Totem Talk: An enhancement view of Blackwing Descent
by Josh Myers 
Feb 5th 2011 at 6:00PM
As I've mentioned before, I'm a Burning Crusade baby. This means I missed out on a lot of things: two-handed enhancement, FROST SHAWK, and both Onyxia and Nefarian as challenging raid bosses. While 40 people were beginning to come together and work out raid strategies like "Many Whelps -- handle it!," my young mind was congratulating myself on being awesome enough to beat the main storyline of Morrowind.
Cataclysm can't do anything for the first two points, which I don't mind in the least. However, Cataclysm does bring us back Nefarian and Onyxia as challenging raid content. Even better, they're together in the same fight as the climactic ending to Blackwing Descent, one of the three raid instances in tier 11 content. This week, I'll be focusing on looking at the first three bosses of Blackwing Descent from an enhancement perspective.
Science fiction and fantasy as genres have obsessions with weird worms. Star Wars saw a giant worm living in an asteroid. Dune gave us giant, people-eating sandworms. World of Warcraft continues this trend of enormous carnivorous annelids in Magmaw. As his name suggests, he's gigantic, lava-spewing worm who resides in a pool of molten magma. Since he enjoys spending time in the hot tub, Magmaw is stationary throughout the fight. You'll always be DPSing him at a 90-degree angle from where the tank is standing so as to avoid parries. The only exception to this is when he fills up half of his room with steam. Unlike your local sauna, this steam bath is not just for exfoliation. It will kill you; run away.
The majority of this fight is reliant on your tank, healers, and ranged DPS, as most of his mechanics are not ones you will be worrying about. Lava Spew is raid-wide AoE damage that cannot be prevented, and his Magma Spit is a single-target ability that hits hard. You have to rely on your healers to deal with most of these mechanics, especially since there is no ideal time for you to cast Healing Rain during this fight due to people's spreading out. If you want to contribute to raid survival, use Shamanistic Rage and Stoneclaw Totem absorb to try and prevent incoming damage to yourself.
Periodically, Magmaw will slump forward, and a vehicle arrow marker will appear on his body. Two melee players (three in 25-man) will need to jump on his back and shoot constricting chains at the stalagmite in the center of the room. If you do this correctly, Magmaw will impale himself on the stalagmite, exposing his head. Damage dealt to the head is increased by 100%, making this a burn phase for you and a regen phase for healers. You'll want to Bloodlust your exposed head phase.
The main job for enhancement on this fight is maximizing DPS through proper cooldown usage. What I've noticed with Magmaw is that if you pop Feral Spirit when you first get in combat, it often leaves you without wolves up for the first 5ish seconds of the head phase, which is a very bad thing. To combat this, I pop my wolves, pre-pot with Potion of the Tol'vir, and trinket (since I'm still rocking an Unsolvable Riddle for now) during the tank's countdown to run in. Once the exposed head is coming down, you'll want to use any cooldown with a GCD (Feral Spirit and Bloodlust) during the few seconds before the head appears, so as to have maximum uptime during the exposed head phases. With low responsibility and higher than normal damage, Magmaw is one of the most fun fights to play enhancement on.
Omnotron Defense System
The second fight in Blackwing Descent is fighting four Dark Iron golems, Arcanotron, Magmatron, Electron, and Toxitron. For brevity, I'll assume you've read WoW Insider's guide to Omnotron Defense System and will just focus on enhancement-specific parts.
Electron and Toxitron are both very basic bosses. Spread out, run bad things out of the raid, kite the poison that wants to explode on you, etc. The only real ability worth noting with Toxitron is that his Poison Soaked Shell will put a DoT on you that also gives your abilities a nature damage proc. If your healers are comfortable with healing through the 2,500 DPS DoT on you, it's a good way to win meters. Don't do it while learning the fight.
Arcanotron is the real worry for enhancement. He casts Arcane Annihilator nearly nonstop whenever he is active. An enhancement shaman can handle half of these casts himself, especially when specced into Reveberation. This spell does massive single-target damage, and if the tank is at all slow about moving Arcanotron out of Power Generators, you will see people get one-shot by it. Coupled with Power Conversion, a buff Arcanotron puts on himself after the next construct activates that needs to be Purged, an enhancement shaman becomes the best counter for this golem. During our Omnotron kills, I stay on Arcanotron even after the next Tron activates, to handle interrupts with our tank and to Purge.
Maloriak
Maloriak is weird. I respect his abilities as a scientist, but his model type is unlike anything I've ever seen before. He has some sweet abilities that would make any alchemist or goblin jealous, imbuing different-colored vials to spell doom on your raid. He also has a buff called Remedy that he'll periodically put on himself to heal. You can and need to Purge this, as he has a tight enrage timer and his healing is not a good thing.
Beyond that, Maloriak has a potent Arcane Storm that needs to be interrupted, as well as Releasing Aberrations, an ability that also needs to be interrupted at your add tank's direction. The key to this fight is setting up a good interrupt system and not overwriting your other raider's interrupt cooldowns -- I need at least two hands to count the number of times we wiped because I got jumpy with my Wind Shear on Arcane Storm and it was on cooldown for the fourth Release Aberration. Once you settle into a good interrupt rotation with your other friendly melee players and learn to not jump at any sign of a cast bar, the fight becomes easier to manage.
At 25%, the fight becomes a burn phase. You'll want to make sure your cooldowns are available. Avoid bad things, burn your defensive cooldowns to stay alive if you mess up, and DPS hard. Make sure you prioritize Purging remedy, as that will just extend the high damage burn phase if left on. Shoot dirty glances at rude shadow priests like Fox Van Allen and give dirty looks to hunters like Brian Wood as you watch their execute abilities carry them, and collect your loot!
Next week
That is it for this week's enhancement guide to Blackwing Descent. Next week, we'll take a look at the vision-impaired dragon Atramedes, the healer's nightmare Chimaeron, and the undead black dragon duo, Nefarian and Onyxia. Be sure to check out our Guide to Blackwing Descent to see the boss abilities in more detail!
Further reading: The enhancement shaman guide to Nefarian
Show your totemic mastery by reading Totem Talk: Enhancement every week. We've got enhancement-specific advice on rep gear, heroic gear, and raiding gear, plus tips on maximizing your utility skills and tactics for raiding Blackwing Descent.
Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brasso Feb 5th 2011 6:17PM
Throw down a Grounding Totem when it's not on CD to help deal with missed Arcane Annihilator interrupts.
Josh Myers Feb 5th 2011 6:27PM
Ah, that's a good call! Our dk tank and myself have interrupts on lockdown for the most part, but definitely good advice!
Harvoc Feb 5th 2011 9:26PM
Great article Josh! One thing though. You linked Arcane Annihilator wrong. It links to an Outland mob instead of the Cataclysm boss ability. Oh and you gotta love Kill Shot :)
Rollo Feb 5th 2011 9:28PM
I'm alone on interrupting arcanotron in my raid. Whatever I miss, is healed. I've tried using grounding totem, but didn't see it work. Maybe it has to hit someone in your group, or it's a range issue.
I've also tried using my wolves' bash. It works sometimes but not always. Perhaps they are not hit capped. It's a 45 second cooldown, so only one interrupt anyway...
When you say you stay on after the shield, do you stop dps entirely?
dj.clayden Feb 5th 2011 9:52PM
"
When you say you stay on after the shield, do you stop dps entirely?"
From what I read in the article, it seems it's magic-dispellable, so I assume he purges it then can continue to dps and interrupt as normal :)
Brasso Feb 5th 2011 10:03PM
When I'm on the mob after its shield goes up, I don't dps. I just interrupt and purge if someone's pet hits it or something. Grounding totem is a hit or miss for me as well, but it helps when I'm the only one interrupting. Our DK tank has "too much going on" to simply hit Mind Freeze every other cast...even when he's tanking the shielded add. Doh.
PPharand Feb 6th 2011 12:17AM
Aye Grounding Totem is great for Arcanotron, but to be able to soak the damage you need the target to be a) in your party and b) in range of your totem.
I've always asked my raid leader to put me in the healer group, because they will almost always be near Arcanotron so they can step in his arcane puddle and so always in totem range.
After checking the logs, I saw that my totem managed to soak more than 60% of the spells that were uninterrupted.
Definitely a huge help.
Powatodapeople Feb 5th 2011 6:30PM
that's it...we need an execute ability. now!
idea #1: lightning bolt does 100% additional damage when target is below 25%
idea #2: when used on an enemy below 25%, windfury no longer has an internal cooldown
idea #3: fire elemental deals additional damage to targets below 25% (I want a reason to use this guy again!)
idea #4: lava lash deals 50% damage as a dot when target is below 25%
I'm not too great with clever ideas on the fly, but I would welcome an execute with open arms
Josh Myers Feb 5th 2011 6:33PM
I really don't want a reason to use FE again. Any time max DPS is tied to a ten minute cooldown is not a good thing to me. :3
I wouldn't mind seeing a baseline increase to LB damage when the target is below 25%. Elemental and enhancement would both see a DPS increase from that, though Ele would see it substantially more.
dj.clayden Feb 5th 2011 7:03PM
"there is no ideal time for you to cast Healing Rain during this fight due to people's spreading out."
Obviously I have absolutely no idea of any hard numbers (which would be impossible to collect), but as far as I'm aware having every stacked on melee, except for 1 ranged kiter is the genrally preferred tactic now, which means proximity- and ground-based aoe heals are fantastic for this boss, assuming your guild uses the tactic.
Jacob Parsons Feb 5th 2011 8:27PM
Actually, my group has used another strategy on Magmaw that benefits from shamans using Healing Rain. We all stack up in melee range on Magmaw except for one tank/kiter. The tank/kiter is always the target of the fire pillar and handles all of the parasites (Ranged dps aoe them down when they get too numerous). Since the group is always stacked up, Healing Rain has maximum effect. I use it when healers seem to be struggling, and focus on dps when the raid is closer to full.
Josh Myers Feb 5th 2011 8:56PM
I totally forgot that strat existed, sorry to both you and the above commenter! My guild makes it hard and has all ranged and heals standing at range. xD
Brasso Feb 5th 2011 10:03PM
When I'm on the mob after its shield goes up, I don't dps. I just interrupt and purge if someone's pet hits it or something. Grounding totem is a hit or miss for me as well, but it helps when I'm the only one interrupting. Our DK tank has "too much going on" to simply hit Mind Freeze every other cast...even when he's tanking the shielded add. Doh.
Phaded Feb 6th 2011 8:02PM
You didn't mention the fact that you need to be careful with your searing totem usage for Magmatron's shield. You can easily end up breaking the shield with your searing totem + other random people's dots causing a wipe if you don't recall it early at 55-56%
Yorric Feb 7th 2011 10:54AM
If you're looking to maximize dps on Maloriak, ask your raid if you can be the lone designated interrupter of Release Aberrations. Someone else will need to get all of the Arcane Storm casts (we have an Ele shaman on those in my raid). Maloriak always goes through 2 "sets" of phases, where he uses three vials (Red, Blue, Green). He will always use the green vial third, but you cannot predict whether he uses red or blue first.
During the red + blue vial sections you'll need to interrupt two (and ONLY two) of his SIX Release Aberration casts. I usually interrupt the first and the third cast to space out the release of the adds (three come out on each cast). If you are using an addon to track whether or not the interrupt goes off, it may be bugged--you'll know the interrupt was successful if you do not see the huge purple beams of energy go from Maloriak to the back of the room to activate the adds. You can also get a whole view of the room by using the command "/console cameradistancemaxfactor 5", then zoom all the way out--this way you can usually see whether or not the adds come out [I always type this first thing when I log into WoW]. Call out on vent if you were unsuccessful with the interrupt so your OT is prepared to pick up the adds.
When the green vial goes into the cauldron line yourself up exactly in front of the boss and in the line of the cauldron--this way you will get shot straight back and should still be right on Maloriak when he flies across the room. It is at this point the raid will begin AoE but YOU will still be on the boss. Drop a magma totem, do an immediate Fire Nova, and use Chain Lightning when it's up (do your AoE rotation if you have one). Maloriak will pretty quickly cast an Arcane Storm which the designated person will interrupt. Then Maloriak will IMMEDIATELY cast his first Release Aberrations cast in the second set of six. THIS IS YOUR MOST IMPORTANT INTERRUPT--you don't want the OT to have to grab three brand new, full health adds while your raid is finishing off the adds that are already there.
Now you rinse and repeat the same process--make sure you interrupt one more (and only one more) of his Release Aberrations casts. It doesn't really matter which one, but I usually do the third cast because the OT is ready to pick up adds on that second cast. If your OT is running in to trouble by the time the sixth cast comes, it's okay to interrupt it but be prepared to Bloodlust and pop all CD's to get down the giant Release All Aberrations cast after the second green phase (remember--all of the adds that you interrupted in previous phases are released at this point). You cannot interrupt Release All Aberrations--you just have to burn burn burn at this point.
Stay alive, stay out of fire, and you'll be all good.
Roidrage Feb 8th 2011 8:43AM
off topic but.....
Anyone have an idea if we will be using double WF after the patch or if the FT 20% nerf will be compensated by it being scaled to AP? Yeah I know I can use the dummies but I just wondered if its been tested on the beta.