Totem Talk: Cataclysm raiding as a restoration shaman, part 3
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and co-host of the Raid Warning podcast), shows you how.
Last week, we covered a bit of the upcoming changes for restoration in Patch 4.2. There are quite a few changes being brought with the Firelands, some good, some bad, but all of them are working toward giving us a balanced place in the world of Azeroth. But now we are back, and it's time to talk more about raiding!
So, with part 1 of Cataclysm raiding, we covered the entry level raiding bosses including Argaloth, to Magmaw and the lost temple reject. In part 2 of cataclysm raiding we covered Halfus Wyrmbreaker and the ambiguously "dragonic" duo. Today, we're going to to turn our sight to the skies -- way, way up to another plane of existence altogether. Our journey will begin with a stop in Skywall.
Just as in part 1 and part 2, this is not intended to be an all-inclusive raid boss guide. Please check out Ready Check and the WoW Insider Guide to Cataclysm for more detailed information. We will do a brief overview of the bosses, as well as some tips and tricks for restoration shaman.
Conclave of Wind
The encounter The Conclave of Wind is a set of three djinn that have taken their evil cues from Jafar. Anshal, Rohash and Nezir each occupy their own little island platforms and are all linked together so that when you engage one of them, you engage them all. Each platform is separated by a wind bridge that will launch players through the air toward the next platform. Each platform is divided into two phases: a normal phase in which the bosses will use their normal abilities, and an ultimate phase that will require players to move between the platforms to survive. If you engage them without someone on each platform, they feel left out and place a debuff on the raid that will either deal escalating damage or silence you. Also, if that weren't enough, because they suffer severe separation anxiety, they must all die within a minute of each other, or they will come back at full health.
Anshal is a force of nature, and his main forms of annoyance are summoning adds, Ravenous Creepers, and a healing circle that will silence you if you get caught in it while it heals him and his adds. The adds have a nasty DOT that stacks on anything in melee range and honestly is what you need to watch out for if you're healing this platform.
Rohash is a master of blowing hot air all over your raid. No, seriously -- he's like an oversized blow dryer with a bad attitude. Honestly, it's not a bad platform, and you just have to watch out for a few things. He will cast Slicing Gale on a random person on the platform, dealing damage to them and placing a stacking debuff on them that increases the nature damage they receive by 5% for 45 seconds. He will also summon a set of Tornados to attempt to fling you from his platform. Rohash also likes to cast Wind Blast, in which he will spin around slowly blasting anyone in his path, causing not only a healthy dose of damage but also kicking them back and potentially off the platform. Ghost Wolf is very useful for getting around this quickly.
Nezir likes to cool things down a bit. He has a front cone attack called Wind Chill that not only deals damage to everyone in front of him, but also gives a damage debuff that increases frost damage taken by 10%. He also has an ability called Permafrost that will place a patch of ice on the ground that deals damage every second. Pretty much just don't stand in front of him, and don't stand in the ice.
The encounter is all about coordinating what platforms you will be going to and when. The most healing-intensive part of the fight that you have to worry about is Nezir's ultimate, Sleet Storm. While the damage it deals is divided among the raid, it still is quite a bit of damage to handle. Save your cooldowns for this. Spirit Link totem combined with Healing Rain and Chain Heal work wonderful here, giving you a 10% damage reduction and helping spread the healing around. After the ultimate, it's back to healing as usual; there's nothing really special besides the frost platform ultimate and checking where your feet are. The rest is just coordination.
The reward Unlike other bosses, there is a random factor in the loot here. You have a chance at rings and belts with random enchantments. Rings and belts "of the Undertow" will award spirit and haste, while "of the Wavecrest" will give mastery and spirit.
Maloriak
The encounter This odd-looking fellow awaits your arrival after you've defeated the doormen and fire worm of Blackwing Decent. This mixmaster and conductor of Lord Victor Nefarius' private brand of science is divided into four basic phases. Three of the phases are indicated by color, and then there is a final burn phase.
In blue vial phase, everyone spreads out, or else damage from Biting Chill will pulse and hit everyone around the victim. In this phase, he will also cast Flash Freeze on random raid members, encasing them in a block of ice that will deal damage to them until they are broken out. Snap a quick heal on them, like Healing Surge or Riptide, because when they are broken out, they will take damage from the shards of ice and damage anyone nearby. This is also a great phase for Mana Tide Totem or mana regen through Telluric Currents.
During red vial phase, everyone will have to group up. He will target someone in the group with Consuming Flames. This is a fire DOT that increases its damage whenever the player is targeted by one of Maloriak's spells. If you receive this debuff, run away from the raid group. In this phase, the boss will remind us that he is, in fact, still a dragon and will breathe Scorching Blast (a front cone fire attack) on the group. If you time it right and drop SLT right as he begins to breathe, you can maximize your healing done for the group while giving them a slight damage cushion for a few seconds. Keep HR down during this phase and make liberal use of CH.
Green vial phase is all about the adds. Throughout the fight, Maloriak will have been summoning aberrations for players to deal with. In this phase, he coats everything in a Debilitating Slime that increases the damage taken by everyone in the room, so be ready to drop some healing as necessary. The add tank will also be taking a beating at this point, so I suggest shifting your Earth Shield onto the add tank and prepare some Greater Healing Waves to make sure the tank is standing upright.
After that, just lather, rinse, and repeat until the final phase. At 25% health, Maloriak will forget about the vials and just take the fight straight to you. He opens up with Release All Minions, which will let loose any aberrations that are left, and two Prime Subjects. The add tank should be watching these, so make sure you're still watching the add tank as necessary. Maloriak will also cast Acid Nova and Absolute Zero, dealing AOE damage to the raid. He will also summon a blue orb that if it touches a player explodes, knocking the player back and dealing a sizable amount of damage. Use group healing as much as possible, and keep ES on the add tank.
In this final phase, he will also cast Magma Jets, which will send him off like a rocket in a straight line and leave a trail of fire behind him that will deal fire damage to anyone standing in its wake. Red is the roughest phase, mainly due to coordinating the cooldown for maximum effect. The simple rules apply here; watch your feet, pay attention to your tanks, and you'll have a kill in no time.
The rewards for defeating this maniacal miscreant of mayhem and hirer of Stupid, Incompetent and Dissapointing Minions are a few very solid healing pieces.
Pretty easy fights -- both are just about coordinating your movements and making sure you're in the right place at the right time.
The old email box is in a manageable position, and I'd like to take that opportunity to answer some of your questions. So if you have any restoration shaman questions, whether they're about patch 4.2 or anything else restoration shaman-related, feel free to email me or hit me up on Twitter.
Totem Talk: Restoration will show you the basics of endgame resto shaman play as well as how to find the expansion's best reputation gear for resto shaman and tips for easier leveling. Happy healing, and may your mana be plentiful!
