Hydross

[Saedoc]

Cant say i know to much about this boss but i know druid offtanks need a high amount of nature/frost resistance to tank the adds.. and apparently the only decent resist gear is the green stuff.

So if anyone finds a green leather item with frost/nature resistance and stamina please mail your friendly druid offtank!

Gruntle

[Samathul]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbFIP24vjfE

Thank BB for this one.

edit: Urgh, he could have had picked a one with a slightly better music...

[Samathul]

Some nice posts about handling the adds on Hydross.

We use 3 OT's for adds, 1 usually a warrior in mixed resistance gear, other 2 usually Druids with relatively minor resistance gear. Warrior grabs 2 adds, Druids 1 each. DPS down one of the warriors adds while tanking the other 3 close to hydross, after the first adds down all dps goes back onto Hydross and we Seed of Corruption spam the remaining adds down.

Aggro on Hydross is never a problem as we get the few seconds time it takes to kill the add to re-establish aggro on Hydross before DPS starts going all out again and the Druids/Warriors have plenty of control over the adds.

e Rank 1 banish one add, Rank 2 banish a second, and have a protection paladin and feral druid each pick up one designated add.

Ranged is told to assist the druid, who seems to be able to pick his add up cleaner, and they burn that one down in about 10-15 seconds. DPS switches to the second add, and done properly, both are down before even the first banish is up.

The druid picks up the Rank 1 banish, the paladin the Rank 2, and they bring them both on top of the boss (in poison) or spread out (in frost). In poison, melee assists by using AE abilities -- SS, Cleave, WW, BF, etc., and they die quite quickly.

We typically have 25+ seconds of pure all-out raid dps on the adds during poison (we switch one second before 250%), and the melee is on him from the start, as soon as the tank picks him up. During frost, the ranged gets 5-10 seconds to do some dps, but melee usually churns 4-5% of his life off during this phase (we switch at 100%, for safety).

This strat is most definitely slower than the AE strat: our best kill to date was 9:25. However, it's very "safe" -- with only two adds, and with two banishes, there's a lot more focus in terms of what you are killing, and if your tanks are competent, they only have to pick up one add at a time.

If you use this strat, I suggest promoting the warlocks so they can give their banish a unique raid marker, and then count down the banish timer for their tank -- our lock goes "<druid> : coming out in 3 2 1", so the druid can time his first hit effectively.

Our druid runs about 250/250 buffed NR/FR, and is very resistant to the hits -- he doesn't take big spikes at all. Our pally runs mostly unbuffed, and spikes a lot more, but doesn't really have to worry about gear. /shrug

Don't go overboard on resist as an add tank, especially if you are trying to keep two of them. I wear both the crafted rings and then enough green/blue resist gear to get me to just above 100 unbuffed in both schools (plus uncrittable from +def obviously).

Having said this, you don't need masses of tanks to get the AoE strategy to work - or at least a hybrid strategy which we use.
We always banish a single add. Myself and another Feral Druid/Warrior pick up one each, if there's a spare Warrior in the raid he picks up the 3rd, if not the released Hydross tank grabs it. They are all clustered below Hydross and the melee focus fire the first add - after that its on the boss and AoE. With a downranked Banish, by the time the first add is dead its tank has just enough time to find it and taunt/mangle to bring it into the aoe mayhem occurring under Hydross. Using this we usually get 1 mark duration of full damage on Hydross minimum even if adds break loose before its time to rinse and repeat.

[Maff]

FYI, no idea if that helps or not, I've heard a rumor that the Slow spell works on adds (didn't check that, however). Considering it can gets killed in 10-15 sec, one can be slowed and ping-ponged by ranged, if needed.

[Zianna]

This is for the offtanks.

Since I already did some research on resistance gear I though I might as well share what I've found here

Misc:

Living Cloak / Frigid Cloak (back)
27 stamina
18 nature res / frost res
Drops from Malevus the Mad, Forgosh, Porfus the Gem Gorger,
Fel tinkerer Zortan, Armbreaker Huffaz, Wrathbringer Laz-Tarash, all found in Netherstorm
These mobs also have a chance of dropping
Frigid Band / Living Band
27 stamina
18 frost res / nature res
+ random enchant www.wowhead.com/?item=31926

Pendant of Withering (neck)
18 stamina
30 nature res
Use: absorb 900-2700 nat.dam. for 5 min
Crafted, Scryers revered (Kurse can make this) from 2 felsteel bars, 6 primal shadow, 4 primal life, 1 mercurial adamantite

Pendant of Thawing (neck)
18 stamina
30 frost res
Use: absorb 900-2700 frost dam. for 5 min
Crafted, Lower City revered, from 2 felsteel bars, 6 primal fire, 4 primal water, 1 Mercurial Adamantite

The Frozen Eye (ring)
12 stamina
35 frost resistance
Crafted (Bonewolf can make this) from 4 Mercurial Adamantite, 2 Khorium bars, 6 primal water, 6 primal fire

The Natural Ward (ring)
28 stamina
35 nature resistance
Crafted, Cenarion Expedition - exhalted, 4 mercurial adamantite, 2 felsteel bars, 6 primal life, 6 primal shadow

Glyph of Nature Warding (head enchant)
20 nature res
Bought from Cenarion Expedition at honored for 100 gold (or less)

Glyph of Frost Warding (head enchant)
20 frost res
Bought from Keepers of Time at honored for 100 gold (or less)

Inscribtion of Endurance (shoulder enchant)
7 to all resistances
Bought from Violet Eye at honored for 30 gold (or less)

as for plate gear:

Wildguard Breastplate (Chest)
1450 armor
45 stamina
60 nature res
14 def rating
Crafted (Goromha can make this) from 8 felsteel bars, 12 primal life, 12 primal shadow, 1 primal nether

Wildguard Leggins (legs)
1269 armor
55 stamina
60 nature res
Crafted (Goromha can make this) from 8 felsteel bars, 12 primal life, 12 primal shadow, 1 primal nether

Wildguard Helm (head)
1178 armor
58 stamina
50 nature res
28 def rating
Crafted (Goromha can make this) from 8 felsteel bars, 12 primal life, 12 primal shadow, 1 primal nether

Ironvine Belt (waist)
408 armor
12 stamina
15 nature res
5 def rating
Crafted (Hirag can make this) from 6 enchanted thorium bar, 2 living essence

Ironvine Gloves (hands)
454 armor
10 stamina
20 nature res
15 def rating
Crafted, Cenarion Circle - honored, from 8 enchanted thorium bar, 1 bloodvine, 2 living essence

Iceguard Breastplate (chest)
1450 armor
49 stamina
60 frost res
10 def rating
Crafted (Goromha can make this) from 8 Khorium bars, 12 primal water, 12 primal fire, 1 primal nether

Iceguard Leggins (legs)
1110 armor
55 stamina
60 frost res
Crafted (Goromha can make this) from 8 Khorium bars, 12 primal water, 12 primal fire, 1 primal nether

Iceguard Helm (head)
1030 armor
64 stamina
50 frost res
20 def rating
Crafted (Goromha can make this) from 8 Khorium bars, 12 primal water, 12 primal fire, 1 primal nether

[Kurse]

I grinded the mobs for those living/frigid items while I was getting Consortium Exalted. The chances of getting the exact drop you want is pretty low (drops can be all kinds of resistance paired with any normal enchatment suffix) and they only drop blue items about one in three times anyway, you can probably do about one summon per twenty minuits grinding of the normal mobs.

But if people fancy their chances ask me and I'll explain how to summon them etc.

[Samathul]

There's a nice WWS log from a guild, that uses the same strategy as us. Also, their gear level is equal to ours.

www.lossendil.com/wws/?report=vaemuacxvhhou&s=18206-18730


They only have 1 OT grabbing the adds while their "Slacking MT" seems to help with the adds. With only one dedicated OT, the raid has more DPS to bring the adds down in time, which definitely was our problem.

[shunja]

Just 1 OT? Which class OT would that be, and how does he handle the aggro from 4 mobs when the raid starts going beserk on the adds?

[Samathul]

shunja said:

Just 1 OT? Which class OT would that be, and how does he handle the aggro from 4 mobs when the raid starts going beserk on the adds?

1 druid. He takes 2 adds. The MT that isn't at the tanking turn takes the other 2 adds. Leaves more room to add more DPS & healers compared to our current 2 MTs and 3 OTs tactic.

[Zianna]

samathul said:

1 druid. He takes 2 adds. The MT that isn't at the tanking turn takes the other 2 adds. Leaves more room to add more DPS & healers compared to our current 2 MTs and 3 OTs tactic.

Baaaaaaad idea imo. The MT that's not currently tanking is in the wrong gear, remember? I can only speak for myself but I sure have less def and less health in my res gear than in my standard tanking set, which are the only factors that matter on these mobs. Any OT tanking the adds is likely to last longer than me on the wrong magic school tbh. The fights where we got everything else right, we (tanks) still died to lack of healing power on 3rd round of adds. That said, I want some more tries with a holy priest in OT group for better coverage.

However, far more interesting at this point than amount of tanks is - imo - the sudden absense of dps. Will someone please explain to me how we can kill the first patrollers in 2-3 seconds average, yet no spawn died faster than 10 seconds? Am I expecting too much here? Forget about the aoe for now, please. On every single try we were supposedly killing 1 mob first. That mob had a mark over it's head. Why did that one mob die so slowly compared to the patrols? It has more health? It's harder to target? Why?

Why do I find this more interesting? Well, because our single target dps should be the same mid fight as on the pull, no? So, if we have 4 mobs that take 2-3 seconds to kill each, we SHOULD kill all 4 mobs in 8-12 seconds....right? This means less damage on tanks (regardless of tank numbers), leading to less healing needed, and ending in a far more secure fight... right? This all assuming that we single target kill those spawns, meaning it can only get faster if there is any kind of aoe.

[shunja]

The patrollers were either nonelites or had health values similar to nonelites, ~11-13k according to my addons. The spawn adds on the other hand had something like 40-60k health per add. Do the math :>

[Felbane]

looking at guides is a good tool, but don't put too much faith in them.

other raids will have other personalities playing another class balance, use another number of consumables, have a different amount of raid experience, different builds etc etc etc.

number of OT's on adds is not useful info from a guide/video.
A special trick for one tank to get aggro on all adds would be useful info. see the distinction?

[Samathul]

zianna said:

However, far more interesting at this point than amount of tanks is - imo - the sudden absense of dps.

On a number of tries, triggerhappy DPS pulled the first 'single target DPS' add from the tank by overnuking & nuking too early. That lead to other DPSers to wait for the tank to regain the add -> lost DPS time.

Once the add was under control, the single target DPS was pretty good. However, minimal DPS for the first 30-45 secs when the add ran loose and the tank tried to regain aggro meant a huge lost DPS time.

[Farei]

As i posted on the other thread with the WWS logs... I think that TS orders were occasionally a bit unclear as to when and what dps should be killing. If someone could write up the strategy WE are using on the forum (as opposed to other raids, as Felbane says, they have limited use) and people could read up on it before raid, I think that we would see a big improvement in the numbers and reliability of dps and TS could be used for details and refinements rather than omgtoomuchinfo having to explain everything and possibly confusing people.