Cata - The Stonecore Down

[Kicksome]

I managed to get Stonecore done last night. It was a little tricky, but nothing too bad.
My group is 4x ele shamans and 1x Druid tank. My guys were 82, and they barely met the requirement to random Q for it. I basically used any of the gear I got from questing/instances to upgrade my characters to meet the requirement.

The first worm was really easy, just tank, and then keep moving when he goes underground. Stop and heal your group to full when possible.

The second dragon boss was very easy, just tank him facing away from your group. Strafe your group out of the fire zones. When he goes up in the air, all follow each other and avoid the rocks that fall. Pick him up when he lands, and reposition your alts.

The third boss was the rock boss. He was easy. Just avoid the ground slam by running your tank out, and keep your dps at range.

The last boss was a bitch. The adds were a killer. What I ended up doing was keeping all my guys together when she went up in the air, and then tons of adds came (Too many to pick with my tank). So, I used a earth bind totem, 4 magma's and then fire nova'd them. That was the trick! (Thanks to Kensin/Zulian from KJ for letting me know about this). Once I figured that out, it was much, much easier and I didn't get killed by the adds. You do need to keep moving quit a bit and spam follow because your guys get thrown around a bunch. There are void zones as well, and rocks fall at certain points. Stop and heal when you can. I think I probably wiped 8-10 times before I figured out the earthbind/maga/fire nova strat and then it worked great.


http://kicksome.com/stonecore.jpg

[Hakflem]

Nice!

I am still struggling with the first boss in this dungeon... Either the small adds kill me or the big worm fling my toons away and all get scattered.
Cant stop for some heals either because the worm will do his thing before i get them off.
I dunno.. guessing it might be the gear. Will pull it off eventually :)
Paladin + 4 shamans btw.

[Slats]

Well done. I'm keen to see how things improve when you can drop 4x Healing Rain @ 83 - I hope :D

[Mosg2]

I finally got Stonecore down on my Pally 4x DK team. For me the fights came down to mana--In order to keep on top of the amount of AE damage most of the bosses did I had to use Flash Heal which really lowered my endurance. I wiped a lot on the second boss before I was able to get it down--Unfortunately as a melee team it's just a pita.

[thedreameater]

The first worm was really easy, just tank, and then keep moving when he goes underground. Stop and heal your group to full when possible.


You make this sound so easy.

The ground is erupting everywhere. Only 2nd try so far, but I'm not sure where to run. I move immediately.

Might try spanning out, cause this is no where near as easy as the Ick Crick movement fight.

[thedreameater]

There is no fucking rhyme or reason to his underground movement. This first boss is bs. I run in a straight line, he kills me. I run - stop (twelve hours later the alts catch up, he's killed them)...

Love to hear a strat on this or I'll post one if I figure this shit out.

Here's what DOES NOT WORK:

line them up - move them forward all at once when the rumbling starts around them.

Zig zag - costs time when turning.

Sideways movement - same as line up, but the underground bumping tends to be side to side more.

Skipping this dungeon til I'm at least 83. Pissed.

[Enoah35]

Just been there wiping endlessly on the last boss. Group configuration of Prot Paladin, Arcane Mage, Destro Warlock, Disc Priest and elemental shaman. Simply couldn't keep up with the adds, ended up having to bring a healer friend. Problem was the add control. seemed when she enters on phase 2 I never have enough void zones to keep the adds occupied.

All my chars were lvl 84, using every possible way to kill the adds but its just too hectic. Specialy on phase 2 the swarm of adds just gets me. Have to revise a bit my tactics or the group config before getting another go at this.

[Kicksome]

You make this sound so easy.

The ground is erupting everywhere. Only 2nd try so far, but I'm not sure where to run. I move immediately.

Might try spanning out, cause this is no where near as easy as the Ick Crick movement fight.

Sorry you're having trouble the stupid worm.

Here's what I do exactly.

1) run my druid to the worm
2) stop my shaman alts about 10 feet away from the worm.
3) turn the worm sideways so he's facing to the side of my alts
4) when the shards come down on my shamans, I press my strafe alts button (it strafes my 4 alts but not my tank - it's my mouse wheel - left and right tilt button thing).

5) he goes under, and I group all my guys up, and keep moving just run in a big circle
6) little bugs come, a have earth bind on round robin, and the I put down 4 magmas
7) when he comes up for a sec and goes down again, he hopefully doesn't hit me, that's when I immediately heal all, and then kill as many bugs as possible, magma + fire nova ASAP.
8) he comes up again for good, I press (Back up on my alts, and attack with my tank - pulling the worm back).
repeat...

Hopefully that helps. I know some fights are a bitch, depending on your comp, and what keys you have setup.

Good luck!

[Tyval]

You make this sound so easy.

The ground is erupting everywhere. Only 2nd try so far, but I'm not sure where to run. I move immediately.

Might try spanning out, cause this is no where near as easy as the Ick Crick movement fight.


That doesn't bode well for me hehe :)

[thedreameater]

Sorry you're having trouble the stupid worm.

Here's what I do exactly.

1) run my druid to the worm
2) stop my shaman alts about 10 feet away from the worm.
3) turn the worm sideways so he's facing to the side of my alts
4) when the shards come down on my shamans, I press my strafe alts button (it strafes my 4 alts but not my tank - it's my mouse wheel - left and right tilt button thing).

5) he goes under, and I group all my guys up, and keep moving just run in a big circle
6) little bugs come, a have earth bind on round robin, and the I put down 4 magmas
7) when he comes up for a sec and goes down again, he hopefully doesn't hit me, that's when I immediately heal all, and then kill as many bugs as possible, magma + fire nova ASAP.
8) he comes up again for good, I press (Back up on my alts, and attack with my tank - pulling the worm back).
repeat...

Hopefully that helps. I know some fights are a bitch, depending on your comp, and what keys you have setup.

Good luck!

This is why I love the boxing community. Thanks for the in depth walkthrough - I'll try it in a bit. Seems like questing is better for leveling faster, though, and I'm loving Uldum right now.

Awesome advice. This is gonna work. The mobs killed me, cause I didn't Magma Nova them, but I was able to circle and live. When he rose, everyone but the tank was dead, but I'm closer. Gonna go back at 84.

Thanks!

[Mosg2]

I STRONGLY recommend that you spend some time kitting yourself out with gear from whatever zones are available via questing before you try the equal level instances. The HP and DPS gap is gigantic--I wiped a dozen times in Stonecore and then just did a few more quests and then one or two shotted everything.

Keep your head up, and don't let the doom'n'gloom get you down.

[pinotnoir]

I STRONGLY recommend that you spend some time kitting yourself out with gear from whatever zones are available via questing before you try the equal level instances. The HP and DPS gap is gigantic--I wiped a dozen times in Stonecore and then just did a few more quests and then one or two shotted everything.

Keep your head up, and don't let the doom'n'gloom get you down.


Do you think having higher Item level gear makes you take less damage even if the gear is not better than some 251 stuff?

[jinkobi]

Do you think having higher Item level gear makes you take less damage even if the gear is not better than some 251 stuff?

Compare the stats of course. But yeah... Higher level items usually mean better gear.

[Mooni]

I was having a lot of trouble on this fight. It seems to come down to luck, because every time I tried to autofollow in phase 2 he'd suddenly rumble under me and scatter my alts in the opposite direction of my tank. I got lolwormtrolled.

But then a miracle happened!

I realized this boss was skippable. Go F@#$ yourself Blizz.

[pinotnoir]

Ok this instance is pissing me off big time. I am in the chamber of fanatics and all the mobs are aggroing me whenever I fight. I know to kill the sentry first so thats not the issue. I think this instance is bugged because I am sheep pulling a few nowhere near anyone and all the packs come running. Yesterday I was attacking one mob and it caused about 15 to come attack me. Has anyone suffered the same chain aggro as I have in this place? No way to get past it when you have over 10 mobs on you.

[Mosg2]

@pinotnoir:

After completing Hyjal my average ilevel was in the 290's iirc. That's a huge step up from 251, and the Cata gear gives a lot more weight to Stamina.

The difference between doing Stonecore at "early" 83 compared to "late" was gigantic for me.

[pinotnoir]

Whats up with those adds chaining? Is that a bug or normal? I had 1 guy alive from a wipe and I attacked him and it pulled about 15 mobs down the road. I think the place is bugged.

[remanz]

Whats up with those adds chaining? Is that a bug or normal? I had 1 guy alive from a wipe and I attacked him and it pulled about 15 mobs down the road. I think the place is bugged.

Did you aggro a female orc with torch ? and did not kill her in time ? she is non-elite and will alarm other groups. 1 group is about 5 mobs. and 1 caster can summon about 5-10 imps.

[Mooni]

I know to kill the sentry first so thats not the issue.

And I know that you know, but since Remanz asked I can too. Did you get all 3 sentries?

What I like to do (I'm a pallytank) is exorcism/avenger's shield the sentry. Instant corpse.
But the other two have really inconvenient paths so I kinda sometimes have to save avenger's shield for the rift openers so I can pull them silenced.

Between sentries snitching, ogres shockwave & victory leap & knockback, endless imps, magma spooge, this room is pretty brutal and it's almost like each pack is harder than the last. When I pug-tank it I just kill everything in the middle and on the right wall, but when I'm multiboxing it I kill the whole room going clockwise (and taking care to kill the middle)

Patience. Let the enemy approacheth thine eye.

[pinotnoir]

And I know that you know, but since Remanz asked I can too. Did you get all 3 sentries?

What I like to do (I'm a pallytank) is exorcism/avenger's shield the sentry. Instant corpse.
But the other two have really inconvenient paths so I kinda sometimes have to save avenger's shield for the rift openers so I can pull them silenced.

Between sentries snitching, ogres shockwave & victory leap & knockback, endless imps, magma spooge, this room is pretty brutal and it's almost like each pack is harder than the last. When I pug-tank it I just kill everything in the middle and on the right wall, but when I'm multiboxing it I kill the whole room going clockwise (and taking care to kill the middle)

Patience. Let the enemy approacheth thine eye.

This last try there was one sentry left way down by the boss. I had stuff up top aggroing that was several pulls away from the last sentry. Unless those things can call pats 100meters away I have no idea whats wrong with that room.

[Tyval]

Did my first venture into StoneCore tonight, Tried Corborus about 5-6 times. Didn't fare very well.

Team is lvl 83, Pali, Priest, 2x shaman mage.

I think the best I did was make it to second under ground phase but that was only one time.

So two things that are causing me problems.

1) My team getting knocked away from me.
2) adds.

What I'm doing'/trying.

Start the fight all is good, avoid the crystals, removing the healing debuff (though wish I could get a visual on who still had it).

He goes under, I grab up my team and start running, drop a set of totems earthen binding, magma, start running in a circle, I don't seem to make much progress on the adds, eventually one or more get punted. Things go down hill from there. Drop another totem (round robin) about 8-10 seconds in...

So for the folks that are able to do this. Do you watch out to see the worm? I'm running so I dont see much, should I move the camera around to see behind me? From what I have read it is a crap shoot if you get taken out by the worm? Anything to do to lessen it. All so chaotic I'm just kind of running randomly. If I could I'd be screaming like a little girl too! :) Ithought I read there are lines of dust that go out, so can I go perpendicular to it and avoid it till the next pass?

Should I ever stop to dps adds /heal? I saw a post above that mentioned that, but never seem when I can. I watch for when i see the worm and at that time I have a few seconds to stop heal/dps?

so to sum up my questions.

1) do folks try and look behind them to see when the worm comes out?
2) if so or I see the worm above ground is that a queue I have a a couple seconds to do something?
3) Anything at all to lessen the chance of getting thrown in the air.?
4) Is running in a big circle the best plan?
5) Dpsing adds, I drop totems staggered, i suppose I could swing back behind my other toons and try and aoe with my tank to get agro at least (I sometimes lose a dps due to adds during my run)

Thanks for any tips. I'm just amazed that some folks found this fight easy... Course I wiped on one of the trash fights on the way to him...

[Mooni]

1) do folks try and look behind them to see when the worm comes out?
2) if so or I see the worm above ground is that a queue I have a a couple seconds to do something?
3) Anything at all to lessen the chance of getting thrown in the air.?
4) Is running in a big circle the best plan?
5) Dpsing adds, I drop totems staggered, i suppose I could swing back behind my other toons and try and aoe with my tank to get agro at least (I sometimes lose a dps due to adds during my run)

Yeah those trash can be brutal because of the fartin' elementals. I kill the earthbinders(interrupt Call of Earth if possible) first, then the fearing berserkers, then the Millhouse, then the rest.

As for donutworm, he does move in some kind of straight line. That means let's say he's moving from north to south, and you're running north: You're screwed no matter how fast you run. This can be a positive thing though if you're ready to suddenly have all of your alts sidestep out of his path.
I don't know if seeing him is a clue that he's about to strike, but that would be AWESOME. I've been leaving the 16 or so rumbles up to chance.
I was thinking about your situation - are you tank/4 shamans? Maybe consider putting Thundershock on round robin for this fight... either through macro or through your choice of broadcaster. If you're running in a long stretch, you'll have a big crowd of bugs behind you so it'll be doable. Earthbind/Magma/Fire nova real quick are viable too, but I guess fire nova shoots out from the actual fire totem and not your body nowadays huh?
Consecration will get their attention yes, but not all of them because they spawn wherever they feel like and you won't get more than one consecration off in a phase 2.

[Tyval]

Will try again tonight.

I think part of it is needing more tries, Things are so crazy in phase 2, I turn run and hope things workout. Don't think that will work for me long term.

I need to slow down, see which way the dust /ground stuff is going.

One thing I thought about is to group up with my team. Watch for the dust and strafe/move quickly out of the line. The downside to this might be more chance of worm punting, but add hunting will be easier. And if I do go the run in a circle need to be less spastic and move the camera around to see what is behind me.

Practice i'm hoping will make things less chaotic , once I get use to the flow of the fight.

Trash is good for practicing my CC and burn down order. So that is nice :).

[BrothelMeister]

Yea the 3rd boss with a melee team is a bitch. I'm having trouble getting the melee to run away in time. What is your strategy for getting away in time mosg2? Running away and hitting follow as soon as I see him start casting ground slam just isn't enough for some reason.

Oh well, 84 now, maybe the extra health will make it not as hard, I'll try again when I get my computer re-built.

[Longshot17]

I've managed to do the worm a few times... ya he is tough My group: Prot Pally, 2 Ele Shamans, 1 Arc Mage, 1 disc Priest all lvl 83.

Few things I've learned and do now.

The dust effect on the ground is a bit of an indicator of his incoming 'charge'. Right as he burrows I plop down a fresh set of totems (earth bind and magma) and then I go consecrate that area as well. Then I run a circle with my slaves on follow around that area, it's super important that none of your slaves do anything to draw aggro of the adds. Half way through the phase i pop elemental pets and pop any aoe aggro effects on my tank. In the second half of the adds phase I pop frost nova (some sort of root) then Thunderstorm on shamans, along with the magma totems and elemental pets should wipe out a chunk of adds by the time the worm pops back up. I have a macro to Lay on Hands my priest which is a good way to draw aggro as well.

His damage isn't that bad so you have a chance when he repops to top up healing. I blow all my dps tricks and am able to burn him down before he burrows a second time. You can survive a toss, if you've got a fairly good handle on the adds (aggro wise), and if you get tossed side ways... not down or up the length of that hallway.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, the gear difference between early 83 (start of Deepholm) and end of 83, is dramatic.

[remanz]

Probably not worth dwelling in this 83 instance if it slows down your leveling. DO your quest to open up dailies and buy tabard for rep grind later on.

I wiped some at the 3rd melee stone boss, and got through later by moving out of the AOE with timer. I got to the last boss. Without reliable AOE snare and good AOE (in other words without Howling Friging Blast), just can't get the last boss down. Adds just own my team. After another series wipes, I decided this was not worth it. went back to questing.

[Jeppis]

Just did this with dk tank and 4 ret paladins :P pretty easy boss fights and trash pulls...

Boss 1
tank and spank... used seal of truth and when worm goes underground just run around

Boss 2
Run and spank... Seal of insight used, paladins used follow all the time so when there was something in ground i just moved tank and when dragon goes up go to good place where you can heal your team back to fight.

Boss 3

Tanked this boss near fall, paladins used seal of insight. When boss does ground slam run your tank to legs and back to position... wait few sec and start moving your paladins away from shatter before boss casts it.
Then back to action and use all possible cd's your paladins and dk has in this fight so your mana dosn't run out.

Boss 4

Again used seal of insight used aoe rotation all the time. Run away stuff from ground and spam your aoe so that divine storm takes down adds that spawn then keep running and aoe run and aoe run and aoe and win

[Tyval]

Well the way I look at it, I can learn it now or learn it later. What I've been doing is give myself X number of wipes or a certain amount of time, go learn/die adjust. And then go lvl some more. The cool thing is these instances while on the one hand are a little annoying, are really forcing me to improve as boxer be that learning movement, adding keys and macros to do certain things etc. I think of it as adding to my toolbox.

It also helps that others are clearing them so I know it is possible :). If no one was clearing/killing the mobs I would just skip em.

[remanz]

Learning is ok. Some wipes here and there won't hurt anything, just don't dwell in this one instance and not doing your quest. Anyway my point was on the effectiveness. Learning will slow you down. You can learn it now or you can learn it later. But the days you missed for your dailies could not be made up. If you want to PVE 5 man, you just can't avoid the dailies/rep grind to gear up. Heroic this round is no joke you need all the gears you can get.

[Tyval]

Most odd today,

I went in , and got Corobus on first try today. It seemed so much smoother, I actually am wondering if they nerfed him.

Seems the number of adds was less, the other thing that helped is I was able to focus more outside of running but also where I was running and was able to spend more time out of harms way. Seemed easier to see and avoid dust clouds, maybe my view was further away.

Anyone know if he was nerfed at all?

[BrothelMeister]

Seeing the dust is a matter of your graphics settings if I'm not mistaken, you will want your ground clutter and/or your particle density turned up.

[Tyval]

I hadn't changed any graphics settings, but like I said maybe my view was further out. It was just really strange though, the fight seemed so much less chaotic, I was able to see where the worm was headed, mostly avoid the dust, stop and kill some adds. Something just clicked I guess, I was like, "huh, why exactly was I wiping so much to this fight..." (hadn't leveled or gotten new gear either).

Perhaps the "running around and screaming like a little girl with no rhyme or reason", isn't a strat I should adopt for other fights when trying to figure them out hehe.

[Ghallo]

Interesting, on Corr I don't even run at all. I sneak around behind him and put all of my slaves at the edge of the cliff facing the worm. Then, I move around to the side of him to pull. Everything else is as normal, but I just AoE spam and heal through his tunneling without moving. In phase 3 I focus on cleaning up some adds then take the boss out.

The 2nd boss is a movement fight... and it seems that the pillars break LoS so keeping healed is a pain. I found strafing to be the best way to get through this.

Third boss is easy if you clear the mobs around his entryway ... just a healing endurance fight (mana management was a real issue for me :P )

Final boss has been a wipefest. There is just too much chaos and Warlock AoE isn't friendly for movement. My mage team will probably not even blink on this boss.

I'll come back later when I have time.

[dragoneye]

I've frapped a Pal+4shammies 5boxing of the final boss to share in case there's still interest. It was tricky to find something that worked for me so I'm always looking for better ways too.

My shammies are 82 and the pal is 84.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJFcPLHkmdA

[Cyphoner]

For me this dungeon was a living hell, or well.. Parts of it!

The first boss took me a few times and a few wipes but i realised that it was not the AoE damage that throws you away when he goes underground that killed me, but the small bugs that comes along the road..
The solution to this was to simply place all of my slaves towards the wall, where they would NOT get knocked away.
This was done so that my healer could actually heal all players with no LoS problem and the dpsers could AoE down the "bugs". Since this was done it's been a tank and spank encounter.

The last one, Azil is a real pain however :(
I lost the count of times i've been here wiping and trying to figure out a working strategy..

Eventually today i got it! The problem was that my healer kept dying all the time, too many adds, too many circles, too many stones everywhere..
So what i simply did and could recommend, if you have another slave, capable of healing, respec to heal mode and have him assigned to focus on your mainhealer only/mostly, that way your mainhealer stays alive. Sure, you might lose 4-6 000 dps, but i think survival compensate for that :rolleyes: It all actually went very smooth and easy once i did this :p

Edit: I did use Gravity wells to get rid of 75% of the adds, i usually ran through it to the other side instead of around(to save time). Also worth noticing is that if you can easily top your hp with this method, and lack aoe, then you can also use the Shards(stones) to kill the adds, as you can easily survive it with all your slaves, might even be possible to survive 2, but don't go there! ;)

[Shania]

Anyone done this in heroic ? especially 1st and 2nd boss ?

We cant get past the 1st in Heroic, 3 mages 1 priest healer.... fiance on pally tank...

[dragoneye]

Anyone done this in heroic ? especially 1st and 2nd boss ?

We cant get past the 1st in Heroic, 3 mages 1 priest healer.... fiance on pally tank...

it's so difficult i usually skip the first 2 bosses when i get it on random heroics....
http://5box.blog.com/2011/03/15/stonecore-heroic-5boxed/

would love to see fraps of a successful 5boxing tho' for those 2 bosses...

[Nikita]

Been running 5 hunters on normal mode for xp (team is lvl 83) without any problem! First phase is tank n spank, second phase i run in circles and popping explosive trap and misdirection + multishot! Same tac on second boss, they key is to move frequently

[luxlunae]

I've frapped a Pal+4shammies 5boxing of the final boss to share in case there's still interest. It was tricky to find something that worked for me so I'm always looking for better ways too.

My shammies are 82 and the pal is 84.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJFcPLHkmdA


Thanks! You definitely gave me a better way to do this. I also might try someone elses suggestion and take my boomkin resto for the fight (which would free up my 3k dps frost mage to go fire for replenish)

Edi: to go fire because I wouldn't need the frost replenish, I mean

[Gomotron]

Has anyone been able to finish this with an all melee team? I am getting wiped with by Azil and her adds. Melee are just getting pwned.

I am at level 84 and still not having success. 4 DK and Priest.

[Khatovar]

I was able to do it non-heroic, but heroic I couldn't even get the first one down.

For Azil, let the gravity wells do the work on the adds for you. I try to fight on the far side of the room and when she drops a gravity well, pull everyone behind it so the adds have to run through it to get to you.

[Gomotron]

I was able to do it non-heroic, but heroic I couldn't even get the first one down.

For Azil, let the gravity wells do the work on the adds for you. I try to fight on the far side of the room and when she drops a gravity well, pull everyone behind it so the adds have to run through it to get to you.

I can get through the first stage OK, the problem is when she drops the boulder and the adds are coming in. My team just gets wasted by the adds and there are no more gravity wells to have them run through. I managed to survive a bit longer by popping Army of the Dead, but even the ghouls get wasted pretty quickly. And I don't have enough DPS to kill her before the next wave meteors/adds.

[Khatovar]

IIRC the boulder kills the adds, too and does more damage than the gravity wells. With 4 DKs, I would imagine that chained Death and Decays should do quiet a number on the adds HPs. You could also try throwing out some Mind Sears if mana isn't an issue.

[Gomotron]

IIRC the boulder kills the adds, too and does more damage than the gravity wells. With 4 DKs, I would imagine that chained Death and Decays should do quiet a number on the adds HPs. You could also try throwing out some Mind Sears if mana isn't an issue.

D&D works, but the more adds that are present, the less AE damage that occurs. I need to work on this encounter more; I need to get better. Still, the mechanisms of this fight make it difficult for my team to complete. And it is just chaotic as hell.

The main issue I have is that I get this dungeon nearly 100% of the time with the random LFD queue, which makes it all the more annoying. I can finish BRC, ToTides, and Vortex Pinnacle but I always draw this stupid dungeon in LFD.

[Oatboat]

Also, if you keep everyone bunched up on the worm you will know where hes going to come up from. If you run around in a circle you might get hit depending if hes crossing your pattern. I would just stand still and strafe left or right or move forward.

[Gomotron]

Also, if you keep everyone bunched up on the worm you will know where hes going to come up from. If you run around in a circle you might get hit depending if hes crossing your pattern. I would just stand still and strafe left or right or move forward.

Interestingly, Corborus was no problem for my 4DK + Priest team. My DK + 4 Shaman team got eaten up (but admittedly, I didn't work the encounter that hard).

Slabhide the dragon boss (#2) sometimes kills my 4 DK team, but I can usually get through that without issue. I treat Ozruk as a tank 'n' spank and line up the DK's with their backs to the wall to avoid knockback.