Comments on: How to tank every (almost) cata raid boss

By: Rakkar

Rakkar — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 08:14:52 +0000

As i’ve said (see point three), we’re switching after every Adherent death, which lines up nearly perfect with the second Fury. This means we have the current boss tank at zero or one stack and the Adherent tank at zero stacks. Additionally, one of the Fury casts happens while an Adherent is active, so swapping with one stack can get chaotic. But I actually have to think that through…

By: repgrind

repgrind — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:41:58 +0000

I’ll be spending all evening tanking this tomorrow. I’m confused though on when the tank switches take place. We were having the tanks swap every time he casts Fury. At least, I think that’s what we were doing. It was two weeks ago that we were last there, so … I’ll be doing some studying before tomorrow night for sure.

By: Rakkar

Rakkar — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 08:06:48 +0000

As he is the one boss I have tanked most over the last weeks (screw you, corruption failbobs), I am going to add a tanking how-to for Cho’gall.
- You are taking turns with your tanking partner: One is tanking the boss on the assigned position, most likely in the middle of the room, while the other waits for his Corrupted Adherent to spawn in one of the portal shaped constructions on the sides of the room – the first comes from the left when lookíng from the entrance, the others alternate.
- The Adherent has to be brought to your puddle position (in most cases this will be the entrance) while getting interrupted and dps’d down on the way there. Depending on your group composition, it can be more beneficial to arrange the puddles in a straight line or to fit them Into the corners between the previous to get them at maximum distance. Some “dancing” can force them to place their backsides within the old puddle, but be careful not to put them into the door, as they will be out of line of sight there.
- Shortly before the Adherent spawns and around the time it dies, Cho’gall casts Fury, increasing damage taken via two debuffs by 25% per stack. Get ready to taunt when your partner gets his second stacks at 20 to 15 seconds left on the debuff, so that he can let it drop and tank the next Adherent. Note that you will still have two stacks of Cho’galls Blasts when the Adherent spawns, so let hunters and rogues do their magic.
- A few seconds after Cho’gall summons the Adherent and before you arrive to taunt him, he will mind control several players (two in 10-man and four in 25-man), causing them to cast Twisted Devotion on him for a stacking damage buff. Anything that interrupts this cast will stop the mind control. Your raid has to deal with this together, but for you as tanks it is additionally important to use cooldowns if he gets high stacks of the buff – and stay in your version of defensive stance and on the boss as long as possible to avoid getting mind controlled. Additionally, avoid longer stuns and silences as they can kill a tank when used on a healer or cause someone to eat heavy aoe effects.
- Cho’gall regularly gains Flaming Destruction or Empowered Shadows. This will cause him to deal additional fire damage with melee attacks or trigger three shadow novas. Use personal cooldowns for fire (Mirror of Broken Images is great for this) and divine guardian for shadow, especially when combined with Twisted Devotion.
- 30 seconds after an Adherent spawns, five small blobs called Blood of the Old God will come from each puddle and run towards your raid. They are immune to taunts and generate Corrupted Blood with their melee hits, so only help out on them if things get hairy, and rather with stuns and snares than with threat.
- At 25% of his health, Cho’gall switches phases. He still uses Fury of Cho’gall, but apart from that you only have to keep the Darkened Creations from casting and kill them before the new set spawns – and ultimately get the boss to zero before the whole raid gets fully corrupted.

By: Gromdred

Gromdred — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 19:07:01 +0000

Tanking heroics… Hmmm… Let me think… No! Not going to happen! There’s simply too much for my limited brain to remember. I’m okay with off-tanking raids every now and then, especially with a good leader/caller, but as Repgrind said, i’ll leave heroics to the professionals.

By: Troutwort

Troutwort — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:16:16 +0000

I love CC! I used it on my warlock even when they don’t ask me too. The bonus there is that banish cannot be broken, so I’m like, too bad punks, you are forced to use CC!

By: repgrind

repgrind — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 14:04:32 +0000

tanking heroics? *shudder* I leave that to the experts. Go ahead and call me chicken, but I’ll take that 40 min dps queue over tanking dungeons any day. I’m sure I could do it, I’ve seen them all enough times that I get annoyed at tanks that don’t mark/use CC when they should be, and I KNOW that I can do it better.

Sorak is probably gonna make me start tanking some, now that my gear isn’t as crappy as it was before. Except .. those guys won’t LET me use CC. I think I’ll just keep leveling my healer. :p

By: Troutwort

Troutwort — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:54:04 +0000

Well maybe not “every” one, but the special tanking needs ones.

By: Troutwort

Troutwort — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:53:34 +0000

Reversion – I am (strangly) thinking of leveling my paladin for tanking, after the mage. Do you have a guide for how to tank every Cata dungeon boss (including heroic)?

By: ReversionLFG

ReversionLFG — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 21:49:27 +0000

Glad it is helpful! Link away. Sorry it is so simplified. This info is intended to be a supplement to a prefight strategy rundown or a video.

By: Analogue

Analogue — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 16:54:45 +0000

Glad it’s useful to you!