Heroic: The Stonecore

[Rájah]

This guide assumes that you have already completed the Stonecore on normal and know fairly well what to expect from the bosses. I will be going over the new mechanics for each boss and some strategies on how you can counter them, however those strategies may not be ideal for all group compositions.

This guide is written from a Protection Warrior's point of view.



----Corborus----

New/ Changed Abilities:
1. Crystal Barrage - The area where the crystals were fired will spawns adds.
2. Dampening Wave - Now absorbs 15,000 healing, up from 4000. Can be dispelled.
3. Burrowing: While burrowed, the boss jumps from place to place. If you stand near the pathway (marked by a pile of dust) you will die.


Strategy:

PHASE 1: ABOVE-GROUND
As the fight starts make sure your group is spread out so Crystal Barrage does not hit multiple targets. If the Crystal Barrage is target near/ on you, move away ASAP. The adds WILL one shot the group and therefore MUST be AoE'd down very fast. They do not have too much health so this should not be a major problem. [Tanks: Make sure you MOVE the boss away if the Crystal Barrage is near you. And under NO circumstances try to tank the adds. Let the DPS kill them.]

PHASE 2: UNDER GROUND
When he burrows, make sure you do NOT stand anywhere near his path. Kill the adds that spawns (there are a lot of them) and you are back to phase 1.




----Slabhide----

New/ Changed Abilities:
1.*NEW* Crystal Storm - After Slabhide lands from his air phase, he will do a Fan of Knives type AoE spell that will deal 10k damage every 0.5 seconds to all party members. Lasts 6 seconds.


Strategy:

PHASE 1: PRE-FLIGHT
Easy tank and spank. Breath hits quite a bit harder now, about 40k on a tank. So do NOT stand in front of him if you are not a tank. Remember, this is a LoS fight, so be careful to not LoS your healer.

PHASE 2: POST-FLIGHT
After he has showered the area in stalactites and landed, he will cast Crystal Storm. Use the stalactites to LoS his channel. Once done its back to basics.

DO NOTE THAT THE TANK/MELEE NEED TO BE QUITE A FEW YARDS AWAY FROM THE BOSS. THE BOSS HIT BOX IS BUGGED AND EVEN IF YOUR TANK USES LOS WITH A NEARBY PILLAR, THE CRYSTAL STORM WILL STILL HIT if the boss is in close range. have your melee/tank use a stalactite at least 8-10 yards away from boss.

----Ozruk----

New/ Changed Abilities:
1. *NEW* Paralyze - Stuns the entire group for 8 seconds and deals 50k damage if it lasts the entire duration. Will be removed if you take damage. (Get the DoT on you!)
2. Shatter - SIGNIFICANTLY increased damage (150k) to everyone within a small radius around him. Can be out-ranged.
3. Ground Slam - SIGNIFICANTLY increased damage (500k....yeah thats not a mis-type) in a 30 degree cone in front of him.


Strategy:

Ozruk on heroic mode is almost COMPLETELY dependent on the skill of your tank. So I will be adding the how to tank him section at the end of this guide. FOR DPS: If you are melee, NEVER stand in front of him due to Shockwave. His Elementium Bulwark and Elementium Shield Spike will give a stacking DoT every time you attack it. Do NOT dispell/ purge this as this DoT is the only way to break his Paralyze. Immediately after Paralyze, he will start casting his Shatter, and if you are melee you NEED to run away from him. Shatter's range is not that big, so melee does not have to run far. Ranged have absolutely no movement in this fight and can free cast. But keep in mind not to nuke during his Bulwark phase. Only use a DoT or a lesser damage spell to get the DoT from the Bulwark on you. Rinse and repeat.

Something for warriors to keep in mind on Ozruk is that Shield Slam will dispel his magic reflection, rendering your casters/healer unable to dot themselves to break the paralyze. A warrior is much better off not SSing.

----High Priestess Azil----

New/ Changed Abilities:
1. Force Grip - This will kill the tank and NEEDS to be interrupted.
2.Curse of Blood - Now makes the target take 5000 increased physical damage, up from 1000.


Strategy:

PHASE 1: GROUND PHASE
Nothing much has changed in this fight, she still does the void zones /gravity wells and the Force Grip. Though unless interrupted, the force grip will kill the tank. Try to position your group so the Gravity Wells are between you and the spawning adds, this will help during phase 2.

PHASE 2: AIR PHASE
The rocks will one shot you if you stand at its targeted location OR in its flight path. So steer clear of the rocks! She summons LOTS of adds so use the Gravity Wells to your advantage. Clean up the adds as best you can and you are back at phase 1.


CONGRATULATIONS on completing Heroic Stonecore!
Hope this helped a bit


~ Rájah <Sentient>


How to tank Ozruk:
This is just the strategy that I use, so feel free to experiment.

Start by tanking him against the left wall.

When he does his Ground Slam, move to either side of him to avoid it.

After he finishes Ground Slam,return to your original position and jump through him so that your back is against the opposite wall.

Once he Paralyzes, he will start casting Shatter...at which point you turn around and RUN to the opposite wall. This will ensure you avoid the damage and will put you back at the starting position only reversed (you will be on the RIGHT side instead of the left, etc...)

Be aware that you may have to move a bit more to avoid his Ground Slam this time.

[gandhee]

Thanks for this post. It helped immensely our first Stonecore. One quick comment on tanking Ozruk. I found it immensely easier to use your strategy but up and down the hall (instead of wall to wall). The reason was, I could start running out of the way at Paralyze, and never be hit by the scatter (whereas I'd have distance issues from the walls). Once we did this, it just became muscle memory (I still wiped us when I didn't move right away). Additionally we cleared two additional trash pulls to be safe.

[Thist]

To start:

A. (everyone else) Ozruk (tank)

OMG Ground Slam!

B. (everyone else) (tank) Ozruk

Ground Slam is over, yay!

C. (everyone else) Ozruk (tank)

He is casting Paralyze then Shatter!!! RUN!

D. (everyone else) <space> Ozruk <space> (tank)

It's over, phew. Back to A:

(everyone else) Ozruk (tank)

Now for Ground Slam again, B, C, D, A etc.


Some details:
I just tank him in the corridor where he stands and make sure not to run too far into the next room where there is trash. You can run a bit more through him if he starts going more to one side and shift him back to the middle.
I prefer to just run through him for Ground Slams rather than strafing as it always works and is easy, then I run back through him when it ends.

[Rájah]

Thanks for this post. It helped immensely our first Stonecore. One quick comment on tanking Ozruk. I found it immensely easier to use your strategy but up and down the hall (instead of wall to wall). The reason was, I could start running out of the way at Paralyze, and never be hit by the scatter (whereas I'd have distance issues from the walls). Once we did this, it just became muscle memory (I still wiped us when I didn't move right away). Additionally we cleared two additional trash pulls to be safe.

Glad it helped. Seems like a good strat, I will try this out sometime.

[Fetzie]

Something else regarding high priestess azil: the gravity wells diminish in size when they deal damage: one pack of followers will reduce its size from a 5 metre radius to a 1 metre radius.

[Timberton]

----Slabhide---


Strategy:


PHASE 2: POST-FLIGHT
After he has showered the area in stalactites and landed, he will cast Crystal Storm. Use the stalactites to LoS his channel. Once done its back to basics.
DO NOTE THAT THE TANK/MELEE NEED TO BE QUITE A FEW YARDS AWAY FROM THE BOSS. THE BOSS HIT BOX IS BUGGED AND EVEN IF YOUR TANK USES LOS WITH A NEARBY PILLAR, THE CRYSTAL STORM WILL STILL HIT if the boss is in close range. have your melee/tank use a stalactite at least 8-10 yards away from boss.

Wiped about 5-7 times on this boss until we were aware of this fact. 1 shot it afterwords.

[Fetzie]

This LoS issue appears to be similar to sindragosa's mystic buffet in Icecrown, if the iceblock in P3 was too close to her head it was impossible to LoS the buffet.

[Libicocco]

Something for warriors to keep in mind on Ozruk is that Shield Slam will dispel his magic reflection, rendering your casters/healer unable to dot themselves to break the paralyze. A warrior is much better off not SSing.

[Rájah]

Integrated both the Bug on Slabhide and the SS on Ozruk, good input.

[Bjornkitty]

On Ozruk, Shatter is outranged by moving 10-15 yards away. I tank him turned facing down the hallway behind his spawn point. When he casts ground slam I move to his right or left side, then back after the cast. On shatter casts I strafe down the middle of the hall, then back in when it completes, he really doesn't have to move far at all.

[Timberton]

Ozruk is one of the easier heroic bosses, almost patchwork style but with a bit of movement. 2 bullet strategy:

* tank/melee runs out up/down the hallway when he casts paralyze (he'll immediately cast shatter after this)
* tank runs through him when he does ground slam (but do face him away from party...)
* Edit: don't use charge to get back to the boss, it may turn the boss twords the party and it can coincide with a shockwave cast. This will wipe you. Charge, just say no!

Rinse, repeat, collect loot.

[Grakzul Slaughtbringer]

Hi there,
I had incredibily hard times when tanking the first boss.
People in the party were insulting for not tanking the adds during the burrow phase. I try doin my best to thunderclap or shockwave or taunt the adds to keep them on me but I was not able to keep them all and the healer or some dps always died.
Of course it was in a pug, with my guildmates I do not tank the adds because they are downed quite quickly. So what am I doin wrong? How do you handle this specific phase?

[Fetzie]

Single target on the adds in P2, too many and you stack up a nasty bleed. If they don't go down fast enough the dps aren't doing their job right.

[hamster]

I've never tanked the adds. And when I went as fury, I just single nuke anything in my sight, never waiting for a tank to pick up. I think like pyrea says, it stacks a nasty bleed, and it's just about fast nuke from dpsers. (Make sure you don't have silly mages who aracane explode and kill themselves ofc).

I don't want to sound nasty about pug dps, but most of them do fail and can't actually do damage.

[Grakzul Slaughtbringer]

That's what i was thinking. Jesus its freightening how pug people can actually make you feel you are a perfect noob. "What am I doing wrong?" I think they never ever begin to suppose they could be the source of the problem.

[Bindi]

I guess I was running too far from the boss? I found myself almost in the adds, having trouble keeping ground slam away from the group.

[Naralex]

I'm going to pop in with another "What am I doing wrong?"-question. During Ozruk, I constantly get paralyzed for 8 seconds while everyone else in the party gets out of it immidiately. I've never been able to heal past him, but done the whole thing on hc several times on my mage. Before he casts it, do I have to jump in with a Holy Fire or something to get the DoT to break it? Or a small Shadow Word: Pain? I'm not 100% on board with the fight, eventhough the guide is good.

[Quinafoi]

I'm going to pop in with another "What am I doing wrong?"-question. During Ozruk, I constantly get paralyzed for 8 seconds while everyone else in the party gets out of it immidiately. I've never been able to heal past him, but done the whole thing on hc several times on my mage. Before he casts it, do I have to jump in with a Holy Fire or something to get the DoT to break it? Or a small Shadow Word: Pain? I'm not 100% on board with the fight, eventhough the guide is good.

Focus the boss...
Elementium Bulwark!
/cast [@focus] Shadow Word: Pain

Paladin healers have to wait for the melee barrier (Elementium Spike Shield) and use a judgement to get the bleed on themselves.

Druids should use Insect Swarm (does less damage than Moonfire).

Shaman should use Flame Shock.

One thing as a healer to be mindful of is hunters in particular. Since they don't really have much they can do for themselves, they are likely the one target you may actually need to cleanse the Paralysis off of once yours is broken by a DoT. Don't bother cleansing reflected DoTs, even after the shatter, just heal them.

[Naralex]

Thanks for the advice. Appriciated!

[jhal]

Thanks very helpful. However the Ozruk section refers to a DoT. ("Get the DoT on you!"). What is "the" DoT, and how do I get it on me?