swing.

Protectors of the Endless

Damage breakdown from this week’s kill:

67.2% Melee
15.4%Touch of Sha
15.0% Defiled Ground
1.9% Expelled Corruption

Look! Another SD fight! It doesn’t actually matter which bosses you are tanking in this fight, they all do primarily melee damage. If you end up killing Kaolan second or third, then make sure to keep some rage banked for an FR every time he does Defiled Ground, once you get to high stacks it can hit pretty hard.

Tsulong

Damage breakdown:

54.4% Dread Shadows
32.6% Melee
6.8% Unstable Bolt
4.9% Shadow Breath

This is a perfect fight for balancing out SD and FR use. In the night phase try to keep up SD as much as possible, but once your Dread Shadows stacks get high then FR becomes much stronger. As usual, try to save a big FR for after each breath so you don’t get gibbed by a melee swing directly after.

In the day phase, keep up SD against the big Terror adds, but they are also stunnable so make sure to use that as your primary damage mitigation tool against them. If you take the Sun Breath your heals become supercharged, so any FRs you do for those 5 seconds will be super powerful, but you really don’t take enough damage to warrant it anyways.

Lei Shi

Damage breakdown:

93.9% Spray
6.1% Get Away!

Lei Shi is like Stone Guards 2.0. FR is your best friend here. Spam it to your hearts desire. However, if you are the tank assigned to picking up adds then you are going to want to have SD up. They melee pretty hard. If you are tanking her when she puts that shield up, be prepared to pop CDs because you cannot gain rage by attacking her (instead melee a nearby add for some rage).

Sha of Fear

Damage taken breakdown (logs are a bit buggy for this fight due to the platforms):

66.9% Melee
13.5% Shoot
19.6% Random damage

Another SD dominant fight, however there is a very important new mechanic at play here. Every 4th attack, Sha will attack 3 times instead of just once. The only way you will realistically die is if you take all 3 melees and you aren’t topped off. Therefore, the best way to counter this ability is to always have SD up when he casts Thrash. Just like Chimaeron’s Double Attack, Sha will gain a buff called Thrash. Whenever you see that, get SD up ASAP if it isn’t up already. If you spike low, then hit a quick FR to top yourself off.

When you get transported to the outer platforms, your primary job is going to be soaking all the orbs that spawn. This means that you will basically have permanently increased rage gen. On these platforms, spam FR like nobody’s business. Especially during the Death Blossom, make sure to keep healing yourself and help your healer out.

That’s it! If you have any questions ask away in the comments!