Tanking Crib Sheet – Blood Princes

Once again – you’re informed that prior defeats are merely a setback.

This is a three tank fight (10m, I assume the same for 25), with one tank being a ranged tank. The concept of the fight is fairly straight forward – DPS the one with the health bar. Unfortunately there are a few spots to trip up on along the way. This was also the first fight (since Firefighter) where we’ve been required to use three healers.

The fight is rather long, but is only a single phase. As always, it’s smart to face your boss away from the raid (why do DPS insist on getting in front of a boss? Do their faces scrunch up or something? All I ever see is their crotch/knee). The bosses are reported to have some sort of conical attack in 25, though we didn’t see anything like this in the 10s.

Also – stay out of the Giant Big^TM or you’ll regret it. In this instance, the giant big is a pulsing white light on the ground that will toss you around like a pinball.

More detail will follow next week after a second clear.

Ranged Tank

· Your job will be to tank Prince Keleseth, though I’m not quite sure how stable his agro table is.

· Your NUMBER ONE PIRORITY is to shoot the balls of shadow (Dark Nucleus) to start stacking your shadow resistance. Failure to do so will result in your face getting melted off.

· The Dark Nucleus seemed to have a ticking health bar similar to the collapsing stars on Algalon. This means you have to keep gathering new ones, and they aren’t always close by. Work with your ranged to have them bring some over to you.

· The Dark Nucleus also have an agro table, so you can lose them to your healers if you don’t periodically hit them (this may not be an issue for a warlock).

· I assume any ranged class can handle this, we used our Moonkin as she has experience in tanking Moroes (as a Moonkin, and before the flask/elixir combo nerf – yes, she was my OT for Kara – we don’t follow the norm).

· Do not run anywhere near Prince Keleseth, or he’ll hit you in the mouth for about 20k. Since you’ll have some stacking DoTs on you, this will probably spell your demise.

· Prince Keleseth starts on the left side of the platform.

Prince Taldaram

· Pull Taldaram all the way to the right side of the room, between some candle holders. The reason for this is he will shoot fire at folks that does less damage the further it has to travel. There is currently no raid warning (target) for the target of non-empowered fireballs.

· Help cleanse the fireball DOT – ticks for about 4k in regular.

· Make sure he doesn’t target a melee with the empowered fireball – if he does, blow all your cooldowns and run. You might live (or if you’re a Paladin, do nothing and let Ardent Defender work for you).

· Relax – as you have the easiest tank job of the fight.

Prince Valanar

· Tank towards the center of the platform. Watch your AoE threat abilities, as you may wind up hitting Keleseth.

· When Taldaram is empowered, move yourself down towards the raid body. If you get an empowered fireball shot at you, and nobody is in it’s path to take some of the damage – you’re going to get one shot. Burning all CDs may allow you to survive this once. Or be a Paladin and cheat with Ardent Defender and don’t worry about moving.

· In 25s you’ll want to run away when he drops a shock vortex near your feet. In 10’s it didn’t seem to be much of an issue as it only hit for about 4k and knocks you back about 10 yds.

BONUS TANK

· This will be one of your ranged DPS with superb Situational Awareness, high mobility, and the ability to keep multiple balls in the air at once – literally. Valanar will send 2 (or more in 25s) Kinetic Bombs out to the raid. You will need to hit these before they touch the ground to send them back into the air. At this time using a pet to handle it (like an imp or a water elemental) will cause the ball to float up and pull the wing boss – burning an attempt (this should be fixed soon, but using an imp is probably cheating.

Conclusion

Overall this is a great fight. Not too difficult, though learning all the mechanics and ‘gotchas’ took us a half dozen or so fights. Not nearly as tightly tuned as Putricide, there are many more opportunities for inta-gibs which will cause your raid to wipe.

Note: The bosses are tauntable, and you can hold Valanar and Taldaram together if neither of them are empowered – say if you need to get a Battle Rez off because your mage decided to blink through the melee while being chased by a giant fireball. Just saying.