Tactics on thekal (next ZG boss)

[dlux]

K gys ... as the first 4 bosses where brought down (not without any problems =/ ) here is the tactics that might be usefull on the next boss - tiger one!!!

We had a pretty good speed to getting to the bosses rooms btw !! bigup ourselves for that ... and vent is a real MUST for every one when raiding ... that we experienced yesterday !

Boss 5- High Priest Thekal

Thekal is the fifth boss located in the Zul Gurrub Instance. His aspect is that of the "Tiger".

Thekal's Abilities

Thekal has several abilities that he uses in the fight. They are as follows:

Heal: Thekal can heal himself as can his zealots. This heal is an instant heal ability. It is important to drain his mana quickly so he can be effectively fought.

Re-Animate: Unless Thekal and his two adds are killed withing ten seconds of each other, they will regenerate and come back to life. This is the exact same style of ressurection as the Core Hounds in Molten Core.

Knockback: In Tiger form, Thekal has an AE Knockback attack that sends players very far from the boss (it will also break agro).

Thekal's Charge: Thekal has a random charge attack that he will use to those inside his charge range. After making the charge attack, Thekal should return to the Main Tank, or the last person with agro.

Calling: After switching to Tiger form, Thekal can make a summon that calls forth 6 tiger adds. This can be interuppted and requires Thekal to use Mana.

Strategy

Three tanks are a MUST for this fight; as Thekal and his two Zealot adds need to be tanked away from each other and brought down at roughly the same time. The party should be split evenly amongst the three, with a slight bit more DPS centered on Thekal to make sure that all three are downed at about the same time (within 10 seconds). If the three are not downed within 10 seconds of each other, they will end up rezzing and come back at full health.

The first phase is not really hard to manage, but requires that players pay attention to damage meters on the mobs (The "v" button will display this, or CTraid has Main Tank Tracking). With the above in mind, the first phase of the battle shouldn't be difficult..

Phase two of the fight is where things start to go "crazy". At 0% health, Thekal will transform into a large Tiger and also wipes his agro list, so the main tank needs to be on him right away or else he will run wild amongst the raid. A secondary tank should be ready to grab agro if needed as Thekal does a knockback attack at this point in the battle.

At this point, there should be an effort on behalf of the raid to deplete Thekal's mana and continue to keep him under 250 mana as much as possible; to prevent the summoning of Tiger adds. A third tank should also be dedicated to dealing with any Tigers that may show up during phase two.

If you feel confident in your abilities to deal with Thekal without using mana drain; it is best to have a Warlock/Druid tag team any adds that do come in. The Druid can sleep and the Warlock can fear any Tiger adds. While Feared/Sleeped, the Tiger adds should be DOTed, thus making them die rather quickly.

With a third tank to watch for adds, and his mana being kept under 250, Thekal should prove easy to down. Just be sure to keep the DPS up on him and watch that the main tank has agro after knockbacks!

Looks like its gonna be a HEAVY fight

[dlux]

After reading it, It might be pretty easy to down him, excpet for the fact that he has to be killed withing 10 seconds of his 2 zealots :s ... as we havent done the core hounds in MC yet this might become a problem for us (or at least, that is the only part I´m scared of for this boss :-p)

other thing is that mana needs to be 0 asap

[thomassil]

Yes thekal is a pregnant dog. I made a post for next friday, so sign up DPS very *friendly* person ^^. We won't try mar'li, but we should focus on a new boss

Thekal is scary. One time we got him down but the we saw one of his adds was still alive at 1% thekal rezzed bye bye ^^.

Also 3 tanks is a must, and hunters really need bow for vipering.

[dlux]

hunters can cast viper sting with a gun also ;-) (at least for as far as I know they can use the serpent sting so ...)

[dlux]

K guys ... yesterday didnt go so smooth at first ... but I´m happy with the progress we made thoughout our tries...

things we need to improve :
- divide the dps over the 3 adds better fe.
- 1 hunter and 1 mage and 1 warrior on each add and boss
- 1 rogue on each add
- 1 healer for each off tank and 2 for the main tank (+1 in reserve)
So far we got 15 ppl ... and we still need to fit in the pala´s and warlocks :s

As we noticed yesterday: the adds where killed kinda quickly ... a hunter can even tank 1 (as I did yesterday in the last try)

My suggestion would be that the tanks and healers go to there targets immediatly and that the rest off the group zergs the adds asap (not longer as 1 min imo)

After that, the group splits up into 3 groups and zergs there tarkets simultaniously ... the "one add after another option" is to dificult to monitor imo ... every 10 % your mob goes down, u call it in the caht / vent so every one can follow this up ... and we need to assign 1 person who divedes the rest off the group up where they are needed... When all around 10% we bring them together and AOE nuke em to death ...(so mages and every one else save your mana for aoe)

rogue´s :
kick and stunlock the adds as much as possible
hunters :
2 hunters are on viper sting assignment 1 on the boss and one on the healing add

Problem we had yesterday was that hunlop died to quick due to circomstances (silence and oom I think) wich resultad mostly in the death of the vipersting duty hunter (me :-p) that is why we need a backuphealer who can take over the duty off the silenced healer ... the silenced healer then should become a backup healer and so forth ... (dunno about that last part tho)

And this is only the first part ;D

Second part is a concern for later, but I think we need to do the stuff with the backup tank as in mar´li due to the knockback that he will give ...

Comments are welcome

[thomassil]

Good post, we will try it again on friday.

Calidriza kan make some green whelps armor. It can help the rogues and druids with the adds.

I can play as a tank, due to a respec to Survival. I could try to wyvern..
If you buff me up and place me with a paladin and warlock, then i can have over 5300 health and almost 4000 armor.

Keeping vipering is important in this fight, because thekal can summon 6 adds if he has over 250 mana. A kick or something would be really nice then.

Last 15 % 2 tanks should get so much aggro that they can pull them to the middle. A paladin with consecration and retribution aura then could move in. Probably a last silence will follow then. At that time only 1 healer has to heal the tank. Frostnova, arcane explosions, blizzard, firestorm and maybe a curse of doom on thekal should do the job then.

If one off the adds or thekal dies then even the healers should do some DPs, it saved us a couple of times It might sound weird, ut then a shadowpriest could even go shadow if it's needed...

But we will work on it Friday.

[dlux]

thekal wont spawn any adds before he swiches tiger as far as I known ... (could be wrong tho)

[thomassil]

He did on us once but blizzard stated that as a bug so your right

[bobsonn]

hmm ok
dont we need 4 tanks.
i could be wrong as tactics states:
1 tank thekal
2 tanks on zealots
1 tank to help main tank on thekal when AE stun and switch and for summoned tigers?

thats quit a lot. since u need lot of heals then and also need the dps.

got a point btw:(i think)
take thekal down first. then the adds. since thekal can instant heal right. would be hard to see u have taken down the adds and allmost thekal and the he instant heals.

well i think it will take a lot of practice to take this one down.
btw this requires other party setup then the other bosses no?

[dlux]

No bob ... dont mean to be harsh, but I think u are wrong ...

a backup tank would be cool, but is not really needed since (as u can see above) the group is already filled up pretty good as it is now ...

the backup tank is only needed after the switch (that means after we killed him and his 2 zealots the first time) then he will be on his own and has a nasty AOE knockback (comparable to mar´li) THAT is when we need a backup tank, and since there are 3 we can always let one tank stay at the casters group to gain aggro on him ;-)

about taking thekal down first ... NO ... we need to take him AND his 2 zeolots down withing 10 seconds or the will res each other (as we seen yesterday) thekal himself doesnt heal, its one off his zealots who is healing himself (and I think he can also heal the others) so bring em all 3 down to +/- 10% and then massive AOE on all 3 off them at the same time ... imo that is the only way to do it ... it will have to be a VERY WELL organized battle with a good leader who knows what to do ... !!! VERY important imo ...

nothing personal against any one, but the one leading this battle should be a ranged one who has a good overview off the battle at all times, a melee class leader for this battle will be much more difficult I think ... (that is only a personal thought tho)

[thomassil]

I agree with Dlux. A healer will be to busy healing. A mage has to move in some time and melees are to close to the battle to coordinate. Choosing for a ranged class should prove vital if it will be a warlock or hunter (not the tanking one)

The fight is overview dependand so a ranged leader giving coordinates and information should do it.

So Dlux can you handle this next time? Because I will tank and you have done this fight with this guild for some times now.

[dlux]

I could try to yes ... just need to tell give me the plugin to get the text on the screen like fearoz and shar do ^^

Btw: I prob can´t be there friday not shure yet tho ...

[thomassil]

You need CT raid assist, then type /rs .... ..... ... Text .... .... ..... And it will appear on screen. You have to be leader or have an A after your name for this.

[dlux]

ah k ... will try that one out next time then ;-)

[dlux]

K... yesterday we got him/her past stage 1

The talking over vent with mentioning the % on the zealots and stuff really helped (that is the feedback I had from members afterwards) So keep an eye on these and see if its going down simultaniously ... if not, ask for someone to swich mob... and make them go down at the same time ...

What I would like to ask is why we didnt try to devide the groups from the beginning as I kept asking ? We had like 4 or 5 try´s who all failed (the tactic all on 1 mob and switching mobs when they get to +/- 10 %) When neph came in and proposed my tactic then all off a sudden we did try it ... And this is not the first time I get this ... Not a personal attack of any kind tho ... just wondering ...

Now for phase 2 we need to get organised VERY quickly after he shifts... Another problem is that we ran out of healing power so we really need to work on that part next or figger a way the handle this part ...

1 thing to pay attention to : the right add got 20K mana the boss only 12K! So to drain the boss is no problem at all ... the right add is a bigger problem ... as it might heal himself in the middle off the combat ... so if a warlock could help draining this guy, it might help the hunter on duty allot ...