Majordomo Staghelm - Defeated 16/8/11

[Grimnar]

Grimnar: Tranq with a 8 min cd.

[Azunai]

Rallying Cry - +20% max hp to raid for 10 seconds - 3 min CD.

Also, I don't think kitties will die fast enough from melee splash. Personally I don't have a sustainable splash ability. Just 10 seconds of Sweeping Strikes every minute and the occasional cleave. Can't use cleave all the time as it would kill my dps on boss. With their 300something k hp, I might as well focus them down then.

Finally, 10man version summons 2 of the mushroom things, so 4 people needed.

[Twyst]

If I don't get to tank (solo tank again - lulz) then I can always re-spec unholy for AMZ raidwall
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/941129-Is-AMZ-viable-on-25-Stag

[Noréia]

where is melee dps when in cat form? does he not leap on tank and melee?

[Azunai]

Nop, has a min range I guess.

[TeaLeaf]

Yep, melee stick to boss.  Leaps are to ranged.

[Whitey]

I've added the CD for DG to TL's post as well as links to wowhead for the details, any change due to talents/glyphs should be mentioned.

[Twyst]

I've changed my offspec from Frost PVP to Unholy PVP so that I now have AMZ. Not that I get to DPS much. What is interesting though is that a lot of top guilds are taking unholy DKs (over frost DK) in heroic modes purely for AMZ as it's a lot of mitigation on 2 min CD. Basically the only boss where there isn't a good use for it is Shannox, but the best use for it is Domo.

The only sucky thing about it is that it takes 3 talent points away from a pure dps spec

[Grimnar]

Well melee point of view incl the feral bit ofc.
 
 
First of all melee has it pretty easy on this boss fight and is a must kill for feral dps as he drops 4 items we need for our dps set:blink: (yes incl the staff):devil:
 
Also like the Al'Akir fight i don't like my dps position.....  I like the fight and i really like the different "seeds" timers as it shows if people are awake and not just waiting for someone else to make the call for him/her.
But me as a feral my dps is low on this boss as i have to be infront of the boss, and the adds well you don't build up any dps on those as a feral...  I tried to swipe a few tries but then swapped to single target dps as with the last 3 adds i had no energy left to bring in dps to get them down quick enough. (my dps is low as kitty cats "should" run around without any hitrating at all same counts for exp... so i am missing attacks and loosing some energy because of that)
 
But to go for hit cap for this boss only would be a pretty big dps drop on the other bosses....  so i am a bit lost on how to improve on this one as a feral dps.
 
 
But for the fight it self:
 
Start,  I helped out Whitey with a speed buff during the pull and TL used his pull on whitey after that. So when boss was at the group we where all grouped up and ready, incl the tank.
As some dps couldn't wait a few secs for the tank building up agro we had some agro probs at the starts of almost each try. The best comment maked on ts about that was " but but but my dps...."  So for next time, sod off with your dps and give the tank some agro time as it will help out the whole group, and that is worth more then that 2k extra damage that person did....
After 6 stacks (8 in the last try) the healer and ranged group split up to the ranged positions around the boss. Melee just kept on nuking the boss down and waiting for the adds to spawn to nuke them down as fast as possible.
The adds spawn faster after each jump so save mana/energy/rage to keep up to kill the last few adds. As feral dps i had loads of probs with those adds as i was out of energy when i needed burst dps. I even tried a few tries bringing in beserk but that went even worse then the other tries...
After 6 jumps we had to group up again and watch our nice "seed" timers. We said at 5 secs move out.. that got changed after last try at 4 / 4,5 seconds. Raidwalls are needed at that point but there is no steady order to call out before hand as no one knows how long his/her timer will be.
 
After 6 stacks (if correct) we spread out again and had the kitty phase again but this time with the balloons aswell???
 
(this part i am a bit lost as it went a bit to fast last try)
 
But for melee nothing changes, nuke boss / nuke adds!
 
 
best try was 47% i think.
 
Also a litte thanks to all the different healers we had tonight. Drew and Lynx.
And also to Nocto who went full healing the whole evening while he normally is dps.

[TeaLeaf]

I ran Fraps most of last night so picked up about 100GB of video to track things.  I've reviewed a fair chunk of it this morning so hopefully this will help:

Grouping During P2 Seeds
The circle we group in has an approx 22 yard radius to its outer edge (estimated from healing ranges). The Seed AOE has a 12 yard range, so theoretically if we get onto the 'track' (the gold ring) we should be ok - but, I saw several examples where a detonating seed on the ring still hit someone in mid.  This means we are not grouping tightly enough in mid during this phase.  Certainly I know I blew a melee's arse off once last night as whilst I was detonating a seed on the ring the melee I AOE'd was several yards outside the main group and therefore took a hit.  

Timing of Seed Detonation
This was a very common problem and I do not think people yet fully understand why this is so important.  We run at about 8 yd/s, we need to move 12yds away for the AOE to be avoided, so running out with 5 seconds until detonation is too early and leaves the raid exposed.  The problem with leaving early is the Scythe.  Fewer people grouped in mid mean fewer people to share the Scythe damage, so the aim should be to minimise the time out of mid.  I tried running out at 3 and it worked about perfectly with a detonation on the ring and an immediate return.

The other issue is - don't run too far!!  It takes longer to get back into mid and so Scythe munches into the raid again.  Nobody should be further out than the ring which we estimate is 22yds from the centre - we had some poeple last night who were 10+yds outside the ring and the raid wiped to Scythe as a result.

Positioning for Leaps/Pools
We struggled when the same people got several leaps on them and often had people the wrong side of a lava pool at the point we needed to collapse.  We can deal with this by starting further away from the boss.  Range should not be an issue to the boss or your own group, so healers should be ok (range to other groups will be excessive probably).  

If we put down 3 lava pools (1,2 & 3) at greater range  and then move in towards the ring and place the last 3 (4,5 & 6) at normal range then we should not have any problems with running out of room or having people in the wrong place.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]786[/ATTACH]

This would also probably allow us to not stack in 2s or 3s meaning less people move when a leap happens.  On the 5th leap everyone should then move in toward the outer ring so that they are ready for the collapse on the 6th leap.

Raidwalls
These are pretty much essential to have in the rotation for Scythes when the boss stacks are too high, but we should be able to avoid using any in the first scorpion phase and not need any until late into the first seed phase.

[Azunai]

Heh, can't help but think of Heroic Leap + Charge as the ultimate seed solution :')

[TeaLeaf]

http://www.icy-veins.com/majordomo-staghelm-detailed-strategy

Timing of Flame Scythe
It takes Staghelm the following amounts of time to reach 100 energy, depending on how many stacks of Adrenaline he has.  Use this table to work out which CDs can cover more than one Scythe.  

•0 Adrenaline stacks: 18 seconds;
•1 Adrenaline stack: 12 seconds;
•2 Adrenaline stacks: 10 seconds;
•3 Adrenaline stacks: 8 seconds;
•4 Adrenaline stacks: 7 seconds;
•5 Adrenaline stacks: 6 seconds;
•6 Adrenaline stacks: 5 seconds;
•7 Adrenaline stacks: 4 seconds.
Disc/holy Priests:  
Power Infuse yourself for the 5th Adrenaline for extra output
Use Div Hymn on last scorpion phase under a PI.
Macro [item=Fiery Quintessence]Fiery Quintessence[/item] in for Divine Hymn.  
You can cast PW:B to cover 2 scythes later in the phase when stacks of adrenaline are high enough.
Recuperation in Cat phase and high burst spellpower during Flame Scythe


Paladins, Rogues and Mages
Can get rid of their Searing Seeds through Divine Shield, Cloak of Shadows and Ice Block respectively. Note that this will still cause the seed to detonate and deal damage to nearby allies. Players desiring to do this should do so immediately after a Flame Scythe has been cast, and should, naturally, be out of the raid. This will ensure that they are able to return to the stacking position before the next Scythe.

Warlocks
Put DI on a resto druid.
Put up soulwells just before the pull to use them twice during the fight.

Raidwalls:
Just trying to look at good combos here, not locked in stone

Perhaps go with something like:
0 Adren: 18s - heal
1 Adren: 12s - heal
2 Adren: 10s - heal
3 Adren: 08s - RC Torgen
4 Adren: 07s - Tranq Grim (8 min CD so not available again) + PI'd Div Hymn Amber
5 Adren: 06s - AM Tirkad + DG Whytee/Hal + PI'd Div Hymn Amber + Personal CD's
6 Adren: 05s - AM Tirkad + PWB Amber + Tranq Jas + healthstones
7 Adren: 04s - PWB Amber + Tranq Jas + SL Shaman

You could macro this order to /rw or healer channel to help (based on cast of first Scythe) to help, or call the number of the Scythe on TS for people to react to and use their CD.  Timing of these CDs will be critical.

(note the overlaps)
(I've not included a SP Div Hymn as I'm not going to be there after Thursday, so you'll have to do it without me!)

[Whitey]

Perhaps go with something like:
0 Adren: 18s - heal
1 Adren: 12s - heal
2 Adren: 10s - heal
3 Adren: 08s - RC Torgen
4 Adren: 07s - Tranq Grim (8 min CD so not available again) + PI'd Div Hymn Amber
5 Adren: 06s - AM Tirkad + DG Whytee/Hal + PI'd Div Hymn Amber + Personal CD's
6 Adren: 05s - AM Tirkad + PWB Amber + Tranq Jas + healthstones
7 Adren: 04s - PWB Amber + Tranq Jas + SL Shaman

You could macro this order to /rw or healer channel to help (based on cast of first Scythe) to help, or call the number of the Scythe on TS for people to react to and use their CD.  Timing of these CDs will be critical.

We shouldn't need to use any cooldowns during first Skorpion phase.  During the subsequent ones we didn't go about 5 stacks of the buff and on at least one of the kill videos I watched, that was the number they used to split on after the first phase. If we can get to 6 or 7 using the raid wall then that would be a huge improvement.

[TeaLeaf]

Sorry, I was thinking second scorpion.  First is going just fine without any.  If we can't handle 7 then roll the CDs up one and work it from 6, etc.  It should help greatly.

[Slush]

I read through the posts, and I agree. It all looks good, and the small tewaking will be good.

But I think what kept us from killing this boss two days ago was; Lack of confidence.
We done harder bosses than this, and there will be harder coming after; Believe that this can be done, and we will get through it. We have the tactics, we have the gear and we have the skills. The only thing missing was minor tweaking.. and the confidence.

Go find it guys, and believe we can do this.