Al'ar. Bless 'im. Now we've cleared SSC, we're off to jolly old TK to have a go at the bosses we've not tried before - Al'ar and Kael'thas.
Only trouble is, I'm a fire mage with spellfire set and various SSC/Kz/TK pieces. The Al'ar fight means a quick respecc, replacing spellfire set with KZ gear.
Can anyone advise on a good damage spec for this particular encounter? If the recommendation is to go arcane, then I can try and make sure I get grouped with a shadow priest or shammy. As soon as this fight is over, I'll go back to fire for Kael'thas. Essentially, I suupose I need to maximise my damage without going oom/missing/dying - the usual stuff, really!
So - suggestions please for a specific talent set-up for this particular fight.
Any advice gratefully received
Many thanks
Tiddly (Draenor)
Al'arFollow
I might heavier arcane build and perhaps still use the spellfire set, since it boost both fire and arcane damage, and the set bonus is an even bigger buff with arcane mind and mind mastery talents.
I went with an arcane/IV spec when we tried him earlier this week. I had a shadow priest in my group, it seemed to work well. My damage didn't suffer much, and it seemed quite cool on trash, as I was able to just burst stuff down without overaggroing.
The fight is more about coordination than anything else though, we didn't wipe because we didn't have enough dps, we wiped because of add management during the second phase.
The first phase is about having your tanks move properly, and dealing with the adds appropriately. The second is about not losing your cool during the chaos that his abilities cause. There's no DPS stress really, as long as the raid deals with the adds and abilities properly.
Just spec whichever you feel the most comfortable using, I only went for arcane because I liked the sound of 40% threat reduction. If you have 2 piece t5, I'm fairly certain arcane will out-dps frost though.
Bottom line: Spec into whichever spec you feel you'll do more dps with. As long as you can keep up steady dps, it's all good.
The fight is more about coordination than anything else though, we didn't wipe because we didn't have enough dps, we wiped because of add management during the second phase.
The first phase is about having your tanks move properly, and dealing with the adds appropriately. The second is about not losing your cool during the chaos that his abilities cause. There's no DPS stress really, as long as the raid deals with the adds and abilities properly.
Just spec whichever you feel the most comfortable using, I only went for arcane because I liked the sound of 40% threat reduction. If you have 2 piece t5, I'm fairly certain arcane will out-dps frost though.
Bottom line: Spec into whichever spec you feel you'll do more dps with. As long as you can keep up steady dps, it's all good.
Our fire mages never respec, they just reserve themselves to lower damage that fight. I believe the best way is generally ABx3/Fboltx3, but I could be wrong. If you don't want to respec for a while, something like a 2/45/14 build, taking 3 "wasted" points in Fire (usually Pyro + BW + something else) and using them to max ImpFbolt and Ice Shards seems like a decent build to me for AB/Fbolt rotations on Al'ar while keeping your Fire spec for everything else.
Remember, Phase 1 doesn't matter for the most part. The hardest part is the healing on the add tank, and making sure your tanks don't decide to DC right before the massive upper-level AoE >.> All our casters end Phase 1 at full mana, and we've usually got at least 5 adds stacked up at sub-20% health to take out a good chunk of Al'ar health right away (we start saving adds at 50% of Phase 1).
Remember, Phase 1 doesn't matter for the most part. The hardest part is the healing on the add tank, and making sure your tanks don't decide to DC right before the massive upper-level AoE >.> All our casters end Phase 1 at full mana, and we've usually got at least 5 adds stacked up at sub-20% health to take out a good chunk of Al'ar health right away (we start saving adds at 50% of Phase 1).
Quote:
All our casters end Phase 1 at full mana
how? theres no agro tree in phase 1, they should be going pedal to the metal. I find phase 2 to be more mana friendly.
If your guild can down vashj, then you should be able to down alar, even without a respec. just using alternate spells you can get around 600dps i'd assume.
as for not dying, i would recomend keeping a fire ward up, this will soak initial dmg if your in a fire, giving you a little more time to react.
They're at full mana because it doesn't matter. If it takes us 30 minutes to get him to phase 2, it doesn't matter, because that's not the hard part of the fight (well, if it took that long there would probably be a round of gkicks and a bunch of mad officers, but still). Save all mana for Phase 2 so that people can go all-out, immediately, and get him down fast. Phase 2 is where we always mess up, people being idiots and standing next to adds as they die or not noticing Flame Patches.
lsfreak wrote:
They're at full mana because it doesn't matter. If it takes us 30 minutes to get him to phase 2, it doesn't matter, because that's not the hard part of the fight (well, if it took that long there would probably be a round of gkicks and a bunch of mad officers, but still). Save all mana for Phase 2 so that people can go all-out, immediately, and get him down fast. Phase 2 is where we always mess up, people being idiots and standing next to adds as they die or not noticing Flame Patches.
eh, most of the ranged dps shouldn't have too much trouble getting back up to full mana, especially us mages and warlocks. I normally would burn through all of mine, just a potion and a mana gem, and sometimes evocate before phase2 where mana usage is quite low.
Scholar
16 posts
Guys
Thank you very much indeed for your info. I respecced 17/0/44 (I think!!) as a raid spec rather than a grinding spec. 3 mages in the party, and whilst we didn't take Al'ar down yet, we were consistently at/towards the top of the damage meters which was nice for the ego.
Wish us luck for Tuesday's attempts!
Tiddly
(Draenor)
Thank you very much indeed for your info. I respecced 17/0/44 (I think!!) as a raid spec rather than a grinding spec. 3 mages in the party, and whilst we didn't take Al'ar down yet, we were consistently at/towards the top of the damage meters which was nice for the ego.
Wish us luck for Tuesday's attempts!
Tiddly
(Draenor)
Nice one mate, good luck tuesday then :P.
And we just took down karathress for the first time yesterday, woot!
And we just took down karathress for the first time yesterday, woot!
A tip for Water Elemental use on Al'ar (not sure if you had any issues, but I know I did).
When Al'ar changes platform and goes out of range make your WE follow you and then tell it to attack when back in range. I found that mine would attempt to run up the ramp in order to get back in range.
It (and you) can keep attacking during the quills.
If you have an on use trinket for increased spell damage it can be handy to macro that to be used with your WE.
e.g.
/use [nopet] Xi'ri's Gift
/stopcasting
/cast [nopet] Summon Water Elemental
/petattack
Generally I'll start the fight by waiting for 5 stacks of Winters Chill (as the WE benefits too), then pop WE, IV and then coldsnap. IV again when it runs out and same for WE (I know some people save CS for later in fights, but depending on your raid dps you may be able to use it twice on Al'ar).
Also I found that Invisibility was handy when he dies the first time to get rid of all that lovely threat caused by ranged not being able to pull aggro in phase 1.
Good Luck :)
When Al'ar changes platform and goes out of range make your WE follow you and then tell it to attack when back in range. I found that mine would attempt to run up the ramp in order to get back in range.
It (and you) can keep attacking during the quills.
If you have an on use trinket for increased spell damage it can be handy to macro that to be used with your WE.
e.g.
/use [nopet] Xi'ri's Gift
/stopcasting
/cast [nopet] Summon Water Elemental
/petattack
Generally I'll start the fight by waiting for 5 stacks of Winters Chill (as the WE benefits too), then pop WE, IV and then coldsnap. IV again when it runs out and same for WE (I know some people save CS for later in fights, but depending on your raid dps you may be able to use it twice on Al'ar).
Also I found that Invisibility was handy when he dies the first time to get rid of all that lovely threat caused by ranged not being able to pull aggro in phase 1.
Good Luck :)
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