Thursday, December 6, 2007

On Hot Tubs

So as you probably know already, AC downed Lurker Below last night. It was nice, we've killed a few Zul'Aman bosses, but this is our first 25 man progression since our first Gruul kill about 2 months ago now. Things got hectic for the holidays, etc, etc.

So, as a balance druid, here's my take on the fight:

1) As soon as the "Lurker Takes a Deep Breath" emote comes up, get in the water. That 500 damage evert 3 seconds is negligible, really. It would take a full minute or more to kill someone at 9k hit points, and hopefully you're in that neighborhood at this point. On the other hand, a single spout can take you out of the fight completely. If you stay on top of the water, you should be able to continue DPSing. When the spout passes over you, get out - UNLESS the spout started off facing you. Most of the time it'll start facing the tank, but for some reason he occasionally freaked out on us and started somewhere else. The spout turns a little OVER 360 degrees, so if the spout starts off facing you, it'll hit you again on the back end.

2) Practice getting onto the platforms quickly. I found the easiest way to do this was to be on top of the water and use my strafe key to move sideways toward the platform, then jump.

3) When the adds come out, make sure you're in moonkin. You can actually absorb some arrows better than most out there (I was getting hit for ~1200/each). This is a decent time to use your trees if they're up. Burn down the adds on your platform and then whatever melee mobs you're in range of.

4) Range is often a consideration for healers, especially during the whirl. If you notice someone somewhat low on HP and in an awkward place, watch them. If they don't get a heal within a few seconds, toss a HoT on them just to keep them up until a healer is free.

5) During the adds, again, watch out for a little fountain spray/naga appearing near you. That means one of the melee adds just teleported. Immediately hit barkskin to try to mitigate any cleave/direct damage, and get a cyclone ready. As it's casting, let either a hunter know, so they can misdirect the add onto the appropriate tank, or let a mage know, so they can sheep it and buy time for the tank to run over and shoot it. DO NOT DAMAGE IT. This will only solidify its aggro on you and make it much harder to pull back to the tank.

6) Blow cooldowns often and early. Any DPS trinkets, etc. Maybe even start off the fight with a destruction potion - you shouldn't have to be using a mana potion within the first 2 minutes of the fight anyway, and since you can't pull aggro, just let loose.

I like this fight. Once you get the rhythm down, it's almost dance-like, and quite enjoyable. I think it's one of my favorite boss fights so far.

I think that's about it. Otherwise, pew pew, and have fun!