Heroic LK 25m Phase One (Add Tanking)

My intention last night during my guilds 25m heroic Lich King attempts was to record a video to illustrate how I handle add tanking in Phase One, the first transition, and what I do in Phase 2. But I think I received a sign from the WoW gods or the blogosphere gods (your pick) that convinced me maybe recording our attempt(s) wasn't such a great idea.

Running Fraps on my computer is hit or miss first of all, sometimes when I boot it up and start recording in game it's extremely choppy and unplayable, especially in a 25 man raid. Last night though it was running really smoothly, I did a couple test recordings right before our first serious attempt and I didn't have any sort of lag. So step 1 of my plan - check!

So the very first attempt (maybe it was second, admittedly I might have forgotten to hit record for the very first), I hit my Fraps record button (F9 if you were wondering, I don't have the function keys bound to opening my bags for this very reason) and the fight progressed like normal. I've broken it down into a sort of time line and I'll comment on anything I think is important. I'll get to why this wasn't such a great demonstration later, but if you watch the uploaded video before you read further, you'll figure it out on your own! /splat

0:05 - I always wait until about 5 seconds before the pull to pop into Bear form so I have 10 rage (from Furor) to start as soon as I hit Lich King. It's important to start building up your rage because you'll need to use Swipe as soon as LK summons his adds and it's also useful, if you can, to get a 3-stack of Lacerate going so you can Pulverize right before you Swipe the adds and move into position.

0:10 - Hello Clearcast procs...hehe, I'm a lucky Bear.

0:20 - Pulverize, removes 3-stack of Lacerate and gives me 9% extra crit to help pick up the ghouls. A couple of seconds later I Swipe, I managed to hit two of the ghouls and LK, good enough and you'll see how I handle the third ghoul a couple seconds later. (Future post about my Power Auras set-up, showing Lacerate and Pulverize)

0:25 - You have time before the Shambling Horror spawns, so I use that time to whack the ghouls that I miss with swipe.

0:30 - The first Horror spawns, and I lose threat on one of the ghouls, it makes a beeline for a Boomkin (hmm..I wonder why, *cough cough* Starfall), I target the ghoul, taunt it, and then switch my attention to the Horror. A quick 9k mangle and then I make the move for the middle ground between the ranged group and the melee group.

0:37 - I always over compensate a bit when pulling the adds to the middle. Doing this ensures you have the Shambling Horror lined up in the middle with you and they aren't facing sideways towards the ranged or melee. So when the person with Necrotic Plague runs over to be dispelled then don't get murdered by a cleave.

0:55 - One of the worst things happens that you need to be able to handle in Phase 1 as the add tank. First a Shadow Trap targets me, so I need to move back (North on the radar, away from the throne) and at the same time, and what makes this a bad situation, LK just finished spawning 3 fresh ghouls! So they are further away from me than normal.

1:05 - Luckily we have a rogue using Fan of Knives with a Tricks of the Trade so the adds start heading my way, on top of that I target them one by one and use Faerie Fire for some extra threat. Most important thing to note at this point of Phase 1 is to be extra careful with when and how you use your taunt, Growl. Right now it's okay to use them on the Ghouls, because as you can see on the right side of the screen I still have a solid 15+ seconds until the second Shambling Horror spawns.

1:10 - Rocket Bear exclusive moment right here. I actually move fairly close to the melee group/LK to sneak in a quick swipe! It's almost like cheating and possibly too risky especially if you have a ranged that is trying to reach you for a Necrotic Plague dispel, but...hey...I'm the Rocket Bear! Just make sure to move back to the center as quickly as possible.

1:15 - Try and keep up Pulverize amid the chaos.

1:30 - Ghouls spawn, I manage another swipe mixed in with a Faerie Fire, and then Shambling Horror number two spawns. Target it, 5.1k Faerie Fire (yay, Vengeance). Once the Horror is in range I toss out another Swipe.

1:51 - Make sure you keep up Demoralizing Roar on both of the Horrors and make sure you hit them both with a Maul or Mangle to keep Infected Wounds up.

2:00 - Ghouls spawn, single target them to grab their attention, awesome 6.2k Faerie Fire! (Vengeance is really ramping up from the damage I'm taking now)

2:06 - F*CKING SPLAT!

And there's MY sign. I didn't even bother recording any other attempts where we actually did get into Phase 2. I figured "Hey, if I'm going to be taking hits for 138992 (before Absorb and Overkill) I might want to keep the rest of these attempts to myself and bury them deep within my proverbial Combat log and never speak of them again.

Shoulda and Coulda had Barkskin/Enrage/Survival Instincts going...but didn't.