Hello, and welcome to TankSpot's written guide to the Gunship Battle encounter. My name is Spiritus and I will be offering specific details on the encounter, as well as working strategies to deal with certain mechanics
BIG NOTE: As always, abilities are subject to change with hot-fixes and minor patches. Below is the official TankSpot Video Guide and the best capture I could find on the PTR (Alliance & Enemy Boat perspective):
Environment, Positioning, and Pull:
(1) After defeating Lady Deathwhisper and clearing the trash up to a fork in the "road," the Alliance will go left and the Horde will go right to board your respective gunships. Once you board, make sure everyone talks to the gnome or goblin to receive jetpacks, which are necessary to defeat the event. After everyone has jetpacks and is ready, the raid leader should talk to either Muradin Bronzebeard(Alliance) or High Overlord Saurfang(Horde) to begin the encounter.
(2) Notice the cannons on the port side. There will be 4 cannons that must be manned at all times. These are your only means of defeating the encounter, once your cannons do enough damage to the opposing gunship, you win. More on the mechanics of the cannons later.
(3) Your gunship will launch from its dock and start making its way up the Icecrown Citadel spire, when the opposite faction's vessel will intercept from above (it will be on the port side). The encounter begins when both ships are at broadsides.
(4) There can be several strategies for success for this fight, however, you will need at least 2 tanks, one for each ship. My suggestion is to keep your ranged AoE classes on your gunship and send high single target & melee classes over to the enemy ship.
(5) I will break the fight into the 3 unique groups, whom all will have a different task: Cannoneers, Ship Defenders, & Boarding Party.
Figure 1. Airship Battle Setup
Boss/Add/Vehicle Abilities:
As stated above, I'll first talk about the Cannoneers the members of your raid that will be manning the cannons. Then your Ship Defenders and respective mobs they will be fighting. Finally, your Boarding Party and the mobs they will encounter
<---Cannoneers--->
Cannoneers will man the cannons on your ship. Their primary responsibility is to DPS the enemy ship and the Axe Throwers. The better your cannoneers execute their job, the faster the encounter will be over. If you have a third tank in your raid, it is recommend that they man a cannon.
Gunship Cannon
Figure 2. Airship Cannon UI Display
Cannon Blast [Hotkey 1]
150yard range, Instant Cast.
Launches a cannonball at the target. Inflicts 1000 Siege damage and generates 6 to 10 Heat.
This is your "combo point" builder. Fire Cannon Blasts at the opposing Axe Throwers to hit both them and the ship. Each time you use Cannon Blast, you generate "Heat," which is your resource seen as the red/blue bar to the left of your hot-keys. You'll need to generate high amounts of Heat to maximize your use of Incinerating Blast, your main nuke. There is a catch, however. If you fill up your Heat bar completely, you will overheat and be unable use your cannon for 5sec. Don't overheat.
Incinerating Blast [Hotkey 2]
150yard range, Instant.
Consumes all of the cannon's Heat to launch a massive ball of fire at the target. Inflicts 1000 Siege damage plus additional damage per point of Heat.
This is your main nuke. Your job as a Cannoneer is to fire this off with as much heat as possible without locking up your cannon. This also should be fired at the Axe Throwers, as it damage both them and the ship.
Actions taken while your cannon is "Below Zero"
Either by timer or percentage of the enemy ship's health, one of the battle-mages will walk to the center of the enemy ship and begin to channel Below Zero (more on this later). When this happens your cannons will become frozen and you either are "kicked out" or have the option to leave. It is recommended that all DPS that are manning the cannons launch themselves onto the enemy ship to assist in DPSing the "Below Zero" mage. The faster the battle mage dies, the sooner you can get back to your cannon and continue DPSing the enemy ship.
<---Ship Defenders--->
The Ship Defenders should be comprised of 1 Tank, 2 Healers, and your ranged AoE DPS. Their job is to avoid incoming rocket strikes and defend the ship from the Sergeants and Reavers that will board your ship via a portal in the middle of your ship. The portal, however, will not show up at first. Before this, your ranged AoE DPS should be throwing AoE on the Axe Throwers, which are reachable from the friendly ship, so no need to use jet packs.
Avoid Incoming Rocket Strikes
The Rocketeers on the enemy ship will be launching rockets in your general direction. There will be a flashing targeting circle on the ground a few seconds before the rocket lands, so they should be easily avoidable. Your boarding party will be taking care of these guys so the number of strikes should decrease significantly once they have them under control. Don't stand in circles.
Enemy Portal
At some point close to the beginning of the fight, a portal will appear on your ship that will spawn waves of enemies. Each wave has 2 Sergeants and 4 Reavers. These waves do not let up and can build up quickly if not taken care of. A single tank should be sufficient to pick up all the adds, and at least two healers are recommended as they will have an MS effect up on them almost constantly. Melee DPS are not recommended for DPSing these mobs because of the Sergeant's bladestorm. Instead, have your Ranged AoE DPS team mow them down. UPDATE: It has been noted that Experience is a stacking buffed gained over time. Therefore, it may be better for some guilds to single target the two Sergeants and then, bring down each Reaver one by one. If your quick enough in target switching, it will considerably reduce the chance of tank death and healer strain as long as you can keep up with the waves [Update thanks to: Kherberos]. Also, make sure to get your Gunship Captain (Bronzebeard or Saurfang) involved as they do considerable damage, especially as the fight progresses. Below are their respective stats and abilities:
Sergeants
539,200HP
Wounding Strike
150yard range, Instant.
Inflicts 200% weapon damage and leaves the target wounded, reducing the effectiveness of any healing by 40% [25%-10man] for 10 sec.
Self explanatory. This is why it is advisable to have two healers on your tank. I seriously doubt that a Wounding Strike from each Sergeant results in 80% healing reduction.
Bladestorm
150yard range, Instant.
Instantly Whirlwind up to 4 nearby targets and for the next 6 sec you will perform a whirlwind attack every 1.0 sec. While under the effects of Bladestorm, you can move but cannot perform any other abilities but you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed.
This is why you don't want melee in the Ship Defender's group. If arenas has taught be anything, its that MS+BS=bad news for non-tanks. Don't stand in Bladestorm if your not the tank.
Experienced
Damage done increased by 30%. Attack and casting speeds increased by 20%.
This is a stacking debuff that adds will receive over time. It is unknown if there is a cap on the number of stacks, as well as how quickly the stacks accumulate. Suffice to say this mechanic was put in so you don't ignore the adds. Highly experienced Sergeants and Rocketeers would be the most dangerous (with bladestorm and rocket strike) [Update thanks to: Kherberos].
Desperate Resolve
Increases armor by 120% [60%-10man] and attack speed by 60%.
Buff gained near death. Kill more quicklier to resolve this. Healers should be ready for a massive damage spike when this occurs.
Reavers
215,700HP
Reavers don't do anything special besides hit hard. That and possibly existing as an homage to Firefly (shameless plug).
Experienced
Damage done increased by 30%. Attack and casting speeds increased by 20%.
See Above.
Desperate Resolve
Increases armor by 120% [60%-10man] and attack speed by 60%.
See Above.
<---Boarding Party--->
The Boarding Party will be the group that uses their jet packs to jump to the enemy ship and take the battle to them. This group will consist of 1 tank, at least 2 healers, and high single target DPS + any melee DPS not in a cannon. The job of the DPS is to keep the number of Axe Throwers and Rocketeers to a minimum and to lay down heavy DPS on the "Below Zero" mage. UPDATE!: There are multiple working strats on how to handle your boarding party. The simplest strat is to send over your boarding party every time a "below zero" mage spawns, kill him, mop up any other mobs on the enemy boat, and jump back to your boat until your cannons freeze again. The tank will be keeping the Enemy Captain occupied, allowing the DPS to do their job. Below are the mobs and a list of their abilities:
Axe Throwers
215,700HP
Axe Throwers... throw axes. The encounter starts with 8 and their numbers are replenished through the portal at the stern of the ship. After the initial group is "broken," there should not be more than three up at a time. It is recommended to have a minimum of 3 DPS working on the Axe Throwers to keep their numbers low. Cannoneers will be assisting in bringing them down as well.
50,000yard range(heck of a toss), 2sec cast.
Hurl an axe at the target, inflicting 5700 to 6300 [3800-4200 10man] Physical damage.
A good reason to have plate DPS working on the Axe Throwers.
Experienced
Damage done increased by 30%. Attack and casting speeds increased by 20%.
See Above.
Desperate Resolve
Increases armor by 120% [60%-10man] and attack speed by 60%.
See Above.
Rocketeers
94,700HP
Rocketeers are found on the far port side of the enemy ship. The encounter starts with four, and their numbers are replenished by the portal at the stern of the ship. 2 DPS are recommended at a minimum to keep their numbers low.
Rocket Artillery & Explosion
50,000yard range, 5sec cast.
Launches a rocket that explodes on impact, inflicting Fire damage to nearby enemies and Siege damage to the enemy gunship. The result is Explosion, which inflicts 7200 to 8800 Fire damage to nearby enemies and Siege damage to the enemy gunship.
Obviously, one way to lose this encounter is for your own ship to crash first. If the number of Rocketeers are not kept in check, this will be the likely result. The Ranged AoE group on the "Ship Defenders" team will be constantly moving to avoid these strikes, so it is vitally important to have as little rocket strikes as possible. The location of the rocket strike will be annotated by a targeting circle on the ground (see video).
Experienced
Damage done increased by 30%. Attack and casting speeds increased by 20%.
See Above.
Desperate Resolve
Increases armor by 120% [60%-10man] and attack speed by 60%.
See Above.
Enemy Captain [Bronzebeard or Saurfang]
4.9m HP [unconfirmed]
The Enemy Captain must be tanked while the Boarding Party is doing their job. It is recommended that this tank have at least one dedicated healer to start, ramping up to two as the fight progresses. You cannot kill the Enemy Captain. A guild reported attempting this and he supposedly enraged and killed everyone when he got low on health. Your more than welcome to try, but don't say I didn't warn you. No DPS should be put on the Enemy Captain, instead the tank will just keep him "occupied."
Battle Fury
Melee, Instant, 20sec duration.
Increases all damage done by 10%
This is a stacking buff that the enemy captain recieves. Every time the Enemy Captain performs an attack, he will have a chance to increase his damage done by 10%. Battle Fury cannot be stacked by Cleave, and the "stack on swing" seems to be on a short ICD to prevent extremely rapid stacking. If the tank is becoming increasingly impossible to heal, the raid leader must order everyone off the enemy ship for 20sec to let Battle Fury reset.
Tank swapping can occur, but it requires proper positioning by two tanks. See the addendum for the "I'm on a Boat" achievement strat.
Cleave
Melee, Instant, 6sec cooldown.
Inflicts 120% of normal melee damage to an enemy and its nearest allies, affecting up to 3 targets.
Don't stand in the cleave if your not the tank.
Battle-Mage
808,900HP
Normally, two Battle-mages will be standing near the portal on the enemy ship, maintaining a channel on the portal where new Axe-Throwers and Rocketeers spawn. They should be ignored when doing so. Either on a percentage of the enemy ship health, or a timer, the Enemy Captain will call for one of the mages to neutralize your cannons. A Battle-mage will walk to the center of the enemy ship and begin channeling...
Below Zero
50,000yd range, Channeled, 15min.
Freezes the target in a block of ice by concentrating and freezing moisture in the air. The caster must channel to maintain the ice block.
This will freeze your cannons, causing them to be unusable until the channel is stopped. At this time all DPS that are attacking Axe-Throwers and Rocketeers + any DPS that were manning cannons should burn the "Below-Zero" mage. If your Ship Defender team is in a lull, it is recommended that a few of the ranged AoE group members jetpack over and assist bringing him down. The faster the battle mage dies, the quicker your Cannoneers can get back to DPSing, ending the fight quicker. Burning the "Below-Zero" mage quickly is the fastest way to speed up the fight.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
(1) Make sure everyone is on the Airship before activating the event.
(2) Make sure everyone has a jetpack and has placed it on their hotbars before activating the event.
(3) Don't stand in circles, cleaves, or bladestorms.
(4) Keeping the number of Rocketeers low is directly proportional to the success of the Ship Defenders.
(5) If the tank holding the Enemy Captain starts taking too much damage, order a retreat to the friendly ship for 20sec and re-engage.
(6) Do not overheat your cannons by allowing your "Heat" resource to reach 100%. Fire off Incinerating Blast with as close to 99%Heat as possible. Do this and the fight will be much quicker.
(7) DPS down the "Below-Zero" mage fast so your Cannoneers can get back to work again.
(8) Cannoneers "kill" the "boss." There is no other way to defeat the encounter.
(9) Run Fire Resist Aura or Totem for this fight, especially for the Ship Defender group.
I have a feeling this may end up being the most celebrated fight in all of WoW history to date for its overall atmosphere and "cool" factor.
As always, feel free to add info to this post that will further everyone's understanding of the fight.
Good luck on the Gunship Battle! More Pre-Release Guides will be available soon. Stay Tuned!
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"I'm on a Boat" Positioning & Guide
The strat for this achievement is all about positioning, and timely taunts. For some, this strat may actually be easier overall than the one I presented above. Thanks to easttuth for this set up:
Figure 2. "I'm on a Boat" Setup
(1) Everyone except for 1 or 2 tanks and 4 melee DPS launch onto the enemy ship.
(2) Tank picks up enemy captain and drags him to the position shown.
(3) Ranged and healers position so they can DPS/Heal the Enemy Boarding Party/Tanks (blue circle).
(4) 2 Melee DPS work on the Rocketeers, remaining DPS work on Axe throwers.
(5) When "Below Zero" mage spawns, those in the cannons can shift to the Enemy Boarding Party, while all the rest of the DPS focus fire the mage.
(6) UPDATE! The "taunt at range" strat no longer resets the stacks on the Enemy Captain. Some have used a Holy Paladin to taunt off the tank when he becomes too difficult to heal. It has been reported that the bleed does not increase in damage with the buff, though this is unconfirmed. In essence, its a race between your Cannoneers & DPS on the "Below Zero" Mage and the damage output of the Enemy Captain.
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Originally Posted by Kherberos
although I had 1 resto shaman and 1 resto druid helping out)
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