Blade Lord Ta'yak - DEFEATED 18/11/2012

[Ammon]

I mentioned to guru if we was partially misunderstanding Wind Step.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/7004693291
I found this.
I noticed neither me, guru nor either tank were hit by wind step at all when we had nobody at range , within range to spread the dot to us on landing.
So i had to look that up
It gives us some room to move and sidestep Tempest Slashes as they're fired at us.

also for the Gather marker, the idea imho is sound, but if we had two spots marked, that way if one is twistered, we just use the other, saves any "ahhh blergh *wipe*" due to knockback.

[TeaLeaf]

Melee Range
Agreed, happy for melee to ignore the Wind Step 8yd range.  Zolena was also never targeted, so if we have Zolena in the raid it gives us an excuse to park her in melee to, Spinning Crane Kick et al and a nice stabilisation of healing when the rest of us move for Unseen Strike.  This assumes 5 in ranged is sufficient -I don't think it would take too many tries to confirm if this works.

US & Tempest Slash Timers
The one that is really grinding my groin is the Tempest Slash that randomly jumps ahead of the Unseen Strike CD.   We want to group up nice & early for Unseen Strike, but 3 or 4 tries last night got blindsided by an out of order Tempest.   I now think we need to reverse an earlier adjustment we made in this fight: we're grouping up to make sure we share the US damage, but this is now causing us issues with random US/TS CDs switching on us and I think we are sufficiently aware of the fight now to allow us to NOT group up early:  

Don't group up early, just move in to the group up spot from a sensible distance once the US target has been announced.   This relies on people not screwing up with their distance - it's what you can cover in 3 seconds, no more.  Personally I have been varying my distance throughout the fight depending on what is due.   When US is on CD, I move further away to about 30 yards range to make sure that if Tempest targets me then I can step in front of the cyclone.    When I need to use Halo I move in to 25yds, when US is about to come off CD I move in to closer to 20yds to make sure I can make the group up spot within the required 3 seconds.   We should try this and it will avoid the random Tempest CD wipes.

Unseen Strike damage sharing
I'm much happier with the sharing of damage last night, there was very little variance in how many times people got hit which means that by and large we're sharing the soaking effectively.   We also seemed to make it through with the Wind Step target NOT soaking unless they were also the US target.    We should keep doing this and I'd like to thank Puja for this suggestion.

If we do not group up too early and wait for a US announcement before collapsing to the chosen positions then we do not need to have 2 marked spots.

[Niel]

I use Bigwigs audible countdown for Unseen Strike........if you need it as a gentle reminder that £&%$ is about to happen then i would recommend to install it ( I run Bigwigs and DBM at the same time and i also used to have DXE ....i know its a little odd to run multiple boss mods but there are features in some that are not in others and the timing of some events is bettter in one addon than another so i tend to use both and learn which one i prefer for a particular fight ....i've not yet found that one addon is best for all )

I use Vuhdo - by default Wind Step is not shown......i added it as a custom debuff and also make it recolour the player panels on my UI so it stands out a mile that people are debuffed with it rather than just have a debuff icon ( i set all critical debuffs to recolour player panels to a colour that i really notice for all boss fights that it matters for as i am crap at tracking icons )

Taking the Wind Step person out of the unseen strike was a big help......it means we can let them tick away and keep them at reasonable health without having to push them to Max ( unless they get US )......i was finding i was blowing a fair few greater heals on them to keep them to max when we were having them in for US all the time.

Wind Step - range finder audible alarm.......we had several occasions on the attempts i was in where we had 2 people take Wind Step........i think it is worth turning on an audible range alarm to really make people notice when they are <8 yards as it really is best to avoid double ( or worse ) debuffs.

I think we're on the verge on this one....just the fuzzy mechanics of the fight messing us about and losing us time......down next week.

Cheers

Niel

[TeaLeaf]

I use Vuhdo - by default Wind Step is not shown......i added it as a custom debuff and also make it recolour the player panels on my UI so it stands out a mile that people are debuffed with it rather than just have a debuff icon ( i set all critical debuffs to recolour player panels to a colour that i really notice for all boss fights that it matters for as i am crap at tracking icons )

For info, the current GridStatusRaidDebuffs package for Grid has this in by default.

[TeaLeaf]

Came across this little gem:

So, a small hint on this fight.

In phase 2 (tornado alley); you have to run through the tornado maze to the end of the hall. At about 11-12% hp, the raid team, minus the tanks, should jump into the slipstream (sides of the 'alley') and let it carry them all the way to the other end of the room. Let the tanks + dots push the boss to 10%, where he will jump across the room, landing right where the rest of the raid team is waiting. In this method, you can effectively only have to navigate tornado alley once - which seems the be the hardest part of this entire fight... especially if you don't have a druid on the team. Remember, no tanks are needed in phase 2, he does not melee - so if the tanks die, its not a problem. (sorry tanks)...

It's so bleeding obvious I can't believe we haven't thought of it ourselves!

[Michelanio]

Came across this little gem:



It's so bleeding obvious I can't believe we haven't thought of it ourselves!

I thought you guys did that already

[TeaLeaf]

We already go early, but we don't use the slipstream to the side of the room - that's the key point.  Tbh, I thought there was a reason we did not go there (?damage), but if it is simply the slipstream then it's like a free taxi.

[Milli]

Yeah I Thot that's way we did it?  I've never jumped into a typhoon to go
Back - always used the side streams.

[Midd]

Yeah I always go in the slipstream too!  I thought everyone did, mind you it's a bit hard to look around see where folk are at that point!

[TeaLeaf]

Well, I know I am not alone as I'm surrounded by people running back in the middle and following vortices and dodging the ones catching them from behind.    Tbh, I have never seen people flying back on the side and totally out of the 3 channels.   Perhaps I am just blind *and* dumb then :roflmao:

[Milli]

Not saying you are blind or dumb - just presumed that's what ppl were doing.  Tbh not stopping and waiting to see if ppl are doing same but it's like having stampeding roar it's so much quicker.  When I posted a quote from a forum am sure it said this about running down side.

Edit:  just had a look at my precious post in this thread and I did mention it.

[TeaLeaf]

Nah, *I* was saying that I was blind & dumb for not noticing if others are doing it.

[Niel]

It's all becoming clear now.....i set out at the same time as others........by the time i get to the other end others are already there that i did not see go past me.......( Homer Simpson voice ) ...Doh !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Slush]

I've been doing abit of both. The slipstream on the side also change direction on 10%, so when Im leaving late (due to healing) I usually have to go through middle the last 50%

[Riggy]

I am sure we will have this guy next time and would have done last night if we hadn't lost people.  I have been looking for tips for running the 1st part of P2 (tornado phase) and it would seem that for those that get caught you should avoid running through the middle and stick to where the outer tornadoes travel and just step outside into the slipstream if a tornado is coming your way.  The slipstream does not give extra damage and simply stops forward progress (although you need to keep running forward to avoid being pushed backwards).  This will no doubt be slower but better to have slower, alive peeps than dead ones.