Totem & Ankh: Bloodlusting Through Icecrown Citadel
WoW Blogs - Totem & Ankh Shaman Blog
It’s amazing what a time sink Real Life can be. Once I’ve gotten all my work done and all my obligations taken care of, I log onto my beloved shaman for a little healer love or maybe some elemental dps practice. The pre-Cataclysm funk is hitting my server pretty hard and starting to affect the guild. It kinda gets a troll down, mon. I’m gonna have to earth shield myself to get through the rough times.
Meanwhile, we continue to make progress raiding through Icecrown Citadel – also known as ICC. There is a lovely assortment of gear available and we have been pushing forward in ICC25 and ICC10 heroic. I absolutely love doing ICC10 heroic. It brings a fresh challenge to ICC. My favorite part of raiding is when we are stuck on a boss and we come up with a workable plan for getting it down. Oftentimes, it’s unconventional. Usually, it involves each of us knowing our class and spec so well that we come up with something that might not be written down in a guide or online strategy.
Last week, I wrote about when to use Bloodlust/Heroism in a generic sense. Now, I provide suggestions based on my own experiences and research while raiding in ICC.
Here are some examples from Icecrown Citadel as to when I like to see bloodlust/heroism. You may disagree based on your own experience or your raid leader may say when he/she wants you to use bloodlust/heroism. In all cases, make sure the raid knows when you are going to use bloodlust/heroism so they can decide if they want to use their own cooldowns to coincide with the bloodlust/heroism – which they probably will want to do. Using ventrilo or teamspeak or a similar program is useful for reminding people. Just say, “I’m going to use Bloodlust (or Heroism) now (or in 5 seconds, or when the raid is in place, etc.)”
One of the cool tricks a guildmate told me about is using a potion just before a fight starts to maximimze effects. Especially in dps races and when Bloodlust/Heroism will be used right away, this is a fun trick. What you do is drink the Potion of Speed or the Potion of Wild Magic a second before the fight starts and you will get nearly the full duration of the boost scaling with the trinkets/cooldowns and Bloodlust/Heroism. Because the potion was used before the fight, when the potion cooldown is over, you can use another potion during the fight, giving you nearly 2 full potion benefits. Some people call this “pre-pot’ing” and is an amazing little trick. For example, healers can start with the Potion of Speed and still be able to use a Runic Mana potion if needed, later into the fight.
Lord Marrowgar – as soon as people are in positions. Do not plan to use bloodlust/heroism during the bonespike phase. If you don’t get the bloodlust/heroism off straight away, wait until just after a bone storm effect.
Lady Deathwhisper – at the beginning of phase 2. There is no point in using it while getting her mana shield barrier down, so save the bloodlust/heroism for the start of the damage phase against her.
Gunship Battle – Generally don’t use bloodlust/heroism here because the fight is fairly easy once you know it. I have played with using Bloodlust/Heroism on this fight because by time the battle is over and the loot is divvied up and Saurfang tactics are gone over, you’ll be able to BL/H again when you need to. If you do use BL/H on gunship, especially if you’re doing ICC25 or ICC10/25 heroic, save it for the end of the fight because the enemy boss hits hardest and the other adds seem to be at their toughest as well.
Deathbringer Saurfang – I save bloodlust for when Saurfang is at 30% and hits his frenzy, also called his soft-enrage. He does the most damage here, the Marks of the Champion are at their peak, the healing is the most intense and if anyone dies, Saurfang gets healed. If the blood beasts are up when he hits 30%, try to wait until they are down before popping Bloodlust/Heroism. The extra dps is wasted on the blood beasts and is much better spent on Saurfang when people aren’t moving around and can hit hard and use their trinkets and special abilities to maximum effect.
Festergut – I use it at the start of the fight for simplicity and because everyone is still alive. Some strategies call for it after the first tank switch, which we tend to do at 9 stacks. This is an intense time for healing and survival for the raid. If the tanks go down here, it’s a wipe. If you are doing Festergut on heroic, definitely try to time the Bloodlust/Heroism for this phase. Tanks who are lesser geared or have less damage mitigation can crumble and a little lag among your healers can spell wipe. Bloodlust/Heroism at the first tank switch can give everyone a little breathing room to get through the fight. It’s such a quick fight, a dps race, that the Bloodlust/Heroism is very important.
Rotface – I use this one closer to the 35% execute phase because as this fight goes on, it becomes harder and harder with the infection coming faster, more little oozes being created and generally more chaos all around. However, using bloodlust/heroism at the start of the fight might be preferred because people are running around less, everyone is alive, people can time their cooldowns appropriately, and because the increase in the frequency of infections is time based rather than being based on a percentage of the boss’s health.
Professor Putricide – Always Bloodlust/Heroism at the start of the third phase. This phase is the most hectic and is the dps race. If your raid can’t get the boss down fast enough, it’s a wipe. Bloodlust/Heroism can be that extra edge that rushes your raid into victory. On this fight, make sure people know when you’ll use BL/H, especially mages who might be running low on mana by this time in the fight. They can make sure they have enough mana to fully utilize the Bloodlust/Heroism if they are properly warned ahead of time.
Blood Prince Council – The best time to use Bloodlust/Heroism is on Prince Keleseth. He has no dodge when he’s shooting shadow bolts which means everyone who is hit-capped WILL hit him. Bloodlust/Heroism can also be used on Taldaram but it’s a waste on Valanar. Since the fight starts on Valanar, you can just plan to use Bloodlust/Heroism on whichever prince gets empowered second. Make sure people don’t kill your ranged tank’s dark nuclei and that they don’t overaggro him. For this reason, we tend to use Bloodlust/Heroism on Taldaram because our ranged tank would lose aggro too easily or have his dark nuclei cleaved if we did the Bloodlust/Heroism on Keleseth.
Blood Queen Lana’thel – The best time to use Bloodlust/Heroism on this fight is when the maximum number of dps who will be bitten have been bitten. In ICC10, this is when four people are bitten. If everyone does the bite sequence properly and no one dies, you shouldn’t have any trouble with the enrage timer regardless of when you use Bloodlust/Heroism.
Valithria Dreamwalker – As a healer, I love this fight. This is one of those fights which gets harder as it goes on. It also provides a bigger and better buff with each stack from the Emerald Dream state. I use Bloodlust/Heroism just after a portal phase, when each of the healers going through the portals has at least 22-25 stacks of the debuff. This seems to be a good guideline for healing Valithria and ending the fight. We usually seem to have at least one new healer each time we get to Valithria, and that person will need a little extra time to get their stacks up as they learn how to get the most buffs during the dream state.
Sindragosa – There are three possible times to use Bloodlust/Heroism on this fight. I use it on the third phase when we are stacking the ice tombs and everything is very chaotic. This phase is where our guild has the most trouble. We can handle phase 1 and phase 2 fairly well, but surviving that phase 3 causes us all kinds of trouble. Other people recommend using it at the start of the fight when everyone is alive and there is minimum movement. The third possible time to use Bloodlust/Heroism is just after the last Blistering Cold before phase 3 starts. As a side note, I am teased for saying there are 3 phases. Some people insist there are only 2. The three phases, as I see them are the ground phase, the air phase where people are turned to ice blocks and the rest of the raid needs to hide behind them, and the third phase where she is on the ground doing many ice tombs and the mystic buffet effect.
The Lich King – Bloodlust is best used here during either Phase 2.5 to get the Raging Spirits down or during Phase 3 to get any Raging Spirits down which are still up. Make sure the Raging Spirits are marked so the dps know which one to kill first, second, etc. The Raging Spirits in Phase 3 will wreak havoc on the raid and are the key to getting to the end of the encounter, assuming the raid has learned to handle all of the other mechanics the Lich King throws at you. While learning the fight, feel free to experiment with using Bloodlust/Heroism at the start, during phase 1.5, during phase 2 when the Val’kyr’s have taken someone, especially one of the healers or one of the dps who normally does a lot of stunning on the Val’kyrs, and other than a warlock (who will be using his demonic portal to get back.)
There you have it, Bloodlusting all the way through ICC! I hope you have enjoyed this week’s Totem & Ankh and it has provided you with some good advice on cracking some of the challenging bosses in ICC. And don’t forget to get some screenshots of your raid with Kingslayer Titles looking down at the cold dead body of Arthas. By time you get through it all and see the cut scene, you may have even forgotten that he has loot!
Last Updated on Thursday, 23 September 2010 10:45 Written by Savoire Thursday, 23 September 2010 02:07
Comments
One HUGE effect to remember is that the ICC rep rings, as well as a ton of trinkets are procing "x % on-use" with a 45s internal cooldown. What this means is that most DPS are sync'ed up for max DPS from trinkets about 5-10s into the fight. Add to this "pre-poting" and unless you have a VERY strong reason to save heroism, front-loading is the way to go.
Key fights we always use heroism upfront (typically when the tank hits 60K threat or so, about 6 seconds after contact):
Marrowgar - gives the longest time to stand and hit the boss.
Saurfang - gives the longest time without beasts to worry about and ensures first beasts die FAST so DPS is back on the boss. Never save heroism on this fight for the last 35%; blow him down in the first part and you should never get more than 2 marks (in normal mode, running our alts, we didn't even get one last night).
Festergut - The added dps from the debuffed tank getting heroism doesn't seem to make up for the synchronization of an immediate heroism to get trinkets / abilities / pre-pots all synced up. As a shaman healer, I also don't like losing a GCD at the tank swap to cast it.. I normally need all I have!!
Rotface - We'd use it off the bat when we can; only problem is that it is usually still on cooldown when we get there. In heroic we'd wait for cooldown and blow it immediately. The "crazy" portion at the end of this fight is entirely due to not getting the boss down fast enough in the beginning.. blow him down fast while there aren't so many adds up.
Sindragosa - There really are only 2 good options here. If you are in normal mode and are just going to burn her in Phase 3, save it for that. For heroic mode we found the best timing to be just after her last air phase (which we tried to time for ~5% before Phase 3 transition) followed by DPS initially taking more stacks of buffet before clearing and dancing regularly.
Blood Prince Council - Right after pulling into position. While the dodge / casting issue is a real one, at the beginning of the fight you have the pre-pots etc, procs AND no kinetic orbs to juggle. In 10-man, this is huge.. you don't want to heroism when 1/3 of your dps is distracted chasing orbs and dodging shock vortexes as they will be when Keleseth gets empowered. For us this was even true when we ran melee heavy and the melee had to jump out for empowered shock vortex. Note: in normal with geared DPS these you won't even empower Keleseth with this approach.
I hope this helps folks!
Nice comment, good to have some detail and justificated explanations in these rather than the usual trolling!!
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