Heart of Fear - Nightmare of Shek'zeer

[bokou]

2nd part of Heart of Fear

Wind Lord Mel'jarak

Zerg Strategy: It is possible in a good group (generally a group with several guild people etc) to actually tank all the adds and the boss together whilst interrupting the menders in one giant aoe cluster. This does result in a lot of damage so be ready for it, however, it makes the fight significantly shorter.


General Strategy: This fight will look extremely chaotic when you look at it, and it is quite chaotic. The raid can start off by CC'ing 4 of the adds, this can be done via spells or by the spears on the racks at the back of the room, this will not pull the boss. If you CC more than 4 targets his ability Watchful Eye will trigger and dispel all active forms of CC. When a group of adds (Trappers, Menders or Blademasters) die, he becomes even more Watchful and this will trigger if there are ever more than two targets CC'd. After another group dies, he will be at maximum alertness and dispel any CC.

The idea here is preferrably to CC with the spears as it is easiest if you assign four people to do it. CC 2 Battle Menders, 1 Blademaster and 1 Trapper. The rest of the adds should be tanked on the boss being cleaved, multi-dotted and aoe'd down, or single targeted. The Mender should die first and keep him interrupted, after that the Blademaster is probably the most preferred, but you can kill the Trapper too. By the time all the adds are dead, the boss should be almost at 75% hp triggering phase 2.

The Swarm: Each pack (mobs with the same name) share the same HP pool. When a pack dies, the boss receives a damage taken debuff, which is needed to kill him before he enrages. Each pack consists of 3 of the same named mob.

Trapper: The Trapper will target a random player and trap them in an Amber prison and anyone next to them, because of this, people should be lightly spread out, we found that having the range and healers near each other to be the easiest way to heal. To break a person out you simply click on the prison, but you'll receive a debuff preventing you doing so again for some time. Corrosive Resin is applied randomly too and can be removed by moving, whilst moving pools will form, naturally like all bad pools on ground, stay out of them.
Battle-Mender: Your typical healers. Menders will attempt to cast Mending on a group of allies healing them this should always be interrupted. They also grant a haste effect to a group of allies called Quickening, this should be dispelled.
Blademaster: Your typical melee mobs. They have a nasty ability called Kor'thik Strike in which they'll all attempt to attack the same player for massive damage, be aware of this.


The Wind Lord himself has a handful of nasty abilities. Whirling Blade will target a player and everyone between the player and the blades will be hurt, and hurt once again as they travel back, this will always hit a ranged target as long as there are people at ranged. Rain of Blades is the bosses primary aoe move that once every approx 60 seconds will deal high damage to the entire raid.

Phase 2: When Wind Lord is brought under 75% he will trigger Wind Bomb which will target a player and arm itself. After arming, anyone who enters the radius of the bomb will explode it hitting the entire raid, he does this ability quite often. The raid should make sure they are slightly spread out around the boss and always move away from Wind Bomb, if there are too many of them in the area, move to another area with the boss. Wind Bomb is the most common cause of a raid wipe. Currently his enrage is quite tight.


Tank Responsibility: As MT tank and boss and 1 of the Blademasters. As the OT you must take all the remaining non-CC'd mobs. When 1 pack dies, take all the Blademasters and tank them on the boss. I encourage defensive cds often as Blademasters tend to hit hard. After that pack dies, bring over the Menders and keep them interrupted.

Healer Responsibility: Tanks will take most of the damage. Aoe from Rain of Blades, and potential aoe from Whirling Blades will keep you occupied, however, in phase 2 be ready for dealing with both these abilities and players who trigger Wind Bombs. It always happens, let's just hope it doesn't happen too often.

DPS Responsibility: Only attack the current pack that should be attacked, muti-dotting the pack and cleaving is very useful and recommended. If you are on CC duty be aware to not over do it and cause them all to be dispelled by Watchful Eye. Remember no more than 4 CC at any time, no more than 2 CC when all Trappers are dead and no CC can occur once only the final pack remains. Do not run into Wind Bomb, try to spread out from Whirling Blades.

Amber-Shaper Un'sok

General Strategy: First off this fight is complex and it requires intense individual awareness on the Re-shape Life mechanic, which transforms you into a Mutated Construct. The Mutated Construct will be dealt in detail below with the buttons and what you must do. When the boss enters phase 3, he will rapidly start turning the entire raid into these, which acts as a soft enrage.

The boss will cast Amber Scalpel on a preferred ranged target that must kite it for a few seconds, this leaves behind a trail which spawns Living Amber. These adds will randomly fixate on a player and attack them. When destroyed, they leave behind the important Burning Amber pool for your Mutated Construct people. These should be killed throughout the fight, but not at the same time, never group them up on the raid for when they die they explode for heavy aoe damage. These should be killed over time. When a player is turned into a Mutated Construct via Re-shape Life, you must kill the Mutated Construct allowing the player to break free.

Phase 2: Upon reaching 70% this phase will occur. The boss will summon his very own creation called Amber Monstrosity. The boss will become almost immune to damage (99%) and should only be attacked by a Mutated Construct to keep the stacking debuff on him, he will also need to still be tanked, otherwise all attention should be on this new add. He will try to cast a fatal ability called Amber Explosion which can be interrupted by Amber Strike (Mutated Construct ability). He will cause huge raid-wide damage by Stomp also. The add will attempt to Fling the main target, knocking them back, stunning them and dealing big damage, this is just an annoyance for the tank. Never let the add or the boss hit a Mutated Construct as this rapidly reduces their Willpower (explained below).

Mutated Construct in detail:
While being selected as a Mutated Construct you will gain a new bar. This bar will have 3 important buttons, and 1 not important button (for LFR). You'll gain a bar called Willpower that starts at 100 and quickly drains, if you ever lose all Willpower, you die instantly and the Mutated Construct will remain alive until it dies. The idea for the DPS is to quickly nuke the Mutated Construct to free the trapped person. However, while you are within the Construct you must do a few key things.

1: Amber Strike - Use this to cause massive damage to the target and give them a stackable debuff causing them to take 10% more damage. This should be kept on the boss and/or Amber Monstrosity at all times, this also interrupts Amber Monstrosity .
2: Struggle for Control - This is an extremely important button. You use 8 Willpower but you interrupt yourself and cause you to take 100% more damage. Since the objective is to get you out, this should be used often. As you control the Mutated Construct you will see yourself casting an aoe that damages the raid for high damage, you must struggle for control literally by pressing this button and interrupting this cast, thus preventing the raid damage. Keep this button for every time your Mutated Construct tries to aoe the raid.
3: Consume Amber - Restores 20 Willpower but heals you for 2 million. This should be used if the DPS is taking too long to kill you, so you don't die early, this also should be used if there are too many pools active.
4: Break Free - on LFR this button is not needed, but you can release yourself after 20% HP remains or the game automatically releases you, I wouldn't worry about this button.

Phase 3: Once the Amber Monstrosity dies, the boss snaps out of his reduced damage phase and begin with: Concentrated Mutation which turns him super-size and increases his attack speed and damage by 50%. Any pools during this phase launch projectiles at players, they will heal Mutated Constructs if hit also. Pools should be carefully dispatched, but not too soon. The idea here is the ultimate burn phase so destroy the boss with heroism/bloodlust. He will attempt to turn your raid 1 by 1 into Mutated Constructs. If you know how to interrupt yourself, take the odd pool now and again (if needed) and use Amber Strike at every available opportunity, you will succeed. Ultimately this phase will bring individual awareness to it's max, by either guaranteeing a raid-wipe from people not interrupting themselves, or winning.

Mutated Construct Responsibility: COMMUNICATION! Shout if you are running low on Willpower and cannot use pools, DPS must break you free. Follow the above information on what to interrupt and when and keep Amber Strike on the boss and/or Amber Monstrosity. The players who become these will ultimately wipe your raid or succeed. It's easy as that.

Tank Responsibility: When transformed, check the abilities above and use them correctly. When not transformed, tank the boss or Amber Monstrosity. If tanking Amber Monstrosity, be aware of the Fling attack, it's merely annoying.

Healer Responsibility: Parasitic Growth can kill a player if you heal him/her too often. This player should be very lightly healed and watched, Priest shields work well here. You'll most likely suffer from a lot of aoe damage as people will need time to learn their Mutated Construct. When transformed, check the abilities above and use them correctly.

DPS Responsibility: When transformed, check the abilities above and use them correctly. Nuke down Mutated Constructs as a priority. Living Amber should be DPS'd when no Mutated Constructs need urgent attention. The boss is last on your agenda in Phase 1. In Phase 2 nuke the Amber Monstrosity, when no Mutated Constructs need urgent attention. In Phase 3, the majority of your focus should be on the boss, it's probably best to just tunnel the boss and let people in Mutated Constructs die, unless a tank needs to be broke out.

Grand Empress Shek'zeer

General Strategy:
Phase 1: The most important mechanic here is Dissonance Field, when this loses its full HP it causes Sonic Discharge dealing heavy aoe damage to the raid. The Dissonance Fields tick their HP down on their own but both will explode at the same time which will instantly wipe you, to make 1 explode well before the other, a player with Cry of Terror preferably should enter the Field causing it to tick down faster, using magic also ticks down the Dissonance Field faster. You cannot stay inside for the full duration due to the damage, you cannot be healed within it due to LoS issues. When it has under 10% left, everyone should stack up by the boss and pop a cooldown and be ready for aoe healing. Once done, spread out and await the next Dissonance to reach 10% and repeat. Dread Screech is just a random spell attack on a player which will hit nearby players, for this reason you should be spread out except when stacking for the Dissonance Field explosion.

Phase 2: Starts when Grand Empress Shek'zeer reaches 0 Sha Energy. She retreats and her adds will come rushing in from the sides. You'll deal with 2 Kor'thik Reavers and 4 Set'thik Windblades. All adds must be spread away from each other or they gain a damage boost for each add near them. Reavers must be tanked by each tank and preferably spread out. They will do a frontal poison cone and also grant allies near the tank with Poison-Drenched Armor increased damage, this should be passed to everyone in the raid once your Reaver dies for a big damage boost. They will also throw bombs at random players. The Windblades are the interesting adds. They will fixate on a random player until swapping 30 seconds later. They will attempt two different ranged abilities. Dispatch can be interrupted and Sonic Blade deals damage and silences a player if casting.

The important mechanic here is Sticky Resin which will drop a pool of resin on the floor. If a player comes in contact with it, it will damage them and slow them, if resin comes in contact with other resin it will drop to the floor eventually forming an Amber Trap with enough resin, which should be used to trap a Windblade causing it massive damage overtime. All other Windblades will drop their Fixates and rush to aid their ally allowing you to get even more DPS on them.

Phase 2 will end once all adds die OR after a certain time elapses (approx 2.30mins).

Phase 1: After phase 2, phase 1 will repeat once again and last until 0 Sha Energy or if you cause enough damage to the Empress (30% HP remaining), she will begin Phase 3 with a nice RP event.

Phase 3: The Empress will be fully consumed by the Sha corruption and add new abilities. Tanks will still need to tank swap. But this time they must be careful to not stand in front of the boss waiting there because of Consuming Terror which is a high damaging frontal cone ability with a fear. The raid should be grouped up for easier healing. Amassing Darkness hops from player to player until it hits all enemies for damage, this is the most common aoe during this phase. People marked by Visions of Demise should run out of the raid until they are feared and take damage before returning to stacking again, you only have 4 seconds to move away fast so be quick, if you are too slow you will nuke the raid with high aoe.

Finally her most lethal ability is Calamity, it instantly reduces every players HP by 50% of their current HP, this is very similiar to Anubarak in Trial of the Crusader. Never try to top everyone to full hp, there is no point and is a waste of mana, instead try keep everyone around 50% of their max. After a valiant last hand you should emerge victorious.


Tank Responsibility: Swap with the Eyes of the Empress debuff or you'll be charmed. Always keep the Empress turned away especially in phase 3, only have 1 tank stand in front of her at a time. In phase 2 tank the Reavers and have people aware of your Poison-Drenched Armor, run into them to spread it after your Reaver dies for a good damage increase.

Healer Responsibility: Lot's of aoe damage, preferrably 1 raid-wide cooldown per Dissonance Field before it explodes. In phase 2, the damage is generally light so use this as regen phase. Phase 3 is very nasty for healing with the amount of aoe. Kite the Windblade adds over the Resin pool to form an Amber Trap. Pay close attention to Calamity on the last phase and keep people around 50% of their max hp, trying to heal them to full is a huge waste of mana.

DPS Responsibility: Nuke the boss but be lightly spread. In phase 2 nuke the adds but do not kite them near each other. Interrupt Dispatch if you can. Kite the Windblade over the Resin pool to form an Amber Trap. It is best to split dps. Melee should try and nuke Reavers when not kiting, ranged should nuke the Windblade adds. In phase 3 watch your positions and nuke the boss.