Well I know I’m not the first person in the world to kill Algalon (10), not even the first on the server or in the guild, but I still think it’s pretty darn cool  I am happy to now be called Starcaller Angela.  Next week we’ll shift out a couple pieces of gear and go for “Herald of the Titans”  

So… Algalon as a restoration druid is probably one of the more difficult roles.  I’m going to assume you know the basics of the fight and jump right into the resto part  

I’m also going to assume that as a resto druid you’ll be raid healing, as we are so well suited for it.  The setup we used was three healers, two spammed the tank full time and I raid healed.  Raid healing was much like any other fight with massive raid damage, Rejuvenation on all 10 targets all the time, supplemented with wild growth every cool down, and if I had time, Regrowth and Lifeboom on the tank to help out.  

But here is where it gets slightly more complicated being the raid healer.  You have to manage the aggro on all the constellations.  You WILL have aggro, it’s just the way it is.  During the first part of the fight (before the first big bang) when we didn’t want any of the black holes closing up, I stood on top of the melee.  Doing this means I may lose aggro on some of the constelations because of the splash damage going around from all the melee.  But as Algalon is generally near the middle, it also means less accidental black hole closings from me inadvertently kiting.  

After the first big bang, I headed out of the middle, chose a black hole to “hug” and stood on it’s edge.  If I noticed an area with several black holes, I’d kite around behind one to close it.  The two things to remember are first… you still have to be in range of everyone to keep them topped off at all times, even if it means you aren’t closing holes.  And second, always try to pause for a second at the side edge of the black hole before jumping in for big bang so the constellation stops and does not follow you in,  closing the hole behind you.  This is an easy mistake that can kill other raid members headed to the same hole, which we learned the hard way.  

Once Algalon hits phase 2 at 20% the raid damage drops off, and I kept full HoTs on both tanks, and spot healed any raid members in need.  The whole thing went really fast!  

On a side note, we also toasted some dwarves and finished up other stray achievements last night so I got my rusted drake.  Was a pretty good WoW night for me  Hopefully I’ll have his ironbound friend by the end of the week so he isn’t lonely

Wow, I seem to just be spamming with achievements lately…  oh well!  Knock, Knock, Knock on wood is the achievement that you get from killing Freya with all three of the elders up, at the same time.  With these elders up party members can get rooted, beams of light spawn that deal damage, and you get silencing ground tremors.  Also, since killing the elders reduces damage different parts of the fight deal, you’ll be taking a lot more damage overall than you are use to with no elders up.  

Resto druids have it good on this fight.  First all, if you get rooted, you can shape shift out.  No waiting around for someone to break you out, or trying to DPS yourself.  Just shift out of tree and back in, and you’re safe!  Second, the ground tremors don’t effect us.  It works more like  counter spell than a silence, in that you have to be casting at the time to be locked out.  With almost all of our heals being instant, just heal though the warnings (using instant casts of course), you won’t get silenced.  As far as the beams of light go, if you have deadly boss mods you can’t not know you’re standing near one, it’s rather loud when it warns you!

The overall damage increase is defiantly noticeable.  I was literally hotting as many of the 25 as I could at all times during this encounter.  Rejuvenation, rejuvenation, rejuvenation, wild growth, repeat.  Pretty much everyone was either taking damage, or would have incoming damage before the duration of the rejuvenation at all points during this fight.  

And of course all the same principals still apply to the fight, kill the trio together, don’t sand by detonating lasers when they are about to die, don’t stand by the green fuming rooted things on the ground, kill the trees, etc.

I got Firefighter (25) last night I can’t say I’m not pleased, I sure am! For those of you who don’t know, this fight is just like regular Mimiron (same things can kill you like napalm shells, laser barrage, plasma blasts and bombs) only with fire covering a large portion of the area, frost bombs, and fire bots. Basically, there is a lot going on, and most things will kill you very fast (or instantly) if you aren’t paying attention.

So… What does a resto druid do?  I’ll give you the run down.  In phase 1 you do the same as normal… heal though plasma and napalm, only do so while also healing though any fire damage, and avoiding fires yourself.  In phase 2, rejuvenation on everyone you can — there is a lot of raid damage.  Oh yeah, and do so while avoiding fires, frost bombs, and of course rockets and laser barrage.  Phase 3, this is shocking but… heal everyone while avoiding fire, avoiding frost, and of course avoiding the fire bots that silence!  Phase 4 is where the real chaos sets in, because you have EVERYTHING to watch out for, and who knows how much floor space to work with.  Honestly, it’s just HOT everything rejuvenation spam time.  Paying attention to everything going on around you is more important than anything else.  

Yeah, I sound like a broken record… “heal and avoid everything”…. but honestly, the “avoid everything” part is the real trick to firefighter.  The healing part is the easy part.

My first day in my new guild on my new server… a good day indeed.  Yes, General got a nerf that made it a lot easier.  It’s still a very cool achievement.  Let me tell you about my job as a resto druid in this fight.  

Previously as a druid you would melee Vezax to proc clearcasting, and then heal with those procs.  In 3.2 they changed it so that you could no longer proc this on Vezax.  During the entire first phase I did literally nothing.  I didn’t cast a single spell.  Other healers were assigned to this portion of the fight.  Once the animus spawns… I let loose, and raid healed like a crazy person.  Basically I spammed till my mana was gone.  A lot of damage occurs in this phase. 

That’s it I’m afraid, nothing terribly exciting  Just rejuved my heart out when the animus was there.  

On a side note, if you have gear that reduces mana cost it’s a good time to use it.  Pure spirit gear can be replaced with spell power for this fight.

For the most part, when I was first starting this boss I stayed right under him.  This meant I didn’t have to worry about the shadow crashes, and more importantly it meant that I could melee him.  I know what you’re thinking, leet tree branch deeps!  But no, we druids have the advantage of having our clearcasting proc from melee, and in a fight with no mana coming back my first instinct was to take advantage of this.  I would melee till I got CC, then HOT, then melee…

Having done the fight loads now I play it quite different.  I always keep either rejuvenation or regrowth active on the tank, so during surge I can quickly switfmend and follow it with a nourish.  In my estimation most of the damage is taken in these brief periods so quick big heals are necessary.  I’m also a bit of a saronite whore.  Previously I was just worried about conserving my mana, now I heal more frequently like I normally would, and every time saronite is down I jump in it.  The first thing I do while in saronite is pop wild growth on myself, which takes care of me and all the other saronite users at the same time.  I almost always try to get a 7 stack, so if it’s awhile before I get another saronite I’m fine for mana.  A bit hypocritical I suppose because I tell my DPS to be out at 6 stacks, but I know I wont let myself die!  

Also, be sure to pre-HOT the tank, the mana debuff dosen’t take effect until the boss is pulled!

So… To Review: Big fast heals during surge, use lots of saronite, wildgrowth for the saronite users, pre-HOT the tank!