10 Man Magmaw Normal (Help, Suggestions)

[Belsagore]

Alright, so here's our comp:

Tanks:
- Blood DK (MT)
- Feral Druid (OT)

Healers:
- Holy Paladin
- Resto Shaman
- Resto Druid

DPS:
- Assassin Rogue
- Unholy DK
- Ele Shaman
- Shadow Priest
- Destro Warlock
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Anyway, so we've been working on Magmaw for a few weeks (and we've had a couple of members change out because of loss of other members) but have never been able to down him. We've tried:

1.) Stacking in two groups (one on either side of Magmaw's head) with one RDPS standing separate (for PoF, typically the Shaman because of his slows) and then trying to AoE down the adds.... this has failed us.

2.) Everyone except main tank (DK) standing distanced out from the tank, and just moving to another designated spot when PoF hits, and turning and AoEing the adds, and then next time moving back, and forth, etc. This has failed us.

3.) Splitting into 3 groups: the tank, melee (which the Bear tank is a part off OffSpec), and then RDPS/Heals. PoF would come for us, we'd move, try to AoE the adds... this also has failed us.


Now, here's the funny part, in my opinion. We went to Bastion of Twilight last night for a little group cohesion practice (wasn't expecting to down a boss) and we downed Halfus (though that could possibly be contributed to the easier Drake Combo this week). Then we went to BWD, and still couldn't down Magmaw.

Our problem is the adds. One method we have not tried is the kiting the adds method (with a tank usually, if I'm not mistaken). But I'm not 100% how this method works--do DPS still try and burn the adds or do you just let them stack, and is there a way to get rid of them at any point?

Other than that, I'm not sure what to try. Maybe we just don't have a good comp for Magmaw because of the AoE necessity. Most of us are well geared for Raids (enchants, gems, etc., lowest person is the Lock who has a 3900 GS according to WoW Heroes but still pulls around 12-13K dps on average).

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions/questions/etc., I'd love to have some advice on this. I'm a new Raid Leader, and I'm hoping it's just not my inexperience. Thanks for anything. ^_^

[Luvaria]

If you're having trouble AoEing them, have you tried just having the DK tank the adds and put the druid tanking magmaw? That way you could just have your DPS ignore them altogether. It'll be a bit harder on your healers but if it's DPS that's the problem it's worth a shot.

[Ermin]

We managed to down him tanking the adds.

As a prot warr I simply stood at range for the pillars, then rend, tc, sw, the worms as they spawned. As thier health dropped I could use victory rush since it proc'd when I got a killing blow for a nice little heal to help our healers out.
I haven't been in since the patch though.

Edit: Constantly being bombarded by adds did make my vengeance skyrocket and I was able to drop enough of the adds down that during the burn phase, I was able to help out with some dps.

[klausi]

Bear tank Magmaw and have the blood dk 2nd specc frost and kite them as long as it takes. They are pretty slow, they spawn at a certain location (perfect for dnd) and i guess you really can use the power of your aoe classes better on the boss himself to cut some time.

Have your group move together, sticking to one person and watch their feet as soon as the pillar timer is over. That's the easiest way because you can force the spawn in certain locations, you know it will come below you and if you don't play with aussis (300ms) there shouldn't be a problem running away from it.

There's no reason to tank them with your setup, it just adds extra healing requirements on the offtank.

[Belsagore]

If you're having trouble AoEing them, have you tried just having the DK tank the adds and put the druid tanking magmaw? That way you could just have your DPS ignore them altogether. It'll be a bit harder on your healers but if it's DPS that's the problem it's worth a shot.

Thing is, would it be better to have our Tank OffSpec as Frost to keep it together better or the DPS? I was thinking the DPS DK, but I'm not sure. The Tank DK would have more health, but I don't think he has the slows available that a Frost DK has. I could be totally wrong though.

[Luvaria]

I guess you could DK kite them but I'd think if you're going to kite them you'd still want to AoE them down so he's not kiting the entire fight. Honestly the best way we've found to do it is like this:



Tank on 1 side of the boss, on the right, melee on the left. The 2 "bad" circles are the alternating spots where we get the adds to spawn, with all ranged starting on right, when it happens all move left. We have a hunter trap laid down in anticipation, but you could use earthbind totem, etc. Get your shadow priest to multi dot them, lock AoE's (or multi dots...dunno which is better for destro), ele single targets them down, and your unholy DK tosses down a DnD. When they're about to get out of the earthbind, the lock uses shadowfury to buy a few more seconds.

[Belsagore]

Alright, those are all good responses. Thank you all for the help. ^_^