The Warlocks Den - WoW Warlock Discussions

About This Post:

I started testing felguard raiding first time June 2007 and started gathering screenshots and materials about this way of raiding that almost everyone considered to be for PvP and at least general opinion was like that. I did this a) cause it's fun b) just to prove that even if the build has few flaws, it can be played successfully in high end raiding and I hope people would think out of the box and test different things and builds instead of assuming that general opinion is always right.

Some stuff like conclusions chapter might be in weird position, but that's due to 10k letter limit per post on some forums, sorry for that (also some forums limit use of [.IMG] to 10 pictures, so I limit pictures according to that as well. If you use information from this post please link it, so more people have chance to learn from my experience.

Sadly our guild ran to some problems recently, which means there will be no updates at least for some time to hyjal / BT bosses. I will post about new bosses once I have access to those encounters. We're currently starting raiding again, but have to take step back. But happy news is I guess that I get to cover all the SSC bosses for people currently progressing there.

This post started as private post on our forums at www.method.no, but then I posted it to elitistjerks forums. I also posted it to warlocks den and wow-europe forums after getting a lot of positive feedback about this in EJ.

I been raiding with felguard for a long while now and I think I can try to shed some light into this way of raiding that has been considered to be a PvP only talent spec by many.

If you want to compare damage to your possible build, use same addon (recount) to count damage and look dps number, not total damage done. Our guild is recently merged and there's two level of gears, so if you want to compare some people in our guild, look armory profile first. Also remember that group setup and raid setup affects very much, like who gets bloodlusts and so on. Or better yet, see WWS links.

This is an attempt to write mark II version of the same post with a lot more experience about raiding and include some future changes that will affect raiding with this talent build. I will also provide few WWS (once we start raiding). I will include the information from original posts in these four posts I will now write. I will also save original posts as well somewhere in case someone requests them.

This post is about how felguard raiding works, so some bosses I will go through briefly, if there is nothing special to that boss. For harder bosses I try to give some tips and name cases where felguards life is at risk.

Build that I'm using to raid is following: 6-44-11

First post will go through The Eye encounters, I will include all I have done with felguard.

All these bosses and screenshots I was doing Curse of Recklessness on targets that had melee users on them, if no melee users were on the target I did Curse of Agony or Curse of Doom.

Reached nice spelldamage spike (without destruction potion) 1937 shadow damage.



for future reference:

Talisman, voidstar = Void Star Talisman (which I sadly don't have for the record)

I had shadow priest in all The Eye bosses that I wrote about here.

Requested WWS:

• 15th of August, Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep
• 16th of August, Serpentshrine Cavern

We use free WWS account, so this list will change accordingly.

The Eye:

Al'Ar:

At first Al'Ar seemed to be very hard fight to maintain decent dps. It was the first boss I tested felguard raiding, so to the belly of the beast right away. First time I was at Al'Ar I had big problems with Recount (errors) that distracted me so first kill isn't really the whole truth.

It is not so melee friendly fight because of exploding Embers. In phase 1 what now I basically do is CoR at first tank spot when melee still is hitting the boss. After melee goes for Ember of Al'Ar, I change curse to CoD on Al'Ar. Also request your phoenix tanks to be marked as maintanks. I choose Ember of Al'Ar from maintank list and charge my pet at that target. Our tanks call "melee get out" that's when I put my felguard at follow and after some time hold ground so it has less time to run to next Ember.

I do the same thing each Ember, which combined to monitoring dots, looking stopcastingbar and drooling after dps meter sometimes leads mr. Fel being dead. So I guess combined with moving, and other parts of the fight pet control is somewhat demanding to do it in optimal way.

First time I was on Al'Ar my felguard died 6 times, but like stated earlier it was partly due to UI problems as well. I been there more times now and felguard almost never dies. Sometimes if I'm careless I manage to kill felguard when we are taking down adds in phase 2.

Pet always died cause of fire damage, so talisman could be uselful, but with careful play you might as well use your best dps trinket. I done it so far, so can everyone else.

First kill:



Best so far:



Void Reaver:

From this fight I get a lot of questions about. Felguard can stay in during poundings if you have shadow priest to heal it. Sometimes arcane bombs hit melee, that's bit too much for felguard if it keeps happening for a long time.

Overall this fight is very simple, send the pet in and dps all you can. Classic tank and spank fight. Sometimes you get unlucky with arcane orbs sometimes you get lucky. Dps in this fight varies a lot so it's not best fight to compare as caster.

First time I had some troubles cause I was bit too worried about felguards health. I payed too much attention to that and kept eating arcane bombs. Keep your resummon pet macro ready here to save your pets buffs in case pet starts taking arcane orbs AND pounding at the same time, that is too much for SP / pet to handle.

Talisman helps to make sure pet stays alive here as well.

First kill:



Best so far:



High Astromancer Solarian:

This fight is pretty much ideal for felguard build and no other warlock build should be able to top damage in this fight. Boss and adds are low armor and you can use cleave efficiently here during AoE phase. We use arcane resistance here to some extent that will give your pet more survivability. Pets can be targeted by wrath of the astromancer ability, so you have to be quick moving with your pet and use pet control well when moving the dot where your guild moves them. You can also use your charge efficiently here to stun priests and stop them from healing.

I guess different guilds use different tactics here, so I won't go much into that.

This is one of the fights where it's really nice to be felguard warlock.

First kill:



Random screenshot:



Kael'Thas Sunstrider:

When I went to Kael'Thas first time I was sure it will be a nightmare for my pet, but frankly with right kind of pet control it actually is very nice fight to do.

There are some things you need to watch out though:

Flamestrike, Phoenix (hellfire and final explosion), Capernian AoE, Devastations whirlwind, Netherstrand volley, Telonicus grenades, Thaladred and nether beam he casts in phase 5. But most of these things are taken care by raids other members.

When you flow (gravity lapse), put pet on follow (will be below you). Both you and pet will link, so you have to think yourself as "a tower" and keep like 20y distance between you and pet and same for everyone near you and the pet. Keeping pet on boss isn't smart, tried and died (my pet that is).

By phases:

phase 1
Thaladred, keep pet on follow.
Sanguinar, put pet on attack.
Capernian, put pet on hold hiding somewhere.
Telonicus, put on attack.

phase 2
put attacking weapon which is primary dps target for you, beware devastation.

phase 3
put attacking sanguinar -> telonicus assuming that's your kill order (of those two).

Phase 4
keep attacking all times if you break his shields, if you don't call back during shields. Beware phoenixes and flame strikes.

phase 5
Keep on attack all most times, take it off during shield. Keep on follow during gravity lapse.

First kill:



Random shot: