Sinestra [10-man] advice needed

[Anygdala]

Greetings,

So after months of gearing, struggling, sweating, bleeding and sometimes sheding a tear or two, my guild stands in front of Sinestra. We've so long for this and are all really excited to kill her but we have one major problem... Our roster does not include a rogue.

For those of you who have done it, you will know that Gouge is a huge advantage on the Spitecallers spawning in P2. Basically, these cannot be regularly interrupted and must be disoriented. Or current plan is to have a hunter and a ret paladin, me, on them and see if Repentance + Scatter Shot will cut it. Maybe throw in a priest with insta fear as well. We've seen on WoL that it can't be done but at the momemt there is just not any solid information on what works and what doesn't. Boomkin knockback works but Thunderstorm doesn't? Can be counterspelled but not Wind Sheared, Rebuked or the likes? As a guild leader, I need a solid plan to present to my guild when we're about to start progressing her and I just can't wrap my head around this whole Spitecaller business. How frequently is Unleash Essence cast? Can the Spitecallers be allowed to get the Indomitable enrage effect (gained if stunned/dazed while casting Unleash Essence) if it's instant dispelled with Tranq shot?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated, perhaps even awarded with a thank you in the kill video

Cheers!

[zarikdon]

Regular spammable interrupts (all those off the GCD) won't interrupt Unleash Essence. Only stuns/incapacitates/knockbacks will work. I'm unsure if counterspell works or not. The problem is that if any stun/incapacitate effect lasts on the mob longer than a second, it will gain Indomitable. This is why abilities that disorient/incapacitate that break on damage are usually used to interrupt. With good coordination (and some luck), it's still possible to dispel off the Indomitable and interrupt the next cast, but it's risky and probably very difficult on 10-man where you have fewer people available for interrupting/dispelling.

My experience is on 25-man, but I think the following should generally work. Because on 10-man you should only get 1 spitecaller, you can probably get by with a rotation of only 2-3 interrupters with long CD abilities, depending on how quickly you kill the spitecaller. Ret + Hunter is a viable pairing, as would be either of those + priest healer. A third person as backup is helpful. You could also try a mage with dragon's breath.

[Dragaan]

Only 1 spitecaller? If that's the case, you should be fine. Did you mean only 1 up at a time ever or only 1 total? I haven't really watched any videos of 10man kills, so I'm not sure what changes.

[zarikdon]

By "1 spitecaller" I mean it's generally possible for a raid with good DPS to only get 1 spawned before you break the eggs. Again this is only from videos and from what I've heard from others, but I'm pretty sure you'd get more spawns if you're slow in p2.

[Felycitas]

Just tossing this out there.. what about a DK death gripping? 30 second CD if it works.

[Anygdala]

We got some pretty massive DPS in the raid group (only got 12 raiders all in all, so gearing has been quite efficient), so I guess praying for only one Spitecaller will have to be our only option. They have like no health at all though, I'm pretty sure that me and our crazy hunter can take it down in no time...

However, I still would like any inputs, greatly appreciated

[rangoon]

do you have a frost dk or a warrior? hungering cold/intimidating shout are also viable options

[Rekcinad]

We used our rogue on the 1st kill. 2nd kill we used a hunter with scatter shot and our protection paladin with Hammer of Justice. Hammer of Justice will trigger Indomitable, and will 1-shot your Twilight Spit-stacked paladin, but you can use Hammer, and run away immediately. This will outrange the very small radius Indomitable effect, and will prevent anyone from dying. It worked quite reliable for us.

Another option is to use an enhancement shaman with Ghost Wolf stun. Have your hunter Tranq Shot in both setups of course.

2 spitecallers will spawn if your p1 DPS is a bit slow. This isn't entirely in your hands because of the RNG in who gets orbed in 10-man.

After the patch you will have to do two egg phases anyway, with 5 DPS instead of 6. So 2-3 spitecallers will be normal now.

[Anygdala]

After the patch you will have to do two egg phases anyway, with 5 DPS instead of 6. So 2-3 spitecallers will be normal now.

Why is that? Sure I didn't read about any changes to Sinestra in the notes.

[Booi]

Not sure if you can spare a resto druid to do this on 10 man.
But I've heard stories of people spamming hibernate on the add. It cancels the cast, and then breaks if you have any amount of melee on add.

[Rekcinad]

Why is that? Sure I didn't read about any changes to Sinestra in the notes.

A few changes 4.1 has brought with it are:
- No dispels for Shadow Priests and Retribution Paladins.
- Wrack no longer splits to tanks in the Sinestra encounter (10 & 25).
- Twilight Orbs will target double healers less frequently.

The first change means that bringing a SP or ret is no longer viable for dispelling the wrack, which directly results in a 3 healer strategy (2 healer + SP or ret to dispel used to be the 'cookie cutter' pre-4.1).

Killed her last monday on 10-man again after the changes. I must say that with the recent changes, she's quite well tuned now and certainly manageable for any guild being able to reach 12/13.

Edit: Also they seem to have normalized the Spitecaller spawns. Where they would first spawn at eratic moments (depending on P1 dps perhaps), they now seem to spawn at a set time, quite far in P2. This means that if your 2nd egg goes down quite fast into the 2nd egg-burn phase (which it should), you will only get 2 Spitecallers (the 2nd one being killed just before P3 triggers). You will end up with 2-3 drakes though, one of them surely having to be dps'd during the P2-3 transition.

[Anygdala]

A few changes 4.1 has brought with it are:
- No dispels for Shadow Priests and Retribution Paladins.
- Wrack no longer splits to tanks in the Sinestra encounter (10 & 25).
- Twilight Orbs will target double healers less frequently.

The first change means that bringing a SP or ret is no longer viable for dispelling the wrack, which directly results in a 3 healer strategy (2 healer + SP or ret to dispel used to be the 'cookie cutter' pre-4.1).

Killed her last monday on 10-man again after the changes. I must say that with the recent changes, she's quite well tuned now and certainly manageable for any guild being able to reach 12/13.

Edit: Also they seem to have normalized the Spitecaller spawns. Where they would first spawn at eratic moments (depending on P1 dps perhaps), they now seem to spawn at a set time, quite far in P2. This means that if your 2nd egg goes down quite fast into the 2nd egg-burn phase (which it should), you will only get 2 Spitecallers (the 2nd one being killed just before P3 triggers). You will end up with 2-3 drakes though, one of them surely having to be dps'd during the P2-3 transition.

Oh... Well that certainly changes a few things. We tried with the try-fail-learn tactic yesterday and wrack seemed to be absolutely brutal when our priest and shaman had to dispel it, even P1 was a huge struggle. But thank you for this very informative post, greatly appreciated.

One last thing though... When you say 2nd egg phase, I take it that you simply full out nuke one egg, then deal with Sinestras barrier again and then take down the other egg the 2nd time? We split teams of two ranged on each egg last night, and it didn't work out too well.

[Rekcinad]

Last kill we had an affliction warlock and elemental shaman on one egg, and an arcane mage on the other. The warlock and shaman team got their egg down during the first egg phase, while the mage got his egg down to about 30-40%. When the shield comes back up, nuke it fulltime and then kill the last egg with 1-2 DPS. Time it with spitecaller/drake spawns so that you at the very least won't have a spitecaller spawn on you during P3. Drakes are still manageable, though.

[Darlip]

We went with the tactic of splitting up our dps on the eggs, one side was me (SP) and our warlock the other side two mages. Healers and tanks can also help out before adds spawn. This way we only had to deal with one egg-phase.

With regards to wrack it can still be dispelled by a shadowpriest using massdispell and if you are a SP dont be lazy help out in P3 with PWS and heals as the buff makes switching out of shadowform and casting some heals worth it, especially when you have 8 wracks up and flame at the same time.

A fraps from our kill which perhaps can be helpful:

http://youtu.be/g97QQ9M8BcQ?hd=1 720p and 1080p



Good luck

[Mikas]

guys is Sinestra 10man still viable after patch 4.1 with two healers ?

[klausi]

Totally depending on your healers. Having at least one strong hotting class is of HUGE help here (=they can cast while running) and having an shadowpriest assisting with dispells at 8 stacks is pretty strong as well, but it's not really needed.. only more pressure on and a better dispell tactic from your healers required.

We did all of of our post 4.1 kills with a holy pally/resto druid combo but if the pally has to run at a third breath things can they really messy.

[Rekcinad]

3 healers has seemed like the safest approach to us after the patch. All our post 4.1 kills have been with a double resto druid + holy paladin combo. You won't get fancy healing or dps records with this setup, but it's the least subjectible to orb problems/random death on wrack+breath.