Totem Talk: Cooldown management in the Lower Spire
by Rich Maloy 
Jun 19th 2010 at 4:00PM
This article originally started as an enhancement shaman's guide to cooldown usage in ICC but given that cooldown management is universal to all damage dealers I've expanded the scope of the article. Actually, "expanded the scope" is a bit grandiose; it's more accurate to say I just changed the wording from enhance-specific spells to using the generic 3-min, 2-min and 1-min cooldowns.
In some cases I kept the enhancement abilities because they bring other abilities in addition to just straight damage. Here's a quick rundown of our major cooldowns for the unenhanced:
- 10 min – Bloodlust/Heroism – you know it and love it
- 10 min – Fire Ele (5 min with glyph) – yeah he's dumb but what do you expect, his brains are on fire
- 3 min – Berserk & Bloodfury – Troll & Orc racials, respectively
- 3 min – Feral Spirit – two wolves who do damage and heal you simultaneously. Rad.
- 2 min – on-use Trinkets – Currently my trinkets are not on-use but I take them into account in case yours are
- 1 min – Shamanistic Rage with t10 2pc – normally this is a mana-regeneration and damage-reduction spell but with 2pc t10 it increases damage.
Lord Marrowgar
Regular and Heroic – It's a relatively short fight so you'll get to use 3 minute cooldowns only once. We usually BL after the first Bone storm, though it could be equally effective at the pull after tanks are in position and have threat. If you BL midway then 1-min cooldowns can be used at the start of the fight and will be up again in time for BL/Hero but 2mins should be saved. Be sure to get the Fire Ele out before popping BL.
Lady Deathwhisper
Regular – On regular mode this fight is a snoozer. Save all cooldowns 3mins or longer for the end after the shied is down, then get out pets and blow Hero. If your guild takes longer than 4 mins to complete this fight then you can use your 3min cds to maximum benefit. 2 min trinkets can be used early so they'll be ready for BL at the end, and Shammy Rage can be used on every cooldown.
Heroic – We've found the best use of BL is in phase 1. It helps mop up adds and shorten that phase, just be sure to use it after a mind control and shortly before a new wave comes out. We usually shoot for the 2nd or 3rd wave and I do hold my 3-min cooldowns until then. There are 60 seconds between each wave of adds so conceivably you could use your 3min abilities at the start and have them ready again for BL in the 3rd wave. Use all other cooldowns as they are available and as often as possible.
I've vacillated between ele on phase 1 and phase 2. The downside with phase 1 is that used too late you may have to destroy the totem if the shield is low, you don't want to break it yet, but ol' fire-for-brains is beating on it. The downside of phase 2 is with the high amount of movement your independent minded ele may behave like a spoiled teenager and run off to sulk in the corner all by himself, temperamental beasts that they are -- the ele's not the teenagers.
Gunship Battle
Initiate combat. Socialize. Surf for lolcats. Collect loot.
Deathbringer Saurfang
Regular – I highly recommend using BL/Hero a few seconds before the 30% mark when he does his Berserk. If your guild is burning that last 30% down faster than the 45 second BL duration then you may want to move the pop-off to 40%. It should go without saying that getting the full duration out of BL is the best use of it. It should also go without saying it's often necessary to say the things that go without saying.
Having said that, in regular mode you may not get to use 3min cooldowns more than once so I save them for the 30% BL. We're killing him right around 3 minutes total.
Heroic – On heroic I always get two uses out of wolves so I pop them early and then again late. On nights when the DPS is feeling really good my wolves may not be back up for the 30% mark. If that's the case don't hold Hero, get that out first for the healers and then kindly ask another shammy in your raid to pop a 2nd hero for your dogs. As for 1min cooldowns they should be used early and often. As for trinkets and 2-min cooldowns you may not get 3 uses out of 2-min cooldowns on heroic and definitely not on regular mode, so they should be used early and then held for the last 30% and BL.
This is a good fight to get in the habit of "pre-potting" which means taking a Potion of Speed before combat starts. If you do it right you can get 10-12 seconds of haste without locking yourself out of the one-potion-per-combat rule; plus the 2-min cooldown will be up by the time you Hero.
Next week we'll tackle the Plague and Blood Wings including the epic melee strategy for heroic Blood Prince Council I like call: "/afk getting more beer."
What do you differently than the cooldowns usage I outlined above?
May all your hits be crits!
Show your totemic mastery by reading Totem Talk, whether reading Mike Sacco's Elemental edition, Joe Perez's coverage of Restoration or Rich Maloy's Enhancement edition, we have you covered.Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
A5 Jun 19th 2010 4:07PM
"yeah he's dumb but what do you expect, his brains are on fire"
It all makes sense now!
alpha5099 Jun 19th 2010 4:59PM
"Be sure to get the Fire Ele out before popping BL."
You sure about that? I'm almost certain Fire Ele doesn't benefit from BL/heroism.
Vogie Jun 19th 2010 5:23PM
All guardians benefit from haste at some level. Army of the dead ghouls & shaman elementals benefit from it if they are already out, while Dancing Rune Weapons, and Gargoyles take a snapshot of the caster's stats while they are activated. The Former you want to activate before BL/H, while the latter you want to activate immediately after.
alpha5099 Jun 19th 2010 5:36PM
All of the theorycrafting I've seen on the subject has shown that the Fire Ele operates like how you describe the Gargoyle: it takes a snapshot of your stats at the time of its summoning, and uses that throughout its duration. This is unlike your Spirit Wolves, which will adjust to your stats as they change throughout their duration.
Chise Jun 19th 2010 9:34PM
Droping the fire elemental before hero is a GCD thing, so you dont have to use a cooldown droping magma.
Dave Jun 19th 2010 9:52PM
You are correct: the common accepted usage is that Wolves (pets) need to be popped BEFORE heroism while the Elementals (guardians) should, when convenient, be popped DURING a heroism and/or with as many of your AP buffs running as possible because the later form of critter snapshots your current stats and runs with them for the length of it's spawn cycle.
Guardians, unlike Pets, do not benefit from Heroism otherwise.
Arkhill Jun 20th 2010 11:39AM
I think it does work differently for Fire Ele, but for things like the DK Garg and Ghoul, you want all buffs on you, then you pop them. They work off the snapshot of stats method.
Plus, grats Big Crits on the SM!
OneSound Jun 19th 2010 4:59PM
The orc racial has a 2 min cooldown, like trinkets. Other then that, great article.
alanp Jun 19th 2010 6:16PM
Am I the only one who saw the title and thought "Why are they doing a column about Lower Blackrock Spire?"
Docp Jun 19th 2010 7:27PM
Why not? It's still relevant content, some people may be taking their first char through there, their first alt shaman or indeed working through heroics and wanting some pointers.
Docp Jun 19th 2010 7:34PM
Ack, I fail, I thought you were being rude about his topic choice, sorry.
DragonFireKai Jun 20th 2010 12:55AM
IMO, the best time for hero on Saurfang is as soon as the tanks have aggro. You can get maximum DPS on Saurfang, because it synergizes with all the cooldowns, and the ranged aren't worrying about blood beast for the first 40 seconds. The longer the fight drags on, the closer you are to wiping because his blood power gain goes up exponentially, and the fewer marks you have out when the frenzy hits makes healing much easier.
gamerunknown Jun 20th 2010 3:51AM
Getting to the burn phase doesn't make life easier than quickly getting over the burn phase. You need the hasted healing in that phase as much as the increased dps to down the boss quicker. You want to spend the least amount of time in that phase as possible!
Also, the gunship battle fight is a great time to post jokes or make friends in general chat.
Meg Jun 20th 2010 4:45AM
On normal Saurfang, we Bloodlust right away to just get him down. On Heroic, we save 'lust for the frenzy phase to help healers.
Gothia Jun 20th 2010 5:45AM
We usually don't mark on normal so sure a quick BL makes sense in this difficulty. However, heroic is a totally different story and BL is highly recommended on the 3rd mark because if we get a 4th everyone most likely will be paying the piper.
Styvorama Jun 20th 2010 9:45AM
Gunship Battle
Initiate combat. Socialize. Surf for lolcats. Collect loot.
Lootship jokes never get old. :D
Draig Jun 21st 2010 6:01AM
The 10-minute cooldown means you can often only use bloodlust every other fight. I use it after the pull on Marrowgar so it has a chance of being back up before the end of the deathwhisper fight. I never use it on gunship so it is available for saurfang.