Amethystine's Guide to Heroic Halls of Origination!

Hiyas! Amethystine of Bladefist, with a little homebrew guide I'm gonna type up to kill some maintenance time. I'll be writing on my favorite dungeon of the heroic lot, one I feel is the perfect mingling of challenging trash and tough yet clearable bosses... Halls of Origination!

We'll start with the initial trash pulls and first boss, shall we? They're all humanoids, and all but one of them can be CC'd (and should, if the worst of the adds is in the group). I'll also be giving tips to you few proud Shadow Priests that use Mind Control to its full extent.

Runecasters: The least dangerous of the lot, possessing a holy Cleave (why does everyone, -everyone- have a better Cleave than Warriors? ;_; ), a cooldown-raising curse, and an undispellable heal buff they can put on another mob. CC and save them for last. They aren't really worth Mind Controlling either, as you can only use their Cleave.
Swiftstalkers: The second-least threatening mob, these possess the standard multi-shot ranged attack, a basic shot, and an aimed shot clone that should be interrupted if they're not CC'd. They're decidedly dangerous to Control as a Shadow Priest, as you cannot use their Charged Shot, and worse, their Multi Shot easily breaks CC by accident.
Shadowlancers: The most threatening CCable mob, they have two signature abilities. They gain an undispellable self-buff which adds sizable shadow damage to their melee. It cannot be interrupted. They also have a channelled AoE spell called Pact of Darkness which can and -must- be interrupted. Shadows, this is the mob you want to Control. You've access to both their abilities, and with proper care and mindful positioning (read as 'away from the CCs') you can make interrupts unnecessary and hasten the death of the most threatening mob...
Fireshapers: They're the big beasts of the initial trash packs, and are immune to CC. Assuming you've followed proper CC on the earlier-mentioned mobs (and they almost always travel with at least 2 of the 3 other types), you'll be killing this one first, and for good reason. He has three abilities that all require dealing with. The first is his obvious chained Fireball casts. On their own, they're not too dangerous, and can even be interrupted to stave the tank damage for a bit. His second is the killer, Molten Barrier. It is dispellable and spellstealable, and -must- be dealt with swiftly, as it grants the mob a hefty haste buff and increased damage, which can very easily kill even the tank. The third ability, the Cataclysm-popular Meteor, is as ever dealt with by stacking closely together to split the damage from a sizable 40-50k to a pitiful 10k.

Temple Guardian Anhuur
The first boss is a good test of general teamwork, requiring all the basic necessities of a party. You have to have an interrupt, you have to dispel, you've got add management, fire to move out of, and group movement.
The boss himself isn't particularly threatening, having two main abilities he casts during the initial battle.
Divine Reckoning: The first is a targeted debuff on a random player which, if left alone, will siphon health from both the unfortunate ally and any nearby party members upon ending, healing the boss at its culminating explosion. It can easily be dispelled, though if your healer is either just starting heroics or is still lacking the regeneration to both heal and dispel through a fight, you can stand away from the group to ensure the heal's as small as possible.
Searing Light: The second ability is your classic fire-on-the-ground spell, fired from one of the statues on the walls to a random party member's position. It does unresistable damage, and a sizable amount at that, every second, so the moment you see that blue fire on the ground, simply move out of it. Be mindful not to fall off the bridge, though.
Fairly easy so far, right? Well, at intervals during the fight (I'm unsure if its timed or percentage based, but it always seems to be twice per battle in heroic), he'll gain a new buff, and the second phase starts.
Shield of Light: While the boss is protected by this awesome bubble (don't worry, the bubble itself is harmless to the party), he is immune to damage and interrupts... the latter of which brings into play his -other- ability during Phase 2.
Reverberating Hymn: The boss will channel this until his shield is brought down and he's interrupted. It's a party-wide unavoidable AoE that ticks every 4 seconds... for stacking Holy Damage.
An undispellable bubble that makes the boss immune to damage and interrupts, -and- a channelled AoE that's getting stronger and stronger? How do you stop that, some of you greener heroics'll be saying...
Well, you'll notice, to either side of the boss platform, is a pair of shiny showpieces surrounded by a pit of snakes. These aren't just for decorum... either statue-piece has a switch. Hitting both switches, be it at once or one at a time, will break the Shield and open the boss to a timely interrupt! But not so fast... the switches seem to be a bit rusty since your normal runs, and require a good 10 seconds to activate. Which means, unfortunately, that those snakes will have to be kept off your stalwart ally long enough to do his or her work.
The easy way for beginning groups is to walk together off the left side, landing on the switch, leaving one interrupter on the walkway to snap the boss out of his deadly hymn. Your tank will want to be the first down, picking up the snakes swiftly as one of your DPS goes to work on the switch. The moment the first switch is hit, the group will move to the other side, and repeat this process on the second switch. Your interrupter will likely want to wait a few moments as the group then proceeds to run upstairs again, kill off the offending serpents still alive from their foray into the pit, then proceed again with the battle with Anhuur.
More experienced parties, however, will go for a more daring ploy, and hit both switches simultaneously. To do this, the tank will need to be swift, and the healer game, gathering snakes on both sides to keep the two DPS free of interruptions. The interrupter up top will then need to break Hymn immediately as the tank runs up... and then assist in AoEing the snakes down as the tank holds them and the boss. Not only does this hasten the encounter considerably... with skill and dedication, this tactic will likely earn you the achievement 'I Hate That Song', as the boss shouldn't be able to channel Hymn for 15 seconds.

That's the first bit of my guide... tune in later for the next segment, which will include the breather that is Earthrager Ptah... and the consummate gauntlet-to-DPS race of Anraphet, a boss my guild's likened more than once to a 5-man Patchwerk.

You don't need to actually gather the snakes, if properly executed you will only aggro three snakes per side. DPS can kill this, the tank can pick them up, or a ranged DPS on top of the platform can pull them off the person on the switch with ranged attacks and get them to path up. Additionally they can also be CCed. Since when properly executed you only aggro 3 snakes, a Druid using Nature's Grasp for instance can CC all three, hit the switch and run back up. The snakes will come in later and can be picked up by the tank. Usually what I've done is to assign two DPS to one side and the DPS and the tank to the other. Healer can stay above and move from edge to edge to heal as needed. One person aggros the adds the tank on one side or one of the two DPS on the other while the other person flips the switch. The side with two DPS can be done easier if one is ranged and simply pulls the snakes from the edge of the platform without ever jumping down in the first place. Once you have aggro you can run back up immediately, no need to stay down there. Clean up the snakes when you're back up top and rinse and repeat.

One of the issues I've seen a lot of people doing is simply pulling way more snakes than they need to. A single DPS that is topped off can generally handle all three snakes alone. When you have a tank running from side to side to pick up all the snakes they end up picking up way more than needed and you're making it unnecessarily difficult on yourself. More adds means more damage. One of the biggest themes of Cataclysm so far has been whenever you can avoid damage you do so.

What we did with my guild on phase 2 was that the tank and a warlock jumped on each side to aggro some snakes and like 3 second later, me a mage and any other class would jump and pull the switches then run back up and interrupt while we aoe'd the snakes down..Mind you it took us like 10 attempts but it gets easier overtime with gear.. Aside the tank, any class with some aoe CC or snares could easily kite the snakes long enough for anyone to pull the switch

For Temple Guardian Anhuur we tried an interesting strategy that worked well.
There are 4 snakes on each side which are in a position to aggro on any dpser trying to flip the switch. But, these snakes will NOT respawn unless killed.

So, before the fight begins, tank runs down to 1 side and gathers the 4 affected snakes. Run up the stairs, and down the other side to avoid getting the 4 snakes under the bridge that you don't need. Get the 4 snakes on the other side.
Now, run back up and begin the encounater, tanking the boss and all 8 snakes. Don't kill the snakes.

At that point, it's easy for the dps to flip the switch. Even if 1 or 2 die, you've thinned the problem out to a manageable level for the lever-switching dpsers.

After the 2nd bubble, aoe down the remaining snakes to ease up on the healing load.

Makes the battle and its associated achievement very easy.

Caell
Earthen Ring US

Been a little while since I've had time, but here we go.

In the case of the next two bosses, their trash are nothing worrisome. The scarab packs are easily gathered up and slain after their initial charge, and the skeletons are hardly a bother as well. Shackle, or even Turn Evil, can be employed if a breather is needed for the tank to catch up after the scarabs come up and do their thing. The second boss has an initial large pull of the aforementioned trash packs described before Anhuur, followed by a gauntlet of Troggs akin to the Lyceum in Blackrock Depths. We'll start our trash explanation, then, with a look at the mini bosses in the Vault of Lights.

Flame Warden: The Fire Warden has two basic abilities which work together to potentially end a group member or even a hardy tank if not handled appropriately. The first, Lava Eruption, is a randomly targeted and hard-hitting fire spell, which hits to the tune of 40k. On its own, its not too difficult to heal through. This is where the Warden's second ability comes into play. Regularly through the fight, Flame Warden will take a second to start up Raging Inferno. Upon finishing the initial cast, the Warden channels a Hellfire-like AoE around him, dealing forgettable fire damage to nearby targets. The real threat is the stacking fire damage debuff that is added every time a player is hit by this AoE. Coupled with his Eruption shots, 2-3 stacks can easily one-hit kill even the tank. Worse, from what I've seen in our runs, the Warden's melee is also considered fire damage (similar to the beloved Fire Elemental mobs in Molten Core). It is, therefore, easiest to tank the Flame Warden on one side of the alcove, then immediately turn and run to the other side as he starts his Inferno.

Water Warden: The Water Warden, while less threatening perhaps than the Flame Warden to the tank, is even more about movement than his fiery counterpart. Players fresh from Icecrown's Lord Marrowgar will instantly recognize the Water Bubble's spell mechanic, requiring the trapped and dying player to be broken free of the offending sphere by breaking the bubble. Any player, even the tank, can get bubbled, which can lead to very spiky damage on the tank, who is unable to defend himself while trapped. Coupling this spell, the Water Warden constantly summons Water Bombs on the ground. These puddles remain on the floor for about 5-7 seconds before bursting, and anyone caught in their radius takes about 60k damage. They're small, but he spawns a lot of them at once, and it becomes more imperative to break out your bubbled players as they can be trapped above one of these liquid explosives.

Air Warden: Perhaps the least dangerous of the four Wardens, the Air Warden has a very easily avoided Tornado spell, which slowly tracks a chosen player upon spawning for about 5-10 seconds before a new one forms. More annoying than threatening, he also tosses out random Wind Shears, damaging and interrupting casters about every 10 seconds. If your healer has trouble with the interrupts constantly locking them out, it can be worth it to have a hybrid DPS help out. Or you can use your instant heals until you see the green 'swish' graphic hit someone else, before popping a few cast-times before his Shear comes off cooldown again.

Earth Warden: The most tank-damaging of the four Warden minibosses, the Earth Warden's abilities are all easily countered. A standard-issue Impale bleed is placed upon the tank now and then, which requires some fairly strong burst healing in addition to his higher-than-usual melee damage. The ranged players have little to worry about as well, as his Rock Wave is easily negated by spreading out so it only hits one of your group.

As a forenote, throughout the room, there are packs of patrolling Troggs (as well as a few stationary packs, which -can- be simply maneuvered around by a wary group). They respawn quickly, and on your first few tries of Heroic Halls, expect them to respawn almost every time you fight one of the mini boss Wardens, too.

Anraphet
The second boss is perhaps -the- definitive DPS check of Cataclysm's heroic dungeons, having few mechanics that bar the DPS from doing what they do best. The healers are also put to the test, as several times during the fight, they will have to keep the group alive through strong and unavoidable damage on the party as a whole. There is a single dispel mechanic, which while negligible at first, quickly grows more and more important as the fight goes on, and plenty of momentary movement twitches needed by everyone, but it is a simple, intense fight.
Alpha Beam: The first of two 'Beam' abilities that Anraphet will cycle through, the Alpha Beam channels on every party member, one at a time, targeting the area they occupy for heavy shadow damage every half-second. The only way to mitigate this is to move as soon as he turns to fire at you. This -will- target every group member once in turn, so if you see the others all get Alpha Beams aimed at them, you should start moving, as it's coming your way next. Oh, and they leave Void Zones as well, which last throughout the fight, so pulling the boss to a relatively clean zone helps too as space gets scarce.
Omega Beam: The second Beam attack that the boss employs, Anraphet will wind this one up, giving your group the chance to stack together (making the healer's job of keeping them up easier) as he unleashes a steady stream of damage to the whole party in a very amply-graphic AoE. It can be mitigated by Shadow Resistance, but nonetheless, expect the entire party to take around 40-60k damage.
Crumbling Ruin: This debuff will hit the party after every Alpha or Omega Beam finishes cycling. It stacks through the fight, remains until the boss is dead, and lowers the party's maximum health by 10%. Hence the DPS check. He has to die before Omega Beam simply kills your group outright due to the heavy AoE damage on your low-health group.
Nemesis Strike: Anraphet will rarely strike the tank with this, dealing half his usual melee damage, but applying a dispellable Shadow DoT which ticks for about 5-6k every 2 seconds. While thoroughly inconsquential in the beginning minutes of the battle, as Crumbling Ruin stacks, this becomes much more dangerous as the tank's health roof drops significantly.
The battle is simple in execution, and so long as the group is able to adjust position quickly to take minimum damage from Alpha Beams, it becomes a healer check to keep the group alive through Omega Beams, and a DPS check to kill the boss before Crumbling Ruin stacks too high. Overall, a good gear-check battle for Heroic groups just starting out.


Next time, we'll skip the trash introduction, give Earthrager Ptah his glory moment in the sun, then take a look at one of the four Keepers and their unique trash.