I pulled this stunt off in ZA last week when my offtank went down during halazzi, and I got to thinking about the mechanics to make it a reliable technique rather than a wild risk.
Basic gist of what I've got so far:
1: Observe incoming damage and warn your healers what you're going to do. If they don't know to compensate for the potential spike damage, or PW:S you, you've drastically reduced your chances of getting away with this borderline suicidal stunt.
2: Watch for low damage moments. Like, vs a dual wielding boss, try to aim for his offhand hits. Vs a slow hitting mob, get a gut feel for his swing delay and try to aim for between his swings. On casters, watch for 3+ second casts. If the mob can be stunned, bash is your friend. For that matter, so are rogues who can stunlock.
3: Barkskin. 20% flat damage reduction after your normal mitigation is important, but more important is the resistance to pushbacks. No matter how well you time swings, you're gonna eat one most likely. Right as you pop out with barkskin is when your healers should PW:S you. Also, once you're done, barkskin will give your healers a little more breathing room to get your health up.
4: Use the GCD from barkskin to target your dead ally and begin your battle rez.
5: Depending on how your latency's been, mash direbear halfway through or just before the end of the cast. Ghosting will get this one through as soon as the cast ends if not before.
So, that's the rough gist of it. any thoughts for improving it?
In your particular situation, I'd assume you timed it directly following a saber lash. Saber lash in leather, even bear AC leather, would be brutal.
Otherwise, there's one thing I could add to this. I've seen some feral builds take Control of Nature instead of some of the resto talents (presumably for PvP). If your spec is of this particular flavor, a well-timed Cyclone would make this stunt even easier.
No, I actually got off pretty light in what happened - my offtank went down to a saber lash with halazzi at 52%, I was able to trinket through to the split, picked up the spirit, and waited for both "flame shock on (name)" and the first totem to be stomped.
As for cyclone... that is a possibility. With Control of nature you would be more than able to just hit cyclone while in bear form, let the game auto cancel bear form and you would get 6 seconds. If struck while casting it, you might not get pushbacks (assuming you didn't take control of nature) but you take regular leather damage. Using Barkskin you are vulnerable longer (3 seconds in practice), but take leather damage - 20%.
Additionally, It's my understanding, and I would beg anyone who knows better to correct me, that while casting your avoidance check is only misses, you are unable to dodge? If this is not the case, then one could use pocket watch + badge before barkskin for more safety.
Last edited by Alent; 04-22-2008 at 12:10 AM. Reason: clarifying a sentance.
Correct, your active avoidance drops to 0% when casting. Only miss still applies, and critical strike prevention if you count it.
If the person does not need to be up immediately, you could time the barkskin to most likely directly follow an attack, then shift back in Bur form after the barkskin, get healed up if you got hit, then time the brez likewise. That way you never get hit outside of bear form and you still have barkskin up if you do. Many bosses attack slower than 1.5.
Hmm... good idea,
How about using a macro, something along the lines of:
/cast [stance:1] Bash; [stance:3] Cower
/cancelform
/use fel blossom
/castsequence [target=mouseover,dead] [dead] reset=55 Barkskin, Rebirth
/cast Dire Bear Form
Not a bad idea, Over... I discard bash on principle just because anything you want to stun is immune to it. But, thinking about ways to make targeting more efficient, I wonder if we could actually customize a group bar mod to /cast brez on a dead group member when we click on them? Maybe Healbot has something like this already and we can just simplify it? (Edit: Or, perhaps, make our b.rez macro target focus instead of mouseover, and have the group bar mod focus them?)
Attack bar timer | World of Warcraft Addons | World of Warcraft @ Curse.com
Attack bar timers. An absolute must, even if they are buggy as hell sometimes.
Also of note, some number crunching: 7K armor is roughly 40% mit vs 70, add barkskin's 20% flat reduction and doesn't that bring it up to 60% mitigation? I'm shaky on how this works, and could use some input from someone who understands it better.
There is also a script command to check for if you are on the GCD or not and will wait till you are not to cancel bear form. I dont remember what it was (have to go look that up).
I have effectively used Brezs on healers in 5mans on many occasions. Its sorta cool cuz the group is like, OMGOSH THAT WAS COOL. I have yet to try this in a 10 man other than say Nightbane inbetween phases and what not. Its all about knowing the situation and knowing your class and remembering that just cuz your tanking something, you can still use your Brez or Innervate even if the situation presents itself.
I cast the spells that make the people fall over.
Another thing to try when there are more than one mob around, is to get to your max feral charge range to another target, charge, and then ress. Could pull it off before the mob reaches you and kills you :P
I'm glad you put number 1 as 1: Observe incoming damage and warn your healers what you're going to do. That really is the most important factor here, especially in a 25 man. A well timed announcement to your healers over voice comm can get you through this on most fights - particularly slow hitting bosses (just like you said). I think you covered all the bases pretty well, and I just wanted to pop in and say, I've brezed while tanking many a time (over 5 times, less than 10 I'd say - for 25 man content at least) - the fact is, if six or seven 2000+ healing healers are all simultaneously giving you all they got, you can tank in caster form for a few seconds, no problem. I did this on hydross a few weeks ago when our nature tank went down (I'm frost tank hehe) and it totally saved the raid Bolgrom Sum durids are daring
thanks for the feedback, Bolg.
I would think hydross would be the easiest boss to do this on... Armor is completely irrelevant on him and Barkskin would actually increase your damage reduction. Hmm... interesting.
Depending on your group make up you may be able to pull off some other stunts especially if you have a short prep time Have your DPS slow or Stop and your Highest threat ranged purposely Nuke him off you from max range then drop threat through IB FD or SS if you happen to be in a group that appreciates a Disc priest Pain suppression is what things like this are meant for have a DPS warrior that can take a hit? let him intervene you for the hit especially if you can somehow shield him from the damage of it... I am thinking possible pally shield here? (I dont know my pallies) or priest shield obviously this is kinna a last ditch move on your part anyway
Hmmm...that last suggestion would take a LOT of co-ordination on the raids part. I doubt most guilds could pull it off. But, it would probably be epic for the guilds who could.
Tanks: We like it rough.
If you have a pain suppression available, just hit the druid tanking with it. He'll be sitting around 50% mitigation in caster form if he's geared for full mitigation with any semblance of progression gear and barkskin.
Easiest way to do this is at the phase shift... I also tend to pop out and innervate at that point as well. If you have the lynx being tanked away from Halazzi himself, then just watch for the point at which the lynx spirit turns and starts to run for Halazzi. Halazzi will stop auto attacking, and will give you just enough time to get the res off.
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