We ventured into the Eye of Eternity with high expectations and with an aura of success from our other raids. The Thugs now have a challenge. We spent three hours in EoE but it was not a waste; much was learned and this knowledge will lead us (eventually) to victory.
Let's Go Already
The other Raid Leaders and I decided to get all the participants to practice the Aces High quest before encountering Malygos. We've had many difficulties with anything involving vehicles and flying, so it's a perfect place to practice!
We all went up and flew in formation. Most people learned how to do effective DPS with their mounts and stick with the healer. You can cast while moving which eliminates a lot of complications when you strafe away from Malygos' Static Field.
The raid quickly became impatient after about ten minutes and we decided to proceed with the run. This may not have been the best idea.
We had a Paladin MT (me), Two Priests and Shaman healing, two mages, two DKs and a Hunter.
Phase 1
We had a few quick wipes on this phase for many reasons. The raid needed time to get used to synchronizing their cooldowns for CC on the sparks. I needed to brush up on getting nice positioning on Malygos.
We immediately noticed how stressed the healers were during Malygos' Vortex. Some players had used more survival gear and consumables as is stated in the strategies, others didn't and it showed. The healers were OOM part way through Phase 1. Part of it was everyone taking too much damage and the healers were getting used to a strict mana management regime.
A combination of solutions led to completing Phase 1 very quickly and with ease. Both of the Death Knights in the raid were Unholy specced to do pure damage, however their buffs and auras don't stack nicely (or at all) so one of the Death Knights volunteered to respec to Blood.
Especially when multiple Sparks were stacked, the Death Knight's Blood Aura helped the whole raid and that help persisted when people were doing all instant cast damage in the Vortex. The benefits of Blood Aura were buffed in Patch 3.0.8 so it makes this incredible aura even more powerful!
Another key to the healing during Malygos was that one of the Priests specced into Lightwell. Lightwell was always a running joke because it sucked before. Now my mind has been changed! The Priest dropped the Light Well in the middle of where the spark buffs were stacked. Everybody clicked it before we got launched into the air. Tada! A free HoT for the whole raid!
The healers also saved their +mana cooldowns and pots for the transition between Phase 1 and 2. Phase 2 is high intensity damage so they can not blow everything in the first phase.
We practiced a lot and managed to slow and CC the sparks enough to have three stacking damage buffs at once. With the appropriate classes, it may even be possible to have a four stack. The DPS fell into a nice rotation of not sacrificing too much DPS by constantly paying attention to the spark placement (we have struggled with this in the past). How the spark are stacked is very class dependent. I like to let the DPS work it out. They basically declare all their slows and effective CC abilities, the ability cooldowns and the range. Then they worked out a rotation for Spark CC that was effective.
Phase 2
Again we wiped a few times on Phase 2 because we simply needed practice. Once the healers went in with full mana then it was easy. Surprisingly a couple of the stronger players still stood out of the bubble a couple of times during the Deep Breath.
It's hard to emphasize constant aggressive DPS but then forcing people to hold on for one moment during a time of survival. It's as difficult as telling a tank to stop gaining aggro. The concept "If I die, I do ZERO DPS" must be hammered into everyone's brain.
If your raid has to blow the lid off on this one... pop EVERYTHING that has not been exhausted by now. Every second counts and you must get to Phase 3 with more than 3 minutes left.
Phase 3
Your raid falls hopelessly into the darkness only to be rescued by a pack of Drakes. One would imagine that such majestic creatures would harbor an trace of intelligence, however they must rely on the commands of the worn out, tired, stressed and drunk soldiers who land atop their backs.
Don't misinterpret this, this fight is buckets of FUN! It's hard to lose control of the character you tweak and control for a simplified version of whack-a-mole. However, the worst part is the embarrassment of failing to comfortably do a sequence of casts with a vehicle that has six buttons.
The practice ahead of time paid off. We were flying in sync, learning to cast and move etc. Many players had difficulty knowing when to hit their shield. Deadly Boss mods places a skull target above your head if you're the boss' target. Unfortunately Malygos has a severe case of TAB-Targeting syndrome and couldn't make up his mind. Many players burned their shields and energy for no reason. We all got used to anticipating when he will single target damage. It wasn't enough though, we got so close but by the time we perfected all that was stated above, the raid end time drew near and it was time to call it a night.
The Best Leaders Know When to Quit
This was a three hour scheduled run. We avoid going too far past stop times. It seems that we hit the apogee of performance at about two hours into the raid. The Raid Leaders and myself observed a decline in aggressive DPS and a steady increase in absent minded mistakes as the raid went on. We saw this coming. Pur instincts were to quit shortly ofter our best attempt but we kept trying until the very last minute. As a leader, one must always ask themselfes "is this really worth it, are we learning anything, are we having fun?". I still don't know if we should have called it ealier. Maybe I will someday have insight to make that call.
The Best Leaders Know When to Keep Fighting!
So the night ended a little flat on the enthusiasm. To summarize - we got to the third phase multiple times with more than three minutes left. This is within our grasp! Malygos will die... eventually. There are some upcoming scheduled runs and the signups look great, I don't know if the others are but I'm looking forward to it.
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