I’ve been surprised again. I did not think this was the weekend that we would get Dathea down. I figured it would’ve taken us longer than 9 hours, but we managed to do it in one raid week. We swiftly cleared Eranog and Primal Council before engaging this giant bag of, uh… air. Even though I didn’t participate in this one, I was still observing from the side and making notes or reminders here and there in the event any cooldowns need to be moved elsewhere.
- We started with 5 healers but dropped to 4. As I was the only healer in the composition without an interrupt, it made the most sense that I was on the sideline for this one. A Shadow Priest took over to ensure Fortitude buff was still in place. I actually felt relieved more than anything as I’m not my strongest in encounters where there are movement-inhibiting abilities or large knockbacks. There were times I would deliberately angle my knockback into a tornado and get redirected upwards. May as well put that Panda fall damage racial bonus to good use right?
- Static Discharge management. On Mythic, Conductive Marks don’t disappear. You need to run it over an inactive Infuser that’s just sitting there. After it gets 10 stacks, it activates and needs to get tanked and then defeated. Whenever a player dumps a Mark, everyone gets a Static Discharge buff for several seconds. Typically, healers can handle 3 to 4 stacks of that DoT without anything else going on (and with a full raid on the main platform). Initial progression was spent learning how to handle the timing for it and how high we could wrestle with the stacks before healers started croaking.
- Masterclass in stun, interrupt, and knockbacks. With 6 Thunder Callers on each side platform, we had to make sure each group had enough control. Interrupt the Thunder Callers and knock them in to maximize the effectiveness of AoE stuns like Capacitor Totems or Leg Sweep. Healers had to commit at least one delayed major healing defensive to survive.
- We completed this encounter without a Death Knight. That is like an affix on it’s own. Death Knights are integral to controlling platform ads and bringing them together. Credit to the DPS units for making this work and mapping out every interrupt and stun.
- Platform efficiency. We settled on going for 4 platforms and then ignoring the fifth. Each group went up twice. We kept two DPS on the boss at all times and they did not join any of the platform groups. We reasoned that if they did so, then boss health would’ve been higher and the encounter would’ve taken longer which meant a higher chance of getting overwhelmed at the end.
- Traffic control. Someone who was on the main platform at all times could issue instructions specifically on when it was safe to drop Conductive Marks and to which Infuser. There are times where it is not safe to spawn an Infuser and times when we needed to accelerate it. This allowed players to focus on their own survival from abilities and concentrate on their DPS rotation and uptimes. It was much more reassuring to have someone confirm your decision-making and timing.
- No more farm. Now that we’re knocking on Diurna’s doorstep, reclears are off the table. We project it’ll take another weekend or two to master the egg breaking routes and the increased damage then the real progress starts with Raz. That might take another 4-6 weeks. With potential nerfs coming, that timing might shrink.
- Roster needs. I have to got to find another healer. We’re about to enter the spring season which means there maybe some additional time away for players on some weekends. We need the added coverage. A Preservation Evoker is high on my list but a Discipline Priest is a close second.
- Cutting Edge is now within striking distance. I’ll admit, I had reservations about getting there after the final season of Shadowlands and the personnel we had then. But we were able to put together a strong, determined roster since Dragonflight debuted. Even though we raid 6 hours a week, most of the raid discussion happens during the week leading up to it. The strategy preparation and contribution from all areas of the raid group played a strong role in minimizing downtime on game days and allowed for big gains in progression pulls.
Mage PoV of the whole encounter: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1742671538
Diurna progress starts this week!