Shifting Perspectives: Druid tanking and healing in End Time, part 2

The azure shrine is somewhat interesting in that you need to go all around it in order to right-click the 16 shards of Jaina's staff (big, purply-looking stones) in order to spawn her. However, because the various trash pulls don't always path close to the shards, you can actually spawn Jaina without pulling a single pack. If you want to speed through this shrine, send your least error-prone DPS off to go collect shards while the rest of the group pulls trash packs. If you want to spend a ridiculous amount of time in this shrine, send your most error-prone DPS off to go collect shards, and then wipe when she blunders into a patrol, panics, and runs back to the group with a howling pack of mobs chasing her. Good times.
There's a mechanic in Jaina's encounter that will have you running around a bit, so I would recommend pulling at least two and possibly three of the trash packs: the one that paths behind you as you zone into the shrine, the one off to your right, and possibly the one off to your left. All three can technically be avoided if your group keeps itself to the small clearing where Jaina spawns, but I am a great believer in not leaving this to chance in a PUG. These three mob packs all path within a stone's throw of Jaina's area, and Murphy's Law dictates that they'll be at that extreme end of the path while people are running around trying to avoid Jaina's Frost Blades ability.
Trash is largely unremarkable except for an annoying Lightwell-type ability spawned by one of the caster mobs. This doesn't have a lot of health, but it can easily keep the mob pack at close to full health if you don't kill it. One Mangle and some change did them in.

- Blink A standard mage blink spell, which she'll usually perform right before spawning a Frost Blades. If you're tanking or DPSing, this should be within range of Feral Charge.
- Flarecore I always wondered where the random damage on this encounter was coming from, and I'm pretty sure this was it. Fortunately, every group I've had seems to have detonated this early. You have finally found a role for the group member who always stands in fire. Godspeed, you suicidal bink.
- Frost Blades This is the only ability you really have to worry about. Periodically, Jaina will spawn three large blades in a random area around the clearing that then expand and move fairly quickly toward the group. Getting hit means getting encased in a block of ice for 5 seconds. I've been lucky so far and haven't been hit, so I don't know if she drops aggro on an ice-blocked tank.
- Frostbolt Volley Annoying, and dispellable if you get bored and have a few global cooldowns to amuse yourself with, but not really deadly.
- Pyroblast Non-dispellable. This will always hit the tank. Just heal through it.
Trees This is not a tough fight, to the point where I actually wonder if Blizzard might increase her damage before she shows up on the live servers. The only thing you can dispel here is her Frostbolt Volley, and it's prohibitively expensive to do that on all five players. Heal through Pyroblast, heal the random Flarecore damage, pop Tree whenever you get sufficiently bored, and feel free to DPS just to keep yourself occupied.

I've only gotten the obsidian dragonshrine twice and on both occasions either disconnected or had the instance server crash before reaching the boss. I'm uncomfortable writing strategy for Baine as a result, but I can tell you what to expect from the trash, which is probably harder than he is.
Obsidian trash is the most dangerous in the dungeon and is actually the only trash there that's ever wiped my groups. Each pull has one Time-Twisted Breaker, one Time-Twisted Drake, and one Time-Twisted Seer, and they've all got some nasty abilities. These are the ones I noted:
- Break Armor This is a frontal cone AOE used by the Time-Twisted Breaker mob that will significantly increase the amount of melee damage you take. You can and should move out of it.
- Sear Flesh This is from the Time-Twisted Seer. Like Break Armor, this will significantly increase the damage you take in addition to the damage up front, but this time it's fire damage. The Sear Flesh debuff, in combination with the Time-Twisted Drake's Flame Breath, is incredibly dangerous. Fortunately, it's interruptable.
- Call Flames I'm pretty sure this is the ability that spawns a big fire pool behind the Seer. This has a magnificent ability to kill your melee DPS, so be on the lookout, and move the pull out once you see it.
- Flame Breath A frontal cone AOE fire attack from the Time-Twisted Drake, deadly in concert with the Sear Flesh debuff.
As I said, I have yet to see Baine, but I'll update this article as soon as I do. From what I've heard from other players, he's more difficult than Jaina, but less difficult than Tyrande and Sylvanas.

This fight is Blizzard's gift to tanks and healers everywhere who hate their groups, and is most easily accomplished by means of a strategy that I like to call Let the Jackass Die™.
But before you can get to the good stuff, trash. There are only two pulls, both of them notable for playing host to at least two caster mobs that will stubbornly refuse to move until interrupted. Enlist your DPSers' help in forcing them to do so, and burn them all down. Murozond won't become active until all of the trash is dead, but if you're not within range of him as he descends to the desert floor, he won't automatically aggro. Use the time while he's giving "The Reason You Suck" Speech to arrange who's going to pop the hourglass (see below).
Boss: Murozond As many players have noted, "Murozond" is an anagram of "Nozdormu." Oh, Blizzard. People pulling him for the first time are usually horrified to discover that he has an absurd amount of health for a 5-man boss, but there's a good reason for that. This is really one of the best 5-man fights to come along in a while.
- Distortion Bomb Very frequently, you'll see large golden circles spawn on the ground below you (see the tree screenshot below for an example). Move out -- these will explode for 25,000 arcane damage and spawn a fire patch underneath them.
- Infinite Breath This is a frontal cone AOE and really the only ability you have to worry about as the tank. Make sure Murozond never faces the group. The breath attack is actually avoidable if you move out of the way in time, but be careful about dancing him around a lot because --
- F*** you, I'm a dragon Unsurprisingly, Murozond also has a tail swipe. I actually don't think he has a cleave, but was having too much fun with this encounter to really pay attention. Make sure that neither business end is anywhere near your group.
- Temporal Blast This is a random ability that slaps 25,000 damage to everyone in the group. You may not actually need to heal through this all that much for a reason you'll see below, but it's easy enough to do if you have to/want to.
- Temporal Snapshot A few seconds after the pull, you'll notice something weird -- you'll suddenly appear next to a copy of yourself seemingly frozen in time next to you. This means Murozond has "snapshotted" the group, and that whenever you travel back in time, that is where you'll reappear.
The key to the fight doesn't lie with Murozond's abilities but rather with the large hourglass you can see in the screenshot above. Every time a player right-clicks the hourglass, it Rewinds Time to the moment when Murozond cast Temporal Snapshot. You get all of your health and mana back. All of your cooldowns reset. All of the fire circles disappear. If you're dead, you're resurrected. The only thing that doesn't reset is Murozond's health.
Did I mention your group can click the hourglass five times each fight?
And that each time you do, you gain Blessing of the Bronze Dragonflight?
And that the clever tank or healer who has had to put up with a raging douchecanoe for the entire duration of this instance can simply quit healing or taunting off her, secure in the knowledge that her worthless carcass will be resurrected each time the hourglass pops?
Let the Jackass Die™. Thank you, Blizzard.
Bears Arrange in advance for who's going to do the hourglass clicking. While you can do it, that means precious seconds spent jockeying Murozond into position along the hourglass just so you can reach it easily without letting him breathe on or tail swipe the group. Worse yet, it also means you'll get Snapshotted while you're still trying to move him into position, and that's bad. Have a ranged DPSer, or ideally your healer, take care of it. It's generally easiest to tank him where he lands, swinging his head to the left or right as you prefer, to keep him perpendicular to the hourglass (with both the breath attack and tail thus safely beyond the group).
Murozond's damage isn't too high apart from Infinite Breath, which you can run out from as he charges it up. Apart from that, the only important thing to worry about here is threat. Murozond seems to reset aggro each time the hourglass pops, and you will see some really stupendous numbers from your DPSers as they take advantage of an endless series of cooldowns and the 40% haste buff. Blow Berserk as soon as you get Snapshotted and then again each time you Rewind Time. This should keep you safely ahead of your DPS, even allowing for their buffs.
As is probably obvious, the constant cooldown resets also mean that you have almost perma-access to Frenzied Regeneration, Barkskin, and Survival Instincts. If you're decently geared, chain cooldowns smartly, and avoid Infinite Breath, you may very well go the length of this fight without having to be healed.
Trees This is a fabulous fight for restoration druids, and not just because you can let that jerk you've been tolerating for the entire run die over and over again. No, that's just the icing on the cake. This is a fabulous fight largely because you can spend most of it in Tree with Tranquility up in the event that you actually care about, you know, healing. But frankly, the best way to do this fight is to equip yourself with two DPS trinkets, keeping blowing Tree as soon as your cooldowns reset, and spam the hell out of Wrath.
The only thing you need to be concerned about healing-wise is that it's pretty easy for people to run out of your range as they duck and weave around Distortion Bombs. If your tank doesn't run out of Infinite Breath, you'll also have to take care of that at some point. But with a perma-Tranquility, access to the Tree's constant healing boost, and constant mana resets, this should not be an issue if you actually care about keeping your group alive. Personally, I recommend that you don't. Guilt may compel you to save your friends, but the jerk? Let him die. He'll get better.
It is definitely easiest for the healer to be the person to pop the hourglass. How you time this is ultimately up to you, but I wouldn't recommend doing it more than once every 30 seconds, as that's how long the Blessing of the Bronze Dragonflight lasts. You'll also want to monitor how many fires are dotting the area or how low on health the group is getting.
Shifting Perspectives helps you gear your bear druid, breaks down the facts about haste for trees, and then digs into the restoration mastery. You might also enjoy our look at the disappearance of the bear.
Did I mention your group can click the hourglass five times each fight?
And that each time you do, you gain Blessing of the Bronze Dragonflight?
And that the clever tank or healer who has had to put up with a raging douchecanoe for the entire duration of this instance can simply quit healing or taunting off her, secure in the knowledge that her worthless carcass will be resurrected each time the hourglass pops?
Let the Jackass Die™. Thank you, Blizzard.

Murozond's damage isn't too high apart from Infinite Breath, which you can run out from as he charges it up. Apart from that, the only important thing to worry about here is threat. Murozond seems to reset aggro each time the hourglass pops, and you will see some really stupendous numbers from your DPSers as they take advantage of an endless series of cooldowns and the 40% haste buff. Blow Berserk as soon as you get Snapshotted and then again each time you Rewind Time. This should keep you safely ahead of your DPS, even allowing for their buffs.
As is probably obvious, the constant cooldown resets also mean that you have almost perma-access to Frenzied Regeneration, Barkskin, and Survival Instincts. If you're decently geared, chain cooldowns smartly, and avoid Infinite Breath, you may very well go the length of this fight without having to be healed.

The only thing you need to be concerned about healing-wise is that it's pretty easy for people to run out of your range as they duck and weave around Distortion Bombs. If your tank doesn't run out of Infinite Breath, you'll also have to take care of that at some point. But with a perma-Tranquility, access to the Tree's constant healing boost, and constant mana resets, this should not be an issue if you actually care about keeping your group alive. Personally, I recommend that you don't. Guilt may compel you to save your friends, but the jerk? Let him die. He'll get better.
It is definitely easiest for the healer to be the person to pop the hourglass. How you time this is ultimately up to you, but I wouldn't recommend doing it more than once every 30 seconds, as that's how long the Blessing of the Bronze Dragonflight lasts. You'll also want to monitor how many fires are dotting the area or how low on health the group is getting.
Shifting Perspectives helps you gear your bear druid, breaks down the facts about haste for trees, and then digs into the restoration mastery. You might also enjoy our look at the disappearance of the bear.






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Mugutu Dec 30th 2011 8:06PM
Everyone, make sure you bring your timey-wimey detectors. Goes ding when there's stuff.
And stay away from hens.
furrama Oct 18th 2011 6:28PM
Also, keep away from pears.
Natsumi Oct 18th 2011 3:16PM
No, the difference is there, you just have to look for it.
My warrior is not a premade, but has plenty of gear over 353, especially after banging out a couple End time dungeons. I don't know every last stat on my Warrior, but I do know she has 8.06% hit. I went into End Time and looked at my character sheet after I saw the debuff thingy and the first thing I noticed was that my Hit rating was about 6.45%, a loss of over a percent and a half. One can only assume that my other stats took a fairly large hit as well. I can't confirm how much DPS I lost, Recount still crushes your latency and frame rate last I tried it, but I can say that the fights were noticeably longer with the debuff.
Your issues with the tanks could be tied to the debuff as their avoidance and mitigation stats are MUCH lower than they should be, thus creating the spike damage that you are experiencing. That or they are failing at using CDs, trying to tank in a DPS spec, or don't understand exactly how their class works.
Natsumi Oct 18th 2011 3:17PM
As a side note, the Murozond fight is made trivial by the inclusion of any class that brings the Heroism/bloodlust ability, as you can pop it every time you use the Hourglass.
Allison Robert Oct 18th 2011 4:08PM
From what I've seen of groups after the new debuff was introduced, there were still tanks who were and tanks who weren't taking spike damage on trash (same classes as well, so it wasn't a DK vs. warrior on trash deal), so my guess would be a lot of it is judicious cooldowns and stuns playing a role.
Experience in the dungeon, given how new it is, is probably the single most effective thing to have at present. Fastest group I've ever had to down Murozond was -- even with the recent debuff -- a group where three of us had seen the fight and only two hadn't, and both were DPS to whom we explained the whole cooldown deal while I handled the hourglass (was healing that run).
Although we're unlikely ever to find this out, I'd love to see the stats Blizzard's getting out of the ilevel 353 debuff, and if it's actually impacted players' ability to finish the dungeon. I don't really think it does, but it sure won't help a marginal group that's new to the place.
Natsumi Oct 18th 2011 5:51PM
As someone that avoids tanking like the plague (unless it's the Zombie Invasion Plague, that was too fun to avoid) I wouldn't know. I wait to tank a heroic until I out gear it and have learned the fights completely, that way I can honestly say it wasn't my fault for the wipe :p
madfigs Oct 18th 2011 3:26PM
This seems like a great guide for all tanks and healers, not just druids! I'm definitely looking forward to the new dungeons, 130+ zandalaris (and counting) is a bit much.
Bellajtok Oct 18th 2011 3:28PM
My god, you're counting?
Natsumi Oct 18th 2011 3:35PM
He could just be looking at the Statistics page in the Achievements interface, no counting required! :D
Allison Robert Oct 18th 2011 4:10PM
Thanks! I've really liked all three dungeons so far, and Murozond in particular is a total blast. I've only seen the last boss in the one mostly recently released, though (Well of Eternity), so I can't really judge that yet.
Natsumi Oct 18th 2011 5:48PM
I've only done the first two so far, been too busy to check out the third.
First one is a bunch of fun fights, or boring ones if you get Tyrande and Jaina /yawn.
Second one is a Thrall escort quest, and he's just as stupid as he was in CoT: Durnholde.
Bellajtok Oct 18th 2011 3:27PM
This is going to be so much fun. I have a list. A list of people who must die in a paradoxical time loop, over and over, endlessly resurrecting until life and death blend together into one big grey blur of agony.
Also, Allison? You're awesome. This is a great guide, and I had a ton of fun just reading it. And I needed this for my new start to bear tanking. Got any tips on popping Barkskin? I tend to just pop it when I notice it's up.
Natsumi Oct 18th 2011 3:34PM
Actually if they die they stay dead the whole fight, had some moron hunter try to use his pet to tank Murozond (when pets were bugged and not scaling with ANY of the Hunter's stats, so it hit like a level 1 gnome mage and had 6k health) it caused everyone to be placed in combat, he died, the healer died, the tank dropped group, and so did the Warlock. I survived by using the Hourglass till Shadowmeld was up (failed the first time because the healer ran to me and got a spinney death pool dropped on us). Yay for combat drops on Night Elves!
Bellajtok Oct 18th 2011 3:57PM
Wait, what? Do you maybe mean that if they die before the snapshot they stay dead? Because Allison explicitly stated that you get rezzed when you pop the hourglass.
Allison Robert Oct 18th 2011 4:28PM
Hrm, that definitely wasn't my experience, Natsumi. On two occasions in End Time I saw players die to a combination of Infinite Breath + fire + Murozond's aggro ping-ponging around the group (this was actually the time I was healing a pally tank who forgot Righteous Defense and nobody realized it), and both were resurrected when time was reset.
I *think* what you saw there, at least from your description, was a group that died before Murozond had the chance to use Temporal Snapshot. Everything gets reset to the point where Snapshot was taken, so if anyone died before that point, yeah, they'd definitely stay dead. Otherwise, every time the hourglass pops, poof -- the dead are just returned back to where they were at the Snapshot.
Natsumi Oct 18th 2011 5:46PM
Fairly certain that was before the 353 "buff" so it may have changed, but Temporal Snapshot was taken before the Hunter died and he stayed dead. He was an idiot anyway.
Natsumi Oct 18th 2011 3:28PM
I see a mistake in your Obsidian Dragonshrine section. The mistake is actually fighting the Trash, you can just run past them if you pay attention, and if you don't feel confident running back through them, just port out and back in. Fighting the trash in ODS causes more wipes than the rest of the instance combined, skip the hassle, learn to avoid the trash.
Baine is probably my second favorite fight in the instance, second only to Murozond. Tank picks up baine on his little floating rock, melee follows, Ranged and heals should be on other rocks so when he shatters one he doesn't dunk the whole group. Keep Baine out of the Lava , Melee and Hunters should work stepping into the lava into their rotation as it gives a HUGE DPS boost to physical damage (about 10k+ per hit). He'll throw a totem at a random person, knocking them back, anyone then can kick the totem at Baine to stun him for a few seconds. Lots going on, but way more fun than the other bosses, looking at you, Tyrande. -.-
Bellajtok Oct 18th 2011 4:34PM
That seems less like a mistake and more like an alternate strategy. I doubt most groups will be able to handle avoiding the trash packs.
Thanks for the brief guide to baine!
Allison Robert Oct 18th 2011 4:37PM
I'm torn between really wanting to skip the most dangerous trash in the dungeon, and the PUG tank side of me that pessimistically observes the almost-100% chance that someone will blunder into them anyway. It's actually the reason that I never skipped the trash pulls on the hill in Pit of Saron -- someone almost always managed to pull something no matter what. I can see doing it in a guild group, though.
Thanks for the note on Baine! I still have yet to land either the obsidian shrine or (curiously) the emerald shrine since writing this column, which is why there isn't a picture of the emerald shrine here. But I guess there's not a whole lot to see there anyway ...
Natsumi Oct 18th 2011 5:53PM
But Allison, it's so easy to bypass the trash if you try, they leave a HUGE path between the groups and, as long as you don't try to save the mentally challenged when the dragons start eating them, you're safe to rez them on an island, or make them run back and learn to not aggro, whatever works :)