Did your guild just down Madness of Deathwing on normal? Are you finding yourself looking at the Morchok/Kohcrom twins in the face on heroic and scratching your head a bit? Have you been working on heroic modes for a while, but are new to the ways of the enhancement shaman and are looking for a few tips? Murgleglrgl and baby murlocs on top? Well, I have just the post for you!
At the time of writing this guide, it is the first week in which the 20% Dragon Soul nerf has been active. Provided your group has decent gear and at least an inkling of coordination, everything up until heroic Warmaster Blackhorn is (or should be) an absolute cakewalk. If you are the raid's swing healer, like myself, everything should be more or less two-healable now (provided your main spec healers are semi geared and on their A-game), which means you get to rock the sexy numbers on the DPS charts instead of the HPS charts. Yay!
Here are a few tips and tricks for the first two fights to do just that: rock the charts. By rock the charts I mean live and put out a few shiny numbers along the way.
This video above is from when Dragon Soul received its first nerf (I believe anyways), which was a whopping 5%. As you can see I'm on the Morchok side, which out of the two twins is definitely the more active side. You can also see that I'm crystal soaking, which means a TON of movement for me. Not a big deal, really.
Morchok's side is thus for crystal soaking: stomp, crystal, stomp, crystal, etc until the Black Blood phase, then stomp, crystal, stomp, crystal etc until either another Black Blood phase happens or the boss dies, whichever happens first.
Kohcrom's side is more of a stomp, stomp, crystal, stomp, stomp rotation, if memory serves. Much less movement, much more of a snoozefest!
Can an enhancement shaman soak stomps? My answer to this question is: probably. I believe that soaking is still better left up to shadow priests and rogues, or even a boomkin/plate dps if your (10 man) composition is missing one or both of those classes/specs, but now with the nerfs you should be able to safely soak stomps as enhancement. This is provided that you and your healers are semi geared though, and your healers are on the ball with topping you off prior to a stomp. I'd highly recommend trying to soak on Kohcrom's side first, as that is the easier side to heal. I'd also definitely recommend utilizing a rotation of Shamanistic Rage and Stoneclaw Totem (glyphed Stoneclaw, that is) to help out on reducing your damage taken. Bottom line: test it out and see if you and your healers can handle it. Upside to soaking stomps though? You don't need to run around like a loony toon to soak crystals. Soak one or the other, as trying to swing both could potentially have some not so desired consequences (see: death).
If you'd like a more in depth help guide to this encounter, please take a look at my original heroic Morchok guide. The information found there is still valid, but don't bother swapping out the Windfury glyph for the Feral Spirit glyph unless your healers tend to fall reeeeally behind, and only if you're saving them as a healing cooldown for some odd reason. The standard Prime glyphing of Lava Lash, Windfury Weapon, and Stormstrike should be more than sufficient for this encounter.
Loots:
Seal of Primordial Shadow - A ring that has a chance to drop off of Morchok, Zon'ozz, Yor'sahj, Hagara, and Warmaster Blackhorn. Best in slot item.
Vial of Shadows - A trinket that has a chance to drop off of Morchok, Zon'ozz, Yor'sahj, Hagara, and Warmaster Blackhorn. Best in slot item, though heroic Matrix Restabilizer is a contender for this trinket slot. Better for your feral dps/rogues/hunters, but still a sexy trinket for us. If you have a Matrix, consider passing the Vial off to those other classes until they all have it.
Sporebeard Gauntlets - If for some reason you can't get your mits on the heroic tier gloves, these are your next best bet. They're better than the normal mode tier gloves, but not quite as good as the heroic tier gloves. BiS for hunters, second BiS for us.
Heroic Yor'sahj ain't no big thang if your group knows what's up. If you need an overall strategy how-to guide, head on over to this Icy-Veins over view. I am going to assume though that you are already at least semi-familiar with the encounter.
Spec Changes: None (Standard 10/31/0 spec)
Glyph Changes:
If you're sitting on the boss - Prime: Remove Windfury and use Flame Shock (25 man only)
If you're moving to oozes - Prime: Remove Windfury and use Flame Shock (25 man only)
If you're sitting on the boss - Major: Remove Ghost Wolf and use Chain Lightning
If you're moving to oozes - Major: Remove Stoneclaw and use Chain Lightning (assuming your healers are good and you're not getting pounded on too hard by the adds).
Some of these glyph changes are highly dependent on your group composition, the raid's general dps output (if there's a lot of high AoE dps output in your raid, Flame Shock and Chain Lightning may not be worth the swap; I know it really isn't for my 10 man group because everything dies so quickly), and the capability of your healers (for the last suggestion).
Totem Changes: None, kind of.
If you're in a 25 man, swapping out Searing Totem for Magma Totem during a double black phase (yellow ooze + black ooze = nom AoE damage potential for you!) could very well yield a dps increase. This again is dependent on how high your raid AoE is though. If the adds die quickly and there's no overlap between the first set of adds and the second, you may be better off with sticking with good ol' derpy Searing Totem.
Totem twisting between your usual earth totem (Strength of Earth or Stoneskin, whichever your raid needs, if any) and the glyphed Stoneclaw totem can be handy for those moment when it's a purple + black phase and the adds are beating the crap out of you.
Should I stay or should I swap? No one likes to have to switch between adds. However, unless your group is somehow lacking a rogue or a kitty druid, chances are pretty good that you'll have to switch over to the oozes. Personally, I'm almost always having to swap to the oozes (though with the recent nerfs I may no longer need to do this), while someone else (generally a hunter, the rogue, or when we were two tanking it, the tank who currently did not have the boss) works on the mana void, if it's up.
AoE, how do I do it? During black phases, you should never physically swap to the little crazy elephant-looking dude adds. Keep your focus on the boss and use your AoE rotation from there. What's the optimal way to AoE as enhance? Well, let me tell you.
Flame Shock (keep FS as high on the duration as possible, for the FSs that are spread will take on the duration of the parent FS; the FS glyph makes this a bit easier to deal with, but was only really necessary for me to glyph back when I was running 25s. Never spread a FS with less than 10 seconds on it, if possible. The standard FS/ES/FS/ES rotation *should* in theory be sufficient, but watch it just in case.)
Lava Lash when there are four or more adds within a 12 yard radius
Unleash Elements
Fire Nova
Chain Lightning as soon and as often as possible
Stormstrike and Earth Shock as fillers
Unleash Elements will not be up for every Nova that you do, but it will "super power" your Nova when you are able to use it. Also, I tend to hold my Maelstrom stacks as we're going into the black phase, likewise with Lava Lash, unless I'm sure that it will be up in time for when the adds finally arrive to the boss. Timing is everything when it comes to properly AoEing, and that timing is all the more crucial when you're running with a well geared and capable group that can AoE the crap out of crap reeeeally quickly.
Loots:
Leggings of the Corrupted Protector - Our tier pants. BiS, super sexy. You may raid pantless out of game, but don't pass these bad boys up in game! Turn this token in to purchase your Spiritwalker's Legguards.
Seal of Primordial Shadow - A ring that has a chance to drop off of Morchok, Zon'ozz, Yor'sahj, Hagara, and Warmaster Blackhorn. Best in slot item.
Vial of Shadows - A
trinket that has a chance to drop off of Morchok, Zon'ozz, Yor'sahj,
Hagara, and Warmaster Blackhorn. Best in slot item, though heroic Matrix Restabilizer
is a contender for this trinket slot. Better for your feral
dps/rogues/hunters, but still a sexy trinket for us. If you have a
Matrix, consider passing the Vial off to those other classes until they
all have it.
Moving forward: Besides Morchok, at this point every encounter up until Ship should be one tank, two healable for a team of 10. The only encounter that *might* still require three healers would be Zon'ozz, but with the newly instated 20% nerf our team was able to two heal that encounter with few mishaps (mmm, gotta love ball bugs). After healing some of those heroic fights for so long, the transition back into dps is a bit of a disorienting one. If you're dpsing as enhancement for the first time, don't lose heart! It will take a few pulls to really get into the groove of a some of those fights, as it does with any role.
While I've written a giant wall of text already, the best advice I can ever give is this: Know your rotation, know your tool kit, know the encounter. The rest just takes practice in order to put the pieces together properly.
Never let your axes go dull or your wolves go hungry.
Showing posts with label Heroic Modes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Heroic Modes. Show all posts
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Moar work? Okie dokie...
Right, I have a blog and whatnot that I've been neglecting, don't I?
I assure you all that I have not fallen off of the face of the planet as far as blogging is concerned, I have not forgotten about Heroic Dragon Soul enhancement guides (to be coming very soon I hope, with video), nor have I completely dropped the leveling guide.
The truth is, I've been incredibly busy within WoW itself. For those of you who follow me on Twitter, I'm sure you are aware of how much I've been raiding, both with my home server guild and with Twitterland Raiding. I'm also now in the MoP beta (Sazzination on Lost Isles, Alliance), but unfortunately I haven't had a ton of time to do any testing. Though, I have had time to start up a TLR guild on beta called Twitterland Raiding, which all of you beta goers are more than welcome to join!
On top of raiding like a fiend, I've been doing a LOT of video recording and editing. Some of which I'd like to showcase now. Feel free to subscribe to either channel, or just watch Twitter/the Facebook pages for when new videos are posted. Or don't, I'm fine with that too! : )
Twitterland Raiding <---Youtube Channel
SerenitySaz <---Youtube Channel
^ Still very excited about that one. H-Spine is HELL. Heroic Madness should be taken down this week and a video for it should be up by next week.
^ A not so sketchy version of Path and I duoing Kael'thas in Tempest Keep. With both of us in Dragon Soul gear we should be able to easily solo this guy, but we keep running together because it's our thing. Still no Ashes Al'ar, qq.
I'm really hoping that once some of the progression dust settles with my guild and Heroic Dragon Soul that I'll be on a somewhat calmer schedule, though we're still farming Heroic Firelands for legendary pieces for our boomkin and mounts from Heroic Ragnaros (there's a video for that too!) for our members, that I'll be able to have a bit more time for the MoP beta and for blogging.
Until that time comes though, please feel free to bug me on Twitter or come hang out with myself and the other fine Twitterland Raiding folks in one of our many cross-realm raids (Battle Tags, are you here yet?!), or come hang out in the beta if/once you have your invites!
Stay sexy, my friends.
I assure you all that I have not fallen off of the face of the planet as far as blogging is concerned, I have not forgotten about Heroic Dragon Soul enhancement guides (to be coming very soon I hope, with video), nor have I completely dropped the leveling guide.
The truth is, I've been incredibly busy within WoW itself. For those of you who follow me on Twitter, I'm sure you are aware of how much I've been raiding, both with my home server guild and with Twitterland Raiding. I'm also now in the MoP beta (Sazzination on Lost Isles, Alliance), but unfortunately I haven't had a ton of time to do any testing. Though, I have had time to start up a TLR guild on beta called Twitterland Raiding, which all of you beta goers are more than welcome to join!
On top of raiding like a fiend, I've been doing a LOT of video recording and editing. Some of which I'd like to showcase now. Feel free to subscribe to either channel, or just watch Twitter/the Facebook pages for when new videos are posted. Or don't, I'm fine with that too! : )
Twitterland Raiding <---Youtube Channel
SerenitySaz <---Youtube Channel
^ Still very excited about that one. H-Spine is HELL. Heroic Madness should be taken down this week and a video for it should be up by next week.
^ A not so sketchy version of Path and I duoing Kael'thas in Tempest Keep. With both of us in Dragon Soul gear we should be able to easily solo this guy, but we keep running together because it's our thing. Still no Ashes Al'ar, qq.
I'm really hoping that once some of the progression dust settles with my guild and Heroic Dragon Soul that I'll be on a somewhat calmer schedule, though we're still farming Heroic Firelands for legendary pieces for our boomkin and mounts from Heroic Ragnaros (there's a video for that too!) for our members, that I'll be able to have a bit more time for the MoP beta and for blogging.
Until that time comes though, please feel free to bug me on Twitter or come hang out with myself and the other fine Twitterland Raiding folks in one of our many cross-realm raids (Battle Tags, are you here yet?!), or come hang out in the beta if/once you have your invites!
Stay sexy, my friends.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Heroic Morchok: Tips for the Enhancement Shaman
You've done it! Your guild has defeated Deathwing on regular mode and now you all want to jump back to a time when the Wyrmrest Temple was still crawling with baddies, though this time around you intend to make terrible jokes about the bosses' mothers in order to make your encounter with them more difficult. By this I mean that you and your guild are looking for a more challenging Dragon Soul raid, heroic style.
What can you do as an enhancement shaman to help your raid succeed with taking down Morchok and his evil twin, Kochrom? There are plenty of little things that you can do to help out your healers while still maintaining the pressure on the boss you're assigned to. Enhancement does very well with this fight, and thus far the only classes that have been beating me out on damage have been those buggery rogues that are able to cloak their way out of the Black Blood damage. If you play your cards right, you'll be well on your way to topping the charts as well.
This "guide" is done under the assumption that you are already aware of how the mechanics differ between normal and heroic modes. If you'd like a text guide to help you along, please visit the guide over on Icy-Veins. With that said, I shall now try to lay down some tips and tricks for you all that I've been using.
You (Optional Ideas)
~ Spec ~
No fancy changes need to be made to your spec for this encounter.
~ Glyphs ~
I suggest considering trading out Glyph of Windfury Weapon for Glyph of Feral Spirit for this encounter. The reason behind this is two fold. 1) In the rare event that wolves come off of cooldown just before a Black Blood phase, your wolves will have increased damage on the boss as you're running away. 2) The higher AP of your wolves will increase your self healing, giving your healers a nice little break in what is a very healing intensive encounter.
If you have other nature resist buffs present (Mark of the Wild and Blessing of Kings for example), you may consider switching out Glyph of Healing Stream for Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem and begin to practice some minor "totem twisting" (dropping Stoneclaw for a moment to gain the shield buff, then switching back to your earth totem of choice) to help alleviate some damage to yourself if your healers are struggling.
~ Totems ~
Fire - Good ole Searing Totem.
Water - Healing stream totem, unless you don't have a paladin giving Blessing of Might or a Warlock in your group rocking the Fel Hunter, giving your group Fel Intelligence. In the rare event that you don't have a mana generation buff, use Mana Stream Totem.
Air - Windfury Totem (your casters should hopefully have the haste buff from either the Wrath of Air Totem from another shaman or from a shadow priest or moonkin)
Earth - There are three choices for this totem, one of which is temporary. Strength of Earth is our default totem, but isn't needed so long as there is a hunter with a cat (Roar of Courage) in proximity to us, a death knight using Horn of Winter, or a warrior using their Battle Shout. If the strength/agility buff is present, but there isn't another shaman nearby dropping Stoneskin Totem or a paladin with the Devotion Aura up, use Stoneskin Totem to help reduce some of the physical damage from the stop that the bosses do via increased armor. The third choice would be to twist in Stoneclaw totem to put a damage bubble on ourselves, and then switching back to either our SoE or SS totem.
For more information on totems and the glyphs that modify them, please see my guide on totems and their uses, which can be found here.
~ Heroism/Blood Lust ~
Save this buff until the last 20% or so of the bosses' health bars. Pop it right after a Black Blood phase has ended and everyone is once again positioned (do not pop it just before a Black Blood phase, I don't care if he's right at 20%...much more beneficial to everyone to wait on it for both healing and dps purposes). If your wolves are not up right when the time comes to Hero/Lust and you have a mage or another (preferably dps, since a resto may be tight on mana at this point) shaman in your group, consider having them pop the buff so that you may use yours on your wolves later on.
**Please note that Hero/Warp/Lust will not likely reach both groups at the end of the encounter. Each group needs their own separate haste buff. 10 man groups will have to take this into consideration as they set up the two groups.**
The Pull
Pre-pot as usual.
Open up your rotation as usual, with possible one adjustment. If you're assigned to stay on Morchok, feel free to pop your wolves right away and continue to use them as they come off of cooldown. If you're assigned to Kochrom, save them until he arrives into his designated position (or at least until your Kochrom tank has sufficient threat on him).
The Encounter
There are only a few minor things that change between the normal and heroic mode. For the most part for us it is still very much a tank and spank fight with a minor "get out of the bad" phase mixed in. Here are a few tips on how to maximize your dps while lowering your damage intake.
1) Learn to max distance the boss. Us mail wearing types can NOT eat the double stomp damage. Leave that to your crafty rogue friends or the dudes in plate. Please note that this gets a bit tricky, for the boss WILL shrink as the encounter goes on. Just be aware of how far you are from the boss while still being able to hack into his butt and you should be fine.
2) Ghost Wolf form is your friend. Glyph it, bind it, use it, love it. It will get you away from the boss faster in the Black Blood phase, help you get back to the boss after the Black Blood Phase has ended, and in the event that you find yourself having to soak some Resonating Crystal, it allows you to sit on the boss a second longer, get to the crystal, go boom (stay on the front side towards the boss, it'll knock you in his direction), and get you back to doing what you do.
3) Shamanistic Rage is your friend. During stomps or during crystal damage (assuming that for some odd reason you're having to run out to eat crystal damage) is a prime time to bust out this ability. Use it a few ticks before Morchok/Kochram have their stompy fit and your healers will love you. You'll only be able to use this ability once out of the four times they stomp in between Black Blood phases, so try to time it for when healer/raid tank CDs feel the weakest.
4) Racials are your friend. Are you a Dwarf or Draenei? If you're a Dwarf, you have another damage reduction CD to weave in by the name of Stoneform. For example you may want to use SR on stomp two and Stoneform on stomp four. If you're a Draenei, perhaps use SR on one of the stomps and then use Gift of the Naaru after another has occurred. Sure GotN seems to do beans for healing, however every little bit helps, especially on a first kill. (Sorry Horde, I'm not terribly familiar with your racials. You're all smart folk though, you can figure it out!)
5) Black Blood Phase - There is NO reason for you to sit on the outside of the earth fragments like an awkward looking lawn ornament. While your boss is casting Earthen Vortex, you should be swiveling your camera around, looking for the best set up of earth fragments to hide behind. Be on the look out for two or more spikes that are near enough together to provide adequate coverage from the Black Blood while not completely line of sighting you from the boss. Aim yourself in the direction of your coverage target, shift into ghost wolf the second he drops the raid, and make for your safe spot like your ghostly tail is on fire. Once you've safely arrived at your intended destination, go into caster mode. Unleash your weapon, cast your shocks, throw Lava Bursts at him when it's off cooldown, and spam the hell out of Lightning Bolt. Is it ideal? Nope, being ideal would be us being able to completely mitigate the Black Blood damage all together like our rogue brothers and sisters. It does however continue to put damage up on the boss, which is vital to beating the enrage timer.
Once this phase has ended, shift back into your puppy form and make a run for the boss. You then may resume your usual tank and spank tom foolery.
6) Healing isn't something that we should be doing very often (ideally never, but things can and do happen), but if you're sporting any variation of the T13 that gives you a set bonus, your healing spells have increased effect (2pc) and if your puppies are out, you're popping Maelstrom stacks like candy anyhow (4pc). Missing out on a Lightning Bolt is more than acceptable if it helps your healers out in a pinch. Drop a Healing Rain on the melee group during a stomp (ranged will be chilling with you then anyhow), throw an emergency heal on a player, do what you gotta do to help prevent a wipe. Just don't be spamming your Jesus Beams at everyone and their brother every time you get a stack of Maelstrom just because you can.
The Home Stretch (sub 20%)
This is the point where both bosses get Furious. Hero/Lust/Warp is rolling, what more can you do? Well, assuming that you pre-potted properly, this is the ideal time to be using that second potion. Likewise, this is the portion of the fight where it is exceptionally important that you are rolling defensive cooldowns. More than likely your wolves will be up during this phase, and this is really where switching out that glyph comes in handy. Having more self heals rolling on yourself lets the healers focus their mana more on keeping those tanks up through the increased damage, as well as just making it easier for them to take care of the chaos that is the last bit of this fight.
If you do your job correctly as an enhancement shaman (and of course, provided that the other 9 or 24 people you are raiding with do their jobs as well), you should have yourself some heroic loot in no time!
Heroic Loots
So the boss is dead and some stuff dropped that has agility on it. What's good for us, and what should be passed on?
Seal of Primordial Shadow - A ring that has a chance to drop off of Morchok, Zon'ozz, Yor'sahj, Hagara, and Warmaster Blackhorn. Best in slot item.
Vial of Shadows - A trinket that has a chance to drop off of Morchok, Zon'ozz, Yor'sahj, Hagara, and Warmaster Blackhorn. Best in slot item.
Sporebeard Gauntlets - Glove that drop off of Morchok. Can be used as an offset piece, but is better itemized for hunters by far. BiS gloves for enhance would be our tier gloves. These could be a viable off piece until you manage to land your heroic tier gloves because of the double red sockets, but ultimately this item is meant for hunters due to the lack luster secondary stats. Pass in my opinion, unless they sim out to be better than what you have with your personal set up.
Final Tips
Clear out a bit more of the trash on both sides than you think you'll need to. It sucks something fierce to get sub 5% on the boss only to have a crystal spawn a bit too close to a pack of mobs, having the ranged accidentally pull said mobs, and wipe the raid. Always be on the safe side, or you will more than likely be sorry.
Separate the two Morchok and Kochram groups in Ventrilo/Mumble. Once Morchok is below 90% health, the fight is essentially two different fights. To prevent confusion between the use of healing and tank cooldowns of the two groups, separate channels is advised. During this fight only two things need to be coordinated between the two groups, Heroism/Blood Lust and the calling of a wipe. Both of those things can be done efficiently through raid warnings.
I hope that those of you who have read this post walk away with something that helps you in your journey to defeat the Heroic Morchok encounter. If you feel that any of the information in this post is incorrect, or you have something to add, please leave a comment!
Good luck and have fun!
What can you do as an enhancement shaman to help your raid succeed with taking down Morchok and his evil twin, Kochrom? There are plenty of little things that you can do to help out your healers while still maintaining the pressure on the boss you're assigned to. Enhancement does very well with this fight, and thus far the only classes that have been beating me out on damage have been those buggery rogues that are able to cloak their way out of the Black Blood damage. If you play your cards right, you'll be well on your way to topping the charts as well.
This "guide" is done under the assumption that you are already aware of how the mechanics differ between normal and heroic modes. If you'd like a text guide to help you along, please visit the guide over on Icy-Veins. With that said, I shall now try to lay down some tips and tricks for you all that I've been using.
You (Optional Ideas)
~ Spec ~
No fancy changes need to be made to your spec for this encounter.
~ Glyphs ~
I suggest considering trading out Glyph of Windfury Weapon for Glyph of Feral Spirit for this encounter. The reason behind this is two fold. 1) In the rare event that wolves come off of cooldown just before a Black Blood phase, your wolves will have increased damage on the boss as you're running away. 2) The higher AP of your wolves will increase your self healing, giving your healers a nice little break in what is a very healing intensive encounter.
If you have other nature resist buffs present (Mark of the Wild and Blessing of Kings for example), you may consider switching out Glyph of Healing Stream for Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem and begin to practice some minor "totem twisting" (dropping Stoneclaw for a moment to gain the shield buff, then switching back to your earth totem of choice) to help alleviate some damage to yourself if your healers are struggling.
~ Totems ~
Fire - Good ole Searing Totem.
Water - Healing stream totem, unless you don't have a paladin giving Blessing of Might or a Warlock in your group rocking the Fel Hunter, giving your group Fel Intelligence. In the rare event that you don't have a mana generation buff, use Mana Stream Totem.
Air - Windfury Totem (your casters should hopefully have the haste buff from either the Wrath of Air Totem from another shaman or from a shadow priest or moonkin)
Earth - There are three choices for this totem, one of which is temporary. Strength of Earth is our default totem, but isn't needed so long as there is a hunter with a cat (Roar of Courage) in proximity to us, a death knight using Horn of Winter, or a warrior using their Battle Shout. If the strength/agility buff is present, but there isn't another shaman nearby dropping Stoneskin Totem or a paladin with the Devotion Aura up, use Stoneskin Totem to help reduce some of the physical damage from the stop that the bosses do via increased armor. The third choice would be to twist in Stoneclaw totem to put a damage bubble on ourselves, and then switching back to either our SoE or SS totem.
For more information on totems and the glyphs that modify them, please see my guide on totems and their uses, which can be found here.
~ Heroism/Blood Lust ~
Save this buff until the last 20% or so of the bosses' health bars. Pop it right after a Black Blood phase has ended and everyone is once again positioned (do not pop it just before a Black Blood phase, I don't care if he's right at 20%...much more beneficial to everyone to wait on it for both healing and dps purposes). If your wolves are not up right when the time comes to Hero/Lust and you have a mage or another (preferably dps, since a resto may be tight on mana at this point) shaman in your group, consider having them pop the buff so that you may use yours on your wolves later on.
**Please note that Hero/Warp/Lust will not likely reach both groups at the end of the encounter. Each group needs their own separate haste buff. 10 man groups will have to take this into consideration as they set up the two groups.**
The Pull
Pre-pot as usual.
Open up your rotation as usual, with possible one adjustment. If you're assigned to stay on Morchok, feel free to pop your wolves right away and continue to use them as they come off of cooldown. If you're assigned to Kochrom, save them until he arrives into his designated position (or at least until your Kochrom tank has sufficient threat on him).
The Encounter
There are only a few minor things that change between the normal and heroic mode. For the most part for us it is still very much a tank and spank fight with a minor "get out of the bad" phase mixed in. Here are a few tips on how to maximize your dps while lowering your damage intake.
1) Learn to max distance the boss. Us mail wearing types can NOT eat the double stomp damage. Leave that to your crafty rogue friends or the dudes in plate. Please note that this gets a bit tricky, for the boss WILL shrink as the encounter goes on. Just be aware of how far you are from the boss while still being able to hack into his butt and you should be fine.
2) Ghost Wolf form is your friend. Glyph it, bind it, use it, love it. It will get you away from the boss faster in the Black Blood phase, help you get back to the boss after the Black Blood Phase has ended, and in the event that you find yourself having to soak some Resonating Crystal, it allows you to sit on the boss a second longer, get to the crystal, go boom (stay on the front side towards the boss, it'll knock you in his direction), and get you back to doing what you do.
3) Shamanistic Rage is your friend. During stomps or during crystal damage (assuming that for some odd reason you're having to run out to eat crystal damage) is a prime time to bust out this ability. Use it a few ticks before Morchok/Kochram have their stompy fit and your healers will love you. You'll only be able to use this ability once out of the four times they stomp in between Black Blood phases, so try to time it for when healer/raid tank CDs feel the weakest.
4) Racials are your friend. Are you a Dwarf or Draenei? If you're a Dwarf, you have another damage reduction CD to weave in by the name of Stoneform. For example you may want to use SR on stomp two and Stoneform on stomp four. If you're a Draenei, perhaps use SR on one of the stomps and then use Gift of the Naaru after another has occurred. Sure GotN seems to do beans for healing, however every little bit helps, especially on a first kill. (Sorry Horde, I'm not terribly familiar with your racials. You're all smart folk though, you can figure it out!)
5) Black Blood Phase - There is NO reason for you to sit on the outside of the earth fragments like an awkward looking lawn ornament. While your boss is casting Earthen Vortex, you should be swiveling your camera around, looking for the best set up of earth fragments to hide behind. Be on the look out for two or more spikes that are near enough together to provide adequate coverage from the Black Blood while not completely line of sighting you from the boss. Aim yourself in the direction of your coverage target, shift into ghost wolf the second he drops the raid, and make for your safe spot like your ghostly tail is on fire. Once you've safely arrived at your intended destination, go into caster mode. Unleash your weapon, cast your shocks, throw Lava Bursts at him when it's off cooldown, and spam the hell out of Lightning Bolt. Is it ideal? Nope, being ideal would be us being able to completely mitigate the Black Blood damage all together like our rogue brothers and sisters. It does however continue to put damage up on the boss, which is vital to beating the enrage timer.
Once this phase has ended, shift back into your puppy form and make a run for the boss. You then may resume your usual tank and spank tom foolery.
6) Healing isn't something that we should be doing very often (ideally never, but things can and do happen), but if you're sporting any variation of the T13 that gives you a set bonus, your healing spells have increased effect (2pc) and if your puppies are out, you're popping Maelstrom stacks like candy anyhow (4pc). Missing out on a Lightning Bolt is more than acceptable if it helps your healers out in a pinch. Drop a Healing Rain on the melee group during a stomp (ranged will be chilling with you then anyhow), throw an emergency heal on a player, do what you gotta do to help prevent a wipe. Just don't be spamming your Jesus Beams at everyone and their brother every time you get a stack of Maelstrom just because you can.
The Home Stretch (sub 20%)
This is the point where both bosses get Furious. Hero/Lust/Warp is rolling, what more can you do? Well, assuming that you pre-potted properly, this is the ideal time to be using that second potion. Likewise, this is the portion of the fight where it is exceptionally important that you are rolling defensive cooldowns. More than likely your wolves will be up during this phase, and this is really where switching out that glyph comes in handy. Having more self heals rolling on yourself lets the healers focus their mana more on keeping those tanks up through the increased damage, as well as just making it easier for them to take care of the chaos that is the last bit of this fight.
If you do your job correctly as an enhancement shaman (and of course, provided that the other 9 or 24 people you are raiding with do their jobs as well), you should have yourself some heroic loot in no time!
Heroic Loots
So the boss is dead and some stuff dropped that has agility on it. What's good for us, and what should be passed on?
Seal of Primordial Shadow - A ring that has a chance to drop off of Morchok, Zon'ozz, Yor'sahj, Hagara, and Warmaster Blackhorn. Best in slot item.
Vial of Shadows - A trinket that has a chance to drop off of Morchok, Zon'ozz, Yor'sahj, Hagara, and Warmaster Blackhorn. Best in slot item.
Sporebeard Gauntlets - Glove that drop off of Morchok. Can be used as an offset piece, but is better itemized for hunters by far. BiS gloves for enhance would be our tier gloves. These could be a viable off piece until you manage to land your heroic tier gloves because of the double red sockets, but ultimately this item is meant for hunters due to the lack luster secondary stats. Pass in my opinion, unless they sim out to be better than what you have with your personal set up.
Final Tips
Clear out a bit more of the trash on both sides than you think you'll need to. It sucks something fierce to get sub 5% on the boss only to have a crystal spawn a bit too close to a pack of mobs, having the ranged accidentally pull said mobs, and wipe the raid. Always be on the safe side, or you will more than likely be sorry.
Separate the two Morchok and Kochram groups in Ventrilo/Mumble. Once Morchok is below 90% health, the fight is essentially two different fights. To prevent confusion between the use of healing and tank cooldowns of the two groups, separate channels is advised. During this fight only two things need to be coordinated between the two groups, Heroism/Blood Lust and the calling of a wipe. Both of those things can be done efficiently through raid warnings.
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I hope that those of you who have read this post walk away with something that helps you in your journey to defeat the Heroic Morchok encounter. If you feel that any of the information in this post is incorrect, or you have something to add, please leave a comment!
Good luck and have fun!
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