Matt’s Misplays: Mythic Rasz Edition

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I read sports news site The Athletic regularly and one of my favourite post segments is when they do game recaps with gifs that highlight key moments. I want to experiment with that type of format periodically as we step into Aberrus next patch. Think of it as an educational exercise for aspiring raiders out there about what to do and what not to do.

We have some good news and bad news! The good news is I was successful in securing my Rasz CE kill! The bad news is that there is no stream footage of my side of the platforms where I accrued all of my deaths so I have no comical clips to share of the different ways I went down. Then again, if you review my deaths, there’s a common thread:

Ouch. Not exactly my best showing. It’s out of character for me to die to either of those breaths.

For someone who prides themselves in having generally strong movement and awareness, that was not a good day. I haven’t been in any of the Rasz attempts since our first week of progression but I’ve been watching some of the streams. I felt confident with phase 1, phase 2, intermission 2, and phase 3. My suspicion was that intermission 1 would be the challenge. For the substitution, I replaced our Mistweaver Monk. On Intermission 1 platforms (blue side), Monks have this dedicated Divine Hymn sniping ability called Revival that allows them to clear off any healing absorb shields because if that absorb isn’t healed off in time, it detonates.

  • First attempt: Didn’t have Divine Hymn available (it was 15 seconds away because it was used earlier in phase 1)
  • Later attempt: Banked Divine Hymn for Intermission and cast it right when absorbs appeared only to die to a breath
  • Subsequent attempt: Kept one charge of Holy Word: Sanctuary to help spike the absorb and followed up with Divine Hymn. Died to a breath.
  • Follow-up attempt: Kept two charges of Holy Word: Sanctuary then followed up with Divine Hymn. Died to a breath.

On the successful kill attempt, I repositioned to dodge breath, then cast Holy Word: Sanctuary and Divine Hymn. The result? I did not die to breath! Hooray! We moved on to phase 2 and I navigated through the winds, the static charges, and all of the usual stuff. Even intermission 2 went well! I stayed with the group as we moved around to dodge orbs and kept them alive. All the Storm ads died and I was about to be home free!

… Or so I thought.

So much for the attempt at an Undying pull! This Panda has a penchant for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Right when I let my guard down, Rasz just appeared behind me and said, “We’re not quite done with you yet!” and proceeded to exhale a blast of Lightning Spearmint breath down the middle. You can see Guardian Spirit trigger once I stopped moving before the red Priest icon appears indicating death. I practically buried my face in my hands because it looked clear in every direction except the one place I didn’t look — Behind me.

That’s alright . All of our Battle Res’s were still available. Once I teleported over to the phase 3 platform, I was resurrected and then we killed Rasz! Yay!

After that, it was time to backtrack and reclear the other bosses. Why don’t we take a look at our old friend Terros? He’s the third boss in Vault progression (usually). A giant rotating rock with allegedly no legs, right? We’ve killed this guy many times and one would think that the mythic debuff clear would have been ingrained already. But not today! Our intrepid hero who normally stands at range (because we typically did 14-6 split) is in melee (my first time with a 16-4 split).

Watch what happens.

Did you catch the mistake?

You’ll notice the incredibly handsome Panda had the mythic debuff and didn’t have anyone to clear with. He failed to recognize that there was no one else to clear with. He should have run out to range for a clear instead of standing in melee, like a dumpling. This is why I prefer playing out in range.

Let’s move over to Primal Council! The spotlight’s going to be on one of our mages.

It’s risky playing in melee range of any boss especially when there’s a whole bunch of effects and abilities going on. Sometimes the tanks have to do something unpredictable like point a boss to the side and then you end up in their line of fire which is exactly what happened here. At the same time, I want to commend the initiative in moving closer and giving the Shaman behind him a path to help clear the storm circle on the pillar. In most situations, melee real estate is already at a premium and if there’s no reason to get up close, don’t get up close. The learning here is to take the safer option and drop back or look for space elsewhere even if it costs you a few seconds of damage time to reposition. Otherwise, the alternative is you just get blasted.

For us, it’s one more week or reclears then we’re off raid for a week before we set foot into Aberrus. How has your guild started preparing for the new raid instance? What steps have your raid leaders (and you individually) taken?

How to Advance from an AotC Guild to a CE Guild

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This is a two part series on advancing from being an AotC player to a CE (Cutting Edge) player from both the player and guild perspective. Today, we look at the guild leadership side and how to level up the organization.

After covering what individual-minded players pursue in their goal of Cutting Edge, we’re looking at the guild organization and leadership structure. Players can’t do it alone. They need a strong team of officers and player assistants to really enable the raid to get that elusive achievement. Don’t expect this to be an overnight process. It’s better to take the time to find the right people then to rush people into roles. It’s often harder to cut after someone’s been ingrained into the roster or officer teams. My experience in raiding with groups that could never make that fated leap upwards beyond AotC or early and mid-Mythic raids has been the unwillingness to make difficult decisions.

Roster Size

Let’s start with the roster. A healthy roster size is anywhere from 24 to 27 players for Mythic Raiding. Absences are bound to happen. I’ve had days where the raid groups h ad players sign out in advance but then a few of our starters experienced storms in the area causing them to be unable to log in. The inability to raid due to attendance is one of the worst feelings in the world at this level.

Try to set your lineups in advance, if possible. Some players won’t like being sat on farm or progression but that is a necessity at this level and circles back to expectation management during the trial phase or interview step of any new applicant. If they’re not willing to sit when asked to do so, then they may not be compatible with the guild’s goals. Managing any roster lineups is a different story and will be expanded upon in a future post.

Of course, you can’t have a large roster size without…

Recruiting

There are so many resources out there when it comes to recruiting that I feel it’s expanded in scope beyond what one person can do. You need 2 or even 3 people to help manage it for one raid group at this level.

I stay in touch with our leadership team once a week to determine what our roster needs are or will be. It’s not always about adding new players as there are times when we need to replace existing players

Such reasons include:

  • Burnout
  • Raid retirement
  • Attendance
  • Skill deficiency
  • Class or role requirements

As part of the recruiting team, my responsibility is to use Raider IO, Warcraft Logs, and the WoW forums to headhunt players that match our needs. Sometimes I watch Reddit (r/wowguilds and the r/wow weekly recruiting thread). I take care of first contact and direct potential players to our application form. Another officer pops into the WoW Recruitment Discord where they keep our guild information up to date and scan for any players that might fit our team. Lastly, our GM handles the interviews for any applicants who catch our interest. Sometimes a few of us will sit in and listen to the conversation.

Even if the roster is full, keep looking out for good people to add. There may not be room for them now, but they can be sought after later if a slot does open up. We’ve reached back out to players who applied weeks before when that class was full only for it to open up later to see if they were still searching for a team.

Preparation

Despite being a 2-day CE guild that only raids 6 hours a week, what isn’t often shown is the preparation that occurs outside of raid nights. There is a large amount of discussion and questions in our individual boss threads with pinned messages and links to everything. We game plan together what needs to happen individually or as a group at each stage of the encounter so that no one is caught off guard or unaware. This can include screenshots and map diagrams to coordinate positional movement. Raszageth was a masterpiece. A Sistine Chapel’s worth of planning went into it as every offensive cooldown, interrupt, and defensive was meticulously laid out.

Loot Council

Won’t touch on this one too much, but if the group wants to ensure efficient progression in a raid, loot has to be distributed effectively. It’s not always going to be fair and sometimes the council gets it wrong. Upgrades have to be maximized to give the raid a fighting chance at the next boss. Can’t leave this stuff to the need before greed or random rolls.

Related posts

Raid Approach and Attitude

Also known as expectation management! Be as consistent and transparent as possible when it comes to goals and the path to them. Our BoEs are sold to help fund consumables and pay for our repairs. Augment Runes are expensive. Any attendance requirements should be stated. We ask our players to be online 15 minutes early before the raid. Set those raid goals so everyone knows. Is there a requirement for a number of keys done per week? Yes, but what that number is will fall upon your officers to decide.

Ego management is another aspect that needs to be addressed. Players handle criticism in a variety of different ways. I prefer being chewed out publically because I enjoy it. It also sets an example for someone else to not make the same mistake I made. Others may not prefer the spotlight or could feel embarrassed. Players like that may require a softer touch and should be DM’d in private. Be prepared for raiders to push back if you ask them to do something. We had some friction when we asked a player to burn cooldowns on a shield instead of the boss because they were holding back damage for it. It wasn’t optimal (or fun), but it had to happen or else we weren’t going to get very far. This one player had to make the sacrifice for the purpose of progression.

When it comes to correcting mistakes and issuing criticism, the method I prefer focuses on the action that was missed instead of those who didn’t do it. Don’t say the interrupt was missed by Beethoven. I would instead remind the team that the interrupt order is Liszt, Bach, and Beethoven in that sequence.

Any missed assignments by the same player will get asked, “What is going on or preventing you from doing what needs to be done?”. If that’s not enough, Beethoven gets taken off the kick rotation for Chopin instead (Sometimes you need a Piano composer). Re-emphasize the consequences if an interrupt is not used at the right time like lethal damage.

Role Channels

This is an easy logistics setup. Make dedicated role channels in the game. We have a combined channel for tanks and healers to discuss defensive usages. A channel for ranged DPS and a separate one for melee help. If you have players on different servers, use the new community function to invite players, then add the channel to your chat windows. The moderation tools are a bonus.

Efficiency

Being a two-day guild means we have to maximize our time. It means burning trash packs fast or taking short scheduled breaks. Any bathroom runs could be done during trash pulls (just put a healer on follow before you do).

Figure out how to wipe fast on encounters so repeat pulls can be done. Raid leaders have to balance a wipe call against extending the pull to see more information like the next phase or give the raid some practice repetitions.

Play together

Encourage people to play together and get their keys in. If there’s seven players knocking 20’s but the other thirteen are lagging behind with 15’s, it’s hard to move up together and creates a bit of an imbalance with raid progression. We use the WoW audit sheet that shows everyone’s completed activities. It can be hard to find a time where everyone has a window especially when navigating timezones and other obligations.

Delegate and Elevate

It’s a challenge to put everything on one person when it comes to strategy and playcalling. Here we tend to spread around that workload. Our GM does a great job of asking for volunteers (and if not, volun-telling them to contribute). An example:

  • Rachmaninoff: Raid leader and determines lineup. Will review composition on a per boss basis to decide which players are necessary for what encounters and balance it versus any loot related needs.
  • Mozart: 21st Raider. During progression, helps with key reminders and callouts while watching a player perspective on Discord.
  • Chopin: Strategy (6 bosses).
  • Bach: Strategy (Remaining 2 bosses).
  • Liszt: Healing cooldowns. Uses Viserio’s raid cooldown sheet to help with that.
  • Tchaikovsky: Interrupts and DPS CDs (End boss). The end boss usually needs more planning work.

This spaces out everything and we can all review each other’s contributions to ensure nothing gets missed.

There is a whole raid team that is willing to step up and help. Use them! The trick to asking for help is to be specific about it. I found that asking for volunteers, in general, doesn’t lead to much traction, but asking for assistance with defensive cooldowns on one boss or helping split platform groups is enough as they’re both relatively small tasks.

Embrace the Suck

Not everyone likes to do any farming or reputation grinds. For us, the expectation isn’t to try to rush through and hit any reputation checkpoints immediately, but you are expected to some progress into it.

I’ve seen guilds without any key mandates. I’m not too fond of it myself, but if the plan is to raid in mythic or higher, then the raiders have to get some key time in. When I see raid groups who have the goal of securing AotC and pushing into Mythic, it is appalling to me that those raiders outright refuse to do keys to try to secure vault slots for their gear upgrades. At the CE level, it is a requirement because that higher-level gear gives you raw stats and stamina to help get through damage and survivability checks.

Our expectations start with a minimum of two boxes (or four completed keys) done at a reasonably high level. We asked ourselves, what can a raider with family and job responsibilities reasonably do on a weekly basis in addition to raids? That’s how we settled on at least four keys. For season 2, there is no expectation of scoring eight 20 keys during the first week. We’re a group of working professionals and post-secondary students. As the tier progresses and our characters get more equipped, the expectation is relaxed to one key per week instead.

I trust that will help aspiring CE leaders understand what it takes to propel their guild. I can guarantee it won’t be easy, but with the right players and support network, it is achievable. This post isn’t all-encompassing, but if any leaders are stuck and wondering what to do next, I find it helps to ask this question.

Which decision best helps us achieve CE? What do we give up in order to do that?

For the players who want to play at the CE level, check out my recent post: Advancing from an AotC Raider to a CE Raider.

How to Advance from an AotC player to a CE Player

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This is a two part series on advancing from being an AotC player to a CE (Cutting Edge) player from both the player and guild perspective. Today, we look at the player side and what are commonly valued traits.

DJ’s recently killed Mythic Raszageth. The guild had a bit of a slowdown during Shadowlands and went more casual in terms of time and attitude. During our end of expansion survey and post-mortem, the majority of the team answered that they wanted to make a push to being a Cutting Edge team again heading into Dragonflight. Normally, making the jump from an AotC guild to a CE guild takes time. By my experience, it happens gradually over the course of maybe 2 or 3 raid tiers on average. For some guilds, it never happens because they break up or run into a boss wall that can’t be overcome.

I received a question on Twitter from someone who was interested in making that leap. I’ve also received questions along these lines from a few of the other players in the community who had considered applying to DJs but felt they were lacking the experience.

Any suggestions for a AOTC playing looking to take it to the next level and join a CE guild for next tier?

Let’s start with a general foundation. You have your Normal and Heroic guilds. Above that, you have your Ahead of the Curve guild. As that guild decides to push harder and make a play for better loot or a challenge, they might evolve into a Mythic Raiding guild that knocks off a few bosses here and there but gets stonewalled by the remaining final bosses. That’s where most guilds stop. The ones that get over the hump of guild killers end up turning into a Cutting Edge guild. The elusive Hall of Fame guild is generally reserved for the top 100 guilds in both Horde and Alliance, however heading into patch 10.1, it is being amalgamated into the top 200 guilds (regardless of faction). I don’t have experience at that level so I can’t really say anything about it with confidence. In my mind, it’s incredibly rare for someone to go directly from an AotC guild straight to a CE guild. The typical path starts from AotC to a Mythic Raiding environment in order to get eased in before it ramps up (either that same Mythic guild evolves into a CE guild or the player looks for one).

Commitment

Being in a CE guild is a commitment. You can’t take breaks in the middle of a raid tier and expect to come back and waltz into a Cutting Edge achievement. Expect to maintain a high level of attendance. That being said, I’m a big believer in taking a raid night off or two once in a while if you need that small reset and if the raid group can spare it. Commitment is more than just the raid nights. You still have to find the time to help progress your character in other ways. As much as I dislike it, the Mythic+ system is the other way to help fill out your gear and address any weaknesses there. Players try to aim for 8 dungeons complete to maximize their vault. In the early stages of progression, this is ideal. Later on in the tier, it isn’t as important. Nowadays, I stick to getting at least 1 box out of my vault. Sometimes the stats from the gear drops may not be the most optimized for you, but having that extra bit of health can help you survive lethal attacks. When you’re looking to progress on a boss, your own survival is paramount. Your performance will naturally improve later as you get more comfortable (and with gradual gear improvement).

Consistency

Everything you do from your opener to your cooldown usage, to the positioning should all be as consistent as possible. If the raid leader makes a change because there isn’t enough DPS on a platform ad and it’s because you forgot to use a potion or a cooldown, then that change was made for nothing and further imbalances the player assignments. Be the player that everyone can expect and depend upon. I will value a player who consistently hits the 85th percentile over someone who swings from 75th to 95th. Sure their ceiling might be higher, but at least I know what I’ll get out of 85 over the course of 30 pulls. This might be harder to do for healing since that type of performance is contingent on damage coming in, but you can still maintain a degree of predictability of your position and where your major cooldowns will be although this is typically assigned in advance. Expect your raid leaders to direct where major defensive cooldowns will be committed.

Skill

This topic could be its own separate post. It boils down to being good at what you do. Stay alive and push damage while doing the required mechanics. Stay on top of your consumables and execute as best as you can. Stop dying to the same things repeatedly. I’d rather have players learn something new and creative to die from as opposed to not being able to figure out and solve the same thing causing lethal damage over and over. Any player movement needs to be on point. Can’t miss your interrupts. Any target switches have to be quick. It goes on and on. Be up to date with any class or spec changes that you have to account for. Flexibility in spec changing is valued but it isn’t necessarily a deal breaker (I mean, I’ve been a Holy Priest main since the game practically launched).

Lastly, do big numbers when it’s warranted.

Endurance

Mental fortitude is critical! Raszageth took us around 186 wipes (or 206 depending on who you ask). We started working on Rasz on March 17th and kept extending until we got her down on April 8th. But that’s nothing compared to some of the earlier encounters from previous expansions. When you’re progressing on bosses such as Kil’Jaeden in Tomb of Sargeras or Uu’nat in Crucible of the Storms, expect to wipe often and for any kind of progress to be measured in weeks. Hopefully, bosses like that won’t be designed again anytime soon. There are some days when you may choose to sit and not come in because you need a mental reset and this is where a sizeable bench of players comes in handy.

Self-Reflection

Have the wherewithal to look at your own performance and see where improvements can be made. Too often, I see players immediately raid log. The ones that catch my attention stay behind after raid to decompress and discuss shortcomings. Granted, we also raid fairly late for east coast players so sometimes they need to check out and pass out. Even so, during the week, there’s healthy discussion in Discord and the willingness to ask hard questions like, “I died to this and I can’t figure out how to address it.” During our first few pulls on Mythic Terros, I kept taking lethal damage repeatedly. I was simply too slow and any attempts to cast spells were often interrupted because I had to move or risk death. I started off in melee and voiced my concerns before I got the go-ahead to switch with a player at range which made a massive difference.

Communication

You might not need to speak that often to the rest of the team during the middle of a pull but be prepared to talk if the situation comes down to it. Mistakes are going to happen and you’ll need to say something so that someone else can help cover it such as a missed interrupt or if you’re in a bad position. On Kurog, if two people have Absolute Zero and they’re in the same area, one of them needs to speak up and say what they’re going to do. If a raid leader asks you a question, you need to respond even if the answer is, “I don’t know”. We had players who were trialing with us over the weeks and if they took lethal damage and died, our raid leader would ask, “How did you die?” and the silence was quite deafening. Can’t be shy when it comes to communicating quickly about any type of mechanics change, positioning change, or information relevant to the raid. I can tell how comfortably they are communicating in a raid environment based on Mythic+ play. In Court of Stars, CE players will often call dibs on next interrupts for things like Charging Station or AoE stuns and stops for those annoying Imps in the back half of that instance.

This just about covers everything from the player’s side. There’s other nuances to consider. I haven’t even touched upon UI elements but how information is received and how it’s responded to is another consideration. I remember reviewing a fellow player’s UI and was instantly overwhelmed. In a future post, I’ll illustrate my thoughts about how guild leadership can step up from being an AotC guild to a CE guild as there is a clear contrast in how things are handled both in and out of the raid.

Further reading

Mythic Raszageth Defeated!

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It’s official! Death Jesters is now 8/8 Mythic and we’ve achieved our first Cutting Edge since Ny’alotha. It feels great to be back on top again. The final series of nerfs was enough to push through that finish line.

Here’s the kill clip.

Here’s the notebook for the week.

  • The final pull count is 188: Depending on who you ask, it actually was 208. Apparently, the 20 or so pulls we had while the GM happened to be away that one night didn’t count, so we’re going by his as the official.
  • Phase 3 clinch: Victory was just about assured the moment we entered phase 3 with everyone alive. I didn’t think it was that close. We only had 3 total looks into the third phase before Rasz fell on that final attempt.
  • Pre-pull briefing: Before raid started, we all watched a short 5 minute video together that outlined how to approach the second intermission. The different groups were laid out and their priority targets were assigned. There are three big storm elementals in this phase and we couldn’t let three small groups of storm ads reach any of the big ads (lest they heal them). Every stun and snare had to be planned and the movements had to be choreographed. I would say this saved about 20 pulls and I hope this is a practice that continues more in future tiers. Sometimes there are questions you don’t think about when you’re watching a video on your own which might pop up when you’re watching together as a group.
  • Second intermission woes: Lots to unpack in this phase. Everyone had to be precise in their crowd control. It took a lot of coordination from everyone to successfully get through it.
  • The reclear: Not sure if we’re going to be able to get everyone their CE titles (myself included). There’s only three or so weeks left in this raid tier. The biggest bottle necks are going to be Dathea and Broodkeeper respectively
  • The roster: We knew this ahead of time, but our tank was going to retire the moment we defeated Rasz. We have a stop gap measure for now with one of the melee DPS switching to and gearing a tank but who knows if they can get acclimated in that time frame. From a roster position, I’ve been asked to keep a lookout for a tank, a Death knight (DPS), ranged DPS, and a healer to help provide us with flexibility heading into the summer.

Our raid group was vastly different at the end of Shadowlands compared to what we have now that killed Rasz. Stepping into the expansion, the leadership group decided that CE was going to be the eventual goal. We didn’t know how long it would take. In my experience, it would take at least 2 or 3 tiers to go from an AotC roster to make the jump to a CE roster. I didn’t think early on that we would be able to get there. It wasn’t until we defeated Broodkeeper that I felt we had a chance. Constant recruiting on the forums, in the WoW Discord recruitment servers, and Raider IO paid off as that’s where I was able to locate players and have them apply if I felt that matched what we were looking for. We must’ve gone through something like 30 players over the course of the tier (between trials that were accepted who succeeded and those who did not pass) out of maybe 110 or so applicants.

So what’s next?

We’re getting some new players who we accepted but haven’t had an opportunity to shine yet. They’ll participate in the reclear. We’ll try to get another Raszageth clear but I’ll rest easy even if I’m not able to get it this time around. Any players entertaining the idea of character switches or role changes have to alert the leadership so we can see what our roster looks like and what we can accommodate. Work has begun on planning out a strategy for the next raid bosses, then we’ll start sprinting right out of the gate. We finish this tier at US 363. Not bad at all.

Healing Mythic Kurog

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Initial Setup

For talents, I recommend running something like this one. 

BEQA16pR6xQxvK1VWhXk+w0/GQDAAAAAAAQhoFSSiESJkk0okQJAAAAAkkWokkDAlISEEUKBJJkCA

Divine Star’s a must here just due to the positioning of the raid. You’ll get the most out of it with your whole raid grouped the way it is.

Recommended WeakAuras

Left Right: https://wago.io/rlubMIWq5

The Fight Overview

Our plan involves starting on fire and going to full energy before entering intermission and activating both the fire and storm elementals. After that, we enter earth before the second intermission involving the earth and frost elementals. We finish in frost and hope Kurog is defeated before the enrage begins. Stay well clear of the storm altar.

Figure out your soak group immunities in advance for the fire altar. Paladins, Rogues, and Hunters are great for this.

Phase 1 – Fire Altar

Here’s the route that we end up with. The ranged group and the melee group are quite close to each other (about 2 pandas apart). Try to squeeze as much damage as you can here. I like to let Prayer of Mending do the bulk of the lifting. I drop Divine Word buffed Holy Word: Sanctify in such a way that it can capture both the range and melee groups.

For progression’s sake, practice moving as pixel-perfect as possible. The range group wants to drop the fires on top of each other as close as possible to allow for easy soaking of the Raging Infernos.

On the second Searing Carnage, I’ll move to safety and then fire off a Divine Hymn during that stage. Once Searing Carnage ends, I’ll race back to the group stack and immediately cast Holy Word: Salvation (there should be enough time before the Raging Inferno lands.

At this point, the first intermission should begin.

First Intermission

Immediately Hymn of Hope, then dodge any damaging AoE and start chugging a Potion of Frozen Focus until you’re back up to full (or near full).

A Note About Lethal Current
The Thundering Ravager seems to target then teleport to a healer. Our healers stay near the Blazing Fiend to try to bait the Thundering Ravager to teleport over near the fire ad. Then the healer runs out, the tank then intercepts Lethal Current (because it channels that spell into the closest player). The tank then runs the Lethal Current out allowing DPS and healers to continue.

When Blazing Fiend casts Searing Carnage, anyone not targeted by the ad moves toward the center of the room (but not dead center, just to an edge). Anyone that is targeted with Searing Carnage is going to slowly move their way to that same area and survive. Once again, this allows the Thundering Ravager to teleport to that center area allowing for maximum cleave on both ads.

Upon this initial searing carnage, everyone moves towards the circle taking care to avoid fire.

This also has the added benefit of setting up the raid in the best possible position to soak the Thunder Strike circles. Ranged should soak any far ones, melee can step into any that are close to the two ads. Healers should not soak in any unless there’s no other option.

Your raid’s damage is in a great spot if the Thundering Ravager gets defeated before the Blazing Fiend casts its next Searing Carnage.

Your raid’s damage is lacking if the Thundering Ravager casts a second Thunder Strike (in which case, it’s a wipe).

Phase 2 – Earth Altar

Now we get to the real healing intensive part of the encounter.

If you have the raid glows Weak Aura, it’ll highlight the players affected by Enveloping Earth (the thick healing absorb). Prioritize your single target spells on those players to remove it. If a tank happens to catch it and they’re not at full, I would hit them with Guardian Spirit right away.

This is the tricky part. There will come a moment where Kurog casts Erupting Bedrock, and then the Earthwrought Smasher will also cast Erupting Bedrock. Dodge the one from Kurog, then the one from the Smasher, and plant yourself in a safe spot for a Divine Hymn. I’ll wait a few seconds and by now my Holy Word: Salvation should be off cooldown. I’ll cast it again here to help us get to the end of this phase. This is the definitive healing check.

Second Intermission

In this intermission phase, we will tackle the Frozen Destroyer and the Tectonic Crusher. Initial DPS should be focused on the Frozen Destroyer. Like Heroic, run the earth circles outside of the group and drop them off.

Important: Identify the players with immunities (Ice Blocks, Paladin Bubbles, Hunter Turtles, etc). When the Frozen Destroyer casts Absolute Zero, those players should stay out of the first one. When the Destroyer casts Absolute Zero a second time, it should target the players that didn’t stand in it the first time thereby allowing them to immune the second Absolute Zero and take the circles outside of the group.

I have time to cast Hymn of Hope and take another Potion of Frozen Focus towards the end of this phase (usually when one ad is dead so that the healing is a little less intensive).

Phase 3 – Frost Altar

There should be two groups set up here: One for melee and one for ranged. Both groups will be soaking the first set of Absolute Zeros. Great spot for a damage reduction or a Rallying Cry. On the second set, you’ll want to sacrifice the two players that get them.

This is the final push to get the boss defeated here and if you run into the enrage, it’s a quick wipe. Dodge the orbs from both Kurog and the Frostwrought Dominator.

Now you get to move onwards to Dathea!