Mogu'shan Vaults Raid

Mogu'shan Vaults



Nerd Alert will soon be attempting the Mogu'shan Vaults raid on 10man normal mode. In preparation for the raid, I will be posting strategy guides for all six bosses of the raid encounter. I will be providing both video and written format.

The Stone Guard

The first boss in the Mogu'shan Vaults raid is The Stone Guard, a multi-boss encounter. Be advised that each week there will be a different combination of the stone guard bosses.

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNecDySqjr0

(warning: strong language, in case you have kids in the room!)

The following is a copy/paste from http://www.wowpedia.org/Portal:Main with it's information on the Mogu'shan Vaults raid.

 Abilities:

Amethyst Guardian

The Amethyst Guardian gains energy when it is within 12 yards of another guardian. This energy can be used to cast Amethyst Overload. If no other guardian is within range it instead gains the Solid Stone effect. In 10 player Normal Difficulty, a rotating set of three of the four guardians are present each week.

• Amethyst Pool — Creates a pool that inflicts 32500 Shadow damage every 1 sec. to enemies who enter the area.
• Amethyst Overload (important) — Upon reaching full energy the guardian overloads, inflicting 500000 Shadow damage to all enemies and interrupting Amethyst Petrification. Does not free fully petrified enemies.
• Amethyst Petrification (deadly/important)— The guardian attempts to turn its enemies to amethyst, reducing the Shadow damage they take by 80% but progressively slowing their movement speed. Enemies who reach 100 stacks of petrification turn to stone and are unable to move or act.
• Solid Stone — When no other stone guards are nearby the guardian reverts to stone form. While in this form it takes 90% reduced damage but cannot gain energy.

Cobalt Guardian

The Cobalt Guardian gains energy when it is within 12 yards of another guardian. This energy can be used to cast Cobalt Overload. If no other guardian is within range it instead gains the Solid Stone effect. In 10 player Normal Difficulty, a rotating set of three of the four guardians are present each week.

• Cobalt Grasp — Cobalt bursts from the ground at the target's feet, inflicting 52000 Arcane damage and preventing all movement for 6 sec.
• Cobalt Overload (important) — Upon reaching full energy the guardian overloads, inflicting 500000 Arcane damage to all enemies and interrupting Cobalt Petrification. Does not free fully petrified enemies.
• Cobalt Petrification (deadly/important) — The guardian attempts to turn its enemies to cobalt, reducing the Arcane damage they take by 80% but progressively slowing their movement speed. Enemies who reach 100 stacks of petrification turn to stone and are unable to move or act.
• Solid Stone — When no other stone guards are nearby the guardian reverts to stone form. While in this form it takes 90% reduced damage but cannot gain energy.

Jade Guardian

The Jade Guardian gains energy when it is within 12 yards of another guardian. This energy can be used to cast Jade Overload. If no other guardian is within range it instead gains the Solid Stone effect. In 10 player Normal Difficulty, a rotating set of three of the four guardians are present each week.

• Jade Shards — Fire shards of jade in all directions, inflicting 84500 Nature damage to all enemies.
• Jade Overload (important) — Upon reaching full energy the guardian overloads, inflicting 500000 Nature damage to all enemies and interrupting Jade Petrification. Does not free fully petrified enemies.
• Jade Petrification (deadly/important) — The guardian attempts to turn its enemies to jade, reducing the Nature damage they take by 80% but progressively slowing their movement speed. Enemies who reach 100 stacks of petrification turn to stone and are unable to move or act.
• Solid Stone — When no other stone guards are nearby the guardian reverts to stone form. While in this form it takes 90% reduced damage but cannot gain energy.

Jasper Guardian

The Jasper Guardian gains energy when it is within 12 yards of another guardian. This energy can be used to cast Jasper Overload. If no other guardian is within range it instead gains the Solid Stone effect. In 10 player Normal Difficulty, a rotating set of three of the four guardians are present each week.

• Jasper Cleave — Inflicts 150000 Fire damage to an enemy and its nearest allies, affecting up to 5 targets.
• Jasper Overload (important)— Upon reaching full energy the guardian overloads, inflicting 500000 Fire damage to all enemies and interrupting Jasper Petrification. Does not free fully petrified enemies.
• Jasper Petrification (deadly/important)— The guardian attempts to turn its enemies to jasper, reducing the Fire damage they take by 80% but progressively slowing their movement speed. Enemies who reach 100 stacks of petrification turn to stone and are unable to move or act.
• Solid Stone — When no other stone guards are nearby the guardian reverts to stone form. While in this form it takes 90% reduced damage but cannot gain energy.

Shared Abilities

All four guardians have access to these abilities:

• Solid Stone — When no other stone guards are nearby the Guardian reverts to stone form. While in this form it takes 90% reduced damage but cannot gain energy.
• Rend Flesh (tank alert!)— The Guardian rends the flesh of the target, causing 42,648 Physical damage every 1 sec. Lasts 15 sec.
• Power Down (heroic difficulty) — When the guardians reach 85%, 65%, and 40% remaining health, one of them will power down all Energized Tiles in the room to prevent players from using the energy.

Encounter Area

• White Floor Tiles (damage dealer alert!)— These tiles absorb the energy from Living Amethyst, Living Cobalt, Living Jade, and Living Jasper when a player stands on them. Each tile can absorb one charge of energy. For each energized tile in the room, the raid gains a stack of Energized Tiles.
  • Energized Tiles (damage dealer alert!) — The energy of the living stone flows through the room tiles, empowering players. Each stack increases damage dealt by 1%.
• Living Amethyst Crystal — The energy that powers the Amethyst Guardian forms into a crystal. Players who interact with this crystal will be afflicted with the Living Amethyst effect.
  • Living Amethyst — 5 charges of the energy that animates the Amethyst Guardian tear though your body. Each charge inflicts 13000 Shadow damage every 1 sec. Charges of this energy can be drained into white floor tiles to energize them.
• Living Cobalt Crystal — The energy that powers the Cobalt Guardian forms into a crystal. Players who interact with this crystal will be afflicted with the Living Cobalt effect.
  • Living Cobalt — 5 charges of the energy that animates the Cobalt Guardian tear though your body. Each charge inflicts 13000 Arcane damage every 1 sec. Charges of this energy can be drained into white floor tiles to energize them.
• Living Jade Crystal — The energy that powers the Jade Guardian forms into a crystal. Players who interact with this crystal will be afflicted with the Living Jade effect.
  • Living Jade — 5 charges of the energy that animates the Jade Guardian tear though your body. Each charge inflicts 13000 Nature damage every 1 sec. Charges of this energy can be drained into white floor tiles to energize them.
• Living Jasper Crystal — The energy that powers the Jasper Guardian forms into a crystal. Players who interact with this crystal will be afflicted with the Living Jasper effect.
  • Living Jasper — 5 charges of the energy that animates the Jasper Guardian tear though your body. Each charge inflicts 13000 Fire damage every 1 sec. Charges of this energy can be drained into white floor tiles to energize them.

Strategy:

The encounter is primarily focused on coordinating tank transitions and minimizing damage from the Guardian's area effects and other abilities. Throughout the encounter, a single Guardian will be trying to petrify the raid; this must be interrupted by letting it reach full energy and cast Overload. To minimize raid damage taken, guardians that are not trying to petrify the raid should not be allowed to reach full energy.

The guardians share the same health pool. The encounter has an 8 minutes Hard Enrage.

10 man Normal

TANKS

The main tank should pull the side that has a pair of quilen. The off tank will pick up the remaining quilen.

One of the quilen will start petrifying the raid. If it is the single quilen tanked by the off tank, then the main tank and off tank should swap quilen. It does not matter which of the other two quilen the off tank takes in the trade since this is the very start of the fight. If the petrifying quilen is already on the main tank then the off tank can relax for a few seconds.

In this very first overload cycle the two quilen on the main tank will have nearly equal charge levels. When the non-petrifying quilen gets to 60 or 70 the tanks should perform a swap. The quilen on the off tank should have a low charge level and be traded with the main tank. The main tank should keep aggro on the petrifying quilen so that the petrifying quilen is in range of a second quilen and keeps charging up for an overload. These overloads are the only way to reset the petrifying debuff that would otherwise doom the raid.

Ideally every time a quilen overloads it will be the same quilen that is petrifying. The quilen that is petrifying the raid is also protecting the raid from that one quilen's damage, so an overload from the petrifying quilen is not a big healing load. If instead one of the non-petrifying quilen overloads, it causes major raid-wide damage that usually will not kill a player at full health, but players at half health are usually killed, and healers must work very hard to heal the raid and still keep the tanks alive.

For the rest of the fight the off tank should keep in mind "what quilen am I tanking? what quilen is petrifying? what is the third quilen?". When the quilen that is petrifying reaches overload this cancels the petrification. Another quilen will then start to petrify. If the new petrifier is already on the main tank no action is necessary. If the new petrifier is on the off tank it must be traded to the main tank. The off tank should take whichever quilen has the highest charge (it will not be the one that just performed an overload). The off tank should have already identified the proper quilen to taunt ahead of time so that he can act quickly and decisively.

The main tank only has one decision to make: "if the petrifying quilen is on the off tank, taunt". The off tank has a slightly more complicated decision: "if the petrifying quilen is on the off tank, taunt the quilen of the pair that has higher charge". This means that often the off tank will be calling the shots and timing.

Positioning: It is common for the tanks to each pick a lane on either side of the carpet dividing the room. Your goal is to maintain at least a 12 yard separation between the pair and the lone quilen so that the lone quilen isn't charging. The main tank maneuvers his quilen however he sees fit to avoid cobalt mines and purple puddles. The off tank mirrors his movements on the other side of the carpet to make sure his quilen is in taunt range of the main tank.

DPS

Do not attack the lone quilen. Because it is out of range of other quilen it is in "stone form" and takes drastically reduced damage. It is not important which of the two charging quilen you do damage to. All three share a health pool.

Ranged players can hang out on the carpet. This will distribute the cobalt mines and amethyst pools more evenly than if the ranged were in the same lane with the tanks and melee.

HEALERS

• Watch out for Rend Flesh on the OT
• When you are stressed (like after an overload by a non-petrifying quilen) call on the tanks to use a defensive cooldown while you heal the raid.

Mine, Chains, and Pools:

The cobalt quilen periodically throws out cobalt mines onto players at random. The mines are visible for a couple of seconds before they arm, so you have time to get clear. Any player inside the dashed line will trigger the mine, damaging anyone inside the circle and rooting them in place for several seconds. These mines will accumulate during the fight if they are never triggered. When the cobalt quilen is petrifying this is a good opportunity to trigger some mines since the petrification will protect you from some of the mine damage. As long as the healers aren't overloaded each cobalt petrifying phase should be a signal for the mobile DPS to eliminate some mines.

The jasper quilen periodically chains two players together. He does not chain the tanks. Once players are chained together they must remain close. If they separate too far they both take damage (which will show up on the friendly fire section of your combat graphs) and increase the charge on the chain. The higher the number of charges, the more damage separation inflicts. When the charges reach 15 the chains break.

Breaking the chains is only worth the hassle if your healers are very powerful. The jasper quilen will reapply the chains pretty quickly. Less powerful raids will just keep the chains on and move as a pair throughout the fight. This can be very inconvenient when a melee is chained to a healer or a caster because the melee has to move a lot to keep in range of the quilen and dodge mines and pools.

The amethyst quilen periodically places amethyst pools which damage anyone standing in them. These pools eventually disapear on their own, but once the fight is in progress there will be very many pools at any one time. Do not stand in the pools.

The jade quilen periodically casts jade shards. This damages the entire raid and is unavoidable. Heal through it.