Morchok

Note: This is a preliminary guide. As the guild does runs and gains experience with this boss, some parts of this guild could change to reflect things we’ve learned. This notice will be removed when we’ve fought this boss enough to feel confident that this strategy is the best one.

Phase 1: Stomps and Crystals

The first thing you need to be familiar with is Morchok’s Resonating Crystals ability.  He will occasionally drop one of these in a random location.  When this happens, 3 assigned ranged players — either DPS or Healers — will need to immediately run to the crystal.  This is because it will soon explode, doing damage to the 3 closest players.  This damage is lessened the closer they are to the crystal, though, so they will want to stack directly on it.  Even if you are not assigned to soaking this damage, be aware of it because those players will need to be healed.

The ranged players not handling the crystals will simply need to stay within 25 yards of the boss throughout phase 1.  This is to help share the damage done by Morchok’s Stomp attack.  These players can simply stay stacked right behind the melee for easier AoE healing after stomps.

Your tanks will be taking a hefty amount of damage from Morchok, as well, and will be taunt swapping to drop stacks of Crush Armor.

Phase 2: Black Blood

Eventually, Morchok will pull the raid to him.  Everyone will need to start running away to avoid taking damage from Earthen Vortex.  Also, a ground AOE, Black Blood of the Earth will spread out in all directions from him.  This is avoided by moving behind one of the pillars that will drop in a circle around him.

Your first priority — and everyone else’s — is to get behind a pillar.  Once there, there will be no damage going out.  Heal those near you, then feel free to take a moment for mana regeneration cooldowns/potions.

When this ends, Phase 1 will begin again, so you will want to move back into position.

20% Frenzy

When Morchok reaches 20%, he will gain Furious and begin hitting the tanks slower, but harder.  This is a great time to have some defensive cooldowns.

Abridged notes:

• 3 players are needed to stack on crystals as they spawn in phase 1.  You may be one of them, and will need to heal these folks regardless.
• Everyone else should stay near the boss in phase 1 for stomp damage, which will require big AoE heals.
• Tanks will taunt after every 3 stacks of Crush Armor.
• Run away and hide in phase 2.
• Phase 2 is great for mana regen.
• Have cooldowns available for the sub-20% burn.

Yor’sahj the Unsleeping

Note: This is a preliminary guide. As the guild does runs and gains experience with this boss, some parts of this guild could change to reflect things we’ve learned. This notice will be removed when we’ve fought this boss enough to feel confident that this strategy is the best one.

As a healer, the first thing you need to be aware of is Yor’sahj’s Void Bolt.  This is his primary attack on the tanks and it includes a stacking dot effect.  Tanks will taunt swap every 3 stacks due to the increasing damage from this attack.

Blood of Shu’ma

Yor’sahj’s main mechanic is calling the Blood of Shu’ma.  When he does this, a combination of 3 colored slimes will start approaching him from the edges of the room.  All DPS  will need to focus on killing one of these adds.  If the raid is fully healed, even healers can feel free to throw out an attack or two.

The priority is as follows:  Purple > Green > Yellow > Black.  You want Purple dead — any time it appears — because it basically stops the raid from being healed very easily. If there’s no Purple, kill Green.  If there are neither of those, kill Yellow.  Hopefully your raid leader will have marked the locations these colors spawn from.

The remaining 2 bloods will become immune and give the boss some additional abilities as follows:

Blue:  A Mana Void appears which will need to be killed by the ranged DPS.  It returns mana to casters, so healers should be near it when it dies.
Yellow: The raid is subjected to a lot of damage which will require AoE Healing.
Green:  The raid receives damage based on their proximity to eachother and therefore need to spread out.
Red:  The raid receives damage based on their proximity to eachother and therefore need to stack on the boss.
Black:  Untankable adds appear and fixate on random raid members.  These need to be AoE’d down.

So, to boil it down to all of the possible combinations you will have to deal with (Abilities that affect healers the most are written in bold):

Blue, Yellow ~ Mana Void / AoE Healing
Blue, Green ~ Mana Void / Spread Out
Blue, Black ~ Mana Void / AoE Adds
Blue, Red ~ Mana Void / Stack on the boss
Green, Red ~ Spread Out / Stack on the boss
Green, Black ~ Spread Out / AoE Adds
Green, Yellow ~ Spread Out / AoE Healing
Red, Black ~ Stack on the boss / AoE Adds
Red, Yellow ~ Stack on the boss / AoE Healing
Yellow, Black ~ AoE Healing / AoE Adds

When a green add is absorbed, everyone in the raid will want to be spread at least 4 yards away from each other.  Any other time, however, simply staying nice and tight on the boss will assist in keeping adds together or healing the raid.  If you get red and green together, the raid needs to be sure to stay spread apart from eachother, while still remaining as close to the boss as possible.

Outside of that positioning, you want to make sure that you are near each Mana Void as they die.  This will return mana to you.  While it’s alive, you will have very limited mana to work with.

Every other blood simply increases raid damage, either through adds (black), reducible damage from positioning (green/red), or AoE attacks directly from the boss (yellow).  Healers should rotate cooldowns so that one will be available for each of the more difficult combinations, including anything with yellow, or especially a combination of green and red.

Abridged notes:

• The blood phases are the true gimmick of the fight.
• If possible, help kill a Blood of Shu’ma when they appear.  Priority is Purple > Green > Yellow > Black.
• You will usually stay on the boss unless Yor’shaj gets green blood.
• When the Mana Void is up, be sure you are close to it when it dies.  This will return mana to you.
• Be prepared for a lot of damage on the raid when the boss gets yellow blood, or when there is a red/green combo.  These are great times for healing cooldowns.

Warlord Zon’ozz

Coming soon.

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