Thok 25 HC

[Petfood101]

Having problems with this fight. We were not able to get past the first phase effectively, usually dying around 20+ stacks sometimes around when we stack at 26~ or so.

25 HC. Healers are good, player/skill wise. So i think it might be something to do with the way the raid cooldowns are being used. Would appreciate any help.
This is what the the current rough plan for the raid cooldowns are.

/rw No 5 Banner
/rw No 7 Rally
/rw No 8 HOP Tranq
/rw No 10 Jack Link/Shay HT
/rw No 12 HOP Shaman
/rw No 14 OuSmoke/Disc Barrier
/rw No 16 Holy DA/
/rw No 19 42 DA
/rw No 21 Seizon DA
/rw No 24 Personals
/rw No 26 stack

Logs:
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-hcckeu5x8fcxjius/

I know all of you prefer warcraftlogs and so do i, but i forgot to log this fight, and these were the only ones i could find. Any input would be appreciated.

Cheers

[durrtygoodz]

Im really shitty at looking at logs for this kind of thing. Only thing I have to ask is - do you use anything for when you stack up? in our raid we are usually moving into a spirit link to stack there, in other pugs and my last guild a barrier or spirit link is always used. It makes that phase push smoother.

[Petfood101]

Yea but i dont think it was always used but ill keep that in mind. What you say does make a lot of sense though, so ill make sure i pass that on. Anything else?

[Shangalar]

I don't remember properly because I'm not raid leading that fight, but I hope I cover most of it:

7 - Healthstones
8 - Smoke Bombs for both groups
10 - Rallying cry
13 - HoP Tranquility
16 - Devotion Aura 1
19 - Devotion Aura 2
21 - personal cooldowns
22 - stack together and chain two Barriers until the boss throws us into the next phase

*remember I'm not 100% sure, but it's something like that.
____

It might seem like that's the difficult part of the fight, but it only gets worse from there, so I'll continue.

During kiting phases, you need to perfectly time the moment you unlock the cage so Thok doesn't kill the next person with superspeed and also comes back to the raid in a perfect position for the bats to come.

Second phase 1 is a bitch. You need to get out of that phase as fast as possible. When the bats spawn, you give it maybe 2-3 more screeches and then you stack together to proc the next phase. No cooldowns, no special stuff, just stack and proc the second kiting phase. Kill the bats with cleave and aoe while you move to the next position.

Third phase 1 works exactly the same as the first one, we use the same rotation for cooldowns + there's a sweet spot that the Yeti ignores where you can stay with the boss and safely dps + free people from ice tombs. The third kiting phase is a bit weird because the yeti is there and can kill you so always have one of the raid leaders watch out for where the yeti is going.

As for the fire phase, we only saw it while we were learning the tactics lol. Once everyone in the raid figured out exactly what to do we never saw the fire phase, it would die before. If you need spec-specific advice, I can tell you what I do as Arcane, don't have experience with the others.

[Petfood101]

I would love class specific advice, especially since my DPS has taken quite a drop in this Boss

Thanks for all the other tips as well

[Shangalar]

Now these are the tips I got on mmo-c when I was progressing on Thok, so I won't take credit for them, just relaying the information here.

First of all, ask to stand with the melee group if there is room. Obviously if you have too many melee dps you can't, but you shouldn't have so many of them anyway.

When the bats come, your dps cooldowns should come exactly off cooldown so you should do Cone of Cold (glyphed), pop AP+AT, target one bat, smack him with Missiles and Blast and finish with Barrage before AT expires, then go Missiles, Missiles, Barrage cleave again, and then go for Cone of Cold and Explosion.

Now, since you have to use Rune of Power, if the boss ever targets you during kiting phases you can't really do any serious dps, but you can make sure you don't get targeted by never being among the 5-8 people who are furthest away from the boss when he switches to another fixate target.

Finally, plan your Runes so when you stack with the rest of the raid that you still have the buff so you don't waste time recasting it.

Finally, have Fire Blast close on the action bars, it's the only usefull spell you can use when accidentally silenced (except refreshing Living Bomb when it's time).

[Petfood101]

K awesome. Will try it out and let you know how it works for me! Thanks.

[Komma]

Just wanted to mention that peak screech frequency is once every 2.2 seconds. If you want to maximize your DPS, you can plan your rotation around that ahead of time, taking your haste into account. Most likely it'll be some form of "AB/AM -> instant -> AB/AM -> wait for screech -> repeat" normally, and "AB/AM -> instant -> repeat" during meta procs. Don't follow that pattern mindlessly though - the screeches are delayed when he's breathing on the tank, so you need to watch the castbar closely.

Also, if you're having SERIOUS problems surviving, you might consider going molten armor + glyph for 16% physical damage reduction - helps you survive screeches!