SoO Guide / Strats Thread

Hydrar

While prepping for this week's raid, I found a decent "cheat sheet" for the SoO bosses. It's for Normal, but everything applies to Flexible.

I think a 5 minute review of this material, plus the LFR experience most of you have will make Sunday more successful.

http://imgur.com/a/gU5r6

The strats (for the first few bosses at least) are exactly how I'd run them anyway.

RyanFodder

That is incredibly helpful.

Thrax

Have we agreed on a raid leader?

Myrmidon

To my knowledge, Hydrar will be running these raids.

Thrax

mmk.

Hydrar

I volunteered to lead this first raid because I have the most experience with the fights and was eager to get something going with the guild. I think it's important to have a few people comfortable leading. Flex is nice because loot distro from boss kills is automatic. After the first clear for each Flex part, I imagine others could step up - especially if I'm not available.

Anyway, I volunteered for this first raid, and I'd be happy to lead future raids, but my no means intend to monopolize raid leading.

Thrax

Was just curious, making sure the role was fulfilled.

Hydrar

Decent run last night. We went in under-geared - with some very fresh 90s, but still managed 3 bosses down (2 were 1-shot). I counted around 15 ilvl 540 upgrades, too. It will only get easier. With practice on the bosses and better gear, next week will be much better. Soon Flex 1 will be an hour run.

Some strats that worked well / improvements:

Immerseus: we should spend a minute before the pull to ensure we have good heals coverage. I think we can all stay to half the circle, then spread out during split. You can't run through the boss, but you do have a good 5 seconds to spread out during the phase change.

Protectors: Can't think of anything I'd change.

Norushen: Worked well: having someone call out when they were going to soak the orb.

Sha: Worked well: using the "move on nameplates" idea for Self Reflection.

In general: respeccing / glyphing is cheap. I think for fights with lots of AoE, it would be best to take a minute to respec into a better AoE setup, vs many wipes. Changing talents/glyphs to help us out is worth it.

DPS: It wouldn't hurt to spend a few minutes in front of a Raid Dummy working on rotation. Just 10 minutes this week plus some reading on rotations would help a ton, I think.

Any other strat comments?

Myrmidon

I figured out what our problem with the self-reflections on the Sha of Pride is, and it kind of breaks our strategy. :/

The boss casts self reflections on up to five raid members... per tier of pride. In addition, he casts self reflection in waves one second apart, such that:

0s after self reflection cast: up to 5 reflections, cast on anyone between 0-24 pride.
1s after cast: up to 5 MORE reflections, cast on anyone between 25-49 pride.
2s after cast: up to 5 MORE reflections, cast on anyone between 50-74 pride.
3s after cast: you get the idea.

That means this nameplate thing only works while everyone in the raid is below 25 pride... otherwise if you're above 25, spreading out after seeing the nameplate will just dump your reflection outside the group. Also, having multiple people spanning multiple pride tiers results in more adds. I don't think there's any way around that one - RNG will force pride on people.

I saw one raid do it kind of cute... everyone stacked as tightly as humanly possible and every time they saw NEW nameplates, they all scooted forward like three yards - for a total of four scoots. Then, they had an OT pick up the adds and AOE'd them down. II'm not sure how we could get an OT to tank adds and still have them available for prison, though, it would necessitate a lock gate for prisons, a designated dps to deal with the far prison, and a two designated backup dps to handle if the normal prisonbreakers got caught. That sounds more difficult by far.

I've also seen a raid simply spread into a loose cluster for the entire fight and have everyone focus on their own positioning. I don't think I like that too much, but it's an option.

So, I would suggest one of two modifications to the strategy:

1. if we COULD get an OT to tank adds, it would eliminate the need to have them all spawn in the same place... we could just have everyone scatter willy-nilly for self reflections and keep moving until they were all up, then have the raid stack back up while the OT and ranged brought them in for AOE. I'd also be able to quit BoPping the warlock.

2. If we CAN'T get an OT to tank adds, we could use personal responsibility - you scatter on the first nameplate, then immediately re-stack ONLY if you're below 25 pride. If you are above 25 pride, run around very CLOSE to the group until all your reflections are out. I think this is one we can handle, though we'll need very quick dps switching to the adds and very high heals during the unleashed phase (when we're likely to have well more than 5 adds on non-tank players).

midga

I like your mod #2. I noticed things worked a lot better for me when someone was audibly calling the different things as they came up. Of course, last fight I finally noticed where DBM was putting the timers at, so that helped too XD

I really need to re-glyph. For a 600 inscriptionist, I have a very sad selection of mage glyphs. I've been hoping to learn the ones I need, but I guess I'll just have to hit the AH when I actually have some gold. I also need gems, but I'm a bit wary when I'm switching gear as quickly as I have been...

Tushon

The commonly used glyphs are typically inexpensive since they are high volume (i.e. 50g or something similar). Alternatively, if you have the skill you could just buy mats, etc. Figuring out a way that is decently fun for you to make gold is important to success for the very reasons you state. I would gem 496 (timeless base) level gear, maybe 483, but probably not lower than that. I'd use best or second best enchants depending on costs (i.e. I'm not spending 1000g on an enchant for a 496 wep or wrist ... whereas the 540 dagger I picked up is going to get Dancing Steel at the low low price of 1500g soonish).

midga

I just haven't learned the schematic for a lot of them. They come with research, and that's a daily thing. Mats are essentially negligible for glyphs. Speaking of, inscription does a shoulder enchant, so anyone who needs it just let me know. The mats are a bit more expensive, but still not very much. Now that I can fly in pandaland I can get my herb on pretty easy. (in fact, I'll probably just stick a few of each in the guild bank this week)