MIMIRON

Mimiron is...kind of complicated to describe. Suffice it to say that it's a four-phase fight with different abilities to worry about on each phase. Short of writing a 3,000-word tract on Mimiron alone, I'm simply going to refer you here and here, and we'll proceed under the assumption that you have a basic familiarity with the encounter.

Because I'm going to be covering Phases 1 through 3 in detail here and Mimiron doesn't cook up anything new that requires Druid-specific commentary for Phase 4, we'll (mostly) stick to the first 3 phases.

BEARS: Phase 1 is what gave bear tanks headaches on the PTR. The problem is that Druid and Paladin tanks don't have a great answer for Plasma Blast, and -- especially on 25-man -- you may have to rely on healers' external cooldowns to get you through this portion of the fight. While that's true for all tanks if your DPS can't get its act together, there's no way around the fact that you are unable to reduce this damage to the extent that a Warrior or Death Knight can. While learning this fight, try to get a good feel for how quickly your DPS can get Mimiron to phase 2, then talk to your heal team about whether they feel their cooldowns need to be used and when. Plasma Blast typically occurs every 30-45 seconds; with good DPS you should only have to worry about surviving 2 to 3 blasts (on 10-man) or 3 to 4 blasts (on 25-man) before you get Leviathan MKII out of your hurtin' face.

Plasma Blast on heroic is 30,000 damage per second for 6 seconds, which works out to 180,000 damage total (and the ability can't be resisted). 3/3 Protector of the Pack will shave this to 26,400 damage per second, which is still a functional two-shot at present levels of gear unless you've popped Survival Instincts. If you can swing it, save Barkskin for one Blast (cutting the damage to about 20,000 per second, which is much more easily healable), Survival Instincts for the next, and then Barkskin for the next if it's up (if it's not, you may need to make use of someone else's cooldowns). The use of either should edge you into a three-shot rather than two-shot territory. A good heal team may be able to get you through this without having to use serious cooldowns, but they'll still be dumping massive, massive heals into you. A Nightmare Seed or health pot here would not go amiss. Make friends with a bored Herbalist.


Like melee DPS, you will need to be aware at all times of what your closest escape route is through Proximity Mines to avoid Shock Blast. Get through Phase 1, and the most difficult portion of the fight from a tank's perspective is over.

Phase 2 and 3 you don't need to worry about (the former doesn't require a tank, and the latter requires a ranged tank, although you'll be tanking the titchy little Junk Bots), but you'll be picking up the Leviathan portion of V0-L7R-0N (ha ha, Blizzard) again in Phase 4. Luckily for us, it does not wipe aggro in the interim, and even luckier, it loses the ability to Plasma Blast. If you have a good threat lead remaining from phase 1, you are probably the best person in the raid to monitor the health percentages on all three components of V0-L7R-0N. Remember the same mechanic governing What's-His-Name and Who's-Her-Face in Karazhan? Same deal here. Just think of them as an, um, threesome.

MOONKIN: Your first responsibility here is to not die; a lot of DPS is needed to hurdle this fight. There are many abilities at multiple stages of this fight that are one-shots, and the learning curve here is determined by how quickly your raid recognizes and moves to avoid them.

Phase 1 is fairly straightforward for ranged DPS -- it's a stand-and-nuke affair if your raid's positioning is sensible -- but you should be ready to blow Barkskin if targeted for Napalm Shell.

For phase 2, if you get caught short when Laser Barrage is about to begin and you're in the likely line of fire, a quick Cat Form + Dash should get you out of the way in time (FYI, Laser Barrage always moves clockwise). If targeted for Rapid Burst or unfortunate enough to get the splash damage off someone else's, Barkskin is once more your friend.

Moonkin shine on phases 3 and 4 due to their ability to range-tank the Aerial Command Unit or control the numerous bots summoned. Most raids will elect to use a Warlock or Hunter to tank if possible, but it's still doable for Druids. However, moonkin are so good at controlling the Bots on this fight that it's almost a waste to have us tank. Many moonkin spec into Typhoon (not ordinarily a raiding talent) and/or pick up the Glyph of Entangling Roots specifically for this fight, as both are enormously helpful at getting your raid through phase 3.

Because you can't Root more than one thing at a time, you will typically need help dealing with the Bomb and Assault Bots once you've got both upat the same time, so your raid needs to hash out who does what come phase 3. Bomb Bots, if they drop in a convenient area more than 5 yards away from a player, can be rooted and generally ignored until their 15-second life expectancy reaches its end (boom). Between the glyph and lack of DPS attention, the roots are unlikely to break at an inopportune moment, and it's theoretically possible that the raid could go its entire span of time without suffering any damage from an exploding Bomb Bot.

However, some raids choose to have the main tank taunt the Bomb Bots and eat the damage, preferring to have any DPS/CC not focused on the Aerial Command Unit focus solely on Assault Bots. Assault Bots are somewhat trickier to handle, but if you've ever "tanked" or seen someone "tank" Striders on phase 2 Vashj (yay for more phase 2 Vashj mechanics! Wooooooo! BEST FIGHT EVER!), you're already familiar with the principle involved. What's the principle? Never let them reach you. Actually, the Assault Bots mimic the Striders in another fashion as well -- ideally, you never have more than one up at any given time. These are inarguably the most dangerous of the three Bots because their melee damage is so high, and if you do nothing else on phase 3, chain-Rooting any Assault Bot is a major contribution to the overall survivability of your raid. Control the Bots, make sure they get nuked down with dispatch, get some DPS on the Control Unit when you can -- but your first priority is always the Assault Bots.

For phase 4 most ranged DPS will again be in charge of killing the Control Unit; melee can't hit it.

CATS: Again -- don't die. Mimiron is alternately a very good and very bad melee fight, but you already approach this fight at a significant advantage assuming 2/2 Feral Swiftness if you get targeted by a Bot in phase 3.

On phase 1, you're unlikely to take any damage as long as your positioning's convenient to a gap among Proximity Mines for Shock Blast, which is just as well because the healers aren't going to have too many GCD's to spare on melee.

For phase 2, you also have a slight advantage in that melee DPS should be able to stay behind VX-001 and avoid the Laser Barrage (remember hopping around/through Shade of Aran in order to stay behind him as he switched targets? Same deal), but it can be harder to see an incoming Rocket Strike because melee tend to be bunched up. Do not let the first indication that you have missed one be the instantaneous annihilation of the melee team.

Phase 3 is fairly boring for melee DPS because the Aerial Command Unit will be out of reach most of the time. For the most part you'll be helping to DPS down Junk Bots unless you've been targeted by a Bomb Bot. If your guild doesn't have a moonkin (or another DPS who's comfortable snaring or kiting Bomb/Assault Bots), you may wind up being more helpful on this portion of the fight staying in caster form and chain-Rooting adds as necessary, although that's a one-way ticket to OOMSville given how long this phase normally takes. If your raid chooses to use the Magnetic Cores dropped by Assault Bots, melee are typically tasked with looting these and getting the Command Unit grounded for a bit, which will enable you to DPS it until it takes off again.

Melee are generally on the Leviathan come Phase 4, as the Control Unit won't be within range at any point.

TREES: This is an endurance battle, albeit an endurance batte with a few breaks along the way (Mimiron takes his own sweet time shifting between phases). Resto Druids have a considerable advantage here as the fight requires an increasing amount of movement to avoid damage.

Phase 1 is a tank-healing-palooza. Even if you're mostly handling Napalm Shell damage, HoT's on the main tank are invaluable as a means of surviving Plasma Blasts, and you should keep an eye out for the raid warnings when this is about to occur. You should realistically expect to blow a Swiftmend for each Plasma Blast and possibly an early Nature's Swiftness + Healing Touch. If the heal team is having serious issues keeping the main tank alive through Plasma Blasts, you may need to experiment with a combination of tank/Paladin/Priest cooldowns, or you may just need more stamina gear on the main tank. Mimiron (especially on 25-man) is not forgiving to relatively undergeared raids.

Phase 2 removes the necessity to heal through split-second burst but massively ratchets up the raid healing requirement with an AoE fire damage pulse that should be relatively easy to heal through (and to which Resto Druids, as stated, are particularly suited to mopping up). This is compounded somewhat by the frequency with which Rapid Burst damage gets spread around while the raid is still learning the fight. Get everyone to spread out to minimize the odds of this chaining. If you survive this, the only other abilities you have to worry about (Laser Barrage and Rocket Strike) are functionally one-shots. If players get in the way, they get in the way, and no amount of healing is going to prevent their trip to the graveyard. If the heal team has the ability to keep a tank alive sans cooldowns through Plasma Blasts on phase 1, you've got the healing to get the raid through the rest of the encounter, but during phase 2 it's really more a question of the speed with which the raid can avoid unhealable or just plain awful damage.

Phase 3 starts off difficult while the raid is learning the encounter but gets markedly easier as players become more comfortable and adept at controlling the Bots. Plasma Ball (the sole ability performed by the Control Unit apart from summoning adds) is not particularly hard to heal through, and you should have ample GCD's and mana to spread HoT's on both the Bot tank (melee damage from the Junk Bots is not high, 1.7-2K on a decently-geared tank) and Control Unit tank. The overarching problem here is that raid healing on an inexperienced Mimiron raid is something of a crapshoot; either your players are good at controlling the Bots, or they're not. An uncontrolled Assault Bot can and will one-shot most raiders not wearing plate, and an unattended Bomb Bot who explodes within melee range can deal a world of hurt. Because neither of these should ever get within range of the raid under ideal circumstances, it's mostly up to your DPS to get them under control. If they're still having issues, a well-timed Entangling Roots (and/or War Stomp, if you're a Tauren) can buy you some time.

Filed under: Druid, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives