Magister terrace guide

[Jibou]

Out of complete boredom, I wrote a guide to... Magister's terrace. Would like some input from other warrios.

*******
This is for all those new tanks out there that are worried about MGT.
I am writing this because the first few times I did MGT, it was a complete disaster. We wiped over and over because we had a terrible setup, because I had no idea what I was supposed to do and what was going to happen. So here's to hoping this will help you not sucking as much as I did.
It's one of those rare instances where, unless you trust the gear and skill of your group, you can't bring someone that's not the right class. Let me elaborate.

Why should I care?
You should. Heroic Magister's terrace has an incredibly good tanking trinket and a fantastic (if not the best in game) threat trinket. I'm of course talking about Commendation of Kael'Thas and Shard of contempt (which you shouldn't pass to a rogue).
As a bonus, Kael has some nice DPS gear for a dual wield devastate set and the second boss drops a very nice ring in normal difficulty.

Are those trinkets really that good?
Yes.

Now, setup!
From personal experience, the best setup, or at least the one I prefer, is:
Tank (meself)
Healer (anything but a paladin)
Warlock (to enslave succubus)
Mage (to sheep)
Hunter (to trap)
The hunter I prefer to a second mage because of his very high DPS. Everything with that setup will work it out nicely. The only time we had a slight glitch was with a very odd combination of adds on the third boss. But even then, this setup rocked it.
Now, this doesn't mean that you can't take any other class, but know that the more you change this group the harder it's gonna be for you, because you'll have more things to tank.

How to tank in MGT!
Now, once you've got your group going, here's a few things you should watch out for:
1.If there is a blood knight in the group, sheep him. He heals others. You can choose to nuke him down right away but I don't recommend it as there are the casters that are more dangerous.
2.Magisters will spam frostbolt on you. You will take a huge amount of damage if you don't do anything. Spell reflect as much as possible.
3.The warlocks aren't too dangerous. Remember to tell your hunter to nuke the imp at the start of each pack so that it doesn't bother the healer. You can spell reflect their incinerates too.
4.The wretched mobs. Try to tank them all, and get the mage to sheep one and the hunter can try trapping one. It's not too hard, just remember to spell reflect every time the cooldown is ready.
5. IMPORTANT: Second boss is NOT a DPS race. He spawns lightning balls every 25% (I think, or 20%, whatever). If your DPS is too high he will spawn the balls too fast for your healer to keep up. Once you get 2 of them, have your warlock pet and hunter pet pick them up, and let them die. The next two, the mage can take them and iceblock out of the debuff. The 2 next, you can take (or at least one). You can take a decent number of debuff before dying, it just depends on your gear and you healer. Anywho, after the first 6 he should die soon enough. Remember to nuke at 20ish% (sorry I forgot where the exact % of the phases are since I haven't done it in a long time now).
6. Make sure your warlock enslaves the succubus and make him tank a mob too (usually the magister).
7. My tipical kill order is Warlock->Magister->Trap->Sheep->Enslave. Try to find one that works out well for you and stick to it.
8. Third boss, I would either put on high SBV gear or DPS gear, since there's no aggro... except for the hunter mob's pet. It is crucial that, if you get the hunter add, you keep his pet off the healer with a simple good old taunt.
9. Remember to spell reflect all the fireballs you can on Kael. It's a lot of damage.

Was originally posted on Jibou's "Yet another tanking blog" (http://jiboutb.blogspot.com/)

[Kazeyonoma]

gonna move this to the instance forums.

[kawika]

I think the group setup for this instance (normal or heroic) is primarily more for taking on the PVP encounter than anything else. CC makes the trash clears easy but it's doable without the group being CC heavy. Granted the less CC you have..the more dependant you are on your own skill and gear and the gear and skill of the members in the party.



on your analysis of mobs, the warlocks are very dangerous in terms of their damage output. they arent as bad as the magisters (from a warrior tank perspective) as you can easily control the locks thru spell reflect and shield bashes...but they can nuke your party hard if you dont have control of the lock.

for the wretched mobs, i do have a kill order in that i try to dispense with the bruisers first (they mortal strike). bruisers x2 the caster ones x2 and then the other melee ones.

i aoe tank them and the mana wyrm packs via sporegarr shield w/ spike and storm chops and vengeance trink.



having done the instance a lot....i'm finding there's 2 approaches to vellaxus....fast and slow. both works. each depends on your group make up.

with the right mix...having the adds spawn fast can be benefitial; the sooner the designated player can stack up on the dots..the sooner they can take it off (i.e. cloak of shadows, ice block).

the going slow tactic is meant for dps to have patient, letting the debuff wear off before the next spawning of sparks.

The ease of either tactic can be enhanced from the tank having Arcane resist gear. i know there are those that believe you dont need it, which is true as i know groups that have had tanks that didnt use it. then again those groups tend to be made up of mostly BT geared players or near it =p. resist allows for margins of error and also allows you to pick up sparks if need be.

[Vissara]

This is the only heroic I've yet to complete. Last two days the groups can't seem to get past Priestess...such a pain

[adrenalize]

One thing I would really reccomend for anyone to do after the first pull is see what group you have for with the priestess. If you have the Rogue, Hunter, Warlock and Warrior, turn around reset the instance, because that is just the WORST group you can get.

Came accross it twice and one night we spent 90 minutes wiping on it, not fun.

[Vissara]

Last two times I've gone in our pull was Rogue, Fury War, Sham, Lock...not fun. And I would hghly recommend not taking a pally healer. That in itself causes all kinds of problems in my experience.

[kawika]

One thing I would really reccomend for anyone to do after the first pull is see what group you have for with the priestess. If you have the Rogue, Hunter, Warlock and Warrior, turn around reset the instance, because that is just the WORST group you can get.

Came accross it twice and one night we spent 90 minutes wiping on it, not fun.


good/bad is relative. i'd say any combo can be bad if you dont have CC or very little. i've been fortunate the last few times i've run it to have the CC trinity of Mage, rogue, warlock. before then...it was a mage and maybe a hunter or 2 for CC.

Warlock affords banish on goblin/hunter and brings fears. Use of felhunter recommended to silence/dispel the priestess.

mage for obvious reasons. POM mages are useful for getting the poly off right at the start, which allows use of AoEs without fear of breaking it.

Rogue is nice for saps. you have to allow the rogue time to get at least halfway back to the group before you pull. rogue stuns / blinds are very handy.


other tidbits.....

If you have a hunter or 2...lay down frost traps in the atrium ahead/between pillars. on pull the idea is for the tank to run back and hide behind the pillars and hopefully you can get a couple of the adds in traps. ice trap is nice for the slowing effects and entrapment is big for the extra roots. if you have a hunter spec'd entrapment...they should be using this as much as possible.

shamans are good for totems totems totems. poison cleansing if youre facing a rogue add to get rid of his dots. grounding totem if you're up against casters. earthbind to help slow the melee adds. tremor totem would be useful against the warlock add...but the other totems would have priority.

[fastidius]

Vex is all arcane damage - If you wear arcane resist gear its only 500 damage hits and can be tanked by a mage or Spriest if thats who has the resist gear.

Magisters cant be succied so i always sheeped them and killed bloodknights second with physicians first kill, i don't mind him healing the target that has 1500 DPS aimed at it. if it takes an extra 2 seconds to not have a caster nuking anyone i'd take it. Having said that spell reflect is a beautiful thing so i do tell my dps to let me take a round of spells before CCing if they can.

if you have 2 Locks and a mage reset the instance a few times before starting to get a double demon 5 Man which can be checked from the door with demon tracking or something.

curse of tongues is also handy if you are having to deal with too many casters to CC

[Raskal]

Hey why shouldn't we take a paladin in there?
Its just that me and my pally mate where going to farm this for the next 2 weeks along with the heroic dailies and you've planted a seed of doubt now :P

[Jibou]

A holy paladin will have a lot of trouble for Kael. If he's good geared, very skilled, and has great situational awareness, he can heal through Kael no problem.
I just had so many bad experiences with paladins that I just decided not to take any anymore.

I'm sure I'll be expecting a paladin answer to this saying that he did it just fine, and again, you can, it's just so much harder with a paladin :p

[Shortypop]

I agree that certain fights are easier without a pally, but personally I love the extra surviveability they have especially for the 3rd boss, plus if they get hit by the odd mage or warlock they don't crumple like priests have a habit of doing, just get them to put on concentration aura for the rest of your party.

Also, if you know the names of the preistess' adds you can /tar them before killing anything. I always check I have something that can be banished (usually run with a lock), a good lock can keep one add banished one feared and a felhunter on the priestess; sheep one, ignore the other (hopefully the mage or warlock) and nuke the priestess fast is my usual method.

Remind your mages to spellsteal the magisters as much as possible, I also follow the sheep the healers attitude, with a rogue just get him to stun the first dps target while you round up the others. Most important thing is to have a group that doesn't panic, I can't tank the place cleanly, so need dps (and healers) who are capable of using dragons breath, stuns, frost novas, counterspells etc without being asked; as well as who are proactive in using healthstones (if available). Magisters for me is all about people taking responsibility for their own damage, cc (even temporary stuff like frost novas), silences (counterspell etc) as well as their own health and surroundings.

Anyone who expects to just stand and nuke/heal/tank will need an attitude change before a successful run :)

[Saturday]

Here are some tips off the top of my head. Shorty mentioned the first two but I'll go into depth :P

1. Magister's gain a haste buff, which while not as deadly as the one the Flame Casters in ZA do, does increase their DPS by a fair margin. Have it dispelled, shield slammed or spell stolen (not sure about this last one) to negate some of the pain. The problem is that it's a stacking buff so one shield slam probably won't get rid of it in most cases.

2. This is something I've heard about but never tried personally. After doing the first pull of the instance, tilt your camera angle to see what adds the third boss has with her. If the setup is unfriendly (blademaster + ms warrior + rogue for example), exit the instance and disband and have somebody else form group. As none of you will be saved, when you re-enter you should have a "reset" heroic and a different composition. You have a few opportunities to "change" the third boss to make it easier or harder, depending on your luck ;)

3. Arcane resist gear does make the second fight a lot easier. It doesn't matter if it's cloth/leather/mail/plate, so long as it has AR. Arcane Protection Potions make a huge difference if you're not fussed about spending the money. Some people choose to burn Vex, others choose to take it slow and steady. It depends on the capability of your DPS and healer, in the end. Having AR helps the healer conserve mana because he hits for roughly 3000 unmitigated.

4. For the first boss, you can pretty much ignore the crystals he siphons and all out DPS him, so long as you have DPS pushing upwards of 600 (UNPOSSIBLE ;)). His AOE isn't that nasty and is hardly comparable in damage dealing to Warlord Kalithresh. Make sure to shield bash his mana drains on your healer and you should be fine.


Really, the only part that's "hard" is the third boss as it requires your healer to not be squishy and for DPS to know when to interrupt heals so as to know draw it out longer than need be.