OK, we killed the first boss in HM, pre-nerf, just like 16K other guilds. Why is it so interesting? Because the strategy for this boss is well documented, you read it and practice until perfect execution. Well, we did not. We developed our own strategy which I believe is much easier and strongly recommended to guilds that did not kill the boss yet.
At 90% HP, Morchok summons Kohcrom, a clone of him. They do the same, except an extra debuff that doubles physical damage. This forces players to form separate groups so those who are stomped by one boss is out of reach from the other. The stomp does 750K damage on 10-man, distributed equally between everyone in 25 yards, the 2 closest getting double share. The standard strategy uses 1 tank, 2 healers and 2 DD on each boss. This means 107K damage on everyone, except the two closest who get 214K. Of course it's mitigated by armor and damage reduction skills.
Why is it a disgusting dance boss? Because if just one person is out of range (and he calculates range from his center, and he is big), then the rest will get 125/250K damage, which usually kill someone. Also, among the closest two, one must be a damage dealer who needs to be topped and use a damage reduction CD or he is oneshotted even if everyone is in range. Also, there are crystals for both teams, forcing them to move, making such mistakes likely. Crystal damage combined with stomp kills people even if everything else is done correctly.
Our strategy is much more tolerant to range mistakes: we have 7 players on Kochrom and 3 on Morchok. With 7, the damage is 83/166K, so we survive if the closest damage dealer misses his CD or someone else gets it (unless he is clothie). Also, 1 or eve 2 out of range players doesn't mean death either. This team has 2 healers. The second team contains 2 tanks and a well armored healer. Paladin and shaman with shield or druid who switch bear form fast enough are able to do it. The tanks are preferred to be DKs as most of the damage is not melee, so their low damage reduction is not important while their self-heal is huge here. Of course all of them stack on the crystal. The only player who can wipe the raid by failing is this healer by running too far or coming too close to the tanks. However if you have DK offtank and preferably a DK tank and you drank magic resist elixir, healing is easy.
From the logs you can see that the damage taken is low (as most damage is aimed at high mitigation tanks) and the kill is possible with very new players. Actually two people on the kill hadn't kill anything in normal, this was their first raid kill. A HM firstkill. The strategy is that tolerant. We killed him despite low DPS (380-ish gear on several players), misplaced heroism and 14!!! range fails (each of them would be a wipe with the normal strategy). Also, it doesn't need 4 healers, which can be hard for several guilds. All it needs is a third tank who can be totally undergeared. Actually a DD DK respeccing Blood would do.
Besides it's a good reason to join The PuG, t proves that raiding is not about executing. Figuring out a better method of killing the boss is not a theoretical possibility, but something that is open to all with brain. We were thinking instead of trying harder and he died. We had 22 tries on him with the new strategy, which is pretty low for a HM boss. If you can't figure out better strategy than the Tankspot guys, it's not the problem of Blizzard, it's a problem of your lack of creativity. Alternatively you don't even try to think as you are on the rail of "I must do as told or I'm a scrub". Stop that, you have a brain for a reason!
Tomorrow comes a very important post. It's strictly WoW and gold related, no philosophies are involved, don't miss it!
At 90% HP, Morchok summons Kohcrom, a clone of him. They do the same, except an extra debuff that doubles physical damage. This forces players to form separate groups so those who are stomped by one boss is out of reach from the other. The stomp does 750K damage on 10-man, distributed equally between everyone in 25 yards, the 2 closest getting double share. The standard strategy uses 1 tank, 2 healers and 2 DD on each boss. This means 107K damage on everyone, except the two closest who get 214K. Of course it's mitigated by armor and damage reduction skills.
Why is it a disgusting dance boss? Because if just one person is out of range (and he calculates range from his center, and he is big), then the rest will get 125/250K damage, which usually kill someone. Also, among the closest two, one must be a damage dealer who needs to be topped and use a damage reduction CD or he is oneshotted even if everyone is in range. Also, there are crystals for both teams, forcing them to move, making such mistakes likely. Crystal damage combined with stomp kills people even if everything else is done correctly.
Our strategy is much more tolerant to range mistakes: we have 7 players on Kochrom and 3 on Morchok. With 7, the damage is 83/166K, so we survive if the closest damage dealer misses his CD or someone else gets it (unless he is clothie). Also, 1 or eve 2 out of range players doesn't mean death either. This team has 2 healers. The second team contains 2 tanks and a well armored healer. Paladin and shaman with shield or druid who switch bear form fast enough are able to do it. The tanks are preferred to be DKs as most of the damage is not melee, so their low damage reduction is not important while their self-heal is huge here. Of course all of them stack on the crystal. The only player who can wipe the raid by failing is this healer by running too far or coming too close to the tanks. However if you have DK offtank and preferably a DK tank and you drank magic resist elixir, healing is easy.
From the logs you can see that the damage taken is low (as most damage is aimed at high mitigation tanks) and the kill is possible with very new players. Actually two people on the kill hadn't kill anything in normal, this was their first raid kill. A HM firstkill. The strategy is that tolerant. We killed him despite low DPS (380-ish gear on several players), misplaced heroism and 14!!! range fails (each of them would be a wipe with the normal strategy). Also, it doesn't need 4 healers, which can be hard for several guilds. All it needs is a third tank who can be totally undergeared. Actually a DD DK respeccing Blood would do.
Besides it's a good reason to join The PuG, t proves that raiding is not about executing. Figuring out a better method of killing the boss is not a theoretical possibility, but something that is open to all with brain. We were thinking instead of trying harder and he died. We had 22 tries on him with the new strategy, which is pretty low for a HM boss. If you can't figure out better strategy than the Tankspot guys, it's not the problem of Blizzard, it's a problem of your lack of creativity. Alternatively you don't even try to think as you are on the rail of "I must do as told or I'm a scrub". Stop that, you have a brain for a reason!
Tomorrow comes a very important post. It's strictly WoW and gold related, no philosophies are involved, don't miss it!
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