Graeme Guy nature photographyWhen the DPS turn their attention to you in the Faction Champions fight, as a healer it is your imperative to stay alive. Earth Shield yourself, Riptide yourself, and make a beeline away from the damage dealers (but still in range of the other healers). The other day I thought: Would Stoneclaw Totem draw the enemy’s attention away from me? It wouldn’t work in heroic mode, because the mobs aren’t subject to Taunt mechanics. But it might just buy me some time in regular.
Bottom line? I didn’t notice any benefit. The Death Knight was particularly clingy. He wouldn’t peel off until somebody death gripped him off of me. I’m guessing that the aggro mechanics in this fight are atypical enough that Stoneclaw’s special brand of taunting doesn’t catch their attention. I would have been better off plunking down an Earthbind Totem to slow him down.
Something that continually takes me by surprise is how little healing is involved in the Anub’arak fight. Sure, the boss takes some spike damage, but as long as your group is managing adds successfully, there’s very little damage elsewhere in the raid. We post lower HPS numbers in this fight than any other in the Lich King expansion, with the possible exception of heal-absorbing Jaraxxus.
Traditionally, we’re a conservative, 7 healer group. We vary that formula for DPS race fights, like Hodir’s hard mode, but stick to the formula otherwise. The biggest challenge with Anub’arak for us has been beating the enrage timer, and that means more deeps. On our first kill we sacrificed one healer to the DPS machine. With a Holy Paladin suffering from a flaky connection, we were down to 5 without breaking a sweat.
Last night we figured we’d do the same thing. The raid leader asked me to go Enhancement for it, and I found myself unable to do so. We waited until after falling through the floor. As the planning discussion was taking place, DPSers lashed out at the innocent little bugs wandering near the boss. That put the raid in combat, preventing me from activating my secondary talent spec.
Hypocryte: Ok, Llyra, go Enhancement. We’re already covered for the Elemental buffs. Llyra: Uh, I can’t.
Lesson learned? Don’t call Arthas to the party until you’ve planned out the fight.
The other restosham, craftier than I, hearthed to Dalaran to change talents and got summoned back by one of the Warlocks. We won the fight with 5 healers, and probably could have gone down to 4.
I think this is an intriguing development for the final boss of a raid. In the days before dual specs, the notion of composing a raid differently for a specific fight would have frustrated me. But now I kind of like it. It gives me a good excuse to slide out the fist weapons and punch some mobs in the face!
Months ago I posted about how to configure Grid to watch for the Kel’Thuzad’s Frost Blast attack. When I discovered that functionality, I felt like I had solved the riddle of the Sphinx. A flower of information had unfolded before me, and I had an urgent need to share it with everyone. I have since learned that many, better healers before me had long known how to configure their unit frames of choice to scan for specific debuffs.
My approach to new content has changed with capability. It is not enough to know what a boss can do to wreck our lives. I have to know exactly who in the raid he is doing it to. When a supercharged Steelbreaker applies Static Disruption to a raider, increasing lightning damage taken by 75%, that’s something I need to know. And when Ignis hugs your body in his marsupial’s pouch, you don’t need to tell me on Ventrillo. I know.
Over time my aura watch list has grown woolly. Some of these I’ve even forgotten where they came from. Mistess’ Kiss? Who’s been making out with my raiders, and why do I need to know? Here they are, in cheatsheet form.
Commenter Slo makes a plaintive request for strategy on handling the Faction Champions encounter. I can make no claim to being an expert, but I can certainly comment on what I’ve seen and tried so far. Vicarious has beaten it twice in 25 and twice in 10, and I have been present for 3 of those kills. Because 25 is basically just an amped up version of the 10-man version, that’s where I’ll focus.
When the encounter begins, 10 enemies (6 in 10-man) will line up against your group. They are composed like a raid group. 3 healers (2 in 10-man) anchor a diverse population of DPS. They won’t aggro immediately, so take some time to assess them and work up a game plan. Keep the Wiki page open so you can look up their names.
Like arena fights, if you can knock out the enemy’s healers while keeping your own alive, you will probably win. The key to this fight is picking a kill order that best enables both halves of that equation. If your DPS races to kill their healers but your own die, you will still lose. You need to assess the threat of the entire group, and compare them against your own capabilities.
First, who are their healers? There are 4 possibilities. There’s a Holy Priest, who has a lot of instant casts and big heals, but is a relatively vulnerable clothie. A tree form Druid, who has outrageously strong instant-cast HoTs, but can be controlled pretty effectively by a Warlock’s banish. A Shaman with one instant, but brings a number of totem buffs to his group. And a Holy Paladin who has no instant casts, but whose plate armor makes him a highly resilient target.
Follow that analysis with who are their riskiest DPS to keep alive? The Shadow Priest can dispel your crowd control attempts and has the group fear ability Psychic Scream. The Warlock can quickly blow nasty debuffs over your raid, and has several fear abilities. He also brings a Fel Hunter to the fight, and it will be spell locking your casters. The Rogue is Subtlety specced; she has a nasty habit of popping up in the back of your group and turning healers into pudding.
Then you have to take stock of what you have for assets. What repeatable crowd controls do you have? Sheep and Fear are the most effective weapons in your arsenal. Also useful are Roots, Cyclone, Banish. Cooldown-based crowd controls are useful for breathers, but won’t be able to keep an enemy locked down. Note that PvP rules for diminishing returns apply here. And even a dispelled crowd control ability counts toward the diminishment effect.
Other assets on your side include anti-healing skills like Mortal Strike, reliable interrupts such as Wind Shear, defensive Tremor and Grounding totems, a Discipline Priest blasting Mass Dispels, a Hunter dropping Frost Traps, and so on. Every class has their bag of tricks in a PvP encounter. Use them.
With all that in mind, you need to come up with a kill order. As long as the healers are active, killing DPS will be hard. How reliable is your crowd control? Can you afford to kill a particularly vicious DPS first?
BobTurkey had some success recently killing the CC-dispelling Shadow Priest first, then going after the healers. But depending on how well controlled they are, you may need to take out the Holy Priest or Resto Druid first. Removing the Warlock and Rogue from the playing field will give your incoming damage a healthy break.
After you have assigned a kill order, find ways to lock down dangerous enemies. Put a Warrior on the Holy Paladin to keep him shut down. Have your Discipline Priest ready to dispel their Shaman’s Bloodlust. Assign crowd control duties to everyone who can use them. Have someone knocking down their totems. Sleep the Hunter’s pet.
A poster in my guild forums made a wise suggestion recently. Designate a focus target for each of your healers. This gives them a head’s up to incoming damage. If a Priest sees their Hunter target someone, they can lob a shield their way. If I see their Warrior target our Rogue, I can queue up a Chain Heal in advance of the upcoming Whirlwind.
Above all, think on your feet. Your number one job is to stay alive. After that, heal, dispel, Purge, Hex, and stay aware. The more of them drop while your group lives, the easier this fight gets.
I think it’s easy. This is the only time you’ll hear me say this, because I’m a lazy person, but I think it’s too easy. After months of squeezing that bloodless rock called Ulduar, we get a big, trash-free loot pinata to prepare us for the final raid instance in this expansion.
Granted, we haven’t seen the dramatic return of Anub’arak yet. But so far the only fight that presents any trouble is the Faction Champions one. And I wouldn’t be surprised if that doesn’t get nerfed shortly.
Friday, October 16, 2009 at 8:23PM | 
Graeme Guy nature photographyWhen the DPS turn their attention to you in the Faction Champions fight, as a healer it is your imperative to stay alive. Earth Shield yourself, Riptide yourself, and make a beeline away from the damage dealers (but still in range of the other healers). The other day I thought: Would Stoneclaw Totem draw the enemy’s attention away from me? It wouldn’t work in heroic mode, because the mobs aren’t subject to Taunt mechanics. But it might just buy me some time in regular.
