Finished an all-guild run of Heroic Deadmines last night. Was fun to return to this old world dungeon with fellow guildmates. Overall, a fairly tough heroic that is hell on your healer.
- Trash leading up to the first boss was straightforward enough. However, the ogres hit HARD so best to CC them if you have the ability within your group. It's a good time to practice CC tactics, as you will need them later in the instance. Tanks should pop defensive CDs on the 2-ogre pull if you can't CC one of them.
- 1st boss – Glubtok was simple enough. Just watch out for the swirling line of fire at the start of phase 2. It will 1-shot anyone who touches it.
- Clear out the next room of trash (more ogre-like mobs that hit hard), and engage the (2nd boss – Helix Gearbreaker ). Tank should kite the boss around the room and away from the bombs that are thrown on the floor and explode. Kill his ogre and then Helix becomes targetable. He plants bombs on random people throughout the encounter. If you get targeted, move away from others. This fight seemed to be taxing on the healer, so be prepared.
- Proceed to the Goblin Foundry and clear out the trash. Have one person (we had a meelee) make use of the friendly reaper, as you'll need it on the next boss, Foe Reaver 5000 . Move the group over to the exit door at the bottom and setup camp. When the tank pulls the boss, the person using the reaver begins grabbing the adds as they spawn . It is vital that the reaver gets those adds ASAP, as they will wipe the party if they engage the others engaged with the boss.
- Foe Reaver 5000 has a couple noteworthy abilities that can really stress your healer:
- When he casts his Overdrive AE spell, get away. This AE needs to be avoided by everyone - including tank.
- When he casts harvest, look for the yellow rings on the ground and MOVE AWAY.
- The next set of trash requires the use of CC! The assassins and casters will wipe your group otherwise. Suggest CC the visible mobs on the pull and focus fire on the stealthed ones. Interrupt the casters and have the tank move the mobs away from the red domes that appear. Those red domes buff the dps of anyone inside them (both the mobs and your party members – range dps should get inside these domes). Get AWAY from the door when you shoot the cannon at it and be ready for another group of similar trash mobs to rush in as soon as the door explodes.
- Proceed down the pier and kill the birds as they attack. Once you get to the boat, proceed to the top killing trash along the way. At the top, you'll engage Admiral Ripsnarl . This boss proved to be a challenge until we figured it out after many failed attempts. Setup camp at the front of the ship, behind the house where Cookie is hiding. Pull Ripsnarl to the front and tank him facing away from the group. He has 2 cleaves that do significant damage to anyone within reach. During this first phase, Ripsnarl grows in size and his damage increases. After a bit, he will vanish and the second phase of the encounter begins. Ghost vapors will spawn and quickly become harder as long as they live. So kill them as fast as possible.
- These two phases repeat until Ripsnarl is killed or the party wipes. And once he enrages (last 10% or so), the adds spawn increasingly quicker. Save CDs for that last 10% and have a dedicated dps to stay on the adds during the first phase (when Ripsnarl is present) to keep damage down to a minimum.
- The next boss, Captain Cookie , is hiding in the house at the top. Setup camp right outside the door and pull him out. He will spawn a large soup pot and begin throwing out food. Eat the good food and avoid the rotten. The rotten food produces an AE that should be avoided. After awhile, the rotten food is everywhere and hard for the party to avoid the resulting damage. This is a DPS race that cannot be tanked. Tanks should switch to their dps spec/gear if they have it as their secondary.
- The final boss is Vanessa Van Cleef, and is a scripted event consisting of several encounters. Initial reports were that this was a one-shot attempt (if you wipe, you cannot retry), but the rumor is that multiple attempts are currently allowed. We did it first time, so no clue what the current reality is.
- After a short scripted speech, Vanessa teleports the party into a "nightmare" that begins atop the Goblin Foundry. The group must navigate thru the nightmare, consisting of scaled down versions of each of the previous bosses, and return to her atop the boat. All these scaled down bosses are tank/spank as I remember them.
- Once you're released into the foundry, run down the ramp. Avoid the fires and quickly run thru the patches of falling ice. When you get to the exit door, Glubtok awaits you. Kill him.
- Helix Gearbreaker will then spawn, along with hundreds of spiders. Ignore the spiders and just target Helix and dps him down fast. The spiders will disappear once Helix is dead. Rest up before advancing.
- Traverse through the swirling electrical fields. No need to rush here, better to stay as a group and be very cautious. If you touch one of the fields, you will die. At the end of the cave is Foe Reaver 5000. Kill him. Heal/rest up before continuing.
- Open the doors to the pier area and rush the group of mobs attacking the friendly NPCs. Kill them down quickly and proceed to the next group (3 groups total IIRC). Healers need to ensure these friendly NPCs stay alive, btw.
- When you get to the bridge leading up to the boat, Ripsnarl awaits. Kill him and work your way back to the top to face Vanessa.
- Once you return to Vanessa, be ready for the final encounter on the top deck of the ship. Tank should grab the adds as they spawn and everyone should AE along with DPSing down Vanessa. At a certain point, she will light half the ship on fire and ropes will spawn next to the edge of the ship. Stop what you are doing and right click the rope to swing away from the ship for a brief period. When you return, the boss will not rush the group. Good time to bandage/pot/heal appropriately. Then pull her and the cycle repeats until she has 1 health. At that point, she sets off a bomb and commits suicide.
Please feel free to add your own observations...
the swirling fire on boss one didnt one shot me last night it did two shot me though. it hit me for roughly 50k hp so my suggestion is watch those pillars...lol i got "trapped" behind one...overall was a fun run...good to see things that were challenging and you cant just get gear and tank and spank..the mechanics were interesting and totally different....watch out for the foe reaper and hope you have a good person like Khader on adds...he did fabulous on them..fun time i think was had by everyone and an exceptional job