This article is part of a series in which we discuss the various roles we might find ourselves asked to complete in various raid instances. This will not be a rehash of entire boss strategies, only the parts that are relevant to us. you can find plenty of great and thorough guides out there for an overall view. It will be broken down by boss and give some some general tips and forewarning to my fellow Warriors as you venture in to raiding.
Today we’re going to finish up Greenscale’s Blight with Prince Hylas, and Lord Greenscale himself!
This is intended to be read after knowing basic strategies of the fights.
Prince Hylas
DPS:
This fight doesn’t ask much special from you here, just run out for Princes’ Wrath, kill the adds as they spawn, avoid obvious things, and you win. A note, I would not worry about the effect Duke drops on the ground, it doesn’t tick for that much, don’t go out of your way to avoid it. It’s much more important to have constant DPS on Duke; the faster these adds die, the less overlap between their staggered spawns.
Tanking:
This fight will require three tanks. In the first phase, one tank will be on prince, simply run out for Wrath (to the side to avoid moving him in to the raid), and repeat. A second tank will be on the first add that spawns, Duke, he spawns to the left as you look at Hylas, he should die quickly, but still kite him slowly out of the effect on the ground. When he dies, go back to where Duke spawned and wait for Aleria. After a short while of Duke being active, Infiltrator sill spawn to the right of the room, tank 3 will pick him up. Note that he jumps around a lot, and can do some weird things with threat in the beginning, so be ready if he just vanishes on you. Once all three of these adds die you add tanks will basically be bored until the final phase. When you finally get back in to Hylas in phase 2 you’re bound to have more than a few wolves from running around. One tank grabs the wolves, bringing them to the side to hold them, while tank 3 will grab any trees that spawn by Hylas. Note on the trees, they do not become active until you see them start to move, any taunts before this point are *wasted* and might get someone killed it you assume he’ll come to you; just be prepared to ninja-taunt the moment he becomes active.
Lord Greenscale
DPS:
As a melee DPS here, you get to safely ignore most jobs (huzzah!) In ground phase, you’re most likely going to be simply attacking Greenscale for all you’re worth. The one potential plate you must step up to here is that, generally, someone needs to be telling the melee where to go, especially when your guild is just beginning on the fight. This is actually simpler than it sounds, and involves about 5 points you can tell people to stand at. The points you should consider are, back-left, back-right, front-left, front-right, and the tail. Until he drops below 50% when more plants appear, this is actually quite easy and almost always limited to the back Left or Right leg. Later on, especially after 25%, you’ll be using the Front-left and Front-right legs, as well as the tail. Just keep focused and aware of where plants are around Greenscale. When you get overwhelmed, make sure to let your main tank know, he should hear this and move Greenscale back a bit for you to have more space.
In air phases you might be asked to interrupt the Mender add that spawns once Greenscale takes full flight; this is a pretty easy task. He’ll cast a quick spell before a long channel, interrupt either of those as soon as you can, and continue your AoEing.
Also, when you run in to the bubble left by the large adds death, if possible, run to where the pets in your raid go to attack Greenscale, if facing the right direction and close enough, you can melee him in this phase.
Tanking:
There will be two tanks here, you have your “plant tank”, the one the runs around with the debuff killing plants, and the Greenscale tank, which doubles as the add tank in the flight phase. There is some strategy to killing the plants with the debuff, but it’s very much dependant on how your guild positions itself, and it’s kind of the thing you just need to get the feel for in your group. In general, get the closest, most threatening strangling plants first; unless someone was out of place, or you are in the last 25% where things just kind of go crazy, the melee plants can safely be last priority, as it’s easy for then to move to the other side of Greenscale, just make sure they are all burning before he casts strangling blight again!
A couple tricks with your spec will make this much simpler… the effect you step in to obtain the plant burning debuff applies a stacking dot on you, progressively ramping, up the void Knight ability “Spell Breaker” will clear the stacks while maintaining the debuff itself. In the later phases (50% and below), when you start seeing the Noxious Bracken, it is VERY helpful for the raid for you to use your pull abilities (Sergant’s Order, or Rift Summon) to get these out of the way, this will give people more movement room. Generally pulling them to the side walls, and when pulling from melee, to his tail, is the best method here. Keep the plants away from people, and out of the kiting path of Greenscale. Things will start to get totally crazy at 25%, keep your cool and don’t worry about moving things perfectly, focus on keeping the Strangling Blight dead, the raid can adapt to the rest.
The Greenscale, or Main Tank, here has two jobs as well. In the ground phase you will be tanking the boss, largely keeping him stationary until the later phases (50% and 25%), keep an eye out for your DPS spotter sounding overwhelmed. If melee has no place to go, back Greenscale up enough for them to have some space. This is all pretty easy if you have the resistance to mitigate his breath well enough. At 25%, things begin to get crazy, and you will find yourself moving him a lot, don’t feel like you must always have him moving though, this puts too much strain on everyone, especially your healers and other ranged raid members. Get a rhythm down and stick to it unless you hit an emergency situation with plants around him.
And that covers our overview of raiding Greenscale’s blight as a warrior! Next up, we’re going to cover River of Souls, and how to not become part of the dead scenery.
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