Heroic Durnholde

[Romulos]

So... just attempted to do Heroic Durnholde. How the hell does a group handle those pats? Immune to all CC, and there's no way I can hold 4, even if I could cycle through all of them and keep them on me (which I couldn't do with 4, 3 is my limit), there's no way the healer could keep me alive. My group wiped about 3 times on the various pats and then called it. I was notified by my healer that he supposedly had no problems with the pats in his last group, which consisted of roughly the same group, except a shaman instead of a boomkin.

The only solution I could imagine is burst dps so that I only have to hold 3, and then just knock them off one at a time, but our dps couldn't handle them quickly enough. Is there a good strategy for these pats, and was my group's problem a tanking problem or a dps problem?

[Bullwrinkle]

You should be able to CC the dogs, iirc, or burn them super fast. Boomkin can sleep, or mage sheep. You should be able to hold the lookout + two spawned as well, without much issue. If the patrols are that bad, you can always pull the houses up the steps and fight them near the bridge (Thats what we had to do pre-nerf when the pats respawned after 10 minutes or so)

[ebs2002]

Why are you having trouble holding aggro on four? Thunderclap hits four targets.

In groups with light CC, I usually go Shield Slam, TC, Demo Shout, TC, Dev Dev TC, etc. etc.

You can't spam Heroic Strike (and I usually don't use cleave either) because you need to keep rage up for an intervene/taunt if the healer pulls aggro (remember you can target the mob and intervene to whoever he has aggro on, you don't have to target the party member).

If you hit TC every 3 abilities, and your DPS classes aren't retarded, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to keep 4 mobs on you through heals with only the occasional break-off to taunt.

I can't remember if the durnholde patrols have any casters, but use spell reflection liberally as well. Reflecting a 2k spell is usually good enough to keep a caster on you that your TC isn't hitting.

[Nuberino]

Why are you having trouble holding aggro on four? Thunderclap hits four targets.

Until you totally outgear heroics, generally TC every cooldown isn't enough to out agro healing agro unlike regular instances where TC is usually more than enough to hold 4 targets locked to you over healer agro. So you have to get devs on all the targets asap or they will peel to the healer. The better your gear is the longer you have to land an agro move on each mob before they will peel to the healer.

[Worldie]

I'll repeat myself once again.

Get a rogue

Let him solo-place bombs.

Take a 10 min break while he does, once he's done you'll skill all the damn patrol nightmare and enjoy 3 or 5 quick badges and free loots. It would save you some worryance about tanking 4 unCCable hard hitting mobs while not overgeared.

[Ylun]

You don't need a rogue to avoid the patrols. Learn the routes they take by standing above the pit. Take one house at a time when the patrols are somewhere else.

I have tried to tank the patrols too, and it was no fun. Especially with that long wipe run.

[Ceravantes]

You should not have an issue getting some sort of aggro move on every mob in 4.5 seconds or less, start with tclap, then use hs, next target uses a gcd then hs etc, keep spamming tclap on cd and save your sheild slams for the target being dps'd, you should easily be able to handle 5 mobs as a warrior so long as long as your dps are smart.

[Brucimus]

Those patrols are ridiculous...we avoid them. Forgive me for not knowing....but can druid place the bombs?

[maddfez]

I don't think a druid could place the bombs. Each house has one guard at the back door, two at the front door, and one patrolling in the house. To set the charges, I will normally sap the one in the house first. (Rogue alts ftw!)

Might be possible if the barrel is on one side of the house, but if its in the middle you couldn't stay out of aggro range for long enough.

[Jurian]

I just attempted and completed heroic Durnholde for the first time today and must say it was a learning experience. I can offer the following tips / strategies for anyone who is interested in completing this instance in its current state.

Phase 1: Burning the prison shacks
-The lookouts are the worst part of this phase. We had a hunter and found that if you pull a lookout with scatter shot, they do not summon their reinforcements. Working as intended, I don't know... but this made it so much easier.
-Boss: I tanked him in the prison courtyard, and the rest of the group (ranged and casters) ran up the steps. This way if they pulled aggro, or I got feared, he would have to run up the stairs to reach them. At that point the person with aggro could jump down, and run to me to prevent getting hit and getting me in range of taunt.

Phase 2: The escape
-We had 2 CC classes for this, which helped out tremendously. We let Thrall run in and tank a group. The mage would poly the warden (as they will dispell any CC of others), and the hunter trapped the mage to prevent anyone from being poly'd.
-If anyone dies, you have enough time to rez them after a wave. Thrall can tank all 4 of the mobs long enough for you to rez and recover.
-Boss: Stay out of consecration (he puts it down twice!). Kill both adds while swapping between boss and the healer(s) to shield bash and prevent healing.

Phase 3: Epoch and the dragonkin
-Be sure to kill the wandering patrol that walks the perimeter of the town before starting.
-Keep the group inside the Inn and let Thrall tank outside. Taunt the a defiler inside. You'll be out of LOS, so he will come right to you. One you build enough threat for the group to burn it down, run back out and taunt another dragon inside. Burn it down and finally help Thrall with the last. Rinse, repeat and drink/eat fast before starting on the boss.
-Boss: Let Thrall tank until your group has recovered their mana/health from the dragons. Taunt the boss off and kill. He is by far the easiest part of the entire instance.

Hope this helps. Spent approximately 2 hours in the instance tonight and learned a lot. The scatter shot "trick" really helped make the first part of this instance easier. Without it, we were only able to kill the lookouts by having the hunters pet tank the lookout until it scatter shot, and then I was comfortable picking it up along with the 2 spawned adds. Otherwise if you go right for the lookout, you will get hit by scatter shot and all 4 mobs are going right for your priest.

[Leytur]

OP explicitly said they couldn't tank all 4 because they're healer couldn't keep up with them.

[Romulos]

Thank you VERY much, Jurian (and everyone who responded). I'm glad to know my frustrations aren't my own, but it looks like I'll do much better now. Also, I made several gear upgrades this past week, so hopefully my next go will be successful.