Scattered Shots: Hunting Magmaw and Omnotron
by Brian Wood 
Jan 31st 2011 at 2:00PM
By now, most hunters with the desire to raid are starting to explore the new Cataclysm raids and practice shooting bosses in the face, which means it's time for Scattered Shots to start talking about hunter-specific tips for raid bosses. We'll be starting with a couple of the easiest boss fights, Magmaw and the Omnotron Defense System. I was debating for a bit whether to include Argaloth in the first roundup, but as Dawn Moore said when we were discussing it, "Whatever. Argaloth isn't even a boss." And you know, that's kinda true.
As always with these hunter guides, this is not a strategy guide for these bosses. I am assuming you are already familiar with the general boss strategy. Instead, we're just focusing on hunter-specific tips that the general guides tragically skip over. If you want to learn the basic mechanics of the fights, you can check out the Magmaw strategy guide and the Omnotron Defense System strategy guide here on WoW Insider.
Join me after the cut as we get into just how the vast hunter toolbox can simplify these fights not just for you but for your whole raid -- and, as always, how to maximize your DPS!
Magmaw
Magmaw is one of the first bosses in Blackwing Descent and is likely the first boss that most raids will encounter. He's pretty straightforward and an easy encounter -- as long as you remember that killing the parasites is your top priority. Because killing the parasites means AoE, this is definitely a SV fight, even with the current PTR 4.0.6 changes. MM can definitely contribute more slowing with Concussive Barrage, but a single trap should be all that's needed with the beefy and consistent AoE of survival.
There are a couple of strategies out there for dealing with the Pillar of Flame and raid placement and movement. I think the easiest strategy is to let the hunter do all the work.
Our raid puts every single raid member into melee range of Magmaw except for me. With only one person at range, the Pillar of Flame will always spawn on that person. So I'm the only one at range; I can control exactly where the parasites spawn, and no one else needs to worry about moving except for a slight shuffle left or right when the floor smolders. With Disengage, hunters can move around the field quickly and efficiently, and we can leave out traps waiting right at the spawn point. While the movement might cost you a bit of DPS compared to the lucky guys who get to stand still, it's a net gain for the raid, which of course is the whole point.
A few specific pointers:
- You might want to consider the major glyph Glyph of Ice Trap. The extra radius shouldn't really be necessary, but hey, it's a major glyph. Other than Glyph of Disengage, it can take some work to get any benefit from the major glyphs.
- SV has two talent points up in the top two tiers of their tree that have no clear DPS option; we can put those wherever we want. For Magmaw, Point of No Escape is a good use for these points, since it boosts all our AoE damage, which is the key to success on this boss.
- Entrapment is another possible option; however, do not use this if your raid has melee classes that melee the adds (some melee classes can do their AoE from range). If you root a mob, it will ignore aggro and just attack anyone within range. So Entrapment can cause unnecessary damage and parasite infections if you have people in melee range. If you don't have to worry about melee, then Entrapment is a good choice is your raid is struggling on the parasites, and Point of No Escape is better if you're killing them before they leave your trap radius.
- Remember to use your Explosive Trap on the parasites. If you're running as SV, this means you'll have to be careful about using Black Arrow, which shares a cooldown with Explosive Trap. Time it so that you'll always have your Explosive Trap available for parasite phases.
- As Survival (or BM), you should be able to keep your Serpent Sting up on Magmaw throughout the parasite phase. You'll have to use Cobra Shot to regen focus between Multi-Shots, so swap to Magmaw for the Cobra Shots to keep your sting up on him. MM doesn't really have this option, because it's not worth it to waste focus on Chimera Shot that would better be spent on a couple Multi-Shots.
- Similarly, your Lock & Load will likely proc from your Explosive Trap. The Explosive Shots don't do much good against the parasites (which should all be doing down at about the same rate), and you can toss those over at Magmaw as well. Just don't let the target switching cost you any time, and always remember that Multi-Shot on the parasites is your top DPS priority.
- Save your Rapid Fire and other long cooldowns for the exposed head phase. Toss Hunter's Mark up on the head and blow all cooldowns and go to town.
Omnotron Defense System
The Omnotron Defense System is a much more involved fight. The fight isn't really harder than Magmaw, but there are so many different things going on in different possible combinations that the learning curve is a bit longer as everyone gets used to everything.
This fight is fairly spec-neutral, though BM is certainly hurt a bit by the constant target switching. If you're running BM on this fight, be sure your pet has the Dash or Dive pet talent (and Charge if possible) so that it can get into position for your next Kill Command as quickly as possible. Dash and Dive are also advisable for MM or SV hunters -- never forget the thousands of DPS your pet brings!
They key to this fight is situational awareness and remembering all of your basic hunter and basic raiding skills. The ability to switch targets on a dime, remember to reapply that Hunter's Mark, and to move all over the place without losing DPS is what will put you at the top of the meters. In particular, don't forget to aspect dance over into Aspect of the Fox any time you need to move. Even if you're just moving for 2 seconds, if you don't have an instant shot to fire, you may as well pop into fox to fire your Steady/Cobra during that move and pop back to Hawk once you can stop again.
As a hunter, you'll most likely be called upon to MD the third tron over to the first tank. Be sure to keep an eye on the activation timers, and make sure you have enough focus to launch a couple of damaging shots the instant it activates to keep it off of a healer.
A few specific pointers:
- Magmatron's flamethrower can be entirely blocked with Deterrence. So if a confused raider kites the flamethrower at you (which, if my experience is any indication, will happen several times while learning the fight), you can always pop Deterrence to stay safe and save the healers from yet another spike damage burden.
- Magmatron's Acquiring Target beam prior to the flamethrower can be cancelled entirely with Feign Death. When the red beam is on you, just FD. It won't target anyone else, and it won't go off. You just saved the healers some work!
- Archatron's Power Generator is your very best friend. Of course you want to stand in these pools -- just make sure that you aren't losing DPS by getting there. Jump-Disengage into position, or use Aspect of the Fox to continue DPSing while moving.
- Do not DPS Toxitron's Poison Soaked Shell unless your raid leader explicitly tells you to as part of your strategy. It's worded strangely, but yes, hunters do get the stacking DoT from shooting the shield.
- During Poison Protocol, you should be able to DPS down all the slimes before your Serpent Sting drops off of Toxitron. If, however, it's going slowly, just toss a Cobra Shot (or Chimera Shot) on Toxitron to keep your Serpent Sting rolling. Remember to Concussive Shot the slimes every chance you get. I start shooting them the instant the first one spawns, but thereafter I prioritize the ones going after the healers and make sure I keep those ones slowed.
- You will likely get two Rapid Fires in this fight (six for MM). You probably want to burn your first one on the pull (unless the first tron is Archatron, in which case you want to wait for Power Generator). Save your second cooldown usage for when you can stand in a Power Generator pool. MM will want to get as many Rapid Fires in Power Generation pools as possible, but remember, don't delay things so much that you get fewer Rapid Fires over the course of the fight. Better to use it without the combo than to lose it.
Scattered Shots is dedicated to helping you learn everything it takes to be a hunter in Cataclysm. From leveling your hunter to optimizing for heroics to gearing up with pre-heroic loot and pre-raid loot, we've got you covered.Filed under: Hunter, (Hunter) Scattered Shots
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ocastra Jan 31st 2011 9:53AM
Great post as usual, thanks. I'm in a 25 player raid and we're doing Magmaw differently, with a frost DK kiting all parasites all the time - all dps focus on Magmaw. My fellow hunter and me help him with frost traps as good as possible. If you're running this strategy you might want to talk about the kiting path so you can place your traps more accurately.
For Omnitron, make sure to have you pet switch targets asap if the shield reaches 50%. Pet attacks will trigger the bosses shield mechanism. I've makroed /petattack to all common shots for this encounter. If Toxitron is active we drop a frosttrap for his poison protocol so all adds are slowed right when they spawn. The (almost) guaranteed lock and load proc helps with burning down the slimes as fast as possible, too.
Maccumber Jan 31st 2011 3:09PM
Frost,
A little confusion here: My guild has been doing Magmaw with the impression there was a hotfix to take the single ranged target for Pillar of Flame "exploit" out.
When was the last time you used this method?
Frostheim Jan 31st 2011 12:20PM
We did it this week -- though I'm pretty sure it's not an exploit!
dj.clayden Jan 31st 2011 2:24PM
Confirming that it worked as of Friday 29th - and I also wouldn't consider it an exploit, it's such an obvious strategy I highly doubt Blizzard would leave it viable unintentionally :)
kingoomieiii Jan 31st 2011 2:34PM
Yup, not an exploit. Pillar only targets ranged players. The fix you might have seen was for a similar ability used by Ascendant Council, wherein players could bug it by all being in melee range, making it not go off at all (or something). For Magmaw, if no one is at range, Pillar spawns on a random melee instead (not good).
Kuro Jan 31st 2011 2:41PM
Had this issue too.. people assumed it was 'fixed' because we had flame pillars in melee.
Make sure that the people who are in melee range are actually *in* melee range. If you can't melee swing the boss, you're too far out.
Dreshung Jan 31st 2011 8:24PM
From what I understand, and I have seen it happen, the Pillar of Flame only has an enjoyment for ranged, not a forced mechanism. My guild has attempted this method and it never worked, because some one in melee range always got hit by the pillar. We found it easier to teach people to watch where they stand and get ready to move as soon as the circle appears. Raid Awareness is much more important this time around and being able to use an early encounter like Magmaw for training purposes is always nice.
thedoctor2031 Feb 6th 2011 11:55AM
@Dreshung,
This is incorrect, this is most certainly a mechanic that only hits range. Why you think it is not a forced mechanism is because it randomly targets anyone outside 15 yards. If someone is outside fifteen yards in the melee group it has a chance to target them. Also if no one is outside 15 feet, it will randomly target anyone.
SanmigLite Jan 31st 2011 2:20PM
We do Magmaw on 10-man with myself (a SV hunter) as the only ranged and in charge of solo kiting all parasite spawns. I'm specced into entrapment and I do use a Warp Stalker (although entrapment appears to be all that is really needed to solo kite). The rest of the raid stay melee ranged and full-time on the boss (aside from a healer who keeps his eye on me). This is our 4th week successfully doing it this way and while it is no fun for the hunter (I've hated this duty since Gluuth), it seems to free up the rest of the raid to burning Magmaw down cleanly. Only twice have I seen Pillar of Flame NOT targetted on me -- and that may have been because one of the other raiders was a tad bit out of the melee group, but it's hard to be certain.
Oh and to all hunters on kite-duty, watch your Disengages:) I've hurled my self into the lava pit by accident trying to escape Ignition. That went well.
Harvoc Jan 31st 2011 8:42PM
Instead of a Warp Stalker, you can consider using a Crocolisk for the higher uptime at the cost of a smaller range. Though considering that you already think your Warp Stalker is unnecessary, the higher uptime is probably overkill.
Gindy Jan 31st 2011 2:26PM
I thought it was omnitron?
dj.clayden Jan 31st 2011 2:46PM
You would have thought, yes, but it seems someone at Blizzard was making the name.. "interesting".
And besides, it's not called Omnitron OR Omnotron.
Just look at the achievement - Dark Iron Golem Council rolls off the tongue far better!
Kren Jan 31st 2011 4:34PM
No no no you're both wrong it's omnomnomotron everyone knows that.
Buffles Jan 31st 2011 2:30PM
One thing I've noticed on Magmaw is my pet constantly dies during the encounter. To what I can not say because I'm trying to pay attention more to the encounter since we (hunters) have the up most importance with our traps and what not. Not really sure if this is something that is just happening to me, or to others, but If you are having the same issues I tried something the last time my guild took him down which I found pretty helpful.
I told my pet to stay in the back of the room near the pillars. Once Magmaw came down on the spike, you'll notice that it changes from "Magmaw" to "Head of Magmaw". At this point I tell my pet to attack the head. Once this part of the fight is over, it switches back to "Magmaw" and my pet will stop attacking and go back to the pillars.
I do it this way because I haven't been able to do enough testing yet to see if my pet getting his to the pillar of flame spawns extra worms or not. My pet is always a little bit slow in following me away from it and always gets thrown in the air.
kingoomieiii Jan 31st 2011 2:39PM
I've actually never had my pet die during that encounter. I have him attack the boss the entire time, though, and not assist with adds (we have me sit and place the pillar, then MD to our frost DK and have him kite).
If you're having trouble with your pet getting out of the way, use the "Move To" skill on your pet bar and have him sit a little away from you. When pillar spawns, run to the pet (he won't move), and then send him at the parasites.
kingoomieiii Jan 31st 2011 2:41PM
...Though, you probably want your pet on magmaw until like 6 seconds before pillar anyway. As Frostheim so often points out, even surv pets bring about 2k DPS.
wutsconflag Jan 31st 2011 2:38PM
Omnotron was pretty easy once I figured out how the fight works. Perhaps easier than Magmaw, but that could be because I died in every attempt on him. ;p
Maccumber Jan 31st 2011 3:16PM
TY for the replies all!
Maccumber Jan 31st 2011 3:20PM
Oh and I only used "exploit" as the handiest term to my meagre gray matter (hence the quotations).
From now on I'll refer to it as "awesomesaucemethodology"...
Aaron Jan 31st 2011 3:30PM
Everything is better with awesomesauce.