Here are the things I’ve learned from this fight.
Pre-Raid Preparation
- This is another fight where I used a tank-dps hybrid spec, trading utility/burst threat for more dps. (As a side note, I see a trend here. Heroic double dragon will probably benefit from this hybrid spec too. Until 4.1 and its guaranteed interrupts arrive, this might become my default raiding spec for 25s.)
- I used my normal, agility-focused gear with Mirror of Broken Images. For our first kill, I used Symbiotic Worm as my second trinket because I was still pretty severely undergeared (mostly 346 blues and pvp epics), and died a couple times with ~6k overkill whenever I used an agility trinket. However, now that my gear matches my progression, I do just fine with a Mirror of Broken Images + Essence of the Cyclone combo.
- I used a Prismatic Elixir + Elixir of the Master. The magic resistance is HUGE for your survivability. I noticed a pretty dramatic difference in my survivability once I trade my flask for elixirs (as in “wow I actually survived an attack where normally I’d be dead” difference).
General Strategy
- I’m assuming you know how to do the fight normally. I’m just going to go into more detail on the things a tank should know.
- Three tank fight — one to stay on Anshal (nature platform) and tank him for the entirety of the fight, two to swap on Nezir (ice platform).
- I don’t have any worthwhile experience tanking on the nature platform. Sorry. :( I know there was a lot of pulling bosses out of green circles and running away when he got the damage buff, but that’s it.
- Nezir has two attacks that the tank should worry about, Permafrost (the tooltip says it targets a random player, pretty sure that is a lie, I only ever saw it target the tank) and Wind Chill. Permafrost is a cone effect that does a big burst of frost damage to the tank, and Wind Chill applies a stacking debuff that increases your frost damage taken by 10%. That debuff is the reason tanks (and everyone else) have to swap on the frost platform.
- The first tank swap would occur when the bosses hit 30 energy, and the second would occur after the frost special.
- To put it in more detail, Tank 1 would start the fight on the nature platform, dpsing Anshal, Tank 2 would start on the frost platform, tanking Nezir. At 30 energy, Tank 1 runs to the frost platform, taunts Nezir, then Tank 2 leaves to dps Anshal. Tank 2‘s Wind Chill debuffs should fall off right before the specials happen, and at that point he switches to the frost platform (along with most of the rest of the raid) to help eat Sleet Storm. After the special, Tank 2 runs to an edge of the platform (so that Nezir isn’t facing the raid) and taunts. Tank 1 runs back to the nature platform, and the cycle begins again.
- While tanking Nezir, you have to have a cooldown rotation for Permafrost. Watch your Wind Chill debuffs, and pop cooldowns when you have more than 2 stacks of it.
Tips and Tricks
- You can safely go cat and dps on the nature platform. Keep in mind that your primary objective is to stay alive, so stay far away from adds, even if you might lose dps. The nature adds have a pulsing AoE called Toxic Spores, which will likely kill you if you get too close. It’s not worth the risk.
- You can also safely dps during the frost special. Aggro is never a problem on this fight, so druids can use Berserk for dps. I popped my Berserk during the 1st and 3rd frost specials.
- This is how I used my cooldowns during Permafrost:
- First round of tanking Nezir: wait until 2 or 3 stacks of Wind Chill, then Barkskin the next Permafrost, Glyphed Frenzied Regeneration the next, Mirror of Broken Images what will probably be the last.
- Second round: wait until 2 or 3 stacks of Wind Chill, then Barkskin the next Permafrost, Mirror of Broken Images the next, Survival Instincts what will probably be the last.
- Repeat until dead.
- There is some fudge room with these cooldowns. Sometimes Nezir will only cast Permafrost 2 times per round, sometimes 4 times. Be flexible, watch your health and your healers.
- Your health will probably be really low after a big Permafrost, but DO NOT panic and pop another cooldown. Nezir doesn’t melee for much, and even one healer should be able to top off your health before the next Permafrost. You just have to rely on your healers to here, and save your cooldowns.
- Stampeding Roar is great for the tail end of the frost special. Everyone will be stacked up during this phase anyways (for heals), so most of your raid will get the speed buff, and any extra run speed will be a life saver for people trying to run out of the upcoming Ice Patch. Try to work out a rotation with another druid in your guild so that one is available for every special.
- Whenever you leave the nature platform, you have to leave before or within the first few ticks of Anshal’s Nurture. Basically, leave before any of the adds actually appear, or after they’ve all been picked up by the kiter. If an add just so happens to target you and then you leave, it will permanently target you and evade everyone else, so that your kiter can’t properly do his job.
