Mists of Pandaria Beta: World boss Salyis's Warband
You may recall from an earlier post that raids will have a staggered release in Mists, with the first raid, Mogu'Shan Vaults, not appearing for a whole week after the expansion's launch and then a week later in the raid finder. Then you'll have to wait a whole four weeks for the next batch of raids, Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Springs.
But if you level at break-neck speed and are thirsty for a challenge to get your teeth into in a group, fear not! Blizzard has accommodated your needs with world bosses, available from day one, and the preview page is now up for Salyis's Warband, as we were informed yesterday.
World bosses spawn in the open world and can be attacked by any player (un)fortunate enough to cross their paths. Salyis's Warband will be quite rare, while the expansion's other boss will appear with fairly regular frequency. But before you charge headfirst into battle, keep in mind that it will take the combined efforts of a full raid to bring one of these guys to their knees.
Taking down a world boss is no small feat, but the rewards make it all worthwhile: achievements, fabulous items, and massive bragging rights will all be yours if you and your comrades in arms succeed in felling one of these roving terrors. Check back soon for more info on the game's other world boss, the Sha of Anger!
This boss was rumored to be called Galleon and was referred to as such by folk discussing him on the beta, but Galleon is actually the name of the gigantic mushu upon which Salyis and his warband roam the Valley of Four Winds. I like to think of them as Pandaria's pirates, marauding through the valley with their giant, armed steed.
On the beta, this boss or gang has 261 million HP, so you're going to need a good number of players to get him down. Why So Serious downed him with 29 players on the beta and recorded the fight for the world to watch. He does a good amount of avoidable damage if you're up to speed, and you'll need a couple of tanks and a good bunch of healers. He drops raid finder-level loot in the same style as the new raid finder, where the game essentialy rolls for you.
There are also 2 achievements associated with killing Salyis's Warband: Extinction Event, and Salyis's Warband Guild Run.
He has a relatively small number of abilities, some of which can be positionally avoided and some of which will need to be healed through. Let's run through the abilities and their mitigation.
Fire Shot Saurok Skirmishers riding on Galleon's back fire flaming crossbow bolts at random players, inflicting Fire damage.
The damage, currently in beta at 30,000 per arrow, is pretty trivial when you have a level 90 health pool of around 350k. It can't be avoided, so it simply needs to be healed through and will be pretty easily dealt with.
Stomp Galleon stomps the ground, inflicting physical damage to players within 100 yards and knocking them down for a few seconds.
This damage is unavoidable, pretty much, unless you're really, really, really good at running away. Current damage in the beta is 150,000, which sounds like a lot but is actually very healable. Healers, get your AoE on -- Galleon doesn't stomp often, but you'll need to power through this ability, especially as it comes with a 3-second knockdown. I recommend either the active tank using a cooldown or pre-shielding him so he doesn't get murdered while you're knocked down.
Cannon Barrage Chief Salyis orders his minions to fire off eight powerful cannon blasts. Each blast inflicts fire damage to players within 10 yards and knocks them back.
This is a funny one. It has a tank alert symbol in the beta's dungeon journal, but it seemed to be escapable simply by running away. Galleon stood still while he fired rather than spinning to chase the tank. With eight cannon blasts currently inflicting 600k damage each, even with level 90 health pools, that would hit way too hard to be soakable. We'll have to wait and see how this pans out!
Salyin Warmonger Chief Salyis's Warmongers periodically jump down from Galleon's back to engage players. They have an ability called Impaling Pull -- the Warmonger uses an Impaling Pull to bring a distant target toward them and inflict physical damage.
The Impaling Pull damage is again trivial (30k in beta), but these do need to be tanked, hence the need for a second tank. They're more of an irritation than an issue, but it's always nice not to have a giant lizard beating you up while you're trying to do your thing!
It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
