Heroic Magister's TerraceFollow

So. 2.4 is out with Magisters Terrace.

After hearing how hard it is just on normal, and after only been through a normal a few times as holy (Kael was rough), I'm now thinking of trying out Heroic.

Personally, I think I'm undergeared for it, but gf wants me to just give it a go. I really hate wasting other people's time, so I haven't actually zoned in on heroic mode yet.

So for anyone who has experience, judging from my Armory, am I geared for this? Any tips? If I'm undergeared, what pieces am I missing to qualify to go in?

Thanks! :)

Armory.

Wow that's ... needlessly harder to read than the actual Armory. Anyway, I think you're stats will be plenty sufficient to tank Heroic MgT. I STRONGLY recommend you take some Arcane Resistance though for the second boss. The damage he did to me with about 200 resistance on was absolutely pitiful. The DPS on the other hand had none ... I don't know if it would have helped them or not, but it really helped me.

Use CC. Whether you were planning on it or not, I don't know, but you really want some on Heroic.

And lastly, make sure you have strong DPS. If you can't DPS Kael fast enough (either to avoid him shielding altogether or at least bust through it) you'll take a Pyroblast and it WILL kill you (hit for about 48k). If all else fails do what I did on my last trip there: about half second or so before Pyroblast was fired, I bubbled, and one of my DPS took it in the face. I continued tanking, we got to the air phase and I was able to help my healer keep people alive. Previous attempts I took the Pyro, and it was a wipe. So yea, don't be afraid to save yourself when that comes cause it can make the difference between a wipe and a kill.

EDIT: and I second the thing about your weapon. Yes it has a bit more spell damage, but I personally don't think it's worth the drop in stamina. Hopefully though you'll kill Kael and he'll give you a nice mace to tank with :) GL!

Edited, Apr 8th 2008 10:03am by Maulgak

For future reference, no mob in any heroic instance (that I know of) can ever land a crushing blow. You only have to worry about being uncrittable for those. As for arcane resist gear...I would say skip it honestly. As a Paladin, you can do this to make the 2nd boss really trivial: take the first 6 orbs that he spawns (he spawns 2 each time on heroic), and then bubble them off. You are then free to eat the remaining 4 orbs that he spawns.


To make things easier on yourself, I recommend making this Divine Shield macro:

#showtooltip
/cancelaura Divine Shield
/cast Divine Shield

The first press would cast Divine Shield on yourself, the second would remove it. This is VERY useful for removing things such as fear/avoiding large amounts of damage (Kael's pyro on heroic). And yes, I believe you are definitely geared enough to tank the instance.

A few more tips: always try to CC the priest mobs in the instance. They cast a prayer of mending that is extremely annoying, and greatly lengthens each battle you do. Also, try to aid your healer any chance you get by cleansing yourself of the harmful dots that you will inevitably take (such as the Immolates, Seal of Wraths, Poisons).

And on the subject of tanking ZA: I believe you are very capable of tanking at least the first few bosses, if not more. I have seen tanks of lesser gear than yours do it perfectly fine. =)

Edited, Apr 8th 2008 3:14pm by DDDevilz

Crystalforged and Continuum have the same stamina. Crystalforged wins because it has the Block on it, so since you have that, don't worry about your KoT rep.



There is a plate set of 4 pieces, blue quality, that I have used for Curator (when we needed it) and for H MgT. Enchanted Adamantite. Shouldn't be too terribly expensive, and much better than bringing greens. If you have the Violet Badge, at the very least I would use that and forget about using crap greens. No, it's not a necessity, but it really really makes the fight much easier, particularly for someone new to it (and particularly if you have a Paladin healing).

As stated NOTHING can crush in any Heroic. Only raid bosses. As the second boss in MgT does all Arcane damage, I don't think he can crit you, but don't quote me on this. Still if he can, having the AR on would be more beneficial.



Good question. If you're gf is good at using her Succubus for CC, then Lock might be the better choice. She can banish the enemy succubi and keep a caster out of the fight, while the Mage can only have their sheep. But, either should work just fine.



No. You still need to tank him for half the fight, and unless you have a 14k stam healing set (doubtful) I wouldn't do this. Most of the damage you'll take is in the form of fireballs, and the occasional unlucky phoenix spawn, so if you can swap for higher stamina though, that would help.



Leo sword, good. Grull sword, stay away. Just thought I'd throw that in there :) And again, hopefully Kael will drop his mace for ya ;D

Edited, Apr 8th 2008 9:53pm by Maulgak

Bosskillers.com is your friend. It has strats for every raid boss (except maybe the newest ones) as well as links to other strats and videos. I also really like the Ueber guide to ZA.

- Good clarification, and I should have mentioned that. I meant only to not worry about it from a weapon standpoint, but keep at it for the Glyph.

- Yes, the avoidance will still help you, just don't worry if you aren't uncrushable is all we meant. Although for MgT it's even less of an issue as a lot of the damage is magic damage, not physical. A higher health pool is a larger priority, so if you can get more health without going crittable or sacrificing too much in other stats, do it for that place.

I will pay more attention to my combat log next time I face him, because the last time I looked, I didn't find any physical damage done to me. Though I do hate the way the combat log looks now, still getting used to it, so I probably did take physical damage and just missed it.

EDIT: had a bit about AR, no one cares, yadda yadda yadda. I never said it was necessary, but believe me when I say I've tanked that fight with both AR and standard tank gear, and with AR it went much smoother. Take that for what you will.

Edited, Apr 12th 2008 3:22am by Maulgak

I use the Enchanted Adamantite set for AR so I remain uncrittable. That probably helped more than crappy greens.

EDIT: ok, so the guy right above me was right (as was my initial post).

http://www.wowwiki.com/Vexallus

ALL Arcane Damage. The page advises stacking AR as long as high DPS is maintained. For a tank, high DPS isn't something you need to worry about, as long as you can hold sufficient aggro.

(I get it right sometimes ;D)

Edited, Apr 14th 2008 2:42am by Maulgak