Firemaw

[Bastet]

Common Features of the Three Drakes

Firemaw, Ebonroc, and Flamegor all share some important similarities, both in their abilities and the proper approach taken to deal with those abilities as part of their encounters. As such, understanding the basic features of any one of the drakes provides an excellent opportunity to learn about the common features of the other two. All three drakes share the following abilities:

1. Melee Attacks - The melee attacks of each drake are only directed at the current MT; the drakes do not have a cleave ability. They also lack any sort of tail swipe, and as such may be melee'd by rogues from the side or rear without danger of being caught in a typical melee attack.

2. Shadow Flame - The breath weapon each drake uses periodically is a frontal cone AoE attack, inflicting ~4500 shadow damage on those struck. Additionally, any player that does NOT have an Onyxia Scale Cloak equipped will be "fully engulfed" if they survive the initial damage. Those "fully engulfed" receive a non-dispellable debuff that inflicts ~2000 shadow damage per second for 10 seconds. Anyone that survives the initial damage but receives this debuff is essentially guaranteed to die.

3. Wing Buffet - This ability is a periodic frontal cone AoE attack, combining a powerful knockback effect as well as a significant and permanent reduction of threat for all those caught by the attack. The loss of threat associated with this ability is so severe that, if it is not dealt with appropriately, it will result in a similar "aggro ceiling" effect as that described previously for the Broodlord Lashlayer encounter.

4. Each drake is tauntable. Taunting in an organized fashion to temporarily capture aggro from the active MT, or to facilitate an ordered transfer of aggro from one MT to the next in a pre-set rotation, plays a key role in managing all three of the drake encounters.

Due to the above-listed common abilities of all three drakes, there will also be common features to the approach utilized by the raid when engaging each of these drakes as well. The common aspects of how the raid deals with each of the drake encounters are as follows:

* Each drake is tanked at an interior corner of the Laboratory, where two walls meet at right angles. The MT should stand at the intersection of these walls, ensuring that if he is ever struck with a Wing Buffet, the resulting knockback will not have any significant impact on his position.

* One or more warriors will be assigned to act as off-tanks. Their purpose during the encounter is to taunt the drake just before each Wing Buffet, forcing the drake to turn and attack the OT instead of the current MT.

By ensuring that another warrior is hit by each Wing Buffet instead of the current MT, it is possible to avoid the periodic loss of threat the MT would otherwise suffer when affected by the attack. By reducing or altogether eliminating the number of times where the MT is hit by Wing Buffet, the "aggro ceiling" effect for these encounters can also be reduced or eliminated.

Any assigned OTs will be located within melee range of the drake, with their backs against one of the intersecting walls of the corner. They must be far enough away from the MT such that each time it turns to face them when taunted, the frontal cone affected by the Wing Buffet cast immediately thereafter misses the MT. This approach only functions like intended as long as the OT can guarantee that the drake will turn far enough to completely miss the MT with each Wing Buffet.

* Rogues (and melee pets, when appropriate) engage the drakes from directly behind, or from either side of its hindquarters. They must never engage from directly in front of the drake, or from close enough to its front that they might be struck by a Shadow Flame cast while the drake is turned from its normal orientation.

* Hunters, casters, and healers will vary in their positioning from encounter to encounter. In all cases they should stay clear of places that might be caught in a Wing Buffet or Shadow Flame attack when the drake has turned towards an OT following a taunt. The only exception to this rule might occur when casters or healers elect to suicide on purpose to avoid hitting the aggro ceiling.

* Any player likely to be struck by Shadow Flame MUST have his Onyxia Scale Cloak equipped at all times during the encounter. Against all three drakes, this should include the warriors and rogues only. Almost any instance where other members of the raid are struck by Shadow Flame indicates that the drake is out of control, and in danger of wiping the raid.

* Depending upon how consistently the OT is able to divert Wing Buffets onto himself rather than the MT, it may be possible to avoid hitting an aggro ceiling entirely. Because taunt is resistable and timing is subject to errors, however, encountering the aggro ceiling effect is a definite possibility.

Rogues and hunters should use their threat reduction abilities (Feint, Feign Death, and Vanish) as often as possible, to entirely avoid any aggro ceiling effect that might develop.

Casters and healers MAY find it necessary to voluntarily suicide in an organized fashion during each encounter to avoid hitting the aggro ceiling, as with Broodlord Lashlayer.

The above listed elements are common to all three drake encounters, and mastering them for one will provide the fundamental skills necessary for the other two as well.

As mentioned previously, all three drakes have some unique features as well, which will be addressed separately for each.

Firemaw, the First Drake

In addition to the common features of all three drakes, Firemaw has the following unique ability:

1. Flame Buffet - This is a periodic fire-based attack that Firemaw uses against ALL enemies within LoS once every ~5 sec. It inflicts ~150 fire damage, and applies a debuff that increases all fire damage taken by 150 for 20 sec. This debuff stacks with each new application, up to a maximum of 50 times, and cannot be dispelled.

It should be noted that this debuff is not a DoT per se, but only acts to progressively increase the damage of each new wave of the Flame Buffet attack that occurs as the debuff stacks up.

Correctly handling Firemaw's Flame Buffet ability is what makes this encounter unique and challenging. Of course, that must be done in conjunction with the approach already described for dealing with Wing Buffet and the other common features of all three drakes.

Once a clear path exists between the Laboratory gate and the near end of Firemaw's patrol route, the raid may position itself and prepare for the pull. A paladin is used to bubble pull Firemaw, drawing him back to the waiting MT and the rest of the raid.

Firemaw is fought just at the entrance to the Laboratory area. The designated MT is positioned at the interior corner formed by the juncture of walls housing the two gates (one open and one closed) into the Laboratory. During the encounter, the current OT should be positioned against the closed gate, approximately midway along its width. Firemaw should be positioned just outside the gate, facing inwards towards the MT at a 45-degree angle to both walls.

This positioning provides an ideal environment for the raid. The wall just to the right of the open gate provides the means by which members of the raid can break LoS with Firemaw, while still maintaining LoS to the MT and OT if necessary. Please refer to the image below, which displays the general positions of Firemaw and the various members of the raid during the encounter.



The parts played by the various members of the raid are as follows:

* Healers - Will establish LoS to the MT and/or OT without being within LoS of Firemaw himself. As such, healers will be able to heal the MT and OT without needing to reposition to escape the effects of Flame Buffet, which can stack quickly enough to become a significant danger otherwise. Because they will ideally be out of LoS of Firemaw for the entire encounter, healers should be able to use their most effective gear, without sacrificing stats in exchange for FR.

All healers should reserve their mana to keep the MTs and OTs alive. If positioned correctly, healers should take very minimal, if any, damage during the encounter.

* Off-tanks - From his position along the closed gate to Firemaw's right, the OT should prepare to taunt just before each Wing Buffet occurs, pulling aggro from the MT long enough to be hit by the attack without being knocked far in the process. Each time this occurs, Firemaw's aggro should switch back immediately to the current MT.

If the current OT fails enough resists in a row so that his debuff stacks up to a level where it becomes unreasonably difficuly to keep him alive via healing alone, it will be necessary to swap out OTs. An additional OT should stand hidden out of LoS, ready to move into position and take over as OT whenever this occurs during the encounter. This may also be necessary if the current OT dies for whatever reason. OTs should wear their maximal FR gear.

* Main Tanks - As with the OTs, it is possible that the current MT may fail enough resists in a row versus Flame Buffet that his debuff stacks up to dangerous levels. When this occurs, it is necessary to smoothly transition aggro onto a new MT. As a result, an additional MT should stand hidden out of LoS, ready to move into position when needed.

When a transition is called for, the current MT should stop attacking and the new MT should move into position adjacent to the current MT. The new MT should taunt Firemaw to establish a threat level near (but below) the current MT, then use his threat-generating abilies (Sunder Armor, Shield Slam, etc.) to build enough additional hate that aggro transfers to him. Once aggro is firmly established on the new MT, the previous MT can back out of LoS and allow his stacked debuff to fade naturally. MTs should wear their optimal FR gear.

* DPS classes (ranged and melee) - Will weave in and out of LoS with Firemaw to attack. They should move into LoS and range of Firemaw, attack him until they have been hit by a sufficient number of Flame Buffets to bring their HP into dangerously low levels or stack up enough debuffs that any additional waves could kill them, then back out of LoS in order to recover and allow the debuffs to fade.

They must be wearing their optimal FR gear, because each wave of Flame Buffet is individually resistable. The more waves of Flame Buffet are resisted, the longer you will be able to remain in LoS while attacking, and the greater the chance that you may resist enough attacks in a row that your existing stacked debuff will fade away without requiring any repositioning.

Because so much healing is needed to keep the MTs and OTs alive, DPS classes should be self-sufficient from a healing perspective, using bandages, potions and the like to keep themselves alive in between rounds of attacking.

If the raid group correctly positions Firemaw in such a way that his Flame Buffet and Wing Buffet abilities can be managed correctly, stays alive and applies consistent high DPS, this encounter is entirely within reach.


Summary
Understanding and mastering the first few trash mob pulls in the Laboratory that lies beyond the Suppression Rooms prepares you to more easily deal with the remaining trash mobs that lie between you and the ultimate challenge of Blackwing Lair, Nefarian himself!

Moreover, once you have cleared through these pulls, you will encounter the first of three drakes Bosses in this instance. Each boss poses a unique challenge, but each shares many elements in common with the others (including a significant portion of their loot tables, as chance would have it).

Facing and defeating the first drake, Firemaw, will prepare you for the two remaining drakes and set you well on your way towards the end of the instance!

SOG Notes
SOG place a couple of healers for melee and ranged caster groups with a single priest in Firemaw's room tucked into the alcove on the opposite side of the room to where he is tanked (the lower right in Firemaw's room the diagram).  This gives LOS protection during the whole fight for the single priest to remain in full healing gear (wearing a healing cloak not an OL Cloak), an alcove for ranged DPS & melee healers to drop back into to let the debuff expire.  The melee healers (two of them - we use a priest and a druid) rotate so that whilst one is healing the other is in the alcove letting the debuff expire.
Casters & melee DPS have to watch the debuff stack.  Clothies in particular should get out of LOS when they have 4 debuffs, this will improve survivability.  When you are more used ot the fight and the timing of the debuffs then you can withstand more, but your safety margins are greatly reduced with more than 4 debuffs.
As caster & melee DPS is intermittent (they pop back out of LOS regularly) over-aggro is not usually a problem and these classes can go full out DPS without much fear of gaining aggro in the periods when they are attacking as they will drop back down the aggro list whilst out of LOS.
SS are set to all Main Tanks for this fight to allow them to pop back up if they unexpectedly get killed.  Time the use of a SS to just after a flame attack so that the tank does not rez & die immediately!  Single buffs and heals to full health are needed urgenlty on the rezzed tank.  The tank should then get into the melee safe spot and get back into the rotation.