Heroic Shadowfang Keep

[fiere redfern]

I ran H.SFK with a pug today and found some points that other people might like to know before walking into the instance, so I put this thing together. Group comp was myself (feral kitty druid), a prot paladin, an arms warrior, BM hunter, and a holy priest.

Trash:

As far as trash goes, this is a fairly easy instance. There aren't any extremely hard-hitting casters, but you will want to FF the casters down or have a dedicated interrupt-monkey burn them down while the rest of the group focuses on the tank's target. There are also a few mobs (ie, the ghouls with the green stuff gushing out of their bodies) that will want either an off-tank or a CC since they have the tendency to make life difficult for the healer. For the most part, though, so long as you have interrupts in SFK, you'll be good to go.


That said, the bosses do have a few quirks to worry about.


Bossfight - Baron Ashbury:

IMO, this dude is the trickiest of the lot. In phase one he has three major abilities; [spell=93712]Pain and Suffering[/spell], [spell=93705]Stay of Execution[/spell], and [spell=93713]Mend Rotten Flesh[/spell]. Just about everyone in the group I ran SFK in had some form of an interrupt, so we drew straws and each took an ability to interrupt. Abilities and interrupt priority are listed below.

- [spell=93713]Mend Rotten Flesh[/spell] (high): As far as determining which ability to choose to interrupt should you find yourself in a group with only one, this and Stay of Execution share the highest priority. Mend Rotten Flesh can be cast at any time during the encounter, though I noticed it only really started to be cast once the boss hit 65% or so. If the boss gets this cast off, he'll heal himself for 10% of his total health. Interrupt it!

- [spell=93705]Stay of Execution[/spell] (high): Again, a very high priority interrupt. You can cheat a little with this one though; the boss will only cast Stay of Execution after he casts Asphyxiate, and that ability is pretty obvious since he'll throw the group up in the air and choke them down to 1 hp. The rule of thumb on this one is to wait until the boss has gotten one tick off in order to help the healer out so he/she won't be bringing multiple people back from the brink of death. That said, there is an achievement (Pardon Denied) for not allowing the Baron to heal using Stay of Execution, so you'll want to adjust your approach depending on whether the group is going for achievements or not.

- [spell=93712]Pain and Suffering[/spell] (low): If you absolutely cannot interrupt more than one ability at a time, this is the one to NOT focus on. It'll be the only thing he casts until his first Asphyxiate, though, so you might as well keep an interrupt on it to ease the healer's job.

Phase two is a bit easier. The boss is down to one ability that he'll keep casting like a warlock casts Hellfire until he dies. Fortunately it doesn't do a crapload of damage, but depending on when the group hits phase two (esp directly after an Asphyxiate), you might want to pop the big healing CDs.


Boss Fight - Baron Silverlaine:

This guy is an easy tank and spank boss, with the exception of his [spell=93956]Cursed Veil[/spell] debuff. He will also occasionally spawn adds during the encounter; these are easily taken care of by a ranged DPS while the tank has aggro. So long as your healer doesn't OoM halfway through the fight, you'll be fine.

Boss Fight - Commander Springvale:

Entering the room, you'll see the boss with two henchmen up on a platform. You can choose to fight him in here, or, should you have a druid or worgen present, you can fight him in the courtyard.

Fighting inside: The Commander's henchmen are easy tank and spank targets. Get them out of the way first, then focus on the boss.

Fighting in the courtyard: Clear the building up to the boss's room. Have all group members except for the druid or worgen head back outside. Sacrificial lamb range-pulls the boss, runs like hell. Assuming they make it outside to the rest of the group, the tank will taunt and the fight will begin. The henchmen apparently do not follow their boss outside, so the group will only have to deal with Commander Springvale.

Commander Springvale has a few abilities to watch out for:

- [spell=93687]Desecration[/spell]: MOVE OUT OF THE CRAP ON THE FLOOR. *ahem* It's an instant-cast ability that the boss will use every CD, so either GTFO or make sure your healer is totally epic'd out and is ready to handle the continual AE damage. My vote, both as healer and as DPS, is to make sure the tank moves.

- [spell=93736]Shield of the Perfidious[/spell]: Aside from being an awesome way to say "Shield of the Traitor", this spell isn't all that awesome. It's a frontal cone AE that'll pretty much eat anyone standing in front of the boss's face who doesn't have the role designation of "tank". Melee DPS, make sure you're behind the boss at all times. Ranged and healers should stand beyond the spell's 40 yard range and off to the side.

- [spell=93852]Word of Shame[/spell]: This one is something for the healers to watch out for. Not a huge deal since it isn't a ton of damage, but still something that healers should be aware of when facing this boss.


Boss Fight - Lord Walden:

Lord Walden is a very simple boss. Think of this fight like the children's game Red Light, Green Light. If you get the green debuff, keep moving. If you get the red debuff, stop where you are until the debuff wears off. Easy!

Note: for some reason, not all the spells the boss casts in-game are listed on wowhead. The boss will periodically cast a spell called "Mystery elixir" (or "unstable elixir", idk which offhand), which will "glow" either red or green as he casts them. But! For the sake of completeness, here are the ability names as listed on wowhead:

- [spell=93702]Conjure Frost Mixture[/spell] (red debuff)

- [spell=93704]Conjure Poisonous Mixture[/spell] (green debuff)

- [spell=93527]Ice Shards[/spell]: This is an easy enough AE to avoid. Look for the little blue patches that form on the ground while the boss is casting, and don't step in them. Heyo.


Boss Fight - Lord Godfrey:

Lord Godfrey's a nasty dude. Seriously. Ghouls, mortal wounds, guns, the whole bit. Here we go:

- [spell=93761]Cursed Bullets[/spell]: Ow. This can quickly become an unhealable fight if Godfrey is allowed to cast abilities like this every time. Interrupt this if you can, but keep in mind it's a very quick cast, so if you can't, try and make sure you have a decurser present so that you will be able to get rid of the DoT debuff.

- [spell=93771]Mortal Wound[/spell]: Again. Ow. Make sure no one stands in front of Godfrey except the tank. They're the only ones of the group who will be able to handle the type of damage he likes to dish out.

- [spell=93520]Pistol Barrage[/spell]: Just like the Commander, STAY AWAY FROM HIS FRONT. Pistol Barrage is a conical spell in melee range. Stay out of it (unless your role == tank).

- [spell=93707]Summon Bloodthirsty Ghouls[/spell]: Occasionally Godfrey will get lonely. So he'll summon pets. These pets want to eat you. Kill them. The End.

That's about the extent of it. Let me know if there's anything I've left out, or is glaringly incorrect.

[Oilslick]

Pistol Barrage...even the tank should avoid it, especially if he's been hit with cursed bullets.  Easy enough though...just run through his legs Azjol Nerub style, then run back.  Note that there is an achieve for using his pistol barrage against his adds.

Like many of the bosses on heroics that I've tanked - this one requires the tank to move, avoid, and interrupt rather than simply sit and take it.  If you're tanking heroics and you wipe - take a look at the combat log while corpse running and see what took you out, chances are there's a way for you to get around it without relying on others to interrupt, spellsteal, or remove a debuff.

On another note, if you've got a tank alt you're working on and you've only been dps'ing or healing thus far - rely on the other tanks in guild to give some advice if something seems a bit too rough.  The tanks in this expansion are doing A LOT more than they did in wrath, and most dps and heals are completely unaware of how much the tanks are doing to avoid getting one or two shot.  Similarly - if you're healing and your tank keeps dropping from 100% to naught in a matter of seconds - it's probably not your healing, it's probably not their gear, it's more likely they don't know the encounter from a tanking standpoint.  There are attacks that if i blow every cooldown for over 90% dmg reduction - i'd still get one or two shot.

[Lynette]

Great writeup, Fi.  I look forward to giving this a go in the coming weeks.

The tanks in this expansion are doing A LOT more than they did in wrath, and most dps and heals are completely unaware of how much the tanks are doing to avoid getting one or two shot.  Similarly - if you're healing and your tank keeps dropping from 100% to naught in a matter of seconds - it's probably not your healing, it's probably not their gear, it's more likely they don't know the encounter from a tanking standpoint.  There are attacks that if i blow every cooldown for over 90% dmg reduction - i'd still get one or two shot.

Great point, Oil.  I'm finding tanking heroics to be mentally exhausting and requiring lots of focus, as it is much more complex (but fun) than I remembered.  However, don't discount the effects of gear on your ability to sustain damage. I've been learning alot about Pally protection stats from online research (elitist jerks seem to be quite thorough http://elitistjerks.com/f76/t110338-cataclysm_tanking_protection_field_manual_updated_dec_13_2010_4_0_3a/), specifically the importance of expertise (even at the expense of stamina).