Malygos tips: Phase 3 strategy

Gaviin · 12-23-2008, 07:39 PM

Ok, so we need to greatly improve our performance in Phase 3 of the Malygos fight. Here are some tips.

First off, the drake abilities that you should be concerned with are as follows:

Key 1 - Flame Spike (costs 10 energy, awards one combo point): This is your offensive combo point builder. It's a regular flame ability that does a relatively small amount of damage.
Key 2 - Engulf in Flames (costs 50 energy and combo points): This is your offensive finisher, meaning it costs both energy and combo points to use. It will place a powerful DoT on the target that will last longer the more combo points you've used (6 seconds from one point, 10 from two, 14 from three, etc). Note the high energy cost and the fact that it takes time for the flame to "reach" the target in order to actually apply a stack. This will be the primary source of our damage.
Key 3 - Revivify (costs 10 energy, awards one combo point on the healed target (not Malygos)): This is your HoT. It stacks up to five times on yourself, replenishes 500 health per second per stack, and it lasts 10 seconds. In other words, if you have five stacks on yourself, it will heal you for 2500 health per second. If you have combo points on Malygos and then use this ability, you will lose those combo points because you've "changed targets" (to yourself) and used a combo point-generating ability. Welcome to wonderful world of rogues.
Key 5 - Flame Shield (costs 25 energy and combo points): This is your defensive finisher. It puts a shield around you that reduces damage taken by 80%. It lasts longer the more combo points you've used (one will yield two seconds of the shield, five will yield six seconds).

The drake has 100 total energy, and it regenerates at a rate of 10 energy/sec. The global cooldown on the drake's abilities is one second. The primary goal here is to manage your energy effectively. You can't just sit there spamming your '1' and '2' all the time; you'll be bottomed out on energy and will probably die very quickly. Here's a rotation that seemed to work well in our 10-man Malygos kill:

Make sure that your "Auto Self Cast" is turned ON in your Interface -> Combat options. This will make your '3' automatically cast the heal on yourself just by pressing the button (instead of having to then click on yourself).
When you land on your drake, hit '3' a few times while you get yourself into position. Target Malygos, and always keep him targeted.
After you've hit your last '3', immediately hit your '1' four times, which will place four combo points on Malygos.
Wait for your HoT to tick down to 2 or 3 seconds remaining or until your energy caps out (if you sit there at max energy, you're losing out on potential regen time), then hit '2'.
Refresh your HoT at the last second by hitting '3'. I usually hit my 3 just when my buff timer ticks to "0s"; if you have lag, you might want to do it a hair earlier just to be safe. Just remember, the earlier you refresh it, the less energy you will have regenerated during that "round" of your rotation.
Go back to step 3, rinse and repeat.

-- SURGE --
In the event that you get targeted for the Surge of Power, chances are you'll be sitting with at least one combo point on Malygos (and probably four) that you've built up. If not, quickly build one to three points by using '1'.
Hit your '5' right when he starts casting the Surge (don't do it early). Immediately refresh your HoT by hitting '3'. Immediately hit '1' three times, then hit '2' once you have the energy. Refresh your HoT again by hitting '3'.
Get back into your standard rotation by going back to step 3, keeping in mind that you have less time this rotation to get your 4-point Engulf back up.

When you get the Surge on you, it does disrupt your rotation for sure. The key is to stay alive and not let your DoT drop. Without everyone's stacking double-digit DoTs on Malygos, we won't get him down before the enrage. If your HoT drops, so be it. Just work it back up slowly by executing the standard rotation. Again, you cannot let the DoT drop. Period.

A sound rotation, good energy management, and the ability to adapt to how the Surge disrupts your rotation will lead to success on this. You should all practice on the Aces High daily quest in Coldarra. It helps a ton.

There is a strategy that involves assigning certain people as healing drakes, but if we all execute this well, there should be no need for that. We'll see how things go.

Please respond to this thread saying that you've read and understand this information.

**orion808** · 12-23-2008, 07:42 PM

Read and understand. Clears up a little for me

duck · 12-23-2008, 08:14 PM

read and understood

Delg · 12-23-2008, 08:27 PM

Read and understood. This worked solidly for the 10man fight.

Wintrow · 12-23-2008, 08:42 PM

coo

Gaiaghost07 · 12-24-2008, 03:15 AM

Read it. Know it. Love it. Live by it....you won't die by it unless your newb :P

BigSlick · 12-24-2008, 04:53 AM

Read an understood.

Practiced this on Aces High and tbh it's really, really easy so long as you pay attention to your energy and if you're targeted with the Arcane Surge (their version of Malygos' Surge of Power). With a little practice, the only way you die in the daily is if you have multiple drakes on you - but fortunately there's only one Malygos.

Crescendeo · 12-24-2008, 11:26 AM

I was a little confused about the dots on Malygos and this cleared that up for me.

Thanks

Pistos · 12-24-2008, 12:20 PM

Once again thanks for passing this on. I'd been getting the daily done pretty easily but was still having energy management issues until you brought this up during our 10 man. Using the HoT as a timer for when to cast the DoT made it much better. If everyone in our 25 can do this Malygos will be down soon.

HhAaZzEeYy · 12-24-2008, 12:36 PM

Read and understood... Now I just need to get my mods, to show me the cooldown on the hot so I can make my life easier >.<

Sajier · 12-24-2008, 02:46 PM

Check!

Gollaen · 12-24-2008, 03:35 PM

Read + Understand

Gaze · 12-24-2008, 04:01 PM

Yep

Gaviin · 12-25-2008, 01:58 AM

Bump for some edits (in red). Please give it another quick read and note the changes. Let me know if you have any questions.

**Tarenth** · 12-25-2008, 07:09 AM

Gaviin posts a good solid strategy for beginners to practice and be proficient in energy manipulation and duration watching. The main flaw for this set up is it trades speed for sustainability and a large safety net.

Building 4 charges takes 4 seconds (10 energy per second regened, and 10 energy per second spent at 1 second cooldown).
Generating the 50 energy for the finisher take 5 seconds of downtime (10 energy per second for 5 seconds of 'inactivity')
Refreshing your HoT takes 1 seconds (same formula for first line).

That means every application of the DoT revolves around a 10 second rotation. With 4 charges your DoT will last 18 seconds. That means on a 10 second rotation you're losing 8 seconds of your DoT as a safety net. Also to be considered is your HoT lasts 10 seconds after application and to apply the DoT will take 9 seconds after the refresh. This means you have less than a second to refresh your HoT or lose it all and work from just a 500/second HoT.

8 seconds is a very big safety net for your DoT since it means you can regen 80 energy doing nothing before it falls off.

Another method would be to cut the charges down to the three he originally posted and use the same rotation (the rotation is sound, but the charges change from strat to strat).

3 charges = 3 seconds
1 Finisher = 5 seconds
1 HoT = 1 second
Total rotation = 9 seconds

With 3 charges your DoT will last 14 seconds on a 9 second rotation giving you a 5 second window of error. Because the DoT portion takes 8 seconds instead of a full 9 you will have 2 seconds to play with your HoT before it falls off. 5 seconds is a 50 energy buffer if you sit there picking your nose.

For reference I switch to the 3 charge rotation for that buffer after getting a large number of stacks up. 10 stacks is 15000 damage every 3 seconds or 5000 DPS on the boss. Not something to sneeze at.

The last rotation, and the fastest, is the 2 charge rotation.

2 charges = 2 seconds
1 finisher = 5 seconds
1 HoT = 1 second
Total roation = 8 seconds

With 2 charges your DoT will last 10 seconds and you have an 8 second rotation so your safety net drops to a mere 20 energy. This is the trickiest rotation to manage and focuses on a 'give and take' if you get focused on. Because you have a 20 energy buffer you can sacrifice your HoT to push that to 30 energy and still maintain your rotation with a paltry 5 energy to spare (or half second). In fact, its the opposite of the 4 charge rotation since it trades off sustainability and safety for pure speed. Its the best rotation to use on Aces High, by the way, since you'll kill the drakes faster.

I use this rotation when starting out with stacking because the faster you stack your DoTs the more damage you'll have and be sustainable.

Why isn't a 1 charge or 5 charge feasable?

Well with 1 charge your DoT lasts 6 seconds and you have a 6 second rotation. Its good to buy yourself some extra time, but leaves no time to refresh your HoT or manage your shield if you get focused. Some strategies use the 1 charge rotation, but delegate the HoT management part to dedicated healers which trades off overall DPS with greater focus on singular roles.

With 5 charges your DoT will last 22 seconds, but while good if you hit the enrage timers and you want to kill post mortum with attrition its utterly useless in actual combat. 22 seconds with a 10 second rotation means you maintain a buffer of 120 energy which is 20 over your maximum energy. In short, its a waste of time and energy because you have useless time on your DoT.

If we can get to phase 3 with 2 minutes remaining a 10 second rotation means that in the 120 second you'll have 12 stacks and do 6000 DPS at enrage.
With a 9 second rotation you'll have 13 stacks and do 6500 DPS.
With an 8 second rotation you'll have 15 stacks and do 7500 DPS.

With 3 minutes you get the following:
10 seconds = 18 stacks = 9000 DPS
9 seconds = 20 stacks = 10000 DPS
8 seconds = 22 stacks = 11000 DPS

Faster rotation = higher overall DPS, but more risk to sustainability. Then again we have however much time left over from the 10 minute timer to take down roughly 9 million HP so at times faster may be better.