Arcane Boss Notes: Heroic SoO Edition

[Komma]

A lot of mages have their own set of tips, tricks, or just general info on how to deal with bosses of each tier, so I thought I'd share mine. Most of these are things that I've found work for me personally, but effectiveness will depend on your raid strategy. Feel free to share your own ideas!

I know it's a bit late in the expansion to be making this thread, but maybe we can make this a routine for each new tier.

Immerseus
- Glyph AE, CoC for add AOE
- Frost Bomb + Nova can do ridiculous AOE burst
- Pools that spawn under raid members can fill RoP easily. Might want to avoid stacking on raid when not AOEing.
- Precast Flamestrike on boss as he returns.

Fallen Protectors
- NT on everything. EVERYTHING
- RoP placed just before Sun's desperate measures should cover some ground inside the bubble, so you don't need to recast it upon moving in
- 4-stack ABar cleave, AE if 3-4 adds alive and in range during Sun's desperate measures phase

Norushen
- Orb-ing early? LB and burn boss. Late? NT multidot adds
- ABar cleave, AE if enough small adds stacked up
- Small adds can be interrupted

Sha of Pride
- Rift bolts suck. Avoid standing on others to reduce rift bolts that might hit you.
- Due to "No Path Available" error, you can't place RoP on top of a prison lock if you're outside, or place it outside when standing on a prison lock. Place RoPs next to, and clipping onto prison locks before you move onto them.
- Temporal Shield works well for soaking rifts and Swelling Pride.

Galakras
- NT add cleaving is very strong. Some suggest frost bomb - depends on how long adds live, and how well you can group the adds with AOE grips/interrupts.

Iron Juggernaut
- If your guild doesn't run away during Siege mode, can blink right as knockback happens to stay in DPS range. Ice block makes you immune to knockback + damage as well.
- Don't stand in center of RoP; Standing on the edge of RoP usually means you can run to the opposite edge when a red circle or tar targets you.

Kor'kron Dark Shaman
- If allowed, don't stack on raid. Iron Tombs/Toxic Storms will force you out of RoP
- If troll, do opener on dogs to take advantage of racial 5% extra damage vs beasts.
- Ice Barrier, Temporal Shield, Greater Invis and Ice Block all work for surviving Iron Prison damage. None remove the debuff
- RISKY: Stay in melee, AE foul slimes as they spawn. Avoid having them fall on you.

General Nazgrim
- Bomb application doesn't give Nazgrim rage in defensive. However, damage ticks do.
- Can cast + cancel AM during defensive if you really want to keep Arcane Charges, but don't want to give Nazgrim rage (most folks would let AM fire away...)
- NT is an option if Nazgrim is tanked on grouped adds.

Malkorok
- Temporal shield gives 15% damage reduction but doesn't regen shield
- Can place RoP on the border between two smash zones, move left/right when smashed
- Can also place RoP close to back wall, so knock up + blink at wall sends you straight back into RoP
- Orbs hit during AT don't matter since AT regenerates your health and shield

Spoils of Pandaria
- NT cleave is strong
- Greater Invis/Ice Block when "Set to Blow" is about to expire, to avoid dropping bombs. Make sure nobody is within 10 yards when this happens though, or you will kill them.
- Teleport from Matter Scramble cancels your current spell casting. Ice Floes prevents this from happening. (Unconfirmed)
- Mantid side has 2 spellstealable buffs; "Rage of the Empress" is a damage buff; not sure if it affects your damage, but should definitely remove it from boss mantids. "Residue" is a healing buff, usually worth spellstealing if mob is above 50% health.

Thok the Bloodthirsty
- Can use AE if you have no instants available for the screech and want to keep Arcane Charges.
- Chomp range is ~15 yards
- AE bats for max DPS

Siegecrafter Blackfuse
- Overcharged magnet drags you back and forth ~18 yards - tiny bit than diameter of RoP. Can use an instant or charge of ice floes to stay in RoP full time
- Greater Invis prevents sawblades from being thrown
- Invis sends the laser chasing a random target. Bad idea.
- Ring of Frost works well for controlling crawler mines

Paragons of the Klaxxi
- Invis prevents aim from firing. Ice block will not prevent Aim damage Invis breaks mesmerize. Ice block will stop you from moving forward and prevent damage during mesmerize, but will not break it, and will not stop the Kun'chong from gaining energy. Ice block will not remove purple catalyst.
- Feed can be interrupted, parasites can be polymorphed. Might need a glyph if they're getting multidotted
- Can blink out of whirling stun if you don't glyph for double blink
- If on aim soaking duty and/or having serious trouble surviving, consider using molten armor + glyph of armors for 16% damage reduction

Garrosh Hellscream
- If on engineers, save 2 AM procs and 4 stack for it
- Pool 4 arcane charges and 1-2 missile procs for 1st Intermission. If you're on a far group, AE while running past mid to keep 4 stack. If you're 10 man, consider taking NT and just multidot everything
- Placing RoP directly under Garrosh should let you stay in RoP while dodging Annihilates
- P2: Doublecheck before using glyphed CoC on MCs- slows may affect weapon group from getting out in time
- Bombing weapons does not provide single target damage gain on Garrosh
- If in weapon group, consider blinking out last second instead of going out early and placing another RoP
- P4: Malice and Malicious Blast cannot be removed by Ice Block. However, Ice Block prevents the damage, and you remain a valid target

[Vog]

Norushen:
Take both blink glyphs for the solo phase, use nitroboosts and make a circle around all adds and NT them as soon as you enter

Galakras:
If your raid dps is high, burn your mana while spamming AB on the first 2 waves will die rather quickly and you'll stand around doing nothing for 15+ seconds waiting for the next wave.

Iron Juggernaut (assuming knock back far tactic)
-PBoI will proc right before the first knockback, burn your mana and refresh your bomb before you get knocked back.
-TS the first knockback, Ice Block the second.
-You can blink the mine explosions without taking damage

General Nazgrim- Bomb application doesn't give Nazgrim rage in defensive. However, damage ticks do.

I believe dot ticks don't generate rage for Nazgrim, only damage on application dots provide rage, such as Immolate.
-Use Slow glyph to help out your raid

Malkorok:
-Use Cold snap + Ice block glyph to stand still in the Breath of Yrshaaraj

Garrosh Hellscream:
-At the RP before phase 4, swap to Frost Armor in case you're in Mage Armor.
-For the empowered whirling corruption, stand on the edge of your RoP so you can move to the other side if an add spawns on you.

[Shangalar]

Galakras:
If your raid dps is high, burn your mana while spamming AB on the first 2 waves will die rather quickly and you'll stand around doing nothing for 15+ seconds waiting for the next wave.

That's not very useful because AB isn't our highest damage spell and by burning mana you're reducing both your multidot and area of effect damage.

Iron Juggernaut (assuming knock back far tactic)
-PBoI will proc right before the first knockback, burn your mana and refresh your bomb before you get knocked back.
-TS the first knockback, Ice Block the second.
-You can blink the mine explosions without taking damage

Blinking the mine explosions is possible but only when your latency is very very low. I had to raid on a wireless connection for a while and one time it worked, another time it didn't.

Malkorok:
-Use Cold snap + Ice block glyph to stand still in the Breath of Yrshaaraj

With your tactic you still get a total of 2 Ice Blocks. If you take Greater Invisibility you can take the 1st and 3rd breath with G.I. and the second breath with Ice Block.

[Vog]

That's not very useful because AB isn't our highest damage spell and by burning mana you're reducing both your multidot and area of effect damage.

Sorry, should have clarified that I meant after the initial dot applications and your Alter Time it's not worth refreshing them when they die within seconds of the dots expiring. Also, with spamming AB I meant to include using up your Missile charges.

With your tactic you still get a total of 2 Ice Blocks. If you take Greater Invisibility you can take the 1st and 3rd breath with G.I. and the second breath with Ice Block.

Good point, actually with Greater Invis you could use it to negate the smash too in a pinch, while Glyph of Iceblock only works on magical damage. I'd still recommend Glyph of Iceblock though as it allows you to lose only a global on Iceblock and gives you more lenience timing wise

[Arold]

Glyph of Ice Block is still really good for clearing orbs in your section, especially when paried with nitro boosts/blazing speed.

[Kver]

Any tips for Garrosh p3 damage? I do not have trinkets up there, only cooldowns(We stay in the back in intermission 2), potion and heroism, and I generally don't get a trinket proc until after BL has ended. Keep in mind that we kill the adds.

[Cycobi]

Am I correct in assuming that, if you're killing the adds, you're starting P3 stacked up?

If so -> with BL just second pot and get a good Alter Time. Trinket RNG helps a lot here but even without it Arcane burst from AT is dumb and should carry you to mid-high table compared to other burst classes (Rogue/Hunter/ShadowPriest), and with good trinket RNG you should win overall burst.

Considering you kill the adds, honestly Arcane is technically good at it because we hit hard; but you lose a ton of damage on the boss because you need to hardcast so much to get 4stacks for nuke - IMO just kill the add closest to you (or similar), then get back onto the boss.
The alternative strat is to run 4p and hope for good 4p/Missiles RNG, if you have to Barrage off Charge stacks, go onto boss, plain and simple.

[Kver]

Am I correct in assuming that, if you're killing the adds, you're starting P3 stacked up?

If so -> with BL just second pot and get a good Alter Time. Trinket RNG helps a lot here but even without it Arcane burst from AT is dumb and should carry you to mid-high table compared to other burst classes (Rogue/Hunter/ShadowPriest), and with good trinket RNG you should win overall burst.

Considering you kill the adds, honestly Arcane is technically good at it because we hit hard; but you lose a ton of damage on the boss because you need to hardcast so much to get 4stacks for nuke - IMO just kill the add closest to you (or similar), then get back onto the boss.
The alternative strat is to run 4p and hope for good 4p/Missiles RNG, if you have to Barrage off Charge stacks, go onto boss, plain and simple.

I run the 4 piece for that exact reason, but I have HWF off-pieces and I kind of hate having to neglect those. Yes, we stay stacked up. What I do now is make sure I have 4 stacks and 2 missiles, pot and then AT once blood lust is up. At that point PBoI has a 50 second ICD. The issue is that when my burst has ended and we get the empowered whirlwind I focus on adds and lose so much boss DPS compared to fire mages who just end up scorching boss and ignoring adds.

Of course I can stay in range of boss with rune, use TS and health stone and keep nuking boss and beat them, but it feels bad. Then again, this strat is stupid in my opinion, staying on boss is so much better for most classes :/

[Ghanjo]

If you are being mesmerised on Klaxxi, and everything else is on cooldown (ice block, invis, lifegrip), you can blink just before it eats you to gain some more time.

A quick question Komma, will you be updating the original post with new tips, or is that just for your own personal ones?

[Komma]

A quick question Komma, will you be updating the original post with new tips, or is that just for your own personal ones?

I was thinking of using this thread as a prototype to find out how we should do it. Maintaining it with new tips from new posts is a lot of effort though, so if we do that for the next tier I probably shouldn't be the one making the original post.

[rayshawn]

May I ask you some question about skills name in English?I saw your website in NGA and I'm also a Chinese.I don't know what means like"AE,NT".So,would you like to give me a form or web about the Chinese name of arcame skills?After that,I could show you my experience.Thank you.

[Komma]

May I ask you some question about skills name in English?I saw your website in NGA and I'm also a Chinese.I don't know what means like"AE,NT".So,would you like to give me a form or web about the Chinese name of arcame skills?After that,I could show you my experience.Thank you.

AE - Arcane Explosion 魔爆術
NT - Nether Tempest 虚空风暴

I don't know if there's a good translation list anywhere.

[rayshawn]

I have find it on the eu.battle.net.Talent Calculator is a wonderful thing.

[Lionheart]

Question, even if ice block doesn't block the aim damage on paragons, would glyph of ice block work?

edit: I'm guessing No, because aim deals physical damage. But I think it's really wierd ice block doesn't work.

[Cycobi]

Question, even if ice block doesn't block the aim damage on paragons, would glyph of ice block work?

edit: I'm guessing No, because aim deals physical damage. But I think it's really wierd ice block doesn't work.

No it doesn't. Best way to block/avoid Aim damage from Paragons if you're getting targeted is to Invis as soon as you get it.

[Dutchmagoz]

About invis - using greater invis makes it really simple, both for aim AND for fixate from kunchons!

[Lionheart]

Yeah, it is indeed really good for aim and fixates, and I've been using GI on paragons but I just feel safer using cauterize.

[Swordz]

In regards to Fire Blast, when are you guys using it? At the moment I've been mainly using it on the pull at 4x stack if I don't have immersus proc/missle procs, but I've also been dabbling with it at 4x w/o missle procs when Immersus is on ICD. Is there some sort of moment in which I should be using Fire Blast (outside of movement)>

As for Malkarok, I've seen some mages applying LB to the living corrpution(s), while I've seen others simply focus on 4x stack barraging them. Is there a definitive answer which is best/both are best?

As for Paragons, I've been using just regular invis for the aims, and keeping cautrize for an "oh shit moment" (eg: rogues/warlocks die, so you have to soak an aim, fiery edge, amber ticks, etc). Parasite damage can be pretty easy to deal with, especially if you place a ring of frost on the boss and just put yourself nearby.

Thanks!

[lynx]

Fire blast can be used to make the spec a little less button spammy, in the sense that when you fire your AB at 4 stacks and have no AM procs, you can queue fire blast instead of spamming AM in case you get the proc from AB. Since Fire blast is instant you can also react to if it procs AM too.
I think this makes the spec somewhat more fluid, at the cost of a not very big dps loss compared to AM spamming.

[wolsku]

Using ice floes doens't work on the Matter Scramble, tried it today