Terror from Beyond

Well, first, congras to us for clearing EC in SM. That was a very good guild effort. We should now put it on farm, which should not be too difficult now that we have seen all the fights. Toth and Zorn are already on farm, Firebrand and Stormcaller needs DPS balancing but we can sort this out, Colonel Vorgath was really easy, and Warlord Kephess needs simply focus and concentration to remember the salient points of each phase.

Now it is time to look beyond, to the terror. Here are the first strategy guides that I've found, they look already pretty complete:

• The Writhing Horror
  
• Ciphas, Heirad, and Kel’sara
  
• Operator IX
  
• Kephess the Undying
  
• The Terror from Beyond
  

for tonight: (copy of yllses links)

http://dulfy.net/2012/09/26/the-writhing-horrorterror-from-beyond-boss-guide/

Withering terror

FIRST BOSS (The Writhing Terror):
This is a lot easier than Toth & Zorn. At the start he'll be standing at the back. The main tank should move in and turn him around, and have him not face the raid. Melee should stay behind the boss, ranged should be spread out. The main boss will not move, but at every 10% of his health, he will burrow and go to a different place.

- see borrowing diagram on dulfy, tanks need to gap close and pick up boss again after he borrows and emerges

At 80% he will spawn adds: a big add and several small adds (Jealous Male, Foul Offspring & Red Circle). You can single-taunt (or AoE taunt, idc) the big add, but the small adds are untauntable. Instead, the small adds will attack whoever is in this big red circle. The easiest way to do this is to have the offtank AoE-taunt(!!) the big add, and move into the red circle. Keep in mind that you can only 'use' the red circle once to get the 'pheromone' buff. So heals and DPS should stay the **** out of that circle, the offtank should run through it. The big add also does an AoE attack which should be interrupted.

An alternative strategy is to turn it around. The offtank will taunt the big add and kite it across the room, since he does knockbacks. Everyone but the tanks and the maintank-healer should be in the red circle and be AOE'ing the adds. This strategy works if you have sufficient AOE damage. After AOE'ing the small adds, kill the big one, then back on the main boss. I believe the adds spawn four times, at 80%, 60%, 40% and 20%.

Tank Swap

The main boss stacks debuff on the tanks so a tank swap is required. The way I've done it was to have the tanks swap as soon as the currently tanking person gets 5 stacks.


SECOND BOSS (Dread Masters):

These are three bosses. You'll have a sorcerer, a marauder and an assassin who each use their own abilities, similar to the ones each class has. It also depends on which boss(es) the ops group are currently focussing on. The way I did this was to kill the middle guy/sorcerer first (just like in PvP ) and to have the maintank and offtank pick up the other two. The healers should be each taking one tank to heal, and dropping AOE heals like crazy on the DPS' asses while they burn down the sorc. Like with the first fight you'll get stacking debuffs, it's easiest to do a tank swap at 10-15 stacks.

When the DPS is burning down the sorcerer, at one point he'll shield himself (I want that *********** ability). When that happens the DPS should stop hitting the sorcerer and start focussing the marauder. The marauder also has a shield similar to the sorc's bubble. The DPS should break that shield and interrupt the shield the marauder is casting on the sorc. After the sorc is unshielded, back on the sorcerer again. Rinse and repeat until the sorc is dead.

After killing the sorc the DPS should move on the marauder again. He'll drop AOE's on the ground, don't stand in it unless you want Blackreven yelling at you in Vent. However, one person (I believe it's random) will get a debuff called "Doom". At 3 stacks of that debuff, the person should move into the green circles to get rid of it. You have to move into the circles three times, as each time you move into a green AOE you'll have one stack removed. The heals should be aware of this and be casting big heals on the poor guy. If someone *doesn't* do this mechanic he'll be instakilled when the debuff timer runs out.

After the marauder is dead move on the assassin. This guy will target one random person and stay on one person. He cannot be taunted during this phase. When this happens the assassin will shoot out a green light on whoever's getting their *** handed to them, and start running towards him. When this phase, whoever has this aggro should kite the boss around. Do not get hit by the boss or you'll be oneshotted. Don't get oneshotted and kill the mofo.

Notes from last night:

Trash on the way between bosses

- droids first, nothing special, cc everything possible, kill in order
- outside areas have portal ambushes, tanks must pick up the ambush, dps prioritize the portal to stop more waves, portal emits minor aoe.
- inside areas on way to boss 3 (matrix type level) have data cores, same deal as portals
- Sith on way to dread masters - 1 of them annilator needs tanked and will drop a purple aoe on random raid member, group must avoid the purple aoe.


Boss 1 - withering terror

- MT picks up boss (boss must be turned due to cleave)
- at each 10% hp increment, boss will burrow, MT must gap close asap spam clicking it as boss emerges so raid gets hit with less dmg from spit
- when jealous male spawns, tank on the boss switches to jealous male
- OT picks up boss
- Designated DPS runs to red circle
- group aoe down the adds in red circle
- then kill jealous male
- then back on boss
- tank switch with each jealous male
- rinse and repeat

healing note, corrosive dot can be cleansed, tank on boss will be taking substantial damage especially with debuff stack.




dread masters

- MT pick up assassin on right (assassin gives debuff stack to armour/dmg dealt)
- OT pick up maruader on left
- Tanks must swap when assassin stack is at about 10 i think
- DPS on sorcerer till he puts his shield up
- DPS switch to maruader when that happens
- DPS switch back to assassin after this phase
- Assassin will cast dark mark or something; person marked will have a yellow link between them and assassin, they must kite the boss to avoid death. Typically went for healer so probaly looking for threat which doesnt have boss focus.

puzzle boss

- MT/DPS = blue
- Healer/DPS = yellow
- OT/ DPS = purple
- Healer/DPS = orange

- kill two droids on patrol
- blue tank enters circle near boss
- blue DPS does console
- rest kill the two cores as priority
- tanks patrol near center and picks up as many of the adds as possible, prioritize protecting console user and then healers.
- each colour team repeats the cycle
- if two cores not killed in time, rectifier champ will spawn, one tank must pick it up and tank it, notify healers you will need some love
- DPS should finish core, then kill rectifier, then new team does their turn
- after this, we enter phase 2 in center, boss will spawn as well as rectifier
- tanks must agree who is taking boss, who takes champ
- op should dps rectifier first, then stand near boss and dps him down
- when colour circles spawn, the people with matching colour should go stand in them for a second and run back
- DO NOT STAND IN THE WRONG ONE!
- repeat this until boss dead

Great post, thanks Leo, just a few additional comments...

Leorra\Leornis\Kalthra wrote:
Boss 1 - withering terror

- Do not stand on the "flowers", this is where the red circle is likely to spawn
- If you enter the red circle by mistake, and you are a DPS scheduled to enter it at a later point, call out if you get the pheromones debuff, because that means that you have to be replaced on your turn.

Leorra\Leornis\Kalthra wrote:
dread masters
- MT pick up assassin on right (assassin gives debuff stack to armour/dmg dealt)
- OT pick up maruader on left

Good point, we did the reverse, and then I forgot to switch because the stacks were not appearing on me (silly me)...

Leorra\Leornis\Kalthra wrote:
dread masters
- DPS switch back to assassin after this phase

- Also Phase 2, when attacking the marauder, if you have the doom, run through green circles to clear it, other people stay away from the circles.

Leorra\Leornis\Kalthra wrote:
dread masters
- Assassin will cast dark mark or something; person marked will have a yellow link between them and assassin, they must kite the boss to avoid death. Typically went for healer so probaly looking for threat which doesnt have boss focus.

Good point about the threat, remember that you are insta-killed if rejoined, so start running early, use rescue, jumps, etc. Also (just to nitpick :p ) the linked seemed more greenish than yellow to me... But I was very tired.

Leorra\Leornis\Kalthra wrote:
puzzle boss
- blue tank enters circle near boss
- blue DPS does console
- rest kill the two cores as priority
- tanks patrol near center and picks up as many of the adds as possible, prioritize protecting console user and then healers.

I would add that the tanks MUST protect the console guy, because a rectifier champ is spawned at each interruption, he hits really hard and cleaves, it must be avoided at all cost. Also, its nice to have one healer stay in the center all the time, the other one (the more mobile if possible) should accompany the DPS.

Leorra\Leornis\Kalthra wrote:
- tanks must agree who is taking boss, who takes champ
- op should dps rectifier first, then stand near boss and dps him down

Positioning is very important here:
- MT no boss (needs a lot of love, the boss hits really hard)
- Healers in center
- OT with rectifier outside the circles with his back out, DPS on the rectifier's back, outside the small circles.

IlseA wrote:

Leorra\Leornis\Kalthra wrote:
dread masters
- MT pick up assassin on right (assassin gives debuff stack to armour/dmg dealt)
- OT pick up maruader on left

Good point, we did the reverse, and then I forgot to switch because the stacks were not appearing on me (silly me)...

I actually didnt have a huge deal with it, even when it got to 17 stacks so I think either tank can do this. It just needs whoever is on the assassin to call for the tank switch when the stack hits 10 for eg, for which i prob need to buy a new mic so people can hear me

edit: dulfy says both tanks should be getting stacks and switch at 5

Leorra\Leornis\Kalthra wrote:edit: dulfy says both tanks should be getting stacks and switch at 5

The way I managed it yesterday, really easy, was to put Alisdair in my focus. That way I could always check how many stacks he had, and call for the switches. The only additional thing that helped, was to call for the switch only after the shield had been dealt with, but that was very easy to manage.

For this fight, the two other points which bear remembering are:

• Phase 2: when you have a melee heavy group, the tank should always drag the boss backwards as much as he can, that will cause the whole melee group to move automatically out of the (numerous) green circles popping up underneath them.
  
• Phase 3: In between the chases, the tank should always drag the boss so one side of the arena as far as he can, to give the maximum space to run, and the ranged (including the healers) should always be at maximum range, so that it makes it harder for the boss to catch them if they are selected.
  
  

OK, first, thanks everyone for a good progression evening. We wiped quite a bit, but everyone stayed focussed, no people getting afk, people running in as quickly as possible to start the next try, etc. Really enjoyable, and I think we made good progress, between showing the fights to new people, and getting a new boss down to around 20%.

About this boss (Kephess the Undying), a few thoughts:

• Phase 1: not too complicated, the important thing is not to panic. It is quite hard on the tanks, between getting the glow and getting the boss to the proper position, but it is manageable. The important point for EVERYONE is to understand the mechanic: the lightning will appear between Kephess and a pillar. At that point, the tank will start dragging the boss towards the pillar, possibly a bit on the chaotic side, because there might be a tank swap. What is important is not to get really close to the pillar, but to be not too far. However, EVERYONE should move to stay not too far from the boss, including the ranged and healers. This is because, after a few seconds, Kephess will start a huge conal AoE that will target a group memeber (announced by red text). the person target needs to run so that Kephess and him are in line with the pillar. It can be in front of the pillar, or to the back. My view is that it should be between Kephess and the pillar, because it's a shorter run. So be on your toes, and make sure to aim the conal attack at the pillar, using yourself as the target. Note that everyone should stay out of the cone, and that you can run THROUGH the boss to get in position, it's usually much more effective than running around. And this is also why you should be as close to the boss as possible, when he is dragged towards a pillar.
  
• Phase 1: As a side note, because of the tanks swaps, you might get the aggro, and therefore the "glow" on you, even if oyu are not a tank. Please watch your toon and move to the lightning "pool" ASAP.
  
• Phase 2: AVOID THE BLUE EXPANDING CIRCLE. It should not be too difficult, but remember that it appears already quite large and it CONTINUES TO GROW, so keep moving.
  
• Phase 2: The red circle (where Kephess will land) follows a player around, so that player should run AWAY from the other players, and continuer running (some people say that there is a small time between when the circle disappears and Kephess lands, which gives (if you are running full speed, not backwards) you time to lessen the damage by not being directly underneath Kephess when he lands. In any case, the person targetted should be bubbled and healed. Everyone else AVOID THE RED CIRCLES.
  
• Phase 2: Nanites... There is some confusion about those. The thing is that, the nanites are removed from you as soon as you START channeling the pillar. That means that you don't have to channel completely to get rid of the debuff. However, the pillar only falls down if you COMPLETE the channel. And getting the pillar down is only worth something is Kephess is near. So, if Kephess is far from you, do not complete the channel, you will lose DPS and a valuable pillar. However, if a second person gets the nanites, they should run to the SAME pillar, This way, the perosn channeling can stop it (he is already rid of the nanites), and the second one will pick over. Basically, we need a ranged DPS to help us see through all that, because it's a very uncertain phase.
  
• Phase 3: We have note seen it, but it seems to be actually quite tough because of the raid damage. So KEEP YOUR DEFENSIVE COLLDOWNS FOR THAT PHASE, maximise DPS and stay out of the mortar.
  

Have fun next week, and see you in two weeks time.

IlseA wrote:
[*]Phase 2: Nanites... There is some confusion about those. The thing is that, the nanites are removed from you as soon as you START channeling the pillar. That means that you don't have to channel completely to get rid of the debuff. However, the pillar only falls down if you COMPLETE the channel. And getting the pillar down is only worth something is Kephess is near. So, if Kephess is far from you, do not complete the channel, you will lose DPS and a valuable pillar. However, if a second person gets the nanites, they should run to the SAME pillar, This way, the perosn channeling can stop it (he is already rid of the nanites), and the second one will pick over. Basically, we need a ranged DPS to help us see through all that, because it's a very uncertain phase.

this evening, I mainly kited the boss around to keep everyone out of the aoe but it had the downside of not being able to coordinate very well with those who had nanites. One thing I saw from the video was not to panick and have members instantly remove it but hold it to see if the tank can use it so we can get the knockdown (unless you are low health)

[*]Phase 3: We have note seen it, but it seems to be actually quite tough because of the raid damage. So KEEP YOUR DEFENSIVE COLLDOWNS FOR THAT PHASE, maximise DPS and stay out of the mortar.
[/list]
Have fun next week, and see you in two weeks time.

Phase 3 we couldnt get past, closest we got was about 2% health. Everyone dropped like flies trying to get through this phase because you are taking the mortors whilst trying to damage him. Watching the video though it seems they mostly stood still and just sidestepped the mortors to do max dmg. I think having a sage here helps a lot more keeping nough dmg dealers alive to burn him down.

Kephass Phase 1

- No change to strategy, we have this phase nailed down, pretty straightforward apart from explaining the laser to new members

Kephass Phase 2

Big Changes to strategy here

Nanites

- If you have them, save them till we can coordinate with the tanks to position the boss near the selected pillar. We might have to pause whilst we wait for the boss to jump again so tank can taunt him after the jump to the pillar.

- Note to tank, boss will run very fast to you if you taunt him, so dont worry about being under the boss, just position yourself, then taunt.

Suggested Change 2:

- Coordinate the nanite channel -

Upto 3 ops members will have nanites at once. All of you can channel on the same pilllar, the pillar only dies when one of you breaks the channel so its also important to call that you have nanites and it is ok to start channelling as along as you dont break the channel until the boss is in range.

Explanation:

- We only have 6 pillars in phase 2 (4 in HM) - the channel is 15secs so you can start channelling but get as many of the others to also channel if they can but dont break the channel until the boss near so we can ensure we get as many nanites removed as possible.

nanites only does 11k dmg over 30sec but its still half the health on average of 3 of the ops and extra stress to the healers, so if we can remove as many debuffs as possible, always good.

-At 12% slow down damage and care more about the positioning on the last pillar.

We must coordinate the knockdown on the last pillar as close to 10% as we can manage so we have a chance to survive phase 3 and give the healers some time to top everyone up whilst they arnt using their heavy heals keeping the tank alive.

At this point, the ops leader should call this and get everyone to back off and position correctly.

Position yourselves properly!

- There was always too much emphasis on applying damage over proper positioning last night. Multiple times people were focused too much on hitting boss and not enough on positioning. This isnt a dps race, its a survival race. Position yourselves constantly in a precise manner, if ranged, go close to boss. He does no aoe apart from his jump and blue area and everyone should be outside those, there is zero reason to be stood at 30m and you are just making it harder on the healers.

If melee, try to stack always, especially just after the knockdown, this is the most opportune moment for a group heal. This includes ranged which is why we should be close to the boss so we can benefit from group heals but also for healers so they can top themselves up and restore some energy.

- The blue aoe is dispelled on knockdown, dont panic if we have a blue aoe on the pillar we are using, its ok to prioritise getting the boss knocked down and standing in the blue aoe for a bit.

Phase 3

- Anyone ranged needs to spread out from the melee, a stack and heal wont help here

- I think everyone should kite and not cover with standing still for more than 1 cast (few seconds)

- Even healers should dps here, we drop so fast, you wont have time to know who to keep alive but obviously it should be the dps since tanking is not needed at this point. Most I would suggest is pick a dps to focus on and try to run and heal those (sentinels best choice here, shield them and get them to coordinate their transcendance) however each time we were down to <10K health on boss which with 2 healers dps'ing might make the difference.

- But again, sentinels cant really use master strike since they will get too many morters so kite and quick strike.


Thoughts?

Thanks Leo, I agree with most of your comments, and in particular:

• Phase 2: Keep the nanites for the right moment, don't worry about DPS but about avoiding damage. The only thing is that I don't see many people getting the nanites, so I don't think that it is important in NM to be precise about their use in triplets. I think this requires coordination way beyond what we can achieve at the moment. If only one guy is in position, let him use the nanites, the others can soak up the damage. I however completely agree about the careful end of phase, that is really important for phase 3.
  
• Phase3: again, I completely agree, the mortar is a kind of soft enrage, from what I've seen. This phase is about surviving long enough to make significant damage, not dying quickly while burning every CD.

Melanastere wrote:1) It's not a race dps, so it might be better to slow dps so tank never loose aggro fromthe tentacles. If you do too many dps, you can take aggro easily while being on camo cd. I've not noted any problem in reducing dps on the tentacles. Which in turn make you able to keep high damage CD for Unstable Larva.

Actually, I was able to avoid that problem by tanking harder and generating more threat, something that I don't usually have to do, considering the usual mechanics of fights. Still, Mel's idea is good to deal with the Unstable Larva, knowing at the same time that thee go down fairly easily on SM, one of the DPS is usually sufficient to get it down on time.

Also, giving the tank a few seconds head start is usually a good policy, and there is always guard to be used on DPS generating too many spikes.

As for not being a DPS race, you are right, however, there is a "soft enrage" mechanic with the spits, which accumulate and make mistakes easier to make for the ranged people eating them.

Melanastere wrote:2) Avoiding the Birthed Larva is very important. A simple mistake here can lead to a wipe. If an Unstable Larva is still around at this moment, better avoid the Birthed Larva than taking down the remaining Unstable Larva. This one can be sorted after.

Indeed, and sometimes you think that you have avoided them, but their aggro range is fairly long, and they turn around and hit you. Make sure that you pay them proper attention...