Smores over Felfire

I, like many others, have read wowwiki, mmo-champ, elitist jerks, and the myriad of other online resources for boss fights. The information there is simply staggering. Everything from ideal group makeup to average DPS per player needed has been researched, retested, and published (then edited again). The problem is, while guild leadership (and the occasional raider who wants to be on their game) are OK with spending 10-15 minutes reading, digesting, and analyzing boss material, the other 6-8 people in your raid just won’t care enough. Then you have to spend the next 10-15 minutes retelling everything you know to people who, because they are flying blind, don’t know what to expect, so even if you tell them every single ability the current boss has, they’re still likely to screw up (“I didn’t know the fire was blue, I was looking for red fire!”)

So here’s my proposal, I’ll be making what I call “Boss Blasts” of raid bosses. This means, basically, you go to your specific role in a fight (tank, offtank if needed, healer, ranged, melee), read the 5 or 6 sentences that pertain to you, and now you have the basics of the fight understood. No more slogging through 3 or 4 pages of info to get what you need.

And to introduce it, here’s Sartharion’s fight:

TANK

• Face the boss toward a wall so the raid is positioned facing Sarth’s “broadside”
• Watch the closest wall for Flamewall. When the flames spawn, rotate the boss so you are safely between the flame-walls.
• At 15% Sarth enrages and drops a bunch of fire elementals. Blow DPS cooldowns and finish him off.

OFFTANK

• Stand with the ranged, but keep an eye on melee.
• Watch the closest wall for Flame-wall. When the flames spawn, run so you are safely between the flame-walls.
• When fire elementals spawn, taunt them over and tank them, wait until 5 or so stack on you, then call DPS to AoE them down (warriors, putting vigilance on the tank can keep taunt refreshed permanently).
• At 15% Sarth enrages and drops a bunch of fire elementals. Pick up as many as you can, blow defense trinkets, and keep the DPS from being hit.

HEALER

• Stand with the ranged, but make sure the tank can be healed.
• Watch the closest wall for Flame-wall. When the flames spawn, run so you are safely between the flame-walls.
• Flame breath is a “spike damage” ability for this fight, so rolling HoTs on the tanks are suggested.
• Occasionally flame elementals spawn near players. They don’t hit too hard, but 5-10 will cause a problem for the offtank, make sure the offtank is topped off.
• At 15% Sarth enrages and drops a bunch of fire elementals. blow cooldown abilities (Guardian Spirit) and trinkets, and keep the tanks alive.

RANGED

• Stand back at close-to-max range
• Watch the closest wall for Flame-wall. When the flames spawn, run so you are safely between the flame-walls.
• Occasionally flame elementals spawn near players. They don’t hit too hard, but an offtank will taunt them off and stack them up. At 5, the offtank will call for AoE damage to kill the adds. Switch targets and burn them down.
• At 15% Sarth enrages and drops a bunch of fire elementals. blow cooldowns and trinkets, and finish off Sarth, ignoring the adds.

Melee

• Stand at Sarth’s stomach, closer to the tail than head. His tail swipe can hit and stun you if you stand directly behind him, so stand at his side .
• Watch the closest wall for Flame-wall. When the flames spawn, run through the boss so you are safely between the flame-walls.
• Occasionally flame elementals spawn near players. They don’t hit too hard, but an offtank will taunt them off and stack them up. Ignore them.
• At 15% Sarth enrages and drops a bunch of fire elementals. blow cooldowns and trinkets, and finish off Sarth, ignoring the adds.

So what do you think? Does this explain the fight quickly for each group?