Elminnster

A friends guild downed Al'ar this week using a slightly different strategy than we are using. In Phase 2, they focus most of the ranged DPS on Al'ar and *not* the adds. After the initial AoE add cleanup, melee and a couple of ranged DPS kill focus fires adds off the main assist. The rest of the ranged DPS lights up the big bird as fast as possible.

This seems to describe the strategy:
http://www.bosskillers.com/cgi-bin/b...sid=SNhW6HybP9

The reasoning behind this was that overall DPS drops significantly in phase 2 because of all the running around and switching targets. Having most DPS on the boss alleviates this.

TeaLeaf

In my experience you get better DPS working the other way around. I'll try to explain; let's ignore the couple of ranged and just look at melee only:

If melee are on Adds what is there DPS uptime?
A: They will have nothing to DPS when Al'ar flies up to dive bomb and will then have to locate and move to the adds wherever on the room the are and then manage to get into range. I would estimate this total process to take maybe 10 seconds of DPS time. In addition, all melee will need to stop DPS before the add dies and move away to allow ranged to finish off the add - thus losing maybe another 10 seconds of DPS. Assuming you kill the adds before the next adds spawn the melee could then run all the way to Al'ar and do *some* dps but then would have to run right back when Al'ar flies up again for dive bomb to prepare for the next adds. Again, more lost time.

That's an awful lot of melee dps that has been lost, conservatively 10 seconds, but as much as 20 seconds if the positioning is 'unlucky' - then remember that Dive Bomb has a 30 seconds CD, so your melee DPS could at worst case scenario be only 33% effective (i.e. lost 20 of 30 secs of possible DPS time before next adds).

The more conventional solution is:

All melee, shadow hunters and priests remain on Al'ar all the time.
All other ranged go onto adds.
(assumes typical class distribution)
So what's the DPS uptime in this case?
A: they only lose DPS uptime when Al'ar flies up for dive bomb.

Ok, so now looking at ranged.

Hunters rely on shot rotations and clipping kills their DPS and their pets don't like getting blown up. So most raids leave hunter on Al'ar all the time.
Shadow priests are left on Al'ar all the time as it maximises their DOT & buff (VT) uptime, thus maximises their DPS and mana regen for the raid.

All other DPS is usually assigned to killing the spawning adds. Warlocks, boomkins, ele shammies, mages etc, all pile DPS into the adds. What's the DPS uptime like?
A: As they are ranged they are in dps range fo the adds more quickly than melee. They do not need to run out as the add dies to avoid being blown up. Maximum lost DPS time is conservatively 10 seconds. Plus, if they kill the add early they have the range to simply turn and immediately add DPS to Al'ar which melee simply cannot do. This seems far more efficient use of DPS for this fight imho.

Hope this helps.

TL.

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-=[dMw]=-TeaLeaf
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Elminnster

Thanks TL. That sounds very reasonable, especially having melee on Al'ar all the time. Adding shadow priest and hunters to Al'ar sounds like a good plan. I think the general idea is controlling the add population so that it does not get out of hand and so that you knock ~3% off Al'ar's health, while having enough DPS on the big bird at all times.