Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic/Mythic]

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Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic/Mythic]

Unread postby Sugg3 Mon Feb 02, 2015 12:59 am

Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic/Mythic]

Last updated 2015-06-21 06:39 PM. GMT+1.

Mythic update for The Iron Maidens
Mythic update for Flamebender Ka'graz
Mythic update for Kromog
Mythic update for Hans'gar and Franzok
Mythic update for Operator Thogar
Mythic update for Gruul
Update under Tips & Tricks for the Gruul encounter concerning RoP placement
Mythic update for Oregorger
Update under Tips & Tricks for the Oregorger encounter concerning the boss environment
Mythic update for Beastlord Darmac
Added Talents for Arcane Specialization for Beastlord Darmac
Update under Tips & Tricks for Beastlord Darmac concerning talent choice

Content

Introduction
Coin List
Gruul
Oregorger
Beastlord Darmac
Flamebender Ka'graz
Hans'gar & Franzok
Operator Thogar
The Blast Furnace
Kromog
The Iron Maidens
Blackhand


Introduction

Sup, my name is Sugge. I play as a Mage in the guild Innominatum @ Twisting Nether EU. Today I'm very excited to bring you my "almost" complete guide to Blackrock Foundry Heroic. (Will be updating the guide for Mythic difficulty aswell when I get the required data). :)

I will start streaming BRF content at twitch.tv where you can come and watch me play WoW, but also and more importantly, ask me questions more directly. For more info on when I will stream, follow the link above.

In this guide I will be talking about...
Mechanics, and which YOU as a ranged DPS or preferably a Mage should look out for.
General tips on how you can prepare and manage the different mechanics that comes with each encounter.
What specialization combined with what talents I would suggest for each encounter.
What bosses I would suggest using http://www.wowhead.com/currency=994/sea ... pered-fate on.

As previously mentioned, this guide will point directly towards ranged DPS with some general tips to the Mage class specifically. I will not be mentioning boring Tank-swapping abilities or other boring melee stuff.

When it comes to talents, the default choice for Arcane is going to look like this:

Image

and for Fire, like this.

Image

Make a personal decision whenever you think you can make use of http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108978/alter-time. Otherwise go for http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11426/ice-barrier or http://www.wowhead.com/spell=140468/flameglow.

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=140468/flameglow will work better on some mechanics of the fights, for example Phase 3 of Blackhand and probably the whole fight of The Blast Furnace. http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11426/ice-barrier however will give you the absorb when you need it, that's why I'd felt to somewhat generalize this decision.

Tier IV is the tier where you're going to have to make a personal decision for what works best for me, in combination with how much "potential" do http://www.wowhead.com/spell=110959/gre ... visibility have. If you don't see any reason to go with this talent, use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=86949/cauterize.

Regarding specializations...
If you want to play Fire during progression, go for it. But keep in mind that we will most likely be playing Arcane for the majority of Mythic progression. For this sole reason we should continue to opt. and improve our Arcane play and use Fire on bosses where Arcanes strengths is no longer a necessity.

You will shift talents in between bosses as Arcane and are therefor marked with orange.

I will only discuss the tier V, VI and VII talents. This will go for both Arcane and Fire but as it looks "right now" we are going with a set somewhat Fire specialization with just a few alternations.

And since I don't believe that I can't stress this enough. This guide will not cover "How to play the different specs" in general (there are other guides for that), just the talents of choice, reasoning behind it and boss mechanics.

This guide is mainly pointed to players who wants to come prepered to this new, awesome looking instance and who also frankly doesn’t give a damn about other roles (other then healers, healers are your friends). Even though I mention some of the most basic mechanics when playing as a Mage, I feel like some of y'all might appreciate just that and if there is something that I have missed, feel free to mention it down below :). I also wanna point out that alot of encounters doesn’t have abilities that you can "manage" in any extra ordinarie way, that's just how !@#$ is.

Coin List

If you've defeated some bosses in Highmaul Mythic, great you got some progression and hopefully some epics aswell. And with the +685 loot from Highmaul Mythic being better then some slots that drops from Blackrock Foundry Heroic I could only really pin down the general... that T17 Heroic pieces is still gonna rock out our Highmaul Mythic loot.

Click here for more information about the new T17 Arcanoshatter gear.

Image
The whole document containing all classes and specs.

So this list is really only suggestions, if you have a +685 weapon in your main hand, great. You don't have to roll on certain bosses. But as weapons and trinkets are generally the best rolls, I kinda feel like I have to mention them.
With that out of the way, here are the bosses I would suggest to Bonus Roll on.

Gruul: http://www.wowhead.com/item=113869/infe ... ff&bonus=0 which is going to be the Best in Slot Weapon for Arcane Mages.
Oregorger Drops http://www.wowhead.com/item=119194/gore ... ry&bonus=0 which is going to be the Best in Slot Trinket for general Fire Mages.
Beastlord Darmac
http://www.wowhead.com/item=113948/darm ... an&bonus=0 which is going to be the Best in Slot Trinket for Arcane Mages.
Flamebender Ka'graz: http://www.wowhead.com/item=120236/ches ... er&bonus=0.
Operator Thogar: http://www.wowhead.com/item=120235/shou ... vanquisher.
The Blast Furnace: http://www.wowhead.com/item=120234/legg ... vanquisher.
Kromog: http://www.wowhead.com/item=120233/helm ... er&bonus=0.
Iron Maidens:http://www.wowhead.com/item=120232/gaun ... er&bonus=0
Blackhand: http://www.wowhead.com/item=120208/esse ... er&bonus=0, http://www.wowhead.com/item=113984/blac ... le&bonus=0 which is going to the Best in Slot Trinket for both specializations during progress. Also drops http://www.wowhead.com/item=113988/blac ... ff&bonus=0 which is going to be general BiS weapon for Fire Mages.

Gruul
Image
Type of Fight: Single
Specialization: Arcane

On Gruul, you’re gonna want to go with Arcane as the default choice of spec. This is due to the high single target output.

Talents:

V : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157980/supernova
VI : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=116011/rune-of-power
VII: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal


http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157980/supernova will be used due to highest DPS output on single target.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=116011/rune-of-power will be the best choice here due to the low level of movement required.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal will be the default choice due to the boss being in a static state during the entire fight.

What you’re going to do/look out for:

You’re going to make sure you stay with the group that you’ve been assigned to.
If you get targeted with http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155326 make sure you stay atleast 8 yards away from the rest of the group to avoid damage from http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155530 to hit other players.

Move from http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155301, this is a frontal cone that Gruul will cast frequently.

Don't stand in http://www.wowhead.com/spell=173192.

Mythic Changes:

Your talents are going to be exactly the same as for Heroic mode.

Apart from continues dodging of http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155301 and avoiding of http://www.wowhead.com/spell=173192, you also have to move from http://www.wowhead.com/spell=165300's at ALL cost. These will spawn from the edges of the room and if collided with, will apply a ticking damage over time effect and also increase your fire damage taken by 20%, which is the same school of element as http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155080.

Other then that there is really not that much that more that you can contribute with. Your tanks is basically going to do all the hard work so what's left for you is to deal as much damage as possible. Gruul will enrage after six minutes of pulling him so the fights is quite tight.

Tips & Tricks:

I’d suggest using http://www.wowhead.com/spell=56384/glyph-of-momentum to use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1953/blink sideways with eas.
This way of positioning your http://www.wowhead.com/spell=116011/rune-of-power’s (RoP’s) is the (for this fight) geometrically correct way of placing down your RoP's. With this method you are still going to be able to move out of http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155301 horizontally, while having alot of somewhat neccesary vertical space to dodge http://www.wowhead.com/spell=165300 (these balls of fire are kinda huge). 8-)

Oregorger
Image
Type of Fight: Single
Specialization: Arcane

On Oregorger, you’re gonna want to go with Arcane as the default choice of spec. This is due to the high single target output.

Talents:

V : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157980/supernova
VI : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow / (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=116011/rune-of-power)
VII: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal


http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157980/supernova will be used due to highest DPS output on single target.
I haven’t gotten to try this out for myself but by the looks it, you might be able to use a single http://www.wowhead.com/spell=116011/rune-of-power in a horizontal lane. But due to the high movement duing the Feeding Frenzy phase. It might just be plain better to go for the safe choice and use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal will do wonders during his static phase, and will by the looks of it… only delay the second crystal with about 30 seconds which won’t result in the most dramatic loss of DPS. But if you don’t feel like waiting and just wanna use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155147/overpowered and have all that unlimited power up for alittlebit longer, I’m sure you’re going to do just fine with that.


What you’re going to do/look out for:

During Phase 1: Satiated Slaughter

Make sure to stick with your assigned group to not %^&* up http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156203. You wanna get those pools down nice and tight. ;)
If you’re playing with a bunch of slacking melee’s, interrupt http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156879.
Don’t stand in http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156388 since it will not just damage you, but also stun you, making you lose DPS.

During Phase 2: Feeding Frenzy

The only thing you have to look out for in this phase is to not get neither rolled over or be stading where he is about to collide with a wall. And obviously DPS the crates which will spawn.

Mythic Changes:

The talents is going to remain the same as it is for Heroic mode. If your raid leader are fine with you standing in the back, apart from the other preassigned groups, you can certainly pull off http://www.wowhead.com/spell=116011/rune-of-power.

This fight on Mythic is much like on Heroic. The only real exception that you have to take into account is the http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155923/uns ... -explosion's. Which basically is a 3 (4-1) cross way wall of fire that will go through the lanes and dismiss when collided with a wall. These walls doesn't deal "too much" damage and doesn't apply any nasty debuffs so taking one of these is not devestating. You should obviously try your best to avoid these and if you somehow get trapped in between these, use some sort of defensive cooldown.

This fight is executed very differently from guild to guild and the order in which the crates are destroyed is utterly important. Make sure to pay attention to your raid leader and kill the correct target. These crates have like in Heroic mode very little health and if you notice your whole team of DPS is damaging the ones in a certain lane, there is really no point in starting to cast AB's on that target because you are likely not going to get the cast of anyway. So just go to another lane where you are safe and start damaging (not killing) another crate since this will be a more effective way for you to contribute.

Tips & Tricks:

Worth mentioning is that the piles of dirt(?) which the crates spawn from is not completely solid, by that I mean that you can stand behind an edge and be (technically) -/-LoS of the boss but still be in LoS of it, if that makes any sense.
This does not work for http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal with this method though and will still require you to be in a traditionall LoS state.
During Feeding Frenzy, you can actually see which direction Oregorger is going to roll to. Since he will never roll back the same way that he came from, he will either roll left or right. He will be facing the direction he is about to roll to for about two seconds before he actually gets the feel for it. For more information, click here to check out Zhengma's awesome work on how Oregorger will behave during Feeding Frenzy.

Beastlord Darmac
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Type of Fight: AoE
Specialization: Fire

On Bastlord Darmac, you’re gonna want to go with Fire as the default choice of spec with an unglyphed . This is due to Darmacs ability http://www.wowhead.com/spell=154975 which will frequently be spawning fresh trash for you to burn to the ground.

As he will cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=154975 every 30 seconds I, recommend unglyphing http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11129 for a 45 + ( -1 * crits) CD using http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155148. This enables you to use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11129 on every pack.

Talents: Fire

V : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=44457/living-bomb
VI : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow
VII: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155148/kindling

Talents: Arcane

V : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157980/supernova
VI : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow
VII: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=153626/arcane-orb

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=44457/living-bomb will be used as it is the most efficient talent to use for plain AoE.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow will be used because of the high movement that this encounter requires.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155148/kindling is our go-to talent for this last tier as we want to have http://www.wowhead.com/spell=29977/combustion up as frequently as possible.

What you’re going to do/look out for:

This boss has what you could call three differnt phases, with a corresponding animal to match. I will go over the three differnt animals (Phases), which are totally dynamic. Meaning that you can choose what phase you want to do first, secondly and last.

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76945

Use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=110959/gre ... visibility when http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155222 is being channeled.
If http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76945is uses http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155247 and is running towards you, don’t hesitate... use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=45438/ice-block to hinder damage towards you + avoiding a harsh knockback.

After http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76945 dies, Beastlord Darmac will recieve the ability http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155222 which he will be casting frequently thoughout the fight.

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76884

The only this you as a Mage has to make sure of is to be spread out atleast 7 yards to avoid http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155061 to hit multiple targets.

After http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76884 dies, Beastlord Darmac will recieve the ability http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155061 which he will be casting frequently thoughout the fight.

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76874

Don’t stand in http://www.wowhead.com/spell=154989, a frontal cone which you can predict via. checking where the boss is facing

If you get targeted by http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155399 make sure that you stay atleast 8 yards away from other players while waiting for a Dispel.

After http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76874 dies, Beastlord Darmac will recieve the ability http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155499 which works more or less exactly like http://www.wowhead.com/spell=154989 but also leaves a trail of fire behind.

WHILE doing all this the boss will be casting an ability called http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155365. Which is an avoidable ability, but if for some reason someone were to get hit by this. You should immediately start damaging and eventually killing the http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76796 in order to release them.

Mythic Changes:

The talents is going to be the same as it is on Heroic mode.

What Mythic Beastlord Darmac brings is basically an extra phase, with a extra variable to his already existing last phase. After you have defeated all the three beasts that you do on Heroic mode, Darmac will mount http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76946/faultline and during this particular phase there are two things you are gonna be watching out for. Firstly you are going to want to move out of http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155280/cannonball-barrage. These balls are small but comes in very high quantities, effectivaly making the area ALOT bigger, avoid stacking in order to decrease the chances of a ball spawning underneath of you. The second thing to look out for is http://www.wowhead.com/spell=162277/epicenter, these are bascially giant fields of death in which you just don't wanna stand in. These fields will spawn directly underneath the boss and will also be the ability that Darmac grants when his companion falls. As ranged you don't need to care for this too much, just take into account that if your DPS is low, the room will be filled by these and will most likely whipe you.

Tips & Tricks:
If you progress on this boss and find that you lack damage on the boss, definitely go for Arcane for this fight. The adds will die anyway by classes that have generally "better" AoE then Mages have. By better I mean that they require less single target output to be sacrificed while still putting out decent area damage.
You preferably want to use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=29977/combustion with a high http://www.wowhead.com/spell=12654/ignite + http://www.wowhead.com/spell=11366/pyroblast crit when Darmac casts
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=154975.
Make sure to utilize http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108839/ice-floes to avoid http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155365.
The most dangerous ability during this encounter will be http://www.wowhead.com/spell=154989 aka http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155499. Don’t forget to http://www.wowhead.com/spell=110959/gre ... visibility or http://www.wowhead.com/spell=45438/ice-block if you get hit by these.

Flamebender Ka'graz
Image
Type of Fight: Single/Cleave
Specialization: Arcane / Fire

On Flamebender Ka’grazl, you’re gonna want to go with Arcane as the default choice of spec. This is due to the high single target output and decent cleave potential. But, due to it being a cleave encounter Fire with http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155148/kindling do show promise. I imagine the two to be relatively close with Arcane pulling slightly ahead due to the almost one and a half minute downtime on otherwise potential cleave.

Talents: Arcane

V : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157980/supernova / (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=114923/nether-tempest)
VI : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow
VII: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal

Talents: Fire

V : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=44457/living-bomb
VI : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow
VII: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=153561/meteor / (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155148/kindling)

As the adds that comes with this encounter, http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76794/cinder-wolf’s is most likely to be tanked almost on top of the boss. http://www.wowhead.com/spell=114923/nether-tempest will come in handly as it has more damage then http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157980/supernova has for continues cleaving. If http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76794/cinder-wolf’s for some reason are tanked somewhere where your http://www.wowhead.com/spell=114923/nether-tempest won’t reach, go for http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157980/supernova.
This encounter comes with alot of movement, so it would be a disaster to go for anything else then http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow.
Although you probably won’t get alot of rest the boss itself sure do. Staying still the whole encounters makes Mage dreams come true. http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal is an obvious choice here.

What you’re going to do/look out for:

Throughout the fight Ka’graz will frequently cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155318 which works just like a Chain Lightning. She will cast it on an initial target and it will chain to every player who stays within 7 yards. So basically just stay spreaded the whole fight.

Early in the fight there will be an add called http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77337 which will jump around and do unavoidable knockbacks while also channeling devestating frontal cones which are totally avoidable. Stay spread 10 yards while http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77337 is alive to prevent that more then one player gets knocked back. When Aknor is dead, you really only have to be spread 7 yards.

Make sure to not stand close to the Weaponry that Ka’graz spawns, since they will frequently cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156713 which you don’t wanna stand 6 yards or less within.

If you get targeted with http://www.wowhead.com/spell=154938, make sure to either.

1. http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1953/blink into an empty corner and use either http://www.wowhead.com/spell=45438/ice-block or http://www.wowhead.com/spell=110959/gre ... visibility (This is obviously the best choice for your raid)
2. Bunch up with a group of players to share the damage from http://www.wowhead.com/spell=154938. (This is if you want to be a douchebag and continue DPS instead of mitigating incoming damage).

When the two http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76794/cinder-wolf’s have spawned, one of them will fixate on a random player and create a http://www.wowhead.com/spell=154961/fiery-link between the them. This link will deal damage on contact and should be kited according to plan.

If you get targeted by http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155277, make sure to stand atleast 10 yards away from other players. Use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=110959/gre ... visibility here if you still have it left for DM.

The last thing you have to remember is that the two wolves has to die shortly within each other, otherwise they will heal back to full.

Mythic Changes:

Use the Fire specialization for this encounter and preferably use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155148/kindling as your level 100 talent of choice.

The biggest change to this fight is that there will be spawning four http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76794/cinder-wolf's instead of two. The second mechanic
is http://www.wowhead.com/spell=162293/empowered-armament, which you will just ignore by having the fixated people go into melee range (where there shouldn't be any weapons), but make sure you don't take repeated attacks from the wolves while kiting in as mentioned... melee range. That's basically it, this is in my opinion the easiest boss in the whole instance.

Make sure to have http://www.wowhead.com/spell=29977/combustion up for both waves of http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76794/cinder-wolf. I.E, if you have it ready and the wolves are spawning in 25 seconds, stall it.

Use mitigation when the duration of http://www.wowhead.com/spell=154938/molten-torrent is at approximately one second. That last second + travel time will give you more then enough time.

Tips & Tricks:

You’re main goal during this fight is to kill second wave of the two http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76794/cinder-wolf’s before Ka’graz reaches 100 Fury and starts casting http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155493. Therefor, use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal on the wolf that is placed close to boss for maximum DPS.

Generally stay spread 10 yards while http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77337 is alive and 7 yards when he is dead.

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76794/cinder-wolf’s move fairly slow for being wolves, so don’t be to worried about making contact. I highly recommend http://www.wowhead.com/spell=56384/glyph-of-momentum for this encounter. Not just to kite the adds sideways but also if you for some reason have to use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1953/blink to pass over http://www.wowhead.com/spell=154961/fiery-link.

Use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=86209/glyph-of-slow to further slow the wolves during their fixating phase.

Hans'gar & Franzok
Image
Type of Fight: Single/Cleave
Specialization: Arcane / Fire

Talents: Arcane

V : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157980/supernova
VI : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow
VII: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal / (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155147/overpowered)

Talents: Fire

V : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=44457/living-bomb
VI : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow
VII: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155148/kindling / (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=153561/meteor)

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157980/supernova will be the go to choice here due to the not consistent cleaving potential.
Use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow as this is one of the most hectic and dynamic fights in Blackrock Foundry.
Even though these two goofs jump around like crazy they gotta rest relatively frequently. Place down http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal when you know that either http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158140/pulverized or http://www.wowhead.com/spell=161570/searing-plates is not coming up the next 10 seconds.

What you’re going to do/look out for:

Avoid standing in http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158140/pulverized at any cost, these plates of doom will come in different patterns and will most likely one shot you.

Watch out for http://www.wowhead.com/spell=160838/disrupting-roar, this is a 2.5 sec cast that Franzok will cast from time to time. If they are under the effect http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155665/pumped-up the casting time of this ability will be reduced.

Be very careful to not make contact with the http://www.wowhead.com/spell=161570/searing-plates that will spawn at the back edge of the total of five conveyer belts, as these deal an immense amount of damage. There will always be atleast one convery belt free from http://www.wowhead.com/spell=161570/searing-plates

Make sure to not be standing in http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155818/scorching-burns during that particular phase.

Try to not be standing near the one targeted by http://www.wowhead.com/spell=159646 as one of the brutes will hurl themselves towards that target. Hans’gar & Franzok will target the player furthest away from their current location.

Although if you do get targeted by http://www.wowhead.com/spell=159646, make sure to use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1953/blink to prevent others players from getting hit from this ability.

Mythic Changes:

For this fight you are going to want to opt. for the Fire specialization. Using the same talents as on Heroic difficulty.

The only new mechanic for this fight is http://www.wowhead.com/spell=162124/smart-stampers, which basically is an "enhanced" version of http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158140/pulverized. These Stampers will sense where players are standing, and will smash the area after approximately eight seconds. So what you are going to want to do is to stay with your assigned group (either melee or ranged) and move as one unit in order to save up as much space as possible. These phases will occur at 100%, 70% and 40%. Just make sure to follow your raid leaders instructions and you'll be fine.

The usual http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158140/pulverized phase will also occur, and the reason I mention this is that directly after one of those phases have passed, the boss will then begin a phase of http://www.wowhead.com/spell=162124/smart-stampers and there is a possibilty that a few Stampers have stayed down from this previous phase but don't worry. This is just a visual bug and you can walk right through them without taking any damage.

If you are furthest away from either of the bosses they will use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156892/body-slam on you. If you don't stand within a group to share the damage, you must use some mitigation in order to survive.

The fight is really easy, if you can manage to not die from the various mechanics that will occur throughout the encounter, this should be another cake walk.

Tips & Tricks:

Remain ontop of safe areas (area inbetween belts) while the conveyer belts are moving and continue to avoid certain mechanics by walking about ½ yard to either direction.

During http://www.wowhead.com/spell=161570, you can still remain within safe areas (stripes between Conveyer Belts). Make sure to be standing as close to the middle of these stripes, or more safely... move back and forward with small movements to be absolutly sure that you don't touch http://www.wowhead.com/spell=161570 .

During http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158140, stand at the intersection point of where to safe area (stripes) go together, to easily move to one of the areas where http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158140 is not going to land. Note: as I previously mentioned, http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158140 will come in different patterns so be aware of that.

Inbetween the converyer belts there will be a static strip where you can stand completely still and cast you spells. Use these to your advantage.

Use either http://www.wowhead.com/spell=110959/gre ... visibility or http://www.wowhead.com/spell=45438/ice-block if somehow managed to get stuck under http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158140/pulverized. NOTE that using http://www.wowhead.com/spell=45438/ice-block under this ability will knock you back quite far.

Use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=56384/glyph-of-momentum to http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1953/blink sideways to the safe area during http://www.wowhead.com/spell=161570/searing-plates.

Try to be standing relatively close to boss to avoid as much movement from http://www.wowhead.com/spell=159646 as possible, as Mages are not the best when it comes to constantly moving.

When playing as Fire for this boss, note that you can spread your debuffs while either one of them is in air if they still remain close enough to the main target. Making this fight "more or less" a 2-target cleave encounter all through.

Operator Thogar
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Type of Fight: Aoe/Single
Specialization: Fire / Arcane

On Operator Thogar, you’re gonna want to go with Fire as the default choice of spec with an unglyphed . This is due to the great amount of adds that will spawn frequently during the whole encounter.

Talents: Fire

V : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=44457/living-bomb
VI : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow
VII: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155148/kindling

Talents: Arcane

V : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157980/supernova
VI : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow / (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=116011/rune-of-power)
VII: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=153626/arcane-orb / (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal)


http://www.wowhead.com/spell=44457/living-bomb will be used as it is the most efficient talent to use for plain AoE.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow will be used because of the high movement that this encounter requires.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155148/kindling is our go-to talent for this last tier as we want to have http://www.wowhead.com/spell=29977/combustion up as frequently as possible.

What you’re going to do/look out for:

Make sure to not stand at any track with a train incoming, as http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156554 will oneshot you. http://www.wowhead.com/spell=45438/ice-block might work here. Trains come frequently.

You’re going to want to get out off http://www.wowhead.com/spell=165195 as fast as possible.

When the train with the http://www.wowhead.com/npc=81318/iron-gunnery-sergeant spawns, start damaging him immediately, this target is the highest prioritize due this his ability http://www.wowhead.com/spell=159481.

If you get targeted with http://www.wowhead.com/spell=159481 make sure to get to a predetermined position where the raid is not located to place bombs, if a bomb manages to be put where the rest of the party is located…make sure to not stand within 9 yards of it.

Make sure to prioritize killing the http://www.wowhead.com/npc=87841/gromkar-firemender since they are the biggest threat with their burst damage and their healing.

AoE the rest but try to keep http://www.wowhead.com/npc=80791/gromkar-man-at-arms in check, preferably kill them fairly quickly since their rush will not only make them go down slower, but also deal AoE damage to the raid.

Mythic Changes:

This fight may possibly be the best in the whole instance, a **** ton of stuff is going on and requires each player to execute their objectives to near perfection.

Make sure you have downloaded the addon "Thogar Assist" in order to keep track of where it is safe to stand and where it is not.

I will not go through exactly where to stand at a certain point in time because that would just be crazy. But I did write down our assignemtns that we used to kill this encounter (don't know where we got it from but creds to them). Link to that here. (The markers on the side is just to visualize where the double packs of adds will spawn (purple and white) and the grey and orange marker indicated where you are going to stack up before you go through some of the http://www.wowhead.com/npc=81612/deforester's).

Looking at the assignment, what you need to pay attention to is the http://www.wowhead.com/npc=81612/deforester's which we as Mages can handle extremely well, just use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1953/blink through the fire to avoid getting the http://www.wowhead.com/spell=164380/burning debuff. Otherwise just makes sure to save http://www.wowhead.com/spell=29977/combustion if you can for the double pack of adds, since this is the only real DPS check for the encounter. Make sure you are not standing in the http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156406/obliteration circles and to kill http://www.wowhead.com/npc=81318/iron-gunnery-sergeant's as quickly as possible.

Tips & Tricks:

The addon Thogar Assist will help you greatly with avoiding trains, giving you just a little bit more attention to deal further damage.

On this encounter http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1953/blink comes in more handy then ever. Make sure to use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1953/blink to not only get out of http://www.wowhead.com/spell=165195 but also to place http://www.wowhead.com/spell=159481's with proper placement.

Be sure to make use of http://www.wowhead.com/spell=159485/gly ... ons-breath. I personally did not find double Blink very helpful.

The Blast Furnace
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Type of Fight: AoE/Cleave
Specialization: Fire / Arcane

On The Blast Furnace, you’re gonna want to go with Fire as the default choice of spec. This is due to the immense amount of adds that will spawn frequently during the entire encounter.

Talents: Fire

V : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=44457/living-bomb
VI : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow
VII: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155148/kindling

Talents: Arcane

V : (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=114923/nether-tempest) / (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157980/supernova)
VI : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow
VII: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=153626/arcane-orb

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=44457/living-bomb will be used as it is the most efficient talent to use for plain AoE.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow will be used because of the high movement that this encounter requires.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155148/kindling is our go-to talent for this last tier as we want to have http://www.wowhead.com/spell=29977/combustion up as frequently as possible.

What you’re going to do/look out for:

During Phase 1: Sabotage

Spread atleast 5 yards to aviod http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155201 bounces.

Prioritize killing http://www.wowhead.com/npc=88820/furnace-engineer’s and http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76809/foreman-feldspar. The Engineers are going target players with http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155192/bomb’s which will detonate after 15 seconds. Other then assigning http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155192/bomb’s to random players, Engineers will also drop a cask of bombs once killed. Players can click this cask to retrieve the http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155192/bomb debuff but also with the choice of dropping the bombs on certain locations. These locations of interest are going to be one of the two http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76808/heat-regulator’s which are located at both sides of the opening of the furnace.

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=88820/furnace-engineer will also try to use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155179/repair on the heat regulator's. This ability should not be a problem since they are they are highest on the list over kill targets, but if an Engineer manages to make it to one of the regulators, be sure to interrupt this ability.

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76809/foreman-feldspar will periodicly spawn http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156934 under a random players feet, move out of it instantly. http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76809/foreman-feldspar also casts an interruptable spell called http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156937. Make sure to interrupt this.

During Phase 2: The Heart Exposed

If you get http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152838/fixated by http://www.wowhead.com/npc=78463/slag-elemental, get immediately ontop of the assigned
http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76815/primal-elementalist and be sure that you really stand ON TOP of it. The blast from the "for now" dead http://www.wowhead.com/npc=78463/slag-elemental will temporarily disable the Elementalist’s immunity barrier.

In this phase there will spawn http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76821/firecaller's that casts both http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155186/cauterize-wounds and http://www.wowhead.com/spell=133293/lava-burst. If your melee's are not interrupting these, make sure you do.

If you get targeted by http://www.wowhead.com/spell=176121/volatile-fire, make sure to not stand within 8 yards of other players.

After all four http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76815/primal-elementalist's are dead, Phase 3 will start.

During Phase 3: Freedom! / (Blazing Race)

In this Phase, make sure to be located ontop of your assigned ranged positioner. The point of this is to make sure to place http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155225/melt in corners to not block off any walking path. http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155225/melt will spawn regularly and the boss will have to be moved from one corner of the room to the other. Eventually if the boss is not dead before the whole room is covered in molten pools, raid whipe is assured.

If any adds still remains when Phase 3 has begun, cleave them down while continously damaging the boss and spawning http://www.wowhead.com/npc=78463/slag-elemental's.

Tips & Tricks:

If your raid lacks essential single target damage to bring down certain adds, I'd recommend going with the Arcane specialization... using the talents above.

Just before the boss’s heat meter reaches full, you wanna use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108978/alter-time to quickly get back to full health.

Make sure you use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108839/ice-floes to continue DPS'ing while moving youself over to one of the http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76808/heat-regulator's when you have a http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155192/bomb attached to you.

Kromog
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Type of Fight: Single
Specialization: Arcane

On Kromog, you’re gonna want to go with Arcane as the default choice of spec. This is due to the high single target output.

Talents:

V : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157980/supernova
VI : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=116011/rune-of-power / (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow)
VII: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal


http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157980/supernova will be used due to highest DPS output on single target.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=116011/rune-of-power will be the best choice here due to the semi-low level of movement required.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal will be the default choice due to the boss being in a static state during the entire fight.

What you’re going to do/look out for:

Move out of http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157659, this ability will slowly move towards you from the boss.

After casting http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157659 Kromog will spawn http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157247 which are vortexes which will move slowly towards raidmembers. Avoiding these are easy.

Kromog will cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=161839 frequently, which will spawn a red mark on the ground with two stone hands on the side. Don’t stand in between these hands.

Kromog will also cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157060 which will spawn smaller yellow markers on the ground. One player will each take one yellow mark and get put into a stone grip which will deal periodic damage to each player. Players will be forced to do this to completely avoid http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157054 which will otherwise deal massive amounts of periodic damage and also fling you up in the air.

To get out of the grip players must damage the stone fists, this sequence should be timed so that when http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157054 is about to expire, grips should be released.

At 30 % Kromog goes into http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156861 which basically gives him more damage and also makes him cast all his abilties more frequently.

Mythic Changes:

You're going to want to opt for Arcane as the main speciailization for this encounter, BUT, if you find that you somehow lack damage during http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157060/run ... ping-earth, Fire is going to work decent here.

Kromog on Mythic difficulty will bring a whole new mechanic to the fight, namely http://www.wowhead.com/spell=173917/run ... ling-earth. Kromog will one after another, spawn three pillars of stone. These pillars MUST BE destroyed in order to avoid http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158217/cal ... e-mountain. Your raid leader will most likely call out where melee / ranged goes but generally DPS the first one that spawns, then switch to the second for about two-three casts and then switch to the third one that spawns and kill this one. If the pillar that you damage primaraly dies first, obviously help get the other ones down as you need all three to be shattered. During this phase certain areas on the ground will start croumbling, move out of these and preferably have Hunters chain http://www.wowhead.com/spell=172106/aspect-of-the-fox for this phase. Once all the pillars have been shattered, Kromog will start casting Call of the Mountain for five seconds, when this cast is finished, anyone that doesn't stand out of line of sight from Kromog (using the remains of the pillars as objects) will be killed instantly. Note that in between every http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158217/cal ... e-mountain, Kromog will use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157659/rippling-smash on one of the three pillars, crushing them and making them disappear. Therefor you will have some time (7-8 seconds) to DPS the boss inbetween. You can use mitigations to avoid the damage from this spell but I'd suggest only using it if you somehow have failed to move to the next pillar for some reason. You will likely need the damage mitigation sub 30 % as this part of the fight will hurt as hell.

Other then that the fight rolls on as usual, the only other thing I want to mention is to be careful with using two http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157980/supernova's on the same target during http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157060/run ... ping-earth. If you end up playing Fire for this fight, make sure to focus on spreading your dot's to as many players as possible, rather then getting this huge http://www.wowhead.com/spell=12654/ignite and then spread.

Tips & Tricks:

*Mythic* - place your http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal so that it only hits the pillars during http://www.wowhead.com/spell=173917/run ... ling-earth.

Use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1953/blink with http://www.wowhead.com/spell=56384/glyph-of-momentum or http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108839/ice-floes to avoid http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157659.

If you somehow fail to get in one of the yellow markers during this face, make sure to use either http://www.wowhead.com/spell=108978/alter-time or http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1953/blink to remain steady down on the ground, since you don't want o be thrown up into the air *duh*. As you will now start to take severe physical damage, use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=110959/gre ... visibility or http://www.wowhead.com/spell=45438/ice-block as DM.

Iron Maidens
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Type of Fight: AoE
Specialization: Fire / Arcane

On The Iron Maidens, you’re gonna want to go with Fire as your default specialization of choice. Due to the constant two target (possibly three target) cleave

Talents: Fire

V : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=44457/living-bomb
VI : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow
VII: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155148/kindling

Talents: Arcane

V : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=114923/nether-tempest / (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157980/supernova)
VI : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow / (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=116011/rune-of-power)
VII: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=44457/living-bomb will be used as it is the most efficient talent to use for plain AoE.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow will be used because of the somewhat high movement that this encounter required later on in the fight. You might be able to pull of http://www.wowhead.com/spell=116011/rune-of-power, but I'd go for the safe bet with http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155148/kindling will be used for Iron Maidens due to the long fight with consistant cleave.

What you’re going to do/look out for:

All of the Maidsen will recieve new abilities during the progression of the fight. Once at 30 Fury and for a second time at 100 Fury. The turn out of the fight will depend on which of the three maidens you decide to take down first. Even though I don’t see it likely to send up Mages to any of the boats I figure I’ll list what you need to know if you might decide to conquer a ship!

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77557/admiral-garan

If you get targeted by http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156629, make sure to kite the shells to where none of your partymember will take any damage from them.

At 30 Fury Gar’an will gain http://www.wowhead.com/spell=164264

If you get targeted by http://www.wowhead.com/spell=164264, make sure to line up the big red line with others players standing on top of it, this is to to share the damage.

At 100 Fury Gar’an will gain http://www.wowhead.com/spell=159585

Gar’an will place a turret at a somewhat random position near a player, this turret will pulsate small fiery globes in a circular pattern which if made contact with. Will apply a stacking debuff.

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77231/enforcer-sorka

Make sure to stay spread by atleast 8 yards to minimize the damage made by http://www.wowhead.com/spell=160796.

At 30 Fury Sorka will gain http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156112

Sorka is going to place http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156112 on a random player, starting at five stacks and decaying with one stack per tick. This debuff will deal a fixed number of damage times the number of stacks. Dispelling this debuff will deal a higher fixed number of damage times the number of stacks to the target. It will probably be easiest to just let it pass through.

At 100 Fury Sorka will gain http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158315

If you get marked by http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158315 you wanna make sure you have some sort of DR to fuse when the debuff expires as it will deal a high amount of damage at the end of the duration.

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77477/marak-the-blooded

Marak doesn’t have abilities that affect ranged in general, except for her ability which she gains at 30 Fury.

At 30 Fury Marak will gain http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158008

Marak will throw her dagger http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158008 towards three marked players. The damage the blade deals depends on how far the knife travels, longer the travel… lesser the damage. How you wanna deal with this ability is to simply spread out from the players that also got the debuff.

Another aspect of the encounter, which I got into abit earlier is the several ships you are going to deal with. The layout of the ship depends on what maiden you decide to kill first.

If you decide to kill off http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77557/admiral-garan first, your ship assignment will contain the following adds.

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=78351/uktar: Will fire his rifle in a cone like attack, spread out around http://www.wowhead.com/npc=78351/uktar to minimize the damage dealt by this ability.

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=78352/battle-medic-rogg: Will cast three differnet abilities. http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158708, http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158707 and http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158710. You wanna set up an interrupt rotaion and interrupt each cast with high priority on http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158708 and http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158707.

What your raid is going to want to do is to kill off http://www.wowhead.com/npc=78352/battle-medic-rogg first, since http://www.wowhead.com/npc=78351/uktar doesn’t really do that much.

Recommended setup to send up to ship: one healer and five DPS.

If you decide to kill off http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77231/enforcer-sorka first, your ship assignment will contain the following adds.

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=78343/gorak will throw http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158692 which will be soaked by the closest target to him. Preferably the Tank. http://www.wowhead.com/npc=78343/gorak will also spawn adds that will fixate onto players, these adds don’t have alot of health and shouldn’t be a problem.

Recommended setup to send up to ship: one tank, one healer and four DPS.

If you decide to kill off http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77477/marak-the-blooded first, your ship assignment will contain the following adds.

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=78341/ukurogg: will spawn http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158683 which are pools of blood that spawns underneath each player on top of the ship every two seconds. Other then that just kite and kill http://www.wowhead.com/npc=78341/ukurogg.

Recommended setup to send up to ship: one tank, one healer and four DPS.

Down on the main land one of the three maidens will frequently decide to jump on top of the ship to start fire bombs at the raid.

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=160733 will deal damage to players and knock them back. Try to not stand stacked for this phase.

Some of the bombs will then turn red and begin casting http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157884, these bombs are the dangerous ones and you have to stay atleast 7 yards away from them.

Mythic Changes:

The Mythic difficulty for this fight does not concern you as a Fire Mage at all. The only new mechanic that you will "sorta" have to watch out for is http://www.wowhead.com/spell=160436/swirling-vortex. But this mechanic will be neglected by having a player (preferably Warlock) to just soak throughout the whole fight. When the bosses hit the 20% mark, they will start having some notable difficulty increases. What you wanna do it to make sure that you get your http://www.wowhead.com/spell=29977/combustion up (if it's ready) as soon as possible. And THEN focus on killing the Sentry's spawned from Gar'an. A tip here is to... When Gar'an gets ready, and launches herself to put up a turret. Quickly as soon as it spawns, spread your current debuffs from Gar'an to the turrets, giving you a headstart in terms of damage on the turrets. Otherwise it's mainly just nuking Marak down. As I mentioned, this fight does not change alot from Heroic to Mythic from your standpoint and the (unintentionally) easy way of dealing with the tornados. So you just continue to do what you do best... deal out as much damage as possible.
So you just do what you do best, lash out as much DPS as possible.

Tips & Tricks:

Like I previously mentioned, I wouldn’t suggest putting Mages up on ships since our kit isn’t the best fit for the different assignments.

Use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=110959/gre ... visibility to mitigate the damage by http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158315. That is if Admiral is not up. Suggested to ask for a external here.
Use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1953/blink in order to quickly spread for http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158008.
Use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=110959/gre ... visibility to cancel and negate all damage from http://www.wowhead.com/spell=164264.
Use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=110959/gre ... visibility to cancel and negate all damage from http://www.wowhead.com/spell=159724/blood-ritual. This is not recommended to do while Adrmial is alive.

Blackhand
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Type of Fight: Single
Specialization: Arcane

On Blackhand, you’re gonna want to go with Arcane as the default choice of spec. This is due to the high single target output.

Talents:
V : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157980/supernova
VI : http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow
VII: http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal / (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155147/overpowered)


http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157980/supernova will be used due to highest DPS output on single target.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1463/incanters-flow due to the high movement required during this encounter.
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal will be the go-to choice here since he the boss itself is not moving regularly. http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155147/overpowered will do for those who doesn't feel sure about usinghttp://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal.

What you’re going to do/look out for:

Phase 1: The Blackrock Forge

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156401 will immensely heat up the ground floor, starting from the edges of the room and slowly move towards the center area. If made contact with, will apply a stacking damaging Fire debuff.

Blackhand will hurl his hammer in the ceiling and cause http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156425 and http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156479, http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156425 will be shown as smaller lighter markers which will deal damage if you stand in them/near them (damage is decreased based on the distance from the center of the impact point).

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156479 will be shown as bigger darker markers, these will basically work as http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156425 but will deal alot more damage and you wanna make sure to either stay as far as possible from the impact of these chunks, or have assigned healing cooldowns which you should participate in.

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156479 also causes Debris Pile's to be spawn at the impact points, which are basically piles of junk which works as physical objects. These will come in handy for Blackhand's next ability http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156096.
Blackhand will mark a player and after 5 seconds throw http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156107. A deadly spear that will be traviling in a straight line between Blackhand and the marked target. This ability will collide the FIRST OBJECT that it hits. Players might hide behind Debris Pile's and use them to soak the damage from this deadly spear.

Blackhand will also frequently use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156030 relativly close to himself. (Which in later parts of this phase, will be in the ranged camp aswell due to http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156401). These bomb will detonate after 3 seconds or by being hit by http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156401 and deal a massive amount of damage if stood within 10 yards of the blast area. Slag Bomb's will also cause the debuff http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156047/slagged which will increase your damage taken by 100% for 15 seconds. This is really something you don't wanna stand close by.

At 70% Blackhand will enter Phase 2.

Phase 2: Storage Warehouse

During this Phase, Blackhand will continue to use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156999, you deal with this mechanic like you do in Phase 1 except for blowing up on contact with http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156401, these will instead blow up when made contact with a http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77342.

http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77342 's are huge vehicles of death that Blackhand will call on repeatatly throughout this Phase. http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77342's will fixate on the closest enemy too them while using http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156646 constantly. The http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77342's also have an energy bar that goes up to 100. When a Siegemaker gains full energy it will fire http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156530 at a random player. Creating a spreading Blaze around the impact area. After casting http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156530 the http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77342 will go into http://www.wowhead.com/spell=159199, reganing energy rapidly.

During this Phase, Blackhand will continue to use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156096 and use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156107 with the same core mechanics as in Phase 1. But this time instead of hiding behind piles of junk, you wanna line the spear up so it will hit the currently active http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77342. This is both to negate the damage that you or another player would take, but also to remove http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156667, which is a 90% damage reduction buff that the http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77342's will be spawning with.

You want to start damaging the http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77342 once his reduction have gone down totally. You preferably don't want two http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77342's active at the same time.

Players might also be stacking on http://www.wowhead.com/spell=159142 in order to get sent up to the side balcony in order to deal with http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77665's. But this is not recommended as a Mage as out kit doesn't fit for the high movement that is required for this particular assignment.

At 30% Blackhand will enter Phase 3.

Phase 3: Iron Crucible / Blazing Race

During this phase, all of Blackhand's abilities will get some sort of enhancement.

The first thing you need to know during this phase is that you will take periodic Fire damage from http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156888 all the time.

Instead of casting http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156030, Blackhand will instead cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157000, which will attach bombs to "a few" players that will explode after 3 seconds and deal damage to anyone within 10 yards. The bomb will also apply http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156047/slagged and create a slag hole which I will be talking about shortly.

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156096 will do the same thing it has done in the previous two Phases... with a slight difference. When Blackhand throws http://www.wowhead.com/spell=175013, it will not only hit the first object it comes in contact with, this time it will literally impale and go through EVERY target in the line formed between the marked target and Blackhand.

Blackhand will also cast http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158054 on the tank which will, either be soaked by a single tank using some sort of DR or being soaked by a group of players. (this "might" include you so I felt I should mention this) This ability also creates a slag hole.

Lastly Blackhand will use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156928, causing every non active slag hole to erupt molten lava, which will hit and deal damage to players standing close by.

As this Phase has somewhat of a soft enrage between how much room you have left combined with http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156888. You should try to save your abilities if they just come back just single percentages before Blackhand reaches 30%.

Mythic Changes:

I have made a decision and not update this part of the guide, mainly because of the various amount of ways to deal with the specific mechanics. Blackhand himself is more important then any boss to keep good class management, and your tactic will differ from others, depending on what classes you bring.

Tips & Tricks:

Use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1953/blink to get out of Blaze. This will come as previously mentioned, after http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156530 has hit the ground.

In Phases 1 and 2: If you get targeted by http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156096. Make sure to use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1953/blink to get behind the objects that can protect you from http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156107, namely the Debris Pile's and http://www.wowhead.com/npc=77342's.

In Phase 3: if you get targeted by http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156096. Make sure to use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1953/blink to get out of the raid group and prefarably use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=45438/ice-block to mitigate both the initial damage but also the applied DoT effect. If http://www.wowhead.com/spell=45438/ice-block is on cooldown, use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=110959/gre ... visibility and always make sure to not be standing on the edge of the platform since this will then knock you out of the area and kill you.

In phases 1 and 2: Make sure to not place http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152087/prismatic-crystal 10 seconds before Blackhand uses http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156999

In Phase 3: If you get targeted by http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157000, make sure you use http://www.wowhead.com/spell=1953/blink and put it as far away from your raid before the 3 second duration expires so that when Blackhand uses http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156928, it won't hit your raid.
Last edited by Sugg3 on Thu Feb 11, 2016 11:08 am, edited 98 times in total.
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Re: Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic]

Unread postby Frosted Mon Feb 02, 2015 1:05 am

Uh. You don't think it's a bit premature to be giving out advice on fights people have had hardly any experience on?
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Re: Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic]

Unread postby Vatti Mon Feb 02, 2015 2:03 am

Uh. You don't think it's a bit premature to be giving out advice on fights people have had hardly any experience on?
I disagree. I feel most of what is written falls in line to my thoughts on the fights from my Beta/PTR testing experience.

Good post. Be sure to update with further information.
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Re: Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic]

Unread postby zhengma Mon Feb 02, 2015 2:07 am

Thanks for the great guide! I'm just switching to Arcane/Frost for BRF and this guide came at the right time.

The reason I'm going Arcane/Frost instead of Arcane/Fire as mentioned in the guide (which I admit to be superior) is simple: I doubt I'll be able to accumulate the gear for Fire, and I certainly can't afford to re-gem and re-enchant between fights. Once we have H BRF on farm and head into Mythic, I'll apply to my raid leader to build my Fire set.
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Re: Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic]

Unread postby Sugg3 Mon Feb 02, 2015 2:10 am

As a old time PTR tester myself, I can almost guarantee you that any major changes won't be made to the different boss mechanics. And if any changes at all, it will just be tweakings that will not affect the gameplay in any major ways. :)

Although if something were to drastically change, I would just update the guide with the new data.

This guide is for the one who wants to come "prepared" to the new instance. The advice given is based on my interpretation of the fights and nothing written here is completely set in stone. Even though I personally feel that I got it under control. :)
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Re: Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic]

Unread postby zhengma Mon Feb 02, 2015 2:13 am

Question: I noticed that you never mentioned http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158140. Is it very easily dodgable by an Arcane mage (which is NOT the impression I get from Beta video), or do we just dodge as other classes do and nothing perculiar?
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Re: Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic]

Unread postby Sugg3 Mon Feb 02, 2015 2:41 am

Question: I noticed that you never mentioned http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158140. Is it very easily dodgable by an Arcane mage (which is NOT the impression I get from Beta video), or do we just dodge as other classes do and nothing perculiar?
No of course not :)

I had somehow completely forgotten to put in alot of mechanics from the Hans & Franz encounter from my notes to this post. Checked through my notes on every encounter and everything looks good now. Very glad that you mentioned this! 8-)
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Re: Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic]

Unread postby Sugg3 Mon Feb 02, 2015 2:53 am

Thanks for the great guide! I'm just switching to Arcane/Frost for BRF and this guide came at the right time.

The reason I'm going Arcane/Frost instead of Arcane/Fire as mentioned in the guide (which I admit to be superior) is simple: I doubt I'll be able to accumulate the gear for Fire, and I certainly can't afford to re-gem and re-enchant between fights. Once we have H BRF on farm and head into Mythic, I'll apply to my raid leader to build my Fire set.
I definitely see your point, neither I have planned in doing either re-gemming or re-enchanting inbetween bosses. But as an Arcane mage you are going to opt. for as much Mastery as possible, which happens to be the second best secondary stat for Fire during progression. The reason for why I (and probably alot of other Mages aswell) will switch between Arcane/Fire inbetween fights is due to the very essence of the specific boss itself. Some bosses are just very AoE/Cleave heavy, and this is where Fire really shines over the other specs. 8-)

I also predict that we're going to see alot more players using the Fire specialization when Mythic progression begins. Most likely on fights like Operator Thorgar and The Blast Furnace.
Last edited by Sugg3 on Tue Feb 03, 2015 1:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic]

Unread postby Sugg3 Mon Feb 02, 2015 2:55 am

Uh. You don't think it's a bit premature to be giving out advice on fights people have had hardly any experience on?
I disagree. I feel most of what is written falls in line to my thoughts on the fights from my Beta/PTR testing experience.

Good post. Be sure to update with further information.
Thanks for the positive feedback! Always nice to hear :).

I sure will! 8-)
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Re: Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic]

Unread postby zhengma Mon Feb 02, 2015 3:02 am

Question: I noticed that you never mentioned http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158140. Is it very easily dodgable by an Arcane mage (which is NOT the impression I get from Beta video), or do we just dodge as other classes do and nothing perculiar?
No of course not :)

I had somehow completely forgotten to put in alot of mechanics from the Hans & Franz encounter from my notes to this post. Checked through my notes on every encounter and everything looks good now. Very glad that you mentioned this! 8-)
Thank you very much for updating so quickly.

Actually I was wondering if it will one-shot me (starting at full health) in Heroic difficulty if I have my GI up. After all, GI is 90% damage reduction for 3+ seconds and on a fairly short cooldown, and I've used it back in 5.4 to save me from http://www.wowhead.com/spell=117948, another one-shot ability. I expect quite some hits in the first couple of pulls, and if GI can save me from one-shotting it'll be greatly helpful, otherwise the other two talents in the tier might give a larger margin of error?
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Re: Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic]

Unread postby Sugg3 Mon Feb 02, 2015 3:38 am

Question: I noticed that you never mentioned http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158140. Is it very easily dodgable by an Arcane mage (which is NOT the impression I get from Beta video), or do we just dodge as other classes do and nothing perculiar?
No of course not :)

I had somehow completely forgotten to put in alot of mechanics from the Hans & Franz encounter from my notes to this post. Checked through my notes on every encounter and everything looks good now. Very glad that you mentioned this! 8-)
Thank you very much for updating so quickly.

Actually I was wondering if it will one-shot me (starting at full health) in Heroic difficulty if I have my GI up. After all, GI is 90% damage reduction for 3+ seconds and on a fairly short cooldown, and I've used it back in 5.4 to save me from http://www.wowhead.com/spell=117948, another one-shot ability. I expect quite some hits in the first couple of pulls, and if GI can save me from one-shotting it'll be greatly helpful, otherwise the other two talents in the tier might give a larger margin of error?
Great question! :)

You can mitigate the damage using http://www.wowhead.com/spell=110959/gre ... visibility. I have now added this under the "Tips & Tricks" tab for this encounter.

Edit: Please continue to ask questions like these so I can keep the guide at clear as possible! 8-)
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Re: Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic]

Unread postby aycheff Mon Feb 02, 2015 4:27 am

How can you call it a Mage guide when you don't even include Frost in your guide? :?
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Re: Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic]

Unread postby Zombie240 Mon Feb 02, 2015 4:32 am

Thank you so much for this guide!
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Re: Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic]

Unread postby Sugg3 Mon Feb 02, 2015 4:34 am

How can you call it a Mage guide when you don't even include Frost in your guide? :?
Good point, didn't include Frost since Arcane / Fire is far superior any other combination when it comes to overall performance. Don't see any usage of playing Frost with the only exception being that you've already gemmed and enchanted fully for multistrike.

Don't get me wrong, I like playing Frost. But I cannot be living in the past! :(
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Re: Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic]

Unread postby Zombie240 Mon Feb 02, 2015 4:37 am

How can you call it a Mage guide when you don't even include Frost in your guide? :?
Good point, didn't include Frost since Arcane / Fire is far superior any other combination when it comes to overall performance. Don't see any usage of playing Frost with the only exception being that you've already gemmed and enchanted fully for multistrike.

Don't get me wrong, I like playing Frost. But I cannot be living in the past! :(
The unfortunate truth :( Unless frost gets buffed, the mages in our guild all plan on going fire/arcane.
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Re: Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic]

Unread postby zhengma Mon Feb 02, 2015 4:56 am

As I've never got the chance to participate in Beta, some of these questions might seem somewhat ignorant. Thanks in advance for responding to them.

1. "If you’re playing with a bunch of slacking(stacking?) melee’s, interrupt http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156879": will the ranged group stack outside of the range of http://www.wowhead.com/spell=2139? Otherwise I don't see why my raid leader won't add all of us ranged into the interruption sequence.

2. There's nothing worthy of doing to http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76796 as a mage, is there? Since you didn't mention that. I don't like just losing to them afflocks and boomers.

3. If one of the 5x4=20 sections of the conveyor belt is affected by http://www.wowhead.com/spell=161570 or http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158140, will the gaps/stripes to its immediate left and right be dangerous as well? Will it be beneficial to stand at a point on the gap where four sections are around me, so that I can always jump to the safest section of the four (or safest piece of gap near me) and jump back later?
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Re: Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic]

Unread postby Sugg3 Mon Feb 02, 2015 1:16 pm

As I've never got the chance to participate in Beta, some of these questions might seem somewhat ignorant. Thanks in advance for responding to them.

1. "If you’re playing with a bunch of slacking(stacking?) melee’s, interrupt http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156879": will the ranged group stack outside of the range of http://www.wowhead.com/spell=2139? Otherwise I don't see why my raid leader won't add all of us ranged into the interruption sequence.

2. There's nothing worthy of doing to http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76796 as a mage, is there? Since you didn't mention that. I don't like just losing to them afflocks and boomers.

3. If one of the 5x4=20 sections of the conveyor belt is affected by http://www.wowhead.com/spell=161570 or http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158140, will the gaps/stripes to its immediate left and right be dangerous as well? Will it be beneficial to stand at a point on the gap where four sections are around me, so that I can always jump to the safest section of the four (or safest piece of gap near me) and jump back later?
First of all, sorry for the long repost. I went to sleep.

1. The only reason I put it in that way is because http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156879 will be when casted... casted three times. And with 12-15 second CD on interrupt (as melee) instead of 24 sec CD on http://www.wowhead.com/spell=2139. It would feel natural to be more of a backup plan if someone messed up their rotation. I already noticed that this answer is abit messy, all I really wanna say that it's usually the melee who interrupt these type of abilities but you will do just fine in one of these rotations, although you ar only gonna need three people for it, with maybe one to back up.

2. I do mention http://www.wowhead.com/npc=76796 as the "ability" http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155365. I only mention the NPC by "the spear" updated this with the corect NPC ID now.

3. The safe areas during both http://www.wowhead.com/spell=161570 and http://www.wowhead.com/spell=158140 no longer safe during either of these phases as you mention in a way. And yes, your suggestion of doing the "having four option with minimal movement" is definitely going to work. Thanks for pointing this out, will add it under the "Tips & Tricks" tab.

Keep coming with these good questions so I can make the guide as clear possible! 8-)
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Re: Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic]

Unread postby minimemage Mon Feb 02, 2015 5:46 pm

Very nice post, it mirrors my own thoughts about the bosses I have tested as well.

Can you share some evidence (sims/numbers) about your choice of gloves as the best offset piece?
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Re: Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic]

Unread postby Sugg3 Mon Feb 02, 2015 7:01 pm

Very nice post, it mirrors my own thoughts about the bosses I have tested as well.

Can you share some evidence (sims/numbers) about your choice of gloves as the best offset piece?
Updated the Coin List with added boss Iron Maiden.

As Arcane you're going to want with go with http://www.wowhead.com/item=113876/toot ... ps&bonus=0 as off piece since they have...
1. Mastery and Haste as secondary stats, being the best stats for Arcane.
2. http://www.wowhead.com/item=115552/arca ... es&bonus=0 has Crit and Haste on them, which are the second worst combination of seconary stats for the T17 set for Arcane specifically.

Same principle will go for Fire which you can read about under Coin List. 8-)

Keep posting questions like this so I can update and make the guide as direct and clear as possible! ;)
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Re: Sugge's [Mage] Guide to Blackrock Foundry [Heroic]

Unread postby Kypes Mon Feb 02, 2015 7:09 pm

Great guide.
I only have one question. I am full Frost (Multistrike) right now. You said that Arcane and fire are superior.
So I assume I should only farming the arcane and fire gear in BRF.

Should I change my spec right now even before I got any other gear? Or should I stay frost until a get a lot of new gear? This would likely end in decreasing my DPS at first if I get "better" gear but without MS.

What would be your plan?

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