Wintrow

Relevant Strategies
Wowwiki – Trash Waves
Wowwiki – Anetheron
Bosskillers – Anetheron

Strategy Breakdown

Trash

The second round of trash waves will be very similar to the first, differing only in the quantity and type of mob in each group. Our strategy should remain largely the same as the first round, however we will not have the benefit of the same number of NPCs assisting us with DPS. Bosskillers comments that NPC DPS is not significant, so we shouldn't be crippled by their absence. However, our DPS needs to be more focused and disciplined in order to get each wave down before the next one spawns. As such, crowd control may be used less in this round. All DPS needs to remain cautious of pulling aggro and causing more disorder, which will negatively impact our ability to finish off a wave. Please review the trash Strategy Breakdown in the Rage Winterchill Strategy Overview for more details. Also, familiarize yourself with the make-up of each wave in this round of trash.

The most noteworthy difference in this round of trash waves is that several waves will include a new mob type: the Banshee. Due to their ranged attacks, these will be candidates for shackling and melee DPS. A few specific notes on the Banshee:

• Mages: You will need to pay close attention to decursing when Banshees are up. They are able to cast a curse that reduces the chance to hit by 65%, seriously crippling melee DPS. Decursing this will be a priority.
• Priests: Expect one or more of these Banshees to be shackled. Getting this off timely and keep it up will be a priority.
• All DPS: Given the shield the Banshee is able to put up, effectively nullifying caster DPS, only melee should DPS the Banshees. If extra DPS is called for, all casters must pay attention to when the Banshee's shield is active; failure to do so will waste your mana and potentially hurt us for the next wave. There is nothing wrong with standing still and regenerating mana.
• Melee DPS: Stun-lock these mobs as much as possible and focus on interrupting their casts while DPSing.
• Shaman: There seems to be conflicting information as to whether or not the Banshee shield can be purged by a shaman. We should confirm during our raid and adjust accordingly.

Boss

For Anetheron, positioning of individual raid members will be critical. This means that everyone must remain disciplined in their setup throughout the fight. Inferno adds will spawn periodically during this fight which will need to be tanked and burned down by ranged DPS. There will be a nasty cone of shadow damage (Carrion Swarm) cast randomly on the raid every 10-15 seconds, so it will be critical that raid health is kept topped off throughout the fight. Carrion Swarm also severely cripples healers, reducing the healing they do by 75%. The rest of the raid can help with this by bandaging and using health potions when NOT afflicted by the Carrion Swarm. This fight will require quick reaction time to prevent Infernos from spawning in the raid group and excellent communication amongst healers.

The positioning for this fight is shown pictorially in the Bosskillers link above.

Tanks: The MT for Anetheron need only focus on building threat; I feel that a warrior or druid is best equipped for this role. The OT responsible for infernal tanking will have a tougher job. Infernal is a 3.5 second cast that targets a single raid member. Once identified, the target will immediately turn and run towards the OT positioned by Jaina in front of her tower. The OT must be prepared to meet them halfway and immediately gain aggro and pull the Infernal back to the Infernal tanking spot. This role seems to be best filled by a paladin tank given their ability to quickly establish aggro with a ranged shield toss. Additionally, due to the fire damage aura (3k/2sec), a pally fire resist aura along with some fire resist gear will be crucial.

Melee DPS: You will be on Anetheron the entire fight. Bandage where possible to help the healers.

Ranged DPS: You will be arrayed between Anetheron and the Infernal tanking spot (see Bosskillers picture). You will keep focused DPS on Anetheron. Once the Infernal spawns, the OT will pick it up and build aggro quickly. Once it is called out (~10 sec), ALL ranged DPS must stop damage on Anetheron and switch to nuke the Infernal. The Infernal has 200K HP; once it is down, resume full DPS on Anetheron.

Rogues: You must keep Wounding Poison fully stacked on Anetheron at all times to mitigate his Vampiric Aura.

Shaman: You will need to have Tremor Totem up at all times. Anetheron will periodically Sleep up to 3 targets, which can only be 'dispelled' by Tremor Totem. It will be crucial that healers are grouped with Shaman to ensure they aren't affected by Sleep. Additionally, give the rogue's need to keep poisons up, I believe that means that Windfury totem in the melee group would not be advantageous.

MT and Raid Healers: Discipline in our positioning cannot be emphasized enough. We will be arrayed in a semi-circle around the spot where Anetheron will be tanked, spread out enough that no more than 2 of us get affected by Carrion Swarm at any given time. If you are affected by Carrion Swarm, I'd recommend that you use that time to regenerate mana rather than throwing out heals at 25% of your normal effectiveness; the debuff will last 20 seconds. MT healers will need to keep strong heals on the MT as he melee's for a significant amount. Raid healers will need to keep the raid fully healed at all times to minimize the risk of people dying from the 3-6k damage caused by Carrion Swarm. All healers will need to quickly communicate who is affected by Carrion Swarm so that we can adjust healing accordingly to keep the MT up.

OT Healer(s): One (or two) healers will be assigned to heal the Infernal tank. You will be positioned far enough away from Anetheron that you should never be hit by any of his abilities. The OT will be taking roughly 3k damage every 2 seconds, so strong and steady heals are crucial. You also must take care to never be in range of the Infernal's fire aura, otherwise you will also take 3k damage every 2 seconds.

Healing Priests: I have not seen anything confirming this, but it is possible that our Prayer of Mending may still be fully effective even when we are afflicted by Carrion Swarm. Since we don't technically heal the targets when PoM goes off, it might be worth throwing a couple of those out. We can experiment and see if this works.

Resto Druids: Similar to the PoM argument above for priests, I believe druids also have a heal that they don't get credit for in the combat logs. It may be worth experimenting with this heal also when affected by Carrion Swarm.

All Raid Members:

• ***Infernals***: Everyone MUST pay attention to when an Infernal is being summoned and who is being targeted. You will have 3.5 seconds from the time Anetheron begins the cast to run to the Infernal tanking spot. This means stop whatever you are doing IMMEDIATELY and RUN (don't backup) to the OT. When the Infernal lands, he will damage and stun you and start pulsing his fire aura, which could quickly wipe the raid if you don't get away from everyone quickly enough. Infernals will be summoned every minute.
• Infernals on Melee/MT: This will be rough. Melee can still run to meet the OT, but may not clear the raid group before the Infernal lands. The MT can't run out because Anetheron will follow and seriously mess up positioning. In both cases, all ranged DPS and healers positioned along the path between Anetheron and the Infernal tank spot will need to strafe to either side to clear a path. The OT will meet melee or the MT and be prepared to immediately gain aggro and pull the Infernal back (via shield toss). Executed properly, we should be able to pull the Infernal clear of the raid group quickly with no one getting hit by the fire aura. Once it is clear, the ranged DPS and healers who were displaced can move back to their positions. If the MT is the target of the Infernal, melee DPS will need to clear out temporarily.
• Self-healing: Due to the heavy strain on healing this fight, please come fully stocked with health pots, BEM healthstones, bandages, etc. so that you can help heal yourselves. Do not use any of these when you are affected by Carrion Swarm as they will only be 25% effective.

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70 Priest

Aeryck

I've read a few forum posts on the Anetheron fight, and it seems like it's really nice to have a fire-resist geared offtank (preferably pally) for the infernals. Do we have any tanks with the fire resist badge gear? Might be nice to get it, as it will be used later on too.

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Wintrow

I considered this, but in the end I don't feel we should go overboard with fire resist. 3k dmg every 2 seconds plus some melee damage (if any?) is certainly something that can be healed through. A pally tank is the idea here so we automatically have fire resist aura going. There's also the epic FR ring that you get from the Mags quest that might be an easy swap in ([Phoenix-fire Band]). Basically, I'm thinking the OT put on no more than an extra piece or two of FR gear.

But I don't argue that FR gear will be useful down the road...

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70 Priest

Aestryd

I have all the badge gear fire rez set, as well as the ring from mags, if needed

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Aestryd 80 Prot Pally / Epimetheus 70 Feral Druid / Yuusei 71 Enhancement Shaman
Camsmule 70 Fury/Prot Warrior / Tamrissa 70 Affliction Warlock / Aegyn 70 Holy Priest
Shyff 70 Arcane Mage / Indrus 54 Combat Rogue

Jest

Would you please go over the initial stage of the fight with Anetheron from the time he spawns onward. Last night there seemed to be quite a bit of confusion of whom to dps when. I was misdirecting him to the tank as I saw to do in the strats, but later was told not to MD to him but instead to wait till all the npcs were down before starting dps on him. I couldn't find anything in the linked strats about waiting till all the npc's are down before we start dps'ing him so I'm sure I was guilty of hitting him when I was not yet supposed to. Is that supposed to keep us from going into combat mode even though he is on the main tank? I would appreciate further clarification on this as well as for the raid leader to specifically call out when the dps on him should start and when to shift it to any infernals. Thanks.

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Jest 70 Dwarf Surv. Hunter
Okto 70 Draenei Enhanc. Shammy
Zaz 70 Night Elf Prot. Warrior
Voran 68 Dwarf Shadow Priest

orion808

Basically by staying out of combat and letting him beat on the footmen, we delay the timer for his Carrion swarm. In theory, he'll wait to cast it on us instead of when we first run in. Our issue seemed to be being too close and aggroing him before we were all in place (thus limiting the amount of people that got hit by carrion swarm when we ran in.

As for DPS, ranged DPS should do like normal (wait 2-3 sec for tank aggro) then DPS on the boss. When an infernal spawns, it becomes priority. The player that will be affected should run to the OT at the back and all others should clear the area. Once the OT has established dominance, DPS on the infernal til dead and back on the boss. Rinse and repeat.

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Wintrow

An addendum

Strategy Breakdown

Trash

All NPCs respawn at the beginning of each round of trash waves to help us with DPS.

Shaman: We have confirmed that the Banshee shield cannot be removed with Purge.


Boss

We have modified the positioning of our raid from that of the Bosskillers diagram. Healers are still spaced out as far as possible around Anetheron to mitigate the effect of the Carrion Swarm. Ranged DPS is set up in 2 tight groups at the base of each hill on either side of the main road from Anetheron to Jaina. The exception to this are the warlocks who can position themselves on either side of Anetheron. While this increases the number of targets hit by Carrion Swarm, it also helps us keep Carrion Swarm from affecting many of the healers at one time. This will require more dedicated healing on the 2 ranged DPS groups as it is more likely that they will be consistently taking Carrion Swarm damage. We may need to tinker with healer positioning slightly and healer responsibilities to help ensure that we don't lose DPS to Carrion Swarms like we did towards the end of our kill.

Additionally, for the initial pull, everyone is roughly in position (MT healers need to stay to the side until Anetheron is on the MT). One hunter will run to the gate to get LOS on Anetheron as he approaches and Misdirect him to the MT before returning to his spot with the Ranged DPS.

Off Tank: We have confirmed that it is crucial that the OT stack *some* fire resistance for this role. A pally tank is preferred to make use of the FR aura, but a minor amount of additional FR gear is helpful as well. It is also critical that the OT stay as close to the Infernal tanking spot as possible at all times. If the OT is affected by Sleep at any point, Infernals are typically uncontrolled and causing mayhem. This cannot happen. I propose that the OT stay put (or move forward a couple steps) rather than running up to meet the Infernal yourself; hunters should be used here to bring the Infernal to the OT (discussed next).

Hunters: One hunter should be assigned with the primary responsibility of getting immediate aggro on the Infernal when it lands and dragging it back to the OT. If you have the foresight to cast your Misdirection before the Infernal lands, then you can use this method to nuke the Infernal to get it on the OT. There will be raid warnings to announce when the Infernal will spawn. If you are late with your Misdirection and the Infernal is already up, it is not wise to waste the seconds it will take to cast Misdirection. Instead, immediately nuke the Infernal to establish aggro and kite it in range of the OT. Once he can throw his shield, FD and get back to your original position. Since Infernals only spawn every minute, all cooldowns should be ready for the next one and there is no need to have a hunter rotation here.

Melee DPS: You will need to be aware of Infernals spawning in your area, either on the MT or one of you. When this happens, it is crucial that you vacate the area (stop DPS) until the Infernal is pulled away.

Ranged DPS: Once the OT has picked up the Infernal from the hunter, you need to immediately switch all of your DPS from Anetheron and onto the Infernal. We were very inconsistent with this aspect in previous attempts. There is no reason to have multiple Infernals up at the same time and doing so makes it more likely that we lose our OT and have Infernals running around uncontrolled.

Shaman: Screw Tremor Totem. It is worthless in dealing with Sleep. Sleep is something that we have to live with and adjust our healing accordingly.

MT Healers: There should be 3-4 of you on the MT at all times. If none are affected by Carrion Swarm or Sleep, then one designated healer can switch heals to another target if necessary. Your positioning will be primarily on either side of Anetheron and at his back. I'd like to keep our MT healers as far from the 2 groups of ranged DPS as possible. And remember to call out if you are affected by either Carrion Swarm or Sleep so we can adjust.

Raid Healers: We need to be much better about healing up ranged DPS after a Carrion Swarm. The problem was that generally when a ranged group got hit with Carrion Swarm, so did the nearest raid healer. To help mitigate this, I'd like to position our raid healers slightly farther away from the ranged groups. I also think it will be necessary for ranged healers to cross heal the ranged groups: if Halten is closest to Ranged1 and I'm closest to Ranged2, it is likely that Halten will get hit with Carrion Swarm the same time that Ranged1 does, but I will remain unaffected. I will quickly get in range of Ranged1, throw a couple of quick CoH to get their health back up, and then return to my original position. We lost clumps of Ranged DPS in our prior attempts because they didn't get healed back up soon enough so we need to be more aware of this in future attempts.

OT Healers: Unless you are explicitly called to join the raid, it is imperative that you stay by Jaina and the OT so you are never affected by Carrion Swarm or Sleep. If no infernal is up, just stay put and regen your mana; resist the urge to inch up and start healing others. There is a possibility that you can reach some of the Ranged DPS groups with heals while still staying out of range of Anetheron's abilities; we can experiment with this positioning.

****Infernals****: Given our reliance on hunters to quickly control and kite the Infernals back to the OT, the responsibility of the player targeted by Infernal changes slightly.

If you are in the Ranged DPS groups, you should turn and run back towards the OT. If you move quickly enough, the OT should be able to establish aggro himself and the hunter will not be needed.

If you are in the Melee DPS group or positioned close to Anetheron (MT healers, Warlocks), you will need to move quickly back towards the Ranged DPS groups when you are the target. You must be careful to stay in relatively open areas so that when the Infernal lands you are the only player damaged. This will also help get the Infernal in range of the hunter so he can immediately pull it to the OT.

Once we finalize the strategy that works best for us, all around, I will compile all such addenda into a single comprehensive strategy post.

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70 Priest

Wintrow

Another addendum

MT Healers: 4-5 healers will be arrayed evenly in a semi-circle around the back and sides of Anetheron. This will help ensure that Carrion Swarm does not affect more than one of you at a time while keeping you out of the line of fire of Carrion Swarms that target the cluster of ranged DPS in front of Anetheron.

Raid Healers/OT Healers: You will all be positioned roughly behind the ballista near the Infernal tank spot. From this spot, all ranged DPS should be in range while keeping us out of range of Carrion Swarm and Sleep. Ranged DPS groups will be set up to maximize the group heal benefits (Priest CoH) as the priority is to heal Ranged DPS up as quickly as possible after Carrion Swarm. OT Healers are also able to help raid heal in this setup. As long as Anetheron is tanked in his usual spot, hunters are quick to control the Infernals and Ranged DPS is quick to put them down, this position will make non-MT healing a breeze.

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70 Priest

Wintrow

bump for new folks

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70 Priest

Sebastionleo

My guild has been doing Hyjal the last few weeks, and it seems that all 3 of our rogues (me being one of them) can never seem to get Wound poison to go off on him. 1/3 the time it gets resisted altogether, other times, the damage takes, but the debuff never shows up.

Am I missing that he was beefed up so that wound wouldn't work or what?

Gaviin

We haven't done Hyjal in a few weeks, but last time we were there, I didn't have any particular issues with getting Wound up there. You'll definitely get resisted a lot, and it will drop off sometimes. Annoying, but just the way it is. If you have a dps warrior, just have him use Mortal Strike to at least provide some backup to finicky poisons.

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Ninja