TAQ

Source: http://www.atlasmod.com

Boss Encounters

The Prophet Skeram

6 MTs, 2 on each platform. Middle group runs in first, followed by the raid, who peel off to the back. Skeram will teleport around a bit so everytime it moves to a new platform the MT there should taunt and spam sunders and keep it still.

Abilities: Skeram has two abilities that need to be adressed fairly quickly. The others are pretty obvious (like keeping someone in melee range or you eat huge earthshocks).

1. Mindcontrol. ARROS HAS BEEN MINDCONTROLLED will be followed by a huge dutch character running at your raidgroup. The solution is to sheep said mindcontrolled player, so mages MUST be in range of all 3 platforms for polymorph. In the event of a few dead mages or bad positioning, the MCd toons can be stunned. Nearly every mindcontrolled player will be a warrior or rogue, as it MCs whoever is closest to the MT, so you know where its coming from at least. NB : Druids cannot be sheeped when under the effects of this curse, they must be slept instead. Class note - Warriors: Use intimidating shout everytime the CD is up, same as Lucifron.
2. Cloning. at 75%, 50% and 25% Skeram will make clones of himself and all 3 copies of Skeram will appear at each platform, 1 on each. These have the same abilities (arcane explosion, earthshock, mindcontrol) as original skekram but a great deal less HP. A tank that realises he has a copy will announce it to the raid and the dps must kill this copy fast, then the next, then resume nuking the original Skeram.

Note that this sounds a lot harder than it actually is. The copies have about 20k HP and as such die pretty quickly if you pay them the right attention.

Battleguard Sartura

Enter the room to the right and left, 1357/2468 group split like onyxia. left side will be OT half of the raid, right side MT half. Sartura will be pulled with a sacrificial paladin like most other bosses, and hunters pulling the adds away to their tanks as we all move in. the adds and sartura will be separated into 2 parties, which will move into opposite sides of the room.

One add will be designated as primary target, and another as secondary. If the primary target is in range, nuke it. If not, and the secondary is in range, nuke that. Above all else, if one of the mobs is coming towards you MOVE OUT OF THE WAY. Think of them as trains - do you think standing in the path of a train is a good idea?

Abilities:

1. Whirlwind - clears aggro list and starts spinning, dealing high damage to anyone within range. immune to stun in this state. (same for the adds)
2. Enrage - at 20%, Sartura goes mental, like golemagg. There is also a hard enrage after a few minutes, which is a wipe.
3. Knockback - only the adds have this, send the person tanking it flying and moves to the next on the threatlist.

When Sartura's guards are down, the raid forms a circle like for Geddon/Shazzrah. Sartura randomly switches aggro - if you get aggro, get out of her way until it swaps again. All healing *must* be on the MTs for this fight, everyone else must bandage.

Fankriss the Unyielding

There are 3 elements to this fight - Fankriss, the Spawns of Fankriss, and the bugs

Fankriss is tanked on the south-centre of the cavern by two tanks, who need to swap aggro when they get multiple debuffs. Fankriss is fairly easy to tank, so if we are short of warriors then druids can fill in here.

3 Warriors need to tank the bugs between their alcoves and Fankriss. They will need dedicated healers. If you have a spare warrior, he is the Snake tank - this isn't strictly neccessary, but better tanked than not.

DPS start on Fankriss, and continues until a Spawn of Fankriss is spotted. This is usually indicated by someone yelling "SNAKE!". All dps instantly switches to snake killing. They are stunnable, and the length of a single HoJ should be enough to nuke it down. Try to stun the spawns near to Fankriss, so the melee save time by not running around. The snakes come in batches of 3, and in the event that 2 spawn together the second should be stunlocked until the first is dead.

Once the three spawns are dead, the warriors pull their bugs into Fankriss's hitbox where they are AOEd down by all AOE-ers. AOE must not start until all three tanks have pulled their groups back. Bug tanks then return to their spots and dps focuses on Fankriss until the next Spawn appears.

To summarise: Fankriss->Spawns->Bugs->Fankriss->Spawns->Bugs->Epix.

Princess Huhuran

Group Makeup Group 1: Tank, Tank, Lock, Hunter, Priest Group 2: Wall, Wall, Wall, Hunter, Priest Group 3: Wall, Wall, Wall, Hunter, Priest Group 4: Wall, Wall, Wall, Hunter, Priest Group 5: Wall, Wall, Wall, Hunter, Priest Group 6: All Healers (Spot Healing, explained below) Group 7: Casters/Ranged DPS Group 8: Casters/Ranged DPS

• You only need two tanks - other warriors should DPS.
• Wall members need 240 unbuffed NR and must stand closer to the centre of Huhu's hitbox than the two tanks.
• NO CLEANSING
• Group 6 will be made up of primarily druids. Each druid will be assigned to a single group to spot heal that group. For example, a druid will be in charge of spot healing group 2, for unresisted nature damage. POH on that group will handle most healing, and the druid is just insurance that people stay topped off. HOTs are recommended. The 5th healer in this group will heal the off-tank and make sure he stays at 100% at all times. also in this group and in 7/8 you have your spare paladins, who will focus on the current tank as only priority.

Mana efficient heals are the order of the day, you'll need as much as possible for after the 30% mark.

Play by Play

• Tank 1 establishes agro, with Tank 2 building agro.
• Early tank switch to help tank 2 establish agro.
• Start light DPS once the two tanks have clearly established themselves.
• Keep the entire raid alive.
• Curse of Dooms at 40%.
• At 33% stop DPS and wait for serpent sting. Force a tank switch if the current tank has 5+ dots.
• At 31%, druids toss Innervates on the priests in groups 1-4.
• At 30%, current MT blows cooldowns to stay alive. Group 5 is in charge of keeping him alive. Group 6 splits up to spot heal their assigned groups. Toss out PIs to casters. Priests in groups 1-4 spam POH.
• Pallys go in at 15% for bubbles. Move to the centre of the hit-box, or you're just wasting time.

Anubisath Defender

There are 5 of these, technically "trash", but each as tough as a boss in another instance.

• They either reflect arcane & fire, or shadow & frost. Always one pair, never both.
• At 10% health they either enrage or explode. If you see the Explosion message, run very fast.

Before the pull, the raid is divided into two groups. Warriors, Rogues and Paladins cluster around the MT, everyone else around the MT's healer (MH). Warriors should wear a mix of FR and NR (120-150 of each), Paladins should wear their Huhuran gear, and Rogues should wear enough NR that it doesn't gimp them. Everyone else should be in non-resist gear. Aspect of the Wild should be kept up at all times, Paladins should switch between FR aura and Conc aura as the situation demands.

Adds will spawn during the fight. They despawn after a while (60s?), and should be chain feared or stunlocked. The flying adds have cleave but few hp, so it may be beneficial to stunlock and nuke depending on the circumstances.

The tactic to deal with the Defender itself differs depending on which of the four possible ability sets they have, in order of difficulty:-

1. Shadowstorm & Meteor - group up in melee range. Very easy in comparison to the others. Hunters may be tempted to break ranks to DPS, but this will kill them.
2. Thunderclap & Plague - only the MT goes into melee range, everyone else keeps out of the Thunderclap. Rogues should keep themselves busy with the adds, to avoid boredom. Healing intensive on the MT, but otherwise easy.
3. Shadowstorm & Plague - stay within the dead-zone of the shadowbolt volley on one side of the mob. If you get the plague, run to the opposite side. If you leave the dead-zone, you die.
4. Thunderclap & Meteor - Nastiest combination. All Warriors and Paladins must cluster on the MT, plus as many rogues as have sufficient NR (200+ buffed). Everyone else must stand on the MH. The melee will take lots of nature damage, although the meteor should be well enough distributed. Because of the clustering, the flying adds' cleaving can wreak havok if left unfeared.

The Twin Emperors

The two emperors are Vek'lor (carries a staff, immune to melee), and Vek'nilash (carries a sword, immune to magic). Two tanks are designated, one for north side, one for south. A third tank is designated to handle mutated bugs. The twins must be kept apart or they heal each other, and they swap positions regularly (see under Teleport below).

General Tanking Information: For these you need maximum stamina and defence gear. Dont gimp yourself for shadow resistance as you should have enough stamina to take the 3.5k shadowbolts from Vek'lor. Vek'nilash's Unbalancing Strike is what will kill you because you take several crits after the attack which lowers you defence by 100. (PW:S after this attack, just like after MS?) Ideally each of the MT's should have the 3/8 Wrath Set bonus + Improved Battleshout talent + AQ Skill book as you'll be tanking Vek'lor with just Battleshout. Crasp's 5/31/15 build is ideal here.

Tanking Vek'lor: Stand about 5 yards from the torch into the room on the north wall. When the fight begins you have to aggro first (having a power word: shield helps). Run at Vek'lor and target him. Now as soon as he aggro's Bloodrage + Start Battleshout spam. This is enough to keep aggro. Run back to the wall were you started and stand under the torch using Battleshout constantly. DO NOT engage in an physical attacks as you will die to an AoE attack.

Tanking Vek'nilash: Same position as Vek'lor but on the south side of the room. Wait until just after the Vek'lor tanks moves in to engage and then pull Vek'nilash back to your starting position and tank in the normal way for a boss fight. Spam shield block after an Unbalancing Strike. Keep your back to the wall incase you get knocked back by Vek'nilash's Uppercut attack.

Teleport: When the warning is annouced on CTbossmods. Vek'nilash's tank must break melee contact. As soon as Vek'lor appears in front of you move to the wall spamming Battleshout constantly. Hold position under the torch by the wall. Each Emperor will target the nearest target and aggro off them.

Tanking Bugs: The OT group with all the Warlocks/Mages will be very mobile. You have to go all over the room tanking any mutated bugs you see. They aggro on the nearest healer. So intercept + taunt quick. These bugs only hit for 800-ish damage so don't be afraid to be a bit reckless in order to pull aggro off a healer.

Rogues & DPS Warriors: You should only attack Vek'nilash. Attacking Vek'lor will kill you and probably the rest of the physical DPS group also. When the Emperors teleport you need to move immediately to the other side of the room to avoid Vek'lor's AoE. Its important you keep the Thunderclaps/Demo shouts up on Vek'nilash for the MT tanking him. When you use these ability you will aggro little bugs which aren't a problem for you but are for the MT.