Tips for movement-intensive fights?

[CaptainEO]

I box four mixed-class characters. I'm having a heck of a time dealing with "don't stand in the fire" type mechanics in boss fights. For instance, I'm working on TBC heroics now (want to enjoy lvl 70 a bit before heading to Northrend), and I'm wiping repeatedly on Vazruden (the dragon/rider boss) in Hellfire Ramparts and Netherkurse (the shadow-fissure warlock) in Shattered Halls.

Currently I spread my WoW windows across two monitors, and when I see someone in the fire, I click over to their window and move them out via WASD (all the while mashing generic DPS/healing macros on everyone). This works well enough on normal mode, since there is a bit of margin for error, but on heroic taking just 3-4 ticks of damage on one character over time is enough to doom the group (at my gear level at least), and I can't perform that perfectly during a hectic fight.

I do have movement keys that control the whole group at once, but when I use them to get just one dude out of the flames it interrupts spellcasting on everyone, which is too much of a hit to my DPS and healing.

Is there a better way of dealing with this? (in a mixed group -- I now see why people stack Shamans for all the tools they have for dealing with situations like these:) )

I was thinking of setting up one key for each character I could tap to move him/her in one direction, which is sort of like my healing setup. This is what I'll try next.

On a similar note, I also sometimes have trouble with feared/MC'ed characters. Tremor totems break the fear just fine, but often they end up facing the wrong way or out of range. Sometimes I can get them back by tapping my follow-the-tank key then taking one step back. But it definitely becomes a lot to manage on 4 accounts at once.

Would there be any point to re-gearing towards stamina on my healer/dps'ers, to buy myself more margin for error? Right now they are all sitting at around only 7.5k HP when buffed (this is at lvl 70 in mostly ilvl 115 blues), though I'd miss sacrificing spellpower. Of course I could outlevel the content and/or add a fifth account, but I'd like to get as much as possible out of my current setup before doing that.

btw here is my group in case you are interested. I know I'm under-geared, and still have some upgrades to get from normal TBC dungeons (I can clear pretty much all of them)...
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Mal%27Ganis&n=Galmatar tank
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Mal%27Ganis&n=Caldarin healer
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Mal%27Ganis&n=Matari dps
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Mal%27Ganis&n=Burningtown dps
(yes I know I'm cheating a bit with WOTLK gems and crafted armor on the tank... partly makes up for having only a 4-man team for 5-man content :) )

[Starbuck_Jones]

There are several methods to avoid the standing in the fire syndrome. The method I employ that works for me is to leave everyone on follow and walk backwards in a big circle tanking the boss. This works for me as all my paladins tanking spells are instant cast and will work while moving, and my 4 druids all have instant cast heal and dps spells that also work while walking.

Other methods are just using key bound movement keys. Many people when the fire comes just press a button and have everyone walk forward a few steps out of danger, or strafe or walk backwards etc. If you have a spread out macro this works well to have them just take a few steps to the side and out of the fire.

If you are level 70 and enjoying BC endgame content, I do not know if you have lich king installed or not, but I would advise getting lich king so you continue to get xp and levels while doing BC content. It will make things a bit easier too. I would not try to micro manage by manually going to whatever toon is in danger to move them.

[Youngceo]

I just use my arrow keys to go forward/back and strafe left and right on my toons, simple and effective.

Just leave your guys stacked together on 1, i know if you spread them out in a light or whatever formation it looks cool but when it comes time to move out of something its just annoying as you have 4 seperate guys to check arent standing in something they shouldnt be.

You stack them together (which they will be if they follow you anyway) and you essentially have to move 1 toon out of something, not 4.

[Dzonatan]

in 3.1 there is a new feature added in Interface menu (if it wasnt aded before with im not sure) with is "click and move" option similiar to those in other systems. You can set it on your slave accounts and simply drive your cursor the the 2nd monitor, click on the window where you want to move and keep on pressing the keys, or if your fast enough you can pause the clicking for a short while and quickly click to move your char.

[Smoooth]

One tip that I haven't really seen posted for Vazruden is that he wont throw his fire balls behind himself. Get him to land as fast as possible and turn him and the other guy away from your team and no fire will go to them.

[thinus]

Is there a better way of dealing with this? (in a mixed group -- I now see why people stack Shamans for all the tools they have for dealing with situations like these:) )

Uhm...

I did this fight on normal level with a mixed group at 61. I don't see 5 shaman pulling this off at 61. Even with fire resist pots full shaman groups had problems up to 64 if I was not mistaken. This is the first boss my shaman group has problems with. Even the Stone Claw glyph is not giving me an edge. You definitely need a tank at the appropriate level. A tank and 4 shaman will stand a good chance though.

You seem to be using the same strategy I did when I did the fight on normal. I never tried it on heroic as normal was enough of a pain for me. Get your fire resist as high as possible on the tank so your tank doesn't go down when you need to move your group. Can't help you though, I never even got past Netherkruse in SH on normal. Good luck :)

[CaptainEO]

Thanks for all the input! After a few more tries, with every potion/scroll/flask buff I could afford, the best I could do was wiping at 20-25%. I've concluded I just need more gear/levels, or a 5th account, to have the necessary margin to beat these encounters.

The good news is I earned enough gold to get flying mounts for everyone, finally giving me access to Tempest Keep. And boy, after wiping in Hellfire I'm cutting through these instances like a hot knife through butter (on normal mode), and there are a bunch of nice gear upgrades to look forward to here.

[thinus]

Have you done the flame mistress in Mech yet?

[CaptainEO]

Yep. She has only 90K health on normal so I just blew all cooldowns and beat her to a pulp before the adds became a problem. Don't think I even cast a single heal. That's how I handle the Calculator too.

[Bigfish]

The floor is lava! Don't touch the floor! ug, most annoying and over used boss mechanic.

[Catamer]

the big trick in that fight is to face him away from your team, easier said than done but still true.
you have to get the dragon down on the ground as fast as possible so you can turn him away from your team.

per say, you can trick out your team with level 70 northend crafted gear like the "cobalt plate" on your tank, etc. it might help with the level 70 heroic fights unless you already have heroic gear on.

[Powerwar]

I did that fight lots of time ago, and the first time I "cheated" a bit.

Paladin + 4 shamans.

Shamans stay on the bridge spread in a big box. Paladin tanks just where the bridge ends in an arena similar thing (where the two ads that start the encouter are placed).

Earth totems, fire totems, healing stream totems AND grounding totems. Remember to refresh the grounding totems, they will eat the fireballs.
When the humanoid guy drops, just dps him fast to 30 - 25% HP and then target the dragon and start DPSing the dragon that will be still flying over your head. Burn all cooldowns while dpsing the dragon, the humanoid guy should be not a problem for your tank meanwhile. When the dragon lands, he has several seconds to reach the tank, use that time to down the humanoid guy if he is not down already.
Then kill the dragon that should be already near 50% hp or less.

Not sure if this tactic still works. Lots of patches ago you could make the dragon go to 1 HP before even starting the encounter.

To see if you can dps the dragon while in flight, you can position your dps toon on the bridge and when the dragon passes over your head target him and start the dps. That will not start the encounter, but the dragon will reset as soon as he gets away. On a good pass you should be able to skim about 15 - 20% of his HP before he resets.

Other option is to wait til lvl 64 and then spam the dragon with earth elementals.

[Stabface]

I found that having a separate autorun key bound for each slave character was invaluable in many fights (Nethecurse, etc). You don't have to move far at all to get out of the fire, just a double tap on autorun with 1 second delay between taps is enough.

[Niley]

Get foot pedals.
Dont forget the steering wheel while You're at it. =P (yes i know You were probably serious).
Strafing works for 99% of the fight out there, If you have mouse similar to G5 that means that You can assign buttons to left and right tilt on your mouse wheel(its nice to have mouse wheel that's actually 5 separate buttons), this what I have done, it lets You move instantly without reaching anywhere far on the keyboard.

Edit. Also any reason that You re 4 and not 5 boxing?